#fates spoilers ahoy

[gavillain]

Oh. That was. Hmmm. Lots to discuss and theorize for in Agatha All Along Episode 5! Spoilers AHOY!

So after last episode was about the Coven all coming together at the height of unity, this trial basically took a SLEDGEHAMMER to all of that camaraderie and good feeling with a healthy dose of shit going BAD.

So, before we get into the meat, I thought the opening with the broomsticks was really cool. I liked the ritual they came up with to enchant it, and I liked how the Coven duos paired off with Agatha and Rio as one pair, Lilia and Jen as another, and Alice and Teen as the final one. I really feel like after this episode, it showcases how the coven stacks up in terms of morality - Teen and Alice are the heroic good witches who are sort of the new generation of witches but who are in way over their heads, Lilia and Jen are experienced and are kind of apathetic to the fates of others, and then Agatha and Rio are the crazy kind of evil ones who can't be trusted. And those tiers get REALLY delineated really fast this episode.

We also got confirmation that the Salem Seven are the children of Agatha's former coven. I had my money on them literally BEING her former coven, but the fact that they're connected as the vengeance seeking next generation is a really cool direction too. They had a delicious creepy vibe this episode, and the way they seemed to follow the same path that Rio did into the Road was a nice touch of continuity. I was reminded a lot of the Nazgul with them, which I enjoyed. I DO hope we'll get more of a personality from at least one of them before all is said and done, but as is, I enjoy the threat they pose.

Agatha's test was this episode with the Coven having to use a Ouija board to commune with the dead. They definitely had me going there with Agatha doing a Sharon impression there for a minute, but of course, she was only faking it. The actual spirit claimed to be "Death" (earning an ironic laugh from Rio who we know IS actually Death) and wanted to "Punish Agatha." But we find out from Teen solving the Ouija board at the last minute that the spirit was Nick Scratch, Agatha's son. What I'm not sure about, however, is if the "Punish Agatha" spirit masquerading as "Death" was Nick Scratch or if it was Evanora Harkness, who possesses Agatha. If I'm understanding the rules correctly, Agatha was possessed by her mother's spirit because she let go of the planchette, which means that Evanora's presence was a result of the ritual being interrupted, and Nick Scratch was the actual spirit they were communing with. But Evanora's whole motivation IS punishing Agatha, so maybe she WAS the first spirit and then Nick Scratch is a second spirit who manifests afterwards. It wasn't really clear, and I wish they'd have been more direct... Then again, maybe that's just another part of the mystery that's still yet to be revealed? I'm not sure.

Anyways, we have two interesting bits with Evanora and Nicholas: 1. Rio was READY to punish and/or kill Agatha before she found out Evanora was trying to keep Agatha there. Rio has a VERY clear dislike for Agatha's mother, and given that Evanora believes Agatha was "born bad" and laments not drowning her own daughter when she was born, it's pretty clear that Evanora wasn't really a good person in life. I wonder if Rio and Evanora had some history too, though? It kind of seems like that animosity was more than just about protecting Agatha.

2. Nicholas was a spirit and called out in a child's voice, so that seems to suggest that he IS very most definitely dead. I've been riding the theory train that he's alive and was going to be our twist Big Bad at the end of the Road behind the Salem Seven, echoing his role in the comics. However, that seems to now be disproven. They keep bringing him back up, though, so I feel like he's got to be more than just a backstory, right? Like, there's something MORE going on here than just a reveal of what Agatha really did to him. I feel like something about him is going to come back into play in the present day. So we'll see what more we learn as the story goes on.

And then... *sigh* RIP Alice, I will miss you terribly. Look, I'm VERY sad about Alice, and I know a lot of people are probably brandishing their pitchforks towards the show for killing her off and doing so in this manner. I get that, but I DO actually think this was the correct route for the show. I think what the show has done a really great job of letting the audience forget so far is that Agatha, though she's a complex character, is also a VILLAIN in this universe. She's a self serving bad guy, and she brought the whole coven together for the sole purpose of trying to antagonize them into letting her steal their powers. Eventually it was going to happen to one of them - the show basically outright told us that from the beginning. And there was no one else it could really BE at this stage other than Alice. Poor Alice's story wrapped up very neatly last episode, and she was the only one aside from Teen who is noble enough and inexperienced enough to do it in an attempt to save Agatha. I'm sure some people are going to feel very hurt and betrayed by that moment because Alice is so lovable, but that's, imo, a good thing. The show WANTS us to feel hurt and betrayed like Teen does over Alice's death, and that was certainly accomplished. And, no, I don't believe for a second that Agatha did it on accident either.

And then shit starts to REALLY hit the fan when Agatha tells Teen, "You're just like your mother." And HOLY SHIT. SHE KNOWS. SHE KNOWWWS. AND I KNOW SHE KNOWS. AGATHA KNOWS HE'S WANDA'S SON. What I'm curious to know is if she knew all along or if she figured it out since the previous episode after Rio revealed he wasn't Nicholas. Her demeanor towards Teen really seemed to change in this episode, so I'm inclined to think the latter. But I think it's VERY safe to say that we know for a fact he's Billy Kaplan at this point if we didn't already, especially with the blue version of the Scarlet Witch tiara that appears on his head after he knocks Agatha, Lilia, and Jen into the mud. So now it's time to find out HOW he's Billy. I'm excited to find out!

Oh, and also worth noting, Rio didn't leave the trial with the rest of the Coven, and she didn't get sucked into the mud like the other three ladies. Curious where she's going to go and when she'll manifest again next. It looks like next episode is probably the one where Agatha, Lilia, and Jen have to roleplay as pop culture witches, so she probably isn't part of that. We'll have to wait and see! But damn, I need the next episode NOW XDD

Closing thoughts: ALICE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[lunarriviera]

another thrilling spirealm update

henlo my friends yes it's that time once again where i tell you what is happening on the bizarrely named drama "the spirealm," i am at episode 25 having shotgunned it all weekend and i have thoughts, opinions, and a gabillion screencaps of ruan nanzhu looking stricken, i finally had to stop taking them because he has the exact same face of devastated yearning in all of them and i was filling up my cloud drive. spoilers ahoy! [parts one and two are here if you even care]

as just mentioned, ruan nanzhu spends his time looking either 1) icily indifferent (when people who aren't qiushi are talking to him and/or dying in front of him, to his vast annoyance) or 2) torn asunder by pangs of desire (whenever he's staring at qiushi, who's babbling obliviously about science or clues or absolutely nothing of any importance whatsoever). here is a representative screencap but he has this look on his face pretty much continually, like he's just been hit by a car. a car of love.

it makes me put my head in my hands and scream quietly, i haven't seen a BL actor who understood the assignment this well since zhang xincheng or maybe even z1l. (who all clearly not only read the novel but underlined it, highlighted it, and stuck in colored post-it notes.) when not busy with adoration, he swans around being magnificent in a frockcoat like he's edward rochester, while lin qiushi trails behind him wearing a fit he got out of the goodwill box in his college dorm.

in spite of being besties with a literal fashion icon, at no point does it ever seem to occur to lingling "hm maybe i should dress a bit more formally for my imminent demise inside the doors"—no, instead he proudly wears his ratty sweatshirt with holes in it. which i sort of think might belong to huang junjie. idk maybe qiushi trusts it, and feels safe in it, hey look at that i made it sad.

massive power couple energy. also notice how their outfits are exact black-and-white negatives of each other, the harper's bazaar wedding photoshoot would have been so goddamn lit.

taking a brief moment for a shoutout to this guy. chen fei i don't even know what your fate will be but i already know you deserved better. not only do you patch everyone up with your veterinary knowledge, but i have seen your unrequited love. it did not go unobserved. you would have been a great partner, you're unimpressed by everything and drink your soy milk with chilling apathy. i'm real sorry the theatre gay didn't love you back. you're too similar i guess.

back to lin qiushi who has the worst case of main character energy since harry freaking potter. somehow the game is about him??? he has trauma??? none of this was in the novel and i'm just pretending it's not happening until it becomes impossible to ignore. in the meantime he continues to sympathize with door ghosts because he's just that nice of a guy. (EXCEPTION: nanzhu literally murdered two competitors bc they threatened his darling, and lin qiushi helped him cover it up. i was appalled for like 5 minutes then i shrugged. it's a cutthroat game, the doors change people. also it's like captain mal used to say: if someone tries to kill you, you kill 'em right back.) i have big Theories about what is fixing to happen but for now i will end by relating that lin qiushi has gone into a door alone, because he wants to butch up and be a better partner for ruan nanzhu. and that would be a great idea and super helpful except that nanzhu IMMEDIATELY WENT OUT OF HIS MIND WITH BLIND TERROR. outwardly of course he gives no signs of this (other than hiring someone to protect his fragile boyfriend, which, if lingling figures this out, ruan nanzhu will be sleeping on the sofa forever).

here he is pushing food around his plate miserably at lingling's funeral pre-solo-door party. everyone is having such a fun time.

and here he is standing in front of the door waiting like a dumb wounded animal. i have a feeling if lin qiushi doesn't emerge at 15 minutes on the dot, nanzhu will simply expire on the spot, like a wolf separated from its mate. maybe that's the end of the spirealm JUST KIDDING, we still haven't gotten to the part where they're on either side of a different door wailing at each other. i really need lin qiushi to stop being such a cheery equanimous little frat boy and START SUFFERING, can we get some mutual pining up in this bitch. (also i need his hair to change in the traditional BL post-wedding hairstyle alteration because i can't remember at this point if huang junjie even HAS a forehead under that vast curtain of bangs)

to sum up, we've had a) sexy handfeeding of lychees b) tender cat fur removal from face and c) stalking your pretty boyfriend aggressively against the wall so you can…offer him a packet of disinfectant. in the novel of course nanzhu bites him and yes xia zhiguang absolutely knows that's what he's supposed to be doing here, we love to see it.

oh and also d) "i'll protect you. i'll protect you forever."

SOON: THE THRILLING CONCLUSION. IT'LL BE SO FUCKING SAD. PS unrelated to any of this but the OST SLAPS and i sing along every time now, that opening song is an unskippable cut scene of a banger

PS gonna be sad when [redacted] dies, he's a real card. and that other person dies too. and that third person. shit it's about to get messy

[thepringlesofblood]

bonus content for those who read the taz: the 11th hour graphic novel and haven’t listened to the podcast arc

disclaimer: so. I lost my book about 1/4 of the way into this post. so the rest of it is just from memory (I did finish reading it several times, I just no longer have it to refer to). I wanted to post this before the next one comes out though, so here we are. If I find my book, I will attempt to finish up the details for the rest of the book. I cover some basic big things from memory, but nowhere near as detailed as the stuff I wrote down when I had the book to refer to. but in the meantime...let’s go!

by god they’ve done it again. 11th hr is a Lot and definitely the most plot-heavy book so far, PLUS they had to include the first lunar interlude where the boys had individual scenes. the result is frankly beautiful. we’re really hitting critical mass now.

as a result a lot more stuff got compressed, cut, changed, or skipped. i’m going to try to at least point out each difference, though there’s no way I could summarize EVERYTHING that got cut in one post. I’m going to be linking relevant episodes (& transcripts thank u tazscripts) instead, for things that are Just Too Much to include.

as always, this post is intended to be Fun and Cool Bonus Content for people who haven’t listened to the podcast, not a manifesto of stuff they “should have” included or a list of flaws. they had 11+ hours of content to squish into one graphic novel, that happened over a period of months. of course stuff got cut. and it’s stuff that was recorded in 2016. that’s eight years ago. of course some things are going to change.

tl;dr - I liked the dang book. you can be sad something wasn’t in the novel while still understanding why it isn’t. here is a list of the stuff that was changed, skipped, compressed, or cut, presented as cool facts & extra info for gn fans who haven’t listened to the podcast.

spoilers ahoy for the 11th hour, but I’ll try to keep spoilers for the rest of the series to a minimum or at least mark them clearly. At the very end I’m going to put a section of series-spoiler theories and observations, very clearly marked

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, there are a few MAJOR changes from the podcast I want to get out of the way first. This list also includes “stuff I remember but don’t have the book to refer back to on”

Several characters and a whole section of the map were cut.

I think this is the first time that any named, plot-relevant characters have been completely cut. The closest we’ve come so far was the bugbears, but they at least had a cameo in the photo in Lucas’ quarters. Luca, Redmond, and Stonefruit Farms fully don’t exist in the GN series.

the boys meet Redmond in ep 46, pt 6 of the 11th hr arc, having met his brother Luca at the end of the previous episode.

long story short, Redmond was the leader of the purple-kerchiefed ruffians and the brains behind the bank robbery, which The Boys had to go through with so that Redmond would help his lowkey-estranged brother Luca raise the temple of Istus from its decrepit state, as they were both devout priests of Istus. The whole key being in the vault thing is GN-only.

Also, Luca is a skeleton bc he was in the temple when it got rapidly old-ified, but dw he’s fine he’s just a skeleton. he gets better.

Redmond’s motivation for robbing the bank is that as a priest of Istus, lady of fate, he follows his gut feelings and intuition, and he had a strong feeling that whatever was in the vault would be the key to taking down the bubble.

they basically took all of the plot-necessary elements from Luca & Redmond and gave them to Ren. In the podcast, Ren actually blasts some of the purple-kerchiefed ruffians out of her bar after they get too rowdy. She isn’t involved with the robbery in the slightest.

Merle’s Temporal Chalice scene

in the podcast, it’s his arm being chopped off. or more specifically, grabbing a crystal that exploded and made him have to get his arm chopped off. 

Him running out on his kids is played kind of for laughs at first in the podcast. Merle is a heel for a lot longer there, bc the funniest improv is usually not the most ethical improv. They do talk about his life and the fact that he has a family, but the offer made by the chalice is for him to have his arm back

frankly, I think they made the right move in the GN. We get very little of Hecuba in the podcast, and I really liked seeing more of that conflict.

Roswell, my beloved

so, in 2016 when they did the podcast, the McElroys were at, let’s say a different place in their journey of learning about the queer community. which is to say that in the podcast Roswell’s pronouns were wildly inconsistent, in part due to them being a clay construct, in part due to them not being introduced with any pronoun in particular [though Griffin clarifies that he intends for Roswell to use they/them a little later on in the arc], and in part bc the boys just weren’t really familiar with the singular they. they tended vacillate between they/them, it/its, and he/him. we all learn and grow. 

in the book, thankfully, Roswell is 100% they/them. fuck yeah. related. The Boys are significantly worse people to Roswell in the podcast. like, significantly. we’ll get into it as it comes up more, I just want to signpost it here. 

e.g. Taako giving Roswell control of themselves and their command word is a GN original, in the podcast The Boys kind of “junebug” them around for large swaths of the last few episodes. also, a significant number of earlier loops involve them basically negging Roswell into believing that Isaak hired outside help (The Boys) with security bc they weren’t cutting it anymore (rude). I much prefer the geologists gambit they go with in the GN.

Diamonds

Paloma’s prophecies cost money in the podcast, so a lot of The Boys’ shenanigans (and a significant number of loops) are in pursuit of getting cash. which, in Refuge, is diamonds. Some examples: 

Before figuring out that you can’t take objects with you, the boys do straight up take some diamonds from the bank post-robbery. 

Taako gets Ren and a patron of her bar, Ash, to sign up and pay for a seminar/magic lesson he’ll be giving tomorrow (one of my all-time fav scenes). This leads to a touching scene at the end when the bubble finally comes down where Taako gives Ren a little certificate that says “first graduate of Taako’s Amazing School of Magic.”

Magnus tries to armwrestle a guy for cash (Merle’s idea), and though he rolls a 27 Strength check, the Goliath barbarian he’s rolling against gets a 28.

Paloma offers 1 diamond for a small prophecy, 10 for a big one. in the GN they aren’t differentiated, and one small prophecy just doesn’t show up as it’s not needed.

the taz fandom wiki has a handy list of all the prophecies she gives in the podcast

ok! let’s go!

Prologue (the bit before ch 1)

this isn’t in the 11th hour podcast.

the information we get about The Visitor in the 11th hour (from The Boys asking various Refuge residents) is that

Jack and June brought them to Refuge

or, they brought Jack and June to Refuge. We hear both things at different times.

they’re depicted in the statue as having a Red Robe and being kinda broad-shouldered.

Roswell never met them. At first they refer to The Visitor with he/him pronouns, but then mention “I say ‘he’, I didn’t know them”

they tended to keep their face hidden (maybe?)

that’s pretty much it

we learn about this interaction much much much much much later in the podcast, not as a scene that is played out, but abstractly as an event that happened, after we find out who The Visitor is. 

that said, I LOVE this scene’s inclusion and expansion. it makes total sense to me.

Jack is never described as having a sketchbook or being an artist. this will come back later. 

the final scene of the arc in the podcast is instead June giving Magnus some previous designs for the statue of Jack, June, & a Red Robe/The Visitor in the middle of town, with a version where the hood of the robe is down and the face of the Red Robe/The Visitor is visible.

Ch. 1

this is where the podcast starts at episode 1 of the 11th hr. 

boyland’s funeral is very accurate. his comically large family of 400 sons (mentioned in CK podcast) is why the Voidfish lights up like that.

the only real differences I could find were:

in the podcast what is erased is basically boyland’s personnel file. like, a report or write-up of who he is and his work for the BoB. johann writing songs about boyland’s life is new.

the only pronouns ever used for the voidfish in the podcast are they/them, it/its, and occasionally he/him. past taz graphic novels have used they/them. on pg 13 of 11th hr, both Johann and Merle use she/her for the voidfish.

I do not like this, but I have a suspicion as to why, and I don’t like that either. see spoiler-y observations at the end for more.

they merged this scene with a scene from the skipped lunar interlude before CK, where The Boys take cpt. cpt. bane’s “file” to the voidfish to be eaten.

 I described this in my other posts, but the two things relevant here are Magnus putting his hand up on the glass and vibing w the voidfish, and this exhange b/w Johann and The Boys:

Johann: When I, um, can I ask you guys a question?

Magnus: Sure.

Taako: Of course, Johann.

Johann: Are you guys really okay with, with this part of the deal?

Magnus: That we get forgot?

Taako: Which part?

Johann: Yeah, are you cool with like, if you beef it down there, the world just forgets about you?

Magnus: Well, I’m not planning on ever dying.

in the podcast, bc Avi isn’t there, Angus operates the cannons (Avi showed him how before he left). he is extremely nervous about it and about killing them on accident. once they’re in the orb taako casts stoneskin on himself “just in case”, but everything works out totally fine, though avi mentions when The Boys land that the stoneskin should’ve thrown off the trajectory.

the gn keeps the spirit of taako trusting no one without the angus psychological damage by having him just cast a better version of the spell angus cast, and I am a fan.

the leveling up stats aren’t right in the book, as I’m sure every dnd 5e nerd has already tweeted about.

they’re all level 10, so magnus should be a level 8 fighter and a level 2 rogue bc 2+8=10, while the other two boys are still just a level 10 cleric and a level 10 wizard bc they didn’t multiclass.

fantasy costco-wise: aside from the stuff they have in the book (all things they do own in the podcast, though hole-thrower and the feather-weight cuirass were from the fantasy gachapon), merle picks up matthias the living grimoire, magnus gets the magnetic charge and the tarantula bracelet, and taako gets the arcane trickster’s glove (no wiki page rip it just gives you some arcane trickster powers) and mockingbird gum.

they beat up the baby worms more before letting them go, it’s a full battle

Ch. 2

in the podcast, when they go through the barrier, they find themselves in an empty white space where they see an old woman holding the cup. she says “It’s you!” with recognition upon seeing them, and then says “find me” before they wake up.

important: every time the boys die in the podcast, they go back to this space briefly before waking up.

sometimes the woman gives a cryptic message, sometimes not, and in their later loops, the woman collapses, breathing heavily.

we find out in the end that this woman is June - she has a whole extended de-aging sequence later that they probably cut so poor Carey didn’t have to do a bajillion character models for June at different ages just for a few panels of dramatic effect.

pg 36 - to head off any dnd 5e nitpickers, Magnus does not have proficiency in rustic hospitality, since that’s not a skill. Magnus does have a character feat called “Rustic Hospitality” that he chose at level 1.

claiming to have proficiency in things you can’t possibly have proficiency in is a longstanding goof both in taz and among people who play dnd 5e in general, because it’s funny.

in the book, they intercut each loop with a scene from lunar interlude 3, and it works really really well. we’ll get to those scenes as they come up.

Is this the first time someone uses he/him for The Red Robe in the gn series? (Roswell says ‘his’)

in the podcast Roswell mentions having never met the visitor, and comments “I say “he”, but I don’t know.”

in the GN, when The Boys tell the director about The Red Robe in CK they use they/them pronouns and so does the director, but after this, even @ the end of the book after Taako guesses that The Red Robe they’ve been talking to isn’t the same Red Robe from Refuge, he and the other boys continue to use he/him for The Red Robe.

“Mystic Analysis”

he just did an arcana check in the podcast, I don’t think Taako had Identify as a spell, which is what the DND equivalent would be. 

they also don’t figure out that Roswell has a command word until much later, during the Diary Of Sheriff Isaak scene.

Griffin basically says “[they’re] an earth elemental, with a bird on [them], and earth elementals don’t generally have birds on them, so maybe it was just nearby when the spell was cast and got caught up in it”

Cassidy

in the podcast, she’s in jail for blowing up the temple of Istus, which she didn’t do.

GN Ren mentions later on that the temple got “un-built” which references how in the podcast the temple suddenly aged a matter of centuries in seconds, so from the outside it looked kind of explode-y. and cassidy is known for blowing shit up, so she was blamed. she also theorizes that it might be racism due to her half-orc heritage.

in the GN, cassidy’s arrested for trespassing on the closed mines, which she absolutely has done. it makes more sense, and eliminates a major plot point they cut from the book

she is otherwise pretty much the same, I love her very much

Paloma pretty much stays in her cottage in the podcast rather than sneaking around.

the fantastic exchange of “you guys have been here 45 minutes, what the fuck did you bring with you?!” “you should see what we can do in an hour!” is 100% verbatim from the podcast.

in the podcast, Ren is dead the first bank fire (and in most subsequent bank fires). she also wasn’t one of the bandits, or involved with the bank robbery at all

in fact, in the loop where The Boys were doing the bank robbery, she unexpectedly came in, recognized Taako, and almost blew their cover.

With so little time left on the clock, Taako cast Banishment on her to keep her safe and out of the way, but she made her saving throw - so it didn’t work, but she knew Taako tried to cast some spell on her, and there was a somber moment of her falling backwards trying to get away from him, tears in her eyes.

look it’s a good lil character moment

I can’t emphasize enough how brutal the first description of the bank fire and subsequent world-ending is. Griffin pulled 0 punches.

Magnus rushes in and he describes the scene like “you see a guy, who looks like this. they’re dead. you see two guards. they’re dead. you see a woman holding a tray of diamonds. she’s dead. you see this person, also dead. you see a dwarven bank teller. she might be alive, but it’s hard to tell, and if she was she is on the brink of death”

I think the boys, brogden, and maybe one of the purple-kerchief ruffians (which is how they are described in the podcast) survived the first one, and everyone else died in that bank. it felt so brutal listening to it the first time because you (and the boys) didn’t know about the loop yet, so it was just. horrifying.

I love how they pulled in off in the GN!!! the clock hands are just *chef kiss*

just before Griffin describes the destruction of Refuge, Travis interjects, “Ditto, did you base this on Majora’s Mask?”

while Griffin does not respond in the moment, he later confirms that Travis is correct.

Griffin’s description of the fiery deaths of The Boys: “And you’re being crushed by the shattered earth as it compresses down into the ground. And you hear an anguished scream come from something massive and furious, and all three of you have died…And there’s something about the dying that feels familiar.”

“and then you wake up.” hardcut to end of episode music. v epic.

Ch. 3 (i s2g they’re not all going to be this detailed the major plot differences are mostly out of the way now)

as mentioned, the scenes between each loop in the gn happen in Lunar Interlude III (transcript) (episode) - each of The Boys got to choose a scene to have in between arcs and Justin chose to have Taako give Angus magic lessons.

they’re all more abstract in the eps (Taako establishes a recurring time and place to give Angus lessons, and we get scenes from earlier vs later lessons, various shenanigans, etc.) but the major points are actually pretty much the same, just condensed into one scene in the book.

also taako giving magic lessons in his quarters makes 100% sense, but in the podcast they did it in the cafeteria, and that’s where the LUP is burned into the wall. significant? potentially.

in the podcast angus had made some macarons for taako but forgot to flavor them (he nailed the texture though which is hard to do in a macaron) so he asked taako to prestidigitate them better and then scorching ray happened and blasted em to shreds.

LUP. dude. I thought it was an acronym when I first heard it, bc in the podcast, Griffin says “So your staff, you lost control of it and you blasted the letters “L-U-P” into the wall.” Seeing it in cursive, all gorgeous and capitalized like a proper noun? knocked me the fuck out.

another dnd 5e tiny detail: in the gn, the description for Angus’ first wand says “wonderful stocking stuffer for the young sorcerer in your life”

i could have a whole conspiracy board about this.

skip this if you’re not super into dnd 5e mechanics

the difference (in dnd 5e) b/w a wizard, a warlock, and a sorcerer is:

wizard: gets magic from study and practice - taako is a wizard bc he studied spellcraft and learned how to do it.

warlock: gets magic from making a deal with something/someone far more magical than themselves - garfield is a warlock, so his magic stems from a deal he made with something (the devil??)

sorcerer: has innate magic within them.

this could come from a myriad of places, but usually from heritage or bloodline - maybe your great-grandfather was a god or a dragon or a demon or a djinn or something, or maybe your mom touched a weird rock as a kid and got magic powers that she passed onto you when she had you.

in the podcast, angus is only ever referred to as a wizard. makes sense - regular boy + magic training from taako = wizard boy.

but if he’s a sorcerer, the magic really was in him all along. is taako teaching him to channel it? does he know?

this also fits with a weirdly popular headcanon the taz community had for a while about angus secretly being a silver dragon (in dnd, color = different abilities, diff personality, etc, and silver ones like to shapeshift and pretend to be humans sometimes).

“draconic bloodline” is one of the most common sorcerer backgrounds - it basically just means ‘a dragon got involved at some point in this family tree, so now you can cast ray of frost’.

hmmmmmmm

end conspiracy theory

It is at this point that I lost my damn book. so. I’m just gonna post this bc the next graphic novel is coming out soon and I want to post it before then. If i find my book I’ll finish it up. If you have post-chapter 3 differences you noticed that aren’t already covered, feel free to reply/reblog with them!

Spoiler-y Observations Below!

CAUTION: contains spoilers for the rest of taz balance!

*voidfish speculation: my suspicion is that they’re using ‘she’ for the voidfish to foreshadow that they have a baby, so that makes them a “mother”? i call bullshit, but i’ve heard it used before as a justification for misgendering an enby who gives birth. obvs the voidfish is not a human being, people can have multiple pronouns, it’s not a 1:1 comparison, but i for one (as an enby myself) really liked the voidfish using they/them and feel oddly betrayed at them suddenly changing the pronouns. fingers crossed that there’s a different reason.

"what am statue” is low-key foreshadowing since magnus says it

merle knowing what relativistic time dilation is

LUP was burnt into the wall in the cafeteria in the podcast - lucretia would’ve seen it for sure. so they put it in taako’s room this time...

aw no ‘sorry about the cookies little man’

In 5 or however many years when gn series ends, someone should do a poll of people who only read the graphic novels and see if any of them pronounce “Lup” weird since they’ve only ever seen it written down.

hero wreathed in flames 0.0 I hope Joaquin is still there in the finale but I like the duality here

BATTLEAXEPROFICIENCYEASTEREGG

SNEAK PEEK AT THE HUNGER SNEAK PEEK AT THE STARBLASTER AAAAAAAA

257 - ‘I know him better than you could ever imagine’ because he created you? Oof ouch ow my bones. also....the magnus that made the cup was a very different person from magnus now. it’s not what Julia would want - the cup never met julia, obvs, and does not know the ways she changed him for the better.

Bottom of 327 - sweet Angus boy are you drawing something on that orb?

Istus is like you’ve been serving me your whole lives without knowing it in the podcast - maybe a bit too much foreshadowing for the GN

[yuesya]

I'm eager to hear your complaints about Fontaine's last story segment.

Haha Fontaine complaints! (Cracks knuckles)

Also: Spoilers ahoy! If you’re someone who plays Genshin Impact and has not finished the Fontaine archon quests, then I do not recommend reading any of this.

I’d also like to add: Fontaine’s main story definitely had some bright spots for me, and there were various scenes and tidbits that I enjoyed. That said, I also had several complaints by the end of it all. This entire thing also... got pretty lengthy, whoops.

… Anways! Without further ado:

1) Furina’s Trial

Personally, I am not a fan of the way that Furina’s trial was handled.

Firstly, the setup involved in luring Furina into their initial trap: The boat/house that was transported to the opera house courtroom. This was accomplished through psychological torment and manipulation, in which people were purposefully incited into targeting her.

When the walls eventually fall down around Furina and reveal her standing inside the stage of the courtroom, the Traveler has a line somewhere around there when she tells Furina that she had her last chance to come clean with her secrets to them, right before these walls came down. Here, I just wanted to ask –clearly there was already a full house in the audience seating, and they literally brought Furina onstage. Even if Furina did decide to come clean in those last few moments, what were they expecting to do? “… Hey everyone, sorry there’s no trial happening after all! You can all go home now, the show’s over!”

Moreover, the trial itself. Furina was driven into a corner and put on the spot, and she was publicly grilled and humiliated in front of an audience. The Primordial Seawater test was also… just, why would you do that? Bringing in a harmful substance and forcing someone to test it on themselves in front of an audience? Sure, it might’ve been diluted to a ‘safe’ level. But instead of just saying that and informing Furina that a Fontaine person would show corresponding symptoms anyways, Traveler & Navia chose to present it to Furina as a lethal substance. Aside from causing mental anguish, I fail to see the point of it.

“But this trial is necessary! Furina won’t tell us what’s going on otherwise.”

Alright, then let’s just commit to that. It’s necessary for everyone to take on an antagonistic role in order to drag Furina to court and make the truth come to light.

But can’t we still… address things, in the aftermath? You can argue that Traveler & co. were trying to act for the ‘greater good.’ The fate of Fontaine was at stake. Still, even if the tactics used in bringing Furina to court and trialing her were necessary, lying and manipulating and gaslighting someone is not the right thing to do.

Except does anyone properly acknowledge that in the aftermath? Is there anyone who admits that this is a terrible thing they’ve done, and makes that clear? Did anyone apologize to Furina for forcing her through such a traumatizing experience? (Side-eyes Paimon in Furina’s character quest.)

Nah, instead we just save a country and give ourselves a pat on the back for doing a great job.

Happy Ending!

2) Focalors’ Death

I want to preface this by saying that I understand Focalors is the Hydro Archon, so in order to get rid of the Hydro Throne her death was probably inevitable, from a godly perspective.

From a human perspective, however, Focalors is innocent. She was not the one who committed the original ‘sin’ of using the power of the Primordial Sea to turn Oceanids into pseudo-humans. And yet she is the one who must pay for it. The only resolution we have to this is that Furina now gets to live her life freely as a human. Now, it might just be me, but for all that Furina was split off and created from Focalors’ humanity, the two of them are essentially seem to be two separate, different beings.

3) Humans vs. Gods

Thematically, Fontaine’s story seems a little mismatched when compared with the other regions.

In Mondstadt, its people play an active role, as seen in how the Knights of Favonius (and Diluc) join Venti in helping Dvalin and restoring peace.

In Liyue, we see the people stepping out from the gods’ purview. With the ‘death’ of Rex Lapis, the Qixing declare that the age of humanity has come, and it’s the people of Liyue working together towards a new future.

Inazuma has people literally fighting a war and rebelling against their archon; in the end, Raiden hears the cries of her people and she is the one who changes, in response to her people’s hopes.

In Sumeru, Nahida is locked up by her people (the Sages) but also saved by her people (Alhaitham, Cyno, Nilou, etc.) And in the fight against false god!Scaramouche, Nahida connects the Traveler to her Akasha terminal (?) and literally uses the collective wisdom of all of Sumeru’s people to assist in the fight.

For all four of these regions, it’s the people who step up and play important roles in resolving their respective nations’ crises.

In Fontaine, we do see its people also tackling various problems –Navia with her Spina di Rosula, Wriothesley and his flying ship– but in regards to the most important issue that’s the ominous prophecy hanging over their heads?

Neuvillette, a Dragon Sovereign, is the one who saves Fontaine’s people from Primordial Seawater by turning them fully into regular humans. Focalors, the Hydro Archon, executes herself in order to give Neuvillette the power to do so –and that’s not even mentioning her meticulous plan to fool Celestia, and the 500 years of silent suffering that Furina endured.

Focalors’ sacrifice is essentially what saves Fontaine, in the end. Divine intervention.

4) Meropide Detective Arc

This is a lot more minor, but it feels like we spend a lot of time running in Meropide looking for clues and learning about useless things that didn’t play any significant role towards the main plot of the archon quest.

You spend days and days running around the prison, and in the end you find out it’s only important because Wriothesley wants to test your observational skills. My dude, that is really not the most important thing here!

Personally, I think Sigewinne’s thing with cooking suspicious-looking food would’ve made a better character quest than a side tangent in the main story. I don’t even remember what the betting ring was about anymore.

I think I would’ve liked a stronger focus on what we originally came there to look for –investigating Childe’s disappearance– which might’ve wrapped up the jail arc a lot quicker, true. But maybe we could’ve gone back and spent more time with Furina instead? Maybe discover for ourselves that Furina is hiding things, and talk to her more, get to know her better? … It would provide more context and an extra ‘oomph’ for the upcoming Furina Trial, at the very least.

5) Powerscaling?

Okay this is definitely a LOT more minor, but. Powerscaling. It feels like things just escalated very, very quickly in Fontaine.

Childe. We know he’s strong, we fought him back in Liyue. Except Neuvillette crushes him in his Abyss form in, what. Less than a second?

Eventually, we encounter Skirk at the end. We find out that the space whale responsibly for nearly destroying Fontaine is just her master’s “pet,” which implies a whole other level of terrifying power that exists out there, along with whatever faction Skirk happens to be a part of.

It would be cool if we get to learn about Skirk more in the future, but overall there seems to be a lot of higher power appearing after higher power in Fontaine. Maybe that's just me, though.

[captainkurosolaire]

Tales of the Goldbrand

Status: Instagram Current Projects: Perfect My Style. Carrd: Every detail and home archive, the crown jewel. Scarlet Destiny Saga: Latest story arcs Writing Archive: Writing Hub Bsky - Twitter - Instagram: Social Alternatives. Ao3: TBA Disclaimer: Available for interact, tags, asks, etc.

About the Mun

Cap'n, Captain, Z

Contend with a fair amount of chronological health issues, but I do intense distraction therapy for pain management.

I do everything strictly for passion. Even if for my own amusement and enjoyment. Primarily exclusive to Tumblr, been here awhile... Let’s hope this site gets their act together, otherwise, I’ll have to befriend the bots.

Do a ton of writing here or challenges to better improve myself with a destination in-mind.

Out to tell a massive large-scale Story going to take me years to finish. These stories written from an In-character perspective of Captain’s Crewmate named “Casta.” Putting this Tale into every medium.

I’m going until I am dead or homeless; I feasibly can’t anymore. My dedication to my craft isn’t ordinary.

I take random hiatuses often when stressed. There no interest on being around unless I can be positive. Or provide something unique.

My age is physically and mentally between 28-76+

I speak my mind and will never pander. This blog is forever mature as this site lets me go but I’ll always try to -tag- to be respectfully considerate.

I love the XIV Community since there’s countless talented individuals whose inspiration has constantly let me overcome my limits. There’s nothing, I cannot do or achieve. [General Tags] - CKS Aesthetics - Asks Answered - OC Memes [Tags of Others] ~ Gems of Hydaelyn Treasure Tuesday & Treasure Thursday Otherworldly Writers & Hearts on Canvases

Captain Kuro Solaire                                 Of the Goldbrand

Tags: #CaptainKuroSolaire / CKS / -CaptainKuroSolaire

 [Ahoy! Meet The Wild Pirates] 

(Official Crew Golden Jolly Roger by @under-the-blood-moonlight​)

We are Tales: - Crew Collective Screenshots & concepts in one-tag. 😎 Wild Crew: Profiles: - In-depth Crew Profile Sheets. Wild Crew: Gif-Sets​: - [1] - (~) Once get full crew-cast, will redo portraits. Aiming for a consistent 20 Members and MAX 25. So I may do outlandish, Seasonal Sets, Factions, etc as future projects. (~) Any Crewmates with a 🏴‍☠️  flag have been introduced thus far in Chapters. While other’s with X’s have-yet to appear in their Chapters or Arcs. Spoilers: If you visit their Carrds they contain a ton of info. Judas Caesar - First Crewmate - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Van Gah’d Sinbad - Second Mate  - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Ya'chi Aarushi - Third Mate - Carrd  - 🏴‍☠️ Ubylagynn Gark - Quartermaster - Carrd  - 🏴‍☠️ Slafhota Guhtgeim - Counselor  - Carrd  - 🏴‍☠️ Klethera “Sunkiller” Solaire - Enforcer - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Shelah Valiyzena - Sniper - Carrd  - 🏴‍☠️ Zieton Luiard XII - Historian - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Casta “Of the Heart” - Surgeon - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Nihlius Brood - Cerberus - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Layla Grey - Navigator (PC) @layla-grey​  - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Sol Nan ‘Ak’ami - Shipwright (PC) - Carrd  - 🏴‍☠️ Me-Me-Worthy - Gremlin - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Whyte Wabi - Messenger - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Sheik Sphere - Minstrel - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Sha Dragonheart - Silent Guardian (PC) @sha - Carrd - 🏴‍☠️ Asumi “E.d.e.n” Yatao - Master Gunner - Carrd - X Morene Ruma - Cook - Carrd - X MoXXi - Entertainer - Carrd - X Rahelif Forge - Metalsmith - Carrd - X Larry Butler  - Vassal  - Carrd - X Bea Nebula - Dockhand - Carrd  - X ??       - Idol - Carrd  - X Invicta Maximus  - Vacant for NPC/PC - Carrd  - X ??       - Vacant for NPC/PC - Carrd  - X

[Major Supporting Characters]

Perish & The Souls - Captain’s Fragmented Souls/Other Half Kogane no Kōgō - (Spirit) Captain’s Twin Sister Scimitar Madame of Yoru - (Spirit) Captain’s Twin Sister Scimitar Lord Shiro Elune - Sworn Fated (Rival & Ally) - (Alt.) /@lordshiroelune​ Saltsong - Kami of the Sea (Hat&MSQ) - (PC)/@the-littlest-kojin​ ?? - Vacant for (PC) ?? - Vacant for (PC) ?? - Vacant for (PC) ?? - Vacant for (PC) ?? - Vacant for (PC) Hoku Solaire - Father of Shadow Rokeia Solaire - Mother of Dawn (Deceased) Founding Captain Gark - Mentor & Surrogate Father (Deceased) “Albatross” - Mentor & Wanted ‘Terrorist’ Sky Criminal Poro “The Orcale” - Mentor (Teacher of Starsight) Sun’ra Zhawn - Crime Partner (PC)/@mischiefandmystics​ Ancestors of the Hunt - (9 Tails for 9 Tales) ~ LOCKED - Future Arc

[thru-ur-alarms]

venigni midnight thoughts [ish], spoilers ahoy

content warning for discussion of unalive ideations. if you're uncomfortable with it, maybe don't read it. thank you.

i murdered arlecchino without regrets. it lived for too long. this act was one of justice. perhaps it was what it would've wanted, but fuck it. rot in hell.

i want to hug venigni. not romantically. just a platonic supportive hug. it's hell of a guilt to think that you murdered your parents indirectly. if it were up to me i'd say it was fate but. it's probably not what he wanted to hear. we use fate a lot for things that are inevitable, to shed off that guilt and blame it on a force of nature.

would he be a puppet hating bigot, would he be a despairing wretch, would he fling himself into the sea, that thing said. i feel like venigni thought of the last one several times. i can't blame him.

i think nowadays he can handle the burden better. whatever grief and guilt he felt is a bit lighter. he's successful, he's carring the family's legacy, he's being every bit the person his parents would've been proud to call their son. but the nightmares and the thoughts are still there. would people miss him if he just. disappeared one day. maybe into the sea's embrace.

some days, what a son wants is just the warm hug of his parents. to tell him he did well. that they're proud of him. it's upsetting to me [and perhaps to him] that he will never hear those words.

may his parents find peace in the afterlife. may he, someday, find peace with himself.

[screamting]

i've always kind of meant to fic rec more and even when sometimes I can post a fic i'm reading on here I always feel bad I don't do it more often. The ao3 share option always feels hard to read and you always wanna edit the summaries to expand on what you as a reader found compelling instead of what the author thought to put... anyway, tonight i finally mustered myself and ignored everything I usually do at night to spend (checks watch) 2.5 hours putting this list together and fighting tumblr formatting. They're in no particular order, and every single author you should check out their other fics; a lot of them have updated other things since I read these in my AO3 history. If you've never read fics for fandoms you're not in: this is the list to pic one from and just go. Crossovers may be posted in multiple sections, just in case. This is just a list of fics that, when I found them in my history I said, "I remember this one! It was so good!" and a lot of them are ones that, every time they show up in my inbox, I drop everything to read (or I stow them away for the upcoming three hours I desperately will need them). Because of that, a lot of them are fucked up, so check warnings once you get on the page. But like. I think they're fucked up in a delightful little way.

Also a lot of them are long. SUPER long. You all did this for free. Do you know how much I owe you for nightshifts alone, much less long trips and difficult, depressed days that I just had to get to tomorrow and a long fanfic gave me somewhere else to be?

Please give them some love.

___

TWEWY/KH

∞:∞ ((to infinity and beyond)) - Divisionten

Post KH3, spoilers ahoy. He got off the pavement, wet, dirty and alone. They left the beach, ready to chase him down. She gripped her Keyblade, twisting it tight enough in her hands to leave marks. It was time to go home. ((Sora and Riku arrive in Shibuya after KH3 just in time to be mistaken for cosplayers. Extremely good Neku))

Marvel

From the Top - garamonder

Miles let go. Peter B. Parker closed his eyes as he dropped back through the rift, heading home. It would have been nice if he’d ended up there. Instead, the veteran hero makes an unintended pit stop in another Peter's universe - one where he's an Avenger, of all things. (Takes place in the MCU, post-hypothetical-Avengers 4)

Weight the Dice - tuesday

Tony's aim was off the first few tries. It was an imprecise art, time travel by magic rather than science, for all that it could actually change things instead of branching the timeline. He wanted early enough he could still make a difference, but not so early he had to go through puberty again. ((the only fic on this list under 5k, youre welcome))

LOTR???

Less Wise and More Dangerous - DeepWatersWaiting

Fleeing the Balrog and Orcs in Moria, Legolas Greenleaf is shot down with an arrow. He dies upon the bridge, unaware of the fates of his Fellowship, and wakes up moments later with the intention of finding his mother, escaping the Halls of Mandos and re-joining the War of the Ring. This would be a lot easier if he was actually in the Halls of Mandos however, instead of at Losgar as the Noldor arrive in Beleriand from Valinor for the first time.  ((i don’t know who any of these people are besides legolas i’m just having a good time and think this one needs more eyes))

Legend of Zelda: One Link

Third Eye - StudioRat

In which we climb the dark tower into the dawn. ((Link wants a third option. Ocarina of Time climax.))

Navigator [Act One] - SaltySaph

A Ganondorf/Link Slowburn Adventure narrative, first of three Acts. It is not based on, or connected to, any of the games in the franchise; but instead a largely invented piece using the Zelda formula and tropes as a base. This is not an Enemies to Lovers piece, because even though they are enemies in the games? They never have any personal or direct enmity toward one another.

The Inevitable - Phlyarologist

A hero falls. A hero rises. Repeat as necessary. Ravio gets an unpleasant lesson in the cost of legends. ((the only good take on heroic deaths))

The Legend of Zelda: Ten Thousand Year Elegy - winklepickers

Months after Calamity Ganon's defeat at the hands of the Princess and the Master Sword's chosen hero, Hyrule is approaching something resembling peace. That is, until Link and Zelda go missing following a disastrous archaeological expedition. Meanwhile, in Domino City, Japan: a dimensional domain emulator belonging to one Kaiba Seto abruptly self-destructs, causing an explosion that catches Mutou Yuugi and his friends in the crossfire. Unexpected? Yes. Unforeseen? Maybe not.

Legend of Zelda: Multiple Links

Please Don't Come for Me - sister_dear

Hyrule gets chucked headfirst through a mysterious portal. He feels the magic of fairies nearby and transforms, intending to ask them for help. Unfortunately for him, Time also found the fountain, and he has something of an effect on fairies. A “Hyrule meets the chain” story where Hyrule encounters each of his new companions in fairy form first.

Language Barriers - Kastaborous

The group made their way over to the two Hylians, where the individual they had rushed to save was conversing with the newcomer. The newcomer was heavily scarred on his left side, and from the bow on his back, he was the archer who had brought down many of the monsters. “Hello,” Time said, as he nodded to them. “Could you point us toward Castle Town?” The scarred man blinked. “Nanda?” … The Heroes of Courage are spread across ages. Hundreds to thousands of years between them. It should come as no surprise that they are having some trouble communicating. But when they’re dropped in a world of alien technology and a language wholly unfamiliar, they really wish Hylia had thought ahead. Or, the gang-meets-wild fic in which there is an appropriate amount of linguistic drift between Links, Hylia does not provide Google Translate, and Wild is a linguaphile among other things.

To Isolate - Poltea, sky_squido

Sky has only just figured out that Ganon is the manifestation of Demise's curse when he starts noticing... something working its way up the chain. Nobody is okay, Sky least of all, but he’s determined to figure out what’s going on or die trying. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into. This is a story of pain, fear, loss, and somehow, despite it all, courage.

Yu Gi Oh

((Basically All Crossovers & Literally The Best Section Of This Whole List u just gotta trust me))

The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!) - GallusRostromegalus

Honestly, Mokuba deserves to have a gun. And everyone else deserves to go absolutely Off The Fucking Rails. YuGiOh, but they're all appropriately feral little gremlins. Kind of a Reconciliation of the 4Kids Dub and the Horror-Comedy Manga, but mostly me wildly overthinking the setting and deciding to lean into the weirdness.

Shed Some of This Black Light to Surrounding Towns - arinrowan

What Yuugi wants is simple. He wants Izuku to get into Yuuei with him. He wants the rocket engines designed for KaibaCorp to work. He wants to launch his emotions about his father’s family into hyperbolic orbit. Unfortunately, Yuugi and his friends find themselves in the middle of a plot to manipulate the course of history that leaves him struggling to answer two very not simple questions. What does it cost to build the future? And who decides who pays?

The Legend of Zelda: Ten Thousand Year Elegy - winklepickers

Months after Calamity Ganon's defeat at the hands of the Princess and the Master Sword's chosen hero, Hyrule is approaching something resembling peace. That is, until Link and Zelda go missing following a disastrous archaeological expedition. Meanwhile, in Domino City, Japan: a dimensional domain emulator belonging to one Kaiba Seto abruptly self-destructs, causing an explosion that catches Mutou Yuugi and his friends in the crossfire. Unexpected? Yes. Unforeseen? Maybe not.

ATLA

While Mighty Oaks Do Fall - WitchofEndor

High Sage Kenji blesses Fire Prince Zuko with the resilience of the reed, who bends in the wind and never breaks. When he is done, Fire Prince Ozai narrows his eyes, seemingly displeased by this blessing. But Kenji does not speak for himself; he is only a vessel.  The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.

Boomerangs and Rainbows - mindbending

At Sokka’s behest, the Gaang skips rescuing Zuko during the Siege at the North Pole. Instead they leave him, unconscious, buried in the snow. In completely unrelated news, Sokka’s haunted by a ghost now.

Mountains and Badgermolehills - Glass_Onion

After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.

BNHA 

You Ever Sabotage A Wedding? No?...Would You Like To? - All_five_pieces_of_Exodia

Izuku gets invited to Kacchan's wedding as the "Worst man". He thinks it's a joke. Or My story based off a post I saw on Tumblr: > Hot wedding idea, the worst man, it's his duty to try to prevent the wedding at all costs. > The best man and worst man engage in Spy Vs Spy shenanigans until the wedding is done.

That time I got reincarnated as a doomed side character - Gentrychild

Izuku wakes up in the recent light novel he read called “ My Hero Academia.” Unfortunately, he’s in the body of Midoriya Izuku, a minor character killed off early in the manga to motivate the main character Katsuki Bakugo on his Hero’s Journey. Izuku decides he’s going to do whatever it takes to stay alive in this stupidly deadly Isekai. Unfortunately, Izuku isn't aware that in the last novel of the series where the minor character who died is revealed as the main villain’s son All for One has relived his son’s death multiple times, unable to change the outcomes. But something has changed this time.

Locked In Digital - RogueDruid (Icarius51)

A day goes bad to worse for 14 year old Izuku Midoriya, as he wakes up trapped in a computer simulation with nine different Horror games. The only objective given by the madman who locked him in? Beat all nine games, or be deleted. A year later, a very different Izuku shows up at the Gates of UA to take the entrance exam What horrors has he faced?

Ill-Gotten Gains - ghostmaybite

When his father and Tomura start planning the USJ attack, Izuku makes a plan of his own. It’s simple, only four steps: 1. Steal Eraserhead’s quirk 2. Use it to kill All for One 3. Give Erasure back, hopefully 4. Go to jail, probably He’s prepared for the plan to fail at any time, but surprisingly, it’s not until step 4 that things fall through.

Shed Some of This Black Light to Surrounding Towns - arinrowan

What Yuugi wants is simple. He wants Izuku to get into Yuuei with him. He wants the rocket engines designed for KaibaCorp to work. He wants to launch his emotions about his father’s family into hyperbolic orbit. Unfortunately, Yuugi and his friends find themselves in the middle of a plot to manipulate the course of history that leaves him struggling to answer two very not simple questions. What does it cost to build the future? And who decides who pays?

[birder-of-remnant]

Here is my list of the top 12 obscure RWBY villains (part 1 of 2). While RWBY is an expansive series complete with complex characters and numerous mainline villains, there are also a surprising number of rabbit holes and side series that introduce a range of lesser-known Ne'er-Do-Wells! This is just my take on some of the more interesting scumbags in the RWBY universe outside of the main narrative, starting with some of my least favorites and working my way up. How I rank them is pretty arbitrary to be honest. Spoilers Ahoy! Naturally, this list also contains several spoilers for the various RWBY comics, manga, games, and splinter video series. Continue at your own peril!

12. Starro - Lowest on my list is Starro… the evil starfish… from outer space. Seriously, this is a RWBY villain, no joke. Anyone out there who is a fan of the DC universe may recognize this character as one of the original villains for the Justice League. For those who are not (like me), this came as a bit of a… surprise. Starro serves as the primary villain in the first RWBY x Justice League comic book where he starts the first several years of his time on Remnant hypnotizing fish. Eventually, he gets bored of exerting his domain over fish and other sea life, and decides to conquer the world by building an army of starfish-fanatical minions, including Phyrra and the other members of JNPR, who must all bear his starfish emblem to strike the fear of starfish into their foes. In the end, the Justice League manages to overthrow this oversized echinoderm (with a little help from Team RWBY). Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh or cry looking at Starro. I will give them credit for… uniqueness. I do not think that there will ever be another starfish supervillain. Still, as cringy as Starro is, it is still far less cringy than seeing Ruby flirting with superman IN THE FIRST 5 PAGES OF THE BOOK (shiver). But that is just my personal feeling, no worries if there is anyone out there who likes Red Cap or Starro, I promise that I do not cast judgement.

11. Vermillion - Honestly, I cannot say much about Vermillion at this point since I have yet to watch season 2 of the Grimm Campaign (mostly because I do not want to buy a Rooster Teeth subscription). So I cannot place him any higher than number 11 on this list, but I would recommend watching the Grimm Campaign. The Grimm Campaign is a D&D style RWBY adventure played by Sherry Shawcross and company as they explore a conspiracy in the Mistral city of Kuchinashi. This semi-canon RWBY side-series follows Team SAFR as they investigate reports of bizarre Grimm and unusual criminal activity. Vermillion is only foreshadowed in season 1 but serves as the main antagonist in the second season.

10. Edward Caspian - Okay, he may not technically be a villain. But this character from 'RWBY: After The Fall' still makes some pretty questionable choices that bring pain and misery in roughly equal proportions. Being kind by nature, he may mean well but he still makes Qrow's bad luck semblance seem like mild indigestion (yes, I know, but it is still his decision for them to be there).

9. Deery & Perry - The only two antagonists on this list from the main series. Both are members of the White Fang that kept popping up during the good ol' Beacon Days. Perry is perhaps the more recognizable of the two due to wearing glasses. Both first appeared during the White Fang recruitment rally in season 2 and played minor roles during the Mt Glenn incident. While Perry's fate following that literal train wreck is not known, Deery apparently escaped and could often be seen next to Adam in season 3, even participating in the Fall of Beacon. As with many other villains, they probably believed that their extremist actions were just. Honorable mentions go to Floyd the Geist from the Chibi universe for this spot.

8. Hei Xiong - A minor villain in the book 'Roman Holiday' alongside Neopolitan's father, Xiong was the biggest and scariest crime lord in Vale until Roman came along and showed him the door. In terms of personality, he is kind of your standard mafia boss-type persona. Although not as brazen as Lil Miss Malachite, he ruled with a subtle hand and a keen wit, unlike his son Junior from the main series. Although the book is excellent, Xiong himself is somewhat of a plain-vanilla type of character and so I placed him down here at number 8.

7. Bram Thornmane - Okay, perhaps not as obscure as some of the other villains on this list but still not one of the show's staple boogeymen. Bram is an antagonist from the game 'RWBY: Arrowfell.' He wraps himself in a cloak of false nobility and lies to manipulate others into doing his dirty work. Unstable and egotistical, he seeks only vengeance over a petty grudge. Some people just can't handle rejection. Overall, I found his character somewhat forgettable but at least he puts up a good fight.

This ends Part 1! Thank you to anyone crazy enough to actually read this. Sorry for any spoilers! Though I promise you are not missing much with Starro. I will be posting Part 2 in a while.

[goldenteaset]

Unbound Asterism spoilers and Troue's Fates spoilers ahoy!

I always thought that the first entry in Troue's journal didn't sound like him ("Good morning, sunshine!" and "Crazy, right?" etc.) and chalked it up to him wanting to keep positive no matter what. But you know who that does sound like? Felix.

The adorable Santa hat thing in his second Happy Holidays lines comes to mind too. Like, Felix could have done a hundred awful things with either item (especially the journal), but he kept them and had them waiting for Troue when he woke up. He takes care of the "new him" that's reborn every morning. Maybe even despite himself?

I think he genuinely loves the crew, believe it or not. He enjoys the memories he records for Troue, he enjoys the friends they've made. He's not faking that tearful "You're all such nice people..." line. But he also enjoys working for Navis, his original comrades. (And we've seen how Ferdinand treats people who want to leave, or otherwise ruin the "happy family life" he's so committed to.)

So yes, Troue's life is about to get a lot more complicated. But I don't think he's Doomed Forever (tm), just stuck dealing with Felix's unbelievably complicated feelings toward everyone.

I'm very curious about what Troue's holiday lines will look like after this...

[sketching-shark]

I always appreciate people who are willing to criticize LMK. Even if I don't agree with all your points. There's a vocal section of the fandom that do nothing but praise it and get upset when you find fault with it or any of their beloved characters. I like the show too but there are plenty of flaws and room for improvement. But many don't want to have that discussion. So it's just nice to see some watchers not mindlessly soak up everything the writers give us. Because despite what people say ad nauseum, the show isn't perfect.

Monkie Kid spoilers below:

Huh well anon firstly while I am aware that it can be hard to convey sincerity on the internet, genuinely thanks for messaging me with the approach that you can appreciate me complaining about a lego cartoon even while you don't agree with everything I'm saying. Too often I've seen even what started out as little disagreements in fandom circles explode into gigantic messes because of this all or nothing attitude that's engulfing more and more of fandom. I feel like that more than anything is the reason why I've adopted an perspective of "don't like don't read goes both ways" when it comes to fandom stuff; people should be free to praise or criticize a piece of media as much as they please as long as they're not harassing people over it, and one can follow, ignore, or block as one sees fit.

But hmmmm I know every fandom has its absolute admirers, but in terms of JTTW understandings in the west I feel like that's a liiiiiiitle bit worrisome here because of the way Monkie Kid--at least to me (haha yea subjective opinions ahoy)--seems to rapidly be falling victim to the storytelling detriments of "moar epic!," fandom character favoratism, and demand for angst. I mean, this show started out with the premise that it was going to be a fun adventure aimed at children where they'd get to by-proxy do cool things with one of the most beloved characters from Chinese mythology. But seasons 2, 3, and now 4 have been following this pattern of "Sun Wukong is largely absent--something really bad happens partially because of the big villain but also because the Monkey King made a massive miscalcuation that made everything 1000 times worse--Qi Xiaotian gets trauma upon trauma as a result--we all get together to blow something up at the end which magically fixes everything. FOR NOW."

So yea, in accordance with what seems to be general fandom tastes we get an increasingly traumatized Qi Xiaotian. We get a Six-Eared Macaque (the obvious fandom meow-meow) who now apparently used to be the main member of Sun Wukong's Best Friends Forever club and who obviously never did anything wrong evaaaaaar (what with the show forgetting about all the stuff he put Qi Xiaotian through & everything in the plot so far indicating the shadow monkey believed wholeheartedly in the Monkey King right before Sun Wukong the evil betraying bastard bonked him to death), and we get stakes that are literally about the fate of the entire world or even all of reality every season. But the cost of all of that was a plot structure that is increasingly failing to address many of its threads (hey remember how the Demon Bull family were the ones who released Lady Bone Demon? R we ever going to address that?), less and less and less genuine interactions between Sun Wukong and Qi Xiaotian, and, well, an increasing tendency in both fanon and canon to depict Sun Wukong as a careless screw-up at best and a selfish asshole at worst, or as a traumatized & miserable mess who needs to spend at least 100 years in therapy before he could even think about being anyone's mentor.

I mean hell, based on what I understand from the last twitter blow-up about all of this the response to the possibility that Sun Wukong was Qi Xiaotian's bio dad--you know, something that in a different context could have been a source of joy and excitement if it was about a father and son who had been torn apart through outside circumstances and were finally reunited--was first even MORE anger at the Monkey King for being a deadbeat dad on top of all his other screw-ups, and then relief when a lego show writer felt compelled to make it clear Sun Wukong was not the father. Because at this point if he was indeed Qi Xiaotian's bio dad, especially if Sun Wukong knew it the whole time, the implications would be really, really bad. Add all of that to every other character in Monkie Kid yelling at Sun Wukong for being a dumb idiot and/or terrible person, the absolute silence (except for some very brief flashbacks) on Sun Wukong's thoughts about any of this, and the "chaos monkey uwu" framework that Sun Wukong and his journey is already commonly understood through in the west (plus this weird reluctance and even refusal to consider what happened in the og classic that I've seen in some circles), and it feels like a lot of the Monkey King & co.'s nuance, complexity, and more fascinating aspects are being erased from common western perceptions of Journey to the West. And YEA obviously a silly lego show isn't going to get into the theological & moral complexities of a ~1,400 page novel, but given that Monkie Kid seems to have become one of THE primary ways that a western audience is being introduced to this story, I do wish that there was more of an effort to at least acknowledge what happened in the og classic.

IDK, in terms of Monkie Kid maybe future episodes will finally give us some answers for what happened to the og pilgrims that will be satisfying. Maybe they'll finally provide a decent aswer for why the Monkey King betrayed his sworn brotherhood and became a isolated failure who's hated by basically everyone who actually knows him. But as it currently stands I just think that if you've got a plot where the shifu and tudi pair now barely interact & a fan base where a significant portion is THAT quick to think the absolute worst of the Monkey King even though this is literally a silly lego show about having adventures with the Great Sage, then you really need to pause and think about why we're at this point :I

[rainofaugustsith]

In Praise of Doing All The Things - Cardinal Virtues Edition

Viri is currently working on leveling several jobs, but also completing tribal missions and FATE zones in Shadowbringers. I'd ideally like All The Things done before doing the Seat of Sacrifice trial, but that might be a stretch with the FATES. I have finished four zones but am quite a ways off for the other two.

I'm so glad that I did all the Cardinal Virtues before getting to the end of the WoL/D's time in the First. The perks of that have been:

Shadowbringers spoilers, Cardinal Virtues spoilers, ahoy!!

Getting the quest with Cylva explains exactly what Elidibus is attempting with Ardbert. Elidibus is just repeating the Shadowkeeper scenario: propping up Warriors of Light, encouraging them and tipping the balance too far to Light. I wanted to scream every time one of the Scions or the Exarch was like "we don't know what that rascal is up to." VIRI KNEW.

All of the NPCs from the CVs, as well as Cylva, were choices when the WoL/D got their late night visit in their quarters. Cylva's was especially interesting, even though they managed to make her look foreboding even when she's completely agreeing with the WoL/D. And for the others, the Mage DPS and Healer NPCs who visited are people I wish Viri could take back to the Source with her, or visit all the time, because she adored them.

You get a ton of lore which is really helpful, especially with Lamitt's quest and the dwarfs. I still wonder how the people on the First would react to a non-masked Lalafell WoL, considering what happened to all the unmasked dwarfs on the First.

During the Heroes Gauntlet dungeon, it was so meaningful to me that so many of the WoL/D's allies turned up to help them, every step of the way. If you have all the CVs completed, you get those quest NPCs also fighting for you along the way, complete with banter that suggests they themselves might find teammates.

Caption: Giott the Aleforged: Ugh, I would kill for a drink right now... Lue-Reeq of the Gilded Bow: When this is over, I'll buy you as many as you want! Steelarm Cerigg: Oho, does that offer extend to me as well? Granson of the Mournful Blade: Save the talk for the tavern! We're not out of the woods yet! Steelarm Cerigg: Let's finish this quick and have those drinks! It's free, so Taynor can't complain!

[strongbookthoughts]

Notes on A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

Oof, I got all the glare from the library plastic in that pic, didn't I? Well, I'm not in the mood for a photography struggle, so that's what we get today.

Before the cut, I'm just gonna say the book ends on a cliffhanger, and the next one comes out in May 2025. Is that a spoiler? IMO, not with the state of modern publishing.

Anyway, I'm gonna ramble a bit, rather than really write a professional looking review. Small spoilers ahoy.

Look, I just really hate when the first book in a series ends on a cliffhanger that makes it feel like fucking nothing in the book has been resolved. Were little things along the way resolved? Sure, but this one had, like, no emotional "thing achieved!" checkmark because the cliffhanger wipes out so much of the accomplishment. And I gotta wait 6 months, with no promise that the author won't do it again.

So anyway, I'm salty about that.

I also struggled to keep reading at the start of the book. I think this one is a compliment to the author's skill, tho? Freya, the main character, has a lot of moments of feeling really helpless at the start. And I think that's an important part of her story, but I was hoping for some delightful escapism from some shit I feel helpless about. So that hit really hard. Once I get invested enough, it was easier to just push past those moments.

I really enjoyed almost all the world building! It's been ages since I picked up anything with strong viking/norse vibes, so a lot of that felt really fresh to me. I liked the kinds of magic that existed. I did side-eye the bit where everyone seemed to have war horses. I'm really curious about the implication that other lands, with other gods, would have different magics, but it was such a throw-away line that it might never come into play in the series. And there's lots more that could be revealed without going abroad.

There was a nice balance on the political scheming, where deeper things were for sure happening, but Freya's ability to see and understand were limited, so the story didn't get drowned in delicate maneuvering. Political machinations miiiight go up in book two? Or maybe Freya will get better at killing her problems? IDK, either way it could be interesting character growth.

I'm a little reluctant to call this a romantic fantasy because of the trope expectations I have for romance novels. I expect romance series to have a different main couple for each volume. And usually the vibe that the couple/romance aspect of the story is done for that pairing. Ugh, idk, this is currently listed as a two book series on amazon. So maybe it's just a story that's too long for one volume.

On the other hand? Could absolutely call this one horny fantasy. Seriously. So much horny.

[markoftheasphodel]

FE Conquest Part 1 (Chapters Prologue-4)

So, I have a second-hand copy of FE Conquest (thanks, Lance!) I’ve been meaning to play for some time but in between my ancient 3DS having the battery life of a mayfly and the overall excitement of Three Houses, I’ve not truly picked it up until now. But when one is Up North with no internet and no data connection, spending a rainy evening with a 3DS sounds like a good proposition, so here we are.

NOTA BENE: Because my impression of FE14 fandom is and remains “infested with wankers” I will not be tagging this with FE14. If you wish to blacklist it, please block the custom tag “mark joins the conquest.”

Anyhoo. So my Corrin for this game is f!Corrin because based on FE Heroes I find her less obnoxious than her male incarnation. I went with the default face and voice but opted for cute & short hair, colored Camilla-lavender and adorned with a butterfly hair pin so she fits in better with the Nohr sisters. On with the story…

Spoilers for FE14 ensue!

1) That opening tutorial with the Hoshido sibs made me wonder if I’d somehow loaded the wrong game. What the hell was that? That was just… hallucinatory and not in a compelling way.

2) Gameplay is pretty eh thru the opening chapters. The green/red/blue weapon triangle feels less bizarre than it would’ve before Heroes took the concept and ran with it, so there’s no dissonance there. Dragon Veins are really the only thing interesting in the mix thus far, but of course it’s early yet.

3) Story is… holy shit, this is pretty goddamned bad writing. All the characters are familiar to me thanks to Heroes force-feeding them to me over and over and over again, but in between that fever dream of an opener and the first two actual battles, you’re introduced to more characters than I have goddamned fingers. All the Nohr sibs, most of the Hoshido sibs, four retainers for Corrin, Lilith, and then Garon, Rinkah, and Kaze once you get to the capital. Exposition drops as clumsily as a plate falling from Felicia’s fingers. Like, I understand people have issues with the localization but that is too damn many characters introduced in too short of a time.

3a) Like the whole “it’s still dark outside” bit— does Corrin lose her memory every single day? Surely she knows it’s dark in the daytime? Right? Why is this stupid plot point even a thing?

4) Garon, Hans, and Iago all reek of evil, and the only thing keeping the story aloft is Corrin’s invincible innocence.

5) I have to say I’d long forgotten about Leo’s opening stunt to save Corrin’s hide; he’s just about the only character acting like a plausible human. Xander is halfway there. Elise is halfway there if one assumes she is indeed a child and not “technically an adult” (lol). Everyone else is baaaaaad. Like, I know them from Heroes and it appears Heroes isn’t selling them short.

6) So having Hans on our team is like BEING the bandits led by a big ugly evil bandit dude in early-game FE. Cute inversion, I guess.

7) Oh, and then Hans pushes Gunter off a bridge and Corrin starts transforming into… something. Corrin losing her “babysitter” would’ve been a lot more powerful had we known Gunter for more than THREE brief chapters in which he shared the retainer spotlight with three other characters, two of whom we’ve already ditched.

8) And then the magical koi fish/dragon loli whisks Corrin off to the goddamned astral plane. What is this I don’t even. Yeah, at this point I’m thinking they should’ve just made an anime.

9) Back on Planet Earth, Corrin gets taken to Hoshido to meet her True Family, which comes across as manipulative bullshit if one knows that the Hoshido sibs are no more your “real” family in the genetic sense than the Nohr kids are and the whole “birthright” thing is a load of pegasus dung and these kids Corrin doesn’t remember have no more right to her heart than the siblings she knows and loves. The Nohr sibs as far as I can tell do love Corrin back, while the Hoshido kids at best love an idea of a person— Sakura doesn’t even know who Corrin was!

10) Oh, but then Azura shows up and we learn that it’s better to be a hostage taken in by a Good Mommy than a member of a family ruled by a Bad Dad, so that should answer that, except this is Conquest so it won’t.

11) Also yes, Garon is absolutely transparently terribad and abusive.

12) This writing is also terribad and given the structural issues I don’t know that a better localization would even help much. The pacing is terribad.

[whosdinkleyhenderson]

Would you us fluff prompt 17. You give me chills.” “The good kind right?” “Yes… silly the good kind.” with season 3 Steve Harrington and Hendeson!reader please?

Hi, I'm super sorry this took ages... I had a case of writer's block sadly, but hey I finally got it done :) I hope you enjoy it, I decided to use a gender netural reader. but you can change it if you like to suit your gender.

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

Warnings: season 3 spoilers

Song: The Motown Song (with The Temptations) - Rod Stewart.

word count: 5863 

You sat at home, waiting. Waiting for your little brother Dustin to come home. He had been away at some camp, for smart kids, as you liked to put it. The longer you waited the more impatient you became. You had work in an hour at star court mall. The hippest book store, as Mr Baganels liked to refer to it. 

Nothing too special, the only customers being older people or some book enthusiastic’s, otherwise it was quite quiet. Funny how a quiet book store could be located in a busy - loud - mall. 

A knock at the door shattered your cloudly mind. Huffing you got up, there standing on the other side of the door, was in fact not the curly-haired teen you had been waiting for. But the ‘party’. A choir of ‘hellos’ rung through the air, raising a brow you examined each and every one of them. 

“Uh, hi?”

“We're here to see Dustin, right guys?” Max smiled, earning an excited chatter of ‘yeses’. 

“Well, I hate to break it to you… But Mr Henderson is not home. If he was i - as a matter of fact - wouldn’t be here…but I guess you can wait, saving me.” Your fake smile, not going unnoticed by the teens. 

Yes as of right now you sounded like a horrible sibling, but hey duty calls and so does money. Patting Will’s head you made your way out the door and to your car. 

“And one more thing. Don’t break anything, coz I know where you all live.” You called, before closing the door and starting the engine. 

“Well you heard them, let's trash this place…What?” Lucas’ chuckles die down the minute he came face to face with mike’s glaring stare.

“Okay, okay. Jees don’t look at me like that. You look like Nancy.” 

Sadly for Lucas that only ended up with the glare hardening. “I’ll give you ‘you look like Nancy’.”

“Here we go.” 

Rounding the corner you could see the bright sign of the star court mall and the hundreds of people entering and exiting. Pulling into your usually spot you notice a particular maroon BMW. Steve Harrington’s car was parked beside you. It’s as if fate itself was out to get you. Palms sweaty, you nervously wiped them on your bare legs, you would usually wear jeans, but it was summer and you for one did not want to be sweating. Taking a calm breath, you pulled out your perfume and sprayed a few sprits on you. Neck, wrist and just the tiniest dab under your ear. Checking your mirror, you tufted your hair a bit and reapplied your mascara. Satisfied you got out of your car and made your way inside. 

“Thank you for choosing Scoops Ahoy and enjoy your ice cream.” The smile shining bright on the lips of the blonde, disappeared the minute the old lady left the store. “Old bat,” Robin muttered, slumping down on the counter. 

It had been a long day. A very long day and Steve’s consistent failed attempts at flirting with every girl that walked into the store were not helping.  

“I can’t believe she said that. I mean, two years ago I had girls throwing themselves at me. and now! None.” 

Rolling her eyes, she drained out his voice, wishing a black hole would show up and swallow her whole. She couldn’t take it anymore, the constant words. 

“Steve!”

The boy’s lips ceased and so did his voice.

“If you don’t shut the hell up, I will rip out your glorious hair…okay?” 

Silence filled the air-conditioned shop, the only noise being that of the shoppers trailing past.

“Did you just call my hair glorious?” The guy wore a teasing smile. That was it. 

“I’m going on my break. Have fun dignus.” She muttered walking out the store. 

Blending into the crowd, Robin disappeared from Steve’s sight. Puffing out some air, Steve slumped into the counter. His eyes counted the number of people who walked past. A total of fifty-three people walked by and only thirteen decided to take a look inside before walking off. 

“This has gotta be one of the most boring days of my life-” His voice ceased at the sight in front of him. As quick as it came it went. You had rushed by the store, in an attempt to make it to your job. You had been fixing your hair whilst dodging people left, right and centre. And by God, you looked amazing. A scene out of a movie. Reality slowing down just for you, and dearly did it smack Steve. Never in high school, did you take notice of the boy - well you did, but he didn’t know that - always keeping to your own group of people. Sometimes he wondered if he chose the wrong person to give his heart to. Like what would have happened if he chose you over Nancy. Would you two still be together or would you have ended in the same catastrophe that was Steve and Nancy?

~Halloween 1984~ 

Your grip tightens on Jonathan's arm. Nails digging into soft flesh. 

“Ouch. Hey! Jees Y/n…I like my arm you know.” 

“Sorry, Johnny.” You quipped, quickly pulling your hand from his arm. 

Smiling Jonathan shook his head, “It’s alright.”  

You two had unfortunately tagged along to Tina’s Halloween party of ‘84. Your friends begged you to come, so in doing so you brought along another poor unfortunate soul. Jonathan Byers.

What, he was your best friend. Of course, you would make him come. Even if he dreaded every minute of it. If you had to suffer then so did he. 

You glanced around the rowdy house, classmates dancing, drinking or making out. This definitely was not your scene, and neither was the couple standing right next to your ear. 

“Would you buzz off? Jees, a person’s ears can only take so much.” You hissed, at the two. 

Rolling their eyes, they walked off. Noticing your glare, Jonathan piped in.

“Assholes.” 

You two - more your friends - insisted on going as the cast of Back to The Future, you two winning the honour of being Doc and Marty Mcfly. 

An iconic duo, for two of Hawkin’s outcasts. That and your whole group wanted to win the best dress of 84, so the rest of the ‘cast’ of Back to The Future, was most likely wandering around the house. 

“You know we could have spent the night watching movies, right?” Jonathan muttered, giving you a slight nudge. Man, was he right? It was an annual ritual you both would do. Ever since you both learned that the fear horror movies projected were only fake, you both vowed that the whole week until Halloween you would watch every horror movie known to humankind. 

“I know, I know. I’m kicking myself… The exorcist kicks ass way better than here.” You hissed, dreading the knowing smile sitting on his face. All week long you two had worked your way up to grow the confidence to watch such a film. The horror of knowing it was supposed to be based on a true story, frightened the hell out of you. But with Jonathan’s, kind words and the constant nagging you caved in. That was till you magical got sucked into the world of teen Halloween. 

The whines of your best friend brought you back into reality. 

“This wig is making my head itchy.”  The rustling of fake plastic hair filled your ears. 

“Jonathan! Stop that you're gonna get hair everywhere.”

The teen glanced around the house, taking note of the sticky floor beneath his feet. 

“I don’t think anyone would notice. Besides how come I had to be Doc?”

Raising a brow, you stared down at the boy. “Because orange looks good on me.” You chuckled, flipping your hair. 

Watching your every move, Nancy’s eyes hardened. How come you were bright and happy? She was the one dating Steve Harrington, yet why did she yearn for what you have? 

Jonathan. 

Her hand tightened around the plastic cup, creating a cease on the surface. She needed this thought gone, no she wanted it dead. Snapping her attention away from you two, her blue eyes locked on what she yearned for. 

The punch bowl. 

Pure Fuel. 

Sensing his girlfriend’s frustration, Steve peered over at Nancy, the harsh glare sitting on her soft features. Sighing he places a hand on her wrist. 

“Hey Nance, I think you’ve had enough to drink.” 

His words did not sit well with the brunette. Groaning she tugged her wrist out of his hand, splashing her drink all over the both of them. Shocked, the two stared at each other. Her white blouse was now red. 

Oh shit. 

Steve’s eyes widened, as the glare reappeared on Nancy’s face. 

“Look what you did, Steve!” 

Pissed the girl stormed off to the where ever, probably a bathroom, within the huge house. Sensing everyone’s stares, Steve knew the whole crowd was looking at them. 

At him. 

“Great, another notch on my name.” He mumbled, flickering his hazel eyes up. He made direct eye contact with you, for a spilt second before running off to find Nancy. 

You and Jonathan had witnessed the whole scene, as other bystanders did. Steve and Nancy were in hot water. 

You watched Steve’s form disappear amongst the crowd. Frowning your brows you turned your attention back to your friend. 

“Huh?”

“I said. You think something’s going on between them?” 

Looking back, you shrugged. If so then good for them. 

“Who knows…not our problem. Now come. Dance with me Byers.” You laugh pulling Jonathan to the dance floor. 

Steve sighed as the words left Nancy's mouth. 

Bullshit. 

Their love was complete and utter bullshit. 

Great. 

“You don’t mean that.” He held back the tears, scared she would laugh if they fell. 

Her stare blank, just like her words. 

“Bullshit…it’s all. Bullshit.” 

A stab at the boy’s heart. All he wanted was someone to love him, instead, he got ‘bullshit’, just like the rest of his life. Trying to undo all the corrupt shit he pulled on people, instead got a slap back in his face. The world was against as much as Nancy was. Throwing Billy into the mix, was not only a cruel act but also a wake-up call. Showing him what he was, what he had been. To know that when he looked into the boy’s blue eyes, he saw himself.  A reflection of what he was. Who he had been. And was it a frightening sight. The fear of becoming King Steve again, knowing all those horrid things were done by him. His hands were stained, and now he was begging for them to be cleaned. 

And if this was a way of being tested to see if he was deemed worthy, then God damn he was in for a ride. 

Fed up with Steve’s silence, Nancy pulled open the door. Bumping right into Jonathan, who caught hold of the drunk girl. Looking up he met Steve’s blank stare. 

He waited. For something, for anything. For a ‘hey dude, get your hands off my girl.’ but nothing came, Steve just looked down at his hands, utter despair swirling on his face.  

“Oh shit,” Jonathan whispers causing Nancy to groan and shoved herself against him. 

“Hey Woah. Woah, let’s get you home.” With that the two left, leaving poor Steve in the bathroom. 

Sighing you looked down at your watch, Jonathan should have been back by now. Narrowing your eyes you glance up.

“How long does it take for a guy to piss.” You breathed but paused the moment your eyes locked on a tipsy Nancy and white wig. 

Bingo. 

Your legs attempt to get to work but notice the pair make their way out the door. Stunned you stood there, that asswipe was your ride home. 

So much for that. 

“What an asshole… Ride home my ass.” You hiss stepping outside. A gentle tap on the shoulder stops you from going any further. Shifting your gaze the slightest your eyes catch red-ridden warm ones. 

“Steve.” You breath. 

He offers a small smile, hiding all the hurt behind it. 

“Did you need a ride home, Henderson?” And here right now, stood your knight and shining armour. 

You smile at his words. “That would be great.” 

~Present, 1985~

You were late. Quickly pushing through the crowds of people. Elderly, adults, children and worst of all teens. 

Ugh stupid summer holidays. Don’t these kids have anywhere else better to be than a horrid air-conditioned mall? 

Pushing open the door, finally, you had made it to work. Tiptoeing in, you quietly made your way around the counter. The last time you were late, Mr Baganels made you clean up the children’s section. Let’s just say there were some things in there that definitely did not belong in a book store. 

You shudder at the mere thought. 

“Ahh, I see we snuck in.” Your co-worker, Danny sang. Snapping your head to the back door, you shushed the boy. “Oh please, shush yourself. Besides Mr Baganels is not in today… it’s just me.” 

Like a fresh breath of air, you sighed. All your nerves dying in an instant. 

Tutting the boy jumped up on top of the counter, sitting quite comfortably too. 

“I do have, something, rather interesting to tell you.” 

All ears you raised a distinct brow. “What?”

Smirking Danny turned away and began toying with you. 

“Un second thought, maybe it’s not that important… Yeah. Don’t worry.” 

Of course, he would pull this stunt, every time he had something to tell you, he would always find a way to pull your leg. You never knew why maybe for the suspense. Or just plain old cruelty. 

“Well, that’s just too bad because Nelson, came by yesterday looking for you. But I guess what he said, isn’t important either.” You tutted, picking your nails. 

Snapping his head toward you the boy stuck his face into your peripheral vision. 

“What?” 

“Can I help you?” glancing up, you held a blank stare. 

Jumping over the counter, Danny came face to face with you. 

“Hun, you better tell me what that boy said.”

Placing a hand on his chest you pushed him the slightest bit back. “Now why would I want to do that, Danny Boy?” 

You knew about Danny’s crush on Nelson the retail manager at Macy’s. Yes, there was a Macy’s at Start court mall. From the day he laid eyes on the tall man, you knew Danny was head over heels for him, well either that or he was a horny guy. But you knew he wasn’t. 

“Y/n, you know how much I like him… If I was a puppy! I would piss on the floor because of the excitement.” 

“Eww. Gross. That was way too much information.”

Rolling his eyes, the boy shushed you. “Oh hush, besides. I don’t know if he swings for my team… I mean if he didn’t all I would need is some whipped-” 

“Woah, Woah slow down. I don’t want to have that image in my head, thank you very much… And besides, he does…pretty obvious if you ask me.” 

You saw the boy’s green eyes brighten.  

“Well what did he say.”

Smiling you opened your mouth but was silenced by the sound of the shop door’s bell. 

“Oh for Christ's sake! A man is trying to find out,” Danny’s voice ceased, at an awkward Robin standing in the doorway. “Oh hey, Rob. What’s kicking, sweetie?” Danny waved. 

“Steve is such an idiot. I swear. This is the only place where I find solitude.”

Turning his head to you, Danny wore a menacing smirk. 

Grabbing a tight hold of his dress shirt you mouthed ‘no’ to him. Smacking your hand away, Danny patted the counter. 

“Come darling, tell us your troubles.”

Following suit, Robin sat on top of the counter. 

“He’s such an idiot. I mean he flirts with every girl that comes into the store, it’s so annoying and torturing. I don’t understand why he does that, I told him to come over here already. But no dignus is a…well…a dignus not too.” 

You shot your eyes to the boy next to you, who just smiled. 

That bastard. 

You gripped his shirt again. 

“I mean, I don’t know why he hasn’t grown a pair yet. I mean, he likes you and you like him.” 

You tighten your hold, causing the green-eyed boy to yelp at the harsh grip.

Robin turned and looked you dead in eye. “Y/n. You know Steve likes you. Like likes you, likes you.”

You shook your head. Where the hell was this coming from, was she on drugs? 

You tightened your grip even harder on Danny. 

“Ow, ow. Okay! ALRIGHT! Let go of me. I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you.” 

You let go of the boy’s arm. 

Quickly grabbing his own arm, Danny began rubbing it. 

“Steve came in yesterday. Horrible stuttering. By the way. Like I mean to the point where I thought he said he wanted ‘chicken soup’... anyway, he came in asking if you were working… I told him you weren’t, he looked a little hurt. If I’m going, to be honest.” 

And there it was, his confession. Steve came in wanting to talk to you. 

Holy Shit. 

But why?

You two hadn’t spoken after the events of last year. He and Dustin had become close. Forgetting about you, just like Jonathan did. He had Nancy and Steve had Dustin. Well, Steve used to have everybody at his beacon and call. Especially Tommy, the basketball team and the whole population of Hawkin’s high female students. It sometimes made you wonder if that’s how he got his hair so big. You two did grow close after the events of  Tina’s Halloween party. Bonding over the disapproval of Billy Hargrove and the Dart situation. You weren’t too sure if it was how he along with your brother that topped it off or how he attempted to protect you and the kids from Billy's antics. Or maybe it was the night you all were ‘camping’ out on the bus. Well whatever it was, Cupid pointed that God-forsaken arrow at your ass and hit its target. 

“Yo, Y/n. Hello, yep it’s no use we lost them.” 

Your eyes flickered at Danny’s hand. That and also him clapping in your face might have been the reason too. Both him and Robin were staring at you, disbelief fanning their features. 

“Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Go GET LOVER BOY.” 

Without another word, you ran out from behind the counter and paused. 

“But what about Mr Baganels?”

Sighing they both yelled at you to go. 

So you took off down the mall, weaving your way through people once again. Slipping, sliding, pushing. And the use of "excuse me's" too. You had finally come to the front door of Scoops Ahoy, hand hovering over the door handle. For some strange reason, it felt as if you froze in that split moment. Pondering, what if this was a wrong idea? But you needed to know. You needed to know now. You needed to hear it from him, his words, his true feelings. Even if you two hadn’t spoken in a while.  

You needed to know. 

It was now or never.

So that’s what you did, you gathered up all the courage you had and pushed that damn door open. 

The soft hum of Rod Stewart’s The Motown Song was playing on the speakers. One of your favourite songs, it had always brought a smile to your face, which it was doing now. It had been like it was planned. All this, from the perfect song, the perfect boy and the scene. Right of a Jonh Huges’ film. 

Steve had been in deep thought tapping his finger to the beat of the song. God knows where his mind was, but dear Jesus did he look like a beautiful scene? Soft brown locks, pink plump lips, cute little frown resting upon his brows. He hadn’t even noticed you come in. That was until you stood right in front of him with an adoring smile on your lips. 

Gobsmacked Steve, and stared at the sight in front of him. 

An angel, the person of his dreams. 

You. 

“Hi Steve.” 

Shaking the feeling off, the boy smiled. “Hey… hey Y/n.” 

You two stood there in awkward silence, but you both held each other's gaze. Unknowing to himself, Steve let the words fall right out of his lips. 

“You give me chills.” Eyes widening the boy clammed his mouth shut. 

You frowned, was that a good thing? Sensing his embarrassment you let out a sweet chuckle, offering his nerves to relax. “The good kind right?” 

With a beautiful smile, Steve gently took a hold of your hand and tugged you behind the counter.  

Now standing face to face with each other, it brought you both back to 1984, the night of the bus stake out. 

~1984~

Your brother - Dustin - somehow manage to talk you into coming. Well forced. From the moment you laid eyes on your mother’s poor mauled cat Mews, you knew there was no turning back from this. That and also someone had to babysit the kids and you sure as hell knew Nancy nor Jonathan were going to take the responsibility. But to your surprise when you came outside to see who Dustin had been talking to, you had not been expecting the former King of Hawkin’s High to be standing outside your basement doors. The two had been arguing - a scene right of Abbott and Castello - when you rounded the corner, their voice became hushed the moment they caught sight of you. There they stood, acting as if they weren’t just about to bite each other’s heads off. Raising a brow at the sight of Steve, you knew right then and there something was up. That and also, Steve only came by your house to take you to school. So seeing him with your brother was enough to spark interest in your mind. 

After spending what had felt like an hour of Dustin explaining and Steve’s constant interruptions you three had ended up at an old abandoned junkyard, with the company of, Lucas and Max. 

Which brings you, too now. Sitting in an old school bus, feet hanging out over the top of seats in front of you. Yep, this is how you wanted to spend your night. Fighting a slug monster that only your brother, Lucas and Steve had seen. 

“You have got to be kidding me.” You for the sixth time in the span of five minutes looked down at your mickey mouse themed watch. Ugh, when was this going to end? You wanted to be home in your PJs, snuggled up watching some crappy movie that was on TV with your mother. But no, you were forced to sit in a bus with your crush and three kids, waiting for this “Dart” character to pop up so they could bash the shit out of it. 

“Y/n?” 

You sigh loudly before gazing up. There standing in front of you was your knight in shining armour, Steve Harrington. Hiding the blush forming along your cheeks, you hummed in response and moved your feet out of the way. Taking the seat next to you, you and Steve sat in silence. That was till he shifted to face you. 

“I take it as this wasn’t how you were going to spend your night?”

Boy was he right, he had always been right.  

It’s like he changed, for the better. How much you yearned he would just one day ask you out on a date, or at least something. He had nothing to lose, maybe Nancy. But she was already occupied with a certain Byers boy. 

“Wow, am I that transparent?” You laugh, trailing your eyes out the window. The night was full of beautiful stars. Missing the smile forming on the boy's features. 

“I wouldn’t say transparent. I would say…perfect…” His voice became hushed as he finished his proclamation. 

It was such a shame, two young lovers so oblivious to each other's feelings. Anyone could see it, could feel it. 

This heavy attraction. 

Yet how come you two couldn’t? Was it the fear of being rejected? Was it the fear of falling into the despair that was teenage love? Puppy love or a crush. The fear of becoming important in each other's lives? Your families not liking either one of you? 

You knew your mother would adore Steve, I mean she already did when she would see the smile on your face every time you would see him or bring up his name. How your eyes would wander away, how your eyelashes would flutter, and the biggest beautiful smile appear on your face. That boy had caused this sight. Yet you would wonder if you did the same to him. 

Every time Steve would watch you leave his car, an adoring smile would rest upon his perfect lips. Especially when you would ring him at home. His heart skipped a beat every time the phone would go off. Even his mother once in a while, would catch him with a smile on his face when you two would be on the phone. She knew something was up, wanting to ask her son what put him in such a good mood. But she knew better. Did she though? Steve would often wonder what it would like to have such a relationship with his mother as you did with yours. 

To open up, not to worry about not being this depiction of a perfect son. But to be himself. And he could do that, with you. However, there had always been a voice in the back of both of your wondrous minds. 

The fear. 

Once again the fear. It would often occur when the two of you would be alone or looking at each other like you were now. The hiss of society, throwing these conspiring theories, that there was a chance that it wouldn’t last for you two. But at the end of the day, who were they to decide your future? 

Your love. 

The person you would fall head over heels for. 

This indeed was no dystopian fairy tale. 

You smiled at the boy’s words, Steve usually would mumble that last bit of any sentence. You never truly knew why, maybe he thought you lost interest in his queries. Little did he know you actually enjoyed hearing what would often wander through his mind. Some theories being a little over the edge but others would put you both in a state of mind. 

Peering away from the night sky you found your eyes back on the boy next to you, who was currently twiddling his thumbs as he kept his eyes cast down. Smiling at the scene, you grabbed a hold of his larger hand and held it up, before grasping his other and doing the same. 

This caught his attention. Shooting his eyes up Steve met your smile. A beautiful smile, the one where a person’s eyes would sparkle. 

A genuine one.  

A love-stricken one. 

“Why do you mumble? I can’t hear a damn thing you say… at times I wonder if I’m missing out on you confessing your undying love for me.” You laugh, eyes twinkling.  

The boy blushed at your last statement if only you knew. Chuckling along, Steve peered at your entwined hands, he liked this. 

No, he loved this.  

Loved holding onto you, feeling you. 

Oh if only. 

“Huh, don’t worry Y/n. You don’t need to worry about me confessing anything…nothing at all.” 

If you had to say the truth, you weren’t expecting those words to leave his lips. Honestly, you would have expected the confession of his undying love for you. 

But before you could say anything, crashing noises could be heard from outside. 

“Ahh, Steve. Dart’s here.” 

With that Steve left your side and made his way to the other side of the bus. 

You didn’t know what happened but the next thing you knew the love of your life had been placed as bait for those damn slug-like monsters. The kids shouting commands at the guy. Fed up you pushed past them all and opened the door. 

“No, Y/n. Get back in here. Y/n! PLEASE?!” You shooed off your brother’s protests. 

Steve was surrounded and now were you. You knew what you were doing was stupid, but someone had to be out there with him. What if the idiot got hurt?

“Y/n.” He hissed, eyeing each and every demigoron. 

“What Steve!? I’m not going to let you get hurt.” 

Everything went quiet, too quiet. It was like they had all disappeared. But how?

“STEVE! Y/N! RUN!” Raising a brow you turn back to see what the kids were pointing at the shits had moved. 

Shit.

“Steve.” You mumble, as the boy quickly grabs your arm and begins running toward the bus. Your feet picked up the pace, and before you knew you both made it. As the doors closed you collapsed on top of Steve. Earning a groan, from the poor guy. It was cute though, he held onto you in order to give you some support as you fell on him. Faces practically inches from each other, it would have been the perfect romance scene if you two were under different circumstances. Eyes meeting each other, you both held your stares, anyone could practically feel it. It heated up the whole room, that was until Dustin decided to insert his fifty cents worth in. 

“Now! Are you going to play superhero again?” 

You glared up at your little brother, smartass. 

Ooo if you two were at home. He was a lucky boy at this moment, but that didn’t mean you wouldn’t get him back. 

Pushing yourself off of Steve, you made your way further down the bus. Not wanting to be spoken to.  

You five needed a plan, a plan right now because there was no way in hell that a spiked bat would save you all from three slug dogs. 

A thud on top of the roof, just confirmed your lack of safety in this bus. Grabbing the kids you formed a barrier around them. 

Now what. 

“What the hell are we going to do now?” Lucas yelled as Steve readied his bat. As it came it went. You lot watched the demidogs cease their movements, screeching as they ran off in the direction they supposedly came in. Slumping back you all let out a sigh of relief. 

“Where do you think they’re going?” Max spoke up. 

Focusing back out the window, Steve shrugged his shoulders and he made his way toward you. Whilst Dustin and Lucas kept their focus on the sight outside before answering the young redhead.  

“Hawkin’s Lab.” 

You frowned your brows at this. What the hell was Hawkin’s Lab?

“Next time we get into a situation like this, please don’t throw yourself like a piece of bait.” Steve’s words hummed in your ears. Shaking your head in the slightest you peered out the window. 

“Trust me. I won’t be tagging along next time.” 

You lot finally made it to the entry of - what you assumed was - Hawkin’s Lab. 

“Listen Y/n. I didn’t mean to be an ass, back at the junkyard… I was just.” You held up your hand and smiled. 

“It’s fine Steve. Like I said, there won’t be a next time…Okay?” 

The boy nodded his head along with your words, not precisely happy with them, but he knew this was a lot to take in. Taking a hold of your hand, Steve pulled you his way. Ceasing as you two were now chest to chest. Well more like face to chest. You two locked eyes the only noise being each other’s shallow breathing. 

Was this it? 

Was this where you two would finally confess your undying love for each other? 

Leaning down, Steve's lips hovered above your ear. 

Damn tease. 

His light breath fanning your neck and cheek. 

“...once this is all out of the way. How about we go to the movies next Friday, and go see that movie you've been dying to see, ya know… umm…”

Laughing at his attempts to be sultry, you waved him off. 

What a loveable dignus. 

“If you’re referring to, Beverly Hills Cop. Then yes, I would love that. Steve.”

You watched the smile form on his face. 

Watching from afar, Dustin shook his head.

“Idiots.” 

~Present, 1985~ 

Little did you know, that night never came. You weren’t too sure if it had something to do with Steve seeing Nancy and Jonathan walking out together, but you knew deep what it was. 

After that night, Steve kept his distance from everyone, especially you. Ignoring your phone calls, the only time he came by was to help Dustin prepare for the Snowball Dance.

And yet here you two stood, in Scoops Ahoy, confessing your much-needed love for each other.  

“Yes… silly the good kind.” 

You smiled at his words, but frowned, so suddenly your emotions changed.

“You know, we never got to go see Beverly Hills Cop… you not talking to me…it honestly tore me apart ya know.” Your confession broke Steve. He swore he didn’t mean to hurt you, he in fact was having a mental fight with himself. Trying to figure out what it was that he wanted, why seeing Nancy hurt him, so badly. 

“I know. And… I’m sorry Y/n. If there s anything I could do to take away that pain and make it up to you…I swear to God I would.” 

Waiting for a response, Steve searched for any signs of hurt and frustration. But only saw adoration flowing through your irises. 

“Kiss me. Steve, kiss-” Without any further say, his lips were on yours in seconds. 

The compassion, you two were yearning for was finally coming together. 

Coming true. 

And good luck to the person who would dare try to ruin this beautiful moment of longing love. 

Grabbing his sailor suit collar, you pulled him in closer, fearing he would slip away at any moment and you would wake from this dream. But no the warmth of his large hands wrapped around your waist. Was the sign of reality you needed. Looping his fingers through the belt holes in your jeans, he pulled you closer. 

Closer than what you’d done. 

“Hey, are you two going to come up for air or what? Is this what happens when a guy goes away to camp for three months?” 

Moving a hand away your hand made it's in front of Dustin’s face and flipped the bird at him. 

“Assholes.” He mumbled. 

They wish us luck, but they think we’re just dreaming. 

Let’s prove ‘em wrong baby. 

Cause you know what luck is? 

Luck is believing you're lucky. 

And luck is what you both had, yes it took time. But boy sometimes the good and beautiful things in life are worth the wait. And that is what makes it special. 

[dear-mrs-otome]

As someone who can’t read Japanese, could you please spoil Faust’s route? I’m really curious!

I can, sorry this took me awhile to get all down!

I’ll give you a summary of Faust’s route below the cut, so for those zooming past BE WARNED. SPOILERS FOLLOW.

SPOILERS AHOY!

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HAVE THE WHOLE ROUTE SPOILED IN DETAIL???

I MEAN IT - A GIANT WALL OF TEXT EXISTS BEHIND THIS CUT, ALL SPOILERS…

Faust’s route begins as all of the ‘Act 2’ routes do - just as MC is attempting to return home after her month vacation in the past, the door to the Louvre appears to malfunction and she’s forced to remain in the 19th century until Comte can figure out what is going on.

Life carries on much as usual for her, as she tries to keep her spirits up, when one day in town she stumbles across a church on the edges, presided over by a kindly priest (Faust) who seems impressed by her generosity towards a poor woman he’s given medicine to whose son is suffering from a mysterious epidemic that’s begun circulating the city. One night she attends a party with Comte when a critter of some sort steals her hair ornament. Chasing after it, she winds up in a graveyard, where to her horror she sees a figure digging up a fresh grave. She tries to run, is caught by said figure (Faust), and bitten until she faints. (First CG)

She wakes up in the church from earlier and the kind priest who claims he was merely a Good Samaritan seems willing to help her get home. Soon though it comes to light that she is the woman staying with Comte, and Faust drops his ‘nice’ mask and reveals himself as a vampire - biting her once more to observe the effects and proclaiming he will abduct her to be his new guinea pig, curious about her as a person both from the future and who has been living with vampires.

Waking up in Vlad’s castle now, she meets the Terrible Trio and struggles to deal with her situation now - Faust feeds on her for the purposes of observation again, and she goes on a hunger strike briefly, defiant and unwilling to accept being captive. Only when Faust threatens the other residents of the mansion does she reluctantly settle down, and they butt heads over their wildly different philosophies on life - Faust’s mission to grant humans eternal life, her proclaiming God gives us only that which we can handle, and Faust’s disagreement.

To prove his point he begins bringing her to the church with him disguised as a nun, where she witnesses firsthand the cruelties of fate in ways her 21st century self had never encountered before - children orphaned senselessly, people coming for confession bearing the crushing weight of guilt over their own poverty and misfortune. She begins to realize how she may have been wrong, but she and Faust continue to disagree over their different viewpoints. MC still believes that hope is real and necessary, whereas Faust is a committed cynic.

She slowly comes to lose her fear of the other residents of the castle as well, as they are nothing but kind and welcoming to her, though she still is unsure of what to make of everything and remains defiant.

The arguments between her and Faust come to a head when the son of the woman MC met that very first day outside the church comes around, seeking Faust’s blessing to send him on to the next life and refusing the medicine and help offered him. Faust reacts harshly to the man’s willingness to quietly acquiesce to his fate, to MC’s horror, and when she asks him if he has nothing of hope left Faust assures her it’s long gone. When she spots Napoleon and Sebastian later, she dithers for a bit but eventually tries to call out to them, only to have Faust intercept. Still unsettled from their argument earlier, he reiterates to her that she belongs to him and bites her on the church altar, as if to prove that bad things happen to good people no matter what.

Things are strained between them after that, not helped by MC’s increasing suspicions that the strange rumors of ‘resurrections’ going on around the city in the wake of the disease are somehow Faust’s work - an accusation that clearly wounds Faust upon hearing. She meets a young university student, Alex, who desperately wants to be Faust’s assistant and is studying the epidemic. Days pass as they continue working at the church and the orphanage, until one day the disease strikes even there - and finding Faust’s medication is running out, over his protests and concerns MC volunteers to help him make more, the two of them working day and night together to develop and manufacture enough to save the children.

They’re successful, save for one girl Lina who is still very sick that they bring back to the castle to finish nursing to health. They succeed, but afterwards MC falls ill with the same sickness and collapses...only marginally coherent of a desperate Faust doing all he can to save her life. (2nd CG)

She has time and evidence to rethink some of her assumptions about Faust, realizing that despite his best efforts to crush whatever heart and kindness he has it remains. There’s more to him than just icy logic. And when she asks him about his past he finally tells her some of it - that he was abandoned as a baby, raised in an orphanage by a kindly nun, and that when she fell ill he sold himself into slavery to provide her with money for medicine. It made no difference in the long run though, the woman still died...and Faust remains the cynic when they discuss hope and happiness and how MC still clings to these things.

Rumors abound about Faust’s miraculous work stopping the epidemic at the orphanage, as things return mostly to ‘normal’ for them both, working at the church and such. They’re each grappling with changing feelings for each other, Faust suffering his first bout of bloodlust, when one morning Faust collapses in agony bleeding from his mouth horrifically, falling unconscious for days.

Everyone at the castle is fretting, Faust growing weaker and weaker, as Vlad explains his theory that Faust has altered the timeline too much by stopping the plague at the orphanage and the universe is attempting to set things to right again by erasing him from existence. He claims the same thing has happened to him before when he tries to change world events too drastically - the difference being that as a pureblood he can’t die. Faust, however, can. 

He proposes traveling back in time and attempting to nudge humans here and there, make tiny alterations to the timeline to achieve the same goal of saving the children without the backlash falling on Faust, and MC insists on going along - realizing now that she’s faced with his death, she can’t bear the thought of losing him.

Going through the door in the castle with Vlad, she ends up first back at the mansion shortly after her own disappearance (where she assures Comte she’s doing well, thereby explaining why the mansion wasn’t losing their minds this entire time) and recruiting Comte’s help fiddling with the timeline. Upon the next passage she’s ripped from Vlad and dumped far in the past - where she witnesses firsthand little Johann’s heart and faith breaking upon the death of his beloved mother-figure nun, and then the natural disaster that crushed a town he frequented as a young man. This was the moment that solidified for Faust his determination to fight against God and Fate with all he had, and kicked off his obsession with discovering eternal life. (3rd CG)

After one more timey-wimey meeting with the Past!Faust at the point when they were nursing little Lina, where she offers him some much-needed words of encouragement, MC finally finds herself in the recent-enough past to travel around Paris with Vlad and encourage people to be more aware of the spreading plague. She even urges Alex to be more wary, prompting him to start developing his own medication from notes he’d taken from Faust.

Back in the ‘proper’ time, their efforts seem to perhaps have paid off...they return to find Faust gone, and after searching frantically around the city they find the orphanage has been set aflame on the strength of rumors that the plague spread from there. (As if the universe has manufactured some new tragedy instead for it, she realizes) Faust had gone into the blaze to save the last child, but comes out horrifically burnt and near death.

They take him to the church, where things appear dire...but Faust admits to finally seeing hope and accepting this outcome, just glad that something good has come of it all. MC refuses to accept his death though, and after Faust nearly dies again she cuts herself and he eventually revives. After he recovers, Faust corners her into confessing her feelings for him and admitting his own in return, before they finally consummate their love.

MC returns to the mansion as she had promised Past!Comte she would, happy to see all her friends again. A few days pass before Faust and Charles come to collect her, setting off an amusing set of interactions between the Mansion Boys and the Dastardly Duo, but it culminates in a scene where Faust thanks Comte humbly for his assistance with the timelines and for his consideration of MC. The couple then has a late-night conversation at the church where they’re both working again about the future of their relationship.

In Faust’s dramatic end, he asks MC to accompany him as he returns back to the place of that town that was destroyed, Faust making peace with his feelings surrounding the situation and reiterating his love for MC and how she’s helped him to see hope - before he asks her to help him with a different sort of ‘eternal life’, AKA having babies with him.

In Faust’s romantic end, he explains a bit about what motivates him to take on the role of a priest, and then he takes MC back to the castle where he intends to make love to her - saying that he can’t ever lose her but can’t stomach the thought of anyone other than himself ever biting her so he will have to work all that much harder to achieve his dream of eternal life so that they can continue to thumb their noses at God and Fate for all time together.

------

Even long as this is I’m clearly glossing over things - it’s a very busy route! And it’s complicated by the time travel stuff, which thankfully doesn’t get TOO complicated. If anyone’s interested in hearing my thoughts on Faust himself I’m happy to share, just let me know...I think he’s a fascinating complex character that definitely won’t be for everyone, but I am happy he exists in the IkeVamp cast and glad for this route.

[sullustangin]

The Obi-Wan recap

Spoilers ahoy for the Obi-Wan mini-series.

After I watched the first two episodes, I expressed the concern that the show writers were potentially making Reva the crappy fan fic version of Mace Windu: angry black character that’s unnecessary cruel.  I worried that the Sith were doing a DS 5: Stupid Evil run, when Reva fragged the Grand Inquisitor.

Sometimes, you just need to shut up and watch.

So I did.

Moses Ingram gives Reva Sevander a beautifully tragic turn.  She has played Lady MacDuff, character who feels that her husband has abandoned his family for the sake of power and thus has left them vulnerable.  Indeed, Macbeth orders the death of Macduff’s family, and thus the Lady meets her fate just off-stage.   

As Reva, Ingram plays someone who has lost everything and everyone, yet she manifests the main message of the Star Wars series: hope.  It’s always been hope.  Therefore, the character of Reva undermines the tropes of tragic women such as the Greek Hecuba and Medea, who upon losing their beloved, they kill to serve that same pain to their male oppressors (in the case of Hecuba, she kills the children of her son’s murderer; Medea kills her own children after her husband Jason betrays and abandons both her and the children on several levels).  Lady MacDuff is killed in the act of trying to save her children.

But Reva doesn’t die.  She does not kill. 

Because that would be unsatisfying.  It is unclear as to whether Reva realizes Vader is the father of the boy on Tatooine or if he’s just another Force Sensitive Obi-Wan is protecting.  If she has figured it out, then killing Luke is pointless because Obi-Wan is hiding the boy from his father; Vader won’t hurt if she kills the boy.  If Luke is just some Force-Sensitive kid that Obi-Wan is watching over, then the person being hurt is Obi-Wan. 

Reva’s feelings toward Obi-Wan are complicated and, I think, ambivalent.  She plans to use him to lure Vader and kill him.  I do not know if she ever thought what she wanted to do with him after Vader was dead. Yes, she has anger toward him as Anakin’s master, which is only magnified by his continued affection for him -- or at least the memory of him.  But is it enough to make her want to kill him?  Vader’s death was probably Reva’s event horizon: she could see no further than that point.  She would have had her revenge.  And then what?  She has a Jedi hostage.  Does she kill him?  Rise through the ranks of the Inquisition with this prize?  Does it attract Palpatine’s attention, now that Vader is dead?  All of this is unknown and hypothetical.

When we leave Reva at the end of the series, there is the question : And now what?  She has not become the thing she hates.  At the same time, she doesn’t have a clear path forward in a post-Jedi galaxy -- especially not after being left for dead by the Empire.  She is, as Obi-Wan says, free.  She confronted Vader and lost; she confronted herself and won when she showed the mercy he did not. 

I can’t wait to see Moses Ingram in Star Wars again.  In her last moments on screen, she really did convey herself as someone in her late teens and early 20s; remember that Reva was a youngling 10 years prior, so she cannot be much older than 20 now.  Throughout the series, when she is the Third Sister, she projects almost an indeterminate age, a combination of energy and calculation... but in her final scenes, we see just how young and lost this character actually is, and it is beautiful. 

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I sat on my feels for Tala Durith for a little bit, because I wanted to see how “we originally conceived this as a romance, but we decided not to pursue it” panned out.  Indira Varma has said she played Tala as if she was in love with Obi-Wan.  In her performance, she doesn’t play with infatuation -- she does play love, and that love is of a grown woman.  It’s not necessarily a romantic ‘in love’ that’s played here, which I liked.  She knows and sees everything that this man represents.  At the same time, she sees how haunted he is and how painfully mortal he is.  He is unavailable to her.  She loves the man, not the legend.  Tala knows herself and the limits of this fragile galaxy.  It’s a very good, mature take, and how I wish something more like this (not exactly like this, it’s a different dynamic, but that depth and dimension) had manifested in the Anakin/Padme romantic tragedy.  I’d probably enjoy for more than “Across the Stars,” if that was the case. 

I enjoyed so thoroughly how Tala programmed her droid ‘to help.’  And he did, from the moment he didn’t give away her location to picking up Obi-Wan to his final moments with Tala.  Women and droids are lovely things -- just ask Leia Organa and Hera Syndulla.

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Good to see Haja again, but... I almost feel as if he was there just as “See!  He’s alive!!”  I didn’t find what he said or did particularly critical in the last two episodes; the role could have been filled by others.  That said, this might be a springboard for the character to appear later.  We’ll see. 

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Ewan McGregor has really taken seriously the transition from Episode III Obi Wan to Episode IV Ben Kenobi.  The character is constantly dynamic and in motion, physically and emotionally.  I do think the writing choices for this character were excellently done; he is a traumatized mess, so much to the point he cannot be the person he was trained to be from the age of 3 to the age of 38.  Now in his late 40s, he’s having to ‘grow beyond’ the events ten years prior in a span of about a week.  Obi-Wan does rise to the occasion -- as one should expect.

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Hayden Christensen.  I was impressed.  I understand the creative choice not to de-age him back down to 19 in the flashbacks.   I think it’s also a POV choice as to how Vader thinks of himself now, even as the external reality does not match.  Many other people have analyzed the obsession Vader has for Obi-Wan, that mad love. I’ll leave much of the discourse to them; I feel like I would be beating a dead horse over the words “All he’ll see is me” that are so excruciatingly accurate. 

And it is love.  It is the most intense love, so much that it can only be eclipsed by the hate it generates.  I have a more nuanced view of the Obi-Wan and Anakin dynamic that is grounded in how medieval apprenticeships/giving children unto churches worked, so I wouldn’t call it Obikin or a sex/romantic ship... but make no mistake, that love could light a thousand binary suns.

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I don’t know if I want season 2.  It’s one of those things where I feel it’s done.  I rather someone leave me wanting more and let my brain go to work in fan fic, rather than let something run a few seasons too long and destroy my interest.