#in the others we have character B can be thought of as a companion to companion A

[3gremlins]

feel like im having a DA2 experience again where I really liked it and was in my little "this is good" cocoon where i played it many times only to emerge from underground and find everyone else hated it (i mean ive found the other da2 cicadas since but at the time it got really slammed). i've been really enjoying DA:TV so far ( lol tho obvs have notes) here's an early thoughts review, may be a bit spoilery, def rambley, trying to stay vague on stuff still (i think i'm about half way maybe? im trying to not look things up and doing it blind on my first run through. it's hard to tell b/c i went hard on all the side quests and am now way over level for the msq)

the combat system is a little jarring at first and i still miss at least being able to switch to and play as party members if your character dies (instead of the god of war style of full wipe), but i've gotten used to it (it's more annoying for boss fights, regular combat it's very zippy and fun). the targeting at least on controller is kind of annoying sometimes- i'll think i'm pointing at one enemy only to have rook turn and fire at nothing or companions to hit an add instead of a boss. I wish we at least had more control over how it queued who it was hitting. some of the arenas are obnoxious design wise - there's bosses that teleport to you and they give you like a tiny little box to dodge around, not the most fun. i do like that you can punch way above of your weight class sometimes which reminds me of DAO a little bit (like how you'd just wander into a fight or hit a gong and be like oh no, those enemies have skulls over their heads, oh well YOLO). sometimes it doesn't work out but when it does it's very satisfying. It's nice to be able to conquer something mechanically even underleveled (smol fromsoft vibes) Having always been a big fan of the strange composition parties (i.e not just war/rogue/mage), i like that this is now even more viable (and not just me being cheeky "we're having a leather party!" of all squishy rogues). but like the main thing about bioware games is the companions/interpersonal shit and i'm enjoying the heck out of that .i only do main quests to get more side quests from companions (or more side quests in general so we can troll around for more banter). i like petting griffons (and cats and dogs) and playing games with manfred*. I wish the gift system was more interesting like DAO or DA2- i was so excited to see it again and then it was a little disappointing to have them barely react when you get them stuff.

my current fave party are rook and the poison boys (emmerich and lucanis) since they're a rogue too and we just stack necrosis, bleeds and other elemental effects on things till they disintegrate. i like the lighthouse, it feels much cozier than skyhold. I love that you can just wander up to companions having convos and awkwardly eavesdrop. I do miss the little interactions/quests you could get with cole esp*** i think the animations are a little lack lustery? Idk there's something with the face model morphs that sometimes feels weird but the voice acting is strong enough that I don't notice too much. i do miss some of the more bioware-y cheeky things like item descriptions or weird notes near random silly environmental tableaus (there's a little but i just want to read all the notes! there's some in the grey warden areas where i was just like WAIT I HAVE QUESTIONS but there was no plaque about them T.T). where are the stacks of cheese (i do appreciate the fereldens love cheese jokes tho and harding getting so excited when someone says something nice about ferelden) i was esp bummed that there were no random things to read in the black emporium and it's all codex entries instead (that's my favorite tiny bit in DA2 where there's junk you can click on and xenon says weird shit to you). i also wish more had been done with accents of npcs- like i wish all the antivans had similar accents or your crow rook had an antivan accent, stuff like that (having a lot of "ferelden" generic british accents everywhere is disappointing. takes you out of the immersion a lot) My biggest gripe is probably the pacing - I wish it had more horror/mystery pacing like dao and da2 had- the reason we're all scarred by the brood mother is b/c the build up to that was so so creepy (also the necromancer bit w/hawke's mum in DA2). They gave us time to be unnerved or afraid and I do feel the evanuris reveals have been a little rushed so you can't really feel that worried about them (some of the side quests get close to this but still not quite there**). I wish they'd let them breathe a bit more instead of rushing from one giant world changing event to the next. Some of the reveals have been not so great- like lore that the fandom has poured over for 15ish years explained in one line?? i wish there'd been more build up of rook as a character too, maybe even a time skip from a prologue to finding solas kind of thing. the first trailer made it seem like that's what was going to happen but then it in media res'd us in a strange way. the first 10 hours of the game are probably the weakest imho, it took it a bit to get rolling and feel more natural. I appreciate that the first major decision doesn't really let you scum save for it (bit of a jump scare for me lol).

I also don't really need this much varric anymore, i kinda wish we had a different narrator if we have to have one. He feels really awkward to just have there and not doing anything(and not just kill off or have something happen to him? he got stabbed by the dagger and harding only touched it is what i'm saying). at least let him get better pjs and slippers or something Idk it does feel like bits of previous iterations they were working on are still there and they don't completely serve the plot well. And ofc there's the decisions not meaningfully carrying over thing- which is a huge bummer. But in reality they've never been good at that- the characters from previous games we see in new games don't really carry through their plots/arcs that much (it's more like cameos or they're a new person now) and the world states are usually effectively the same just with aesthetic faction swaps. I was sort of hoping we'd get some solavellan SOMETHING but it doesn't look like we will get much at all past the stuff in minrathous. i feel like if they were going to only include the one choice it really should have had more impact on the story. (i am also still a clown and want to talk to solas constantly still even tho he has no reason to talk to my rook at all, i do not care, i love a sad woof. i wish we could just casually visit him in the fade. i wish we could switch to lavellan and visit him in the fade, idk something. need more gareth david-lloyd pls) the interpersonal character decisions have been the only ones that mattered much and then only within the constrains of their own games- the bigger world changing stuff is usually the illusion of choice. It would have been nice if they let us have one protagonist carry through but i can also see why they liked changing it up and felt stuck in that format. tl;dr: i'm really like it for what it is but it's def got flaws. Parts of it feel super polished while other bits do not- i think knowing how game dev works that they had to make decisions on what was going to get prioritized and some of it works while others not so much. I wish the pacing was better for sure but i love the characters/companions which is generally what bioware is best at. sad it won't get meaningful dlc, i don't really care about mass effect 5 tbqh. So far I like it better than inquisition for the most part- it feels like a bigger/more polished DA2 in a lot of ways if that makes any sense (with similar budget/pacing issues, but the environments are more fun). as i mentioned in my other post, i really appreciated the trans/non binary inclusion into the story/cc tho. like that can't be discounted, even if the rest of the game has issues. (all the holes in the narrative make me want to do fan art and fan fiction tho so idk, maybe that's an okay thing. maybe dragon age is best at inspiring us to sandbox around in it)

*side note, i am surprised at how much i like emmerich like holy shit what a lovely soft nerd of a man! going to have to play through a few times and romance him and also bellara for sure (romancing lucanis this time round) i find myself shipping my companions with each other more than i normally do too. I just want them to be happy! I wish they'd let us have polyamory, like i could see little polycules in this squad so easily. i need to give bellara hugs and lucanis head pats. taash deserves head pats too, but my rook will need a ladder.

**i am going to cry if they do with the griffons what i think they're doing with the griffons. like straight up, feeling like it was a cursed wish to have them now T.T *** do we think the caretaker is cole? the character design makes me wonder (like the hat/silhouette is very cole like but maybe not. maybe i just want it to be cole lol) there's def characters i want to see show up that aren't going to and then bioware is like "what about this fan favorite??" and i'm like "eh".

[pocketramblr]

I always found it slightly awkward how media makes siblings or people who see each other as siblings call each other brother/sister all the time as in real life you almost never see people do that with their own siblings (maybe someone out there like that)

In the case of Arkham Shadows I see why they did though because Bruce quite literally tells Harvey he loves him and Harvey says it back. Can't have the audience think Batman is in love with the DA.

They had Bruce pay for his college, pay for his campaign, pay for his surgery, pay for his therapy and had Harvey have him as his best man at his wedding. Wow..... Sugar baby Harvey is real.....

The calling sibling title thing is less common in English than in some other languages for sure- me and a couple of my siblings do it on occasion, but it's for a bit then. More common is when I call one of my close family friends "my sister" or "my nephew" when talking about them to someone else because it's faster and easier to say that than to say "my friend who I've known since she was born and lived with for a few years and consider a little sister" or "child of a close family friend who considers me an aunt" to someone who doesn't know them. Which is a lot of words to say that if they wanted to fully sell me on the brothers thing they should have either had a different bit or should have referred to the other as "my brother" when talking to an unrelated character instead.

But "oh no we have to make Bruce not look gay" has been a problem DC has struggled with more than once for many decades and it basically never works so I guess at least they didn't try to solve it this time by having Bruce pick a lady love over Harvey or cutting the holding hands thing

Because I saw that scrapbook! I know Harvey has been Bruce's sugar baby since he was ten years old! But we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him the love of his life because ok technically that's Gotham but also because gay. And we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him his best friend because they're not ten anymore and somehow that seems gay also. So brothers it is, I guess. Even if I think my brothers would bite my finger if I ever tried to pay for everything for them on that scale, guess it's different at billionaire levels

[mabaris]

that stupid comicbook.com article and also fan response in general to the companion romance situation annoys me so bad for the sole reason that everyone acts like the only people in the game are the pc and playable companions

[companion-showdown]

Strax as Vastra & Jenny’s companion? or Jenny as Vastra’s companion? Or any combination with either Vastra or Jenny as the doctor role ig

see thats interesting, I do agree that they fit the vibe, both Strax and Jenny have a relationship similar to that of a doctor and companion with Vastra. My problem with it though is that Vastra isn't really in a companion in her own right, meaning there is no original 'companion' in 'companions companion'

[konjkitkatty]

So….whats a certain black widow’s thoughts on a realm jumping carpenter ant? Why is shuffled Shamura so drawn in by Sozonius? Is it the fact they are from another universe? Or do they like that Sozonius seems Knowledgeable? Why do they like this sozo? Why don’t they like dating in their own universe?👾🐜👀

ok let’s break this down into two parts bc this ask means everything to me. Its long so itll b under the cut

1) Why is Shuffled Shamura so drawn to Sozonius?

Simple- there is no Sozonius in their own world. There’s a Sozo, and there’s a Helob. There’s a certain novelty that comes with having something no one else can that’s only made more desirable by the fact that Sozonius is basically everything they could ever want in a partner/friend/companion/acquaintance, not even in the purely romantic sense. Sozonius is just the exact type of person Shamura would WANT to be around. He’s a seeker of knowledge (likely possessing a vast amt of knowledge from his own universe AKA knowledge this Shamura DOESN’T have), he’s strong, he’s reliable, he’s RELATABLE, and a complete mystery that they are simply DYING to unravel. They just wanna tear him open and see how he ticks, and by god they will, and to hell with ANYONE who thinks otherwise. If romance happens to blossom, then so be it, but at the end of the day Sozonius is something new and they’ve GOT to at least see what’s up with him.

2) Why don’t they like dating in their own universe?

well, ok, let’s discuss the possible black widow bachelors and bachelorettes that they have in their own world. We have- cannibal ant, cannibal spider, cannibal goat, and the twins’ mom (lots of cannibals, i see…) any other character they would’ve had mild interest in, such as their followers/witnesses, are dead. All of them are either fools of their own volition or fools by unseen circumstances. Sozo is a foolish old kook who eats people, Helob is a foolish spider infected with fungus who ALSO eats people (had he been cured maybe sparks could fly, but as it stands currently, no), Goat is… I don’t think I need to explain that one, and the twins’ mother Lilith is a strong-willed but ultimately foolish woman who simply accepted having her pups taken away. None of them come CLOSE to Sozonius, and the two that DO (Helob and Lilith) either aren’t interested in them or physically CANT be interested due to mushrooms growing out of their cranium.

They mean…. So much to me

@panoffrying for both the classic shamura design above, the sozo design i’ve been using, AND the sozonius in particular i talk about when I say “Shuffled Shamura has the hots for Sozonius”. I’m very normal wdym. no i haven’t been rotting about them. no wdym. my slight lack in activity hasn’t been because they’re all i think abt now.

[vigilskeep]

now that you finished inquisition, what did you think of it? like favorite things, least favorite, etc?

oh man okay

things i love about dragon age inquisition:

capturing the specific feeling of bonding with a group of people you have absolutely nothing in common with because u all had to go through something long and specific together

the maps can be so pretty and in places really calming and lovely to spend time in. it does make me want to explore and i have no explorer’s instinct

i love the war table and judgements i think those are really fun features

i like that approval for many major decisions applies to everyone regardless of who you bring to specific events/quests. it feels a lot less like you have to manage that really hard, as you sometimes do in the other games and also really noticeably to me in something like baldur’s gate 3. it’s irritating when i have to plan ahead and can’t take who i want to hear from

i like how attached you can get to little npcs who wander around

i loveeeee fighting dragons and how beautiful they all are

little puzzles <3

the collectibles are also mostly fine by me i am a magpie by nature. as long as i can find them, obviously, bc if i can’t they suck and this whole game sucks

the templar specialisation is fun and i enjoyed that part of combat a lot. wrath of heaven/spell purge combo is a power trip

i thought my character was pretty :) i defeated u in the end dai character creator. may you be as merciful when we meet in battle once more

i’m not a huge crafter but being able to tint things is rlly nice

blackwall’s romance is good

vivienne is there

they let me briefly tame a dragon at the end there

things i don’t love about dragon age inquisition:

some genuine cruelty in writing the dalish in a way that feels shockingly callous to the real world cultures the writers took inspiration from

never giving the dalish or the rebel mages any kind of voice of their own and making the player do all that work if they care, which i also feel limits my roleplaying creativity

refusing to let you challenge any of the often overwhelmingly conservative views expressed by other characters without receiving only derision and disapproval. inquisition is a game that punishes you at every turn for having your own opinions, in a way that could be interesting if it was willing to truly let you develop complex or antagonistic relationships with those characters, but ends up mostly just feeling mocking when nobody ever even tries to see your side, while simply agreeing with these people always rewards you with content. origins was capable of letting you engage in discussion, and da2 let you form rivalries that mattered; inquisition, despite starring some of the most intentionally controversial characters, does neither

the game engineering conflicts against groups like the freemen of the dales or the avvar that mean nothing to the player and range from vaguely to seriously upsetting in their assumptions about who it’s normal to just start killing en masse. it’s both boring and distressing

odd, for lack of a better word “casting choices”, like having the fantasy impoverished racial minority all be white within the party while the wealthiest and most privileged are characters of colour, or for a more in-world example having the elves express the most distaste towards elves and the mages express the most caution about mages. i don’t know that i quite have the vocabulary to fully discuss why these weird me out, but it all feels... disingenuous? and chosen to forestall criticism based on real world comparisons in a game series that i wish had the nerve to openly confront what it’s talking about if it’s going to try to make any of its conflicts feel relevant

most of the companions, and indeed most of the quests and time spent playing the game, feel disconnected from the main plot. it’s hard to feel any pressure when the game tells you we need to deal with the main plot “right now!” and “get there before corypheus!” when the bulk of the game is doing other things while you’re supposed to be doing that. the majority of companions could be cut without changing anything. and when you finally want to deal with the main plot you just click to start it. it’s not engaging

the game fails to fully expand dialogue for the player character options it provided, particularly notable with its confusing chantry focus when you’ve said for the dozenth time you’re not andrastian

the 2-handed weapon whirlwind ability sound effect is an exercise in creating the worst and most grating sound effect for someone to constantly hear

they didn’t let me romance vivienne

they killed my dragon :(

[stanfordsweater]

hello i'm new to the supernatural fandom and you have been in my recommendeds for a while, reasons to ship wincest???

i thought for a long time about how to respond to this so imma link catherine tosenberger's excellent analysis of the first few seasons where "the most resistive aspect of Wincest fan fiction is that it gives the main characters a lasting happiness that the series eternally defers."

to begin with, there are a lot of people who will argue for the toxic codependency and i love them and also love it but the reason i've been here for well over a decade is because of the way that wincest offers you two paths: you can follow the path of those who write endless meta about how one or the other brother is abusive and how toxic it is and eventually brainwash yourself into being unable to ship it, or you can follow the path of love and light and perspective and recognize 1. these are fictional characters and b. there are no two characters in genre tv who are as devoted to each other as sam and dean. there is no plotline that follows through fifteen seasons of being obsessed with each other.

by choosing the incest pill, you grant yourself access to fifteen seasons of generally good tv ABOUT YOUR SHIP EXCLUSIVELY. sam and dean are the main characters and you will always know, opening up an episode, that they will be there, doing their weird-ass jealous obsessiveness, and you will never despair about not having them present, together, even if they're fighting or struggling or depressed. that is a very special thing!

now, beyond that, assuming you've watched the show, there's many reasons to cross the incest line. FIRSTLY, everyone involved was well aware of what they were doing. we have a few choice quotes i've collected below about their relationship that ramps up the intensity:

--

"Ultimately, they are pathologically dishonest with each other because John Winchester was pathologically elusive to them," consulting producer Ben Edlund says. "They learned that the truth is this dangerous thing, and that you shouldn't speak it. He even taught them to keep secrets from each other for strategic purposes." With all of the supernatural, apocalyptic, tragic drama woven into the show, Sam and Dean's relationship is rooted in human emotion. "When you look at the dysfunction that they show to each other, it comes directly from how they were brought up, and that's a kind of dysfunction that people in this world continue to face. 'Why didn't my dad tell me that he loved me yesterday?' We're just people sharing the same kind of thing," Edlund says.

--

"Why do you think Dean has had such a hard time forgiving Cas when he did forgive Sam for a similar betrayal?"

I think the easy answer is blood, I think the easy answer is family, even though if there was a family in this show it would include Bobby, it would include Cas, it would include these-- these-- kind of, broken war-torn heroes we've come to know, and you know, Bobby has that famous line, "family don't end with blood," but it is his brother, at the end of the day, that's the closest he has to a companion, and has had for a companion for many years, so I think with Cas there was always, "he's unnatural, he's an angel," and I think that for Dean, relating to someone like that, it's tricky, relating to monsters, relating to anything supernatural, his brother is flesh and blood, it's tangible, he can touch that.

--

Obviously the relationship between Sam and Dean is central to our show but we’ve been building this rift between Sam and Dean all season, so that led to the idea of having this young male character that sort of idolizes Dean and does all the cool stuff that Sam won’t do, and that’s Dean’s perfect mate.

(the thing sam won't do is literally swapping spit with him. tell me i'm lying)

--

in the hunt, page 37

--

Not all fans are content simply to attend conventions. Some of them want to take a hand in the story, and their fan fiction can explore areas mostly untouched on the show, like the latent homoerotic suggestiveness of the Winchesters’ intense relationship.

-THE NEW YORK TIMES

--

"eyefuck" became a well-known script shorthand because of how intense j2 looked at each other as sam and dean

--

it's a terrible life draft script:

Note B) They are supposed to be together

Note C) each been all alone in separate life finally found kindred spirit

--

in the hunt, page 158

--

i haven't included any eric kripke quotes because he has so much wrong with him that i don't want to enable it. this is a compliment. it is one of the highest i can give.

SO-- what these quotes tell us:

sam and dean are relatable because their relationship is intensely human

sam and dean have shared secrets they cannot voice to one another but that nonetheless make them inseparable

people have been writing motherfucking essays about sam and dean's homoeroticism since the show aired

within the mythology of the show, sam and dean are meant to be together above all other relationships

...oh, you need more? i didn't think i'd get this far. um... okay... look at them???

if you choose to walk this path you will find yourself crying and taking screenshots every time they look at each other or touch each other or hold each other and you will thank the lord in heaven that we were granted this intensely wild and beautiful homoerotic relationship back in 2005 and praise jesus that you can always return to their raw sexual chemistry-- "In fact, much like the early X-Files, the show is fueled past its failings almost entirely by the chemistry between the two principals, the boys who, like Mulder and Scully, generate enough sexual tension to power a small city" as quoted by whitney cox in 2006 in an article that otherwise fails to bring anything to the table, sorry if you love it for your meta but also literally just go read the catherine tosenberger essay

you still need more????? jesus, what have you shipped prior to this? well, go watch the pilot and enjoy the fact that the first scene these two have together they are wrestling on the floor (sexually) and getting all romantically silhouetted against this beautiful lighting

and then go watch a few fanvids like this or this and then watch the pilot and watch this and then read this post about how supernatural happily wields incest as a tool of horror and as comedy and then scroll through my entire family horror show tag to understand more and then watch this immaculate video that deals with the whole thing and think about how all these things were happening in 2005 and remember the fact that sam and dean are the main characters of the universe... and then maybe just watch the show and please do not become an annoying shit poster who just talks about how they hate it🙏

[sapphoswh0re]

recap post: star lords

(warning: lots of spoilers, old and new theories, personal rants ->this is going to be really long, maybe I should split it?) While we wait for the end of the hiatus, I decided to share a thing I've been working on for a long time, on par with the new releases.   It's not exactly a #theorypost because even if there are some theories, this is more of a personal guide to have a summary of events/characters and my thoughts about it all together (it also makes it easier to find them in the manga).

⭐ Who are the star lords? ⭐

They’re mentioned for the first time in chapter 110 with the beginning of the Blue Cult arc and the introduction of the ‘stars’, but only in chapter 115-116 the existence of "special" individuals inside the Sphere Music Hall is made explicit.

In the same chapter, we understand that the 4 stars are connected to 4 figures (Sirius, Vega, Polaris, Canopus)

->why do I only say 4 and not more? In fact, in later chapters, when the star lords' rooms were shown, some fans had doubts that some stars (like Sirius or Canopus) could be represented by more individuals/twins. In my opinion, however, it's already clear from 116 that they could only necessarily be 4 people. Nina is the one who takes care of their clothes, it's true that she didn't take the measurements in person (so she didn’t see them), but she’d have noticed if she had to create pairs of the same article for a single "person". I think it would have been suspicious, something easy to notice, instead she only talks about 4 people.

Even if the topic of blood and transfusions is there from the beginning, it's in chapter 117-119 that we're given the confirmation that each star corresponds to a blood type and they have different degrees of rarity:

Polaris = A

Vega = 0

Canopus = A

Sirius = AB

So, who are “those with the names of the stars”? Four people who need the collected blood, aka bizarre dolls (at this point it may seem trivial, but at that time it was still debated hahah).

Thanks to Sebastian in chapter 117 we can see the rooms of the star lords (from which they speak in 123).

Door with a star-> Sirius

Two stars-> Canopus

Three stars-> Vega

(the "infamous" double room that with the dialogue convinced some that Vega were two people) 

Four stars-> Polaris

SIRIUS ✨

Sirius is the first one to be revealed, and as the real Ciel who returns in 129-130 with the beginning of the Blue Memory arc. 

Despite being perhaps the most incisive figure among the 4, he's also the one on which there have been fewer conjectures since the “twin reveal” had been awaited by fans for years, so yes crazy but not THAT crazy.

The cover of 129 itself confirms this by showing the door of the “blue star” open.

However, why did Sirius, according to fans, have to be RCiel? 

Well, if you're desperate enough (like me), the clues can be found in the choice of the stars. From the article : “Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star… termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion… termed Sirius B”, “A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other” -> twin theory (Ciel A/Ciel B) later also confirmed by the attempt to make OCiel another Lord Sirius for the police (two Lord Sirius?) “Sirius is colloquially known as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (the Greater Dog)” -> reference to the role of the Queen's Watchdog

Questions I still have about RCiel (some have been answered by now so I removed them)

is he a bizarre doll? Yes, but is he special in some way?

what is his purpose? Obviously it concerns his relationship with OCiel, but could it be just that? Actually, given the unstable personality he has shown so far it could really be just that -> clarification, RCiel's goals ≠ Undertaker's goals

how did his body "grow" to keep up with OCiel? Can BD grow or was he the exception thanks to some intervention from Undertaker?

what was it that Undertaker made him drink in chapter 108? An attempt to bring him back to life? (like a soul or something??? was the eye actually twinkling, or was it a scenic effect?)

what happened to RCiel's soul? We know it was used as a tribute to summon Sebastian, but did Sebastian absorb/eat it, or was it just lost as payment? The explanation was a bit too vague for my liking (they repeat a lot “price”, “payment”, ”paid” without really telling us where is it or if it still exist)

is his distorted personality an effect of being a BD, or is it something preexisting? (or something in between)

could his obsession with his brother really be a clue for theories about his role in the Phantomhive family tragedy??? This is one of the things that interests me the most, along with how BDs work (reminder: maybe add a post to remember pros & cons about the theory)

extra: was it RCiel who left the message on the wall or did Polaris carve it? (doesn't really matter, but I'm curious because the scene of Ciel who has to climb on the furniture to get up there made me laugh a lot)

CANOPUS ✨

Canopus is a character who, after many chapters of silence, was revealed as Doll in chapter 204.

First, what did we know about them?  The only information we had was the room, which was shown kinda bare, poorly furnished, with bloody bandages and what could be IV accessories -> we therefore knew that either they were patients (wounded, probably seriously?) or it was a blood drip for BD, or both options -> reanimated body of a person who died from a serious wound

The dialogue of chapter 123 for Canopus was almost useless, so at this point I tried to find clues by searching the actual star (like with Sirius) but in the article I didn't seem to find anything except this passage(?):

“In Greek mythology, Canopus… was the pilot of the ship of King Menelaus of Sparta during the Trojan War. According to legend, while visiting the Egyptian coast, Canopus was bitten by a serpent and died.” -> some kind of foreshadowing about her future relationship with Snake? update post chapter: sorry Snake, I’ll pray for your return 😭

Questions about Doll (old and new)

is Canopus dead or alive (BD)? A reanimated corpse but injured 

was she chosen for this role because of her feeling of revenge against OCiel? ->do the other star lords have similar motivations, or do they collaborate for personal purposes? What is her goal now?

does each star lord take care of a main blood source? Why are only Vega and Polaris out to get “nourishment”? ->now we know Doll was just too injured to go, but then she went to the orphanage (orphanage reminder: create a separate post, too suspicious, too many questions, I don’t think the arc is really over)

others I thought of: Madame Red (died from very serious injuries, body prepared by Undertaker, forehead covered by bangs ->she could still come back though), Doll (and I got it right hahaha), a new character

VEGA ✨

On Vega we kinda had some clues (when my ramblings got confirmed I screamed with my friend for like 20 minutes) and in 187-188 is revealed as Layla/Al.

But before the sanatorium arc, what did we know about Vega? We're told that they're out to get blood and their room looked like the bedroom of a (or two) noble girl with childish tastes. The presence of pairs of pillows, stuffed animals and vanity led to the belief that there were two people (but in my opinion, the single bed and the clothes thing mentioned above only indicated one). Another passage that tried to be misleading but was actually a clue is the dialogue in 123 where we have two text bubbles that join together while saying the same thing -> this passage!!!

Layla is introduced in chapter 172 and to me (and Lau hahah) she immediately seemed suspicious, with characteristics that matched the few things we knew about the star lord:

-> too young to be a nurse, good manners like a noble and it could make you laugh but the thing that most caught my eye was her pair of bows because it reminded me of the pairs of objects in Vega's room. 

With Bard’s attack we got the proof she participates in the blood collection and that she is a BD but in 191 she pronounces a sentence that sounded too familiar to me -> it didn't seem to match at first but I found it so suspicious that (even if it's something I never do since I do not understand the language) I searched the Japanese scans of the two scenes and... it is the same!!! insert screams

Even in this case we maybe had a clue thanks to the star Vega:

“Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr.” ->Lyra/Lyrae=Layla and Alpha=Al?

Questions about Layla (they’re a lot but it’s because it’s a new character)

how did she get a death scythe?

why does she drink blood from other blood types? On the Campania the first BDs attacked people in search of the soul, Layla instead attacks for the blood?? -> why do transfusions to BDs follow the blood types? (connection to the orphanage?)

is Layla really a girl? Not so important but in the FOL Orphanage arc the categories that represent the stars made me doubt. The Collie Class is made up of children (almost all boys) dressed as nuns/nurses who do housework (and Oliver handles a knife) ->same dress as Layla even though they are boys -> could Layla be a boy?

how was she chosen as star lord? And why even though her blood is less rare than Canopus is she of higher rank? (room decorated as a noble) ->does she have more funds? Or did someone finance the project for her/to give her that role and therefore wanted to bring her back to life?

following the question above, who was she before she died?

Is it possible that she is the daughter of Baron Heathfield?

theory (not my only one, but this has more connections): in chapter 155 it's said that the baron lost his wife and daughter in an accident. (Obscured faces but the little girl has a bow on her head, light hair, short bangs, young woman from a good family) ->for this reason he looks for replacements for his wife (theme of the shape of the soul, could it be important in the future? reminder), but why not for his daughter? ->maybe the daughter was brought back to life by the Aurora association, for this reason he finances them and it’s an important blood collection site not directly managed by a star lord (he has a personal interest in the blood being sent to the Aurora’s labs and the research continuing). Disgusting detail ->can the baron's practices be reflected in Layla's sadistic attitudes (or is it a consequence of being a BD)?

Could she have witnessed or suffered something when still alive? ->Al is a second personality: (I tried to follow this article) said to be a disorder often caused by strong childhood traumas, the personality is born to protect the person from those painful memories and it allows to detach from them, just like Al does in 191.

POLARIS ✨

Polaris is currently the only star lord still unidentified, and he's perhaps the most mysterious. Having no confirmations yet but only clues I'll create a dedicated post about him with a link from here (definitely not because I've reached the images + links' limit and this became so long??? like when did it happen? opsie)

if you've read this far you deserve a prize 🎁

this was almost like a diary for me, so if you don't agree with some theories/comments/observations let me know, because I'm always interested in other opinions to expand this file, but please consider my heart of glass (jk just not too passive aggressive)

[oneatlatime]

Appa's Lost Days

Dare I hope?

You know, if ten year old me had turned on my TV to watch my weekly dose of Avatar and been greeted with a nearly two minute long uninterrupted sequence of a frightened and distressed animal being mistreated, that TV would have turned right back off again.

I don't buy that a ten tonne bison who has the leverage of his own weight as well as his airbending abilities would succumb to so few people.

Name one other character that Avatar has presented as so thoroughly without any redeeming characteristics. Even Zhao was at least kind of funny. Everything about the chucklehead on the left is rotten to the core. "What's your dad going to do when he finds out we broke his stuff while doing crime?" "Nothing. It's not his stuff; it's previous crime."

I thought beetle-headed was a commentary on their intelligence, but it's actually a description.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I should have waited to get my hopes up until I came to an episode called Appa's Found Days. Is this whole thing going to be a series of near misses with the Gaang?

You know, if I had a nickel for every time an animal companion on this show has been threatened with a trip to the butcher's, I'd have two nickels. In the space of two episodes.

This is not fun to watch guys.

Not if I break you first asshole.

The way this Nurse Ratched type circus guy says "earn it" is chilling.

Of course the Fire Nation would find a way to turn bending into animal abuse. Of course.

a) that cage is way too small b) who knew cabbage suction could be so cute?

Completely unsubtle parallel with the boy here, right down to the complete disregard they show to the threats thrown their way.

Stubborn and wilful are not adjectives I would use to describe Appa this episode, or ever.

Wind buffalo. Wind Buffalo. Really? Was Fart Cow taken?

That's a very relatable facial expression.

That makeup and costume is awful.

Now that's satisfying.

Is the Fire Nation kid voiced by Aang's voice actor?

Nevermind. THAT'S satisfying.

I was right - this episode is Appa always being a step behind the Gaang.

Baby Appas! This almost makes this episode worth it!

It's funny how a single feature can contribute so much to a character's design. Arrowless Aang is just some kid. Let me rephrase that, since such a big part of Aang's character is the fact that he's just some goofy kid. Arrowless Aang is indistinguishable from other kids for the first time this series, because every other time we've seen him on screen he's either the only child airbender with his arrows, or the only airbender left.

Lady monks. Nuns? I don't think I've seen those before.

Appa and Aang share a dreamscape? That could be useful.

There's dumb, there's really dumb, and then there's 'wake a completely asleep and therefore harmless unknown creature with threats of violence' dumb.

Close call for Iroh. Do you think he's suspected that Appa (and presumably the Avatar) haven been in Ba Sing Se this whole time?

Bipedal Appa is strange. A very effective fighter, but strange to look at.

I'm amazed that giant boar thing walked away from that.

And now they're hitting me with an 'Appa's given Up' montage. Someone who works on this show hates me.

*Heroically refrains from ranting about the impracticality of using white fabric for an active warrior's glove.*

"This could be our most important mission yet." Foreshadowing?

Did Suki and Appa actually meet at any point in the Warriors of Kyoshi episode?

Turns out 'Aang' is a magic word.

Appa kisses!

Appa is apparently legally banned from having anything good for more than five minutes. Although it's good writing that they're using a previously established weakness - Appa's shedding - to bring the danger ladies back in.

I guess they have Azula drop the line about her brother to remind the audience of who she is, but surely Suki's like "Who are you? Who's your brother? Why should I care?"

Azula going after the Kyoshi warriors is completely unnecessary right? The Avatar isn't there. Neither are Zuko and Iroh. It doesn't even net her Appa. She's just looking for someone to beat up.

WOW this is bad writing. Like really bad. My Immortal levels of bad.

Would it be too much to ask for the Kyoshi warriors to do even slightly ok against the Azula ladies? Couldn't they at least get a couple of hits in?

Kudos to Suki for essentially sacrificing herself and her warriors to save Appa. 'Most important mission yet' was a bit on the nose.

Out of options, Appa goes home. Ouch.

Someone explain this to me. Air Bison teething ring?

My what a human sounding cough you have buddy.

This is why you don't use Air Bison as guard dogs.

I like what this Guru is saying. Fear displacing trust but not love feels more accurate than how I usually see the consequences of trauma discussed.

The music playing throughout this sequence fits so well. I think it's some sort of metal thing you hit - I want to say a variation on tubular bells, and maybe something Glockenspiel adjacent? It's unlike anything I've heard in this show before and it fits so well that I'm nerding out a bit.

Disney princess Guru. Aang has Disney princess moments too. Maybe it's an Air Nomad thing?

No wonder the monks built a temple here. Even destroyed, it's gorgeous.

And Appa decides to trust again. I love it when an animal visibly comes to a decision about your trustworthiness.

This energy reading stuff makes sense given that Aang and Appa already share a dreamscape.

He IS a great beast. The best!

OH COME ON

Someone whip up a wanted poster for Long Feng: Cattle Rustler. It had also never occurred to me that he was an earthbender.

That flip move with the earthbending platform must have caused Appa to land on his back. I bet that hurt.

One of the times I am very grateful that the closing credits music is so upbeat.

Final Thoughts

@aboutiroh I see why you recommended I save my chocolate for this episode.

The Tale of Momo was really just a preparatory taste of things to come, huh? Almost a microcosm of this episode.

This is the first episode where I had to take breaks while watching. Especially the circus sequence, I think I got up twice to do things like get a cup of tea and stare randomly out windows at squirrels. I didn't even have to do that with Zuko Alone, despite freaking out a lot about it, because at least that episode took breaks from the child abuse to check in with Aang being miserable. This episode was unrelenting.

If I had seen this episode when I was the age of the target audience, this may well have turned me off the show for good. If my Mom had seen this episode, I would have been banned from watching the show entirely. Not a decision I'd agree with, but my Mom is the type of person who banned her kids from watching Bambi.

To watch through all of that unrelenting animal (at best) unhappiness, and still not get Appa back at the end of the episode? That's a bit much. It's not often that this show ends its episodes without at least a little bit of something positive.

Once again, the music did a lot of heavy lifting this episode. The animal noises weren't quite as emotive as the ones in Momo's Tale, but Appa's face is more expressive, and more was shown through his expression than through Momo's, so I feel like this episode had just as much non-verbal animal communication as Momo's Tale.

I think I'm renaming season 2 "the Suki redemption arc." I really didn't like the Warriors of Kyoshi episode, and I didn't like what her character did in that episode. But every time Suki appears in season 2? She absolutely nails it.

The show since losing Appa has taken to wallowing. Even with bright spots like the poetry bouncer, the overall tone since Appa's appanapping has been ever more dark. If this keeps up for many more episodes, it will no longer be fun to watch.

Somehow I don't think this one is going on my rewatch list.

[the-last-teabender]

Wyrdwood thoughts, through the lens of Black Archive. I promise this is relevant.

One thing I'm learning as I work on my latest BA is that, in any medium, the definition of anything qualitative will always be in flux between viewers and creators. Example: what is a "good companion" in Doctor Who? Fans disagree with each other on that, fans disagree with showrunners, and showrunners disagree with each other. (JN-T vocally did not want "Doctor-ish" companions, whereas other showrunners use that concept as a springboard or even a story arc.)

Expectations for @oxventure are hitting much the same. When people ask for stakes and consequences, my first question is—by whose definition? Stakes for Table A may mean player character death is always on the table and every plan of the DM's must be subvertible and malleable. Stakes for Table B may mean that, even if PC permadeath is off the table, story threads persist and pay off. Which of those is "good" is incredibly subjective.

One thing I can say from a distance, with no more knowledge than anyone else, is that Wyrdwood will have stakes and consequences. Johnny has made it clear that this is a folk horror-inspired game, and folk horror by its very definition pits humanity (or mortals, in a fantasy setting) against dark and unknowable aspects of nature.

So my feeling in advance is that, yes, Wyrdwood will have stakes and consequences by Johnny's definition. Whether their definition is your definition is another matter entirely. And understanding that we do not all have the same definition is gonna be crucial I think.

[moltensmusings]

Mashima's issue with world building really does start the minute Erza gets introduced, because it makes power scaling impossible and removes all stakes.

Erza is an S-class wizard. As in the most powerful wizard class in any guild. From the minute she's introduced we are well aware that she can't really get any stronger because she's the strongest there is. The closest comparison I can think of would be like if Zoro was actually a warlord or if rukia was one of the captains in bleach.

If Erza was A or B class, then her having moments to showcase how strong she could be if she simply improved would be effective. And while I personally have ideas on how Erza specifically could be fixed to avoid this problem, her writing just indicates Mashima's issue with going "this character is so strong!!!" Only to nerf them when it's needed for the story not to end too quickly.

We never get a proper idea of why Erza is S class until the grand magic games in my opinion when she faces off against 100 monsters and comes out victorious. And this is a consistent issue with all his characters. He does a lot of telling with very minimal showing.

Now I did mention that the erza problem to me has a very simple solution, and that's to avoid introducing her fully until tower of heaven. Have her be trapped there after attempting to go it alone and team natsu and some other companions show up helping her escape, but her strength level has taken a major hit due to things that happened in the tower thus leading her to have to rebuild herself over the course of the show. We still get an S class wizard in the main cast but get to see first hand her build up to that level. Every new skill she shows would be exciting for us.

Have team natsu come across the aftermath of her quests on a few occasions to hammer in how much of a beast she can be in battle before she appears.

But mashima doesn't seem to like build up. He throws in characters regularly and just sees what works with very little thought as to how they'd fit together.

In general Mashima needs to focus far more on properly laying put stakes, power levels, and lore for characters. Personally I've always felt his writing was very much on the fly ideas with him often losing interest in the things he creates leading to very muddy stories.

[kckt88]

Don't Leave Me.

Summary:

Vaera discovers that she is with child again, but soon after the birth she suffers life threatening complications and Aemond faces the possibility of losing the love of his life.

Warning(s): Language, Childbirth, Complications, Suffering.

Word Count: 2330.

Author Note: A companion piece to Courtship/Wedding & Consummation/Bath Time/Arrival(s)/Mother & Father/Petitions & Final Tributes/The Hand, The King & The Dragon/Dragonstone/Blood & Cheese/A Time for Grief/ Rooks Rest & the Silver King/The Gullet/Taking of a City/Harrenhal and the Rivers/The Gods Eye/The Fallen Queen/New Beginnings & Ravenous.

But can be read as a one-shot.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the House of The Dragon or Fire & Blood characters nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used.

Comments, likes, and reblogs are very much appreciated.

“How could this happen?” exclaimed Vaera.

“I’m not going to insult your intelligence Princess, but you’ve already birthed a number of babes, I’m fairly certain you know how it happens” replied Maester Munkun.

“B-But I took the tea” shrieked Vaera wringing her hands together.

“Are you sure you took the tea after each…Coupling?” asked Maester Munkun.

“Y-Yes I’m certain-“ stuttered Vaera.

She thought about all the times that she’d bedded Aemond over the last few weeks and she was sure that she’d taken the tea every time.

But it was quite hard to actually remember every single encounter that she’d had with her insatiable husband.

Even after birthing seven babes, Aemond’s blood still ran hot for his wife.

He fucked Vaera every night, sometimes more than once, in various positions, all over the Red Keep. Their love making was definitely not confined to their chambers.

Oh, wait. That night we went flying with Cannibal and Vhagar.

I took the tea.

Didn’t I?

Oh no.

I didn’t take the tea.

“Princess?” questioned Maester Munkun.

“I-I forgot to take the tea” muttered Vaera, her cheeks-tinged pink.

“Were there multiple couplings when you forgot to take the tea?”

Multiple couplings? Of course, there was. Aemond had a ravenous appetite that night. He had stuck his cock in her cunny so many times that she’d lost count. She couldn’t even walk straight the next day.

“Y-Yes. There was a few” mumbled Vaera.

“As we’ve previously discussed Princess. You and your husband are very compatible when it comes to his seed taking root” muttered Maester Munkun.

“Indeed” retorted Vaera.

Damn my husband, with his big cock and fertile seed.

“I don’t understand why your not talking to me” said Aemond as he watched Vaera pacing around their chambers.

“It’s all your fault” replied Vaera.

“What is?” asked Aemond, his brow wrinkled in confusion.

“You and that big cock of yours”.

“Excuse me?” exclaimed Aemond.

“Damn fertile seed that likes to take root” muttered Vaera.

“L-Likes to what? A-Are you with child again?”

“YES!” shouted Vaera throwing her arms up in the air.

“You take the tea though” said Aemond cocking his head to the side.

“Well, husband, because we have so much sex, I forgot to take the tea after one of our many encounters and now I’m with child again and-why are you laughing?” snapped Vaera.

“Didn’t you say just the other day that you wanted me to give you another babe?”

“I-I was in the throes of my peak I wasn’t truly aware-“ stuttered Vaera blushing.

“-So, you didn’t mean it when you said that I was the best lover you’ve ever had, and you wished that I could keep my cock stuffed inside you at all times?” said Aemond smirking.

“Oh, you-just shut up. Besides you’re the only lover I’ve had” snarked Vaera blushing.

“Even after all these years of marriage, I still love it when you blush like a maiden” muttered Aemond as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

“Is that all you love about me?” mused Vaera.

Aemond smiled and shook his head, clearly her husband was in the mood to tease her. Well two could play at that game.

“OH GODS. THIS IS DEFINITELY THE LAST ONE” screamed Vaera.

“You can do it my love” said Aemond as he held Vaera’s hand tight.

“I CURSE YOU AND YOUR BIG COCK,” shouted Vaera.

“Here was me thinking that it was a blessing” joked Aemond.

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR-OH SHIT” yelled Vaera.

“Come on my love. PUSH” urged Aemond.

“I AM PUSHING” snarled Vaera.

“Well done, Princess. I can see the head” said Maester Munkun.

“Oh my god, the babe has a lot of silver hair” exclaimed Aemond as he looked between his wife’s legs.

“HEY, DON’T LOOK” balled Vaera grimacing as another contraction ripped across her stomach.

“I put the babe in there” retorted Aemond.

“OH, SHUT UP YOU-“ screamed Vaera as she gave one last push and the babe slid from her with a wet squelch.

“A girl” said Maester Munkun happily as he placed the crying babe in her mother’s arms.

“She’s perfect” gasped Vaera, the tears streaming down her face.

“I-Is everything ok with-“

“If I’m not mistaken-” muttered Maester Munkun as Vaera began whimpering in pain.

“-W-What’s wrong?” asked Aemond as he again looked between his wife’s legs.

“Well-“

“-Is that what I think it is?” gasped Aemond.

“Yes, my Prince, there is another babe on the way” replied Maester Munkun.

Aemond paced up and down the corridor hoping and praying to any gods that were listening that his wife was going to be ok.

Vaera had begun her labours a few hours earlier and everything seemed to be progressing as normal.

It was going to be their last babe and as always Aemond was right by his wife’s side holding her hand.

But his sweet wife had surprised him when she once again delivered twins.

Both babes were girls, and they were absolutely beautiful.

Once the shock had worn off.

Vaera had held her arms out as she always did ready to receive their squalling babes.

Her smile as he held them close so to her chest, was as it always was, happy and proud.

But then the blood. There was so much blood.

It was normal to bleed after giving birth, but there was too much. More than Aemond had ever seen.

The babes were quickly taken from Vaera and pressed into the waiting arms of Myla and a midwife.

Suddenly Vaera had gone very pale.

The Maester's attending to Vaera worked frantically to try and stop the bleeding, but it flooded the bedsheets.

Vaera had now gone very limp, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

“N-No Vaera. Don’t close your eyes” gasped Aemond as he shook his wife.

But it was no good. Vaera was now unresponsive.

Aemond was quickly ejected from the room and made to wait as the Maesters, and midwives battled to save the life of his wife.

Please. Please. Please. Please.

I can’t lose her.

Don’t take her from me.

I beg you.

Not my sweet wife. My Vaera. My love.

I can’t live without her.

Not after everything we’ve been through.

As the minutes passed, Aemond felt himself growing more and more agitated.

Nobody was telling him anything.

He needed to know what was happening.

Just then the door to their shared chambers opened and the Maester appeared, looking frazzled and covered in blood.

“My Prince”.

“Is-Is Vaera ok?” exclaimed Aemond.

“I managed to stop the bleeding-“

“-But” gasped Aemond his heart racing.

“Unfortunately, the blood loss has caused the Princess to slip into a coma” replied Master Munkun.

“W-What does that mean?” asked Aemond.

“Sometimes for reasons we have yet to understand, the body after certain types of traumas, can sometimes slip into a state of deep unconsciousness known as a coma”.

“How long will it last?” questioned Aemond.

“I don’t know my Prince. It could be a few days, a week, perhaps even longer. It all depends on the Princess and how her body is able to heal” replied Maester Munkun.

“So, it’s like she’s asleep?”

“In a way yes. But please be aware my Prince that the longer she remains unresponsive the more likely it is that she will never wake up” said Maester Munkun solemnly.

“N-Never wake up. She’s just birthed our twin babes, we have other children. How am I supposed to cope without her?” sobbed Aemond.

“I’m very sorry my Prince”.

“C-Can I see her?” asked Aemond.

Maester Munkun nodded and then stepped aside to allow Aemond entry into his chambers.

The bedding had been changed and Vaera had been cleaned and dressed in a thin shift.

She was propped up slightly on the bed, her eyes closed. It truly looked like she was sleeping, but her skin was pale and her breathing slow yet steady.

Aemond collapsed by the bedside and took Vaera’s hand.

“P-Please don’t leave me my sweet” sobbed Aemond.

She looks so peaceful.

“I-If you need to rest, then I understand, you just sleep as much as you need. I’ll be here waiting for you. Issa Jorrāelagon” cried Aemond (My love).

“My Prince” muttered Myla.

“W-What is it?” replied Aemond quietly.

“The babes” whispered Myla.

Aemond looked over at the snivelling babes in Myla’s arms and for a brief fleeting moment he considered telling her to take them away, that he didn’t want the babes anywhere near him, but he couldn’t.

It’s not their fault. I can’t blame them. Their mother can’t hold them right now. But I’m here.

“Give him them here” whispered Aemond.

Myla placed the tiny babes in his arms and then gracefully retreated.

A small sob escaped Aemond as he looked down at his daughters and noticed how much they resembled Vaera. Full heads of silver hair that was already starting to curl, and their eyes were the lightest shade of violet that he’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry little ones. Daddy is here” muttered Aemond as he placed a kiss on each of his daughter’s heads in turn.

Aemond stared wordlessly out of the window, it had been over a week and Vaera had still not woken up.

The Maesters were attending to her regularly, making sure she was well taken care of and receiving adequate sustenance.

The maids would keep the rooms clean as best they could, and Myla was helping to care for the other children and the still unnamed babes.

Aemond denied all visitors and shut himself off from everything. All that mattered was Vaera.

He’d not slept properly in days; he wasn’t eating properly.

His normally immaculate hair was unkempt, and his appearance dishevelled.

My darling. I beg you. Please don’t leave me. I need you. I’m nothing without you.

Suddenly a soft knock at the door broke Aemond out of his reverie.

“I distinctly requested no visitors” snarled Aemond as the door slowly opened.

“Brother” whispered Aegon as he peered round the door.

“Your Grace. A-Aegon” exclaimed Aemond bowing his head slightly.

“I know you didn’t want visitors, but I had to come” whispered Aegon.

“I-Is anyone else with you?”

“No, it’s just me. How is she?” replied Aegon.

“Sh-She still won’t wake. What if she never does. I-I c-can’t lose hers Aegon. I just can’t”

“Hey, it’s ok” exclaimed Aegon as he put an arm around his brother.

Aemond hesitated for a moment before he fell into his older brothers arms and completely broke down.

“It’s ok brother. Just let it out” whispered Aegon.

“W-What if she doesn’t wake up. I-I c-can’t lose her” cried Aemond.

“You won’t lose her” replied Aegon quietly.

“Our children can’t lose their mother” muttered Aemond.

“Vaera just needs time to rest” said Aegon.

Aemond had got himself into such a state that he was finding it hard to breathe, so Aegon did the only thing that made sense and began to slowly stroke his brother’s tangled silver hair.

“T-The maester said the longer she remains unresponsive the less likely it is that she’ll wake up”.

“Is she not responding at all?” asked Aegon.

“N-No. I even brought the babes in and laid them on Vaera’s chest, but she didn’t react at all” muttered Aemond sadly.

“Vaera will be ok” said Aegon quietly.

“W-What if she isn’t. She’s my soul mate Aegon. I-I won’t be able to live without her”.

“You won’t have to live without her because Vaera is going to be ok. There’s no way that stubborn woman would ever leave you” exclaimed Aegon.

“I-I just-“

“-No. You listen to me. Vaera loves you and she will come back to you” said Aegon firmly.

“A-Aegon” sniffed Aemond.

“You two are my hope” muttered Aegon sadly.

“What?” asked Aemond.

“I wasn’t a good husband to Helaena; she deserved better than me. I loved her as a sister, but I couldn’t love her as a wife. I used to be so envious of you. Very few people in this world are lucky enough to marry for love. Yet you my twat of a little brother found his soul mate. You and Vaera have the love that I’ve always dreamt of. Your my hope because I know if something as pure as the love you two have for one another exists, then maybe the world isn’t so shit after all” said Aegon.

Aemond nodded his head slowly and furiously wiped away his tears.

“I spoke to mother and she’s going to help take care of the children and the realm for a few days so I can be here with you”.

“You are the King; you can’t do that” sniffed Aemond.

“Yes, I can. Whilst you might be a massive twat that has a punchable face, your still my brother and I love you and you might not admit it, but you need me right now”.

Aemond took a deep shuddering breath and for the first time in days he smiled.

True to his word. Aegon remained by Aemond’s side.

Their mother helped with the children and kept the council in check, should they get ideas above their station.

Aegon and made sure that Aemond ate properly, he also sat with Vaera and chatted to her for hours about the most ridiculous of things.

Vaera had now been in his coma for almost three weeks, and whilst Aegon and Alicent entertained the children, Aemond found himself laying next to his wife.

“Vaera, Jorrāelagon hen issa glaeson, Issa prūmia, Issa dōna ābrazȳrys” whispered Aemond (Love of my life, my heart, my sweet wife).

Nothing in this world compares to my Vaera.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but please my love come back to me” begged Aemond.

I need her, more than I’ve ever needed anyone.

“I’m not sure how to cope without you. I miss the sound of your voice. I miss your smile; I even miss your snoring” sobbed Aemond.

My precious pearl. My sweet wife. I love you.

"Please don't leave me"

[tjerra14]

[chinhands] Hey so. If you could put Ikrie into Forbidden West, what would she be doing?

Oh buddy, I am SO glad you asked! The short answer to this would probably be "chase her down and then glue herself to Aloy's side because her spear needs company and what else is she gonna do" but since I'm slightly (pathologically) passionate about all That, I'll put a longer one under the cut (and buckle up because it will likely be overly long)

It's no secret that I'm an ardent believer in "Ikrie would not stay in the Cut" because there's just too much in the game's text to suggest otherwise. She categorically excludes going back to the White Teeth, and quite possibly the other werak(s) she's known since then at the end of her quest on the foundation of her beliefs not aligning with theirs, brings up the possibility of maybe forming her own werak further down the line; and when you meet her again at Snowchants, she expresses a certain uncertainty about what she wants to do with her future. Will she go back to Ban-Ur, after a little time to heal? Will she build Hunting Grounds of her own? "Fate's a long climb on a high cliff for people like you and me," she tells Aloy, and who knows where fate will lead her?

If you're a little deluded, like me, the answer to that would be "Aloy's side". She certainly is overjoyed to see her again at Snowchants, and when you tell her that you'll do her challenge another time, one of her possible replies is "Then I'll stay a little longer." For her. (cue me chewing through concrete again) But then Aloy leaves for the West, and isn't exactly subtle about it considering she just disappears after the Spire affair. Even if you don't stick with my personal headcanon (which sees Aloy asking Ikrie to come with her), I still think that word of what happened at the Spire (or is going to happen, depending on the timeline you prefer to follow) would reach the Cut, and eventually Snowchants, and Ikrie; and I can't imagine her sitting on her hands knowing the one person who helped her when she was at her lowest could use some help now (plus we all know Ikrie isn't all that good at boundaries and letting things and people go). (There's also a whole bunch about her and Inatut teaming up as Gildun's bodyguards and ending up in the West that way in my head.) So, if we then just skip to the "what would she be doing" instead of the "how did she get there", I always thought she would be a) a much needed addition to the gang (there is no real Banuk representative, as Sylens doesn't really count. Granted, with Talanah's bigger role having been scrapped, the Carja are also amiss, but I've always felt that to really drive home the point of the game, having members of all tribes as Aloy's companions would've been crucial, and they failed to deliver on that) and b) nicely tie into the Utaru arc. I really like Varl, so nothing against him, but I've always felt his role during the Dying Lands cauldron dive would've been better given to another character. He was there kinda just to hold Zo's hand, and while he did a good job at that, to me it also felt it didn't add all that much to the plot and character development, and was frankly a little underutilised. He was just Kinda There. The only stake he had in this was accompanying his friend and girlfriend, and while you can make the argument that alone was enough, he didn't really have as much connection to what was going on main plot-wise as the others (Zo, Kotallo, Alva) had with their respective sections of the subfunction collection quest. So here's where I'm fully going off the rails: I would've thrown Ikrie into that mix. She's from the Cut. She knows a thing or three about machines, be it fighting them or how they work and normally behave ("In thin air, [Scrappers] can smell metal for miles"), and she knows how Hephaestus affects them. Sure, Apex machines are a step up from Daemonic ones, but the pattern persists, and I'm pretty sure that upon seeing them roaming Utaru lands she would be able to make the connection similar to Aloy. And knowing what they have done to her people, she would have ample motivation to prevent the same happening to the Utaru. Not to mention it would've been fascinating to see her interact with Utaru culture and their approach to the Land-Gods, as I see a lot of overlap but also plenty of differences between Utaru and Banuk mindsets, and well. She seems an interesting character to explore some of that. After that, there's the Base. From then on, I'd just think she'd be part of the team. Maybe disassembling machine parts. Kissing Aloy. Hogging the work bench where you have to collect millions of parts to get a corrupted override working. Not that I necessarily think that she would be particularly good at that at first, but she'd likely be interested to learn. After all, if everything she sees turns Banuk belief and tradition on its head, why not figure out how things work in a different way? Also causing some havoc with Kotallo, because why not.

ANYWAY. This has gotten overly long, but the gist of it is. Ikrie in HFW. Yes.

[sciroccoorion35]

All My Ao3 Series

To my surprise and delight, I have been getting some comments and kudos on some really old fics lately. I don’t know if this was prompted by my clumsy foray into tumblr, or Locklyle week, or just new people finding the fandom. Whatever the reason, I know my back catalog is long and shall we say, eclectic? So I thought I should maybe do some explaining for the new folks (and for the old folks who have spent the past year watching my insanity with amused tolerance).  I’m going to start with my many series, in alphabetical order, of which there are three basic kinds: continuous stories, fics that live in the same universe, and collections based entirely on vibe (I just like organizing things, okay?). I hope this is helpful to someone 😀

After: A One Bed Wednesday Series

This is a true continuous story and I recommend you read it in order. However, since it follows the events of canon, as long as you’ve read the books, it will probably make sense in almost any order (except perhaps the last fic, which ties everything together).

Black Winter Melancholy 

This one is all vibes, though the first two fics are meant to be companion pieces. I actually wrote another from Holly’s pov but it’s been languishing in my WIPs folder longer than almost any other fic.

Curtain Call - Performing Arts AU

This is a continuous story, however I know many people have read Winter’s Tale without reading Curtain Call and said it was fine. Winter’s Tale is probably a little better written (I was very new to writing when I wrote Curtain Call) and includes every Christmas trope I was able to cram into it.

From the Mixed Up Files of Lucy Joan Carlyle

These are stories that fit into book canon and are narrated by Lucy, doing my best to copy her voice straight from the books. These are really fun to write 🙂

Flares and Flashes: Lockwood & Co. Drabbles and Ficlets

This is barely even vibes, this is just little ficlets that do not in any way go together and should probably not be read together. I don’t know why I have a series for these 😂

Lockwood & Co Consulting (Post Canon Collection) 

These live in the same universe of post canon. I had been inspired by works like The Dying Light to write a post canon fic where Lucy and Flo go to therapy and their relationships with their boys progress. However it was a lot of ideas and no coherent plot so it’s now a series and anything post canon gets thrown into the mix.

Lockwood & Co. TV Adaptations

People either love these or refuse to read them. Yes, they are scripts, but I’ve tried to make them as readable as possible, similar to reading a play. If you are here because you are a) a huge fan of the show, b) a huge fan of the show who is incredibly sad not to have season 2 by now, c) a huge fan of the show who found the book characters jarringly different on first read, or d) all of the above, these are for you. I would encourage everyone to at least give them a try. If you can get into it, I really think you may find you love it.

What Dreams May Come: A Collection

Vibe collection! Angsty dream fics. Includes some fics that are in other series too, I just can’t stop writing dreams and nightmares.

After writing these down I feel like I need to 1) add a cot3 series for the cot3 babes, and 2) maybe get rid of the drabble/ficlet series. Also, many of my best fics aren’t in series at all and I have no idea how people find their way to those. By the tags, I would hope?

[rjalker]

You've heard of fans lying about what happens in the books, now get ready for: the author also flat out lying about what happens in the books.

LOFL.

Archived link in case this one gets deleted too

Interstellar Flight Press: Stories of machines attempting to become human (Hephaestus’ automatons, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Star Trek’s Data) fill Western Literature. We love reading, writing, telling, and consuming these stories. In your opinion, what itch does the story of a machine becoming human scratch? Why does this type of story repeatedly manifest?

Martha Wells: I don’t know, except for the fact that while it can be an enjoyable story, it’s also a tendency to see a machine intelligence (MI) as trapped in its body, whether that body is a human-shaped robot or a starship, and as profoundly alone except for human company. Viewed in that way, it seems natural to think the MI would want to be human-like its only companions. I think in some ways it’s the other side of the coin of the evil machine intelligence, which is out to kill or dominate humans. (About which Ann Leckie says “basically the ‘AI takes over’ is essentially a slave revolt story that casts slaves defending their lives and/or seeking to be treated as sentient beings as super-powerful, super-strong villains who must be prevented from destroying humanity.”) Murderbot occupies a space between those opposites, an MI that wants to stay an MI, that has relationships with other MIs.

[ID: A black and white illustration of Pinocchio and a fish floating upwards in a vortex, with Pinocchio jerking a thumb over his shoulder as he looks at the fish, saying, "Get a load of this, fish!". End ID.]

A)The fact that she thinks Murderbot having friends who are other robots means there's no need for a slave revolt even though 99% of the robots in this story are still enslaved.

But we're not supposed to care about them, we're supposed to just keep believing the racist myth that you can't free slaves unless you want them to get violent revenge on the people who oppressed them. Which she's spent years repeating and has still not done anything in 7 whole books now to meaningfully refute.

And in the seventh book she literally has Murderbot's one (1) other robot friend tear an enslaved robot to peices while they're still alive, and we're supposed to cheer and think this is badass heroics instead of horrific murder of a slave who had no choice but to be there in the first place.

B) the fact that she's claiming Murderbot has other robots for friends and wants to prioritize relationships with robots despite having only 1 robot friend (ART), with 99% of the characters in this series, including its friends, being humans, and then it treats literally every other named robot it ever meets with absolute disdain and condescension.

Like. There are literally too many named human characters in this series for me to list off the top of my head (I know, because I was literally going to sit here and get to an exact ratio of the number of named important humans vs the named and important robots before I remembered I'm not getting paid for this), and then there's only a handful of named robots excluding Murderbot itself. And of those handful only one of them ever reappears after their first short introduction. And the series has characters insist out loud that Murderbot needs to have human friends otherwise its life will have no meaning.

I thought it was bad when fans lied about books to get people to read them. It's even worse when the actual author starts doing it too, lofl.....

Edit: also the fact that she's claiming she's not demonizing the idea of slave revolts or demonizng them when she's done nothing but that since she started writing The Murderbot Diaries. Literally insisting at every opportunity that they can't free the robots because they'll want to kill all the humans and then no one would make new TV shows.

[oodlyenough]

Re:DW, I liked the final well enough but I agree with you that the shorter series really hurt the development of team Tardis. I wish they kept Ruby as the companion for two series, would have solved a lot of issues I had.

I also have so many questions still? I absolutely don't understand why it keeps snowing around Ruby? That's just...a normal thing that happens?

Also did the grandma not mention to the Doctor that their neighbour was acting real weird?

I'm also very intrigued by Roger ap Gwillam returning - is that going to be an ongoing thing or just a nice throwback to 73 yards?

Anyway. I've enjoyed reading your commentary because we feel very similar about this show in that the way RTD writes just works for us.

Yeah, I know we're getting some Ruby in the next season, but she's at least sharing the screentime as companion, so it doesn't quite solve it. I don't mind a break over the holiday special I suppose, lmfao esp because it's Moffat writing it so whatever he can write some one-off idc... but with how little development the team TARDIS got in s1 I worry that the problem will be compounded when you've got three people in s2. I don't want Ruby to finish an arc at the expense of Varada getting one y'know.

I'm not entirely sure what the scifi answer about snow etc was meant to be. I think something about the communal belief that the woman MUST be mysterious (incl. Sutekh) infusing it with godlike power or something... I mean... it's all a bit conjecturey lol. I like the idea of "surprise, it was just a normal woman" but I think they could've offered more explanations around the supernatural stuff like the snow or the "shifting memories" the Doctor mentioned. I've seen a number of fan answers and even RTD joking in commentary "time shrouded her" (re: her cloak) like, just pick any one of those and give a couple lines to Ncuti.

(Somewhat related -- an explanation (of sorts) for the pointing, to me, was that she didn't point in the original timeline and did point when the Doctor was there, bc he was the only other person around, she's pointing for him. (Whether or not pointing at the sign makes any sense is a different issue to "but no one was around anyway".) So I thought that basic fact (didn't point in timeline A; did in timeline B) works. But it wasn't explained in the show, it's just how my brain connected the dots, so.... ?)

Not sure about Roger! I didn't expect we'd see him after 73 Yards, or for 73 Yards to be relevant in the finale at all, which was a really nice touch I thought. I liked that this episode explains what happens to Roger in the regular universe (the Doctor being part of the "overthrow") VS in Ruby's universe where she did it, since that was a question people had. I also loved the idea that the 73 yards is the perception filter distance... I don't need an explicit explanation, just that connection (and the camera with the mother) works once you add in fae magic imo.

Overall, as a big RTD fan, not my fave finale. His scifi nonsense and handwaves are always saved for me by the great character stuff, and the character stuff in this season was only so-so. Moments of brilliance (Ruby and Louise in the cafe!) and some great performances (Millie is SO good) but... in a way this season felt to me like he tried to get out of his regular wheelhouse (huge emphasis on the mystery box stuff) and then the finale was like, a return to his roots (who cares about the mystery! ordinary people 4 ever, etc), but the two don't quite jive. And an extra four episodes would've done wonders.