#honestly fascinating character studies to be made here

[hampop]

After reading more of Rivals, I literally can’t write Declan O’Hara fics. He simply would never not love Maud.

[moxiepower2]

Nevermore theory based on RnF’s latest post!

I think the eyeball in the center is both a reference to both the Old Man with the pale blue eye from “The Tell-Tale” Heart AND Ligeia’s eyes from “Ligeia”

(1/3) First of all: Ligeia’s Eyes

The coloring of the eyes doesn’t quite fit with the art in the post (Ligeia’s has black eyes) BUT I find it hard to ignore the star and dream imagery used when it’s VERY present in “Ligeia”.

The narrator (the husband) studies astrology and is DEEPLY in love with the darkly beautiful and intelligent Ligeia. She is described almost like a vampire with long raven hair, ivory skin, and a wild appearance. He is especially fascinated by her unusual large black eyes which he compares to the “twin stars of Leda” and describes them as “luminous orbs” (this last part also reminds me of the “orbs” from the 1st episode btw).

Ligeia later dies of illness, telling the narrator of her deeply love and reciting a poem about the unfairness of mortality on her deathbed. In his grief, the narrator becomes addicted to opium and later remarries Lady Rowena whom he doesn’t love. He ignores her, preferring to find comfort in “opium dreams” during which he has vivid visions of Ligeia.

Two months into his new marriage Lady Rowena also falls ill and is rendered into a state of half-slumber. Rowena also often has fits and starts crying out in her sleep leading the narrator to believe that some “phantasmagoric influence” is haunting Rowena in their bedchamber.

The narrator’s sanity/accuracy is honestly questionable before the “haunting”. He has a bad memory and doesn’t even remember MEETING LIGEIA OR HER LAST NAME?? The narration given is honestly pretty dreamlike itself as it’s hard tell what’s real or not between the husband’s opium addiction, bad memory, and debatable sanity.

At the end of the story, Lady Rowena dies and according to the narrator, her dead body turns into Ligeia. The corpse awakens the next day as newly risen and alive Ligeia who has seemingly defeated death.

“Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud, "can I never --can I never be mistaken --these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes --of my lost love --of the lady --of the LADY LIGEIA."

(What a very sane human being as per usual in Pow stories. Also, this went on a bit long sorry)

(2/3) The Old Man

Hang in there with me, this part is much much quicker to explain!

So, Tell-Tale Heart. I think this is a Poe story everyone pretty much knows. Guy is seemingly driven to madness out of fear of his old neighbor’s pale blue eye. He secretly watches the Old Man while he’s sleeping and later murders him and stuffs the body parts under his floor. When the police later arrive at the house, our narrator believes he hears the sounds of the Old Man’s heart and confessed his guilt.

Some imagery: Not much star imagery but definitely some of dreams/sleep. Much like Ligeia, the narration is definitely dreamlike. The Narrator is unreliable/insane so it’s hard to tell what observations he makes are actually real. The Old Man and the Narrator struggle with nightmares. A good chunk of this story is spent with narrator as he watches the Old Man sleep every night for a week.

Also, the eye in RnF’s post is a SINGLE PALE BLUE EYE. (Yeah, this last one is definitely surface-level evidence but I don’t think it’s without merit)

That’s pretty much it.

(3/3) How does this all connect?

The main reason I think that this new art piece connects to Ligeia AND The Tell-Tale heart is largely due to THESE GUYS

That’s right, Deans Merry and Mourn.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Awhile back I made a post theorizing that Annabel is connected to The Tell-Tale Heart due to the heart imagery surrounding her character (such as her spectre design). In the reblogs, me and @muzetrigger discussed more detailed theories (off-topic but @muzetrigger made a VERY convincing argument that Annabel Lee might play the role of the Narrator)

One of the topics that came up was the possibility of the Deans representing the character of the Old Man. @blacknedsoul-blog made a post a while back “I Think the Deans Are Fucking Lovecraftian Gods” (highly recommend) which pointed out that the Deans’ white/black heterochromia could be a reference to the Old Man’s cataract-ridden eye. Upon a closer look, it’s even possible that their white eyes are actually a very very pale blue.

I would also like to add on to this theory by pointing out that much like the Old Man’s Eye drove the Narrator to murder and madness (though unwittingly), the Deans are driving the students to those very same things by forcing a bunch of already traumatized people to participate in a death game.

Ligeia

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that the husband from Ligeia compared her eyes to “the twin stars of Leda”

These TWIN stars, Castor and Pollux named after a pair of TWINS from greek mythology are widely known as the “Heavenly TWINS” and form part of the constellation Gemini. Hmmmm….

A few more similarities to Ligeia:

The Deans also have the ability to get in people’s heads and MESS WITH THEIR MEMORIES. In Ligeia, the Husband is completely consumed with thoughts/visions of Ligeia for most of his waking and sleeping hours. He is seemingly unable to focus on anything else and this continues even when his new wife Lady Rowena is dying. As mentioned before, the Husband also has a memory problems and can’t remember meeting Ligeia or even her full name, just that he loved her. This is not unlike the memory loss of all the students at Nevermore Academy, particularly Lenore & Annabel Lee.

By the way, have a mentioned how interesting this panel from the Bell Arc is? It’s very suspicious the we glimpses of the eldritch forms of the Deans and their Pale Blue Eyes right before Annabel Lee experiences a flashback of hearing the news of Lenore’s death. Not to mention they are physically lowering Annabel INTO THE MEMORY. Its almost like the Deans are the ones took the memories in first place and are just “returning” them or part of their job is being responsible for guiding students to their memories. HMMMM……

Not to mention they spend most of their time in DREAMLAND, a special dimension where you can relive past memories and even reach those whom you unable to speak with. Like say… a certain French man who’s UNCONSCIOUS in a brick wall.

Also, I seem to recall there’s definitely some night sky related imagery with these two. Especially when we are getting glimpses of their spectrey/eldritchy side.

Lastly, let’s go back to the Deans’s heterochromia. They both each have one BLACK EYE and together that makes a pair.

Also, I might be reading into this WAY too much but, take a good close look at the black eyes. In each, you’ll notice there’s a small white pupil. Kind of like a a single bright star in the black night sky. Two twin stars.

[224bbaker]

So, hypothetically speaking, if someone had never been interested in Sherlock Holmes before but wanted to get into it because of Fawx & Stallion... Where should they start?

Oh my GOD, anon, so upset we didn't see this until now because what a great question and also, our show inspiring someone to go check out Sherlock Holmes?? Deeply upsetting for our characters but SO exciting for us!

Hopefully since you sent this you've just dived in to the stories--because, honestly, that's how both of our writers got into them as kids, and also because despite what roughly 40 contradicting scholars will try to tell you, the timeline is nonsense and Watson's continuity doesn't make sense (we have made our own peace with this and addressed it in-universe because we didn't want to go on deep-dives to decide what puns we were allowed to use for the place we're at in the timeline it's fine, we're fine).

However, just a quick sidebar before we jump into The Stories--if you would rather start with an adaptation than the original ACD stories themselves, there are two options we'd recommend as starting points that are pretty true to canon while remaining engaging in and of themselves:

The Granada TV series with Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke: It rules, and most of it's on YouTube! Highly recommend their Solitary Cyclist, Speckled Band, Scandal in Bohemia, and Blue Carbuncle (we may be biased towards the early, David-Burke-Watson entries). These actors and sets are what we picture when we read Holmes.

For an audio adaptation, the 1989 Bert Coules radio adaptation, which you can get for a single credit on Audible in full and has basically the whole canon! Incredible dramatization work that preserves the stories and really deepens the character work in a way that we're obsessed with. Big fans!

If you're liking the vibe of these, you'll probably like the stories themselves! In which case, there are also awesome online book clubs like Letters from Watson that have great communities here on Tumblr (just peruse the tag, it's super fun!), and also over on Discord.

SO. If you're still here and looking for our direction on the stories:

If you just want to start with what is/will be relevant to Fawx & Stallion, we recommend:

Our goal is that our audience doesn't NEED to have read any Sherlock Holmes to understand anything in F&S. We'll hopefully lay things out or give context clues. However, we do have little jokes for the fans, and in season 2, some subtext may be a bit clearer, or have a bit more weight, if you've read some of the stories.

A Study In Scarlet: I know, I know I know I know, Holmes fans, the Utah Mormon stuff, I get it, BUT. Holmes and Watson meet in this one, and it's incredible. The first few chapters of them meeting, starting to live together, going from roommates with a mutual fascination to, through Watson's unintentional insult of Holmes's writing and a fateful invitation to a crime scene, actual friends, are electric. It's a crime (pun intended) that we have so few dramatizations of this in the canon era (we're trying to fix that), we love it so so much. Sacrilege, but, wikipedia the stuff in the middle, enjoy the fantastic meet cute that bookends the thing.

Hound of the Baskervilles: Happening during the events of Fawx & Stallion season 1. I don't need to tell you this one is a banger, we all know this. Less Holmes content than you expect, but a GREAT setting, mood, and roster of suspects, and a thrilling, well-paced mystery with some great Watson.

The Final Problem: Occurs right before the events of season 2, and though you again don't need to have read it, some stuff might hit better if you have, particularly in the back half of the season. High recommend. On the same note, The Beryl Coronet is also mentioned a few times, which is the case right before this one.

Ok, with that out of the way, we highly recommend:

The "Jump Around To Whatever Short Story or Novel Sounds Cool" Approach

This is the move, in my opinion. As I've said before, the timelines are nonsense, you CAN try to get into the weeds of continuity as we have and there is delightful madness to that, but would I recommend it as an intro? No. They're short stories! They're serialized! Treat it like a TBS rerun series at 1 AM and just pick one that is on/sounds cool!

Now, if you want our PREFERENCE? There are different genres of Holmes mysteries, different types of mysteries for different preferences, but we're going to recommend one particular sub-genre of Holmes mysteries that we find particularly fun/unique: The "It's Not Necessarily A Crime Yet But the Vibes Are There" Mystery.

We love these. They're the best. Not depressing or gruesome off the bat, usually starting with some whimsy at Baker Street, these stories usually begin with a client coming to Holmes and the following interaction happens

CLIENT: Um, hi. Honestly it's pretty silly that i'm even here. It's probably just a Weird Thing, you probably don't-- HOLMES: No no no please tell me I love Weird Things. CLIENT: Ok. Well. My boss/guardian/brother/[insert-person-who-has-power-over-them] has been doing this Thing where he [insert extremely weird thing that again, is not a Crime, but the vibes are there]. It's kinda weird. HOLMES: Yeah, super fucking weird. CLIENT: I know! But it's not a crime, so I don't know, you're probably not interested, I'm just a [not rich not male not high class not privileged identity] so there's really no point in checking that out-- HOLMES: No girl (gn), we are DEFINITELY checking that shit out there's a crime in there somewhere and we're gonna find it!

And we're off! If this sounds interesting to you (and it SHOULD), check out: The Solitary Cyclist, The Red Headed League, The Copper Beeches, The Greek Interpreter, The Speckled Band, The Stockbroker's Clerk, The Musgrave Ritual, The Resident Patient, and honestly probably some others we're missing because it's REALLY common.

Other fun Holmes bangers:

Holmes overworks himself and Watson takes him to the country to rest, only to solve ANOTHER FUCKING MYSTERY: The Reigate Squires

The Christmas One!: The Blue Carbuncle

The Dancing Men: I don't have a fun little thing for this one it's just a banger and the Granada Adaptation rules!

The One Where Sherlock Holmes does NOT fall in love with Irene Adler but does get completely owned because 1) he thinks women don't get up early, and 2) he wanted to have a sleepover with Watson: A Scandal in Bohemia

There are a ton, and hopefully you'll find one that you like and just jump in!

[sweetcloverheart]

It still stuns me how hard the MLB writing crew is going to bat for Gabriel just so they can avoid saying "Yeah, we might have screwed up a bit on the "Abusive Villain Parent with a hidden Heart Of Gold" angle here.". Like the sheer amount of retconning, creating entire specials/events to either shill for him or justify letting him off the hook and giving him his win, forcing characters into OOC positions to defend him, and just plain handwaving his crimes in the service of not letting anyone in-series or the audience (rightfully) say that he was a terrible father and person is honestly...just fascinating in a very "I want to study this under a microscope" sort of way. Not even the self-made PR teams for villains in fandom go this hard.

[s1i9d]

I hope you don't mind, but now that I've finally found someone who's listening to Magnus Protocol but hasn't listened to Magnus Archives I will be studying you like a bug under a magnifying glass. I've been dying to know how the show hits from a non archives perspective. So in that vein, if you don't mind me questioning you, what are your overall thoughts on the show so far? Also what's it like seeing the fandom response from people who have listened to archives? Have you been successful in avoiding spoilers?

Honestly I’ve been loving Protocol.

I’m not 100% sure what to translate since I don’t know what Archives context I’m missing, but I can try to tell you what I really like about Protocol.

I really do love the format of Protocol. It’s mostly an office drama story, which on its own is appealing, but the statements from FR3-D1 put in each episode gives the story this underlying horror aspect to it. So when I listen to an episode, often times if the statement portion feels lacking, the office drama really brings up the episode and the vice versa.

Then things start to get a lot more creepier when the two intersect (The Magnus Institute, Mr. Bonzo, Lady Mowbray, the Drowning Victim, the Archivist, etc.) and by this point in the story, we’re so close to having a full merge.

Since this is my first real dive into horror podcasts, I do want to engage with the fan community, but it’s hard to balance being spoiler-free at the same time. I do know some general spoilers that I haven’t updated in a while, but is mostly still accurate. I don’t know what an Archivist is, but I am aware that AU versions of Archives characters have made their debut here.

I am aware that Protocol is going a lot faster than Archives. From what I understand of Archives, it has a lot more slow build up rather than Protocol which I has a pretty good pace. Might be because Protocol has less than half the episodes as Archives.

It’s really interesting how the fandom keeps losing their minds over stuff that I’m just like “yeah cool let’s see where that goes”. Like E26 where the Archivist was named, I felt like I took on the perspective of Alice/Gwen/Sam where I’m like “okay… and this means what?” while the rest of the fandom is taking the Celia perspective of “OH NO”.

Or even this recent episode where this Minister Trevor Herbert dude was. Like I have no idea what this dude is and why everyone is absolutely screaming, crying, throwing up that he’s here, and that is fascinating.

It’s been pretty interesting when I bring up something that felt weird or off that just went nowhere, and my friends revealing some info. I’m like “WHAT” and they’re just like “oh thats not common knowledge?” And I’m just there like “huh?!?” Which turns out, the Hilltop Centre was actually important.

I mostly wish the fandom would tag archives spoilers with #tma /#the Magnus archives / #tma vague just so that spoilers could be tagged a little bit better, but to be fair I am one of the rare people that doesn’t intersect the Venn diagram between archives and protocol.

But overall, I really am loving Protocol. I don’t know when I’ll listen to Archives (probably after Protocol’s three seasons are over) but I will listen to it eventually. Feel free to send more asks my way.

[velvet-waltz]

Character study: Hans Landa

With Stranger in Paradise back in full swing, I thought it might be fun to dissect my concept of Landa (both in the movie and the Velvet Waltz-verse), and answer some questions I've gotten over the years.

(I'll mark spoilers for VW and Stranger accordingly)

What is it about this guy?

Hans Landa is a FASCINATING character. Like everyone else writing fic about him, I wanted the opportunity to rummage around in his head a bit. Put him in situations outside the scope of the movie and see what happens.

The 'point' of my fic is imagining how differently (and the same) Inglourious Basterds would play out if Hans' motivation were to change, early on. I was surprised at how many of his decisions still made sense. And how little I actually had to change about his canon characterization to accommodate this shift.

So why write a romance about Landa? He's a Nazi!

He sure is. And generally a very cold, calculating, and selfish man. I kinda think of movie/"before" Hans as the Landa Machine, operating one way, for one person's benefit (Landa's.) In my fic universe, I introduce an original character - a Jewish American spy, motivated by a strong sense of justice - who immediately throws a wrench in the Landa Machine when Hans develops a weakness for her.

He tries to have her on his preferred terms…and fails. The only way he can have her is to behave in ways that jeopardize his power, status, and personal safety, thus compromising his primary motivation. This is why the Hans Landa Machine starts to unravel: he finally wants something he can only have by putting himself second.

Love is interesting that way. Does Hans go out of his way, sacrifice his own power and status, and endanger himself, out of true love for Sylvia, or out of his selfish need to have what he wants? It's a good question, and one that she continues to ask throughout.

(Also Christoph Waltz is very hot in the movie and there's something about power and danger and etc etc etc. But really, there's no better way to crack a character like Landa open than with a love story, imo.)

What I think is true of Landa both in canon and in my AU:

Hans' primary loyalty is to Hans. He joins the SS because it's an opportunity for him. In the movie, he joins Operation Kino last minute because he sees which way the wind is blowing and determines he could benefit from switching sides. He's always gotten whatever he wanted, and the means never mattered. Until Sylvia, of course.

He doesn't really subscribe to the Nazi party's ideology. As a true opportunist, he makes whatever decision will ultimately benefit himself most. In VW, Sylvia's Jewishness is neither here nor there to him. Inconvenient for sure but having her is just one more thing he can get away with.

Hans sees himself as superior to others, and all evidence supports him in this.

Hans hates lying, or anyone else bending the rules besides himself. I think this is why he strangles Bridget in the movie - because her lies are pathetic and insulting to him. And he freaks out at Aldo for shooting the other German soldier because it wasn't part of the deal they agreed on. (VW spoiler) In Velvet Waltz, he similarly freaks out at Aldo during the prison liberation when he realizes Stiglitz is killing everyone in the building, not just the witnesses. Which is typical Basterds m.o. but not specifically part of their arrangement. [Aldo is a great foil for Hans because they're so diametrically opposite.] Hans doesn't necessarily hold himself to those same standards, lol.

Hans helped the Basterds and has a relationship with a Jewish woman. Does that mean he's 'good' now?

Great question. Honestly, THE question. I don't believe in moral absolutes myself so I keep this complicated throughout my fic.

What does it mean to be "good"? Is it enough to do good deeds that benefit others, even if you ultimately benefit as well?

(VW spoilers) There's no "switch flip" in my story, and I don't think Hans catches what's happening to him until it's too late, but there is a moment, when he's called to a house very clearly sheltering Jews, and can't bring himself to pull the trigger. He doesn't fully understand why he can't do it and feels nauseated as he goes downstairs to lie to his men. But he knows he can't do it and go home to Sylvia. I think that's the moment he really knows he's cooked, lol.

He's also very aware that by Sylvia's standards, he's a monster and will never be fully worthy of her. He tries to shield her from the details of his past for as long as possible.

(Stranger spoilers) I won't go into detail here because I haven't posted all of these chapters yet, but in Stranger, a character shows up from Hans' past who observed him from his SS days through his 'hero' turn and life with Sylvia and sees no conflict between those actions. To him, it all squares with the Hans Landa he knew from the beginning: selfish and opportunistic.

Is Hans even capable of goodness? I went into this fic with the presumption that somewhere, locked away, is a softer, more human Hans (which I'm sure Tarantino would disagree with.) How that part of him operates in conjunction with the rest is what makes him so damn interesting to me.

And what about that scar?

In the movie, Hans seems to be getting away with his crimes without an ounce of remorse. Because we have no access to his inner life here, it's satisfying to see him given the scar to ensure he's haunted by what he's done.

(VW spoilers) In Velvet Waltz, where he's been cracked open and tormented by his memories, I decided the much more insidious punishment was for him to be branded a hero. To carry the sickening knowledge of all he's done while honored and celebrated for decades. The dissonance between fact and fiction would be unbearable for him.

(mild Stranger spoilers) I left the door open for a sequel at the end of Velvet Waltz because I knew there was more to dig into, and that Hans' past would never be resolved. More crucially, that his marriage to Sylvia was still underpinned by the ugly truth neither one could fully acknowledge: the many, many innocent people he had killed. In Stranger, I'm utilizing a real event, Operation Paperclip - in which the US government quietly invited Nazi scientists to help the US develop weapons against the USSR - to force Hans to confront his past on a deeper level. Which of course brings all of that internal dissonance roaring back to the surface.

Please feel free to leave questions in the comments, and I'll answer as many as I can. And if there's interest, I'd love to do a series of these about all the characters, including my OCs. So feel free to ask about them as well!

[kindred-spirit-93]

helloo who is your favourite character in epic the musical

hi anon!! polites my beloved darling pancake bespectacled loml <3

good lord i just realised ive never had the chance to really go insane about how much i love him and how i interpret his character & the headcanons and lore i have for him bc of studies and exams. but now that im free..... muehehehe >:3

--

AIGHT SO my first biggest and most prominent and by far the dearest headcanon to my heart (which is literally canon atp lol) is him being a medic! my bias for medical/ healthcare centric characters is showing lmao. sue me

as a medical student theres so much you learn about life and death both literally and metaphorically while studying. so many disciplines intersect with one another to create the art of healing, and albeit different from what is studied today, civilisations past had all sorts of fascinating ideas and concepts and cures and protocols when it came to health and wellness, ancient greece was no different!

to me he learnt all about medicine by shadowing the palace physician, possibly even being his apprentice, and benefiting from the royal library. courtesy of prince odysseus lol

(the lore i have isnt solid and still needs to be worked on, like for the oc twin sister i gave him hes the medic and shes the apothecary, but for epic purposes he serves as both lol. and is a childhood friend of ody and natives of ithaca. anyway)

and during troy he manages the medical tent and oversees it, leaving little time for actual soldier-ing, but dont let his kind smile and soft hands fool you, he can and will deck you before you can say suture.

--

something i see a lot of in the fandom with his philosophy of open arms is equating him to a smol bean whos too pure for this world and avoided fighting bc it made him sad uwu. and while he is indeed the most cinammon roll to exist i couldnt disagree more;

my mans lived through a decade of war u can bet his headband he slayed, literally and metaphorically, on the battlefield like it was nobodies business *snort*. he too has got blood on his hands and it isnt necessarily from patching up wounds.

if theres one thing medicine teaches you its both the beauty and tragedy that is life (and to me the wonder of creation); to know and understand deeply how imbalance affects the body and leads to illness isnt easy, studies have been shown that those in healthcare experience the pain of their patients.

being in charge of the livlihood of others can be extremely draining, bedside manner and taking the patients psychology into account are crucial and factor into the healing process. being a medic is no simple feat and needs a lot of resilience and healthy coping mechanisms to avoid burn out and a myriad of long term problems.

anyway all this to say if anyone dares to say polites is weak or innocent i will disembowel them with a rusty spoon. i havent reached my clinical years yet and im already done with everyhting. i can write volumes abt this honestly but this is getting long enough already lol

--

back to post troy when polites tells odysseus to take it easy "do yourself a service, and try to relax, my friend", in my heart of hearts the way i see this is as polites recognising how much damage ody has been dealt during the war, being hypervigilant and ready for combat at all times takes its toll on you and he sees that; "look at how you grip your sword, enough said", right after he advises him to extend trust and start with kindness.

the reason being the outside world isnt a battle field and he (along with the entire army ofc) needs to ease into society and life beyond war. now polites being a medic one of the things he exercises is compartmentalisation (which u need to stay sane. source: me) and this is what he teaches ody. "here we have a chance for some adjustment"

life is indeed amazing when you learn to greet it with an open heart and mind, and even tho we all know the fates are much less benevolent, i fully believe its still an important mentality to embrace and in many ways a skill to hone.

"id like to show my friend that kindness is brave" this is conjecture on my part but i like to think polites is reaffirming to ody that kindness isnt a weakness but a strength, again not out of naivety but of wisdom and experience, that doing good is more rewarding than not, but esp this next bit:

"i see in your face, there is so much guilt inside your heart so why not replace it and light up the world?" i will cry if i think about this too hard, but in essence poli has diagnosed so to speak ody and its has prescribed and walked him through a regimen of compassion and leading with peace.

odysseus has masterminded a decade long war, where he had to use trickery and guile and lies and strategy to win and make his way back home. ig its up to you how u want to see how odysseus deals with the pain and trauma of war and the suffering hes played a part in (if were sticking with epic we know fs that his actions haunt his days as seen throughout the musical esp via repeating motifs) and its taken its toll and polites bless him is guiding his friend through his grief, a grief he is no stranger to. ofc hes skeptical at first "thats what wed get with pen arms" but follows through with the philosophy and the rest is history lol

in all honesty i have no idea how much mental health and the psyche featured in the epics nor to what extent it was studied in ancient greece from a medical point of view but this is my interpretation i can do whatever i want let me have this pls :')

--

AND THEN we get to the ithaca saga when le suitor proposes to ody to have open arms instead, lots of posts circulated abt polites passing out in the underworld bc of the violence and generally disagreeing with odys iconic "no." and to those people im shaking u by the shoulders and begging u to understand that polites is wearing war paint and the stupid foam finger with #1 monster scribbled on it and probably deafening tiresias as he watches the carnage.

his philosophy has been disgraced and used as a last ditch effort at saving his own neck (you cant convince me he was being serious lol, pretty sure he was trying to buy time bc aint no way 10 years of desecrating ur kings palace and hes going to let yall go just like that? nah son) of course hes losing his shit and yelling at ody to beat their asses and make them pay for plotting against tele and penelope.

--

anyway yes hes my bean i adore him hes just like me frfr i look forward to writing for him (and maybe polibia hehe) in the future :3 tysm to anyone reading this far lmao.

@howmanyholesinswisscheese its ya boi :]

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Fruzsi and the Importance of Her Character in Season 2 of Shadow and Bone

Okay I feel like I have been continuously teasing this post for a ridiculously long time and I have finally gotten around to writing it, I also feel like the fact that I talked about it so much might have built it up to sound bigger than it is but honestly I think that Fruzsi is a FASCINATING character study; I'm very excited to talk about her and have finally found the time (yay!) so hopefully you guys will find this at least a little bit interesting too

Tagging people who registered their interest here but please don’t feel pressured to read <3 @merlinxmagic @girasoljpg @atmosphericwrites @naushtheaspiringauthor @lunarthecorvus

SHOW AND BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD + TALKING ABOUT GRISHAVERSE SETUP & THE CHARACTERS' BACKSTORIES/EXPERIENCES (Mostly Zoya, Genya, Alina, Fruzsi, and Inej)

Super quick recap since of her story so we're on the same page as we begin: Fruzsi first appeared in Season 2 Episode 2 of Shadow and Bone and is a Grisha Tidemaker loyal to the Darkling. Her parents sold her to the Darkling when she was a child, its unclear how old she was, and we should take into consideration in this matter that there is no indication whatsoever that she was ever at the Little Palace since none of the other Grisha seem to recognise or know her and vice versa. She is instrumental in the Darkling's army and receives one of the amplifiers made from Baghra's bones, subsequently learning to manipulate water molecules into ice shafts that she can use as a weapon. She is responsible for Dominik's death towards the end of the season and is subsequently killed by Nikolai.

So right off the bat whenever anyone talks about Fruzsi I tend to see two things: "wannabe Zoya" and “the power of her amplifier was a problem because it will be too difficult to differentiate between amplifiers and parem". I've taked before about my thoughts on amplifiers and parem and why I didn't think it was going to be a problem for the Six of Crows spinoff show (*sobs*) but the general consensus seems to be that not only was Fruzsi an unlikeable character because of her actions, but because she was seen as a only being there to provide an enemy and a hand of the Darkling, and I think that's a real shame because she is a fascinating character and she tells us SO MUCH about the Darkling and other major characters. My personal favourite details about Fruzsi are her parallels with Zoya and the point from which they run opposing, the parallels she has to Genya and Inej and the subsequent parallels that her introduction creates between the Darkling and Heleen Van Houden, and the setup of Fruzsi, Vatra, and the Darkling's other Grisha to create genuine empathy for villainous characters for the reflections of the protagonists we can see in them.

Fruzsi's introduction in episode two begins with the Darkling arriving to see her and saying that she made it in good time - now we don't know where she travelled from, so yeah it could be the Little Palace (he was travelling from the base he set up in episode 1) but personally I don't think that there's much implication she ever lived there considering she doesn't know any of the other Grisha and she doesn't wear a kefta until the Darkling has new ones created for his new army. She's wearing pretty typical clothes that we see of the Ravkan population when we first meet her; a blouse and ankle-length skirt with a long coat, and from the very start is in dark shades that visually connect her to the Darkling in the audience's eye. Although she isn't hesitant to speak to him she shows consistent discomfort around the Darkling, making small steps away from him when he raises his hand and acknowledging non-verbal orders from him with immediate effect, as well as confirming that she never broke her promise to not open the Journal of Morozova without prompting and somewhat hurriedly. The Darkling is actually pretty quiet throughout most of this scene, cutting of Fruzsi's sentences and instructing her but not following any attempts she makes to initiate real conversation. When he tells her to reveal Baghra from behind the waterfall she asks him if he's sure, one of few instances in which she questions him, and after barely a second of maintained eye contact between them she turns away, physically bunching her shoulders and seeming to shrink in on herself, before turning to the waterfall and completing the task in silence. Everything we see of Fruzsi in this scene seems to contradict Baghra's later description of her as "deranged" and I think that this is really very noteworthy, because we start to develop this idea that Fruzsi's actions are different in front of the Darkling than when he isn't present - particularly since we know in this scene that Baghra has not seen the Darkling in weeks and has been alone with Fruzsi during that time. We actually don't see Fruzsi without the Darkling until very late in the show (episode 7), when her anger at the world and her easy ability to command the other Grisha are revealed ("First Army did this [...] If they wear the uniform they are all the same. Kill them all!"). We get this brilliantly foreboding image of her marching so confidently through the carnage with soldiers of both sides running and shouting and fighting and dying all around her while she barely shows any kind of response but to calmly begin her own method of very direct attack against Nikolai after walking through the battle completely untouched. If anything, Fruzsi seems quite unbothered by the entire thing until she fails to kill Nikolai, killing Dominik and several others instead, and screams her frustration before being forced to run for cover from approaching soldiers. After this her attacks are arguably much more emotional because she feels challenged and as though she has failed (relevant as I'll cover later because of the way the Darkling manipulates her), but all of this seemingly culminates only when Vatra dies, and in that moment we get this wonderfully clever shot of them holding each other's hands so that we can see the tattoos (I'm going to rant about the tattoos in this post) and then we see Vatra smiling in her final moments (that's gonna come up again as well). This moment is the most emotional we ever get to see Fruzsi; she looks down at Vatra, sheds a silent tear, and begins to exhibit more power than we have ever seen in her before. It is bare moments after this that she loses her fingers in an attack from Jesper and mere minutes afterwards that Nikolai shoots her in the throat and she dies.

It's confirmed in s2e7 that Fruzsi's parents attempted to sell her to the Darkling and arguably this is where her parallels with Zoya begin - "You remember when your family first brought you to me? The price they demanded when they discovered you were Grisha?" "Perhaps now I can repay the debt" "I would have paid it 100 times over". Ugh this angers me so much. He bought her and she believes, she genuinely believes, that she owes him for that. I'm going to talk about the structure of this relationship really strongly echoing Heleen Van Houden later on but particularly in this moment we understand that there is something here very similar to the Kerch indenture system that I'm actually really glad to see included as part of the worldbuilding and development in the show since we didn't get the opportunity to explore it as much in Kerch (*screams frustrations into the wind*)

Although we sadly didn't get the chance to explore Zoya's story in the show (*cries in cancellation*) it's explained in the final duology of the book series that her mother attempted to sell nine-year-old Zoya as a bride to 63-year-old, very rich, and twice-widowed Valentin Grankin. When Zoya's aunt, Lilyana, attempted to stop the wedding Grankin attacked and nearly killed her; in fear for herself and her aunt Zoya experienced a massive, terrified outburst of power, which was how she discovered she was Grisha, and Lilyana was able to rescue her and take her to Os Alta. My absolute favourite take on Fruzsi is that she is Zoya's Shadow, which is an idea that my friend voiced whilst we were watching the show and we discussed together at length at the time, but that I have never seen anyone talking about online.

The idea of having a Shadow comes from Suli culture and is explained to us in Crooked Kingdom by Inej; whenever a person does wrong it gives life to their shadow, with every action making the Shadow stronger until they are stronger than the original person and the person is defeated by the wrongs they've done - or learns to overcome them and defeat the Shadow. Inej's believes that her Shadow is Dunyasha and she fights her in Crooked Kingdom. I FREAKING LOVE the theory that Fruzsi is Zoya's Shadow because their stories parallel each other very well; both are abused and sold by their families only to be taken in by the Darkling and manipulated into believing that he is their saviour. The Darkling very much works by making others feel that they owe him something for any action he completes, just as we see in his manipulation and abuse of Alina, and Fruzsi and Zoya are prime examples of this. We even have two very similar scene setups between season 1 and season 2 that show us just how similar the Darkling and Zoya are in terms of the pent up rage that they keep private - in season 1 where the Darkling leaves Zoya alone in his room whilst she is trying to initiate intimacy because he is manipulating her and Alina against each other and wants to make Zoya feel like she has been abandoned in favour of a newer, shinier toy and once he's left Zoya screams her frustration and releases a gust of Squaller power that disrupts his chamber, and in season 2 when Fruzsi, in her second appearance (now wearing the new dark kefta design) hesitantly informs the Darkling that David stole Morozova's Journal and is immediately dismissed before the Darkling screams his frustrations and uses the tether to find and haunt Alina. Although this comparison between the Darkling and Zoya is of course more obvious it also gives us an idea of similarities between Zoya and Fruzsi because it extends this implication we have that Fruzsi acts very differently out of the Darkling's presence than in - and considering that at this point we have never seen her without him we have this gathering sense of intrigue about her backstory and her character. In a similar-ish manner we also have the scene in s2e5 when we get another example of the few times Fruzsi attempts to stand up to the Darkling, in this case openly telling him that they would do better to redirect their efforts North because it would be "the more strategic move"; the Darkling's response is to threaten her with his Nichevo'ya and manipulate her in a similar way that he does Zoya by replying "Alina Starkov is worth more than any army. So at the risk of sounding repetitive... find her", actively diminishing Fruzsi when he's been purposefully making her feel important and like she matters to him so that she feels she must redouble her efforts for him to notice and appreciate her and therefore desperately hopes to do a better job of bending to his will, especially since he's basically turned her entire purpose and usefulness to him into brining Alina back to him. Ugh this man i swear. I'm going to go on to talk about parallels between Fruzsi and Genya pretty soon so in this respect as well I want to add emphasis to the fact that when she disagrees with him on a point - and mind you not that she makes any suggestion of betraying his cause but only that she thinks they should take a different tactic to be more successful in it - he uses the presence of the Nichevo'ya to scare her into submission. The next time he gives her an order (to take down the First Army encampments) she agrees immediately and barely speaks to him except to ask "And what of the Sun Summoner?" - And note this is after she has taken Genya to the other Grisha because she was told to show her off as an example.

I have to say that at this point in time I was not expecting her to be the gold mine she became, and it's looking back on it knowing more about her backstory that I notice a lot of smaller details in the way she acts around him that consistently suggest she is afraid of him and I think that is shown really well in Reford's performance, I don't see her getting enough of the praise that she deserves - she was great!

Am I even making sense? Anyway

Fruzsi and Zoya are consistently presented with these similarities and I really love the idea that she represents what Zoya would have become without the influence of our other main characters, particular Alina and Genya. I really like the idea that she's Zoya's Shaodw and a literal, living embodiment of the wrng that Zoya did under the Darkling's command, but the only place that I think this theory falls short is in Fruzsi's death. If Fruzsi was truly Zoya's Shadow then they would have to face each other for one of them to die, but Fruzsi was killed by Nikolai in the aftermath of Dominik's death. However, I also think that there was standing there to start developing something truly, truly poetic in Nikolai killing Zoya's Shadow and Zoya later killing Nikolai's (or maybe even metaphorically doing so in trying to help rid him of the demon??) BUT I GUESS NOW WE'LL NEVER KNOW (*screams*) (*cries*) (*curses Netflix’s name*)

Now moving on to her parallels with Genya and Inej. I think that the loss of Heleen from season 2 (which I’ve shared my thoughts about a bit in the past so won’t go on about now) left a hole that was, in a way I didn’t quite expect, filled more by the Darkling than it was Pekka Rollins. There are multiple quotes from the Darkling this season, mostly directed towards Fruzsi and Genya, that I find to have very specific reminiscence of some of Heleen’s quotes from the the Six of Crows duology and this was the most obvious one for me, and the one that originally made me think of this particular comparison:

"I have always known your worth. Now show me," - the Darkling, s2e7, in the conversation where he specifically states that he bought Fruzsi and she specifically states that she owes him a debt for that

"I know your worth, little Lynx, right down to the cent" - Heleen, Six of Crows, to Inej when torturing Inej with the implication that she intends to find a way to bring her back to the Menagerie ("You'll wear my silks again, I promise")

(Also as a quick addition I think that so much can be said about Rachel Redford's acting in this specific moment of season 2 episode 7 after the Darkling delivers that line. She looks up at him, and the proxemics + their actual heights I must admit have a brilliant added effect to this, with what starts as such genuine sorrow but so quickly turns to such fierce determination before she shows him what she's capable of now that she has the amplifier. After her demonstration she is almost in shock at the revelation of what she was able to do but the pure exultation, the relief, the triumph in her expression does not even come close to existing until the moment that the Darkling says "extraordinary". He's not even looking at her - in fact, I don't doubt it possibly that he wasn't complimenting her herself but simply the creation of the amplifiers and their strength - but the expression on her face then is absolutely unmatched and it speaks VOLUMES) (I genuinely recommend rewatching that moment with this in mind because I cannot stop thinking about it)

And then layered on top of this, we have the tattoos. THE TATTOOS.

I made a specific post about the costuming in season 2, which you can read here if you’d like to, and that covers my thoughts on the new keftas but I didn’t go into detail on the tattoos at the time and I have a lot of thoughts about them. The Grishaverse, mostly the Six of Crows duology, uses tattoos incredibly symbolically and places particular emphasis on choosing to take the mark, creating a massively important bond to something that you deeply care about and will never want to break (gangs, Kaz’s ‘R’ for Rietveld), and being forced to take one on (the pleasure houses, of course most primarily Inej’s Menagerie tattoo). Although we don’t get as much emphasis on this since the show didn’t get the opportunity to explore the gang tattoos yet thus far (and I guess now it won’t *shakes fist at Netflix*) we did have focus surrounding Inej’s Menagerie tattoo and it’s removal in this season and, as much as I wish we’d been able to see her book canon tattoo removal (cut off by a butcher), this side by side comparison of the Grisha being given no option but to take on the amplifying tattoos and Nina using her Grisha power to remove Inej’s tattoo is absolutely fascinating and really well done.

So this for me creates an ongoing comparison between Fruzsi, Genya, and Inej - and taking on what I said about Fruzsi’s apparent absence from the Little Palace despite clearly having an established relationship with the Darkling and having been with him for some time, we can consider the earliest pieces of information we have about Genya’s life. Now it’s a long time since I read the S&B trilogy so I can’t remember if this specific detail is true to book canon but in the show Genya states that the Grisha testers found her when she was seven but that she was gifted to the Queen when she was eleven. We have no information about what happened to her during these four years, and yeah maybe she was at the Little Palace training but we don’t have confirmation of that and I wouldn’t trust the Darkling as far as I could throw him (which probably wouldn’t even crack a metre let’s be real). This also adds a really interesting layer to things with Fruzsi being the one instructed to show Genya off to the other Grisha as an example of what will happen if they try to betray the Darkling because we get this moment when she kneels down to take hold of Genya's chains and they are both sitting in the cage together that I think is really powerful in everything it says about how easily either of them could be in the other's position in that moment but we're also still very aware that Fruzsi has the far more power - or at least an illusion of it. In this same scene Baghra, about Genya, states "she served you loyally since she was a child, endured years of abuse on your orders, and you reduce her to an example? Oh Aleksander, where does this stop?" and honestly that is so brilliantly written (and so brilliantly delivered in the scene) that I don't think I need to say anything on top of it but when we consider this side by side with Fruzsi's position I think that this really is a very powerful parallel and a constant reminder that no-one who places their trust in the Darkling is ever safe, and that pretty much everyone on his side is there because of manipulation and because of abuse - be that abuse from the Darkling or abuse from others that the Darkling has so well learned how to manipulate in ways that are very, very similar to the way Jarl Brum manipulated and abused Matthias (I have written a lot about that too. I have strong feelings.)

I have so much fascination and I feel so much sympathy for Fruzsi and I think that this is one of the things that the show did so fantastically well in her and in the other Grisha on the Darkling’s side who are all manipulated and controlled by him in just the same way our protagonists were, who were ultimately still all very young people who had been attacked and threatened and made unsafe in their home for who they were and who were offered what they believed was the only solution. I think one of the greatest examples of this, other than Fruzsi, is seen in Vatra, the amplified Inferni who is so proud of herself when she brings the Hummingbird down - "Yes! I did it" and btw she says this with such an expression on her face I don't even have the words I would just genuinely recommend you rewatch the scene to get what I'm saying it's s2e7 around 24:30-50 she actually looks so proud of herself she's like a little kid and it's so soul-crushingly clever and incredibly well done and it breaks my heart she's been so successfully manipulated - because she so genuinely believes that she is doing the right thing and she is making a difference for her people, and even when she dies with her hand clutched in Fruzsi's she dies smiling. That girl breaks my heart every time I rewatch, and honestly even though she is presented in a more unlikeable way Fruzsi breaks my heart as well because I can see so much of our beloved characters in her and effectively what could have happened to them and what could have become of them if they hadn’t managed their escape. This duality and constant cause to question the morality of the characters is so brilliantly done and one of the biggest successes of the adaptation considering how well it was done in the books as well but could have been something difficult to translate between medias where exposition is concerned, and I think that Fruzsi was an incredible example of this and that we really should talk about her more

Thanks for reading my nonsense ramblings if you got this far, I hope that it made sense and was at least somewhat interesting <33

[crackinthecup]

AO3 Wrapped

Tagged by the very lovely and very talented @queerofthedagger—thank you so much <3

Total words published at end of year: 43k

Fandoms: Silmarillion and Elden Ring

Top 3 ships: I have only written for one ship this past year oops—Angbang

Top 5 tags:

Character Study

Relationship Study

Suicidal Thoughts

Abusive Relationships

Unreliable Narrator

Top 3 fics by wordcount:

Moments (Angbang; 9,166 words; rated E)

Know Thyself (Angbang; 7,724 words; rated E)

Not Quite a God (Elden Ring: Miquella & St Trina; 7,531 words; rated T)

Highest everything (raw kudos, hits, comments):

Hits: The part that hurts the most (1,834)

Kudos: Moments (98)

Comments: Know Thyself (19)

New things I tried:

I wrote a fic for a video game for the first time—Elden Ring. I love the game to bits, have sunk many many hours into it, have platinumed it, and it was really fun to engage with it in such a different way, through fic-writing. I went into it completely underestimating the amount of research I'd have to do. More than I'd usually do for a Tolkien/Silm fic, if I'm honest. It just really made me appreciate the scale of the lore in this game. It also made me realise I very much have a character type, i.e., people who drive themselves on and on and on chasing some ambition, becoming blinded and corrupted in the process.

Fic I spent the least time on:

Wait for You, I think. It was my shortest this past year, around 2k, and also materialised as a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing that bled all over the page in one sitting.

Favourite thing(s) I read:

I will have to keep this short, I'm afraid, as I don't really seek out fic these days. What I read is by my wondrous and inspiring friends, and here is my favourite of the year from each of them:

hunger by @sauron-kraut: a sumptuously vivid Mairon/Thuringwethil fic—a pairing that honestly doesn't do much for me EXCEPT that this fic is so delicious and is packed so full of fascinating characterisation that it now lives rent-free in my head.

anyone else by @tarmairons: this is a Will/James ficcy in the Dark Rise fandom and oh me oh my it is a hot knife plunged through the chest it is cold and clammy mist clinging to skin it is hot and tender and unnerving and on the right side of heartbreaking.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST Limerence by @elevenelvenswords: friend, your Angbang is a mind-fuck in the best possible way. This sucked me in and made me breathless and made me yearn and made me feel sharp, painful things AND some lines like "I’m scared" are still rattling about in my mind months after reading.

Writing goals for 2025:

Hmm. I have fallen into a depressive slump sadly and feel deeply uniniterested in... pretty much everything, at present. I don't have any writing goals right now—I'm not sure how much or if I'll be writing going forward. We will see.

Tagging @elevenelvenswords and @sauron-kraut if you would like to give this a go and haven't been tagged already!

[eve-to-adam]

I'm curious about your other four favorite historical couples?

My current top would be this:

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

As I mentioned below, in the previous post and in a few others, they were the first historical couple I discovered that managed to keep my interest for so long. A more detailed explanation can be found here. Even now, years later, I continue to explore and study them, both individually and as a couple.

A meme daddy and my favorite Queen, haha.

Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville

I can honestly say that this couple surprised me in many ways. When my fascination with the Wars of the Roses had not yet taken deep roots, all I could say about them was that they were the parents of Edward IV, lol. I liked Richard from the first moment I read about him, he seemed like a magnetic presence - with all his arrogance and bravado: in literature or art, I like arrogant characters, especially if they are well represented. Which is in stark contrast to my opinion of arrogant people, so if I had really met Richard Plantagenet and he had waved that ducal nose at me I would probably punch him. Hard. I really disliked Cecily at first - she seemed to me like the kind of mother who doesn't let the protagonists of the fairy tale experience their love, lololol. What happened along the way? I tried to understand her, and, oh my God, what I found during my documentation made me want to know even more. Not only was Cecily a remarkable, intelligent, brave, and proud woman, but her will to fight and endure so much loss throughout her life fascinated me. Not to mention how well she suited Richard. This couple touched my heart so deeply that I decided to write about them - little is known about Cecily's childhood, or perhaps about childhoods in the Middle Ages in general (with a few exceptions), but the fact that they grew up together at Raby, that they had the chance to get to know each other better before they got married, gave me the chance to try to fill in those gaps, to try to lay the foundations for a relationship that lasted 37 years.

Because yes, Cecily is and always will be the perfect partner for Richard!

John, Duke of Bedford and Anne of Burgundy

I haven't had time to research this couple in detail yet, but everything I've learned so far has been enough to put them on my list of favorite couples. I know very little about Anne, but Bedford is my favorite. The man gave his soul and life - literally - to maintain the entire English Kingdom in France for his nephew. When I say Regent of France, I say Bedford, because it seems to me that he's the only one who's truly proven he deserves the title - not to mention how often he had to clean up the mess at home, pfff. Big brother having big brother problems. Despite the fact that he's at the heart of political and military conflicts at this point, I could never imagine him being the heart of the party, you know what I'm saying? Tell me Bedford did something hilariously stupid without making you cringe. That's right, you can't. His whole being cries out: "Responsibility, Responsibility, Responsibility!" I have always perceived him as having a serious figure - sober, reserved, logical - which makes him seem quite solitary. I am not saying that he cannot have fun, but his type of fun always has a well-defined purpose: my man organized the reenactment of the assassination of his father-in-law and presented it to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy. Philip probably could not swallow his pigeon at supper. What particularly caught my attention was the comment of this contemporary:

"My Lord the Regent loves Madame Regent so well that he always brings her with him to Paris and everywhere else."

Of course, as the sister of the Duke of Burgundy, her mere presence declared her brother's support for the English. It may have been a political move - but I believe it was always more than that. I believe that in Anne he found the support and courage that he needed when the political relations with her brother seemed to be falling apart. Despite not giving him any heirs, her presence was vital in the long war between England and France, and she proved more than capable of making Philip reconsider Burgundy's connection to the English. He remarried so soon after losing her, but I'm sure Bedford mourned her death more than we can imagine. Even so, Bedford always proved to be a practical man - as always, his feelings could wait; he had put his own suffering aside for a greater cause. His nephew's throne.

Remember - "Responsibility, Responsibility, Responsibility!"

Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

I don't think I can say more than I have already said. I know the most important details about them, although, as I have argued before, I prefer to think of Elizabeth as a daddy's Princess, even if being the wife and Queen of a King is a rather tempting prospect. Their marriage ultimately succeeded in ending the civil war. To a point, you could say that Henry and Elizabeth are polar opposites. Hot and cold. This is because Elizabeth had a lot of affection to offer - growing up in a loving family, living in a protective environment, surrounded by siblings, was exactly what Henry, who had lived and grown up in exile, with an uncertain future, needed at that time. It is for this reason that I choose not to consider the scenarios in which she and Margaret Beaufort were in constant conflict. There may have been some friction between them, perhaps they sometimes vied for the King's affection, but I doubt that the matter degenerated to the point where the two women came to detest each other. Moreover, there is ample evidence to show that they had a fairly smooth collaboration. No one can deny that his intentions regarding a union with Elizabeth were purely political - at least at first. I do not want to say that Elizabeth was the one who taught Henry to love, but I want to emphasize that Elizabeth used both her life experience up to that point, and the model of her parents, to make the marriage with Henry work. Henry, like Edward IV, had been declared King of England by right of conquest, so she understood what was expected of her - without forgetting her true value, she was determined to become what her husband needed her to become.

This will be quite surprising, but…

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and Eleanor Cobham

And I say this because the interest in this couple only began when I initiated the process of writing the book Proud Cis. Suffering a defeat on the Continent, Gloucester chooses to flee back to England, and instead of his so-called wife, he takes his mistress with him; later he initiates the annulment of his marriage to Jacqueline of Hainault, so that he can marry, instead, Eleanor Cobham - a rather controversial situation, as only Humphrey can do, pfff. Unlike her husband - and this is a moment of honesty - I will say that the only thing I knew about Eleanor was that she had been accused of witchcraft against Henry VI, but when I introduced her into my story, I had to go deeper to discover the real Eleanor, who was beyond all the prejudices and accusations that had been made against her over time. I think that, against all expectations, the two of them formed a harmonious couple - Humphrey seems to have had a genuine affection for her; I have no interest in presenting Eleanor as a victim, she was clearly an ambitious woman, so I am sure that part of her mind rejoiced when, in 1435, Gloucester sought to secure her future in the event of his death, so that she could enjoy absolutely all his properties for life. To be clear: she was ambitious, but not treacherous, so there is no need to imagine that her affection and respect for Humphrey was only a delusion. Or that she really wanted Henry VI dead. I think they both had interests in common and her ambition matched his.

Side note: Maybe it's just my perception, but what I like most about Humphrey is that, despite his apparent talent for making enemies, he seems to have been the fun uncle. Unlike Bedford, he tries to make Henry experiment with all sorts of things, hahahah.

I remember reading at one point that Eleanor might have been illiterate - allow me to disagree. She may have been of a much lower rank than he was, but I doubt that Humphrey, with such a vast library, surrounded by poets and humanists, with his interest in learning (these people transformed La Pleausanse into a center of art and intellectual activity), would have taken an ignorant woman as a wife. She may not have been on Humphrey's level, but I tend to think that she was more than just a pretty face. And the idea that he taught her to read is out of the question, lololol.

[reverieparacosm]

Bro, I've never made any requests/asks before, but my Bondrewd brain rot has me in a chokehold, so here I am. I'm honestly so shocked at how little attention he has. You're like the only person who writes anything about him.

My request would be headcannons with a gender neutral reader who is also a scientist. The reader is like a major major workaholic who literally has no social life, and they end up having to work with (or for) Bondrewd for whatever reason. The two have completely differing hypotheses on the thing they're working on, as well as conflicting personalities due to readers' complete lack of willingness to work with someone else. The two would be kinda like work enemies to tolerating each other to friends/lovers

Thanks for considering to do this, have a good day/night :)

Headcanons: Bondrewd (Made in Abyss) x GN!Reader

Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, no detailed violence

Note: It's really a shame that Bondrewd doesn't get more attention, right? He's such a fascinating character. That's why I decided to write about him, and I'm so glad you requested this! I hope you enjoy the headcanons. I'm happy to have the chance to explore his character again. ♡

You are a young scientist who has devoted your entire life to your research on the Abyss. Due to your extreme focus on work, you have no social skills or relationships outside of your studies

Bondrewd hears of your promising theories on understanding the nature of the Curse and invites you to join his research team at the 6th layer. You begrudgingly accept, wanting access to his vast resources

Upon meeting Bondrewd, you are immediately put off by his bizarre experiments and his casual brutality. However, you admire his intellect and the impressive results he's achieved

Where you see potential harm, Bondrewd sees opportunity

The two of you clash constantly in meetings as you question Bondrewd's unethical methods and hypotheses. He finds your rigid views on ethics naïve and annoying. Your coworkers are exasperated by your arguments

He starts testing your boundaries to get a rise out of you, partly to move things along and partly because he finds your reactions amusing

Early collaboration is disastrous as you and Bondrewd talk over each other, both convinced your methods are superior. You regularly storm away from meetings in frustration

He sees you as too emotional and stuck in conventional thinking. You see him as a madman who will stop at nothing, even sacrificing lives, for answers

Over time, you start to understand Bondrewd's perspectives better. While still disgusted by his actions, you realize he shares your passion and drive for discovery, even if he takes it to darker places

"Do not look at me with such disdain, my dear. Our methods may differ but our goals are the same - to pierce the veil of this enigma before us."

You are completely devoted to your research to the point where you often forget to sleep or eat. Bondrewd finds your single-minded focus amusing at first but it starts to frustrate him how you never take breaks

Bondrewd is intrigued by your fiery defiance of him. No one ever challenges him, and he sees potential in you as a researcher if you can think more creatively

The two of you are assigned to a dangerous expedition together deep in the 6th layer. Trapped in a cave-in, you have no choice but to cooperate with Bondrewd's leadership to survive

Working side by side in a life or death situation, you gain a grudging respect for each other's talents and start to see parts of yourselves in the other - two people willing to push all boundaries for knowledge

Back at the camp, you feel confused by the unfamiliar feelings welling up inside you for Bondrewd. This dangerous, cruel man should not be eliciting anything positive in you

"Do you feel it too, this connection between us? I think the Abyss works in mysterious ways, bringing souls like ours together in its depths."

One night, as you are working late in your lab, a sudden chill runs down your spine. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, and you can feel the presence of another in the room. Turning slowly, you find yourself face to face with the imposing figure of Bondrewd

"Forgive my intrusion, my dear," he says in a low, velvet tone. "I couldn't help but be drawn to your fascinating work." He takes a step closer, and you instinctively take a step back, your heart pounding in your chest

Bondrewd raises a hand, his fingers gently tracing the outline of your face. "You fascinate me, you know," he murmurs. "In the same way the Abyss does. I want to... study you more closely."

In that moment, you realize you've fallen for this monster of a man completely. Frightened but exhilarated, you surrender fully to your twisted love for Bondrewd and whatever the future may hold

In secret, a heated physical affair begins between you and the Lord of Dawn. You tell yourself it's just relief from stress, but your heart is becoming tangled

"Your mind is a thing of beauty, always questioning, analyzing, seeking the answers just out of reach. I find I cherish our debates almost as much as our other... encounters."

On expeditions, you and Bondrewd move seamlessly as a team, anticipating each other's needs and pushing your limits ever further. His praise and growing care for you is intoxicating

However, doubt haunts you - can you truly accept this man and all he's done? Your co-workers would be horrified. And what future is there when he views people as disposable?

"My methods may seem cruel, but it is all in aid of lifting the veil on this place. One day you may understand, as I strive to make you understand me."

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

your Jiang Cheng meta helps me remember to not nosedive into the anti (/srs) JC pit because i genuinely find him as a character so interesting to shake and study under a microscope but a good chunk of his stans just make me want to gouge my entire soul out so thank you for taking one for the team. i hope your meals today and forever fulfil both stomach and spirit :D

Hi there!

I guess I am still an anomaly here in my opinions regarding Jiang Cheng. I agree that he isn't a nice person, he's vile and not in any capacity capable of kindness. But I won't deny that he does care about others or love them, he is just very damaged and egotistical for that to be shown in a healthy way in his life, and the closest he can manage is his end for Jin Ling's well being.

But he's incapable of not being a mediocre human. Being mediocre, mean and apathetic isn't something to praise in another person, it's not special to be the bare minimum and honestly just sad to praise in another for. He certainly doesn't go out of his way to help anyone and if he does it's with a lot of hate and vitriol and "you owe me".

How you get he is self sacrificing, gives so much, is under-praised, misunderstood I will not understand. He is a very sad man, but it's not something to want more for him because he put himself in that place, Wei Wuxian had no part of that. Even he knows this, yet his stans want unadulterated worship of him and to praise these very scary flaws or to call them cute when nothing about him is cute.

It's fascinating how this plays out in fandom space and warps between those that are really hateful of him, or have born a fandomwide OC called Jiang Cheng that is nothing like what is given to us.

And thank you for seeing my blog for what it is, I have made some jam and I will enjoy it for the day!

[bots-and-cons]

heyyy uh since requests are open again I thought this might be a good idea to explain what I meant in my last request cuz I realized I didn't really explain it right sorry, what I was requesting was kinda for an anthro fruit or vampire bat reader (kinda like a furry I guess but biologically a bat but I understand the mix up and I still enjoyed reading what you made

I'd really appreciate it if you could maybe make another one this way, I understand if you don't feel like it and I know it was because of a mistake on my end so uh yeah 😅

A/N: I did the same characters as last time, that post can be found here. Idk if I understood it correctly this time either, but like a bat with some human characteristics? I purposefully left the physical description pretty vague, so there’s room to interpret it how you want. This is more based on fruit bats, and general bat characteristics

~Shockwave~

•Shockwave finds the variety of creatures on earth quite fascinating

•You’re not quite human, but you’re not really an animal either? Not according to his understanding anyway

•He wants to study you, surprise surprise

•Your eyesight is kinda bad, but it can be fixed by wearing classes, that can give you a bit of a headache if you wear them all the time though

•You do sometimes use echolocation on the Nemesis, but you’ve noticed Shockwave doesn’t seem to like the sound you have to make, so you kinda avoid it

•Even though humans can’t pick up the ultrasounds you produce, cybertronians seem to be a different case

•You’re much more active during the nighttime hours, which Shockwave honestly hasn’t even really noticed, because he just works without caring about the day-night-cycle and rest when he has to

•You eat a variety of fruits, and some insects sometimes too

•Shockwave is fascinated by your more animal like characteristics, and honestly the human ones too, because he doesn’t really know anything about either, so you’re an interesting specimen

~Knockout~

•Knockout doesn’t really find your diet weird, like maybe some humans could, because you only eat fruit and some insects

•He doesn’t really have a reference point for what humans normally eat so he doesn’t find it odd

•Knockout has a very bad recharge schedule, as in while he doesn’t need rest as often as humans, he doesn’t rest as often as a cybertronian should either

•He does notice you seem to be awake much more during the night than day though

•He loves how furry and soft and warm you are

•Knockout likes caressing your wings, and you also enjoy it because they’re pretty sensitive and he’s so gentle

•You’re very careful when touching him, because you’ve got some sharp ass claws and you don’t want to ruin his paint job

•He’s also very careful about it, but he doesn’t really mind that much if it’s you, since the marks are extremely small if they do happen

•Your ears always seem to mirror your emotions, and he’s gotten very good at reading you by just the way your ears move

[resident-idiot-simp]

How do you think 09 v Reboot MW would fair in the SPN verse?

Would be creatures or hunters?

how’d they react to the characters from SPN and in a fair fight who would win?

YOU HAVE UNLOCKED SOMETHING IN ME!

Okay this whole thing is very complicated let's break it down.

First of all I think either could be both depending on the vibe you are going for but here is my first thoughts on it.

22-

Soap: hunter

Ghost: creature (werewolf or vampire maybe)

Gaz: hunter

Price: hunter

09-

Tav: toss up maybe originally Hunter turned creature I want to say vampire..... For Obvious reasons

Riley: creature (I would like to say Wendigo I really would but that might not fit quite in the universe... I'm going to say it anyway)

Roach: creature (Hell maybe he could be a Phoenix that would be very interesting considering they're all dead)

Price: Hunter but like Gordon vibes

React is a good question... There are so many characters I could go on about... Honestly it might be easier to ask about a specific character but I'm just going to do a vague overall. So TFW + Gabriel (because he is the best character)

Sam- He likes all the 22 boys honestly (probably a particular liking in Soap) he probably is just curious about their lives. 09 probably extremely hesitant but even more interested. He hates Price because Price is far too much like John.

Dean- He finds a keen spirit in Ghost and finds Soap fascinating. Hates 09 Price and probably wants to kill Riley. Tav is off-putting and he is confused by Roach and asks him a metric shit ton of questions.

Cas- He really don't care about any of them except for Riley and Roach probably he just wants to understand how they function and why (09) Price isn't dead

Gabriel - He loves the 22 boys and will treat Ghost like a pet. Soap is displeased but can't do shit about it. He finds Soap fun to poke and prod at and likes to call Price a child.

09- He wants to put Riley in a jar and study him. And he is so found of Roach (kindred spirits those two both can't FUCKING DIE) . Tav gets the trickster special because he isn't found of where he is headed and Price is free game to hunt.

(there is more Gabriel because I understand how far better then any other character.)

And in a fight?? That's not really a fair question... Because it's the Winchester's..... They can beat any character in fiction let's be honest here.

Castiel alone bodies. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ BUT I don't think that's the answer you want. So instead let's break it down.

They both have military tactics they are both honed in their craft. Tactics wise I don't know who actually wins It might be a toss-up. Would I like to give it to the Captain? Yes! Would he actually come out on top? I'm not sure.

Fighting wise again toss up they really are evenly matched in my mind.

The thing is the Winchester's have the advantage they know more than any hunter in the world because of the bunker.

If we're not counting just how overpowered the Winchester's are for the numerous reasons they are not only because God made them that powerful. They are honestly two sides of the same coin so I'm the end It might just be a draw ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[anglerfishjellies]

Hi love your art first of all. Wanna ask what made you decide to write a fanfic about avina. I Gotta Know.

omg thank u... honestly i couldnt give u a straight reason HAHAH ive always been an avina defender (solely because i dislike it when characters are hated bc they 'get in the way' of someone else), but it wasnt until chapter 3 where i stopped being a defender and started being. fascinated by them. i dont defend them anymore, ive simply accepted that theyre delusional and toxic and codependent and thats WHY im so enamored by their character <3 i want to study them like a scientist putting a bug under a magnifying glass infamous' strong points has always been getting you to feel strongly for its characters, whether thats positive or negative and i think avina is a great example of that. to me, theyre very fascinating because it seems that everyone is so hellbent on hating them but theyre .. pretty milquetoast? yeah, toxic and delusional and embarassing, but nothing crazy. besides that, i think its fairly easy to understand why they are the way they are just by reading in between the lines- they have a close relationship with their mother with no mention of a father, and the way they talk about their siblings makes it feel like they mightve been the eldest. classic storm for a savior complex mindset.. avina serves their role in the story to be a parallel to what MC was. they are dependable, loyal, and would do anything for seven, would never betray seven the way MC did, so why isnt seven happy? @dry-ketchup 's incredible fic abt rowan and avina running into each other 5.2 Miles to Friendship was also a huge inspiration since it got me thinking: what IS avina like outside of seven? weve only received scenes with them and seven, and it really got the ball rolling for me... finally: as is present in my fic, i think the contrast between avinas sickly sweet 'fake'ness and my mc's blunt honesty is really fun! they were just a dynamic that i couldnt stop writing, the conversation just flowed really easily as i was writing/thinking... all in all its very self indulgent but im very fond of avina (yes even with the way i talk about them here) and i enjoy them and my mc a lot

[bogbees]

this doesn't mean i haven't started writing other things. bc ive like written

a smut one that's been on my mind for months but only got started bc i found a pixiv comic with a similar enough plot which made me confident (Iruka was a bottom in the pixiv comic and a top in my fic lol that's the only difference)

a very self indulgent rewrite on the kushina in the seal scene where they go looking for Naruto's precious people in his heart bc they too give him strength. Iruka was at the centre hehe

wizard au

Iruka acquiring a random orphan after breaking up with Kakashi. Botan my beloved fankid

omega kakashi being shit at nest making, think pigeon nest, and alpha iruka helping him making a more comfortable one

there's like. a zabuza/iruka thing in here too fr that brief stint i had awhile back. fascinating to think about. ultimately became ninja dads tho

as well as this argument between Iruka and Kakashi that i immediately wrote down after waking up to. prob inspired by a fistful of caps communication conflict???

an au of hokage!iruka where no one found the documents for Iruka being the fifth until Kakashi and Iruka found them, leading up to Kakashi offering up full control over education to Iruka

in addition to

hanamaru marks, the hanahaki one. needs major overhaul

will of the sun, the hokage iruka one. honestly needs to figure out how to start the next chapter and it's fine?? also if i want Iruka with shisa summons or not

new sums (nous sommes), the soulmates character study which is honestly also outdated 😩😩

and the ones i haven't written down yet but live in my head rent free

drift compatible au

a happy au of that one fucked up monsterfucker fic