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oivsyo · 2 years ago

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Why I’m still creating for Narutoverse?

The thing is, thanks to one particular thread on Twi, I’ve figured out that I only watched Shippuden until episode 54 in my teenagehood. Now I have watched it selectively up to the end ofc, but I think this fact is the reason why I didn't give up on Naruto and it still inspires me. I grew up during the best years of Naruto and skipped the downfall of the story, so I mostly have positive memories about the story and characters.

It all started when I was 14? (now I don't remember exactly), and my friends brought me anime titled Naruto on a flash drive, because then I didn't have the Internet yet. They said 'try this, you may like it'

OG and the beginning of Shippuden were very good. VERY GOOD.

OG is generally my favorite part of the story, the characters shone in all their glory and developed very logically. It's no surprise that these characters have made so many people fall in love with them. Also in OG, the tone of the story was completely different. The world was more cruel and gloomy, more realistic. In the first OG arc, there are two ambiguous antagonists who die dramatically in the end. The fights were about taijutsu, weapon and strategy - exactly what you would expect from a ninja story. Yes, even in OG there are many inconsistencies and plot holes, but this story IS fascinating. The Chunin exam arc is still one of my favorite arcs of all Naruto.

The space on the flash drive on which the episodes were brought to me was very small, and I couldn’t watch many episodes in a row. So I have watched many of them over and over again. I remember that before the start of the summer holidays, my friend brought me episodes with Neji VS Kidomaru. I've been tormented for 3 months about not knowing if Neji would survive. With the beginning of the new school year, my friend brought me new series with a sequel, and it turned out to be Shippuden right away.

Shippuden started very cheerfully and confidently. Euphoria that I experienced bc my favorite characters returned was beyond any words. Characters matured, their designs changed.

Sakura immediately became my goddess because the growth of her character was very much felt compared to all the others. From a useless and annoying crybaby, she became strong, strong-willed, skilled, she became a real kunoichi. I’m sad that her development and training were not shown properly, but even so the impression was very good. It's not an exaggeration to say that Sakura from early Shippuden, was a role model that I wanted to look up to as a teenager.

In the first arc team Gai was shown. Neji’s redesign won my young heart, probably it‘s Neji to blame that I’ve developed a crush for long haired men. Even though his interactions with Hinata were not shown in the beginning, it felt like he had changed a lot and softened up towards everyone.

I also really liked Hinata's design, but I remember at that moment I thought - ‘ how could she grow such long hair in such a short period of time? Apparently the Hyuga clan has some special recipes for hair care’. That was one of the reasons why in my AU I decided to make the timeskip longer - 4years instead of 2,5.

I really wanted to see how the grown-up Neji and the more self-confident Hinata interact with each other. I was sure that it would be an arc dedicated to the Hyuga clan and how the two of them, with the help of Naruto ofc, change the clan. Unfortunately, my aspirations were not destined to come true.

Ep 41 where Naruto loses control and hurts Sakura - is a chef's kiss. The fox feels like an absolute evil with which such a sunny and good person like Naruto has to deal with. Aand ofc Naruto wa supposed to loose control bc this evil is too much for him. Naruto being possessed by the demon and hurting his beloved ones is a theme that I like and I'm very sad that it was wasted.

An intriguing and long-awaited meeting with Sasuke - a moment that is well engraved in my memory as one of the last ones I watched.

Then I abandoned watching Naruto and anime in general for reasons I can’t remember, but probably it was because of graduating from school. Some years later I heard the news that Hinata confessed to Naruto and that Neji died in the manga, but at that time it didn’t make a big impression on me, firstly, I wasn’t already involved that much, secondly, I had a premonition for a long time that if Neji and Hinata are not supposed to be a couple at the end, then one of them will definitely die - most likely Neji, bc MC needs a girlfriend. So when I found out that Neji died protecting Hinata and Naruto, I just thought "NejiHina is canon and now it’s confirmed". But it didn't become a traumatic dramatic experience for me. I also remember everyone hyping that the Naruto manga was over. I even read the last chapter. I felt a slight sadness at the sight of Hinata at Neji's grave and that story that had a strong influence on me when I was a teenager is over. That was it. I again forgot about Naruto for a very long time.

Two years ago, in a rather difficult period of my life, I experienced an irresistible urge to watch Naruto. And I did it. I had a very mixed impression of what I saw.

Perhaps the last arc that I liked was the arc when Asuma was killed. I liked the villains, I liked the drama of Asuma/Kurenai, of InoShikaCho and Shikamaru’s personal growth. It was good.

Then I witnessed the degradation of the plot, the characters - of everything. I don't know what was the reason, but the series just got boring. Previously interesting and deep characters have turned into cardboard mannequins.

The more Shippuden developed, the more villains that “were not villains” appeared. There was no one comparable to Zabuza and Haku or Orochimaru from OG. A breath of fresh air for me was Hidan and Kakuzu, who simply enjoy making a fuss, torturing and killing.

The whole atmosphere of the series has become somehow very sterile and toothless. Naruto as a character became very shallow and at times even annoying for me. Becoming stronger and gaining new powers he at the same time stopped developing as a charater. Probably the only time I liked Naruto in late Shippuden was when Naruto got depressed because of Sasuke in the Land of Iron.

The fights bacame more spectacular, but were no longer as interesting as in the beginning, now everything has turned into “who has a bigger and stronger technique”.

Kaguya as a villain is just nothing. She is just a doll, very powerful, but a doll. Moreover, even such a powerful doll was subsequently weakened for the sake of the plot. In general, this "for the sake of the plot" is what characterizes Shippuden, especially the later episodes. The characters do and say what is necessary for the sake of the plot, because of which they feel like fools or cardboard for me. New characters appear to replace the old ones, which are not developed enough, the final battle of the war, where the villains hatch one from the other almost saying "It was me, Dio!" and “I’m stronger than the previous one!”

For example, I know that a lot of people like Madara, but for me he is almost never remembered, just one of war arc villains. Although I can’t deny that the intrigue about him was built up really well. And i like his design.

Akatsuki, who made an impression of a very serious opponent for the characters in the OG and the beginning of Shippuden, in fact turned out to be just an unorganized group of people who weren't so scary. It’s still not very clear for me why many members of the organization are there at all.

Itachi.... He used to be one of my favorite male characters. But the “the truth is that he is a good guy’ seemed far-fetched to me. Probably because it wasn't planned from the beginning so his previous actions contradict a lot with his intentions. Therefore, none of his good intentions forgive his asshole attitude towards Sasuke in OG. The fact that his "ingenious plan" worked is only due to the fact that it was necessary for the plot. To me, he was a very cool protagonist, but trying to make him an anti-hero only ruined him. However, I still think Itachi looks awesome.

I have not much to say about the events after Shippuden. I watched the Last. By the way, over the past year I have watched it as many times as probably no average fan of TL has watched it (I want to redraw some scenes and need to understand the logic of the original plot very well), and my opinion about the movie has changed - for the worse, unfortunatly.

I watched Boruto a bit, 15 episodes or so and I must say that I even liked it. I’m not joking. The characters are quite interesting. The focus is not on the main character (as it was in the beginning of Naruto). I liked that the academy period was shown. Although sometimes what is happening is absurd and too fanservice, Naruto really lacked this. Because of what, it seemed that 1) the OG characters did not learn anything at the academy 2) they did not communicate with each other there all 6? years of the academy, and only after graduation, becoming genin, they began to interact.

In Boruto I especially liked Chocho, she is a beautiful goddess and I kneel before her. This girl rocks with her awesome self-esteem. I also liked Shikadai.

However, the attitude towards the old characters and the lore of OG and even Shippuden leaves much to be desired there. When I managed to ignore the fact that Boruto is a continuation of the story for more than 500 episodes, then it hass become ok to watch. I think this is the reason for the difference in the perception of the old audience that grew up on OG and Shippuden, and the new fans who watched Boruto first. These are really two different works and it’s very difficult to perceive them together, because in some places they simply contradict each other.

And probably someone will now think - ‘well, since you don’t like everything and you complain so much, why the hell are you staying in this fandom?’ and the answer is actually quite simple - there’re a lot of things in Naruto that I really like and that inspire me. If you want a metaphor, I choose grains from a mountain of husks and this grains inspire me a lot. I have critical thinking and imagination, what’s more important - I don’t know how to love unconditionally and don’t consider this a manifestation of pure love. I see a lot of flaws in Naruto as a story, plot holes, inconsistencies, wasted characters, etc., but I still like Naruto a lot. I prefer to focus not on what I don't like, but on what I like. Such things have a greater weight for me on the scales. And thanks to this approach, I continue to do what I do with great pleasure, it keeps me productive. No, I'm not bothered that 'it’s not like this in THE CANON!!!’(c), NEJI IS DEAD(c), and even more it doesn't bother me that someone thinks about it and that there are some ppl who don’t like my art. I like the concept of multiverses and for me Narutoverse is kinda Minecraft where you can create different stories and events useing bricks that were given in the canon. And I enjoy doing it. That's all.

What is the conclusion of all this? Well, nothing in particular, I just shared my story about Naruto bc I felt like sharing. The only thing, perhaps, if I continued to watch Naruto back then 1) most likely I would be disappointed and quit watching, the series would leave a bad impression on me and I would hardly draw Naruto after so many years 2) I had been more involved in what was happening, then Hinata's confession and Neji's death would have hurt me more, as well as many other fans who left the fandom after these events. And I just don’t take it that seriously. In general I have a rather chilling attitude to the canon, I just want to have fun and nothing else matters to me. Probably because I didn’t watch the entire series in my youth in my vision of the characters based on OG and early Shippuden images of the characters and I use them in my drawings ideas for drawings.

#personal?#i guess

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feuqueerfire · 2 years ago

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Island Part 1 Live Blogging

I didn't watch anything last week because of being overwhelmed and busy for the past 10 or so days but finally I'm ready to once again start a new show when I should be studying.

My main reason for watching this is really just Cha Eunwoo because I miss seeing his face. People seem to really like his character and say his acting improved so I'm even more excited. I wanted to start Korean sff shows anyway so might as well start here even though I got spoiled for a biiiiig thing that happens at the end of S2 and also people's reactions have been like good but not great.

Ep 1 (Mar 14)

ah they're toast

oh they're not speaking Korean

hello my beloved Eunwoo

i never know whether to trust this type of old man who is the lady's father's butler man and is some sort of mentor to her as well

oof the wedding dress monster killed and ate someone?

isn't there gonna be a fuss about the dead body

ah so the lady is a reincarnation of the woman in the white dress who previously died? and the man is the one who's been living at Tamara since then?

olden times Jeju - the guy was a child and was forced to become half human half demon. where's the other kid who became that way too

oh bulter sir where are you going and what did the student see?

lol we already saw the man being selfish and self-absorbed so that's not doing anything for me but ig he's also gonna become a demon now? also i originally thought the assistant who she told to look into those two men was him but ig it's a different man

A pretty meh first episode tbh

Ep 2 (Mar 14)

damn they really did this shit to the children

beautiful beloved Cha Eunwoo <333 I am very fond of him

oh the bulter mans is Miho's protector

the slug things are so fucking disgusting

these action scenes are so boring because they go on for too long, I don't care enough about Miho, it's only ep 2 so I know she's not gonna die or really get hurt, and the immortal guy is gonna come save her each time like bro move on why are the action and chase scenes so long

yknow I find Miho endearing when she's praying to God, Buddha and being nervous to go to sleep and her nervous mannerisms when the man in the dark comes to her room and I think it reminds me of Saras played by Ae in PS I Hate You

actually she's endearing when she's trying to get Van to sign the contract

damn is Van the one who killed Miho in her past life

also pretty meh for me, I don't care about the action, but I'm glad to see a bit more of Eunwoo and also I'm starting to be endeared by Mino

Ep 3 (Mar 14)

why the fuck is there a domestic abuse plotline fucking hell It's like I gotta either watch women being terrorized by men or turn to watch BL where they also sometimes treat women as evil caricatures like I can't

fucking hell and blackmailing her with her nsfw photos too I actually am so fucking annoyed why can't I fucking watch just a fantasy show

this is so fucking sad bro

I love Yeon-ji already

if Yeon-ji or Suryeon actually die or anything I'll be so fucking mad btw

(Linguistics) ahh I love Johan tryna get away with using banmal and referring to Miho as chingus but being shut down lol can't wait to hear him say noona

I don't care about the romantic hints toward Miho and Van whatsoever tbh

(Linguistics) please the way Miho is all wide-eyed and belatedly adds the -yo when she asks if he's really a priest

Johan is so cheeky I love him

Suryeonnnnnn if Bujille does something to her I'm gonna kill this show

nah the better save suryeon

the failed exorcism was pretty cool

This ep finally picked up. I'm glad we get our characters around each other now and some interesting things have started to happen beyond just "oh monster chases Miho and Van saves her." Most of all, I love Johan being daring and cheeky and beautiful and fun and eager.

Not a super big fan of female suffering due to an abusive boyfriend and threats of nudes/nsfw photos being leaked though like I wish it was just something else.

3 eps in a day oof

Ep 4 (Mar 15)

oh was the light-haired guy the other half-demon from the old days

omg the big devil tree-looking monster being maneuvered by Lee Suryeon

I know it's supposed to be funny that Johan was choking while Miho and Van were arguing but :) I dislike such incompetency and callousness for the sake of humour like first of all Johan was trying to help Miho, second of all we're supposed to think Van doesn't gaf but it's not like we're supposed to think Miho is like that too considering she's trying to convince Van to save Suryeon - so it's annoying that she has no worries about Johan

It's so fucking boring that we're on episode 4, both Van and Johan get to do cool action things and even if Johan gets caught, he can hold his ground for a bit with his cool sword, while Miho has yet to even improve in her hiding/escaping/running away techniques despite already being good at fighting and training. If she was at least able to get through to Suryeon with kindness or whatever, that'd be like something but she can't do that either and yells for Van constantly like okay I'm bored

well okay at least she got to speak to Suryeon and I guess some fucking light inside her made the Benjulle disappear

Ah Johan is so irritating when dealing with Van, ah so endearing

oh van calling upon Benjulle again for Suryeon's revenge

heh Van and the Gramma testing each other are so cute

did Johan leave the shrimp croquettes for Miho or is he just gone to the bathroom and will find them gone lol

I don't fully understand why Johan's doing this with Van? to test his strength? and also he wants his name? Edit after reddit thread reading: Someone said he wants to bring out the demon so that he can see if Van can control it enough so that the prophecy of him killing Miho again will come true or not. He left the shrimp croquettes so that she'd be busy eating those and not come looking for the two of them. that makes sense.

oh this is how Van had previously killed her. by his demon side coming out and stabbing her. oof Johan what have you done

A more interesting episode. I wish we got to see the weirdo abusive ex being ripped to shreds at least a little bit or maybe his dead body since we got to see Suryeon's bruised face and her vulnerable photos.

The Johan and Van fighting was pretty cool, one of the action sequences that I thought was actually fun because it involved things more than just chasing or saving Miho.

Also, I'm at least glad that Miho's rich and has connections because otherwise she'd be so fucking useless but then again, she's pretty useless with it too. She didn't seem to give a fuck when Yeomji first came to tell her that Suryeon was being abused, so I didn't think the 'empathy and kindness' would be her forte the way it is for so many female leads but then after she saw the state Suryeon was in, she did start to care more. I thought her having money would mean maybe she could actually get revenge for Suryeong but in the end, Van had to ask Bujille for help. Miho can't save herself which is irritating still 4 episodes in especially when she's been shown to know how to fight but she also can't help Suryeon much despite her status and money. What the fuck can she do by herself then except whatever pureness is inside her and whatever the prophecy will dictate?

I wish we got better-written, more interesting female characters. Yeom-ji is interesting so far, maybe she'll appear more later

Ep 5 (Mar 15)

blocked by own arm is expected

oh our affable Johan has shaking hands

I love the horror aspect of the tourist murder and organ extraction, please have more scary things

Miho fr went outside by herself in the woods after 1) the Dujille incident and 2) the Van incident? girl you are generally useless, why would you fucking do that

oh she's tracking Van's phone

Miho sounds stupid as hell with the "you promised to protect me and you did :>" like at least make her be like i believe you will overcome it or like something that doesn't sound so naive

and i wish they didn't have a romance because it doesn't make sense

pls not all the girls following behind Johan because he's so beautiful and he's relishing in that for sure oh this priest

Johan's a priest right, he likes girls fawning over him but he's not gonna fall for Miho right? I don't want another romantic line

Suryeon and Yeomji are fr best buddies, so cute I love them T.T

omg give me Johan backstory right now

so the Fox Demon is extracting livers until he finds 'his' and is aided by the evil half-demon? and then sometimes sliced up?

so this is Johan's brother at current time?

Guntan is the other half-demon

no but what exactly did that call that Johan got tell him? that they can't find his brother yet?

we're spending too much time at this orphanage and thinking about what Johan would say to his brother, so I... somehow doubt they'll actually get to meet oh no

girl this is so lol like Sujin's fiance probably gonna die and Johan's brother probably gonna die

like first of all after the lust demons have nearly killed her multiple times + Suryeon's lust demon infested Bunjille due to it trying to Miho, I feel like Miho should have enough brain cells to be like actually don't come near me

oh the husband died but at least Johan got to meet his brother; though he may die soon too who knows

Ep 6 (Mar 15)

more Johan and brother backstory

oh they're adopted by white people who have a sick child.... omg

they're gonna fucking do something to the kids T.T

I don't fully understand what happened but did they try to get Johan's brother's liver for their sick child? is that why he was sick also before they took Johan away? but why was Johan also clutching his stomach and blood on his shirt? Did the operation with the older sibling and white child not work so they tried it with Johan too? Is this white sick child the one searching for the liver now as the Fox Demon or smth? or is it Johan's brother since his liver would be missing, though that doesn't quite make sense with what happened with those other people that the brother worked with right?

ah the siblings are having a heart to heart but uhhh I feel like the "let's stay together" yearning of Johan is not gonna be long-lived

oh fuck the brother is so definitely working for Guntan or something rip

oh did Wonjeong betray Guntan and Van somehow? or accidentally betray them but Guntan believes she did it on purpose?

oh beautiful stag? reminds me of Shadow and Bone

why the hell on earth would Miho leave her friend at the funeral crying alone like

I so don't give a fuck about Van and Miho irritates me

oh the brother Chan-hee can't remember killing those people while he's a lust demon?

ah fuck Chan-hee asking Johan to kill him T.T

bro first I felt emotions for Suryeon and now Johan T.T poor guy

filing a teary Eunwoo on his knees looking desperate for later when I'm not feeling sad for him and he's not a priest

ah fuck desperate, desperate Johan but the lust demon wants to kill Wonjeong/Miho

poor fucking Johan really having to kill his brother

my beloved Johan nooo T.T

wait a second were there scenes after the title card each time?

oh Guntan has a fucking cult

oh what the fuck my beloved Yeom-ji T.T

Also, the thing that Chan-hee was getting and saying "It's not mine" is probably kidney and not liver lol I thought liver because they said that's what the Fox Demon stole but Chan-hee was not that.

Overall Thoughts:

The main female lead was whatever, wish she was just good at something. Whether it be at fighting demons (understandable that she isn't), was fighting back via kindness and empathy (I'll be forever floored that she's apparently feeling soooo much for fucking Van while her reaction to being told about Suryeon's situation was like hmm whatever just tell the cops), actual power due to her status/wealth/connections (but she couldn't even fucking put the abusive ex behind bars and couldn't keep her promise to Suryeon to get revenge for her and then dared to be like 'hmm idk how I feel about this' when Van got him killed), or her smarts (miss girl kept going everywhere in the woods by herself, including in the dark; she couldn't tell her friend to not come to her at night like this). She's not the worst ever because she can still stand up for herself and she has personality but I mourn that they've written her like this. I also just hate that the only other girl we've paid any significant attention to was Suryeon and I had to see her go through an abusive relationship; why can't we get some cool suffering, why do I have to see girls and women be tortured at the hands of men in this way every time?

Van is just fucking boring and I don't care. He's kinda cool but like he's not fun or interesting or endearing or tunning at my heart strings (except him as a child when he was being abused as he was trained T.T)

My beloved Johan <3333 Cha Eunwoo was my main reason for keeping an eye on this show since I watched True Beauty and was into Astro for a few weeks. He did so well <33 I liked his charming, cocky, beautiful character who was so intrigued by everything going on as if he really was 20 and curious about everything but also I liked his apprehension when it came down to it. The storyline with his brother was so T.T He had him for such a short time and it was so sad seeing him trying to do everything to save him and yet having to kill him in the end.

Also curious to see the evil brother half-demon Guntan and his sidekick niece Yeom-ji. They're both pretty cool compared to our 2 main characters. The Certified Noonas were talking about how cool Guntan is and all I could think about was "So, what if he's the devil, Rick? At least the devil has a job. At least he's active in the community." because mans is really active and murderous and a cult leader.

I wish the show flowed better in terms of the sequence of scenes and pacing and the main characters were more intriguing.

Rating: 6/10

#island #ep by ep commentary

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pandp-author · 3 months ago

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So, real story time? I killed Jeremy. :(

Which, once I reached Celeste's quest and saw how she let this sex trafficker walk away basically scoff free, I was hella mad. I killed someone else for less than this shit! And this wouldn't be the last time something like this happens, as you also let evil Alois in Bastorias go with slap in the wrist after trying to sell CHILDREN to SLAVERY. Like... I could feel Jeremy laughing at me from beyond the grave I placed him in, why do these motherfuckers get to live when Jeremy can be killed!? I guess this was a form of the game calling me out? And Jeremy was a sellsword, and their promotion is fantastic. I really wish I've spared him because I basically hired no generic.

At least I got Celeste, she's a sweetheart, and she's of the best class of the game, so I don't want to complain too much. It was definitely during the elven forest that I started to watch my stamina more closely, so that checks out. And the elven fencers were a bit disappointing, not gonna lie. I needed to invest in their evasion to get them to do anything. You're right that the elven characters felt a bit like they took backstage on their own area, but their raptors were all nice.

Loved your breakdown of the story beats, especially the Bastorian one. I think you're onto something when you were able to appreciate Eligord's arc more than Albina's when the story isn't trying to make you sympathize with them, same with Gary. Once you can tell how heavy-handed a story gets with a particular theme or character, rejection is the usual response. See my reaction to the game just giving a slap in the wrist to these SLAVERS. I'd say Edelgard and Rhea's presentation could also count, especially in Crimson Flower. Another personal example for me is Makoto from Persona 5 (TL;DR, I hate her)

The censorship bit really got to me because I was thinking the same thing when I got to that part! Once I learned the reason why Rhea felt the need to hide information, I 100% sided with her. Even in Verdant Wind, when she no longer hides the truth because it's uwu wrong, I was left wondering, what will become of Seteth and Flayn now? Will they be safe now that people know then can kill them to get sweet weapons? Hey Claude, are you sure this was a good idea? Edelgard kind of showed you that people hating them because they're dragons isn't outside the realm of possibility. Especially when the information the heroes are censoring is mind control, which has got to be one of the evilest things in existence.

But going back to your breakdown of Alcina's uwu sads... between this and Fire Emblem, I'm convinced male japanese writers are just incapable of contextualizing women as evil. They always feel the need to pull their punches with them, either because they have a hard time getting over their biases or because they need to sell the player something, and they don't want the player to feel bad for being invested in a clearly evil woman character. Which results in the double standard with see in how Albina's evil actions and death is being handled vs the *men*'s evil actions and deaths. It's easy to ignore the damage Albina's done because it was mainly towards background characters, or at least it would be, if Eltolinde wasn't right there.

Albina straight up possessed this girl and made her fight her own people and sister, and yet Eltolinde wasn't allowed to express how she felt about this bitch as said bitch was dumping her sad backstory and reasons to want to possess Eltolinde and the protagonist. Now, instead she felt sad for the bitch, because the writers decided that Albina's feeling took priority over everything else. A privilage her male counterparts didn't get, even though that's what allowed their arcs to feel more genuine, even if we don't forgive them any more than Albina.

It's true that Bastorias kind of felt shorter than the other two areas, but the passing never was so fast for me that it felt like an issue. Though to say that Vanillaware had monetary problems would be an understatement. They went bankrupt for this game. Unicorn Overlord really needed to be a massive hit for them to make their money back, and this wasn't even the first time it happened. They also ran out of money with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I will applaud the company for sticking to their guns. I'm already waiting for their next tilte! Maybe they will do what Ogre Battle did and release a Tactics title too!

The one problem I had was when trying to hire a generic Werebear. I wanted a polar bear and the "white" fur color scheme was nowhere near as white as I hoped it would be :( The polar bear shop owner was the cutest thing I've ever seen in any game: "Take your time, relax." SO ADORABLE.

However, this means that you're closer to the Feather Bows and Shields! Yay!

Land 3 and 4 done!

Elves and furries!

Or the worst double standard with Alcina's tragick backstory while Gary eats scraps, and Reimann puts devoted Fodlan fans to shame with his bias against subhumans!

Elheim was...

Very green compared to Drakengard lol, however the interactions between the characters felt... stale.

I mean, compared to the constant back and forth + exposition from Virginia about how cities are different from Cornia, who is Gilbert, the people living in the desert and all, for the first part of the plot, we just follow Rosalinde, a dark elf, to meet her sister so she we can save her from the bad guys, and ask her where is the second magic mc Guffin ring.

Sure, we rescue some villages and characters along the way, but they aren't, imo, as integrated in their setting as the Drakengard ones. Still, we find former thieves/brigands/bandits Alain decided to spare in Cornia - and apparently they want to turn over a new leaf, so when their old gang wants to sell elf ladies (young and not so young) as slaves, they rebel and we deal with them.

I guess the difference in setting/atmosphere is due to Drakengard, well, being conquered by the bad guys, but it feels like they just conquered it and left it there, not really caring about it.

In Elheim, they're still around - it can be sort of explained by the fact that Drakengard was conquered 6 years ago (Cornia, Alain's home was done in 10 years and Bastorias was subjugated 8 years ago) when the conquest of Elheim is supposed to be more recent? - but I guess it plays/is due to the main boss of this area's agenda -

Unlike Cornia and the small villages here and there, or Drakengard and the large cities sprawled on mountainsides, here the cities are located kind of far from each other, with a lot of forests/green/lakes/small mountains around - it makes for long maps without a lot of stuff to seize, but at the same time, it means you have to check your stamina more frequently so it's different enough to be a regional difference compared to the previous setting.

The units are... something - all jokes aside, having units deal both magic and physical damage was a nightmare for my poor 0 res armors lol, but I reckon they can be kind of useful with the proper setup, too bad the "proper setup" was something I never found and actually, I like how the game still gives you "human classes" enemies too (from the evil empire, like a red loldier) so you're not only fighting against elves, but also against the same kind of enemies (albeit promoted) than you did before, and they use mixed teams like ones with elves and humans, to make you sure have to still rethink your strategies and can't send the same team you used in the former land and expect the same results.

The BGM though... is sort of there - a bit disappointing compared to Drakengard's but I got a newfound appreciation after hearing the final boss' theme The Witch's World, it's not the banger Heir of the Dragonlands was but the fantasy/dream TWW conveys made me realise what Elheim was all about (hell those titles have a meaning lol) :

Drakengard's final theme is all about Gilbert reclaiming his castle and being the true heir of his country, not by birthright but when push came to shove, he stood up and restored the country. Which is why Drakengard had some exposition and character drama centered on Gilbert, his family and helping him.

Elheim is, as sad as it is... all about Alcina's fantasy/dream, her downfall and a sense of tragedy, both because of what she used to be, and what she actually did for the sake of her dream.

Regarding Alcina, I'll try to keep the sodium levels to minimum but :

@megafan1993 I know your comment wasn't under an Unicorn Overlord post lol, but this is basically my feelings regarding Alcina, and the comparison with the boss of the following arc stings even more, all things considered.

Who is Alcina?

A witch who acted as the court witch/mage of Cornia (MC's land!) who has the "uses magic to not grow old too fast but will eventually" syndrome, and was around during the time of MC's grandpa, a dude named Gerard.

King Gerard knew how to use his sword very well - to the point of being called a sword saint! - and liked to use it "for the good of the people", but he was the kind of guy who didn't like doing King work, found his coronation a nice distraction and didn't like when his PM modified his bills/papers etc etc. Pissed with the life of a King, especially since he felt like he couldn't do what he wanted, he left the land, without warning anyone, to explore "Cornia" and see what her people needs, only taking Alcina with him : effectively ditching the country - but no worries, his father was still around !

Exploring the land, Gerard finds himself in an ambush/skirmish against Drakengard - the neighoubing nations with whom Cornia has had border issues/problems for centuries - and takes an arrow meant for Alcina, thus dies unceremonously.

Alcina returns to Cornia and people are starting rumours, like how she had been the king's "favourite" and how the situation sucks, because now Gerard left his kid daughter* (whom he never mentionned even once in all of his voiced lines) Ilenia (MC's mom) alone to assume the role of the ruler of Cornia**.

Now, Alcina was pretty much in luf with King Gerard, so much that when Ilenia faces a rebellion (aka the prologue) and asks for her help, Alcina accepts to help her, because Ilenia is King Gerard's daughter.

Then...

Ilenia is supposedly "dead", Cornia has fallen and the Gharnef-like Baltro tells her (or she deduces it herself?) that his magic doesn't turn people crazy, but use people as mediums to put foreign/other souls inside them and take control of the bodies. It's more like a channeling magic.

Seeing the possibility to be reunited with her Gerard-poo again, Alcina switches sides and joins with the evil Zenoiran Empire, but she has her own agenda you see?

Alain lived peacefully on a small island because Alcina, who knew where he was, never told anything to the evil Zenoiran Empire people. It's not out of the goodness of her heart, hell no. Alcina had an interest in keeping Alain alive... because she planned to use him/his body to channel Gerard's soul inside - with the added bonus that Alain is a pallet swap of his grandpa.

She knew Gerard would most likely despise her for using his grandson as a medium to bring him back (from the lines we got spoken by the guy, I doubt it, he never mentions his kid!children not even once, why would he suddenly care about his grandson?) but she just wanted to hear/see him one last time sad uwus

(which raises a fucking giant red flag, Alcina who knows this and knows Ilenia's body isn't around, would obviously have guessed she was too, used as a medium for a Zenoiran soul much like Renault and Hodrick! So, with that knowledge, she wouldn't have tried to find a way to save her? Especially since she came to her in her "direst time of need" in the first place! I guess seeing Gerard >>> saving his daughter, after all the man himself never gave a fuck about said daughter...)

I don't have the exact timeline, but Alcina then accepts to march on Elheim - which resisted the Empire because they elves protect their land with a magical forest, and only taught a select few humans they are friendly with and trust a lot how to cross it, but could never have guessed that Alcina would later turn on them! - and leads the evil empire there with a dude named Gary, the land is conquered and while Eltrinde, the current elf leader (the eng/european script comes up with a lot of "exclusive" elven words, in the script she's called a turenos (??) but the jp!audio just has her be a "miko", I guess mikos don't sound elvish enough to the western lolcalisers and of course they couldn't translate her title by the word "sibyl", aka her class name :/) surrendering to avoid casualties...

Nothing is heard about her, save for Rosalinde (Eltrinde's twin sister!) who worries about her, and we believe when we face her that she's also possessed like the other people we used to fight against (by, and it'll later be revealed, ancient Zenoiran souls channeled by Baltro's magic in those bodies) but no, Eltrinde was possessed by... Alcina herself!

"But why would she need an elven body? She already has hers!"

Apparently, given some clues here and there (Yana - Alcina's apprentice - rapport conversation with Rosalinde), we can surmise that Alcina wanted an elven body to get a longer lifespan without needing to use the dangerous "rejuvenation aka turning from a dried old fig to a stripper" spell.

Tl;Dr : Alcina wanted to have her romance/spend time with Gerard again, using Alain and Eltrinde's bodies as mediums, even if it means dooming the elven kingdom and the world in general -

And oh boy do we see the elves being doomed, because while the two other human countries had a suspicious "plague" going on, here Baltro - like our beloved Riev - drops any sort of subtelty behind his title as a necromancer, and revives elves he previously killed to fight the party, which enrages both Eltrinde and Rosalinde (a feat, because so far their plot mandated interactions where very lackluster, their reunion scene had no pathos or similarity to the Drakengard brothers or even Virginia reuniting with her long lost cousin!) and they swear to take him - and Alcina - down.

Ultimately, after Baltro rewarps away like the good dark mage he is, we fight Alcina - who saved both Alain and Eltrinde from Baltro and prevented a game over lol because she still wants their bodies for her uwu ritual - and both the map song (witch's world) + her various FB's and ultimately Yana asking her to rest in peace after she's killed participate in selling us the "tragic/doomed by love" vibe about Alcina, like, the tragedy is about her, this arc is about her, hell, the entire Elheim plot is about her.

I guess I already let some salt flow lol, but even if this isn't as hamfisted as Hresvelg Grey, I felt like this was a disappointment and a bit of a letdown compared to Drakengard's story.

Double-standard hour : I was loitering on redshit to find some stuff and I saw so many people trashtalk some dude called "Gailey" that I wanted to know what was his story and...

(FR-wise at least, "Gailey" is Gary lol.)

So, Gary was Unicorn Overlord's take on FE8's Carlyle, without the sympathy he had for Joshua.

Gary was very devoted to Queen Ilenia and part of her guard, when she "died" - pretty sure that if Alcina knew, she would never told him the truth - to him Cornia died, because there's no Cornia without Ilenia as its ruler.

So Gary accepts to work with Zenoira because his queen is dead, apparently he does this conquering stuff well enough to be distinguished during the Drakengard campaign, and is sent to Elheim with Alcina.

Alcina however is the main villain while Gary is a sidekick, and is relegated as such which pisses him - and he knows she is the one possessing Eltrinde! - but our party arrives, and he wants to take our head.

It doesn't work, apparently Galvius (the evil emperor who conquered everything and is the red emperor !) doesn't like it when his troops lose and Gary knows that if he returns to him, he'll be executed, but also can't remain in Elheim else the rebels will kill him and can't escape from that land due to the magic forest surrounding it (the one no one could cross save for elves and their trusted friends!).

To get rid of the magic forest, Gary thus decides to burn the "super magic tree" that gives power to the forest and fairies living inside who are also the source of power for the elves.

Alain's party finds Gary and kills him... or at least planned to do so, because he runs away after we rekt him and is actually killed by one of his soldiers (who wanted to bring his head to Galvius and explain that if the rebels got them, it's only because Gary was incompetent!). He has last words not to Alain, but to Jeigan Joseph and the other former members of Cornia's knights - they ask Gary why he betrayed and it's here that he tells them that he never betrayed Cornia, because Cornia died when Ilenia did, thus he had/felt no attachment/reason to fight for Alain.

He has the last word to Joseph though - who pulled a Finn when he escaped with kid!Alain while Ilenia fought (apparently to her death) to give him an opening - saying Joseph has no right to judge him, because when Ilenia was fighting for her life (and apparently died), Gary was by her side until the end (he was in her team) fighting for and with her, while Joseph ran away.

And we know - after Virginia's sidequest - that Joseph still feels guilty about having left Ilenia and escaped with Alain, wondering if their places couldn't have been reversed and if she should be the one alive, but he listened to her orders back then (something he doesn't reveal to Gary!).

In a nutshell, Gary had most likely unrequited feelings for his queen, did his best to save/protect her and fought with her, but when she died he felt like his world did and from that point dgaf about the world or what it was supposed to become.

Alcina... most likely had (unrequited ?) feelings for her king, felt like trash when he died and she couldn't save him, thus abandonned her job and while she did help his daughter at one time, in the end she was willing to see the world and her king's family burn to get another chance to live her love story with him.

They are pretty similar, but somehow treated differently when both did horrible stuff, however only Alcina gets the "tragedy sad uwus" framing when Gary dies unceremonously.

Yeah :/

Not find of that plot arc.

In their rapport conversations, the elves are more interesting than what their plot interaction led to believe and I liked the devs adding maybe like 70% of the elven npcs around being sort of assholish and quite biased because Alain'n'pals are "humans" and have a huge superiority complex regarding the rest of the continent (watermelon time for that one NPC who calls Bestrals "unclean" or "corrupted" like dude, what do you have against bunnies?).

-------

I heard Vanillaware rushed the ending of the game because they had a money problem or something, and well, Bastorias shows it lol.

We have maybe 5 plot quests - sidequests you are supposed to unlock way way later lol - and a cast of 3 characters who talk in turn, but don't really exchange or interact with the NPCs or the rest of the cast found there.

So yeah, I can see where the rush was lol

And yet, I still prefered the Bastorias arc -

First because while the maps are also as empty as the Elheim ones in cities and all, well I sort of prefer the "vast snowfields" vibe to the "large forests" one, even if I confess I really liked seeing/talking to the various people around - even if it was only for a sidequest (tfw a dude wants to sell Laguz slaves).

Second, because the BGM is both relaxing and yet foreboding/mysterious enough to keep you focused, even if I confess, I pressed + during some fights when wereowls were busy giving each other blue points lol

Oh, and werefoxes were... I won't judge people based on their kinks, but personnally, I was kind of weirded out by their sprites, like when I can crack jokes at F!Elven Fencers like "if they fall on their back they can't stand anymore like turtles if you flap them over", werefoxes are just... uh yeah. Not my cup of tea.

Plot-wise, Alain wants to get rid of Zenoira in this region too so it will diminish their forces (ludonarrative point : if you don't do Bastorias and go to the final map, Reimann pops us as a reinforcement unit with the feral plot characters you're supposed to meet in Bastorias, aka feral!Ramona and feral!Morad :( I guess Yunifi died alone, I hope she wasn't killed by her adoptive parents !) but everyone realises that there's some "illness" or stuff that makes some Bestral go mad/feral (does this remind you of something?) and while some pop up as yellow units who attack everything on sight, through the plot we later learn that it's not "illness" at all!

Much like the best Gharnef out there (sorry for your poll @crushednugget, but I believe science should have won!), Reimann - a former Cornian noble who was part of the band of traitors who sided against Ilenia in the prologue - uses his science + a magic rock to turn the animal people in feral versions of themselves to control them, and calls himself a genius while also revealing that this magic rock that those lowly subhumans only thought was a shiny rock that belonged to the lion (thus royal) tribe was actually the magic rock that makes people able to control the Bestrals (the subhumans).

We even have one rapport conversation from Joseph, that suggests that Reimann might have been involved in trafficking/enslaving/experimenting on subhumans before the game's events, as he was already trying to get his hands on Bestrals during Ilenia's reign!

Unlike Izuka though.... Reimann is betrayed by one of his "allies" - much like Gary! - who was... under his suit of armor... a bestral himself!

(Cucumber lolcalisation point : Eligor, when first met is talking to this place's Batta the Beast and at one point is pissed/haughty/upset and calls Batta a human - but in the jp!audio, I didn't hear any "ningen" mention at all. Eligor blows his cover in the us/eu script, but not in the jp version!)

Eligor is a rat bestral, and Bastorias has some sort of hierarchy/class system based on which kind of Bestral you are - cats are fishermen, owls are the "wise mayors", bears, foxes and wolves are fighters (but polar bears are selling weapons!) goats are innkeepers etc etc.

While it's upsetting that we never hear anything from the numerous NPCs around about the "rat tribe", given how Bastorias is presented we it's not that farfetched that rats were indeed seen as lesser or not as important/valuable as lion bestrals.

The Rat Tribe was captured by Baltro who used them for experiments to make them sturdier/stronger, everyone lost their mind save for Eligor who seems to be thankful to Baltro-sama to give him the means to reach his dream : become the King of Bastorias even if he is a member of the rat tribe.

As Morad (a lion!) tells him though, while his dream and ideals about making Bastorias a place for everyone to live with pride etc etc, he still tells Eligor that he resorted to stupid/ridiculous methods (aka mind controlling and sending hundred of bestrals to death fighting against each other and being a fucking member of Zenoira!) and would have prefered if they worked together, to which Eligor tells him that he dgaf, because even if it only lasted for the duration of the final battle, he finally got what he wanted being the King of Bastorias and commanding people thanks to the shiny magic rock.

No uwu sobest for Eligor unlike the gallons of tea we had to drink for Alcina though, maybe that's why i can appreciate this arc more lol

I think the nod to the reveal about Eligor being a rat and this arc wasn't the lolcalisation adding shit, but the sidequest with the... Rock Rats - former bandits Alain spared in Cornia lol - when you recruit/want to recruit the leader who's basically Robin Hood, he tells you that even if Alain started his quest with 5 people and thus isn't like the other evil Nobles (tm), you should always worry about someone who started from scratch and managed to become a leader, because they will cling to power and forget why they wanted it in the first place.

...That's basically Eligor's story, as told by another, metaphorical, rat!

Battle theme a Fleeting Dream is the general Bastorias overworld theme, with imo, the earlier feelign of something ominous being played/schemed and its climax - it's the same mystery/foreboding feeling we got in the overworld map, but with a feeling that "something is going on". A good catch for Eligor's plot and this arc in general, even if it was rushed.

Anyways after his death, more plot reveals - Morad the friendly (uhh) lion we met who acted as one of the main characters from this arc was actually a human changed in a lion with the power of the shiny magic rock, and the human girl, Yunifi, who was adopted by Ramona (owl mom) and Morad (lion dad) is very heavily implied to have been a lion princess herself, but turned in a human!

Nod to Fodlan discourse : upon finding Reimann's notes and researches about how to use the shiny magic rock to control bestrals - everyone in the cast agrees with Ramona's suggestion to burn those notes!

No "uwu censorship BaD" or "creature masquerading as a human is attempting to hide knowledge to keep humans ignorant!" -> those "researches" are basically some "how to perform mindcontrol and turn people against each other in 5 steps" lessons, so they are destroyed for the sake of everyone, the shiny magic rock will forever remain a shiny magic rock, and not a tool to control the minds of anyone else.

Gameplay wise :

The Bestrals have a gimmick where they are more powerful/get more mobility during nighttime, but some of their classes are more similar to the human ones than the elven ones.

I still have to use/play around the werefoxes and the werewolves, so far I only used the lion, the bear and the owl and while I know Yunifi has an unique class and can be built in a certain way to be completely broken...

I don't have enough medals to make more than 3 teams of 5 characters rofl - but I'll definitely try to play with some builds!

----

Oh and in general, I guess i forgot to mention in the "this was rushed" part, but while we can see the rush - I still am flabbergasted at some details the devs added like, hm, the fact that when you use a skill that summons rain in Bastorias - aka tundra land - you don't get rain but snow!

Or the completely random stuff I just noticed today (tfw after 50h you still notice and learn something knew), when you pick a squad captain, the sigil/banner for that squad in the "battle screen" is the one of the "captain" of that squad!

So yeah, even if they're fighting in Alain's Liberation army, some characters still retain their identity and banners - Gilbert's team has the Drakengard sigil, Eltrinde/Rosalinde has the Elheim one and... Travis has the Tricorns (his bandit/merc group!) one lol

*Given how Virginia is Alain's cousin and Ilenia's niece, it means Gerard must have had two kids, assuming primogeniture works, Virginia's parent, must have been younger than Ilenia which means Gerard basically left his two children and role/duties as a king behind him because he was upset that people were disappointed in him/kept on meddling with his duties as a king.

**Through various supports and lines popping up here and there, we learn that while some people loved Ilenia and thought she ruled wisely and justly, some other people were very critical of her, given how she became Queen young and wasn't as battle-hungry as her dad before her : Tl;Dr, dying like a moron after ditching his throne, Gerard abandoned his daughter who had to face the same adversities - if not more - than he did, but she pulled through. I'll have to check the audio when I'll reach that moment to see if there's hidden salt, but she has a line to Alain in the True Ending where she's basically all "I'm not going to miss my son's coronation" and, well, with the knowledge that Gerard was crap, I wonder if Ilenia resented him a bit lol

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istumpysk · 3 years ago

Text

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ACOK: Jon VII (Chapter 53)

Prince Aemon! What are the odds?

Qhorin decreed that they would rest here until the shadows began to grow again. "Shadows are friends to men in black," he said.

They certainly are.

+.+.+

"She even claimed we were kin. She told me a story . . ."

". . . of Bael the Bard and the rose of Winterfell. So Stonesnake told me. It happens I know the song. Mance would sing it of old, when he came back from a ranging. He had a passion for wildling music. Aye, and for their women as well."

With all this talk of Bael the Bard, Night's Watch deserters, music, and wildling women, I'm starting to think I'm supposed to be linking Mance and Jon.

+.+.+

"You knew him?"

"We all knew him." His voice was sad.

They were friends as well as brothers, Jon realized, and now they are sworn foes. "Why did he desert?"

"For a wench, some say. For a crown, others would have it."

+.+.+

He was wildling born, taken as a child when some raiders were put to the sword. When he left the Shadow Tower he was only going home again."

Does Osha not realize Mance was born a wildling, or did George forget his own writing?

Why do you think I run south with Stiv and Hali and the rest of them fools? Mance thinks he'll fight, the brave sweet stubborn man, like the white walkers were no more than rangers, but what does he know? He can call himself King-beyond-the-Wall all he likes, but he's still just another old black crow who flew down from the Shadow Tower. He's never tasted winter. I was born up there, child, like my mother and her mother before her and her mother before her, born of the Free Folk. We remember." Osha stood, her chains rattling together. - Bran VI, AGOT

+.+.+

Only fools like Thoren Smallwood despise the wildlings. They are as brave as we are, Jon. As strong, as quick, as clever. But they have no discipline. They name themselves the free folk, and each one thinks himself as good as a king and wiser than a maester. Mance was the same. He never learned how to obey."

"No more than me," said Jon quietly.

Keep them coming. I don't mind Jon and Mance parallels.

+.+.+

It was hard to put into words. "My father never used a headsman. He said he owed it to men he killed to look into their eyes and hear their last words. And when I looked into Ygritte's eyes, I . . ." Jon stared down at his hands helplessly. "I know she was an enemy, but there was no evil in her."

Look again.

"No," Jon Snow said quietly. "It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark." - Bran I, AGOT

What happened to this, huh? You're supposed to be good at this.

+.+.+

"I did not command it. I told you to do what needed to be done, and left you to decide what that would be." Qhorin stood and slid his longsword back into its scabbard. "When I want a mountain scaled, I call on Stonesnake. Should I need to put an arrow through the eye of some foe across a windy battlefield, I summon Squire Dalbridge. Ebben can make any man give up his secrets. To lead men you must know them, Jon Snow. I know more of you now than I did this morning."

Imagine cutting all the Qhorin Halfhand content to give more screen time to Ygritte. Wouldn't be me.

+.+.+

"Just don't try and bring down a 'cat," he muttered. Even for a direwolf, that would be dangerous.

Either this is nothing, or Arya's in for a treat.

+.+.+

When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves.

There were five of them when there should have been six, and they were scattered, each apart from the others.

Thanks Ned.

+.+.+

His brothers were out there somewhere, and his sister, but he had lost their scent. He sat on his haunches and lifted his head to the darkening sky, and his cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound.

Did the author also forget the mute direwolf doesn't howl? Or is it different when Jon's inside him?

+.+.+

As it died away, he pricked up his ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow.

Jon?

Jon howls for his siblings, and Bran immediately answers.

In the middle of nowhere.

Above the trees.

Sometimes they would see a few weeds struggling from some crack in the rock or a splotch of pale lichen, but there was no grass, and they were above the trees now.

+.+.+

The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . .

A weirwood.

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky.

Is this tree maturing from a sapling right before his eyes? Am I understanding this correctly?

Is Bran growing telephones? What the fuck?

+.+.+

Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow.

Now Bran is reading Jon's thoughts while Jon is inside Ghost. Is Bran also inside Ghost? I... huh?

+.+.+

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

This is happening in real time. Ghost is smelling the stones of Winterfell, and the death inside the crypts.

Here in the chill damp darkness of the tomb his third eye had finally opened. He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon. Though maybe he had only dreamed that. - Bran VII, ACOK

+.+.+

Don't be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And suddenly he was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. Before him the Skirling Pass opened up into airy emptiness, and a long vee-shaped valley lay spread beneath him like a quilt, awash in all the colors of an autumn afternoon.

[...]

There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war.

Wut. Bran tells Jon to open his eyes (?), touches him, and suddenly Ghost is teleported miles away to where the wildlings are gathered. Did he walk it, and Jon was blacked out?

+.+.+

Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun . . .

Jon killed Orell the previous chapter, and now Orell's eagle is attacking Ghost/Jon.

But this also sounds like a dragon, no?

+.+.+

His head ached, and the back of his neck where the talons had burned through him. But that was in the dream.

"Tell me all that you remember, from first to last," said Qhorin Halfhand.

Jon was confused. "It was only a dream."

"A wolf dream," the Halfhand said. "Craster told the Lord Commander that the wildlings were gathering at the source of the Milkwater. That may be why you dreamed it. Or it may be that you saw what waits for us, a few hours farther on. Tell me."

I think I figured out why Qhorin wanted Jon and his wolf tagging along.

+.+.+

If the dream was true . . . Even the thought scared him. Could the eagle have hurt Ghost, or knocked him off the precipice? And what about the weirwood with his brother's face, that smelled of death and darkness?

The death and darkness doesn't only have to be the crypts.

+.+.+

Ghost, Jon wanted to shout, where are you?

He was about to follow Qhorin and the others when he glimpsed a flash of white between two boulders. A patch of old snow, he thought, until he saw it stir. He was off his horse at once.

[...]

Together they washed the caked blood from the direwolf's fur. Ghost struggled and bared his teeth when Qhorin poured the wine into the ragged red gashes the eagle had left him, but Jon wrapped his arms around him and murmured soothing words, and soon enough the wolf quieted.

+.+.+

"Eagles have sharper eyes than men. We are seen. So now we run."

I don't understand. Jon killed Orell 1 to 2 days prior, so who is controlling this eagle? Has Varamyr already taken over?

Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. - Jon X, ASOS

I guess so.

+.+.+

Once Ebben suggested that some torches might serve them well, but Qhorin said, "No fire," and that was the end of that.

In the past few Jon chapters, the author keeps reiterating the rangers will persevere without the use of fire. Lol

+.+.+

"We are not far from the place the wildlings died," said Qhorin. "From there, one man could hold a hundred. The right man." He looked at Squire Dalbridge.

The squire bowed his head. "Leave me as many arrows as you can spare, brothers." He stroked his longbow. "And see my garron has an apple when you're home. He's earned it, poor beastie."

He's staying to die, Jon realized.

Why film something as awesome as this when you can have more Ygritte?

+.+.+

When dawn broke, Jon looked up into a cloudless sky and saw a speck moving through the blue. Ebben saw it too, and cursed, but Qhorin told him to be quiet. "Listen."

Jon held his breath, and heard it. Far away and behind them, the call of a hunting horn echoed against the mountains.

"And now they come," said Qhorin.

Despite the urgency of this situation, we won't see another Jon POV until the second last chapter.

Which begs the question, why was it so important to have these two Jon chapters so close together?

Hmmm.

Final thoughts:

Let's talk about Bran.

"You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw."

"A man must know how to look before he can hope to see," said Lord Brynden. "Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood.

[...]

"But," said Bran, "he heard me."

"He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. - Bran III, ADWD

I'm thinking Bran might be considerably more powerful than Lord Brynden.

I'm starting to believe the show downplayed what Bran is truly capable of.

Ygritte Death Countdown

2 down, 8 to go. :(

Hey at least she wasn't in this one.

-> return to menu <-

#operation stumpy re-read #acok #jon vii

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east-coast-walrider · 3 years ago

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I posted 1,958 times in 2021

129 posts created (7%)

1829 posts reblogged (93%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 14.2 posts.

I added 1,281 tags in 2021

#sambucky - 351 posts

#fanart - 223 posts

#sam wilson - 191 posts

#justsamwilson - 147 posts

#tfatws - 88 posts

#samsteve - 87 posts

#fic rec - 86 posts

#fandom - 50 posts

#me vs words - 29 posts

#art and design - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#unhinged white fans take any criticism of that website way too personally i need them to sort that out in therapy and not in my inbox!!!

My Top Posts in 2021

bucky stans have truly ruined the sambucky fandom. the fics are trash because it's all "uwu hurt bucky whump white man tears" with no character development and sam being pigeonholed into a constant caretaker role as if that his only trait and being runner up to steve's ghost. the tfatws meta is garbage and mostly racist. so many of these folks managed to have empathy for everyone BUT sam. some of you have already said this but it's worth repeating: pre-tfatws was really peak sambucky hours. except for a handful of writers and sam-centric creators, the rest is the pits now honestly

180 notes • Posted 2021-10-05 23:09:16 GMT

at this point, if you cannot see bucky as anything but a victim and sam as anything but an emotional mule, I'm gonna need you to keep your meta in the drafts until you've got the range, because right now you don't. bucky was absolutely horrible to sam. he was mean, catty, and honestly downright hateful sometimes. sam was endlessly supportive and patient with a man who caught an attitude with him when he tried to talk about his dead aunt. lmfao if sam had done that to bucky we would never hear the end of it!!!! but since it was the other way around literally no one ever mentions how unnecessarily nasty that was. that's why bucky's apology (which was NOT enough tbh) was important. because we watched this man treat someone who genuinely cared about his wellbeing (reaching out even though he'd been ghosted) like an emotional punching bag and THAT WAS NOT FAIR.

sam has his own problems he was dealing with--familial, financial, emotional--and none of those are ever discussed beyond brief moments (yes I know this is due to terrible writing) but it would be nice if some of you could take a a day off from making bucky a perpetual victim and like, acknowledge that, maybe????

184 notes • Posted 2021-07-13 12:35:20 GMT

and you know what fandom did the same thing with bucky and tony that they're doing with john--every bad decision and shitty behavior boils down to "because ptsd" and like. okay. white men can be as violent as they please and everyone will say "ptsd" but sam doesn't move his seat up and cracks jokes on bucky and it's never "well this man tried to kill sam multiple times, maybe it's how he copes" it's "he's a cruel, terrible human being." because black characters just like black people are not human to many of you and if we're not wholly good then we're wholly evil and we see this in the way black characters can't even sneeze wrong without mobs writing posts on how they're terrible and cruel lmfao. I would say touch grass but mother earth deserves better tbh.

189 notes • Posted 2021-07-11 18:41:13 GMT

there is a particularly gross account on here that claims anyone pushing against caretaker sam is ableist which I find interesting because quite a few of us on here who have been complaining about it are black, disabled and/or nuerodivergent fans (hello there 👋🏾). it's almost like they forget we exist the same way they do whenever the topic of race intersecting with disability/nuerodivergence comes up. shocking, I know.

literally no one is saying to stop writing sam as caring, compassionate and empathetic, we have been asking you mealy mouthed liars to write him as a character with agency, a character with his own problems, his own desires and his own motivations and not just a magical negro catering to the needs of some "uwu sad white boy" who happily plays second fiddle to steve's ghosts. we are asking you to show that love is a two way street (it always has been but that seems to confuse yall when one half of the ship is a black character). at this point you people KNOW what you are doing and have no intentions or stopping and will instead continue engaging in bad faith arguments instead of just admitting maybe you should reconsider why you always characterize the ship in such a toxic, unhealthy, one sided way and why you can't imagine black characters existing outside of their servitude to whiteness but yall not ready for that conversation lmao.

213 notes • Posted 2021-06-11 02:17:23 GMT

finding a sambucky fic on ao3 without past st*cky feels like hitting the damn lottery these days smh

332 notes • Posted 2021-04-23 16:12:29 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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rixxy8173571m3w1p3 · 5 years ago

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The Truths Found On Petram Viridios IV (1/?)

What started out as an idea for a short one shot grew into a multichap that I'm almost done editing. I think 🤔 it'll be either 4 or 5 chapters long depending on how long each chapter will be after I'm done editing. Anyway, I hope you guys will enjoy.

In this fic you learn how easily things can change, but how it effects you isn't always a bad thing.

________________

Chapter 1: The Phenomenon

There was little difference to what was happening around you at the moment. There were no little green men, or yellow submarines, neither were there tangelos, or bags of golden rings, but there was a blue-haired man with plenty of dreams. Still, life was swell; summer was around the corner, and you were reading in the garage just to be near Zeta-7; he was working on his latest piece of tech, and you were distracted by his charming quirks and ticks. If you hadn't known any better, you'd say it was business as usual. Yet, it was because you had been acquainted with Rick that the previous blindspots of your world were made known to you; conscious of the rare events which were going to take place in another quadrant of space.

A phenomenon was going to occur; one which would not happen again for another 1000 years; the blooming of the Milleannos flower. Legends say that those who touch its pollen might live forever, and those who smell its perfume might be cured of all that ails them, but those claims were supposedly unsubstantiated. There was to be a gala to celebrate the occasion; all in attendance were respectable, distinguished guests and because of Rick, you were also invited, but there were rules; strict guidelines which were to be obeyed unless you wished to throw away your life. And although you weren't happy about them, you were willing to abide by them for Rick's sake. However, there were a few things you didn't understand. "Rick, why won't we be allowed to dance together?"

His hands paused their activity, and his body sagged a little; dreading the reminder not because he's informed you already, but because it pained him to remind himself that he couldn't spend a once in a lifetime occasion with you. "B-because according to the laws of Petram Viridios IV, you are assigned a um - a party companion which is determined according to the alignment of your spine, carbon dioxide levels, as well as daily water intake. And due to the variety of guests, everyone must stand at least six feet apart to avoid air poisoning. However, if given an a-air helmet in order to assist with breathing, then I believe that the last rule isn't as severe. It's - there is a-a lot to remember."

Currently, he was piecing together the circuits and connecting the wires which would power his reflective shield. It was going to be worn under his dress shirt and would be undetectable under their scanners; as a precaution of course. "Ricky, you know I barely drink water." You weren't a fan of water, but you enjoyed flavored beverages and if you did drink water, it was always carbonated first. "I mean, I can get past the distance thing, but what am I supposed to do if I'm assigned to someone I don't like, and have to spend hours being bored and jealous that you're next to gorgeous, realistic fembots from Westworld?"

Unlike you, Zeta-7 drank so much water, you wondered how he wasn't rushing to the bathroom every five minutes. The only other people who drank that much water were beauty gurus who wanted to keep their skin in tip-top shape; you could really try harder if you wanted to. Good naturedly, he answered. "Gosh, y-you don't have to worry about that. I know a fembot when I-I see one."

You raised a brow at this, but seeing as he meant it literally, you listened on. "No s-siree, I won't be assigned a party companion because I'm going t-t-to be assisting the king in protecting their sacred relic."

How Rick became designated to assist with such a task was beyond you, but there seemed to be a glimmer of slight pride in the fact that he'd be so lucky and privileged as to be near the legendary flower, as well as to the beings who revered it. He was determined to find out the truth behind its properties, and if his hypothesis proved true, then he had a plan. You enjoyed when he was diverted with schemes; not the kind which was evil in nature, but the ones which could end happily or inconclusively. Anyway, you two were discussing how to go about it all.

The discussion had gaps of pause where he'd need to concentrate on bits of wiring that needed to be soldered or bent. Without distraction, you were more aware that it was humid, especially with the garage door being fully open for proper ventilation; bits of your hair stuck to your face and to the back of your neck despite how you'd try to tie it. As annoying as it was, it did have its draw; every so often, you'd catch Rick staring and you'd feel a thrill for it could be a year or ten years, but his shy tendencies would never stop being endearing; why he felt the need to reign himself when you were cool with him checking you out was something you hoped he'd someday become more comfortable with, but for now you'd simply giggle and wink at him to let him know you knew. He did his best to focus on the task at hand, but it wasn't going as well as he had hoped for it happened more than once that you'd have to hand him a tool he was blindly reaching out for. "You wouldn't happen to know who my party companion is," you inquired, as you were tying your hair up for the umpteenth time. "do you? And if you do, can't you change them?"

Giving you that look which always preceded his speeches of why he couldn't do that random illegal thing, he explained with kindly patience. "I could change th-the records, and assign you to someone I know, but that wouldn't be legal."

"I know."

"However," he brightened as he paused his work to face you fully. "I do have a copy of the guest list. Give me a-a moment to pull it up on my computer. Hmm," he wondered more to himself then out loud. "that's odd."

"What is it?"

Drumming his fingertips on his workbench, he double-checked his calculations, then went over and wrote it all out on a chalkboard to be sure. Tapping the freshly used chalk tip to his chin in thought, leaving a little powder on his face, he nodded when it seemed satisfactory. "According to um - to my calculations, it's possible that it's either the Salamandrian chemist, V'gha Khadaka or the Chordatan Knight, Noathamas."

"Is there a correlation between the two?"

"Other than their similar water intake levels, they both enjoy their privacy. However, I'm a-a little stumped as to how it might be possible to be assigned to them both. None of your occupations are similar, neither is there a species similarity, but I'm sure I'll figure it out before the event."

Great, just great. That sort of information wasn't all that helpful, but you pressed a kiss to his cheek to ease the worry which he had been hiding. You wondered if it was too late to back out, but for the most part you were determined to be there for him, even if it meant odd company. "Alright. Um… is there something I should keep in mind before I go dress shopping?"

A quick glance at your current outfit made him smile. You were wearing an old band tee and jeans with so many patches, that they were more patch then jean. "I-I don't think so. Almost anything is fine. Though, y-you might want to avoid plant-based materials in favor of synthetics just in case."

"Okay, I think I can do that, but don't be surprised if I look like I just walked out of a 1980s prom. I'll have you know that being slightly flammable is a dream of mine."

He chuckled at that and patted your shoulder. "Hohoho, I'm sure it'll be fine. You - you always look pretty in whatever you wear."

"If you mean that I'll be so fine, that I'll light up the room with my razzle-dazzle, then you better watch out. You never know who'll be charmed without my knowing."

Now, there had been little to no weight to your phrasing just now, but he felt differently. Giving your shoulders a squeeze, there was a distant, far off look in his eyes that you could only recall from specific occasions. It was a mix of longing, sadness, and regret, but you couldn't pin it on what exactly. It was as though he were trying to convey by sight that there was something he ought to do, that he ought to say, but as quickly as it had appeared, it left and was replaced by acceptance. He pulled away and returned to his previous task while you used a spare computer to begin the search for the perfect dress. He said it'll be fine, and you certainly hoped so.

____________

Adjustments in gravity made you feel as though you could jump in and out of craters as though you were wearing moon shoes; that is until you stepped onto a ship or station, then you felt as though you had fifty pounds tied to each foot. You were grateful for the terrain stabilizers that Rick placed in your flats a few adventures ago, otherwise, you would've already been worn out.

You two arrived a few minutes apart by way of the designated ship which held a variety of guests. To explain, the ship itself was a marvel and a work of beauty as far as intergalactic travel was concerned; its mechanical parts were held together by a compound whose main ingredient was a type of scarlet amber. Piece by piece, it had been crafted by a mixture of living matter and tech so advanced, that it'd have taken 300 years of Earth-based studies to understand a fraction of how one of its panels could work; probably sooner for someone like Rick.

Your eyes trailed the conduits as you were led through hallways that seemed to spiral and spill into larger hallways with varying temperatures and design and you wondered how it was those conduits crossed over and branched off like veins, but you had no time to find out and didn't feel privileged enough to ask as you were led into a cabin. Multiple voices hushed, but resumed to their usual loudness once you had settled into what appeared to be a loveseat with the coloring and texture of a pumpkin; it was your assigned seating, but it was not as soft as you would have liked.

It wouldn't be till later that you'd find out that Rick had traveled in a cabin on level 4 while you had been on level 2. In your cabin was a being composed of pure energy, with a name not spelled in letters but in frequencies, who was one of the musicians. A few feet away, was V'gha Khaḍaka; he was tall, sure-looking, had smooth, striped skin which glistened, and a tail strong enough to break someone's spine in a blink; the good thing was that he hadn't been trained in combat, but was simply a scientist who enjoyed the pursuit of knowledge. And a few feet away from the Salamandrian chemist was the knight Noathamas; he stood at half your height, but his chest was puffed out in such a way that made him appear larger, while his round amber eyes and curly whiskers gave him a soft, cuddly appearance; you had been warned by Rick that his appearance did not reveal much about his character and to watch out for him.

It was uncommon but not unheard of to be assigned multiple party companies as you had been; you were matched up to both V'gha and Noathamas due to your odd chemical makeup. Who would've thought that drinking a La Croix before leaving home would confuse their scanners? Goodness, you were grateful that it was a quick trip, and when it was time to depart the ship, you were escorted by two guards before you were given a helmet; it was nearly invisible except for its indicator light which was shaped like a flower, and it blended in with your dress; a colorful sequin cocktail dress you found on eBay. Not far from you were both your companions, who gave off the impression that they were your entourage rather than dates for the night. You saw Rick from a distance, and you knew he was trying to play it cool, but his eyes were sparkling with affection, although he knew he was supposed to suppress it due to the strict traditions imposed by the royal family; he looked away as he was escorted by six guards, but part of you wished that he hadn't.

You took a deep breath to calm your giddiness; this wasn't the time to allow your emotions to carry you away and affect the mission which was to get through the evening. V'gha could pick up on your subtle changes in body language, and thanks to a universal translator in your helmet, you could understand him. "From what I understand," he commented with a surprisingly smooth, velvety voice. "he's the smartest man in the universe. Is that true?"

"Maybe," you replied nonchalantly, "but he's more than just a brain. I heard he's a great lover. Not really my type," you lied because Zeta-7 suggested that you keep the details of your relationship with him a secret; again for safety, but you thought boasting up his reputation wouldn't hurt. "though, to each his own."

"Do you know him personally?"

When questions like this were thrown at you, it made you wonder about the curious people who meant it to sound nice, but in actuality wanted to test the waters as to how much can they ask so soon. Glancing at your nails, you feigned disinterest. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to give out that type of information."

"You two are the only humans here." he stated matter of factly. There were humanoid beings but he was right. "It doesn't take rocket science to figure that much out."

"How would you know," you retorted with an air of certainty. "you're not a rocket scientist."

"You're right, I'm not. However, I do dabble into it from time to time. I'm sure he does too. I can smell the exhaust from here."

Hmm, perhaps this event was going to be more interesting than you thought. You shared a look of understanding with the chemist, and thought that perhaps you wouldn't need to be so wary of him; his charisma gave him a charm you hadn't yet decided if it was welcomed or should be ignored; whether his earlier comment was out of egotism or curiosity. And before you could make a comeback, Noathamas commented. "Shall we find our assigned seating and continue from there?"

"Sounds fine. Why don't you two walk ahead," you suggested with a coolness you didn't know you had. "I'll be sure to follow."

When you were sure that they were far enough, you took out your miniature glass terrarium necklace, which held a shrunken sunflower that had an iridescent shimmer on its petals; the one Rick had given you after a memorable date; it was made to remind you of how he saw you and you were very glad it had gone undetected under the scanners you passed through. And in your mind's eye you could still see the glimmer and shine of his electric blue eyes as he had taken in your appearance this afternoon before you two departed Earth; oh how he had wanted to kiss you and hug you but had refrained from doing so in order to double-check if he had all his supplies. His compliments had been many as he drove into the inky blackness of space, but when he parked at the station which was at the midway point, and you two lined up to board the ship which took you to this strange world, his face became neutral; his job made him good at that. You kissed your lovely necklace, replaced it so that it laid underneath your dress collar, and your heart called out to him in the void which was Petram Viridios IV; hoping you wouldn't have to go the through the evening without seeing your beloved again before you made yourself appear neutral and made sure to stay at least six feet apart from everyone in your midst.

Tbc

#doofus rick #doofus rick x reader #Rick Sanchez x reader #j19ζ7 #j19z7 #rick j19z7 #Rick Sanchez #rick and morty fanfic #rick and morty fanfiction #rnm fanfic #rnm #my fanfiction #My fanfic #My writing #My works #fanfiction #rnm fanfiction

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browneyedbeauty03 · 5 years ago

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Dirty Little Bird

A ribbon of moonlight cascaded through the half parted curtains, bathing her in its silvery glow. Her honey chestnut hair pooled in luscious curls atop the plush pillow where she lay sleeping - dreaming. The horrid nightmare that awaited her the following day did not allow for much rest. She was to be married to King Joffrey, the hellish boy that had been ripped from the seventh circle of hell and lovingly planted in his wretched Mother’s womb.

In her dreams, Joffrey trussed her up naked and used her for target practice. In her dreams, he always arrived to save her when it was already too late.

The Hound always came running when he heard her scream.

She woke abruptly, a cry gurgling in her throat as she shot up in her bed. The willowy canopy around her fluttered with the breeze of the open window, indistinguishable shadows intensifying her growing sense of dread. The door to her room burst open without warning, followed by the thudding of boots and hushed clatter of armor.

“Everything alright, little bird?”

Her heartbeat seemed to steady ever so slightly, and she hurriedly brushed stray strands of dampened hair from her colorless face. Her nighttime gown had shifted, exposing her prominent collarbones along with the ripe tops of her ample breasts. The Hound parted the glimmering panel that obscured her resting place, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of trouble.

Willa opened her mouth to assure her faithful guard that everything was fine, that it was only her dreams of the future that plagued her so, yet no sound would emerge. Silent tears streamed down the milky apples of her cheeks, coating her neck in the stream of sorrow. His face, illuminated by the gray moon, never ceased to shock the lady, no matter how much comfort the rough man brought. She could clearly see the the scars where the fire had licked his skin and stolen his innocence - the left side of his intimidating mug branded by the evil of his brother.

How handsome he would have been had tragedy not struck him with its unforgiving, iron fist.

Willa blushed heartily at the intrusive thought, casting her gaze downward as The Hound inspected her sudden change in demeanor. His greedy eyes could not help but hungrily drink in her creamy, exposed flesh. She was beautiful - the type of untouchable, fair maiden that inspired wistful songs, strung up in the stars by a golden needle of longing.

“I’m scared of him, Sandor,” Willa finally whispered, unable to meet his penetrating stare. She had never called him by his first name, before. But, it was hard to see him as a dog when he was all that stood between her and Joffrey’s malice.

The Hound did not not know what to say. He often found himself immersed in a perpetual state of rage, but the thought of Joffrey Lannister splitting young Willa down the middle and imbedding his poisoned seed in her womb filled him with a fire so hateful that it could burn all of Kings Landing to ashes.

“Afraid he’ll break you in rough, huh?” The Hound gruffly spat in disgust, casting his stare aside as he attempted to build back the hateful barrier that had crumbled in a hazy moment of pity.

If all you felt for her was pity, it wouldn’t be so hard for you to keep your dirty eyes off of her, huh Clegane?

Willa was horrified by the words that had so carelessly toppled from The Hound’s mouth. Lude visuals of her wedding night raided her mind, and she could not control the way her body shook as she sobbed into the feathery mound of her pillow. Clegane shifted uncomfortably where he stood - crying women made him uneasy. Hell, any expression of emotion made the brute uncomfortable.

“I’m afraid he’s going to kill me,” Willa whispered, somber. She wondered if Joffrey’s cruelty extended beyond the heinous rumors, or if he was as bad as Ramsay Snow that she had often heard tale of.

The Hound gathered a embroidered handkerchief from Willa’s nightstand, admiring her house sigil, woven into the fabric with emerald green thread. A sparrow. Carefully, the man crouched over in order to give the dainty material to her, but she just stared at him woefully from underneath the thick fan of her eyelashes. With an uncomfortable cough, Sandor Clegane pensively brought the handkerchief to Willa’s dampened cheek, dabbing sporadically at the flushed flesh in an incredibly awkward, yet gentle manner. Air evaded Willa’s lungs the moment his gloved hand touched her. She had never seen such tenderness out of the man, and she supposed it had something to do with the cloak of darkness.

When The Hound moved to pull away, Willa surprised herself by reaching up in order to keep him in place. The untimed sound of their frantic heartbeats was deafening, and every instinct in the man’s body urged him to bolt from the room - to save himself while he still had the chance. He didn’t need the trouble that came with carrying about a lady, especially not the lady of the childish, cruel King.

He doesn’t care about her. She’s just a thing. His pretty little plaything.

“I beg your pardon, Ser,” Willa whispered, her voice so low that it could have been mistaken for the faint howling of the wind.

“Ser? I’m no Ser,” The Hound rasped with a smirk. Kings, Princes, Knights - they were all just facades, titles to hide behind so the wicked could indulge in their wicked ways.

“Yes,” Willa agreed, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Yet, you’ve saved me all the same.”

Willa had been terrified of The Hound, at first. His scarred complexion had ignited a profound trepidation within the young lady, and she had been unable to even meet his eyes for the longest time. However, the day came when Willa had been caught in an angry, starving mob intent on killing her betrothed. She had been dragged away by a pack of grimy men into an empty stable, and held down while one of them parted her struggling, flailing legs with his filthy hands. She’d felt the heat of his sinful intentions against her snowy, untouched thighs, and wished for death. Willa had accepted her doom, but Sandor Clegane had somehow heard her muffled screams. He had burst through the rickety door and rained hellfire down on each one of her attackers. She recalled the satisfied glimmer in his eye when he gutted the one who had been between her legs, the way his intestines had pooled at the toe of The Hound’s mighty boots.

The Hound had lifted Willa over his broad shoulder and carried her to safety.

You’re alright now, little bird.

“I could take you home,” Clegane said. “Back to Winterfell - away from the King, away from - “

“Joffrey would have us killed.”

The Hound remained silent. He wasn’t scared of the King, or anyone. But, why would the lovely maiden, Willa desire a life on the run with someone as hideous, as damaged as he?

"He'll just breed you like a bitch in heat," Sandor finally rasped. "And, I can't very well protect you past the doors of his bedchambers."

Willa felt sluggish with sadness and a tiredness that had crept into her soul. Her eyelids were heavy, the eerie sound of a wolf balefully howling at the moon somehow sewing her near dreamlike state together with reality. Her dainty little hand traced over Sandor's bone white knuckles, clenched in rage due to a situation that seemed to be out of his hands.

"Birds aren't meant to be caged," Willa whispered, rising to her knees in order to inch closer to a man that the rest of the world could only see as a hateful thing.

The Hound grew rigid with trepidation, only able to emit a slight grunt of disbelief when Willa's fingertips met the side of his face left unscarred. She traced his plush lips, jaw falling slack as rapid breaths rolled off of her tongue. A fluidity of heat pooled between her parted thighs, and a rose flush stained her cheeks as she leaned forward to shyly brush her nose against his.

The innocent gesture snapped Sandor back to reality, and his calloused hand lurched upward in order to clench Willa's jaw between his fingers in an act of unintentional and unnecessary roughness. The action brought tears to Willa's eyes, emotion stinging her nose and forcing her to curl it in a girlish manner.

Their eyes collided, The Hound at a complete loss for words as he watched tears roll down his little bird's creamy skin.

"Don't you want me?" She finally asked, in a voice so quiet, so meek that he wasn't sure if he heard her correctly.

The man scoffed, relaxing his hold on her face in order to cradle it more gently. "It's in a dog's nature to chase after something as sweet as you."

His suggestive words made Willa whimper, the sound falling onto Sandor's tongue as she feebly brushed her lips against his.

"I won't be able to control myself if you keep that up," The Hound grumbled, massive hands kneading at Willa's barely swaying hips. The tip of his tongue flicked against her own, and she moaned when she felt the sensation between her legs, as well.

"I don't want you to control yourself. I want you to breed me before he has the chance to."

" Fucks sake," Sandor rasped, tossing Willa onto her back before staggering to his feet. She bounced a couple times before her form settled into the mattress, soft dark curls framing her visibly pouting face.

Such nasty words out of such a sweet, precious creature.

"You're not used to being told no, are ya?" Clegane sighed, stepping out of his armor and crawling back onto the bed like a predator hunting its prey.

Willa soundlessly shook her head, biting down on her lower lip when The Hound finally pinned her onto her back, wrists trussed together above her head by one of his hands.

She could feel his hard erection through his underclothes, and she inched her tiny feet upward in order to pull the fabric from the wide girth of his hips. The Hound groaned,rutting his rock hard erection forward in order to rub up and down her throbbing, dripping wet slit.

Willa felt a seeping burst of liquid against her clit, hot and delightful, yet nothing compared to what was to come. Without warning, The Hound pushed his entire length into her untouched cunt, her creamily painted walls instantly clenching around him as she moaned his given name so loud that he clasped his heated palm over her pretty,plump lips that were parted in a mixture of pain and pleasure.

He continued to pump in and out, the headboard clattering against the wall as his thrusts continuously became more powerful, cock audibly slipping in and out of Willa's tight, sloppy wetness.

She lifted her legs in order to rest the balls of her feet atop his enormous shoulders as he rose upwards. He could feel his balls tightening with the urge to release his seed, unable to contain his wildness as he watched the King's betrothed open up like a flower for him.

"Fuck your baby into me," Willa moaned, rubbing her swollen bud as she arched up farther into The Hound.

Her dirty words sent him over the edge, hot cum spilling from his cock and into her gushing pussy. At the overwhelming sensation of fullness, Willa practically exploded with an orgasm, various cum hungry phrases tumbling from her presumably innocent lips.

The Hound looked down on her in awed astonishment, chuckling in disbelief. "Just where did a lady such as yourself learn to talk like that."

Willa stared upwards at her faithful guard through her batting eyelashes, a red stain of arousal painting her heaving breasts and chest.

The Hound didn't need an answer. In truth, he loved chasing after her wicked innocence and mystery.

"Maybe, you're just my dirty little bird, afterall."

#game of thrones #sandor clegane #the hound

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letmyselfcare · 3 years ago

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Reverse all means of space and time, and what you are left with is a vast nothingness. The words haunted my mind as the skyline of southern Florida turned into a murky dim light of night. The brightness of the sun faded while a new one took over: rays of the city and all of its boisterous party life. Lexi was not kidding— Miami was nothing short of a party. The streets were filled with people of all shapes and sizes, laughing and talking through rose colored glasses. The colors were bright all around and from every corner of the city music of life and happiness seemed to be playing loud.

It was much different from what I was used to; my life was normally filled with seclusion. Hiding in the shadows… away from people and keeping to myself was how I liked most of my days to be. A total and complete utter darkness. Maybe that was why she wanted me to come here, to get away from the personal hell I lived inside of. Here in this city, I imagined it was hard to live in shades of guilt and self hatred. I also imagined it was easy to give into self pleasures. This was a place I knew my darker self would thrive in. A literal utopia of gluttony for the monster within me. I wouldn't give into the temptation.

With the seduction of hunger came an evil within me that wasn't so easily brushed aside. I didn't leave Mystic Falls in an attempt to save innocent people's lives only to come here and end more. Pulling my car off to the side of the main downtown area, I parked it in one of the dark secluded parts of the city before making a round of the area myself. Life and luxury colored the town for all it was worth as far as I could tell. In that I stuck out like a sore thumb. I wasn't ready for Miami as much as I wanted to be— that much became clearly evident. With wandering eyes paying me mind, I ducked my head and kept to myself for as much as it was worth.

After walking several blocks it wasn't until I saw “The Blackbird” that I knew I was in the right direction. It was a dark and sort of mysterious bar that drew in much attention from the outside. To someone like myself, I knew it was a haven for the supernatural. Every big city like this had one or two places that crawled with vampires— a lux hotspot where we didn't have to hide ourselves. It was a blessing and a curse to someone like me; someone who craved humanity and decency but was also hiding from the darkest parts of themselves.

There was a line out the front of the door, with a few large bouncers guarding the entrance. “Are you on the list?” The dark haired and broad shouldered man questioned me as I voided the line and made way towards the front without hesitation. He screamed of intimidation in a way that most humans would have been put off by. I stood my ground.

“My friend told me to meet her here,” It was a bland excuse, but the best one I could come up with. It was not solely humans lined up at the door, but also low grade vampires. Clearly I wouldn't stand a chance if I didn't use the best card in my pocket.

The guard laughed mockingly. “What's her name?”

“Lexi Branson.” The confidence behind my voice was wavering but I knew it was my only option. I didn't want to let Lexi know I was here just yet— doing so would open an entire can of worms that was best left sealed for now. If she was going to be anywhere in the city, I knew it would be here. She thrives off the party, the fun and all it was worth. I couldn't knock her for it, but I also couldn't bring myself to enjoy those same attitudes just yet. I wasn't in control of myself the way she was…

The guard gave a look to me in question, staring me down for several long seconds before finally motioning for me to enter through the doors behind him. Was I shocked I was right about Lexi? No. After you had known someone for well over one hundred years, their every move became as well known as the back of your hand. I knew her inside and out just as she had me— Lexi was more than my best friend, she was a part of my mind in the same way Damon was.

I could hear the loud music pounding from outside the bar and it only grew as I walked further into the dark entrance. Through the words of music, my own voice began to roar in the back of my head: There was no life, no means of hope. Just an empty space which would one day grow into something beyond imaginable. Something with meaning. Much like the shift in the universe, your life could change as well. One moment all could seem wrong, and as you open your eyes to the new day there is change. Is that what this was now for me? Change?

Extravagance was nothing short of how to describe the scenery around me. It oozed of wealth and finery that was nothing short of wonders. A clear hideaway for all eternal life and the beauty it held. It was also a staple of power in that regard; a grab at influence that left everyone in here seeming higher than life itself. From all corners around me, while dark and gloomy, I could make out people drinking, dancing, and chatting amongst themselves. Through the air the smell of sexual arousal and blood mixed like some sort of intoxicated perfume . My stomach curled but I walked on.

Much like on the street before entering, there were a few eyes that turned my way. I was new here and that much didn't go past the vampires around me. While it should have been comforting to know I was surrounded by people much like myself, instead it put me on high alert. I didn't trust a single soul here. As eternal creatures, we were inherently selfish. We did mostly what suited ourselves the best above all others. I was on the disadvantage of course with my lack of human blood. I didn't know where my next meal would come from… I didn't know if that was the best thing to think about now.

Making a direct line towards the bar, I did my best to keep an eye out for long blonde hair through the sea of people. I sought out a singular energy, but nothing here felt familiar. It was lonely in a way I was not expecting, and that left me feeling puzzled. In a room full of people, without the one you wanted most, you could feel so alone. As I reached the bar, I waited off to the side before one of the bartenders paid mind to my presence.

“What are you drinking tonight?” She was average height and olive toned with a voice soft through the music around. It caught me by surprise, somehow unexpected as her face was hardened. Though to be in a place like this, I'm sure it was easy to look angry. Especially as… a human. Suddenly I realized all the people working here had been human with the expectation of the men outside. A sudden sadness washed over me as I looked at her— what kind of life was she living working here?

“I'll just take a scotch on the rocks.” A reached for my wallet, a trivial item as a vampire as I could merely take whatever I wanted without consequence, but she shook her head when I handed out a twenty dollar bill.

“You must be new,” Her gentle voice added with a laughter through the noise around us. She began to make my drink for me only to soon notice the confusion on my face. “You don't pay here, you're a vampire. Obviously.”

“Was it that obvious?” It was hard to tell. As a human, the only vampire I ever knew was Katherine. Though her beauty stuck me from the moment I met her, I never knew what a human would see when they looked into my eyes. Did I appear with the same appeal Katherine had to me all those years ago? Or did I come across like a normal human? I placed the money back into my wallet and tucked it away. All of this show and dance around me felt incredibly sad in a way, yet if I were human I knew it would hold a much different regard. How did she see this place?

The brunette girl behind the bar nodded her head and slid my drink over to me. “You scream newbie, pretty boy. Watch out…” Her wide doe-like eyes gave me a wink in a way that was far too playful for the haunting look on her face. “Someone here just might take advantage of that.”

I wanted to question what that meant— it was far too ominous to sit properly. Just as my mouth began to open, to even dare put meaning behind the warning, silence caught in my throat instead.

“Now Hayley,” A female voice from behind me dared to break the space between me and the bartender. A single hand was placed on my back, and suddenly I was thrown back into a time and space that was all too familiar to me. A world I had craved for days, knowing it was the right place to be. Lexi. I turned my back to see her bright eyes and mischievous face warning the girl behind the bar: “Don't go scaring Stefan off. He only just got here, and I plan on him staying for awhile.”

#part three #songs of the midnight bird: part one #songs of the midnight bird #ft. Lexi Branson #ft. Hayley Marshall

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an-idiot-but-a-bit-more-refined · 8 years ago

Conversation

I was laying in bed thinking of something and this made me laugh for like a split second, then I got mad and then I started crying a little because, I imagined that I was a lecturer and I had to teach a group of Baby Swen about why their new fandom home was the way it was.

Me: Hello Babies, Mommy's back!

Student in the back: Sweet! Evil Queen references.. Umm, professor, I have a question.

Me: Yes?

Student: Why are our fandom grandmothers, mothers and aunts against Eddie and Adam writing Swan Queen?

Me, sighing gently: Darling, we're not against them writing it, but we have our reservations on the way they ARE writing it and most likely would attempt to write it.

Student in the back seems confused. Pauses slightly before nodding. I write down a topic that blankets the class discussion. "Swan Queen". BABY SWENS WHISPER AND SNICKER WITH EXCITEMENT, but I sigh once again. Someone notices

Student: Professor?

Me: Yes?

Student: What's the matter?

Me, slightly conflicted to do said discussion, but I feel it is needed.

Me: The issue the fandom is facing my dear younglings has to do with an ever running war on Tropes, Tokenism, Sexism and just all around 'fandom fuckery' as we've coined it. Some of you- rather, most of you may be familiar with how savagely Swen are dogged for wanting something that represents this current day and age. Be it a fairy tale that's never been told, or simple recognition in a way that does not make us feel as though we've been given a half-assed story that's tossed after it's done what writers and show runners believe it's supposed to...no-no, Your home- THIS home is a home that has to fight for the equality so that the younger generation may reap the benefits of the fight. Now, this may sound tragic- or seem catty, but I assure you, Swen are not known to be such. We like to leave that to...what was that other group's name, again?

Student with all the smart ass comments whom I adore: Crap tainted Swan!

Me: Yes, them.

I begin to write down a few categories and immediately hands go up.

Student: Professor, what exactly do you mean when you say- they will fuck it up?

Me: Precisely what I wrote. The Swan Queen fandom is not fond of being lied to, deceived or played for fools my young one. We know as well as anyone that 'pushing' is a thing for two overly hetero-normative men who run to Captain Swan with open arms and away from Swan Queen with eyes shut and ears deafened, will somehow manage to mess up a perfectly good story to tell.

Student somewhere in the corner: And when you say they'll make it more difficult- what does that mean?

Me: It means that Our ladies are difficult apart- NOT together and yet the writers seem to bring that as some valid way to deter the pairing. They believe by forcing these characters to appear as though they'd be difficult together would make it hard for them to have a lasting relationship. Trying to deter someone by creating this aura that they simply can't be around one another long enough before they become snarky and catty for all the wrong reasons is absolute bull. If anything- we have proof of countless times they have preferred to be with one another simply because it was obvious of the safety they felt. The care and concern they felt.

Student: Oh, so you mean like- Regina's stubborn and sassy and sarcastic when she and Emma are apart and when they work together, she's still sassy and sarcastic it's just in reference to everyone else and not Emma... it's like they're trying to make you think that Regina can't stand being around Emma when the only time we see the real Regina is when she's with Emma-or Henry-

Me, highly impressed: -exactly!

Another student in the front raises their hand: So, that ties into your next point of it being predictable doesn't it?

Me: It does. Have you all seen the consistent template that's written for a queer character?

They all nod and someone with a good bit of brains stands up to go on a miniature rant.

Student: Yeah, I have and it sucks. There's always the one gay character- (he manages to say with an eye roll.) But then there's all these other 'templates' that are stereotypical. Like if they do marry Emma off to Hook and she magically realizes she doesn't love him or that she's gay, they use Regina and it becomes that thing where the lesbian or in Regina's case- the bisexual, quote on quote 'turns' the straight housewife and she realizes she never needed a man; just some good love.. Or one of them dies- or in their case, both of them apparently.. isn't that what was happening in season six?

Someone whispers, Lexa deserved better and puts up a fist. Other students nod at the other baby Swen and agree.

Student who laughs sarcastically all the time: Or how about this one, She realizes she's not gay either after a bunch of passionate nights with Regina and then she goes back to.. the one handed wonder.. God, don't let her get pregnant-

Other Student yells in pain: -DEAR GOD, PLEASE DON'T GIVE ME IMAGES OF ANOTHER WHINY VERSION OF HOOK! But let's not forget the ones who argue all the time and can't keep a stable relationship and are secretive and all that other junk the L Word made beyond obvious.And if that's not bad enough, they both get beards and are tortured for seasons with men they have no chemistry with and these are women who have chemistry with brick walls and can't even make that shit work-

Me: -Alright.. alright, focus. Yes, these are the templates I'm referring to. But let us not forget the ones that gay male characters also go through.

Someone snorts because they only have one template for gay males.

Student: You mean they're difficult and mysterious and cute little twinks who get thrown with other cute twinks or big buff guys with daddy issues and bam- magical ending?

Me: Correct..moving on.. The third points says-

I'm interrupted as they all say it together

Students: Tokenism!

Me: This is just the TV way of saying affirmative action.. Fanciful in meaning isn't it?

Student: It's trash!

Me: Yes, I do suppose it is... however, would someone like to express why the word tokenism still would apply to Swan Queen?

Hands immediately go up.

Student: Well, if we're being honest here, We already got it once before and we don't even know what the deal is with that story anymore...Swen fears that tokenism can still be a thing for Swan Queen because Eddie and Adam only attempt Swan Mills episodes when their ratings drop and as that becomes a case, so does the question of will they just do Swan Queen to stay on the air and never explore it the way they should... We've been hearing of season seven being the final season and our worry is no longer that they will fuck it up. Quite frankly we don't even want them to write it anymore, we'll take it off their hands and make our own show out of it. The problem arises when they create the asinine plan to use it as a last minute crutch to 'go out with a bang' or something. Like, What if this season completely tanks it and season seven is in fact the last season,right? They get the plan, Hmm maybe we should do Swan Queen in the last episode and that'll justify all of the crap we've put these people through, just to say they did something some grande and amazing thing for us, when in reality, they were trying to save their shitty revenue.

Student directly adjacent: Can I add on to that?

Other student nods.

Student: It really is sad though when we were willing to settle for anything- any sort of thing, just to know we were being heard no matter how much we fought- no matter how much our fandom grandmothers have fought. I think deep down, a lot of us know they just won't do it, like they really won't and even if they do, the luxury of it has just faded. The luxury of it would have faded and they'll try to force it to be overly gooey and 'loving' or cutesy when that's not what we asked for. We asked for a story that was true to life and very much so a proper representation for us all. We asked for a story that proved that strong women can work together and fall in love with one another. That they go through ups and downs and doubts and sticking things out and believing in one another and all of the other good things we've seen.... If we get it, if we are blessed enough to have Swan Queen- We'll be happy, but we'll be tired. We'll be exhausted and still disappointed that it had to come to this for us to be heard... I don't think we'll ever be as happy as we were the first day in season one when they met, if only because of the pain and heartbreak and the amount of horrible things that have been said to us just seems to, hit too many nails in our coffins. The fight will never be over, and we have accepted that, but I think everyone's getting tired of having to fight for something that shouldn't even be in question... and it's not to say we've lost our drive or we're losing hope. We're just done with trying to tell men who clearly don't understand that this is a revolution that needs to happen. This is a change that needs to be seen.. we're done trying to prove something we have too much evidence for to still be called delusional and reaching and all those other things. Everyone's tired of watching some forced 'chemistry' dictate how women should be treated and seen in this world. We're tired of seeing people be criminalized and denied a second chance at a love that won't leave or die on them i.e Regina.. We're done and we are tired of feeling like what we watch is what it will always be- nothing but a dream, an illusion... A fucking fairytale.

Silence encompasses the room and everyone thinks on it. (I legit cried when I thought about this part, so I'm sorry)

Me: We are tired, young ones.. we are, but we fight for us and we fight for you until it's over. We march for us and we march for you until we die and you are right, we have not lost hope.. we've just lost that many damns to give on speaking to a group of people who choose not to understand.... And maybe it is true, maybe we truly won't be fulfilled even if they do give us what we asked for.. what we've pleaded for.. and maybe it will make it all seem like it was in vain and maybe we will feel like we've accomplished nothing because we had to force hand for them to cave or pressure them... your grandmothers, mothers and aunts for this fandom realized many things.. we will not force anyone to give us anything. We will peacefully protest the injustice, but if we are not given what we rightly deserve.... we move on from trying with them and you know what we do? We make a world of our own. Eddie and Adam didn't give Swan Queen life... we did, and you did. They didn't see what we saw. They didn't understand it and they clearly didn't want any part of it, but the dream lives on. The reality lives on- the world keep spinning and life goes on and guess what, so will the memory of Swan Queen....Now I need you all to say this last point with me..together we will do this..

Even if nothing happens. Even if your words fall on deaf ears to some, remember the many that you have made hear you. Remember the many who sat with you and held your hands and kept you together...when things fall away and the glamour goes goodbye, remember your reality, your worth and yourself in all of this- Remember YOUR fight.. Through all things, every hard moment and every distressing situation.. for every negative message- comes ten thousand positive soldiers. Fight on and keep hope..

When you open your mouth and words come out and you say "May I have your attention please?" Remember that those who listen are those who wish to hear.... Remember that your fight is a plea to be heard and someone will listen.. remember that actions and words are one and you fuel them. Remember that when the world around you dies- you are to flourish and bring light back to it... remember that you fight for you just as you fight for me and I do the same... remember from now until the end of time that you've done your part in this world and if it never happens... still, keep hope, because maybe, just maybe...one day it will

With Love, Megan

#to the fandom #Swan queen fandom #swen #swan queen #this is for you guys

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