#as none of them can be free without having power to back up the freedom

[cienie-isengardu]

Bi-Han and Shang Tsung - sidenotes

I’m not done with my research for any bits of Bi-Han & Shang Tsung’s relationship through the years, as I’m pretty sure the lore & game mechanics have much more to offer about those two characters. However, as I'm not a player myself, finding proper sources will take much more time and energy than previously needed, so in meanwhile I'm sharing my random observations and notes about Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung.

POWER and FREEDOM

Some time ago I made a post about reputation vs reality of Shang Tsung and Bi-Han's life situations - how despite being praised for being cunning and strong, both either fulfilled high expectations of their masters or would be killed/harshly punished for failure.

Thinking more about that, alternative timeline’s Shang Tsung and Bi-Han/Noob share an additional trait - patience to bid their time. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is the best proof of Shang Tsung’s dedication to seize the power and with it, freeing himself from the servitude (enslavement) he was stuck in for centuries. Bi-Han as Noob Saibot also had his own goal of ascending to power and with that, getting out of control of others:

Mortal Kombat 9's BIO:

"Noob Saibot's origins are unknown, but he is likely a revenant: a fallen warrior resurrected by the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi to fulfill a dark objective. Noob has been assigned to aid Shao Kahn in his acquisition of Earthrealm. A faithful servant and a recent addition to the Brotherhood of Shadow, he will obey his master, Quan Chi, and complete his mission. But he is biding his time. Noob Saibot has a dark objective of his own.

Mortal Kombat 9's ENDING:

"Quan Chi should never have resurrected Noob Saibot. Nor should he have enhanced his power to defeat Shao Kahn. The revenant he created had broken free of his control. Noob had secretly formed an "understanding" with a cleric from the realm of Chaos and opened for him a portal to the Netherrealm. Shinnok, Quan Chi and the Brotherhood of Shadow were unprepared as the forces of Chaos overwhelmed them, leaving the Underworld severely weakened. Satisfied with his work, the cleric, Havik, returned to the realm of Chaos. Noob Saibot remained to seize control of the Netherrealm."

Mortal Kombat 11's BIO:

"Shadow of the Netherrealm. In life, Noob Saibot was known as Sub-Zero. Unjustly murdered by Scorpion, he was resurrected by Quan Chi and granted power over darkness, but as Quan Chi’s slave. Now, Quan Chi is dead. Noob Saibot is finally free to reclaim the honor that was stolen from him."

Mortal Kombat 11's ENDING:

"Kronika said I would lead the New Era's deadliest clan. But she made such promises to many. She could never keep them all. So I betrayed her, before she could betray me. When Kronika's sands fused with my shadows, my ambitions grew. Why be a ruler of mortals, when I could rule destiny itself? Mortals resisted, but could not stop, my blanketing history in cold, endless night. All is dark. All are shadows. I have had many names. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."

Furthermore, MK1’s Bi-Han fits this scheme too (although he lacks the patience), as for him power and freedom are tightly tied to each other, as one can’t exist without the other. Personally I think this is a very neat detail when it comes to those two characters, as they seem to operate on a similar mindset.

Additionally, MK11 and MK1 Shang Tsungs share the same key word: INFLUENCE.

MK11!Noob had RECOGNITION while MK1!Bi-Han has POWER,

however the BIO itself imply that this version of Bi-Han too wants recognition for himself and his clan:

Under his leadership, the Lin Kuei will come out of the shadows and fight for its place as one of Earthrealm's great nations

which is pretty shame NRS pick “power” for Sub-Zero's key word.

SELLERS

MK1’s Shang Tsung is stated to be skilled seller (though why, I have no idea):

"Shang Tsung grew up in Outworld's backwaters. Too lazy for hard labor and too shifty for honest work, he eked out a living selling quack cures and fake magic. Though his wares were useless, Shang Tsung's easy charm always closed the deal. Shang Tsung was resigned to to this hardscrabble life. But then one day a mysterious stranger came, promising to make Shang Tsung a powerful sorcerer. Though suspicious of the offer, it was one he couldn't refuse."

The old card game presented Sub-Zero to be the best seller out of three ninja characters:

Friendship With an amazing sales pitch, Sub-Zero convinces his befuddled opponent to purchase a Sub-Zero doll.

For comparison, below is Reptile and Scorpion cards

SIMILAR GEAR - sharp edged metal protection of fingers

MK11's Shang Tsung

MK11 Noob Saibot

Dark Sub-Zero (Order of Darkness)

MK1: Khaos Reigns - Noob Saibot

MK: Onslaught (comics & game)

MK1's ANIMALITY in which Noob Saibot is alligator and Shang Tsung a cobra. Thus spiritual animals of both are reptilian. (In contrast, Bi-Han as Sub-Zero has a mammoth as his spiritual animal).

At the same there are some vital differences between Shang Tsung and Bi-Han.

For one, Shang Tsung is openly interested into technology. Magic is his main domain, but he does not look down on technology and may even adapt it for his own plans. Perhaps in the cloning process itself. We have various timelines' intro dialogues and MK11's Krypt to support his interest:

MK1

Shang Tsung: Once you are dead, I'll study that armor at my leisure. Sektor: What does a sorcerer know of engineering?

MK11

Shang Tsung: Perhaps technology is superior to magic. Terminator: Magic is an artificial construct. Shang Tsung: You’re not from around here, are you?

MK11 Krypt*

Shang Tsung: Sorcery isn't my only vocation. I'm also an inventor. While a modest endeavor, this forge is my finest. It can transmute collected items into new items you might find more useful

[* quote taken from MK wiki]

In previous timelines, Bi-Han did not utilize technology

[...] The Sub-Zero you saw killed was my older brother. He was stubborn in many ways. Refused to utilize modern technology on his missions.

but he was capable of using it (as seen with Noob Saibot and Cyber Smoke). In new era, Bi-Han will praise Sektor's technological genius

[...] but trafficking in such strong magic would surely draw Liu Kang’s attention. Sektor advised me that we avoid detection by building our army using science, not sorcery. We’ve invested much time in this endeavor, and we are beginning to see results. Once again proving the depths of Sektor’s genius.

and won't mind Lin Kuei using technology to gain additional advantage, yet he himself won't use any power suit (as was seen during Khaos Reigns).

The second difference is based on how Titan Shang Tsung and Dark Sub-Zero "solved" the problem of reincarnated characters. As in, Dark Sub-Zero made others part of his clan (Lin Kuei blood) while Titan Shang Tsung treats them as his minions.

And the last difference that catched my attention is how Dark Sub-Zero from Invasion would refuse to yield, even when given a chance to surrender

In contrast, Shang Tsung from Invasion Season #7, tried to run away once his invasion has failed and life was in danger

which makes me think Bi-Han, at least in the oldest timelines, is much more reconciled with death than Shang Tsung who will do anything to stay alive (begging to be spared, for example). Which makes sense, as Sub-Zero was an assassin so being killed was a much more probable outcome for him, than for Shang Tsung who could hire people to do his dirty job for him.

[star--nymph]

Vivienne's fear being 'becoming irrelevant' isn't something that's linked explicitly to her pride, no matter what Solas says about her (and the irony of Mr.Pride himself saying that should not be lost on you), it reveals what and who Vivienne truly is.

She's a survivalist.

Because we don't spend as much time in the Free Marches or Orlesian circles, we don't get to experience what being a mage is in these cultures. In Ferelden and Kirkwall, a mage is a lesser being without freedom no matter what they do--but in the Free Marches and Orlais specifically, mages are commodities that are given freedom so long as they play an entertaining enough role. They can explore the world if they have a noble patron, if they catch the right person's eye. They are, in a way, two sides of the same coin--refusing mages agency and forcing them to relay on higher powers. Vivienne lucked out, as sad as it is, when Bastion fell in love with her; she found someone who was contrarian enough to recognize her as a full person and also someone with power that could help her rise through the ranks. This is not to say that Vivienne on her own wasn't an exceedingly talented and intelligent individual--by nineteen she was already the youngest full fledged mage in Circle history and she was skilled enough to make herself an enchanter. But, I can not emphasize this enough, none of that matters if she didn't also play the Game and impress enough people.

Vivienne could have been the most brilliant mage in the history of Thedas and it means nothing if she was overlooked by nobility.

So when Bastion made her his mistress, she gained not just a lover but also a means to an end. Now she can use her magic to protect herself. Now she can roam where she wants and not be question for it because she's Madame Vivienne. Now, she can walk into the Orlasian court and belong there.

And what happens? Celene notices her and makes her the Court Enchanter, a position that has always been the equivalent of a jester. Vivienne took that title, ignored that it was essentially a glorified insult to who she is, and made it a position of power. She made the Court Enchanter into an advisor, a political rank. She had done the impossible and made mages an actual political entity in the Orlasian Court, something that wasn't seen outside of Tervinter (not counting what players can do under very specific conditions if they made mages in DAO and DA2).

All that, however, only continues as long as the court recognizes her as something worth their attention. Vivienne needs to maintain her act as Madame De Fer, The Lady of Iron, the Court Enchanter, The Jewel of the High Court, because the second she just becomes Vivienne, it's over for her. The assassins coming raining in, her name gets devoured by rumors and gossip, and she'll be found dead at bottom of the stair case with a dagger in her back if she's lucky.

So of course when the Circles fall apart during the Rebellion, she clings to that Loyalist Mages to maintain that structure--of course she moves her pieces to the Inquisition, knowing that if the Circle DOES fall, she at least as another place for herself and mages latch onto--of course when she hears that Celene replaced her with a new Court Enchanter that appeared out of no where, she grows to resent Morrigan.

Like, Morrigan literally pops up out of thin air, makes herself invaluable to Celene, and then plants herself in the place Vivienne had to claw her way up to and create so she could survive. Would you not be resentful when your life's work is usurped by some random witch of the wilds because she happened to charm the Empress? Everything Vivienne strived for all whisked away because the court find a gem who glimmers ever so slightly more than Vivienne.

So yes, Vivienne fears becoming irrelevant because the world has made it so that irrelevance for an Orlesian mage means death.

[yourladyem]

Beetlejuice 3 Story Idea

Delores and Rory plan to kidnap Lydia for a special Afterlife sacrifice that would give Dolores power over the Living and immortal beauty without the scars of her death. She uses her power of manipulation to trick Rory into believing she loves him and says the ceremony is for Rory to take Beetlejuice's place in her heart as her immortal partner/lover. But secretly it would bind Beetlejuice to her forever and give her the power she desires to return to the Living.

Beetlejuice, Astrid, and Delia team up to save Lydia. Lydia tries calling for Beetlejuice but Delores blocks her ability. Beetlejuice is the one who notices their connection is severed which causes him to reach out to Astrid for help after finding Delia who also notices her connection to Lydia was also cut. They realize none of them can get a hold of her. But Beetlejuice does figure out he can still contact her through a dream it's a connection with bizarre elements but doable for them.

They could travel through something like Dante's Inferno and Beetlejuice could brag that he literally went through Hell and back for the woman he loves.

No contract this time. No forced wedding. He just does it risking everything for her. But no one realizes it until after they save Lydia who starts questioning his motives immediately after she reunites with them after she found a way to escape. Clues in the dreams he sends her. Beetlejuice sacrifices himself to save her solely out of true love.

Lydia escapes and meets everyone just outside the gates of the sacrificial sanctuary. But her body starts illuminating. She doesn't have much time. They all reunite. Beetlejuice heads for the Hellish sanctuary with fire all around them. Lydia goes after him.

"What's going to happen to you?" Lydia asks.

"I'm giving her what she wants so you can go free?"

"What's the catch? Another bizarre wedding? For a third time? You know you could have asked someone for your Afterlife Green Card. Don't tell me you tricked Astrid into something!"

He sadly smiles at her outburst. He places an ancient sealed scroll in her hands. He holds her hands for a moment and she doesn't pull away. He cups her face and looks deep into her eyes.

"Even after all this time you still haven't figured it out."

She doesn't move away when he kisses her pulling her into his arms. Before she knows it, she's kissing him back.

He lets her go.

"I love you, Lydia." Before she can say anything, he runs towards the sanctuary. Lydia is left stunned watching him disappear into the blazing fires confronting Delores for a final stand off as Delia and Astrid pull her away as they escape.

They make it back to the graveyard outside the church through the same exit Richard showed them. It's a beautiful peaceful day.

Astrid and Delia are delighted the nightmare is over. Lydia stumbles towards the bench in front of the crypt and plots down still reeling from the events.

She looks down at the scroll. With shaky hands, she breaks the seal that is bound with a thin ribbon of red lace. Very familiar red lace. Gold lettering appears on the page.

It's a contract. But not just any contact.

Delia and Astrid join her. Delia sits beside her asking her what's wrong. She's unable to speak and hands the scroll to Astrid, who reads it.

The contract states he willingly traded his Afterlife for her life solely on the basis of true love and selfless sacrifice. No mutual trade-off except her freedom.

Lydia bursts into tears at the surprise of Delia and Astrid and even herself. Delia comforts her.

"Let me guess. You love him too." Delia smirks. Lydia just cries even more. After decades of denial, Lydia finally accepts the truth but now it's too late. Delia just holds her.

"Well, this explains so much, believe it or not. Still. Even after all the hell we went through with him, still better than Rory."

Astrid smirks in agreement. She started liking him too. He wasn't all bad. He was obviously crazy about her mother and now she knew the extent of it.

Time passes.

Lydia is never truly the same again. She checks the mail at the old Deetz home seeing the postcard from Astrid saying she's having a great time in Brazil with her college friends. She talks with Delia and goes through the rest of the mail finding an old folded-up piece of paper stuck to the back of one of the envelopes. She opens it up and it's an old flyer.

Missing the love of your life? Can't live without someone? Realizing you've made a terrible mistake pushing them away?

Same my name 3Xs.

"No way." Delia states

"It can't be." Lydia whispers. They stare at each other. Oh why not.

Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice.

Nothing.

They head for the foyer. Still nothing.

"Ok. He's not exactly one for subtly. Where is he?" Delia demands placing her fist on her hips. "Where are you! Great. Even I'm starting to miss him."

"The attic." Lydia concludes. They race towards the stairs when a knock comes at the front door.

They freeze. Lydia runs for the front door. A very attractive man with peach fuzz grayish/white hair and very striking familiar eyes smirks at her.

"Miss me, Honeycakes?"

Lydia feels their connection reform. His old self flashes before her then morphs back to the man in front of her. Lydia's jaw drops for more than one reason. "You..."

"It's me. The Juice in the flesh." He grins striking his signature pose.

"It's you?" Lydia finally manages to form a sentence.

"It's me, Lydia." Still grinning.

"It's really you?"

"Mmm hmm."

Her eyes crack in anger. "I'm going to kill you!" She screams charging at him. His smirk drops and bolts for the yard with her not far on his tail.

"Lydia! Lydia! Now wait a minute, Honey!" He keeps screaming at her as she continues trying to grab hold of him.

Delia watches from the porch with headless Charles. "She's going to marry him, isn't she?" She continues watching Lydia's game of murder tag.

"She wouldn't. Would she?" Headless Charles chimes in. Blood spewing out.

"Yes, she would. Still better than Rory, though."

Back in the yard, BJ twists away from his Gothic assailant. "Honey! Honey! Lydia! Babe! Stop!"

"Why? Why should I! Do you know what you put me through?! How are you even alive? How do you look like that?!"

"Did you read the scroll I gave you?"

"Yes!"

He laughs enjoying her irritation catching his breath.

"Then that's all you need to know. I thought it was pretty obvious. I thought it was obvious a long time ago."

She swallows the rising emotion.

"I traded my life for yours that granted me freedom from the Afterlife. Yes, I traded in my good looks for this." Pointing to himself. "Even sacrificing my luscious blonde locks but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make to help the woman I love. Again."

She shoulders sag. She looks at him with guilty eyes.

"Since I died on my wedding night - murdered by a death cultist actually who tricked me into marrying her for my soul - only if I selflessly sacrificed myself to save a person out of pure love I would be freed from my death sentence and could return to the Living and Delores would have no power over me again and she couldn't hurt the person I loved. Didn't think it would ever happen until I met you. By the way she is gone for good. Rory too by the way."

Lydia smiles a little. "So not someone else? Why me? You could have had someone else and gotten your Green Card marrying someone else or sacrificing yourself for someone else?"

"Yes, I could have. Even tried a few times before meeting you. But they weren't you. It was always you. It was always going to be us. And despite your best efforts, you've known that too. You can't stop this. You can delay it but never truly stop it. And you knew that too."

She bites her lip.

So," He pulls out a ring from one of his pockets. "What do you say, Honey? Will you marry for real this time? Third time's the charm." He grins.

She bites back the growing tears and nods. He slides the ring on her finger.

"Ok but no take back this ti-" She cuts him off with a rough kiss.

"Called it." Delia smiles. Charles digs into his pocket and hands her some cash.

Beetlejuice and Lydia break the kiss. Lydia smacks his chest.

"Ow!"

"I love you but don't ever do this to me again! That's for the literal Hell you put me through! Including not answering me when I called for you. I know you heard me!"

And they're back to arguing.

"Yeah, that marriage is going to last forever." Delia shakes her head. "Just like us." She turned to Charles.

Third wedding and they're finally married for real. Vows exchanged and he kisses his bride.

"I just have one question." Lydia whispers. "What is your real name?"

"Well it's actually B-"

Bam! Black screen and credits roll

[fangsandfeels]

Me ranting about Veilguard villains because there are none

To be honest, the Evanuris make Corypheus look like superior. At least, in tragic department. Veilguard writing makes a superficial attempt at showing that the Evanuris used to be good, used to be admirable and that Elgar'naan is pissed at Solas for fucking up the world with his Veil.

However, I don't buy it. Because I don't see it. As much as I love reading in-game books, notes, and lore, it is usually a supplement to the behavior and actions of characters. Neither Elgar'naan or Ghilan'nain show or even hint at their former selves.

Corypheus, despite having rather foul attitude and goals, was relatable in the way how confused he was when he awoke. Why are the Deep Roads so empty? Where is the first acolyte? Why is everything so different? Even him demanding Hawke and the group drop on their knees and bow to him is part typical entitlement and part self-reassurance: if they bow, then not everything is that bad and the Empire is still here, he is still home.

It's no doubt that the change he woke up to terrified him. But he decided for himself that he has the power to fix everything and bring the Empire back - so he won't have to mourn it. After all, the seat of gods is empty, so he will take it. It all has to have happened for a reason. He had to be chosen for this. He didn't change for nothing.

Him, screaming for Dumat, asking gods to help them "if they ever existed" was the point when he finally started breaking and that fear started showing up again. Once again, despite him being a horrible person, his motivations and fears are understandable. Underneath his looks, he is still human.

But we never see this with Elgar'naan and Ghilan'nain. There isn't a glimpse of their former selves, even in a twisted way. They are Saturday morning cartoon villains through and through, so I have hard time buying their depth and finding their story tragic.

Now, since we're generally talking about villains, let's talk about Venatori.

First of all, I personally don't believe that "every bad person, no matter how bad they are, are still human and anyone can become like this". No, some people are just evil pieces of shit because they are pieces of shit and because the world actually gives them lenience and ass-kissing instead of punishing them. Many people do horrible things because they choose to, while others twiddle their thumbs and mince words and try to make up excuses for them.

So, it's not really a wild concept that Tevinter became a breeding ground for depraved and power-hungry supremacists because they are allowed to be like that. They know that no punishment is coming: the Chantry can't do shit and no other country, except for Par Vollen has the guts for a military confrontation.

However, the game doesn't commit to this depravity. Moreover, it doesn't try to show that what makes Tevinter scary is the veneer of civility that hides its real face.

Danarius was hated for what he did to Fenris. But at the same time, he wasn't the guy who kicked puppies and sat on people during his screentime.

He actually gave Varania freedom as he promised. And it's quite likely, he would have made Varania an apprentice in exchange for her helping him lure out Fenris. No, that didn't make him a good man or a kind man, he still was a piece of shit. A piece of shit who enjoyed having power over people.

It tickled his ego to know that he didn't have to order that elf girl to sell her brother out - he just put a delicious bone in front of her and she went for it. He could grant his slaves freedom because he knew they would never be truly free - the world beyond Tevinter won't have them and in Tevinter they would still cling to him and follow his word, no blood magic or formal slavery required. He knew how to toy with that. This is why Fenris becomes so broken and follows Danarius without a fight if Hawke decides to betray him - because at that moment, it feels like Danarius always wins. Everything is always in his favor and Fenris no longer has any strength to fight that devastating thought. This is what makes Danarius so horrible and easy-to-hate (and also very realistic).

Rezaren from Dragon Age: Absolution was given a sympathetic background: he was a child isolated by his overly controlling helicopter mom, with only two other elven kids to play and be friends with. He got super attached to them and when his Harrowing went wrong and one of his elf friends killed her brother and his mother, he told her to run instead of letting the guard catch and execute her. That creates a hopeful premise, but then we see that his fondness of Miriam and Neb got contaminated with entitlement. Despite his attachments, Rezaren is still product of the Tevinter society.

He was told by his mother how great he was, he was told by his surroundings that it's his gods' given right as a mage to rule over others. At the same time, he never got rid of that feeling of loneliness and isolation that was further exacerbated by the fact that Tevinter magisters have to constantly watch out for their rivals' scheming. To him, Miriam and Neb were his safe company - the only ones he thought he never had to worry about. And he wanted that safety back. Even if there had been some selflessness in him, it disappeared after years of his life as a magister.

So, in his mind, he can't accept that Miriam didn't have a happy childhood, that it's not alright to drag around her brother's husk and force his spirit back into his body. He ignores and waves off everything Miriam says about how his mother treated her because it's uncomfortable truth and he doesn't want to deal with it. Why does it matter after all, he can make it all better and she would definitely forget about that rubbish.

Even though he is a grown man, he still a child throwing a tantrum because his pets started biting him. He never gained the maturity to understand why it happened and he never respected Miriam and Neb enough to see things from their perspective. He could have become a better version for himself if he wasn't left in Tevinter's care. But he didn't because he fully embraced magister's lifestyle and the idea that power allows you to get away with anything - people will have no choice but to accept you and your actions. He is pitiable and despicable at the same time.

Does Veilguard take anything from these depictions? No.

I just can see Veilguard writers pointing at this in glee: "See? See?! These are slaves in Tevinter! And Venatori are using them to sit on them! See how evil they are! Eviiiil! Never tell us we're bad at this!"

(Remember how Venatori used to kill the Tranquil and make Occularum from their skulls? Pepperidge Farm remembers)

Also, what is this? What kind of a mating bird dance is that? Are they drunk?

The gathering was meant to look sinister and unsettling, showing how unhinged can a group of people get when they believe they're on the precipice of godhood.

Want to know what real imperialistic ambitions look like?

When you realize that these people view the rest of the world like it belongs to them already and casually discuss it.

You pass by a noble Venatori Tevinter couple excitedly talking about adding Orlesians to their slave collection and waxing poetics on the irony of that situation, salivating at the prospect of breaking them and watching them adjust to the new reality.

You hear one of the Venatori Tevinter Altus discussing that she plans to move in one of those castles in Ferelden for some change of scenery, she always found the exotic landscapes of this savage land attractive and saw a potential in training their famed hounds to hunt runaway slaves.

You witness a Tevinter "scholar" ranting about finally getting to remove all these historical fakes about so-called Tevinter war crimes and re-educating Dalish on their true purpose and history, excitedly talking about how it was actually Tevinter Empire that tried to educate these savages, only for them to ruin some of the artifacts and distort knowledge. An elven slave stands next to him, their vallaslin burned off their face, nodding silently whenever he demands confirmation, with scholar contentedly noting that there are still "adequate ones".

You overhear one of the Tevinter nobles musing about getting an Antivan concubine and fantasizing about how passionate she will be, especially with proper motivation. His peers laugh at his words like he said something very witty, and remind him to get one from a the soon-to-be-former Circle.

You bypass groups conversing on how it's should be forbidden for ex-Circle magi to join the high society of the new Emperium. They have been obedient good slaves to their Chantry masters for so long, it would be a shame to make them break the habit. They will have to work hard to be acknowledged.

You hear some Tevinter noblewoman unashamedly talking about her Qunari kink because after Tevinter ascends, Qunari slaves will become the new hot trend and she intends to make the most of it.

You come across the drafts that contain the list of names - people in Ferelden, Antiva, Anderfells, and other region who need to be detained and exterminated upon the Tevinter's arrival, so they won't be able to sow the seeds of resistance.

You see one of younger Altus standing next to a pile of corpses and getting berated by their colleague for using up all the stock on honing their blood magic technique, while they just shrug and say "So what? We'll have a lot more soon, don't be greedy"

You find documents that indicate Tevinter is growing bold enough to plan to invade Orzammar and just turn all the dwarves into enslaved lyrium miners.

You watch a bunch of Tevinter nobles toasting to the imminent return ("liberation") of Kirkwall and Starkhaven.

You see the maps of Thedas, redrawn, with most of the territory already marked as the property of Tevinter, part of the empire.

I'm sure that a better storyteller worth their money can paint a lot more depraved picture, but you get the gist.

What we see in Veilguard is a bunch of rebellious magister kids getting out for a party and going all like "Yeah! We can do what we want! Let's sit on our slaves! My mom never allowed me to sit on slaves at home, said it was uncouth or something. Fuck you, mom!"

It's as if the writers were too afraid to dig deeper or look at some real-life examples for inspiration.

[mournersandfunerals]

The thing is, I can forgive a lot of it. The scene where Kaz tries to help Inej with her wounds? I guess it was a nice nod to the CK scene, if slightly too soon. The "I will have you without Armour?" Fine. We all wanted to see that anyway. Rushing Wesper into a relationship rather than keeping as the slow-burn from the books? Okay. I really loved them on screen despite that. Kaz beating up the dregs? Definitely could have done without it for obvious reasons, but whatever. I can brush it off.

But the two things that are really grating on me are Kaz's face-off with Pekka Rollins and Inej leaving to hunt slavers. Because the POINT of these things happening towards the end of the second book is that there's a build up.

These characters go through so much. We learn everything about them, we see their struggles and we root for them. We spend SO much time learning about Kaz's thirst for revenge. We see moments where he starts to lose it when it comes to Pekka, and slowly start to learn why. And at the climax of Crooked Kingdom, there's so much on the line. We finally see him snap. There's a build up there of something that he's spent his entire life and two whole books working towards.

The first season of Shadow and Bone consisted of 8 episodes. So we can estimate that the crows had probably less than 4 hours of screen time. And we learned nothing about them, really. They were the mysterious trio that were hired to steal something. And then suddenly S2E1's "Brick by brick" turns into the peak of Kaz's character arc. It takes away the impact and the reasoning behind it.

And the same for Inej. Where is the journey? Where's the trauma that was inflicted by a woman who was truly evil? When we see Inej running into Tante Heleen for the first time in the duology, she freezes. She can't do anything. Are you telling me that the same girl who is so terrified of this woman can face her without a problem?

Again, there's so much of a development here as well. Inej has this realisation and this epiphany about what she wants to do. She wants to hunt down these slavers. She wants to make sure that nobody goes through the same stuff that she did. And when she sees Heleen after that, it's when she slowly starts to lose power over Inej. I mean, she steals the necklace straight from her neck, for crying out loud. Erasing Inej's trauma from S1 was a problem but they dug themselves in a deeper hole by killing off Heleen. She can't go through the journey that she's supposed to. Her entire character arc was just completely erased.

And the thing is, in the duology, Inej still goes through even more hell before she can get free from her indenture. The Ice Court Heist, Van Eck's torture, Dunyasha, etc. And yet... she's free before the start of the heist?

The heist is an important job for each crow. They all have a reason for being there, and they all have something on the line. None of them really think they're going to survive it, but they're trying anyway because, at this point, what do they really have to lose? And for Inej, this is her chance to get the money to leave the barrel. So... are you telling me that she's going to willingly come back to help on a life-threatening job for freedom that she no longer needs? What's going to happen with Kaz now that he's already had that stand-off?

Would love to know because right now I'm as lost as the rest of the book fans.

[mothwingwritings]

Pls G and O for *ahem* the man who shall not be named ( yuujirou)🙏

I decided to do all the Yujiro asks in one fell swoop, so we can all suffer together as a family. :)

Warnings: I should only have to mention Yujiro Hanma at this point for you guys to know what you are getting into TBH but-mentions of abuse, noncon, reader being demeaned, beaten, and generally treated like garbage.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

The way Yujiro sees it, everything on this planet is for his amusement, and your existence is not exempt from that. In fact, you are arguably one of his favorite amusements, though he’d never tell you that himself.

That being said, that is all you will ever really amount to with the ogre-an enjoyable distraction to be used for his own pleasure. Everything he does to you, every way he tortures and fucks with you, is very much a fun little game to him. His affection for you only goes as far as you can keep his interest, and once/if you’ve lost all your charm, from that point on you are dead to him.

Yujiro is kind of a special case when it comes to ‘escaping’ him because he lets you roam free, so it’s not like there is any actual physical confinement you would need to break free from. The imprisonment comes from his overwhelming power and the fact that there is no place on earth that is safe from his reach, nowhere where his influence hasn’t extended. He can get through any security measure, travel easily to any country, and gain access to any information through his vast network of contacts. You have no way of competing against that, no way of taking security measures against someone so impossibly strong who has the world at their fingertips.  You are a sitting duck, biding your time till he inevitably strikes again.

And yes, Yujiro does enjoy watching all the precautionary measures you take and safeguards you try to set up to protect yourself from him. It’s hilarious seeing the look on your face when he easily plows through each and every one of them to come and claim you.

Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?

Honestly, none of them. One of the absolute worst things about Yujiro is that you have no clue when or how he will strike next. The man comes and goes as he pleases and does whatever tickles his fancy at any given time. It’s one of the perks of being the most powerful being on the planet, no one has the power to stop him from doing anything he sets his mind too.

Those whims translate over to you as well. You could go months or even years with nary a peep from Yujiro Hanma and then the next thing you know you’re being pulled off the street into some back alley to be brutally assaulted by the man himself. It may end there and you won’t see him for another long stretch of time (if ever again), or he may keep you by his side for several days to sate his boredom. You are constantly at his mercy. There is no way to protect yourself, no way of knowing when to even prepare for his arrival. Your entire life revolves around living in a constant state of dread, never truly knowing when, where, or how this man will come for you.

So all that said he doesn’t really take any rights away from you simply because he doesn’t need to. He’ll have you when he wants you, and when you’re with him your only concern and purpose is to please him in whatever way he desires. All the other side shit you have going on is inconsequential to him.

(The only time I think he may impose any kind of iron clad law on you is when you are with him, if you let your mind wander from him he WILL get pissed off and WILL punish you by keeping you quite literally locked by his side. How dare you be in his company and not show him complete reverence and respect? All your freedoms will be taken away the moment you lose focus, you won’t even be able to feed yourself or go to the bathroom without his consent/assistance. It’s horrific and demeaning, humiliating in ways unimaginable. Every moment of your life will be under Yujirou’s scrutiny for however long it takes until he’s satisfied. But even when his tyrannical presence is long gone, the mortification will linger indefinitely).

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

Every waking moment of everyday with Yujiro is the worst experience. If he’s not physically hurting you, he’s mentally abusing you. If he’s not touching or handling you inappropriately, he’s full on sexually assaulting you. Even when he is showing moments of ‘kindness’ it’s all just a ruse, another way to mess with you before he inevitably fucks you up in some way. The mental gymnastics this man puts you through on top of the physical duress he keeps your body under is horrendous and unbearable, he is a literal nightmare 24/7.

Never trust any praise, compliments, or benevolence he awards you-he’ll ultimately turn it against you and make you regret ever being so stupid to believe he could and would show you kindness.

Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?

He’s almost always condescending and pompous. Yujiro is superior to you in every way and is not shy about reminding you of that.  He expects you to do what he says when he says it, and doesn’t tolerate any lip or complaining about it (though he will sometimes find it humorous if you give a little back talk, depending on his mood). You feel like you are under some sort of regime when you are in his presence, his dominant presence leaving no room for debate. You are on constant alert, riddled with worry that you may say or do something that will set him off and begin the pattern of abuse all over again.

In certain rare instances he may open up to you or have a normal conversation where he isn’t being a smug jerk, but those are few and far between. He holds little to no respect for you and it’s painfully apparent in his mannerisms and way of speaking to you. You are his forced companion, glorified sex toy/punching bag, and your opinions and feelings don’t really matter. Just serve your purpose, know your place, and he will leave a satisfied man and you will (possibly) leave unscathed.

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

I honestly don’t think Yujiro has the capacity to truly or selflessly love somebody, and as such he doesn’t experience affection in any normal sense of the word. At best he would have a warped sort of infatuation with you, any ‘affection’ he may direct your way a result of his twisted attraction to you (which is on par with most yanderes, but it’s a whole other level with Yujiro).

How he presents these feelings to you depends entirely on his mood. If he is feeling gracious he may take you out somewhere nice, like a classy restaurant or a high end hotel. He may even take you on a vacation somewhere exotic and exciting. While this may come off as a selfless act of benevolence, don’t get it twisted-Yujiro isn’t doing this as an act of charity. The only reason he’s letting you tag along on these outings is because he either expects something in return from you or he’s just bored and thinks having you around may help alleviate that. Either way, don’t expect smooth sailing when he shows these rare glimpses of goodwill, he will lord them over you and get payback for gifting your something so nice.  

Most of the time though he’ll just show up out of the blue to terrorize you, have his way with you, and then leave. In his mind, that is a form of affection. He’s making time for you, isn’t he? He’s going out of his way to see you and give you his undivided attention, if anything you should feel grateful for that. It’s not his problem if you decide to be a little bitch and not appreciate that.

(I will say this though-I feel like if you proved yourself to Yujiro and he did grow to truly respect you, he would treat you much better. He wouldn’t be ‘nice’ by any stretch of the term, but he would take your opinions into account and speak to you on more equal footing. He would still do what he wants with you, but he would be much more willing to work with you and possibly even take into account some of your boundaries (though that is an incredibly large maybe). Your relationship would not get to this point quickly or easily, it would take years of abuse, torture, and anguish to get there. And I think half his new found respect would come from the fact that you survived all of his bs and made it that far. Congrats! You get the tiniest amount of appreciation as a reward for all your suffering. :) )

[bestworstcase]

To add to the conversation about the themes of Maidens and Ozpin controlling them being not a good thing, it was only the third Maiden power did we get someone willing to work with the team. Both Raven and her predecessor said no to working with Ozpin. (It's not exactly subtle that Qrow does end up speaking with the not yet known to him or the audience Spring Maiden in Volume 4 and being told no. And at no point does Oz or him talk about convincing someone that doesn't want to work with them.)

hardly a novel thing to point out but it’s so very telling that the conversation surrounding the spring maiden in v4-5 is entirely framed in terms of "raven has spring" and "mounting a retrieval force" because, as qrow puts it, "raven won’t give up her most prized possession without a fight."

the maidens literally just. aren’t people, in the inner circle’s eyes. they’re objects. tools. weapons. something you can possess. it’s not even that the inner circle doesn’t care whether the maidens agree or not; they’re dehumanized to such an extreme degree that the idea of a maiden having the capacity to make choices isn’t recognized at all.

which rwby starts to unpack in atlas. fria is an elderly woman with dementia who isn’t allowed to see anyone but the designated heir—she is being actively medically abused for the sake of destroying her capacity to Remember anyone else but winter. penny, ironwood says, is under his complete control. and then it is her act of disregarding ironwood’s wishes to accept the winter maiden herself (to protect winter! to ensure winter’s safety! this is not only what penny wants but also what she was ordered to do) which leads him to the realization that he was incorrect—that penny is not an object—with the result that nearly every choice ironwood makes in v8 is motivated by his fixation on getting penny back under control. similarly he believes he has winter so well-trained that she isn’t Capable of betraying him, and when she proves him wrong he tries to kill her, and it’s the winter maiden, given to her by penny as a gift, that protects her / allows her to free herself from him.

which is to say, the maidens who choose to help teams rwby & jnpr can do so only after Liberating themselves from the systematic dehumanization and control of the inner circle—consent becomes possible only after the maiden breaks free of her cage.

this is also one of the reasons i think gil is the summer maiden. bc there’s this pattern. the vaults are shackles for every maiden except cinder (who becomes a maiden in defiance of the man who Set Up this system and then immediately kills him). in raven and in penny + winter we’ve had explorations of what this looks like in relation to characters who are notionally on the same side as the vault-keepers (none of them want salem getting her hands on their relic), with the atlas arc forcing the kids into open conflict with ironwood Because they see penny/the maiden as a person who can make choices.

a situation where the summer maiden is involved in the inner circle or even just neutral risk retreading the same ground. whereas. a maiden who is an adversary who (like salem albeit for different reasons) Cannot Be Beaten (because she represents half of vacuo and killing her will make her a martyr, ripping the kingdom apart) feels like the natural place for this narrative to go next. what happens if the maiden says no? for real this time. how do you persuade her, compromise with her, what reason do you give her to work with you?

(<- potential here for a reprise and inversion of ozpin’s advice to ruby in v1: if you’re not always performing at your absolute best, what reason do you give others to follow you? well, if you’re not treating others like human beings whose choices and freedom matter, what reason do you give them to stand with you? as always the curative for the poison of guardians and martyrs is coalition, which is harder in many ways but also healing.)

[co-mixed]

Doctor Doom - The Loveable Autocrat 

Fantastic Four #247 is quite an issue. It impressed me so much, I decided to dedicate a whole post to a single issue. If you’ve been around for a while, you know I almost never do that. There’s usually not enough to say about just one single. And yet, this one forced me to reflect on real-world history and very controversial ideas presented in the book. 

What’s Up

In this issue, the Fantastic Four are forced to help Doom reclaim his place as the monarch of Latveria. Since he was defeated by, well, also the Fantastic Four, his rightful (according to him, obviously) place has been taken by Zorba. Doom can’t think of anything better than taking FF on a tour of the new and improved Latveria in order to show them how much worse life without Doom actually is. 

Now right off the bat, I have plenty of issues with this whole premise. First of all, Doom is a dictator. A nasty, unapologetically evil dictator, whose country is messed up no matter which way you look. We know that from the issues #84-87 in which the FF with Crystal on their team, end up traveling to Latveria to witness the beauty of Doom state. It’s not a pretty picture either: it looks like the land of the free, dressing like it’s the 1910s instead of 1960s, and fachwerk. 

It’s impossible to hide the fact that the people are brainwashed and afraid of their own shadows.

You are free to call me out on imagining too much, but we all know exactly how these states function. 

The Background

In Latveria, the people are forced to love and praise Doom. As long as they keep their head low, do their job, don’t ask for anything, and don’t cross Doom directly- they can live a normal life. This illusion of normalcy comes from everyone knowing their place and the rules to follow. And on paper, it even sounds like a textbook Utopia. It's anything but.

In one issue, for instance, Doom is exercising a favored trick among his peers: a peasant bumps into him, and Doom pretends to forgive him.

But we as readers aren't that easily fooled. He's obviously terrified because he knows the rules, and the main one is to love and obey the "leader". Already sounds culty if you ask me. But what this does in terms of narrative is it establishes the condition of Doomism — his state is built on fear, not on respect. 

When the FF approach the border, they are immediately informed that neither side (neither the soviet bloc nor the democratic countries) can protect their people within Latverian borders. Latveria does not recognize any international agreements or laws which means absolute, unlimited, uncontrolled power in one set of metal hands. If you underestimate the severity of it, imagine that your absolute authority on all matters including basic freedoms is one man who may or may not be insane. 

Like any self-respecting dictator, Doom has a private guard. The one that shoots people if they try to escape his land (which hey, is one of the basic freedoms, shocking.) Doom is clever enough to know what he’s doing, and not nearly naive enough to imagine that if he had allowed his people to move about freely, they would move outside the border and never come back. You can trust me on that. 

When Doom is once again consumed by his desire to destroy the accursed Fantastic Four, he doesn’t think twice about sacrificing a whole village of his “beloved subjects”. And even before that, when his private bot guard gets out of hand, he even informs the populace that anyone who dies would be considered a hero. Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t, consider yourself lucky. But keep in mind that the whole situation is solely Doom’s fault. And he handles it in the worst possible way with little regard for his people. 

None of this screams “a leader who truly cares.”

After reading this issue I figured it would've been better and made Doom more sympathetic if his subjects were actually happy. He could've been established as a just and respected leader, especially considering how his predecessor mistreated the people. 

Even with all that, It's hard to imagine such a scenario since power corrupts indiscriminately. Sure, that could've given a complex twist to his character as well as added conflict to the decision the FF ultimately had to make. It could have been a commentary on cultural and historical differences since:

a: monarchies are not that rare in Europe. 

b: Latveria was surrounded by communist states, so it had enough struggles as is. 

That, of course, didn't happen and we got a plain and simple dictator, who follows every other page from the dictators' handbook. A very black-and-white view that was not uncommon for comic books in the '60s and the '70s. 

Changing Spots

In issue #247, John Byrne takes it upon himself to retcon the essence of Doom. This makes sense, the ‘80s have elevated comic book narratives and gave depth to many characters. 

Doom was not an exception. With the FF walking the streets of Doomstadt, we see the devastation that his successor brings to the land. And to top it off, we hear the tragic story of the last few months since Doom has been ousted.

Zorba Fortunov is the heir apparent to the Latverian throne. His father and brother were both murdered by Doom but you shouldn’t feel too bad because they were terrible people and even worse rulers. So is Doom, but we know Doom and we don’t know those guys. 

Doom also tortured Zorba (because, and I don’t want there to be any confusion, torturing your political opponents is exactly what Dooms do.)

Now initially Zorba was portrayed as a member of the resistance who was looking to restore democracy in Latveria. Well, restore would be a loud word. Long story short, with the help of American superheroes (who shamelessly collaborate with the government) Zorba comes to power. 

But democracy is apparently too hard to handle for the state. Because turns out (according to Doom and his loyalists), the repressive laws were actually for the good of the people. They were too afraid to commit crimes. For some reason, they also immediately stopped working which may or may not indicate forced labor. And the ‘prosperous nation of Latveria’ fell into complete disarray. That’s confirmed by a few destroyed streets and fearful citizens but other than that, there is only Doom’s word to prove that. 

This is a great time to note that any major economic transformations are risky and may result in poverty and a rise in crime. Especially in a society that’s not prepared to said changes in stages. We have actually seen that with post-soviet states. 

Either way, Zorba revoked Doom’s cruel laws and punishments (from what we have seen so far, they include murder if “the master” is in a bad mood and you are in his proximity). People were promised an election (which it seems like Zorba really planned to have.) But some happy and liberated citizens of Latveria chose violence and it became so bad, Zorba declared martial law. Which naturally gave him all the power… that he was supposed to already have as an absolute monarch. But who cares? 

Zorba reprogrammed Doom’s personal guard to police the streets and they are referred to as ruthless (as opposed to Doom’s tender and caring ones?)  

So slowly, learning this story, the Fantastic Four figure that the devil they know is actually pretty good compared to the devil they helped install. Despite there being little difference except the fact that Doom was planning to rule till the day he dies (and possibly after). 

And then we see that he cares so much, his main priority is restoring Latveria to its former glory. 

But… why?

Of course, my main question is the idea behind this whole narrative. Are we supposed to believe that a shaky democratic state is much worse than the iron rule of one leader with order? Or is it something very specific to the people of Latveria? If Doom is so great, why does the Fantastic Four fight him relentlessly when he tries to take over the world? And why do they feel entitled to repeatedly make decisions and instigate conflict on behalf of the people of the country? 

I don’t have the answer, I see the story and the attempt to rewrite Doom’s history into something that can justify keeping him around. But if he’s a dictator, if he’s a tyrant, we probably shouldn’t romanticize him that much. Because once again, I want to look at the Latverians here - we rarely really do. They went with a democratic choice, with a possibility of change. And there must have been reasons for that, I mean they were NOT happy. In one of the issues, Doom murders the Ambassador of his own country (ok it was a doombot but if you ask me, same difference). So how exactly does that align with the just leader narrative?

If the idea was to not interfere and let things flow naturally as they are supposed to, why does the FF help reinstall Doom?

Let’s be honest, Zorba doesn’t care much for the people. He proves it in that same arc. But neither does Doom, that’s no secret. And neither do Reed, Sue, Johnny, or Ben. Everyone is this story has their own interests and not one of them is the prosperity of the country. 

They might be able to rewrite Doom and turn him into a good leader, I wouldn’t be surprised because I’ve seen heroes shake hands with him later on. But it still will always feel like a hypocritical joke. 

The suggestion that Doom might be better for the country is one I have a hard time with, on so many levels. We can’t trust the collective amnesia of the populace, caused by the trauma of drastic changes.

At the end of the day, either option is bad for Latveria. Doom is vengeful and bloodthirsty and so is Zorba. Both occasionally had good intentions. In both cases, they didn't matter. Zorba was the rightful monarch, while Doom was an usurper yet both revolutions happened with the participation of the FF. And it doesn't seem like free Latveria is this team's priority.

[theerurishipper]

I brought this up with another blog, but something that a lot of Felix stans who are also Adrien salters say whenever someone points out how Felix acted worse than Adrien is that the show never made out Felix to be a good guy whenever he did something villainous, while whenever Adrien did something bad, the show went out of its way to make sure he got away with it, or didn't have to apologize

However, there were times were he did apologize when he did something bad.

Whether they were good apologies is up to debate, but they did happen.

Felix has yet to apologize for anything he did wrong, so honestly that excuse of why they think Adrien is worse than him really falls apart.

Adrien has apologized way more for lesser things in the span of nine months than Felix has ever done in his life.

He was kind of a jerk to Ladybug in Glaciator and Frozer.

He messed with Theo the sculptor in Copycat.

He gave Marinette some reasonable yet ineffective advice.

He messed up in the New York special.

And all these had consequences. In Glaciator and Frozer, he apologized to Ladybug for his behavior. He apologized for the ineffective advice he gave. His actions in Copycat had consequences in the form of him being targeted by an akuma and his mistake in the New York special was called out and he clearly felt guilty about it. These are the worst of the mistakes he's made, and he's been made to deal with them. The narrative never excused him of anything.

I listed the mistakes Adrien has made. Let's look at everything Felix has done.

Victim blamed his cousin for being abused.

Tried to ruin that same cousin's life out of spite.

Tried to strike a deal with Hawkmoth.

Stole all the Miraculous from Ladybug and gave it to Gabriel, betraying her and putting all of Paris in danger.

Sold his cousin's free will back to his abuser.

Committed genocide.

And he has apologized for exactly none of this. In fact, he did all this with a gleeful smirk on his face. This is an obtuse and ridiculous comparison.

And never made Felix out to be a good guy when he did what he did?

Felix stans: The show never justifies Felix! It always portrays him as a bad person and never excuses him!

The show:

Kagami:(puts her arm in front of Félix, defending him) I am nobody's prisoner! Félix is not your enemy! He's like me! He doesn't know how to express himself. Everyone is wrong about him! Including me. (They smile at each other)

Félix: And it was only when his father died that he could recover it, and his freedom along with it. (Félix takes the ring from his father's hand and puts it in his finger) Félix: He understood that the amulet that had allowed his mother to give him life could also take it away. (Félix is now seen "standing" before the Agreste mansion) Félix: So he went to the house of the tailor, who had become a prince, to steal the jewel. (An image of Gabriel appears on the background with only half of his body shown, towering over Félix) Félix: But the tailor had become a powerful prince. (Félix wears a mask resembling that of when he wielded the Dog Miraculous in the episode "Risk" as Flairmidable) Félix: The child had to steal other magical amulets that the tailor desired. Only then was he able to make an exchange.

Allow me to refer to you the last time someone confronted Felix with his mistakes.

Argos: True, except I work for no one. (kicks Ladybug, causing her to crash onto a building) I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! (charges in to punch her and she dodges) I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish! (makes another attempt to attack Ladybug with his heel as Ladybug rolls away to evade it)

The show literally pulled the classic "he's not evil, he's just misunderstood!" trope with Felix, and somehow, he's a better person than Adrien? He literally got excused for everything he did without any regret or remorse on his end. He gets a tragic backstory as an excuse and a girlfriend as an easy gateway to the good side and somehow, he's considered redeemed, even though he has continually expressed no remorse for his actions and only justifies himself over and over. In contrast, Adrien actually owns up to his mistakes and apologizes for them, even when he doesn't really have to. There's no comparison here.

Thank you for your ask!

[sarafinamk]

Sonic IDW Issue 56 Bad Ending

Summary: Surge claims she won't be free until Sonic is dead. Tails can't do anything but watch as it unfolds.

TW: Death, Electrocution, Strangulation, Murder, Attempted Murder

————————————————————————

"SONIC!"

He was right there.

He almost had him.

Even though Tails' eyes never leave Sonic, the distant flashing figure of Surge always remains within Tails' peripheral vision. The tenrec is just standing there, eyes glued on Sonic. It doesn't take a two-tailed genius to know that she's waiting for the first opportunity to strike. The ever-changing kaleidoscope of wisp energy and electricity flickering off of her sent the kit a very clear message. Tails needed to get Sonic out of the water now. It's not deep, so it'll be easier swooping his brother out. Surge, however, made it clear that she had other plans for the hedgehog. That message was made clear in the form of electric currents dancing in the water, pumping millions of volts into his system.

Tails pulls away on instinct. It could easily be written off as merely his astraphobia hindering him from saving the older hedgehog. The fox kit, however, knows that trying to touch his brother in this state is like touching a toaster in a bathtub filled with water. You don't touch it unless you have a death wish.

Much to his horror, he can't see anything that could get him close enough to his brother, let alone pull him out. Not without Surge's little lighting lake pulling him in as another victim.

He can't stop the source of the electric currents either because he has no way of defending himself from Surge. If he tries this time, she will target him instead. Sonic won't have enough time to get out of the water.

Tails had to do something. If only he'd stop shaking and staring at the flickering currents trapping his brother.

There had to be something he can do. If only he'd just snap out of it, and actually think of something.

Surge catches the hovering form of the blue rat's sidekick from the corner of her eye. He's not even trying to step in. He's just gawking at them uselessly. Without all those dumb gadgets, he can't do anything. The tenrec's pupils shrink with realization. This gives her the opening she needs to drive her message home.

To do what needs to be done.

She lunges at the convulsing blue hedgehog, screaming bloody murder.

"YOU DON'T GET IT! I was built to live in your shadow. It's in my blood, my bones, my BRAIN. There is no freedom for me..."

Her hands tighten around Sonic's throat, eliminating any chance he may have had left of getting air. The voltage invading the hedgehog's body kept him further restrained, allowing her to get a tighter grip on his windpipe without any pathetic attempts to fight back. Not that he can focus on that with his brain being fried. Her shark-toothed snarl is the only thing he can focus on as his vision dances to darkness.

"...NOT WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!"

The rainbow-like energy engulfing her body pulses with intensity thanks to the electricity flashing around her. However, Tails didn't shield his eyes from the energy's strong glare. He can't stop watching the scene unfold in front of him. The pounding in his chest urged him to dive down there and stop her. He know he had to, but something in his mind wouldn't let him. It kept him there in a helpless daze. His widened eyes match that of his older brother's.

The glass orbs in the dynamo cage glow a bright white before it suddenly shatters. With the glass no longer able to contain Surge's temporary power-ups, the five wisps emerge out. Their glow wasn't there, and their flight pattern was very wonky. To Tails' short-lived relief, however, none of them turned into nega wisps.

Surge stops sparking. The energy field around her dissipates. Her grip around Sonic's throat loosens. Her body drops face first into the water right next to Sonic. One of her hands lays close to his throat.

The wisps circle around the limp duo like a dim halo. Tails, snapping out of his trance, rushes over to his brother's aid.

"Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh--"

He lands next to the two fallen figures, stumbling onto his knees. His hyperventilating only made his coordination worse. He hastily pulls Surge off his brother, rolling her over onto her back. Before Tails can check for a pulse, he catches her chest rising and falling. He can only hope she didn't inhale too much water. Once he put Surge in a position where she wouldn't be able to inhale any more water, he scrambles over to Sonic's side.

The fox kit's heart plummets deep into the pit of his stomach. Sonic is decorated with bright red burns growing and branching out all across his skin like roots. The burns and fingerprints wrap around his neck in the sickeningly brightest shades of red. His mouth remains slightly agape. His muzzle has grown several shades paler with dull green eyes to complement it. His gaze never leaves the flickering white ceiling lights above.

"...Sonic...?"

Tails tries so hard to ignore the way his voice comes out barely above a whisper. The wisps surround them, getting a good look at their beloved blue hero, battered, burned and beaten black and blue. They look at Tails with doubt as one or two try to communicate something in their language. The fox knows what they're trying to tell him, but he knows better. Sonic will wake up, make some commentary about how that was shocking or gnarly or something, get up and get back into the fight. And all this will be done with a smile on his face.

It got harder to ignore the nausea bubbling in his stomach the longer the hedgehog's chest remains still. He's going to wake up. He has to wake up. He's done this so many times before. His brother has to be pulling a sick prank on him at this point if he's taking this long.

Tails calls out his name a few more times, each time getting louder and more desperate. He continues shaking his brother awake, begging him to wake up, His voice cracks more with each ignored plea. Not even his tears are doing anything to make his big brother answer him.

He places two fingers against Sonic's reddened neck, and all he felt is the skin losing its warmth.

No...

No, no, no!

There had to be a pulse. It's the adrenaline rushing at Tails' cold fingertips playing tricks. The pulse is just faint, that's all.

He did the only thing he could think of at this point: shake his brother awake with more force until the trembling of his voice made it impossible to get one more plead out. The boy threw himself at his brother's corpse, muffling his cries by pressing his face against his chest. The wisps circle around the sobbing kit clutching onto his big brother for dear life. There's nothing they can do but listen to Tails repeating Sonic's name over and over as if that will bring him back.

"Finally! Collect the dynamo cage and the tenrec!"

The unwanted sound of Eggman's voice commanding Metal Sonic breaks the kit out of his distress. Tails wanted to tell him off, to tell that cheater that this wasn't part of the deal. But the heavy lump in his throat wouldn't let him get any words out without the risk of breaking down again.

Fury burns in his lungs looking at the unconscious tenrec next to him. He doesn't see why he should even bother protecting Surge at this point. His brother's dead because of her.

No!

He promised Kit that he and Sonic would help them. Sonic would want to protect her from the doctor's clutches no matter what. Despite his fury burning hot, he inches closer to the unconscious tenrec. His body only partially hid her as he's adamant of keeping Sonic secure in his arms. He doesn't know how he's supposed to defend them and the wisps by himself. All he knows is that he'll do what he can to protect them.

Metal Sonic lunges at the group, only for a rush of water to rise up and slam the robot away. Tails looks up at a specific set of test tubes with a relieved, knowing look. Kit, no longer hiding between the tubes, hops down behind Dr. Eggman. Water tendrils slither around the fennec as he takes a few steps forward. His glowing magenta eyes are void of any emotion.

Eggman swivels in the boy's direction. He gets into a defensive position, but doesn't budge from his place.

"Stay out of this, you waterlogged whelp!"

Kit responds by merely lifting his hand up. Water tendrils sprout upon command. They proceed to coil around the doctor who can't help but yelp in surprise. Metal wasn't able to reach his creator before another set of tendrils wrap around his figure.

"What do you think you're doing? Unhand me, you little-- GRRK!"

The tendril squeezed the wind out of a raging Eggman before he could get another word out.

Water tendrils wrap around Tails who lets out a surprised yelp as he is abruptly snatched from his spot. He tries reaching out to Sonic only for his hands to be pulled away by the water around his wrist. He squirms in desperation when he feels his restraints coiling tightly around him. He tries to spin his namesakes, but to no avail.

"Kit!"

The water-bending fennec only acknowledges Sonic's sidekick with a passing glance in his direction. Tails can't pinpoint any sign of anger, disgust, or even sadness on the fennec's face. All that can be seen behind Kit's bangs is a pair of glowing magenta irises staring blankly at him. The water around him was rippling with rage, but everything in his body language is calm.

Menacingly calm.

"I know what's going on here. I've seen it before. Starline. Eggman. YOU. You're all the same. You don't need me or Surge. You WANT us. All that matters is what we can do, how you can change us. So you can prove that YOUR way is RIGHT. Surge killed Sonic just like she wanted. Now she can move on. And you don't have a purpose anymore. I'm going where I'm needed, and that's with Surge."

Everything that came out of Kit's mouth was spoken matter-of-factly. It leaves Tails with a chilling realization. They were never planning on calling it a truce with them. This was their plan all along, and they fell right into their trap.

With one set of tendrils, he brings Surge closer to him. With a flick of his hand, he sends another set to work on tearing apart the room piece by piece. The fennec watches the chaos unfold around him with a small unsettling smile. Every broken chunk of glass, concrete, and metal surrounding him left him with a startling sense of serenity. He wouldn't leave without delivering one final message to his enemies.

"I'll bury you all here along with our past."

Now that the water tendrils are no longer tampering with the room, everything began cascading down. Kit hovers out of the broken glass ceiling with Surge in his arms.

The water releases its grip on Tails. He scrambles to his feet, trying to maintain his footing. He panics upon realizing the wisps aren't with him. He tries to spot for any signs but only sees grey from the concrete and dust. From a distance, Tails catches Metal Sonic pushing Eggman up a slope. He had to give it to the man. He can run fast when his life depended on it.

"Such melodramatic histrionics... Faster, Metal!"

Tails turns around to find a familiar unconscious blue figure close by. Without thinking, he runs to Sonic. He can't leave his big brother like this.

But Sonic isn't waking up this time...

It hit him as he watches metal, glass, and concrete rain down on Sonic. There won't be any more jokes. No more quips, laughs, or reassurances that he was okay. Any hope left in the kit's chest is replaced with the suffocating truth.

Why did Tails think this time would be like all the other times?

At the other end of the room, Tails spots the five wisps. They're barely avoiding the raining debris while trying to stay together. Tail's mind screamed to go to them, but he feet refuse to cooperate. Everything moved slowly as he feels himself being overtaken by a whirlwind of thoughts.

If he leaves now, he'll be all alone again.

He doesn't want that life again.

He got so used to Sonic always being there with him, he can't imagine him ever leaving.

Maybe Tails doesn't have to be alone.

If he stays...

A roaring rumble from below snaps him out of his thoughts. The room is not going to hold for much longer. To his surprise, the wisps stayed in place. They're all giving him urgent looks. They want to get out of here now, but not without Tails...

He needed to get to the wisps and leave.

Now.

Whisper is waiting for them, and Belle is going to worry if no one returns soon.

With a heavy sigh and repressed tears, he flies over to the wisps, leaving Sonic to get buried in his new grave.

"Let's get out of here!"

The wisps cling onto Tails as he flies them through the raining debris. Even with five wisps on him, he has an easier time maneuvering past the raining rubble. That is until a fairly large chunk of concrete takes him by surprise and knocks him unconscious. The wisps wrap their tentacles around one part of the unconscious fox. Since they had no power to spare the fox, the wisps have to resort to being the ones to fly him out the old-school way. Even with five of them, they are straining themselves past their limit. They barely manage to dodge pieces of the ceiling.

A dark opening comes on sight. Getting a sudden burst of energy, they hightail it past the last bits of the rubble. They make sure to drop the fox kit gently before doing so themselves. The rumbling below overwhelms their senses for a moment before everything goes silent.

Right on cue, Tails groggily opens his eyes. He is greeted by a pounding in his head and the familiar silhouettes of five dimly colored wisps hovering around him, warbling their worries to the fox. He is exhausted in every way possible. All he wants right now is to go back to sleep and pretend this was just a nightmare. He'll wake up, and Sonic will be there like he should.

He slowly pulls himself up into a sitting position with the wisps' help. Every part of the kit is still shaky, including his breaths. He can't tell if it's nerves or the chill prickling his damp fur. Not that it makes much of a difference. He can't feel his legs, which doesn't bother him. He's not ready to stand up yet. It's taking all his energy just to stay sitting up. The wisps seem to be fine with that as some have clung onto him.

With his head in his arms, he bathes in the cold, dark, silence. Not even his soaked namesakes wrapped protectively around him can provide him warmth. That doesn't bother him. There's nothing and no one here left to bother him. No Eggman-

Come to think of it, Eggman and Metal Sonic got a head start in escaping and yet he's nowhere to be found. Tails hasn't seen hide, nor hair, nor metal. With Eggman, it would be impossible not to hear him. Could it be that they also...?

"Blah!"

Nevermind...

"Well, THAT was a waste of time..."

Eggman kicks away a large chunk of debris on top of him. Metal Sonic crawls out of the junk pile after his creator. Water drips off of both of them from head to toe. Metal is more or less indifferent to it, like usual. The doctor, on the other hand, is looking at his drenched lab coat sleeves with disdain.

"Metal, call ahead to the Eggperial City. I want a transport, a snack, and HOT BATH waiting for me when we get home. I have some important sulking to d-- Oh."

Eggman takes notice of the lone fox kit sitting with those meddling wisps, but no Sonic to be seen. Granted, he did see the whole pitiful display, including the damage done to the blue rodent. Under any other circumstances, the doctor knew they were as good as gone. But this is Sonic we're talking about here. He's cheated death an ungodly amount of times. If he's managed to survive having dark gaia energy in him or Infinite's illusions for half a year, then he very well could walk this off. Only this time the hedgehog actually bit off more than he can chew. And the worst part...

Eggman wasn't the one that succeeded in defeating that hedgehog.

"That duck-billed buffoon actually did it. He created an adversary that destroyed Sonic once and for all."

"And whose fault is that?"

Eggman scoffs.

"Don't give me that, now. I'm not the one who couldn't leave well enough alone! Starline should've known better than to think he can outdo me. I told him that I knew what I was doing, but no, he wouldn't listen."

"But YOU were the one who threw him out."

"That was perfectly well within reason!"

A switch went off in Tails' head.

"Reason?! You're the reason he created Surge and Kit! If you didn't throw him out, he wouldn't have found them. If you had just given him some recognition, he wouldn't have done all... THIS!"

"I made it very clear that I will not compromise my principles just for some kiss-up that didn't know his place. It's not my fault he couldn't get that through his head."

Tails looks at the man with disgust.

"What would YOU know about principles?"

"More than Sonic, it seems."

That got Tails to shut up real quick. Eggman took this as a sign to keep going.

"Everyone knows his principles revolve around freedom. What does he say? 'Freedom to go about his own way?' 'Live life the way you choose?' 'Free as the wind,' or something like that? Blech! Anyways, we all know how well that worked for him."

"Shut. Up-"

"Sonic ACTUALLY believed it would be a good idea to preach to Starline's little maniacs, of all people, about freedom, even when he knew they were conditioned to kill him. The idiot just wouldn't let it go. Both of us may refuse to compromise our principles, but that's the difference between us. My principles have kept me alive. His principles are the very reason he's gone."

"SHUT UP!"

Tails' chest tightens with every heave. His glaring blue eyes burn with more unshed tears. His lips drew back in a snarl, which only protruded the growing lump in his throat. Sonic's lifeless body flashes in the kit's mind.

'And you don't have a purpose anymore.'

This causes the kit to try growl, only for a whimper to come out of him instead. A whimper turns into a few choked sobs which unfurls into full-on sobbing.

Unable to spare the doctor another glance, he curls up into a little ball. The wisps are quick to come to Tails' side. They wrap their tentacles around the kit's trembling form, while warbling their condolences. Eggman and Metal leave the fox kit alone with the wisps, seeing as there is no point in reasoning with him in this state.

Kit's words repeat in his head like a broken cassette tape. The image of Sonic's glassy eyes won't go away. It makes him grit his teeth harder. The noise from the kit's throat came out as a mix between a growl and a scream, which worsened the pounding in his head. But he wants it to hurt. Maybe then the image of Sonic's lifeless eyes and the echoes of Kit's taunts will leave his head. It'll serve him right for being useless when Sonic needed him the most.

He just got Sonic back after six months of thinking he was dead. He swore that he'd be better, that he'd DO better. He wouldn't be a burden anymore. He wasn't going to run away or stand on the sidelines like with Infinite and every other crisis. He was going to be the little brother and sidekick Sonic needed. One that Sonic deserved. One that he can depend on.

But that's never going to happen.

Sonic's not coming back this time, and it's all his fault.

He almost had him, and he was right there.

[possiblylando]

Chainsaw Man Chapter 139 'Early' Analysis

Finally we're back into the fun chapters.

So this is a bit of interesting confirmation as to what happened at the end of Part 1. As a recap Pochita separated from Denji and become the Black Chainsaw man.

This confirms that the Hybrids that fought Pochita all retained the memories of the events. It also makes the weird Makima self insert fanfiction even more weird. Based on what Miri (Sword Man) says about regaining his freedom after Makima's death, they all seemed to be completely aware of their actions but unable to fight against them.

He MADE them say this shit. They are all aware of this having happened. THEY WERE AWARE WHILE THEY WERE FORCED TO PLAY THIS SHIT OUT! Fucking Nightmare scenario. Glad Denji ate her.

We get a name of Sword Man, Miri Sugo. We also get some more of his personality. I'm sure there will be speculation as to his sexuality because he's a character in chainsaw man.

What I do wanna touch on is this. I've seen a few interpretations of this line. It's a weirder one because it's clearly referencing the fact Miri's design is a reused version of Denji's beta versions.

But it could also mean they find Denji attractive. BUT it could also be a meta reference to the fact they're both hybrids, So they have similar "Auras" or something like that. I actually didn't remember who the student council president was so I had to look it up, And it's fucking Iseumi.

and honestly, I can kind of see how a combination of him and Denji would make Miri. Miri took Iseumi's eyes and hair color while he took the hair and head shape from Denji. Sorta interesting.

This whole scene strikes me as weird from a fandom perspective. Either people use it to say, "Miri is gay" or "Miri hates women". When in reality it doesn't seem to be either (for now). He literally stated moments ago that he didn't want to be bothered by anyone and these three girls come up and start bugging him with questions and requests he doesn't want to deal with. Most people would be annoyed as hell if this scenario happened to them. Denji obviously doesn't get this and is just mad that he's getting female attention.

I'm going to assume that this is still Denji hustling and this SEX OFFENDER paid him. I REALLY hope that he didn't just let her do this for free. We get full confirmation that the Weapon Hybrids are alive. We don't have confirmation as to which, Just that some of them are. I assume this probably means all the hybrids that fought against Pochita are alive.

oh I HATEEEEEEE how she gets along with Denji.

This woman needs to get the fuck off this MINOR

As much as I despise this woman, She has a point. Fami and some unknown figure have been puppeteering the Church (how realistic) for at least the past few days. It's likely been going on since the church was founded since we see Fami with the devil hunter club.

We get a look at Denji's full speed. This means Denji was able to perception blitz Miri to appear in front of him without him noticing. This means that Denji was able to move at approximately Mach 32. All of this is real look none of this up Denji solos demon slayer or whatever fuckin power scaling bullshit.

Looks like the next few chapters will be built around the church. It also likely means we'll be seeing Reze soon. If Asa is also there, I hope this doesn't turn into some wack love triangle shit. I REALLY hope Reze isn't like "You were trying to date other girls while you thought I was dead??". I have faith Fujimoto will handle it well but it has an un-ignorable chance to becoming fucking awful.

[memoriesofgelmorra]

FFXIVWRITE Prompt 9: Lend an Ear

Took off the 8th/free day but back with Day 9! Don't read if you're not up to msq/done The Rising 2024 event!

Despite being mostly ‘anchored’ in Tural at the moment, of course Chantelle was going to come back for a few bells for The Rising. She still had many issues talking about her own experience in the Calamity, but partaking in the occasion was part of how she honored her parents, and her brothers. Even if she only admitted it to herself.

And it had proved well again, this year. A memorable cause, a chance to work with the pirate powers of Limsa, and of course, knock two heads of specific pirate captains together to admit they could do some good as a triumvirate. (Halone’s tits, could Carvaillian be stubborn, favourite pirate of hers be damned) She had even been able to chat with Sicard, and Deryk as well!

But it was as she was walking the stalls, looking for some treats straight from the sailors to enjoy, that two familiar mops of hair caught her eye near the Arcanist’s Guild. “Well, if it isn’t my dear Emm and Honoroit! Taking in the sight of a Rising, Limsa style? The Kraken’s, Sirens and Executioner’s all helped with the manpower, and fireworks, for this display. Pirate sure know how to put on a party!”

Emmanellain chuckled, albeit not as loud as it usually was. She risked a glance to Honoroit, who smiled and shook his head. Well, if his retainer, and daresay protege thought everything was fine…

“The Redbills would surely be jealous,” he replied after a moment.

“Ha!”, crowed Chantelle. “More like Leo would be! But I won’t tell him, if you don’t. Heavens forfend I give Stacia a headache with their gil pool.”

He was amused, judging by the quite ungentlemanly snort that escaped him. He stilled when he realized, but didn’t do his usual bluster. Chantelle was almost worried again. Emmanellain might have been over a top a bit with his antics, but they were his persona none the less-

“I wonder if Ishgard would ever hold a Rising…”, he mused, look at the fireworks burst in the sky.

She thought for a second but then added, “Technically I think it started out between the three original nations, because of well, Carteneau…”

“Ah, yes.”, he replied.

“But that’s not fault of you or yours. And now Ishgard is back in the Alliance and at peace with Dravania. Anything is possible, in this star of ours now.”

That seemed to perk Emmanellain up better. “I suppose. But I doubt the pomp of our knights and the solemnity of the Halonic Church would quite look this this…which is a shame. Sicard worked hard at this.”

“Many types of people are needed in our world, Emm. Some are knights, born or not, like Artoirel or how Haurche was, from the bottom of his heart. But knight can’t be guardians if there aren’t people to support them in other endeavors.

And well, if the end to the Dragonsong War taught us anything, it’s that one rigid way of thinking can be dangerous. My hope, you know, is that Ishgard holds true to knights, yes. But to honor and celebrate others who hold the same value, wherever talents lie. Hilda and Stephanivien are not less for it. Francel surely not. Ishgard certainly would do less well without the literary passages of a certain retainer of yours.”. Chantelle ended that statement with a smile and wink at Honoroit who giggled, for once delightfully acting the child he ought to be more of.

“Without doubt!”, agreed Emmanellain, who always was happy to extol his retainers virtues, even when his usual bravado. But as the statement settles, he took a more contemplative look. “You always seem to know what to say when someone needs an ear lent, old girl.”

“No, replied Chantelle. “Even I’m not perfect. I can only lend an ear if I empathize, or if I know what the problem is first. Or an insecurity, as it is. I’m not the typical Ishgardian fare either, dear Emm. But by being, well, the bloody Warrior of Light, I get an ilm more freedom to act myself, as long as I act polite in others. Bards, bards like me, aren’t knights, but we can still fight and protect. But you were born into a society that wanted it’s molding to be something different. If I can’t help lend an ear to you, my future brother-in law, who I care very much about- well, what’s the point in trying to help the rest of the world?”

[fictionplumis]

Okay okay okay I got another one for Sorcery!

Flanker ends up with the Crown of Kings.

Bear with me. We all know he would dash that thing on the ground and destroy it after it was used on him to make him nearly kill the person he loves, but here's the thing.

The Analander hands it to him with such a trusting, earnest look and tells him, "You won't take away power from the people and you can fix this world. I know you can." And even though almost every part of him balks at the idea of ruling, Flanker has experienced how broken the world is, how none that are currently in power will do anything to fix it with or without the crown, and it makes a weird kind of sense for someone so reluctant for power to be the one holding it, the one wielding it.

And it's so hard to say no to the Analanader when they look at him like he personally hung the stars that sorcerers draw their power from.

So he takes it.

He tries not to use it. It's a cursed thing, and Flanker doesn't wish to control the people around him, least of all the Analander, but it's not an easy thing to do. It's not the temptation of it, it's not that he feels he needs to, it's that in his memories of the Archmage using it on him, the crown had been nowhere in the room. The Analander swears it had been on the Archmage's head, they just couldn't see it because the Archmage hadn't wanted them to, but it's hard for him not to question it.

Especially when he wears it and doesn't need to consciously give an order. Those that don't know about the crown well enough to fight the influence, or who trust him the most, seem to react to his subconscious will even before he says anything. Those things unsettle him the most, especially when it happens with the Analander. One stray thought of desire or pang of want while he has the crown on and the Analander is in the room, and they're at his side, arms around him, pressing a kiss to his temple or what have you. Afterwards, with the crown well away from the both of them, they swear they don't mind, that they want those things too, but it still doesn't sit right with him.

As far as actually being a ruler goes, Flanker hates attention, so you know he's not going to be going out there and greeting the people and announcing himself as the new monarch of Mampang or whatever. He's a shadowy ruler, and there's just as many rumors about him being dead as there were about the Archmage. But--

Things start changing. Slowly, at first.

Despite his discomfort with magic and his lack of knowledge, the changes start with the College of Sorcerers. The Analander suggests that he release Valiquesh from the book she was trapped in and together with Aliizi (who was wary of him at first but started coming around, either unconsciously because of the crown or because she genuinely realized he wasn't going to purposely control her, it's impossible to say), they reestablish the College.

And the second Flanker finds out an acquaintance of the Analander's is locked up, he goes and frees Jann. The minimite, despite being an irritating headache, is something of a relief. The crown's power doesn't work while he's around and Flanker can always trust that the little pest will say exactly what he wants whether Flanker likes it or not.

It's even more reassuring that Jann first spent most of his time riding around on the Analander's shoulder since his wings were clipped, but the Analander eventually got frustrated at having their magic cut off and resolved to solve the problem, which came one day they were at the market and found a man selling a caged crow. They used their magic to speak to the bird, offering it job to be paid in food, safety, and some of its freedom back.

Flanker was sure the damn bird was going to eventually get irritated with the annoying minimite and eat it, but couldn't have been more wrong. More often than not, Jann ended up sleeping nested with the bird. The Analander, amused beyond belief at Flanker's annoyance, explained that the bird liked being talked to, but crucially, couldn't actually understand a word Jann said. Plus, Jann liked to give the bird scritches. The minimite treated the crow like one would a prized and beloved family horse.

It took a few months for the real work to actually start. The College was operating again, but without students, it was useless. And in order for there to be students, the gates of Mampang needed to be open to travelers. And in order for that to happen, people needed to be able to cross the Baklands safely. Flanker kept trying to put off actually exerting his influence on the people but Valiquesh was impatient and once the Analander and Jann pointed out how often he was using the crown to silence Valiquesh and keep her from calling him a coward, he finally decided to actually act.

Flanker's not a monarch, though. He knows nothing about actually ruling, so his first order was to establish a council and gather the other rulers of the land to talk to them.

He did not fret about the meeting in the weeks leading up to it.

He did not.

(He paced a lot. The Analander laughed kindly at his nervousness and assured him it would be fine. That didn't stop his pacing.)

They met in the study, which had been cleared of all the Archmage's things and was mostly used by Valiquesh and the Analander, because Flanker himself preferred their private quarters, which had been Jann's old jail cell, cleared and reconstructed with a fireplace, a cozy sleeping area, and a small sitting arrangement right in front of the fire. But for this, Flanker met them in the study, all but Jann in attendance, Aliizi watching the proceedings in invisibility, and Flanker dressed in his assassin's garb as usual, resolutely showing no signs of his nervousness.

That grew easier the more he asked each ruler how they made their kingdom prosperous and how they would have used the crown to benefit their people. With each answer, he grew increasingly irritated, finally understanding just why the Analander gave the crown to him instead of destroying it or giving it back to his king.

The only one of them that had wanted to implement any real change was Vik, who was distasteful at best, but at least had been put into power by the people of Khare and who was (somewhat) giving that power back to the people. But his change was only for Khare, while the other rulers just wanted their kingdoms to stay the same while abandoning Khakabad and the Baklands to suffer in poverty, ruin, and curses.

That was the moment Flanker started using the crown seriously.

The king of Analand was ordered to open his gates to Khakabad and send out sorcerers, farmers, and supplies to the neighboring towns. Khakabad would be part of his kingdom now, and he was to share Analand's prosperity and teach the people of Khakabad how to prosper themselves. They were now his responsibility.

Vik was ordered to stop enslaving people and forcing them into being his own private army of werewolves. Most of the damage was already done, but he was told to take the armor off the werewolves he did have, explain to them that they were now werewolves, and instead ask them to become part of his guard. It was now a job, like anything else was, and those that wanted to work for him would be paid well and for the rest of their lives, even after they could no longer work, considering they would forever live with the consequences of lycantropy. They were to have shifts with overseers to remove their armor at the end of the shifts so they could go home and have lives. Barracks were to be built for those that weren't on shift or those that no longer worked so they had somewhere safe to go during a full moon where they couldn't hurt anyone.

The other rulers were ordered to send contractors and sorcerers into the Baklands to dismantle the Archmage's beacons. This was something that Flanker put a lot of thought into outside the meetings, talking with the Analander, Aliizi, Valiquesh, and Jann about it. After lengthy, heavy discussions, they all agreed that it wasn't fair to keep those ghost towns alive, the people in them never knowing that they had died ages ago, never able to leave, their lives forever looping. It was best to leave the past in the past, and instead look towards what the Baklands could become in the future.

One night, years later, once all of Flanker's plans were well on their way to being completed and the gates to Mampang were open again, the College of Sorcerers seeing their first year of recruits under Valiquesh's teachings, Flanker sat on the distastefully extravagant chaise with the Analander's head in his lap while they dozed, turning the crown in his hand over and over again while staring at the fire.

Truly, for such a powerful item, it was a poorly made thing. Threadbare, the jewels chipped, the metal thin and bones crooked.

The Analander roused, half-asleep, meeting Flanker's gaze sleepily and it was as if he knew. A subtle nod of understanding was all Flanker needed to throw the cursed crown into the fire, the skullcap catching immediately and the fire warping the metal. By morning, all that would be left would be a puddle of metal and blacked gems.

"You always destroy it," the Analander murmurs, turning their face back into Flanker's stomach with a yawn, their eyes closing. "Sometimes right away, sometimes later, when you feel like the work is done. The land always fairs better when it's later."

"You are not awake," Flanker replies, because the words don't make sense. He ignores the twist of discomfort, resolves himself to ask the Analander about it later, and instead bullies them up so he could take them to bed, shedding clothes along the way.

It would be days later when he manages to corner the Analander in the library that he asks about it and gets the full story.

I'm cursed.

When I die, I return to Mampang on the day we defeated the Archmage. I can show you the very alley I return to.

I do it all over again. I've done it hundreds of times. I've gotten good at it, too. Once I figured out how to break you out of the Archmage's control, I've never once had to fight you again.

No, you didn't kill me that first time. But killing you killed me. I couldn't do it without you, and I was relieved when I died to the Archmage and had another chance to save you. I have every time since, and even though things change in the strangest ways, every time I tell you that I love you, your blade finds its home in the Archmage instead of my throat. You're strong enough to break out of the compulsion every single time.

You don't need to worry, Flanker. I know how to lift the curse. There's a tower in the College of Sorcery where I can undo it. I choose not to, not yet. At first I just wanted to see what decisions would be best for us and people of this land.

I've given the crown to my king, and things weren't bad. He kept it for two more years and passed it on to the next kingdom. Analand prospered and everyone knew who I was, who we were. But you hated the attention and I grew tired of it. We started a life for ourselves in the Shamutanti hills, an hour outside of Khare. You continued work for your guild after growing restless, I studied my magic, and we were happy. But in the quiet moments both of us agreed that it felt like something was missing. It was disquieting to both of us that nothing had really changed. It was the same every time I gave my king the crown, the only thing that differed was how I died. Sometimes one of us would get sick, or you wouldn't come back from Khare and I would have to track down someone from your guild to find out you had died, or I would go into town for supplies and get caught off guard by bandits...

I thought if I destroyed the crown, something different would happen, so I tried that a handful of times, but it was almost exactly the same. Analand would be in turmoil for a year or so before settling down, and we would live happily if unsettled over how little change our sacrifices and hardship actually made.

Then I thought to release Valiquesh. She made significant process back when she was the archmage. Every time she would destroy the crown, we would go on to live our lives in peace. She would establish the College again and work on revitalizing the land that the other monarchs left to ruin. It was better.

Once, I thought to stay in Mampang with her to study under her. But when I did that, you left, feeling you had no place in that world, and I lasted a couple years before I fell on my sword to see you again. Valiquesh was an unrelenting teacher and I learned a lot, but the progress I could have continued making wasn't worth being without joy. Being without you.

I thought to keep the crown for awhile, thinking I could make more change if I took matters into my own hand. You were always there with me, my general. But every time I did that, Aliizi would leave and Jann would want nothing to do with me. But you were there, and I made progress.

Sort of.

I never handled it with as much grace as you, Flanker. No, don't give me that look, I'm serious! After living so many lives and dying so many times, I was frustrated, and angry, and I always let it get the best of me. More and more each time. I never managed to make as much progress as I wanted, so each time I would take more and more control, until I realized I was becoming no better than the Archmage.

Thank you for saying that, but you never thought so in those lives, if I put the crown away. You were the one that told me I was like him, and you were right to say so in those lives. They still haunt me.

Whenever I gave you the crown and you kept it, everyone was better for it. You never relish the power, you never cling to it, and you push for the other monarchs to make the changes that they never would have made on their own. And once you feel you've done enough, you destroy the crown.

Now I don't bother to try other options. I've found the best one, and I repeat this life because I'm never ready to leave you. I want to keep doing this over and over, with you.

Flanker has no perception of these other lives that the Analander lived with him, has no idea how many the Analander went through, whether it was still that same life for them as it was for Flanker when, years later as they're sitting on the roof of the garret, watching the sun set, the Analander takes his hand and kisses the back of it, murmuring, "I think I'm ready for this to be our last time."

Even though it was always Flanker's "last time" he can't help but feel his heart squeeze with sorrow but he tightens his hand on the Analander's and nods in understanding.

"We both deserve to rest, my dear Analander."

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hyperspecific Poll Time

Click under the "read more" to learn about the character you picked! And feel free to send me an ask if you'd like to learn more about any of them! I'm turning this into a writeblr tag game too so if you want to join in on this, I'm tagging @abalonetea and @ashen-crest and @theroseempress

Option 1: Luca Laine

"It was far too lovely a day for a riot, but not even the warm morning sun or the light breeze flapping the trader's multicolored tents could keep Luca from taking advantage of the fact that there was, in fact, a riot."

The protagonist of Storge! He's a desperate kid who picks up people's trash and tries to salvage it into useful stuff for his family, but when he dares to steal a magical charm from the avian, Acheran, he's too much of a paragon to get away with it. His honestly earns him a job from the reserved shopkeeper and they end up becoming solid friends who look out for each other when their city devolves into a civil war.

Option 2: Grace Laine

"I could have killed you by now if I wanted to. "Uh yeah, but you didn't."

Luca's younger sister! As a powerful energy sink, this kid can absorb magical energy and use it to bolster her own stamina and healing. This also means she can't use magic to fight, and so her father taught her martial arts at a very young age. As a result, this 14 year old menace is fully convinced she's indestructible and sasses assassins and terrorists with absolutely 0 negative consequences whatsoever /sarcastic

Option 3: Enne Laine

Luca and Grace's older sister! Despite being blind, she's the only sibling with common sense or self-preservation. With a lockbox memory and a lifetime of strategic thinking, she's extremely good at getting her way. While her sister is busy provoking the assassins and terrorists and keeping them distracted, she's arguing her way to freedom and sabotaging them on the way out.

Option 4: Hannah Teagan

When her younger sister, Cecelia, goes missing and all signs point to abduction by fae, Hannah promptly storms into the woods behind their house to bring her sister home. She gets more than she bargains for in the Seelie and Unseelie courts, and its up to her to find a way out of their maze and back to the world she knows.

Option 5: Cecelia Teagan

(this one's a spoiler :3)

Option 6: Min Larua (aka Miragel aka Maxk aka Visige aka Mentira)

A changeling who wants to become the Liege of Thieves. They use their various alter egos to set up a "crime ring" all reporting back to their leader Larua to make it seem like they have a stronghold on the criminal underworld in their city. They eventually recruit a real team, none of which have no idea that their rival, ally, and boss are all the same person.

Option 7: Both Tess Teagan and Weswin

(The first one's a spoiler as well.) Weswin is cursed to have a constantly shifting appearance that he can't control, meaning its impossible for him to maintain an identity or make friends. He eventually forgot his name after years of coming up with different constantly changing personas, and so he eventually settled on calling himself after the "west wind" which he follows in his wanderings.

Option 8: Sora Shiraishi

When you suppress your abilities out of fear for years, it can be terrifying when they start to forcefully manifest themselves and you don't know how to recognize them. Especially when you think you're hallucinating strange sounds and objects moving around, even though it's just the friendly spirit that your family's soul is bonded to, trying to get your attention. She only learned much later that she was experiencing a normal connection to the spirit world, and not losing her mind.

Option 9: Madelyn

Originally a very powerful mage, Madelyn lost her magic when her friend Alric betrayed and attacked her with a Relic. As she learns how to use magic from point 0 all over again, she logs her progress in her journal, and eventually learns how to cast spells from the ink and written words, binding her soul to it and becoming a Relic in her own right. It's a good thing her diary is extremely difficult to destroy as a result, but she refuses to risk losing her magic again. It wouldn't physically harm her, but she still might die of embarrassment if anyone ever read it.

Option 10: Seth

The child of high ranking dignitaries in Maaren, Seth was trained for the noble political life from the moment he learned how to talk. He resented this at first, not really knowing what he wanted to do with his life, but not wanting to be associated with his family's legacy. But after his family's power collapses and he escapes Maaren as a refugee, he realizes he's still really good at politics and rallying people behind a common cause, and uses his training as a force for good in the world.

[commiepinkofag]

How the anti-gender movement is bringing us closer to authoritarianism

Judith Butler / March 16, 2024

In the United States, gender has been considered a relatively ordinary term. We are asked to check a box on a form, and most of us do so without giving it too much thought. But some of us don’t like checking the box and think there should be either many more boxes or perhaps none at all. The myriad, continuing debates about gender show that no one approach to defining or understanding it reigns. It’s no longer a mundane box to be checked on official forms.

The anti-gender ideology movement, however, treats the range of sometimes conflicting ideas about gender as a monolith, frightening in its power and reach.

The fear of “gender” allows existing powers — states, churches, political movements — to frighten people to come back into their ranks, to accept censorship and to externalize their fear and hatred onto vulnerable communities. Those powers not only appeal to existing fears that many working people have about the future of their work or the sanctity of their family life but also incite those fears, insisting, as it were, that people conveniently identify gender as the true cause of their feelings of anxiety and trepidation about the world.

The project of restoring the world to a phantasmatic time before gender promises a return to a patriarchal dream order that only a strong state can restore. The shoring up of state powers, including the courts, implicates the anti-gender movement in a broader authoritarian, even fascist project. We see the rolling back of progressive legislation and the targeting of sexual and gender minorities as dangers to society, as exemplifying the most destructive force in the world, in order to strip them of their fundamental rights, protections and freedoms.

Consider the allegation that “gender” — whatever it is — puts children at risk through programs such as reading books with queer characters cast as examples of indoctrination or seduction. The fear of children being harmed, the fear that the family, or one’s own family, will be destroyed, that “man” will be dismantled, including the men and man that some of us are, that a new totalitarianism is descending upon us, are all fears that are felt quite deeply by those who have committed themselves to the eradication of “gender” — the word, the concept, the academic field and the various social movements it has come to signify.

The resulting authoritarian restrictions on freedom abound, whether through establishing LGBTQ+-free zones in Poland or strangling progressive educational curricula in Florida that address gender freedom and sexuality in sex education. But no matter how intently authoritarian forces attempt to restrict freedoms, the fact that the categories of women and men shift historically and contextually is undeniable. New gender formations are part of history and reality. Gender is, in reality, minimally the rubric under which we consider changes in the way that men, women and other such categories have been understood.

As an educator, I am inclined to say to these people, “Let’s read some key texts in gender studies together and see what gender does and does not mean and whether the caricature holds up.” Reading is a precondition of democratic life, keeping debate and disagreement grounded and productive.

Sadly, such a strategy rarely works.

A woman in Switzerland once came up to me after a talk I gave and said, “I pray for you.” I asked why. She explained that the Scripture says that God created man and woman and that I, through my books, had denied the Scripture. She added that male and female are natural and that nature was God’s creation. I pointed out that nature admits of complexity and that the Bible itself is open to some differing interpretations, and she scoffed. I then asked if she had read my work, and she replied, “No! I would never read such a book!” I realized that reading a book on gender would be, for her, trafficking with the devil. Her view resonates with the demand to take books on gender out of the classroom and the fear that those who read such books are contaminated by them or subject to an ideological inculcation, even though those who seek to restrict these books have typically never read them.

To refuse gender is, sadly, to refuse to encounter the complexity that one finds in contemporary life across the world. The anti-gender movement opposes thought itself as a danger to society — fertile soil for the horrid collaboration of fascist passions with authoritarian regimes.

We need to take a stand against the anti-gender movement in the name of breathing and living free from the fear of violence.

Transnational coalitions should gather and mobilize everyone the anti-gender ideology movement has targeted. The internecine fights within the field must become dynamic and productive conversations and confrontations, however difficult, within an expansive movement dedicated to equality and justice. Coalitions are never easy, but where conflicts cannot be resolved, movements can still move ahead together with an eye focused on the common sources of oppression.

Whether or not people are assigned a gender at birth or assume one in time, they can really love being the gender that they are and reject any effort to disturb that pleasure. They seek to strut and celebrate, express themselves and communicate the reality of who they are. No one should take away that joy, as long as those people do not insist that their joy is the only possible one. Importantly, however, many endure suffering, ambivalence and disorientation within existing categories, especially the one to which they were assigned at birth. They can be genderqueer or trans, or something else, and they are seeking to live life as the body that makes sense to them and lets life be livable, if not joyous. Whatever else gender means, it surely names for some a felt sense of the body, in its surfaces and depths, a lived sense of being a body in the world in this way.

As much as someone might want to clutch a single idea of what it is to be a woman or a man, the historical reality defeats that project and makes matters worse by insisting on genders that have all along exceeded the binary alternatives. How we live that complexity, and how we let others live, thus becomes of paramount importance.

There is still much to be understood about gender as a structural problem in society, as an identity, as a field of study, as an enigmatic and highly invested term that circulates in ways that inspire some and terrify others. We have to keep thinking about what we mean by it and what others mean when they find themselves up in arms about the term.

Judith Butler is a professor of comparative literature at UC Berkeley. This essay was adapted from their forthcoming book “Who’s Afraid of Gender?”

[1overbaby]

Edward Art, “NEVER BAR SELF” notes.

Never bar the inner man. Yourself is the inner man. Internal freedom is key, it is what you have been seeking this whole time. Things that you once thought were myths, they were not, and never are. They all exist within you. You just have to start imagining those things, and then believing/knowing/feeling you have it.

Ask yourself if you are worthy of something, never ask the external, and remember the answer always will be yes.

Never bar yourself in your imagination. Don’t restrict yourself. Don’t keep placing limits on yourself. Do not wait for things to change before you can fully have something. Do not think your desires are conditioned upon something, upon having achieved something first.

Do it now. Have it now. Do not wait until tomorrow to imagine something, have it NOW. Imagine BEING it - that is what you persist in.

When you bar yourself, it means you are not occupying the states you want to have. You keep trying, instead. You are not persisting in BEING it. BEING it is thinking FROM it. Barring is thinking OF it.

Free yourself from the inside. Trust that plan. Trust that it will unfold.

Move with your own faith, and your own trust.

Nothing is off limits in the inner man, the imagination. There is truly never no ‘no’s’ - ever. There is always yeses.

You have the power to settle in and accept a new state. You do not need to keep visiting, you can live there, stay there. Appropriate it - TAKE IT WITHOUT PERMISSION. Live by this.

Waiting to achieve something before allowing yourself to go the whole way literally is going against the whole point of loa, about self-fulfilment. Why wait?

All denial is self-denial.

To not bar self is to attain pure peace, and freedom.

This is not about how to manifest, this is about changing things inside, to learn how to believe.

RADICALLY change your mind. Everything comes from within.

Never say no to yourself. You can question if you really want it, but whatever you conclude on - you will not say no to myself. You trust the yes you give to myself entirely, and begin to feel more at one with your inner self. The outer man truly is a shadow.

Always start with self. There is no other way. So do not ever bar yourself. Find your freedom within. Never feel ashamed about it. You grant it.

The saviour you are seeking has always been within you.

You are not called to figure out when or how, you ought to believe you have it. That is all. It will follow. You do not try and figure out if you are worthy of it, or think if something bad must first happen before it comes into being - YOU JUST HAVE IT. That is all you ought to believe. You have it.

You have these mental spaces within you. None of them are off limits. Accept this, do not question it. Then, you will see that all has already been said yes to within. If it has been conceived in the mind, then it is said yes to. Creation is finished.

It is acceptance that the wish has been granted.

You have the POWER to deny your senses and assume something new about you, and that change within you, if sustained, it will come into being. THIS IS A POWER.

You will be given back the energy you once thought you lost once you accept this power. [My own note - i truly truly believe this, and see this. All my power i felt i lost, i found it within. It always was within me. There is no such thing as loss, and it freed me.]

Imagine being the new state and never bar yourself. Do not question anything, you are not called to do this. You are called to believe you have it. There is sooo much freedom in this <3

Try to prove it to yourself, before you bring up theories and questions. Just try and prove it first, to oneself, before you question it. Occupy something new within self. Nothing external. Sustain that newness, whatever it is, and if the world starts to reflect that - then you found the key. THE KEY, you will find, IS SELF. Self is the key to all the doors, and mental spaces, to all the doors you ever wanted.

You are really there. You are already there. The reality of me already is it. Imagination is my reality. I accept it. I accept it without judgment. I am already it, without judgement. Just accept it.

Questions? Logic? Just accept it. Accept that you already are. Allow that to be the change from within. Do not go back to the organs, and say you do not see it. Focus on your inner eyes, that you really see it and have it. Go within, then open your eyes, and see that you already are it.