#it probably is disabling for him since he's had his powers since birth

[wonder-worker]

What of Olympias in her marriage to Philip II? It is said to be quite stormy and he has many other wives.

Hello! I love this period of history and have read up quite a bit about it, but I'm definitely not an expert. Most of my information from this answer has been taken from Olympias by Elizabeth D. Carney, which I enjoyed a great deal and would recommend.

To get straight to the point - polygamy was most probably a standard practice among Macedonian kings by the time Philip II came to the throne (see this article for more information on the topic), although it's certainly true that Philip practiced it on a particularly extravagant level: he had seven recorded wives, and many other lovers, possibly including Olympias' own brother. However, since Olympias was his fourth or fifth wife, she would have surely been aware of this and prepared for it before she married him. Even if it was a shock to her at the time of her marriage, she would have had almost two decades to become accustomed to it. She may have even been close to Nicesipolis, another one of Philip’s wives, as she might have raised her young daughter, Thessalonike, after Nicesipolis died in childbirth.

Moreover, these kinds of high-level marriages weren’t for love; they were for politics. The few ancient sources that frame Philip and Olympias’s union as love match have to be discarded: it’s logistically impossible for this to have been the case, as they had been betrothed since Olympias was a very young child.

After they married, they had two known children: Alexander and Kleopatra. It’s true that their marriage is (and was) often viewed as very volatile, but this is generally tied to the oft-repeated misogynistic view of Olympias as a difficult and temperamental woman. They seem to have gotten along for the most part, considering Philip II had an agent shopping for Olympias from Athens as late as 341 B.C.E. Moreover, we probably shouldn’t let Olympias’ later actions during Alexander’s reign and Wars of the Diadochi cloud our judgement of her earlier years – for most of her marriage, she seems to have played a generally expected role for a Macedonian royal woman (That does not mean she wasn't politically active, as she would have been protecting and advocating for her son and probably had her own "faction" of a sort). Either way, we don’t know what either spouse thought of each other on a personal level, and I don't think it would have mattered much on a practical level either way.

Eventually, Olympias became the dominant woman at court, as she was one of the only two wives of Philip who gave birth to a living son. More importantly, by the time he reached his teens, Alexander – the future Alexander III – was regarded as his father’s eventual heir. (His brother, Arrhidaeus, seems to have been mentally disabled in some way, which unfortunately affected how contemporaries viewed him). However, it’s important to note that this was not a formalized hierarchy or ranking system as it was in, say, Persia (there was no such thing as a “chief wife”), but inherenty informal, precarious and subject to change.

It’s true, though, that their marriage seems to have become very tense in later years. Namely, Philip II’s last marriage to Kleopatra-Eurydice provoked a visceral and negative reaction from both Alexander and Olympias. Again, this is not because Olympias was a volatile, jealous, power-hungry bitch as she is often depicted in ancient sources and historical fiction, but because the wedding resulted in dishonor to both her and Alexander. Attalus, Kleopatra Eurydice’s uncle and guardian, had apparently insulted and threatened both mother and son during the ceremony, which Philip II did not rebuke him for and thus tacitly condoned (That being said, Alexander's reaction to Attalus also out-of-line, as was Philip's reaction to Alexander). More crucially, the marriage placed Olympias and Alexander's own political positions in potential jeopardy should Kleopatra-Eurydice have a son (at least, based on the insults Attalus levelled at them). Accounts for the wedding incident somewhat differ, but all agree that it resulted in Alexander taking himself and his mother away from Macedon in protest. Justin then claimed that Olympias tried to persuade her brother in Molossia to declare war on Philip. We have no idea if this is true or not, but Carney believes that it is at least "somewhat convincing".

It is sometimes believed that the marriage Philip subsequently arranged between his and Olympias’ daughter, Kleopatra and Alexander I of Epirus (Olympias’s brother and Philip’s possible former lover) was meant to deprive mother and son of a potential ally. However, this is far likelier to have been Philip’s desire to effect a public reconciliation between them, demonstrating that his household troubles were over and mollifying his son and his wife for the humiliation they had endured. It was also probably an attempt to stabilize the somewhat rocky Molossian alliance. The vital importance of the wedding is demonstrated by how Philip transformed it into an international festival in its own right, complete with public performances and processions where Philip walked between the two Alexanders. That doesn't mean that there may not have been cracks and that the reconciliation efforts were partial rather than entirely sincere (as suggested by Plutarch), but progress was undoubtedly being made. At the very least, it seems pretty clear to me that Philip still considered Alexander his heir.

Ultimately, however, we will never know what would have happened next between Philip, Olympias and Alexander. Philip was murdered at his daughter's wedding by Pausanias (his former lover who he had wronged very badly) and Alexander took the throne in 336 B.C.E. And no, while we don't know what they felt about Philip's murder, it's very unlikely that Alexander or Olympias were actively involved in it. It can't be proven or disproven by any explicit evidence, but as Carney has observed, "the circumstances of the murder strongly argue against their participation."

I hope this was helpful! As I said, I have read up a lot about this era but am not an expert, so if I've gotten anything wrong or mixed up, do let me know!

[cuttyclowngirl]

Daima EP.7 (Spoiler) Review/theories

• As I'd hoped, Shin removed Panzy's collar. Thankfully it can be easily removed by an easy to learn spell. (I smell rebellion)

• Manpuku dumplings being a type of small food that's worth 2 meals feels like a callback to when Senzu where just beans that kept you full for 10 day's. (Before becoming inta-heals)

• We finally get to see why a Gendarmerie plane flies by Goku in that shot in the OP with adult Goku on his nimbus. (Loving the "defy authority" themes here)

• Shin's old plane broke down due lacking a specific Demon Realm element(mineral) that served as a power source. Wonder if it'll parallel the "sky gold" repeatedly mentioned/seen in the Super manga.

• Yeah, Bulma was about as upset as I expected.

• The Minotaur's solo animated shot from the OP has been replaced by a group shot of members of castle Kadan+the Minotaur, likely implying we'll see said castle members & the king a lot throughout the series. (I find it very odd that the Minotaur's the only one with a drop shadow...)

• Cute little detail of Vegeta shielding Bulma when an unknown plane arrived at the Lookout.

• Ah, Kibito stays behind... Probably explains why he's not in any significant shots in the OP. (Bro is not part of the adventure)

• Panzy being able to spot a Gendarmerie ship from miles away without needing a telescope like Glorio did might explain the super close-up shot of her eye at the end of episode 4. She must have a special trait that'll be helpful later.

• The demons of the 3rd essentially being treated like unruly dogs "in need" of an equivalent of a shock collar sure is gross. Being forced to choose between less freedom or death is a topic that pops up a lot in Toriyama's stories. (Most demons even had the collars placed on them at birth, according to Panzy) The collars being made of a magic infused katchintite that grows with it's wearer is an exceedingly cruel & creepy idea befitting of Dr Arinsu's "mad scientist" title.

• As I suspected, Panzy's collar was going to impede her ability to travel between worlds. Thanks, Shin.

• So katchintite was a Demon Realm metal all along, found on the Glind's original home world "Kaishin". Sort of explains why we've only seen Glinds summon the stuff. (Zamasu even summoned some in the Super manga) Glinds having natural/magic control over an element from their home world makes sense to me.

• Aight, so several Gendarmerie are dead, we can agree on that right? A bunch of them just... Exploded. Wiped out. Casually. Goku even gave 1 ship the Team Rocket treatment. Nuts.

• Goku's instant transmission still works, thank goodness. Shin's quick thinking continues to come in clutch. Goku's cute lil run into the bushes afterwards & the lil wave was delightful.

• It feels like Panzy's fascination with the strength & ki abilities she's witnessed so far will at least lead to her asking for a few lessons. Who knows... Maybe she'll grow up to be the 3rd world's strongest ruler.

• We finally find out what Panzy's silly looking gun from the OP can do. "Disabling communications" so the surviving Gendarmerie can't call for backup. (Or at least, that's one of it's functions) But did it actually work? Time will tell.

• So Glind have their original Demon Realm names & their outer world names that they adopt likely as to not allude to their demon origins, since they are considered "gods" in the outer world. Goku was polite to ask if it'd be alright to refer to to Shin as "Nahare", (I'm sure Kakarot can relate) but he was also right about it not really feeling right, in my opinion. (Nahare is a nice sounding name & all, but I, like most, prefer Shin/Kaio-shin) Plus, Shin clearly didn't feel comfortable with a non-demon calling him by his demon name.

• Goku & crew's conversation prior to challenging Tamagami #3 was extremely JRPG-coded.

• A character (Hybis) being offered as many of something they could want but only asking for a small specific number of it (1 large pizza) is a very Toriyama bit. (But who introduced pizza to the demon realm? •-•)

• Panzy has a helpful hacker buddy named "Peral". I like their design & attitude.

• Welp, Goku & crew are all wanted now. That took 2 episodes.

• Gendarmerie planes can fly twice as fast as a regular demon plane, despite the dense air. Probably magic stemming from military privilege.

• Tamagami #3 being loud & boisterous despite coming off as a reserved, noble, mysterious guardian certainly subverted my expectations. Makes me excited to see what #1 & #2 are like. (Plus they're all implied to be stronger than Dabura. SO COOL!)

• I wonder if the mouths on those demon dumplings Goku was macking on were decorative, cuz I didn't hear the crunch of teeth on teeth. (Also, I didn't hear Goku wash his hands after flushing...)

• I sure hope folks who were commenting that they didn't find Shin interesting as a character since Daima began have come around after this.

• Seeing Shin Naruto run gave me whiplash.

• The next EP preview was extra long. Felt like I shouldn't have watched it.

[cath-piws]

The lore of one (1) of my Genshin OC couples: Izolda and Luc

!!TW!! Mentions of abuse, mentions of experimental/surgical bodily harm

Izolda (from Snezhnaya) is born deaf in a small peasant village. He found the world hard to live through due to his disability, and often he was beaten by those who believed they were superior to him. He grew into teenhood successfully despite the disability and the abuse from his village, but was never treated more than a child. A travelling circus set up camp not far from the village when Izolda was around 16, boasting talented strongmen and exotic animals. When he attended one of these great shows, he was approached by a man needing talent. Izolda, desiring a drive in life and longing to leave his village behind, volunteered. Little did he know, however, that the ploy was a mask for the Fatui to take him to experimentation. He had been suspected of being the carrier of a dead god's consciousness or power, locked away within him. Though many tests were done, none were able to determine what kind of god had died. Perhaps an old god with powers that had dwindled, or a god who watched over trivial things, such as harvest or education. But the Fatui, lured by their curiosity for forbidden knowledge, could not run the risk of letting Izolda leave if he really did possess incredible divine power. Many of the tests performed upon him experimented on his body's resilience, and left him scarred and battered. One test had permanently blinded him. After many years of this treatment, the lab was raided by thieves, and the doctors had to leave with haste. In the chaos, Izolda was left behind in the freezing blizzard, still suffering the aftereffects of a particularly brutal test. Izolda did not know how long passed as he stumbled aimlessly through the blizzard, blind and deaf to the world around him. He could feel his body shutting down. When he finally found what he was looking for, a building in the middle of the tundra, an elemental vision appeared to him. He did not know what vision it was, but he clung to it all the same. As he knocked on the door, the person inside brought him in immediately, and he soon collapsed on the floor of the building. When he awoke days later, Izolda was met with a young mechanic working in the building. She had put him in the only bed in the safehouse and stitched up all of his wounds. She said her name was Luc. As he stayed in bed, mentally recovering from the years he had spent in the lab, Luc cared for him like no one had ever before.

Luc was born in Fontaine to a renowned blacksmith, but had harboured an enamouration for visions since childhood. Though partially deaf at birth, she still managed a healthy life behind the protective arms of her mother. As Luc grew up, her mother became very frail, and since she was a single mother with deceased or distant relatives, she was at risk of passing. Luc decided she would provide for her mother, and managed to get into the Akademiya to study vision sciences, as well as taking a side course in engineering. During her courses, she gained a Pyro vision for her passion for learning and helping those around her. After her studies had come to an end, she was enlisted by a Snezhnayan organisation to build mechanical items. Though the job was vague in its contents, and she would rarely see her friends or mother, she enlisted anyway, knowing it would at least provide her income to send home to her mother. Soon she was employed and very suddenly sent to work on enormous Fatui weaponry and suits. For a few weeks, she tried to leave the job or escape the area, but the contract with her job didn't allow her. Luc was also very aware that when this job contract ended, she would probably disappear along with it so the Fatui would not face the leak of information. And she had no idea what would come of her mother. So, she took care of Izolda, a random person who she had discovered half buried in the snow outside her workplace. The distraction was a great way to get her mind off of her impending doom. She kept an uplifted face when around Izolda, caring gently for their wounds and emotional vulnerability and never speaking a word of her affiliation with the Fatui. Soon, as Izolda left his shell, she didn't need to pretend to be happy anymore. She just was. One day, Luc realised that Izolda was holding onto a live vision, one still very new from the blizzard that had occurred recently. It was a Cryo vision. Through many a research paper Luc had written for the Akademiya, she knew this vision could help Izolda, however much he said he didn't need it or want it. And so, Luc began experimenting on his vision, helping Izolda harness it while also trying to see if he could---rather than see or hear---sense things around him to direct his powers. Slowly, he became more adept at using the vision, and the two grew closer than ever ( 😏 ). One day, however, Luc let it slip that she was working for the Fatui, and Izolda was shocked and outraged that his closest friend was working with his former nightmare. He left Luc, not wanting to hear her explain herself, wearing the only clothes that he could wear outside in the snow; Luc's Fatui uniform. He did not look back.

Their two names are both symbolically representing what they are doing for one another. Izolda's name means 'ice battle', referencing the blizzard he fought through, his role as a test subject and (later) employee for the organisation that most represents Snezhnaya, and the layer of mistrust or hatred he has for his vision being Cryo. Luc's name is Latin, and means 'light', and she is both Izolda's lighthouse and hearth. Her name, reflecting her Pyro vision, represents how she can melt Izolda's barrier against the world and become the candlelight he can finally see by. Perhaps her fire can also melt the ice that is forming around him, or in other words, help him break free from his past and the Fatui.

And, of course, all fires, no matter how fierce, are always prone to being extinguished. Perhaps fire and ice aren't meant to be.

[lotus-duckies]

cries in disabled

[lokiondisneyplus]

A review of “Journey Into Mystery,” the penultimate Loki Season One episode on Disney+, coming up just as soon as I paper cut a giant cloud to death…

Journey Into Mystery was the title of the first Marvel comic to feature either Thor or Loki. It began as an anthology series featuring monsters and aliens, but Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber were so smitten with their adaptation of the characters of Norse myth that the Asgardians gradually took over the whole book, which was renamed after its hammer-wielding hero(*).

(*) The early Journey Into Mystery stories treated Thor’s alter ego, disabled Dr. Donald Blake, as the “real” character, while Thor was just someone Blake could magically transform into, while retaining his memories and personality. It wasn’t even clear whether Asgard itself was meant to exist at first, until Loki turned up on Earth in an early issue, caused trouble, and Blake/Thor somehow knew exactly how to get to Asgard to drop him off. Soon, the lines between Thor and Blake began to blur, and eventually Thor became the real guy, and Blake a fiction invented by Odin to humble his arrogant son. It’s a mark of just how instantly charismatic Loki was that the entire title quickly steered towards him and the other gods.

But once upon a time, anything was possible in Journey Into Mystery, which makes it an apt moniker for an absolutely wonderful episode of Loki where the same holds true. Our title characters are trapped in the Void, a place at the end of time where the TVA’s victims are banished to be devoured by a cloud monster named Alioth. And mostly they are surrounded by the wreckage of many dead timelines. Classic Loki insists that his group’s only goal is survival, and any kind of planning and scheming is doomed to kill the Loki who tries. But this ruined, hopeless world instead feels bursting with imagination and possibility.

There are the many Loki variants we see, with President Loki, among others, joining Classic, Kid, Boastful, and Alligator Loki. There are the metric ton of Easter Eggs just waiting to be screencapped by Marvel obsessives (I discuss a few of them down below), but which still suggest a much larger and weirder MCU even if you don’t immediately scream out “Is that… THROG?!?!?” at the appropriate moment. And all of that stuff is tons of fun, to be sure. But what makes this episode — and, increasingly, this series �� feel so special is the way that it explores the untapped potential of Loki himself, in his many, many variations.

This is an episode that owes more than a small stylistic and thematic debt to Lost. It’s not just that Alioth looks and sounds so much like the Smoke Monster(*), that it makes a shared Wizard of Oz reference to “the man behind the curtain” (also the title of one of the very best Lost episodes), or even that the core group of Lokis are hiding in a bunker accessible via a hatch and a ladder that’s filled with recreational equipment (in this case, bowling alley lanes). It’s also that Loki, Sylvie, their counterparts, and Mobius have all been transported to a strange place that has disturbing echoes from their own lives, that operates according to strange new rules they have to learn while fleeing danger, and their presence there allows them to reflect on the many mistakes of their past and consider whether they want to, or can, transcend them.

(*) Yes, Alioth technically predates Smokey by a decade (see the notes below for more), but his look has been tweaked a bit here to seem more like smoke than a cloud, and the sounds he makes when he roars sound a lot like Smokey’s telltale taxi cab meter clicks. Given the other Lost hat tips in the episode, I have to believe Alioth was chosen specifically to evoke Smokey.

Classic Loki is aptly named. He wears the Sixties Jack Kirby costume, and he is a far more powerful magician than either Sylvie or our Loki have allowed themselves to be. He calls our Loki’s knives worthless compared to his sorcery, which feels like the show acknowledging that the movies depowered Loki a fair amount to make him seem cooler. But if Classic Loki can conjure up illusions bigger and more potent than his younger peers, he is a fundamentally weak and defeated man, convinced, like the others, that the only way to win the game into which he was born is not to play. “We cannot change,” he insists. “We’re broken. Every version of ourselves. Forever.” It is not only his sentiment — Kid Loki adds that any Loki who tries to improve inevitably winds up in the Void for their troubles — but it seems to have weighed on him longer and harder than most.

But Classic Loki takes inspiration from Loki and Sylvie to stand and fight rather than turn and run, magicking up a vision of their homeland to distract Alioth at a crucial moment in Sylvie’s plan, and getting eaten for his trouble. He was wrong: Lokis can change. (Though Kid Loki might once again argue that Classic Loki’s death is more evidence that the universe has no interest in any of them doing so.) And both Loki and Sylvie have been changing throughout their time together. Like most Lokis, they seem cursed to a life of loneliness. Sylvie learned as a child that a higher power believed she should not exist, and has spent a lifetime hiding out in places where any friends she might make will soon die in an apocalypse. Our Loki’s past isn’t quite so stark, but the knowledge that his birth father abandoned him, while his adoptive father never much liked him, have left permanent scars that govern a lot of his behavior. The defining element of Classic Loki’s backstory is that he spent a long time alone on a planet, and only got busted by the TVA when he attempted to reconnect with his brother and anyone else he once knew. This is a hard existence, for all of them. And while it does not forgive them their many sins(*), it helps contextualize them, and give them the knowledge to try to be better versions of themselves.

(*) Loki at one point even acknowledges that, for him, it’s probably only been a few days since he led an alien invasion of New York that left many dead, though due to TVA shenanigans, far more time may have passed.

For that matter, Mobius is not the stainless hero he once thought of himself as. While he and Sylvie are tooling around the Void in a pizza delivery car (because of course they are), he admits that he committed a lot of sins by believing that the ends justified the means, and was wrong. He doesn’t know who he is before the TVA stole and factory rebooted him, but he knows that he wants something better for himself and the universe, and takes the stolen TemPad to open up a portal to his own workplace in hopes of tearing down the TVA once and for all. Before he goes, though, he and Loki share a hug that feels a lot more poignant than it should, given that these characters have only spent parts of four episodes of TV together. It’s a testament to Hiddleston, Wilson, Waldron, and company (Tom Kauffman wrote this week’s script) that their friendship felt so alive and important in such a short amount of time.

The same can be said for Loki and Sylvie’s relationship, however we’re choosing to define it. Though they briefly cuddle together under a blanket that Loki conjures, they move no closer to romance than they were already. If anything, Mobius’ accusations of narcissism in last week’s episode seem to have made both of them pull back a bit from where they seemed to be heading back on Lamentis. But the connection between them is real, whatever exactly it is. And their ability to take down Alioth — to tap into the magic that Classic Loki always had, and to fulfill Loki’s belief that “I think we’re stronger than we realize” — by working together is inspiring and joyful. Without all this nuanced and engaging character work, Loki would still be an entertaining ride, but it’s the marriage of wild ideas with the human element that’s made it so great.

Of course, now comes the hard part. Endings have rarely been an MCU strength, give or take something like the climax of Endgame, and the finales of the two previous Disney+ shows were easily their weakest episodes. The strange, glorious, beautiful machine that Waldron and Herron have built doesn’t seem like it’s heading for another generic hero/villain slugfest, but then, neither did WandaVision before we got exactly that. This one feels different so far, though. The command of the story, the characters, and the tone are incredibly strong right now. There is a mystery to be solved about who is in the big castle beyond the Void (another Loki makes the most narrative and thematic sense to me, but we’ll see), and a lot to be resolved about what happens to the TVA and our heroes. And maybe there’s some heavy lifting that has to be done in service to the upcoming Dr. Strange or Ant-Man films.

It’s complicated, but on a show that has handled complexity well. Though even if the finale winds up keeping things simpler, that might work. As Loki notes while discussing his initial plan to take down Alioth, “Just because it’s not complicated doesn’t mean it’s bad.” Though as Kid Loki retorts, “It also doesn’t mean it’s good.”

Please be good, Loki finale. Everything up to this point deserves that.

Some other thoughts:

* Most of this week’s most interesting material happens in the Void. But the scenes back at the TVA clarify a few things. First, Ravonna is not the mastermind of all this, and she was very much suckered in by the Time-Keeper robots. But unlike Mobius or Hunter B-15, she’s so conditioned to the mission that even knowing it’s a lie hasn’t really swayed her from her mission. She has Miss Minutes (who herself is much craftier this week) looking into files about the creation of the TVA, but for the most part comes across as someone very happy with a status quo where she gets to be special and pass judgment on the rest of the multiverse.

* Alioth first appeared in 1993’s Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective, a miniseries (written by Mobius inspiration Mark Gruenwald, and with some extremely kewl Nineties art full of shoulder pads, studded collars, and the like) involving Ravonna, Kang, and the off-brand versions of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor (aka U.S. Agent, War Machine, and Thunderstrike, the latter of whom has yet to appear in the MCU). It’s a sequel to a Nineties crossover event called Citizen Kang. And no, I still don’t buy that Kang will be the one pulling the strings here, if only because it’s really bad storytelling for the big bad of the season to have never appeared or even been mentioned prior to the finale.

* Rather than try to identify every Easter egg visible in the Void’s terrain, I’ll instead highlight three of the most interesting. Right before the Lokis arrive at the hatch, we see a helicopter with Thanos’ name on it. This is a hat tip to an infamous — and often memed — out-of-continuity story where Thanos flies this chopper while trying to steal the Cosmic Cube (aka the Tesseract) from Hellcat. (A little kid gets his hands on it instead and, of course, uses the Cube to conjure up free ice cream.) James Gunn has been agitating for years for the Thanos Copter to be in the MCU. He finally got his wish.

* The other funny one: When the camera pans down the tunnel into Kid Loki’s headquarters, we see Mjolnir buried in the ground, and right below it is a jar containing a very annoyed frog in a Thor costume. This is either Thor himself — whom Loki cursed into amphibianhood in a memorable Walt Simonson storyline — or another character named Simon Walterston (note the backwards tribute to Walt) who later assumed the tiny mantle.

* Also, in one scene you can spot Yellowjacket’s helmet littering the landscape. This might support the theory that the TVA, the Void, etc., all exist in the Quantum Realm, since that’s where the MCU version of Yellowjacket probably went when his suit shorted out and he was crushed to subatomic size. Or it might be more trolling of the fanbase from the company that had WandaVision fans convinced that Mephisto, the X-Men, and/or Reed Richards would be appearing by the season finale.

* Honestly, I would have watched an entire episode that was just Loki, Mobius, and the others arguing about whether Alligator Loki was actually a Loki, or just a gator who ended up with the crown, presumably after eating a real Loki. The suggestion that the gator might be lying — and that this actually supports, rather than undermines, the case for him being a Loki — was just delightful. And hey, if Throg exists in the MCU now, why not Alligator Loki?

* Finally, the MCU films in general are not exactly known for their visual flair, though a few directors like Taika Waititi and Ryan Coogler have been able to craft distinctive images within the franchise’s usual template. Loki, though, is so often wonderful to look at, and particularly when our heroes are stuck in strange environments like Lamentis or the Void. Director Kate Herron and the VFX team work very well together to create dynamic and weird imagery like Sylvie running from Alioth, or the chaotic Loki battle in the bowling alley. Between this show and WandaVision, it appears the Disney+ corner of the MCU has a bit more room to expand its palette. (Falcon and the Winter Soldier, much less so.)

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Roman Holiday: A Review

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my review of RWBY: Roman Holiday by E.C. Myers! Given my tendency to discuss this franchise at great length, I thought I'd start with a tl;dr section for those who might just want my general takeaway, not a deep dive into some of the novel's specific flaws and strengths. So with that in mind... 

Did you like the book?

I did! Let me put it like this. I'm incredibly critical of any RWBY material nowadays, I haven't had the energy to read #realbooks for a while, and I still managed to finish this in five days, even while stopping every few pages to take notes. So it was entertaining enough to hold my attention, unlike Before the Dawn. Is it a perfect novel worthy of nothing but endless praise? No and I'll delve into the many problems below. But is it also one of the better RWBY installments I've engaged with lately, including recent Volumes of the webseries? Yeah. If you're still emotionally attached to the show or these characters, I recommend giving it a try for the sake of nostalgia. 

But isn't there a bunch of creepy stuff in it? Didn't Myers turn Roman into a pedophile? 

No, he didn't. As I suspected, the rumors that we've been hearing lately probably came about from taking certain moments out of context, or by blowing up some pretty minor implications, or by straight up reading interactions between an adult and a minor in very bad faith. Purity culture and a desire to drag RWBY combining to create an argument that, frankly, isn't supported by the text. Are there jokes and interactions that some readers might find uncomfortable? Yes, but it’s no worse than what RWBY has already established as a canonical part of their world and writing style. See: Yang's interactions with Junior in her Yellow Trailer. If you're a fan of Roman and have held off only because you're convinced the novel ruined his character, I personally don't think that's the case. Breathe easy. 

I'm still worried about how the novel treats disability though. Specifically Neo's muteness. 

I was too, but I'm happy to report it's a pretty tame portrayal. If anything, I have more to say about the intersection between Neo's semblance and her sense of identity. Suffice to say though, Neo never speaks in the novel, there's no ridiculous reason why she can't speak (no reason is given at all, it’s simply a part of her), and only the bad guys pressure her into talking. Meaning, the bad guys from her and Roman’s perspective. Obviously she and Roman are both villains in the RWBY world, but when it comes to respecting each other's needs they're definitely, comparatively better than the rest of the cast. 

So there were no problems? 

Oh no, there are definitely problems lol. Let's just say they're not offensive enough to bother the average RWBY fan. At least, most of them (probably) aren't. If you're not neck deep in the franchise's struggles and actively thinking about how this novel does (or does not) fit into the larger RWBY-mythos, there's a very good chance you'll like the book, passing over everything I’m about to mention without a backwards glance. Hell, even if you're looking for problems there's a good chance you'll enjoy a lot of other aspects, just like I did. So I recommend taking a chance on the book far more than I recommend steering clear on principal alone. 

Okay, with that out of the way it's time to dive into the nitty-gritty!  

FYI I'm pulling my quotations from the paperback edition and, as is probably already obvious, this is not a spoiler free review. So tread carefully!  

Part One: An Imbalance of Protagonists

Would you like RWBY: Roman Holiday? Well, that might depend largely on which of its main characters you're most interested in. If it's Roman, you may be disappointed, despite the fact that the book is evenly divided between his and Neo's perspectives. This is, fundamentally, a book about Neo. She is the one undergoing all the character development. She is the one who is driving the plot. Roman just sort of exists within a criminal status quo until he bumps into her — almost exactly halfway through the novel's 308 pages — and then becomes caught up in her training, her desire to concoct new schemes, and eventually her family's problems. I don't want to make it sound like Roman is unimportant to the book, he's obviously there and he does things, but we're not given the same level of insight into him like we are Neo.  Frankly, I can think of only two significant revelations, both of which we might have easily guessed based on Roman's established characteristics: his mother abandoned him when he was a kid and he once worked for one of the main crime bosses in Mistrial, specifically Lil' Miss Malachite. Otherwise, everything Roman does and experiences is precisely the sort of stuff we saw him do and experience in the webseries. He commits petty crimes, fights people with his cane, and does it all with a dramatic flare which, notably, Myers writes quite well. 

This lack of impact on the story seems to stem from two decisions. First, Myers never jumps forward or backwards in time (with the exception of two small scenes that explain how characters got to a point we saw in the last scene/chapter). Though this definitely helps to keep things from getting confusing, it means that we never go farther back than Neo at 8 years of age and we're always looking at what both characters are up to at the same point in time. Given that Roman is a decade older than Neo, this means that, unlike her, we never get peek into his childhood. When she's 8 he's 18, already an adult and committing crimes in Mistral. A lot of Neo's development is inevitable, just by virtue of starting her story so young. She has to mature, develop her semblance, go to school, try various ways of being independent for the first time... Roman gets none of that. He's an adult when we meet him, his character fully formed and, since we already know that character from the webseries, we're given no new insight into him or how he developed that identity, just a reconfirmation that it exists. 

More of an issue though is that Roman isn't allowed an arc over the course of the novel. The man we meet on page 9 is precisely the same man we end with on page 308 — with the minor exception that he now has a partner in Neo and that, sadly, is a lesson he learns instantaneously. For the first half of the book, Myers sets up the expectation that learning to trust and, specifically, learning to trust someone like Neo is the great conflict that Roman will have to work though. He's very cynical in his own head, as we might expect: “On the streets, on your own. You only watched out for yourself. Anything else was a weakness. Anyone else was a liability” (14). No sooner is this perspective established than Roman is meeting people who challenge it. While babysitting the Malachite girls, they provide advice on how to improve his chances of pulling off heists: 

Melanie and Miltia, simultaneously: “You just need the right partner.” 

Roman: “Maybe. I just don’t believe anyone is going to watch out for me as much as I will” (41). 

After betraying Lil' Miss and fending off his peer Chameleon, she sadly announces that "you might have gotten what you wanted after all if you hadn’t been in it only for yourself. If you had allowed yourself to trust someone” (87). Myers isn't subtle about the theme here. 

Yet when Roman meets Neo, that trust is immediate, despite spending his entire life rejecting the idea of a partner, despite the viewer having just read about numerous other people who Roman spent years fighting beside and still didn't come to trust, Neo forms an instant, powerful connection with him — one that can't be explained by her saving his life when they first meet. Even Roman himself acknowledges that it's just another debt to repay. They simply click, with no explanation as to how that occurred, or even a serious acknowledgement that this is out of character for them both (what with Neo never having had a friend). Neo gives him the name "Neopolitan," knowing it's her true name now and, thus, a more personal offering than her birth name "Trivia." Roman gives her his entire life story during their first meal together. Roman also spends all of his money on Neo's modified parasol and at the novel's end continually offers to sacrifice himself so that Neo can escape. Neo thinks a lot about how Roman is the only one who can understand her through body language alone which, kudos to Myers again, he does describe her movements with enough clarity to sell that understanding (even if Roman does sometimes make leaps in logic that feel a little unlikely). “She really missed Roman. Most of the time she didn’t need to say anything and he knew exactly what she was thinking” (249). It's heartwarming. As someone who enjoyed their relationship in the webseires, this is likewise a joy to read. It's just that it... kinda came out of nowhere. 

Far from this just being an issue of Roman trusting when he's never trusted before, Myers sets up a conflict of loyalties in Neo that is then immediately dropped. She finds herself surprised by Lady Beat — the headmistress of the academy Neo attends — unexpectedly liking her insights and, in exchange for privacy and a more in-depth curriculum, agrees to help her capture Roman. Prior to this agreement, Neo considers helping the Malachite twins take Roman out when they corner him because then they might be Neo's friends instead of her bullies. That motivation makes perfect sense to me. Of course Neo would be more interested in assisting the two girls who attend school with her and improving her daily life over helping the random guy on the street, even if Roman's vulnerability (that's what Neo latches onto: a moment where his mask slips and he shows true fear) sways her towards helping him in the end. When she reunites with Roman later, he requests that she help him spy on Lady Beat... and Neo turns him down. So there's a very clear precedent here of Neo being out for herself, looking to improve her relationship with the other high society ladies she's spending most of her time with. The road to favoring Roman over them will be a long one. What will convince Neo to switch sides? 

Nothing. Soon after Neo thinks about how she's duping both Lady Beat and Roman (the reasoning there is never really explained) and from then on her focus is entirely on Roman, with likewise no explanation as to why she chose him in the end. “Roman clearly had some trust issues to work out, but Neo was going to prove to him that he could count on her” (219). Why this sudden desire to prove herself to Roman? No idea. The novel skips over the majority of their bonding. Yes, there are a few key scenes — Neo saving him, Roman giving her the parasol, etc. — but a single sentence reveals that Neo has been training with him for months now, bypassing the slow development of trust and Neo's changing thought process about what side she should choose. 

Or rather, there are explanations for Neo's decision, but they all occur after Neo has already chosen Roman. There are two major revelations that we're only told about much later in the novel: that Neo is suddenly dissatisfied with her life at school — “Neopolitan was having second thoughts. As much as life at the school had improved, more and more it felt like it wasn’t giving her what she needed” — and that Lady Beat is the head of a major spying conspiracy across all of Remnant (more on that later). Either one of these could have been the catalyst for Neo giving more attention to Roman and, eventually, growing quite close to him. A general dissatisfaction with her life, the revelation that Lady Beat isn't the kind of criminal Neo wants to support...either would work. As it is, her devotion to Roman seems to immerge randomly, fully formed and unshakable, with these ‘I guess the school and Lady Beat weren't that great after all’ justifications tacked on much later and, thus, presented as incidental to Neo's devotion. “[Roman] was basically the only thing that mattered to her in the world right now" is the conclusion Neo comes to without a lot of work put in to explain how he reached that point in her life (248). 

And I can see how this happened. We already know that Neo and Roman are a tight-knit duo from the webseries — Neo's love in particular has been emphasized since Volume Six — and so Myers banked on the reader applying that knowledge to the novel. He wrote the story of what Neo and Roman did prior to meeting, he wrote the story of their friendship prior to the webseries... but he didn't really write how that friendship came about. It's treated as a given, despite the huge number of reasons why that friendship should be rocky (or even non-existent) at the start, to say nothing of many fans' interest in getting an answer to the question, "How does an established villain who trusts no one wind up partnering with a girl a decade his junior?" The novel tells us that this unexpected outcome does, in fact, occur, rather than taking us through the journey of how such an outcome is possible. This is by no means a new problem in RWBY and, admittedly, Myers' depiction of the relationship isn't as noticeably a problem as some others in the webseries, simply by virtue of Neo and Roman being the focus of the novel and the reader knowing that they do, in fact, end up as partners. It's a lot easier to buy a shaky journey when you already know the inevitable conclusion, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have done a better job of showing it. 

Which, to get back to the original point of this section, means that Roman never has that arc about learning to trust someone. He just does trust, the moment Neo comes on the scene. Personally, I think this rapid-fire growth is particularly egregious given everything else we learn about Neo and Roman’s histories. Meaning, just like Roman's cynicism about trust is introduced early on, so is his hatred for the rich elite. In fact, Roman's poverty and the disdain that has bred are arguably the most prominent aspects that Myers added to his characterization. As seen in the novel's excerpt release, Roman's introduction is robbing a rich man coming out of a club where he shows more interest in humiliating and harming the man than just getting his stuff and running. Which, to be fair, isn't solely due to the man's status as a member of the elite. The novel develops both characters' sadist tendencies — “He’s vicious. He brutally beat a man just for his coat. He was having fun” (21) — but the man’s status isn't a non-factor either. Roman's internal thoughts say a lot about how stupid, rude, gullible, pathetic, and inept he thinks the rich are. At the start he's not just taking the man's coat because he likes it, but because he’ll need it to survive the Mistral winter, what with living in a shelter under a bridge and all. We learn that his obsession with survival is born of poverty — “Ma’am, when you don’t have anything, surviving is more. You’ve gotta start somewhere” (20) — and that Roman will go to any lengths just to meet his basic needs, potentially with a side of some comfort. For example, he knowingly risks his life by pissing off Lil' Miss just to get two days of food, baths, and a bed. As Roman puts it, those two days are worth it, even if it means the rest of his life is potentially forfeit. 

So this is a man driven by a desire to live in comfort, manifesting in a hatred of the rich that is so powerful Roman breaks the man's knee just for the hell of it. He's touchy about any comment on his upbringing too: "Roman froze. 'So that’s it. You think you’re better than me. Because you went to school? Learned a trade?'" (80). And, to be clear, this is a hatred of the high society rich. The kind of wealth that's never earned. Roman has a healthy respect for the well-fed crime bosses who have pushed their way to the top, just as he plans to. Not those living cushy lives at the expense of him and others. 

And wouldn't you know it, his partner to-be is a pampered little rich girl. 

"There's the conflict," I thought. "Roman doesn't just need to learn to trust, he's got to trust someone born into extreme luxury. How is that going to happen?" Well, again, it didn't. Neo and Roman's class difference is ignored for 99% of the novel, with the other 1% used for casual banter between them. It's not that Roman isn't aware of Neo's pedigree, so to speak. He finds her through the uniform she wears, the symbol of an academy that rich girls attend. When they share their first tea together, he notes how daintily she eats the sandwiches, more evidence that Neo has had manners drilled into her at a young age. When he finally gets confirmation that she's not just rich, but really rich — flying to her parents' mansion — Roman is just kinda moderately surprised, throwing in a comment about how someday that money will be hers and isn't that nice. Roman's hatred of the elite disappeared for Neo's sake, just like his trust issues did. There's no working through these differences, just an erasure of them so the novel can jump straight to them being the perfectly in synch duo we know from the webseries. 

As a side detail that I think demonstrates this imbalance rather well, hair is used as a marker of identity throughout the novel. Neo moves from being jealous that other girls are allowed to style their hair how they please, to making her hair entirely pink with her semblance, changing that to half brown instead, buying pink dye so she no longer needs to waste energy on something she wants to be permanent, and ending with her getting some white streaks even as she chooses to leave the name Vanille behind. Each change coincides with an aspect of her development and it works quite well. In contrast though, Roman has only setup, no follow through. Unlike the short cut we're used to in the series, Roman starts the novel with a long ponytail that characters frequently comment on. The twins steal his hat and beg to braid his hair when they're bored. Neo seems iffy about the style choice. A couple other side characters make vague references to imply that he should get rid of it — something, something it doesn't actually suit him. So surely we'll see Roman cut his hair sometime before the novel's end, visually representing his growth, just like Neo's changing color has represented hers (ending with a color mix that reflects neapolitan ice cream)? Nope. Not unless I missed it. The foundation for that change is there, but Myers never capitalizes on it, despite obviously knowing what he's doing with Neo. 

So if you want more Roman content, the kind of content we saw in the webseries, great. You'll love the novel. If you want to read about Roman undergoing any significant change, including a dive into how he came to trust Neo of all people, large chunks of that story are missing. In true RWBY fashion, there are plenty of details that allow readers to fill in the blanks for themselves, but the canon itself is, sadly, lacking. 

Part Two: Neo's Magical Identity 

We've established then that Neo gets the lion's share of the development and, frankly, most of it is good. Knowing she's set to become a villain, I loved reading the gradual move from understandably lashing out — Neo throws an umbrella at her father's face when he's being an emotionally abusive dick — to becoming just as stoically cruel as Roman — she launches a woman out of the back of a plane. Did she have a parachute? Who cares. There's a lot here to like about Neo's characterization, with Myers finding a nice balance between keeping her playful and not making her feel like a caricature (helped immensely by spending so much time in Neo's head). However, the one part that arguably fails is the development of Neo's semblance and, consequentially, her identity. 

To be clear, I absolutely get what Myers was going for and it's basically what I assumed was going on when I read the excerpt: Trivia (Neo's birth name) has an imaginary friend she calls Neopolitan and, over time, she realizes she is Neopolitan. The imaginary friend is who she wanted to be all along, not just the person she wanted to spend time with. I like it! Who among us hasn't imagined a badass, smooth-talking, beloved version of ourselves that impresses everyone with a Mary Sue-esque ease? (Or, if you haven't, guess I'm outing myself here lol.) It's a pretty relatable idea. Trivia imagines a girl with the power to dress how she wants, style her hair how she wants, with amazing acrobatic skills, a take-no-shit attitude, fun ideas to implement... but she also has Trivia's heterochromia and muteness. It's the perfect combination of Trivia's unique traits and the confidence/freedom she longs to have. Of course when given the chance she grows up to be Neo, even going so far as to take that name. It's what she always wanted. 

The only problem here is that in the RWBY world, Neo can't just be an imaginary friend. She's a manifestation of Trivia's semblance. As we learn later, the things Trivia creates are as real as real can be, provided she keeps up their existence. You can touch the wall. You can count the money. You can wear the clothes. They're less illusions than short-term creations — as Team RWBY realizes whenever they wind up attacking a Neo duplicate instead of the "real" thing — and that puts an odd spin on just how imaginary Neopolitan actually is. She's not imaginary at all. She's a real person that exists in the real world, it's just that this existence is temporary and dependent on Trivia's aura. 

The novel supports this by constantly writing Neopolitan as a distinct personality from Trivia. Not just the polished version of who she is slowly becoming, but an individual in her own right. Neo makes decisions that are fully her own, contrary to or even entirely unknown to Trivia. To highlight just a few examples: 

Trivia is unsure about sneaking out of the house so Neo "shoved her into the hall" (25). 

Neo "looked on jealously” as Trivia drinks a milkshake, implying a desire to have one and the knowledge that her current physicality doesn't allow for that. If she is Trivia, shouldn't she likewise be enjoying the shake? 

“She shot Neo a questioning look... before she realized what Neo had in mind” (92). Their thoughts are presented as separate and there's no instant mind-reading. 

Neo catches Trivia when she leaps out of a window, surprising her with the save. Trivia never planned for Neo to do that, Neo did it entirely on her own. 

There are lots of other instances like this, details that establish Neo has a person separate from Trivia (this confusion regarding their names should make that clear enough), no matter the fact that she's made out of aura. I mean, we've got Ozpin existing only as a soul in other's bodies. RWBY isn't exactly in a position to get nit-picky about personhood. More specifically though, Neo is presented as a bad influence on Trivia, an outside force enacting on her in harmful ways. Neo's introduction establishes her as the troublemaker to Trivia's more obedient personality: “But those were her parents’ rules, and Neopolitan never cared about those.... She bounced up and down on the cushions the way she wasn’t supposed to” with a “taunting smile” (2). Her father comments on this multiple times, saying that Trivia can't hide behind an imaginary friend. She's responsible for her decisions. And while yes, that's true, that level of responsibility changes when Trivia summons Neo into the world. During a fight with some other teens, they can suddenly see Neo and Neo, independent of Trivia, punches one in the face, making her nose bleed. That seems like a real person making her own, real decisions to me. So it was never Trivia doing things and then trying to foster responsibility off on an imagined cohort, it's a child bringing another, magically-based person into existence and being influenced by her since before the age of 8 (considering that Trivia and Neo have clearly been playing with each other for a long time when the novel starts). There's even a moment where Trivia seems to realize all this, acknowledging that sneaking out, breaking up her parents' party, causing a scene... all of it was Neo's idea. “That had to be Neo’s influence again. Trivia had to stay in control." 

But the idea of control is never actually explored. Despite establishing Neo's individuality and having Trivia comment on her influence, the second half of the novel abandons that for the expected, 'Trivia was Neo all along' reveal. There's a very strange moment where Trivia's mom slaps Neo, causing her to shatter and... that's it. “Neo had been so much more to Trivia. Now she was gone” (98). Neo is, apparently, gone for good, despite the fact that she should return the moment Trivia's aura does. Neo has been with Trivia since she was a small child, nearly her entire life and at least 7 years by this point in the novel, so why did a single slap send her away? That's not explained and, much like the ‘Why has Neo chosen Roman?’ question, the fact that Trivia did try to bring her back several times and failed is mentioned chapters after Neo's absence is presented as an inevitability. The order of events needs some reshuffling. 

Despite this confusion regarding why this change happened now, the explanation seems to be that Neo isn't really gone, Trivia has just realized for the first time that she is Neo. No need to summon up a separate person when you are that person and the novel, from then on, is peppered with constant reminders of this. 

“Trivia was on the verge of exhaustion, but she kept burning the last of her Aura to hold Neo together. To hold herself together” (96). 

Realizing she is Neo: “Trivia smiled. She took in a deep breath. She felt complete for the first time. She felt like herself” (99). 

“You must be Trivia,” the tall woman said. If I must, I must, Trivia thought (126).

“She wrinkled her nose. Her name still felt like a coat that didn’t fit right. She would need to tailor that, too” (153).

“Losing her friend was Trivia’s first step towards putting herself back together and embracing her true, best self” (152). 

“Wearing this [outfit], she almost, not quite, knew (or remembered?) who she was—not as a student or a daughter, but as Trivia Vanille," except the clothes are “the kind of thing Neopolitan would wear” (152-3). 

On not being able to summon Neo anymore: “She had realized that Neo was really just another aspect of herself” (175).

Though there’s also the occasional implication that she's not actually Neo, just someone highly influenced by her: “No, [fully pink hair was] too much of the other girl [Neopolitan]," so she settles on that half pink (Neo), half brown (Trivia) combo (153). 

As said at the start, it's a "twist" that works perfectly well... provided you ignore the magical elements and the amount of work done to establish Neopolitan as her own person, not just Trivia in a shiny, future glamour. Far from the empowering victory I expected to feel in watching Neo become who she always wanted to be, I found the whole situation to be somewhat tragic. Magic created a fully realized person who egged Trivia towards bad behavior since she was a young child, until Trivia comes to the decision that she should just embrace their personality 24/7. It felt less like the growth of a character into who they were meant to be and more like a manipulated kid taking the place of the person who used to exist alongside her — the only friend she ever had before Roman. Given that Neo is a villain, that's a pretty interesting idea for how the good girl goes bad... but it doesn't feel like Myers meant it that way. Rather, we're supposed to accept the simplest reading, that Neo was just a projection of Trivia's internal self, never-mind her individuality, her pressuring influence, her existence as something real in the world provided Trivia has aura. It's a much messier depiction of Neo's identity than that ‘She had an imaginary friend who she admired and eventually took her name’ setup. When magic is involved and a character's mind is creating fully realized people to stave off loneliness... that's a whole other kettle of fish. I don't actually want to delve into a psychological reading here — I simply don't have the expertise for that — but suffice to say, Neo's muteness might have been handled well, but there's a lot more to interrogate regarding her mental state and how much leeway we give to, ‘It's a fantasy series, just run with it.’ 

Part Three: You're Dodging Those Rumors, Clyde 

I admittedly am. Let's take a break from deep dives into characterization to instead tackle Roman Holiday's — undeserved — reputation. I get it. At this point the RWBY franchise is, frankly, a poster child for offensive content and workplace problems. In the last two years alone we've dealt with horrific crunch culture, sexual harassment allegations, an arguably glorified assisted suicide, bad comparisons to real life politics and dictatorships, a huge reversal on the show's disability stance, one subreddit banning another over criticism, a collective YouTube response to the fandom's behavior, iffy choices regarding Mother's Day merch, accusations of queerbaiting, a resurgence of using Monty's death to forward or dismiss arguments, continued worry over whether the bees will be made canonical next Volume... and honestly, that's just some of the big ticket subjects. RWBY's story, workplace, and fandom have a lot going on, much of it bad, so it's no surprise to me that people are primed to see the worst at every turn. Why wouldn't we be? At this point it's a pretty justified response. 

However, in this case it's unwarranted. Let's tackle Neo and Roman first. Yes, they're a decade apart in age and yes, there are some details that could, potentially, imply romantic interest on both sides. But they really are tiny and the novel confirms nothing. Indeed, the back of the book's summary says, "Just like every story, every friendship has a beginning..." So that's the focus here and all the ambiguous hints, importantly, happen after Neo is confirmed to be 18 years old. Roman takes her to a fancy tea shop only because he owes her. “It certainly wasn’t because he wanted to impress her or anything” (189). Neo blushes when he compliments her semblance. Twice Roman jokes “Don’t worry, it isn’t flowers” when Neo is opening up her parasol present (212). Neo also acknowledges Roman's looks at one point: “With his tousled orange hair, dressed like a street punk, he didn’t look much older than her. In fact, he was kind of cute” (184). The most intimate they get though is at the novel's end: “She leaned over and kissed Roman on the cheek. His face went red," though this is immediately followed by "It was fun to mess with him sometimes” (307). Honestly, the most overt "hint" towards a relationship is probably the title itself, a play on the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday. But upon reading the novel, I think it's clear Myers chose that title only because Roman's name is, you know, Roman and the plot somewhat mirrors the idea of a reporter getting involved with a princess. Only in this case it's a criminal getting involved with a high society girl and "involved" just means a crime spree, not a romance. 

So is there something there? Maybe the start of something, if you're willing to read into it, but to me it comes across more like the two of them poking fun at social expectations — he's the guy so he "must" be getting the girl flowers; she's the girl so she "has" to kiss him on the cheek — rather than anything serious. Even if Myers had developed a relationship, Neo is both an adult and at least Ruby's current age, if not a year older, so if some fans want her to start a relationship with the 14-year-old farm boy housing her ancient headmaster, is a ten year age gap really where we're going to draw the line? I know that makes a lot of people uncomfortable — frankly it makes me a bit uncomfortable too, more-so because of the difference in their life experiences (Neo is still a student, Roman a long-established criminal) than the actual gap itself — but we should be wary about when personal squicks turn into unfounded, "This is a sin!" purity culture. And for the purposes of this conversation, the point is that there is no relationship. If anything, Roman is just as aware of Neo's age as the reader is. He initially thinks he's looking at a “little girl” only to quickly realize “She was also older than her diminutive height suggested, maybe about the same age as the Malachite twins” (168). But, as we'll get to in just a sec, Roman very much treats the twins as the kids they are too. Roman even refers to Neo as a "kid" until she makes it known she dislikes it (183-4). He drops the term, but that doesn't mean the mindset disappeared. 

As for the twins, they're the only other minors that Roman spends time with. Lil' Miss instructs him to act as their body guard while in hiding, which means he spends over a week living with them. Frankly? I think it's a really wholesome part of the novel — or as wholesome as the villains can ever get. That's when the girls get bored enough to steal Roman's hat, toss it around a bit, and beg to braid his hair. Myers does a good job of balancing Roman's bad boy attitude with a clear indulgence for them. He doesn't actively like the twins (who does Roman like besides Neo?) and ends up orchestrating a ridiculous plot to get out of "babysitting" them (another indication that he's well aware that they're kids), but he doesn't wish them any real harm. He even cares about them in his own twisted, villainous way. We get to see a moment where Roman tries to convince the girls to escape from a grimm, leaving him behind. We might have been able to write that off as Roman just saving his own skin in the long run — Lil' Miss would kill him if any harm comes to her girls — but there's no need to fake comfort: “Roman squeezed Melanie’s hand reassuringly. He needed her and her sister to remain calm” (52). As one of the other goons observes, “You’re bluffing. It’s obvious that you care about [Miltia], which means you’re up to something” (51). Much later, Roman's thoughts confirm this when the girls are older, more powerful, and trying to kill him: “He’d had to endure their dance recitals when they were little. He’d clapped for them at gymnastic competitions. Now they were trying to do a number on him... He didn’t want to hurt the lil' brats, despite everything, but he couldn’t let them take him down” (166-7). Really, I like everything about this. I enjoy how this humanizes and complicates Roman without undermining his status as a villain. I like the loyalty to their mother it shows in the twins that they'd turn on a man who was so involved in their childhoods. It's just fun to read about a badass bad guy trying to manage bored pre-teens with superpowers and a crime boss mom. Their relationship isn't something I expected from the novel, but I'm glad we got it. There's nothing here to imply the twins are uncomfortable with Roman, or that Roman is inappropriate with them. Anyone who balks merely at the idea of a grown man, quote, "babysitting" two young girls is working from bias and bias alone. 

There is, however, one inappropriate comment made by a goon and an assumption made by Miltia, both of which Roman refutes. First, the goon asks if Melanie is Torchwick’s “new girlfriend” to which Roman responds, “You know who it is... She’s just a kid, big man” (47-48). Later on, we get

“Cute,” [Roman] said. 

“Flattery’s not going to work on me anymore,” Miltia said. 

“I was referring to your moves, not you” (158).

Now, we could drag Myers for including such "jokes" and misunderstandings to begin with, but that's why I mentioned the Yellow Trailer at the start of this review. It doesn't feel right to single Myers out for something Rooster Teeth has already embraced, especially when he's the one working to mirror their original product. Yang deliberately toys with Junior and Junior willingly goes in for the kiss. Jaune blushes at older moms eyeing him up at the crosswalk. Nora tells Ren not to look up her skirt in the middle of a deadly fight. Neo and Cinder both go to Atlas in scantily clad outfits because it's more important for the women to look sexy than it is for the show to stay consistent about the dangers of the tundra. Much of RWBY has that frat boy energy about it. I'd be shocked if nothing snuck its way into Myers' work too. But Roman the pedophile who ogles the twins and manipulates a kid Neo? That just doesn't exist. 

Part Four: Déjà Vu, Anyone? 

I dithered about whether to include this section, simply because I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I'm trying to say... yet at the same time, I'm not entirely sure how to articulate the problem I have here. Or if I'd even consider it a problem at all. In the end, "déjà vu" is the best term I can come up with. I'm not saying that Myers is lazy in regards to plot and choreography. I'm definitely not saying he's plagiarized. What I am saying — the only thing I'm saying — is that there were a lot of times during the novel where I went, "Okay, we've seen this before." Whether or not that's bad I'm... not sure. 

Let's start broad. When the excerpt dropped I mentioned that Neo's situation sounded pretty very to Weiss' and I stand by that claim. Actually, having read the novel now, I'd say it's a LOT like Weiss' story. Neo is the daughter of an incredibly wealthy family, suffering from an abusive father, a more loving but absent mother, whose only freedom stems from her semblance and combat abilities. Alright, let's dig deeper. Like Jacques, Jimmy's abuse is on full display for the viewer/reader. I could give you a laundry list of examples, but here are just a few: 

Jimmy is frequently described as barely controlling his anger around Neo, “there was rage behind his shadowed eyes,” etc. (4)

There are times when she is "suddenly afraid" of what her Papa will do to her (35).

When Neo is taken home by the cops, they reveal that they didn't even know that Jimmy Vanille had a daughter. That's how sequestered she's been.

He and his wife lock Neo in her room when they go out, which means that when she starts a fire she had no way to escape, no one to open the door for her, no way to call for help (her scroll is engulfed in the flames). Neo ends up chancing a fall from the window. 

He comes very near to hitting Neo at one point before backing down. 

Later he drugs her and, again, locks her in her room. 

As said, I could go on. There are a few inconstancies across the novel that, frankly, I've come to expect of Myers' work and RWBY in general, which I bring up now because it messes with the abuse plotline a bit. There's supposed to be a shocking moment when Jimmy grabs Neo tightly by the arms: "Trivia stepped back, appalled. Papa had yelled at her, punished her, even ignored her over the years, but he had never hurt her before” (97). Except she’s forgetting that, at the very start of the novel, Jimmy grabs her by the ankles, pulls her out from under the couch, and proceeds to shake her upside down while her hand bleeds. I'd say that's a pretty intense, physical interaction, making squeezing Neo's arms fail to have the impact Myers was looking for. Similarly, when Neo finally snaps and throws her parasol at her father's face, it's because “The things she had claimed for herself were just more stuff her parents had paid for," meaning, everything she stole on a shopping spree her father made sure to pay for twice over. It's not the ableism, abuse, isolation, and the like that Neo reacts to, even though she clearly struggles with those throughout the novel as a whole. So there are disconnects at times, but the point is this man is an abusive asshole to his daughter until she learns to literally fight back. Sound familiar? 

What particularly struck me was that both men have built their abuse around how the family is perceived. Both are obsessed with their image and how their daughter does or does not serve it. Jacques yelling at Weiss for speaking out about Beacon could be swapped with Jimmy yelling at Neo for not speaking at all. Jacques has maintained his wealth by exploiting the faunus in dust mines and getting in deep with criminals like Watts. Jimmy maintains his wealth by getting involved in illegal dust trades and getting in deep with criminals like the Xiongs. Both try to justify their actions in the name of perpetuating both that image and that wealth: “the things I have to do for that money” (5). Both lock their daughters in their room when they can't control them anymore. Both keep portraits in the hall that “showed her and her parents posing together as if they were a happy family,” a symbol of this familial deception (271).* Both have more compassionate, terrified, but ultimately enabling wives that, the story reveals, have secretly been spying on their husbands this whole time. Just as Willow set up all those cameras and gave the footage to Weiss, Carmel is using the camera in her pin to acquire information on Jimmy, with plans to use it to help Neo. By the time Neo's solution to the "What now?" question was to fly Roman back to her mansion and drink tea for a while Volume 8 style, complete with a Sun-Blake style shock that this is her house — sure you don't mean the tiny one behind it? — I was honestly wondering just how far we were going to stretch these parallels. I don't want to make it sound like these characters are identical (Carmel isn't an alcoholic for one thing)... but they share enough characteristics and distinct details to feel, well, a little weird. It also feeds the fandom's question, "Doesn't RWBY know any villain backstories except abuse?" 

*(As a side note, I initially thought the book's cover, showing a young Neo with two brown eyes, was a mistake. Turns out her parents had the painter get rid of her pink eye because they were ashamed of it, so kudos to the cover artist for keeping that consistent!) 

The similarities between Neo's backstory and Weiss' are absolutely the most obvious example here, but there were two other, smaller déjà vu moments I wanted to toss out, both involving combat. Myers has, at times, repeated fights almost exactly in order to cover two character's perspectives. I get the need to rehash plot in that manner, but he tends to focus on the exact same details back to back, making for a boring read. That incredibly nit-picky criticism aside, it means that I was already aware of combat moments that I'd seen before, not just in Roman Holiday, but RWBY in general. Does this description sound familiar to anyone? 

Neo hopped up lightly onto the broad blade. Rin tried to shake her off. Neo vaulted away just as the Huntress activated the flames, somersaulting over the Huntress. She planned to land behind her and whack her with her sword, but Rin turned and kicked high while Neo was still in the air. The Huntress’s foot connected with Neo’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her and knocking her clear across the room (199). 

If it's not familiar don't beat yourself up because it really is a minor similarity (and, in fairness, there's only so many ways you can write combat...). But take away the swords, replace them with a parasol and scythe, and you've basically got Ruby and Neo's interaction in Volume 8. Ruby tries to land a hit on Neo, she turns, kicks high while Ruby is still in the air, and she flies across the platform, knocking the wind out of her. We've also seen the 'Landing on a broadsword to get close to an enemy' bit with Tyrian and Qrow. But again: minor. What's a far less minor repeat of combat techniques is seen between Roman and Chameleon. Basically, Chameleon is Ilia, minus being a faunus and thus framing her abilities as a difference she's shunned for. Her semblance allows her to camouflage at will, giving her a major stealth advantage in a fight. Which means that when she goes after Roman, things get exponentially harder when the lights go out. But then it's better for Roman when a fire starts. He beats Chameleon and she helps him in the end because she's always been in love with him, even though Roman didn't love her back. If you're going, "Hey, that's the basic plot of Blake and Ilia's fight!" then yeah, me too.

It's not the whole novel. I don't want to make it sound like Roman Holiday is just a stitched together version of previous RWBY content because it's absolutely not. At the same time though, there were enough major similarities — and enough smaller ones that started standing out as a result — for me to raise an eyebrow. As said, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this eyebrow raising, or even if I want to label it a criticism at all. You all can decide what you think. 

Part Five: Wait, Now There's Not Enough RWBY? 

Yes, I contain multitudes and contradictions. As does this book. Even while Roman Holiday repeated some pretty familiar RWBY elements, there were times when the novel didn't feel very RWBY-ish at all. Part of the problem is that it lacks what's arguably the most crucial part of RWBY’s world building: battling grimm. Safe behind the walls of Mistral and Vale, we only see one grimm in the whole story, a captured Capivara that one of the crime lords uses to dispose of people who have displeased him. Roman and the twins barely get more than a few hits in before it escapes upstairs, leaving the kill to happen off screen (and why the grimm ran is another problem entirely. Again: we'll get to that). So although there are plenty of battles between people throughout the story, it doesn't feel quite like RWBY to me without the show's first and most significant antagonist. 

More than that though, Myers goes back and forth between emphasizing RWBY's unique, cultural elements and putting them aside entirely. When he's including them, it's great. We learn that there's an old saying “You can’t put the moon back together” which yeah, of course idioms would develop around the shattered moon (151). Honey Wine, a night club singer, paints her face with red dust as a symbol of both wealth and her dare-devil nature — one stray spark and the dust would ignite, blowing her and potentially the club up too. Yeah, of course people would come up with foolish, ridiculous ways to use this resource if they had it. During one of Neo's lessons, a passage for diction practice goes like this: 

The gruesome Grimm grew greedy. Get that greedy gruesome Grimm, Gregory. Go, Gregory, go. The greedy gruesome Grimme gorged Gregory. Good-bye, Gregory, Good-bye. The gory, greedy Grimm gave a gruesome grin (175).

Yeah, of course the elite would develop silly lessons using grimm as examples! We've got math problems about Johnny and his dish soap (yes, I'm quoting the Vine), so why wouldn't this world use grimm in the same way? Especially those who are rich and privileged enough to never encounter one. 

When it's good, it's good. When it's not... I don't want to take Myers to task for this because, in his defense, much of what makes the book feel generically modern has been seen in the show. Like computers. Or video games. Still, when these things are mentioned frequently it undermines the fantasy/sci-fi core, especially when Myers keeps the standard terminology. Why is a phone called a scroll, but a TV is still called a TV? Why are cops patrolling normal sounding malls with normal sounding guns? Neo sneaks out at one point and it struck me that, up until she uses her semblance against a bunch of bullies, there's nothing to distinguish this outing from a realistic portrayal of an average girl getting a milkshake. None of this is helped by the times when Myers slips on the terminology that is unique. Roman describes what he steals as "cash" rather than "lien" (105). One moment we're getting phrases like “She wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box," the next it's "or rob a convenience store for a six-pack of Dr. Piper” (44, 239). So is RWBY a world that has all the same products we do — crayons and TVs — a world that's different, but only because the author is making it different in a humorous way — Dr. Piper — or a place with a unique culture and history — scrolls, lien, shattered moon idioms? It's a challenge every fantasy writer has to face. Can you have a French braid in a world without France? Some will say no, others will bank on the reader's understanding that you can't change up every aspect of our language. You'll drive yourself nuts if you try. So I'm sympathetic, but it's nevertheless noticeable when Myers seems to remember that he's writing a fantasy world, tossing in "bullhead," "oh my Gods," and "thank the brothers" in a single scene, as if he’s making up for the whole chapters where that work is missing. Take out the grimm, take out semblances for a good chunk of the plot (since Roman doesn't have one), get iffy about the details... and you're left with a story that sometimes feels more generic Young Adult than it does RWBY. Enjoyable Young Adult, but a little lackluster in the world building all the same. This isn't a book where girls turn into rose pedals, lamps grant wishes, and teenagers fight giant mechs. This is a story where a guy uses a cane to beat people up, a girl uses illusions to shoplift, and the final confrontation is basically a shoot-out. Not bad by any means, just not the level of insane "The gun is also a gun!" nonsense that has become RWBY's brand. 

Part Six: Stupid Plots (and Strange Details) 

If Roman Holiday lacks a lot of that RWBY insanity, then that means nothing stupid and ridiculous happened, right? Lol of course not. The novel suffers from what I think of as the, "Well that's convenient" problem. In its immense defense though, it's nowhere near the level of, say, Amity suddenly being ready to go. The world's rules do not bend for Neo and Roman... they just wind up experiencing things that can test the reader's sense of disbelief at times. For example, how likely is it that two huntsmen will waltz into a bank in the middle of Roman robbing it? Very likely, apparently. Why not just have them respond to a silent alarm? Well, because of reasons we'll tackle in Part Seven, so we're left with the iffy coincidence of two trained professionals being at the right place at the right time to show the reader a fight. It's a fun fight though — love the use of dust in it — so we'll let that pass. After all, if coincidence serves the reader's entertainment, aren't they ultimately a good thing? 

Far more frustrating in my opinion is when disaster is illogically postponed and characters are written as incredibly stupid in order for a protagonist to get by. In this case, Neo. One of the major reveals of the novel is that her father has been stealing dust from the Xiongs and hiding it beneath Neo's bed. We're supposed to believe that a moment of Lil' Miss shooting into her room sets this volatile dust off, resulting in an explosion that kills both of Neo's parents (side note: she intended this), but the dust didn't blow up when Neo started a fire in said bedroom, a fire that then proceeded to consume the entire top floor? ...right. 

When Neo isn't conveniently surviving non-explosions, she's duping people left and right with her semblance, despite the fact that she, of course, can't speak. This trick becomes less and less convincing as the novel goes on. First, Neo drugs her tutor (that poor woman) and pretends to be her to escape the house, holding a one-sided conversation with her father as he walks her to the door. He finds nothing strange in this. Later, Neo sneaks back in by pretending to be her mother and though this time her father catches her, it's because “If you want to know whether someone is lying to you, it’s all in their eyes” (70). Not because, you know, his "wife" inexplicably won't respond to him verbally. Finally, Neo takes the place of Xiong, traveling with his assistant for over thirty minutes, and never once do any of the goons question what's going on with their suddenly mute boss. This includes interactions like Neo holding out her scroll and just staring until the assistant gets that she should follow the GPS, and the need to ignore the fact that Xiong, characterized as quite talkative throughout the novel, is suddenly quiet as a mouse. Neo's muteness should have been a severe limitation on her ability to masquerade as others, not something the story outright ignores in an effort to move the plot along. 

The novel is peppered with such coincidences, small inconsistencies, and just downright strange details. Roman notes that the police haven't arrived to his robbery yet, only for the next sentence to say they were swarming in. Later he "pulled on his bonds, testing whether he could slide one of his hands free, but he’d been tied up real good” but then again, a few sentences later, “He craned his neck to try to look out the front window. He managed to unbuckle his seat and hop to the front” (259). Like forgetting how rough her father has been in the past, Trivia bemoans the fact that she can't wear anything that Neo would, something in pink and white, for example, forgetting that her former "adventuring outfit" consisted of a white tank-top and white sneakers with pink hearts (26).* She also claims that the Roman illusion she sends running from the twins is her first long-distance use of her semblance, even though she just got done recalling the time she created a butterfly and watched it fly until it was "out of sight" (170). The novel writes out Neo's texting as dialogue even when someone else isn't speaking it aloud — something I initially made a note to praise it for. This is her version of "talking" after all — only for the texts to suddenly become bolded halfway through the book. As for strange details, Myers seems to like giving his antagonists a lumpy food to indulge in — Lil' Miss forces Roman to eat her cottage cheese, Xiong oatmeal with the consistency of cement — and Roman, quite oddly, decides to cover his spider tattoo with a grinning pumpkin. (Were they a thing in A Clockwork Orange? It's been years since I read it...) Neo learns to fly a plan by watching Xiong's assistant start it up and then, I kid you not, pulling up a How To article. Perhaps my favorite bit though is when Roman reveals his master plan to gain a monopoly on Vale's coffee industry and successfully does so by attacking one (1) warehouse. This is treated with the utmost seriousness. 

*(Second side note: the color brown is tied closely to Neo's backstory; to the person her parents wanted Trivia to be. She has her brown hair, only one brown eye, is introduced in a brown dress, wears a brown blazer and pants that her parents bought, and attends Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls, the school meant to turn her into a 'real' lady.) 

That last bit though, the coffee heist, feeds into my biggest problem with the book's plot. @superzerokarasu​ and I have been talking about this the last two days, acknowledging it as one of the book's bigger flaws. (And, Superzerokarasu, if tumblr actually tags you, feel free to ignore this absolutely massive wall of text. I just wanted to give credit for the conversations 👍). Basically, towards the end of the novel it is, quite randomly, revealed that there is an important Room at the academy. Important enough that the story capitalizes it — that's not my doing. We haven't heard at thing about this Room before but Neo, apparently, has been trying to sneak into it for weeks. She knows Lady Beat is hiding something in there. Did we know this, especially since we've spent half the novel in Neo's head? Nope! No sooner has this mystery been introduced than Neo is solving it, much like how the group solves the problem of using Ambrosius moments after his rules are explained. Neo throws up an illusion of an empty hallway, picks the lock on the door, and discovers that Lady Beat has been spying on everyone who ever attended her school through the small pins students and graduates wear. This means she has access to private information about important people all over Remnant. Shocking! Neo reacts to this discovery by tearing the hard drive loose, there are some confusing suggestions about how this information will save them from Lil' Miss and Xiong, and then Roman sends the information to a news station, revealing all. Thus ends the world-wide conspiracy we just found out about. 

It's muddied. It's ridiculous. It, most importantly, comes out of nowhere. There's absolutely no buildup to this mystery, just a sudden announcement that it exists and, wouldn't you know, here's the conclusion. Superzerokarasu is correct that this problem could be solved by increasing the academy sections and fleshing this mystery out. I'm of the opinion that it could also be solved by eliminating it entirely. Why in the world do Roman and Neo need to grapple with a world-changing reveal, especially when the rest of the novel is so tame? Roman shakes money down from other small-time crooks. Neo learns diction and combat at school. Roman leaves the Kingdom to avoid Lil' Miss. Neo sneaks out of the house and goes on shopping sprees. She saves him from a street fight, he takes her out to tea, they proceed to rob convenience stores. Their conflicts take place on such a small scale that this conspiracy plot feels ridiculous compared to the rest of the novel, even if it did have better setup. In contrast, their big coffee heist likewise feels ridiculous for how small it is. As a duo (not Neo as an individual, now that she's involved with the Relics and such), they operate in a pretty specific niche of small crimes conducted for villains with large plans. Given the number of times the novel brought up that Roman should start stealing dust, I foolishly thought that the novel would conclude with them stealing dust. Why coffee? Why conspiracies? Why shootouts between two crime bosses on Neo's front lawn? Let them pull off an epic dust heist together, tying it back to Neo's family since her father is already neck-deep in the illegal dust trade, all of it setting up the characters we'll meet in the webseries: street crooks now stealing dust for Cinder. That's their specialty. Why not start that specialty here? 

Instead we get a bunch of hurried plot points that, of course, will have no bearing on the first eight volumes of the webseries. Which brings us to... 

Part Seven: Roman Holiday's Impact on RWBY

Quite obviously, this isn't a novel that exists in a vacuum. Roman Holiday, given that it is presented as an official Rooster Teeth product, is likewise meant to fit into the already established canon. This has been a challenge for Rooster Teeth in the past — important lore winding up in card games, mischaracterization in other novels, worry about how the upcoming game will re-tell events we've already seen — but has Roman Holiday perpetuated that trend?  

Well, yes and no. Which is never a particularly satisfying answer, but in this case there are both aspects that are working and aspects that aren't. Let's tackle the good first. 

Myers includes a lot of details throughout the story that help fill in RWBY's gaps. In this case, it's not information the viewer should have gotten in the webseries in order to have a complete understanding of the situation, but rather things that simply help connect the two works together, adding depth to what we already know. For example, there are those before mentioned times when characters suggest that Roman start stealing dust. “You aren’t the first person to suggest that. Maybe I should look into that...” (216). I do think it's a missed opportunity not to make a dust heist the climax of the story, but that doesn't erase the fact that this still functions as excellent setup for the webseries' premiere. We know RWBY opens on Roman robbing a dust shop. Now we have a better sense of how and why he got into that line of criminal work. 

We likewise get to see the origins of Neo's parasol, not just how she got it (Roman), but also what led her to wanting that kind of weapon in the first place (struggling with the heaviness of swords, getting attached to a parasol she stole, impulsively using it to attack her father, escaping the fire with it and realizing that the ability to float from high places is an asset). Something else I particularly like is that Myers was careful to explain how Neo became so adept at fighting. According to the webseries, there are only three paths you can take: go to combat school like Ruby, live on the streets like Roman, or live outside the Kingdoms like Blake. Neo, as a rich girl kept within high society, doesn't fit any of those models, so Myers introduces an Academy that seeks to train young women for any eventuality, even an attack. Neo learns how to smile, sew, cook, courtesy... while also taking classes in acrobatics, combat, ballet, and fencing. All the girls train with a combat instructor — “I know this isn’t a combat school, but by the time we’re done, you will be as skilled as any Huntress in Remnant” (201) — and, not only that, but she undergoes some pretty intense testing. Balance is taught by “balancing on a tightrope twenty feet in the air, with no net below you. Lady Beat believed in ‘though love’—without the love part” (146). It's a teaching method that makes Ozpin's cliff test seem a little less insane and it highlights one of those fantasy elements of RWBY. When your students possess aura that can save them from a twenty foot fall, it's slightly more reasonable to include that as a challenge. So when Neo starts following Roman around, it doesn't feel off that she can keep up with him. She's been trained, has practiced her semblance alone, and gets additional tutoring from Roman himself. Myers neatly dodges the question of how a non-Huntress and such a privileged girl — unlike Nora or Cinder — became to be as talented as Neo is. Privilege actually bought her that knowledge, which Neo then combines with Roman's street smarts, making her the formidable fighter we know and love.  

However, for every nice tether there is between Roman Holiday and RWBY there's a moment of worldbuilding that messes with our sense of the webseries. Or at least raises some pretty big concerns. 

Given that we just came off of Volume 8, it's no surprise that I read the novel with an eye for hints about how these future events — the destruction of Atlas, evacuees in Vacuo — might impact the rest of Remnant. What Myers gave us... doesn't look good for RWBYJNOR's decision, or the theme Rooster Teeth was going for in Volume 8. Meaning, the show took on a very black and white view by the end of the Atlas arc. Ironwood is an irredeemable bad guy, Atlas is full of racist trash and deserves to sink, the heroes made the best decision possible given the circumstances. Myers' novel introduces some nuance that, sadly, doesn't serve that black and white view well. He describes Mistral as, frankly, suffering the exact same problems as Atlas. “The city elevator didn’t come down this far, to keep more of a buffer between the haves and the have nots... people at the base of the mountain had no business topside” (10-11). Sounds like the sort of divide between Mantle and Atlas, huh? With the exception that one elite is stationed on top of a mountain instead of a floating city. It's a class issue Neo confirms as a kid when she sneaks out to the lower districts, thinking that, "she was never, ever allowed out alone. ‘For your own safety,’ they said” (25). Rich, racist elites who think themselves better than everyone else isn't an Atlas problem, it's a Remnant problem. RWBYJNOR solved nothing by leaving the place behind (and having one citizen hold hands with a faunus) and the fact that the story acts as if things are better now that Atlesians can’t have picnics on a floating city is... a problem. We already knew RWBY struggles with its racism and classism themes, but moments like this continue to add fuel to the wildfire. 

Similarly, the novel spends a not insignificant amount of time referencing Atlas as the technological capital of their world. We knew that already too, but hammering it home now, post-Volume 8, emphasizes the damage the group has done. No Atlas, no technology. Pretty much any technology, given how often it’s said to come directly from Atlas, or cloned from Atlas originals. 

Regarding the evacuation, Myers gives us a moment where Roman outright rejects Vacuo as a place to escape to: “Vacuo was a good place to hide, but the desert was probably one of the few fates worse than Lil’ Miss. And while there was a thriving criminal element, it wouldn’t be particularly welcoming to a newcomer. There was no future for Roman there” (88). So the desert is a fate worse than a crime boss and Vacuans are so unwelcoming one individual won't risk going there... and now our heroes have dumped an undetermined number of evacuees in that desert, heading towards a Kingdom that doesn't want them. Obviously Myers needs to come up with a reason for why Roman ends up in Vale where Neo is, but doing it this way just highlights so many of Volume 8's problems. Specifically, that the group made such a world-altering decision when it arguably was no longer necessary and, more importantly, did so without once considering the consequences that seem obvious to everyone else in Remnant. Vacuo is the last place anyone wants to escape to... so why was that the heroes' first choice? "Because the show hasn't gone there yet" isn't an answer. 

There are a couple smaller problems throughout — muddying the waters between semblances and magic again; emphasizing how many people unlock their semblances as kid and rely on their aura to get by, bringing up the question (again) of how Jaune was so ignorant — but I just want to cover two more issues here. 

The first is what I mentioned above about the one grimm the novel has. Suffice to say, the grimm ignores the three fighters in front of it (Roman and the twins) and runs off because... well...

“Grimm are drawn by emotion. You never controlled it. It killed your enemies because most people you drop in here are going to be afraid. They won’t be able to fight back. But as far as I can tell, these girls don’t feel anything. And I’m not afraid to die... Anger can be a more powerful emotion than fear” (54-5).”

Let's tally up the problems with this speech: 

The idea that Roman experiences no fear despite being cornered by a massive grimm, in a tiny room, in enemy territory 

The idea that an ability to fight back increases the chance of the grimm running off to pick other targets (if that were the case, the group would never finish any fights) 

Claiming that they're also left alone because the twins "don't feel anything" which is obviously ridiculous  

Reframing Roman's lack of fear into, specifically, not fearing death. Again, a grimm doesn't care whether you fear death or no

Saying that the anger of the boss all the way up in his office is a stronger draw than the three people currently attacking the grimm

It's just a lot of nonsense, bending one of RWBY's most basic rules to give Roman a cool-sounding speech. Cool provided you ignore what the speech is actually implying, that is. Why bother with this? Just let the grimm break down the door halfway through the fight, moving the fight into a new space with new people causes chaos, Roman either escapes then, or he kills the grimm first and escapes afterwards. Better, in my opinion, to give the story a single grimm kill than introduce a bunch of philosophical complications about how much these characters definitely don't feel fear and one man's anger is suddenly a grimm magnet. It's just a strange scene and, looking back, the only scene where I really went, "What?" As evidenced by this entire review, I have problems with certain aspects of the novel, but none actively made me question what in the world Myers was trying to accomplish. This moment is the exception. 

Finally, I'd like to briefly mention the ways in which Roman Holiday messes with our understanding of the huntsmen profession. Again, this is nothing new. From Blake and Yang shrugging off Adam's death, to Weiss asking if she can arrest her father, the true purpose of the job seems vague, especially when you toss in what they're legally allowed to get away with. At first, the novel seems to support the idea that huntsmen are responsible for defending the people from both grimm and criminals, especially in the cities where walls do most of the work of keeping grimm out. Roman worries that huntsmen will show up to put a stop to his robbery, there's a bounty for him “posted on all the Huntsmen job boards," and then, later, two huntsmen do show up to his bank heist and try to stop him — that coincidental timing (176). "It’s kind of refreshing to fight a bad guy instead of a Grimm for a change," says one, implying that their primary focus will always be grimm, but they're also not going to ignore criminal activity. I get that. I buy that. It fits with what else we've learned about the job from the webseries: students attend school specifically to learn how to fight grimm, but they're capable — and expected — to use those skills for the people's benefit, no matter what form that comes in. Hence, jobs like Jaune acting as a crossing guard. It works.

....Aaaand then Myers blows that understanding right out of the water. 

“[The huntsmen are] being fined for destruction of public property and reckless endangerment. This isn’t the first time they’ve been reprimanded for using excessive force and gross misconduct. The Vale Huntsmen Guild reportedly is considering suspending their licenses (118).” 

So wait, never mind, apparently huntsmen aren't supposed to stop bank robberies that they walk in on. Or at least, they're not supposed to stop them using "excessive force" and resulting in the "destruction of public property." Problem is, there's no way to battle another fighter of Roman's skill without doing property damage and, potentially, putting civilians in danger. The strength of Yang's punch blows small craters into the floor. Weiss uses dust that causes minor explosions. Ruby swings her scythe in such large arcs she could easily hit someone if she's not paying attention. Within the context of RWBY's powers, the huntsmen here didn't use "excessive force" because aura, semblances, dust, and insane weaponry are all staples of combat. So... what are they meant to do instead? Find out if Roman is just a normal dude and, if he's not, back out like, "Oh sorry. We can't fight someone our equal because that would require, you know, fighting. We'll wait for the police to capture you. They'll have a much better time without training, semblances, or any other combat resources, I'm sure..." 

This single excerpt sends us right back into the "Huh?" territory. What are a huntsmen's responsibilities then? What are they legally allowed to do? And why are these expectations so inconsistent across the franchise? I know the answer here is that the group was pardoned by Ironwood, but it still seems absurd that we watched them steal military property, attack an official, cause a major grimm attack, and actively hide from the authorities... and all that's presented as fine. But trying to stop the guy currently robbing a bank? Well, that’s a suspendable offense. And we know this was taken seriously because Roman runs into one of the huntsmen later, a Roch Szalt, and we learn that his license wasn't just suspended, he lost it entirely. These side characters are out of their livelihood for defending the people while RWBYJNOR gained licenses for endangering them. There's something fundamentally wrong with your world building when your protagonists primarily get by on such massive inconsistencies. 

Part Eight: The Last Section, I Swear

This is another aspect of the novel that I really hesitated over including, just because I do think there's a line between legit criticism and unkind nit-picking. In the end though, enough of a trend emerged that I thought I'd toss it out, especially since I've recently been pondering the question, "How does RWBY treat its women?" The answer should be obvious, right? This is a show about four girls fighting evil! Yet as the webseries continues, fans are noticing more and more divergences from that initial premise. Like creating a world where women are almost never in the primary positions of power. Like giving Jaune and Oscar the active, plot-forwarding scenes that should belong to Ruby and her team. Like that frat boy mentality I mentioned earlier on. The purpose here isn't to analyze that aspect of the webseries, I simply wanted to lay out where my thoughts were while reading Roman Holiday. 

The disclaimer? Neo is great. The strange intersection between her identity and her semblance aside, I think she's entertaining, well-rounded, and the fact that she is given not just half the book's chapters, but that focus mentioned in Part One, resulted in a well-developed character. However, outside of Neo the women are frustratingly built around the same thing: sex appeal. Honey Wine is the club singer whose semblance lowers customers' inhabitations, acting like a Remnant version of a siren. The twins — despite those pedophilia rumors about Roman proving unfounded — are the butt of girlfriend/"You're cute" jokes, drawing attention to their developing looks more than their combat skills, strategies, etc. Both Lady Beat and Carmel, Neo's mom, possess that older woman charm expected of high society ladies. They're dangerous because they can acquire information and they acquire that information by looking the part: pretty smiles, fine clothes, figures that catch the eye. Even Lil' Miss, an established character with a lot of power at her fingertips, isn't exempt from this. When Roman first meets her he observes that fashion is clearly a part of her strategic mind, “a plunging neckline and purple corset distracted Roman even more” (19). Distracted, meaning, that Lil' Miss deliberately makes herself look hot so all the straight guys will lose their heads. 

It's a bit more heavy-handed than just some over-used archetypes though, particularly when it comes to making Roman the guy that every girl wants — even when that's just him assuming they want him. Lil' Miss, again, suffers that treatment. “'Is she flirting?' he suddenly wondered. He hadn’t ever considered that she might like him, but if that was the case, he could use that to—” (57). In a similar situation played straight Chameleon, Roman's peer, is introduced with the statement that “She considered him a friend, and plainly wanted more than that" so Roman "continued to string her along” (45). It's that Ilia/Blake dynamic, just with added cruelty and a gender setup that carries completely different implications. Even the minor characters aren't safe from Roman's charms. Lisa Lavender — you know, Remnant's reporter? — receives flowers from Roman after she labels his robbery “one of the most brazen displays of lawlessness” she's ever seen (117). It's not presented as the villain being creepy though. When Roman contacts Lisa directly, we're given a verbal joke about her maybe interest. She loves... the ratings he brings in. Just the ratings. Of course. 

It's worth noting that Chameleon isn't just reduced to a silly crush whose love allows Roman to escape, she's also the character who "has" to be naked in order to make the most of her semblance. Despite writing in an Atlas cape that blends into various backgrounds, Myers still emphasizes the absolute necessity of this woman fighting naked: 

“She didn’t wear much clothing these days, both because it thwarted her natural camouflaging abilities, and because when she chose to show herself, it could be quite distracting... she stripped for added stealth—it wouldn’t be the first time” (81, 85). 

It's a writing choice that I personally despise. And make no mistake, it is a choice. In a world with magical abilities and futuristic tech, there's no reason to make the presumably young woman — we're never given an age, but Chameleon is written to be particularly naïve — getting naked in front of others, especially a man that is stringing her along. Clothes only "thwart" a magical ability when the author says it does. Why can't semblances make outfits camouflage too? Because then there wouldn't be an excuse for the hot women to strip. 

Particularly for more important characters like Lil' Miss or Lady Beat, these aspects are not the sum total of their characters... but there's enough there to be wince-worthy if you're already sick of such trends; already keeping an eye out for what RWBY writes in regards to gender. I think a good way to summarize Roman Holiday's idea of feminism is when Neo is staking out a coffee shop and Roman asks her to bring him a coffee when she comes back. She returns with an empty cup reading, "Get your own coffee." It's clearly meant to be this empowering moment — how dare the man ask for food like she's some servant! — except it's ruined by the context of the situation. Namely, that Neo is already at a coffee shop. And Roman isn't rude about asking for one. And they've already traded presents in the form of a crazy expensive parasol for her and a new hat for him. Asking your crime partner, who just happens to be a women, to pick up a coffee on her way home when it’s clearly not a hassle, is not the outdated insult Myers seems to think it is. And that's what a lot of these choices are: details that don't break the novel by any means, but come across as out of touch none-the-less. 

Part Nine: The End (Okay, This is the Final Section) 

The novel concludes with Roman and Neo flying off together, avoiding the authorities, nothing they have to do except "set the world on fire" (208). It's a rather bittersweet ending given Neo's certainty that no one will ever catch them because we know, eventually, Roman will die and Neo will be left alone. I quite like ending things on that optimistic note, both because it fits their current mindsets and because it adds that extra, emotional punch for the reader. Their story isn't done... but it will be soon. 

And thus ends my review as well! Review? Analysis? Little mix of both, I suppose. Hardly the most succinct thing I've ever written, but what did anyone expect. Final thoughts? I still liked the novel. Despite everything above — despite re-wading through eight major problems I had with the text, ranging from minor preferences to arguably massive mistakes — my overall takeaway remains, "I'm glad I read it." It's been a long time since I actively enjoyed a RWBY story; where my entertainment and appreciation of the writing outweighed the problems I had with it. I know I'm far from the only one currently dissatisfied with the canon, so if you're looking to re-ignite some of that old, RWBY spark? Give Roman Holiday a try. 

And, of course, thank you for reading! 💜

[demonprincezeldris]

From the Siren AU

The sins rescue magical creatures, and find this crippled siren and a small, petite, pink haired siren who tends to him. The elder ones fins were stripped and sold after he and almost his entire pod were either captured or killed by humans. They were separated quickly, and he has no idea what happened to any of them.

He still has his tail, with its pale gold scales, but he is crippled beyond repair. Because of his disability, he cannot swim hardly at all. He can wiggle through the water, sort of like an eel, but it's exhausting, and Hell on his spine.

His son was born in captivity, since his mate had been expecting at the time. She died right after the birth, the strain in such an unfamiliar, hostile environment too much for her body after already being weakened, but named him after his father with teary eyes.

When they find them, the elder is weary, but wise in his age and experience. He may be a little wary of these humans, as he hangs in a hammock in the little cave his son had guided him to, but he recognizes that they have no intentions of hurting them. His songs allow him to see and tweak the very memories of others. A powerful gift that his child had inherited, along with his golden eyes. He got purple scales from his mother. He tells them both him and the young one are named Gowther.

They bring them back to Meliodas and Zeldris, thinking they'd probably know more on how to help them, and help compensate for his disability, since they themselves were sirens. Meliodas breaks into tears almost immediately, recognizing one of his pod members, who he'd thought was long since dead. He also sees that the boy is a mirror image of his aunty Glariza and connects the dots pretty quickly. Zeldris is a bit more hesitant, but he too recognizes them as pod through his instincts. Gowther recognizes him, with his red scales and spiky black hair, as the babe from all those years ago. He's glad, so glad that the two had survived and escaped as the blubbering Meliodas clinging to him tells him how he had swam with Zeldris and hid for hours, hearing his pods screams. But he's so, so sorry the pain and loneliness they have suffered.

The sins are ecstatic they managed to find members from the boys pod! And upon finding out that Gowther truly didn't know what had happened to the others, realized that there could very well be more out there, and alive! They redouble their search efforts, focusing on rumors about sirens. (Of course, they still help anyone else they can.)

The young Gowther, with wide eyes and pink hair, is a little wary around them, but his father insists that they are family, and within about a week, the three and chasing each other through the waves, laughing as they leap and twist and duck around. The elder watches fondly from where he's settled near the shore, and chats with Escanor over tea, something the siren has found he's quite fond of.

Aw! This was so lovely to read!

[thecollectiverpg]

L O A D I N G   V I L L A I N   P R O F I L E …

NAME: GRIZZLY AKA AARON EHRENREICH

AGE: THIRTY-NINE

TIER: ONE

GENDER & PRONOUNS: AGENDER, HE/HIM

ABILITIES: SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH 

MEMBER SINCE: 2022

BACKGROUND (CONFIDENTIAL: SECURITY PASSCODE REQUIRED)

There are some parts of the story you can verify and some you cannot.

For instance: he was born Aaron Ehrenreich at Mt. Sinai hospital in Baltimore at 3:06am on December 12th, 1983, delivered by Cesarean section after seven hours of labor to a single mother barely scraping by on disability benefits. He weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and the obstetrician who delivered him suspected that he might have some small degree of hearing loss in his left ear, but nothing worth doing anything about. There are records for this.

There are records, too, of his schooling: middling grades through elementary school, which dropped off steeply in junior high. A juvenile record from one too many fights in the hallways of his West Baltimore school, a kid whose nose he broke, a kid whose teeth he cracked. Records from one parent-teacher conference indicate he was an overly sensitive kid who learned quickly how to defend himself. The pathway from there to outright bully would have been all too short, but it never seems to have gotten there. 

This part you can’t verify: that his mom, a former kindergarten teacher who had to quit when her Parkinson’s disease got bad enough to stop her, had probably taught him to stand up for himself, but never to step over the line. To keep to himself when he could manage it. To never be cruel for cruelty’s sake, but to never let anyone spit in your face without repercussion.

Or maybe that isn’t true. Maybe he learned it some other way.

This much is fact: he dropped out of high school at seventeen, after a brief stint in juvie, to fake his way into the Army with a birth certificate that swore he was eighteen. His mom needed the money—there are bank letters, threatening to take her house��and while there’s no record that that’s why he went, it’s the most likely answer. Other possible answers: it was 2002 and his mom always had a little American flag on their mailbox; he’d gotten wrapped up in something with a local gang he couldn’t shake himself out of; he was flunking more than half of his classes. 

Either way, it’s verifiable that he spent the next several years in Afghanistan. That he was a better soldier than he had been a student. That his mom didn’t lose her house, whether that had been why he went or not. It’s also verifiable that four years in, he doesn’t quite get out of the way of a blast in time. When they MEDEVAC him out, he’s hurt, losing blood, major lacerations to the left side of his face and torso, but nothing that would stop him from going back as soon as he’s healed up. Two days later, though, it becomes clear that the already diminished hearing in his left ear is gone and isn’t coming back.

They tell him to retire, so he does. 

He goes back to Baltimore. VA records show him living with his mother again until she passes away in 2013. He stays in Baltimore—that much can be backed up with two arrest records, one in 2015 and one a year later, both for aggravated assault against a police officer. 

And then he drops off the radar, as far as verifiable information goes. 

As for the rest, you’ll have to take his word for it.

In 2019, as he tells it, usually after a few beers, a buddy of his from the VA invites him on a hiking trip in Alaska. He goes. The two of them get a little turned around, a little off the path. It’s getting dark, they’re supposed to get back soon, and neither of them can quite find their way back to the exit of the park. The sun slips below the horizon; the area around them is thick with pine trees. And out of the dark, a terrible noise, a bellowing growl. He pushes his buddy out of the way, and the bear that has come out of the darkness snaps its massive jaws down around his left arm. 

Bear powers, he says. It was a radioactive bear.

The story, the hike, the bear, none of that is verifiable. You’ll have to take his word for it. He mostly sticks to it, though the way he says it, it’s impossible to tell whether he’s joking or telling the god’s-honest truth. But the fact that he comes back from Alaska with enhanced strength is true either way. You can see it. He’s more than happy to demonstrate. 

There’s nothing that really qualifies him for a place in the Collective beyond that. No villainous history, no infamy or notoriety. He works as an enforcer for a small-time criminal organization for a little while, wanders around. He shows up at a well-known fight club for people with superpowers based in Baltimore a handful of times, wins most of the rounds he goes. 

But he doesn’t give an explanation for why he wants to join an organization of super-villainy, why he’s suddenly jumping from a relatively normal civilian life to this. All he says, when you ask, is, There’s someone I need to find. 

Whether or not that’s true? Well, you’ll just have to take his word for it. 

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Chain of Iron theories: Who is the Killer

Its coming up on a week since last made a COI theory post. I said that I was going to try to post all my theories on COI BEFORE it comes out next month, so this posed a problem. So mow I am going to give my input on one of the biggest Mystery’s for COI, Who is the Killer? So in COI Belial will have a new minion who will target the shadowhunters, manages to kill 5 of them (same number Tatiana needed for the ritual) and is difficult for them to apprehend because they are somehow able to disappear. CC has left some hints that the killer is actually another Shadowhunter that Belial has somehow managed taken Possession of, despite protection rituals that should have been placed on this individual at birth ( My theory on that is that since this book is called “Chain of Iron” we will learn that Belial controls all his pawns with “chains of iron”. All hidden on their persons and glamored to look like ordinary accessories.) Our synapse for the book says that James Herondale has been having strange nightmares and fears he may actually be the killer. In COI he will start to tie himself up to sleep at night. We all know its not James right? In mysteries like this you always throw out your first guess/ the obvious guess. I have seen a lot of posts theorizing on who the true identity could be. I have seen some theories do not make much sense to me and some that were really good.

One theory that seems off to me is the idea that the killer is actually multiple killers, more specifically a collection of the survivors of Belial’s illness. If you support this theory I get your reasoning:Belial was able to briefly posses these people before, and the illness may have left biological changes in them. But here’s where I am confused, the killer is implied to be a massive threat wielding enhanced dark magic. At the end of COA there are 30something cured shadowhunters released from Silent City. CC says that the killers body count will be 5. If Belial has 30something new pawns that he can posses, gift his terrible powers to, and send out to prey on shadowhunters, I feel like there should be a lot more than 5 victims. I know Beial is not yet at full strength from battling Cortana, but he should at least be stronger than that. I have also heard theories that it is one of the Blackthorns. This also does not make much sense to me, given that for one thing none of them have training, Tatiana and Grace already have established rolls in Belial’s plans, and while I know Jesse is a part of Belial’s plan I believe his part will be save for COT after he has been resurrected. IF Belial were using Jesse’s empty body to walk the earth, then wouldn’t he also need to stop anyone from trying to resurrect Jesse?

 I have heard many theories on Elias Carstairs being the killer. Many of them just want to make Elias out to be CC’s newest and most horrible monster parent, and absolve Alastair of any responsibility or need to apologize for the cruelty he has shown to our mains. If this is your reasoning for believing Elias is the killer than let me stop you right there. CC has written multiple series and her skills have evolved beyond the need to rely on such easy black and white tricks. But I also saw some people posting about how Elias goes home so late and stopped writing to his family. Some are theorizing that the real Elias Carstairs was intercepted and killed on his way back home and that the being that arrives in COI is actually an eidolon demon pretending to be Elias. This theory is AMAZING. It makes a lot of scenes, would give Belial another spy in a key place, and could potentially explain why Cortana starts acting so weird. I love this theory I do. I am just putting it t the side right now because I need the real Elias alive for other Carstairs family theories, and again have been working with the theory that the killer is a real shadowhunter whom Belial is controlling with another “chain of iron”. My theories are below.

1.) Lucie Herondale is the Killer

 I am working with he theory that all Belial’s pawns have “chains of Iron” on them, which means all three blackthorns have them. In old art CC released of Grace she is seen wearing a pearl necklace that I was convinced had to be her’s. Tatiana’s (who probably consented to wearing hers) could be anything, maybe that stupid, creepy bird, she wears in her hat. Jesse... is mentioned several times to wear a locket.... that we know is connected to Belial.... and was weakened when he took it off to give to Lucie... who is wearing it now. Do you people see where I am going with this? It can also be noted that one of the parts of Lucie’s arc is that she is frequently overlooked in favor of James and how that is a mistake on peoples parts.  Everybody knows that James has powers, he has had 4-5 years of people helping him figure out what they are and how to control them. Nobody but ghosts know that Lucie has powers, she has no training, and is only starting to understand what they mean. James is vulnerable but so is Lucie. I do not want her to be the killer. Lucie is such a fun character, and I was so happy to finally have a female Herondale play a role that was close in size to her male relative’s. I truly feel that Lucie deserves better than to be just a tragic character in the story. I want her to be that plus a hero, but I cannot deny that she is a possibility.

2.) Charles Fairchild is the Killer

I have seen Charles name appear on multiple lists of theory’s on the killer’s identity. People never really give reasons as to why they believe he is the killer. They are just mad at him for choosing to put his career higher on his list of priorities than his relationship with Alastair, or him being the killer would hurt less because he is not written to be a fan favorite. If you are someone who wants the killer to be Charles, but are unsure how likely it is your in luck. Because I can give you a whole list of reasons it is likely

Charles is already acting strange. We know he made some kinda screw up in Paris and had to come home. Apparently Charlotte is sending Tessa and Will to Paris to Start the fix up and Charles will go back afterwards. Well based on what we have gotten on Charles making a mistake like that is unlike him. Casting Long Shadow’s reveals that Charles has been working as a politician since he was 13 and is normally known for being very dependable and reliable. That’s part of the reason he is considered such a shoe-in for Counselor once his mother retires.??? I have theories on Charles mental state (which I will address in a later theory post that will be centered around the Fairchild’s) and do consider the possibility that he was sett off by fear over the outbreak or grief over losing Alastair... But this sudden change could be from other things as well

As of COG2 Charles is engaged to Grace Blackthorn, who controls him like a puppet. Grace herself is the puppet of Tatiana Blackthorn, who is the puppet of Belial. So Charles is now part of a very dangerous carnival. Charles decade of study and knowledge of clave politics at the top could be very useful to Belial in taking them down. Also previous short stories say that Charles spends most of his time in Idris for work and when in London usually stays at home going through law books and records. So I could easily believe he does not completely  know his way around London and (like the killer is hinted to) would need to use a map to get around.

Now on to my biggest reason for theorizing Charles for the killer. Charles and Matthew’s relationship with each other. Charles and Matthew do not get along, like at all. They did once, but that was a real long time ago. A lot of the reasons they don’t get along is dumb sibling stuff: Charles calling Matthew an immature child, kicking him and his friends out of rooms in their house, and lording his increased age over Matthew. Matthew making more noise to annoy Charles, telling everyone Charles embarrassing middle name, and regularly sneaking into Charles room to steal his cologne instead of just buying his own. We are not hear to discuss any of that. All of that has me laughing because it is peak sibling rivalry. Rivalry aside Charles and Matthew model  the old dynasty trope for Ssons with Charles being “the Heir” and Matthew being “the Spare”. The Heir’s life is decided for them as soon as they are born, they will succeed their parent and continue their legacy. The Spare is just that, a back up plan kept around should the heir die, become disabled, never marry, or turn out to be infertile (happens way more than people like to think about). Charles struggles with the weight of his parents expectations. Matthew is more or less the Black sheep of his family, living his life day by day with no grand plan. Because of this he is cut off from them in a way, and goes through a lot of loneliness and isolation in his own house. Neither brother see’s the others hard time; the other has what they themselves want: Charles has attention, Matthew freedom, so they wrongly assume the other must be doing fine. This is a lot like Matthew and James relationship in Dust and Shadows. Matthew and James talked things over with each other and were good after. Matthew and Charles stay apart and ignore each other when they cannot. They will not just talk and be good after. So maybe if put on different sides they will fight out their issues with each other? On the subject of Matthew having to fight Charles, lets say hypothetically Charles is the killer and is possessed. We know from previous books that clave protocol is to place a kill order on possessed members. If that becomes the case do you think Matthew would be able to follow through with those orders? Be able to hunt, fight, and kill his older brother? No. No matter how rough their relationship I doubt Matthew would ever be able to do that. It would be to much for him, to similar to his “sin”. He would want to catch Charles, then try to find a way to free him from possession. Maybe if Mathew could successfully accomplish this then maybe he could forgive himself for his “sin”. If Matthew tries to save him and fails than at least this time other people would know and could potentially get him some help.  

3.) Filomena DI Angelo is the Killer.

Ahh our upcoming new arrival from  Italy. Why are you coming to London girl? Haven’t you heard about all the crazy things that happens there last fall? What possible role could you play in the story that couldn’t be filled by one of our many already existing characters from COG2? (Do you even know your way around?) How suspicious that Filomena should show up around the same time as this killer? Wouldn’t it be great for the story if the killer came from a different country? Wouldn’t that do wonders for showing how powerful a threat Belial is? His dark influence stretching across country lines, maybe even across oceans! We have already been told that TLH characters will need to travel to other countries. How the villain is less one person and more a force. Filomena could start that. She could provide reason to search countries besides London for Belial’s influence. Proof of it being so wide spread would definitely make Belial feel more like a force. Oh but wait, cheesecake wait. Filomena cannot be the killer! That would make her evil, and CC said she was a nice girl! Oh I am sure Filomena is a nice girl, but people tend to change when under demon control. But she is a girl and the killer is hinted to be a male shadow hunter! Are we sure the killer isn’t presented as male because Belial is presented as male? Is it impossible that while on the hunt as the killer Filomena DI Angelo dress in men’s cloths in order to more safely move through the streets? I feel like we have saw that trick once before in TID.

All we really know about Filomena is that she came to London, will interact with some of our established characters, and she will get a crush on someone we know, thus presenting herself as a possible love interest. Matthew was my first guess, hey he was every bodies first guess. CC shut that down, Filomena is not being brought in to fix the love triangle between James, Cordeila, and Matthew. Matthew is one of the only ones to not have at a least semi-confirmed endgame ship. So this means that Filomena will probably not be endgame with her crush. Why?   My next guess was her crush was on Anna. Ariadne is shown to be relentless in her attempts to “win Anna back” and Anna is not having it. Tweets time and time again depict her basically telling Ariadne “Its not going to happen. Give up and leave me alone”, but falling on deaf ears. So maybe Anna will try to get a new girlfriends and keep her around until she is ready to forgive/ go back to Ariadne. Well Anna is more a secondary character, a loving big sister figure to our mains. She gets less page time because of this. We already know she will spend time with Cordelia, Lucie, Ariadne, Eugenia, Thomas... not much page time left for Filomena. After further analyses I have theorized that Filomena must have a crush on Thomas.

A quick google search on the name Filomena shows that it is an Italian name that means “loving friend” “strong friend” and “lover of music” all these sound kinda like Thomas. (Filomena is also the name of a character in the 14th century Italian collection  of short stories called the Decameron, who liked to make stories up about plagues... or so some digging around google told me ). This could fit quite nicely into Thomas’s story. First of all to everybody who has been calling Thomas “gay” please wait a moment to be sure. Thomas does not yet publicly or self identify as gay. He clearly has an attraction to one man, but CC says that he has not yet realized his sexuality and will spend TLH figuring out. He might be gay, but he could just as easily turn out to be bi or pan. For the sake of this theory lets assume Thomas is Bi. Thomstair is definitely endgame. We know Alastair is gay, and CC usually likes to pair gay characters up with bi characters in queer ships, see Malec and Heline. Should Thomas be bi, should he start to become close and develop feelings for Filomena, it will have to go wrong. More wrong than he considers his feelings for Alastair at the end of COG2 (Filomena do not hurt this boy, he has been through enough). We got a tweet that suggests Thomas is interested in the killer, and a hint that he is planing something big. We got a kinda frightening picture that suggests the Killer may be very interested in Thomas.

If Lucie is the killer she will somehow be freed from Belial’s control,. I can 100% guarantee it, Charles I feel will have a 50/50 chance, Filomena will die from it. It would be a herculean task to free her, and she is not important enough to the mains for them to actively try and do anything more than give her a merciful death. Should she and Thomas become close than it will break his heart. But if Alastair is there for him afterwards, able to emphasizes and offer him comfort that will go along way to redeeming Alastair to Thomas. The whole experience could be love is hard, both men and women have the ability to hurt you. but the right person will make it up to you and it is good to forgive them when they do. I personally think that would be a pretty cool direction for Thomas’s arc to take.

[rosemaryentombed]

im thinking now that the real reason tabata didnt show more of yunos time with the gd was bc it woulda just been microaggression after microaggression & straight up aggression. i know now that the scene of klaus showing yuno his room & being a dick was anime only but that probably was yunos experience for days & that woulda been too frustrating to watch him go thru again and again. its probably why he talked to william all the time, he was the only one he could have a real convo with

That’s a fair assumption to make. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Golden Dawn because of all the noble fuckery, but because I am also a hypocrite, I do love my little war criminal with the abysmal hairline, one William Vangeance, and I do believe he probably spent lots of time with Yuno because Yuno was a) the reincarnation of Licht’s son, b) hella powerful, and c) a hick, and since William is also formerly a hick, I believe they probably had lots of conversations Langris just didn’t understand and probably didn’t care about because Langris is an inbred noble too busy being jealous that Finral’s bussy is fatter than his.

As for microaggressions... it is sad that we never really get to see the extent of how the other squads operate within themselves like we do the Black Bulls, because to be quite honest, I do actually believe that the microaggressions were probably straight up abuse in squads such as the Purple Orcas (who licherally murdered a man just for coming from a poor background), so like, am I saying Tabata punked out by not illuminating the discrimination? I am, and I agree Anon, Tabata probably glossed over a lot of Yuno’s personal experiences because it was easier to show him off as the cool dude with the megapowers, rather than a sad young gay man working hard to prove himself in a squad full of classist white nobles.

It’s probably one of my biggest issues with Black Clover that Tabata definitely borrows themes from its king predecessor, Berserk, but consistently fails to deliver on them because of... what? I do wonder. I know it aint that damn anime, so it’s either cuz he don’t wanna step on his editors’ toes and take the Kubo route out when it’s time, or he genuinely does not want to dig himself into the “complex manga with deep themes and literary value” hole that would ultimately take time away from cool powerups and force him to address the fact that Clover Kingdom committed a genocide that birthed terrorists and that the ruling class that carried out that genocide is still in power, and oh also, did I mention? Classism, racism, white man Nozel Silva and the Silva tribe’s entire existence, the violent childhood that created war criminal and terrorist abettor William Vangeance, Yami’s staunch loyalty to Julius for looking after him as a child even though Julius is a part of the problem, misogyny, the lack of even background home of sexuals, abuse of those who are disabled/cursed like Henry Legolant, Charmy not knowing her ancestry as a dwarf and stand user, kin punishment, almost-casteism, and so on and so forth!

And to be fair, these problems were obvious in Bleach and Naruto as well, but Bleach got cancelled at the end and couldn’t tie up a single storyline that didn’t make it look like clowntown central, and Naruto is Capitalism personified and hyped on 80 metric tons of coke, so do I think Tabata is aiming for that Shounen Big Three life, or is he willing to take the dive and explore more of the Berserkian side of things???? Only time will tell.

[veryvincible]

How’s Tony relationship with Wanda in comics? I wonder if there’s friction between the comic fans as well

Despite being on-off Avengers for a long, long while, they didn’t actually have much of a meaningful relationship until something called Force Works in ‘94. Even when they were teammates, most of their interactions were little bits of dialogue to acknowledge that they knew each other and would talk to each other if they happened to appear on the same page, but... not much else. 

I am not as well versed in Wanda as I am Tony, so keep that in mind.

Before going in-depth about the things they experienced together, there are some differences in ideology that don’t give them the best set-up in the world. They have different circumstances of birth, different “powersets”, and overall different approaches to things. Tony tends to be the oddball in most teams when it comes to his foresight and utilitarian mindset, but this is especially the case compared to Wanda, who sometimes doesn’t have the privilege of utilitarianism because of how her powers work; she’s capable of a lot, and on a daily basis, she exercises quite a bit of restraint. 

Tony’s biggest mistakes were directly caused by him making decisions that were, at times, devoid of feeling (not that he didn’t feel anything making those decisions, he just discarded his feelings entirely). It’s a common theme with him to assume that he needs to disconnect himself emotionally from the “right decision”, because the right decision is often something he can’t handle. And when he can’t handle something he thinks needs to be done, what does he do? He does it anyway, and he lets it destroy him. That isn’t to say that his decisions are never based in feeling-- he is an incredibly emotional person, after all-- but his predominant feeling is guilt, and it serves more as a motivator than something that directly impacts which conclusions he comes to in the first place. We can clearly see where his head’s at when it comes to certain conflicts based on Civil War and Civil War II, where CW was rife with him making decisions that broke him in order to avoid the worst possible scenario, and CWII showed a side of him that wanted to believe his choice was the right one, wanted to believe the conclusions he’d drawn were correct, but was willing to give that up if trusted friends told him it wasn’t worth it. At no point does he say “maybe my plans/views/conclusions are garbage!” because he’s always had a complex relationship with his own ability to find best possible outcomes. He doubts himself constantly, but still acknowledges evidence and probability where he can find it. What changes is how willing he is to go through with these plans. Suddenly, when CW backfires harshly, he’s more likely to ask the questions of, “is this worth it?” and “do people want this?”

And then there’s Wanda, who isn’t... like that. Her biggest mistake wasn’t actually that well thought-out, and it’s built more on a feel-good sentiment than anything; if there’s this awful, awful cloud of oppression hanging over the heads of mutants and conflict between mutants and humans, then the best thing to do to make sure no one has to deal with that would be to... forcefully break those barriers down, right? It’s worth mentioning here that she’s been through a lot at the time of this decision, and when you compare her “I’m going through a lot” decisions with Tony’s “I’m going through a lot” decisions, you can kind of see a huge, huge difference between them.

Tony ignores his feelings, ignores the pain and suffering he knows he’ll have to see, and goes for numbers games. It’s a coping mechanism he’s had since he was a child, and it lives on in his superhero-ing to some extent; when he is at his worst (barring when he’s not sober, because that’s a different, more self-destructive beast entirely), he tries (or tried? he still kind of does this, but again, to a lesser extent) to disconnect from himself and from others when problem-solving.

Wanda, on the other hand... does not and cannot really disconnect herself from that. The suffering of the people is on her mind constantly, and it’s the main thing she chooses to remedy as soon as it crosses her mind to. It’s a deeper look into the mind of a woman whose life has been damaged many times over by prejudice and discrimination. Her pleading with reality to give everyone a happy ending (which, ironically, I don’t think Tony actually got in the new reality? but I don’t think that’s meant to comment on their relationship at all. I may be wrong on that one) is understandable if you’re also from a marginalized group, or if you can empathize with them. Even if everyone’s in agreement that she really should not have done that, it’s not hard to understand why. She didn’t just live in the suffering, she took it on entirely, forcing herself to bear the burden of a world that wasn’t real in hopes that it would be preferable to the world that was.

Tony can be aware of marginalization (and, as someone who was physically disabled and is probably still mentally disabled, can empathize to some degree), but he can’t ever really feel what Wanda feels as someone who really can’t go two seconds without identity-based conflict totally obliterating her. On the flipside, Wanda herself can never feel what Tony feels-- a disconnect from identity for the sake of discussing “best case scenarios” where everyone’s still in pain, the ability to separate oneself from these conflicts and allow for vague concepts like “short term suffering/hardships” to refer to years, decades, generations, worth of struggling for the sake of a better future when there are struggling people now. That’s not to say Tony’s never sensitive to current issues (he tries very, very hard to help people who are struggling now, and pours a lot of money into it) and it’s also not to say that Wanda’s somehow incapable of rational decision making as a result of her constant oppression; neither of these things are true. But their gut responses to certain problems are different. On top of that, they can both afford different levels of consequences, and they’ll be viewed differently by people by exercising roughly the same amount of influence. They just aren’t the same, and where characters like Steve and Tony find common ground anyway, it’s harder for characters like Wanda to find common ground with Tony.

Now for what we’ve all been... waiting for...

Force Works!

This really isn’t my favorite run of all time. The writing’s kind of weird, the art is garish at best and totally problematic at worst, and though there are elements of characterization that are kind of true to the core of the characters involved, it’s still, uh... I don’t know, executed in a way that’s disconcerting? It’s kind of like if Civil War II did what Civil War II did, but then also made Carol wear a Warbird-style bikini, and also added cool plot elements like Tony saying, “Carol, you’re right!” right at the start and then... continuing to believe Carol is wrong, because that’s the plot. Oh, and then Tony kills some people and is later retconned to have not killed people, because that sucked of him and was super weird for his character.

There’s just a lot of weird stuff in Force Works. If you like it, it’s fine to like it (honestly, we’ve all flipped through pages of difficult-to-decipher art and less than flattering outfits for women for the sake of reading the stories we want to read), but. You know. Not my cup of tea.

Anyway, everything that I mentioned kind of comes into play with Force Works. 

Here’s the gist. The Avengers are having some conflict (when aren’t they?) and Tony runs off to make a team that works to prevent villainy, not a team that just fights it (despite prevention being part of the “fighting bad guys” in many runs up to this point, as far as I’m aware, but, sure, it works within the context).

And who does he want to lead that team?

Wanda Maximoff! 

He’s like, “Wanda, for realsies, I need your help.”

And Wanda’s like, “Shut up. Yes, I will do this,” but sexily, for some some reason.

And they have an issue of relative peace, until Tony starts to realize that he doesn’t actually like... not leading this time. And, sure, he said, “a partnership of skills leading the team together”, but he also said, “I want Wanda to lead the team!”

So, Wanda’s leading the team.

So, Tony’s not having a good time, because Wanda’s doing what he asked her to do. He probably should have seen that coming.

At some point, the Force Works band together to deal with some stuff in Slorenia, which is Marvel’s fun way of saying they’re going to have some commentary on the Bosnian war but they weren’t going to call it Bosnia, like they have commentary on the government without naming the president. Everyone knows what it’s meant to be, but they’re just not calling it that.

Already, you can see the differences in how Tony and Wanda's first interactions with the news go. Wanda has a much more personal connection to the place, and Tony’s thinking of it as a location for a mission, sharing what intel he has available. Tony’s not exactly being callous here-- it’s not inappropriate for him to say, “Oh, here’s what I know from owning the company I own”-- but he is starting off with less investment than Wanda.

This continues into the start of their mission, where Wanda’s taking charge and using her connection to Slorenia (the language, the knowledge of the politics, etc.) to make the mission run more smoothly. In the beginning, Tony actually falls in line, letting her take the lead without grumbling this time. 

(This isn’t important to anything, but I’d like to mention here that “hex energy” is kind of like the 90s Wanda equivalent of “transistor-powered!” objects for 60s Tony, which is... very funny.)

So, they deal with one antagonist in Slorenia, some things are resolved, and... Wanda would like to stick around to maybe keep helping people here.

And Tony says:

Tony’s argument is that the issue they’d gone to deal with had been dealt with, according to their funky computer that tells them when things are dealt with.

And Wanda’s like, “Well, I think what we just dealt with was part of a bigger thing! That we should deal with more!”

And Tony’s like, “Nope!” despite Wanda being the official team leader. So, they’re not having a great time there.

There’s a little more, but it’s all pretty much to do with the same kind of stuff (and then also the part where Tony kills people, but again, that technically didn’t... happen, anymore, so. Yay?)

And this kind of just... fizzled out eventually, and canon put things back together as canon often does, and now they don’t have much of a problem with each other again. They’ve had some positive interactions and on multiple occasions, they’ve been cool teammates who respect each other, so.

I don’t know.

What I can say is that, aside from House of M and Civil War (wherein people who aren’t familiar with Wanda and Tony use these two events to heavily criticize Wanda and Tony despite really having no stake in the argument, which is kind of a comics dudebro move that’s never been awesome for anyone the way it’s usually handled), Wanda and Tony fans don’t tend to... think much of each other, I guess? There’s really not enough basis in canon for either group of people to have longstanding personal gripes.

616 operates like that a lot; where the MCU has very clear relationships between characters, plotlines, and messages, 616 has... inconsistency and sometimes-poor writing and political commentary with characters literally changed at their core sometimes to fill a certain role (hence why some ships can seem to have totally different dynamics based on the fan you’re talking to, why primarily X-Men fans often don’t like the Avengers, and why some debates about characters will never be settled using only the evidence we have now).

Here’s something I’d like to say before closing out:

I think, due to the fact that this was a very specific kind of political commentary intermixed with some strange characterization choices, I don’t really think this needs to be the end-all, be-all of Tony and Wanda’s potential friendship. Sure, they have these differences, but Steve and Tony have very similar differences that they’ve overcome through mutual understanding. I’m not saying that Tony and Wanda would be friends, nor am I saying that they should be. All I really want to say is that they certainly could be with the right plot beats and characterization, and that’s a nice thought.

So, if there’s any desire at all out there to write a very positive Tony and Wanda relationship, I’d say go for it, 100%. There is some canon basis for it, despite most of it being in between the lines or... contained within one or two scenes. We could all use more friendships to gush over. :)

[annalise-rosier]

survey.

Character’s full name: Annalise Josephine Rosier Reason for name and/or meaning of name: means “graced with god’s bounty”; chosen because her mother liked the name and it went well with her twin sister’s name of Freya. Character’s nickname: Anna (only called thus by Freya), Lise (if you’re lucky to be close enough to her) Reason for nickname: Freya couldn’t pronounce Annalise’s full name for the longest time, so Anna just kind of stuck.  Birth date: December 12

Physical appearance Faceclaim: Danielle Campbell Gender: female Height: 5′3 Build: slender, athletic Eye color: blue Glasses or contacts?: none Distinguishing marks/scars: a faint scar above her right eyebrow, received when she crashed into the quidditch stands while trying to show up one of the boys in her house.  Hair color: brown Type of hair: thick and wavy Hairstyle: usually wears it down, but has it up in a bun or ponytail when she’s focused on something Physical disabilities: none Clothing style: annalise likes to wear the latest fashions and keeps up with the trends far more than her twin sister does, which makes it a little easier to tell them apart if you know their differing personalities.  Make up: she doesn’t often bother with makeup since the twins were graced with very good looks from the genetic lottery. 

Personality Good personality traits: adventurous, outgoing, determined, friendly Bad personality traits: stubborn, holds onto grudges, selfish, shallow Mood character is most often in: playful, charming, mischievous Sense of humor: has a more wry sense of humor, isn’t amused by the obvious jokes, likes inappropriate humor enough to regularly scandalize her mother Articulation: annalise is a great conversationalist and has a gift for being able to talk herself out of trouble. she can spin any story to her advantage.  Character’s greatest joy in life: using her charm to achieve her goals Character’s greatest fear: being perceived as simple or stupid, being limited by the perceptions of others. Character is most at ease when: she feels like she’s winning the game. Most ill at ease when: she feels that someone else has the upper hand. Enraged when: her family is threatened, she is insulted, or someone underestimates her. Depressed or sad when: annalise pretty much never feels this way. Priorities: carving out a path for herself in this world. Life philosophy: power comes in all kinds of forms, and there’s power in making your life what you want it to be. Greatest strength: her ability to read the motivations of others and charm her way into any situation, her capacity for deep thought.  Greatest vulnerability or weakness: she cares more deeply than she allows herself to acknowledge, more deeply than is wise for someone in her position. 

Goals Drives and motivations: having a good time, living life to the fullest. Immediate goals: protecting her family, enjoying the status that her last name affords her. Long term goals: who the hell knows?

Childhood Hometown: London, England Type of childhood: comfortable, happy Most important childhood memory: Evan’s birth. Even with how young Annalise was, she could sense the tension growing between her parents, a tension that led to their split shortly after Evan was born. This tension caused Annalise to cling even more tightly to her siblings, and she vividly remembers the protective instincts she felt when she first laid eyes on Evan. She knew in that moment that she would do anything for him, anything to hold her family together. Annalise might not have been able to hold her parents together, but she’ll be damn sure to be the glue for her siblings.  Dream job: Annalise would secretly love to become a healer, but she’s not sure that quite fits with her image.  Religion: none

Present Current location: London, England Currently living with: her twin sister Pets: a brown spotted owl named Minnie (a name mostly chosen to annoy McGonagall), given to her at the age of 14 by her mother so that they could communicate from the vast distance between them. Sexuality: heterosexual Politics: she doesn’t really care, she just follows her siblings Occupation/education: columnist and reporter for witch weekly, hogwarts slytherin alumna Mode of transportation: prefers apparition, but floo and portkeys are fine too. 

Family Parent one: Victor Rosier Relationship with them: Medium / Annalise’s father has never been her favorite parent, and she’s never been quite as close to him as Freya was, but he always treated her like his little pet, and she learned to use that to her advantage. She senses he might be disappointed that she never fully entered the Death Eaters, but he doesn’t pester her about it.  Parent two: Elena Yaxley Relationship with them: Close / Annalise was always very attached to her mother, so the divorce between her parents and her mother’s move to America was harder on her than she ever let on to anyone (except maybe Evan). She gets the sense that her mother is also disappointed that she hasn’t made more of a stand in the war, but Annalise is too proud (and smart) to talk to anyone about the confusion she feels about her parents’ differing viewpoints.  Siblings: Freya and Evan Rosier Relationship with them: Annalise would do anything for her siblings. Freya is her other half, the second part of her soul, and Annalise tries hard to mold herself in such a way that she can stay as close as possible to Freya, even if that means squashing the contradictory feelings she’s inherited from their mother. She’s always been a little mother hen to Evan, wanting to protect him and empower him at the same time.  Other important family members: Bellatrix, Narcissa, Andromeda. Her cousins were important to her growing up, and though she doesn’t cling to them like she does her siblings, she still cares deeply about being close to them. 

Favorites Color: yellow Music: Her mother introduced her to Muggle country music once on a visit to America, and it’s a secret guilty pleasure she keeps for herself.  Food: She has a raging sweet tooth because Freya was always forcing baked goods on her, but she also loves a good burger.  Film: She once saw the Wizard of Oz with her mother and it struck a chord.  Drink: Something fruity.  Form of entertainment: Being with people, trying to understand what makes someone tick. Most prized possession: A locket given to her by her mother on her 17th birthday. 

Habits Hobbies: potions, tending to her magical plants, shopping. Plays a musical instrument? She learned piano as a child and still plays when the mood strikes.  Plays a sport? No. She wasn’t half bad at Quidditch, but she didn’t have the attention span to devote herself to training. How he/she would spend a rainy day: people watching at a favorite pub, writing a letter to her mother, joining her sister for a bake-a-thon, game night with her siblings. Spending habits: She spends without thinking twice about it.  Smoking/drinking/drugs?: Drinks casually with friends, but isn’t interested in drugs or drinking heavily. She doesn’t like the way they make her feel like she’s losing control.  Extremely skilled at: Getting people to share with her, manipulation, charming people even if they’re suspicious of her at first. Extremely unskilled at: Understanding her own emotions.  Nervous tics: Bites her lip, brushes back her hair

Traits Optimist or pessimist? Optimist. Introvert or extrovert? Extrovert. Daredevil or cautious? Daredevil. Logical or emotional? Emotional. Leader or follower? Follower. Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Disorderly & messy. Prefers working or relaxing? Relaxing. Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Confident. Animal lover? Of her owl at least. Tolerates her sister’s cat but dislikes the tendency to have fur all over her robes.

Self-perception How do they feels about themselves?: Annalise would say that she’s very comfortable in her own skin and confident about herself. She certainly projects the air that she has great confidence in her abilities, though deep down she resents her tendency towards shallowness. She has deep seated confusion about who she thinks she should be and who she would really want to be, but she’d rather project the confident and shallow air to protect herself from having to face that.  One word the character would use to describe themselves: Perfect. What does the character consider their best trait? Besides her gorgeous looks? Probably her charm. What does the character consider their worst trait?: A worst trait? Please, she doesn’t have one of those.  What does the character consider their best physical characteristic?: Her gorgeous hair or her enchanting doe eyes. What does the character consider their worst physical characteristic?: Again, there isn’t one. How does the character think others perceive them?: As a charming, flirtatious, well-dressed, fun woman. What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: Why change perfection?

Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: Annalise is fascinated by people -- she loves to understand what makes them tick, what motivates them, what keeps them awake at night. She thinks that most people are pretty dim about their own feelings and thoughts, but she loves being around them.  Opinion of the Scooby Gang: What the fuck is that? Does the character hide their true opinions and emotions from others? Yes. Even, and most especially, from herself. Most important person in character’s life: Her siblings. Best friend/s: [who are they, do they have one?]  Dating experience: Annalise has had plenty of casual relationships (how could she not, with her good looks and her penchant for flirting?), but she’s never considered herself ready for something serious. There’s too much life to live first. Romancing: Annalise wouldn’t be the one doing the romancing, that’s for sure. Anyone that wants her should be willing to work for it. 

[a-queer-seminarian]

we are taught to interpret Esau’s trading of his birthright for a bowl of stew as impulsiveness, even (in Christian language) as a ‘weakness of the flesh.’ He chooses instant gratification over the farther off but far more valuable thing, and thus proves himself unworthy of his firstborn status and all it entails -- Abraham’s wealth and social power, but also Abraham’s relationship with God.

i don’t believe that.

Esau gave in to Jacob’s demand because he knew that Jacob would never have the means to compel Esau to make good on his word.

Jacob was physically weaker. Jacob was set to inherit the tiniest fragment of the wealth and resources that Esau would inherit. how on earth would Jacob ever wrest the birthright and the blessing he was owed from Esau?

Esau’s ‘crime’ here is less impulsiveness, and more a trust in the status quo. his world of patriarchy and primogeniture promised him his inheritance, whether he was a good man or bad, an honest man or a liar. he could tell his younger brother whatever Jacob wanted to hear, but down the road he could trust that their father would bestow the blessing on Esau anyway.

his reliance on the status quo is what allows Esau to hand over his birthright so easily -- because he knows that merely saying it’s Jacob’s now does not make it so.

Esau’s great failing is that he assumes that his culture’s will is God’s will.

the problem for Esau is that God does not play by human rules.

____________

in the Book of Genesis and throughout the rest of scripture, we see God working within the bounds of cultural assumptions and norms, rolling with the binary systems that human societies construct -- right up to the point where Xe doesn’t.

In The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, Jewish scholar Joy Ladin focuses on the elements of gender inherent to the system of primogeniture that places the firstborn Esau over the secondborn Jacob in every way. To her, biblical maleness comes in different “flavors” -- the roles expected of a firstborn son are different from those assigned to non-firstborn sons. She says,

“Jacob and Esau are both male and are born almost simultaneously, but they are assigned at birth to very different gender roles. Because Esau emerges from the womb first, he is considered the firstborn, heir not only to Isaac’s worldly possessions but also to the relationship with God that Isaac inherited from his father, Abraham. Though Jacob is born holding onto his brother’s heel, he is considered the second-born, expected to accept the authority of his older brother, who, after their father’s death, will be the head of the family. Like the gender binary, this law of inheritance, called ‘primogeniture,’ creates a lifelong, life-determining binary division between males who are and those who aren’t firstborn sons. And like the gender binary, primogeniture turns biology, in this case birth order, into destiny. The way male children are raised, the roles they are assigned, and the futures toward which they are steered are determined by whether they are or aren’t firstborn sons.” (p. 36)

Esau has grown up understanding that his inheritance is his destiny. It’s what he’s been born for, what he’s been raised for, what he is entitled to. Why would he believe that he would ever have to make good on his silly promise to Jacob to hand over that destiny? It’s set in stone, inviolable.

at least it is in the eyes of men. but not to God.

“If God were committed to the gender binary idea that people are unchangeably defined by the gender roles we are assigned at birth, then either Esau would have been destined to inherit Isaac’s relationship with God, or Jacob would have been born first. But as God reveals to Rebekah before the twins are born, God intends for the younger brother to usurp the elder, prenatally linking God’s blessing to trans experience. (Ladin, pp. 37-38)

in the ancient past and in the present day, countless roles get assigned to us as soon as -- or even before -- we exist the womb. biology is presumed destiny in so many ways: our gender, our race, the class and geopolitical location and family into which we are born, supposedly map out what our personalities will be, how our lives will go. and certainly these things do shape us, both by nature and nurture -- generational traumas come packed into our very cells, while our environment and how others treat us based on our assigned roles impact how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.

but even so, even so, biology is not destiny. especially not if God has any say in the matter.

for God is the great binary breaker, no respecter of persons or prejudices, unbeholden to the status quo. indeed, God almost seems to delight in upending our assumptions about who is blessed. secondborn sons and eunuchs, women and disabled persons, impoverished persons and disenfranchised peoples -- these are the ones whom God selects, again and again, to be recipients and agents of divine blessing. “blessed are the poor;” “the last shall be first.”

Esau assumes that biology, his status assigned based on birth order, is destiny. he does not fear his younger brother, who is rendered powerless by their culture to claim what he is promised in a moment of hunger. and probably this is safer for Jacob -- because when Esau does finally realize, too late, that Jacob is a real threat, Esau becomes murderously angry.

when Isaac is duped into giving Jacob his blessing after all, Jacob cannot stick around to claim the wealth and status that comes with it -- he must flee, or die under Esau’s hand.

i wonder if some of the violence we see in our time, and across every time and place, stems from the same kind of rage and fear that Esau experiences:

the rage of the ones who are raised to believe the world belongs to them, that they are entitled to certain blessings and privileges, only for the truth to pounce on them unexpectedly -- the shocking truth that biology is not destiny, that they are not inherently superior, that what they thought would be theirs without question might could be snatched from them after all.

the divine right to rule. manifest destiny. the ‘white man’s burden.’

white men who assume they are entitled to white women, so that the mere thought of a Black man winning a woman’s heart is enough to incite them to brutality.

white women who understand that the police are their personal body guards, to call down upon the bodies of Black adults and even Black children on a whim -- and are indignant in the rare circumstance that they are told otherwise.

men and white people who expect the best jobs and properties to go to them, so that anyone else advancing over them seems an appalling injustice.

cis women who perceive trans women as “invading their spaces;” cishet couples who think LGBTQ/queer couples ruin “the sanctity of marriage;” persons who are accustomed to being accommodated without even realizing it sneering at “safe spaces” and trigger warnings....

and on and on.

Esau had every reason to assume that his biology determined his destiny -- that he could make an impulsive promise, make a big mistake, and everything would still turn out in his favor. he was born into a world that told him so every day -- even that God sanctioned these human assumptions and systems. But God does not.

“God’s disruptions of gender in these stories make it clear that even the gender roles that matter most to human beings are not sacred to God. ...God in the Torah uses gender, but is not bound by it. On the one hand, God depends on gender to transmit the covenant across time and space, so that even after hundreds of generations, Jews will still see themselves as children of Abraham. On the other hand, God disrupts gender as a way of making God’s power and presence known. ...In these stories, faithfulness to gender has little to do with faithfulness to God. In fact, God counts on the fact that people are not bound by gender roles. The covenant with Abraham is founded on Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob’s embrace of trans experience: their willingness to live outside the gender roles they were born to and become the kinds of people they are not supposed to be.” (Ladin, pp. 57-58)

Faithfulness to human constructs has little to do with faithfulness to God. God blesses us when we can imagine beyond the narrative we are assigned -- as Jacob does in this story where he demands a birthright the world does not intend for him....and as Esau eventually does.

In Genesis 33, Esau catches up to Jacob after decades apart -- and Jacob expects violence. He sends gifts of livestock to Esau and conceals his most cherished family at the back of his huge household. But to his bewilderment, Esau is no longer murderously angry at having “lost” what he grew up assuming he was entitled to -- he rushes to his brother, throws his arms around Jacob’s neck, and weeps.

Esau was raised believing that he would own everything, and his brother nothing -- that Jacob would be one of many members of Esau’s household, subservient to him. But now, he does not even feel entitled to the livestock that Jacob offers him: “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what’s yours.”

Jacob is relieved by this unexpected reconciliation, exclaiming to Esau that “Seeing your face is like seeing God’s face, since you’ve accepted me so warmly!” He never expected Esau to accept what Jacob has known all along -- that biology is not destiny; that neither of them are bound to human constructs like birthright; that they can live a different way than the way prescribed to them, one in which both of them thrive.

___________

now, this story is by no means perfect. Jacob was able to imagine bigger for himself, to escape the destiny assigned to him -- but he does not imagine big enough. he does not use his new station to liberate others.

he becomes a patriarch -- assimilates into patriarchy and the power to own other human beings, to rule over every member of his household, rather than challenging the whole system that once oppressed him. i am reminded of trans persons, persons of color, women, who once they manage to acquire power for themselves never use it to help their fellow marginalized persons up. they land positions of power and use that power to oppress others as they were once oppressed, rather than using it to try to forge a new, better system for all.

Jacob the second-born becomes Jacob the patriarch. his household will be fraught with all the woes that come with this system that stifles all within it. his wives will hate each other and battle each other for what little power they can grasp. his sons will do the same, subjecting the younger Joseph to violence when, like Jacob, this little sibling dares to dream of being something greater than what his society assigns him.

what if Jacob could have imagined bigger? what if he had used his one fragment of shining clarity about how patriarchy and primogeniture stifled his true self to empower others, not only himself?

what if we could imagine bigger? what new and beautiful world could we build?

[writermich18]

Record Keeper Part 3 - Final

There once were two brothers, with a 14-year difference between them.

They lived during the Dawn of Quirks, mid-to-late 21st Century.

The older brother was Quirked. His Quirk, unknown. The older Brother’s story was never told. At least, not the version of his story that had actually taken place. Even though he was there for the younger brother at the beginning… It wasn’t until much, much later that he actually returns to the narrative. By that point though, the story I’m about to tell you had already been erased from history and the younger brother was dead.

“Oh? You make it sound as if I knew him?”

“If my theory is correct? You did. You were there after all, but then again. That didn’t stop the government from separating the brothers, didn’t stop the 1% from taking back control and erasing such an important piece of history. During the time of the Dawn, you probably remember Fear, protests, riots, destruction, an unresponsive government. Death.”

“Yes, that is what happened. I tried to fix it, rather trying to fix it.”

A shake of the head. “The version you remember is on loop. In the beginning, yes. What they had essentially done, was erase the history of what had actually happened; it was a complete erasure of the culture, society, reforms, and everything that had actually happened. Taken what had happened in the beginning of when Quirks first appeared, then basically put it on loop for the entire generation until they made it appear as if the second generation rose up and put a stop to it. Then they created the society we know today. Then, before the first generation and the generations before them who lived during that time could correct the second and new generations and tell what had actually happened, the government went and erased those generations – either by killing them off completely or wiping their memory. Making it look like those generations had been so traumatized by what they had gone through, their brains had locked the memories away.”

“If you don’t believe us, we Record Keepers have always been slippery folk. The only reason we know this and escaped the government’s reach is because of the younger brother in the story we are telling,” Grandmother Midoriya laughs. “He was just as slippery as we are, much to the amusement of the Rogues he led and the frustration of his older brother who had been searching for him this entire time.”

“Hmm.”

“Interested now?”

“My interest is peaked. I do not like the idea that my memories may be wrong.”

“Much to the displeasure of the guards, if you become outrage by the end of this story, your outrage would be completely justifiable,” Midoriya Hisashi replies, having seen the displeasure of the guards even before they started their story.

“Can I continue with the story now?”

“Go on.”

The younger brother is our story’s focus, mostly because he was the one to come forward with the story.

The brothers were orphans. Their father died before the mother found out she was pregnant. The mother died when the younger brother was only 4 years old.

Like I mentioned, they had a 14-year difference between the two of them. So, by the time their mother had died, even during the turmoil that was going on, the older brother was of legal age to raise the younger brother, despite being Quirked.

The younger brother was Quirkless so you would think at a time like that period, they would have been separated. But no. The older brother raised the younger brother.

Until the younger brother was six years old.

To outsiders, it is told that the younger brother was taken by a van on his way home from school.

Reality is this:

Government agents, from an agency known only as the Lab, came to their home. Kicked their door down.

The two brothers thought they were after the older brother, given that he was Quirked and Quirks were feared.

“Let me guess, they took the older brother and the younger was left alone.”

Izuku smiles grimly. The elder Record Keepers keep quiet, though they stare at All For One with a thousand-yard stares.

The one that the government agents had pointed at, had wanted, wasn’t the older brother.

No.

The finger raised up and pointed at the Younger Brother. The Quirkless six-year-old, under the Quirked 20-year-old’s protection, was the one they wanted.

From the few scattered memories the younger brother had of that day, we can firmly say the older brother hadn’t thought at all, had turned, grabbed his younger brother, and ran.

Into the snow falling woods behind his home.

Within those snowy woods, the government agents gave chase and shot the older brother down 4 times. Knocking the older brother down and releasing the younger brother from his hold.

And the younger brother could nothing as the Lab agents grabbed him and took him from his brother. Could do nothing as they shot his brother again right through the chest to stop him from getting up and getting his brother back.

The younger brother ended up in the Lab, the scientist there called the Men in White Lab Coats.

They re-named him Subject 27, branded him with the number. Put him in a cage and did many experiments upon him.

Even going as far as changing his body to bare children for them to take and experiment on as well, the moment he turned 11 and signs of puberty started to show.

“I may be a monster, but at least the experiments I had the Good Doctor do were on dead or soon-to-be-dead people, and that they were adults and I didn’t do that to any of them.”

“Yes, yes, and you get one brownie point for it,” Grandmother waves him off.

Midoriya and Izuku sweatdrop. “Okaa-sama, you are braver than any Pro Hero or US marine. And I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“You should have realized this long before this meeting, Tou-san.”

“Doesn’t make it any less scary to see.”

Subject 27, upon the discovery the Men in White Lab Coats had made of learning that 27’s body is accepting all of the experiments and the powers those experiments are bringing, was nicknamed by the other experimented-on children.

First, they called him.

A cruel name in the Lab, but one he bore proudly as one of his many scars once he got out.

For he was the first child out of the 27 million Quirkless children taken since the Lab’s establishment in the 1980s who survived the experiments, the harsh training, the conditions, and the labor they were put through.

Subject 27 was 14-years-old when the thought of escape crossed his mind.

He had just witnessed with the four only other surviving now-empowered children a newbie’s attempt to escape. If it had not been for that lucky shot one of the guards had managed to make, the new kid would have survived and been the first child to successfully escape the Lab and its maze of a structure.

That, dead, kid was the one who had inspired the five children who witnessed the whole thing to try and escape themselves for the first time in their lives.

They were successful.

Subjects 100 – Jagger – and 9 – Tiny – took the information the Lab had. Subjects 27 – First – and 48 – Gadget – had weakened the infrastructure and started a fire. Subject 19 – Ruff – had freed the monster children for them to distract the Men in White Lab Coats while this was going on. Then they left.

Right through the electric fence. Watching the whole place burn down to the ground as Gadget frantically drove away.

Through the files, they all searched for their families. Jagger learned that they had been a foster child the system had given up on; Tiny learned she had been torn right from her mother’s arms after her birth because her mom had been a mental asylum patient; Gadget learned his family had given him to the Lab for money, even though they were middle class; Ruff learned he had been practically raised by the house cat because his parents were a workaholic mom and a drug-addicted dad; and First learned that the government knew his brother had a Quirk, and that First hadn’t been their original target until the Lab had intervened and requested First.

“It’s interesting that they had agreed to take the Quirkless child instead of the Quirked adult,” the prisoner hummed. Hisashi gives a harsh bark of a laugh but doesn’t say what he had wanted to say in response.

Izuku knew what he had been thinking. The Quirked brother would have murdered the government agents if they had tried to take him away from his little brother – in fact, if First’s memory of that time is correct, that had been exactly what he had been about to do if they hadn’t pointed at First and demanded him instead.

Once they got to the city, the crew of five teenagers got to work immediately. They wanted to make sure that the Lab couldn’t rebuild its Japanese branch and that the other branches they discovered through the stolen files were immediately dealt with.

They created the organization that would become known as The Rogues. They accepted everybody in their ranks – Quirkless, Quirked, Escapees, Runaways, the Indigenous children who wanted to spit in the governments’ face for abandoning their people, the Black people who wanted to spit in the governments’ face for abandoning their people, the Queer who wanted to spit in the governments’ face for abandoning their people, the Disabled who wanted to spit in the governments’ face for abandoning their people, the Mutant Quirked people who wanted to spit in the governments’ and society’s face for abandoning and hurting their people, all the Quirked people who were discriminated against on all sides of the playing field who wanted Justice, the religious people who wanted Justice for every discrimination and persecution brought upon them. They didn’t care to hear your reason as long as you didn’t back stab them nor were out to assassinate them.

“They weren’t successful, were they?”

Grandmother smiles, “We wouldn’t be here if they weren’t successful. And the 1% would not have eradicated all traces of this piece of history if the Rogues were not successful. You would know this story if they were not successful.”

The Rogues did a lot of damage to the government and society actually.

Within a few months, they were an entire Nonprofit organization, filled with Vigilantes, Heroes, and Runners – Runners being people who did literal damage to corporations and governments including leading riots triggered by the police.

“Runners were basically people recognized by the public as Vigilantes and Heroes like the rest of the organization but labeled as Villains by the government and propaganda. They never touched civilian property or publicly owned items,” his father explained.

All For One snorts in response, “Not surprised.”

Grandmother and Izuku note that he doesn’t seem to recognize the story, though he hides his confusion well.

Izuku pities the guards who will have to deal with an enraged All For One once this story-telling and their visit is over. Especially when he finds out about what had actually happened to his brother.

Doing great damage to the government and society. Within a year, they had people who either directly worked for or supported the Rogues on all playing fields, including the underworld. Though it wouldn’t be until they had completely wiped the government cleaned and gotten started on rebuilding the system and society that they learned of the support coming in from the shadows, 4 years after the original 5 had escaped the Lab.

During the final battle, after 4 years of silent fighting between both sides in the shadows and on all levels, the governmental head in charge of the Lab revealed that the Emperor had no idea about what any of this, that none of the official heads in any of the governments knew of the Lab’s existence but the government over all had known.

First, renamed by the Rogues during the early years as Tsunayoshi, hadn’t been over all surprised by this news. When he had confronted the Emperor only a few months prior, despite the guards’ best efforts to get him to not reveal anything or talk before them, the Emperor had looked confused then horrified as he had provided through the files and his own scars.

It was the second piece of information the Lab Head had provided that had frozen Tsunayoshi in his tracks.

He had given Tsunayoshi the one piece of information he had wondered about his whole life, as an experiment, as an escapee, as the Leader of the Rogues, all the way until that confrontation.

He had told Tsunayoshi his name.

His original family-given name.

And his brother’s name.

Shigaraki Hisashi was the name of his older brother.

Shigaraki Mana was Tsunayoshi’s original name.

A hiss of a sucked-in breath was All For One’s only reaction.

“You remember raising Mana completely, don’t you?” Grandmother Midoriya is ruthless in her assessment. “Doesn’t surprise me. The only reason we even have this information is because Tsunayoshi, or Mana, had come directly to us Record Keepers to have his memory and story stored and later told. Otherwise even us Record Keepers would have believed the same as the historians and everybody else.”

“For once, the piece of history told in the textbooks was written not by the victors but the losers,” Izuku’s dad smirks. He always did like it whenever the history the historians tell or guess at was told by the losers rather than the victors. Claimed it gave the side of the story to the public you never get to hear, outside of word from the mouth of the betrayed.

Tsunayoshi managed to push past the pause and destroy the last king piece. Ended the 4-year-long battle.

With the help of the Emperor, the People, most importantly all of the minority groups, new governments and society was created. New laws, way of life, the erasure and systematic destruction of discrimination on all levels, people joined together. The patriarchy became a thing of the past, all sides of history were researched with the help of the Record Keepers and rebuilt to encompass every aspect, the education system was revamped and reformed. Everything was built from the ground up. Non-Quirk-Users and Quirk Users worked hand-in-hand. The Rogues worked hard to get people to accept others in the way they’ve learned to accept people – for even though they couldn’t promise you wouldn’t earn enemies, they could at least promise the reason wouldn’t be because of something out of your control.

Tsunayoshi, having chosen to focus on his duty as Rogue Leader and not paid attention to the information the Lab Head had given him, did not confront that information about his and his brother’s name until he was 21 years old.

Until he was looking at an exact copy of his dead brother, who had approached the Rogues as their shadow helper from the underworld. You can imagine how enrage he was looking at this supposed copy of his dead brother.

None of our documents, not even the Record Keepers who had witnessed the rage, were able to properly explain or encompass what exactly happened and how enraged Tsunayoshi was. But all of them had agreed that if it wasn’t for the fact that the Men in White Lab Coats had already been persecuted by the Rogues, Tsunayoshi would have made them and all other scientists like them extinct.

It wasn’t until the copy had proven to their Vigilante group that he was indeed Tsunayoshi’s older brother via Quirk, that Tsunayoshi calmed down and allowed the copy who turned out to truly be Shigaraki Hisashi to explain himself.

“Self-repair. If the kidnapping took place when I was 20, then I had already been gifted with several healing Quirks, all of which were fully capable of healing bullet wounds.”

Tsunayoshi had sworn up and down his family’s graves during their escape and initial hunts for their families that he had seen a government agent walk in closer and shoot his brother right through the head. That was why all hunts for Tsunayoshi’s remaining family had stopped, with the others’ own searches stopping soon after, and they had focused on the organization, then the War, and then reconstruction.

A bullet wound to the head, no matter how powerful of a Healing Quirk you have, should not have healed or led to a person’s revival. The Rogues became wary of the strange man and kept an eye on him, even as they continued with their jobs and Tsunayoshi and Hisashi had hidden in his office to continue their previous conversation.

The man, known only as All For One by the rest of the population, tried to get reacquainted with Tsunayoshi as his brother. Tsunayoshi had put a stop to all of these attempts and told him in no uncertain terms that he didn’t need an older brother then and he doesn’t need one now, that their relationship is strictly professional at best and tense Vigilante-Mafia relations at worst.

Let’s just say that Hisashi had not reacted well to the news, having been searching passively and actively for his little brother over the years and not wanting to have him be taken away so soon.

“Not surprised. I’ve always been a bit of a family man.” The dark undertone in his voice indicated that, just like his younger self, he was not happy with the news that his little brother wanted nothing to do with him after years of being separated. Midoriya-tou-san makes note of this in the official Record Keeper file and Izuku moves on.

Tsunayoshi didn’t care. He hasn’t been Shigaraki Mana since he was 6 years old, hasn’t been a younger brother since he was 14. Didn’t plan on reuniting with those mantles any time soon, not with the job that he had to do.

Tsunayoshi was 23 when he approached a Midoriya for the first time and asked to tell his story. There were signs of the 1% who had managed to escape persecution trying to enplant and dismantle all his hard work. He knew that they would try more than that, and wanted at least one Clan that still remembered what life actually was like during his lifetime.

He knew that if their attempts worked, they would try to erase this history and rewrite it to look similar to how it was originally when Quirks first appeared. And he wanted to undermine their efforts.

All it took was one seed. That seed was his story. Tsunayoshi asked us to keep the truth hidden until the time was right.

Tsunayoshi was 37 years old when the story of One For All and All For One – the story you’re more familiar with – happened. By that time, the underworld and remaining 1% were actively working towards dismantling and destroying the Rogues’ Legacy.

Tsunayoshi was 40 years old when he died in battle fighting you and the rest of the underworld. Before he passed, he wiped out the remaining 1% and every single underworld member who had been fighting in that battle.

The only one he hadn’t managed to destroy, as you know, was All For One. Shigaraki Hisashi.

The only reason why, contrary to popular belief, is because he had hesitated and you took advantage of that hesitation.

…

“Yes. I do remember him hesitating and looking at me with something in his eyes I didn’t recognize for the longest time.”

“Love. He had looked at you and remembered the man who had raised him for 6 years before they were brutally ripped apart,” Midoriya-tou-san speaks up, “He had looked at you and seen the version of you he once upon a time had loved. That was what had caused his hesitation. Because even through all the experiments he had been through, some part of him had still managed to hold onto the warmth and love you had given him when he was younger.”

“He had hesitated because he had looked at you, at your weakest point, and had been searching for the warm man who had raised him,” Grandmother picks up the explanation, “We Midoriyas, after all these years, had assumed that he had found him, because, if he had not found that man, the Tsunayoshi we knew would have killed you immediately the second he had the chance. Given that we have records of him trying to do exactly that the first few times you two had met, we know this assumption to be, for the most part, fact.”

All For One, Shigaraki Hisashi, presses his lips together but doesn’t say anything. The timer rings, singling the end of their visitation. The Midoriya’s gather up their supplies and leave the jail, Toshinori catching up to them at the hallway.

“I pity the guards who have to deal with him after that story and revelation,” Toshinori comments once they are driving back to UA, for Izuku, and the Clan home for Midoriya Hisashi and Grandmother Midoriya Nakomi. They had felt the tremors on the bridge connecting Tartarus and the mainland together. AFO was pissed alright but luckily for Izuku who had been telling the story had waited until they were gone before screaming out his rage. Some part of Izuku, kind of almost feels like One For All whispering, had described the emotion they could hear ringing out as not rage, but despair.

If I learned the figure of my younger brother I had been fighting against wasn’t the younger brother I thought I knew, that all the memories I have of him from 6 years old until our infamous fight were false… I would be pretty distressed and outrage too. But mostly, despaired. Because I killed my little brother, someone who apparently, I hadn’t actually known. Izuku kept these thoughts to himself. He didn’t pity AFO. Not really.

Having been raised off of the stories developed because of AFO’s actions over the past 200 years, on top of the stories not related to him, Izuku has heard, seen, and experienced the horrible things All For One had done. Tsunayoshi had certainly felt disappointed and enraged towards his brother when he had told his Guardian Spirit of what his brother had done, with the Noumus and such. No, Izuku didn’t feel any pity towards this man.

But he certainly felt pity towards Shigaraki Hisashi, the young man, boy really, who had raised Mana until he was ripped from his arms without warning.

…

One part of Tsunayoshi’s story the Midoriyas had refused to tell AFO, was that Midoriya Hakoda, the Record Keeper who had record Tsunayoshi’s story, and Tsunayoshi had fallen in love.

That necklace wrapped around Izuku’s neck was the same betrothal necklace Hakoda had craved and gifted to Tsunayoshi as his engagement ring.

They hadn’t told AFO that Shigaraki Mana had grown up to become Midoriya Tsunayoshi, had borne 2 healthy children.

That he had been 4 weeks pregnant with their third child when he had faced off against AFO for the last time.

That the Main Midoriya Clan Line, of which Nakomi, Hisashi, and Izuku all were borne into, was actually Tsunayoshi and Hakoda’s line, with them being of the youngest child’s line and South Japan’s Main Midoriya Clan Line being that of the oldest child’s line.

Nakomi had not indicated to Izuku for him to include that part of the story. Hisashi had wanted to see the world burn in response to Shigaraki’s rage over killing his many-greats-grand-nephew. To which Grandmother had responded by slapping him over the head, to which he grumbled and then reluctantly said that he actually didn’t care if their many-greats-grand-uncle knew or not. Izuku had decided not to say anything but fully planned on claiming the title of being Midoriya Tsunayoshi’s great-great-great-great grandson when he’s a Pro Hero and had been given full clearance to expose the Truth.

After all, everybody believed the words of a Record Keeper far more than the textbooks.

 (And years down the line, older Izuku would look back on that promise and silently curse his idiot younger self. All Might didn’t have to deal with the literal manhunt crusade of All For One trying to get ahold of the second only thing he has left of the little brother he apparently knew nothing about. He also silently curses the South Japan Line for dying out because of a completely avoidable situation, and curses his grandmother and father for being dead before he was ready to handle the mantle of Record Keeper and being the only one from Tsunayoshi’s bloodline. If only he had kept his mouth shut!)

[secretlyatargaryen]

On Tyrion and Religion

I was looking through some of my old posts and saw a post that was written in reaction to some people saying that Tyrion was a “dudebro atheist”, and at the time I couldn’t really articulate why I felt that that was wrong, but since then I have read some good writings articulating why the atheism of marginalized people is fundamentally different from that of angry privileged dudes on the internet. I think it’s similar to Tyrion’s relationship with his intelligence, or his sexuality, things that in fandom often get him branded a “dudebro,” but I’ve written before about how Tyrion’s pride in his intelligence or his eagerness to prove that he is a man and a sexual being come from a place of being denied those things as a disabled person. Tyrion’s feelings on religion seem to run on a spectrum from atheism to agnosticism to believing that there is a god or gods that personally hate him.

One interesting facet of this is the way that the gods in the religion of the seven are divided into different aspects, and this provides interesting analysis for several characters if we pay attention to how the characters relate to these different aspects. Tyrion is one such example. If we align the seven aspects to the people in Tyrion’s life, we get:

The Father = Tywin Lannister

The Father's face is stern and strong, he sits and judges right from wrong. He weighs our lives, the short and long,

This definitely describes Tywin as a presence in Tyrion’s life. Tywin is an extreme example of the stern, judgmental authority figure, and this figure in Tyrion’s life is entirely negative. Tyrion often compares Tywin to the Father, particularly in ADWD after Tyrion kills Tywin and Tywin becomes an almost god-like presence in Tyrion’s mind.

The Mother = Joanna

The Mother gives the gift of life, and watches over every wife. Her gentle smile ends all strife,

Joanna gave the gift of life to Tyrion, an act for which Tyrion was blamed because it resulted in her death. The death/life dichotomy is something that follows Tyrion wherever he goes. Which is part of the reason why Tyrion identifies himself as the Stranger, the personification of death. More on that later. I also think it’s interesting that the Mother is associated with watching over wives, since the other lost woman in Tyrion’s life is his first wife, Tysha, whom he could not protect, just as he had no control over the loss of his mother. And of course, Tyrion probably would have as a child fantasized about what his life would have been like if he had had a mother who would “end all strife” and smile at him gently.

The Warrior = Jaime

The Warrior stands before the foe, protecting us where e'er we go. With sword and shield and spear and bow,

Tyrion frequently thinks about Jaime as a warrior. Usually in the context of comparing himself unfavorably to his brother and envying Jaime’s martial prowess, but he also thinks of his brother as his protector, as when he says in AGOT and ADWD that Jaime was the only one in his life who took care of him when he was child, so therefore he trusts Jaime implicitly, or at least, did until ADWD. One of the interesting dichotomies about the Warrior is that he is both the protector and specifically the one prayed to when one asks for protection for warriors, as Jaime does in ACOK before the battle, praying for Jaime and himself.

The Maiden = 

The Maiden dances through the sky, she lives in every lover's sigh. Her smiles teach the birds to fly, and gives dreams to little children.

The Maiden is the idealization of the female as a romantic/sexual interest. She is provocative, yet sweet and innocent. There are a lot of characters who represent this for Tyrion: Tysha, Sansa, Penny. Although the maiden is largely a positive figure, this also has negative connotations for Tyrion because it reminds him of what he has lost and what he believes he cannot have, as a disabled person.

I don’t really have any mapping for the Smith or the Crone. As I said before, Tyrion is definitely the Stranger, though. There’s no stanza in the song for the Stranger, which I think is kind of disappointing because he could have easily been fit in there. Something like the Stranger hides his face in shadow, he watches us where’er we go, and gently calls when it’s time to go, to guide us to our final home. Is that too macabre?

The Stranger only appears once in Tyrion’s narrative, but it’s pretty significant, and appears after Tyrion lights a candle to the Warrior for Jaime before the Blackwater Battle:

At the Warrior's altar, he used one candle to light another. Watch over my brother, you bloody bastard, he's one of yours. He lit a second candle to the Stranger, for himself.

This tells us a lot about how Tyrion sees himself. I’m gonna also quote from the wiki of ice and fire entry about the Stranger:

The Stranger is one of the seven aspects of a single deity. Believers of the Faith of the Seven consider their god to be one with seven aspects, as the sept is a single building, with seven walls. The Stranger is an exception in that he is viewed in a negative light, with worshippers rarely praying to him.

The Stranger represents death and the unknown, and leads the dead to the other world. Whilst referred to as male, he is neither male nor female. The Stranger's face has been described as half-human, concealed beneath a hooded mantle. The wooden statue of the Stranger burnt on Dragonstone is carved to look more animal than human.

Worshippers rarely seek favor from the Stranger, but outcasts sometimes associate themselves with this aspect of god.

I’ve talked about how the other aspects above have negative connotations for Tyrion because of the societal ableism and abuse he has experienced. The Stranger is largely a negative entity who is rarely prayed to, although the wiki does note that sometimes outcasts pray to him, as Tyrion does. Note that the books also mention that people pray to the Stranger when they are close to death, and Tyrion could have been thinking about this as he prepares for Stannis’ attack on King’s Landing, in which he very well could die (and almost does). But I also think that Tyrion feels a kinship to the Stranger as someone who has spent his life as an outcast, and I think that is shown in the way that the text contrasts Tyrion lighting a candle for himself and the candle he lights for Jaime, saying to the Warrior that Jaime is “one of yours.” This implies that Tyrion thinks that he belongs to the Stranger. 

On one level, Tyrion has always had an association with death because he was supposed to have died soon after his birth, plus the fact that his birth caused his mother’s death. Often the existence of disabled people is treated as unnatural by able-bodied people because they are seen as being “close to death.” But some of the other characteristics of the Stranger fit Tyrion as well. The Stranger represents outcasts because he is related to the unknown, as mentioned above. In that sense he comes across as a fearful yet misunderstood figure. I also think it is interesting that the wiki notes that the Stranger is “neither male nor female,” and I’ve talked before about how one of the rumors about Tyrion, that he was born with both male and female genitalia, places him as a liminal figure and is used to emphasize his otherness in the eyes of others because of his disability. Tyrion is a liminal character who often is associated with halves and dichotomies, and so too the Stranger. He’s described as having a face that is “half-human.” Of course, Tyrion is known as a “half-man” and also has certain unique qualities about his facial features which are sometimes used to other him. His heterochromia is another instance of half/duality that make him something of a pariah. After the Blackwater Battle he loses “half his nose.” The “more animal than human” aspect also fits other people’s ableist perceptions of Tyrion, such as when Oberyn tells Tyrion that he was rumored to have animal-like features like claws and a tail, and Cersei’s dream in which Tyrion is covered in hair and behaving in a very animalistic way, or when multiple characters compare him to a monkey.

So while most of the time Tyrion seems to scoff at religion, when he does pray, I think he feels like the Stranger is the safest aspect to pray to when it comes to himself.

In ADWD we learn an interesting thing about Tyrion’s childhood that informs his stance on religion:

"The Father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars," Tyrion recited from memory, "and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown."

Magister Illyrio gave him a curious look. "I did not dream my little friend was so devout."

“I knew I would not make a knight, so I decided to be High Septon. That crystal crown adds a foot to a man's height. I studied the holy books and prayed until I had scabs on both my knees, but my quest came to a tragic end. I reached that certain age and fell in love.”

I rarely see Tyrion’s thoughts about religion talked about in the context of him wanting to be high septon when he was a child. Usually I see people assume that Tyrion was purely motivated by the power it would give him. I think that’s a valid argument because it’s notable that Tyrion didn’t just want to be A septon, but hold the highest position in that category, since he could not excel in other areas where he could earn a high position and title. He also gives as his motivation that the “crown adds a foot to a man’s height” with his characteristic glib self-deprecation, but I do think there is more to it than that. I think that it’s interesting that he notes that what stops him from this career path is falling in love, and he of course is talking about his chance meeting with Tysha, which led to his marriage to her. I think part of the reason Tyrion decided on being high septon before that was a resignation to the idea that no one was going to love or want to be intimate with him. Both in the books and the show he describes himself as shy when he spends that first night with Tysha. There’s been tons of meta (many written by me) on the whole Tysha episode and what effect that had on Tyrion’s ability to see himself as worthy of love, but I think the idea that physical intimacy and romance were something out of reach for him existed long before Tysha. I’ve talked plenty of times about how Tyrion’s models for love before that were Tywin grieving for his wife (and blaming Tyrion on her death) and Jaime and Cersei’s highly narcissistic affair which would have emphasized to Tyrion how alone he was. I don’t think Tyrion ever saw himself in a romantic relationship before Tysha. After Tysha, he’s been both married and subjected to a huge amount of sexual trauma at a young age, so of course he can’t go back to a life of celibacy and prayer, and I think what happens with Tysha would be enough to shake anybody’s faith and turn them to cynicism.

Tyrion also relates to the gods in the ways that many characters do, asking the question if there are gods, why do they let bad things happen? This is usually tinged with Tyrion’s specific form of self-deprecation and internalized ableism, such as when he says that the gods “must have been drunk when they got to me.” It’s not really surprising that he thinks this, considering that, if we look back at the seven aspects above and how they appear in Tyrion’s life, the primary figures that are supposed to provide guidance and love are largely absent or abusive.

I’ve largely talked about the Seven because that’s what Tyrion was raised with and is familiar with, but he also has interactions with the Old Gods. It doesn’t crop up as much and doesn’t feature in his narrative the way the Seven does, of course, but he does have a similar feeling of trepidation towards the Old Gods.

He remembered their godswood; the tall sentinels armored in their grey-green needles, the great oaks, the hawthorn and ash and soldier pines, and at the center the heart tree standing like some pale giant frozen in time. He could almost smell the place, earthy and brooding, the smell of centuries, and he remembered how dark the wood had been even by day. That wood was Winterfell. It was the north. I never felt so out of place as I did when I walked there, so much an unwelcome intruder.

Tyrion’s reaction is not unlike the way several non-Stark characters react to the religion of the Old Gods, however it’s also not that different to the way he relates to the Seven, where he also sees himself as an outcast, only able to pray to the aspect of god that exists on the outskirts.

Tyrion takes a sort of reassurance in his aversion to religion because his association with it is so negative.

The old gods paid no more heed to prayer than the new ones, it would seem. Perhaps he should take comfort in that.

Tyrion is similarly dismissive of the Lord of Light, particularly with the insistence that he is a savior figure.

They chanted in the tongue of Old Volantis, but Tyrion had heard the prayers enough to grasp the essence. Light our fire and protect us from the dark, blah blah, light our way and keep us toasty warm, the night is dark and full of terrors, save us from the scary things, and blah blah blah some more.

He knew better than to voice such thoughts aloud. Tyrion Lannister had no use for any god, but on this ship it was wise to show a certain respect for red R'hllor.

It’s not surprising that someone who has been mistreated and subject to abuse and institutional discrimination would feel dismissive of the idea of divine protection. At the same time, sometimes people who have been marginalized go the other way and seek refuge in religion, and we see this in several characters in asoiaf as well. Tyrion’s journey to join forces with Dany has something of that flavor, as Dany is presented as an almost messianic figure herself and savior of the oppressed. I do think that, for all his cynicism, Tyrion does still have some hope in faith. Tyrion’s beleif in religion is sort of like his belief in magic, he makes several cynical remarks and mostly treats it as nonsense, but when it comes down to it he does still have that spark of wonder from his childhood. In ADWD he’s frequently haunted by the figure of the Father, but he’s also on his way to meet Dany, a mystic Mother figure. She’s also got dragons, another thing that represents Tyrion’s faith/belief in things that he can’t see, things that offer freedom and hope for people like him, but also things that caused him a great deal of pain in the past, especially in childhood, when they were used by others to crush him.

Tyrion’s feelings towards the divine are complex and have a lot to do with his disability, so, like most things with Tyrion, it’s pretty reductive and invalidating to claim that it’s the same thing as dudebro pseudo-intellectual sneering of the particularly annoying and entitled kind. I know what y’all mean but in general, someone’s faith or lack of faith is a pretty personal and individualized experience, so trying to make a judgment in order to invalidate someone’s theism or atheism is probably a bad idea anyway, but it’s especially bad for considering people in an intersectional way.

[deathvalleyqueen]

Full clear on OC asks for Sam! 💋

Thank you my dear... now lets gush about John’s first born and only son shall we???

BASICS

What’s their full name? - Samuel Joseph Seed 

What does their name mean? Why were they named that? -  Well he was going to be named Joseph, after his Uncle...The Father... but his mother was having none of that and switched out the birth certificate forms for the one she had filled out because there was no way in hell Mary Jane was about to let her precious baby boy be named after Joseph... though she allowed his middle name to be Joseph as a way to keep the peace. 

Do they have any nicknames? - SOOOO MANY! Sam - is the most common one and what most people call him. Sammie - What MJ still calls him even as an adult. Bubby - Ellie’s nickname for him as a child, Thing 1 - Sean’s nickname for him as kids. Cousin It - Finn’s nickname for him. Jesus - another Finn nickname. (because he looks like the only image of Jesus they had ever seen) Weasel - Mac gives him this as small child and sticks. 

How old are they? - At the time of New Dawn 24 almost 25 years old.

When’s their birthday? -  October 19th

What’s their zodiac sign/element/birthstone/etc.? Do they believe that holds any significance?

What’s their species/subspecies? Do they have any special/magical abilities? - He’s a Seed... does that count? He has John’s “far too blue” eyes...so like... That could be considered super powers.... 

What “class” do they belong to (for fantasy characters)? If none, what weapon do they favor? - If there was such thing as a Healer Mage class in the FC universe.. .that would probably be Sam’s class because he is exceptionally smart with a real focus in medicine and science/chemistry. If the Collapse wouldn’t have happened he would probably have gone to Med School to become a surgeon. 

APPEARANCE

What do they look like? - Same is the tallest of MJ and John’s kids standing just a hair taller than his father at 5′11. He has long dark brown hair and an impressive beard, both of which he has sported since he was 16 making him often be mistaken for much older than he is. He slight of build and looks to be in far better shape physically than he is actually is. 

Do they have a face claim? - Tom Payne - Specifically as Paul “Jesus” Rovia from TWD

What’s their style like? Clothes, hair, makeup? -  He is a pretty standard guy. He isn’t fancy, mostly because this world doesn’t allow for it. He likes t-shirts, sweaters and jeans. He will wear an old button up shirt if he can find it and has several trench coats he has acquired over the years. His hair is usually down and one the rare occasion that he puts it up, Lily always glares at him and tells him to put his hair down before their mother sees... because with his hair up.. he looks a lot like a young Joseph. 

How do they carry themselves? What’s their default expression? - Sam is a very self assured young man, bordering on the cockiness of John in his youth. He has been painfully aware that he was always one of the more intelligent people in the room from a young age and developed a bit of a superiority complex because of it. He tends to stand with his shoulders back and hands at his side or in his pockets. He is an observer, rarely the person leading the conversation but always watching and passing his judgment.

Do they have any physical ailments or disabilities? - Sam is the only one of MJ and John’s kids to have been born with health issues. He had a medium sized hole in his heart when he was born that eventually required surgery. Though since that surgery had very little issue besides a heart mummer. This however left MJ way over protective of him well into adulthood. 

PERSONALITY

What’s their alignment? Lawful Neutral 

Which one of the 16 Personality Types do they fit into? - INTP

What are their hobbies and interests? Do they have any particular “favorites” (food, books, and so on)? - Sam loves music, he plays piano and guitar. He is much more of a classical music person and as a child spent hours practicing. His favorite books are Animal Farm and Frankenstein. His favorite food as a child was pizza and pasta, as an adult he is happy with whatever he can get but still loves carbs. His favorite item from his childhood he was able to keep was a model plane that John and him made when he was 6. It’s of John’s plane. 

What are they bad at? - Dealing with intense emotions, both their own and other people’s. He never knows how to react and often seems to ‘over react’ with his own emotions. He also can not shoot to save his life. 

What kind of things do they dislike/hate? - Unnecessary cruelty. Onions, Fish and split pea soup.

Do they have any vices/addictions/mental illnesses? - Well... lets just start with he has a lot of childhood trauma... which defiantly manifests it’s self in some pretty well hidden anxiety and depression. He also comes from a long line of people who suffer with various addictions and I could see Sam having again...a very well hidden...drinking problem. Particularly post-ND events. 

What are their goals and motivations? - Their end goal is not peace, as much as an agreement that would allow everyone to function as they need to with in a certain set of rules... IE... he wants to re-establish a ruling body of government on a very small scale in Hope County that would allow for the communities to work together when needed but function independently as they wish as long as they cause no harm to the other communities. This is motivated by his study of history and his belief that because he has studied so much, he has found fault in the old systems and what he will build will be better. 

What are their manners like? Any habits? - He has an odd stillness about him, even as small child. He was the quite one, the better behaved of the twins (easily the most well behaved of all MJ and John’s children). He tends to crack his knuckles when he is nervous or clear his throat when he feels the conversation is getting off topic. 

What are they most afraid of? - Not being able to do enough. He sees what happened because of his father, his family.. his mother’s family. Sam feels (like all the kids do in some way) responsible for fixing the mess that the Seeds created in Hope County. 

BACKGROUND

Where were they born? What was their childhood like? - He was born with his sister Lilith at the birthing center in Hope County (but both he and Lily were sent to a much bigger hospital shortly after they were born because the small hospital couldn’t handle them being 8 weeks early). Their childhood before the collapse was filled with pockets of really happy times mixed with stretches of chaos. Both he and Lily vividly remember The Project at Eden’s Gate and the events of the Reaping. Both he and Lily were present for the attempted arrest of Joseph. After the collapse it was still difficult in the bunker as both his parents struggled with believed loss of Jacob, Ellie and worst of all Grace. Once they left the bunker things settled into a new normal. He is very close with Lily and Rose, as well as his Uncle Mac. He is close with both of his parents but is resentful on some level of their preoccupation with losing Grace.  

What’s their family like? - A hot mess... but the core they are very tight knit. Sam is more ready to trust a member of his immediate family than anyone else. 

What factions or organizations are they a part of? What ranks and titles do they hold? - He and Lily were called “The First of the Children of New Eden” within the Project as small children and as an adult he holds the role of the “doctor” in the community John calls “Redemption” but really Sam is main intelligence gatherer as people are very disarmed by him because of his ability to help the sick. 

How do they fit into their “story”? - Sam is Ethan’s foil for lack of a better way of putting. Ethan is grasping for power, while Sam wants nothing do with holding an position at all within New Eden. He has no desire to fulfill any of the role that The Father saw him. He is easily the one most suited to lead, but has no desire what so ever to lead anyone or be any manner of spiritual leader to people. 

Where do they currently live? What’s their place like?

How do they eventually die? - He dies of a sudden heart attack while speaking to a group of people gathered in New Eden (preaching basically) at the age of 36. He dies before both his parents and all three of his sisters. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Do they have any friends? Would they consider anyone to be their best friend? - His best friend is easily Lily, because they are twins. Their relationship is just on a different level than other peoples. They understand each other often with just glances and small changes in expression. He also becomes close with Finn, both sharing a bit of a sarcastic and witty sense of humor. 

What’s their friend group like? What role do they play in it?

What’s their love life like? (See also: ship question meme.) Do they have any kids? - Well.. not really. He spends most of his time with his sisters during the story and I never really thought of him in romantic terms...at all. I could see him having kids one day, either “adopting” or by natural means... either or. 

Who do they look up to? Who do they trust? - Really the person Sam looks up to the most is Mac. He respects Mac’s ability to pragmatic about difficult choices and always put the others before his own benefit. Mac had a big hand in raising Sam, so this really comes as no surprise. As far as people he trusts, he trusts his family... his sisters (including Grace), his uncles, Rachel/Faith, Ellie,... pretty much everyone but Joseph and Ethan that share DNA with him. 

Who do they hate? Do they have any enemies? - Joseph, mostly because he puts the full blame on what happened with the collapse and the events the happened in his life right before squarely on Joseph’s shoulders. This by proxy extends to Ethan...

Do they have any pets? - As a child he had several, Boomer and Salem even made it to the bunker with them (thank you Sean and Faith) but since then he never really kept bets.

Are they good with kids? Animals? - Yes to both.

FUN FACTS

Which tropes do they fit? Which archetypes? - The Dutiful Son , Looks Like Jesus/Hippie Jesus  (that one goes without saying right?), The Spymaster & Big Brother Instinct 

Do they play any instruments? Sports? - He plays Piano and he was never much for sports. 

What are some items they always carry?- A knife, a small black notebook and a pen.

Do they collect anything? - Books.

What position do they sleep in? - On his stomach mostly with the pillow over his head rather than under his head.

Which emoji would they use the most? - The eyes emoji

What languages do they speak? - English

What’s their favorite expletive? - Fuck

What’s their favorite candle scent? - Probably like Pine...

What songs remind you of them? - Loosing My Religion - R.E.M

Which animal would you say represents them? - The Raven

What stereotypical high school clique would they fit into? - The Weird kids that don’t fit in with any other group who is kinda metal head looking but gets straight A’s. 

What would their favorite ride at an amusement park be? - Bumper Cars (he actually gets to go once as a child)

Do they believe in aliens? Ghosts? Reincarnation or something else? - For someone who grew up in such a superstitious home, if Sam doesn’t have evidence for it... he doesn’t believe. 

Do they follow any religions/gods? Do they celebrate holidays? - Again, for someone who grew up in such an intensely religious home, he lost all connection to PEG or even conventional Christian beliefs by the time he is an adult he declares he is in Atheist. He does preach about keeping a very personal set of morals that you should adhere to but, not the belief there is an all knowing deity. 

Which Deadly Sin do they most correspond to? Which Heavenly Virtue? - Pride 

If you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, which would it be? - The Hierphant