#but idk if there were other factors preventing her or what

[helenofblackthorns]

@faithfromanewperspective sorry for replying to this in a new post the op blocked me lol 🥴 (which?? idc if you block me but it's weird given the situation like all I did was add other easily provable facts. I'm all for holding Taylor accountable for her actions but misinformation/misconstruing a narrative is equally not helpful) the post had weird vibes too like "Taylor is the Empress" thing. she is quite powerful but even she is still constricted by her contracts with the venues?? idk idk. anyway yeah laws definitely need to change surrounding concerts & events (like the very widespread "no water" rules) especially with climate change but even then. it's water.

[drdemonprince]

I routinely forget that periods exist, and its only been like two years since I stopped having them.

The whole concept of them and all the planning and the contingencies involved are just, swoosh, out of my mind. im only reminded that periods are a thing every couple of months or so when one friend or another is in pain and brings the subject up. a friend asked me about how my periods were recently and i was shocked not that she believed i still had them, but that i had ever been a person who'd had them at all.

Multiple friends of mine have gotten hysterectomies this past year, some after long waiting periods, and its got me remembering that my high school debate coach told me getting one was the single best decision of her life. Ive wondered to myself a few times what all the advantages of it are, beyond the obvious prevention of pregnancy piece, and it honestly took me months of thinkkng to remember that oh, oh yeah, right, some people have periods and some periods really hurt and for some people that is probably a factor.

periods are such a non issue for me i forget about what a massive toll they can take on many other peoples lives. and im only a month post op from top surgery, but i can tell its gonna be the same thing w having tits. im gonna forget how much pain and hassle and work it all was.

and I share this because it shows just how mutable human beings are, and how changeable privilege is.

if i can forget about the existence of a bothersome and dysphoric experience i had every month for decades within a matter of two years -- so much so that i forget other people still have to deal with periods -- then someone who grew up poor but now is rich cant ever be trusted to remember what poverty is like. an adult cant be trusted to remember the fear and powerlessness of being a kid. and a trans man can very much be oblivious to sexism and to the lived experience of being a woman, no matter his prior experience, because that is what privilege does to you once youve got it. it clouds over all the worries you no longer have to think about, separating your perspective from that of all the people that do still have to.

and idk, i think thats important for people to remember. no matter what youve lived in the past, if you get a little money, a little privilege, a little power, it changes you, and it makes you stop worrying about many things, and it makes you oblivious.

[la-pheacienne]

I will never understand people insisting that it was Jaime's fault Elia and the children died and that he didn't do his job. I don't understand why people cannot acknowledge that the multitude and diversity of factors working simultaneously and opposite to each other is precisely what creates the tragedy of the event(s), these factors being slowly morphed into a mechanism functining on its own accord, beyond any power individual decisions could have. Every single individual in this tragedy (the sack and the rebellion in general) had entirely different motivations and aspirations, and no individual had the full picture at any occasion whatsoever, and this is precisely because of the broader mechanism that was in motion that I mentioned above. And there lies the whole point, the concept of not knowing, not being able to know in advance. The idea of actions, choices, decisions having unexpected consequences that a character could not be able to imagine in advance. Things could have been different if at any point any of the individuals implicated in this event(s) knew the whole picture, or at worst, if they were more careful, more diligent, if they had made a better assessment of the situation at hand. I don't believe what happened was technically inevitable of course. It could have been avoided, which is something that amplifies the tragedy. Of course the individual decisions of any of the factors involved shaped the result. But we need to take into account all these parameters that were at play leading to each and every decision, prior to the decision itself, in order to avoid a bad faith reading of the text. We know everything that happened. The individuals did not know what would happen prior to making the decisions they made.

Rhaegar running away with Lyanna seems suspicious in general and there is definitely a lot of info missing there (which has been confirmed by grrm, meaning there was probably a reason they run away together - and i'm NOT talking about the braindead fanon theory of rhaegar collecting dragon heads like pokemons). Aside from that big hole of info we don't have that would give a solid context for this otherwise pretty inexplicable action, R and L could not have expected in advance that the events would play out in the way they did, they could not know in advance that someone (Baelish?) would spread the news of a literal kidnapping, they could not know in advance what Brandon would do, what Aerys would do, and so forth, and we don't even know when exactly they found out that all these things happened since they were isolated. They for sure could absolutely not know that Tywin, who didn't even take part in the rebellion, would eventually think it would be a great idea to randomnly order the rape and murder of Elia and the murder of the children. Nobody could ever imagine that in their right minds, yes, not-even-jaime-hello, which is precisely why this is an act of TREASON (and treason is an understatement), which is precisely why that act has such an impact and such an aura of horror and shock surrounding it, because of how unexpected and inconceivable it was, and also, how unneccessary it was, at a moment where the war was already won.

The power Rhaegar had in changing these events in any way shape or form was minimal to none, faced with the mad king that could go off the rails at any moment, the treason, the unprecedented cruelty of his enemies that were supposed to be allies, and more than that, the general mechanism already in motion leading to this tragic outcome.

Which leads me to Jaime. Jaime feels guilty for what happeend to Elia and her children, of course he does. He was there, in KL, he was sitting on the iron throne (i think that's when it happened) while the events took place and he didn't prevent them. I would also feel guilty if I were him. Who wouldn't? He was there. If he had thought this through, if he was more diligent, smarter, quicker idk, more perceptive maybe he would have figured this out sooner, maybe he would have done something, maybe he would have been able to save them. That's undoubtedly what he tells himself. Rhaegar would undoubtedly feel extreme guilt if he was alive after the sack of KL (which is a mere hypothesis since the sack of KL wouldn't have taken place had he been alive). Hell, even Ned feelts guilty for what happened to Elia and her children. That doesn't mean these people (i'm talking mainly about R and J) are actually responsible for what happened. That it is their fault that it happened. That they willingly wanted it to happen, or expected it to happen and didn't care, or let it happen in Jaime's case. Jaime's guilt stems from an error of judgement at worst, the fact that had he known every single parameter at play, had he imagined the exact motivations and intentions of a multitude of people and how far they were willing to go, had he expected what would happen in detail, he would have acted differently and maybe, maybe the result would have been different. That's not even certain, given, again, the multitude of factors at play that were beyond Jaime's power. But Jaime of course cannot help but think about the what if. The result could have been different had Jaime acted differently but Jaime acted according to the specific situation he had at hand, according to the specific problem that he had to face. He did what he thought was right in that precise moment. He didn't and couldn't possibly know what was going on outside from his sphere and if he did, we do not know for sure that he could have actually prevented the worst from happenning.

And I'm being exceptionally strict here by attributing an error of judgement to Jaime because I could have just said he was entirely innocent for what happened to Elia and the children, and it wouldn't be false. Again, error of judgement doesn't equal responsibility for what happened, it doesn't equal "moral flaw". An error of judgement does not give the reader a reason to morally judge a character. It is an entirely different thing.

I got this from Britannica :

I don't get how people can be so dense when reading anything related to the sack of KL and/or Robert's Rebellion in general. "Jaime didn't do his job", "Rhaegar led Elia and their children to their deaths" like, can you actually read? I was unnecessarily thorough here for something that is not all that complicated. It is pretty straightforward actually. It's sad that people do not get it. Like, I see BNFs being all deep and analytical about Jaime's moral struggles and dilemmas and overall tragedy and how he was in a situation that exceeded him and then they're like "rhaegar is the reason elia and the children died". From the other side I see people saying that Rhaegar couldn't have known what would happen and then they're like "Jaime didn't do his job!!!", guys. Guys. I'm begging you. I IMPLORE YOU : correcting a mischaracterization (Rhaegar was stupid/selfish for leaving """""all that responsibility""""" to Jaime) with another mischaracterization (Jaime "didn't do his job" because he's a moral coward) is not the way to go, it is done in bad faith, it erases the entire point of Robert's Rebellion along with a bunch of very important themes in asoiaf (the impossibility of choice, the fact that moral codes are actually a construct and don't always apply/sometimes contradict, and the feeling of powerlessness of an individual when faced with a monstrous mechanism, a system that is beyond their control).

[hey-haven]

Speaking as a victim that does not like vivienne, I think it's a bit unfair to say that episode 4 is a poor depiction while not having watched it yourself. I'm not saying you have to watch it of course, absolutely do not subject yourself to things you know will hurt you. Though as someone who greatly sees himself in angel dust regrettably, I genuinely felt like the episode was a very good portrayal, elaborating on why Angel constantly sexualizes himself, the actual depictions of abuse being harrowing enough I had to pause to prevent a panic attack, and more importantly, the scene everyone claimed was sexualizing Angel's abuse in Poison was. Well. A series of flashbacks and showing what is currently happening. Showing that the whole "look at how sexy I am!" thing is a front. There are many many many issues with Vivienne that Should be addressed like how fucking vile she is for using voodou as "scary magic" and appropriaring native folklore for the "scary factor", but being real I think episode 4 wasn't something that warranted calling her an abuse apologist over like many people did. I think in the end people are focusing on the wrong stuff and pitting victims against each other based on how they cope or react to their trauma rather than focusing on Vivienne's blatant racism and misogyny

I have addressed that I am biased in my opinion and considering the subject matter, I think that is okay. All it took is the quick second of seeing Angel’s expression shift to fear as these hell hounds tower over him to make me feel sick. I knew in that moment that this specific portrayal of assault would only upset me and it has already upset many other people.

I have also said that it’s fine if you weren’t bothered by the scenes. If you saw yourself in Angel then good for you…I think. Idk if that’s good but if you felt seen then good for you. I have also said to try not to say “it’s not that bad” but that also extends to posts and asks like this who try to explain why they personally thought the episode was a good portrayal. Good for you, genuinely, but it will not change my own thoughts because the post was not made for those people. It was made for the people who were hurt by the scenes. Who were upset and who felt that same sickening feeling I felt. It was me telling them that the way they feel is justified and that it was okay to not be okay with this portrayal.

This is the last time I’ll be talking about this topic because I only wanted to extend a hand and tell the people who were upset that they are not alone and that they are not wrong for being upset. That is all

[adultingrefs]

comment via @heart-soul-mind

The fact that someone else feels like this is relieving? I lost my 2 best friends this way, I'm going but over 10 years of friendship and nearing my 30's when I find it hard to make friends.. I keep thinking if it's me

So the parts of it that I think is me are: I've never had a lot of friends at any one time (both because I was/am Weird™️ and just not prone to extroversion), so I devoted a lot of mental space to these people, and for the ones where it broke off painfully, I had ignored or been otherwise ignorant of warning signs.

As a kid and through my teens I was desperate for people my age to pay attention to me. As anyone can tell you, desperation sets up a person for exploitation, and others eventually come along to take advantage.

Additionally, being raised in a broken home, I empathize deeply with other people with emotional scars—sometimes to the point where again, they can take advantage of me, or the relationship just isn't healthy because we're echo chambers (or both, as in the case of one of my roommates from college). Worse yet, I have always had crippling anxiety about asserting myself if it might hurt someone's feelings or make them think negatively of me.

Only now after 25 years of life, have I started being able to 1) set boundaries, 2) tell someone when something they do isn't okay, and 3) walk away from a fight.

The parts of it that are not me are those people dropping me, taking advantage of me, or otherwise ending up behaving like assholes.

My K-2 friend just stopped being interested in me one day. Not my fault.

My grade 4 friend always prioritized what she wanted to do over what I wanted to do. That bothered me ofc but I didn't really recognize it for the red flag it was. When I came back from a half-year trip, she had found someone new and didn't spare me a glance. That's not my fault.

My friend from seven years ago was heavy on religion from day one, and it was a big red flag that a good third of conversations ended up in a religious debate. We broke up once because of a particularly nasty fight where she wanted to save my soul and I informed her that her version of heaven was a lot less enticing than her version of hell. Not my fault she was trying to convert me to her cult 24/7. When we got together again some months later, I dropped her shortly after when she spouted shit about Muslims. Not my fault she was a racist.

My long-time friend from two years ago started out good, I think. We gave and took equally. But in the latter years, she would give me her writing to read while never looking at mine; she would prioritize hangouts with her in-person friends over spending time with me (persistently flaking out on planned activities at the last minute); she would text me only to bitch about her boyfriend and call me only when she was having an anxiety attack or otherwise needed assistance—I became a friend of convenience, a backup plan.

For her, I could see the end coming a while before it happened, and I finally had to put an end to Us when her behavior triggered in me two intense spirals (idk if they were panic attacks or what, but it was Not a Good Time. Not that anyone was having a good time in 2020). (And ofc no one else can control my reactions, but for someone that was always insistent about everyone else avoiding doing things that gave her anxiety, she was not apologetic whatsoever about failing to reciprocate the courtesy, and expected me to cover for her to our other acquaintances who were part of the scheduled activity)

It was not my fault that to her, at some point, I had taken backseat to her real friends.

Tl;dr: I could have done some things differently. Could I have changed the outcomes? I don't know. For some of them, the factors out of my control most likely prevented it. For others where I could have scaled back my involvement, I don't know that I am able to be a casual friend because of my emotional investment in friends; in those instances, we probably would have just ended a bit sooner, maybe with less severity.

So... yeah. It really sucks to have experienced this over and over again (and there's a couple more people I can think of that I didn't list), but it's not all on me, despite what the lying organ in my skull says!! And I've learned how to better avoid repeating my mistakes!

And you know, grief is a Big Emotion. we remember these Big Emotion people a lot more than the ones who are still good friends but not currently in our lives. My best friend from grades 5-10 moved away just recently, but we still infrequently got together and hung out before that. When I came out to them as NB out of the blue after not communicating for like a year, they revealed they were ALSO NB and had transitioned and changed their name, and we met up again!

For those two long-term friends I had, I have another 5 from the same community. I recently found another set of friends in another community, too, who I think will be my friends for a long time.

And it's definitely harder to find friends in-person as an adult, since you actually have to plan meetups with other adults in potentially strange and new situations, but you definitely can do it! Use your library and services like Meetup to find events and groups to attend :)

Everybody talks about cutting ppl off but nobody really talks about the grief that comes with having to stand firm on that decision knowing it’s not what you wanted but what was necessary for your well-being.

[kael-writ]

TW suicide

been reviewing the Michelle Carter - Conrad Roy (the victim) case (suicide enabling story basically, she texted her suicidal boyfriend egging him on to go through with it), and it's interesting to me how the legal system forces "both sides" to come up with these extreme stories to win even if neither story is really likely to be the truth? The defense said she was poisoned by psych meds, which is a lie, and the prosecution said she did it all for attention, which is debatably partly true but an extreme view of a complex situation.

The truth, imo, if you actually wanted to just find the truth and not sell a story to win a case, is that they had the sort of toxic relationship lots of mentally ill people have with each other. Sometimes she tried to prevent his suicide, sometimes she egged him on. She probably had a lot of conflicting thoughts and feelings about it.

And she certainly did want and relish the attention from his death.

The defense's psych is an anti-meds quack who never spoke to her..

There was also so much other context. A lot of it was in trial, idk if all of it was. She had been suicidal, and was actively anorexic. People who live with chronic suicidal thoughts or are ambivalent about living in the shadow of death dont necessarily think suicidal people are always wrong, because they think so often about why their death would be a good thing to them.

His dad was abusive. She once alleged he sexually assaulted her but although I rarely think this of anyone, her history of lying and circumstantial evidence casts doubt. but he might have. That doesn't mean he was evil or her actions were ok or she didn't love him (eta whether they loved each other I consider so unknowable), but it could be a factor no one is looking at. Whether a lie or half truth or truth, it shows she had some negative thoughts/feelings towards him. Sometimes they were mean to each other in texts. Maybe she felt worn down by him always talking about suicide and wanted him to get it over with. Who knows. Even she may never understand why she did it.

but that's the thing, isn't it? There isn't a clear knowable explanation. You're talking about what's happening in a teenage mind that even she may never understand.

but neither the prosecution nor defense would just say "they were in a complex toxic relationship that ended in tragedy, and we'll never understand it completely", they had to come up with these bizarre extreme narratives presented as confirmed fact.

and how many other cases are like that?

[mizkit]

new blog post: Recent Reads: Starbridge

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/recent-reads-starbridge/

Recent Reads: Starbridge

Recent Reads: Starbridge, AC Crispin (amazon affiliate)

This is one of my favorite books. It’s a first contact story, led by a teenage girl, and I was the same age as the protagonist when I first read it, which probably helped cement its place near and dear to my heart. :)

Mahree Burroughs (I only noticed the nod to Edgar Rice there in this reading!) is a human from an Earth colony, on her way to Earth for the first time to go to college. Their ship, captained by her uncle, picks up a signal that doesn’t seem to be natural, and the adventures of First Contact begin, with culture clash, social expectation, and secrets being kept on both sides escalating to system-wide danger.

The characters are pretty well-realized, all around. From an adult perspective, Mahree is kind of annoying with her concerns about being ‘just ordinary,’ which, well, for one thing, you’re the protagonist of a book, kid, so you’re obviously not that ordinary. But she’s just barely 17, and let’s face it, there’s a lot about 17 year olds that’s annoying, so honestly, I can’t fault the characterization there, and I can assure you it didn’t bother me at all when I was on the edge of 17 myself. :)

Nearly all of it ages surprisingly well: the tech is mostly not described so thoroughly as to be dated, and while the hero’s fascination with 20th century movies is perhaps a stretch, it’s also a nice touchstone for 20th (and 21st) century readers. And also, it’s a thing for that character, not everybody; lots of the other characters think he’s slightly bonkers for liking these old movies. :) Mahree uses ‘cassettes’ to record her memories, but technologically speaking, I’m like “yeah, ok, that works well enough,” even if a modern writer would probably use different tech for a teenager’s daily diary. (And 30 years from now, that would be outdated too!)

What does *not* age well, and which is a problem in at least the second book of the series as well, is that the teen protagonist embarks on a romantic relationship with an adult; in this case the 24 year old medical prodigy Rob Gable, who is very young for his job but is also, undoubtably through his characterization, a grown-up. There was a brief time reading this one where I thought that the years on Mahree’s home world were longer, and so she was perhaps 17 by her calendar but somewhat older by Earth standard, but…unfortunately, no. It’s not a coersive relationship, and in 1989 it didn’t bother me aaaaaat aaalllll, but it’s not 1989 anymore and I now 100% find it squicky.

THAT SAID, one of the things I like (and we get into proper spoiler territory here) is that Mahree is at least able to recognize she’s not in the same place on her journey as Rob is, and later books make it clear that their relationship, which I do actually accept is based in love and admiration, is also…not really terribly successful in a lot of ways. Which doesn’t exactly make up for the squick factor, but it does make their overall arc a little better, from this side of time.

The much stronger, non-romantic relationship in the book is with Mahree’s new alien friend, who casts his lot in with Mahree in order to try to prevent the adults in their lives from making extremely bad mistakes.

There were several scenes that, in this reading, got me choked up. I don’t remember that happening before, but god, I’ve become a moosh, and they were obviously well-written enough to really get me right in the feels. Overall, even with the “augh I wish they hadn’t gone there” aspect of the romantic storyline, the book still really, really works for me as an adventure, a coming of age, and a launch pad for the longer series. I’ll be re-reading the series over the next few months, and I’m almost certain I’ll review the second one independently too, because it’s ALSO one of my favorite books, but IDK yet if I’ll do all of them or if I’ll just lump the later ones together. :)

WE ARE NOT ALONE, AND WE’RE ABOUT TO MEET OUR NEIGHBORS.

After more than a hundred years of space travel, a stray radio signal indicates the possibility that alien life might exist. The crew of the Désirée has no training in interstellar diplomacy and a minor dispute turns to disaster that could escalate into a full scale war.

Can the bond formed between two very different friends be strong enough to bridge their differences and save their people? Come along in this first book in the StarBridge Series in an exciting journey across the stars in a desperate gamble to save both their worlds.

Starbridge, AC Crispin (amazon affiliate) at Amazon!

[happytroopers]

crosshairs fic idea: reader is gossiping with coworkers (maybe medics idk) about who the most attractive clone is and reader mentions crosshair and he somehow finds out and teases her

Teasing // Crosshair x reader

“It’s definitely Captain Rex. ” Tula, a Rodian nurse from the 212th, stated decidedly. You giggled into the shitty GAR rationed caf.

“That’s just cause your into blondes.” You teased, content with the rounds of chuckles at the mess hall table as Tula’s teal cheeks blushed blue.

“I still don’t know why we’re having this conversation, they’re clones, they all look the same! Thats like the whole thing.” Rys groaned uncomfortably, the only man at the table of civilian enlistments. It was rare for some many of your friends to be in the same place at the same time- but medical staff and engineering alike, every six months after your first deployment civilian enlistments were shipped back to Coruscant for a week long training refresher.

“You can’t say that, it’s rude!” Tula slapped his arm, eyebrow ridges furrowing over her galaxy eyes. He held his hands up in surrender.

“Yeah Rys, we won’t assume you’re any less straight if you admit that Wolffe is clearly the most attractive.” Raina grinned, her peach colored lekku twitching at the thought of the commander. You considered the idea but shook your head as other names got thrown around.

Kix, Fives, Bly, Keeli, Cody, and a couple other names you didn’t quite recognize the names of were tossed around the table. Haircuts, scars, tattoos, personality all became deciding factors as you at your dinner, occasionally chiming in to tease your friends.

“Ok then, who do you think the hottest soldier is?” An engineer from some outer moon data post asked after you teased her for her choice- Tup, a younger soldier in the 501st that you hadn’t met since your transfer to Clone Force 99.

You held your hands up, ready to evade the question. But Raina interjected, a challenging look on her face. You’d gone through academy with the peachy colored twi-lek and her sharp tongue was almost faster than her flying. You knew that look, and it didn’t bode well.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll tell every trooper I see all week that you said it was them.” She threatened with a smirk that said she already knew she had won. The smirk grew to a grin when you let out a defeated sigh.

“Well, in my own personal opinion, that Crosshair is the most attractive man we work with.” You admitted quietly. An honest answer on your part, you did think he was attractive even if you’d never say it to his face. Immediately, several pairs of disbelieving eyes landed on you.

“What? He doesn’t even count!” Rys pointed an finger at you to emphasize his point, “he doesn’t even look like the other clones!”

You shrugged as Tula slapped the back of his head again, her voice scolding as she hissed, “You can’t say that either!”

Then she looked at you, “Really though? He’s meaner than a burned gundark.”

“He’s scary.” Raina nodded.

“He’s an ass.” Another one of the 212th enlistments echoed from down the table. You’d forgotten that a few of the units they were assigned to probably had worked with Clone Force 99 at some point. Nevertheless, suddenly, you felt a need to defend the sniper who had finally become what you’d consider a friend.

“Ok, so it takes a while to get to know him, but...” you started, thinking of all the amazing qualities no one else saw because they weren’t with him all the time, “he’s loyal to a fault, really funny, always pulls me out of sticky situations and usually manages to keep me out of them to begin with, once you get to know him and how he is, you see how much he cares about his-“

“Ok, sure,” Raina cut you off, clearly not believing the cold eyed sniper could care about anything or anyone. She paused to pitch her voice up, flutter her eyelashes, and clasp her hands beside her face like a cartoon princess, “we don’t know him like you do~”

She interrupted herself with a snicker before she continued in her normal voice, “and all that bantha crap, but this is about attractiveness. What makes him hot? And don’t give me any of this, personality is all I look at shit.”

“And if I tell you, you’ll leave me alone?” You asked, though it was more of a demand. Tula nodded, she had always been a little boy crazy, and was dying to hear the scoop. You sighed again, hoping your cheeks weren’t too flushed, “fine, He’s very unique looking, in all the best ways. He’s very tall and lean, but crazy built. I’m into the silver hair, and believe it or not, under the armor that man has the best ass you’ll ever see.”

Tula was leaning on the table, giggling wildly at the juicier bits of you description. Raina had leaned back in her seat, and rolled her eyes, “To each their own, I suppose.”

Fortunately for you, the conversation switched to complaining about to the soldiers that were in charge of your training. There was a rumor the Fox used “civilian training” as punishment for his men when they earned a reprimand. It made sense, all the Coruscant guardsmen that were tasked with running drills with you weren’t exactly thrilled to be there. As if any of you were either.

“Yeah, I definitely don’t understand that attitude. We get it, you don’t want to be here, neither do we, but we are so let’s just get it over with- with out the..... are you even listening?” You were in the middle of your tangent when it was clear none of your group was listening to you. Instead there were all staring over your head with varying looks of slight fear, curiosity, and overall disdain. Tula was the one who attempted to subtly point behind you. At first you feared it was one of the troopers in charge of your training, so you quickly turned around with a forced apologetic look on your face.

To your surprise, you found Crosshair. Helmet free, as usual he had a toothpick between his teeth as he gave your group an appraising sweep. He had the same look on his face that he did when he was sizing up ‘the regs’- until he got to you. It took a year for him to stop looking at you that way, but his slight sneer eased out to neutral-which when it came to the sniper, it might as well have been an ear to ear grin.

“Crosshair! What are you doing here?” You asked, turning around in your seat. In addition to his sudden appearance, just his president was slightly confusing. Typically, Hunter would come himself, or send Tech- all to avoid a potential fight. Your training mates looked slightly bewildered at the amicable exchange.

“Springing you. We’ve got an assignment.” He shrugged after plucking the toothpick from between his lips. Like a true creature of habit, he started twirling the stick between his fingers. You quirked an eyebrow motioning to the other civilians.

“You can’t ‘spring me’, it’s GAR regulation for me to do this training refresher.” You reminded him, he rolled his eyes- but you weren’t sure if his disdain was for your use of air quotes or just disdain for GAR regulation in general. With any member of the Bad Batch, it was usually general disrespect for the rules. You gave him a look before continuing, “I still have three more days.”

“Is it really training? You could run circles around anyone here, especially them.” He drawled as he nodded his head over his shoulders at the table of red painted troopers who were eyeing him in distrust. Your eyes went a little wide, was that a compliment? And then you ducked your head at the offended glares of your table. In an effort to prevent a fight, you stood quickly before letting him lead you off.

“They’re aren’t gonna let me leave, Crosshair.” You reminded him, looking up to meet his eyes. He smirked a bit, setting his eyes forward.

“How are they gonna stop us?” He challenged, dropping his smile to glare at a passing trooper.

“Well, ion cannons come to mind.” You mused before clearing your throat, “You guys could always go with me, you went on plenty of missions before you got stuck with me. It be like the good ole days.”

He didn’t laugh at your joking tone, but shook his head, “You’re one of us, you stay with us”

You were stunned to silence for a second, despite your friendship he’s never referred you you as ‘one of them’. Heat rose to your cheeks as you exited the corridor into a lift, so Crosshair diffused the tension.

“Mission takes precedence over regulations. When have we been know to follow the rules, anyways.” He mused, swiping his ID card so the lift would let you out in the hangar. He relaxed a bit when you snorted a laugh before he continued on, “Besides, how can pull you out of sticky situation if you’re on a different planet?”

You froze in your spot, stomach dropping and cheeks flaring with red hot embarrassment; you had forgotten the cardinal rule of working with Crosshair.

If you didn’t have eyes on Crosshair, Crosshair definitely had eyes on you. And in this case, apparently ears as well.

“Ok, look-“ you started, hoping to ease your embarrassment, but all of the excuses you could come up with fell flat before they made it out of your mouth. Fortunately, the lift door slid open, allowing you to escape before you could further your embarrassment.

Crosshair actually chuckled out loud, long legs easily traipsing past you as he headed towards the Havoc Marauder. Momentarily, he twisted around to walk backwards, pointing his toothpick towards you, “Don’t worry, your ass is almost as good as mine.”

[bigskydreaming]

If you were editor of Nightwing's book ever since at least the start of Rebirth to today and you were given free reign, what would your story mandates?

Oh no, this is dangerous. LOL. Hmm, I have no idea what to shoot for here, so I'll try to keep it to ten. That's reasonable right? Ten is good. Yeah. Is fine.

Okay, so, in no particular order:

1) Let Dick be competent 101. None of this him having to play hype man for every other character to pop up in HIS title bullshit. Nope. That's not what they're there for. He's the lead man, LET HIM BE THE LEADING MAN. Like sure, everyone has their areas of expertise, he doesn't need or have to be the best at everything, blah blah blah.....but its about the nuance. All of that is kinda lip service because the thing is, you don't go into MOST comic books and NEED to be reminded of that because the lead characters of those books are all constantly getting saved or shown up or chastised by every guest star in their books, you know? This is a very weird, very niche phenomenon very specific to Dick's character, and I'm super over it. I'm here to read about the guy who has literally been doing this longer than most superheroes twice his age. The guy who's been doing this since before he hit double digits. The born acrobat. The destined ultimate warrior or whatever of Gotham's Ornithological Society Of Murder and Pretentiousness. Gimme that guy. And that guy doesn't need to be 'humbled' every other page, because the thing is, he's not some egomaniac to begin with so the everpresent need to humble him doesn't actually come off as humbling! It just comes off as pandering and not even to actual fans of the actual character, so its like.....wyd DC.

2) Let other people take responsibility for their own crap with Dick rather than always just expecting a mea culpa from him. I'm so unbelievably tired of the words I'm sorry from Dick. I love personal accountability, so I never thought I'd have to say this about a character, but enoooooough. They have made it completely in character for this dude to apologize to everyone ELSE for being brainwashed, getting amnesia, being KILLED, like.....the amount of things he's groveled for forgiveness for when he didn't actually do a damn thing wrong or worse yet, was the ACTUAL victim of is like....pretty damn staggering. And meanwhile, there's nary a peep of apology from the people who regularly insult or belittle him, get physically violent with him, take advantage of him or take him for granted, etc, etc, etc. Its entirely too one-sided and imbalanced, and the pendulum needs to swing the other direction, like YESTERDAY, and in a fairly big way, IMO.

3) None of this Baby's First Social Justice Awakening 101 crap. I'm sorry, but no. Especially not when you go out of your way to acknowledge that Dick is Romani, only to then turn around and act like he's only JUST had his eyes opened to an awareness of like, classism and poverty and the real struggles people face day to day? Sorry not sorry, but especially for other white writers out there, do not use people of color as self-inserts for dipping a toe into Learning To See Past Privilege. And especially when talking about a character who has a history of being actively abused and hurt by the system and institutions of power, or hell, even leaving out that particular origin story, who has still been out on the streets helping people since he was a literal child. You can not tell me that this is his first face to face experience with social issues, or the first time he's had the inclination to try and address those head on. (And its also particularly egregious that the people second-guessing Dick in his own title and giving him reality checks or acting like they have more of an awareness of all this than he does like, happen to all be white? OPTICS. LEARN ABOUT THEM. COMMON SENSE. GET SOME.)

Know what would actually be a better way to approach this? Flashbacks. Show us Dick running into situations that make him think back to a case when he was still Robin, when he and Batman had started fighting over their approaches to things, actually SHOW us those conflicts and how their viewpoints had started diverging, and how much of that was due to Dick not having the same experiences as Bruce, or the same standing in society, no matter what house he lived in. THEN you can jump BACK to the present, with the reminder/awareness that this is something that isn't NEWS to Dick, but that he in the past felt he was forced to make his peace with as something he wasn't in a position to do that much about....only NOW, he's in a very DIFFERENT position, and suddenly it just hits him how he's still acting like he did when he was limited in resources or in having to be part of a chain in command or having to factor other responsibilities into things....now he ACTUALLY has the power and the resources to make meaningful change in the ways he ALWAYS wanted to, but maybe just needed time to figure out HOW.

Like you know what would have made Shawn Tsang's story arc so much better? If Dick didn't just remember her as the Pigeon's one time teenage sidekick he'd briefly fought as a kid, but like.....if he remembered her as someone he and Bruce had FOUGHT about. Because he didn't agree with sending someone to juvie for defacing public property as a form of political protest, when it was someone's LIFE who was going to be irrevocably damaged by that while the damage to the city could be fixed with a check, and what made Dick any more deserving of Bruce's leniency and faith in his potential or underlying goodness than Shawn?

But he was still a kid himself back then, and when Bruce responded with his usual conviction, talking about the importance about rule of law and etc etc, Dick just didn't have the words to get through to him then, to get him to understand that this wasn't just Dick not getting it because he was too young, it was BRUCE not getting it, that Dick was literally just saying well he wasn't too young to have been in juvie himself, and of the two of them, he's the one who has experience there so why was Bruce's opinion on whether this was the punishment that fit the crime the one that got to hold more weight here? When Dick's the one who knows what that punishment actually LOOKS like beyond the abstract, for whom it was a reality that still haunts him in ways that even defacing a few statues of some rich old fucks doesn't deserve?

Or hell, go back FURTHER than when he was Robin. Idk where any of those posts are, but I've always wanted to see something where Dick maybe runs into someone he remembers from his time in juvie, maybe a guard who is like, the source of the reasons Dick mistrusts figures of authority and is so hung up on independence and not being under anyone's thumb, or maybe someone who was in there with him, another kid who looked out for him when he didn't have to, etc. Gimme Dick tackling head-on his firsthand awareness that there's no rehabilitation to be found in a jail for kids, when most of those kids don't even need rehabilitation in the first place and only did what they did in order to survive or escape from worse situations or like, were there purely because of racist cops, etc. Let him go after THAT system, driven by personal experiences and memories that maybe only hit him in full after recovering his memories from the Ric Grayson arc, like they're things that he put in a box in his mind a long, long time ago because he didn't have the spoons or reserves to deal with them when he was a kid still so traumatized in so many ways, like, something had to give and so he put all those memories away for another day and just....never got back to them because life kept hitting him with new and fresh trauma every week.

But now something has him thinking back to those early days in Gotham, and reminding him that not everyone had a Bruce Wayne willing and able to give them an out from that place or acrobatic skills to escape it on their own, and like. You want to do something about the cycles of violence in Gotham and Bludhaven? Why not start with the places that literally MANUFACTURE cruelty on an institutional level, that teach kids that no matter what they did to get put there, even if that was nothing at all, they're all going to be treated the same way and given no reason NOT to do whatever it took to be top dog in a dog eat dog world by the time they got out.

There's SO many better approaches to social awareness in the Batbooks than what we're seeing, and like. Sheesh. The bar is way too low.

4) On a related note, if I'm editor of the Nightwing book, the FIRST thing I'm doing is making it a priority to find a writer of color for that book, ideally someone of Rom descent. Its waaaaay past time to let a Romani writer take the reins on Dick, Wanda, Pietro or Doom, aka some of the only prominent Romani characters out there? You can't tell me that there aren't talented writers who identify as Roma who would be more than willing to add their perspective to Dick's archive of narratives, and if an editor's gotta go looking for them? Go fucking look. DC and its fans have milked a lot of mileage out of the idea of Dick being Romani with very little in the way of nuanced storytelling to show for it in the past twenty years, and if DC wants to trot out little reminders that Dick is Romani every couple years, like in the form of a freaking line that has no follow up or expansion to any degree and is offset by an internal monologue that otherwise reads as incredibly privileged, the least they can do is TRY to expand on that with the narrative perspective of someone they claim to be representing via that character.

And no, this isn't gatekeeping, this is prioritizing. Its not about preventing other writers from writing this character, like just for the hell of it, its about being proactive about finding a writer who can write specific aspects of this character that have long gone unaddressed or poorly represented. And like. Okay. Its not easy breaking into the comics industry for anyone, but its particularly not easy for marginalized writers. Most every major comic book company just recites 'make your own stuff first and then show us that' but when you're a writer specifically, finding a compatible artist to partner with on creator-owned indie stuff first, when those artists are in the same position as you are and apologetically and understandably tend to have to take paying work over yours if you can't pay except on the back end, like....there are a lot of hurdles to getting your start in comic books, and while there are more and more marginalized writers in comics these days, DC and Marvel kinda fucked up, because you know what?

After being told 'make your own first, then we'll talk,' writers DID do just that....but then found out that well, due to the ease of online distribution and access these days, for any writers who CAN find an artist to partner with, its a hell of a lot easier to get their content out there these days WITHOUT a major publisher behind them.....and for a lot of marginalized writers in particular, its worth it to keep full creative control in exchange for smaller circulation. Especially when they don't have to deal with editors 'softening' their work to make it more palatable for audiences that quite frankly aren't necessarily their primary target. So yeah, marginalized voices are becoming more and more present in comics, but Marvel and DC for the most part are keeping the same voices centered they always have, and what these voices have to say is becoming less and less relevant and outdated. Because much like this arc from Taylor, even when they DO dip their toes into story matter that's of interest to wider audiences, they're doing so to a degree that still puts them years behind the conversations everyone else is having.

5) The same holds true of disability representation. I stopped reading Taylor's run for a lot of reasons but his way of responding to people unhappy with his depiction of Babs was a key one. If I'm editor on a book, and someone tweets at one of my writers that their depiction of a disabled character was hurtful because it feels like they're doubling back on everything Babs has ever said about not being defined by or ashamed of her disability and now its being treated like a dirty little secret, and that writer's response is essentially to just laugh at them and say there's nothing wrong or ableist about their writing of a disabled person, TO a concerned disabled person? That writer's ass is getting fired. Full stop.

Either you give a shit about this stuff or you don't. Don't pay your readers lip service about how important social issues are to you and how much you care about using superhero narratives to inspire people on these matters if you're gonna turn around and show your ass the second you don't feel comfortable and prioritized by the conversation, like it wouldn't exist without your oh so valuable contributions. ESPECIALLY if you don't identify as sharing the same identity of the marginalized character you're writing. You are a guest in someone else's lived experiences at that point, and you think you've got the right to belittle and talk down to the people who LIVE THERE? Fuck off, my dude.

6) Re-center Dick as someone who the superhero community RESPECTS. I love seeing Dick depicted as someone who has an awareness of his own limitations and an appreciation for what others bring to the table, and so I'm not opposed to him calling on others when he needs to.....but I also would like to see more of the opposite. But not in the way we usually see it these days, where he's asked to come help with a crisis and then usually second-guessed the whole way, and then sent back home without so much as a thank you when its done. Yawn. Sorry. I've read that story by now.

You know what story arc I freaking LOVED as a kid, back in the 90s? In Green Lantern, when Kyle Rayner first became the sole GL, one of his very early arcs, before he ever joined the JLA or anything....was him realizing how little he knew about being a superhero. He was like, my predecessors all had a full fledged CORPS to teach them everything they needed to know, but I had a few lines of exposition from a funny little blue guy in a red pillowcase and then I was off to the races. That's not good enough. There's so much I don't know about being a hero, I don't even KNOW what I still need to know.

So he went on kinda a superhero training roadtrip. He went to Metropolis to ask Superman for advice, he went to Batman to learn from Batman and Robin (Tim at the time). He went to Wonder Woman, Sentinel (Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern), etc, etc. And in the end, Kyle very much became his own kind of hero who wasn't just a pastiche of all those other heroes and the advice they gave him, but like....this put him on the road to that.

And I'd love to see something like that happen in Dick's solo title. We've seen him train in a team setting, we've seen him train the other Robins.....I'd love to see like, young superheroes from OTHER books, not ones created by the title, but like names people actually recognize from other franchises, like, guest star in Nightwing's book to learn from HIM, specifically. I wanna see something where Wally looks at the latest speedster and is like, you know what, if you really wanna be the best hero you can possibly be, then Nightwing's who you gotta go to, because there's no one I trust to make a better hero out of someone than him. I want the newest kid on the JLA block to worry that people aren't taking him seriously because of his age or experience, and he's always hearing them talk about Nightwing and how young he was when he started and so if anyone knows something about how to gain the respect of your older superhero peers, that's the guy to talk to.

Gimme Dick's couch being crashed on at various times by a half dozen new or upcoming young superheroes who all heard or figured out that if they really want to up their superhero game, Nightwing's the guy to see.

7) Bring back Bea. There's no long paragraph expansion on this, its really simply. Bring back Bea. She was one of the freshest breaths of air in Dick's supporting cast in ages, most of the current run is based off her character direction in the first place, she's literally the best suited TO help Dick in this venture, and the reasons they gave for writing her out of Dick's life were all bullshit and they just wanted to focus on his previous relationships, which would be fine if they didn't fall into the same two endless cycles of bring back up, go nowhere with, awkwardly avoid each other for years, rinse and repeat. Like. Bring back Bea, please and thank you, the end.

8) Focus on new villains. Heartless is meh, but the idea of new villains is still better IMO than rehashing Blockbuster, Zucco, etc. Like, nostaglia ain't it. If I want to read Blockbuster fucking up Dick's life, I can do that. They're called back issues. The thing is, love it or hate it, the Blockbuster arc WAS iconic. It left its mark. And anything that doesn't leave just as much of a mark, if they're going to bring him up again, is just gonna be a waste of time, you know? It'll just dilute his overall presence when like, what he was - worked fine as is. We don't need Round Two.

The trick to good villains, IMO, is they have to speak to a fight that needs fighting.

What I mean by that is....the best villains are those who resonate on a more instinctive level because they embody something that already exists in a reader's mind as a conflict that needs fighting. Like, if superheroes exist, if the embodiment of larger than life presences and forces devoted to protecting the world from various things are real....then their villains need to embody the kinds of fights or conflicts that NEED larger than life figures to combat them, at least on a one to one level.

Look at Superman and Lex Luthor. Superman at his core embodies the strength of community. He's the ultimate hero of the people, his essence is that he was the last survivor of a doomed race who was raised by two honest, hard working people to see the beauty in just being ONE of them, in using what he had on behalf of all of them and not just himself. In contrast, Lex Luthor is basically the embodiment of capitalist greed, of excess, of the entitlement of being able to have anything with a snap of your fingers and thus assuming that gives you divine mandate to make the kinds of choices that he sees as only his right to make.

He hates Superman, ultimately, because Superman is the WRONG savior of the people. He wants their only savior to be HIM, half the time he honestly believes he's saving the world FROM Superman, but just as often he's perfectly content to be the villain and not shy about it....because Lex Luthor's ultimate motivation is he wants everyone to know when he's dead and gone that LEX LUTHOR WAS HERE. He genuinely doesn't care WHAT his impact or legacy is at the end of the day, just that it exists and it overshadows most everything else...because all that really matters to him is the irrefutable proof that HE mattered. And thus at their cores, Superman and Lex are perfectly opposed. Ideally situated to eternally be in conflict, their own forever war, because their core natures are incompatible. They CAN'T compromise, without compromising themselves and essentially ending up as someone totally other than who and what they are already.

And you can go down the list. The Joker is the chaos to Batman's order, while Mr. Freeze is the stagnancy of that order taken too far, he's what you get when you freeze everything in your grief and refuse to let anything go on, anything new grow, because that would mean having to admit once and for all that what you're mourning is really gone. Two-Face is the ultimate embodiment of Man vs Self, a once good man at war with his own worse nature, and reminding everyone who looks at him how easily they could fall to the same fate.

And so on and so on. What Dick needs, is more of the same. Like, as much as I'm not a huge fan of Talon stories, I maintain that the Court of Owls were a great foil for him - just they tend to be poorly used in canon as well. But I also think how poorly they come off in canon has a lot to do with canon not really touching on WHY they're such a perfect foil for Dick....and that's Dick's history with being outside the system, mistreated and even exploited by the system. Because the Court, their core concept, is they ARE the system. They are entrenched, enfranchised, institutional power, passed down through generations, dynastic control that is a perfect counterpart to the dynastic power of the Wayne family, embodied in its youngest generation in the form of Bruce's FOUND family, the children he adopted regardless of whether or not his peers found them deserving of that honor. The Court, and their entire....thing...about the Gray Son, is the entitled fury of those denied something they deem theirs simply because they WANT it, and who will burn the whole world down rather than admit defeat or let someone else have it instead.

And that resonates. It could resonate a lot MORE if DC would actually lean into those concepts and allow Dick to explore how the Court are nothing he's not used to, they're literally made up of the same people who have looked down on him ever since he came to Gotham, but now they're actually a face and a name put to all those attitudes, something he can literally FIGHT BACK AGAINST. The Court are literally human-sized embodiments of everything and everyone who's tried to confine Dick since his parents' deaths, tried to define him without his permission, tried to make him other or lesser than who and what he is.....and who thus now exist in a form that Dick can literally BATTLE. So that he doesn't HAVE to just take this stuff lying down.

Thanks to the Court, he doesn't HAVE to just passively accept it, that this is just how life is, that some people are going to view him this way and think this about him and there's nothing he can do about it. He CAN do something about it, in superhero stories. He can kick its ASS, in the form of the Court of Owls and everything its members think about him and intend for him. He can refuse to bow down to them, to accept their mark on him. He can say lol, no, and then blow their shit sky high, ideally with a little help from his family. He can BEAT them, in this incarnated form, and in doing so, even though he can't beat everything they stand for and represent, that victory still matters, still means something symbolic to readers it resonates with.

And that's what we need more of. Villains created specifically to embody concepts that are diametrically opposed to Dick and what he represents. The system, yes, but also villains who embody the kind of tyranny and control he fights back against in his constant battles for autonomy and self control. Villains who embody the 'new hopes' of a second generation just like Dick himself is the focal point of the hopes embodied by the second generation of heroes. I'm actually not the hugest fan of multiversal constant Dick Grayson, but I might like it more if he had an opposite number there, someone he was specifically contrasted with. Idk.

But you get it.

9) Dick having a social life. Gimme the Titans and his siblings showing up JUST to show up. We have room enough for at least a couple pages every other issue where we just get to see these characters having some breathing room, taking a beat to stop and be something other than just a superhero, to be human as well. There's more to life than 24/7 fighting, even for them, and that's largely been lost in modern superhero comics, which kinda sucks, because that was what made most of the more iconic and lasting dynamics between various characters like, STAND the test of time. The larger than life battles between good and evil might be what many of us come to superhero comics FOR, but the relatable back-and-forths and ups and downs of their private lives spent with friends and family tends to be what keeps most of us coming BACK. And lately its all just mission, mission, mission, and I'm like blah, blah, blah and its like, meh, meh, meh. Y'know? Give the guy some down time, and let his friends come spend it with him.

10) Boone. This is purely self-indulgent, but if you know anything about me, you know my obsession with Robin: Year One, Dick's brief time at Vengeance Academy, and the hate/hate relationship he has with his brief frenemy from that period, Boone aka Shrike. This character has SOOOOO much potential to be Dick's true archnemesis and rival, and like. *Sobs* I can't get into it all again. Its too much. I can't do it.

Okay, I absolutely can. And will, probably. But like. Later.

BONUS ROUND:

Other thing I would absolutely insist upon if I were Nightwing editor....

GET THAT FUCKING MEME SHIRT ABOUT BRUCE SLAPPING DICK THE FUCK OUTTA HERE.

Like. Seriously. WHAT THE HELL. Why would you double down on THAT? Why is Babs STILL wearing it? (Last I checked, like I think I saw it in a scan from last issue? I'm pretty sure its still there? If not, forget this entire rant, and I am very embarrassed. Okay not that embarrassed. I don't really care if I'm wrong here but like, in case I'm not)...

WHY. Who thought that was funny? No, seriously, on behalf of any other abuse survivors who like me are SERIOUSLY not amused, who the FUCK thinks its FUNNY to have one of Dick's best friends sporting a shirt that no matter what it represents IN universe, to readers OUT of universe, is always going to call to mind the fact that this meme only freaking EXISTS because of all the times DC has obliviously and without acknowledgment written Bruce abusing his children, including the BFF that Babs is literally wearing that right in front of.

Like omg do you hate her, DC? What other possible reason could you have for thinking that would be a cute, funny thing for her to wear around the guy getting SLAPPED, by his DAD, in your shirt's iconography.

Okay I'm done.

LOL.

Sorry, that last one was brewing for awhile. Deep breaths. Woo.

[skybristle]

i KNOW this is a cookey run blog. but also. it's My blog and i do whatever i want all of the time actually. i'm still into cr pls don't unfollow me this just has my brain in a chokehold for the night SO!!! my original story!! its kinda bare-bones as im still figuring it out but DO ASK QUESTIONS ABT IT PRETTY PLEASE i need to expand on the world once again below the cut just because it's REALLY LONG.

theres this kingdom with a name i havent figured out yet BUT. obviously being monarch is framed as the best position, something so deeply important, you have so, so much power. so when kyra's parents perish [for. Some reason? once again this is a massive wip] she takes the crown and,,, begins feeling a presence in the back of her mind. slowly,,, she feels it creeping deeper. at first she believes it's the thing guiding all monarchs, vaguely talked about but kept deeply secret to those outside the highest circles. nobody rlly knows what it is or the extent of it,,, but whatever it is kyra hates it. she watches in horror as her mouth says things she didn't think of, it's presence becomes overbearing, her hands move without her calling, and she desprately fights it off. she comes to calling it the Mind. think like,,, queen wasp and the breath of evil type deal kinda but before she becomes a complete vessel to it. kyra's resistance angers the Mind. no heir is this fiesty. spoiled brat. too much will to break. if kyra won't settle down, best to attack at the root of her power. the court. there's a guild of mercenaries who work for the crown, and are as established as if they were the army itself. it's run by a pair of lovers, who suddenly start casting their council votes into tyrannical overbearing things, distance themselves, and eventually lose their minds completely and bring the blade on themselves, leaving their sole heir to take up the family business. cairn. and cairn, always the sharpest and most cunning, sees this for what it is. a murder. and they won't rest until they find their killer. putting the family business in the hands of their sole friend, they set off. the mysterious, fox-masked mouse stalks the trail of this mind illness and all things point to the source being the queen herself. cairn doesn't know why kyra would want her best force dead, but what matters is she did it. so they break into the royal quarters, murder on their mind,,, only to find the queen, sobbing and lamenting over losing herself to the Mind, not wanting to become a shell for this fucked up force. staring into a broken mirror. cairn feels deep sympathy, but also, now they have a lead to the true culprit. and they offer as such to kyra. they find the source of the Mind, and eradicate it, securing cairn's revenge and kyra's freedom. kyra doesn't hesitate for a moment, even if she fears cairn could become the next victim. THIS IS WHERE MY SOLID IDEAS END. cairn IS immune to the Mind, i haven't decided how exactly because IDK WHAT THE MIND REALLY IS YET??? the idea im running with rn is the Mind needs to see the eyes of the victim, and cairn's mask prevents that. or they're just built different idk. they go on a quest to find the core of the Mind and kill it, teaming up for convience alone but,,, they get along very well. and. oops! sapphics!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE WIN. other misc notes i couldn't fit in: kyra is very tall and regal, peircing gaze and robs and silver hair. all people have animal traits in this world, and i'm still deciding on making the royal family snow owls OR snow leopards. idk yet HFSDKLFDSJ CAIRN is smol but agile, with knives and shit probably. they wear reds with spotted black and white koi patterns and are never seen without their signature fox mask, even in sleep. they are also based off a mouse, but not a specific species [to add to their mystery factor lol] SORRY if this isn't interesting lol but if you like it PLEASEEE send asks abt it i will cry.

[ofbloodandbullets]

So it’s recently come to my attention that not everyone in the world has actually watched The Old Guard (WHO KNEW?!) so I’m going to try and do some info dumps about the world, the general canon and Andy’s history, personality, powers etc.  This will ... probably get kinda lengthy. 

Also: MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR COMICS & MOVIE.

The first thing you need to know is that for the main part, the history and the world that TOG takes place in is the exact same one as the real history of the world.  It’s set in modern day, though the plot points stretch back to 7k+ years ago.  It’s also important to note that there is a lot of historical inaccuracies and some things in canon that conflict themselves so it’s best to just take it all with a grain of salt and just go with what works best for your particular preferences etc. 

The main difference between reality and TOG is that in TOG there are a very minute like .00000000002% of the population that are immortals.  Now, it’s important to note that these people can die but they resurrect pretty close to immediately after they die no matter the amount of damage done.  Now it can take some time to fully heal or reform, depending on how extensive the trauma (being blown to bits or burned etc. will take longer to fix but there’s no amount of damage that we know of that can actually keep them dead).  

There are times when, for reasons unknown to the characters in character (or to us as readers  of the comics / viewers of the movie etc) that the immortality just stops.  There’ll just be a time that they suffer injuries that just don’t heal, and they die.  There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to this, be it age, number of times they’ve died, whatever.  Now, I have my own entirely headcanon and personal preference based theory which you can find HERE but it’s totally just a random idea that I had that I liked to explain the loss of Andy’s immortality in the movie (that doesn’t happen in the comics) and lets me say that she regains her immortality post canon so that I can nudge things back in the direction of the comics for post movie plots and so on.

Andy is, as far as we know, and as far as she knows, the oldest (human) immortal, coming in at around 7,000 years old.  She was born into a tribe, the Scythia (hence what she’s generally called: Andromache the Scythian).  A nomadic warrior tribe that I headcanon to be a matriarchy, Andy was betrayed by the ‘queen mother’ when she was sixteen and killed in battle because the leader feared that Andy posed a danger to her continuing rule.  This person was practically a mother to Andy and it was a horrific betrayal.  What was almost as shocking to Andy was the fact that she got back up again after being literally stabbed in the back and killed.

In the vein of trying to thwart prophecies making them happen, Andy killed the matriarch and took her placce ruling the tribe, eventually becoming a God King to her people and ruling over them for hundreds of years until her loneliness absolutely overwhelmed her and one day she just vanished.

At some point after this, she began to dream of a woman, feeling a pull towards this stranger that she couldn’t begin to explain.  After dozens, maybe hundreds of years, she managed to track down the woman in question (Noriko in the comics, Quynh in the movie) and realized that they’d been dreaming of each other.  (In the comics she meets Lykon before Quynh/Noriko, whom she had also been dreaming of).  

Now, the connection between these immortals isn’t explained in canon, and for a long time, Andy, Lykon, Noriko (and eventually Joe, Nicky, Book) thought they were the only ones but there is a scene in the second set of comics that implies that there are other ‘packs’ of immortals.  I headcanon that it’s a ‘like calls to like’ / kind of Sense8 simpatico type thing - like minded souls drawn to each other, which is why Andy and the others didn’t know about the other immortals, but again, that’s just entirely my thoughts on the matter. 

Lykon is the first to succumb to the loss of immortality, a short couple hundreds years after he and Andy find each other.   He dies on a battlefield, one that he and Quynh/Noriko and Andy fought on like a hundred/thousand before, champions for the abused etc.  Skip forward a couple hundred years again and enter Joe & Nicky, a Knight and a Muslim warrior who kill each other on the battlefield only to both wake up and spend (an unspecified amount of time) hunting and killing each other before eventually Andy & Quynh/Noriko find them.  In time, Joe & Nicky realize that they love each other.   (Important to note that Quynh/Noriko and Andy were also lovers).  In the movie, when the first major surge of witch hunts began, Quynh/Noriko and Andy go to help the women that stood accused, only to be captured and accused of witchcraft themselves.  After being hung, drowned, burned at the stake and coming back to life every time, the witch hunters settled on locking Quynh into an iron coffin and dropping her into the ocean.  (In the comics, Noriko is lost at sea during a massive storm that had thrown their ship entirely off course with Andy having no clue where they actually were at the time.) 

Joe & Nicky arrive in time to rescue Andy, but Noriko is already gone and despite spending decades tracking down every person even remotely involved in the so called ‘investigation’ into the women’s inquisition and punishment, Andy wasn’t able to find anything about where Quynh could be. 

Cue angst & depression & guilt for ages after.

The trio still steps in over the following decades, trying to help prevent the worst of atrocities, but Andy quickly begins to spiral into an, at best apathetic, at worst, entirely distant and withdrawn mindset and steadily begins to lose hope that they’re actually making any difference at all.

Skip ahead a century or two and enter Book; a Russian conscript who had been forced into the fight after being convicted of forgery.  Hung for desertion, Book spend days dying over and over again as he hung there, unable to attempt an escape until the troops finally packed up and moved on.   He and Andy, Nicky and Joe meet up and Book kinda reluctantly joins their little group.  It’s revealed that Book dreams, still, of Noriko/Quynh and while he can’t tell where hse is, dreams of her still dying, drowning on the floor of the ocean over and over and over like she had been for the last hundred or two years.  

Book returns at some point to his mortal family which ended in disaster when his last remaining son was dying of cancer, cursing and screaming at Book for ‘choosing not to save him’ by making him immortal too, even though it’s something Book had no ability to transfer or make happen.  Between his nightmares, losing his son and a number of other factors, Book decides he wants to end it all but no matter what he tries, doesn’t die and stay dead.

Eventually he’s approached by a pharmaceutical company that has figured out what he is and wants to run tests on him to see if they can unlock his healing / immortality for other people.  Merrick’s company works in league with an ex CIA agent whose wife died of a horrific terminal disease who hopes that they can find a way to keep anyone else from dying if they don’t have to.    Initially it was just supposed to be him, but he’d set up a display to stream for proof of what he was / they were and the corp decided they wanted all of the immortals.   Book ends up betraying the team, and he and the others end up locked up and tested on / killed / experimented on etc.  

There’s another character introduced in the meantime, the first new immortals in centuries, an American soldier named Niles.  There’s a lot more that goes on here, but the main point is that in the movie, Andy stops healing from her wounds shortly after she tracks down Nile and is put into incredible amounts of danger when Merrick (the leader of the pharmaceutical company) captures Andy, Joe, Book, Nicky.  Book is devastated, Nicky and Joe are furious, Andy’s just tired.

Eventually, Andy and the others break free with Niles’ help, destroy the lab they were originally held in etc and set out to try and hunt down any other proof, lab results, anything that Merrick got his hands on during the tests.

The group meets and settles on a hundred year exile for Booker (which I think is one of the stupidest things - like, the man’s clearly desperate and depressed and lonely and mentally unstable so by all means let’s isolate him for a fully century) and at the end of the movie we see him stumbling home to his apartment six months later to find Quynh standing in his apartment, pouring and drinking a glass of water which is a whole power move considering how many millions of times she died by drowning.

In the comics, Quynh/Noriko was driven entirely mad and to the point of wanting vengeance against Andy for abandoning her and spends a while gaslighting Andy and torturing her physically and emotionally and what not until she manages to isolate Andy from the other immortals and scoops in to ‘rescue’ Andy.  IDK what they’re going to adapt this to in the second movie, 

Again, via the link posted above, my Andy slowly begins to regain her immortality (again, IDK what they’re going to do with the next movie).  

Uhhhh yeah.  So I .. think that’s the majority of what you need to know for canon info about Andy.  THIS is also an important PSA regarding my Andy’s history & her longest lasting relationship that has nothing to do with canon at all but that is part of Andy’s bg in every verse, even if it never comes into play.

[imreallyhereforkataang]

hello, i don’t know who to ask about this but i’m new to the fandom and saw that you really like kataang. what’s your interpretation of katara’s glance down after the kiss before the invasion? i’m not a fan of the surprise kiss trope but even with that said, i had thought she liked him back. it didn’t seem like she did at that point or through the rest of book 3, and then next thing we knew they were endgame in the finale. sorry for being a bother, i’m just a little confused (like katara i guess haha)

Hi, Anon! Welcome to the fandom! Hopefully it treats you nicely lol.

Ah yeah. I've seen this talked about a lot over the years. And, y'know, I get it. It can seem a little out-of-place at first since, as you noted, Katara shows signs of being romantically interested in Aang beforehand, and now that they've had their second kiss, she doesn't look too happy about it. As someone who ships them, I initially would have loved to see them happy in that moment, to take another minute to themselves just to share grins and maybe laugh a bit because they've taken that step, put their feelings out into the open, and they're both glad for it. To a shipper, or to someone who's rooting for our protagonist to express his feelings, this does feel like a celebratory moment. I'm taken out of the context of the scene for a second because the pretty music has shot in and I'm still surprised at Aang's move and I'm happy to see an actual, mutual (as Katara leans in) kiss between them.  

Then again, this situation is a lot realer for them than it is for me. I'm the viewer, I can hear The Cave of Two Lovers' theme, I can see this being painted in a positive light because we see these two come together for a brief moment, and the narrative is, in a sense, praising that. In-universe, though, it's a bit more complicated, and Katara looking sad really isn't so out-of-place.

Remember where they are and what they're doing, what they were saying moments before and what they're about to risk. For them, this is the quiet before the storm, their possibly final goodbye. Aang is about to fly off and face his destiny, confront what he's been training for over most of the year, "since the day we met" as Katara puts it, and determine the fate of the world based on whether he wins or loses. Whether he comes back or not. And he puts the reality of the situation out there. "What if...what if I don't come back?" It's the threat of that possibility that spurs him to kiss Katara. And she figures as much.

Despite the music suggesting otherwise, this isn't a happy scene (and perhaps that's why we don't get the full score until the finale, because this kiss is only foreshadowing what could be). It's tense, and bittersweet, and pretty tragic imo. Aang knows he could die. He says so. And then he kisses her. And I feel like Katara breaking out into a great big smile in that moment, even though she does have feelings for him, would just seem off. Idk, personally I'm not sure how you (impersonal) can celebrate finally kissing the person you like when you remember that what drove them to make their move just now is the very real possibility they might never see you again. That they're about to leave and face that risk, and there's nothing for you to do about it. Seems like an upsetting situation to be in. 

There's also the fact that I'm skeptical Katara didn't already know Aang had feelings for her. I'm not saying it was always on her mind or that she paid much attention to it, she may have been putting all that stuff on the back burner or pretending it wasn't there as much as it was (including her own feelings) to focus on more important things, but I think she at least knew it subconsciously. I mean, Aang's not very subtle sometimes lol, and they've shared plenty of moments. So when Aang kisses her and Katara jerks back and her eyes widen in surprise, it's not because she didn't expect Aang to have these feelings (at least imo), but because she was in the middle of talking and is taken aback that Aang broke the unspoken barrier between them. 

They're touchy feely throughout the show. Katara's kissed him on the cheek plenty of times, they've even kissed on the lips before now. They have sparks, and they've been dancing around them quite a lot, from the Book 3 premiere at the latest. But they haven't gone that extra step to put it out there too far, where there's no mistaking the meaning behind these gestures. I think, on Katara's end, she would have been okay with putting off making any official moves for a while, given the war and several other possible factors preventing her from feeling able to spend too much conscious thought and emotion on it, and so she's surprised that Aang's kissed her because they'd been keeping their more romantic intentions implicit up until then. She won't be realizing afterwards or celebrating in her head that "omg, the guy I('ve sorta been avoiding my feelings for but actually do) like likes me back," because she’s known this, but it’s been left unsaid and kept slightly quiet in Katara's musings. Now, it's out there in the open, they're past the safe zone, there's little room for ignoring the feelings anymore, and it sucks so much that they had to make their way there now. It's such tragic timing, a kiss that doesn't stem from a smiles and rainbows conversation where they sit down to talk about their feelings and where they want to go from there, but a kiss done out of desperation, out of the possibility that Aang doesn't come back. Through that lens, it's almost like they kissed "too early," especially for what happens next.

See, my impression is that Aang's kiss was meant for two possible scenarios -- Aang loses and thus doesn't come back, which means there's obviously no future for him and Katara. Alternatively, the day is won, the war is over, he comes back and the world is finally at peace; they can stop running, they can celebrate and breathe and talk about where they're going from here in an environment more appropriate for that. And since Katara kissed him back, it seems like she affirmed that there's something there for them, given he returns. But instead, something happens that I don't think they anticipated. Aang does come back, but he didn't win. So, in terms of Katara and Aang, they're now at a bit of an impasse, a situation that their kiss wasn't intended for, and it leads to this semi-awkward limbo because Aang's still alive but ideally that kiss between them wouldn't have happened yet. 

Everyone needs to regroup, start it all over again, keep grinding and come up with a new plan. There's no time to get sidetracked, now more than ever. And, to me, that's reflective of what happens to Katara after Aang kisses her and takes off from the sub.

Katara's reaction is to dwell on the kiss. She wants to, but Sokka reminds her that there's no time to. So Katara snaps herself out of it, and she moves on. And then they survive the Day of Black Sun, but the fight isn't over for them yet.

You asked about the DoBS kiss, so I'm not gonna waste your time hyper-analyzing Ember Island Players because there is a lot that's been offered and discussed about that episode. But if you were to simplify the reason for Katara's stance there, it's pretty much just holding up what was established in DoBS.

At the Invasion, while caught up in surprise because she had an expectation that they wouldn't broach the subject this way, if at all, for a while, Katara kissed Aang back, and she kissed him back because she wanted to. But since then, she's had more time to think, and she won't be so caught off guard next time. Aang expresses during EIP that he wants to try a relationship with Katara sooner rather than later, and that he'd thought she felt the same since she kissed him back (as well as the moments they shared before), but Katara is adamant now about this not being the right time. She fully intends to keep her head in the game, like Sokka reminded her at the Invasion. That's essentially what she thinks Aang needs to remember now, too (and yeah, like I said, there are other ideas that can be brought in that contribute to the articulation, but this is the primary point being conveyed here).

Whatever the reason, her response causes Aang to reevaluate his conclusion about where they stand. Even though the war isn't over, he thought that, because he survived and Katara accepted his kiss before, maybe they could try anyways. But Katara still feels stuck in limbo, and she makes that clear. It's also significant to note that Katara doesn't make Aang any promises about being together after the war, which imo was a good move on the writers' part (I have a wip about this but idk when that'll be done lol). Anyways, Aang backs off, following her lead and putting romance aside.

I do want to talk about the second half of Book 3 as a whole, though, not just EIP. I've seen people criticize this portion of the story in terms of Kataang, but I think that, besides the substance of these episodes, it's important to keep in mind that the last 10 episodes of the series (The Western Air Temple and on) originally aired 7.5 months after Day of Black Sun. Not only that, but these episodes all aired within the same week. It was a big, hyped-up event on Nickelodeon dubbed "Countdown to the Comet," and it took place over the course of 6 days. That sort of schedule for finishing a show is...unusual. But it was also intentional here. 

Even though the episodes don't have to be watched that way, the final 10 episodes are, in a way, all together the final big bang of the series. They're majorly dedicated to the most critical elements of the main story, including Zuko finally, after 2.5 seasons, joining the gaang and him finding his place in it. I'd say that The Western Air Temple to The Southern Raiders are most generally about that, about Zuko being accepted and making amends especially to the original three members of the gaang (who he's hurt much more than Toph). The viewer is gratified by watching Zuko do what we all hoped for him, forming relationships with Aang, Sokka, and Katara after all this time, merging our most important A and B plots. The other major things the last 10 episodes are for are the final battle, of course, because that's going to be our conclusion to this journey, and Aang's preparation for it.   

So yes, onscreen interactions between Aang and Katara are fewer, but by no means does that make the rest of Book 3 an undoing of what they have. All their setup has been established, we're good on that, and we're going to leave that relatively be for now while we delve into the action until we're ready to revisit. And besides, imo, they still have extremely critical moments in the last 10 episodes that I am deeply, deeply happy exist. They're more subtle and less explicitly romantic -- a lot of them take place when they're not even around each other, but they speak volumes to me about how Aang and Katara have influenced each other, and how important the other is to them.

These 10 episodes are like a refocus of our largest priorities, and Kataang coming together is put on hold (again, I think that benefits the main story) for the end. But even though we watch less scenes where they're together, with more scenes of Zuko joining and hanging out with each of them individually in place, there's hardly indication of Katara and Aang avoiding each other after their DoBS kiss, or even post-EIP. 

They're still friends first. What they're avoiding is not each other, but a new possibility for themselves, because right now they're choosing to ground their feet in what they have. Basically, around each other, they're pretending what unfolded between them never happened until, possibly, on Katara's say so, it's appropriate to resume that aspect of their relationship.

And after the war, probably into a few months of peace (based on the state of Sokka's leg), she decided it was. She felt ready, and they dove right in.

I hope that clears things up! And don't worry, you weren't a bother at all! I love talking about these two, but unfortunately I became really busy the past couple days (plus this response got deleted and I couldn't salvage it because I saved a copy of a cursed screenshot of Aang and ig it was scary enough to erase my clipboard history :3). Thanks for your patience lol!

[thethermocline]

Okay so I have two theories about Legolas’ family tree.

It’s a point of interest to me that we know so little about it. There’s Oropher, Thranduil, Legolas, No women listed. No extended family. And as previously mentioned, Thranduil is possibly Middle Earth’s greatest (elf) king; certainly he is the best, and only, remaining by the third age.

So all that means that this power, and this family, appeared out of nowhere. They can’t be related to anyone memorable in middle earth history, or else – I assume – it would have been noted. (Though, I am told, it is possible that they are related to Legolas of Gondolin because of elven tradition regarding names and how they are passed on. I submit that while this is possible, it may also be that the name ‘Legolas,’ which translates very literally to ‘green leaf’ was invented by two families independently. It’s a pretty uncreative name, you’ve gotta admit.)

The other thing we know about them is that Oropher was Sindarin, and fled Doriath to live with the wood elves. He took/was given leadership to organize and protect them from encroaching threats; the wood elves, having lived free of violence for millennia, had no concept of military tactics. Thus, Oropher’s greatest contribution was teaching them how to defend themselves.

And so here’s the interesting bit. Many of the other elves, particularly Noldar but also Sindar, display colonialistic attitudes towards other elves (ie the Teler/sea elves, and the Sylvans/wood elves).

However, it doesn’t seem like Oropher or Thranduil practiced this. Thranduil is shown to have assimilated into wood elf culture completely in the Hobbit. He wears flower crowns, goes hunting with his subjects, and uses a wooden chair instead of a throne.

Given that he, as Oropher’s son, led the sylvans after Oropher’s catastrophic defeat and death (wherein 2/3 of their whole army was also slaughtered), I theorize that Oropher must have been popular with the wood elves as well. There’s no way he conquered them, or else his son would never have grabbed and kept power after such a devastating defeat. If their experience with Oropher was bad, I think the sylvans would have driven the remaining Sindar out. And even if they didn’t, if Thranduil was able to seize control, the complicated politics and civil unrest would have prevented him from repelling Sauron’s power for as long as he did.

So with all of that in mind I have two theories for what their family tree looks like. After all, the power to hold Sauron off without a ring had to come from somewhere. And just because a power was not previously used in a militaristic way doesn’t mean that it can’t be/it isn’t power.

Therefore. Scenario one. Oropher comes to the Greenwood as a single elf. Falls in love with and marries a wood elf, which also helps the cultural melding that’s happening between the two peoples. Thranduil is born out of this union. The wood elves, it is noted in canon, possess strong magic. Oropher, unfortunately, does not. He is a capable military leader who makes important strides in creating a new culture, a mixing of Sindar and Sylvan which retains that wood elf identity/culture but is also more disciplined and capable of fighting to defend itself.

But he does not possess the magic his wife and son do, and even capable leaders can fall in battle. So ends Oropher.

Thranduil, then, inherits raw power from his mother and the idea of how to focus and use it militarily/in the running of a kingdom from his father.

The other elves – Noldar and Galadhrim – are low key kinda bigoted, which is why Thranduil’s incredible kingship goes largely unrecognized, and the consensus seems to be that the Sylvans were colonized, despite canonical evidence to the contrary.

Thranduil then goes on to love and marry a wood elf, and they have Legolas (and possibly other children, who’s to say). He has a Sylvan name and does really act like royalty. That’s because Sylvans (I theorize) don’t recognize monarchies. Thranduil isn’t in charge because Oropher was, but because he’s such a good leader. Legolas is not in line for the throne at all, and that’s why he just seems like a cheerful hunter in the books.

Furthermore Legolas’ mom isn’t dead. She’s a warrior/captain or something. Idk. She’s not exactly queen because, again, of how Sylvans conceptualize leadership. She doesn’t want/isn’t suited for a political role so she doesn’t have one, and who she’s married to just isn’t a factor. We never see her or get her name because, politically speaking, she isn’t relevant. Neither is Legolas, exactly, but he is remembered due to his part in the fellowship.

That’s theory one. Theory two is similar but Thranduil’s mother is Sindar like his father. This one is popular among fans, but it doesn’t answer the question of where he got his power from. Either way Legolas’ mom was a wood elf. I mean, right? She’s gotta be.

I’m honestly torn on whether or not Thranduil’s mother survived the battle that killed her husband. I mean…maybe. Just going from statistics, she doesn’t have great odds, but it is possible. I headcanon that his mother in law is alive tho, and she’s one of those elves who is just. Scary old.

[lizadale]

How different would super paper Mario be if Mario and Luigi had swapped places? (Like, what do u think?)

hard to say. do you mean they’re places in the prophecies were reversed? like Mario is “the man in red” and Luigi is the hero foretold in both books? if all other plot points remained the same, i imagine it would’ve been similar (also assuming the Chaos Heart would not immediately shred Mario on contact) but the hero’s party would have had A LOT of trouble

Luigi is ill-suited as a leader, so assuming the timeline works the same Peach would be in charge of the party (honestly imagining her having to corral both Luigi and Bowser on an adventure is extremely funny). Luigi would also put on the brakes if he had to fight his brother. his actions are very emotionally inclined, so that’s a huge deal-breaker even if it becomes “necessary”, and he’d probably go as far as preventing Bowser from fighting him too. Even just up to that point, with Luigi not knowing where Mario is he would be so distracted he’d get nearly nothing done tbh

BUT we can also assume that Mario wouldn’t have formed any sort of meaningful bond with Team Bleck. He would’ve been a lot harder for Dimentio to manipulate because Mario doesn’t talk and therefore wouldn’t give anything away. And as viciously protective as Luigi gets, after the final battle chances are he would’ve chased Dimentio into the Underwhere to kick his ass AGAIN for the sprout. (once again; don’t touch Mario)

but that’s like. a really complicated concept with so many factors and idk how to really approach that

[casiavium]

If selkie! Link is an AU no one asked for then idk what this is because I'm probably the only person who would want to combine these two things

or, Roman Empire Ghiralink

Outline of an AU/fic idea I will not write

If you've made it here I promise I will try to make this readable to someone who did not spend eight years of their life studying this stuff :)

Skyloft is an island off the coast of Britannia (Britain as a Roman province), the "Surface" is Rome itself & the surrounding Italian area. There's rumors that some of the Romans are blessed/cursed with the power of their gods and it has corrupted them beyond humanity (demons), and that their emperor is one of them

I'm not going one-to-one with the Skyward Sword plot for this (even though I could and it would make sense) because I don't really care about factoring Zelda in right now

SO Link living happy life in Skyloft still training to be a warrior for his village when the Romans attack, Skyloft is desperately underprepared and surrenders, no one gets hurt (so unrealistic but I'm keeping it PG and happy-ish)

Zelda knows she's the reincarnation of Hylia, it's like a priestess role she's been working with since birth. The Romans hate this because it puts her on the same level as their emperor gods or leaders like Cleopatra (Roman emperors were worshiped as gods especially after death, Egyptian pharaohs as the incarnations of Ra or Isis) Instead of killing her they choose to hurt someone close to her. She's still powerful, and they don't want to insight an uprising, they want to subdue her and make Skyloft cooperate. Conquered provinces were allowed to continue their religion as long as they added Roman gods to their pantheon, but in the case of Britannia druid priests were outlawed by Claudius to prevent rebellion so they did try to discourage Celtic paganism.

Link is special, he's been chosen by the Skyloft goddess Hylia to protect her reincarnation. Perfect to make an example out of. He gets taken back to Rome to become a gladiator, they honesty expect him to die during his first fight.

But he's good. So good he gets the attention of the emperor (which is Demise but that sounds so stupid when I say it like that) who wouldn't fight him himself, of course, but is interested in watching him die fight someone who is actually a challenge for him.

(Adding Fi to make it more complicated—Hylia gets him the magic sword somehow. these things just kind of happen in Roman mythology. Fi's still a sword spirit)

Ghirahim is head of the praetorian guard (guards the emperor & high level senators, massive amount of political power). The rumor is he's not human but a demon spirit, gifted to Demise by the gods to make him invincible. This is kinda true, he's Demise's sword, and though he's head of the guard he often gets special treatment and is more of a pet and a figurehead than he is allowed to be a leader. Ghirahim feels slighted, he's a powerful sword that deserves to be used in battle. The praetorian guard could overthrow the emperor because of the power they held (and they did, several times), but Ghirahim can't disobey Demise and despite being head of the guard he doesn't have much control over them.

Back to Link. Demise is interested in this young warrior from a weak province, wants to watch him fight someone his own skill level, who better than Ghirahim (symbolic shit, civilized Rome conquers the barbaric province). Duels to the death didn't happen that often, but for a big political spectacle like this, one of them (Link) is gonna die

Gladiator fights were somewhat staged, so there is some training that has to go into Link & Ghirahim's fight. During this time they speedrun enemies to lovers, but they're still preparing to kill each other. (maybe not so speedrun. These things take a lot of planning, it's not like they'd be the only ones fighting on the day they're scheduled too. They'd make it a huge deal with their fight the main event. ask me about the different types of battles in the Colleseum I'll infodump)

At some point before the end they get taken to the palace for a mock fight at a party (where they do not kill each other, they need to be alive for later) and Link wins. Was it staged to make the stakes seem higher? Ghirahim would say so, and that was the plan, but he really did lose to Link. Link, sword to Ghirahim's neck, realizes he can't kill him when the time comes.

Ghirahim on the other hand gets pissed at Link, who doesn't know why, and Ghirahim almost kills him in a private real fight. Demise's orders stop him from doing it, but Ghirahim was 100% ready to end Link's life. Ironically what gets Ghirahim on Link's side is the fact that he couldn't kill him because of the orders.

So Link and Ghirahim team up to assassinate Demise and there's some Katniss killing President Coin type of thing going on. They find a bunch of loopholes so Ghirahim can go around Demise's orders, get the rest of the praetorian guard on their side. (When the time comes Demise won't order Ghirahim to kill Link, he'll give him the thumbs up meaning kill ASK ME ABOUT THIS AS WELL but the action doesn't specify who)

When the final battle comes and Ghirahim wins, he looks to Demise for the order to kill Link and kills him instead.

Somehow they escape back to Skyloft (getting separated on the way for some extra angst), Link is Ghirahim's new master (he wouldn't have been next in line for emperor anyway), and they live as happily ever after as they can get in the 2nd century AD

[netheritenugget]

Alright, I'll bite. What sort of King is Eret here? And what manner of monster?

Sorry this took so long!  I had too much fun writing this post and it’s super long now.  Oops.

(I made a couple of posts about a Dream SMP Undertale AU)

If you’re good at reading between the lines this post contains major spoilers for Undertale. I know the game has been out for ages, but if you care, block the tag "Dream SMP Undetale AU"

IRL Eret is very fond of ferrets and flamingos, and they're very cool animals, but they aren’t that intimidating for a monster design.  But Eret also likes bears (their stuffed bear Ted is their unofficial channel mascot) and that's definitely boss-monster material.  So I think Eret would be a bear monster of some kind, just for the sheer intimidation factor.

I think Eret would be a good king, policy-wise.  They'd do their best to bring hope to the Underground, and they wouldn't be the one collecting human souls in this AU, that's someone else who is well-known for killing people (:  As for how people perceive them, and how they got there...  Welllll...

Eret wasn't the first King, that title goes to Wilbur, who was the King when the War of Humans And Monsters happened.  Eret was loyal back then, but that loyalty wavered when the monsters lost the war, and it fell apart when the realities of living underground made the other monsters restless and bitter.  Many people blamed Wilbur for losing.  Eret did too, and became very outspoken against him.

Dream took advantage of Eret's anger, poisoning his mind and feeding his resentment, and encouraged them to challenge Wilbur to a duel for the crown, telling them they'd be a much better king than he is. (:  Eret challenged Wilbur, but the duel was not to the death, it was points based, though of course with all duels the chance of death is there.  Eret won without killing him, though, and Wilbur gave them the crown.  He was naturally extremely upset about being dethroned, but otherwise everything was fine.

Until Wilbur ended up murdered the next day.  The first suspect was Eret but there was no actual evidence who the culprit was, since monsters turn to dust after death and there weren't any witnesses.  Eret's reputation is damaged, faith in their leadership shaken.

The Player arrives in Cogchamp (the Ruins) after their initial meeting with Dream is interrupted by Fundy before Dream can kill them.  Fundy tries to talk to him, but he just runs away, claiming that the situation is "too awkward."  The player learns that Fundy is living there to escape the emotional turmoil of losing his father and his doubts that Eret isn't as innocent as he claims.  Fundy misses Eret very much, wondering if they were alright after he left, and saying that he wants to go fishing with them when he goes back, like he and Wilbur used to.

Fundy gives us some lore about Dream.  Fundy stopped being friends with him after Dream got very suddenly "too Weirdchamp" about everything. Fundy says he's seen Dream with a human who fell down before, but he never saw the human again, even though he looked all over. Dream denied it when he asked.

Fundy also fills the role of acquainting the Player with game mechanics, though he's much more chaotic and prankish, and the Player becomes his friend.  He tries to prevent the Player from leaving Cogchamp because he's lonely, but ultimately relents because he knows he can’t bring himself to hurt someone who was nice to him.  Unless it's a Genocide Route, in which Fundy doesn't try to fight the Player, and instead flees to the rest of the Underground, to warn Eret and the other monsters. </3

But this post is about Eret, I'm getting sidetracked here.

Everyone else's reactions to current events is mixed.  Some monsters like Hbomb and Puffy stubbornly believe that Eret didn’t kill Wilbur, others like Purpled are just upset that they felt the need to overthrow him in the first place.  The Sleepy Bois want them dead for killing their family, and are planning to assassinate them.

Niki is the closest to Eret, and talks about them the most.  She talks about how they were her emotional rock during the War, and that though they're still good friends, she's seen less and less of them lately, and they don't smile as much anymore.

Despite how things turned out, Eret still tries their best to be a good King, and bring people hope.  Whenever the Player goes to a new area and finds a new box for items, they always find a piece of "you matter <3 - Eret" item inside that grants temporary defense.  Eret also built a lot of important public facilities in the Underground outside of Cogchamp, like a museum in which the Player learns of Wilbur’s heroism in the War of Humans And Monsters.  They also built several bridges and an aquarium for monsters in Waterfall (because of the water level problems Waterfall is having).

Much like Asgore, the Player's opinion of Eret is based entirely on what others have to say about them. The Player might feel strongly that they're too nice to have done something like this, and something else is going on, or that Eret definitely could have killed Wilbur and the Sleepy Bois are right to seek justice for a wrong that has been committed.

Boss Battles:

For Eret's boss fight in the Genocide Route...  Oh boy.

Eret’s fight isn't as difficult as Technoblade’s would be, but it’s difficult because you can't damage Eret in the beginning.  In spite of Eret's protests, Niki comes to try to protect them, shielding Eret from all damage until you kill her.  Then Eret goes into a sorrow-fueled rage and enters into "No-one Knows" mode, removing their sunglasses.  They use their last words to beg the Player to find enough mercy in their heart to Spare Fundy.

The last person the Player kills in the Genocide run is indeed Fundy, who Eret was hiding in the Castle.  It's not a fight, it's just murder.  It's very sad.

Before the boss fight in the Neutral Route, we're privy to a conversation between Eret and Ghostbur, in which Ghostbur comes to visit the castle. Eret tells Ghostbur they're sorry for everything they've done, and that taking his place was the biggest mistake of their life.  Ghostbur claims other people say they killed him, and asks if Eret did.  Eret avoids the question, stating that they've already told Wilbur the truth about what happened many times, there's no point if he can’t remember.  Ghostbur presses the question, stating that even if he'll forget later, he'd like to know, because he does remember being Eret's friend, and he's worried about them.  The Player is noticed before Eret can answer him.

Eret fights the Player alone.  Eret admits to the Player that they should probably be a good sport and just die, they don’t want to hurt a child, but they know the Player needs their soul to leave, and they're too afraid of death not to try and fight.

When they lose, they lament that things turned out this way because they thought they could do a better job than Wilbur, and that they can't seem to do anything right as a King or a mentor to Fundy.  They try to give up their soul to the Player, who spares them.

Only for Dream to kill them, steal the soul, and destroy it.  Because he's Dream.  Dream also reveals to the Player that he was the one who killed Wilbur, because the underground is boring and he needs entertainment. He's been collecting human souls, not to destroy the barrier with, but to become God.  Dream goes Photoshop Flowey Mode and fights the Player.

Pacifist Route:

After completing the Neutral route and starting the Pacifist Route, the Player is pointed in toward Eret's castle basement by Dream.  The Player discovers a Necromancy Lair (a creepy equivalent to the True Lab in Dr. Alphy's house) with the Wilbur resurrection shrine in it.  Once the Player finds the scattered pages torn out of Eret’s diary, it's revealed that Eret suspects Dream killed Wilbur, but they have no proof.  The diary talks about how Ghostbur was the result of a secret project by Eret, their failure to revive Wilbur.  Their diary also informs us that Dream often comes to torment them about this, taunting them about they'd just made things worse.  Eret questions whether or not to step down as King, but wonders who would be able to take responsibility, since Prince Fundy is missing.

The Player also finds a book by someone named "Callahan" about dreamon summoning that Eret was researching (and deemed too dangerous to use, due to the warnings within).

In the final fight against Dream, the Player can Save Eret by giving them pink wool, and reminding them that they matter to Fundy, Niki and the Player.

At the end of the Pacifist run, Eret and Fundy reconcile.  Eret crowns Fundy King, and declares that this is how it should have been from the beginning.  IDK if Wilbur is revived or not, depends on how bittersweet of an ending I want, maybe Ghostbur just has their memories restored without bringing them back to life?  But during the end credits, the three of them can be seen fishing together.