#i like to think. the way the three brothers relationship is portrayed is just due to how unreliable of a narrator ponyboy is.

[qprpbj]

😭😭😭wut is ur hc on this need immediately

my hc is that i am going to jump out of a window at the earliest possible convenience

[mirai-e-jump]

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger Photo Book: ~King of Kings~ Main Cast Member Interviews Support Cast Special Comments (translations below, LONG POST)

(other pages)

Sakai Taisei (Gira Husty)

-The Director's valuable advice on how to play Gira in a natural way-

I think that we were able to complete filming without any issues due to the support of many people over the past year.

As an actor, I was inspired alot by the many career actors in the King-Ohger cast. In particular, Morioka Yutaka-san, who played Douga, and Masato Yano-san, who played Racules, both of whom I had many opportunities to work with, were very important. However, both of them didn't give me any specific advice on the set. They always had the attitude of, "You're free to do whatever you want to do," and I was grateful for that more than anything.

Filming was done in front of a green screen in the studio, which was a special environment, but since I personally didn't have much experience in filming dramas, I had no objections to it at all. Sometimes we filmed on location, so experiencing the "live scenery" and "atmosphere of the site" was nice, but in our situation, we felt uncomfortable unless we were in front of the green screen (laughs). It had become such a normal thing for us.

As for the performance, at first I couldn't understand the Director's intentions and was just figuring it out in my head, but then Director Kamihoriuchi Kazuya told me, "Feel it with your heart," and that's when it became easier to act. After that, I feel like I was able to take on the role of Gira more naturally throughout those days of filming.

Also, I think we showed "Gira two years later" in the new chapter partly through the visuals and direction, such as his costume and hairstyle, but I also wanted to play the role showing a more relaxed side in my own way.

-The wonderful thing about Gira is that he's always there for others-

What I was most mindful of throughout the year was definitely the relationship with Racules. I wasn't told of any future developments, so I was surprised when I read the scripts for episodes 41 and 42. Even though he's his older brother I played the role with a strong sense of, "Overthrow Racules!" I had heard during filming for episode 20 that he was going to reappear later, but I had no idea he was destined to carry such a cruel burden……That's why I was deeply moved by our joint fight scene in episode 42.

After that, in episode 43, I'll never forget the scene where we hold each other's hands. Compared to Yano-san, I think I'm still inexperienced in some aspects of acting, but I did my best in my own way, so I'd be happy if you could grasp the feelings the two of us have.

From episode 48 to the final episode, many of the cast members who've helped us in the past reappeared, and the motivation on set was even higher than usual. The main Director of the last three episodes was Kamihoriuchi-san, and the six of us who play the roles of the kings have absolute trust in the Director, but he's also someone who's uncompromising in his approach to the play, so I worked hard to "hang in there until the very end."

The final day of filming was the scene in the final episode where the six of us are untransformed. I personally didn't intend to be overly emotional just because it was the final take. However, when the Director said "OK!," the cast and crew involved in the production, including Yano-san, who wasn't supposed to be filming that day, gathered around. I thought, "So many people were watching over us" and became overwhelmed with emotion……I think I probably cried more than anyone else (laughs).

Looking back on all the episodes, I think that Gira was always portrayed as a character who stood by someone's side. He always tries to understand people's feelings, regardless of whether they're a king, retainer, or a citizen, and I thought it was wonderful to see that kind of attitude as I played Gira

As time goes on, please don't forget about Gira!

Watanabe Aoto (Yanma Gast)

-Yanma's coolness is the charm that Director Kamioriuchi possesses-

Currently, when I look back at Yanma from a year ago, I feel alittle embarrassed because he seems so childish (laughs). I've jokingly said to the staff on set things like, "I want to reshoot that scene," but on the other hand, I felt that it was a performance that only I, who had just encountered Yanma, could give. That's just how I feel right now.

As for my role, it was largely created together with Director Kamihoriuchi Kazuya. In the beginning, I read stories about real kings and books by various leaders, and I tried to express them through "moving performances." In response, the Director told me to, "Take a more confident stance," and from that point on, I had the image of, "Even if he doesn't say much, his coolness will be shown through his actions." To be more specific, Yanma has something in common with Director Kamihoriuchi himself. I think that the Director's charm as a person is reflected through Yanma.

What I remember well from early filming was the N'kosopa scene in episode 2. We spent the whole day filming in the cold during the middle of winter with the participation of members of the TTFC (Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club), and it truly felt like a king and his people overcoming their difficulties as one. Episode 2 in particular was the one where I read the script repeatedly after my audition, so I'll never forget the excitement I felt when I saw the finished footage.

Every episode is filled with memories, but the developments that take place two years later starting from episode 27 stirred me up. At first, I thought he was going to be alittle more mature and relaxed, but now that his hair was a blonde pompadour, I decided to play a more active role. In episode 35, when they all go to take back the invaded N'kosopa, I felt Yanma's growth compared to episode 2. The actual successful recapture took place in episode 39. During that time, for the main episodes of Hymeno, Kaguragi, and Rita, Yanma had many funny moments, and as I played him I thought that even though things were tough, he doesn't stay down, which is another cool thing about him.

-The fans are part of the production!-

When he was being manipulated by Hilbil in episode 44, the interaction with Gira had many homages to the past. Usually, there are many opportunities for Yanma to say something preachy, but in this episode it's the opposite, and Yanma catching Gira's fist is also a reverse pattern from episode 17.

Also, defeating Hilbil using the 10 combination King-Ohger for the first time in a long time was a hot development, and in the end, we both said the exact same lines as in episode 2, being, "Lowlifes like you…(-Gira), Should know your place…(-Yanma), On your knees! (-both)."

From episode 48 to the final episode, new assets have been created, and I think that the viewers will enjoy the spectacular visuals until the very end.

In the scene where the "King's Proof" is returned, only my mouth is shown, and the Director told me, "The love you've received is too great, so it's okay if you cry." I intended to act dignified, but those words were like magic, and I was immediately overcome with emotion.

Other hot developments include the reappearance of major characters, and the relationship between the kings and the people they're meant to protect is also noteworthy.

Even after all the battles were over, Yanma still had work to do, and I was able to play the role of Yanma, who's always looking forward until the end.

After working on it for a year, first of all, I'm relieved that filming was completed successfully, and I'd like to take this opportunity to express my feelings of "thank you" to the many people who supported us.

Personally, I believe that King-Ohger was created by everyone, and the fans are also a part of the production. I'd be happy if you could think of us six kings from time to time.

Murakami Erica (Hymeno Ran)

-The key to playing Hymeno is "how to deal with life"-

Hymeno has a selfish side, but if she shows it too forcefully, her position as a king will be in danger. Of course, it's not just being selfish, and the reason was depicted in episode 3, but reading the script and actually doing the performance gave off a different impression, so I explored this through the opinions of the people on set and through interactions with the cast. Also, after learning about the setting in which her parents were murdered in episode 7, I thought that Hymeno's key point was "how to deal with life."

I was acting without knowing what was going to happen next, but it was interesting to see things in a different point of view once all the facts were known, such as the foreshadowing of the anesthetic in episode 8 being revealed in episode 42. It was like reading a serialized manga, and there was a competition among the cast to see who would get the new script first (laughs), and the person who got it first would upload a photo of the script to our group chat.

Personally, my favorite episode was episode 28. I had alot of conversations with Kaku So-san about playing Kaguragi, and I was able to see a side of Kaguragi that I had never seen before, and I think we were able to deepen our understanding not only of our characters, but also of the cast. Other than that, I also enjoyed episode 36. The matchmaking competition was hard to endure because everyone was trying their best to make me laugh, like Yanma's weird face when he was being controlled by Jeramie (laughs). Also, Hymeno, who was being impersonated by Kamejim, casually crossed her legs even though she doesn't usually do that. The uglier the fake becomes, the brighter the real one shines, so I was conscious of the gap between the two while concealing her true identity.

When I got involved with Rita in episode 5, Director Kamihoriuchi Kazuya told me, "I want you to perform the role of Hymeno as if she's aware Rita will be hard to deal with." At first I thought, "Hymeno and Rita are incompatible, huh," but as they got closer and closer through Moffun and the "Wrath of God," I feel that they've become a very special person to Hymeno. That's why when Rita came to Ishabana in episode 30, Rita may have just been fulfilling their duties, but I thought it was cute that they misunderstood that Hymeno had gone out of her way to meet them. To be honest, I was pretty excited to film the tea scene (laughs).

-I was lifted up by Hymeno's inner strength-

The existence of Grodie, the enemy of her parents, was revealed in episode 30 and defeated in episode 47, but before that, I personally thought episode 46 was important. Jeramie decides to use his"King's Proof" to give life to the immortal Grodie, and Hymeno accepts his decision. There's a conversation between the two of them where they said, "It's okay to cry" and, "I'll ruin my makeup." The script was based on the answer I gave to screenwriter Takano Minato-san when he asked me, "What do you want to do?" I suggested that if a little girl was crying and Hymeno came to her, she might say something like, "What a waste of a pretty face" or "Your mascara will be ruined" to keep her positive. When I opened the script, I was surprised to find that she wouldn't be crying, but I was happy because I wanted to show Hymeno's strong will!

In the end, it was an "all star" effort, and I was thrilled that she was reunited with her parents in episode 49. Although the scene took place while both of them were concentrating on providing treatment, they were able to communicate without having to talk, and I felt a sense of closure within Hymeno. In the final episode, it was cool to see everyone stand up against Dagded, there were some unexpected surprises, and we were able to reach a truly wonderful ending.

All 50 episodes are filled with the passion of the cast and staff, and I think that no matter which episode you watch, you won't be disappointed. During all this, I myself was lifted up by Hymeno's inner strength, and I'm so glad that I was able to work with all the cast members until the end. I hope to see you again in the future, such as the FLT, so please continue to support us!

Hirakawa Yuzuki (Rita Kaniska)

-Playing the role of Rita by moving their "mind" with their whole body-

The role of Rita is an "immovable" character, so the performance doesn't focus on movement, and their face is visible only through their left eye and you can't see their facial expressions, so it was difficult in the early days of filming. The solo performances were particularly difficult. In episode 12, there's the trial scene where Jeramie is listening to them, but since only my eye was visible, I was concerned that my blinking or the direction of my gaze might convey nuance that I didn't intend. At that time, Director Kamihoriuchi Kazuya gave me advice of, "If you perform by moving your mind with your whole body, it becomes an expression, so you don't have to be caught up in performing with only your left eye." This gave me confidence and made me think, "Maybe there's more I can do."

When talking about Rita, their relationship with Hymeno is also important. In addition to being king, Rita has the role of Chief International Justice, so there was a part of them that drew a line between themself and others, but after the interaction with Hymeno was depicted towards the end of episode 16, Rita was able to separate their work and private life, and the areas where they could express themself gradually became clearer. I thought that when they had tea together in episode 30, it was another scene that brought them closer together.

Also, Karras and Shiron are like parents to Rita. In episode 16, we learned some of Rita's past, which I thought could be reflected in future performances. After that, everything came together in episode 30. When I read the script and learned of Shiron's death, I was personally shaken, and during filming, I was able to fully feel Rita's feelings while acting. Also, while they were determined to seal Grodie in this episode, Hymeno stopped them from doing so, and it reminded them once again of how valued they are. Episode 30 is an unforgettable episode, not only because of their relationship with Hymeno, but also in the sense that Rita became stronger after preparing to die.

-It was a year of pursuing the role of Rita that I envisioned-

I was very happy to receive lots of feedback on SNS for the Idol episode.

The stage scene was only about two lines long in the script, but the set they created was so beautiful, so I went into filming thinking, "I hope the viewers will enjoy it."

It was the most difficult time for me, learning dances and recording at the same time as filming, but I have the impression that I did my best as "Hirakawa Yuzuki" in this episode, even though I was playing Rita.

Towards the end of episode 45, it was very exciting to see Kaguragi and Rita, who had never had a chance to really interact before, working together. Since we often filmed separately, when we met, Kaku So-san and I would report to each other with, "How did that scene go?"

I was also impressed by the scene in episode 48 where they launch the evacuation plan "Zero." It was really hard even for me to admit that they couldn't defeat Dagded, but I think that's just how much I got into the role.

At the end of the story that spanned a year, six people with very strong personalities come together, and if just one of them were missing, the story could not be completed, so I think it concluded in a way that was truly typical of "Ohsama Sentai."

Looking back, I had wanted to play the role of Rita since the audition stage, and being able to pursue my own vision of Rita for a year was an invaluable and truly precious experience.

Now that filming's over, I feel sad, but I hope that people will look back on the show after it's finished airing, and I hope that it grows into a show that'll continue to be loved forever.

Kaku So (Kaguragi Dybowski)

-Until I did the difficult role of deceiving and tricking people-

In the beginning I was told that the role of Kaguragi was a character that deceives and tricks people, but at the same time, the Producer said, "Please don't make him someone that people dislike," and I thought, "No, that's going to be difficult" (laughs). In a way, Kaguragi has conflicting aspects, but in episode 4, the resolution within me improved, and I began to enjoy playing the role more.

Also, the "Hweh?" response when he's acting silly in episode 8 wasn't specifically written in the script, and when I first tried to just do the facial expression, Director Yamaguchi Kyohei said, "I want it to have alittle more impact," so I also added the voice. It's thanks to the Director that I was able to emphasize his personality.

Then there's the relationship with his younger sister Suzume. Kamura Mami-san, who plays Suzume, had such a convincing performance from the first day that it made me think, "That's Kaguragi's sister," and through her I was able to bring out the comedic side of my performance alot more.

All the episodes are memorable, but if I had to pick one main episode for Kaguragi, it would be episode 37. While I've always played the role that rides the line between good and evil, that episode gave more weight to the fact that he carries a tragic past, and I myself became more fond of Kaguragi. The honest and pure Kaguragi I played in the flashback scenes are literally just me (laughs), so it was easy to do. His voice is usually deep and threatening, but at that time I tried to show his "difference" by using a tone that was closer to my actual self.

It was also interesting to perform the scene where he and Racules, played by Masato Yano-chan, were trying to expose each other's secrets. However, I wasn't sure about their relationship, and one time when I asked Yano-chan, "Do you know when they'll become friends?," he left me hanging with, "No, I don't know" (laughs). I first found out about their backgrounds when I read the script for episode 42. In retrospect, he was mostly absent in episode 36, was he perhaps discussing things with Racules behind the scenes? The line at the end of episode 37, "Let's take the dirtiest road ahead from now on," was also foreshadowing.

As for Kaguragi, he probably believed in Suzume and followed Racules, and I believe that he carried out his own will even though he was prepared to be deceived.

-Even now, Kaguragi's in my heart!-

Towards the end of episode 45, it became a main episode between him and Rita, someone he had little chance to interact with up until then. It was a new experience for me to work with Yuzuyan, and we enjoyed each other's presence. The scenes where they both communicate their feelings were performed separately because I spoke to their partner Morphonia, but even though they weren't in the same space, it was really cool to depict that they shared the same mindset. Kaguragi may be deceiving on the surface, but deep down, he just wants to make people smile, and I was able to portray that side of him.

The final episode completes the story, but there's also some room that allows you to use your imagination, which is what I like about it. If it ended properly, that'd be sad, wouldn't it? During filming, I worked hard until the end, but I'm personally the type of person who likes to joke around and have fun while doing it. I'm glad that we were able to spend time in a cheerful atmosphere until the very final moment.

Even after all filming finishes, I still have many more opportunities to play Kaguragi, including performances at Theater G Rosso and the FLT, and I still feel as if Kaguragi is in my heart.

Having a stance like Kaguragi's may not be easily rewarded, but I think it's filled with what's important for people to live their lives.

Whenever you feel like giving up or are having a hard time, I'd be happy if you could remember Kaguragi and think, "Let's do our best!"

Ikeda Masashi (Jeramie Brasieri)

-Jeramie, who's been alive for 2,000 years, shows his "composure"-

In my situation as Jeramie, I started out as the narrator, so my job began with voice recording. The other five had already started filming, and looking back, it feels nostalgic, as when I first greeted them, I was overwhelmed by their flashy costumes and everyone's aura. I made my first appearance as Jeramie at the end of episode 11, where I was suddenly performing with a mask on.

My real appearance began in the next one, episode 12, and since his character is set to have lived for 2,000 years, I thought I should have a certain amount of freedom in my performance. At the time, I still wasn't used to being on set, but it's not good to get nervous, so I just gave it my best shot. I was really happy that everyone was willing to talk to me during this time. Thanks to them, I was able to open up right away.

In the beginning, I think Jeramie was a character who he himself was hard to read between the lines (laughs), but as the story progressed, his growth was also depicted, which I personally found very rewarding to perform. In particular, I think that episode 26 was a turning point for Jeramie. Just before Desnarak VIII dies, the scene where they exchange the lines, "You'll become king, and make them see, that the Bugnarak are here" and, "You'll be there too……" is one of my favorites in the entire show. Desnarak VIII is family, as they share the same name "Narak," and the, "You'll be there too" was an expression of his feelings that he didn't want him to die, as Desnarak VIII's existence was a major factor in Jeramie's resolution to become king.

-The final episode had a perfect conclusion and everyone was satisfied-

After entering the new chapter, in episode 29, there was a scene in which I play a major role as the mastermind behind everything. It was difficult to find the right balance, but I acted with so much enthusiasm that I was willing to yell at everyone. As Jeramie, I wish for peace more than anyone else, as I want to protect everyone at the expense of myself, so I faced the situation as best as I could, which was both noble and heartbreaking.

Then, in episode 31, everyone fought to clear my (Jeramie's) name. I feel that Jeramie, who has been lonely for such a long time, had finally made true and kind friends. Also, the line "I love you" that he says to his mother (Nephila) in this episode really moved me. In episode 12, for those words he said, "There's no phrase in this world that's more cliche," but I didn't realize he would capture that foreshadowing so effectively.

There's a scene where he fights together with his mother towards the end of episode 49, and I'd like the parents who watch the show to pay attention to the relationship between us as parent and child.

Also, in episode 47, it was really intense when Grodie was given the "King's Proof." For Jeramie, the "King's Proof" is "eternal life," so he'll no longer be immortal if he uses it……The determination to reach that point was no ordinary feat, and it must've been very worrying. That's why the scene where Jeramie talks with Hymeno in front of the setting sun after making up his mind left such an impression on me. Marie was able to convey her thoughts clearly, so I was able to naturally get into the role, and I think the two of us were able to create a performance that worked well together.

The final episode perfectly portrayed Jeramie's role as the storyteller, which had continued from the first episode, and the story comes to a perfect conclusion based on what had happened so far. I was talking to everyone on set, and deep down, we feel we were able to end the show properly.

More than anything, I'm really satisfied that I was able to spend a year with this group. Throughout the year, I'm sure each of us had our own hard and painful times, but seeing everyone's faces on set made me feel at ease. I'm very grateful to the five of you who played the roles of king.

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: The Kings Group Discussion Over the past year of filming, the bonds of the cast have gradually deepened. Looking back on filming, we asked them about their "true opinions" that they can only talk about now.

-Fun memories from the past year-

Kaku: The first topic is "fun memories." Does that mean the casual conversations we all had while filming? (laughs). We all talked in the moment and everyone would laugh and go "wahaha" alot.

Hirakawa: On the other hand, filming alone made me feel really lonely. It was natural for me to be with everyone else.

Murakami: It was part of our daily routine to go out and eat with everyone after we finished filming. It was fun~.

Watanabe: Also, the day before the broadcast was part of the fun!

Sakai: It's really exciting to see your own performance on screen. And then there were the reactions after the broadcast.

Hirakawa: We were popular every week on SNS.

Kaku: Each time, the character with the most active role would be trending.

Ikeda: For me, the recording sessions were also fun.

Murakami: I'd see footage for scenes I wasn't in for the first time during the recording, so that was alot of fun too.

-The many true selves that everyone's seen-

Murakami: After spending time with everyone, the first thing that surprised me was that Taisei actually likes to play pranks.

Sakai: Eh? I've never played one once.

Kaku: That's a lie!

Murakami: You did stuff like add wasabi to our kaisendon (laughs).

Hirakawa: It was really spicy! (laughs).

Murakami: Or before our cue, you'd shout, "Whaa!" from behind us.

Sakai: I never did that~

Ikeda: Yes you did~

Hirakawa: He did that to me too (laughs).

Murakami: It was also abit surprising that Aoto, who I thought was cool at first, would also mess around.

Watanabe: Eh? Really?

Hirakawa: It's also surprising that he pretends not to know. Actually, he's "in charge of being cute" (laughs).

Murakami: Yeah, "the person in charge of being cute."

Watanabe: When I first learned about the cast of the kings, I thought I was going to be the "cute one" (laughs).

Hirakawa: That's what we're saying!

Sakai: For Marie, even when we were filming late at night and everyone was tired, she had a fun aura surrounding her.

Kaku: Her jokes were amazing. We listened to these awkward jokes as we continued to perform at other sites.

Murakami: My nickname became "Mood Breaker."

Watanabe: Eh? This is my first time hearing that!

Murakami: Are you a liar?

Watanabe: That's a really straightforward insult! (laughs).

Murakami: Ahahahaha.

Sakai: The usual pattern is that Marie suddenly says something strange and everyone laughs.

Murakami: At first, I thought, "I have to do this properly," but halfway through I gave up (laughs).

Hirakawa: No, you gave up early on.

Murakami: Ehehe (laughs).

Kaku: For Masashi, he tried his best in the beginning to join in, but soon the two of us started speaking nonsense in our dressing room.

Ikeda: Conversations where you turn off your brain.

Kaku: That's it (laughs).

Watanabe: Definitely, when I passed by Masashi's dressing room, I often heard his voice from inside.

Ikeda: I have a loud voice!

Watanabe: Not a single sound came from the dressing room me and Taisei shared (laughs).

Sakai: You two seemed to be having fun.

Murakami: Yuzuyan is the youngest of the members, but she's like an "older sister" in some ways.

Ikeda: Yeah, she has the image of a caring person.

Kaku: Still, you're the youngest in your family, right?

Hirakawa: Yes!

Watanabe: It's fine now, but when we first met, she wouldn't even look me in the eyes (laughs).

Hirakawa: I'm a shy person, but I usually talk alot to hide my shyness. However, I was really nervous at the beginning of King-Oher (bitter smile).

Watanabe: And now, you're a lively person!

Sakai: I'm also from Kyushu, so I felt a sense of familiarity from the beginning. That's why I don't think you had any major changes from beginning to end, right?

Hirakawa: But, at some point, I started speaking with a dialect.

Sakai: Ah, that's right.

Murakami: Yuzuyan gave her all from the beginning.

Hirakawa: That's because Kaku-san, the oldest of our group, affectionately embraced all of us.

Kaku: Yeah! Say more of that!

Ikeda: Because of that, there was an atmosphere on the set where we could talk about anything.

Sakai: He really brought the five of us together.

Kaku: That makes me happy! Thank you (laughs).

Murakami: How cute~

Kaku: No, this is seriously embarrassing.

Hirakawa: (to Watanabe) Aren't you in charge of being cute?

Watanabe: (laughs).

Kaku: Conversely, I was saved by everyone's good character. That's why I wanted to support everyone. I've always felt that way.

-Feelings I want to share with everyone now-

Kaku: If we were to take this opportunity to say a few words to everyone, I'd first start with Masashi. Thanks for always messing around with me!

Watanabe: I hope Masashi will continue to do well with his friendliness.

Sakai: I want to work together again with you even after this job ends!

Hirakawa: I really appreciate the way you always looked out for everyone during filming.

Murakami: When we all go out together, he takes the initiative to invite us. Thank you for creating so many memories.

Ikeda: Eh! I'm so happy! Marie has always been cheerful, and I hope she continues to do her best with her cheerful and beloved character!

Murakami: Yeah! I'll do my best!

Watanabe: I hope you keep that smile on your face.

Sakai: She has the kind of character that I wish I had as a childhood friend or something. You always had a smile on your face and brightened up the set.

Kaku: For her performance, in the Hymeno episode (episode 36), Hymeno, who was being impersonated by Kamejim, was really interesting. I'd like to see a performance like that in a different production.

Hirakawa: Marie has always supported me with her "harmonizing" spirit. On the other hand, from now on, I hope to be able to help her as much as possible.

Murakami: Yuzuyan is the one who has always been there for me. I think that's her strength, and I hope she continues to be there for many people.

Hirakawa: Of course! Thank you.

Kaku: Despite being the youngest, she was the hardest worker in our group. During the idol episode (episode 38), even though she was having a hard time during filming, she simply said, "I have to practice tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and then the day after the day after tomorrow I have a costume fitting." That's what gave me courage and energy.

Watanabe: She was more aware of her surroundings than anyone else. You helped me there too.

Sakai: That's right. When I was alittle out of the loop, she'd casually come over to me.

Watanabe: I'd say it's okay to think for yourself from now on.

Ikeda: Right, take care of yourself more.

Watanabe: Be selfish.

Hirakawa: Well then, I guess my goal is to be Hymeno (laughs)

Murakami: For Kaku-san, when the time came, he'd show off his "dependable big brother" nature.

Ikeda: He's got a heart as generous as the universe itself.

Hirakawa: I asked Kaku-san for alot of advice during filming, and he always listened to everything. I'm sure I'll be asking him for advice again in the future.

Kaku: Please do, please do!

Watanabe: When I got heated, he'd calmly give me advice from an adult's point of view. I also got alot of advice from him.

Sakai: I'm not the type of person who can talk to others about things, but there were times when Kaku-san sensed that I was at a loss and approached me. That made me really happy.

Kaku: I was alittle worried that you'd all think, "How annoying" (laughs).

Murakami: Aoto seemed like he was laid back, but even when times were tough or difficult, he always made it a point to help liven up the mood.

Ikeda: Usually, Nabe-chan and I notice the same things. We'd both go, "Hmm?"

Watanabe: That's true! (laughs).

Ikeda: That made me happy.

Kaku: Also, he had a super funny and cute character. He made me laugh so much.

Hirakawa: In the beginning, I wasn't the type to talk much, but I was happy to open up to Aoto!

Sakai, Murakami, Kaku & Ikeda: Right?!

Watanabe: No, I think I opened up first.

Hirakawa: We opened up to each other. At first, I thought we'd never get along (laughs).

Watanabe: Eeeh~?

Hirakawa: I kept watching you from different angles, and then you spoke up unexpectedly. I spoke up too.

Ikeda: Such words! (laughs). (*she used alot of onomatopoeia)

Sakai: Aoto and I are the only ones who are the same age.

Ikeda: That's true

Sakai: Especially in the pilot (episodes 1-5), I still wasn't used to things, but I was really inspired by Aoto's good acting.

Watanabe: No, on the contrary, I was focused on Taisei.

Murakami: Taisei had a huge burden on his shoulders as the main character, and it must've been extremely difficult for him, but I thought it was really amazing that he didn't come off that way at all.

Ikeda: Yeah, I definitely respect that.

Hirakawa: You must've had a much harder year than us. Still, you never said "It's tough" or, "I'm tired" at all.

Sakai: No, there were times when it was tough.

Hirakawa: It's amazing that you never showed it.

Kaku: Taisei had alot of trial and error in the beginning, but halfway through, I learned alot from him, including how to switch between emotions and how to act. What'll happen when you play a different role in the future? Right now, I'm very excited about Taisei, and wonder what kind of actor he'll become in the future.

Murakami: After all, he's the "leader."

Ikeda: Thank you for being the leader of King-Ohger!

Sakai: Same here, thank you everyone!

Murakami: Even after this job ends, I want to see you all again.

Watanabe, Hirakawa, Kaku & Ikeda: We'll definitely get together again!

Retainer Cast Special Comments From the cast members who fulfilled their roles as competent followers, supporting the kings of each country, their comments have arrived.

Morioka Yutaka (Douga) Profile: A strong retainer who served as part of the entourage for Racules. After that, he went job hunting in the other countries but wasn't hired, so he became the retainer for the next king, Gira, and protected the country.

"Please tell us what you respect about Douga."

Morioka: He's someone who values etiquette, does his absolute best in everything he does, and lives his life honestly through his own convictions. He has a strong will that allows him to sincerely offer advice to his king, but I also like the fact that there's a part of him that's somewhat out of the ordinary and we get a glimpse into his cute side.

"What are your impressions of Gira and Racules (including Sakai Taisei and Masato Yano), and were there any memorable moments during filming?"

Morioka: I think that both of them have a perfect link between their own personalities and those of the roles they played. Sakai Husty-sama is kind to everyone, and his natural side that's visible in his hard work is endearing, which makes me smile when I see him on set. Yano Husty-sama built his performance with great delicacy and precision. He truly is Racules. Their appearance have a certain "aura" that allows me to be their retainer without forcing myself to be aware of it.

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Morioka: Douga, you must be exhausted from the many things you had to do to support your country and family…..Sometimes, it's good to spend time relaxing and not think about anything.

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Morioka: It'd be episode 21, the episode where Douga's job hunting. I have fond memories of the staff working together to support me to the best of their ability, even in the silliest scenes, including the wonderfully strange costumes and props as I traveled around each country. Then, after the short but intense performances with the other retainers of each country, there was the serious last scene with Gira-san. It was great and I'm truly grateful.

"A message to all the retainer members of the other countries!"

Morioka: Shiokara, don't address the kings with "you." Sebastian, despite your appearance, I'm in awe of your physical ability. Kuroda, I'd like to learn from you your excellent fighting skills. Morphonia, you should try to be alittle more motivated everyday. (*form of "you" meaning you're inferior to the speaker)

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Morioka: This was my first time participating in the Super Sentai series, and I was surprised and moved by the amount of energy and love shown by all the tokusatsu fans, and I was able to make it through this because of everyone's support. I can only express my gratitude. Your words on SNS and other sites have been well received. Please continue to love King-Ohger!

Chiwata Yuhei (Shiokara) Profile: When they first met, he saw Yanma as a yankii with a bossy attitude, but admired him after learning of his manly spirit. After that, as Yanma became king of N'kosopa, he became his retainer.

"Please tell us what you respect about Shiokara."

Chiwata: There's alot, but the most important would be his charm. You could call it junior colleague energy, but I think he's good at building relationships and closing the distance with people. I was never good at such things, but as I got older, I began to realize the importance of it and started to practice, and little by little, my weakness turned into my strength. However, I'm still not as good as Shiokara-kun, so I'd like to use him as a reference (laughs).

"What are your impressions of Yanma (including Watanabe Aoto), and were there any memorable moments during filming?"

Chiwata: I feel that Yanma is a character whose emotional growth was depicted throughout all the episodes. I think it's cool that he's able to calmly, sometimes violently, confront everything that happens to him, and then use what he learns from it to take the next steps in his life. I think this is also due to Aoto's acting ability, so Yanma and Aoto are one and the same! The most memorable moment was in episode 10. I still vividly remember thinking that the way he created the atmosphere of the scene was wonderful, just like Aoto.

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Chiwata: Thank you so much for your hard work! Keep up with the most coolest Yanma-kun and follow him wherever he goes!

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Chiwata: It's episode 35. I was very happy that Shiokara's character, which had been built up, was given depth, and that his past of being very different was depicted. It was a really hot development, and as an actor, there were many scenes that required alot of passion, so even preparing for it was fun. Until the actual performance, I would read the script everyday and think, "How would Aoto react if I did this?" Normally, I don't discuss the scripts with Aoto, so imagining it was part of the fun. What's more, we wouldn't know the title of an episode until the week before it aired, so when I saw the title, "Don't Cry Slack Jawed Tanuki," I was moved. The last bit of the episode was a perfect fit. Furthermore, I was overwhelmed with emotion when I heard that it was (screenwriter) Takano Minato-san who came up with the idea. I was also very happy that this episode won a special award at the "Toei Tokusatsu Fan Awards 2023."

"A message to all the retainer members of the other countries!"

Chiwata: Originally, I don't think the Super Sentai series featured so many sub characters. This is because there are already six members making up the main cast. However, I think the reason why the retainers have become so beloved is due to the fact that we all played appealing characters, and continued to support the main cast, who played the kings, in different ways in each country. This resulted in the popularity of "retainers". And for that, I'm grateful. Thank you so much!

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Chiwata: First off, thank you so much for sticking with us for the past year. I still think about how fortunate I am to have been involved in this production in the long history of the Super Sentai series. It was a great experience for me to see everyone's excitement online every week, and to then go to the set feeling like I was carrying everyone's voice with me as I performed. In this show, each character stands out, and I've seen the characters moving freely in everyone's minds through fanart, and I feel that this was a production that has been truly loved by everyone. There were alot of things that made me feel like, "Ah! I see, I definitely think Shiokara would say that! I think I'll do it! I want to play Shiokara like this!," and they were alot of fun to see. I also felt a real love for the people who participated as extras and prepared costumes for the different countries. Thank you so much. The Super Sentai series is revised every year, but I hope that King-Ohger will remain in your hearts forever. And, for those of you who are children now, I'd like you to go back and watch it again when you grow up. I'm sure you'll see it differently. Until then, let's meet again soon!

Yoshimitsu Hiroto (Sebastian) Profile: His real name is Romane Dearborn (aged 25). Under orders from Hymeno, he was given a "butler looking" elderly appearance through special makeup, and changed his name to "Sebastian" when he became Hymeno's retainer.

"Please tell us what you respect about Sebastian."

Yoshimitsu: I think that Sebastian's willingness to fulfill any of Hymeno-sama's selfish requests is worthy of respect. Sebastian's life was saved by Hymeno-sama, so he must be absolutely obedient to her orders. Well~ I think Sebastian understands the kindness and compassion that goes beyond Hymeno-sama's selfishness.

"What are your impressions of Hymeno (including Murakami Erica), and were there any memorable moments during filming?"

Yoshimitsu: I think that Murakami Erica-san is an impeccable young lady. There are no complaints when it comes to her appearance. She's bright and has a great personality! In addition, she's positive. Even when she's depressed because the performance isn't going as well as she'd like, she doesn't let it get her down, saying, "I've gained this experience, so I can use it in the next performance." In the first place, I don't have time to hold back (laughs). She had a hard time sitting down on set. When I asked her to "sit down," she replied, "Because all the extras are standing, I can't sit," which shows just how considerate she is. She's a really good kid!!

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Yoshimitsu: When playing Sebastian, my hair is slicked back, I wear glasses, and I have a mustache. His appearance is balanced by the fact that he wears a tailcoat, but while in casual clothes, with his "slicked back hair, glasses, and mustache," wouldn't he stand out? On the train ride home from the set, there wouldn't be that many people who'd sit next to me, right? (laughs). Well, that's because I did ride the train looking like that.

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Yoshimitsu: Was it episode 25 with the 20 person combination? If I'm remembering right, I rode in God Scopion. It was a fresh new experience for me, both the cockpit and the controls. Also, episode 36, where Romane Dearborn appears, personally left a deep impression on me. It was Sebastian with his special makeup removed. We find out how the super handsome Romane Dearborn ended up in the special makeup, and why he serves Hymeno-sama as a butler who changed his name to "Sebastian"……It's my favorite episodes because it depicts the bond between Hymeno-sama and Sebastian.

"A message to all the retainer members of the other countries!"

Yoshimitsu: To all the retainers, thank you so much for getting along with me. Douga-san and Boshimar-san are relatively closer in age with me, so when filming ended in the evening, we used to go out and drink alot. Morphonia-chan was my partner who liked to talk with me alot about old man stuff. I also talked to Shiokara-kun and Kuroda-kun about various things. From now on, please continue to support Sebastian!

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Yoshimitsu: Thank you very much for your support of King-Ohger over the past year. No matter how interesting a show is, it's not complete unless everyone watches it. This time, King-Ohger has been seen by so many people, and I think everyone involved in this production feels happy. If it remains in your heart and you remember it someday, King-Ohger will live on forever!! Thank you so much.

Hasegawa Kasumi (Morphonia) Profile: She's Rita's retainer and candidate to ascend to the throne as Gokkan's king. While she has a lazy personality, she's always concerned about Rita and never gives up on her work despite complaining.

"Please tell us what you respect about Morphonia."

Hasegawa: Even though she complained about it, no matter how difficult the environment or situation was, she was able to do her job. And, she never gave up on communicating with Rita. If it were me, I would've given up halfway (laughs). I also respect her quick thinking and ability to look ahead. She's a surprisingly capable kid (laughs).

"What are your impressions of Rita (including Hirakawa Yuzuki), and were there any memorable moments during filming?"

Hasegawa: I think Rita was and still is an interesting person. It's great that we're able to see them in many different situations, with the self they show on the outside and the real them. They're pure in a good way. When I first met Yuzuchin, I thought, "Waaah! It's Rita!! Rita's appeared!!" (laughs). When you talk to her, she's even friendlier, kinder, and more dependable than Rita. My partner. Also, I guess our most memorable moment was……the kabedon. I couldn't stop laughing (laughs).

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Hasegawa: When Chikyu is at peace, please relax and enjoy eating oranges under a kotatsu. Make sure to apply for paid vacations and eat lots of delicious food. Also, please continue to support Rita.

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Hasegawa: It's episodes 10, 25, 38, and 45. I was impressed by the gradual deepening of her relationship with Rita. While reading the scripts, I felt that the way Rita and Morphonia relationship grew closer was very endearing. I remember that even when I was actually performing, there was a warm feeling within me. And the more we filmed these scenes, the more I came to love Rita.

"A message to all the retainer members of the other countries!"

Hasegawa: Douga-san, We look forward to welcoming your career change at Gokkan any time. Boshimar-san, I've had almost no interactions with the real Boshimar-san, so let's meet in Hakabaka if you get a chance. When the opportunity arises of course. Shiokara, I've been curious about this for awhile now, but what's up with your curly bang? Sebastian, you've been a great help to my Rita. Thanks for your continued support. Kuroda-san, next time, please treat me to some delicious food. Gerojim, you're alittle bigger than the others, so please consider your range when moving. That tail will hit you.

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Hasegawa: Thank you for supporting King-Ohger up to this point! Even though there were many strong "personalities" among the kings, they were able to reach the same goal in the end. Through this production, I also learned the strength of valuing one's own individuality and respecting the individuality of others. I hope that King-Ohger, which was created by many people including myself, will remain in everyone's memories. And with that, see you later!!

Kanzaki Hajime (Kuroda's Actor) Profile: A male kuroko who serves as the retainer to Toufu's king, Kaguragi. Although his face isn't shown, his movements are gorgeous and he's got a very nice voice.

"Please tell us what you respect about Kuroda."

Kanzaki: It's possible that he's known Kaguragi for a long time, but since becoming his retainer, he's kept the "king and retainer" relationship, and has been thinking and acting in accordance to his position as a kuroko. He's sometimes missing, but he has a cute side. And, he has a nice voice (thanks to Toriumi Kosuke-san!).

"What are your impressions of Kaguragi (including Kaku So), and were there any memorable moments during filming?"

Kanzaki: He's big! Of course, he's also tall, but his muscle mass and costume makes him look even bigger. In his spare time, he does muscle training with Masato Yano-san and others, and he'll work on his shoulders using a folding chair, so he's definitely stoic! Other than that, when the Director gave me the "OK" for a take in the film where I use a trampoline as Kuroda, he was happy and said, "You did it!" He's a magnificent man, not only with his body but also with his kind heart, it's as if he's Toufu's mother nature!

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Kanzaki: I read somewhere that originally there was no role for "Kuroda," but I started speaking lines along the way, and I'm grateful for this blessed year. Once the matter with the Uchu King has been settled, please take a good rest.

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Kanzaki: It's episode 9, where I spoke as Kuroda for the first time. It was also fun to mess around with the other retainers! As for Toufu, it would be episode 37. It was like a Taiga Drama that condensed Kaguragi's past, which had been told little by little in the main story and the film into this one episode, and I was relieved that abit of Kuroda's past was also revealed.

"A message to all the retainer members of the other countries!"

Kanzaki: Boshimar-sama (Fukuzawa Jubun), I have fond memories of being mistaken for (Masato) Tsutamune-san when I first met him (laughs). He has a strong passion for acting, and I learned alot from him. I got goosebumps when I played the role of a soldier against him! Douga-sama (Morioka Yutaka), It was great that you got to play the role of a handsome old man with a family. On the other hand, when you were being interviewed in various countries, you were really funny and your actions were cool! Your style is good! Shiokara-sama (Chiwata Yuhei), He was always thinking stoically and calmly about how to make the viewers happy, which was a great inspiration! His style is good! Sebastian (Yoshimitsu Hiroto): Thank you so much for talking to me in your spare time and for thinking about a bunch of ideas for the flow of the performance on set! It's a pity that you couldn't do a backflip……If the opportunity arises, let's film it! Morphonia-sama (Hasegawa Kasumi), She had a "floaty" vibe, but she knew what was expected of her and was very stoic on the inside. It was wonderful to see her naturally embody what a senior colleague once told me, "Create fans among the staff." It's a pity that she couldn't do a back handspring……please do it if the opportunity arises! Gerojim-sama (Saitou Kenya, Suit Actor), With Gerojim's arrival, the retainer team became even more lively. The delicate acting that linked Seki Tomokazu-san's voice with his large body was wonderful! It's a pity that you couldn't perform a reverse somersault……If the opportunity arises… (laughs).

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Kanzaki: Everyone, thank you so much for supporting King-Ohger. It was a very meaningful year for me, as I was able to see the scenes in a different way than usual in the Action Club, I was able to appear on TikTok while rubbing shoulders with talented performers, and I was able to become part of the merchandise. Thank you so much for your letters and presents as well! I'll study so that I won't have any trouble when Kuroda appears again, thank you for your continued support!

Seki Tomokazu (Gerojim's VA) Profile: He's a Kaijim equipped with mayfly BNA and can mimic the appearance of humans by applying light refraction. He's currently working with Jeramie, who has become the king of the Bugnarak.

"Please tell us what you respect about Gerojim."

Seki: Ultimately, I think it's his unwavering faith. Even when he's lost, troubled, or frustrated, in the end, he tries to follow through with his beliefs. I respect his heart and attitude, which is like a blue flame, quiet but never extinguished.

"What are your impressions of Jeramie, and during recording, were there any episodes with memorable moments?"

Seki: First of all, I'm disappointed that I didn't get to work with Ikeda Masashi-san, who played Jeramie, even once during recording. When I saw Jeramie's performance during the broadcasts, I felt that his soft demeanor, intelligence, and his somewhat lonely appearance were all wonderful. I'd like to directly talk with him in person someday!

"Give a message to the character you played!"

Seki: I'm so glad you found a nice place to belong. I hope you'll feel safe and secure at Jeramie's side for all eternity.

"What was your most memorable moment in King-Ohger?"

Seki: That we were all able to ride the Shugods with the kings! I've ridden in Robo's as an enemy in previous productions, but I think the opportunity to ride a Robo in the Super Sentai series is very valuable! Even though it was just my voice, it was great to feel like I was in the fight with them!

"Please give a message to the fans of King-Ohger."

Seki: This year has flown by! I'm sure that everyone else feels the same way. However, I believe that the story will continue! Please continue to support King-Ohger, and let's see where we end up, together!

[tending-the-hearth]

putting this into a separate post BUT here we go

as i've said before i try not to go too much in the religious direction for all my narnia overanalysis posts, but at a point it's hard not to just because of the symbolism that's included, so this post is going to be primarily religion-focused so feel free to skip this if you'd like!!

which apostle each of the pevensies represent and why:

lucy:

this one is a bit obvious, but lucy is quite obviously meant to be a representation of john the beloved apostle. john was the one who never wavered from jesus' side, who stayed with him through the entirety of his mission, who sat on his right side during the last supper, and who followed along the walk to calvary and was the only apostle to stay at the foot of the cross as jesus died.

at no point in the story does lucy's faith in aslan fail. she continues to believe that he will come and help everyone. she and aslan have the closes relationship, he calls her "dear one", she is his favorite child.

i do also think she could be a mix of john and andrew, as andrew was the first apostle called by jesus after his baptism, and he is the one who brought his brother peter to follow jesus, just as lucy was the first to enter into narnia, and she brought edmund in after her, and became the bridge between her siblings and aslan/narnia.

edmund:

in no way shape or form is edmund judas. he is completely and utterly meant to be simon peter, the apostle who denied jesus three times and then repented. peter was one of jesus' closest apostles, part of his inner circle along with james, john, and andrew. judas never sought forgiveness after he betrayed jesus, while peter did, confirming his love for jesus, which is what sets the two apart.

edmund betrays his siblings and aslan, but after his rescue speaks with aslan, and recieves forgiveness for what happened. he is changed after his experience, and follows aslan without question. he becomes a great figure, someone whose justice is respected by his kingdom. he more than proves himself to be loyal and caring towards his siblings, his kingdom, and aslan.

peter:

i fully believe peter is meant to be a representation of thomas, the apostle who doubted jesus' resurrection. thomas was one of jesus' apostle throughout his entire ministry, but missed the first appearance of jesus to his apostles after the resurrection. because of this, thomas refuses to believe in what has happened until he sees jesus, and when he does, he proclaims "my lord and my god".

this is moreso due to the fact that peter does not believe lucy when she says she saw aslan, and is completely convinced that they are alone when they return to narnia. peter loves aslan and believes in him, but does not truly believe he is there until he sees aslan before him.

susan:

okay so personally, i see susan as mary magdalene rather than one of the 12 apostles. mary magdalene, while being one of the main female disciples, was also one of the only people standing at the foot of the cross (she was there with mama mary, mary, the wife of clopas, and john the beloved). mary was also the first that jesus appeared to after his resurrection, and did not realize it was him until he said her name.

susan is the other one with lucy who is there when aslan dies. she's there when he comes back to life, and she is always portrayed as being right beside him with lucy. while lucy is aslan's favorite, susan is close behind. she holds a special place of importance, and though she falls away from narnia for a little while, i like to think that she has dreams of narnia, where aslan says her name and she remembers everything, and she knows she is welcomed and loved.

also i think susan and lucy are VERY martha and mary coded

bonus caspian:

he is so matthew!!!! the tax collector, the outsider of the group, a man who was heavily disliked by the people around him because of who he worked for and what he did.

caspian is part of a kingdom who hurt narnians, his uncle tried to wipe them out. he was seen as an outsider, only to become a great king of narnia and a trusted successor to the kings and queens of old.

@wilder-fangirl

[joculatrixster]

"ill admit i dont watch sos nor raft streams but im calling out ppl who r calling scott specifically abusive and ive literally never seen anyone as vilinized as scott in fics i can think off the top of my head 3 fics ive seen where scott is the vilian and portrayed as jimmys abuser which is NOT true for anyone u mentioned." You can't say Scott is the only one villainized in the same breath as admitting you haven't seen content where other CCs get villainized by the audience.

Many of the *exact same people* who criticize Scott have also come out with posts talking about how uncomfortable Sausage makes them, some of them specifically citing his behavior toward Jimmy in SOS. Of course, I can't say that's true for everyone in fandom who criticizes Scott, but in my experience people critical of Scott are critical of others, too, regardless of their sexuality. Saying the criticism is fueled by homophobia doesn't track when the people criticizing Scott are also criticizing straight CCs/characters for very similar things.

Everyone has a different fandom experience based on what circles/fan archives/discussion boards they're on, and even on the same site people can have different experiences because of stuff like algorithms and who you're following. IIRC I have seen a fic where Grian, Jimmy, Joel and Lizzie were all siblings and Lizzie called out Grian and Joel for not being good brothers to Jimmy, while the only fic I've seen with Scott being "villainized" was a short ficlet where he did something small out of jealousy that didn't have any long term effects. I have actually gone *looking* for toxic FH fanfic and not found any. (I like complicated messy relationship story lines, so I feel like toxic FH in fic form would be fun to read.) Obviously this has not been your experience, but you seem to be treating your fandom experience as if it's the same for everyone else, which it's not.

its nnot just my experience when multiple multiple ppl have spoken out about how prominent it is specifically for scott again if its just a small issue id understand but the normalization is insane, ive seen a fic where scott turns jimmy into his pet doll and he needs to be saved from his clutches. ive read a gic where scott kills pearl and wants to destroy the entire world and has jimmy as his pet who he promised to keep as long as he stayed uner his thumb. ive read a fic where scott just leaves jimmy at the alter and pearl hunts him down and lashes out violently at him and we r meant to side w pearl for attacking him bc he didnt feel bad for poor jimmy. these were not obscure fics or small fics. u seem to assume an issue others r clearly pointing out theyve seen way more than others is only something some fridnge guy is complaining about instead of perhaps something UVE missed hm? uve seen 1 fic where joel and grian r kinda shitty to jimmy and get called out ive read multiple fics where scott breaks down jimmy as a person and needs to be saved from him, ive seen multiple posts calling irl scott smajor am abuser bc of one clip, ive seen pll say jimmy deadass is uncomfortable w FH and doesnt like scott which is just weird ass behavior. yes sausage gets flack i belive this but i haven't seen a shit ton of fics making sausage break jimmy soan mentally then get killed or punished in the end for being an irredeemable abuser. ive seen multiple of that for scott or just seeing scott in general in a veryyy negative light which is clearly due to an unfavorable interpretation of his character. which is fine, but name three fics where grian is intpreted that unfavorably w over 100 kueos. no seriously show me the fics where grian dies in the 3nd and its a thing everyone is happy about in the ficand they do not mourn him at all bc they hated him. go on!

its funny how ur orignal anon nitpicked my post and ur reply again nitpicks one part of a wider post as if the point i said was even what ur replyin to, im talking fandom space but even if i wasnt im talking life series fandom while i do mention oli thats just to ponnt out that One scott clip is not Just a scott thing, girl. vilinized in life series aka what i tagged, dont be stupid here its literally just making u look stupid 😭i used grian as an example bc hes someone who acts similar in the space i was criticizing and not sausage bc i am aware things may be different in a DIFFERENT context. ur majorlyyyy derialing and not rlly proving me wrong ur just proving that u dont rlly get what im saying which is fine but also all ur points r just...not disproving anything l. ur example is 1 grian and joel being criticized in one(1) fic(which is not what vilianized even means dude but hey ill give u this u did find one somewhat grian neg fic!) and 2 a guy not even in the fandom i tagged. girl...

[sideprince]

I want to hear your thoughts about the HP movies! So here go a number of asks, you of course don’t have to answer all of them (or any), but consider this an invitation to share!!

Which movie choice do you think…

-was the most pointless (there’s just nothing to be gained from the change and yet they did it anyway)?

-had the most outsized or lasting impact on how a character is viewed by the fandom?

-was actually a positive change?

-annoys you personally the most?

Thank you for this very excellent ask!! I will absolutely be answering all these questions.

Which movie choice do you think…

-was the most pointless (there’s just nothing to be gained from the change and yet they did it anyway)?

There are so many but the most obvious answer is casting Lavender Brown as white. Not only was there nothing to gain, but there was a lot to lose and it was just needlessly racist. I'm also not a fan of how Jessie Cave played her, but it's unclear how much of that was her choice and how much of it was the direction. She didn't play it like a 16 year old with a crush, but like she was a fangirl. Ron was just another kid in her class, it made no sense. When you have a crush at that age you might put the person on a pedestal, even idealize them without knowing them well, but the way she fawned over him was almost vaudevillian in how over the top it was. Her performance made the whole thing feel like a caricature, not an immature high school relationship. Knowing that she was given the role over a black actress only to give this performance feels like it was definitely a pointless change, but then, so many other choices in the films were too...

It also made that relationship and its effect on Ron too simplistic. It was part of his character to be awkward and inexperienced, and the main reason he went into that relationship was because these factors made him feel insecure and because it fed his ego. That's an important aspect of a character who's the youngest son in a family with 5 older brothers most of whom were high achievers, and whose best friend is famous. But then Ron's whole character arc of being fed up with being overlooked when Harry's name comes out of the goblet in GoF is shoved aside in that film as well, so why would HBP suddenly treat him as three dimensional? There was a lot of character development that Ron went through in HBP, in large part due to his relationship with Lavender, which was left out of the film completely as a result of how simplistically and cartoonishly Lavender herself was portrayed. It's one of many examples of ways in which the films didn't try to tell a story, but instead seemed like frantic efforts to check plot points off a list in order to get to the end.

Which movie choice do you think…

-had the most outsized or lasting impact on how a character is viewed by the fandom?

Hagrid. He's a complex and problematic character who doesn't seem to have formed friendships with students other than Harry, Ron, and Hermione. And if it weren't for his friendship with Harry, then Ron and Hermione wouldn't have spent time with him either, let alone formed a relationship (which Hermione did, at least, as we see in PoA). We see throughout the books that the other students are, at best, ambivalent about him, and at worst don't like his teaching style or his choice of creatures. We see this especially when Professor Grubbly-Plank subs for Hagrid and several students are vocally enthused about her, to the point of saying they hope she replaces Hagrid permanently after just one lesson.

Harry's connection with Hagrid is profound, because Hagrid was not only the one who welcomed him into the magical world and hand-delivered his Hogwarts letter, but also knew his parents and is a connection to them. Harry loves him not because he's big and cuddly and dumb, but because as a child looking for any kind of parental figures to latch onto, Hagrid was the first person he met who actively wanted to take care of him, did so when he took him to Diagon Alley, and continued to do so in welcoming him in his cabin and having him for tea regularly. Hagrid gives him advice at times, and is fiercely loyal. He also endangers Harry on several occasions and asks inappropriate favors of him, and these things altogether are what make Hagrid so complex. He plays a significant role in Harry's life, but not really in any of the other students'.

If you take the films on the whole, then by the end of the second film Hagrid is set up as this jolly giant beloved by the whole school (mostly because Steve Kloves/Chris Columbus didn't know how to end the film so they just focused on Hagrid's return from Azkaban - I can't even talk about Hagrid getting sent to prison with no proof or trial and that going completely unaddressed 👀JKR). Throughout the rest of the films we see Hagrid as someone who the trio have a relationship with only when it's relevant to the plot. They don't go to his for tea just to be social, and that's something that could have been fit in in ways that simultaneously offered plot development. I think it's a consistent problem in the films that moving the plot forward is prioritized without attention to developing relationships or understanding how that feeds into character and story development. In a franchise based on a book series that people latched onto because of their love for the characters, it's startling to see how little attention was paid to the thing that spoke to readers most.

Most of Hagrid's creatures like the skrewts or even nifflers are left out, as are many other elements that serve to color the wizarding world and make it feel more tangible. The only "monstrous" creature we see Hagrid teaching in the films is Buckbeak who is alone and not part of a flock and is left out of subsequent films. Care of Magical Creatures is left out of OOtP completely and it isn't even in class that Harry learns what thestrals are, but then Professor Grubbly-Plank isn't in the films at all. All the scenes where Hagrid is drunk around the kids are left out, as well as most of the ways he endangers them in various ways. If it weren't for Umbridge's bit in the forest, Grawp would have been left out of OOtP altogether (and tbh since she was carried off by centaurs anyway, he could have been).

Tl;dr the films exaggerated Hagrid into a big, cuddly, silly giant of a man who showed up when it was convenient for the narrative and didn't present any of the problems or challenges he did in the books.

(Runner up answer to this question is Hermione, who's portrayed as a two dimensional matriarchal harpy with consistent characteristics - like calling Ron "Ronald" which is... pointless and overly formal - that make her out to be an uptight school marm. Her personality is chopped at the knees and her main role is to be the voice of exposition, not a character unto herself with her own growth and development. Third place is the Dursleys who were an excellent bit of social commentary and contrast to Harry's world as well as a relevant example of abuse that informed Harry's character and emphasized parallels between him and Voldemort as well as him and Snape, but I'm trying to keep my answers to one thing. The general answer to this question is honestly just "omg everyone, everyone, every character was changed in pointless and terrible ways, help me understand why." The fact that Snape isn't even in the top three on this list tells you everything, because I could write a whole essay on that alone.)

Which movie choice do you think…

-was actually a positive change?

Leaving out Nearly Headless Nick and his Deathday Party in CoS. It added color to the book but not much else and it makes sense it was left out of the film. It would have added nothing to it. And that film was enough of a mess without it, let's be honest. I also don't mind that most of Rita Skeeter's bullshit was left out of GoF. I get that Rowling was making a comment on the press with her character, but I felt Skeeter was more of a result of Rowling having resentment after becoming famous by the time she sat down to write the book and GoF being the first one where her editor gave her free reign. It's uncomfortable the way this grown woman who's a successful journalist goes after literal children and has a petty feud with them. It's not even a reasonable parallel for how famous children are treated by the press because most of them either have a publicist or a parent who has one, they aren't expected to go up against journalists on their own. But then, Rowling's metaphors are often not fully thought through.

Which movie choice do you think…

-annoys you personally the most?

I'm lumping them as one choice but really it's the same choice made over and over and over again and I hate it so much it makes me want to throw hands:

"I know."

Character development is consistently choked by using this device of, "I know what you're thinking," "I know you're going to ask," and other variations of the same. Sometimes it's more subtle, like when Dumbledore takes Harry to meet Slughorn and Harry says, "I just apparated, didn't I?" but it's the same thing again and again. There's no reason Harry couldn't say, "what the?--" and Dumbledore couldn't answer, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if you had ever apparated before." Or, in a surprise plot twist, it could have been presented as it was in the book, with Dumbledore simply asking Harry if he'd done it before and Harry replying no and having a new experience. The change in the film offers nothing. It's boring. It deliberately prevents characters from being challenged and growing as a result. It's also often, but not always, Hermione who offers this kind of exposition, because that's her main purpose in the films and she needs a job, I guess? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I just don't see the point of it. It feels very much like soap opera writing. In terms of writing and meeting a studio production's expectations, you wouldn't gain page numbers or screen time if you had a character ask a question that another had to think about and answer. When Harry goes up to Katie Bell in HBP, there's no reason he can't ask her how she is and then what she remembers, instead of her saying "I know you're going to ask but I don't know." It would have used op the same amount of space on the page and the same length of time to film. (Actually, if HBP had spent less time having Slughorn narrate how and why he was taking acromantula venom and instead had him do so covertly as he did in the book, there would be enough screen time left to spread across adding a few lines of needed dialogue in several scenes. This is another frustrating thing about the films, and what I mean when I say they just try to check events off a list to get to the end: in the book, Slughorn's motivation to go to Hagrid's with Harry is to procure acromantula venom, which is rare and valuable. Once this motivation is taken away, as it is in the film, it's pointless to have him go through the motions of doing so, let alone doing it so overtly and with Hagrid's permission, which goes against the latter's character. It shows a profound lack of understanding of the story and its purpose that this moment received so much screen time when the point of that scene was for Harry to end up in a situation where he could get Slughorn into a vulnerable enough state to get the memory from him.)

The whole "I know" thing feels unnatural, forced, and pointless. It's clumsy and two-dimensional writing and if these films had to stand on their own and weren't based on a beloved book series, this kind of writing would have tanked them after the second one.

Thank you for this very fun ask! I have a lot of issues with the films, but I do enjoy them and still watch them often. I don't have high hopes for the HBO series (and I don't think it's necessary), but I do wish often that these films had been better done and by writers, producers, and directors more suited to the job.

[ananke-xiii]

(TW- fictional incest) What do you think about the possibility of a romantic relationship between Sam & Mary? Like not in a 'I ship this' way, but rather in a 'that's something that would be interesting to see explored in thr story' way. I am aware that SPN, for all it’s blood and blasphemy, was not a grownup enough show to handle that dynamic in a sophisticated way. Thoughts?

Thank you for your question and wow, this is a really big one, I’m not sure I can answer in a satisfying way but I’ll do my best!

I’ve broken down your question in three parts, let’s start from the easiest :P

"The show was not grownup enough to handle that dynamic in a sophisticated way":

I think one of the reasons why SPN is so loved and has inspired so many people to write *things (fanfics, articles, metas, you name it)* about it is because it’s so rich in terms of myths it’s insane. I’m not simply referring to “the lore” but, from a storytelling pov, you can explore so many themes it’s difficult to choose from: two brothers’ rivalry, the spouse’s blind vengeance for their partner’s death, the mother dying to protect her son, offspring carrying the sins of their parents (just to name a few)… I mean, literally it’s crazy, this is the stuff ancient mythology is made of.

So, on one hand, I give credit where credit is due and, in this case, to SPN writers because they somehow managed to weave (not always successfully) all these difficult threads together. The show lasted for 15 seasons because the actors were hot, yes, but also because the storytelling foundations were solid. On the other hand, it was maybe “a little bit of everything all of the time” and this translated sometimes into superficiality, some other times into “let’s sacrifice the plot on the altar of X theme” and it didn’t always work out.

I’m saying all this because, after s5, the biggest event in terms of foundational themes is the return of Mary. Carver spent his tenure as showrunner to reach that apex and it was a pity that he wasn’t the one who completed that arc. I think he was an interesting writer and he was clearly heavily invested into exploring the theme of family and the taboos pertaining to it. To sum it up: the show could’ve handled Mary and Sam’s relationship, they had all the raw materials ready to use and indeed they used them. How? Let’s see…

 “that's something that would be interesting to see explored in the story”:

I think that they’ve explored their relationship in s12. One of the possible readings for Mary in that season is that they basically gave her the 101 of s1-5 Sam’s arc. Mary is similar to Sam, like a lot. At least she's so narratively speaking. She starts off being thrown back in a world she didn’t want to be part of anymore and ends up in a different dimension with Lucifer. Sounds familiar?

The relationship between Sam and Mary, however, is not so much portrayed in much needed screen-time between the two characters (to my distress) but it’s prevalently mirrored in their MOTW episodes. And, let me tell you, it’s not a good one. I’d like to explore each episode but I don’t want to kidnap your precious time on this planet so I’ll just use “American Nightmare” as an example (also because it’s a great episode).

Yes, Magda has psychic abilities so the parallel with Sam is blatant. She is also considered The Devil by her mother. Oh-oh. She’s also a prisoner who’s forced to torture herself and bleed for her sins. Oh shit. Sam is pissed at Gail, Magda’s mother (“God didn't kill your daughter. You did”). Later, Gail will try to murder her whole family, her husband’s the first to go, then her son steps in to protect Magda and, eventually, Sam manages to convince Magda not to kill her mother. Meanwhile, Sam is tied up to a chair, unable to do anything but screaming. I thinks he feels a bit castrated. Interesting. From what I can infer, Sam is subconsciously livid at this mother. He hasn’t healed his separation wound. This is why he’s the first to smell something’s off with Mary even though she’s basically a stranger to him. This is also why he doesn’t even make an attempt at reaching her, the ties between them are very much severed. Of course, consciously he wants to know his mother and play the good-kid role for her. But scratch that surface and Sam’s totally not okay with Mary. And what about her? She feels guilty. Guilty for her past actions and guilty because she understandably doesn’t feel a real connection with the two adults in front of her. So she does the Sammest thing ever (but levelled-up) and asks for space to breathe. You see, it’s very very complicated.

The show has explored their relationship but only in the foreground and only via the MOTW episodes. Dean’s got his moment with Mary because, of course, this is also about him and he had to have it but, from the story pov, he was also the reason why she was back on earth so, you know, they had to complete that arc for him. That was okay with me as I was hoping that s13 had something more in store but it was a total disappointment as far as Mary and Sam’s relationship is concerned (well, tbh, it was a disappointment as far as everything is concerned but okay). So, again, to sum it up: I think the show explored Sam and Mary’s relationship specifically in s12 but what we’re offered is nothing exceptionally encouraging because there is a rift between them (seriously, s12 ends with a literal rift: symbolically it represents birth as both coming into the world and being separated from the world: the ties between The Mother and The Son are forever severed).

"a romantic relationship between Sam & Mary":

It’s time for the difficult part. Surprisingly, it’s also something I think about a lot.

Short premise: I adhere to a school of thought according to which stories are ways to explore our conscious and unconscious mind (mostly the second). Characters in a story play the role of some of the parts of our mind we cannot reach. For instance, I believe that it’s possible to interpret siblings in a story as the different side of the same coin representing a single part of our mind. Basically, siblings in story symbolize opposite things that must be integrated in order to move on. In a word, everything I’ll say from now on must be interpreted as symbolical.

As I said, I think that Sam and Mary’s relationship’s main feature is separation. Interestingly, there’s an ancient myth that combines the themes of motherhood, separation, romantic union and… castration. I’m talking about the myth of Attis which, I believe, could’ve been a way to explore Sam and Mary’s relationship.

Like all ancient myths revolving around the archetype of the Great Mother there are many different versions of this story. This is one of them (I apologize in advance for the deplorable retelling of such an ancient and fascinating myth): Agdistis was an ancient hermaphrodite deity closely related to the cult of The Great Mother of whom other deities were afraid of. They decided to tie them to a tree and evirate them. From their male genitalia an almond tree was born. Nana, the daughter of a river-god, picked one almond and became pregnant with Attis. He was later abandoned and raised by goats. Agdistis met him and fell in love with him. Attis was supposed to marry the king’s daughter and Agdistis, in the grip of jealousy, made Attis go insane and he ended up evirating himself by a tree.

Why am I talking about castration and mothers? Well, because this is a story about the separation wound, specifically pertaining to virility. It’s also a story that ends where it begins and this is exactly there s12 starts and ends too. Imo, it can be applied to Sam and Mary, too. Agdistis (Mary) being The Great Mother, the Alpha and the Omega, is separated from something that’s theirs in a brutal and coercive way. They are tied up and dismembered. Attis is born because of a violent act of separation that he’s forced to repeat. Sam as Attis also ends up tied up and dismembered in a brutal and coercive way. He has no voice at all. The two are basically the same person because they were the same person before separation happened. I know this all sounds sad but in ancient Rome they used to have a festival in Attis honor where people whipped themselves (just like Magda, come to think of it) to symbolize Attis’ castration and consequent death and, the next day, they would celebrate his resurrection (it’s a festival closely associated with Easter and it was celebrated around the same period, i.e. spring equinox).

To sum up: romantic relationship can’t even begin to cover how messed up Sam and Mary’s relationship is. We’re talking about The Love Above All, the unconditional love, something that, unfortunately, Sam has never discovered in the series. Mary was an opportunity for him to integrate this part and be able to move on a little with his life. Mary’s a bit different because in s13 we see that her guilt eases up a bit as she sees the world where she didn’t make the choices she made. Still, in terms of her relationship with Sam, working together, getting to know him would have maybe worked wonders in accepting that a part of her life was taken from her forever but that didn’t mean that all is lost. Reconnection and reunion are always possibilities.

Okay, wow, that was a lot. I still don’t know if I was up to the task, I did my best! Thanks again for your question, again, it’s a big one but I loved writing about it! I hope you enjoyed reading it (fingers crossed)!

[aerticent]

if you could add any one scene into the rq series what would you add?

I think I would want to add the moment in which Elara tells Maven that he'd be marrying Mare and that they'd begin working to get Maven on the throne. Imo this scene would work best from Elara's pov as we would get her thoughts on things and Maven's cause she can just look lol. I think this scene would've been beneficial for multiple reasons.

For one, it would showcase Elara and Maven's raw dynamic. We know that both Elara and Maven put on masks when they're around others, but I'd be willing to bet these mask drop when they're alone with each other. I think the only scene in the series where it feels like we're close to this "raw dynamic" is during the betrayal scene, and that's only because they assumed all three witnesses would be dead soon enough. I also want to know how she treats Maven when they're alone, if she was gentle or harsh with him when telling him what they would be doing. Or if Maven gave her much push back with the plan or if he agreed to it with little convincing.

I also think it'd be interesting to see Maven's immediate reaction to the plan. Maven was raised thinking he would only ever become Cal's advisor, that's what Elara was preparing him for after all. To go from that to becoming King is a big jump and I want to know if that alone needed convincing from Elara and I want to know how she convinced him. There's also the issue of Elara telling Maven that in order to get him on the throne, they would need to kill a lot of people in the court including Cal and Tibe. I think it goes without saying, but this definitely needed convincing. It's one thing to hate your father and brother (and others in the court) it's another to orchestrate their deaths yk. I also want to know what his initial thoughts on Mare were and what he felt when he was told he'd be engaged to her.

Overall, I think this scene would be good to show more on Elara and Maven as it's, in a way, the start of everything. We would get some insight on the way the two central antagonists interact with one another and maybe even see some of their motivations (it's very sad we don't have that in the books already tbh). I have a lot of grievances with the way Elara and Maven's relationship is portrayed (or rather how there is little to no portrayal) and some of it could be fixed with literally one scene that shows them interacting one-on-one.

I think if I were to pick another scene it would be that moment in the first book in Chapter 17 when Maven tells Mare to leave and he's left alone with his mother seemingly on the verge of an argument. This one would be good for the same reasons mentioned prior (with minor differences due to it being an argument and all) except for the reaction stuff as that would've already happened lol.

[kukuandkookie]

Sorry I know you worked hard on this analysis and yes it’s a very lovely and moving read and as others have said, it’s really strong and I can feel the passion—

But also…

BERYL AND SAPPHIRE MENTION??? 🥺🤧🥹

As much as I love Link Click, Beryl and Sapphire will truly always have a special space in my heart.

Especially since Link Click already has a huge fandom internationally too, but Beryl and Sapphire is more underrated globally and I tend to gravitate to loving underrated things even more loudly. But also for Link Click, it’s an objectively really strong donghua almost anyone would recommend to anyone else in a near heartbeat, while for Beryl and Sapphire, maybe it’s more flawed objectively in animation etc, but subjectively I always want to recommend it.

Anyway sorry for the Beryl and Sapphire freak out ahaha. I was just reading this and got hit in the face with them and ahhh I love them (they are actually very Shiguang energy in some arcs if people are into that!). 🥺

Also to touch briefly on why the nature of Shiguang’s relationship may be up to interpretation, I think of it as there being three layers to Chinese media in terms of queerness, mostly because censorship in China is a spectrum so it causes some discrepancies:

1) Uncensored (as much as they can be), explicit, canon BL: usually found in novels and audio dramas and manhua—examples include most popular danmei like Mo Dao Zu Shi or Erha

2) Censored but still intended to be BL and is thus canon through queer-coding (could be in the background or in the foreground): most often seen in donghua and cdramas (which unfortunately gets many BL cdramas labelled “bromance” even though they’re trying to go against censors as best as they can)—examples include the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua adaptation or Wang Qi and Cui Bei in the background of Dalisi Rizhi or The Spirealm, a cdrama adaptation of danmei novel Kaleidoscope of Death

3) Homoerotic media that isn’t technically intended to be BL because we can’t assume the creative crews’ intentions but can be interpreted as such due to what can also be seen as queer-coding but is also still vague (not queer-baiting, because Chinese creators can’t even afford to queer-bait): most often seen in donghua and cdramas; these are what often get called “sworn brothers” in Chinese fandom, referencing a real historical tradition that’s similar to becoming “blood brothers,” and would be actually fair to call a bromance (personally, I like to call it “BL if you squint”)—for example, Link Click or the cdrama adaptation of Hikaru no Go

Censorship is horrible, but in the way humans adapt, it’s caused a unique situation for Chinese media where besides BL stories evolving to focus on genre and plot beyond just romance, relationships can be very very flexible. It’s really interesting to see, and it does make for lots of analysis potential! I think the recent cdrama The Way Home is a great example of this, as it obviously got past censors by being a story about brotherhood and family, yet everyone who watches it has raised an eyebrow at the potential gayness of it all.

That being said, sorry for derailing SLFNSKSH. I love media analyses but I don’t have anything more worthwhile than the insight you’ve already provided to share about Shiguang.

I do have some ideas about queer-coding in Chinese media in general and why real life bodies can’t portray it as much as animated or non-bodies (via audio dramas) can, which is the subject of an academic thing I’ve been trying to work on, but that’s no longer about Shiguang and Link Click itself. 😅

But it’s truly such an interesting thing to talk about it from so many possible angles!

Vortex We Took Every Breath to Follow : Shiguang and Their Companionship Through Life and Beyond

@justfrolikin I hope this will be a suitable reply to the question you asked; what I think about the nature of the bond Shiguang share.

First, a few words from me :

Even though I love engaging in fandom spaces and enjoy ship fanarts, fanfictions etc, till today my heart truly belongs to a very few ships. Shiguang is one of them. As long as one is not blinded by homophobic delusions, I enjoy discussing any kind of interpretation of my OTPs, be it 'Platonic', just friends™, romantic or whatever. But I have a fixed category (which very ironically is not quite fixed if you read the whole discussion) that fulfills my idea of true love.

for me, Love is a dialogic discourse with your existential other.

The terms I used are very loaded terms; 'dialogue' and 'other' come from the Bakhtinian philosophy of ethics, 'discourse' is a Foucauldian term and existentialism has a long postmodern and post-structuralist philosophical tradition. The reason I LOVE Link Click is because of their postmodern lens and the narratives of the characters, not only the protagonists fundamentally question what is the real purpose of life? Why do human bondings matter? The answers reside in the simplest vignette of everyday life. Grief, trauma, hope, memory, reconciliation, remembrance, love, family - these are the central themes of Link Click. Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi's separate existence and their interpersonal dialogue thematically and structurally complements the main ethos of Link Click.

When asked about the nature of Shiguang relationship Director Li Haoling answered : 是生死之交咯! (Shì shēngsǐ zhī jiāo gē! - It's a life and death relationship!)

source :

Fate, mortality, death, remembrance are the building blocks of their relationship as we perceive it.

Now let me talk about something. When I first watched Link Click on September 17th, 2024, the first Intertexual connection I drew was with another text called Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Funnily enough, early in this year I wrote a crossover Hamlet adaptation (and won the second prize in a competition hehe) interweaving a few elements from Godot. Time loop, fragmentation of time and space, panopticon with no exit - all these elements featured in that. I recommend Waiting for Godot to you all, you'll understand why it resonates so much with Link Click.

Now,

Lu Guang is a person who is shown to be a character who has some mysterious powers to manipulate time and space. Even from the very beginning, he has this dominant (and sometimes seemingly monologic that feels problematic to new viewers) voice with which he guides Cheng Xiaoshi through the dives. He is apparently headstrong and has acquired all kinds of praises ™ like hypocrite, selfish (lol) and what not. Again quoting Li Haoling "Lu Guang is a complex and delicate character." But after the release of 'The Eye' and 'The Lull', I think we are pretty sure that Lu Guang has been trapped in a rewind, like a Sisyphus figure. A friend of mine told me the other day, "Superficially, Lu Guang is presented as an archetypal strategist, the one who guides, the one who keeps things in control, but in reality, he has no agency whatsoever." Lu Guang lacks the fundamental agency in life (we all do but we have to accept it one day or other) and that mortifying realisation comes to him with the death of Cheng Xiaoshi. What is unacceptable to him is the most obvious outcome of a mortal life : death. Lu Guang's tragic flaw stems from this unacceptability of Cheng Xiaoshi's death and him attempting to manipulate time, very Sisyphus of him. Till now, we are yet to see Lu Guang's character traits without any reference to Cheng Xiaoshi but this does not reduce his character depth. His denial is actually very delicious ( I almost wrote a paper on this, taking the popular sci-fi trope of time travel as an allegorical and symbolic means of resistance and subversion but anyway, it's not relevant here)

Lu Guang's character makes me fall in love with the song Flash by Gorilla Attack. It is from Lu Guang's character, no one can convince me otherwise.

Just a loop A bored 'n loop Should I do this now 'til the end? Into the story As just an extra You are the reason I live But you don't remember me? Oh, can I be with you?

And

The only thing that I got, just like a little lamp I gotta go in one-way smoke Resist the lifeless scenario Become the person The person I wished for that day The room like a coffin, too bright A groove that I lost faraway Blanket, I need a blanket Not a synthetic one Notice the regret engraved so hard

And the line that keeps coming back as a haunting refrain :

Flash me, flash me Gotta get the power to rewrite I just wanna deny, I just wanna rewrite, yeah

Every time I listen to this song, these lines send a chill down my spine. But Lu Guang's obsession with 'rewrite' echoes with what my professor said to be Hamlet's constant meta-theatrical discomfort with the script, role, play he has been provided with. He does not comply with the playwright's words. Apart from time and death, I think Lu Guang's most wretched enemy is Li Haoling himself. That's why he constantly wants to 'rewrite', but all he has got till now is 'rewind'. Now whether his 'urge to rewrite' will turn into a successful 'write back' is the central play of the plot we are looking up to. What is my personal opinion on the ending?

The ending which is so dryly plausible in our real world is Lu Guang accepting his defeat and carries within him the remembrance of Cheng Xiaoshi.

But my question is, my brother in Buddhism Li Haoling, why the fuck would I watch your Link Click to know that death is the node that can't be changed? Is it not the given fact? It's a cultural text, however modern or postmodern a text might be, it ultimately uses the plot to defamiliarise and convey well known concepts and emotions with a critical engagement. A plot is just a vehicle, a crucial one, to help us have a greater and more nuanced vision of life. Due to non-linear narrative and active subversion of chronotope, complex plot will have plot twists and cliffhangers BUT it still has to perform a crucial, non negotiable role - the arc. If the beginning point and the ending point have the same temperaments, what kind of significance will it even achieve?

If Lu Guang can't write back at the end of Link Click, the structure of the plot will be like this :

1. Exposition, rising action : Cheng Xiaoshi died at the very beginning, Lu Guang is fucked.

2. Climactic stage : shit and shit and complex quantum physics, hallelujah hot villains, 'I am a great writer I can kill any character TeeeHeeeeHeeee', backstories, parallel narratives, foil characters have no relevance and rendered completely meaningless,

3. Falling action and resolution : Cheng Xiaoshi is still dead to the very ending, Lu Guang is still fucked.

No catharsis, not a milimeter of displacement from the beginning point.

What is the fucking point?! From the perspective of a writer and a critical reader, I can say it will be a sheer waste of money, time and potential. I would rather watch... whatever.

The friend I mentioned before told me, " You know why Emma or Chen Bin die? They had to die. Emma had a loving family, she got the job she wanted, she had her hardships but she didn't begin with tragedy. And when tragedy came, she was so not ready to negotiate the problem and considered self-annihilation as her first choice. She actively erased the possibility of dialogue with herself. If Emma were an orphan, struggling with unemployment and other hardships from the very beginning, I don't think Emma would die that easily. Emma was denied the conflict of life which very ironically tests human agency itself."

And for Chen Bin...during my first watch, the moment I saw him my instincts told me he was going to die. He had a loving wife, a daughter, he loved her, she accepted the proposal and they married soon. Conflict where? To bring his story to a full circle, he had to die.

I can say every parallel story in Link Click can be judged from this lens. People who had a point of conflict (the noodle lesbians, the couple who lost their child, Xu Shanshan, that old man) engaged in dialogue with themselves, others and social forces ultimately got a happy ending. Even in the earthquake episode, it's a story of reconciliation with the past, the man got his mother's photos and it's plausible and satisfying (and bittersweet resolution). He got his (absent) father back.

Another thing, we as a fandom have a collective amnesia about....*drumrolls* Cheng Xiaoshi's character! Congratulations! The man, the freaking protagonist just dies at the beginning, accepts his death, and remains dead. Doomed yaoi allegations are just nonsense. Link Click is doomed if Shiguang doesn't get a happy ending. Link Click is NOT a dramatic monologue told from Lu Guang's perspective, engaging with his perpetual trance of melancholy and him holding onto Cheng Xiaoshi's memento mori.

If Lu Guang is attempting to write back to Li Haoling and the doomed yaoi allegations, Cheng is attempting to write back to Lu Guang himself, not in confirming his own death, but saving Lu Guang from the loop of eternity and by being together. Cheng Xiaoshi is always seen to be guided by Lu Guang, he has to witness repercussions of his actions. Even with all this knowledge I will say, Cheng Xiaoshi has way more agency than Lu Guang has. During my first watch, I could feel Lu Guang has this barrier of guilt and unsettled emotions wrapped around him which denies Cheng Xiaoshi access into the deepest core of his subjectivity. Even though he achingly wishes to be together with Cheng Xiaoshi, the burden of his past actions and PTSD holds him back from being together with him, as if his existence is antithetical to Cheng Xiaoshi's existence. Cheng Xiaoshi is that glitch in the matrix that messes up Lu Guang's plans of withdrawing himself from Cheng Xiaoshi. Cheng Xiaoshi should not listen to everything Lu Guang orders. In season 1, he mostly conforms to Lu Guang's ideals, but in season 2, when Lu Guang was hospitalised, Cheng Xiaoshi became more active and you could tell a layer of barrier melted away. He was less of a stone statue, showed more emotions (the S2ep1 lmao when he said "would you prefer if I die?" abhimaan we call it), then the unique high five that feels like Lu Guang accepting Cheng Xiaoshi's proposal or something :

(LMAO ignore my comments, but what I said is true)

My point is, Cheng Xiaoshi is Lu Guang's existential other and vice versa. They cannot live without each other. They cannot exist without each other. If one dies, the other will die and I want them living happily ever after in heaven. Cause 'Break' clearly depicts them as soulmates. I personally take Break as the ultimate canonical ending

Do you see? each of them has one wing missing, meaning that it's their cumulative effort that will make them fly successfully. FYI, there is another Haoling directed, Haoliners Animation League animated canonical queer donghua called 'Beryl and Sapphire'. A separate episode, episode 13 just explores this 'one wing soulmate trope'.

Now take them as friends, platonic friends with no erotic feelings, pure familial feelings or whatever, they are like Yin and Yang, like Shiv and Shakti, and Yin changes to Yang and Yang changes to Yin actively as they interact. You will have a hard time pointing out who is who. I have watched TGCF and Beryl and Sapphire and a tiny bit of Spiritpact - all three directed by Li Haoling and I am well aware of his narrative strategy to represent soulmates and Link Click seems to be the one of the greatest (and my favourite) product of that genius mind.

I began with team Lu Guang cause he is a scorpio, I understand him, his birthday almost coincides with mine, we share some identical issues. But the fandom's often yeeting Cheng Xiaoshi out of the narrative phenomenon brought back my due attention to him. Is Cheng Xiaoshi so willing to be doomed? Does he not yearn to be with Lu Guang? Let me whisper to your ear...he yearns for him too.

so he

does understand that the person who dies...dies, death affects them the least who dies, it's the people, the family and loved ones who actually suffer. This man will leave his Lu Guang on his own volition? eh.

Also I wanna talk about Link Click's strategy of deliberate misdirection. The first and second seasons are so deliberately crafted (manipulation of narrative you can say) to actively erase Lu Guang's subjectivity and nuance. We are just denied access his perspective. He is mysterious but not that aligns itself with a viewer's emotions. In fact, during my recent re-watch, I felt "wtf Lu Guang, why are you interacting with Cheng Xiaoshi like a straight dudebro?" He is a menace, the kind I usually don't like. But there also seemed to be a critical undercurrent which I couldn't really grasp, but it was surely there. It was adding up to my increasing discomfort and made me question - "was it just my wishful projection? they do not share that bond at all." I was so pissed at that thought that I almost decided I am not gonna abandon Link Click. BUT BRO, BRO

'The Eye' and 'Lull' just blew my mind. I was not that affected by Cheng Xiaoshi's corpse advertisement agenda (that corpse is drawing people's attention who is suddenly aware of Yingdu release, great tactic, Haoling) what pleasantly brought me out of despair is Lu Guang's love for Cheng Xiaoshi was acknowledged in these songs. You will read between the lines on your own in season 1 and season 2 if you have that critical method to engage with a cultural text, but the silencing narrative was also very prominent. I very much felt that the Shiguang story is actually the central action, and not the creative sci-fi archtexual exercise of genres, which again, is just the vehicle. But The Eye and Lull focus upon them, them and them. Their emotions are acknowledged, they are no longer behind the veils of symbolism, parallel narratives, intense defamiliarisation; their emotional dialogue now not only demands a voice of their own but also has the potential to reclaim the central part of the stage as they struggle and negotiate power and agency. And I am here for it.

@guangshi-091305 I present to you my rubbish.

[that-irishman-fan]

sherlock sexuality headcanons!

Ay, everyone! I’m back with a brief list on my personal sexuality headcanons for the characters of the hit BBC show “Sherlock” that I fucking love. I’m only on the last episode of Series Three, so if y’all are going to comment or reblog, please NO SPOILERS! Anyways, sorry for my rants, I’ll just get right into what you came for here! As a LGBTQ+ member myself, I am so excited to write these headcanons for these OBVIOUSLY GAY cinnamon-buns! Let’s do it!

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Asexual biromantic in my opinion. I totally think he’s attracted to Watson, in a romantic and platonic sort of way, rather than a sexual infatuation. Johnlock is totally valid to me, and I can absolutely get behind it as one of my many ships!

DOCTOR JOHN WATSON

Bisexual, through and through, I fucking stand by this! I think he prefers women, but is in denial about his gay side. And I know that I am not the only one who believes that John is bi, though in my opinion he is still trying to process the fact that he likes both women and men. 

MYCROFT HOLMES

Queer, simply because he doesn’t like to use labels. I think he’s on the asexual spectrum like his brother, but is more open to having romantic relationships or sexual encounters than Sherlock is. Mycroft doesn’t really put limits on who he loves, he just does and that’s it, nothing more. 

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GREG LESTRADE

Bisexual too, in my opinion, with no specific preference between male or female. Mystrade is my personal favourite Sherlockian ship in the fandom, and I could totally picture it happening. Lestrade was apart the community as a young punk in punk seventies London, and he still is even after cleaning up his life. 

MOLLY HOOPER

Closeted pansexual who prefers men or out of the binary individuals, but she won’t be fussy about who she loves. Sherlock knows Molly is LGBTQ+ but has kept his mouth shut out of the small ounce of love he holds for her. 

IRENE ADLER

LESBIAN and SAPIOSEXUAL in capital letters, everyone! Fly the sapphic flag, because Irene is as gay as you can get. People might question my reasoning due to the fact that in the show she is portrayed as being sexually/romantically attracted to Sherlock--but I think it was more of an intellectual lust rather than physical, if that makes any sense. 

MARY MORSTAN-WATSON

Bisexual, leaning towards women, I think. She was totally attracted to John and I will not hesitate to say that I ship them completely! They are perfect together, in my opinion. I like JohnLock too, but there is something about John x Mary that is very charming. But yes, Mary could be with a man or a woman, it doesn’t matter to her. 

PROFESSOR JAMES MORIARTY

Pansexual, and I won’t hear anything else! That was a joke, I respect all headcanons, y’all! I know pans when I see them, being pansexual myself, and he is pan in every single way possible! Moriarty has no limitations or constraints holding him back, and gender never mattered to him anyways. I will say that he’s defo aromantic, preferring a sexual relationship or platonic friendship instead of a marriage/dating scenario. HE IS MY PAN KING, THOUGH! 

MRS. HUDSON

A straight ally--she is super supportive of gay and transgender rights, and was one of the original JohnLock shippers too. To her, it isn’t wrong or strange to be LGBTQ+ at all. Mrs. Hudson is sympathetic, caring, and loving, there is not a homophobic or transphobic bone in her body!

[gretavansteph]

Sunshine 1 | Josh Kiszka

so this is the first actual part to the story! i’m thinking maybe 10-15 parts? we’ll have to see how it goes but i hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His touch was warm, very warm. His lips, god his lips, the things they could do, no, the things you wanted them to do. You almost felt guilty thinking this way, especially right now. 

You were sitting with the boys, hanging around a fire. You all had been invited to a small bonfire a mutual friend was having. It was pretty chill, nothing too crazy just a few close friends, a big fire, and an even bigger selection of alcohol. You were sat between Jake and Josh. Sam and Danny across from the three of you, and a few other friends filling in the other spaces. You listened intently as Josh told a story, his eyes wild with excitement, an enormous smile on his face, and his hands flying around to really portray what he was saying. You could not for the life of you remember what the hell he was even going on about, you were so captivated by the way he spoke. Even more so, by the way he would randomly place his hand on your knee and squeeze to make sure you were still listening. You couldn’t tell if it was the fire, the alcohol, or his touch making you hot but damn were you burning up.

You watched his lips closely, a little too closely. You watched him poke his tongue out and wet them and then continue with his story. You watched his hair as it seemed to glow like a pretty halo due to the fire. You stared at his cheeks, flushed due to the heat and the alcohol. You inspected every little thing on his face, all the while still not knowing shit of what he was talking about. 

“It was super insane! Right, Y/N?” 

You stared, then blinked, then awkwardly coughed. Everyone was looking at you, waiting for you to answer. Josh had concluded his story and had turned his attention to you, as did everyone else. His hand was back at your knee giving you a squeeze. Had you not been so focused on his pretty eyelashes and how they fluttered like butterfly wings when he blinked, you would’ve paid close attention and maybe would’ve been a little more prepared than you were now.

“Um..” Fuck. “Yeah, yeah it was.”

You mentally rolled your eyes at yourself, way to sound lame, you thought. The group gave you weird looks followed by small laughs, then continued on conversing amongst themselves. Josh turned towards you with a concerned look. Oh, you just love when he looks at you. His eyes were so sweet, like honey. His lips the perfect shade, like he just finished eating a pomegranate. Shiny due to him licking them, you wanted to lick them, shit you wanted to lick him, if only you could just lean forward and-

“Bro are you good? You look constipated as hell.”

Why did there have to be two of them? And why did the second one have to be the complete opposite if the first one? You slowly turned around to face Jake, his stupid smile on his stupid face said it all. 

“Do you ever like, gee I don’t know, shut the hell up?” you said, causing him to laugh. You heard Josh chuckle behind you as you continued. “And I’m not constipated, ass wipe. You’re tainting my oxygen and it bothers me.”

Jake laughed again and blew you a kiss, to which you smiled and shoved his shoulder. 

Though you were totally and utterly in love with Josh, you also loved his twin brother, Jake. Not in that way of course, but you two were besties. You understood each other like no one else can not even Josh, and that’s saying a lot. Whenever you and Josh became friends when you were kids, it was an unwritten rule to become best friends with his twin brother. And their younger brother, Sammy. And then his best friend. Danny. You guys were all really close. Having known each other literally your whole lives your relationships with each other only grew stronger and stronger and stronger. They were all different of course, but in their own special ways and you cherished each and every one of them.

You turned away from Jake to face Josh, who was looking at you with a smile.

“You okay, Y/N?” he asked. Actually concerned, unlike the doofus behind you. “You seemed kind of out of it before and I just want to make sure you’re alright, are you still having a good time?”

Oh, he’s just so stinking sweet!

“Yeah I’m totally fine.” you smiled. “Just thinking, but I’m all good. I might actually go and get another drink.” you stood up and dusted your shorts off. 

Josh stood and did the same. “I’ll come with.”

You smiled at him and together the two of you walked inside to get another drink. It was getting pretty late, everyone was kind of lazing around now having had too much to drink. Thankfully it wasn’t that many people so the mess wasn’t too bad. None the less you 5 would still hang back and help clean, much like you always did. 

You hopped up on the kitchen island while Josh prepped each of you a drink.

“So,” you started. “How’s the new album coming along?”

Josh paused what he was doing and beamed up at you. He loved talking about his music, they all did. When they started the band it was more of a Jake thing, but it quickly turned into a thing for all of them. They all shared an equal amount of love and passion for what they did for a living. They had been blessed with small gigs here and there throughout the years, but you knew in your heart that it was just temporary, and that soon they would get the recognition they deserved. And they did. It came with it’s challenges of course, them being away from home for months at a time and being so busy and missing calls and responding to texts hours later, but you all made it work. Whenever you could you were in the audience with the family, watching those 4 boys put on the best shows of their lives. To say you were proud was an understatement, but you would never pass up a chance to tell them so. 

They had set up camp here at home in Nashville for a while, having just finished a tour, and you were ecstatic. You had missed them so much, and they missed you too, as well as missing just being at home hanging out with friends. They were set to be on break for a few months, and you all planned to cherish every single second like it was the last.

“Oh, it’s so great Y/N! We’ve got some pretty good stuff down I think and it’s all coming together nicely.” 

You smiled at him, you couldn’t help but do that when he shared his happiness with you. Or anyone for that matter. No one could resist the big ball of sunshine that he was.

“That’s awesome!” you said, and his smile grew. “I’m really glad it’s going great. I just know this new album is going to be,” you bundled up your fingers and kissed the tips. “Chef’s kiss.” 

He laughed and handed you your drink. “Thank you, Y/N, it means a lot coming from you.” He took a sip and motioned for you to follow him back outside. 

You made small talk with each other as you walked back ton the group by the fire, sipping your drinks occasionally. You took your seats back next to Jake, and turned your attention to the conversation at hand.

“Okay so,” Sam clapped his hands excitedly. “Truth or dare?” 

Everyone groaned, knowing damn well that these games, especially with Samuel, did not end well. 

“Dude, no effing way.” you scoffed. 

Everyone went around mumbling their agreements, they all knew what they were in for and they wanted no part of it. Sam pouted and crossed his arms, he really is baby and for what?

“And why the hell not?” he asked, still pouting mind you.

Jake was the first to speak up. “Bro the last time we did this shit I ended up digging dirt out of my asshole for weeks, weeks! I am not doing that shit again.”

Everyone laughed, remembering what happened the last time the boys were in town. Safety Sam, as he likes to call himself, dared Jake to ride on a foam boogie board that was tied to the back of a four wheeler, around a dug up soon to be highway intersection out in the middle of bum fuck no where. There was nothing safe about this by the way, yet Jake, having had too many beers and one too many hits of a joint, said fuck yeah, and hopped on. You all watched Sam pin the four wheeler and not even 10 seconds later Jake went flying face first into a big ass mound of dirt, sand, and who knows what. Sammy had tried to jump it with Jake attached to the back, and obviously failed. You, and Josh were the ones to go dig him out, literally, of the pile of dirt. Danny went and gave Sam an earful, but Sam did not care. he was too busy crying as he laughed so hard watching Jake get dragged out of the dirt completely covered in dirt in every way possible. No matter how many showers he took, he still kept finding dirt in places he could’ve sworn he had already washed. 

“You guys suck.” Sam said, as he continued to pout. “But fine how about spin the bottle?”

You looked around, everyone seeming to contemplate the idea. Why the hell, you had no clue. But you didn’t want to partake in it, no way in hell! that bottle lands on you and you may have to kiss Josh and there goes your spine. You’d turn into complete and utter mush and you were not going to risk that.

“Okay cool so everyone’s down! Y/N? Are you playing or not?”

Hold on, what? 

You looked off to the side, everyone had moved over to sit in a tighter circle not so close to the fire. You were the only one left sitting by it, how you didn’t notice, who the hell knows. But you slowly got up and moved into the circle, sitting next to Sam and upon looking up, sitting straight across from Josh. Fuck. Me, you thought.

Sam giggled to himself and grabbed an empty beer bottle, placing it in the middle and holding it steady. 

“This is gonna be good.” he said, and made the first spin.

You watched the bottle spin, and spin, and spin until eventually it landed on your friend Mel, who was across from one of your other friends, Kai. They both blushed and scooted towards the middle to share a quick kiss. Everyone hooted and hollered as they sat back down. And the bottle was spinning again. 

You weren’t that into it, how could you be when it felt like you were going to shit your heart of your ass any minute now. Damn Samuel always talking everyone into doing the dumbest shit. Why the hell did you just come and sit? You could’ve stayed by the fire and just watched. It would’ve sucked seeing Josh kiss someone else but fuck, the possibility of him maybe kissing you? It was too much. You couldn’t sit there, you just couldn’t do it. You had to leave, you had to-

“Oh Joshie poo, it’s your turn to kiss Y/N!” 

Excuse me, what?!

You looked up, wide eyed. Sam was sitting next to you holding his hands over his mouth, trying to hide his laughter. Danny looked nervous, but intrigued. Jake was smirking, nudging Josh. Everyone was looking at you with big creepy smiles, your friend Mya sitting next to you giving you a nudge. You looked down at the bottle, it had landed on Josh, and the other end was on you. 

You wanted to scream, internally you were but externally you wanted to scream. You wanted to cry and throw up and shit and piss all the same time. This was not happening, it was a joke right? This is not how your first kiss with Josh was supposed to go. Not even close.

“Are y’all gonna fucking kiss or what?” fucking Jake. “Cause if you are please do it within this month.”

You wanted to hit him, throw a stick at him, push him in the dirt again just anything to get him to shut the hell up.

You swallowed and took a deep breath, and looked up. Locking eyes with Josh you both straightened up. Having a silent conversation with your eyes. 

Are you sure? Dude, are you sure? This is fucking crazy. You can say that again.

You couldn’t do it, not like this. Not now with all these people staring at you. You cleared your throat and took a breath, opening your mouth to say,

“I can’t.” 

Oh? 

Oh. 

That did not come from you. 

You heard the small gasps within the group, everyone looking from you to Josh, and from Josh to you. He’s the one that had said that. Not you. 

Oh my god he thinks I’m gross, you thought.

“It’s just a kiss.” Jake said.

Sam nodded his head, looking like a chicken. “Yeah dude, it’s just a kiss.”

Josh shook his head and continued. “It’s weird, she’s my best friend practically my sister, and incest is most definitely not wincest.” 

Ouch. Anybody got any aloe for that burn, cause fuck.

Everyone looked at you, waiting for your answer. But you didn’t know what to say. You agreed with Josh it was weird, but not for the reasons he thought. He really just friendzoned you though, he sister zoned you at that, how the hell were you supposed to get past that?

“He’s right,” you said as you forced a laugh, not wanting anyone to notice how much this truly bothered you. “Shits weird.”

That’s when it got awkward.

“So...” Sammy cleared his throat and reached for the bottle. “Anyway, next round.”

As the bottle starting spinning again you stood up, not wanting to be apart of this game anymore.

“I’m actually going to head home, I’m pretty tired. I’ll see y’all later.”

Everyone stared, the vibes were thrown off it definitely wasn’t like you to just up and leave. But this shit was so awkward, not to mention painful, and you couldn’t stand to be there another second. 

You started walking away, making your way towards the front of the house where your car was parked. You heard shuffling behind you and then another set of footsteps. 

Please don’t be Josh, please don’t be Josh, please don’t be- 

“Y/N wait!” 

It wasn’t Josh, it was Jake. But you didn’t want to talk to him either. You didn’t want to talk to anyone. You just wanted to get into your car so you could cry.

You kept walking but turned around slightly to look at Jake.

“Not now Jake, please.” you didn’t mean to sound so heartbroken, but he had heard it.

He stopped walking and watched you walk away and get into your car. He watched you drive away and when he couldn’t see you anymore he turned to get back to the group, only to bump into Josh, and Jake knew he had heard everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I forgot how fun it was to write!! 

also y’all disclaimer for this whole fic, anything that is written and posted at any time is a work  of fiction. I do not know the boys personally so this story and it’s characters are just for fun! with that said I hope y’all enjoyed!

[writingwithcolor]

Indian autistic trans lesbian estranged from her transphobic Hindu parents

@whoviandoodler asked:

Hello! Thank you for all you do! My MC is an Indian autistic trans lesbian who (rather happily) lives with her aunt and her non binary cousin because her Indian parents and brother refused to accept her as trans (she left to live w/ her aunt of her own volition and was not kicked out). They're generally okay people who're not bigoted, but they fell into the pit of 'I'm not okay with this bcs it's my own child' and the narrative of some trans women's parents where they're 'crying over their 'son's' empty grave'. They're not the villains of the tale in any way, just the background sad story of many queer ppl whose parents will probably never accept them and who have to cut ties with the parents for their own mental well-being. I'm comfortable writing the queer part of the narrative, but I'm afraid I might be falling into some racial stereotypes with unaccepting/judgemental brown parents- I have no plans to 'redeem' them (bcs it's the reality I wanna portray), but I'm still in the early stages of writing the story and if you think that might be an overdone/hurtful trope, I can change it.

There's also the matter of them being Hindu, whereas the MC is not (her aunt is, though), and the MC only having her aunt and enby cousin as a 'support system' (I know community is a big deal in Indian culture like it used to be here). 

Am I unintentionally 'villainizing' Hinduism even though I have the very accepting Hindu aunt in the narrative and the parents aren't transphobic due to their religion (nor their culture, really)?

 Should I give the MC more of a community and connect her with her 'wider' relatives, or is it ok to have her be happy w just her aunt/cousin/(Indian) friends? 

(Her parents are first generation immigrants in a vagueishly American-inspired country so there isn't any relatives nearby). That q arises specifically from a worry that I'm cutting her off from her culture, which I don't want to do any further than her situation has already done (away from Indian relatives due to immigration v early in her life, estranged from parents) 

is it enough to 'immerse' herself in her culture thru food/other customs and her relationship with her (also immigrant) aunt and Indian friends, or does she need more people in her life to share that culture with?

Additional context from op:  I'm white, autistic and queer.

There is a lot to unpack here, and I admit that I can't answer every issue raised in this. Note that I am speaking as a very Americanized bisexual mod. 

Trans people do exist in Hinduism; the discussion about interpretations and presence are rather common. For example, there are hijras, which is a term that can apply to people that are intersex, trans, asexual, or eunuchs. Some versions of The Ramayana have hijras waiting faithfully for the king Rama to return to his throne after fourteen years. It was British colonialism which started the trend towards anti-hijra law, and some of those biases have persisted to the present day. 

(Reading: A Right to Exist: Eunuchs and the State in Nineteenth-Century India)

Some Hindu parents, even ones that give up the religion, are infamously close-minded and homophobic. I've come out to my family as bisexual three times, and my mother has remained in denial. She also doesn't know what the meaning of bisexual is, that I've put a label on myself. She tried starting several fights about it this summer, actually, and was talking about arranged marriages. This is just for bisexuality, mind, meaning that I can still marry a guy and appear to be conventional first generation. My mom is also not religious; she gave up her belief in God or gods when I was a child. Some stereotypes have a grain of truth to them because these kinds of parents exist and can be very hurtful. 

WITH THAT SAID, the big question is what kind of story do you want to tell? Do you want it to be a coming of age where the MC has a supportive community, or one where she feels isolated due to coming out of the closet? There are LGBTQ people and interpretations in mythology, and yes Hinduism isn't necessarily vilified. The people that practice the religion will ultimately determine how they will interpret the texts, rituals, or beliefs.

As for staying connected with their community? That depends on the individual and how they feel is sufficiently immersive. There is no definite answer on what makes a person more "Indian" than not.  Food can change with fusion cuisine and different ingredients, and people can too with the influences in their lives. 

- Mod Jaya

Like Jaya said, there isn’t one answer on what defines someone as more “Indian” than someone else. Does living in the US diminish the worth of my Indian origin as compared to that of my family in India? Does it make me more “Indian” if I participate in more of the religious customs than they typically do? Does having friends from a variety of backgrounds make me less “Indian” as opposed to having mostly Desi friends? It’s a matter of personal interpretation and how much an individual wants to connect. 

I’ve lived in a similar situation to what you described: one of my siblings and I are both openly queer, our parents are first generation immigrants, most of us actively practice Hinduism, though my sibling drifted away from it when they went to college. My family isn’t generally queerphobic, but they aren’t totally tolerant when it comes to the two of us. I’m not trans, and can’t speak for someone who is in a closer situation to what was described, but we’ve learned to live with it, mostly by not continuing to press the issue and letting them discover their views over time. 

I don’t think that this scenario villainizes Hinduism; the measures you described for avoiding vilifying Hinduism seem well-balanced to me. I would suggest maybe not limiting some of the struggles the protag had to her parents, and discuss the community a little more. Even if the family is isolated from their relatives in India, there are enough Indian immigrants in the US currently that it’s probable for them to have a group of Desi families that they are social with. Unless this setting tends toward an earlier period, I would think that they’d at least have a few people they know whose beliefs would be similar to theirs. What I’ve found is that it’s easy to discuss queerness in an abstract sense, less so when one is confronted with it. 

Wanting to incorporate community doesn’t have to mean just family--depending on the story you’re telling, you could, as I said previously, include family friends as a part of her struggle. Alternatively, you could give her a group of queer friends which includes other queer Desi people. You could do both, depending on how you structure your narrative.

About the aunt: I would be careful to make sure that she has distinct dimension and nuance beyond being supportive and Hindu. Even the most accepting people that I’ve known have struggled sometimes, and if she’s characterized as someone from an older generation, understanding and total acceptance of queerness usually doesn’t come naturally the way it tends to with younger generations, unless it has come through personal experience and/or exposure to queerness via education or social engagement.*

Is her neurodiversity also going to be a key point? I could see that combining with her queerness to be something you could address. Take this previous post (Neurodivergency and Desi Culture: Appropriate forms of Accomodation for Holi) I would do some research into different understandings of neurodivergency and its intersectionality with queerness, to ensure that this protag’s experience is representative of the groups she falls into.

*DISCLAIMER: This is what I’ve seen from the Desi adults I grew up around and how they reacted to me and my sibling being queer. This is not uniform or the only possible experience a young queer Desi person could have with their community.

~ Abhaya

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you have any ships that you like? And what are your opinions on popular ones like Floyd/Riddle or Adeuce or more rare pairs like Vil/Idia

I already shared my thoughts on ships in this post and this post! Please refer to those.

If I had to list a few ships that I do actively enjoy, I like Rook x Trey Science Club for the win and Azul x Jamil just because it’s funny watching Azul get on Jamil’s nerves.

To briefly comment on the three specific ships you mentioned:

Of the pairs mentioned in the ask, this is probably the one I think has the most potential for wacky scenarios. I don’t necessarily “like” it more than the others, but I like the possibilities it presents since Floyd is such a wild card and Riddle’s the total opposite of him.

Their personalities bounce off each other very well, and that makes their dynamic fun. I also think there’s a lot of value in what they can learn from each other (both in their flaws and in their strengths), so they can grow together in small ways. Also I’m just a sucker for size differences—

To me, Ace and Deuce are more like constantly bickering brothers or best friends that just get on each other’s nerves. I do see the appeal of rivals or friends to lovers for this duo, but personally I’d just prefer if they just stayed friends (just because media tends to portray EVERY friendship as having to evolve into romance, so I’m a little sick of it). Truthfully, friends to lovers isn’t really a trope I like, because I feel it unintentionally devalues friendships in favor of romances, or it can make things awkward between the parties involved 💦

I think I enjoy Ace x Deuce best when they’re trying to be wingmen for each other, and both of them are just too darn dense to realize the person their friend is crushing on IS them 😂 I love clueless couples jcbsisvsjsvwhsmsowgeueo

This is another pair that’s very contrasting. In that sense, I get this ship’s appeal—it’s like the mega popular and confident partner with an introverted and shy one. That has its own unique brand of cuteness! However, I have to say that I personally don’t feel that strongly for any Idia ship (if only because I personally headcanon him as aroace due to Ghost Marriage).

Idia doesn’t seem to be fond of “flashy” people in canon, so Vil x Idia is somewhat hard for me to visualize. I’d worry about the relationship being too “one sided”, where Vil is doing all that he can to be supportive of Idia and encourage him, and Idia wouldn’t be giving the same energy back just because of how his personality is. In turn, I don’t think Vil would be much appreciative of that lack of reciprocation.

Regardless of how I personally feel about a ship, I think they’re all fun to explore and I’d be happy writing for most of them if given the opportunity to.

[cruelfeline]

In light of all that we’ve learned with this most wonderful final season, some people have asked me to reassess Hordak’s backstory monologue. To see how Hordak’s narrative fits with what we now know about his home. To try to discern exactly what its discrepancies are, and why.

I’m going to do that! But before I do, I would remind everyone: this is a little difficult to fully untangle because, given that Hordak is not a main character and thus does not have the focus that we’d like, we really don’t know a whole lot about the Horde in terms of function, social roles, and general history. So this is going to be very much limited by what I can glean from exactly what the show gives us.

That said, it’ll hopefully still be interesting. So!

During season three, after recovering from his syncopal episode, Hordak describes to Entrapta what he is, what he was, and how he came to be on Etheria. He describes himself as a defective clone who, once upon a time, was the top general in the galactic Horde. When his defect became too much of a burden, he was apparently demoted, sent to the front lines to fight until death, and arrived on Etheria by way of unexplained portal.

This is what Hordak tells us, and, as far as we know, he’s not lying. Hordak, as portrayed in the show, is a very honest person, both in his own actions and in the actions he expects of others. He greatly dislikes deception and does not appear skillfully capable of it himself (save for that one time). Knowing this, we generally have to assume that, in his own mind, what Hordak is saying is true.

So. What gives, right?

After all, once we see the galactic Horde in action, we learn that it is a played-straight, honest-to-the-gods cult. There’s nothing distinctly military about it. It’s not a bigger, grander version of Hordak’s Etherian Horde.

It is a cult with a god-brother-creator at the helm, commanding countless identical acolytes who live their lives in slavish devotion to their master. There do not appear to be any ranks. We hear nothing about any generals, let alone a “top general.” There doesn’t even appear to be a need for anything like that, because Prime doesn’t seem to really delegate to his brothers in a way that singles them out or relies on real autonomy from them.

He can, after all, read their minds at will and slip into their bodies whenever he fancies. If he needs to make a decision about a battle on a planet at the other edge of the galaxy, he can just take over a body on that planet and make said decision himself. Or, at the very least, enter the relevant clone’s mind and influence the decision as needed. He doesn’t need, and certainly doesn’t appear to tolerate, clones taking their own initiative.

So, again: what gives? What does Hordak mean by “top general”? Why does he think he has this elevated role when we can see that Prime considers all of his clones the equivalent of faceless bodies to be used a he likes?

Well, while we will likely never know the full truth, given the lack of Horde background detail, we can safely assume some things from what canon shows us.

Namely that, while all clones appear indistinguishable and do not seem to have named rank, there are definitely clone positions that work more closely with Prime than others. His attendants are one example. Those who are in his throne room feeding him information while he is working are another. (Hordak actually appears to be one of these, at least while Prime is trying to hack the Heart of Etheria, when Entrapta is captured.) And then, of course, there are the chosen vessels that will one day house Prime’s consciousness.

All of these positions can likely be occupied by any clone, with bodies switched out as needed (likely what happened when Hordak got sick). I doubt that individual clones have any sort of real rank. Prime knows this. Hordak and his brothers, I suspect, may not fully understand it. 

Rather, I would not be surprised if Hordak, deceived and indoctrinated into believing things about himself and about Prime that are not true, misinterprets the nature of his purpose and the truth of his relationship with his Brother. He believes that, fulfilling whatever role he was fulfilling for Prime, he was a general, an individual of note, an individual that Prime specially valued. Perhaps he fulfilled the role long enough that, in all but name, it became “his.” Perhaps he even fulfilled it well enough that Prime praised him frequently, cementing this unfortunate delusion. Perhaps Prime gave him legitimate favor -  a false thing, of course; simply a controlling tool, but Hordak did not realize that. 

Without canon confirmation, we can really only speculate, but these ideas seem reasonable.

Details aside, the point of the matter is that Hordak sees himself as “top general” because he sadly doesn’t understand that he is an interchangeable piece of a utilitarian machine. He truly thinks that he has this coveted position, that he is particularly useful, special, of great value. It’s a tragic misunderstanding that simply fuels his misguided devotion to Prime and prevents him from seeking freedom when he is given the opportunity. 

It’s something, I think, that people in very controlling religious organizations often end up thinking: that they are especially valued, worthy in some way that others are not. It’s part of how the organization controls them. 

By the by, there is also the theory that Hordak has suffered memory erasure before and is thus doubly confused, filling in blanks with fantasy, but given that we have no direct evidence of that, I’m not really going to go into it; it’s a popular bit of speculation, though.

Now, however, let us examine a different aspect of this. Labels aside, delusions aside, we are left with another conundrum: however Hordak interprets his position, it is very clear to us that said position does not actually offer the power or respect that a legitimate high military rank would offer. It does not appear to provide Hordak with any special treatment. 

Once upon a time, back when we first learned of Hordak’s backstory, it was somewhat assumed that the position would do something like this. Numerous fans speculated about how it might be a position that gave a clone dominion over others, or over their own personal ships or planets; some fans suggested that it might give a clone the right to a name. Now, of course, we know that none of these speculations are true: all of Prime’s clones are essentially interchangeable; all are part of a hive mind that eliminates the need for certain clones directing others; no clone is allowed a name, no matter what their current job might be.

So. What, exactly, is Hordak practically gaining here? Despite this position appearing to hold zero effective esteem, despite it necessitating Hordak giving up his self and his autonomy, it is abundantly clear that he desperately wants it back. Why? 

What about this position, whatever it may or may not be called, would provide Hordak with this sense of value, of specialness, of personal worth? After all, Hordak may be deluded, but he’s not stupid; even indoctrinated, he can tell that he doesn’t hold dominion over other clones, or have a right to his own name. He can tell that he doesn’t receive any functional privileges, that his own sense of value doesn’t translate into anything that you or I would think is “worth the price of admission,” so to speak. 

In light of that incredibly steep price, what does this position offer, in a world where military rank appears irrelevant? What does it offer, in exchange for Hordak’s name and his bodily autonomy and his freedom? In short, what does it offer that makes Hordak think it worth sacrificing so much for? 

Well. 

It offers closeness to Prime, doesn’t it? It offers the chance to work near him, to bask in his presence, to be spoken to and looked upon and touched by him. It offers the chance to receive his praise, personally. It offers the chance to perhaps -  hopefully, wishfully - receive his love.

Because that’s what Hordak really wants. Not dominion over others, or a fancy military title. He wants that emotional connection. He wants that approval and validation. He wants love. And for so much of the series, for so much of his life, he believes that love comes only from Prime. That working closely with him, being of use to him, will provide him with that sense of belonging and acceptance and affectionate care that he hungers for. That it will make him worthy and loved.

(There’s a line in the deleted Entrapdak scene, where Prime calls Hordak the “most unloved and unworthy” among his brothers that really cements the idea that worthiness is synonymous with love within the galactic Horde)

This is what marks the position as “special” in Hordak’s eyes: it is special because it stands the greatest chance of providing him with Prime’s love.

All of it is a lie, of course. Because Prime only “loves” his brothers as extensions of himself, and even then, only if they are physically useful to him. Once Hordak starts to lag behind due to his illness, he is quickly removed from Prime’s presence and sent to the front lines, destined to fight until defect or battle kills him. And yet it is a lie so powerful, and the clones’ need for Prime’s love so great, that he is able to use it to control them even when they are separated from him. To the point that a sickly clone trapped in a shadow dimension will forgo freedom in his desperate bid to feel wanted and treasured by his cruel god.

Eventually, thankfully, Hordak finds a true version of the connection he craves, someone who looks at him and acknowledges him, values him and loves him as he is, without him needing to prove himself useful. He finds Entrapta, and she provides that love that he sought from Prime.

This is why, even though Hordak actually ends up working in Prime’s throne room again, ends up close to him once more, he breaks free from control and kills his Brother. Throughout season five, Hordak remembers Entrapta. He remembers how she makes him feel. He remembers her love... and he realizes that it is not the same as Prime's. It is sincere. It is unconditional. It accepts him as his own flawed person, rather than the perfect drone Prime wants him to be. It is deeper and more true and more real than the hollow sham Prime offers.

And so Hordak rejects this once-coveted position, rejects Prime, and frees himself. He makes the choice between a false, controlling “love” and the real, heartfelt thing. He makes the choice, and he chooses Entrapta.

In the end, the greatest disconnect between what Hordak tells us in season three and what is true isn’t the word “general,” or even the cruel difference between how Prime views the clones, and how they view him. It is the impression of why Hordak wants such a position at all, of what it means to him. What initially comes off as a disgraced military man seeking to regain former glory is actually a lost, unloved soul desperately searching for the emotional connection he needs.

And, after many mistakes, after much hardship, he finally finds it.

[seconds-not-decades]

Time and Chase

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Fem! OC

Author's Note: Hello and welcome. This is a major throwback but we are kicking off my TUA series of fics all the way from season one so that this story actually makes sense. Or about as much sense as it can be. I will be posting daily. *Please note that I am well aware that Elliot Page portrays Viktor, but due to season one being before his transition, that is why his character is still Vanya. I am not deadnaming him and I sincerely hope I don't come across as such. I will transition when I write season three.*

Warnings: Slightly long post, cursing, and violence.

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Number Five

~ * ~

On the first day of October, 1989, forty-three women around the world simultaneously gave birth. None of the women showed any prior signs of pregnancy. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and playboy adventurer, made it his personal mission to find and adopt as many of these children as possible.

He got seven of them.

~ * ~

The world was a wasteland. An entire wasteland. Fire and smoke and rubble were all that remained. That was the world Five and Karina grew up in. The world they established a relationship in. The world they got married in.

The years ticked by. The seasons changed. They grew old. It wasn't a picture perfect paradise, but they managed to try to make the most of it and survive with what little they had. They had each other. That was all that mattered in the circumstances given.

They wandered around for what felt like forever. When their resources would be exhausted, they'd pack up and move on. That became their routine. So much that it became their lives.

Here they were, in their mid ages. Resting in the ruins of a library and nursing some alcohol they saved.

Five chuckled. "Do you remember that, uh, little mansion just outside the city limits? Where we…"

"Yeah," Karina laughed quietly from the memory.

"Yeah, well, it turns out the wine cellar was untouched. Picked up a few cases of your favorite Bordeaux," he acknowledged the red wagon.

She smiled as the two clinked their cups and chugged down. Five sighed and kissed her cheek.

"Hmmm, you're in a very happy mood again," she sighed contently.

"Ah, that's an exaggeration, Rina. I don't drink too much," he gave her a look. "You know, I work hard all day. I…why would you even say that?"

The sound of rubble moving caught Five's attention, and soon he seized his rifle and shot to his feet, pushing Karina behind him and aiming it at the source:

A gorgeously dressed woman in vintage apparel, an old fashioned black coat, a fancy black hat, and sunglasses. She waved with a smile and she had a briefcase in her other hand.

"Oh, shit," Karina quietly hissed.

~ * ~

Present Day

"When's it supposed to happen? This…apocalypse," Luther was sitting across from an awake, sober, and freshly cleaned up Five.

"We can't give you the exact hour, but…from what Rina and I could gather, we have four days left," Five responded lowly.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Five sighed. "It wouldn't have mattered."

"Of course it would. We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing," Luther argued.

"For the record, you already tried," Karina spared Five from telling the news.

"What do you mean?" Luther frowned.

"I found all of you. Your bodies," Five was despondent.

"I found my mother's body as well, when I was searching for her," Karina put in quietly.

"We die?" Luther echoed in disbelief.

"Horribly. You were together, trying to stop whoever it was that ends the world," Five sighed, still forever haunted from the memory.

"Wait, how do you know that?" Luther questioned.

"This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you," Five revealed the mysterious eyeball. He tossed it to his brother. "Must've ripped it out of their head right before you went down."

"Whose head?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"Well, there's a serial number on the back. Think maybe you could try…"

"No, that's a dead end," Five cut him off. He bitterly chuckled. "It's just another hunk of glass."

Luther wordlessly handed him the eyeball back and he pocketed it. Suddenly, the door banged open and a very angry Diego stormed in.

"Piece of shit. Do you have any idea what you just did?" he was about ready to tackle and kill Five as Luther got to his feet and Five nudged Karina behind him. Diego grunted when Luther grabbed him. "Nope, let me-get your ape hands off of me!" he struggled against his brother.

"I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down," Luther remarked, lifting him off his feet.

"Okay. Fine," Diego huffed reluctantly and he landed back on his feet.

"Now, wanna tell us what you're talkin' about?" Luther asked.

"Our brother's-and possibly his wife's-been pretty busy since he got back. He was in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the Academy, looking for him," Diego bit out, death glaring at Five.

"None of which is any of your concern," Five retorted.

"It is now," Diego seethed. "They just killed my friend."

Luther turned to face the couple. "Who are they, Five? Karina?"

The two were quiet for a moment.

"They work for our former employer," Five broke the silence reluctantly.

"A woman called The Handler. She sent them…to stop us," Karina continued.

"Then, soon as Diego's friend got in their way, well, fair game," Five finished.

"And now they're my fair game. And I'm gonna see to it they pay," Diego headed out.

"That would be a mistake, Diego. They've killed people far more dangerous than you," Five warned him.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," Diego let the door slam behind him.

"Former employer? What's this really about, you two? And don't give me any of this "It's none of your business" crap, all right?" Luther snapped.

"Well, it's a long story," Five sighed.

Luther sat down as Five and Karina glanced down.

~ * ~

Five had his gun still aimed at the woman. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm here to help," she replied.

"Tell me why I shouldn't put a bullet through your head right now!" Five threatened, watching her walk towards them.

"Because…if you did," she stepped into the ruins of the library. She set her briefcase down and took off her sunglasses. "You wouldn't hear the offer I'm about to make you. Which would be rather tragic, given your…current circumstances." She perched on a broken piece of concrete. "I work for an organization called the Commission. We are tasked with the preservation of the time continuum through manipulation and removals."

"I don't understand," Five moved closer to her.

"Sometimes, people…make choices that alter time. Free will, don't get me started. When that happens, we dispatch one of our agents to…eliminate the threat," she explained and with that, he held his gun up again. "No, no, no, no." She chuckled. "You misunderstand me. You're not a target. You're a recruit. Both of you. I've come to offer you two jobs, Number Five and Karina."

"I'm not interested," Karina remarked coldly.

"I know what The Commission is. She told me. You'll have to do better than that," Five backed her up.

"I admit, we didn't have the best first impression with your darling wife, but, I promise things will be different this time. I'll see to it myself," the Handler promised. She sighed. "As for you, Number Five. We've had our eye on you for quite some time. And we think you have a lot of potential. Your survival skills have made you quite a celebrity back at headquarters. That and your ability to jump through time."

Five and Karina exchanged a look. Karina knew in her gut this felt like an elaborate trap, but then again, what real and good choice were either of them going to have in the end?

"You saying that we…we could actually leave here?" Five stuttered. "Go…Go back?"

"In return for five years of service," the Handler answered. "Once your contracts are done, you two can retire to the time and place of your choosing with separate pensions plan to boot."

"If you can alter time, why not just stop all of this from ever happening?" Five pointed out.

"That's quite impossible, I'm afraid. You see…all of this, it was supposed to happen," she replied.

"That's insane," Five was in disbelief.

"The end of everything?" Karina echoed, joining his side.

"Not everything. Just the end of…something," the Handler vaguely answered. "So. Do we have an agreement?" she held her hands out for them to shake.

Five scoffed softly as he looked at Karina. She bit her lip, glancing around.

"Look. I-I know this is not going to be an easy decision for you. But-"

"Accept it," Karina resigned herself to another God knows how many years of forced torture.

Five eyed her. "Rina…"

"Don't. It's either this wasteland or there. I can tolerate The Commission a little more than this hell hole," she clenched her jaw.

"I'll be with you every step of the way, I swear," he promised.

And with that, they took the Handler's hands to seal their agreements.

~ * ~

Present Day

"They turned me into the perfect instrument for rehabilitation of the time continuum," Five began to bitterly recount, remembering the memories leading up to where he and Karina were now. "Or "corrections," as they called them."

"I worked in the briefcase division at headquarters. I was always good with technology, so, the Handler made me the Head of that department," Karina continued.

"I wasn't the only field agent. There are others like me. Beings out of time, fractured, extracted from the lives that they knew. I don't know how they got there. But I do know that none of them were as good as me," Five sighed. "They didn't realize it, but we were biding our time, trying to figure out the right equation so I could get us back. If we could just get back, we knew we could stop the apocalypse. Save the world. So we broke our contracts."

Five's head filled with the memories of them being at the JFK assassination in 1960s Dallas, the time portal he conjured, seeing his family on the other side, and both of them falling through the portal into 2019.

"So…you were a hit man and Karina stayed at headquarters?" Luther tried to wrap his head around it, coming over to them with two plates of food.

"Yes," Five nodded.

"Uh…I mean, you had a code, right? You didn't kill just anybody?"

"No code. We took out anyone who messed with the timeline."

"What about innocent people?"

"It was the only way we could get back here."

"But that's murder," Luther pointed out.

Five eyed him. "Jesus, Luther, grow up. We're not kids anymore. There's no such thing as good guys or bad guys."

"Besides, The Commission doesn't care about innocent people. They never did," Karina bitterly remarked. "There's just people, going about their lives."

"But when the world ends, all those people die, including our family," Five sighed. "Time changes everything."

~ * ~

After that oh so lovely conversation, Five jumped him and Karina back into the Academy. They went down the hall.

"Five, look," Karina quietly inhaled, catching his arm. She pointed to the bloody footprints leaving the bathroom and leading into Klaus's room.

The two glanced over to see Klaus meandering around his room. He groaned.

Five knocked at door. "You okay?"

"Hey. Yeah, I just…long night," he flatly chuckled.

"More than one, from the looks of it," Karina was sympathetic.

"Yeah."

"Don't remember the dog tags," Five pointed them out.

Klaus grunted. "Yeah, they belonged to a friend." He slipped his shirt on, making the dog tags jingle.

"How about that new tattoo?" Karina eyed it.

"You know, I don't totally remember even getting it. Like I said, it was a long night."

"You did it, didn't you?" Five got to the point.

"What are you talkin' about?" Klaus sat down.

"You know, we can recognize the symptoms, Klaus," Karina strolled into the room with Five by her side.

"Symptoms of what?"

"The jet lag. Full body itch," Five listed, making his brother sigh. "The headache that feels like someone shoved a box of cotton up into your nose and through your brain."

"Do you want to tell us about it?" Karina inquired gently.

Klaus eyed Five. "Your pals, when they broke into the house and they couldn't find you, they took me hostage instead."

"And in return, you stole their briefcase," Five remarked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I thought there was money in it, or I could pawn it, you know, whatever," he sighed. "And then I opened it."

"And the next thing you knew, you were…where? Or should I say when?" Karina corrected herself, watching Five pace.

"What difference does it make?" Klaus muttered.

"What diff-uh-okay, how long were you gone?" Five stopped in his tracks.

"Almost a year."

"A year? Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah, I'm ten months older now," Klaus flatly scoffed.

"No, this isn't any sort of joke, Klaus," Five warned him. "Hazel and Cha-Cha will do whatever they can to get the briefcase."

"Where is it now?" Karina bit her nail nervously.

"Gone. I destroyed it. Poof."

"What the hell were you thinking?" Five hissed at him.

"What do you care?" Klaus questioned.

"What do I care? I needed it, you moron, so we could get back. We could start over!" Five exclaimed.

"Just…Just…" Klaus waved him off, walking away.

"Where you going?" Five watched him.

"Interrogation's over, just…leave."

Five muttered in disbelief, eyeing a pad and a pen on the table. He grabbed both and began scribbling furiously. However, he knew he needed more writing area, so he blinked into his room with Karina.

~ * ~

The moment that they reappeared, Five grabbed a piece of chalk and went to town.

"What are you doing?" Karina watched him curiously.

"Figuring out our next move, dear," he replied.

"Oh. Of course. How silly of me," she plopped down on the bed.

"You don't have to stay here if you have things to go do," he told her distractedly.

"Like what? I have nothing."

"Okay, suit yourself."

Karina rolled her eyes, slipping out a book from his desk and going to sit near the window. She felt the refreshing breeze wash over her as she began to get lost in the story she was reading.

"Oh. Okay, I think I've got something, Rina," Five interrupted her from her thoughts.

"Hmmm?" Karina shook her head, coming back to her reality. She glanced up to see him standing on his bed and writing on the walls.

"It's tenuous, but promising," he continued as footsteps approached outside in the hall and in came Luther.

"Who you talkin' to?" he looked around at the frenzied writing scribbled on the walls. "What is all this?"

"It's a probability map," Five replied.

"Probability of what?"

"Of whose death could save the world. I've narrowed it down to four."

"Are you saying one of these four people causes the apocalypse?" Luther questioned.

"No, I'm saying that their death might prevent it."

"Oh."

The sound of chalk continued tapping on blackboard as Luther watched in confusion.

"I'm not following," he whispered.

Karina was amused as she closed her book and stood up. "Time is fickle, Luther. The slightest alteration in events can lead to massively different outcomes in the time continuum. The butterfly effect. So all Five has to do is find the people with the greatest probability of impacting the timeline, wherever they may be, and kill them," she rather matter-of-factly explained.

"Oh, yeah…" Five hopped down off the bed and looked under it.

"Milton Greene," Luther read off. "So who's he, a terrorist or something?"

"I believe he is a gardener," Five was writing in his notebook.

Luther turned to face him. "You can't be serious. Wait, this is madness, Five. You-" he broke off upon seeing the large case Five had. "Wh-Where'd you get that?"

"In Dad's room. I think he used it to shoot a rhinoceros," Five unzipped it and pulled out a gun. "It's similar to the model I used at work." He cocked it in place. "Nice shoulder fit and highly reliable."

"But you can't-this guy Milton is just an innocent man!" Luther argued. He turned to Karina. "How can you just stand there and let him do this?"

She sighed. "I don't like the sound of it either, but, it is basic math."

"His death could potentially save the lives of billions," Five spoke up. "If I did nothing, he'd be dead in four days anyway. The apocalypse won't spare anyone."

Luther wasn't giving up quite yet. "We don't do this kind of thing."

"We are not doing anything. I am," Five corrected him tightly.

"I can't let you go kill innocent people. No matter how many lives you'll save."

"Well, good luck stopping me," Five turned to walk away.

"You're not going anywhere," Luther turned to Karina. "Forgive me for this," he suddenly grabbed her and shoved her near the window, causing her to scream out.

Five whipped around and aimed the gun at him. "Luther, you asshole! Put…her…down!"

"Put the gun down. You're not killing anyone today. I know she's my sister-in-law, so don't make me do this," Luther retorted as Karina tried to get out of his grip. "It's either her or the gun. You decide."

Karina had enough of being man handled. She ended up kicking Luther and he stumbled back, though she lost her balance and nearly fell out the window.

Five blinked in a flash and barely caught her in time when he reappeared. "Rina! Thank God," he breathed out, helping her back inside as she clung to him shakily.

"Asshole," Karina death glared at Luther.

"That was a mean kick you got there. Sorry. I can keep doin' this all day," he sighed, putting the gun down. "I know you're still a good person, Five. Otherwise, you wouldn't have risked everything coming back here to save us all. But you're not on your own anymore."

Five sighed, looking at Karina worriedly as he gently smoothed some hair out of her eyes. "There is one way." He kissed her forehead and looked back at his poor excuse of a brother. "But it's just about impossible."

"More impossible than what brought you back here?" Luther remarked.

Five sighed again and gazed at Karina. She just bit her lip and gave a small nod.

~ * ~

Here was the plan. A risky plan. Fool Hazel and Cha-Cha by giving them a fake briefcase in exchange for a conversation with The Handler. Luther, Five, and Karina were out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for them to show up.

Five sighed, thinking over things. "You know, I never enjoyed it."

"What?" Luther eyed him.

"The killing. I mean, I was…I was good at my work, and I…I took pride in it. But it never gave me pleasure," he sighed. "I think it was all those years alone. I mean, I had Rina of course, but, it was still just the two of us. We both longed for some connection outside of our own. And we quickly found out that solitude can do funny things to the mind."

"Yeah, well, you were gone for such a long time. I only spent four years on the moon, but that was more than enough. It's the being alone that breaks you. You're lucky you had someone to keep some of your sanity," Luther returned. "You think they'll buy it?" he got them back on track.

"Well, what I do know is that they're desperate. It's like a cop losing his gun. If the Commission finds out, they'll be in deep shit."

"Oh, not to mention the fact that they'll be stuck here until they get it back," Karina piped up from the back seat.

"Well, I should hold onto it," Luther suggested.

"Hm?" Five frowned.

"In case they make a move on you or Karina."

"Okay, Luther, but be careful. I mean, I've…I've lived a long life. So has Rina. But…you're still a young man. You got your whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it," Five advised him. "Hmm," he hummed. In the distance, the three saw a car approach.

"Here we go," Karina muttered.

The three of them got out of the car and Five drew Karina to his side, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm.

He looked at her. "If this all goes sideways, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry."

"Same to you, though it depends on what kind of move you decide to pull," Karina was quick to remark with.

Five scoffed airily and placed a kiss on her forehead. The car door opened before Hazel and Cha-Cha stepped out and shut the doors. Luther and Karina hung out near their own vehicle.

"The masks really necessary?" Five met the duo halfway.

They took their masks off and tossed them aside.

"So where is it, kid?" Cha-Cha demanded.

"Wow, that's how you're gonna start. You know, we can get right back in our car and call it a day," Five retorted casually.

"You won't even make it halfway there," Cha-Cha swiftly pulled a gun out, causing Karina to step forward but Luther stopped her.

"Maybe. But as I'm sure you found out in your previous foray, my brother is not your average giant and of course, you know my wife has the same fighting skills as any other agent," Five pointed out.

"He's right. You dropped a chandelier on him, got right back up," Hazel agreed.

"By the time you took him out, he'd smash your precious briefcase to a pulp," Five added almost smugly.

"Probably us too, right? So, how do we help each other?"

"I need you to get in contact with your superior so I can have a chat with her. Face-to-face."

"About what?" Cha-Cha questioned.

"Well, I don't believe that's any of your concern," Five replied.

"Just don't tell her about the briefcase."

"Fair enough."

Cha-Cha went over to a payphone to make a call as Five went back over to the two.

"What happens now?" Luther wanted to know.

"Now we wait," Karina watched the duo carefully.

All of a sudden, the wind began whistling and a random ice-cream truck chime playing "Ride of the Valkyries" sounded in the distance. Everyone looked to see the truck approaching.

"Is that her?" Luther looked at Five.

Five stared at the truck in disbelief when he saw that it was Klaus and Diego. Klaus waved as they passed by.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Five breathed out in confusion.

"Go faster!" Diego yelled.

"Wee!" Ben squealed delightfully, perched on the dash.

"It's a setup!" Cha-Cha cried as she and Hazel began shooting.

Five took Karina to the ground as Luther got in front of them. The truck hit Cha-Cha and Hazel, sending them flying mid-air before everything froze. The last thing was a gun fire, echoing as a bullet sailed towards Luther and suspended in the air.

Five slowly looked up, confused as to why the world around him was frozen in time. He peeked around Luther and stepped forward. He walked down the road some.

"Neat trick, isn't it?" a familiar woman's voice asked. He turned to face the source, going over to her as she lifted her veil and slid her sunglasses off. "Hello, Five," the Handler greeted. "You look good, all things considered."

"It's good to see you again," he retorted.

"Feels like we met just yesterday. Course, you were a little bit older then," she acknowledged his appearance. "Congratulations on the age regression, by the way. For both you and your lovely Mrs." The Handler glanced in Karina's direction. "Very clever. Threw us all off the scent."

"Ah, well, I wish I could take credit. I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and…well, you know. Here I am," Five held his arms out before shoving them back in his pockets.

"You realize your efforts are futile. So why don't you tell me what you really want?" she put her hands and her briefcase behind her back.

"I want you to put a stop to it," he answered.

"You realize what you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me. What's meant to be is meant to be. That's our raison d'être," she casually said as Five pulled a gun out and aimed it at her.

"Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?"

"I'll just be replaced. I'm but a…small cog in a machine," she watched him closely. "This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse-" she stepped closer to Five as he lowered the gun some. "-Is just that. A fantasy. I must say, though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative, your…stick-to-itiveness, really quite… quite something. Which is why we want to offer you a new position back at the Commission, in management."

Five let out a sarcastic laugh in disbelief. "Sorry, what's that now?"

"Come back to work for us again. You know it's where you belong. I can unfreeze Karina and bring her back, too. She could be the latest and greatest secretary. Even as my own," the Handler told him.

"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time with the both of us," he remarked tightly.

"But you wouldn't be in the correction division any longer and Karina wouldn't be stuck in that suffocating briefcase department. I'm talking about…the home office. You'd both have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel. I could even throw in maternity care if you two ever decide to…venture down that path," the Handler pressed on further. "You're a distinguished professional in…schoolboy shorts. And she's a promising individual in need of a wardrobe upgrade. We have the technology to reverse the process. I mean, you…you two can't be happy like this."

Five lowered his gun. "I'm not looking for happy," he bit out, though Karina did make him very happy.

"Don't lie about that. I see the way you act around her; it's honestly quite adorable and super sickening," the Handler scoffed. "We're all looking for happy. We can make that happen. We can make you two…yourselves again."

Five knew there was no peaceful way out of this. He sighed. "Rina stays here. I won't let you near her so, leave her out of the little corrupter plan you have in your head. And what about my family?"

"What about them?" the Handler glanced at them.

"I want them to survive."

She sighed. "All of them?"

"Yes, all of them."

"Well…" the Handler slipped her sunglasses back on. "I'll see what I can do. Do we have a deal?" she held out her hand.

"One thing," Five tucked his gun inside his blazer and went over to Hazel and Cha-Cha. He emptied the gun on the road and tossed the magazine and the gun on both opposing fields.

The Handler sighed impatiently.

Five made his way over, but paused. "Mm…no." He moved the bullet safely out of Luther's way. He looked at the still frozen form of Karina ducked down behind his brother.

"She can still come too, you know," the Handler told him.

"I'd rather not," he went over to the car. He opened the door, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper and scribbling down a note. He tore it off and then slid it into Karina's jacket pocket. He sighed. "I'll be back," he kissed her forehead.

Five went over to the Handler and grabbed her hand. The two blinked out as the fight resumed orbit. Hazel and Cha-Cha landed on the ground with a soft grunt, Luther regained his balance, Klaus accidentally crashed into a blue car, and Karina slowly got to her feet after the bullets ricocheted off the car.

"Ah!" Diego clutched his arm in pain as chimes continued playing.

"Five?" Luther looked around.

"Good God!" Klaus exclaimed in the distance.

Karina inhaled sharply as she looked around. "Five?!"

"Oh! Ow!" Klaus groaned.

"Five!" Luther called out.

Hazel and Cha-Cha were panting as they slowly stood up.

"Come get it!" Luther held the briefcase up.

Cha-Cha raced forward before he chucked it away, letting it land and clatter in the field.

Luther and Karina hurried to the other two. Diego grunted as he got out.

"Come on. Come on!" Klaus was frantically trying to get his brother out.

"Wait. My shoes hurt," Diego complained as Luther supported Diego's other side.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Luther demanded as the four and Ben made a run for it to the car.

Hazel scurried over to get his gun and tried to shoot. "No! Shit!" he cursed when all the gun did was click.

"Get in the car," Luther helped the others quickly pile in.

"Luther, go! Go!" Klaus exclaimed.

"Let's go!" Ben patted the dashboard as the engine revved.

"Woo!" Klaus shouted as tires screeched and the car sped away, flipping the duo off through the back window.

"Woo-hoo!" Ben cheered.

"Damn it!" Hazel shouted, going over to his partner.

Cha-Cha dumped out the clattering contents of the briefcase and watched the car get smaller in the distance.

"Shit!" Karina heard her scream.

She smiled to herself, tucking her hand into her pocket. She furrowed her brows, pulling out a folded piece of paper. She read the note Five left her and sighed.

Of course he'd go off on another wild goose chase and leave her behind.

~ * ~

[writerfae]

Yes, please tell me more about your story! What do you mean about frozen 2 lining up with Henry and Aiden? I've seen the beginning of Frozen 2, but never finished it, so I'm curious about this.

As for me, I have a new-ish WIP that I've described as "Six of Crows meets a DnD campaign", and I'm really excited about it, hoping that I can get it somewhat put together and actually go somewhere with it.

~Morri🗡 (@memento-morri-writes)

@memento-morri-writes

Hello there :D I’m sorry for the belated reply, I was suddenly too tired to write coherent sentences yesterday 🙈

Well my Frozen 2 parallel is less of a plot thing but rather the sibling dynamic of Anna and Elsa somewhat matching with that of Aiden and Henry. Which is due to the fact that Elsa and Henry do have similarities, in a way. Which shows in both Frozen movies, btw.

Both Elsa and Henry are the eldest child who want to protect their younger sibling by hiding their true identity from them (which kinda backfires in both cases if we’re honest).

While Henry doesn’t have a strong magic like Elsa does, his secret is that he’s a fae (which means he kind of has magic but let’s ignore that for a second). Henry also doesn’t isolate himself from Aiden completely, but one day he leaves him alone still by going to the faerie realm.

But both are very unhappy with their situation and finally escape it, but not without having to leave behind their siblings. Who are both stubborn and trying to get their older sibling back.

I always joke that Into the unknown is the perfect song for Henry, because after his mother dies all he really wants is to go and find a place he belongs to and hopefully an answer to his questions.

And maybe the song really does fit perfectly, because I think it really shows all that restlessness and longing both characters have. I’m not gonna overanalyze frozen 2, but the search for your true self is a strong theme there I think and that just fits with Henry as well.

And Aiden would go the same length for his brother that Anna goes for her sister. He’s someone who just wants to be loved and to be happy and he hates that his own brother has secrets he keeps from him. Aiden is braver than most others, but he’s not aware of it, instead he’s looking for his brother’s guidance.

And I’m having a hard time to explain it, but this unconditional yet complicated relationship between siblings is portrayed in the movie and bits of it you can find in my story as well. It’s the dynamic of the dreamer and the wild one that reminds me of my boys too.

I feel like I did a bad job explaining this, I’m sorry 🙈

But since we’re already at the topic of Henry and Aiden and you asked to know some more about my story I offer you three cute brother facts and one (tiny) spoiler! To make up for it

Three facts:

Aiden doesn’t know that his brother is a fae. But when he was still little, so little he can’t remember it anymore, Henry would use small magic tricks to entertain his baby brother

the two were taught a lullaby by their mother and whenever one of them was feeling down they would (cuddle up and) sing it together as kids. Both still sing the song to themselves when they need to calm their nerves and both think of the other when they do

Henry has that special ability to calm his own heartbeat and calm others through that and when Aiden was a baby Henry used it to rock him to sleep whenever he woke up upset so that he wouldn’t wake their parents

Aaannd a spoiler:

I recently made the decision that the villains will offer Aiden to join them and save his own life by sacrificing his brother (they had a fight and Morena knows that), but though he’s mad and disappointed in Henry at this point of course he refuses. Even more so, since he knows then that one of them has to die, he decides that that person will be him.

Oh and that wip of yours sounds very exciting! Right up my alley! I’d definitely love to know more if you ever feel like talking about it ^^ I wish you all the best for working on it!

Thanks for your ask :)

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 24th July 2021

This is speculation only

Cards drawn 24th of July 2021

Question: What will be the consequences for Harry, from the BRF, of Harry writing his memoirs?

Note: I have focused on one book here are there are contradictory reports about how many books Harry is having ghost written for him - his legal team is playing games with (ahem*lying to*) the press about it.

Interpretation: A lot of PR, and the end - final, complete, and no coming back from this - of his relationship with his family

Card One: Temperance. This card has come up in every single reading I have done about Harry and his ghost written memoirs. Temperance is a major arcana card, so it represents the initial public reaction of the BRF to this news. In public, they will be temperate. It doesn't matter what they feel about this in private, the public face will be moderate and balanced. The BRF are not going to show their real feelings in public. They are not going to engage with the PR speculation around the book, as they are not the authors and they do not want to play Harry's PR games. They are going to take the middle path and be very non-committal in what they say about it.

Card Two: The Emperor. This card is usually the symbol of a powerful leader, so it should represent HMTQ, but I am not getting that energy from it. Nor am I getting BRF as an institution energy from it. The Emperor is the ultimate Father, in a patriarchal sense, so this could be Prince Charles, but that isn't quite the energy I am getting from this either.

This is Prince Charles, but it is Prince William and a bit of HMTQ as well. It is the BRF not as an institution but as a ruling family, the Royal Family, with the emphasis on family. It is them on a personal level - father, brother, grandmother - but also them being very aware of their roles as current and future rulers of the country. So it is their public personas as a family that I am getting here. So for example, this is Prince Charles as the future king who is also the father of Harry, Prince William as a future king who is also the brother of Harry, and HMTQ as the monarch who is also the grandmother of Harry.

It is a mix of their personal relationship with Harry and their roles in the monarchy. It's a hard energy to explain, so I hope that makes sense - not just the institution, not just the father/brother/grandmother, but a mix of both of the roles of each person, the current and future monarchs who are also family members. The Emperor is a major arcana card, so the public aspect of the roles of the family - their position as leaders in the public eye - is emphasised here. The Emperor is also the card of the father, so Prince Charles's role as Harry's father is also a strong energy here.

Card Three: Death. This is the ending of a cycle. Coming after the Emperor card, it says that what is ending is Harry's relationship with the Emperor as described above. Death is an irrevocable end to a relationship or cycle - you can not go back to how things were.

A cycle and/or a relationship has ended between Harry and the current and future monarchs of England, on both a personal and a professional level. Prince Charles has ended this both as his father and as the future king, so for him it is both personal and public. Prince William has ended this as the future king who is also his brother, and HMTQ has ended this as The Queen who is also his grandmother, so for these two is it more about their public role as leaders of England.

Death is the tarot card of the sign Scorpio, which is Prince Charles's sun sign, giving further weight to the end of a cycle/relationship between Prince Charles and Harry as the prominent energy of this card, although HMTQ and Prince William are also involved in their roles as leaders/rulers (current and future).

Like the previous two cards, this is a major arcana card, so I expect to see this ending shown in public somehow.

Card Four: The Three of Wands. This card is usually about an initial success in a venture. Wands can be PR, and the idea of Harry's memoirs has been released to the public about a year before the book is due to be published. I think the idea will meet with some initial success, but as the Three of Wands card warns, there is a lot of hard work ahead before the project comes to an initial conclusion.

The picture on the card shows Jason receiving a crown from his usurper uncle. I look at that picture and immediately I think of Harry's titles. In this situation Harry is the betrayer (like the usurper uncle), so I am wondering if he will be somehow 'persuaded' to return/regift his titles to their rightful owner, the crown/monarchy. That doesn't feel quite right, as I can't see Harry giving up his titles for anything, but there is something about his titles that is coming through with this card. Writing his memoirs may have given strength to the voices that are calling for the removal of all of Harry's titles in the eyes of Harry's family, i.e. they may be prepared to consider this in a stronger way/more aggressive way (but still not very aggressive - moderation as per Temperance will be the overall theme of their actions).

Card Five: The Ten of Wands. This is a card of burden. The picture shows Jason sitting in a shelter made from the timbers of his ship, the Argo, representing his youthful dreams and adventures, and it is burning down around him. The treasure he brought back from his voyage is lying abandoned next to the shelter.

This is the final outcome for Prince Harry. His dreams will burn down and turn to ash around him. Any 'treasure' he has from his earlier days will seem valueless to him. He will feel burdened by this memoir, and not in a good way. Any PR put out around the memoir (Wands can be PR) will also be a burden to him. The consequences of his action in writing his memoir will not be welcome and they will burden him. We may not see it in public, as this is a minor arcana card, but he will feel it in private.

Underlying Energy: The Six of Wands. This is a card of success, of returning as a conquering hero. This is how Harry feels about writing his memoirs. He thinks they will show him as a triumphant hero. The picture on the card shows Jason standing on a pile of gold, with the golden fleece over his head, and his companions applauding in the background. This is what Harry expects from his memoirs - lots of gold and the applause/admiration of people around him. He may get this, or he may be portrayed this way in PR (Wands can be PR), but as the cards above show, it will come at the cost of the death of any remaining relationship with his blood family.

Conclusion: Harry thinks that writing his memoirs will depict him as a hero, and his PR may take that approach. His family do not see him as a hero. Instead, this act will be the death of a cycle/relationship with his family in their public roles as monarch/future kings as well as family members, and also with his father in his role as Harry's father. His family will be temperate in the their public approach to the memoirs, but the death of the relationship will also be seen in public. There may be more consideration of removing Harry's titles. Harry's memoir may give signs of success in the initial stages, and it may be successful and make him money, but in the end it will be the cause of his dreams burning down around him and it will feel like a burden to him.