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one-flower-one-sword · 1 year ago

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Jun Wu using living humans as a blood sacrifice to triumph over Mount Tonglu:

"Days passed, and the eruption continued. The entire kingdom of Wuyong was mired in terror, unable to escape. No one knew how to make it stop, how to escape this nightmare. But one day, His Highness told us that he had found a way to calm the volcano. When he told us how, we had a huge fight."

"Let me guess," Hua Cheng said. "The 'how' was human sacrifice."

"Correct," the state preceptor replied. "His Highness said that we could use a group of wicked degenerates as a sacrifice - we could throw them into the Kiln to pacify its furious flames. The four of us each had different opinions on the matter, but the consensus was opposition - we could never do anything of the sort. In the beginning, His Highness didn't want Wuyong to invade other kingdoms precisely because he didn't want to use a life to save a life. How would sacrificing lives to the Kiln be any different? It'd be even worse, in fact."

[...] "As it turned out, the other three had still been worried even after they left, so they returned in secret to speak to His Highness. But when they found him, he was herding a crowd of people toward the volcano's peak. That was when they found out that His Highness had never abandoned the idea of living sacrifices. Seized by shock and rage, they attempted to stop him and began to fight with him. Yet unexpectedly, he savagely killed them and threw them into the Kiln along with the rest!"

TGCF Volume 7, page 209-210 + 214

versus Hua Cheng refusing to use living humans as a blood sacrifice and sacrificing his own eye - half his vision - instead:

"The only things that live inside Mount Tonglu's domain are nefarious creatures. Ordinary people have no way to break out of the domain; their certain fate is to become nourishment for the rest. But the wrath ghost, in his confused state, took the large group of living humans under his wing and fled for many days - for what reason, I can't say. They were eventually cornered and surrounded by nefarious creatures, and the wrath ghost was about to be eaten along with the humans."

Xie Lian knew that the solitary, wandering ghost must have been Hua Cheng!

"And then?" he pushed. "Was there a way to flee to safety?"

"Yes," the state preceptor replied. "He could escape by forging a blood weapon and killing his way out."

Mu Qing couldn't help chiming in. "Then wouldn't the easiest sacrifice be...?"

It would be the group of humans that had fallen into such a hopeless situation!

[...] "The wrath ghost almost made a move against the humans as well, but for some reason, he didn't go through with it," the state preceptor continued. "He instead used one of his own eyes as the price to forge a blood weapon. The wrath ghost was already clinging to existence with his last breath; after digging out his eye, he should've broken apart completely. But something had shocked him to action, and he instead fully regained his senses. I don't know what kind of wicked weapon he forged, but it somehow carried him through that battle."

TGCF Volume 8, page 76-77

I was thinking about Hua Cheng at Mount Tonglu and it occurred to me how stark the contrasts between his choices and the consequences thereof are to those of Jun Wu.

Choosing to sacrifice humans - in particular humans he considered lesser or deserving of punishment - leads to the Kiln recognizing Jun Wu as its master and also to him becoming cursed with human face disease:

"The ordinary citizens were of course burned to dust and ash as soon as they were thrown in. But the three of them were cultivators, and they had been murdered by His Highness - their resentment and attachment to the world was deeply profound. Their souls took his body as their host and grew as lesions on his body, venting their rage and berating him constantly in the hope of stopping him from pursuing his terrible endeavors."

[...] "The former kingdom of Wuyong had become hell, and the Kiln had been glutted with countless living souls and the souls of three former heavenly officials - it now recognized him as its master."

TGCF Volume 7, page 214 + 226

Meanwhile, Hua Cheng refusing to use human sacrifice leads to him not only gaining a weapon to defend himself and those very humans with, the heavens recognize him as worthy of ascension due to this:

"After that battle, the heavens sent forth a Heavenly Tribulation and lightning struck straight into Mount Tonglu," the state preceptor said. "Do you understand what that means?"

Was there any need to explain? If a Heavenly Tribulation had been sent forth, it meant the heavens believed there was someone worthy of ascension within Mount Tonglu.

TGCF Volume 8, page 77

Hua Cheng chose to rather sacrifice a part of himself than other people's lives - and while yes, he never did like his right eye and suffered immense abuse because of it, he was risking to dissipate completely by gouging it out, and also, the consequences of that action didn't end there. He is, from then on, blind on that side, and as we've established in my previous post, that is something he has to make up for in other ways and that others can take advantage of.

Hua Cheng’s choices at Mount Tonglu make him worthy of ascension, Jun Wu's leave him cursed and mark his descent from the Crown Prince of Wuyong to becoming Bai Wuxiang. One rises up, one falls down further. While sacrificing part of himself, Hua Cheng fully regains his senses. Jun Wu, in planning to sacrifice others, loses himself:

"And yet in the heat of the moment, blows were exchanged, and one of us even accused His Highness of no longer being the Highness of the past - that he'd changed, that he'd forgotten his heart."

TGCF Volume 7, page 210

Since the text is quite clear on the fact that Jun Wu knows Hua Cheng is Wu Ming, and, as its master, is very aware of what happens at Mount Tonglu, it's very likely that he knew about this incident. And also that it felt like a very personal slap in the face to him, which explains his very pointed hypocrisy when he warns Xie Lian about Eming:

"Be especially careful of that wicked blade of his," Jun Wu added.

"What do you mean?" Xie Lian asked.

"The scimitar Eming is a cursed blade, a blade of misfortune. To forge such an evil weapon would require terrifyingly cruel sacrifice and bloody determination."

TGCF Volume 2, page 37

'Terrifyingly cruel sacrifice', huh? Like for example throwing people inside a live volcano?

"Oh? Has gege heard of my scimitar too?"

"I've heard some rumors," Xie Lian replied.

Hua Cheng snickered. "I bet they weren't nice rumors. Did someone tell you that my scimitar was forged by an evil, bloody ritual? That I sacrificed living humans?"

TGCF Volume 2, page 120

Huh, wonder who started those rumors >.>

Jun Wu's palpable saltiness and bitterness about all this is probably only exacerbated by the fact that, despite fearing Hua Cheng, there are many who worship him:

There were also many reasons for the gods to fear Hua Cheng. For example, his behavior was unpredictable: sometimes he would carry out a massacre in cold blood, and sometimes he would do odd acts of kindness. He also wielded a great deal of influence in the Mortal Realm and had legions of followers. That's right. Mortals worshipped gods to ask for blessings and protection so they could escape the evils of the Ghost Realm, and that was how the gods came to gain so many followers. Yet Hua Cheng, a ghost, had such a large following on earth that he could influence the world single-handedly.

TGCF Volume 1, page 157

Even other gods, while they do fear him, also start to develop a sort of admiration and respect for Hua Cheng (Vol 1, page 160).

Meanwhile Jun Wu:

"Currently, he is the most exalted martial god of the Heavenly Realm," the state preceptor continued. "He looks glorious and scintillating on the surface, but an infinite darkness is suppressed deep within his heart. Resentment, pain, anger, hatred... he must release those poisonous emotions to maintain his internal balance, lest he go berserk and slaughter everyone around him. That is the only way he is able to uphold his position as the ruler of all three realms. [...] He regularly releases his dark emotions into the Kiln, using the millions of Wuyong souls within as kindling to stoke the flames of hell and forge many malicious things."

TGCF Volume 7, page 226

Despite his widely known nature as a ghost king born of Mount Tonglu, Hua Cheng has a huge amount of worshippers. Jun Wu, to keep being worshipped as someone he is not, has to hide his own connection to Mount Tonglu and his true nature - figuratively inside of himself and literally inside of Mount Tonglu.

#tgcf #rereading tgcf #jun wu #hua cheng

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darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght · 5 months ago

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Chapter 32- Part 1

So as I alluded to last time, the first thing I wanna do is switch my team around somewhat. I wanna bring Kirin back in, but considering who to swap out…hm. I think…

Yeah, this should work, swapping Prong out for the time being. If we're traveling to a volcano, it's probably not a good idea to bring a Pokémon whose only two weaknesses are Fire and Rock.

Oh also, don’t worry about that item Glare has, it’s just a Pure Incense I keep forgetting to take off of her.

So now, let's actually get to Pyrous Mountain and get this started.

Oh, resistance already? We're really not wasting any time here, okay.

Not even a battle? That's a new one, not sure how that's gonna work out.

Oh no, this guy's discovered he's an impassable NPC sprite in an RPG! He knows no one can walk around or through him, he's become too powerful!

Oh, nevermind, brute force via event programming works just as well.

Oh right, Cal's at Pyrous Mountain too- I kinda forgot about that. I swear, if he ended up getting captured and Xera has to save him too…

So I guess this guy's just stuck there, huh? …Am I the only one that thought Incineroar was gonna throw him off the whole cliff and kill him, or-

Ah well, let's see the inside, finally.

The action's already ramping up- but given the time-sensitive nature of this PULSE, I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, you guys stole the volcano first! We're just stealing it back- so really, who's actually at fault here?

Another brand new Field…it's different from that flaming one we've seen before. This one seems to be more related to…heat.

Well, regardless, I can have Riptide deal with both of these, so I'll switch to him.

Well, that's annoying- good thing Gabite’s already nearly dead.

Well, with Reflect up, Ice Fang won't do much I'm guessing. So, let's try hitting Noctowl with Water Pledge instead.

Ah-? Okay, so not only does this Field weaken Water-type attacks, but it also causes Water moves to create…steam? Which lowers everyone's Accuracy? That's…okay, well, Gabite is still dying.

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magmahearts · 7 months ago

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TIMING: current. PARTIES: @honeysmokedham & @magmahearts LOCATION: the magmacave. SUMMARY: after stumbling on the aftermath of an eruption, nora runs to warn cass that makaio isn't what he seems. CONTENT: implications of emotional manipulation, hints of suicidal ideation.

The mimicry of normalcy was the weirdest part of moving on. It was a grasp at old activities in hopes that old joy would seep through the cracks and fill the hole inside her. They didn’t, but each day it was getting a little easier to venture outside the zones she’d been haunting this past month. Most days these excursions were facilitated by Babadook. He’d turned into a guard dog in his own right, protecting her from herself more than from the world around them. Every trip would include a route that passed them near to some event where the humans of the town were afraid. The proximity to the fear forced Nora to ingest it, despite her distaste for it. Babadook really was a good boy.

Today the trip was a winding path that led them to an abnormality viewing station. Nora had viewed the abnormality. It was a cursed rock in Wicked’s Rest. A rock she’d seen eat people. She’d viewed this rock enough that she was ready to turn around the moment she realized where they were going, but that wasn’t why Babadook had led them there. Activity swarmed around the station like ants that had just discovered something tasty to bring back to their queen. These ants were boys in blue, a distinction Babadook probably never had to make when looking at people. “We don’t fuck with cops,” Nora whispered down to her dog. Babadook gave a mournful howl. Nora was about to turn to leave but a phrase caught her attention. “Like a volcano erupted.” Nora paused, a flutter of worry started to build in her chest. There was only one volcano she knew of, and it was her bright and shining friend. Well, that wasn’t true anymore, was it? Wynne had spread word that Cass’s father was in town, and while Nora had never seen the man, wouldn’t them both being volcanoes make sense?

The outing changed from a walk to a mission. Thirty minutes, two stealth missions and one failed illusion later Nora had enough information. The abnormality had not sprouted a volcano, as the pigs feared. Nora knew the exact source, and it wasn’t her brilliant superhero friend who shone the brightest in the world. It couldn’t be, because she was a hero, always wanting to save everyone around her. However, this was going to devastate her, but wasn’t it a rite of passage for all children to learn their fathers were just shit men? Nora was tired of rites. Tired of the way they left people shattered, and the pieces were pushed under the rug with a swift ‘it is what it is.’

“Cass!” Nora was out of breath, a sharp knife stabbed her side with each breath. Babadook dropped at the entrance of the cave, panting. The pair had run as fast as they could, no breaks, to the cave. She’d been careful to sniff the air and check the scent. It was just Cass. The scent of the murdering volcano man lingered, but it wasn’t present. Now was a good time. “Cass, we need to talk.” No hesitation this time, she burst deeper into the cave. There was no time to second guess, no time to consider the mean things Cass had said lately, the push she’d made away from her friends. Cass needed help, and this time Nora would be there. “Cass I need to tell you something, and I know it’s hard to hear, but I am begging you to listen. I’m begging you to please hear me, and know that I’m not lying because I wouldn’t lie about this.” Were those the right words? The right sequence that would push past the issues between them and lock them in the zone of trust they once shared? “Your dad killed someone. I saw the body. The police described it as a volcano going off. But,” Nora shrugged, a gesture to fill in the blanks. There are no volcanoes about the two of you. “Cass, I don’t think your dad is a good person.”

—

In her mind, screams still echoed. She heard them in the silence, in the empty space that existed between one heartbeat and the next. It was as if that man had never stopped screaming, as if his skin was still melting in her grip. Makaio had been there for her, just as he had after the hunter. He’d sat beside her in the quiet of the cave, close enough for her to feel his heat but not so close that it was stifling. And Cass ached more now than she had then, couldn’t shake the image of the dead man laying in the dirt and the way he hadn’t looked much like a man at all, in the end, but she liked that her father was still there.

He’d offered a few words of comfort in the quiet, the only thing louder than those screams in her mind. He told her the same thing he had at the viewing station, when the smell of burning flesh was so overwhelming that she was sick with it. He repeated it over and over again: that her friends would no longer accept her, that it didn’t matter, that he loved her no matter what. He didn’t tell her she’d done a terrible thing. He didn’t chastise her for moving without thinking, didn’t point out how irredeemable it was to kill a man after disarming him, didn’t shake his head at the way he’d been harmless long before Cass made sure he took his final breath.

There was a man, and he was dead now. There was a man, and Cass had killed him. And the only thing that made any of that anything even mildly resembling okay was the fact that her father was sitting beside her in her cave, a quiet and steady force. The only thing that kept air traveling into her lungs were his reassurances that, even though no one else would, he loved her all the same.

He’d stepped out a few moments ago with a quiet promise to return soon with food. She hadn’t eaten since it happened, though she didn’t think it had happened very long ago. It was difficult to know for sure; time felt slippery, that constant screaming in her mind drowning out the ticking of any proverbial clock. She didn’t really know how long Makaio had been gone. She didn’t really know if she ached because the spot beside her was temporarily empty or if the ache was just a part of her now, if it was just the way things would be from now on.

A voice broke through the quiet, barely rising above the screams. It wasn’t Makaio, and Cass felt her brow furrow. She looked up as the owner of the voice entered. Nora, breathless and tentative. Cass couldn’t decide if she was happy to see her or if she wanted her to go. Her mind kept returning to Nora’s posts in Ireland, of how much she seemed to love a place she’d run to without even bothering to tell Cass she was going. It felt too much like New York, like the empty apartment she’d waited in for so long that she suffocated on its vacancy.

Why are you here, she wanted to ask, but the screaming was too loud. She couldn’t quite raise her voice enough to be heard over it, and she didn’t particularly want to try. So she met Nora with a blank stare, rocky brow as furrowed as it was capable of being.

Nora needed to tell her something. Nora needed her to listen. Wasn’t that rich? Would Nora have listened if Cass had asked her not to go to Ireland, if she’d joined the chorus of voices begging her to return home? Bitterness flared in her chest, a distant thing. She wished it were louder. She was tired of the screaming.

Still, Nora seemed desperate and, in spite of everything, Cass loved her enough to push through the screams and listen. Whatever Nora wanted to say seemed important, seemed pressing, seemed —

Oh.

The words seemed to bounce between them. Your dad killed someone, a blade sinking down into her flesh. And then, the inevitable followup that gripped her by the throat: I don’t think your dad is a good person.

Did the two go hand-in-hand? Was one a direct result of the other? Your dad killed someone. No he hadn’t. It was Cass who wrapped magmic hands around tender flesh, Cass who erupted like a volcano with only one target in mind. I don’t think your dad is a good person. Why? Because of the corpse? If Nora thought Makaio was bad because she thought he had killed that security guard, then — then did it matter who had actually done it? The perpetrator wasn’t a good person. Wasn’t that what Nora was saying?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped, loud so that she could hear herself over that screaming in her mind. “You don’t — It doesn’t make someone a bad person. Just because — It doesn’t. If — If he did that, it still wouldn’t make him bad.”

—

The run had left Nora buzzing. Her legs itched, her breath caught, her side stung. But she had known without any doubt that the moment she was standing in front of Cass everything would be okay. When they finally talked in person, everything would magically repair. Their bond of friendship would envelope them. They would be able to talk again. They would be back in New York, two kids alone in the world together, playing pretend. That had been a driving thought. That had pushed back the insecurity of their online conversations, and driven her forward. Cass deserved the truth. She deserved so much more than the truth, but the truth was what Nora could give her.

The world had shattered into glass the day Delcan died, and since that day glass hadn’t stopped falling around her. It was rain pouring over her at all the time. Somedays, it was light, the glass bouncing off her skin and falling into piles of light around her. Today, as Cass snapped at her, it was sharp. The pieces digging themselves into her skin, the piles of light covered by her blood. The pair were standing in a field of sharp edges, there was a canyon between them, and Nora had done nothing but help the glass from cutting it there. “Oh.” It was breathless. It was useless. It was all she had to respond with.

Cass was right, of course, Nora didn’t know what she was talking about. Nora wasn’t there, she hadn’t seen the incident that resulted in a charcoaled body. “I don’t-” Nora let out a frustrated sigh. There were feelings inside of her, and they told her things, they made her feel ways, and they needed to be communicated, but those feelings died in her throat, they hid from the dictionary, and most of all, they ran from her vocal cords. “It doesn’t make someone bad to kill.” It made her bad. It tainted her. It covered her in blood. She would spend the rest of her life mourning. But there had been other people she’d forgiven. “I think. But it does, because it’s him.”

Nora was a bad daughter. That was an undisputed fact. The sky is blue. Water makes you wet. Eleanor Pine is a bad daughter. She’d been a bad daughter from the moment they’d chosen to adopt her. She hadn’t fit into the model they created, and no matter how much they hammered her, she couldn’t take the space they wanted her to fill. The old nursery rhyme was step on a crack and break your mothers back, but she had misheard. Run away and don’t come back to break your fathers’ hearts. But she knew the longing to want to be loved. To be told you’re enough. To change every aspect of your being because they ask. But how was she supposed to tell Cass that when she didn’t know the words that would tell her?

“Wynne told me about your dad.” They had been direct, that Cass’s dad had been manipulating her, and Nora believed Wynne because Wynne was right and someone that should be listened to. “It’s not killing someone.That makes him bad. I think. Because you’re right, I don’t know what I’m talking about.” Blood covering her. The line across her throat. Nora swallowed, forcing back the memories. This wasn’t about her. Cass needed her. It was the least she could do to be present for this conversation. “Because sometimes people kill and it’s not what they wanted to do. I mean, we were both there for Debbie. You know? And I get it. But it’s more than just killing someone.” Nora had never known she’d one day be ingrained in a world where she’d be the one saying ‘well I can excuse killing.’ Muchless a world where she was the one doing the killing. Yet here she was.

“It’s -” Nora sighed, looking around the cave, grasping at words and straws that kept rolling away from her. “Wynne said your dad is manipulating you. They wouldn’t lie. I think that’s what makes him bad. And now someone is dead.” It sounded lame. Nora knew it sounded lame and it frustrated her more. “Wynne only wants to help. I just want to help. How can I help?”

—

Because it’s him, Nora said. Killing didn’t make a person bad unless the person was Cass’s father, who loved her and supported her and was there for her when no one else wanted to be. Where had Nora been when Cass was aching these last few months? Where had she been when Cass nearly killed that hunter, when her hands burned through his flesh and would have burned further if Ariadne hadn’t told her to stop? It was fine that Nora had her own things going on. It was fine that she’d run away to Ireland without giving Cass a head’s up, it was fine that she’d disappeared again after returning. It was fine that she left Cass all alone in a stranger’s apartment in New York. It was fine, because how could Cass expect anything more from her? How could she expect Nora to stay for her? It was fine, because this was all it was ever going to be. Cass was the sort of person who was left and Nora was the sort of person who did the leaving. Hadn’t this story been written in stone long ago?

What was less fine was this… this blind judgment of someone who hadn’t left her. Because hadn’t Makaio been here when Nora wasn’t? Hadn’t he sat beside Cass in her cave as she read public post after public post of Nora arguing with anyone who asked her to come home? Hadn’t he comforted her through the realization that there must have been even more arguing going on in private, that Nora had probably already decided to stay gone? Hadn’t he been the one to hold her in her cave when her hand still shook with the memory of that hunter’s skin bubbling beneath them and Aria’s voice telling her no? Nora could leave, because Nora would always leave. But what right did she have to try to turn Cass against the one person who would always stay? She had no idea who Makaio was. Neither did Wynne. Neither of them had seen the way he made her feel safe. If his grip was too tight sometimes, wasn’t it just because he’d lost enough to know what it felt like to have someone slip through your fingers? If his voice was hard, wasn’t it only because his world was made of stone? Nora didn’t understand, so who was she to barge in here and act as though she did?

“Wynne doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” she said, voice sharp like a knife. “I mean, god, Wynne grew up in a cult. They probably think everyone’s parents are, like, cult leaders or whatever! And — And you don’t know what you’re talking about, either! You’ve never even met him, because you weren’t here! You left. And that sucked, Nora, that really fucking sucked.” You left, and I was a kid in New York again. I was sitting in an empty apartment, I was waiting for you to come home. You left, and all I could think was that I must have done something wrong. You left, and everyone leaves, so doesn’t that mean it’s me? You left, and he stayed. There was so much she wanted to say, but her throat was tight and her voice couldn’t quite make it through its claustrophobic tunnel.

In a lot of ways, she preferred the anger that was burning through her chest now. It was heavy, it felt clunky and awkward and didn’t fit her as well as she thought it would, but at least it was better than the strange emptiness left by that security guard’s death. She’d rather cling to the rage she felt in the moment her hands met his skin than the grief that took its place when she removed them.

She let it burn through her, let it clear the barrier that trapped her voice in her chest and drag it up to meet her tongue. “I have something good in my life. Someone who loves me, who won’t leave. And — And none of you want me to keep it, and I don’t understand why. You’re all here, all — making up stories! He’s manipulative, or he’s a murderer, or he’s bad. But he’s not! He’s not any of those things, Nora! He’s my dad, and he loves me! I don’t need your help! And thank god for that, because when have you ever done anything besides walk away?”

Her veins burned brighter, eyes glowing a deep red as her voice rose and echoed off the walls of the cave. This, Cass thought, was who she was supposed to be. Not the scared little girl in the New York apartment waiting for someone who would never return. Not the grieving ache that held a stranger until he was ash and bone and hated herself afterwards. Volcanoes didn’t need to apologize for their eruptions, didn’t need to feel bad for them. Killing didn’t make someone bad, Nora said, but it would if it were Makaio. And if Cass and her father were the same, didn’t that mean it would if it were her, too? Wasn’t there some relief in accepting yourself as the villain?

—

The galaxy was round, it circled around the sun. A slowly turning mass of planets and other space shit. The universe was round and it circled around Nora, one huge cosmic joke. Nora Pine. Born on April 1st. The fool. The laughing stock. The butt of some joke written in the stars. The divine comedy staged in real time. After being the headstrong girl, yelling at everyone for not believing her, for refusing to listen to those in her life who just wanted to help, she was now standing on the other side of the sound proof glass. She was banging against the glass, but Cass couldn’t hear her. Cass was a world away, begging everyone to hear what she found obvious. I hear you, I do, I really do, Nora was shouting behind that sound proof glass. She could see her own face transposed over the rocky features she loved so much it hurt. Because Nora knew how this story ended. It ended in burning a body next to a weeping waterfall. It ended in wondering why she couldn’t have listened when she had the chance.

No one had given up on Nora, despite the inevitability of her story. Nora would never give up on Cass. That was love. That was all she had to give.

“That’s unkind.” That was what Nora wanted to say, about Wynne, about their parents, about their attempt to help. There was no room for kindness in a struggle to be heard, accepted and understood. There was only desperate pleading, and the feeling of being all alone in a world that didn’t understand you. “Wynne didn’t choose where they grew up.” Nora said insead. “But they did their best with what they had. They saw through the lies they were told and chose themselves, and now they want to help. You. Me. Anyone they can, because they are kind like that. Because they don’t think everyone’s parents are cult leaders.”

Nora took a deep breath, fingers gripping the hem of her sleeves. “I did leave.” Ireland was a sore spot. It would be an open wound until the day she died. Declan would still be alive if she hadn’t left, but she couldn’t say she regretted leaving, because she could never regret meeting him. The red string of fate was always going to lead her to him, but if she had waited, if she had gone at a better time, would he still be alive? It was all very complicated, and the complications made it round. An internal argument that circled around and around in her. It invaded her so deeply it had become a part of her DNA, it whispered to her while she slept, and it wrapped its hands around her and drowned her. But Cass didn’t know that.

They hadn’t spoken since Nora had come back, except for Cass to tell Nora that she was a bad friend and that Cass deserved better, and that Nora should leave since leaving was all she was good at. “I had to go.” Her tongue felt heavy and her mouth was dry. “But I came back, Cass. I’m standing right here in front of you. I came back home because this is home. Sometimes people leave, but Cass that doesn’t mean they won’t come back.” Was this a lie? Hadn’t she been willing to stay? This wasn’t about her. Those thoughts could shut up.

“You deserve someone in your life that loves you. You have people in your life that love you and won’t leave. You have Wynne, you have Ariadne, and you have Van. You have so many people that are messaging each other to try and figure out why you won’t talk to them, because they care and they miss you. Sometimes dads don’t want you to be someone you’re not.” Didn’t Nora know that. Hadn’t she had two dads that had tried their best to mold her into something she wasn’t. “I know what a good dad looks like. And a good dad wouldn’t keep you isolated in your cave, and tell you that all your friends are bad for you, and keep you from living your life. A good dad would help you, and offer advice, but also know that you’re alive and being alive means making mistakes. He’d be a safe place to come back to. Forgive you, and help you. Not change you. Not ask you to be someone different.”

Cass’s eyes glowed red, she seemed to be brighter, and bigger. She was still the same beautiful Cass, but instead of soft flowing edges, they had redefined themselves into something sharp and unforgiving. A stone that had been sharpened on the edges of rough situations. “We’re glad you have a dad who loves you. You deserve to have a dad who loves you. But Cass, why did this dad who loves you and would never leave you come with a Cass that no longer sees her friends and doesn’t want to hang out with them, and doesn’t want to have fun anymore? What does that mean, Cass?”

—

“I don’t need their help!” Her voice was louder than she meant for it to be, but it was a necessary thing. Didn’t she have to scream, just a little, if she ever wanted to be heard? No one listened to her otherwise. She could talk and talk and talk, but no one ever really listened. No one made her feel heard the way Makaio did, with his patient nods and his quiet understanding. People like Nora, like Wynne, they only listened when it suited them. They listened when Cass was meek and small and easy to swallow. They didn’t listen now. Nora wasn’t listening now.

She had to go, she said, and wasn’t that an excuse Cass had heard a thousand times before? Didn’t everyone claim that they left because they had to? Alex had to go. Metzli had to go. Wynne had to go. The aos si in Hawai’i claimed necessity as they expelled her into a world she didn’t understand, the people she’d sought comfort with when living on the streets left because they swore some outside force dictated it. What did any of it mean to Cass? If everyone who left her had to do it, did that mean she just had to be alone?

No. No, it didn’t. She knew it didn’t now. Because while Nora and Metzli and Alex and everyone else might claim that they left because they had to, Makaio stayed on purpose. He saw the things Cass was, saw the things she did, and none of it made him feel as though he had to walk away. He held her when she was afraid, he comforted her when she was sad, and he chose to. He took ownership over it. He didn’t stay because he had to; he stayed because he wanted to. He loved her, and he loved her on purpose. And wasn’t there strength in that? Didn’t it say more about someone when they did something not because they had to do it, but because they wanted to? Didn’t admitting that carry so much more weight?

“You came back,” she repeated flatly. “Great. You came back last time, too. And then you left. Again. So — So what good is it, Nora? What good is coming back just so you can leave again? How long until you have to go somewhere else? God, this is — You have to know that this is all bullshit! You’re making shit up, just like Wynne was! All of you say one thing, and then when it’s not true, you just come up with something else! Why are you so desperate to take this away from me?” Weren’t friends supposed to want you to be happy? Why couldn’t hers accept that she was now? Makaio had been right to point out that none of them really understood her, to warn that they’d understand her even less when the truth about the security guard came out.

Nora was going on, reassuring her that her friends loved her, too. But how long would that last? How much would they be able to defend her when the truth came out? “I do have someone who loves me and won’t leave. He won’t run off to Ireland and argue with anyone who tells him to come home, he won’t get old and die and leave me alone or — or apologize to people who try to kill him. He does help me. And he gives me advice, and he cares about me. You — What do you know, Nora? You left your dads. And now, what, you want me to do the same to mine? You have no idea what this means to me! What it means for me to — to have a dad who actually wants me.”

But Nora was still going. She was still trying to poke holes in a boat that Cass wanted so badly to remain afloat, still trying to coax Cass onto a different life raft to leave Makaio to drown alone on this one. She didn’t understand; how could she? She thought Makaio was bad and wrong and she didn’t understand. Anger and frustration bubbled like the lava beneath her skin, and she let out a harsh, bitter laugh. “I don’t need you to come here spouting bullshit because you’re mad I don’t want to watch movies with you anymore. You said — You said he wasn’t a good person. Because you think he killed that guy, right? But he didn’t. He didn’t do anything. I’m the one who did it, Nora. So I guess that makes me the bad person.”

It slipped out without her really meaning for it to. She’d had no intention of confessing, but the anger and frustration forced the words through her clenched teeth all the same. She wanted, desperately, to reach out and pluck them out of the air, to shove them back down her throat and trap them in her ribcage. But it was too late for that now. The truth hung between them like a noose, and it was all Cass could do not to strangle herself on it.

“You should go,” she said flatly. “I don’t want you here.”

—

I don’t need their help! Cass’s voice was an eruption. Lava dripped from her words, flecks of fire falling around them, burning Nora. The ground sizzled between them. Had the ground turned molten between them before? While sitting in the diner, talking one on one for the first time since New York? Nora tried her best to remember it. The flickering diner light. The waitress smiling. The world still around them, as Nora’s one constant anchor weighed on her. What was she supposed to say to make up for leaving? The words weren’t easier to find, the leaving had never stopped. Nora knew she deserved these burns. She would wrap herself in aloe vera and cry later, because that was who she was now, someone who cried. But right now she would stand tall and take the burns. If Cass had changed her reaction, it was because the world had changed her, and Nora had done her part to inadvertently help isolate her friend into this situation.

Nora listened as Cass went on. As Cass scolded her. There was nothing she could say in her defense, but she could stand up for Wynne, who had been nothing but a saint. “Wynne isn’t making shit up. We don’t want to take this away from you. We just don’t want him to take you away from you. If you don’t want to be our friend, fine, but why Cass? If it hadn’t been for him, would you have come to this decision? Is this what you want? Because if this is what you want, then I’ll support you.” I see you. I see you. Nora was practically screaming on the inside. Nora was banging on the glass between them, trying to show Cass the scar on her arm, and her broken heart. “I know what it’s like to want something so badly you ignore everyone else Cass, and I know what it’s like to not listen to everyone trying to help, because you finally see what life could be, who you could be, and you want it so bad that ignoring everyone looks like a small price to place.” A tear had slid out, unwelcomed, unwanted. Nora turned away to wipe it. She didn’t want to cry. This wasn’t about her, she didn’t want to make it about her, she couldn’t cry.

The lava was back, burning deeper into Nora. Cass was right. She had left her dads. She had left her dads like she’d left Cass, like she had been willing to leave all of Wicked’s Rest. “Okay.” Because what else was there to say? Cass was right. “But I do know. I know what it’s like to have someone who wants you. Who cares about you. Who is always there, and one of those people was you and I’m sorry if I wasn’t good at showing it, or being there for you, but Cass I’m begging you to think of everyone else who is. Hasn’t Ariadne always been there? What about Van and Wynne? And you’re sitting here saying mean things about them. I just want you to think about them, and why they aren’t good enough for you anymore. I don’t know, Cass. I just know no one is perfect, and no one is ever going to always be there. One day something will come up, and he’ll have to go somewhere, even if for a bit, and then he’ll be gone like everyone else, and you’ll have thrown all your friends away for him.”

“I’m not mad you don’t want to watch movies with me, Cass. I’m sad. I miss you. I miss my friend. I mis-” But Cass had admitted something. That she had killed the man. And Nora had come in here sprouting words that hadn’t been helpful, that hadn’t supported her, when she must have been spiraling because she killed people. “Cass.” It was a plea, an apology and an explanation all in one, but those were unspoken, because no words could ever fix what had happened. “You’re not a bad person. I’m sure you had your reasons. I’m sorry you had to. I’m sorry I said what I said.” I killed someone too. Debbie. Declan. Nora wanted to tell her. Nora wanted to sit down with her and tell her everything, to let her know she wasn’t alone in this world. And even if she had killed a man out of bad, it wasn’t unforgivable. Not to Nora. Because she had killed the love of her life, and sometimes life hurts like that. Nora knew Cass’s heart, and rampant murderer without remorse wasn’t it. She wished Cass would talk to her. She wished she could talk to Cass, but the promise wove around her lips and kept her from speaking. “You’re not alone. If you need me. I’m in town. You’re not alone. You had your reasons. I know you did. When you’re ready to talk to me again, I’ll listen. Or anyone will listen. No one who knows you would ever believe you’re bad, Cass. Never.”

But Cass wanted her gone, and this was Cass’s home, and there were words Nora couldn’t say, and she was only making everything worse. So Nora did what she always did, the only thing she was good at, she left. The shadow wrapped around her, twisting its fingers in her hair and smiling. “It should have been you.” It reminded her. “You can’t do anything right.”

—

Maybe, if Cass hadn’t already made up her mind — or if her mind hadn’t been made up for her, by a hand that gripped her too tight and a voice that reminded her time and time again how temporary everyone was — the things Nora was saying would have chipped away at the stone around her heart. If she weren’t trying to listen to her friend’s quiet words over the never-ending sound of the screaming security guard who she’d burned away into nothing, or if Nora hadn’t come her so sure that Makaio had killed the man and was bad for doing so, things might have been different. If Metzli, Wynne, Nora, and Regan hadn’t all disappeared to Ireland at the same time, if Nora hadn’t left her in that apartment those years ago, if Alex had stayed…

If, if, if. It was a stupid word. It never amounted to anything worth keeping.

Cass didn’t live in a world where her mind had the luxury of changing once someone else had made it up. This wasn’t the universe where that guard’s screams were silent, or where Nora came with a different approach. In this world, everyone went to Ireland, and Nora left her alone and aching in someone else’s apartment, waiting for someone who would never return. In this reality, Ireland swallowed up a month of her friends’ lives and left her alone with a stranger to fall back on. Alex left, and Ariadne stopped her from finishing off the hunter who would have killed them both. Leila didn’t know the right things to say, Wynne chose the wrong method of convincing her that she had something else to fall back on. Some other version of Cass heard what Nora was saying and collapsed into her arms, left the cave and went back with her to watch movies and eat pizza.

But not this one.

This Cass was still angry. This Cass had been abandoned too many times to trust that it wouldn’t happen again. This Cass knew it was better to push people away than it was to have them leave you, because the best foundations were built from stone and her friends were flesh and blood and bone and all of that was so much more temporary. She had Makaio. She would always have Makaio, and she only had Makaio.

Nora talked a good game. She said she was sad, that she missed Cass, and maybe Cass would have believed her if not for the way she faltered the moment Cass’s confession echoed through the cave. She fumbled the recovery just enough for Cass to notice, just enough for her to internalize it. She’s afraid of you now, the voice in her head that sounded like Makaio whispered, and Cass couldn’t help but agree. You heard what she said before. She’s trying to placate you, trying to buy herself time to get away. That’s all.

How could she believe anything else? Nora had been so adamant that Makaio was bad when she’d thought it was him who’d done the killing. Why was Cass any different? How could Nora claim that Cass was good, that anyone who knew her would agree? Makaio was her father. They were the same, the same blood and the same heart. If he was bad, wasn’t she? Couldn’t she still feel that man’s skin melting beneath his palms, couldn’t she still hear him screaming himself hoarse in the back of her mind?

She said nothing as Nora turned, said nothing as she walked away. Cass had asked her to go, but it felt like a rejection all the same. And it wasn’t fair — on some level, she knew it wasn’t fair. She asked Nora to leave, and all Nora had done was listen. But it ached anyway, stung in a strange and quiet sense.

She watched until Nora was a dark spot fading into the background, shadowy and intangible. Her chest hurt, and she tried not to think about it. Makaio would be home soon, she thought; she should try to pick up the pieces before then. Her father liked her better whole.

#honeysmokedham #nora: mess of everything #wickedswriting

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flagellant · 2 years ago

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I think your misunderstanding me- im not saying the concept is pathetic but that it feels like those in the described scenario are. But its not really ‘pathetic’… its more that feeling that comes from the refusal almost all humans have on some level to accept that creating an idea or art in a creative void is impossible. In the sense that its a bit disheartening to think that not even a god could make art in a vacuum. The scenario itself is actually deeply interesting to consider- if it wasnt then i would have shut up about it by now

I guess its also worth considering if its even possible for the man to fashion a god ‘more than what he can handle’, and if he could if it wouldn’t just be an act of mutual self destruction between him and his creation.

Perhaps a worse theoretical- what would happen if these two were to meet? Would they end up in an endless debate of who created who?

"[...]the refusal almost all humans have on some level to accept that creating an idea or art in a creative void is impossible. In the sense that it's a bit disheartening to think that not even a god could make art in a vacuum."

well first of all through God all things are possible and whatnot

and memes aside I don't think I understand why this is disheartening. nothing exists in a vacuum. true vacuum does not exist. true vacuum is complete non-existence and that has never existed. why are you disheartened over the fact that existence craves fellow existence. what is so disappointing at the knowledge that even at the most atheistic understanding of the cosmos humans crave to not feel alone.

as for whether or not man could create a god too powerful for man: yes. that is the nature of most divinity, or at least a commonality throughout pantheons. what is the lord of the dance if not that? what is Noah's flood? what is the great volcano spewing forth endless and eternal fire and stone? what is the mountain which no man can scale where the five virtuous immortals make their home? what is the bloodshed and misery and genocide of every crusade, what is the suffering of each time gods are used to excuse atrocity on a scale human brains literally cannot comprehend?

have your viewpoints how you view them sure whatever but I take some umbrage at the idea that you can look at the literal entirety of humanity's history and not comprehend how you are being myopic at least in my mind

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earlgreytea68 · 2 years ago

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Can I ask you the most cliched question, because you are the only person I know (from your writing ❤️) in the FOB fandom, is there a list somewhere of the songs Patrick has written lyrics to, which could be considered "his" songs? Or even if he he contributed a lot to the lyrics? I tried getting into FOB lore a few times but something else always pulls away my attention, and I never get deep enough to find out more about them, I think I'm a casual fan, I love a lot of their songs but I never listened through their whole catalogue. I'm guessing there aren't a lot of songs that are like that?

This is absolutely NOT a cliched question.

It seems like this differs from album to album. I haven't done a scientific study on this but every once in a while you'll come across an interview that mentions how much Patrick added lyrics. Like, I think I read someone that he felt like he wrote about 25% of the lyrics on SRAR, the most since TTTYG. I also feel like I read somewhere that Patrick said basically all the lyrics in Mania were Pete, that he added very little. I think some of the songs from TTTYG were heavily Patrick's lyrics with some Pete edits (I know Grand Theft Autumn, for instance, Pete told Patrick to change "Where is your man" to "where is your boy" because Patrick was still a teenager and saying "man" was stupid lolololol), while others I take it were much more Pete's.

I honestly don't entirely trust their recollections of who wrote what and how. I sense that Patrick kind of sits back and lets Pete do most of the words now, and really doesn't trouble his head much about lyrics. When he talks, it sounds like Pete sends him lyrics and he hears music in his head based off of them. Sometimes, it sounds like he tries to group Pete's ramblings into sensible categories that he can draw from as he needs more lyrics for a song. So, like, when he talks about writing Last of the Real Ones, he says that Pete had all these lyrics related to outer space that he went to pull from, which implies that one of them had organized things into a grouping that made sense, and that seems much more like a Patrick thing. Patrick has said consistently over the past few years that he views himself as writing the score for Pete's life, which basically implies it's almost entirely Pete's words and he's just shaping them into his melodies. And he also says fairly consistently that he doesn't care about words. He's said that since the beginning and he appears to maintain that that hasn't changed. He will throw placeholder lyrics into songs that then get changed out as Pete prefers. So it just doesn't seem like words are his medium and he's happy to let Pete take the lead, and indeed trusts him to do so basically entirely by this point in their partnership.

That said, Idk if you've ever worked with someone really closely, but it's really difficult to recall who contributed what at the end of the day. I believe them that almost all the lyrics come from Pete, and so it's a safe bet to say that Pete wrote whatever lyric Patrick is singing, but I also think they might not entirely recall if Patrick adds a line here and there to round it out. Although it seems like if Patrick needs lyrics for gaps in the songs, he tends to ask Pete to send him more. That is, I believe, in theory, what the "to you" poem was supposed to be, that Patrick had asked for some more lyrics and so Pete wrote him some. And also I've heard it said that that's where the "We will teach you how to make boys next door out of assholes" line comes from in Young Volcanoes, that Patrick told Pete he needed another line for the song and Pete sent him that one. So it does seem like, more often than not, if there's a gap where Patrick needs words, he asks for some from Pete, or else he goes into his Pete file and finds what he wants. He has also said that he will veto words, that if he doesn't like what Pete's sending him he doesn't use it, no matter how many times Pete keeps sending it, until Pete gets the hint that he's not going to use it lololol. The flipside of this is sometimes he clearly likes Pete's words so much that he uses them more than once, the same lyrics recurring in different songs.

So this means that, in the trajectory of their songwriting partnership, SRAR really stands out. After TTTYG, Patrick mainly faded out of writing the lyrics, letting Pete write most of them, except for a sudden blip of resurgence on SRAR. Now this is probably attributable to them re-figuring out how to write together after the hiatus. It makes total sense that Patrick, fresh off a solo album where he was handling lyrics (that sound, incidentally, so adorably influenced by Pete), would be more in the habit of writing lyrics and be contributing more on SRAR. It also makes sense he'd fall back out of that habit, letting Pete take over, the way he had before, since it doesn't seem like he particularly likes writing lyrics, definitely not in the way he likes writing music. And for this particular hiatus we just had, Patrick was scoring, and so didn't fall back into any kind of lyrical habit, and so it continues to make sense that he'd stay out of the lyrics.

I say all of this to say that apparently SRAR has more Patrick lyrics on it than any other FOB album except for TTTYG. And that's noteworthy because SRAR also has the infamous lyrics about "hot whiskey eyes." I've heard it said that Patrick wrote the song during the hiatus and saved it for Fall Out Boy, and that then Pete added lyrics to it (which seems like an inversion of their usual process?). Pete has said that the song is about what he went through during the hiatus, and I've also seen it said that he wrote it about his divorce. But. Honestly, there is no one involved in the whole situation whose eyes are the color of whiskey except for Pete Wentz, so, Idk, on an album containing more Patrick lyrics than any other album, suddenly there's a line in there about hot whiskey eyes, on a song with a response to the "I miss you missing me" line in Pete's poem. Idk, seems sus, as the kids say these days.

#peterick #fall out boy #fob #bandom

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nagito-kissmaeda · 2 years ago

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Curious: what are your general thoughts on the mainline Danganronpa games (Trigger Happy Havoc, Goodbye Despair, Ultra Despair Girls, Killing Harmony)? Like which one’s your favorite/least favorite, etc?

Ooh fun!! I do have lots of thoughts. I guess I’ll do them in order of fave to least fave. Under a readmore because I had too much to say

SDR2 - BRILLIANT, absolute pinnacle. I think the main reason sdr2 works so well is that it understands most players will be returning from THH so it ramps the tension up to 11 right from the get go by revealing that everyone has lost memories straight away. Most of the murders are really cool, trial 5 is the best one in the series, obvz. The island setting is nice too, it’s very different from the first game but not in a way that is too jarring. Oh and the cast is the best I think. Obviously I have issues with Hanamura but they have the sense to kill him straight away so no biggie. My only other character issue is that I really wish they did more with Owari, she’s kind of nothing and that’s sad. Also tragic that Saionji didn’t get her character arc :(( OH AN TSUMIKI NEEDS TO NOT FALL OVER SO MUCH THATS STUPID

Komaeda is there and he is the most interesting and coolest character ever. +100000000 points

UDG: okay okay, controversial for me to put it so high I KNOW. It’s got so so so many problems and yet….it compels me. I love Komaru, she is my favourite protag and I always liked Fukawa, so it’s nice to see her sort of come into her own and get to be a bit of a hero. UM THE MUSIC IS THE BEST. I like when it goes YEAH YEAH YEAH. I also actually really like the setting of Towa city? It’s cool to see the effects the tragedy had on the world as a whole, and it’s fun to explore. Gameplay is messy, but I don’t hate it, I have played much worse.

I had a lot of issues with the warriors of Hope in general and do wish they stuck with the initial plan of having the remnants of despair be the boss fights. Sigggghhhhhh, so upset that it was taken from us. That would have been the COOLEST.

Wish the tickle machine wasn’t in it. Wish the pedophile was dead. Wish Kotoko didn’t fall down so much. Wish Fukawa toned it down with the incest jokes.

I need servant carnally.

THH: THE OG MY BELOVED. I have a lot lot lot of nostalgia for this one, it’s very soft to me, I feel like I grew up in hopes peak lol. For serious though, Hopes peak is a cool af setting, it’s such a weird school and the art direction is absolutely stunning. I mentioned in a previous ask that it’s probably a bit too slow going, but it’s fair because this really was the first game of its kind and they have to tell you how to play it.

The reACT mechanic is funny and useless. I am glad they got rid of it, but it makes me laugh when I see it.

I love all the characters, they are like children to me. I even like Yamada, it’s the truth. I think they majority of characters are more toned down in this game, which is to its benefit I would say. Some characters in later games are a Bit Much.

I also like all the motives! They actually make sense??? And it’s the only game where Monokuma doesn’t cheat with a, “kill before arbitrary time limit or everyone dies” which is the worst motive and I hate it.

The Fujisaki problem is very present, unfortunately. I still don’t think they were meaning to be offensive anyway, but ya know. I’m pretty chill with any interpretation, but I usually consider them a transwoman

V3 : Hm. I do not like. The school is very very big and so easy to get lost in, where the first two games feel very distinct and easily navigable. It’s also not much different than Hope’s Peak, which is a little boring.

I want to punt the Monokubs into a volcano. V3 feels even slower and longer than THH and I blame them. They talk so much and so often and it never progresses anything and UGH.

I’m iffy on way more characters. Like I mentioned before they can be a Bit Much. I’m meaning your Tenkos and Mius. They have One thing, and that’s all they do and are, which is uninteresting and ANNOYING. It feels like so many of them have been boiled down to one trait, even characters I like such as Tsumugi and Himiko are like that, but their trait is less loud so it doesn’t annoy me so much.

Motives are stupid and dumb almost always. Hate them. Fucking necronomicon makes me want to chew glass.

The protag switch is cool. I like it, but I miss Kaede every single day.

The ending I do not like. It would be a whole five more paragraphs for me to explain my issues in full, but it sort of betrays it’s own messaging and renders the rest of the game meaningless (at least in my opinion)

Cospox makes me want to die

The music and UI are very good though!!

This was so so so long. I have more Thoughts, but I will save you from them for Now

#/ask #danganronpa

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dankovskaya · 2 years ago

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Since I’ve read abt 50 pages of this Maul book already I must say. There are lots of aspects of the old legends Maul that I kind of prefer over the newer interpretations of him like umm backstory stuff and his overall demeanor (quiet calm impenetrable and a little unexpectedly modest?) but one thing I borderline can’t stand is just the complete and total obedience to Sidious essentially to the point of worshiping him and the subsequent lack of value or humanity with which he regards himself? Like through and through he is a perfectly content servant who has suppressed any and all individuality with no desires or ambitions of his own besides fulfilling his Master’s wishes and seemingly no real regard for whether he lives or dies beyond that.

In the more modern “canon” Maul (uh oh this bitch is about to talk about Dark Maul 2017 again) even from this same era he has a loooot more fire in him a lot more rebellion and like self-regard I suppose. Like even BEFORE he got chopped in half and forgotten he was already somewhat resentful of Sidious if not for the whole um. Stealing him and raising him and brutally molding him into a weapon thing then definitely for his lack of “use” and being deprived of chances to prove himself and abate some of the Rage of a Thousand Volcanoes that he has instilled in him. Old Maul seems to be obedient out of an ambiguous but all-consuming loyalty to Sidious like individually (which idk maybe it’ll get into that later) (but makes sense I guess considering back then Sidious was essentially his father Lmfao) whereas with the New Maul you get the impression that his loyalty back then came more from Sith typical “Well I can’t kill him yet so I guess I have to keep doing what he says while expressing my annoyance through minor acts of controlled and concealed rebellion.”

#sw #And naturally him having extremely minimal personality in the original attempts to flesh him out a bit makes sense considering #how little you're given of him in the actual movie. He's more of a prop than a character I fear.#So it makes more sense to try to explain why he barely says or does anything or expresses any emotion rather than being like Btw he had all #this other stuff going on and all these others sides to him that they just never showed u. Lol

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tempestaslokni · 5 months ago

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"Yeah I jumped in, but I'm fine really. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, the only wound is really to my ego, considering that I did it without a second thought. May have ruined my phone and there's no rice here to dry it out," Lokni joked sarcastically. "I swam to shore, couldn't find a ladder back to the ship, and I didn't want to drown looking for another way." Regardless of how everything had transpired, Lokni was grateful for Miss Palmer's concern. She was really kind despite how bleak this situation seemed, like a sunflower in a field of pink, white, and blue wildflowers. A glow of sunlight on a canvas. Her suggestion of "investigating the volcano" was just plain wild, but he wrote it off as just how Darcy was, but he couldn't exactly rest easy with her "Pompei 2.0" comment. At the same time, there wasn't any evident smoke coming from the volcano, so it was safe to assume that they were safe, for now at least. Miss Palmer spoke of tests, as if they were being graded. Honestly, it seemed a little extreme to Lokni but hey, everyone had their own quips about what reality was. Hell, he still believed that the Thunder Bird was out there somewhere. But her words of "it'll all make sense in the end," resonated deeply with him. It sounded like something a doomsday sayer would proclaim. At the same time though, her talk about tests making them stronger, and that it all played some greater purpose was interesting. For someone like Lokni, who had lived under the radar for so long, it appealed to him. Maybe his life wasn't as worthless as he had originally thought? "This may be a pretty personal question, but what do you think that your hardest test was?" Lokni inquired, intrigued. If she truly believed this, then maybe her experiences could offer him some insight. "My life was arguably a lot more nice than some of the other kids on the res. I guess you could say that I'm real' close with my mother. She's the only family I really had growing up, and the only one there to really teach me about my past and the history of our people. She did everything to give me a good childhood, so I'm really grateful for her." Lokni admitted, tucking his hands into his work jean's pockets. "Were you close to anyone in your family in particular?" he recalled that she had been in a hospital before coming here, perhaps it was for family. Even then though, she had mentioned that things did in fact get her down. Lokni just wondered what it would have to be, she seemed like such a happy and borderline carefree individual. Aside from the situation that they were in of course. At the same time, everyone was different, as were their vulnerable points, Lokni mentally reasoned. "We may have the means to survive here, for a time, but what about when those resources run out? You're not worried about that?" He cocked his head at her inquisitively, curious as to what she would reply as the sea wind blew past them, the scent of salt stronger than ever. "That's... news to me." Lokni's eyes widened in response to Miss Palmer's claims. Selin was small, yes, but not squashable. What on earth was she going on about? Teleported??? Was she sure that she hadn't just- run real' fast? "I can't attest to anything supernatural- but I've been a bit more easily irritated, I guess. You sure you're feelin' alright, Miss Palmer?" He looked at her closely, checking to see if her pupils were too dilated or any hint of redness. Not that he had seen any of The Devil's Lettuce on the island here. Not yet at least. If he had he would've steered clear. "You eat any mushrooms earlier?" he asked, turning to look her over more closely. From what he gathered though, she seemed to be just dandy and believed everything that she was saying. That disturbed Lokni.

Darcy's eye shot up in the matter of a second when Lokni clarified that he did get his knife back. So that splash she heard... "Wait, did you actually jump into the water? From that height we've been in? You're-- Are you okay? You didn't get any injuries or anything, right?"

Okay, so maybe it was a bit of an overreaction, he was clearly okay, standing in front of her, having a chat like there was nothing wrong, but still, even thought Lokni was right there and it was all way too late, Darcy couldn't help the worry that rose up inside of her. And then the guilt that she oh so quickly moved on and didn't even try to help Lokni. "I am so sorry, I didn't realize. I should have come back down and helped you. Did you get back to the ship after or swam out to the shores?"

It seemed they were surprising each other left and right, cause at Darcy's suggestion of going up to the mountain, it was Lokni's turn this time to be surprised. "Yeah, technically we don't know, but I think we'd be seeing some kind of smoke at least if it was active. Granted, my geography knowledge on stuff like this isn't really... up to date or good." And frankly, she hasn't even really thought about whether or not it was active, she just assumed it was dormant automatically.

"But now that you mention it, we should figure out if it's dormant or not for no other reason than whether or not we should be worried about a Pompeii 2.0 situation happening. Because if that comes to be... no matter what kind of homes we were given, I'm pretty sure they are not vulcano debris and lava proofed."

She nodded along as Lokni spoke, putting their situation and the fact that everyone would be dealing with it differently a lot more eloquently that she did. "I know that in theory, but it's sometimes hard to remember in the middle of a discussion, or even when your opinions are different." What sounded even more interesting, though, was the little tidbits Lokni revealed about himself and his own past.

"It's kind of hard to imagine you getting heated with anyone, you just seem-- like the calm center of a storm, if I am being honest," Darcy noted. Even during their adventure on the ship, Lokni was calm through it all, ready to jump into whatever they needed to do and seemingly unshakable. Granted, they also didn't talk about anything outrageous, they were just sharing stories, getting to know each other. "That sounds like a rough childhood, though, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Your mother sounds like a lovely woman, though - have the two of you been close?"

She let out a small chuckle and ducked her head at his comment about how she's been handling everything that's been happening here. "Things do get me down too, Lokni. And I know it might look weird that I am not-- I don't know, more stressed, like the others, but I just-- I do believe that we're here for a reason and that everything will be okay. Whatever tests we're going to be facing and have to go through, it'll make us stronger of it and it'll all make sense in the end. And if you think about it, we have shelter, we have food, we have medical supplies, we have all the necessary things to actually survive around here. Maybe not live the kind of lives we did before we arrived here and there will be challenges, but it'll be worth it, in the end."

She looked over at him as she paused, and then her voice turned a bit more excited. "And really, have you seen the kind of things that been happening with people? That they have been doing? Selin shrinked down so small, I almost stepped on her. I kind of teleported a short distance without really realizing it until it was done. These kinds of things-- I just can't imagine not getting excited over something like this. I guess that is also the kind of strange things that I meant too. Something that you've been thinking would be impossible so far."

#darcy [002]#panopticon rpg #lokni hughes #darcy cracks me up #Lokni thinks that she's up to some tall tales

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land-of-holly · 2 years ago

Text

Rings of Power Episode 7 Liveblog

You know, all these white people covered in ash world look a lot more problematic if it wasn't for the red filter

NO NOT THE HORSE

oh gross people burning to death too

OH GOD ONTAMO NO

At least Valandil hasn't earned his namesake yet

Join the army, they said. SEE THE WORLD they said

A good, hands on queen

Oh no I hope Isildur will survive

Poppy's song is delightfully macabre

Oh shit did their orchard get volcanoed too?

Oh now they think the stranger is useful

It's cool how Nori and her family all seem to be wearing basically the same outfit. Clothes are hard when you have to make them all yourself

Elrond is doing a diplomacy!

He is no common elf! Ooh I love how they're leaning into his halfelvenness

Kneeling even!

King Durin is being really stubborn about this. There hasn't really been a lot of variation in this plotline, just Prince Yes, King No

Oh Durin....he just wants to save his friend...

GO OFF QUEEN

Durin is loyal and filial, he's just a great guy

Their marriage is so great

SAY IT. SAY 'HER BEARD' Maybe only the great dwarven matriarchs have proper beards

It's weeks to Lindon, Elrond, you can stay for dinner

'Go towards goodness' ....and I think that's beautiful

So mithril....does cure leaf?

Doesn't mean this wasn't Sauron's plan all along

Chill, Theo

See Galadriel, this is what everyone else sees when they look at you

Everything is not your responsibility! Tho I guess if that is what you came to Middle-earth for the first time.....

Berek!

Miriel does not look good

Mindfullness, Theo.

I love the Galadriel Theo roadtrip. Good friendship

Oh look she regrets killing orcs, or at least considers it an evil. Progress!

She's...giving him her dagger?

These orange filters are really making a statement

Miriel REALLY doesn't look good

Oh shit

Greenwood the great!

Is he sending the Stranger to Dale? Proto Dale?

It's the nicest way he can say "please don't help us anymore"

It's so fun to see the different ways they have of showing the size difference

Oh boy, he asked about her brother

WHAT

Sorry??????????

Excuse me???????????????????

SHE'S ALREADY MARRIED

Little disappointed not to see the romance, but I'll be glad to see him show up eventually!

So like, where has he been all this time? And why did she stop looking for him?

You gotta replace it with something better, Theo

He has a point, Galadriel. Problem of Evil and all that

Adar? We get Adar?

Nope :(

Smells like Elves

I guess the volcano makes it harder to track by scent

Durin can't possibly mine the mithril all by himself

OMG ELROND'S HAIR LOOKS SO GOOD WHEN IT'S ALL MESSED UP! DO THAT MORE OFTEN!

Elrond! You threw the fight??

Elrond's got a little bit of everything in him. Might be some Dwarf in there.

YOU HEAR THAT ELROND? HE WANTS YOU TO BE PART OF HIS FAMILY.

Far side of what?

That's a lot of mithril

Oops, busted

I guess other people do talk to King Durin

Oh no, Elrond got banished :(

You were ill formed when you were born? HARSH

Now we're getting some real good father son talk

Consigning your allies to death is not tempering! Not everything is a test, some things are just important

NO YOU

Shit, did Durin just get disowned? Are we kicking off a coup?

Poppy has such good songs!

He did bring it back to life!

Oh no is it more wolves?

Worse! Big jobs!

Love the cat ears on the cultist, don't love the brunhilde breastplate

Did she just lie to them? Are they bad news?

Hey, don't touch her hair

Um. She just put the torch out with her hand.

EVIL

NOT THE CARTS

Oh it's the Numenorean camp

I love that the dude armor also has boobs

What's that, Berek? Isildur fell down a well?

Listen to the horse!

Oh, Elendil, there's no sense regretting decisions made in good faith

Theo's ear! Half elf Theo....disconfirmed?

Don't just go wandering into tents, Theo

Oh it's the sick tent, guess Bronwyn might be there

Wow, not going light on the injury showcase there

Now now, we've already done "I thought it was them but turns out it wasnt"

Bronwyn! ARONDIR! HUGS!!!!

I guess the blindfold might be helping some.

NOW KISS

Oh shit now it's started. Let's do a war!

She couldn't bear to put her father's real name on this though

Awwww, Elendil

Harfoots don't give up! They rebuild!

I'll point out to all the haters that people may have WORRIED about being left behind, but no one actually WAS. Revealed preferences!

Oh, now she's going on her big walkabout

Marigold?????

And Sadoc too??????

Malva????????

Shit, I guess Isildur's gonna have a time getting back to Numenor

Pelargir exists! Numenoreans have been hear before!

Galadriel had to face the music eventually

Yeah Galadriel, remember? Their king? The guy you manipulated into coming here against his will?

Uh, I thought elves only had artisans? He can't do the 'as long as it's pretty' thing

Guys just get up and walk with open wounds around here

And ride??? What wound does he have that needs special treatment but that he can ride a horse to??????

Awww she gave up the dagger. She is healing, and so is Theo

Disa's getting her Lady Macbeth on. Such a good wife. I love her.

Go away Balrog, it's not your time yet

Ugh, knew they couldn't resist the temptation

Adar!!!!!! :D

MORDOR. Oh I like the thing with the text.

We're almost done!! I can't believe it!!!

#rings of power #rings of power spoilers #rings of power liveblog #rings of power s1e7

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tolkien-feels · 3 years ago

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Maglor and Caranthir headcanons, you say? Do share

I was going to go read a book but you know what? Let's do this instead, I'm having a Tolkien day due to having watched the Leithian rock opera today

This doesn't make any sense if you don't know where I first got the idea from, so let's get that out of the way

Feanorians come in pairs, as we know. Celegorm and Curufin and Ambarussa, of course, and then I know the other one is usually Maedhros and Maglor, but consider: Maedhros must've spent a huge amount of time with Feanor as his firstborn and heir, and that naturally pairs off Maglor and Caranthir

(This is of course an oversimplification - everybody hangs out with everybody, I'm sure, and Maedhros and Maglor are canonically close, but stick with me)

Caranthir strikes me as being difficult to understand, even for his family. Based on very little I've decided to headcanon he's inherited Nerdanel’s Silently Observing In Order To Understand thing and Feanor's general personality, which results in him mostly having two moods: Very Angry or It's Anyone's Guess What He's Thinking. Either way, that doesn't make him exactly easy to get along with

In part due to actually spending time with him and in part due to being on the Silently Observing In Order To Understand side of the family as well, I headcanon Maglor is the one person in the family who is very good at understanding Caranthir (with the possible exception of Nerdanel but she understands him like a mother, which is different from having a friend, if that makes sense)

So anyway, I just picture a feedback loop where because Maglor understands Caranthir, Caranthir opens up to him as much as he ever does, so Maglor understands him better, etc, etc. Conversely, Caranthir makes an effort to understand Maglor just as much, and while he never quite reaches Maedhros's level of instinctive understanding, he comes very close - and that's great because sometimes Maglor is actively hiding things from Maedhros because Maedhros has enough going on in his life, and Caranthir can usually tell when that is the case

Having said that, I don't think it's the "understanding each other" part that's important - it's the "making an effort" bit that's the best part. This is a family full of very leaderly people. Yes there's Feanor's generally controlling personality, and Celegorm and Curufin always want to have their way, but even Maedhros and Nerdanel seem to have a strong "If it's for the best I'm not afraid to try and impose my will" streak. But I don't think either Maglor or Caranthir are particularly interested in that, so it means a lot for them to have someone who they can talk to and be sure that the conversation will be more about rationally seeing each other's points than about deciding who's Right. (Not that they can't be stubborn when they feel like it, tho. Because they absolutely can. It's just not their default reaction to literally every single thing that ever happens.)

I also think that they're pragmatic, loyal and generally reliable. You know how Celegorm and Curufin have the stability of a firework factory built on an active volcano? I feel like Maglor and Caranthir would be the exact opposite of that

On the other hand, if we're talking baby Feanorians, Maglor and Caranthir never really move past the parallel play stage of development. They share exactly zero hobbies but they're working on their interests in the same room and that counts as bonding somehow. No, nobody else is invited, back off, if they want to hang out with People they'll say so

Canon doesn't really back me up here but I really love the idea of Caranthir having Maglor's back as he tries to handle the uh, "out father is dead and our brother is probably wishing he was dead so I'm kind of the king now even though I was 3rd in line to succeed the king who was never supposed to die?" situation. Nothing flashy, no dramatic declarations of support, just. Quietly doing the boring, necessary jobs that need doing but would just add to Maglor's already overfilled plate

I must also admit to quite enjoying the idea of one of the Ambarussa dying so that in Beleriand you have two trios, Celegorm, Curufin and whichever Ambarussa survives, and Maedhros, Maglor and Caranthir. This has no basis in canon but the symmetry makes me happy?

Also, you know that meme that goes "Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I wanted was a puppy"? I strongly feel that's how Celegorm felt about Caranthir when they were very little (ignoring LaCE age gaps here), and I just... I really want Celegorm to have seen Maglor angry exactly once in his life and it being when he half-intentionally made Caranthir cry. There's no reason this has to happen, but I just really enjoy the intersection between harmless family fluff and foreshadowing the Maglor who seems to be a surprisingly fierce warrior

Are these enough? Because I probably have more lmao

#this is extremely rambly and i'll probably edit it later to make it less confusing but for now have this mess

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songofsilentechoes · 2 months ago

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"Well, at least more energy than mana crystals I'm more familiar with. If it had more mana than my world, I think the reader might break." She says, chuckling.

"Oh really? But you should already have mana in your blood. Mana is in all things. Although..." She ponders for a moment. "I suppose someone with weaker mana or who's not experienced with making use of it could have their mana bolstered and stimulated by exposure." The mage nods. "If you occasionally expose yourself to this wirh mindful intent of the risks, you could probably strengthen your inherent mana enough that you might be able to manipulate it." Considering Noelle was handling the crystal without gloves and didn't seem stressed out, it's unclear what the risks might be.

"As for the aspect..." She says, turning back to the equipment and twisting a little metal ring around the aparatus' crystal, altering the color of the beam. "Mana is a wide spectrum of things. Personal mana tends to reflect aspects of one's soul. Ambient mana can often reflect the nature of the location it's found in. So...mana near a place of strong natural forces, like a volcano, will be more easily bent towards destructive purposes."

"Of course, mana is malleable, so a mage's will when casting spells will take priority. But that's why locations can be important for rituals."

"Crystalized mana, like this, usually has an orderly and neutral structure. Firmly in place and stable. It sheds some natural aspects in favor of being consistent. Usually very easy to access. One this dense might have some echo of what it used to be, but nothing significant. I'm merely curi....ous?" Her expression changes when she sees the reading.

She writes down the results. "Wait...how is that possible?" She mumbles as she translates her notes, having wrote them in her native language by accident.

When she realizes she went quiet, she blushes and clears her throat. "This crystal is somehow not orderly or...I guess lawful. I's call it chaotic, but I don't mean that in an unstable way."

"It's like...it's moving in slow motion. Chaotic energy is usually more...ennergetic and harder to grasp in a solid form. But this one is slowed to a crawl, so it's like gently flowing water. Or...instead of 'chaotic', perhaps I should describe it as 'organic' in the sense of 'unlike a machine's static nature'."

"Or maybe 'change, but natural change, rather than violent or forced'. It's really difficult to translate."

Noelle places the crystal under the aparatus, and, with a poke, a thin beam is pointed into the mana crystal.

After a moment, some runes appear and shift slightly. Noelle begins to write some things down. "...so the conversion equation from mana to energy..." She mumbles as she translates what she can.

"Let's see if I did my math right...I think I did, but this crystal is extraordinarily dense. Many that I run into are fragile or ephemeral, but this one seems very solid in construction. A standard mana crystal would probably be able to power a device for up to a month with casual use, needing to be replaced or rejuvinated with moonlight or sunlight. This one is easily a hundred time more dense, so much that a standard crystal might appear like an empty bottle, with this one being nearly fully solid."

"The tingling is mana being released into the air around it, which carries a modest charge. Of course, this one has so much that it can be actively felt without assistance or attunement. Think of it like...like dry ice, releasing vapor as it sits in room temperature."

"There's one more test I'd like to try on it, if you'll allow me." She says, handing Iyana a copy of her notes. "I want to see what sort of aspect this mana crystal has. It's difficult for me to sense due to this one's overwhelming density." There was also some interferance with her own mana, and she didn't want to muddy the results.

#risingshine

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 2 years ago

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HOTD Episode 2 Review/Analysis (Spoilers)

Ok so here is my review for the 2nd episode, I thought it was another really great episode that did a good job of further developing the characters and moving the plot along. I like the pacing of the show so far and once again come the end of the episode I couldn’t wait to see the next. Going to put a spoiler warning here even though I am fairly sure most people have already seen the episode. As I said in my episode 1 review (which you can read here if you wish) I have not read the book so all my opinions and theories are based on what I have seen in the show. With that out of the way lets get into it.

Marriage Proposals

A big part of this episode was focused around how Viserys is expected to remarry and have more children to secure his line. We as the viewer are presented with two possibilities Laena Velaryon, the daughter of Corlys and Rhaenys, and Alicent Hightower, who we see has been continuing to visit with the King.

During one of these visits we see Viserys and Alicent discussing Old Valyria with Viserys showing her his model. We learn some more details about Valyria and some of it I think can tell us a bit about the Targaryens’ views on marriage. Firstly we learn that Valyria was built into a volcano, which you know bad idea in my opinion but each to their own I guess. We also learn that the dragon riders were the highest of the nobility and they lived at the face of the volcano which was closest to their source of magic and power, the Targaryens come from this nobility. The part that was really interesting to me was him telling us about the Anogrion where the blood mages worked their craft. This suggests that the bond between the Targaryens and their dragons was brought about by magic and more specifically blood magic. I think this explains why the Targaryens marry each other to keep their blood pure. It’s not just because they think their blood is better and above other houses its because their power over their dragons, the things that makes them closer to gods than men, lies within their blood. To dilute it, so to speak, too much could be to risk them losing that power. It’s like Rhaenyra said in episode 1, without their dragons they are just like everyone else. With the blood mages of Valyria gone with the Doom of Valyria the Targaryens have lost their ability to make new dragon riders so their way of keeping the blood magic going is by marrying each other. In GOT I just could not understand why the Targaryens were so ok with marrying brother to sister etc but having learnt this about the blood magic tying them to the dragons it makes more sense to me. I still think its weird but I can better understand why in their world it has become normal to them. I also think it is significant in this episode as the Velaryons whilst not from the dragon riders nobility are of Valyrian descent and this seems to be considered as an advantage for why Viserys should marry Laena as a way to strengthen those blood ties back to Valyria.

When it comes to Laena, politically the marriage makes sense. The Velaryons are one of the most powerful families in Westeros, they control the navy and the shipping lanes and they have Valyrian blood, many characters throughout the episode express the opinion that it is a strong match. However Laena being so young makes the situation incredibly uncomfortable. When I saw her walking next to Viserys I legit gasped in horror when I realised this little girl was who they were proposing to be the King’s new wife. That whole scene was so awkward and just uncomfortable is the only word I can really think of. And it was suppose to have that effect on you, its a sad reminder that this kind of thing did happen in our own history and that girls as well as women were used for political advantage. It became particularly horrifying when you see this little girl telling a grown man that she will give him many children. The one small mercy was at least Viserys was also uncomfortable with her age.

This is a bit of a side note but one thing I did find interesting and kind of cute in that scene was Laena’s fascination with the dragons and with Vhagar in particular. Her mother is a Targaryen so I do wonder if this is foreshadowing that Laena herself will one day become a dragon rider and whether she will find Vhagar seeing as she seems to have a obsession with her in particular, maybe even ride her? That could be very cool to see. It also tells us a bit about Vhagar, we know she is still alive but that she is too big for the dragon pit and seems to have taken to nest somewhere on the coast of the narrow sea. Laena mentions that the workers of Spice Town have heard Vhagar’s song and that it is a sad thing. I think Viserys response of ‘I imagine even dragons get lonely’ is really poignant as it reflects the feelings and situations of the Targaryen family of Viserys, Daemon and Rhaenyra at the moment. They are all estranged from each other and I think each of them in this episode are struggling with deep feelings of loneliness. Also its just a really sad image to think of poor Vhagar being all alone and singing about that loneliness.

Whilst most people see the match with Laena as a good thing and are pushing the king to accept the proposal, one person who is not so keen on the idea is Otto Hightower. He clearly feels threatened by this proposal made by Corlys because it gets in the way of his own plans of the King marrying his daughter. I mean he has spent the last six months coaxing his daughter into meeting with the King hoping an attachment will grow between them and this proposal from Corlys puts a spanner in the works, especially as it is such a strong match politically thus making it a popular one with the other members of the council. So Otto does something very manipulative but very clever, he plays on the king’s own doubts about the match. He brings up how young Laena is. He talks about how he misses his own wife and how the idea of replacing her for duty’s sake is unthinkable and that he doesn’t envy the King knowing that it is going to make the king think of Aemma and how its only been six months since she passed. Otto is doing everything he can to plant that doubt and to make the King hesitate whilst also continuing to encourage Alicent to visit him. And it works.

In regards to Alicent’s visits to the King I do think over time they have come to have a respect and care for each other but it is still very clear that Alicent is only there because her father told her to go. She also does give the King good advice about reaching out and trying to talk to Rhaenyra. But the situation is messy and kind of crappy all round. Alicent is very trapped in this situation she doesn’t want to be in. I think she knows what her father’s end goal is here but they are not her own motives. She feels like she doesn’t have a choice. Viserys is also concerned about upsetting Rhaenyra with the news that he is being pressured to remarry and doesn’t seem to know how to approach the situation which leads to him making mistakes such as the decision to not talk to Rhaenyra about the fact that he has been having these meetings with Alicent. But then even if they did tell her about the meetings I think Rhaenyra would still feel betrayed because she’s not stupid, she knows the motive behind the visits and even though Alicent didn’t really have a choice and its more her father’s manipulation than hers, Rhaenyra, unlike Alicent, is someone who frequently speaks her mind to her father and stands up for herself with her father so I don’t think she would understand or accept the excuse of well my father made me do it. Alicent, unlike Rhaenyra, grew up with a very manipulative father who only uses her for his own gain, therefore its not as easy for her to defy him. I can see both sides of Alicent feeling she didn’t have a choice as she couldn’t defy her father and Rhaenyra seeing it as a betrayal on both Alicent’s and her father’s part.

Throughout the episode Viserys really struggles with communicating with Rhaenyra, I mean that scene where they are having dinner and there are crickets in the background was low key hilarious yet also pretty much said it all. But they do have a really great and moving scene towards the end of the episode after Rhaenyra returns from Dragonstone. He opens up about how much he misses her mother and how he could never truly replace Aemma but that he has a duty to remarry and produce more heirs. She in turn lets him know that not only would her mother have understood this but that she does too and essentially gives him her blessing to remarry. As good as the conversation was though it needed to go further as at this moment Rhaenyra assumes the person her father will marry is Laena. I really do think that Viserys should have told Rhaenyra before the official announcement to the small council that he was planning on marrying Alicent. I also think Viserys should have spoken to Corlys privately before the announcement. I think Corlys would still have taken it badly but at least Viserys could have explained his reasoning and explained that he was uncomfortable with Laena’s age and sort of softened the blow. By not speaking to either of them before hand both were blindsided and publicly humiliated, both feeling betrayed by the King and Rhaenyra also by Alicent. I just think the situation could have been handled better by Viserys. Corlys took Viserys’ choice to marry Alicent over Laena as an insult and Viserys created a bit of a problem for himself here as Corlys’ anger lead to him deciding to team up with Daemon and deal with the stepstones himself.

Rhaenyra

Viserys’ decision to remarry is going to have some consequences for Rhaenyra as well, which leads me to one of my favourite scenes in the episode, the conversation between her and Rhaenys. This scene was just so so good and both actresses gave amazing performances. The situation with Viserys and Laena does bother them both but they also both recognise the pressure their society puts on the king to remarry and produce heirs, the ‘order of things’. I also think that whilst Rhaenys does genuinely want to warn Rhaenyra and make her understand the truth of it, she is also a little salty. At the Great Council she was overlooked by the lords but those lords did bend their knees to Rhaenyra. I think Rhaenys really does want to believe that it was only because she was a woman that she was overlooked, if Rhaenyra does become Queen and is accepted as such by the lords then that would mean it wasn’t just because Rhaenys was a woman it was because they didn’t want her. I think Rhaenys is afraid that there is some truth in what Rhaenyra said about them rejecting her specifically as she recognises that there is some significance to the lords bending their knees to Rhaenyra. However there is also truth to what Rhaenys says about how the King will take a new wife and that wife could give him sons. If this happens then the realm will expect his son to be heir not Rhaenyra. I am very curious as to whether when it comes down to it Rhaenys will support Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne or a male heir’s?

I do think Rhaenys words stuck with Rhaenyra and spurred her to prove she is worthy to be the heir and it influences her actions for the rest of the episode. Rhaenyra knows there is truth to Rhaenys words and she wants to prove her wrong. I think throughout this episode Rhaenyra is focused on proving to her father, and the realm, that he made the right choice in naming her heir. Things start out rocky for her in the beginning of the episode when she speaks out in the small council. I think this scene shows the contrast between Viserys and Rhaenyra. When Corlys brings the news about the crab feeder he makes some very good points about how the crown looks weak right now and it is clear that he is frustrated with the King’s inaction. We are shown by Viserys refusal to really do anything about the crab feeder or Daemon taking dragon stone that he is the kind of king that avoids problems rather than facing them. Rhaenyra on the other hand seems much more hands on and willing to solve problems, I think her speaking up shows that her confidence is begining to grow and she is stepping up and trying to take a more active role. It seems like Corlys approves of this which makes me wonder if he could be a potential ally for Rhaenyra in the future. I did really like Corlys’ line ‘to elude a storm you can either sail into it or around it. But you must never await its coming.’ I feel like Viserys very much is just awaiting the storm’s coming whereas Rhaenyra, Daemon and Corlys are the type that sail into the storm and face it head on, I could see the three of them banding together at some point in the future as they seem to have similar views to each other.

After she speaks up Otto tries to curb her and bring her back to heel by condescendingly suggesting that there might be another task she could be doing. Just like he did with Daemon he is trying to keep Rhaenyra and her opinions out of the small council so that only his voice is heard by the King. This is clearly frustrating to Rhaenyra as she believes she does have something worthwhile to contribute but she is being silenced and she believes that her father only named her heir to spite Daemon and doesn’t really take her seriously. She is instead sent to choose the next Kings guard. I think she showed good logic in asking if any of the knights had real combat experience. She makes her decision based on who is best for the role of protecting the King and not on the nobility of their blood. More importantly when Otto tries to influence her to choose someone else of noble birth she sticks to her guns and explains her reasoning. As it is a logical decision there is nothing Otto can really say, he knows she is right. I think this is the moment when Otto begins to realise that she may not be as easy to manipulate as he thought she would be when he suggested she be named heir.

Rhaenyra further shows her grit and worthiness to be heir when she chooses to go to dragon stone and retrieve the egg from Daemon. She was confident that she could get the egg back without blood shed and knew that Otto could not do that alone. When she does arrive Otto once again tries to send her away so that he can control the situation. Thankfully Rhaenyra doesn’t allow herself to be pushed aside, instead she confidently pushes past them and by cautioning them about Syrax she issues a subtle but effective threat to Otto that reminds him that she is the one in control and the one with the power here. After witnessing Rhaenyra retrieve the egg from Daemon without blood shed, Otto truly sees how much of a threat Rhaenyra is to him. He realises that he can’t control her and that she is more like Daemon than she is her father. She was able to do what he could not and she also did it in front of witnesses. I think the men there would respect and admire the way she handled the situation and it is something even the king recognises Otto could not have done himself. I can’t deny that I loved seeing Rhaenyra succeed and prove that she is worthy of being the heir in her own right.

Daemon Drama

Ah Daemon you lovable mess of a person. I can’t lie, sorry but I just love this guy, everything he does just cracks me up. This guy literally stole an egg, invented a fake wedding and pregnancy all because he was bored and lonely and wanted some attention from his big brother, how can you not find that thoroughly entertaining?

I thought his letter was really funny like it was clearly deliberately written to shock people but more importantly to draw the attention of his brother. He knows his brother well and knew just what to say to wind him up. It is really interesting as well that Viserys sees this and knows that Daemon is just doing it to get attention and was going to just ignore him. But Daemon anticipated this which is why he took prince Baelon’s egg specifically, he rightly knew that upon hearing which egg it was Viserys would be so angered he’d come to Daemon himself which I think was Daemon’s ultimate goal. It is only because Otto interferes that Daemon’s plan doesn’t work the way he wants it too. I do think Otto dissuaded the King from going because he was afraid the two brothers seeing each other face to face would lead to a reconciliation and he wanted to prevent this. I do think Daemon was also hoping for a reconciliation though.

When they were reading the letter it was clear that Rhaenyra was hurt by Daemon calling himself the rightful heir and by the fact that it was her brother’s egg that he took. But it is also interesting that Rhaenyra is the one that thought to ask what egg Daemon took. I think a part of her already knew because of how well she knows him and I think she knows what he is trying to do.

The scene in the walkway to Dragon Stone is another of my favourite scenes from this episode. I love that Daemon just casually strolled up carrying the egg. He did seem disappointed that his brother didn’t come and had sent Otto instead. This only fuelled Daemon’s anger and hurt and to be honest it really was a bad idea to send Otto considering the animosity between them. There was only one way that was going to go, it was bound to get ugly and it does fast, insults are thrown, swords are drawn and it begins to look like blood shed in inevitable. It’s only escalated further when Caraxes appears. I just want to take a moment as say, damn is Caraxes a beautiful dragon. There’s a moment where the sunlight glints off his wings and the red just comes through, I kind of caught my breath. But he is also very terrifying. I also think it is very interesting how Caraxes seems to sense and respond to Daemon’s moods, if Daemon is angry so too is Caraxes which is bad news for Otto and his companions.

I also loved loved Syrax and Rhaenyra’s entrance. It was so cool how the clouds moved right before they burst through them. I also think it was interesting how Daemon sensed their presence before anyone else and how upon sensing them he immediately lowers his sword, seeing her calms him because he is getting what he wants, he did all this because he was lonely and wanted to see his family. This was his way of coaxing them out. It’s also very cute how Caraxes was also happy to see Syrax and how they were calling out to each other. When Otto tries to stop Rhaenyra you can see Daemon watching them with interest, I think he was curious to see what she was going to do and was proud that she did stand her ground. I did love how she just marched right up to Daemon and reminds him that she is the heir and that’s her castle that he’s living in, gotta love that confidence. I did really enjoy their exchange in this scene. I do think it is very telling that Daemon can’t bring himself to lie to Rhaenyra when she confronts him about whether he is to be a father. I think she knew that he had made it all up and recognised he was doing it all for attention and out of loneliness.

Rhaenyra challenging him and telling him that if he wished to be restored as heir then he would have to kill her was ballsey but I also think she knew he wouldn’t do it. Daemon loves his family. We’ve heard alot from others how Daemon craves the throne, that he would even kill his brother, his own family to get it. But honestly I don’t think he does want the throne, he wants to be seen as worthy, useful by his brother. He wants his brother to be proud of him. We know that Daemon has held a few positions of power such as Master of Laws, Master of Coins, Commander of the City Watch and of course Heir, but Otto has convinced the King to take each responsibility away from him which must be really frustrating for Daemon, it must seem like his own brother always sees him as a failure who lets him down. I think his desire to be heir has less to do with actually wanting the throne and more to do with wanting to mean something to his brother. The only position we have ever really heard him covet is hand of the king, he doesn’t want to replace his brother he wants to be at his brother side and wants to help him and be recognised by his brother. Rhaenyra knows Daemon well, unlike Viserys, she does see him and she knows how to talk to him. I think this is why he gives the egg back. When she is challenging him she is basically saying if you really want the throne then kill me but they both know that’s not what he wants. If he really did want the throne then there was nothing stopping him in that moment from killing her. The more I see of Daemon the more convinced I am that he isn’t after the throne.

I think another instance that shows that Daemon does love and care for his brother is when he stands up for him at the end of the episode with Corlys. I could really relate to the moment when he says he will speak of his brother as he likes but Corlys may not, its peak sibling energy. But I do think that what Corlys says about the stepstones offering a chance to prove his worth to anyone who might still doubt it really resonates with Daemon and describes his feelings towards his brother and his motives to a tee. I also really loved Corlys’ line ‘we are the second sons Daemon, our worth is not given, it must be made.’ It’s just such a good line and got me really hyped for the next episode.

So another really good episode, as I said before I have watched all three episodes together so I will be posting my ep 3 review soon.

#hotd #house of the dragon #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen

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