#just wanted to put these here bc i feel like some ppl would like these

[forgottenrian]

6/4

there ~is a brother! his name is garbhan, and he evidentally had some kind of something w eabha asp, but that's all i got for you hahaha

its interesting bc like...i dont think rian ~truly wants to rule like??? that was his dad's dream!! and i don't think he ever got a chance to find one of his own [11/16 edit: what his actual dream here is, is to finally make his papa proud/heal the perceived wrongs of the past/finally achieve some peace but even he doesn't quite realize that tbqh]! he thinks he wants it! more than anything!!!! but i don't think, if he'd grown up w a healthy family etc, that that would be his wish by any stretch yknow [11/16 edit: i think he'd wanna be like..a scholar of some sort honestly!]? however, he has no idea this is the case and he's just chasing it, chasing it, chasing it bc its been impressed upon him that that's what he has to do!! but anyway that's neither here nor there frankly!! except ig that in another universe rian would be like 'same' to his cousin hahaha

but in this one he'll maintain till the bitter end that that's the thing he wants most in the entire world!!! and it ~is, in the sense that he wants his father to have been a happy man and to have found some peace in his life, and he lowkey believes that becoming king will retroactively do that or smth he'd need a v well trained and v patient therapist to help him sort out unfortunately lkajsdfkjlsdf

i do think like...it didn't even occur to rian ~to stay honestly??? Lkjasdklfjjsdf like that that was even an OPTION!! like you go to the trials, you fail, you bail!! that's just what you do! lkjasdfjsjdkf but, even that aside, i do think he had this really false impression of domhnall's family built up in his head that was...pr wild, like i feel like they were presented as these great rivals who cheated his dad out of what was his by rights by stealth and deceit and everything else, and even stole away the woman he loved and like forced her to marry him instead etc etc and like???? i dont think the versions of the staffords that existed in rian's head even remotely resembled their real counterparts, like queen lena was a doomed heroine, domhnall was an evil tyrant, the girls were all spoiled, entitled, manipulative brats who took too much after their evil father since their poor virtuous mother was too much a prisoner to ever really raise them etc lkadsjflkjsdfkjlskdjfdsf

so yeah i do def think rian was, as a result, pr rude from the start and like ready for them to betray him and honestly the first time they behaved honorably he probs thought to himself 'like wow this deception really runs deep huh' lakjsdflkjsdf kjlsdkjfjksdf

and then that selfish lil brat stole ~his rightful inheritance away too just like her father had done to his!! where is justice in this country???? NOWHERE!! and he was like 'these poor ppl they need someone to come in and save them' and like...ok the system didn't seem to be ~quite as rigged as his father had said it was in ~his day, rian did observe what appeared to be a really fair process going on, but his dad couldn't have been ~that wrong abt his own ~family right?! so clearly these ppl have all been deceived! and then, sure enough, the next he really encounters eilia, its one of her envoys preaching abt the evils of roderick whose going around doing nothing but liberating ppl from oppressive systems and spreading justice and enlightenment wherever he goes!!

11/16

omg so i wrote everything above this on june 4th and appreantly never came back to finish/post it till now *facepalm* thank god for the comments site bc i legit thought i had!!! alkdjsfkljsdf anyway, so sorry lovely!!

but anyway went back and read your commen tto refresh and got suuuper emo reading abt aria's feelings re: her dad and uncle bc like???? that's not what aria did!!!! she stayed put, she became eilia's closest advisor and companion and the whole theme of duty coming up again and SOB but anyway!!!! laksjdfkljsdjkf

klasdjflkasjdfksdf omg yeah he probs was, i feel like there was the initial surrender by eilia directly to roderick but then, after his whole court was assembled, he probs had some ceremonial nonsense abt it and idk that rian was necessarily there for surrender the first (im still lowkey working out what his part was in the war so i don't wanna commit him anywhere till ive got that figured out ngl but honestly him having helped w the attack on stafford would make a tonnnn of sense since he'd been there etc but also i deffff feel like since he was given lorcan specifically he had smth to do w fighting them etc so??? idk!! but it might also just be that roderick considers lorcan the second most royal place in astaira and rian the second most royal person after himself etc -- idk!) but he was dEF there for surrender the second, no question!!! BAHAHAHA eilia holding aria back by the scruff of the neck like a kitten from commiting public murder tho lkajsdfkljskjfa eilia: 'ppl were noT kidding when they said that family reunions were STRESSFUL' heehee

rian def comes to the palace a good bit!! for one thing, he's honestly super curious abt it since his dad grew up there and all his ancestors lived there and i just knowwwwww he grew up on stories abt it and has read endlessly abt it in all his studies and research etc etc etc (he would give ANYTHING to see the vault of the heavens w his own eyes!!!!!) but also he's def got networking to do at court!!!!! and he's suuuuper bad at it so he needs all the practice he can get!!!! BAHAHAHA no but for real he gotta try!!!! he's still got his eyes on the prize...esp now that he's realizing that roderick rmaybe ~isn't what he once thought kalsdjfkljsfjkdf big whoops my man!!!! l;ajsdfkljsdf

BAHAHAHAHAHA im picturing this pop quiz set up kinda like a debate team and once again the stafford girls are carrying all the weight here BAHAHAHA but yeah in terms of those kinds of facts, i do think rian would also be able to tell you that!!! what he won't be able to do is pronounce ANYTHING you're getting his varmont-accent and he's ??? abt how 'adh' can make a 'uh' kinda sound rather than an 'ahd' sound etc!!!! but he's only ever read these words, never heard them!!!! so he just sounded them out to the best of his ability!!!! so yeah he's out there like butchering his own native tongue, plus he's also seeing all this through the lens of roderick nonsense, like if you ask him an astairan theological question he'll be like 'they believe these demons can protect them' and the astairans like 'THEY'RE CALLED GUARDIANS' but yeah i feel like what he ~can tell you is abt that distant ormond/calleary relations and that banner of the 14th lord etc...if its smth you could read in a book, he knows it. but if its smth you had to experience he does NOT know it lkdsjfakljsdf research is his one (1) talent alksjdfkljsdjfk jk jk (kinda ;D) but anyway that being said i have no doubtttt aria could and woulD kick his ass in this competish!!!! rian: why do these stafford girls keep doing this to me??? lkajsdklfjskjdf

omg noooo but ur soooo right!!! the fact that ~both sides of the family think the ~other side betrayed them!!!! its both laughable and tragic honestly and you know i eat that irony uppppp laksjdfklsdjfakjlsdf

sooooo i think rian is a lil ????? on the question of religion!!! like i think he's effectively agnostic???? sometimes, when he's feeling a lil more romantic he'll be like 'these are spirits/gods' as he looks up at the stars or whatever, but he never quite names them. when just talking abt things, he def calls the guardians demons, but i think he's actually kinda dubious as to whether they ~or even roderick's god even exist???? he was kinda brought up to both believe in and NOT believe in both/either so he's just ??????? but yeah if you ask him he will def be on abt roderick's one god bc he does noT wanna be burned as a heretic!! laksjdfkljsdf but yeah!!! he's deffff hardcore anti-burning ppl for any reason, frankly, ++ i don't think he believes witches actually exist??? (again, he would call them that not seers!) but does think ppl should be able to believe whatever they want!!!! including smth that's a complely different thing from either varmont OR astairan belief!!!! you guys do you!!!! illl do me!!! its great!!! laksjdfkljsdfjk he's def a freedom of thought kinda guy

if we do go w the his-sister-was-burned-as-a-witch then he's even ~more anti burning/cynical abt roderick etc!!!!!!! if he had no sister its still just an ideological thing w/o the even more personal component but yeah!!! either way that is NOT cool w him and honestly??? he wiLL tell you as much even tho he knows that hurts his chances w roderick, its just suchhh a heinous thing he has to be honest abt that one, tho he ~will be carefully how he phrases it bc he's not stupid hahaha

OOC | Rían & Aria

cousin!!!!! awkward meeting this way...jk jk but only bc they met years ago at the ~queensmoot~ where it was even MORE awkward to meet bc he was a ~25 year old getting his ass handed to him by his ~16 year old lil cousin, and getting all his life's hopes crushed under her lil heel in the process alskdjflkdsfj ;DDDDD

no, but this is all v complicated!!!!! i feel like rian is, in theory, an astairan EXPERT!!!!! he's studied every single detail of their culture, history, beliefs his entire life!!!!!! he lives and breathes this stuff!!!! but he's also never, EVER lived here until now and while he may be able to recite every astairan verse ever written, he says it with a varmont accent, and when he dances astairan dances, he does it with the structure and rigidity of instilled by a varmont dancing master, like...he really is in the weirdest position! he's like a scholar of an ancient religion -- you can ask him anything and he knows all the theory!!!!!!!! but he's never experienced any of it and, as a result, he gets a loT of it wrong -- lotsa book smarts, zero street smarts!

anyway, as a result, rian truly believes he'd be great for astaira and that he knows her backwards and forwards but!!! the truth is quite different!!!! and he doesn't really belong here, he doesn't belong in varmont, he doesn't belong ~anyway and he's only just finding that out

anyway, his feelings about the stafford girls are VERY complex!!!!!! on one hand, he was brought up w the ideals of chivalry and such and like!!!!! this is not how you treat ppl!!!!!! and also its a family embarrassment that his kin were declared bastards and he doesn't like that!!!!!! but he also resents them (esp eilia!!!!) for the whole ~queenship thing! he truly believes that he was astaira's best bet and look what happened!!!!!! ~he never would've lost astaira (but then again eilia never would've fed vital info to roderick!!!!!!)

but alsooooooo he threw in w roderick bc he believed what roderick was saying about strength and stability (and bc he wanted revenge shhhh) but then roderick started quite literally burning ppl!!!! and without trials too!!!!!! and so rian's just sat here quite literally going 'my god what have i done' but he sees no way to fix it save to just...keep going and alkjsdkljf SCREAM

[theclosetedskeleton]

some will wood image thingys i made on my pinterest on @theclosetedskeleton

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[miiiwu]

.

[taegularities]

some men are textbook villains fr

[sylphwing]

hm. i do not like chilshi 🤔

[bunnihearted]

.

[chrisbangs]

hello... (and bye ig 👋)

[entropy-sea-system]

need a t shirt that says 'vampire bait' on it

[goldentigerfestival]

I love the vocal nuance in this exchange, but also posting this for my differences posts because this is one of the changes that infuriates me the most. Yuri didn't threaten Ioder, did not threaten him with a weapon, and just said he'd punch him in a lazy, half joking voice (half joking as in, he really doesn't want to hear that - that's just his way of saying so; but that's not the voice of someone who is super angry and threatening).

My other huge grievance is that this is a recurring issue between them in the dub. Yuri is pretty much always vocally rude to Ioder. Ioder has done nothing to wrong him or anyone and has only ever done good for the people where he's able to.

Yet despite Ioder being nothing but sincere, honest and polite with Yuri, in fact even happy to see him here and there, dub Yuri is outright tonally rude to him leading right up this scene where he threatens Ioder in this dark voice. Meanwhile he's actually just supposed to be… lazily telling Ioder he'll punch him in his Yuri Lowell way of saying "I don't want to hear that".

The dub really just wanted to turn Yuri into this dark edgelord and I hate that for my goofy, silly boy.

[feral-radfem]

I'm not going to be tone policed on how I talk about any subject whether it personally affects any of you or not. I am certainly not going to be persuaded to speak more kindly to my oppressors and/or direct political opponents because they are personally affected by the issue I'm talking about.

Some of y'all are letting the female socialization that demands we be kind and considerate at the expense of ourselves (& our social movements) push you right into sugar coating important topics and out of being an effective communicator.

[piplupod]

my brain is so nonsensical, i will see omens in the most mundane shit but then when a dead blackbird appears a little ways away from outside the house i don't even blink

[transmaverique]

gonna be honest I see anyone talking about this "my gender is more complicated than yours" shit as someone who genuinely cannot comprehend that other people that don't share certain traits with them can still in fact have rich interior lives. as an agender trans woman who uses she/her I've never had anyone say it to me who wasn't (usually unknowingly) transmisogynistic

see but im not talking about "rich interior lives" and the assumption that i am is exactly what im talking about. i am talking about the actual physical way that reality treats and percieves me in comparison to the way it treats and percieves you. saying my gender is "more complex" means to me that i am physically incapable of existing in a strictly binary world and that there is no thing i can pass as bc "binary man" and "binary woman" are both incorrect for me. and the Cisiety in question does not allow androgyny to exist - it is exclusively the timeframe people have to decide whether they think you are a cisman or a ciswoman, or a failure and a freak. i dont subscribe to that "binary privilege" shit, thats not how privilege works. but there are differences in the ways both you and i can navigate this strictly binary Cisiety!!! and those differences deserve to be named, imo

like. again. i dont have to comfort you about your own internal sense of gender before youll listen to me about my experiences in the real world as genderqueer. as a different sort of transsexual than you.

(and bc i Know what binary ppl love to say: i know not everyone is 'capable of passing'. what i am talking about specifically is the difference between being unable to pass as a cis woman or a cis man vs being unable to pass bc what i am does not exist AT ALL in a binary society, and both of those things are incorrect ans unattainable.)

(anyways if that language is too imperfect for you thats like fine but. its just confusing to me, i dont get why its hard to understand what we are talking about here. our experiences w our nonbinary genders are completely different! why do i have to discuss them like theyre the same?)

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[fiendishartist2]

guys what if i want to make my own apollo justice game.

[bowtiestash]

dawg im so sick of weirdos on the internet defending really problematic shit and saying "it's fiction" cause like, while i do get where they're coming from, shutting down an argument with it sucks. sure, fiction can be used to explore problematic things, its just that i have an overall issue with how these people expect it to be consumed without any thought at all??

it also doesnt even address the nuance when it comes to this kinda shit (which is why i dont like the pro/anti labels bc wtf do those labels even fucking mean. i hate it)