#hythlodaeus v

[zuvke]

Thinking about the fact both Louis and Hythlodaeus V died, meaning if there's a afterlife or something in Metaphor they'd meet. Considering Louis's interaction with V was the only time we see Louis vent / be his true unfiltered self as much as possible in the entire game, I like to think that Louis in his youth saw the king as a mentor or father like figure. Someone he wanted to be like, someone he wanted to impress. After all, he still kept his book of utopia with him right until the end. Then he obviously felt betrayed when V let Forden do as he pleased, and that was his first betrayal, and I'm not sure he ever got over it considering how bitter he sounds. "Broken old man." is what Louis calls him. Yet, I feel like after Louis was forced to see that he was wrong (dying to MC/Will/Prince) and clearly had ptsd — that maybe he would be more accepting towards him. I mean, Louis' doesn't have any real friends.

Zorba is just obsessed with the concept of him, and his ideology, he doesn't love Louis for real. You could say much of the same for the rest. I feel like Hythlodaeus V might've been the only one who still, even if barely, liked Louis in a way. Saw something in him. More says something along the lines of 'can you blame Louis for wanting to destroy all that injustice?' and I feel like that's how the king felt about him. Maybe he was still sympathetic towards him despite all he watched him did. Because he understood the grief. That's why he let Louis kill the other candidates, and still gave him a chance to be king, and still wasn't truly mad (even if in the shape of More) when he killed his son. I'm cooking here because I want to make a angst fic of them both in some trance like afterlife where they meet. Okay yap session over....

[specterthief]

this is mainly what this game is about

[kitukun]

I forgor hulkenberg's ears

Y'all sayin thats not what bipolar is, IMAGINE HE SEPARATED WILL AND THE PRINCE IN HIS MIND

[wickedsick]

As cool as the More fight is, it's really funny how easy it is to ruin the tension.

(Hero's Proving + Hero's Cry + Charge + Royal Sword means you knock him down to 1 hp turn one, but he still has to say all his dialogue so you just keep attacking)

[xyronian]

Another entry in my misguided series: Refantaziorama.

Major spoilers this time, like major endgame spoilers.

Source: Godfellas

"'Everyone' being my entire village. You know, the one Forden burned down because you had a wife there. You remember that?"

[dexjarxenoengage]

While we are on the topic of shipping when it comes to Metaphor. IMO, it was for the best to remove the option to date other characters. Because IMO, a game should be allowed to just stick with one shipped that can (hopefully) be enjoyed. And this is where I go into spoilers for the end of the game… you have been warned…

Eupha and Will are the closest thing we have to a canon ship. And with Will becoming the new King by the end of the game, this means that if Eupha and Will make their relationship official, two of the most hated tribes will be the rulers of Euchronia. Which is extremely cathartic considering that they have ties to the old world that the Church wanted to keep under wraps.

The main reason why I am making this post, and while I am calling plot spoilers is because of Strohl. Why? Because Strohl is a Clemar. Racist as that may sound, hear me out.

Will is the Prince all along, Will is an Elda (the most hated tribe in the Kingdom of Euchronia). But Will is an Elda Clemar hybrid because his Father; the deceased King; Hythlodaeus V AKA More gave birth with the Eldan Queen.

This means that, if Will was female and was shipped with Strohl, it would be a Generation Xerox of an Elda and Clemar having a child.

[zipsunz]

at first sight, a similar feeling

[bubadoobad]

Some spoilers up until the final boss

My dude had like 5 dads and he's still an orphan. And three of them were the same person and dumped the responsibility of the country on the protagonist (I call him Will).

Don't mind the anatomy that isn't anatomy. Pls.

[lightingway]

Euripedes, Orestes (tr. Anne Carson)

[undead-cypress]

Hello everyone. I'm going through it. As like one of 5 people who has fully read Quantum Devil Saga and enjoys overanalyzing media, I was having fun noticing the parallels and nods to it in Metaphor Refantazio. With the assumption that I was the unhinged one drawing conclusions and shouldn't assign intentionality to the writing and design choices. Surely the King crashing his own funeral Angel style to announce a tournament for Nirvana Utopia was just a quirk of writing in these kinds of games. Surely the first two henchmen only superficially resemble Heat and Argilla. Surely turning into big monsters and the gender fuckery is a series staple. They named the magical cat after another mathematician! That's cute

But then you find out they named the King after Yuu Godai, the author of QDS

ゆう五代 is how Yuu Godai is written in Japanese, the "Godai" part meaning "the fifth".

(This is not a translation error or change, in Hythlodaeus V is the correct English spelling, it's just Japanese doesn't always differentiate H/J/Y sounds in western names.)

I'll probably make a longer post about this later, because I can't explain without massive spoilers for both and I'm not even done with the game. The meta in this game is driving me up the wall and I'm pretty damn sure I'm the only person who sees this. Because I might be the only person in the universe who thinks too much about the meta behind QDS щ(ಥ_ಥщ). There's stuff that you wouldn't even know are references to Godai because she only mentions these in the author's notes and in the self published QDS Extra Files zine. Like how Soul Hackers was her favourite game, she has a cat that keeps her company when she writes, she's obsessed with making non-binary characters, really likes Godzilla and her hobby is reading weird philosophy books. They never got over not being able to have her on the team for Digital Devil Saga...

[imustbenuts]

i finished metaphor refantazio which means i can talk about this game's themes with a working braincell now.

under the read more: pre-ww2 japanese history and religion fuckery. word vomit for anyone who might be interested in my perspective

Major spoilers head

i was RIGHT about louis being enamored with the royal family in some way and having a buttfuck ton of the royal family flowers in his room in his airship. i think this plot point is now heavily hinted at but currently discarded due to development/writing hell. i think louis probably followed hythlodaeus v out of the sanctum in extreme admiration. he has a lot of similarities with More in that they both had reality + lonliness crushed into their faces. his current self in the game is driven by despair and fear.

this is interesting bc theres actually also a lot of allusion to japanese pre-ww2 history going on from my admittedly very limited knowledge. so here goes:

There's a lot about Louis that reminds me of the whole shitshow going down during the Meiji era up until ww2. the gist of this past 200 odd years was that the western world came in knocking with christianity as a tool for colonization. which was understandably yikes, so they shut themselves off, only to then get another visitation later with pretty intimidating technology in the form of iron steamships with cannons. gunboat diplomacy. this meant that a previously imperialistic japanese society build on conquering had to react/adapt to this drastic force like fucking whiplash.

so they pretty much went from pro-military samurai shogunate to pro-emperor. the gist is there was a very pro-emperor-god-king rhetoric going on that sought to rid anything inconvenient towards that narrative. to keep people in line yes but to also get japan big and powerful enough to sit with the same western colonial powers.

so in place of the old caste system under the shogun, there eventually were now oligarchies, far right military factions etc under the emperor. only something like the top 5% of the population had a say in this new democracy system they set up too. (it got way more democratic in the 1930s? not sure. but what im saying here is 1860s-1900 ish at least)

so things were going. for a while. messy, full of 'expel the foreigners, revere the emperor' rhetoric but it was going.

then more depression happened and the overall economy went to shit in 1900. that era leading up to ww2 had a lot of young men in Japan being extremely nationalist and pro military, in part due to a whiplash of culture change and in other due to poverty. (ive come across the topic of white rice being offered for those who conscript. white rice was seen as the emperor's luxury food so that was somewhat of a draw to young men back then.) There were a lot of far right political factions and assassinations going on. international relations were also imploding bc the military had this idea that japan was the superior divine race and they were destined to conquer the world/asia. so they did some sabotaging false flag operation shit in manchuria in order to try and start a world war. (Mukden incident. 1931)

Which is then not a surprise that in 1932 a prime minister by the name of Inukai Tsuyoshi got assassinated by a bunch of far right pro military guys in their 20s. They were even then praised by the judge bc of their act being seen as pro-emperor and therefore patriotic. Bc again emperor god king delusion.

(read up on the League of Blood incident where these people also plotted to kill the oligarchs and liberal politicians. they uh actually succeeded in some cases btw. look, too much shit.)

meanwhile, the emperor, Hirohito, wanted peace, wanted better foreign international relations and relayed his desires to the same Inukai Tsuyoshi, but the military was going out of control. (and Inukai got assassinated so the position of prime minister is now Not Safe.) so out control they eventually became beyond any civilian/state control and bam ww2. pearl harbor and all that stuff.

(i havent read up on what kind of person hirohito actually is so ill refrain on commenting on his character. but in terms of actual power over his country hes VERY Hythlodaeus V in metaphor)

so while there isnt an organized religion in the form of a church, there is absolutely an element of religious and military fanaticism in that era.

So Louis has a lot of this vibes going on. He was also a young military boy. Is young probly in his 20s. Has a lot of royal flowers in his skyrunner that points towards this royal family worshiping thing. Seized control of a military faction that went completely out of control from the state. Is of some 'pure blood' race if his elda bloodline is any indication. Murdered the pro-equality but failed figure head bc he did not live up to Louis' expectations and was responsible for a lot of failures in the state policy. started a false flag operation that resulted in people dying and forced to leave an area.

also, did i mention lowkey eugenics? yeah that same imperial military was big on this too. the strong will survive the weak will be culled etc etc.

Meanwhile the mc gels well with the benevolent emperor narrative that is popular in JP media even today. I think it could be some indicator of how the general japanese feels towards the royal family, since supposedly an emperor is sworn to an oath of leading with valor, wisdom and benevolence. These are also represented by 3 regalia, a sword, a mirror and a jewel, presented during the official coronation ceremony.

The regalias might be treasures from different tribes originally, at least that's what some scholars think.

So I won't be surprised if the Drakodilos lance ends up being a part of the imperial treasure thing after the mutsari tribe gets protected under law. the mustaris here are the aforementioned 'different tribes' thing.

in fact, more on this topic with the mustaris. these people arent just random tribal people, to me they are more south/south east asian people. their biome is jungle island like, which means polynesian, and places like philippines, vietnam, thailand, indonesia etc.

the brown/tan skin is found in a lot of SEAsians, and the third eye is too a popular asian mysticism thing. it is especially prevalent in hinduism and buddhism. the idea is that a 3rd eye means enlightenment, or at least the ability to perceive the unperceivable.

if we subsitute sanctism with shinto, then theres some parallels here to be had with whats going on at the time too. bc the funny thing im seeing here is, shinto is sanctism, and mustari's religion has big buddhsim vibes without the name.

(that mustari arc boss looks like a twisted banged up buddha/boddhisattva what with the prayer position and multi arms thing going on)

in that pre-ww2 time period, shinto buddhism was going through a split and defining in order to prop up the emperor god king narrative. this process meant suppressing elements of buddhism. wont get into the reeds of this, but know that buddhism originated in india in a response against the hindu caste system. so in a way, a 'foreign' religon.

now, there is absolutely a thing going on here where Me:Re can come off as inherently pro-emperor and even a little pro-japanese nationalist, what with the whole 1 nation of vaguely SEAsians under a (japanese written) king thing. frankly, as a SEAsian this is gross but nothing surprising considering how hard Me:Re feels like an echo of pre ww2 jp politics. and also how jp media tends to be with topics surrounding this. im iffy on the japanese nationalist part, bc the needle is definitely moving in terms of racism/colorism today, and in the game lacks certain elements for me to see it as a big red flag.

that said, i wont immediately napalm the intentions behind this game to the ground. this game has got excellent commentary on racism and some stuff about policies. its got nuance. it is even a criticism against how the old japanese empire tried to go about doing things. it is open to the idea of democracy and even seems to say that politics arent perfect and can fail but its better to try than not at all.

this is far more valuable than blatant doomerism imo.

all this is why in the final segment, we fight More in the middle of shibuya scramble. this isnt just meta for the sake of meta, its allusion to their history specifically. this game is NOT so much a criticism about organized religion as it is about governance in relation to its people. this game is talking about politics without specific policies.

i can respect that despite all the major ick i might have.

this is why despite saying oppression is bad, it doesn't have any queer representation because it's leaning towards a conservative pro emperor ideology on the overall spectrum. Queerness is not part of that century old conversation at all in this context so take this as you will.

(personally the fact that queerness is not even remotely touched on means the overall thoughts on opression hasnt radically changed. Personally, this, specifically, sucks. Bc this means this narrative feels like it could've been easily released even 20 years ago and brought the exact same challenge to the table but ymmv. I suppose this is why people have been saying the game reminds them of old jrpgs.)

sooo yeah Me:Re is very much a big middle finger to fanaticism, but is also very japanese history at its roots. i had fun, and it def made me think

[nicorenarin]

Inherited Fantasy: The Tragic Tale of The Prince

WARNING: Heavy, heavy, heavy spoilers ahead for the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Please don't read onwards unless you have reached beyond the 9/24 date in-game.

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Across the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio, you as the protagonist are tasked with freeing your best friend, The Prince and heir to the throne, from a deadly curse that aims to take his life, having been seemingly placed by main antagonist Louis ten years prior to the game beginning. Yet, as you progress into Altabury Heights, the final explorable city in the game, you come to realise that not is all as it seems.

We may as well dive straight into. The whole time, you and The Prince are one in the same. The protagonist was The Prince's ideal self created after reading the very book that you carry everywhere you go on your adventure. At first, this may be a very shocking and potentially awkward twist, but I'm here to explain how beautifully done this twist is and how it ties into the overall themes that Metaphor aims to display. Mainly, how fantasy impacts reality and the notion of 'magic' as a whole within the United Kingdom of Euchronia.

Not too long after The Prince's body and soul (what the protagonist is described as) join together again, we are treated to a rather big lore dump about both the history behind the elda tribe and the world itself. It's revealed that the former King Hythlodaeus V fell in love with a woman from the eldan village, the high chief to be exact, and from that The Prince is born, half-clemar, half-elda. This is important in the context of the journey, because you've come to realise that the elda tribe is despised all around the country. You as the protagonist experience the racism first-hand as if it were a casual conversation and in that moment when you realise that The Prince himself was considered 'dirty' and 'unclean' by others in society, the fight for the throne becomes that much more serious.

The protagonist claiming his identity as The Prince is not a means to stop his underdog-like journey from continuing, but it instead pushes it forward even more. Especially due to the actions of Louis, society has come to despise both the eldan tribe, the actions of the former King, and even the notion of the royal family itself. Even as the rightful heir to the throne, you are still treated as an outlier compared to someone like Louis, who has convinced society to a degree where their emotions run rampant and many almost "give up" on wanting a new ruler other than Louis himself. Embracing the identity of The Prince is a means to accept the fact that everyone in the world that he wished to make, that he read from the fantasy novel, would be equal to one another. The discrimination that the protagonist and many of your fellow party members experience happens not because of their position, but of what tribe they belong to. Even when you falsely declare yourself as The Prince, there's still a huge air of hostility towards your campaign.

The protagonist's journey is one that should be underestimated. He's The Prince's ideal self who wanted to go on a journey, to meet new friends, to unite the tribes, it's almost as if fate itself is on your side. The Prince didn't want to be known by his title, he wanted to be known as simply someone else in the vast population, somebody that could rise to the throne themselves and prove themselves worthy to sit atop the throne rather than get there on merit alone. The unification of body and soul only symbolises a final step needing to be taken in order to save the country itself, knowing how far Louis was willing to go in order to see his dreams realised.

We spend our journey showing this fantasy novel to our party members, believing that one day we can create a world exactly like this, and that's what The Prince's ideal self was always planning to do. The raw magic that ended up creating who we'd come to know as the protagonist comes from The Prince's wishes to have fantasy impact reality and so right before the curse can truly take hold of him, the ideal self is created, never truly knowing who he is until the last moment and allowing him to create as many memories of travelling the world as possible.

Now, the protagonist sets forth to capture the hearts of the people again, and whilst he may be recognised as the heir to the throne, in the new society that Louis has helped create, his status does not matter anymore. He must convince the people, the fellow former candidates, and even his followers that he is still the man to lead their country forward. Even upon re-visiting the followers to finish off their links, there's a single line of dialogue that will highlight them noticing a slight change about you, but it doesn't amount to anymore than that. You are still the same person to them, your new status as The Prince doesn't matter, because you are still an underdog fighting against a tyrannical madman with dreams of power and control.

Ultimately, The Prince's story teaches us that fantasy CAN impact reality and ultimately, he too must uphold the same ideals that he wishes the world could embrace one day. He can't do this as The Prince, he must do this as just a simple travelling boy, with ambitions of changing the world for the better.

[asha-mage]

A Summary/sequence of the pre-game events that I made for myself. Feel free to use as a reference point fellow fanfic writers.

(Major endgame spoilers obviously)

A young King Hythlodaeus V decides to travel the land in disguise in order to better understand his people and how to rule them.

He finds the Eldan Sanctunary, meets and falls in love with their Queen and begins to frequently visit her. They soon marry and have a son, Will.

Inspired by their stories of the Old World, Hythlodaeus decides to write a utopoist fantasy novel based on his (flawed) understanding of what the Old World was like, and as a way to codify his own ideals for how he wants to rule his kingdom. He publishes this book under the pseudonym 'More'. It is quickly banned by the church.

A young boy named Luis is enchanted and inspired by the King's visits, and deeply moved by the novel.

Sanctifex Forden, head of the state religion, learns of the existence of a half-Elda, half-Clemar heir to the throne and decides to eliminate him by any means necessary, both to prevent a threat to his own power, and to prevent a half-Elda from becoming King.

The Warrior Monks arrive at the Elda Sanctuary and burn it to the ground, killing most of the Elda in the process. Will and Luis survive.

Will is brought to Grand Trad by his father and announced as heir to the throne, to Forden's disgust. Hythlodaeus assigns veteran Knight Arvid Alces, and new recruit Eiselin Hulkenberg, as Will's sworn protectors and knights.

Luis journeys to Grand Trad and disguises himself as a Clemar. He claims to be the sole survivor of a human attack on his village and is adopted by Count Guiabern. He enters the military academy and begins impressing the masses with his skill at magic and battle. He also makes waves by being openly critical of the church, but incredibly popular among the soldiers.

Forden decides to kill two birds with one stone, and plans to frame Luis for the murder of the Prince. He pressures Rella Cygnus, a magical prodigy, to carry out an assassination plot and when Rella attempts to refuse, he threatens her sister Junah in order to force her compliance.

Rella and several disguised monks attempt to assassinate the Prince- but Rella flubs the curse meant to finish the job and Alces escapes with the Prince into the night without a trace, leaving Hulkenberg behind.

The Prince is left debilitated by the curse and unable to exert himself physically. Alces and several other loyalists flee back to the Eldan Sanctuary to form a resistance dedicated to ensuring the Prince survives and one day succeeds his father's throne. Alces chooses not to recruit Hulkenberg in the hopes she will carry on the King's service.

Hulkenberg shamed by her failure to protect or avenge the prince that fateful night leaves the King's service to become a Knight-errant, wandering the land looking for any hint of the Prince or his survival.

Hythlodaeus now having lost both his wife and son begins to fall into a pit of despair, uncertain if Luis or Forden is truly responsible for the assassination and unable to exact justice either way.

Forden manages to pin the blame on Luis and he is briefly exiled from Grand Trad, but support from the military sees him return soon, and he and Forden become bitter rivals as Luis climbs the ranks of the army.

Forden continues to erode the King's power and soon renders him little more then a puppet and figurehead. Hythlodaeus looses faith in his ideals, and becomes consumed by guilt and despair at his own impotence.

Luis feeling betrayed and failed by the man who once inspired him, comes to hate Hythlodaeus deeply for his failure to do anything meaningful about the corruption and evils of their world.

Alces takes on the alias Grius and secretly joins the army with intent of spying on Luis and his supporters.

Prince Will, inspired by a copy of his father's book wishes desperately to travel the world and make it better, but because of the curse is only able to fantasize and dream. Left lonely and isolated, Prince Will imagines a idealized version of himself as a sort of imaginary friend in order to alleviate the loneliness. This version is unburdened by the things that bind the Prince- his curse, his royalty, his half-Clemar heritage- and so completely free.

The slow wasting effects of the curse cause Prince Will collapse in a flower field one day while reading. His desperate wish to be free resonates with the magla of the forest and brings his 'fantasy' version of himself into being, formed out of pure magla, in the same way dragons are born from pure magla. This 'fantasy' Will believes himself to be the prince's childhood friend and sets out to try and find a way to save him.

'The resistance' asks a fairy named Gallica to carry word to Grius of the prince's deteriorating condition, and help him to do whatever is necessary to break the curse. Gallica encounters the animated fantasy 'Will' on her journey and the lingering magic of his creation (and the intervention of the spirit of his mother) causes Gallica to also believe the 'Fantasy' Will's false memories are true. The pair set out together for Grand Trad, intending to join the army and met up with Garius at the northern border fort.

Luis sneaks into the King's bedchamber and assassinates him, putting the events of the game into motion.

[kitukun]

Me n my gf been talking about if will and strohl had a child would it be clemar or elda, and since i really like studying biology, it turns out it'd be 50% elda cl--

SCRAP ALL THAT

2 hours later i realized my fatal mistake,

SPOILERS BELOW

Will is a halfblood (Aa)

gotta redo the calculations *checking notes* if the dominant gene is elda, the child is 50% full clemar %50 halfblood elda without any mutation, if the dominant gene is clemar (which is impossible btw i cant explain it now) the results are same again

Next day i again realized my another mistake (not a mistake actually dont do calcs at 2 am folks) theres one more possibility

He said to be a halfblood but genetic wise he can also be a full elda (AA)

So if we take him as genetically full elda every child would be 100% halfblood elda (Aa) but this is not possible because for Will to be full elda (AA) hythlodaeus V needs to be halfblood (Aa) SO SCRAP ALL THAT TOO IG

But during this search i realized, this makes most halfbloods mutated, i think as far as my biology knowledge allows me, you cannot have one single horn and a third eye at the same time unless your genes are mutated (im talking to you zorba)

So that makes will a very rare unmutated halfblood (unless he hides tiny horns that didnt grew under that fluffly ass white hair)

ACCORDING TO MY GF HALFBLOODS SHOULD BE SEPARATED AS MAGLA-WONKED-HALFBLOODS AND NORMAL HALFBLOODS IM DYING

I'm an english major btw hi

[specterthief]

dig up bones in your sympathy

Fandom: Metaphor: ReFantazio Characters/Pairing: Louis Guiabern/Hythlodaeus V Rating: G Warnings: None Wordcount: 343 Other Tags: Ghosts, Ambiguous Relationships, mourning the guy you killed, Canon Compliant, Flash Fic, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Pining Summary: The Charadrius’s halls are haunted, some of the soldiers say. — Will isn't the only one seeing phantoms.

posted a very short flash fic i did for a bsky request on ao3 to get the rarepair stonks up! implicit spoilers, tread carefully

[auncyen]

puts on clown shoes and clown wig

so Gallica references the fire at least once as a big deal, so I feel like that's when she first changed as a fairy. But, fairies are also said to be like. driven by their sense of purpose so like what was her sense of purpose from the time of the fire until when the prince came to the sanctum, since the resistance she joined seemed to be attached to the prince? (did canon...explain exactly what Gallica's sense of purpose was? where is it.)

(huge game spoilers under cut do not click if you haven't finished)

also, mama in her. weird as it is. it canon. also happened night of fire.

so basically--actually starting with the headcanon: Gallica and the prince actually were "childhood friends", in the sense that fairies like playing with kids over adults (similar mindset), kids love playing with fairies (FLUTTERING TALKING MAGICAL), and Will was an energetic toddler who loved running around with the fairies. Part of Gallica changing the night of the fire was seeing her playmate in distress as his mom was dying. Mama Queen asked Gallica to please make sure no one found him and Gallica probably did a combo of trying to soothe a toddler, maybe distract any sanctists who got too close, and trying not to freak out herself. (Meanwhile, Mama Queen is. uh. transferring to her or whatever. weird as that is.) Once things calmed down she went out and found another survivor to take the traumatized child off her hands please and thank you.

in the timeline aligning with canon Gallica is thereafter freaked out for a loooong time and tries to suppress the memories of that night and play with other fairies like everything's normal. Her once playmate is taken away. It's fine. She's just playing (and maybe always keeping an eye out to make sure strange people don't come and set another fire). Mama Queen accepts waiting among the survivors of her people, biding her time for when she can find a way to help. By the time the prince comes back Gallica doesn't recognize who he is because she's still kind of. "Noticing" how the world works compared to how she existed before and like, wdym a toddler and a child can be the same person at different times.

in an au timeline: Mama Queen realizes her son's going to be taken away and goes "oh hell no please go with him someone still wants to kill him". Gallica doesn't want her playbuddy dying either but is freaking out harder about leaving everything she knows when things have already gone south and she can't even play with Will because that might draw attention and there's a part of her very insistent that they're going into danger which. WHY ARE THEY DOING THAT she just wants to plaaaaay but she doesn't want her play buddy dying so. okay. okay. she can keep watching him.

anyway imagine you are King Hythlodaeus V still grieving that you could not save the love of your life and worried over your small son who has already survived an attempt on his life for nothing more than existing and will surely face more and then the exact first moment you think you're alone to grieve a little and crumble in private a fairy who's traumatized and possessed by your dead love comes out and yells at you because she's freaking out about everything that's happened. Hythlodaeus realizing both that she needs something to do for her sense of purpose and that her size only lets her do a few things and asking her to keep being a playmate for Will when they have some privacy in the castle...but also...he could use an ally who can easily spy on Forden or other suspicious individuals without being found. It will help keep Will safe.

am I writing palace spy Gallica au? .man I hope not. but I thought about Gallica and the sense of purpose thing for way too long.