#humble warrior

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

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@zukki-week day four: blue spirit x Kyoshi warrior(s) shenanigans <333

[crazylittlejester]

this is literally so half assed but i opened up pintrest looking for cat memes and this was the first thing i saw when i opened it up and the voices possessed me and now we’re here (version without the writing under the cut) we’re all gonna ignore that clearly drawing people head on is not my strong suit okay? okay

[a-path-by-the-moon]

[mayordea]

IS isnt adding the fuckin kagamine twin protagonists from warriors so im putting my hangups towards warriors aside to draw lianna as if she was in heroes cuz i actually kinda like her design. this has definitely been done before, but now it’s my turn >:)

this takes me back! i used to love copying the art from fe heroes when i was playing it in middle school and its how i got my foot in the door with improving my art since i was always practicing. i also have made mock-heroes art during that era for a collab (drew two characters from the binding blade manga), but that was back in the stone age of 2018 and ive improved a lot since that last attempt

i am not doing rowan cuz i hate his haircut. also drawing heroes-style art is kinda exhausting lmao i am not a fan of drawing a character with the exact same colors the exact same way…….. (though i do want to try this again in the far future with one of my ocs)

[gummybuggy]

I like to imagine ten cents being the largest switcher of all the switchers in the show, almost big enough to pass as a harbor but not quite... especially in relation with his older brother being an Ocean tug. He's big enough to give Bluenose a run for his money...

Hercules you're not helping.

[x-i-l-verify]

Linked Universe Daemon AU Headcanons

WORLDBUILDING NOTE 1: The concept of daemons is borrowed from the His Dark Materials series. A daemon is a person’s soul manifested outside of their body in a tangible, physical form, which permanently settles into the form of the animal that most resembles them in character as the individual matures. Person and daemon are not separate beings, but two halves of one mental coin, which means that they each know everything the other does, thinks, and senses. Daemons are almost always the opposite gender of their person and have a distinct personality than the person to a certain degree, as person and daemon represent different aspects of the same whole. Touching someone’s daemon without their permission is taboo, considered a violation tantamount to rape in most cultures.

WORLDBUILDING NOTE 2: All Links have the same name for their daemon: Ellanharai (composed of the Old German elements ellan “courage” and heri “army”). However, because all the Links are their own person, their daemon’s form settles on something different with each incarnation. Just as the Links in the Chain go by different titles to differentiate them all, so, too, do their daemons. Links tend to settle early (12-13 years), as they generally know who they are and what they want from a young age.

WORLDBUILDING NOTE 3: The Dark World/Twili crystal magic combines someone and their daemon into one physical body. This new body has the form of the daemon but the gender of the person with size alterations or different markings/coloration and is controlled by the person, with the daemon part of their mind taking a backseat. For example, Legend is larger as a rabbit than his daemon usually is, and of course, her natural color is not bright pink. The lingering effects of this transformation only physically affect the person side of the person/daemon pair once they are returned to normal. 

---

SKY + PSALM (RED-CROWNED CRANE)

Red-crowned cranes are renowned for their lasting and affectionate pair bonds, having come to represent longevity and devotion in many cultures; they are cooperative and low-aggression birds, quite tolerant and relaxed around other animals, and only really become territorial and protective over their nesting sites and chicks.

Psalm is impatient, mischievous, and fierce. Sky is more easygoing, considerate, and gentle.

Sky and Psalm are very outwardly affectionate with each other, and both can often be found napping together in a patch of sunlight, Psalm resting her head in Sky’s lap or draping a wing over him. As the physically tallest daemon of the bunch, Psalm delights in teasing fawning over her smaller daemon sisters, especially the younger ones. She will often sit on someone and happily brood, and while some may outwardly protest, everyone secretly enjoys it.

---

FOUR + RHYME (ITALIAN HEBRAN HONEYBEE)

Four's daemon is an industrious, adaptable, cooperative, sociable species of honeybee, known for being assertive but not aggressive insects; they have a high threshold for what they consider threats, and will communicate using pheromones, body language, and vocalizations to make themselves as clearly understood as possible, but they will not hesitate to defend themselves if something is deemed a threat.

Four is empathetic, observant, passionate, and composed. Rhyme is the emotional, pragmatic, impulsive, competitive part of his personality.

Rhyme is usually kept in a protective case Four wears around his neck to prevent any harm from coming to her either in battle or out of it, due to her diminutive size, but he will happily let her out to stretch her wings when around people he trusts. While she is too small to outright cuddle with her sisters, Rhyme loves perching on their heads or burrowing into feathers or fur when it’s chilly, and she’s surprisingly expressive with her body language, though one might have to squint to see it.

When Four splits into his Colors, Rhyme also splits. Which means instead of one being in two bodies, they’re now one being in eight bodies. As in LU canon, none of the Colors is their own individual in this AU, merely a fraction of a larger whole. In turn, each iteration of Rhyme is an alternate part of each of the Colors, with Four’s soul fragmenting into smaller and smaller individual pieces the deeper you go down.

---

TIME + MELODY (SPANISH FARON MASTIFF)

While menacing in appearance due to their sheer size and bulk, Spanish mastiffs are actually known for being protective, affectionate, quiet dogs, with a long history of guarding livestock; they are patient, easygoing, and surprisingly playful, good with children and tolerant of other animals, though their strong wills and stubbornness make them a challenge to handle for first-time dog owners.

Time is authoritative, jaded, and stoic, while Melody embodies his nurturing, hopeful, mischievous side.

Melody can often be found at Time’s side with one of his hands resting on her head or back. As the largest daemon in the group paired with the tallest person, they make for quite the intimidating pair and are downright deadly in battle together. Outside of battle, though, Melody becomes a big teddy bear, utterly content to let her daughters sisters use her as a pillow or mode of transportation, quietly communicating all the warm care and tenderness Time is sometimes too awkward to openly express. She is the one who introduced the musical motif the other Ellanharais also adopted when coming up with nicknames for themselves.

---

TWILIGHT + ARIA (GRAY WOLF)

Twilight’s daemon is a social, cooperative, dedicated apex predator, who routinely work together to raise their young, defend their territories, and chase down their prey over vast distances; they are not overly aggressive and prefer to avoid conflict whenever they can, using body language, sent marking, and howling to diffuse tense situations and prevent costly fights between packs or individuals.

Twilight is focused, cautious, and opinionated. Aria is his easygoing, empathetic, people-pleasing side.

Aria instantly adopts most of the younger daemons in the group and dotes on them as much as they’ll allow. However, she turns into a big, besotted puppy whenever Time and Melody come into the picture and becomes adorably bashful around Malon’s pigeon daemon Rosamu. She is often found at Twilights right side, guarding his flank and watching his back while he focuses his attention on what’s in front of him. She also loves scritches and belly rubs and has nearly smothered Twilight more than once by sprawling on top of him too heavily while they sleep. While their initial transformation into Wolfie was traumatic and scarring at first, they have both grown to enjoy the occasional opportunity to truly travel, fight, and exist as one.

---

WILD + TRILL (WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE)

Wild’s daemon is a loyal, resourceful, resilient species of raptor that is often found alone or in monogamous pairs, but will freely cooperate together with groups of up to 15 other eagles to take down larger prey; they are straightforward and communicative with their vocalizations and displays and also surprisingly playful, wrestling or playing food games with each other.

Trill is Wild’s dutiful, reserved, focused side, while Wild is the impulsive, playful, lackadaisical side.

Trill is rather choosy with and to whom she shows open affection. She can be very standoffish, preferring to let Wild do the talking for both of them, but once she trusts someone, she will often become very chatty and physically affectionate. It is common to see her riding around or napping on Aria's back, but she has begun opening up more to the others as well.

Because Wild lost all his memories in the Shrine of Resurrection, Trill had become unsettled when they finally woke up, taking the most basic shape a daemon can take, normally only seen with very young children: a small, floating, glowing ball of golden Dust. As they regained their memories during Wild’s quest and discovered more about themselves, Trill began taking on some of their old favored forms before eventually resettling for good as her original settled form, the wedge-tailed eagle. Despite physically being the same, though, there’s still that distance between who they are now and who they used to be, most evident in how their personalities have seemed to switch; Wild used to be more serious, focused, and responsible, and Trill used to embody the impulsivity, rowdiness, and wanderlust he kept tightly tamped down for the sake of duty and appearances. Both of them are still coming to terms with how much they have changed.

---

LEGEND + LYRIC (EUROPEAN HYLIAN RABBIT)

Legend's daemon settled as a hardy, wary, sociable, territorial species of rabbit, able to survive and thrive in almost any environment; they are a keystone prey species, a vital part of almost any ecosystem they find themselves in, who must stay ever vigilant and rely on their speed, wits, and determination to stay alive.

Legend is blunt, private, and practical, while Lyric is the sensitive, sociable, sentimental side of him.

Legend has… a complicated relationship with his daemon’s form. He initially hides her away from the rest of the Chain out of paranoia and insecurity, keeping her in his pack at all times. What would Hyrule they think of the renowned Hero of Legend having a defenseless, soft little rabbit as a daemon? They would lose all respect for him, or worse, be disappointed. It isn’t until after the Twili crystal incident, and Twilight and Sky find out about Lyric’s form, that he starts to come out of his shell.

After the ice has been broken, Lyric leaps at the chance to interact with the other deamons more. She goads Aria or even Melody into games of chase, can finally properly pounce on Warriors’ daemon the next time she teases her, curls up into a little fuzzy ball with Hyrule’s daemon to nap, leaps up on Trill or Psalm or Wind’s daemon’s backs and coax them into giving her a ride, and holds Rhyme in her little paws to gloat that she finally knows a daemon smaller than her (Rhyme is not amused). She is the one who came up with the name for their group of daemons, which is a chorus, just like a group of Links is a chain.

---

HYRULE + CADENCE (YELLOW-BELLIED GLIDER)

Hyrule’s daemon is a small, nocturnal glider species that is selectively social, close-bonding, and expressive, utilizing a number of chirps, whirrs, whistles, and growls to keep away intruders and keep tabs on each other; yellow-bellied gliders are incredibly active, hard-working creatures, spending up to 90% of their time awake foraging, and they can travel up to 2 kilometers in just 4 hours through a combination of climbing and gliding.

Hyrule is independent, wary, and agreeable. Cadence represents his dependent, connected, feisty side.

Cadence is generally quite a skittish daemon, who can normally be found clinging wide-eyed to Hyrule’s back, shoulders, chest, or arms, or hidden inside his tunic or pack. She has not interacted closely with many other daemons in her time (fairies do not have daemons), so she is still getting used to the physical affection the others offer. She does not dislike it; it is simply a lot. But she is gradually learning to love being nuzzled, cuddled, and carried, and she greatly enjoys riding around on the other larger daemons.

---

WIND + SHANTY (MILITARY MACAW)

Wind settled just a couple months before the events of Linked Universe as a resourceful, gregarious, deeply loyal species of macaw; like all macaws, they can be quite loud, communicative, and expressive, and they have generally been described as having friendly, confident, playful dispositions, albeit with the occasional temperamental mood swing.

Shanty is Wind's meticulous, perceptive, down-to-earth side, while Wind is reckless, curious, and carefree.

As is befitting for a parrot daemon, Shanty spends much of her time perched on Wind’s shoulders or arms, though she does love being held and cuddled, too. She is still getting used to her settled form, and sometimes forgets she cannot shift like she once did, leading to some hilarious mishaps when she faceplanted on the ground trying to turn into a hermit crab, or one memorable instance where she nearly drowned while trying to become a yellowtail snapper. She gets very starry-eyed over the other demons and thinks all of them are the coolest for different reasons. She desperately wants to impress them and prove she’s just as badass as they are, so she can sometimes chafe under their well-meaning coddling.

---

WARRIORS + BALLAD (RED FOX)

Warriors’ daemon settled as the confident, dependable, independent red fox, the most widespread and successful carnivore in the world, found in just about every available habitat, from jungle to tundra; despite being mainly solitary, these animals have a complex social hierarchy and can be seen in a wide variety of group settings, with vixens sometimes coming together during the breeding season to help raise each other’s cubs, and their mates bringing them food and also helping parent the new cubs.

Warriors is shrewd, charming, and diplomatic, while Ballad is more brash, cheeky, and candid.

Ballad, while generally friendly and warm with the other daemons (especially the younger ones), is also strangely skittish around them. She is fine initiating touch or curling up for a nice nap around or with someone else, but if touched unexpectedly, she tends to either bristle, growl, and retreat behind Warriors, or go very still and quiet. She shies away from any human hands except Warriors' (and even then there are days he doesn't touch her directly). They bring to mind other hands. Slim, small, elegant, painted hands that hurt, that took, that tainted- ...It’s fine. She’s fine. They’re fine. Everything’s fine.

---

Resources:

Red-crowned crane analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24990

Italian honeybee analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23882

Tibetan mastiff analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24552

Spanish mastiff information: https://dogtime.com/dog-breeds/spanish-mastiff

Gray wolf analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23828

Wedge tailed eagle analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26686

European rabbit analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23718

Yellow bellied glider analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24968

Military macaw analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26591

Red fox analysis: https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24946

Art belongs to @/linkeduniverse

[mimble-sparklepudding]

15. Roevember - Pride.

Pride and Duty (Will Take You from the Mountain)

[hubristicassholefight]

Swordswoman Showdown Round 2 Part 1

Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena) vs Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)

(Better here in a "preferred character" sense, not "who would win in a fight")

Propaganda below cut

Utena Tenjou

She is a duelist in the duel games who fights so she can become a prince! (But is that really such a good idea?); This show is my favorite this ever and she has so much gender inside her. So much. Lesbian and butch in training. By the end I'm in tears and I want her to be okay. She's so powerful but in the end how powerful can any of us be?

Was battle girlfriends with Anthy. Beat other students in sword duels to “win” Anthy.

Xena

Warrior Princess

She wields a sword and chakram. Just had to submit a biconic swordswoman.

i love her. she made me gay as a kid. Anyway, her weapon of choice is her sword, she is obviously very good with it

[daisychainsandbowties]

Can't stop thinking about Tomb Raider AU, Ava's first kill which is more of an accident really. The man on top of her, squeezing tight at her throat. A rock to the temple, maybe the broken end of one of her arrows parting the soft stretch of flesh right under his jaw. A spray of blood - arterial? - on her. Her first reaction even though he was doing his best to kill her, to try and stem the flow. A red rain on her fingers, staining her soul with the unspeakable sin of a life cut short.

Ava scrubbing her hands with whatever she can find after. The fast waters of a stream running downhill, swirling pink. Maybe it's the blood. Maybe just the sunset.

Beatrice, meanwhile, methodical and ruthless, compartmentalizing each death but still keeping score. Secret, unholy tally engraved into the back of her occipital bone, and she can almost feel each ghostly notch whenever she cups the nape of her neck, working to loosen muscles turned to stone by another night spent on the ground.

Growing more frantic as the days go by, trying to remember how many rations they put in each pack, telling herself that at least there's plenty of water. Ava has to be alive.

And then stumbling onto the place where Ava had been ambushed. Her stomach dropping when she spots the body, prone. Relief after she turns it over, her eyes alighting on the arrow that juts out of the man's throat. Gray and blue fletching that she'd recognize anywhere. She'd been the one who introduced Ava to a bow, who'd taught her how to make her own.

The arrow, a bloodied, broken compass to guide the both of them home.

Ava, who rescues rats from the bowels of the ship and lets them off on shore. who touches even Lilith so gently when she sidles past her in the kitchen, even when she notices Lilith grinning as she sips from-

“MY FAVORITE MUG?”

gentle Ava who washes up on the beach alone in the middle of the storm, who waits for morning to go up into the trees.

Ava, pinned underneath a man snarling at her in Portuguese but no breath in her lungs to say “wait, i can understand you."

and just- lashing out, lashing up. a star reaching its way back into heaven, or Icarus crawling out of the ocean dragging his broken limbs and his broken wings behind him.

blood on her face, in her mouth, gumming her lashes together - and what did Bea say about it? how arterial blood is bright brilliant red and venous blood is darker, breathless, deoxygenated. she thinks of it in brushstrokes, limping away through the trees, scrubbing at her eyes with her forearm until the skin is streaky and red.

is this how Icarus felt? tilting his chin to kiss Apollo as the wax ran molten down his arms, as his wings unfurled and then unfurled.

she used to sit on the deck with Beatrice when her intrepid archaeologist needed air and light. how she would sink slowly into Ava’s side. a different kind of capsizing.

nothing to be afraid of.

Ava staring up at the sky and telling her, “if we were sailing in the 1600s i’d be a rigging monkey.”

“mmm?” soft, sleepy, turning her face to look at Ava with that sly strand of hair slipping down to touch her cheek.

“yeah, flitting through the ropes and the sails and the mast, dangling up there in calm weather or in windy weather.” she closed her eyes, "i'd be so unbelievably sexy."

a soft huff. not a denial.

“rigging monkeys were fragile things.” Bea unpicking Ava’s fingers where she held them in a loose fist.

maybe they’d had a beer, or two, and in that moment Bea looked as fascinated by the shape of Ava’s knuckles as she did looking at her books, or the horizon. “they…um… often fell into the water, or down onto the deck. from such a height…”

she trailed off, looking troubled.

Ava swallowed the urge to dip down and kiss her forehead, to smooth those lines of worry with her mouth. “yeah but in this scenario you’d be our navigator, so you’d never turn us toward a hurricane or a lightning storm. we’d just breeze right along and i’d get to sunbathe on the mainmast.”

Beatrice paused, her thumb poised to run over the slope of Ava’s fingers. (she’s just tactile, that’s all. there’s nothing else to it)

“sometimes you have to sail into a storm.” Bea shook her head, folded her hands back into her lap, “otherwise the storm will catch up to you.”

Ava ran from the beach as soon as she could walk, run, snatching Bea’s backpack from a pile of washed-up cargo. she’d heard gunshots in the night, huddled under the broken hull of a rowboat with crabs shifting in the shadows.

she thought about smashing one of them with a rock, to eat, but she couldn’t do it.

and she tried to outpace the storm, but it found her.

a body lurching out of the trees, quiver of arrows on his back, beating her down with the slope of the bow. straddling her and how she beat helplessly at him like she used to strain against the stubbornness of her body as it healed, as sensation returned and the nuns it as an excuse to pinch, to scratch her with their nails.

screaming, wordless, savage. trying to reach his eyes and then the tightening of his hands around her neck. Bea telling her the count you start in your head when someone strangles you.

“pfft, i can hold my breath for ages.”

“your brain can’t.”

reaching up - and she’s always reaching up. guilty dreams of Beatrice slowly dipping down to capture her mouth.

Ava reaches, feels something snap off in her hand. later, she’ll turn it over and over in her hands. an arrow, poorly made, with wet wood, but the head sharpened like someone went at it with a stone night after night. it makes her think of prayer, of what she might pray for here if she didn’t have the hazy hope of bea, bea, bea.

she tried to plug his face with her hands, fingers grazing up against broken teeth as he coughed gouts of blood down onto her. hands around her throat loosening and that first flood of breath threaded with the leak of his life.

the weight of him crushing the air from her lungs. so she hooked her legs around his like Beatrice showed her, using her hips to flip him onto his back.

and then he drowned.

on his own blood and she should have known, should have thought of it, but she just ripped up his shirt with bare bloody fingernails and pressed it into the wound. his eyes - dirty blue like the water under piers - roaming wild over her face.

and then he died.

she pushed off his body, falling back into the leaf litter. sticky length of arrowhead still clenched in one fist.

back in the orphanage, she used to spend hours just thinking. clinging like fire to every fact she learned, every paragraph Diego struggled to read to her.

daylight dreams of Michelangelo lying flat underneath his ceiling, paint dripping into his eyes, squinting at the shadows. the absolute quiet sometimes, at night maybe, holding up a candle to see the colors without the bruising brightness of god’s eye.

he’s looking now, she thinks, dipping her hands into the cold tonguing motion of a stream. leaves flicking past in the current, blood ribboning into threads of muted gold.

[molagboop]

I would very much like to infoblast about Raven Beak's powersuit upgrade library with all the optimizations, QoL tweaks, security features, and the myriad integration systems Samus is currently lacking with her babby suit, but alas. Time restrictions.

[respheal]

I'm deleting 649 words from my current WIP (which is a lot for me, a very slow writer) and I'm sad about it but it really does make the final doc stronger *clenching fists, gnashing teeth*

Here's a bit I liked because it went hard but I have to remove because after getting my notes straight it doesn't work with the Outline. Local man about to throw hands with his goddess.

“In each generation, we have selected a knight—our best and brightest—and taught them the old legends. We promised Hylia we would be ready to protect the maiden when she reveals herself.” Link swallowed, seeing an issue with that plan—after all, the Hero often arose from unexpected places. “What if the chosen hero is someone else?” Something dangerous flickered in Raven’s eyes. “Then Hylia has made a mistake.”

[crazylittlejester]

i think the funniest thing to me about writing a fic with my headcanon that wars has chronic low blood sugar is the fact that while writing, i got so distracted that I didn’t realize how low MY blood sugar got

[puppmeo]

Okay. Liveblogging rereading my horrible warrior cats oc story from 2015 that i posted on my very public Instagram and drew art for. It's called "Beefur's Wish" .

[wildstar25]

the thing is, Y'shtola IS always impressed with what Arsay can do, and she's said it before. She also can't help but lowball a reaction when it's obvious Arsay is looking for one.

[phoenixkaptain]

I am choosing to never get over Marth’s supports in FE Warriors.

Specifically: Marth and Ryoma.

Just, what’s up with that opener? “You carry yourself with such grace for one so young,” Ryoma, please. And Marth’s response is to completely ignore that part and focus instead on Ryoma mentioning he fights well (Ryoma’s next line)

Every time anyone compliments Marth in this game, he either completely ignores the comment or turns the compliment on whoever he’s speaking with.

Ryoma: “You’re swordsmanship is impressive.”

Marth: “I have a long way to go before my swordsmanship reaches your level of skill.”

This seems to be a common trait of Marth, throughout his appearances. He’s a humble character, who prefers to downplay whatever he’s done to focus on his allies’ achievements. This holds true for his comments in Heroes, too, where he says all of his accomplishments are thanks to his allies.

Depending on how you play Fire Emblem, this could very well be completely true!

Anyway, I love Marth’s inflections when he speaks. I don’t know how to explain it completely, but he is… awkward? He’s very formal, and his tone is polite even when he’s arguing with Caeda. Awkward isn’t the right word, maybe stilted?

(While discussing voices and Fire Emblem characters, I want to briefly touch on Xander’s voice, which does not fit him. He sounds like a frail, little old man. Or, maybe he just isn’t pronunicating as much as characters like Xander or his own siblings? Either way, it is always a shock to me when I hear his voice)

I like Marth’s support with Tiki especially. In every support he has with absolutely anyone, he comes across as kind of motherly? Like, he just supports their decisions and is very gentle while he leads them away from exaggerating. With Tiki, his tone is very brotherly. He’s very obliging to her. It’s very funny that he tells Tiki that he knew they’d be fine when he heard she showed up.

The way Marth talks to the others, I mean aside from Xander and Ryoma, really implies that when he’s nervous, he covers it by speaking more politely. He uses less contractions, which is a shorthand way of making a character feel more refined. And he enunciates very crisply. Alongside his tone, his conversations with people he views as intimidating, like Xander and Ryoma, make him appear more stilted than Marth actually is.

Marth is a very stilted speaker, but he’s also charming? In a very blunt way. I like his conversation with Lyn, because he manages to call her beautiful without making it sound flirtatious. A wonderful talent, I wish I had that.

But also, the way he speaks to Celica and Lyn both is very interesting. Most people would get upset at Celica, since she basically questions all of his life choices, but he’s very calm about it. He doesn’t get upset with her like he does when Caeda suggests he sit off on the side. He doesn’t get frustrated at all. And it’s clear that she sees Alm in Marth, and I think the implication is that Marth knows her complaints aren’t really about him.

But, with both Lyn and Celica, with everyone really but they make fine examples, he is obliging. With Celica, he basically says “I have to fight because that’s the path I��ve chosen, but you have taught me to focus on peace after the fighting’s done.” With Lyn, “I’ll mentor you and you’ll mentor me.” His compliments just sound like a mother to me. I mean, he tells Lyn she’s beautiful in her own way, he is such a mother-

I admittedly am not sure of how old Marth is supposed to be in this game. A lot of characters talk about him being impressive for his age, but what is his age? The number 16 sticks with me, and I looked it up and yeah, no, he’s like 16. He is, by far, the youngest mother protagonist in the series. I think he might be closer, in Warriors at least, to 17 or 18, since Celica’s dialogue implies Marth’s war lasts for years, and Marth says that they’re right in the thick of it. (Not his exact phrasing.) As well, he knows Tiki already, so it has to be somewhat far into the game.

Marth is a fascinating character to dissect the conversations of. It’s difficult for me to feel like I’m speaking in character, because Marth doesn’t act his age even slightly.

The closest we get to Marth acting 16 is probably his conversation with Frederick. He says, “I don’t need anyone to hold my hand,” which would seem out of character if not for the context: Frederick is trying to clean up after Marth. Marth gets a bit flustered because of the implication that Frederick might view him as needing his hand held, like Frederick is viewing him as a child. Even so, he’s very graceful with his complaints, and one might not notice why he’s upset, or the implications behind why he’s upset at least, upon first viewing.

Warriors does a terrible job with height. How tall are these people? You’re trying to tell me that Marth is similar in height to Xander, Chrom, Lucina, Celica, Lyn, and Tiki? All at the same time? I don’t believe you.

I do, however, believe that Marth is relatively small. First: he’s young enough and his voice is high enough for me to be reasonably convinced that he hasn’t had his last growth spurt yet. Second: Lucina is consistently mistaken for Marth, and seeing her next to him, she is similar in build to him. Even if she wasn’t, however, Chrom and Lissa are both direct descendants of him too, and neither of them are exactly huge. Third: Marth grew up in a castle, but only for the most part. For a large portion of the years he would have spent growing, he was on the run or fighting in a war. This almost certainly stunted his growth, at least a bit. Fourth: Marth is bad at horse-riding. He mentions it in Heroes, but specifically, he says he needs help getting on and off of a horse.

Marth is smol. The prosecution rests.

This whole post started because I think it’s really funny that Ryoma calls Marth graceful. His exact word is “graceful.” And, don’t get me wrong, Marth certainly is, that fact is undisputed by any source material, Marth is a graceful person— it’s still really funny that Ryoma comments on it! Technically, I suppose you could view Lyn as commenting on it too. I mean, she says he holds himself “nobly” —which does make it a bit funny that she then asks Marth to teach her to act more like a noble, she really just sees him as embodying the word, huh — but you could view it as her calling him graceful without using that word.

Ofher characters’ reactions to Marth truly are very amusing. They often say “someone like you.” Lucina and Chrom are my favourite examples, because they both are SO pumped to meet Marth. Lucina is fangirling so hard!

(Lucina mentions that she thought of Marth as different than he actually is, like her mental image of him was off I mean, and it has the same vibes to me as Shen Qingqiu seeing Liu Qingge. Don’t ask questions, just take it and go-)

Chrom’s support is fun in that Marth says “I get so caught up in helping others that I forget my own safety.” Celica’s support is fun in that she says she wants to pray for him and he says, “I’ll see that your prayers are answered.” (Which, I mean, he’s kind of likening himself to a god, but I think Marth just doesn’t really get religion? I think he just doesn’t understand that gods answer prayers.) Xander’s support is funny because Xander says he has a lot of work to go to live up to his father and Marth says, “I can’t imagine someone more imposing than you.”

All in all, Marth truly is a fascinating character. I have spent so much of my time thinking about Marth, time I will never get back, and I do not regret a single second.

[mimble-sparklepudding]

Humble Champion.

I need not speak to you of strength, for you, perhaps more than any, have neared the peak of perfection.