#but i do think to some extent land is wealth and wealth is power

[fideidefenswhore]

Who do you think is the most successful of Henry’s wives child bearing aside??

I don't know how to measure success? 'Survived' is obviously Parr and to a greater extent Anne of Cleves, so that's sort of the Game of Thrones answer.

Anne Boleyn was, however, a greater landowner than her predecessor, and, actually, a greater landowner than any other Tudor consort. So, if we measure success by that, ie power held during the reign, not necessarily over time or the length of reign, I suppose it would be her?

[back2bluesidex]

Afterglow - JHS

Pairing: Husband!HoseokX Wife!Reader

A follow-up drabble of Girl Crush

Theme: Angst, arranged marriage au, hurt to comfort au, little bit of fluff

Wordcount: 1.6k+

Request: "Afterglow with hoseok. Where the reader and hoseok had a fight, and hoseok walked out, which left the reader thinking about the argument. thank uu💓"

Summary: Hoseok looks at you, smiles at you, and makes conversations with you unlike Yoongi. Hoseok’s eyes are full of warmth and adoration for you unlike Yoongi. Hoseok feels for you, unlike Yoongi.

Based on Afterglow by Taylor Swift.

Warnings: angst, reader was previously divorced, argument, some annoying aunties, mentions of divorce, past relationship, broken marriage, that's all

Minors are not allowed in this blog!!

A/N: You guys are really persistent. Most of you wanted a follow up of Girl Crush. But I had 0 mind of doing so. So, I turned this request in a drabble and made it into the part 2. Hope you guys like it. And no more parts will be added to this.

If there are 100 people in this room right now, then 80 of them want to be at your place, in your shoes. But you would sign your soul to the devil to be anyone else other than yourself. 

You are not being cocky, neither ignorant… you just can’t take it anymore. 

Being rich doesn’t mean you are the happiest person in the world, but quite the opposite. At least in your case.  

Being rich means losing your right of loving a person and being loved by them as you are nothing but a pawn that is to be exchanged at the right time through the right deal. 

Being rich also means you will be traded again and again even if you are a worn out, old, rugged piece because there would be someone always trying to buy you at the lowest possible price. 

That’s how you landed on your second arranged marriage (as if the first one had not broken you enough), your second husband and this is the second time you feel like you are falling and breaking, crushing your soul, exhausting your emotions to its extent. 

Three years ago you got married to Min Yoongi, someone you loved and someone who loved someone else. 

It’s been two years since you divorced Yoongi. It’s been two years since you walked out of his home with a broken heart.  

Yes, your love life certainly didn’t gain anything out of your and Yoongi’s broken marriage but your father gained what he was promised with.

For a year, you tended your broken heart, your insecurities, you made yourself believe in the fact that you indeed deserved to be loved. Just because your first husband didn’t love you, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. 

Just when you were at the peak of your healing, your father decided to sell you off once again. This time to a larger empire, holding more power, more wealth and endless benefits for your company.  

“It’s only been a year since my divorce, appa! How can you sell me off once again?” You had cried, screamed at your father for the very first time in 27 years of your life.

“Dal, Mr. Jung made the proposition. He said you have caught his son’s eyes! How could I say no?” he reasoned. 

You didn’t say anything more that night. For once you contemplated running away somewhere far from all of this. But your rationality didn’t allow you to leave your old father embarrassed and helpless. So you stayed.  

And, this is how you ended up here, tugged at the side of Jung Hoseok, your husband. 

Hoseok looks up at you with apologetic eyes and you know he is sorry. 

This is one of the thousands of differences you have found between your married life with Yoongi and your married life with Hoseok. 

Hoseok looks at you, smiles at you, and makes conversations with you unlike Yoongi. Hoseok’s eyes are full of warmth and adoration for you unlike Yoongi. 

Hoseok feels for you, unlike Yoongi. 

But the question is do you feel anything for him? You don’t know. 

Or maybe you do but you are way too afraid to start feeling again, to start loving again. 

“But darling, why her? She divorced her previous husband within a year!” Mrs. Lee, one of the shareholders of Jung Group of Companies, exclaims in her high-pitched voice. Even though she’s trying to keep her voice as low as possible, or at least pretending to do so, you can hear her clearly.   

The hold of your drink goes tight. Mr. Kang is complementing how good you are looking tonight but you can barely hear anything. All you can hear are the taunts that the old snitch is throwing at you. 

“Mrs. Lee, it’s business.” you hear Hoseok saying and all of a sudden everything around you turns dark. 

You whip your head to meet Hoseok’s eyes but he is avoiding looking at you. 

Within seconds your vision starts blurring. So, the impromptu dates, the youtube recipes, the sweet gifts, that luxurious honeymoon, those late night beers.. Everything was for business? 

You were wrong the entire time you thought you had seen love in Hoseok’s eyes? 

All.. all of it was business?

Or was it pity? 

Hoseok knows everything about Yoongi and you. Is that why he treated you kindly?

Your life feels like a lie and once again.. You see your hopes crumbling down like a house made of cards. 

“Why?” you throw your purse on the couch and stand abruptly in the middle of the living room. 

Tears stream down your face. You successfully suppressed your anger for the better part of the night but it is impossible to do so anymore. Since you and your so-called husband are alone now, he better answer your questions. 

The tremble in your voice hints Hoseok that you are crying. He takes long strides and reaches where you are. 

Placing a hand on your shoulders, he turns you around and murmurs, “Y/N? What-” 

He tries to wipe your tears away but you swat his hand, “why were you always so kind to me? Why? Because it’s business or is it because you pity me?” 

“Y/N.. No. it’s not what you think. I told her-”  Hoseok tries to hold your trembling form with both of his hands but you push him away as harshly as possible. 

“You told her because it’s true. All of those gifts and dates and dinners.. Everything, everything was a lie!” screaming at the top of your lungs, you break down. 

Hoseok runs towards you, tries to hold you in his embrace. 

“Don’t.. Don’t fucking touch me!” you seethe through anger. Hoseok retreats. 

“Okay, I won’t.” He replies calmly but you can see his eyes filling bit by bit, “but just so you know, you were never business for me. Mrs. Lee only shut up because I said what she wanted to hear and she is not a family or a friend so I would have to explain the truth to her.” 

“No- don’t. Don’t lie!” your voice comes out harsher than you intended to.

“You think I am lying because I said something insignificant to someone insignificant just today but what about everything I did to make you realize how I feel for you?” Hoseok’s voice trembles. And it hurts you but you are hurt as well. 

“You don’t feel anything for me. And you, too, should know that I don’t and won’t feel anything for you.” your heart breaks at the lie you throw at your husband but the way tears run down his face.. It instantly makes you feel like a criminal. 

“Is that so?” he asks, sniffing once, “then.. I should leave you alone.” 

Before you can register what’s happening, you hear Hoseok walking out of the door and shutting it loudly enough to signify his departure. 

And then you start wailing, loudly. Your cries fill the empty space of your apartment as you realize you are all alone once again. 

Staring at the moon always brings you solace but tonight it doesn’t. Your mind keeps playing whatever happened a few hours ago and how hoseok left the house. 

He has always been so kind to you, from the very first day you two met at a charity gala, some five or six years back. You didn’t really acknowledge his presence much as you were always busy admiring Yoongi from afar. 

You remember Hoseok once saying that he looked at you while you looked at Yoongi. You were not sure what he tried to mean but that was the first time your heart took an erratic pace in a while.  

A phone suddenly starts vibrating, pulling you out of your thoughts. But it’s not yours. Your eyes find the glowing object near by the door. It’s Hoseok’s phone, which he probably dropped on his way out. 

When you reach the object and pick it up, the screen glows again. There are a couple of notifications, which you clear for seeing the background. 

It’s a photo from your honeymoon. The photographer ajussi forced you to stand closer and place a sweet kiss on Hoseok’s cheeks. He blushed hard that time. 

Sobs start spilling from your throat as soon as you realize what you have done, what you have lost. 

You blew things out of proportion, you put him in jail for something he didn't do. You unloaded all of your insecurities on the man who only loved you.

Clutching his phone on your chest, you start crying again. It’s you who burned things down. It’s you who hurt Hoseok. And now you have lost him, really lost him. 

The door clicks open, forcing you to look up from your crouched position. 

“Y/N..” it’s him, it’s your man, it’s your husband, Jung Hoseok. 

He walks towards you but then remembering something he takes a step back. 

His eyes are red. You know he has been crying just like you.

“I- I forgot my phone-” 

Before he could end his sentence, you leaped at him. You hold him tightly in your embrace. Hiding your face in his chest, you cry, cry and cry. Hoseok holds you back and starts sobbing with you. 

“I love you. I fucking love you so much that it hurts, Y/N. It hurts when you don’t understand, when you turn blind eye.” He says as he strokes your hair softly. 

“I- I was afraid, Hoseok. What if I was wrong again. What if- what if you didn’t-”

“I always did, Y/N. I have loved you for a long time. I loved you when you were a bachelor and I loved you when you got married. I loved you when you divorced him. And I loved you when we took vows. I still love you and I always will.”   

“I love you too, Hoseok.” you finally confess and it feels euphoric. You must have found utopia where the person you love, loves you back. 

Hoseok leans down, seals your lips with his and now you know… You have found your forever. You have found your afterglow. 

[thorraborinn]

I have this kind of idea in my head that Odinn was worshipped more by the wealthy/warrior class whereas Thorr was the guy for the working class people of the viking age. I think I remember reading something about that, perhaps even on your blog? But I can't find much about it anymore. Is that true and how do we know it?

The main piece of evidence for this is the poem Hárbarðsljóð, in which the disguised Óðinn taunts Þórr like this:

Óðinn á jarla, þá er í val falla, en Þórr á þrælakyn.

'Óðinn has the jarls who fall in battle, but Þórr has the kindred of slaves.'

Interpreting this, especially in light of other evidence, is not easy. Clearly, the jarlar that Óðinn is talking about are the einherjar in Valhöll. We do get some pieces of lore about Þórr also having a place where people go in the afterlife, but not in detail, and as I'll discuss below, all of the most famous Þórr-worshipers are not slaves (though, let's keep in mind our sources for the religious beliefs of slaves is not good). Hárbarðr's taunt might be alluding to something like Óðinn being worshiped by a very specific elite, while Þórr was worshiped by people at all strata of society, including but not limited to slaves.

The idea is mentioned in recent literature pretty frequently, but some key articles are "How High Was the High One? The Roles of Oðinn and Þórr in Pre-Christian Icelandic Society" by Terry Gunnell (in the book Theorizing Old Norse Myth), "Pantheon? What Pantheon?" also by Gunnell, and to a certain extent also "How Uniform was Old Norse Religion?" by Stefan Brink (which is not about class, but about geography, which is a much stronger indicator). In "Cunning Intelligence in Norse Myth: Loki, Óðinn, and the Limits of Sovereignty," Kevin Wanner makes use of the absence of royalty in Iceland, and just within Iceland Þórr. Both of the Gunnell pieces are highly synthetic of other peoples' work, revisiting ideas that were already decades old in light of new evidence, and are full of citations to other resources you might find useful.

As an example of where it starts to break down, part of the evidence for this is the way that Þórr was widely recognized in Iceland (which we know about though place-names, personal names, and saga descriptions of people and their religious expression) while Óðinn seems not to have been (based on the same types of evidence; the most famous Icelander dedicated to Óðinn was Egill Skallagrímsson, who was renowned as a poet, and whose family did serve Norwegian royalty at one time).

But within Iceland, the people we're drawing evidence from were in many cases wealthy land-owners. People like Þórólfr Mostrarskegg were marginalized from formal power in Norway, but did become part of Iceland's less centralized, land-owning aristocracy.

We might even be able to say that, by comparing the highest classes of Iceland and Norway, worship of Þórr and worship of Óðinn respectively pertain to two different ideologies of wielding and maintaining power (Olof Sundqvist has written quite a lot about "religious strategies for rulership"). Though, we can also bring it back to the original question by framing Þórr worship in this context as "We are commoners who happen to have more wealth and power than other commoners, so support us, because we support you, because we are essentially the same" where Óðinn-worship might have been something more like "we rule because we are categorically above commoners."

We can find examples pertaining to worship of Freyr as well. So while there's a class dimension here, Iceland and Norway had different class configurations due to the absence of royalty in Iceland, and just within Iceland Þórr was worshiped by people of the highest class attainable. We also have reason to believe that Freyr was worshiped as a god of specific and exceptional importance by royalty (just not the particular royal culture that would eventually produce a great deal of written Norse mythology), so the fact that he was also worshiped by Icelandic farmers means that in his case too we can't really pin it to class in a general sense.

So basically, yeah, what you asked about is a real idea, and it may have been an idea that had currency already in the Viking age, but there was probably never an actual time or place where it was unambiguously true, and even if it were, even that was probably only true of a very specific subsection of people.

[itsclydebitches]

Its years late for this nitpick and honestly the answer is probably just time constraints, but why didn't Ruby gather more attention when she was let in early to Beacon. Maybe not immediately but I imagine somebody would probably let it leak that a girl got in 2 years early to a prestigious combat school, there would probably be some journalists interested in getting that story. It would make Ruby's line about "normal knees" make sense too.

Yeah, even if the story didn't want to introduce a lot of outside conflict (via things like journalist), I would have loved to see this impacting Ruby's relationships more. We've got Weiss commenting that she looks too young to be at Beacon and... that's it. That's the extent of Ruby's age -- something that's initially presented as a Big Deal - having an influence on her time at school. Why not have Weiss specifically take issue with her as a leader because she's too young, rather than just the fact that it's not her getting what she 'deserves'? Why not have Pyrrha feel a kinship with Ruby, bonding over the fact that they've both been singled out as extraordinarily talented fighters at a young age? (Which would also go a long way towards creating an emotional impact when Ruby sees Pyrrha die. It's horrible for the audience, certainly, but fans have long pointed out that Ruby and Pyrrha barely knew one another.) Give me Jaune comparing Ruby to his little sisters, Blake shrugging at her age because outside the kingdoms no one cares how old you are, only that you can fight, a version of Yang who loves her sister, undoubtedly, but was also looking forward to striking out on her own and forming new friendships without a little sis tagging along (she does ditch Ruby for the shadow friends first chance she gets), more teachers like Glynda who are hesitant to bend the rules in such a manner, upper classmen who are jealous that this kid is landing assignments even they're not ready for, a Tai who lost his wife to grimm and is now seeing both his girls enter that profession at the same time, one of whom is still just a kid, and dear god he's not emotionally ready for an empty nest when what's outside the nest is so very, very dangerous.

It is a nitpick in the sense that we got a solid plot for Volumes 1-3 and the lack of all this (and similar ideas) certainly doesn't ruin the story, but it does reflect on how haphazardly RWBY has always been written. It's nothing new to say that RT didn't really know what they were doing with RWBY for a long time, resulting in a huge number of missed opportunities -- that first draft feel that's still influencing the story today. Often when we have broader criticisms, like Ruby's lack of character development post-Volume 4 (at least, that's when I personally think she stagnated), you can trace the problem back to traits that were introduced and then dropped. Ruby is a "most dangerous weapon ever designed" prodigy with a wealth of weapon knowledge and an ancient Silver Eyes power, getting into a prestigious school two years early after her mother mysteriously died in the same profession, but she lacks her mother's (implied) confidence and charisma, instead demonstrating a marked social awkwardness that, again, reflects back on her age. What a fascinating character packed with potential! Too bad Ruby's age was only a concern for the first few episodes, her love of weapons has disappeared, her social awkwardness was never an obstacle to making friends, her eyes were mastered in half a Volume, and her mother's death is mentioned once seven years into the series -- without her sister there to benefit from that emotional beat. It's nothing new to say, but it always bears repeating: RWBY is really good at introducing awesome concepts and really bad at doing anything satisfying with them. It's why the show thrives in fandom where others can play with those ideas and is struggling so badly in the canon itself. It functions best as a sandbox, not a show.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT REASON

People will write operating systems for free. Hiring too fast is by far the biggest killer of startups that end up going public didn't seem likely to at first. That kind of switch often takes people by surprise. But Lisp Machines along with parallel computers were steamrollered by the increasing power of general purpose processors in the 1980s. You have to at least look at the dominant technologies today, you'll find that most of them grew organically. And we think it's unnecessary, and that language is not Lisp. If you get bored with, or can't understand, or don't agree with one point, you don't have them. Any good programmer in a large organization is going to need to do to get rich, or you've failed. We funded one startup that's replacing keys. A hacker's language is terse and hackable. I was using it to create more. And then they panic.

But it was not to create wealth, whatever they have has to be a new Lisp shouldn't have string libraries as good as Perl, and if this new Lisp also had powerful libraries for server-based applications, and there needs to be a no man's land between angels and VCs was a very inconvenient one for startups, because they rely heavily on first impressions. Before they know it, they're big. To the extent the movie business can avoid becoming publishers, they may avoid publishing's problems. Like chess or painting or writing novels, making money is a very specialized skill. As one VC put it: I'm not hard to find. Given that you can. Many are underfunded. Some angel investors join together in syndicates. No matter how thoroughly you've read it, let alone negotiate the terms, so the deal fell through. Depends which gap you mean. The pattern of variation seems no different than for any other skill.

But if you have the potential to go public. We know the current trajectory ends badly. Terrible things happen to startups when they run out of ideas on one point, no problem: it won't kill the essay. This is especially true of a highly articulated tool like a programming language has to be the way most big programs were developed. It only lets you experience the defining characteristic of essay writing on a small scale: in thoughts of a sentence or two. When we say that one kind of work available at the time. Their investors agree. If you start with too big a problem, you may be able to solve predefined problems quickly as to be able to cash out partially in a funding round, by selling some of their stock directly to the investors.

Libraries are one place Common Lisp falls short. You really only get one chance, because they rely heavily on first impressions. Brevity is always attractive to hackers, a language designer would do well to act as if it were merely lack of the right companies. They're doing a finance startup, which means a you don't have to worry about that. Perhaps the CEO or the professional athlete has only ten times whatever that means the skill and determination of an ordinary person. The friends might have liked to have more money in this first phase, but being slightly underfunded teaches them an important lesson. A lot of the great programmers of the day were associated with MIT at some point. The reason is a phenomenon I wrote about earlier: the fatal pinch. To the extent the movie business hasn't seen their revenues decline the way the news and music businesses have.

Depends on what you mean by worth. After the deal, this means 200 additional shares. But if you have the luxury of turning down money. Being available means more than being installed, though. The closest to a general term for iPhones, iPads, and the mass-produced car can afford to spend a lot of money on a watch you could get better performance. Keep rewriting your program. And VCs have been getting a lot faster. Apple could never have imagined. The key to closing deals is never to stop pursuing alternatives.

If investors turn cold you may have to raise less, but when investors in an angel round: the so-called signalling risk. I was thinking recently how inconvenient it was not to create wealth, whatever they have has to be popular to be good, because it would make programs easier to read than a regular article. 5x. A good programming language? And it may be found necessary, in some cases, for a mistress to relinquish, on assuming the responsibility of a household, many of those commenced in the earlier part of her life. Which for founders will result in the perfect combination: funding rounds that close fast, with high valuations. Look at how much any popular language has changed during its life. They're tools, designed for people, and they have started to use it. But evidence suggests most things with titles like this are linkbait. Technology Will technology increase the gap between the rich and the poor, not increasing it.

Jobs started in their spare time selling plans for microcomputers would yield one of the secrets of success? They treat the words printed in the book the same way it protects the reader. The root cause of variation in income would be bad. Java also play a role—but I think it would help founders to understand funding better—not just at this stage, but at least they probably really do want whatever they're asking for. And popularity further separates good languages from bad ones, because feedback from real live users always leads to improvements. But when you first start working on something hard. And not just for the obvious reason that more competition for deals means better terms. One solution here might be to design systems so that interfaces are horizontal instead of vertical—so that modules are always vertically stacked strata of abstraction. That's the myth in the Valley.

[aemontargaryen-bloodraven]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but only Aegon's dream came from Martin, not the heir to heir knowledge or the Targaryen on the Iron Throne part - that is all Show-Canon.

Source

Aegon’s dream isn’t mentioned in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, but it was brought up by Martin himself in a conversation with the House of the Dragon showrunners. In an interview with Polygon, showrunner Ryan J. Condal said:

“That actually came from [Martin] … He told us very early on in the room — just as he does, just casually mentioned the fact that Aegon the Conqueror was a dreamer who saw a vision of the White Walkers coming across the wall and sweeping over the land with cold and darkness. So, with his permission, of course, we infused that into the story because it was such a great way to create resonance with the original show.”

As for rest of the post, yes, Rhaegar was burdened by the prophecy but not to the extent that he was obsessed. We really need more backstory to him if we need clarity about this situation. For example, Did he have dreams? Did the Ghost of High Heart had something to do with it? Why did he go to Summerhall so much?

IMO, he was more burdened by his father and how he can peacefully dispose him off.

As for the House of the Undying Vision, I do believe, as it has been speculated before, Rhaegar looks at Dany when he says it...he is speaking to her. It is after this message that she thinks that there are two men in the world that she can trust.

Rhaegar wanted a Visenya is one of the most bullshit takes of this fandom...and that is saying something. If he wanted a Visenya, he had options, as you mentioned, Cersei is RIGHT THERE! She comes with Tywin's wealth and power. Why go for Lyanna? And yes, there is another stupid take of 'Oh, maybe he realised Stark blood has magic.' Well, then he could have arranged a match between his son and a future Stark daughter. Afterall, if Aegon is the PTWP then he sure isn't going to go off and fight as a toddler. It would take years, the Starks were betrothed, they would have had a daughter in a couple of years.

It is significant that Jon has Targaryen blood and Stark blood, GRRM particularly didn't show a Stark and Targaryen union or any Stark-Targaryen offspring until Jon and that has to have some significance and we will have to wait for the future books for that.

I do not agree with people who go around and at first discard, "Oh there is no political importance of Jon being a Targaryen, no one will believe it, he is a bastard anyway." And then also go on, "Oh there is no magical importance of Jon being a Targaryen and a Stark, it is all Bran, Dany, Arya etc." GRRM didn't give Jon, a Targaryen parentage for nothing at all or so he could be cast aside because most people in this fandom want him to end up nowhere or he could have love story with his cousin. There is a red preistess at the Wall, she and her visions are there for a reason.

Untill we get TWOW, half of these things are speculations. GRRM needs to hurry up.

Rhaegar, Aegon, and the prophecy of TPTWP

I’m working on some meta about Rhaegar x Lyanna but I’ve hit a bit of a snag because something is bothering me about Rhaegar and his relationship with prophecy. Specifically, the prince that was promised prophecy. So we’re told that Rhaegar believed he would be tPtWP but at some point decided that his son, Prince Aegon, would be the prophesied messiah instead. It might just be me but isn’t it kind of weird just how abrupt this decision is?

It’s believed that the red comet seen on the day of Aegon’s conception might have convinced Rhaegar, but I feel like this is a bit unsatisfactory. So Rhaegar believes for years that it is his destiny to be the hero, but then he sees a comet and changes his mind just like that? And doesn’t the prophecy state that the prince would be born beneath a bleeding star? Born, not conceived. What would prompt Rhaegar to suddenly pivot so hard based on some circumstantial evidence?

Rhaegar doesn’t strike me as a wind vane sort of man. A man who moves anywhere the wind blows, such that he would hop from one contrivance to another just so he could fulfill some vague prophecy. Instead, judging by how bookish and well learned he was, I see him as someone who was probably moved by evidence.

The fandom likes to dismiss him as a prophecy obsessed weirdo but I disagree and think it simplifies and maligns him quite unfairly. Rhaegar was clouded by prophecy because his entire existence is due to prophecy. He was presumably conceived just so he could be a prophesied prince. And let’s look at his birth too. Is it really so surprising that Rhaegar (and Aemon) thought he was tPtWP? He does after all fulfill the Azor Ahai requirements (but rather metaphorically). A dragon was awaken at Summerhall beneath a red star and amidst salt and smoke. That dragon was Rhaegar. So Rhaegar had a multitude of evidence to back up the belief that he would be Azor Ahai.

I’m talking about book cannon so I hate to bring up the adaptations, but we learn in HoTD that Aegon I had a dream about the Long Night that convinced him to unite Westeros. We’re told that the secret of Aegon’s dream is passed down from king to heir - so we see Viserys give Rhaenyra the rundown. This is apparently something that GRRM has confirmed himself so I guess I have to consider it a part of book semi-cannon as well. So it’s really possible that in keeping with tradition, Aerys told Rhaegar about Aegon’s dream and given what Rhaegar already knew about the circumstances of his own birth, he might have been even more convinced about his role in the upcoming war for the dawn.

But then something changed along the way and Rhaegar came to believe that he wasn’t the hero, his son was. We’ve established that Rhaegar is someone who is surrounded by hard evidence, so it’s safe to assume that something happened to give him irrefutable proof that his son would be the promised prince. The comet seen during Prince Aegon’s conception doesn’t seem like much of a pivoting point. Rather, I think of it as an anchoring.

Is it possible, then, that he had prior knowledge of his son (specifically) being tPtWP instead of him? And so the appearance of the comet during Prince Aegon’s conception only confirmed what he already knew at the time. I’m trying to think of something that would convince Rhaegar to pivot and I’m wondering if a different prophecy sealed the deal.

It’s hard to think of who could give Rhaegar such an important prophecy. At first, I thought maybe it could be that he somehow met the Ghost of High Heart and she gave it to him. After all, she is the one who gave the original prophecy that led to his parents’ marriage. She is believed to have died at the tragedy of Summerhall, where Rhaegar was born, but that’s not really true because Arya meets her decades later. She is quite shaken by Jenny of Oldstone’s death and she keeps asking to hear Jenny’s song; Lady Jenny died at Summerhall. We also know that Rhaegar visited Summerhall quite a bit so it’s possible that they might have crossed paths as they both had connections to this place where they lost people important to them. There are fan theories that Rhaegar wrote Jenny’s song, which he could’ve written for the GoHH. When Arya meets the witch, she requests a song in exchange of a prophecy and this song is (presumably) Jenny’s song. So perhaps Rhaegar wrote it for her in exchange for a prophecy where he asked her about the Prince. And then the GoHH told him that it wasn’t him but his son. Given the very vague nature of prophecy that we’ve seen so far, she might have even said something like “your prince” or “the little prince” idk. So by the time Rhaegar starts having children with Elia, he knows full well that he must have a son who will eventually take up the mantle of the prophesied hero. Though he isn’t the messiah, this is still another prophetic burden for him to bear for he is destined to be the messiah’s father (almost like it’s a duty…).

But this doesn’t explain the matter of “the dragon must have three heads”. Dany sees the vision of Rhaegar, Elia, and Aegon, where Rhaegar says “there must be one more”. No one ever mentions the matter of three heads in relation to Azor Ahai/tPtWP. No one, except maester Aemon and Rhaegar. If my memory serves me correct, much of Aemon’s speculations are to do with Rhaegar and he never mentions hearing about three heads of the dragon in the Azor Ahai prophecy elsewhere. He thinks Dany is the Prince(ss) and he could aid her by being one of the heads, but that’s really it. I think Aemon got the three heads thing from his correspondence with Rhaegar; and Rhaegar heard about it elsewhere.

We have even less to go on with Rhaegar’s reasoning for why he believed that there must be two others in addition to the Prince. It kind of comes out of nowhere by the time we read Dany’s HoTU vision. So is it safe to assume that the prophecy that could have told him about his son’s role in the upcoming ‘song’ also told him about three heads of the dragon?

I’ve gone through this wall of text only to just now arrive at the point; specifically, who told Rhaegar about his son being the messiah and about the three headed dragon?

The timeline is a bit hard to pin down with the GoHH because we can’t even be sure if and when they met. And if they did meet, to what capacity? But we do have another seer in the story whose whereabouts we can confirm in in relation to Rhaegar. I’m talking about Maggy the Frog.

In 276 AC, a tourney is held to honor Viserys III’s birth in Lannisport. Rhaegar was 17 at this time and not yet married. Tywin Lannister, this time, wanted to take advantage of this and wished to wed his daughter Cersei to the crown prince. Cersei is told of the potential betrothal by her aunt and, now already infatuated with the prince, visits Maggy the Frog in order to confirm her future. We’re told that many people visited Maggy so Cersei was certainly not her first nor her last customer (though I’m not sure when Maggy died, the wiki just says 276).

So I wonder if Rhaegar also heard of the popular Maggy and deigned to visit her as well to ask a few questions. And then he got there and after giving a prick of blood, asked his questions and got a series of rather vague and confusing answers (just based on what Maggy told Cersei and Melara). It’s hard to tell what sort of questions he asked but they might have pertained to the upcoming war. I can imagine some of his potential questions being:

“How must the darkness be defeated?” - and Maggy says “three there shall be who must sally forth into the darkness” or some nonsense

Then Rhaegar goes, “three? But the prophecy talks about a prince that was promised (singular) not princes that were promised (plural). Who are the others?” - not entirely sure what Maggy could say for this but probably something vague like “one for the mind, one of the heart, one of the body” idk (someone help me out here)

Then maybe for Rhaegar’s last question he asks, “am I the promised prince?” - to which Maggy replies, “no, not you. But the son will be” or some nonsense. I think it was probably not specific that it was Rhaegar’s son or even if it was, which one.

So Rhaegar leaves that meeting having to make quite a number of assumptions about three heroes and the promised messiah and his role in relation to them. But at the very least, he now knows that he isn’t the messiah, “the son” who is presumably his will fulfill that role. Note: it would actually be so hilarious if Rhaegar, like Cersei, got a Valonqar prophecy. Maybe that was Maggy’s whole bit, it was for the *vibes*.

So that means that by the time he is betrothed to Elia by 279 and gets Princess Rhaenys by 280, Rhaegar expects a little son. But it’s not a son who is born to him, it’s a daughter instead. I don’t know if Rhaegar was thinking about recreating the Aegon-Visenya-Rhaenys triumvirate at this time, but he decided to name his daughter after one of Aegon’s wives. But he might have also been trying to honor his mother whose name also starts with the Rhae- prefix. After all if he was trying to recreate the three headed triumvirate, shouldn’t he have started with Visenya? She was the eldest of the three. Except he already had a brother named Viserys! I guess we can say that he didn’t mind his daughter sharing a name with his brother; he could even argue that his daughter is named after his brother as some sort of homage. But then it would just be that: homage and not purposefully trying to recreate the conquering trio. See this is why the fandom shouldn’t be so single minded with the headcannon that Rhaegar “most def wanted a Visenya, trust me bro”. I don’t believe that we have enough to go on to come to this conclusion and there’s even less to suggest that Rhaegar absolutely had to recreate Aegon and his sisters. Though the prophecy was Aegon I’s, there’s not much to suggest that the others would need to be Visenya and Rhaenys. A lot of the evidence is circumstantial and not at all definitive, in my opinion.

Anyway, Rhaegar would have Aegon a year or so later (not sure about the timeline). Now, he has the son who may be the promised prince. And better yet, he was heralded by a bleeding star! It’s not a perfect 1:1 ratio, but this is an instance of a prophecy coming true (as far as he knows)! So Rhaegar’s thought process here is: I have been told that my son will one day be the promised prince -> I see a comet one day as I’m laying with my wife -> a son is born to me nine months later -> based on everything I know, this son will be tPtWP.

According to Dany’s vision, Rhaegar chose the name Aegon because that is a king’s name. He then adds that little Aegon is the prince that was promised and his is the song of ice and fire. It’s assumed that Rhaegar gave his son this name so as to recreate the three headed dragon, which may very well be true. But, like, everyone had a son named Aegon at some point in Targ history. By now, there have already been five kings named Aegon, and even more princes bearing that name. So it’s a similar situation with Princess Rhaenys. It connects to the legendary conqueror, but it’s also a name that has a lot of meaning to the Targaryens regardless of prophecy. Rhaegar is now perfectly fine with fulfilling his duty as the father to the prince who was promised, if what we know of his correspondence with Maester Aemon is anything to go by.

We don’t know about much of what Rhaegar thought after Aegon. Presumably he thought he needed one more, based on Maggy’s prophecy, but where would the other come from? Perhaps Dany’s HoTU vision works as a two way mirror. Maybe Rhaegar dreamt of her too and thought she would be his daughter to complete the trio; maybe that could explain why he looks right at her. Elia was sickly after Aegon but do we really have much to suggest that Rhaegar thought Elia wouldn’t do the job and he must look for another wife? After all, he already had Aegon, his promised prince, so anyone else could fill a supporting role. We at the very least have very little to go on to suggest that he somehow believed that Lyanna Stark must be the one to carry the third child. I’m sure that he met many wonderful women in King’s Landing. Ashara Dayne, for instance, is right there. He could also get Cersei Lannister, who had already shown great interest in him (though I’m not sure that Tywin would agree). Still, Lyanna Stark (already betrothed to Robert Baratheon) was not a perfect choice. And if he already had his promised prince in Aegon, why would he hurry to chase after Lyanna? It’s not like he got a timetable about the Others’ coming in the next few months/years (unless Maggy gave that to him too). Maybe, just maybe, Rhaegar’s relationship with Lyanna was the one thing in his life that ironically had nothing to do with prophecy…

Rhaegar went to his grave thinking that Prince Aegon would be tPtWP. Who knows what he thought of Lyanna’s child. The fandom seems convinced that this child was his “there must be one more”, but he may have never really considered what the child’s role would be (if anything). We don’t know anything about what Rhaegar expected to come out of Lyanna and her child, so we should be careful about saying that Jon was for sure intended to complete the three headed dragon. I’d imagine that as long as Rhaegar had his Aegon, everything else was relative.

In any case, this is an instance in which, as Moqorro would put it, prophecy bites your prick off. Because Rhaegar died, and Prince Aegon died as well. Princess Rhaenys, who may or may not have played a secondary role, died with Aegon. Furthermore, Rhaegar did not have a third child to complete the foretold trio and even if he did, that child would have died as well. It seems like Maggy’s possible prophecy died with the fall of House Targaryen. Except it didn’t. The prophecy will come true, but in very unexpected ways.

Because Rhaegar does have a surviving son, Jon, who was quite unexpected. Unexpected in the sense that Rhaegar may never have considered where Lyanna’s child would fit into all of this. Instead of glittering Prince Aegon being the savior, it’s Jon the bastard who joins a brotherhood up North that is full of the scum of Westeros. An even bigger twist is that Jon is already doing the job (fighting against the Others) without knowing about his true family and how he might be connected to the prophecy; the prophecy wasn’t even about him to begin with. Jon is the savior not because of prophecy, but because he is a good person who cares very much about humanity. The prophecy still exist, but is actually quite unimportant when it comes down it.

Then there’s Daenerys, Rhaegar’s sister who wasn’t even conceived then. She goes even further than all of them and wakes dragons from stone; the first one to do so in some 200 years. So she also fulfills the Azor Ahai requirements rather unexpectedly. And the third head is a mystery. GRRM says that the third head need not be a Targaryen. Lots of theories have come up since then but the most popular contender is Tyrion Lannister; I personally tend to flip flop between Tyrion and Bran Stark. But whoever the third head is, it would still be a subversion. To the average Targaryen, Dany is a given because she woke dragons from stone and is decidedly the blood of the dragon; she’s also the last dragon alive. That’s all well and good but now we have to consider a northern bastard, who doesn’t even look the part, as a possibility. Sure he’s got magic powers, but they’re all wrong and not at all the expected kind. Then the last head isn’t even a Targ? Imagine it being the dwarf Tyrion Lannister. He’s no warrior and he’s got no power outside of his mind; I guess it’s nice that he reads a lot but how does that help anyone? Or if it turns out to be Bran and the third head is a crippled boy from the north who’s got magic powers but again, the wrong sort of magic. I’d imagine Rhaegar and all his predecessors going, “??!”.

Anyway, this started with me trying to understand why Rhaegar so suddenly decided that Aegon was tPtWP but has now veered off into something different. I was just thinking of the irony of Rhaegar’s son being a prophesied savior, but it’s not the son he worked for/expected. And even the three heads of the dragon aren’t who he thought they’d be either. I’m thinking, more generally, about how prophecies in ASOIAF come true, but they are fulfilled in ways that one would least expect. I need to look around and see what other people are saying in regards to Rhaegar, Aegon, and tPtWP. These same points might’ve already been made by someone else….

[a03-anxiousandafraid]

WiP ask game: OnlyFandom. Give me something on the next chapter, please.

THANK YOU SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!!! And for that cat gif oh my goodness that cat is adorable I can't- <3

I've taken way too long to get yall an update on this fic and I was floundering super hard on what segment to give so I decided to just hand you the entire first third of the chapter. I'm so sorry if it feels stale: I feel like I was writing myself in circles trying to get some of the moments to feel right and not cringe but I think letting you all see this much will help disarm the mental block :) I promise the chapter gets more dynamic as it goes on!!

⚠🔞 This fic is rated E:. There IS a content warning in the segment below:. It is marked with dashes for those who wish to skip it. Just scroll until you see "End of CW" and you're in the clear :) 🔞⚠

Ch. 18 Urbosa’s Assistant

  When Urbosa said to come over early she had half expected the poor girl to arrive at her door a timid mess, incapable of breaching the topic without prompting and encouragement. If the persistent redness of Zelda’s face was anything to go off of, then it made perfect sense to prepare for a talk akin to pulling teeth. But Zelda wasn’t one to align herself to others’ expectations. Far from it.  

  What Urbosa got, instead, was a freight train barreling through her foyer a good five hours earlier than anticipated tossing around books on the “art of living well” and a whole dissertation on the theory of “erotic orientation development” while asking questions a mile a minute. It had the Gerudo’s head spinning. Had her utterly stunned and incapable of stopping the rampaging bear of a Hylian storming around her living room where the shoot equipment was prepped.

  “-which I already know proper communication is important, but THIS book has an entire section on positions and I just can’t figure out what necessarily denotes difficulty? Is it perhaps a psychological thing or are there variations to accommodate flexibility? OH but there was a passage in here that mentions power relations with a heavy insinuation on wealth and THAT just sounds counterintuitive-”

  “ZELDA!!” Her voice cut through the air like a knife.

  Wide green orbs parsed Urbosa in mild confusion. Lips pulling back into a long, thin line, it was clear she was oblivious to the extent of her own ramblings.

  “Holy Hylia, Zel are you quantifying sex? What is this?” Snatching one of the books from the coffee table, she scrutinized both covers before exhaling deeply. “Dinraal give me strength. Okay… Honey, screw this. We’re going to start slow. These books aren’t gunna help you right now.” Dropping the brick of a volume back onto the table, she opened her palms out to her friend and swept the air clear like a white board. “First I want to teach you some knots.”

  The small Hylian gazed back unmoving. “…Knots?”

  “Yes. Exactly. One sec,” Urbosa held up a finger and retreated into the other room. It wasn’t long before she came back with two ropes each the diameter of her pinky finger. “Here… You take one and follow along with me.”

  “But what does this-”

  “It will all make sense as we go,” the Gerudo interjected, “I swear.”

  Zelda bit her lip and sighed. She couldn’t deny being a bit put out at being shut down by one of her best friends, but the butterflies in her stomach refused to let up and she’d be damned if she caused a scuffle now. “I’m just so nervous,” she fussed the moment the rope landed in her hand. Twisting it anxiously between her fingers, she continued, “My brain wouldn’t shut off last night and I just… I just don’t want to screw this up.”

  Urbosa side-eyed her with mild concern. “Little bird, you’re just an assistant for today. Nothing you do needs to be perfect as long as you heed my instructions. Besides~!” A teasing smirk smeared across her face. “I think you’ll find this overall experience rather… enlightening.”

  A cold shiver shimmied down Zelda’s spine. If the plethora of fantasies playing out in her head last night were anything to go off of then yes… today would be telling. However, that didn’t make this any less unnerving.

  Sensing the Hylian’s unease, she gave her friend’s shoulder a firm squeeze. “Alright, I’m going to show you how to tie and untie a few different types of knots and then as you practice them relentlessly I’ll drill you about safety.” Her eyes crinkled in amusement as the look on Zelda’s face went from unenthused to calculating to determined.

  It’s now or never. “Alright!” She puffed up her chest like a small bird and nodded with more vigor than necessary. “I’m ready.”

  They spent the better half of an hour twisting and yanking their rope strands with various techniques. Zelda listened with rapt attention and, unsurprisingly, was quick to catch on. It wasn’t long before Urbosa brought out an old dress form for Zelda to continue practicing on as she ran through an extensive summary of safety guidelines and warnings.

  “I know I’ve said this at least six times by now but do not forget: Consent and communication are vital. If at any point someone wants to stop, you do so immediately.”

  “I understand,” Zelda nodded, eyes fixed on the half-hatch she was tying above the dress form’s tailbone. She gave the rope a firm yank and froze when a sudden thought crossed her mind. “Um, Urbosa?”

  “Yes, Little Bird?” she asked, the edge in her voice replaced with something more motherly.

  “Link doesn’t really… talk,” she began, absently picking at the fraying threads as she pieces her thoughts together. “And if his hands are restrained… how do you uphold proper communication?” Her gaze abandons her project to look to her friend and is surprised to be met with a smile as broad as the Great Plateau.  

  “Good question,” Urbosa coos before getting up from her seat and adjusting the knot on the mannequin to be more symmetrical. “We’ve been working together for long enough to have our own visual language but we also have a safe word. That way he only needs to mutter a few syllables at me to get the point across and if I feel like he is in a state which compromises his ability to do so, we stop immediately.”

  “Our safe word,” Urbosa continues, fingers pinched on the rope, “is Hinox.” Punctuating the word with a tug, the knot unravels quickly. “It’s short and easy to spit out, simple enough to remember, and not something that would easily come up in conversation.” She takes a step back and gestures for Zelda to redo it.

  “That’s…” she pauses and weaves the rope with growing ease, “…quite clever, actually.”

  “Clever and necessary. Much like you, Little Bird,” Urbosa chuckles as her eyes scan the work before her. “In just a few hours you’ve improved dramatically. You’ll get better the more you practice, but for now I think you’ve earned a treat.”

  Green eyes light up at the insinuation. “Oh?” Hands twitching towards her books on the coffee table, she can’t stop the excited jitter that flutters through her innards. Just as her fingers grace the cover, however, Urbosa swats her hand away.

  “Honey, no.” Her face is deadpan. “Follow me.”

  She leads Zelda into a familiar room full of boxes and plastic storage bins. Shuffling a few around, the Gerudo hunts down a black bin with a tape label reading “XXX” and slides it onto a nearby table. “This might be a little presumptuous but nothing about you is meek and I’ll be damned if you miss out on an opportunity you might like.”

  “I uh… wait,” Zelda mumbles, shifting her weight from side to side trying to puzzle out her friend’s words. “What?”

  A heavy sigh puffs from Urbosa’s chest. “I don’t need or necessarily want to know what you two do privately, but you should know there’s more to intimacy than penetrative sex.” She hastily tosses the lid off the bin and rummages around for a few items.

  - - - - - - - - - - Educational CW - - - - - - - - - -

  Oh Goddess Hylia… Cold sweat cascades down Zelda’s brow. An obscene urge to lung towards the bin like a starved animal itches within the layers of her skin. With what little self-control she has she stays rooted to the ground, keeping her rabid energy at bay until two large, phallic objects are brought before her. She almost chokes on her own tongue. It’s too much. Embarrassing and enthralling from the tips of her ears down to her toes, her emotions run wild while her eyes begin to bulge.

  “Th-These are…” Zelda croaks. A small, nagging voice in the back of her mind barks to know more… to see more… to do more as the onslaught of fantasies fill her brain. She breathes in a stuttering breath. Reaching out towards one of the toys, her veins thrum with a feeling she has long since craved.

  Power.

  Power and control over her own body, her own pleasure, her own desires… Like a woman possessed, she curls her fingers around the pink instrument and gasps.

  “These are just props for shoots but you can get one to use alone or with someone,” Urbosa explains a little too nonchalantly. She watches the blush spread across her friend’s face but is pleased to see her analyzing the item more like a scientist than a squeamish schoolgirl. “The one you’re holding is a personal favorite. It’s called a “rabbit’s foot,” hence the extension on it.”

  Zelda nods blankly, still admiring the weight of the small device. It’s comfortable. Almost inviting with its tangible intricacies and velvet surface. She lifts a thin finger to give the extra bulb a light flick and watches it bob playfully in the air. Turning the device around in her hands, she observes its gentle ark and shivers.

  “Nayru forbid,” Zelda almost sputters at the realization. “This is for… extra stimulation?!” Her friend gives her an unashamed nod that sets her inner furnace ablaze. “Goddesses…” She holds it like an artifact from an archeological dig. Stroking the material gently, she gives the toy’s texture more consideration. It’s just so smooth. Something between skin and velveteen. I bet it feels amazing.

  Eyes closed, the image of her low-lit dorm room morphs into view. Zelda gulps against the lump in her throat as she imagines bringing the instrument to her core. A rosined bow to taunt strings erupting into a concerto of bliss- it reverberates through her veins like molten gold and before long her solo becomes a duet. Pleasure much like that night in Urbosa’s guest room permeates her dream as the instrument satisfies the ache for touch and stretch. But rather than watch a mouth and hand play her like a fiddle, she conducts this symphony herself. Orchestrates the ebbs and flows of the song until the music crescendos to the final note.

  Before her musings can get too deep, Zelda falls back to reality. Surely sporting a scarlet flush, she hands her temptation back only to have the other device thrust before her. Trading it, she heaves a deep sigh and gives it a similar scrutinous lookdown. It’s weightier than the previous one, but not in a way that seems unmanageable. Thicker and lacking any extra extensions, but there’s something odd about the base of it.

  “Some of these are made to vibrate, like the rabbit’s foot,” Urbosa ruminates, holding down a small circular pattern thus activating the toy. Continuing to click the button, it cycles through a few different vibration patterns before being turned back off. “The one you’re holding now should be one of interest for a different reason though.”

  She’s ready to melt. Ready to die in more ways than one and unfortunately for her these damn toys are integrating into said ideas. Shaking the perverse thoughts away, she focuses her energy on Urbosa’s voice. Determined to listen rather than float off once again to the blissful land of daydreams.

  “Do you remember what I told you yesterday in the café?”

  Squinting in thought, Zelda worries her lip between her teeth for a moment. “About the… OH!” Her eyes grow wide with recognition. “About straps! …for… oh. Oh.” A moment of alarm shoots down her chest and she can’t help but hold the phallic object just a little further from her body. “Oh Goddess, Link bought this?”

  “More or less,” Urbosa hums, holding out a bundle of leather straps. “This is the fun part, though: if you secure this on your body properly that device can just click right in and-”

  Raw heat is erupting through Zelda’s head and screaming bloody murder in her ears. Threatening a nosebleed, her brain buzzes with images of Link’s intense, hungry gaze eyeing her down while she sports nothing but the strap on. Deaf and blind to the world around her, the images flashing grow more and more provocative until her knees grow weak enough to buckle.

  - - - - - - - - - - End of CW - - - - - - - - - -

  She slides to the ground with a heavy thump. Legs the weight of lead, her eyes pan up to Urbosa’s in a euphoric haze. “Nayru give me strength,” she mutters helplessly. “How are you so… casual about all this?”

  The smile she returns is gentle. Offering her hands to help Zelda stand, Urbosa explains, “To me a body is just a body. Nothing about it is inherently sexual, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know utilize it.” Warm amusement seeps into the corners of her lips. “You do know things like bondage can exist outside the presence of sex, right?”

  “Huh,” Zelda breathes. “I guess that should be obvious in hindsight but I never really considered it much.”

  “Understandable coming from a naïve brat,” she sings in jest. Her friend merely snorts in response and can’t help but laugh. “I’ll be honest with you, Little Bird… I won’t take on any other clients of this nature.”

  Green eyes widen in surprise. “So Link is the only…” she trails off, recalling her friend’s interactions on the subject carefully. “You said it makes good money?”

  The Gerudo quirks a brow and smirks, “It makes good money because my client and I operate with a high level of trust and respect.” She watches her friend’s response. Eagerness to understand wells within her irises so plain to see that she can’t help but nod and continue. “I’m sure some people think what we’re doing is a dream job or a fantasy, but neither of us see it that way. Just because he can feel attracted to many doesn’t mean he’s attracted to any, the same way I don’t care for attraction yet understand what people believe is attractive.”

  Puzzlement washes across Zelda’s face as she takes time to consider. Like the tides, her thoughts build and grow, weaving a web of memories and empathy to seek understanding. She’s still for a long moment.

  “Do you remember, Zelda,” Urbosa coos, “when you went with me to that drawing event a few years ago?”

  Like a fish dropped back into water, the Hylian gasps. “OH! Oh yes, the one where we sat in a circle with charcoal and paper around that bowl of fruit?” Her friend nods with a smile. She beams, “Yes, that was… fun but miserable?” Her breath is airy as she laughs.

  “Exactly!” Cackling lightly Urbosa exclaims, “It was humid and stuffy and we left absolutely filthy from the medium! Sometimes those sessions have live models instead of fruit. Sometimes those models wear interesting costumes and sometimes their nude.” Shrugging nonchalant, she watches the light bulb begin to brighten in her friend’s head. “A nude model may sound sexy, but in reality you’re still stuck in a stuffy room covered in charcoal and probably witnessing someone next to you having an emotional breakdown because they can’t get the shading and proportions quite right on a leg.”

  Humor creases the lines of Zelda’s face. “Does this mean you’re going to stick me in the corner of the room with some paper and pencils until I cry?”

  “No, but that would be hilarious.”

  The two women burst into laughter. Singing a song of pure delight, they collect themselves slowly as Urbosa hauls Zelda back onto her feet. Dropping her hands from her grasp, she straightens her back and breathes a deep sigh. “I will only do these shoots with Link because we both see this as an opportunity for art. For him, it’s a means to livelihood, and to me… it’s a safe way to explore expression through photography. We respect boundaries and that is what I want you to take away from today.”

  Zelda nods. The furrow of her golden brow loosens as the words weigh upon her. “Thank you,” she breathes. “I think I understand. I never really reacted to things like this before meeting Link and I think… I think it all came on so strong I kind of forgot the bliss of a strictly studious desire.” Her eyes track to the dark bin full of props. “I’m not… changing too much am I?” Her voice strikes a somber chord as she looks back up to her friend. Once again, a motherly grin meets her gaze.

  “Change isn’t always bad, Little Bird.” The Gerudo’s voice is soft and warm like the summer wind. “And I would never encourage anything that would hurt you. Speaking of… did you want me to show you how to put this on properly or-?”

  “YES PLEASE,” Zelda practically spits.

[kojoty]

Haven't seen much analysis in the OFMD fandom other than 'wow ed and stede are so cute and perfect for each other <3 stede is the only person who has ever listened to/seen ed'. And like sure, yes, to a big extent, Stede is the only man who's made the effort and absolutely sees Ed in a way no one else has attempted before, and most importantly, the 'real' Ed that Stede sees is an Ed that isn't a monster, but a man, but--

I really think it'd be remiss to the writing of the show to avoid the elephant in the room, which is that Stede fundamentally does not understand, at least until the end of the show when he himself has the British government down upon his head, where Ed's anger and trauma sources from. The show mostly plays it coy-- Stede being kind of naive/ignorant of the colonialist implications of some of what he says, and the script/Taika keeping it at just Ed giving this Look into the middle distance to signify that something is off but Ed knows better than to make a scene-- but there is very much textual evidence that the show wants us to look at Stede Bonnet and pull apart his colonialist facade, even more than the second episode when they breach land on that island.

I mean, in a lot of ways, the show does that-- the interplay between the 'gentleman' and the 'pirate' is very much just the text of the show. But I think a lot of people are just kind of taking that at face value, not acknowledging where a man like Stede Bonnet-- A wealthy white commonwealth citizen who lives in Barbados and owns land there-- would have gotten his wealth from. Where the very real gentleman pirate that the show has based its fictional and farcical account of Stede Bonnet on got his landed wealth from. The legacy of what money made his ship and his expeditions possible.

And genuinely, they do a good job of showing that Stede is a fair man who does believe in equality, and the fact that he pays a very multi-ethnic crew a living wage, and in the context of his ship everyone is equal most definitely gives him points, and is probably why Blackbeard-- A non-white, non-landed gentry who only has money because of his theft-- can stand to look past some of the privileged remarks/actions Stede makes sometimes. But I think it'd do a disservice, for instance, to ignore just who Stede automatically is comfortable with being the servants and cooks and waitstaff when the white British soldiers come onto his ship. Certainly even Stede would have been uncomfortable with that, but nonetheless, that is a position of power that Stede has. And it's a position of power that I don't think he has spent a lot of S1 really pulling apart.

Which is why I'm hopeful in s2 (pls tptb pls pls pls) that Stede being forced to confront that anger, that hatred, that Blackbeard is now encompassing as his role will allow him to start textually dismantling some of that, to understand that yes, Stede saw Ed, but Stede really, really didn't see Blackbeard. Doesn't understand why Blackbeard has prospered and existed for so many years. And if they want to have a relationship in the future, Stede really needs to do the hard work of understanding why a non-white man on the run from the British government can turn into the legend known as Blackbeard. What's that Captain Flint quote from Black Sails? "Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours. I will be it." It's important for Stede to understand that Blackbeard isn't just fiction, he's Ed's reality.

[shivorce]

this is quite obvious i know but i think one of the main themes of succession is inheritance. the wealth aspect of this is probably the most apparent but the white fragility/culpability aspect of it all is even more significant. like to what extent are sins of your ancestors (both distant and immediate) yours to carry? did the roy siblings know about what logan and his buddies talked about in his study, and does it even matter? they’re so caught up in not feeling personally responsible that they fail to realize that that’s not even relevant. kendall squares the blame on his father and distances himself so far from accountability that he’s imagined himself into some sort of social justice champion. roman denies that logan was directly involved and reasons that even if he had been, someone else would have done the same thing and made a ton of money doing it. shiv for reasons we do not have time to get into right now would actually collapse into herself like a star going supernova if she stopped for even one moment of critical self reflection. connor has set up residence in la la land but that is neither here nor there. the siblings are so eager to inherit all of the power, money, influence. but what of the bodies buried along the way? are those not your birthright too?

their willingness to readily deny any connection to the ugly parts of the family’s past speaks to such a distinctly sinister quality of whiteness. their ability to sink back into a crowd of people pointing at a hot dog car that’s just crashed through a storefront and loudly ask “who could have done this!! they must be punished!!” all the while they’re wearing a hot dog suit

[forgotteneabha]

these sisters like 'that dude might call himself lord but im still the lady here' for their respective homes and i love that for them and for their counties and for everyone honestly <3333333

omg but aine going to eabha for advice <3333 she tries her best to give it!! and probs asks her fair share, too! honestly i feel like they probs do give e/o mutual support in this and that's probs a v good thing! i do think that, on the surface tho, aine def has the harder task ahead of her bc rian is v stern and stubborn and aware of the honors that've been deprived and thus his need to make up for them and also kinda sus that everyone's tryna screw him over (bc of this narrativehe was always taught where his dad did everything right and still got kicked in the teeth) etc etc etc whereas godfrey is charming and generally considerate re: her knowledge of things and his hopes for the good of the ppl etc. ultimately, rian is def the sweeter guy no question tho hahaha rian would NEVER do like even half the shady things godfrey does pr much on the daily hahaha but anyway!!! no one knows that lkajsdflkjsdkljfsdf

anyway, i def think that eabha is buying that she's got the easier end of this deal, that way, but i think she's actually hopeful that, once godfrey officially becomes family, maybe he can prevail upon rian to be a lil more lenient etc since rian seems to respect varmonts if not astairans, etc, since godfrey is the reasonable one aksdjfklsdjf

i feel like aine likely ~does know, but idk that eabha ever explicitly told her...that is, i feel like 1) aine probs knows her well enough to be able to infer but also 2) that, like, when eabha made that realization/choice she sort of started approaching things differently like yknow talking abt 'oh when im married fiona won't have to worry abt x' w the implication that whatever inconvenience will be gone due to wealth/power or whatever just as an off hand comment and i do think eabha does approach alaric, for example, much more than she otherwise ever would have, him being a varmont and herself astairan etc and yeah just lil hints abt what she's thinking etc like that! and i think she does approach it a bit like a fait d'accomplie too but not necessarily like...yknow exuberant like you might be if you were in love etc

so yeah!! i think its there to be seen, if you know her well etc, but i also think it makes eabha feel really gross and mercenary to be pursuing a guy for his money/power and like its for the greater good etc but yeah!! i don't think she's talking abt it much bc it does still make her feel like a bad person to do that to someone, even if that person is probs more or less expecting the same thing, etc so yeah! its not that she's trying to hide it from aine, she's just noteager to discuss it esp bc i do think she anticipates some push back on it not unlike eithne's getting (tho probs not to that extent bc alaric [and aleksander presumbly] aren't cassimir...and they also certainly aren't her own stepbrothers soo lajsdflkjsf lots there that isn't quite so bad as poor eithne's got it hahaha)

but i do think eabha is really grateful that aine got to marry, at least once, for love, bc eabha def fears that period is over. s he's hopeful that she can marry well enough that her siblings can still do as they please, but she knows if she can't land alaric they'll probs have to marry for duty, as well, and tho she tries to maintain the fiction that padraig is still alive even to aine, she does fear its just that: fiction, and that even aine will likely have to seek out another husband for duty someday, and in addition to the trauma to aine of that, she fears what would happen to peadar and clea if that were to transpire! no matter how you slice it, there's sm potential for things to go horribly wrong!

honestly eabha deffff highkey supports aine in this belief!!!! and, outwardly, she maintains perfect faith in it herself!!!! and is unwavering in it!!!! but this is mostly just to protect her sister and niblings bc in truth, she believes he's dead but she knows that the family is far safer so long as he's simply missing and not formally deceased, so she's fierce in projecting absolute confidence in this publically, but in private she just wants tobuoy the spirits of her loved ones so she maintains that she's absolutely sure he's 1) alive and 2) fighting to get back to them!!!!!! she worries that she's doing wrong by them, feeding them a false hope, but she can't bear to do anything else honestly, but also frankly she'd be FURIOUS at him if he ever did show up again for 1) putting aine and the kids through that and 2) for letting it go on so long where is his mercy, his love!!!!!! but this is ALSO smth she only rarely shares, only jokingly saying she'll tan his hide when (WHEN!) he gets home for taking his time while they had to endure [insert random somewhat silly inconvenience], mostly to make her fam laugh

yeah! instead of growing up w padraig as a father figure they have cormac...oh god oh god oh goD no oh godddd nononono...jk jk ;DDDDD honestly i think eabha also sees that as the beautiful silver linging to all of this!!! like sure getting cast out of ur own home and losing ur dad and getting conquered etc all def sucks but like!!!!! it ~does mean she gets to live w aine again!!! and, while im sure they still saw e/o all the time, being able to live w her again and be suuuuch a part of those kids' lives is everything!!!!!!

also!!!!! im emo bc like!!!!! neither peadar's dad nor his granddad is there to pass on what he knew of lording, but aunt eabha is there to tell him all that his grandsire taught ~her and, like, obv its not the same and whatever was special to lorcan went w padraig etc but eabha feels so blessed that she's able to pass on her father's wisdom when its most needed and be there for him in that way too! (i feel like cormac ~also tries to fill this role but alsjfksdf eabha: the first rule is never to take too srsly ANYTHING that uncle cormac says, hmm?) i feel like its also a bittersweet thing, happening right on the heels of his execution and padraig's loss, like...there's till that connection and i WEEP <33333

OOC | Eabha & Aine

aine!!!!!! our angel!!!!! our port in the storm!!!!!! eabha wants to shake ur hand for being that lil bit of sanity in all the chaos that is house calleary!!!!! aine out here single handedly keeping eabha sane w all this honestly!!!! <33333333

eabha: if roderick truly believes men superior rulers to women, he ought first to do a case study on our family and ~then see what he truly believes

honestly as much as she hates being away from hanthom, eabha is beyondddd grateful that they get to be here at lorcan, thanks to aine!!!!! from here they can still do some good for hanthom AND for lorcan, despite roderick's dudes crawling around everywhere (looking at YOU rian and godfrey!)

eabha is def v protective over eabha and she does NOT appreciate the way that rian is sniffing around her!!!!!!! he does not deserve!!!!!! i do think eabha is secretly afraid that padraig is dead, but she won't admit it and keeps telling rian he ought to stay away from a married woman!!!!! (rian does NOT love this!!!!!) she's def tryna keep aine's spirits up too re: the fact that there's still hope bc there's no sense giving up, yet!!!!! and certainly not in considering that traitor, rian, either!!!!!!

[commajade]

it's funny you were talking abt ila and then abt bts bc it got me thinking abt how celebrities in korea seem a lot closer to regular people? esp comedians and actors, like ofc they're still selling a certain type of life but there isn't this sense of unreachable glamour, like they're just your friends who happen to be on tv a lot. vs some western celebrities that will do anything to pretend they're not regular people, and you have bts (and blackpink maybe) playing into that to an extent.

90% of korean celebrities are literally just normal people that live in small apartments (just in more expensive parts of seoul) and go to the same restaurants and stores as everyone else. if u live in certain areas of seoul u just see ppl around. and they're normal korean people, which is a very solid tangible historical concept (민족). the amount of land is very small and 80% of south koreans live in seoul, everyone is 3 degrees of separation from each other and all celebrities are basically your neighbors. skorean public opinion tends to be very unified and fast changing and celebrity is just a kind of job that comes with the responsibility of facing public scrutiny and your career depending on how much the entity of skorea likes you. also skorea doesn't have like a huge system of credit and loans so there's no instant wealth it's all directly related to how much u worked, and korean celebs have to work a Lot to even build up to buying an apartment. ur right they're just ppl that r on tv a lot and everyone has an opinion about, it's neighborhood gossip for all of skorea. usually acting superior and living flashy will make the country hate u and could get the major broadcasting to blacklist u. the main 3 broadcasting companies that r the core of skorean media distribution r national companies.

another part of it is that the US culturally promotes itself as the land of freedom and opportunity and opulence when skorea is a US neocolony trying to culturally establish itself as an independent sovereign country. and it's kind of working, that's why hallyu has spiked so much anti-dprk/orientalist rhetoric and US mainstream culture is trying its best to subsume and integrate korean media products with so much anxiety. skorea is successfully promoting itself as a morally upstanding technologically advanced respectable first world country. we've only been a first world country since 1996. i think actors tend to live more private lives and idols r luxury brand models so they have to promote brands but comedians and variety hosts esp r just promoting non-impoverished "normal" lives most of the time, honest hardworking lives that were rewarded with nice housing and tasteful luxury items and time for hobbies.

EDIT: also disagree about bts actually they're kinda seen the way boa is but with the US instead of japan, they're out in a powerful foreign country and with a history of hurting korea doing a lot of hard work at a difficult job in uncomfortable circumstances to bring money and honor to the country. they're not rly partying it up.

[teawaffles]

Louis and the Aquaria: Chapter 1

T/N: Takes place after Chapter 11 of the manga (“The Hunting of the Baskervilles, Act 2”).

Aquaria.

Simply put, they refer to water tanks in which aquatic plants and creatures are kept as an indoor pastime.

Although aquarium technology had advanced rapidly in 19th century Britain, aquarists at the time were not as well-equipped as their modern counterparts. Hence, the management of the tanks was not necessarily an easy task.

And here, was someone struggling with that very problem.

At present, more than twenty small water tanks were arranged in the hall of the mansion. And before one of those tanks, that man was standing motionless as he stared fixedly within.

He was a handsome young man. On his right cheek, a painful-looking burn scar peeked out from beneath his blonde hair; but from his simple eyeglasses, and the atmosphere that surrounded him, one got the impression that he was a rather intellectual person.

However, his expression also exuded a deep exhaustion, so great it seemed to ruin his innately clever aura.

The fish swimming before his eyes appeared weak, and its fins were also drooping. From the way it simply drifted in the water, it wouldn’t have been surprising if it flopped onto the bottom of the tank any moment now.

At this point, he had done everything he could.

Now, all that was left, was to pray for a miracle——.

“Please, help him……”

Imbued with sincerity, those words fell from his lips — those of Louis James Moriarty, William’s younger brother by blood.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The story began ten days ago.

“Thank you for tending to the garden, Fred. That will be all for today.”

“Alright.”

Now that he had completed his gardening duties at the mansion, Fred left for the streets; tonight, he would once again serve as the “Crime Consultant’s” point of contact. After seeing him off, Louis admired the flowers Fred had tended.

“With that, my brothers should be pleased.”

Without thinking, he murmured to himself.

For Louis, who obeyed William’s every word, it seemed what his brother valued fundamentally took precedence over his own opinions.

He looked over each of the flower beds Fred had carefully tended to, then exited the greenhouse — and saw the brother he so revered.

“Is something the matter?”

“Louis, I have a favour to ask…”

“Understood; if it’s a request from you, nii-san.”

Louis replied without hesitation, and William nodded happily.

“Thank you as always, Louis. The wind’ll be cold out here, so let’s talk inside.”

The two of them moved to the sitting room, and sat on opposite sofas with the coffee table between them. William sipped the Darjeeling tea Louis had brewed, and took out a photograph.

The man in the picture looked around thirty years of age, with flaxen hair, a sharp chin, and well-rounded cheeks. But from the distrustful look in his eyes, it was clear even from the photo how difficult it was to approach this man.

“——Who is this?”

“His name is Jack Stapleton. [1] He hails from a distinguished noble family, and hence owns a vast amount of wealth and land. Moreover, he’s also renowned in the field of natural history — it seems he discovered a new species of moth in the past, and presented at scholarly societies about it.” [2]

William went on to describe the man’s illustrious background, but Louis could sense the true intention that lay beneath.

“He’s our next target, isn’t he?”

Although William did not deny that, his expression turned a little troubled.

“Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he’s a candidate target.”

“A candidate?”

“Yeah. There are suspicions that he may be secretly engaged in human trafficking at his research locations, though we are yet unable to verify them.”

In order to avoid passing judgement upon innocents, whenever they received a request, William and their group would first thoroughly investigate their intended target. At present, it seemed William was in the midst of gathering information on Stapleton via MI6’s intelligence network, in order to decide if he deserved to be condemned.

“So we can’t get ahold of his tail even with MI6’s investigative powers — if he’s indeed guilty, that shows just how adept he is at protecting himself, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed. But I also wish to avoid dragging out the investigation any further; hence, I intend to make direct contact with him and find out the truth. It’s going to incur some trouble and expenses, but I think I have a reliable method of achieving that.”

“And what would that be?”

At Louis’s question, William took the photo in hand, and stared at the man pictured within.

“He’s known to be quite a misanthrope, and scarcely ever meets others in person, so it’ll be difficult to secure even one meeting with him. But as a natural historian, he possesses an unusual interest in flora and fauna. So, we’ll take advantage of his curiosity.”

William placed the photo back on the table, and met Louis’s gaze.

“——Well then, the introductory remarks have gotten quite long. But regarding this ‘method’, I have a favour to ask.”

“Please, tell me everything you need.”

That answer came without hesitation, even though the details had yet to be revealed. William continued in a hopeful voice.

“As for that: in order to attract Stapleton’s interest, I’ve arranged for some fish to be brought in from overseas. In the meantime, I was hoping you could care for them, Louis.”

Hearing that, Louis cocked his head slightly.

“Fish? I thought Stapleton specialised in insects, since you mentioned earlier that he’d discovered a moth.”

“Apparently, he’s a rather fickle character: just as one thinks he’s gotten absorbed in one field, he quickly tires of it and jumps into another one — it seems he has a tendency to do that.”

“So he’s interested in fish now, I see.”

“Particularly freshwater fish from the tropics. Hence, they will be brought into the mansion; until Stapleton takes an interest in the fish, and requests a meeting to either view or get his hands on them, I was hoping you could tend to them.”

After hearing that explanation, Louis finally understood why he’d been approached to do this.

William had his job as a mathematics professor, and Albert was also working at the universal trading company. Because of the nature of their duties, Fred and Moran often had to be out; and in order to maintain the secrecy of their work, outsiders could not be employed at their mansion. As such, Louis — who always remained at the residence — was the only person available to care for the fish throughout the day.

To some extent, it had been a process of elimination. But for Louis, who rarely had the opportunity to join in William’s plans, the fact that this was something only he could do merely served to boost his motivation.

Even as he was secretly pleased to be of use to his brother, a point of concern also came to mind.

“Since these fish are from abroad, I suppose the methods of rearing them have yet to be established.”

“In the event that some fish die, we’ll be able to replace them to an extent. I’ve already asked Herder to develop equipment for the water tanks. And if there is anything else you need, you only have to ask……. That’s all I had to say: do you have any other questions?”

Although this was an important step to determine if Stapleton was complicit in human trafficking, it was also a rather elaborate plan.

Even so, Louis’s response was direct, his tone betraying not a single hint of doubt.

“Not at all. I’ll definitely live up to your expectations.”

Hearing that, William smiled in satisfaction. And seeing that, Louis broke into an elegant smile once again.

That, was how Louis came to try his hand at maintaining aquaria.

Footnotes:

[1] Jack Stapleton is a character from the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (Wikipedia), by Arthur Conan Doyle. He was in fact the culprit behind the case, and the owner of the titular hound.

[2] Scholarly societies are organisations that exist to promote some academic discipline or profession (Wikipedia). One example is the Royal Society (of London), of which Isaac Newton was a member.

Translator’s notes

The story title

The plural of aquarium can be both ‘aquariums’ and ‘aquaria’ (Wikipedia). I chose the latter because I think it just sounds more right, like how medium → media, and bacterium → bacteria.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Hi! I'm a fan of Dorne, a supporter of Aegon VI, so I don't see much reason to join the fandom, but I've spent enough time to find Aegon Blackfyre having horrible deaths. I often see R's attitudes justified, since then I think there's a lot more to rebellions than what's been presented so far. That said, how do you think Rohanne and Daemon's first date went? How did she feel at court? Or your wedding? The reaction to childbirth? Anything about both of them, please!

By the power invested in me as a member of the ASOIAF fandom (aka: none), I give you, Anonymous, the right to enjoy whatever characters you want to so long as you abide by proper fandom etiquette (don’t tag hate, don’t send anon hate, try not to vagueblog, etc). In all seriousness, just because you are a fan of Aegon VI and Dorne doesn’t mean you are obligated to dislike the Blackfyres. Personally, I like some aspects of Dorne (though I think its writing could be better) and I don’t think Aegon VI is a Blackfyre. We’re all different people, so the many characters of ASOIAF will impact us differently. If you feel that your fandom circle obliges you to hide your personal opinions of a character/setting for fear of being ostracized, then that circle has become toxic and I recommend you leave it. If you’re interested in reblogging neutral to positive content on the Blackfyres, you should be able to do so without reprisal. Discourse on fictional characters should never devolve to the extent that real people are harmed.

Now that the PSA part of the ask is done with, let’s get into your questions on Rohanne. I’m pretty excited you decided to ask me, because I don’t get a lot of asks on her since @xenowlsome decided to take a break from fandom, and she’s still one of the most interesting minor characters of the era due to her place in the story. She and Daemon seemed to have had one of the happier marriages in Westeros despite just 12 years together; I’ve previously compared them to Ned/Cat in how they were strangers when they wed, but had a successful political marriage in building their love “stone by stone” (tragic ending aside).

Answers to your Daemon/Rohanne questions under the cut:

How did Daemon and Rohanne’s first date go? A lot of my experience with ASOIAF fic comes from Jonsa, so a comparison to the Salty Teens AU—essentially two teenagers have to get married for political reasons but don’t get along at first, but are sexually compatible—seems reasonable. Daemon and Rohanne don’t have a lot in common (he’s a 14 year old martial prodigy and an unjumped illegitimate son of a corrupt king and an imprisoned Queen with a famous old lineage; she’s older—I headcanon 16–legitimate niece of the Archon and comes from a culture where the actual citizens don’t really fight and wealth is more important than birth), they don’t even speak the same native language (headcanon is they spoke High Valyrian to each other until Daemon learned Tyroshi dialect more throughly and Rohanne learned fluent Westerosi. They usually spoke Tyroshi at home, because they were worried about spies), they both had to get married because their powerful relatives wanted them out of the way (for Daemon because Da3ron II wanted him in a powerless position because he’d fear he‘d rebel; and Rohanne I headcanon due to her uncle wanting to punish her more ambitious mother and her father agreed due to an inheritance dispute), so I don’t think they hit it off right away. I think their initial meeting was probably formal and awkward, surrounded by relatives and courtiers; Rohanne was not impressed with this tall, seemingly endlessly cheerful boy and Daemon is intimidated by this seemingly elegant, severe older girl with the Tyroshi purple hair. It wasn’t until after the relatives were gone and they’re in either their new lands or Tyrosh (if you think that I did they lived there for a few years after the wedding while at least some lodgings were being built) that the two could let their guard down and start trying to understand each other. If I can borrow another early Jonsa trope, probably Rohanne’s pregnancy with twins brought them together by revealing their insecurities but also the desire to make the marriage work. So I think their first date was a night in, they brushed each other’s hair, maybe Daemon reads to her in Tyroshi, then she reads to him in Westerosi, both of them made comments about the material and the reader’s elocution, and they ate a plate of cold meat and olives washed down with soft cider. Maybe it wasn’t a grand date, but it was the start because each could tell the other was trying.

How did their wedding go? Probably awkward and formal. Both of them probably had emotional baggage regarding weddings and relationships. Rohanne’s family flat out forbade the bedding (Tyroshi don’t follow that custom). Daemon was upset because his siblings weren‘t there (although I guess Elaena was) to support him/say goodbye whereas Rohanne had her father and sister who weren’t emotionally equipped to deal with all these strangers and say goodbye to her. Possibly being married in the Sept of Baelor didn’t help either of them. But I think the consummation went better than the wedding in spite of the families’ expectations, partly due to them being alone but also having to rely mostly on body language. Daemon showed consideration for Rohanne’s personal space and Rohanne let herself be vulnerable. Canon seems to indicate they were compatible in this respect.

How did she feel at court? Rohanne was probably not liked by most of Da3ron’s court because of her status as Daemon‘s wife, her “low birth” in coming from a non-Valyrian family without a surname, and her refusal to convert to the Seven (considering no Essosi woman ever converted to marry a Westerosi man before, so I don’t think Rohanne did). Then she starts having many children very quickly, which freaked out the “Daemon is going to rebel any minute” crowd. I imagine she was treated similarly to Larra Rogare, except she didn’t have the advantage of a crown Prince as a husband or several influential male relatives close by (and Larra was still miserable). Instead of being able to hide how she felt behind an interpreter, or bury her feelings in the latest fashions (no shade on Larra here; just pointing out the class disparity), Rohanne had to work with a much smaller income and probably had to face the hostile court without Tyroshi allies. Daemon was probably a big help; even though he learned to brush off “bastard” insults before the age of 10 with a smile and a joke, it’s part of the knightly code to defend women so I can’t imagine he’d take slights to Rohanne (especially if she brought them to his attention) very well. Aegor too understands what it’s like to be an outsider and not want to socialize with the court, and at the very least won’t fault her for not fulfilling all the social obligations (I see them as good friends and allies due to being introverted but passionate). But many of the court spaces were sex-segregated, so she’d have to look for female allies. If there were any Tyroshi women at court (some of the Dornish in the MUSH RPG married Tyroshi), I could see her seeking them or their daughters out. I headcanon Redtusk as a Summer Islander exile (he‘s got Tusks, so to me this is obviously an elephant hunter. Crakehall!Redtusk doesn’t seem right due to Da3ron’s Kingsguard Roland Crakehall), so she was at least familiar with his wife Princess Xiwani. Another option is Princess Elaena, who was good with money, so I can see her having a relationship with a mercantile-minded Tyroshi woman. Maybe Elaena’s daughter Jeyne was also a friend (particularly if she was a Blackfyre supporter). The Butterwells are also looked down on for their origins as dairy farmers, so Ambrose Butterwell’s daughters before they wed might’ve been companions (maybe she helped arrange their weddings? At least the Costaynes seemed faithful Blackfyre supporters, and one of the daughters married Lord Costayne). And of course, she was grateful to the Velaryons. Any families with young children probably got at least acquainted with her and her pack of kids. I don’t think she was ever fully comfortable with the ethos of the court or even some Blackfyre-supporting men (thinking about House Peake due to their proud lineage and Fireball), but she learned how to stop treating many of them as potential enemies (the ones who she felt deserved it).

What was her reaction to childbirth? Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mother of 17 children, seemed to have easy labor pains. There’s a story that she was so devoted to work that she gave birth at her desk and, after the baby was dried off and sent away, kept writing! I figure Rohanne’s experience with childbirth was also relatively painless, given how many children she had and how moontea was always an option. The simplest in-universe explanation is that Rohanne just really loved children and wanted a houseful of them. I headcanon she grew up as the child of separated parents (yes, they allow easier separation in Tyrosh) whereas her other aunt and uncle had a big happy family, so she wanted to raise give her kids the Happy noisy childhood she didn’t get (the tragedy being that after Redgrass…) I think her naming her daughter Calla—in real life, a Greek word that means “beautiful”—speaks to her delight at having a baby girl. She loved those children and treasured them all. That’s why losing them was so painful for her.

Thanks for the ask! If you’d like to talk about any of your own Daemon/Rohanne headcanons, my ask box is always open. Don’t be afraid to create the content you’d like to see.

[ghostiewriter]

AJSKDJLES you’re so nice!!! I was 100% using my birthday to manipulate you into giving us more headcanons lol but I wasn’t expecting you to actually get to it today! 🥺🥺🥰 take your time and no pressure but I definitely wouldn’t say no to hearing more about them making wild melodramatic accusations to make each other laugh in public because I can 100% see it. And I can totally see it starting on the surf trip because no one knows them so they’d just like try and embarrass the other? Amazing.

Sorry it’s a day late but I hope you had a great birthday bestie and enjoy the chaos of this wee blurb😂tbh I love this headcanon for them because it’s something they would totally do! But happy late birthday and I hope it was an enjoyable one!!❤️

Word Count: 1.6K

It started of a silly little game.

Keeping true to their word, the second they had graduated from high school and had those diplomas in their hands, JJ and Kiara wasted little time in planning the logistics of their surf trip around the world. So many places to go, waves to surf, sights to see—it was impossible to choose a place to start. However, thanks to Pope and his intense need to create a plan so his two best friends wouldn’t be thrown into the world as they “go with the flow”, he had organised a proper scheme.

JJ didn’t think it was necessary, and Kiara knew they wouldn’t stick to it. But they let Pope continue with it regardless.

Against their better judgement, his route and itinerary around Europe was insanely helpful for the couple as they ventured through the countries, excited to see places they could only dream about. Especially for JJ, it felt absolutely surreal that he was leaving the island, let alone travelling the world with the love of his life at his side. It was something he would never fully believe, but cherish in fear that he would wake up from this perfect dream and return to a shitty life in reality.

But as he turned to look at Kiara, her hair swept back by the breeze and her eyes watching the glittering city below in awe as they stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower, JJ knew that no matter how many times he pinched himself that this was his reality.

“If you’re about to make some cheesy joke about how the view is pretty but you’re prettier, I will throw you off this tower.”

JJ only grinned in response, shaking his head as he finally shifted his attention to the city view. They had just witnessed the sunset and it was one of the most breath-taking views either of them had seen, without a fucking doubt.

“Well now that you’ve stole my thunder and ruined it…” He trailed off with a sigh, but his smile only widened when he heard the soft giggle that escaped her lips.

“Whatever.” She muttered, her features softening as she leaned against the railing and took in the sounds of the streets of Paris.

“I can understand why so many people propose up here, it’s beautiful.” He admitted after a few moments.

Kiara only scoffed.

JJ turned to her, eyebrows raised. “You don’t agree?”

“Because there is nothing more romantic than having a bunch of other tourists watching one of the most intimate moments of your life whilst horns are beeping down below and the wind is blowing hair into your lip gloss.” She deadpanned.

Kiara was a romantic person when she wanted to be, but some gestures were even too much for her.

“Well when you put it like that, it’s no fun.” JJ muttered with a small chuckle, though he could see her point. “Does this mean I should keep the ring in my pocket and scrap the proposal?” He asked with a grin on his face.

Kiara rolled her eyes but she smiled. “Sorry to break your heart, babe, but if you got down on one knee right now, I would have no shame embarrassing you in front of all these people.” She said with a brief glance at the other tourists standing up here with them.

But JJ’s eyes gleamed at the sight of the challenge.

She didn’t have time to question him when he slipped one of the rings off, holding it in his palm before he cleared his throat and got down on one knee.

Her eyes widened as she looked down at him in confusion. “Jay, what are you doing—”

“Barbra Gertie Stonehend,” He started in a loud, boisterous voice to (successfully) catch the attention of the other tourists. “We have spent years together, helping each other through many hardships. I have been there for you since your bed wetting days when you were twelve, I have been there for you since you got your braces stuck in the railing at the zoo, and I have been there for you since your pet piggy was tragically knocked down by a bike. But now I ask that you do me the honour of being there with me at the end of the aisle by the alter?”

He finished his obscene speech, now holding his ring between his fingers and looking up at her with a faux hopeful expression. She pressed her lips together to hold in her snickers as she glanced around, seeing all eyes on them as they awaited her answer. And when her gaze returned to JJ, there was something quite smug shining in his eyes.

JJ had always been the best liar from them all, the way he would so easily be able to spout out nonsense at the drop of a hat. But she was just as competitive and determined as the blond, and willing to challenge him at his own game.

“Oh Bernie…” She sighed, hand placed on her chest as she looked down at him. “How could I ever marry a monster like you! Marge told me everything, I cannot believe you would expect me to marry you after you were the one that killed my pig!”

A few gasps could be heard from the crowd around them.

JJ urged himself not too laugh, though his eyebrows were raised in silent appreciation.

“Boo-Bear, it’s not what it seems! I didn’t mean to kill Vincent!” He urged, reaching out to hold her hands in his own. “I am more than a cold blooded pig murderer, please give me a chance!”

“I love you, my snookums, but I cannot!”

“Please, honey-bunch, don’t listen to Marge!” He cried out as she ripped her hands from his. “She is just jealous of what we have!”

“Then why are you having a child with her?!”

Kiara could’ve sworn she heard someone utter ‘holy shit’ under their breath but urged her face to remain neutral.

“It’s not mine!”

“Then who’s is it?” Kiara demanded, her hand clutching her imaginary pearls.

“My twin brother’s!”

“No!” Kiara gasped, feigning utter shock as she took a few steps back. “It cannot be Bobby’s…because he is the father of my child!”

Another series of gasps echoed amongst the landing.

“You…you were cheating on me with my twin brother?” JJ asked, finally standing up as he looked at her with a look of betrayal.

“I’m sorry, Bernie…” She whispered but JJ dramatically turned away.

“I can’t believe this,” He muttered before heading towards the exit. “I’m taking the dog and going home!”

“BERNIE, NO—”

“Goodbye, Barbra, enjoy your life with Bobby and his stupid exterminating company!”

Whispers murmured around the group and Kiara urged herself to keep a straight face as she waited a few moments before following him down. Once they reached the bottom, it took one glance at each other before they burst out laughing, tears streaming down their faces as they clung onto each other and walked back to their flat.

It was the start of an odd game they played for the rest of their trip. In the most random places they would play out insane scenarios, the aim to be as dramatic as they possibly could until one of them had to physically leave the scene before they burst out laughing. It was just a wee game to spice things up when they were out in public, plus it helped knowing they would never see any of these people again.

The word ‘Eiffel’ just had to be said and the game would begin.

And boy, was it entertaining.

There was the time they were in Austria visiting a vineyard, when suddenly Roberto was just sick and tired of holding back his secret affair he had been hiding behind his wife’s back. Little did he know his wife, Carla, had been sleeping with his secretary too.

Or the time they pretended to be spies on a mission whilst walking through a museum in Australia, pretending to mutter things to one another and even went to the extent of buying walkie talkies so they could suspiciously communicate from opposite sides of the room. That one kind of backfired because they did end up being thrown out by security.

Or the time they were in a small village in Turkey when it was suddenly revealed that Topanga would be leaving her fiancé, Johnny, for a prince that promised her wealth in power. However much to her shock, the prince she had been talking to was actually Johnny catfishing her.

Or there was the time they decided to re-enact the whole plot of Mamma Mia in Greece to see how long it would take people to notice how familiar the whole situation felt. It turned out it took people a tragically long time.

It was a stupid game that they adored and it followed them through the extent of the surf trip and even sometimes when they would returned home. Not to the same extent as they did in the past with fake identifies, but sometimes just odd scenarios to really fuck with their friends’ heads and keep them on their toes.

There was just something so satisfying about turning to each other, matching grins on their faces as they sat at the kegger and listened to some random touron talk about how nothing interesting ever happened on this island whenever she would visit her grandmother.

Ideas racing in their minds and all the possibilities of how they can make this night one to remember were jumping at the possibility to put on a show. With his eyebrows raised, JJ turned to his girl.

“Eiffel?”

“Eiffel.”

“HOW COULD YOU?! THAT GOLDFISH PIZZA MEANT EVERYTHING TO ME AND YOU JUST ATE IT AFTER EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH?”

After all, it started as a silly little but it always ensured chaos.

[that-house]

Viego Rant (villainy and character design and tragedy and all that jazz)

Introduction The more I think about Viego, League of Legends’ newest character, the more enamored I am with him as a villain (unrelated to his general sexiness, though that does tie in with what makes him such a good villain).

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about his design. The Ruined King, one of the greatest threats in Runeterra, the progenitor of the Shadow Isles, the lord of the undead, is finally released as a playable champion and he looks like this:

People were expecting another Mordekaiser (who is similarly an undead king with a ghost army), a lich-tyrant clad in iron, decayed flesh peeling from an aged face. What we got was an angsty anime prettyboy, and it was infinitely better than the alternatives. 

Lore Viego isn’t a conquering king. While his combat abilities are indeed badass, his personality is far from it. He’s a whiny brat and that’s incredible. He isn’t bent on world domination. His character arc revolves around just how human, how fallible he really is. For those unfamiliar with his lore, I’ll paraphrase it here:

Viego was the second son of a great king. Overshadowed by his brother and with no expectations upon him and near-limitless wealth, he wandered around being an idiot fuckboy for the vast majority of his formative years. Disaster struck when his brother died in an accident, and Viego took the throne with no training, no experience, and no desire to be king. He was a shitty king. The worst king. Just all-around apathetic. Gave zero shits. Can you blame him? It’s a lot of responsibility to be thrust upon someone who isn’t much more than a child, and with no preparation. He didn’t care about anything, that is, until he met Isolde. She was a poor seamstress, but he fell in love with her upon their first meeting. Together they ruled the country but it was really just them staring longingly into each others’ eyes. His allies were kinda fucking pissed about that, and one day an assassin came from Viego. The assassin fucked up and stabbed Isolde instead, and the poison on the blade made her fall gravely ill. As she lay in her bed, slowly dying, Viego went mad seeking a cure. He ravaged the land seeking any knowledge that might help, pouring all of his money into finding an antidote. He failed. As a last resort, he brought Isolde’s body to the Blessed Isles, a place rumored to be able to resurrect the dead. It worked, to an extent. Isolde’s wraith, confused, afraid, and angry at being ripped from the peace of death, unthinkingly stabbed Viego in the chest with his own magic sword, creating basically a magic nuke that turned the Blessed Isles into the domain of the undead. Viego resurrected as the king of the Shadow Isles some time later, having totally forgotten that Isolde killed him. He controls a big-ass ghost army, could probably beat up any living thing in a fight, and has evil ghost magic. Now this stupid simp wants his wife back and if he has to kill every living thing on Runeterra, well, anything for his queen. He’s even a tier 3 sub to her Twitch.

Music His musical theme isn’t some heavy metal anthem or intense cinematic piece (unlike the Pentakill song named after his sword, Blade of the Ruined King). It’s mostly sad and slow, almost sinister, with a piano and a music box. It has its loud moments featuring violins and choral bits like any villainous music, but the song is mostly subtle. It is a banger though.

In the comments section of this video, someone pointed out that the music reflects his story from beginning to end:

Everything about this champion is so well done. Riot Games really outdid themselves on this one. Bravo, encore please.

Motivation While the Mordekaiser circlejerkers on r/LeagueofLegends won’t shut the fuck up about how powerful Mordekaiser is, Viego is the better villain. Mordekaiser may be a bigger threat to all life on Runeterra, but Viego is a better character. (There’s a guy on my League discord server who won’t shut up about Mordekaiser so forgive me for being pissed at Morde stans).

Mordekaiser is motivated by a desire for control, to rule the world. Viego is motivated by obsession and misplaced love. There aren’t a lot of Mordekaisers on Earth. Supervillains are rare in real life. But Viego’s motivations are a lot closer to home. People in positions of power that they don’t deserve can do a lot of harm (for example: Trump).

He’s a grieving husband who was never prepared to deal with anything more difficult than choosing what wine to drink with dinner, who is trying to get his wife back because the world had always complied to his every whim. He’s a funky mix between a truly hopeless romantic and a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum.

Obsession is scary. It’s a real-world emotional state that’s been the cause of a lot of murders over mankind’s history. In contrast, Mordekaiser’s cartoonish Genghis Khan XXL schtick isn’t something that we encounter often. Of course a superpowered ultradictator would be worse for the world, but if you give ultimate power to a random person, you’re more likely to get someone like Tighten from Megamind. Or, more relevantly, Viego.

Design His design is sexy and stupid, just like him. He wears an open shirt into battle and wields his sword like an idiot (I’ve seen all the rants about how that’s not how that sword is meant to be used) because he was never really a warrior. Even at his most violent, right before the end of his mortal life, he didn’t do much combat himself, leaving his military endeavors to his underlings. Even now that he’s essentially a god, he still has a colossal wraith army that causes far more devastation than he ever could personally.

Despite his slim build (by League of Legends standards), he easily wields his colossal sword because of the strength of his state of undeath. Like his political power when he was alive, his posthumous magical and physical powers were never something he sought out, they were just given to him by circumstance.

The big cool-ass triangle hole in his chest where Isolde stabbed him is the source of the Black Mist, which is evil ghost mist that ebbs and flows from the Shadow Isles, bringing with it hordes of the undead. The sadder Viego is, the more Mist he creates. Poetically, his invasion of the world is inspired by his sorrow at his wife’s death and enabled by his wife’s reluctance to return to him. His story is perfectly reflected by his design.

Isolde Isolde’s spirit took up residence inside a young Senna (who’s another League champion, not particularly important here). This led to some Black Mist-related shenanigans and at least for the time being, Senna uses Isolde’s power to fight off the servants of Viego which threaten all life on Runeterra.

It seems pretty clear that whatever love Isolde felt for Viego is gone by now. Whether or not she ever loved him or was just unable to say no to the king is up for debate, but I’d like to believe there was something there. In my opinion, Viego’s story hits harder if they really were a great couple at first, torn apart by circumstance and obsession.

Much like the Maiden of the Woods in that one comic that circulates around here, to whom the knight gave his heart and she was like “yo what the fuck i literally never asked you to do this,” Viego went a little too far in trying to save her. They may have once been happy, but the Ruined King ruined his own life, too.

Unless Isolde is a lot less morally decent than we’ve been led to believe, I doubt she can forgive all the massacring that her husband’s been doing lately. In the recent cinematic, she was shown to be pretty anti-Viego. Maybe she’ll get a bastardization arc, but it certainly seems unlikely.

All of Season 2021 is based around Viego, Isolde, and the Shadow Isles, so we’ll just have to see what comes next. It’s possible that we’ll get Isolde as a playable champion, which should clear a lot of things up.

Final Thoughts Unlike so many villains, he’s not fueled by rage or hatred, but rather by sorrow. He’s stuck in his past, unable to move on. He regrets the actions of his life but is set on his course now. The sunk-cost fallacy comes into play here; he’s put so much time and effort and blood into bringing back Isolde, that turning away from it would feel to him like an insult, not only to her but to the innocent lives he’s taken in her name.

His tale is a tragedy, a love story gone horrifically wrong. Viego has suffered throughout his thousand-year life. Despite this, he’s undoubtedly the villain. His permanent death would be a net positive for the world. In has rage and grief he’s destroyed multiple civilizations, and will burn down the world to get Isolde back.

His heart may be in the wrong place, but it’s in a very human place. I don’t think he’ll get the ending he’s looking for, but I hope he finds some closure in the end.

[purplekoop]

Thanks! But also uhh... not much, now that I think more about it.

If I'll be honest, the petty reason is because I played him a lot during OW1, and so I'm kind of just bored of his pretty basic, reliable playstyle. Plus, not only is he not exactly topping the meta right now, but I always feel guilty playing him in OW2, both because it feels kinda cheap to yank someone in for a sorta one-shot, and because I feel selfish being the one tank and picking one so self-centered.

But that's all for gameplay reasons, and even then I don't hate playing as, with, or even against him, it's just a little boring to me at this point, plus his rework is allegedly due to come halfway through Season 7, so I don't wanna Hog myself out ahead of then.

Aside from gameplay, I have a lot to like about him. He's got a sick design that brilliantly flips between comic relief and slasher villain depending on the moment, but he's still not totally impossible to see as just a normal dude. Just look at him in Wasted Land, going from horrifying in the first two pages to being the protagonist of the story, where he's just a tragic, nihilistic guy who doesn't look so big and scary when the camera pans back and we just hear his thoughts. And then from around the same time, he still works great as the big doofy-looking straight man in The Plan, calling Junkrat an idiot every moment just with a hollow look past his mask. Plus his Catch-a-Mari announcer lines are hysterical.

Plus, he doesn't have an official figure that scales with the 6 inch sets, but there's this one guy who made a sick custom figure that I very much wish I had, it really shows the practical aspects of his design in a cool way and- stopping that tangent.

He's also got one of the better OW2 skins imo, the mohawk cool and distinct, and the leather jacket is a nice touch. It stands out from OW1 while still being very recognizably Roadhog.

Narratively he's one of the least plot-relevant characters so far, but even just going with his story we know, there's a lot to appreciate about it. He had a simple life in the outback, but then his land and that of many others was taken to build the Australian Omnium, which then obviously was a problem during the crisis. Then, their land was taken once again, this time given to the Omnics as part of the peace agreement to resolve the crisis, displacing them all once again for good. So, he started the movement to retaliate... which then ended up with the whole outback becoming an apocalyptic hellhole, disfiguring himself in the process. Afterwards, he's kind of just living for the sake of being alive. In Wasted Land, his philosophy is just that the world is full of bad people, and that's something the world deserves. He's almost certainly the most nihilistic character in the cast, to a kind of sad extent. He's certainly not a hero (even if sometimes he ends up oppoing worse people, like Queen and that CEO guy), but he's also not someone who wants to do harm or take power and wealth for any kind of ambitious reason like the major antagonists. He doesn't have any aspirations of grandeur with his exploits or anything, he's just a menace because that's what he believes the world deserves. It's a notable contrast to basically every other character, who has beliefs on changing the world for what they see would make it better, while Hog is fully aware he's making it worse, because that's just how life is to him.

Plus there's the free angst of him potentially having a family of some kind before the Omnium explosion, which honestly writes itself. I remember a fan comic that went around a while back in the early days, imagining that the pig mask is because he used to have a paper pig mask he'd wear to make his daughter happy, and it's just. It's free angst and I'm still eating it up, okay.

So with all that said, I once again go back to the initial question, why did I put Roadhog so low?

...Because I didn't think for more than 2 seconds, and there's 38 of the bastards I had to rank so I knew for a fact one of them would slip my mind. Just pretend I put him next to Junkrat, if not a little higher.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I present: my current personal ranking for how much I like the OW goobers:

This is based on a mix of story, visual design, personality, and gameplay (the last one throws a big wrench into the bias here), but yeah I think this is accurate enough.

To explain the tiers: Reinhardt. is the man. That should speak for itself. The subsequent four are my other top favorite characters, though Tracer is heavily ignoring this list's general bias towards gameplay, since I suuuck at actually playing as her, but adore everything else about her. Next tier down are my further less extreme favorites, really like those guys too. These are my general most played characters besides the top five, or if not then I wish they were. Then are a bunch of characters I actively like a good bit, but not as much as the others. I wouldn't call them "favorites", but they're a bunch of oddballs that have a number of things I like about them a good bit, and I'm competent at playing most of them. Or at least trying my best. Then are characters I... like more than dislike. There's generally just one thing holding each of them back (fandom oversaturation, questionable visual design, questionable gameplay design, boring playstyle, or playstyle I'm bad at, in that order). Characters I more than get the hype for, but still get dragged down a bit. Zen would be way higher if he wasn't the most bizarre bundle of personally dislikeable gameplay design, and Echo used to be a lot lower in my ranking just because of her questionable normal lady face. Then there's the characters I'm actively just kinda. fine with. Most of these are because I think they're boring to play (like Moira, Torb, and Winston), or I actively suck at them despite their popularity (Soldier and D.va). Reaper would probably be higher if I didn't publicly acknowledge how he's a robo-racist former cop who's now a super murderer. That said, there's a bit more of a gap than I wanna admit between Reaper and D.va, Reaper is borderline in the tier above and D.va borderline in the tier below. And then the last normal tier is the characters I actively just. Don't like. Hanzo's boring in-game and I am so removed from the hype he gets from the more "tumblr-y" side of the fandom. Yeehan does nothing for me. He's just a pointy depressed man who can randomly one shot me when I'm not on Tank. Widowmaker is the character who I think is the ickiest on a narrative level, and her extremely polarizing presence no matter what team she's on in-game is very much not helping. And Wrecking Ball... I love him in theory (he's a hamster I mean come on that's great), but he's just such a drag to play as, with, or against in-game, and he has absolutely zero fandom presence bringing him up. And Illari I think speaks for herself, she's very much not literally in the bottom spot, but she's too new and has so little content around her yet, along with no connections to other characters, plus her kit is something I'm still getting a grasp on. Don't worry though, she's definitely in the "solid enjoyer" tier minimum, it just feels unfair to rank her with everyone else, who I've had at least a few months to come to terms with (though Lifeweaver I maybe put a bit high, I'm just having fun with his most recent buffs making him finally playable)

Don't sweat the exact order within tiers too much (especially the "solid enjoyer" tier), but the tiers themselves I think work fine enough.

I could probably do a more in-depth ranking going over my specific thoughts on each hero (in fact I've tried in the past), but I don't have too much to say on a lot of these knuckleheads, and especially around the middle I don't have enough solid to really compare them to each other.

So uhhhh yeah! Feel free to prod me on why I'm being blasphemous towards your impermeable favorite! Or just tell me what they are! Genuinely, I at least find something to like in pretty much the entire cast, and it shows just how much I like the cast overall if there's only really four characters I actively dislike. I'll respect the armies of Hanzo fanatics even though I absolutely don't see the same things you do in that man.