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charalysis · 2 years ago

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Kratos

WARNING: RAGNAROK SPOILERS

Many folks know Kratos of "God of War", and many were confused and/or delighted by his character in the 2018 game. I however adore his development and will be describing what I see in his story and development as a character/person within the lore.

Starting off, Kratos was born to Callisto and sired by Zeus along with his little brother Deimos. From a young age, Kratos was already experiencing traumatic events that would shape his personality and temper, starting with the abduction of Deimos.

Zeus heard of a prophecy that said "a marked man" would kill him. Seeing his younger son's strange birthmark, he sent Ares and Athena to capture Deimos. Kratos attempted to save and protect his little brother, but was thrown into a wood pile by Ares, which gave him the scar over his right eye. Ares wanted to kill him, but Athena stopped him and apologized to Kratos.

This event left a huge mark on Kratos and he vowed to never falter again. His huge body tattoo is in honor of Deimos, as it is the same shape as Deimos's birthmark. However, as he aged, he would forget exactly what happened to his brother until after Ares's death.

Which brings us to the next part...

During his quest for the Ambrosia, Kratos was unknowingly chosen as Ares's champion in a competition among the gods for it. This would apparently be the beginning of worse trauma for Kratos, as his only intention was to get the Ambrosia to cure his sick daughter, Calliope, who would otherwise be killed by fellow Spartans. It was in this he was named Captain.

(It was also around here he met his future son's namesake, Atreus, whom he immensely respected and buried himself with full Spartan honors.)

Sometime later Kratos was named general and he was usually away from home, destroying all who opposed Sparta and his thirst for conquest and power grew with every victory. (Disclaimer: As much as I love Kratos, he was a HORRIFIC person in early life and in the original trilogy.)

While on these conquests, he was being overpowered by the Barbarian army and their king, who sought Kratos's death for his father's death. In a desperate attempt to get a leg up and win, Kratos called out to Ares and pledged himself to the god in exchange for power. Ares heard, accepted, and granted him the Blades of Chaos.

For awhile, Kratos served loyally, but losing whatever humanity he once had.

Ares sent Kratos eventually to attack and kill some of Athena's followers, however, in secret, the god of war transported Kratos's wife, Lysandra, and their daughter to the temple.

Kratos, in a blind rage, slaughtered everyone in the village and temple, ignoring the warnings of the village oracle. It wasn't until he looked around to check for anyone living that he saw his family, slain by his hand.

Ares's excuse was he wanted to mold Kratos into the "perfect warrior" by removing anything he was sentimental over. Stricken by grief, Kratos left his family's bodies to burn in the temple and renounced his allegiance to Ares. The oracle cursed him to wear the ashes of his dead family in his skin, a reminder of his horrific deeds. Thus was born the Ghost of Sparta.

During the events of the games, Kratos is subjected to a great deal of turmoil, hardship, and even further loss, being forced to kill his mother, watched his brother be crushed against a cliff side, and was repeatedly betrayed and used by other gods and the Titans.

Now, psychologically speaking, this all would be enough to drive a person over the edge and attempt to end their life, which the first game starts with. Kratos falling from a cliff to die.

It is all also enough to drive a person into a blind fury and crave justice. However, Kratos acts on vengeance rather than justice, and he cares very, very little who's in his way as he goes about trying to eliminate the gods who betrayed and used him. He will, and does, kill any who stand in his way, allies or no. He is a man possessed by grief, hurt, and anger.

The former of those emotions, though, are not explored until 2018's God of War.

By then, he is around 1,064 years old, 1,020 some odd years after the downfall of Olympus and it's pantheon at his hands. He's met and married Faye and had Atreus.

He is significantly calmer, though no less harsh. He does all he can to bury his past, going so far as to once try to get rid of the Blades of Chaos (which we learn left brands in his arms), but they apparently came back, as he says in Ragnarok.

Unfortunately, until Atreus is 11 years old, Kratos stays away from Faye and their son due to trying to control his anger better. Because of this, he struggles to connect with his son, mostly calling him "boy" throughout the 2018 game. It often seems as though he doesn't care about his son, being incredibly harsh and shutting down the kid's emotions, snapping regularly, and often implying Atreus isn't good enough.

However, we clearly see his love for Atreus in the moment Atreus is unconscious after the first solo confrontation with Modi. His son his dying and pale, very sick... He terrified for his little boy.

This is also where we see his PTSD around losing his first family rear its head. As he's on the lift to Freya's, he's breathing quickly and shallowly, and he even paces. Anxiety is visibly eating away at him, because if he loses his son, he's lost another child, and he cannot handle that.

Kratos seems reluctant to get close to Atreus for that very reason, but he cares deeply for his son, as he did for everyone he's loved. He destroyed gods in the name of his loved ones murders, even if it was he who made the blow (which he blames himself for anyway).

It would seem he is also reluctant to outright call people friends. The couple we see him outright refer to as such in Ragnarok is Brok and Freya, although he clearly cares about Mimir and Sindri too.

By Ragnarok, Kratos is a much softer man in comparison to who he used to be. He craves time with his son, opens up to Freya about his daughter, he's enforcing healthy boundaries with people, and by the end, he's expressing his emotions more openly. He's smiling a bit here and there, he's chuckling, and he's letting himself cry. He's finally healed somewhat from his traumatic past.

So, what are we taking from Kratos here?

What we see in his story, like him or not, is a man who was riding high, living a good life by his standards, and gaining power. We see this man making mistake after mistake, and suffering the consequences. We see him trying to control things out of his control, and losing more and more of his humanity as he digs himself deeper into the hole he's dug.

Kratos's tale is one about a man who seeks revenge, gets it tenfold, loses everything, and has to rebuild his life and himself from the beginning. He's put himself in a shitty situation and he has no one he can blame but himself by the 2018 release. He's got no one to be furious with besides himself...

This isn't even getting into his PTSD overall, or his self-loathing!

PTSD wise, he has severe anxiety over losing his child, as we mentioned earlier, however, such events make him recall Athena, thus calling back to his past when he last felt truly awful. He also has anxiety over being told to "just shut up and kill things", as told to him by Freya in Ragnarok while in Vanahiem. He then stated back to her that he is no ones tool and he would appreciate if she did not ever say that shit to him again.

His self hate presents itself in the 2018 game too, with the vision of Athena. "Athena" tells him he can't change and he's nothing but a monster. And he AGREES with her. He believes he's nothing good, and that's heartbreaking...

TL;DR: Kratos is an extremely damaged man with severe temper problems, but he eventually changed for the better.

#god of war #gow ragnarok #gow ragnarök spoilers #kratos #atreus #freya #god of war 2018 #god of war 2005 #deimos #character analysis #kratos critical #critical

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xnervouscircus · 2 years ago

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i didn't know if i was gonna bother watching shadow & bone s2 since general reviews were basically: "it's CRAP" but watched it on a whim this week and am mostly happy with it actually

preface that i only read the og grisha trilogy and haven't read the crow books or whatever the heck came next that i think starred nikolai? so i only vaguely remember the story of alina and co and know little to nothing about the jurda parem storyline and where it's going and who will be involved or at least was involved in the books

but man. just from the perspective of someone who was immensely displeased with the ending of the grisha trilogy: I LOVE THIS ENDING. they fixed my biggest beefs with the og ending, and up until the very last scene i was like "ah still a shame alina never went darkside though" aND THEN THEY WENT AND SAID "BITCH SHE MIGHT" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE IT

in the books i haaaaated the implication that mal and alina were only together bc of ~destiny~ and they were only drawn to each other by the firebird power and even after knowing that, they didn't question it at all and were just like, "welp the universe tossed us together so guess this is it for us huh." so not only do i love show!mal more in general--they fixed up his personality so much and made me actually mostly like malina--but i wanted to kiss him on the mouth for being the one to bring up the whole destiny thing and give themselves a chance to figure out who they are without it. and i wanted to kiss alina on the mouth for accepting and understanding it. i would absolutely not hate malina being endgame in this universe the way i hated it in the books.

though i'm confused if alina is still engaged to nikolai now? she gave the ring back to him a while ago so i figured that was the end of it, but at the end the apparat made it sound like the betrothal was still on, and alina was wearing that very elaborate tiara/crown and stood beside nikolai at his coronation so. nikolina still possible?

though i will say that i really didn't feel any chemistry between them in the show and they were portrayed much more as friends than potential love interests. honestly i loved it. love triangles are exhausting enough, having to deal with 3 potential love interests in the trilogy was just. blaaaargh. as much as i loved nikolina in the books, i was kind of happy that i felt nothing for them in the show and it seemed like i wasn't supposed to. they really just came across as allies doing their best for the country, friends at most. there were a few moments that kiiiiind of came across as potential romance, but there was nothing to make me be like "fuck yeah nikolina." since they made mal 2.0 so much better, i genuinely enjoyed not seeing nikolai as legitimate love interest material lmao. but i could be into it in the future if there's a s3 and they decide to go that route.

i was worried the condensed storyline would be crap since i knew they were apparently putting all of books 2 & 3 into this season, alongside whatever the crows would be doing, but it worked so much better than what i vaguely remember of the books. book 3 was pretty much all meaningless page filler of the group being trapped underground and then going on a completely pointless hike to look for the firebird, so i'm glad they cut all that out. i liked the addition of the blade, if only to expand the world more and show us another living saint--go be besties with her alina. and really the best parts of both s1 and s2 were the crows. sorry i haven't read your books guys but y'all are the best. i fuckign love inej and nina and of course my gay little heart was so very happy with jesper and wylan and wesper.

(i do mostly like kaz, he's clever and witty and really cares about his crows, but sometimes he's just a bit too edgelord for me. i kinda like kanej but at the same time i think inej deserves a hell of a lot of happiness and kanej is just all angst all the time and after 2 full seasons of it i'm kinda over it lol. i was honestly super into that extremely brief hint of . . . inya? tolej? lmao. but yeah tolya/inej honestly sounds amazing to me. ofc i hope kaz can deal with his trauma and be more open--not even in regards to touch necessarily, but just be less consumed with grief and revenge in general. but his whole life is shaped around it and inej has dealt with enough shit and i just want her to be able to laugh and have some genuine fun, ya know??)

it wasn't perfect, and a lot of the dialogue made me cringe (i'm still facepalming but also laughing over that one scene where some grisha girl started saying, "i'd hoped--" and seemed like she was just gonna say some bland thing like i'd hoped this would be over or even just i'd hoped i'd get to sleep in an actual bed tonight but the darkling interrupted her with this completely angsty and overdramatic monologue about hope LMAO CALM DOWN EDGELORD IT WASN'T THAT DEEP). but overall i thought it was good! s1 was better but s2 made a lot of improvements to the books and i appreciate that they were willing to deviate and take risks to try to make a better story.

what i loved the absolute most wasn't just that they changed her love story, i loved that they changed the entire ending of alina's story. because the trilogy ending for her was TRASH. a woman becomes the most powerful person in the world, comes to embrace and revel in her power, but her endgame love interest won't stop sulking about it so guess she's gotta lose all her power and suddenly want nothing more than a quiet life on a farm. LMAO WHAT. it was absolutely infuriating and still is almost 20 years later lmao. having her stay in the capital and plan to actually help the country she worked so hard and sacrificed so much to save makes infinitely more sense; sure, at the beginning of the trilogy she wished she wasn't grisha or the sun summoner, but she comes to love the power and the realization that she can save ravka with it. as far as i remember, once she embraces it, she never wishes it away again. so it just felt grossly unfeminist and lame to take her power away in the trilogy and pretend that actually she secretly desired being no one in the middle of nowhere just raising a bunch of orphans. nope, that was just not alina.

so i am LIVING for her still having her power (though i'm not sure if she's got all that fully amplified power or she's basically reset to pre-amplifiers power after destroying the fold? i wish they'd cleared that up) and continuing to follow her dream to reunite ravka and make a more peaceful world for the grisha, rather than just run away with her endgame boy ugh.

BUT WHAT I'M LIVING FOR THE MOST WAS WATCHING HER FINALLY DO THE CUT AND REVEAL THAT SHE'S GOT SHADOW MAGIC NOW AND RATHER THAN BEING SCARED OR DISGUSTED BY WHAT SHE'D DONE SHE WAS FUCKING RELISHING IT

DARKLINA LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

(i just mean that in a dark alina sense, though i would not at all be opposed to the darkling coming back to life and making couple darklina a thing lmao)

do i believe they'll actually make her go anywhere near actually dark? no. do i believe her endgame boy will be anyone but mal? no. do i believe they won't ultimately have her story end the same as in the trilogy? not really tbh. but at least there's some possibility here and it could turn out really interesting, or at least more satisfying than the og trilogy.

so yeah i hope s3 gets the green light. at the very least, i'd definitely love to have more of the crows.

#shadow and bone #spoilers

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fanworldbuildingfun · 2 years ago

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Blorbo with hijacker blorbo

Good point! I think I should point out, though, that Basim’s weapon of choice is classified as one-handed sword

(more accurately though, it’s a scimitar – a version of which you also show Altaїr using in the screens. Except for some reason Altaїr’s looks more like a later-version sabre? Then again, there were lots of variations… And apparently the one Basim uses is labeled as “fantasy”, lol)

So it makes sense that the way they use it may be similar. Honestly, the biggest difference in the use, I think, would be played by the weight of the weapons they are using

The scimitar both Basim and Hytham use is pretty sizeable, and would weight accordingly. Resting the blade across shoulders like this would remove some of the weight off arms, so it’s not part of showing off that Loki did

And yeah, it may be down to game mechanic that they use the same fighting style – but I’m a sucker for lore and thus will put it down to Hytham being Basim’s student. I’ve found some pretty good screens

Source here There would be no speedy attacks with the other hand here, though - thus the bladed arm is kept away. To avoid damaging the pre-Altaїr blade (and now I also get why both Hytham and, to a lesser degree, Basim disapproved of Eivor’s stylistic choices)

Sidebar:

Could this discrepancy in Altaїr’s fighting style be down to the fact the memories we see are experienced by Ezio? Something akin to how Eivor interpreted the events of Ragnarok through the lens of their experience and beliefs. So there was a level of personal bias to how the events are interpreted

About Ezio’s Levantine Brotherhood Mannerisms:

Speaking of Altaїr ordering Brotherhood to build branches… I think this is where we hit the issue of Layla trilogy interfering with older games. Because if we take Origins and Valhalla into consideration – then Altaїr’s people would be re-establishing the branches, rather than creating them from scratch. After all, one of the oldest Hidden Ones bureaus has been started in Rome, by Aya. And her branch has spread all across Roman Empire

And then we got a re-fresher with Altaїr

But it looks like it took differently? Because while Ezio demonstrates some similarities with Levantine branch, Aguilar is actually more similar to Hidden Ones!

He is pretty free with his gestures, and the only nod we see to Masyaf is the way his finger has been removed (2/3 of Hidden Ones vs full of Levant). Bonus point, though? Aguilar is a leftie!

In the rest of media we see our blade wielding characters favoring left hand for Hidden Blade use. Rest of weapons are used with their other - presumably dominant - hand. Which I’m guessing reflects Hidden Blade’s use as off-hand weapon?

I mean. So far from the screens I’ve gone through the count of righties vs lefties is:

Right-handed (blade on left hand): Bayek, Aya, Roshan, Hytham, Basim, Eivor, Altaїr, Ezio (pre-upgrade), Hytham Kenway, Ratonhnhaké:ton, Arno Dorian, Jacob and Evie Frye,

Left-Handed (blade on right hand): Darius, Aguilar, Edward Kenway, Aveline de Grandpré

Ambidexterous (either not shown being restricted to one blade, or switch in between games): Desmond Miles (blade on left hand in AC1, ACII, AC Brotherhood, right hand in Revelations), Adewale, Shay Cormac (art either alternates, or shows both)

I'm pretty sure I missed people out here ¯_(ツ)_/¯ But point is. Apparently there are Rules against where the blade goes, though I'm fairly sure with Ezio pushing forward Altaїr's mods, ambidexterity became more prevalent. Given that the blades became sturdier and could now be used for blocking

I do think that would have led to etiquette changes, though. Say, left hand pressed to any vulnurable part of body being taken as sight of trust (as normally that's the hand with blade). Ambidexterous people being viewed oddly (at least before Renauissance time), since they would be technically both deadlier and more vulnurable. That kind of thing (Except you Desmond, why you switch hands in middle of your series)

To go with the glove kink ask... Imagine Desmond AND the team ending up in Altaїr's time. They do relatively well. But what gives them away at the end is Desmond winding down and defaulting to the general etiquette of someone who habitually wears a hidden blade. A peculiar hand movement there, a habitual gesture there... And neither Rebecca nor Shaun even realized that was a thing happening. Meanwhile Desmond: *is melting from joy of subconscious desire fulfilment*

The “Desmond has a glove kink” ask that influenced this.

And the one who noticed it is an old informant who works as a stall owner. Shaun loves the tea leaves he sells so Desmond gets to go and buy them regularly because Shaun and Rebecca are still trying to get a firm grasp on the languages during the 3rd Crusades (and there’s a lot) while Desmond is heavily relying on his Bleed of Altaïr.

And it’s because of this that the informant noticed his usual posture and a lot of his hand movements to specifically be of Levantine Brotherhood origin, down to the way he always liked to hide his left hand unless he was sure that no one would notice a missing ring finger (and the informant is always surprised to remember that he has all five of his fingers).

And that informant sends word to Masyaf because it’s too strange. A man with the mannerism of an Assassin but not an Assassin?

Something was off.

And who gets ordered to check this strange man?

Altaïr before that fateful year when he failed in saving Adha.

Altaïr before the attack on Masyaf where he singlehandedly saved Al Mualim.

Altaïr before he became a Master Assassin, just as curious but less arrogant than he would become years later.

Altaïr with a face that looked too much like Desmond's that it could not be counted as a coincidence.

#Assassin's Creed #Hidden Blade #Hidden Blade gauntlet kink #Hidden Blade etiquette #Assassin Culture #Hidden One Culture #I barely resisted adding a really good Hytham pic #I'll just reblog it instead

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m0r1bund · 3 years ago

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[Image: A sketch page of some sort of space marine lookin’ gal gone monster. She’s top-heavy with big ‘ol claws, like a werewolf, but if a werewolf had her face fused with a gas mask and a bunch of cybernetics. frayed wires and tubes dangle from her head, neck, spine, and ribs, forming a motile mane. In one drawing she wears a duster full of bulletholes that’s a few sizes too short for her, brandishing an oversized pistol with a blade attached to it.

Accompanying her is a research assistant who looks friendly enough, if a bit in over her head. She’s tall, lightly armored, and wears her hair up in a wavy ponytail. She seems to be much more ‘analog’ than her cohort, wearing glasses and a relatively simple prosthetic leg.

In another drawing, the R.A. holds her hat over her head, shielding herself from the rain. She shares a moment with the soldier, apparently before her transformation;

R.A.: God I miss my mom. You ever miss your folks, chief?

Chief: I was grown in a vat. ]

◆

*plastering my deranged little drawings on the wall* I Can Explain.

So a ~week ago, I had a dream about this Warhammer 40k-ass space marine who saves the life of a scrawny little research assistant, but pays the ultimate price and gets infected with the Diseases and the Sicknesses, which turn her into a shambling biomechanical monster. But the two of them are in love! And they are saved through the power of love, and also the power of dodging the draft.

Somehow, this activated the part of my brain that has lain dormant since I was like 9 years old, when I’d use my brother’s copy of WH40k: Dawn of War to act out trilogy-length adventure stories. I’ve been thinking a Normal Amount about these two women and drawing shitty little comics ever since.

◆

I guess since this is the first doodle in the batch it would be good to introduce these two.

The Chief is like… She’s exactly what you’d expect from someone who has been groomed from birth to be a living weapon for an imperial regime. She has a lot of deprogramming to do. But she’s remarkably agreeable and even pretty well-intentioned, if you can get past the gruff exterior and the bonkers yonkers internal moral code that was drilled into her. Really, you get the sense that something in her is pushing back against all this, despite every effort to wire her otherwise…

The R.A. comes from a podunk little desert planet. Its people are so “backwards” and “uncivilized,” the land so “hostile,” that the extent of their relationship with the Empire is a yearly tithe that they forget to collect most years. This is, of course, code for “people who live in a desert in a non-sessile way that doesn’t align with settler expectations, and as fortune would have it, they’re spared the strife of ‘civilization’ in their invisibility and the perceived uselessness of their lands.”

The rest of the deployment considers her a luddite from a backwater shithole. She’s fine with this. In reality, she’s a polymath at heart, and is a talented mechanic, engineer, and general techie. She just happens to know enough about the Empire that she does Not want their technology anywhere near her body, thank you! Sometimes she feels like the only one in the universe who has gone outside and touched grass, and it’s driving her banana sandwich. But she’s not about to tell the shambling instruments of war called her coworkers that there’s, like, actual plants and stuff back home. That would be bad.

Well, maybe she’d tell one person. But only if she asks really really nicely.

#my lot in life is every couple of years i just recreate nihil and creosote #chief tag #(sighs my lungs out completely)#Chief and the R.A. tag #maila reyes tag #research associate tag

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liesonthefloordramatically · 3 years ago

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A wild 2021 recap post appears!

Stuff I made this year:

Fiction: The only fic I posted this year was the wildly underrated a flower blooming, in reverse. Y’all, I know a reverse chronology genfic about C-PTSD is a hard sell but, like, it’s good?? Anyway, go tell a genfic author that you love their fic for me.

Playlists: Some favorites: Camp Howling Ground (a soundtrack for our first Sleepaway campaign), Styx (a playlist for my player character in my second Sleepaway campaign), Stop calling me, Josh (a playlist for when Josh won’t stop calling you), sonic landscapes: pandemic video games edition (sometimes you just need some background listening). I actually made more than this, but I keep forgetting to post them. Oh well.

RPGs: Finally finished and posted Speak Through Me! Play my weird little game about mediated spirit possession! I’m also super proud of The Extra Camper, which has some of the most evocative horror writing I’ve done?

Knitting: made two shawls and two scarves and am currently finishing the torso of baby’s first sweater!

Other stuff: Baby’s first edited volume chapter got published! Finished two dissertation chapters with a third on the way! Presented at a conference! Guest lectured maybe too many times! Taught the best class ever! Somehow managed to survive year two of the pandemic!

Media I enjoyed this year:

Books: Fiction recs for this year are The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud (genuinely made me cry) and Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke. Non-fiction recs are Healing Labor by Gabrielle Koch and Jesus Loves Japan by Suma Ikeuchi. The latter, especially, is SO readable and lovely, I’m really in awe. Also not my first time reading them, but I reread both The Underland Chronicles and The Bartimaeus Trilogy this year and they frickin’ SLAP; teen Queenie had such good taste but also rereading them was truly the mortifying ordeal of being known.

RPGs: I really enjoyed Our Traveling Home, Oh Maker!, and The Quiet Year. Honorable mentions to Pilgrimage to the Center of the Earth and Alice Is Missing. Also ran really good campaigns of Sleepaway and Blades in the Dark (although I’d played both before).

Video games: In no particular order: Outer Wilds, Persona 3 Portable, Deltarune, Hades, Tales of Berseria. Outer Wilds and Persona 3 Portable have both permanently occupied space in my brain--sometimes I think about them and just stare into the middle distance. I have a narrative type, okay??

Manga/comics: I think JJL was the only thing I read this year...

Fanfic: Okay, time for the regularly scheduled wall of text. In no particular order: Come Together (JJBA:VA), what is living is burning and none of this will bring disaster (JJBA:SDC), Firefly (P3P), this river runs to you (MDZS), Eleuseos (JJBA:SDC), Why Worry (JJBA:SBR), best friends forever (MDZS), from yesterday comes tomorrow (JJBA), and RE: thesis defense issue (FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion Of Your Thesis Defense). Special nods to The Best Worst Case Scenario (My Hero Academia) and Sleeping Lessons (Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty) for being fics for source material I know little to nothing about that were still emotionally engrossing enough to make this list.

Films: literally have not watched a single movie since January 2020. Might be time to retire this category. >.>

TV: TGCF and Stone Ocean!

Podcasts: Continued listening to a bonkers number of podcasts. Some highlights: In Strange Woods (I have listened to this all the way through twice and cried both times), The Strange Case of Starship Iris, Old Gods of Appalachia, and Keeping It 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion. Special nod to Keep It Steady, which only has one episode so far, but I have already listened to it twice.

Music: Apparently my top song of the year was Dessa’s “Life on Land,” which is unsurprising to me. Spotify won’t let me view my full Wrapped because it’s only available for mobile users (boo), but my guess is that Yorushika is my top artist of the year. It was another weird year for listening--I was commuting the last four months of the year (so started listening to albums again), but then wound up either listening to older stuff I already had or podcasts. And then on my desktop it was a combination of listening to playlists or chaos looping a single song for weeks on end. For example, “Magnolia” was apparently my second most listened song this year, which can almost certainly be blamed on a combination of it being on my playlist for a flower blooming AND looping it for a couple of weeks while I edited my diss.

Anyway, あけおめ！！！良��お年を！！！

#Queenie actually says something on this blog #a wild annual recap appears #(finally making a tag for these instead of my regular chaos)

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hungarianbee · 4 years ago

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Way of the Witcher: bits of lore

Disclaimer: Post contains spoilers to the Witcher games These things may be canon-typical, but the following trigger warnings apply if you want to check out the cards: gore, monster dismemberment, needles, body horror, insects and spiders

“In a world plagued by horrors and monstrosities humanity desperately needed a new type of weapon to turn back the tide. Created by ingenious Alzur, witchers — professional monster slayers of exceptional strength, speed, and agility were tasked to end the threat once and for all. Organized into different schools they honed their craft and passed their knowledge onto novices in training. Some of them were destined to become the legendary heroes and protectors of humanity. Others — the very thing they were supposed to fight…”

Since the gwent expansion was anounced I followed it with rapt attention; every bit of lore is a gem in my eyes. I decided to write down my thoughts of the cards and lore pieces revealed in a post. Share that knowledge around, amirite?

The post references Gwent cards which were leaked (2020 november-december). The theme is mutation and everything that comes with it; namely sweet-sweet lore of the lesser known witcher schools: the Bears, Cats, Vipers and Griffins.

Tucker in, under the cut there is 4.5k analysis of each card that came out.

We’re starting with a theme, then work our way throught the 4 schools (each contain the following: a leader, a mentor, an adept, a general witcher, a specific job, an item, a school relevant monster, 2 known witchers and a location), then go through a Witcher 1 throwback, Salamandra, and round it with a few new monsters and neutral cards.

While I describe most of the cards concisely and all the known witchers and locations are on my blog, you might want to look the cards in their (small) glory: [DO IT HERE]

Sounds good? Here we go!

Edit: [this source is better]

The theme is mutation - be it monsters created by transmutation, witchers or salamadra

If that is true, there are monster cards that seemingly stand out: the Succubus and the Phooca

If we are to believe that they do connect to the mutation theme, then

(1) we can conclude that Phoocas (a rare, and more dangerous form of Nekkers; they can pull your head off by sheer force, watch out) are a natural mutation of the original species,

(2) but we’re still left with the Succubi (an inherently demonic creature). They might have chosen it because of its appearance: succubi have horns and goat-like legs. (Note: in the graphic novel “House of Glass” the succubus character has wings, but lacks hooves. In that sense, she could be mutated.)

Breaking it down into factions/schools (some of the cards can be paired up; these cards are interpreted together):

School of the Viper: starting with the vipers, because they are my favourite

Viper Witcher Mentor & Viper Witcher Adept: the flavour text says that the Viper mentors are exceptionally cold and ruthless, and that’s underlined by the story the art tells: the mentor busies himself with sharpening a blade, and in the background we can see the adept attempting to kill his best friend goat, as was ordered. The mentor watches this from the corner of his eye. Young Vipers are to kill their pets (which they nurtured for years) before becoming a fully-fledged witcher. The latter could mean that the boy depicted on the card hasn’t even gone through the Trial of Grasses.

Viper Witcher: On the card we see an unknown Viper crouching over a royalty he killed. I feel like this type of card is meant to represent what we think a general Witcher of said school would be like. Apparently Vipers just like to slay the nobility *shrug*. The flavour text informs us, that Vipers call their two swords “fangs”, and that their style consists of fast and furious attack aimed to overwhelm the enemy.

Viper Witcher Alchemist: Every school has a specialty; Vipers are proficient in potion or poison making. The right side of the alchemist’s face seems to have healed burn marks; a blown up concoction might have caused it.

Ivar Evil-Eye: So far there’s little to know about Ivar. He was either the Master of the Viper Keep, or the founder himself (gwent suggests the latter). He’s described as heavily scarred (facial scars suggests burns and slash marks too), and each of them has a terrible story to tell.

Warritt the All-Seeing: Warritt is a (newly introduced) Viper with heavy disfiguration to the upper part of his face: his eyes are sealed shut (possibly by burn marks, though his hair remains intact). The art shows Warritt drawing a modified version of the Supirre sign in the air to help with his loss of sight. As the wiki says: “Supirre is a Sign used for eavesdropping. Drawn on a solid surface, it allows the people near this surface to listen nearby conversations which would be normally inaudible due to the distance or background noise.” It was only used in Sapkowsky’s second volume of the Hussite trilogy (not yet translated to English), which is entirely separate from the Witcher novels.

Kolgrim: Fate laughed at this Viper. As a kid he was swapped by a weeper, saved by a witcher, than rejected by his own mother who believed that the fake child was the real one. Later, as a grown witcher Ivar instructed him to find a lost weapon diagram. On his journey he was accused - ironically - in White Orchard of kidnapping a child. Invoking a Temerian law, Kolgrim was told to cleanse their crypt (as seen on the card) then he can go. The truth is revealed in Witcher 3 - Kolgrim was beheaded by the villagers before he could even step into the crypt. To add insult to injury: the child was eaten by a drowner. The gwent card therefore shows the optimistic outcome: that Kolgrim reached the crypt and passed in battle. And what’s up with a crypt full of wraiths anyway? White Orchard is shady, guys. (Lil’ trivia: Kolgrim’s eyes are yellow-green.)

Vypper: Basically an overgrown snake that likes damp marshes (they even fight the local kikimores for territory). They only relate to the mutation theme by their nature - they resemble the “school’s animal”.

Gorthur Gvaed: The Bloodgate Keep is located in the chasms of the Tir Tochair mountains. It’s built so high were you to look down from the bridge leading into the keep, you would only see fog (one could wonder how the vipers trained in these conditions). The bridge is made so that you’d have to cross the lookout tower - it might have served as a check in spot. The post itself is circled by the stone coils of a snake; the top is open and has a huge lit bonfire in the middle for warmth-keeping and possibly signaling. Unluckily, it didn’t stop the Usurper’s army from destroying the keep.

Coated Weapons: They leaned heavily into the alchemy and assassin side of the school. Vipers coat their blades with an acidic liquid, so they can kill a man with a nick of it.

School of the Cat:

Cat Witcher Mentor & Cat Witcher Adept: On the adept card we can see a young Cat walking the tightrope blindfolded (they start with close to the ground and slowly increase the distance with time); the mentor is looking up at him. Like the Vipers, Cat mentors are nonchalant about risking the kids as seen from the flavour text: “If you fall, it’s over. Your nine lives are up, kid.” Furthermore, the background of the Cat Witcher Adept card shows the not yet destroyed Stygga Citadel. The Cat Witcher Mentor is in the same scene and we can see lots of potatoes and cabbages; cats definitely eat their veggies.

Cat Witcher: The card shows a Cat in the heat of battle mid-jump; his hood is up, blood is flying everywhere. The flavour text emphasizes that cats are known for their mad bloodlust, not stopping killing even after the enemy capitulated.

Cat Witcher Saboteur: A Cat perches next to the window, a smoking bomb in hand, eavesdropping on nobles. A rope is hung from somewhere out of the pic, possibly for a quick exit. Vesemir comments that these are many-a deeds the cats did that taint the reputation of witchers.

Gezras of Leyda: Gezras is a not yet known redheaded Cat witcher. Following the pattern he seems to be the founder of the Cat School. His flavour text shows that even back then (when the mutagens made Cats emotionless) they were inclined to dislike humans: “Take a contract from Aen Seidhe over a dh’oine any day, as you’re far less likely to receive a knife between the ribs in place of coin.”

Brehen: Now this cat embodies the Cat madness. He’s known as the Cat of Iello because he massacred everyone there. He was consequently shunned by all the schools, and he was even convinced that Vesemir put a kill order on his head. He met Geralt later in the 1240s on his way to claim the bounty for the princess. Thinking that Geralt was there to rob him of his chance of the bounty, Brehen took a priestess as hostage (this is what we see on the gwent card). Geralt managed to convince him to put away the blade, and they parted without crossing blades. When meeting with the striga he scoffed into her face that “she won’t be his first royal”. But his luck ran out. The Temerians buried him and fabricated the story of a cowardly witcher stealing their coin. I’m halfway convinced we see Brehen in the netflix series.

Gaetan: This boy broke into the fandom like a bulldozer. After the folks in Honorton cheated him of his pay and tried to kill him, Gaetan flew into rage and killed everyone there except Millie, a girl who reminded him of his sister. That’s the scene we see on the card. And then Geralt robs/kills him.

Saber-Tooth Tiger (Stealth): Another huge animal/monster related to the school. It’s story is this: “The prized possession of royal menagerie, until a commando of Scoia’tael assaulted the exhibition, released the beast, and set it upon its cruel masters. Since that day, it has acquired a selective taste for human flesh.” Another cat turning against humans.

Stygga Castle: An outside view of what we already saw on the Cat Witcher Adept card. It’s located on a cliff, and the sun shines into it just right (so that the Cats can bask in the light). The walls form a circle where they shelter the inner grounds, and a bigger tower emerges in the middle. The Castle could be reached by the thin bridge connecting it to the mainland, or by the cliffs (if one is brave enough).

Making a Bomb: Cats seem to have a specialty in bombs. Guess where Lambert got his interest from *winkwink*

School of the Griffin: lots of pairs in this one

Griffin Witcher Mentor & Griffin Witcher Adept: Compared to the other schools, this pairing is tame - the adept is climbing a tree to retrieve a crossbow bolt. We can see the mentor in the background. On the mentor card the adept waves down with the retrieved crossbow bolt in hand. It shows a kind of comradeship that’s not present in the other 3 schools. The flavour text emphasizes the importance of knowledge. Students are afforded to choose their final Trial: recite the entire Liber Tenebrum (Book of Shadows; one of Keldar’s favourite books) or steal a griffin’s egg. Noone’s chosen the former.

Griffin Witcher: The witcher is shown shooting down a griffin. According to the flavour text they prefer hunting with silver-tipped arrowheads instead of swords.

Archgriffin & Griffin Witcher Ranger: On the Griffin Ranger card we see the witcher crouching over track marks. On the archgriffin card he found the albino (or very old) monster, who’s already killed someone (probably a lumberjack, judging by the axe). According to the flavour text, Griffin Witchers are trained to be professional trackers; nothing can stop them to reach their prey. Even though archgriffins are considered the embodiment of courage, loyalty and fighting spirit, the gwent card corrects the notion that the Griffin Witcher were named after the monster. In truth, they got the name in honour of their founder’s mentor, a knight named Gryphon.

Erland of Larvik: Continuing the trend, Erland is the founder of the Griffin School (one of the two that are confirmed 100%). He’s from the first generation of witcher, mutated by Alzur himself. After the Order began fracturing he had a confrontation with Arnaghan (who’ll be the founder of the bear school). Arnaghad almost killed one of his brothers, slashed Erland across the face then parted ways with the Order and left Morgraig Castle with his own group. Seeing that the the remaining witchers couldn’t go on like that, he grabbed his 13 best friend and left to Kaer Seren, where (after purging it from spectres) he founded the Griffin School which focused on magic, preparedness and flexibility. His teaching emphasized knightly values (mimicking his long-dead mentor, a knight named Gryphon) in hopes that it would make future witchers’ life easier. It didn’t.

Coen & Keldar: The cards are mainly connected by background. Coen is finished killing what appears to be an albino arachas (but it’s definitely an insectoid), while Keldar’s taking notes. We can rightly assume that he’s updating their bestiary, since he’s one of the teachers/mentors who focus on gathering and sharing knowledge. Coen’s flexibility shows in the flavour text: “There is no such thing as a fair fight. Every advantage and every opportunity that arises is used in combat.” Not very knightly, is it?

Kaer Seren: The “Star Keep” Erland and his friends fled to. It was used by the Order’s mages to mutate witchers (that’s why it was haunted by spectres). It’s located at the edge of the Dragon mountains by the sea between Poviss and Kovir. It’s said to possess the great library, which later mages tried to get for themselves. They messed up: by bringing down an avalanche on the Keep, that knowledge was destroyed. The keep was badly damaged and many witchers died.

Target Practice: The Griffin School’s specialty is their precise aim - they “can split an apple in two from a hundred paces”.

School of the Bear:

Bear Witcher Mentor & Bear Witcher Adept: The adept card shows that young witcher are taught to catch fish by hand (just like their school relevant animal). On the mentor card the elder witcher leads a group of younglings in the mountains; possibly out to teach tracking. The cards are connected by flavour text. The young Bear witcher-would-be’s need to complete the Trial of the Mountain, which consists of them climbing Mount Gorgon (also known as the Devil Mountain; it is the highest peak of the Amell range) to retrieve a runestone. The Trial often ends with the kids frozen to death. The Bear Mentor card’s flavour confirms it: “If you’re unsure of the way, just keep a lookout for markers - the frozen corpses of would-be witchers.” This sounds ominous - don’t they collect their fallen?

Bear Witcher: Bears are solitary hunters as seen in the flavour text: “life alone can be tough”. The witcher in the pic just dismembered what looks like a ghoul (with a tail?).

Bear Witcher Quartermaster: This one I like. The Quartermaster is an amputee (missing one of his arms, which was taken by a bear; must have won that fight one-handed), yet they still found a job for him where he can be useful. His flavour text suggest he likes Mahakam mead.

Arnaghad: The founder of the Bear School, he never felt kinship with his fellow witchers. After attacking a witcher named Rhys over a contract, wounding him deeply from shoulder to waist, he returned to Morgraig, attacked Erland then left with his possé to found the Bear School - Haern Caduch - in the Amell Mountains. Later he almost died in a betrayal, which resulted in another schism and the foundation of the Viper School.

Gerd: Gerd’s a legendary witcher who fled to Skellige after allying with a Usurper instead of his daughter, who later issued a warrant for his arrest. He has a busy time in Skellige: first slaying a dragon, befriending the Jarl Torgeir, killing a bunch of sirens, losing so many weapon diagrams you wouldn’t believe, losing half his pay and silver sword on gwent, escaping Nilfgaard and managing to slay a striga, killing some of his pursuers, only to be caught up in the siege of Torgeir’s castle, where he died in the ruins. On the card he’s showing Bear-typical strength: he’s tearing apart a siren with his bear hands.

Junod of Belhaven: Junod had a dubious background, but was thought to be the child of a brave dwarf and a giantess. He’s a huge man, with a big bushy beard and bald head. His sobriquet is false; he took it after Ivo, because he liked the ring of it. He was known as a strict haggler and a bit of a gambler. In 1243 he took a contract in hopes of cash (he wanted to forge the Grandmaster Ursine Armour). The subterranean monster was said to live in the caverns. Junod drew bear signs and wrote a warning on the wall (this is the scene we see on the card). He was however ill-prepared; the beast turned out to be a shaelmaar (a type of relic Gaetan slew once) that killed him in that very cavern.

Dire Bear: Once again related to the school in question, the Dire Bear is stuck with so much weaponry that it looks like a walking armory. Lots of witchers must have tried to slay it, yet it still kicks - just like Bear Witchers, it’s resilient till the very end.

Haern Caduch: Built into the side of the Amell Mountains, it’s the coldest environment of all the schools. As with the other schools, the Bears were forced out of it due to folk riots. It was left in disrepair to be buried under snow and ice (as seen on the card). It’s name could be translated as “Piercing Whiskers”.

Armor Up: As Bear’s are more likely to stand in the way of attack than dodge, they need to wear a heavy armour at all times.

Salamandra:

Roland Bleinheim & Gellert Bleinheim: Witcher 1 characters. They are thought to be brothers, leading the Salamandra organization. As drug lords one heads the fisstech operation in Vizima’s sewers (Roland), the other in the swamps (Gellert). The flavour text pretty much matches: both of them wondering what the other one is doing.

Salamandra Mage: The art itself was already leaked in China around 2 years back, and there were a few theories. One of them was that the man depicted is Zerrikanian, and I think that’s correct. Both the facial tattoo, darker skin, thinly braided hair and fire magic points in that direction. Azar Javed (a known Salamandra fire mage) happens to be a Zerrikanian escapee too.

Salamandra Lackey: A girl with the Salamandra-stapled mask runs from a city guard. The flavour text says the following: “Lackeys are expected to perform their first five jobs for no pay, demonstrating their passion for the gig.” The organization monitors from the beginning that only those remain who are extremely loyal to their cause.

Fallen Rayla: A little background for those who are unfamiliar with her: Rayla of Lyria was a veteran of the Nilgaardian Wars. She harbours anti-nonhuman sentiments after she was captured by Scoia’taels and severely maimed. The Rayla we see on the card is a mutant - in Witcher 1 she was supposedly shot down by Scoia’tael, and Salamandra found her close to death, subjected her to mutation. She was killed by Geralt.

Salamander: The card shows a bright blue spotted salamander. It has two tails and heads (possibly grown together?). The Salamander is a symbol of the organization. Metaphorically speaking it could mean, that Salamandra thought of itself as something untouchable: “best to avoid petting them, as the salamander, when threatened, secretes a deadly toxin”.

Failed Experiment: The card - ironically - thrives when it’s poisoned. The “experiment” only resembles a human in shape. It’s clutching the table ends, as if trying to escape still. It’s fair to assume that they later dissected it: “even failed experiments can serve a purpose”.

Salamandra Abomination: A step further from the failed experiment - we see the results of pushing science’s boundaries. Only the skull is left intact, everything else of the body is covered with insectoid-like growths.

Stolen Mutagens: Gruesome organ harvesting. The witcher heart (?) glows, which is either an artistic decision (probable) or the mages sent magic into the body, and the mutagens light up (like angiographia). Three types of mutagens can be harvested: red (strength), blue (magic) or green (resilience). I headcanon that the amount they inject of the three types can vary - that’s how you get strength inclined witchers like the wolves (red), or big ass mothers like the bears (green).

Salamandra Hideout: There are multiple hideouts in Witcher 1 (outskirt of Visima, crypt in sewers and one in the trade quarters). The one depicted here is the fisstech lab in the sewers. It shows a dimly lit, cobwebbed room. There’s an elevation where a body lays on the table. The elevation’s floor is gridded, so the blood and other fluids can freely flow down into the sewer water, where many bodies are already discarded recklessly.

Neutral:

Alzur & Viy & Koshchey: Alzur was a charismatic mage and spell inventor, who created many horrible monsters, like the koshchey (with the spell: Alzur’s Double Cross) and the Viy (a huge centipede-like insectoid). He was also the one who did the lion’s share of work with the witcher’s mutation.

Cosimo Malaspina: Cosimo was the teacher of Alzur. He was known for his knowledge in hybridization and genetic modification. Him and Alzur were the true creators of the witchers sect. On the gwent card, three man are shown prodding at a mutated body. Cosimo (the old dude) is in the middle, Alzur might be the one on the left and that leaves Idarran on the right. His flavour text paints him as cold and clinical, someone without empathy: “Children keep asking him for gifts. He doesn’t know why, but it really helps with finding subjects for his experiments.”

Idarran of Ulivo & Idr & Wererat: Idarran was one of the contributers of the witcher experiments. He’s an expert in hybridization and genetic modification, whose teacher was Alzur. He was a pale kid who lived in the canals of Vizima and experimented on rats at the age of 5. He found beauty in gruesome creations, like the Wererat (a human-sized rat on roids) and the Idr (a big centipede-like insectoid). He’s disdained by Geralt for his many monsters.

Triangle within a Triangle: It’s a magic spell used to introduce a series of mutations and to greatly increase the mass of a given body. That way they can create huge monstrosities, like the koshchey. Adepts often confuse it with a pentagram which can lead to infernal disasters.

Selective mutation: The card shows a close up of a young man’s eyes - one mutated (catlike) one human. His skin shows his high toxicity level, ashen with prominent veins. He’s held down as alchemists prepare to inject a yellow concoction into the human eye. It’s possible that after the success of witchers the mages tried to recreate the changes in smaller scale, then unmake it in turn, unsuccessfully.

Witcher Student: This is not really a card, but I included it anyway. The card’s ability is - ironically - doomed, and to add insult to injury, its flavour text is the following well-known fact: “Four out of ten boys survive… at most.” It’s also a point for black humour that the gwent commentators added: the Trial of Grasses card boosts this unit significantly.

Berengar: He’s a Wolf School Witcher who blamed his school for denying him a normal life and consequently abandoned them. In Witcher 1 Geralt can decide to kill or spare him. In a letter he admits that he was a coward because he betrayed Kaer Morhen and worked with Salamadra in hope that they can undo his mutation. His card references a questline in Witcher 1, where he tried to reason with the vodyanoi (~lovecraftian fish people) to spare the village’s prize-winning cow, named Strawberry. This is non-canon; in the game Geralt takes over the quest to do this instead.

Leo: Another Witcher 1 character. He was an orphan taken in by Vesemir. He was a kind-hearted but hot-headed man, who had all the training but not the mutations and the experience - he never killed a man. The flavour text of his gwent card kind of mocks his death: “He would have caught the arrow if he only had some heads-up.” He’s burned on a pyre and his cenotaph can be found south of Kaer Morhen.

Geralt: Quen: The last classical sign that wasn’t yet a card. In the art, Geralt is wearing the Manticore armour

Snowdrop: She’s a not yet seen character; impish looking female bard with light blond hair (flowers braided on the side) who plays a medieval version of the fiddle to a rooster. There’s a horseshoe hanging from the hem of his pants. She’s also seen in the gwent: journey #3 launch trailer. She’s narrating that she was saved by Alzur. Alzur told her about his plans of creating witchers to fight the beasts of the Continent, and she admired him so much she spread his story (”let me tell you about the greatest sorceress to ever lived”). Their story will unveil in the next week, I’ll probably update accordingly. It’s also interesting that Alzur says in the gwent intro (regarding witchers): “Bards will toil to do justice to their feats.” As if his own successes and experiences will be mirrored in his creations. Projecting much?

Monsters:

Viy & Idr: both of them are centipede-like insectoids conjured by infamous mages (see: Alzur and Idarran)

Wererat: same can be said about this one. Idarran experimented on Vizima’s sewer rats since the age of 5. This human sized abomination was the end result.

Succubus: We already discussed how the “Succubus” doesn’t fit the theme. Other interesting thing is the surrounding of her - in the background we can see a skull full of some kinda of dark liquid; she’s also holding a goblet. I’m not saying she’s drinking blood, but if she does, it would shed some questions as succubi don’t need to drink blood at all.

Phooca: As nekkers’ rare big brother, phoocas are ogroids that have the strength to rip a man’s head off with their bear hands. According to the wiki, in Celtic folklore they are regarded as shapeshifting fairies.

Koshchey: A witcher 1 boss, koshcheys are spider-like abominations summoned by mages. The woman standing her ground in the picture is Visenna (Geralt’s druid mom). In the story she’s the one to kill the first koshchey ever created.

Spontaneous Evolution: Under the Red Moon the wolf mutated into an amalgamation of eyes and teeth. Malaspina possibly added something to the mix that proved unstable. The card’s name is kind of ironic - this change is not spontaneous (it was induced) but could be related to evolution (it would imply that this form is somehow advantageous to the current environment and helps adaptation). (Note: in my opinion spontaneous generation would be a better term: it’s the thought that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter.)

Hybrid: the card shows a two-headed wolf or dog. Pretty straight-forward.

Chimera: A creature created my Cosimo Malaspina. He combines the genes of a fiend and griffin, then added a trace of insectoid and wyvern. It kind of looks like a furred wyvern with antlers. Interestingly the frightener (an insectoid; a rare result of magical experiment) is also called a chimera.

Dol Dhu Lokke: a new monster lair location. The depending on how you translate “lokke” the Elder can be read as “black valley place” or “alluring black valley”. It’s so dangerous - housing many-a horrors - that even a witcher thinks twice before going near it.

Interesting tidbits

Coen has hair, which is weird because so far he was described in all sources as bald.

There used to be a card that was also called Viper Witcher, which is now referred to as “Kingslayer”

The Bear Witcher’s face was drawn after one of CDPR’s employee.

The Koshchey’s card title has a typo: “Koschchey”.

Easter eggs (mainly in flavour text)

The Spontaneous Evolution card references The Powerpuff Girls intro: “Professor Malaspina accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction - compound X.”

The Bear Witcher card might reference a song of Baloo from the Jungle Book (The Bare Necessities): “Life alone on the road can be tough - be sure to bring all the bare necessities.”

#my shit #the witcher #gwent #witcher meta #witcher lore #i worked really hard on this #i hope it shows lol #if y'all have any thoughts i'd be happy to hear about them #cross my heart i don't bite

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mourntheantagonist · 4 years ago

Note

Steve and Billy going camping with Max n the Party and all Billy wants to do is get in a tent with Steve

Hey I’m here thirty years later!

I had a lot of fun with this one so I hope this is kind of in the realm of what you wanted!!!

read on ao3

How a gaggle of fourteen year olds managed to convince Steve to take them all on a weekend camping trip was beyond him. Okay maybe it wasn’t. All it took was El’s signature pout and Steve was as good as gone. The real shocker however, is how they managed to convince Billy Hargrove of all people to tag along as well.

He’d heard from Max that their relationship had been slowly improving ever since that night at the Byers, and he’d have to agree with Max that Billy had truly become less hostile as the months passed. But this was the first time he’s ever seen Billy acting so brotherly.

Steve had driven the male party members out into the woods, while Billy, Max, and El had driven separately. The three were late, of course. But Steve’s not quite sure he can exactly pin that on Billy. El is definitely poor when it comes to punctuality.

They couldn’t actually set up shop until the others arrived, seeing as they were supposed to select the chosen spot together. But as he watched the seconds tick by on his watch he grew more and more impatient he was close to saying fuck it and making it a boys only trip. That was until, seemingly on cue, the familiar roar of the Camaro echoed through the trees.

Watching Billy step out from the driver's seat was the first reminder that he hadn’t actually seen Billy in a while. Because so much had changed. His hair was less disheveled and chaotic as he remembered. But way curlier. It was slightly lighter too. The arrival of summer brought out the natural highlights in his hair. But it wasn’t just his appearance that had changed. Instead of exiting the car with the slam of his foot, the flick of a cigarette, and a predatory look… he was laughing. Laughing along with El and Max about something entirely unknown, and when asked, wasn’t revealed.

If Steve hadn’t let himself grow increasingly annoyed over the past fifteen minutes he stood there waiting, he might’ve cared to know. But the sun was beating down, he’d had to listen to Mike and Dustin argue about some Star Trek nonsense for the duration of the drive along with the time spent waiting, and he was starving.

“You’re late.” Steve said dryly.

“That’s my fault,” Billy replied with some residual laughter from whatever was so funny. “I forgot to counter in Hopper’s 20 minute ‘protect my kid’ speech when I went to pick up El.”

“Well I’m starving. So let’s find a spot, and let’s find it quickly.” Steve probably should’ve tried at least a little to tone down his irritation.

“Someone’s in a mood.” Max says under her breath, causing El to break out into another fit of giggles.

The gang decided not to test their luck against a hungry Steve Harrington. Especially not one wielding a baseball bat coated in rusty nails. So they piled all their camping supplies onto their backs and hauled ass through the woods.

After only ten minutes of searching, they stumbled across a nice clearing just 50 feet off the lake with a picnic table and fire pit already set up for them. Perfect.

The guys started by setting up their tents, while El and Max worked on gathering twigs for the fire. Dustin has meticulously established the sleeping arrangements. Five small tents. Eleven with Max, Dustin with Will, Lucas with Mike, and Billy and Steve alone in their own separate tents. It’s the perfect set up so long as Lucas doesn’t bring up any conversation regarding Empire Strikes Back being anything lower than number one out of the entire trilogy. Because then there would be chaos.

But when is Mike not the problem?

After getting set up, they finally got to break out some delicious ham and swiss sandwiches (courtesy of Claudia Henderson), and Steve was finally entering into a better mood.

He couldn’t entirely credit the sandwich however, because something about this new and improved Billy warmed something inside of him. He was less abrasive and more relaxed. He wasn’t trying to prove anything to anyone and instead was allowing himself to have a good time. Teasing his sister rather than tormenting her. Tossing knowing looks towards Lucas rather than threatening ones. Okay scratch that. They were definitely threatening. But more playful. The typical older brother spiel. The ‘you hurt her, I’ll rip your throat out through your ears’ kind of thing. And he was actually trying to make conversation with him. Only slightly poking fun at him every now and then. Not for the purposes of taunting, instead just his typical charm showing through.

“So what you been up to this summer? Haven’t seen you since graduation.”

“I’ve been working at Scoops Ahoy in the new mall. Not much else really.”

Billy took another bite of his sandwich and nodded. “I recently got hired on at the pool. Teaching lessons and life guarding. Saving up for when I go out to college in the fall.” He didn’t swallow the bite before speaking. New and improved Billy didn’t have table manners he guesses.

“Oh really? Where you headed to?”

“Full ride at USC.” Billy let out a hollow laugh. “Dad’s pissed I’m not enlisting.”

Steve picked up on the way Billy’s smile faltered at the mention of his Dad. He’d remembered Max mentioning once or twice about how her step-father was an asshole. For fucks sake Billy got a full ride to a prestigious university and his Dad is upset about that? He couldn’t even get into Tech.

“I think it’s awesome.” Steve finally said. “I didn’t get accepted anywhere so I’m probably going to end up going to work for my Dad at his company.”

Apparently Steve let his disappointment show in the last statement.

“Shit that sucks man. Dads are shit.”

Steve lets his mouth twitch upward into a smile. He looks back down at his almost finished sandwich and lets out a slight chuckle.

“Yeah. Dads are shit.”

- : -

After they all finished up their late lunches, the kids decided to move the party away from the table and into the lake. They walked along the lake shore for maybe a quarter of a mile before finding an abandoned rope swing attached to a tree directly next to deep waters. Steve and Billy both notice as Max gets this fire in her eye and neither adult bothers stopping her before pushing an unexpecting Lucas into the water. The whole group bursts into laughter as he makes the splash, well everyone except of course for Lucas.

But quickly the rest of them joined him in the water. All of them swinging in by the rope. Surprisingly the most timid out of all of them was Steve himself, who in a moment of desperation had to have Billy give him a push.

Billy followed him in with a much larger splash than he had previously achieved. But it wasn’t a competition or anything.

Billy emerged from the water like a fucking mermaid. Graceful. His hair was completely saturated in water yet his curls still managed to pack a punch. He glistened under the rays of the sun and with the reflection of the water beneath him. Steve felt chills up and down his entire body as he watched him float away on his back. Watching as his chiseled chest rose and fell with every breath and the light from the sun reflected off of the water droplets on his sun kissed skin. He would just excuse it for the cool temperature of lake water.

But it wasn’t that cold to be completely honest. It’s June. One of the hottest months of the year and the weather is peaking at nearly 100 degrees. The water feels perfect in actuality.

Steve swims around for a bit with the boys, plays a couple rounds of Marco Polo, and then excuses himself to lie out on the shore. He watches as they all have a blast. Lucas and Max are basically trying to drown Mike. Will and Dustin are competing to see who can hold their breath underwater the longest. Will has been cheating the entire time and Dustin has absolutely no clue. Billy and El are off in the corner. He’s picking her up and tossing her into the water. They both appear to be having a really good time. Billy is surprisingly really good with El. He’s actually pretty good with all of the kids all things considered. Something must’ve happened when he wasn’t looking because he seemed to be the only one to bat an eye at the mentioning that Billy Hargrove would be joining them on the trip.

Steve inspected the time and decided to give the kids their 15 minute warning. Sun set was inching closer and they still had other preparations. He watched as Max swam over to where El and Billy were and after watching them exchange a couple sentences, Billy swam away and towards where Steve sat on the shore.

Billy pushed himself out of the water and dried himself off with a towel. He wrung out his hair and secured the wet mess of curls up with a purple scrunchie. He threw his sweatshirt on, zipper remaining undone showing off his exposed chest, and he plopped down next to Steve.

Oh boy. Steve hopes Billy didn’t notice the fact that he was staring at him that entire time.

“So what’s the plan for the rest of tonight Stevie?”

Steve feigned annoyance at the nickname (though it secretly made him embarrassingly giddy). “Well we’re going to roast some hot dogs and make some s’mores and hang around the fire before bed.”

“Sounds like a plan Harrington.”

An uncomfortable silence grows from there. The two of them sitting side by side looking out at the lake in front of them. Nothing but the sounds of splashing water and giggling teenagers. Billy is picking at the grass. Thinking. Steve might say he even looks nervous.

“I’m sorry about last November.” Billy doesn’t look up from where it’s pointing towards the overgrown blades of dead grass.

It’s not the snarky and forced apology he was expecting. To be completely honest he never did expect one. Seven months had passed since it happened and not a single word from Billy. He just left him alone like his sister demanded.

“I’ve wanted to apologize before. But I wasn’t in a great place and didn’t want to screw it up. I probably already did by taking so long.” He took a deep breath and finally looked up. Eyes focused on the lake and avoiding Steve’s gaze. “I needed to make sure I was apologizing for the right reasons. Not just to get my sister off my back or to somehow make myself feel better about what I did to your face. I needed to apologize so that you knew that I was sorry. And I needed to be okay with you not forgiving me for it. So that’s why I’m saying it now.”

Billy finally looks over at Steve who has been staring at Billy with wide eyes. It’s weird, because when Steve thinks about it, he kind of forgave him a long time ago. Because yeah, what Billy did was shitty, but not completely unfounded. He’s been underneath someone like that, barreling into him without care, more than once. It would have been easy to say Billy and his interaction was nothing like what he had with Jonathan Byers. Billy was actually a bad guy.

But that’s the thing. He really wasn’t. Not after everything happened.

He wasn’t outwardly kind. But he didn’t start shit. He minded his own business and moved through high school the same way everyone else did. And after hearing Max and Dustin and El vouch for him to come on this trip, well that sort of just sealed the deal. He forgave him before he even apologized.

But here he was. Apologizing. And for some reason Steve was rethinking ever forgiving him. It made no sense. But somehow actually knowing and believing Billy was actually sorry made forgiveness harder. Like in his mind it was easier because Billy didn’t get to know that he was forgiven. He was scared by telling Billy that he would be justifying what he did.

So Steve doesn’t respond. And he can tell that Billy’s upset about it. It’s only been ten minutes but he decides to call the kids out of the water anyway.

- : -

The sun was setting and everyone had gathered around the campfire to roast marshmallows. Things had been ever so tense between Steve and Billy ever since their conversation at the lake. No one else seemed to notice though.

It was easy to distract himself from Billy’s saddened state by watching as Dustin set his marshmallow on fire. Every time without fail. Max wasn’t roasting hers, just eating the marshmallows straight out of the bag because she doesn’t like graham crackers. Billy was intently making the most golden brown marshmallow for El because she didn’t know how to properly roast her own. It was really sweet. Billy seemed happy to do it but at the same time he had that lingering gloomy look on his face that would come in and out of existence.

Steve felt a little bad because he did that. Yeah, it’s the guy who nearly killed him, but he didn’t want to make him sad.

He brightened up a little bit when the bickering began between Dustin and Mike. This was the reason they couldn’t share a tent. Max, El, and Billy moved into their own conversation out of earshot while Steve tried to calm down an overly enthusiastic Dustin.

When the argument ended Billy was looking to be in a much better mood than before. It was a little odd. They noticed the fire starting to dim so Max and El quickly excused themselves to go gather some more twigs from the forest.

Billy was poking at the fire with a stick, trying to keep it alive (masking a developing smirk on his face).

“Hey Steve!!” Max’s voice echoes. “There’s a gaping hole in your tent!”

El is stifling a laugh. Steve doesn’t seem to notice.

Steve rushes over to inspect the damage and yeah, it’s a gaping hole alright. His entire body could fit through it. How did he not notice it earlier?

“Goddamnit!” Steve curses the air.

“I’m sure Billy wouldn’t mind sharing!” El says, albeit, a little too excitedly.

Steve looks over to Billy who is still poking at the fire. “Yeah. I got room, I don’t mind.”

And now Steve can’t just say no. He’d have to give a reason and well… he’s kind of strapped for an alternative so, Billy’s tent it is.

- : -

They stay by the campfire until the sun has completely set and the fire has gone out on its own. They broke out a couple of Beers and after several minutes of constant begging Steve caved and let the party have a small amount of beer each, poured into a red solo cup.

“This tastes like shit.” Dustin made a ridiculous face.

“Still better than New Coke.” Mike chimed in.

Billy helped Steve carry his things over to Billy’s tent. It was extremely awkward. Billy hadn’t really said a word to Steve the entire time and now they were supposed to sleep side by side in a pretty compact space? This should be fun.

An over dramatic yawn released by Max was their signal to head to sleep. The stars were clear above them and they had a pretty eventful day. Steve made sure everything was good while the rest of them piled into their own tents. Once he’s sure the food is secured and everyone is where they’re supposed to be, he sucks in a sharp breath and makes his way over to Billy in his tent.

Billy is already in his sleeping bag. He’s got a book in one hand and a flashlight in his other. Steve quickly discards his shoes and jeans and covers himself in his own sleeping bag.

They’re both facing away from each other. It isn’t until Steve hears the click of the flashlight and the illumination in the tent disappears that he realizes neither of them have spoken.

Steve has been thinking about the apology all night. He planned to just leave it be. Maybe thank him for apologizing but leave it at that. But seeing how much he’s changed and seeing how sincere he was being told him maybe Billy deserved to be forgiven. He also looked like he needed to be forgiven, despite what he said before at the lake.

“I needed to apologize so that you knew that I was sorry. And I needed to be okay with you not forgiving me for it. So that’s why I’m saying it now.”

“I forgive you Billy.”

“Hmm?”

“I said I forgive you. I’m sorry I didn’t say it back at the lake.” Steve took in a deep breath and continued. “I wasn’t sure if it would be the right thing. But you’re clearly not the same person you were that night. I just didn’t really see it at first. I’m going to have to get used to this new and improved version of Billy Hargrove.”

Billy smiled to himself.

“Thanks.”

Steve smiled too.

The tent grew silent again after that. But it was slightly less tense than it was before.

“Can I say something stupid?” Billy asks.

Steve turns over to face Billy. He laughs. “Yeah. It’d be nice hearing it come from someone else for a change.”

Billy doesn’t turn to face Steve, but he can tell that he’s nervous because it’s quiet enough to hear his breathing quicken.

“I like you. Like… in that way. Sorry if that’s weird.”

Steve is quick to respond.

“Hey, it’s not weird. Don’t apologize for that.” He’s thinking a lot about Will. He and Dustin had talked about it before. How they’d be sure to make sure that Will knew it was okay whenever he chose to tell them. He doesn’t see why that should be any different for anyone else. Including Billy Hargrove.

But he guesses this is kind of different. It’s not just a confession of being into guys. It’s a confession of being into a specific guy. The specific guy in question being Steve.

It would also be pretty hypocritical of Steve to be weirded out. Not two hours ago he was fully objectifying Billy’s shirtless body. He might not like Billy. But dammit he was definitely attracted to him.

“If you’re uncomfortable I can hike back to the Camaro and sleep there. It’s not a problem.”

Billy had already begun unzipping the sleeping bag. Steve instinctively put a hand on Billy’s shoulder.

“Hey. Billy it’s seriously alright. Look at me.”

Billy hesitated before rolling over. Their eyes met and due to the compact nature of their current sleeping arrangement, their faces lie mere inches away from each other. Steve had planned something to say, but he instantly forgot when he looked into Billy’s eyes. They weren’t the eyes belonging to an egregious asshole. They were the eyes belonging to a scared kid that maybe, given the time, Steve could grow to like.

He could try blaming it on the beer. But Billy and himself both knew he didn’t even finish the one. But still, Steve inched closer and kissed him. It was soft and gentle. Steve moved a hand up to caress Billy’s cheek. Billy gently grabbed Steve’s wrist and deepened the kiss.

Steve could feel Billy’s smile on his lips.

He slithered his other hand underneath Billy and pulled him in closer. Their bodies were completely pressed against each other at every point, save for the thickness of not one but two sleeping bags separating skin from skin.

Still they could feel each other’s heartbeats increase as their pace did the same. The kiss turned from gentle to one filled with need.

Billy began working at the zipper of his sleeping bag with his other hand and was able to break free. He rolled Steve over onto his back and situated one leg on either side of Steve’s hips. Their lips didn’t come unattached. Steve moved both hands to the back of Billy’s head and he took fists full of hair and tugged gently, causing Billy to quietly moan into his mouth.

It was complete euphoria.

Billy was in just his boxers. Meanwhile Steve was still beneath the thick material of his sleeping bag. Billy unzipped it quickly for Steve and immediately tossed it off of him. Billy snaked a hand underneath Steve’s shirt. Moving up and down the full length of his chest. Appreciating his minimal chest hair. On the trip back down Billy’s hand palmed Steve’s crotch where he was quickly becoming hard from all of the friction. Steve let out a gasp as he made contact.

“We can’t. The kids’ll hear us.”

“Then you’ll just have to be quiet pretty-boy.”

Billy waited for Steve to give indication that it was okay to continue. Steve laughed and pulled him back down to meet his lips. Billy hiked up his shirt and they shortly separated to pull it over his head. Billy moved back in to Steve’s neck and sucked harshly on several spots before peppering kisses all along the length of his torso until he reached his navel. Billy stuck his thumbs underneath the waistband of Steve’s briefs and slowly rolled them down.

Billy moves so that he’s in between Steve’s legs and lowers his head into his groin. Steve feels as the tension builds in the pit of his stomach from the delicate touch of Billy’s tongue. Even under the chill from the night air he’s warm all over.

“Feels so good Billy, Fuck!” He quickly puts a hand over his mouth when he realizes he said that a little too loudly.

Steve is just lying there, experiencing the utter bliss that is Billy Hargroves mouth wrapped around his cock making him feel every sensation all at once.

“I’m close.” He whispers. God he really hopes the kids are asleep.

“Come for me pretty-boy.”

And boy does he. Just the way he said it was enough for Steve. He was a goner at the mere drop of the words ‘pretty boy’.

Billy wiped away at his mouth and crawled back up to lay down next to him. Steve immediately pulls him into another kiss. He’s not quite ready to come down from the high he was currently in. Billy’s mouth on his was a fucking drug.

It’s weird to thank people after sex right?

Steve settles for something else when they finally part.

“It’s my turn.”

- : -

The two of them wake up in a single sleeping bag. Steve has his arms wrapped around Billy’s wasted and his head tucked into the crook of his neck. Steve is sweating because Billy’s is a goddamn space heater.

He can hear the rustling of the tents outside and quickly wakes up Billy so they can get out of their current suggestive position.

Billy in his sleepy state gives Steve a quick kiss on the lips. He’s quickly woken up by Dustin screaming at everyone to wake up from outside the tent.

“We’ll talk about this later?” Steve says with a laugh.

Billy nods and gives him another quick kiss before getting up and tossing on a new pair of clothes.

Once dressed they both exit the tent to see everyone making their way to the picnic table.

They pull out several boxes of cereal and some milk from the cooler and begin eating their breakfast. Billy is sitting across from Steve, gently kicking at his feet.

“Hey Steve what happened to your neck?” Dustin asks.

Steve’s eyes go wide and he quickly comes up with a cover.

“Oh uh, there were a lot of mosquitoes last night. Wouldn’t leave me alone.”

They all seem to accept the response and go back to their breakfasts.

Billy smirks at him from across the table and Steve stomps on his foot.

- : -

Max, Billy and El say their goodbyes and head off in the Camaro.

Once the Engine is running and they’ve started driving away they all burst into laughter.

“I can’t believe you actually took a knife to Steve’s tent.”

“I can’t believe you actually fucked Steve!”

#harringrove #steve harrington #billy hargrove #mandi writes tresh #fanfic #i really loved this prompt by the way #lemons

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ye-bloodeh-liar · 4 years ago

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I just finished AC Valhalla – A résumé.

I finished the "main story" of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. These are some thoughts of mine. (This was saved in my drafts for two weeks or so. But my stance hasn't altered. Actually, I'm even angrier now.)

Disclaimer: This obviously contains some spoilers here and there. You've been warned, but tbh, who even cares about the story at this point. Also, I know I don't have many followers, and I suspect none of the few that will come across this post will actually be interested in it. That said, if you like reading people's rants about things, regardless of your interest in video games, this might be something for you. I just needed to get this out of my system somewhere. This is a rant (well, vent? I'm venting, I guess) written as it came to my mind. There's no real structure, I think. Sorry for that in advance.

After Origins, which I thoroughly enjoyed and actually played again between Odyssey and Valhalla, and Odyssey, which's name was perfectly fitting since it felt like a fucking odyssey to grind through, I hoped, actually, I was convinced, Valhalla would right Odyssey's wrongs. You see, Odyssey had one big problem for me: It did none of the things that made and still make me love Origins. In short: The world was massive, but felt copied and pasted, uninteresting to explore and lifeless. Basically, it was a lot of green sprinkled with some olive branches. A lot of the times the only way to know roughly where I am was pulling up the map because based on my surroundings, I could've been anywhere. Compared to the intriguing world of Origins, where you always knew in which area of the map you currently were, this was a shitshow. I mean, just walking through the desert in Origins had more atmosphere than the whole city of Athens (the main fucking city) could ever muster up. (Oh, remember the times of AC Brotherhood, where Rome actually felt like a city even though it wasn't actually humongous like the new games are? Or how atmospheric the whole of AC II was? I mean, Venice? Hello? M a s t e r p i e c e) But I can overlook that. The combat didn't feel heavy, or to put it better, "impactful" like it did in Origins, but more like poking the enemies to their deaths with something that made sword-y sounds. But I can overlook that. The loot system improved a bit, in the sense of giving the option to modify your loot and being able to combine different armor pieces, however, Origins outfit-system was more up my alley. But I can overlook that. Funnily enough, compared to its predecessor, Odyssey looked worse. In Origins the fabric of your outfit look like actual fabric and, I can't stress this enough, waved in the wind. In Odyssey everything felt more static and somehow "fake". But I can overlook that. To me, Origins' story was masterfully done. Personally, I'd say, that this is the closest we've ever gotten to the Ezio-Trilogy. The voice acting was top notch. Bayek was a great character, and the side characters like Aya/Amunet were equally intriguing. I still remember the first time I saw the first confession cutscene after killing Medunamun. It gave me shivers and goosebumps and got me excited for what was about to come. What I want to say with this, is that Origins made me care; care about its characters, care about their backstory and motives, care about the world, etc. After I had finished the DLC The Hidden Ones I felt like I had actually witnessed the igniting spark of something epic, namely the Assassin Brotherhood, in such a chilling way, even though they basically were just chillin' in a cave. Because that's what character building gives you: payoffs. Well, Odyssey did none of that. All it did made me care about was to get all the loot, because that's what my mind always goes for in any game (I'm that kind of stupid ape). I didn't care about what would happen in the end – I just wanted to get there. I wanted to know how the story would end, but in whichever way it would, I knew I wouldn't care for it in the sense of being disappointed or yearning for a different outcome for the character I was so invested in, because, as I said, nothing got me invested in the character(s) in the first place. That's what bugged me the most about Odyssey. Not the flimsy feeling combat, not the husk of a world I found myself in, not the downgrade in design and animation, etc., but the lack of care it invoked.

Now, when Valhalla was originally announced, I was excited as I could be for a video game. Ubisoft was clearly aware of their mistakes with Odyssey and tried to show that they're willing to listen to their fanbase. A world where every area has its own identity? Sounds great. Heavy combat? Hell yeah. Gear and loot that actually matters and is special (unlike in Odyssey where after a few hours of playing you find yourself carrying the same fucking bow 25 times)? Oh my. Choices not for the sake of choices, but story? Yes please. I mean, if you have to implement choices. Even though choices don't really make sense in Assassin's Creed, but that's another topic.

Well, did it deliver (for me)? No. And to be completely honest, I prefer Odyssey, even as the grindfest that it is, over Valhalla, and me replaying Odyssey seems a lot more likely to me, than going through all of Valhalla again. I'm not going to list all of the points mentioned above again in full detail: The world is a bit more intriguing than Greece, but a shadow of what Egypt was. The combat feels heavy, yet every weapon looks too big (????) and it still feels a bit off. My biggest grudge of the minor points is actually the look/the graphics: How on earth does Valhalla manage to look less real than Origins? The fur and pelts on the armor, every piece of cloth, i mean just e v e r y t h i n g looks somewhat plasticy (at loss for a better word here; just compare Origins' outfits in motion to Valhalla's) Anyway, let's get to the real problem here, because all boils down to the point I've mentioned before: Invoking care.

This became very apparent to me after forging the fourth (?; was it the fourth? They all blur together. That's how e n t i c i n g they are. Great.) alliance or so. I didn't give a single fuck about the characters in those arcs. It was very clear that they'd be soon replaced by other characters in the next alliance's arc, which I probably wouldn't care for either, especially, since they all felt somewhat the same: empty. Alliances felt like checklists to do. Even Wincestre, which had an interesting beginning, somehow managed to loose all of its "darkness" after the first two quests. But I could overlook the dreary sidequest-like alliance arcs, if they served the main storyline in some way or form. Now you might ask, what main storyline? E x a c t l y. Looking back, there is none. At least not really. And there where a lot of times playing the game where I found myself wondering, if this alliance-arc-thing I was currently dragging myself through was in fact meant to be the actual story. But it shouldn't be. Was it? I have no fucking clue. My conclusion on what Valhalla's main overarching story is, is what follows:

Eivor's parents got killed when he was a child (never seen before lol), got adopted, and is now part of the Raven clan with his "brother" Sigurd//Sigurd comes home from some raid with the Assassins Basim and Hytham//(Eivor gets the Hidden Blade; I mean, this is an Assassin's Creed game. Big moment. Done in 2 seconds.)//Sigurd and Eivor aren't happy with the new King of Norway.//Sigurd and Eivor fuck off to England (with Basim and Hytham) to set camp there.//Eivor starts to forge alliances throughout England to make his clan's hold on England stronger.// Sigurd and Basim do their own thing.//Eivor meets Sigurd and Basim two or three times throughout his alliance forging.//Basim seems a bit off.//Sigurd says that he was told (by Basim?) that he is a descendant of the gods.// Sigurd wants to "pursue his destiny"// (sidenote: the last few things are all within one (!) short cutscene in a small house. d e v e l o p m e n t.)//Sigurd gets captured and tortured and loses his hand.//Eivor rescues Sigurd.// Sigurd is back in the settlement.//Sigurd distrusts Eivor because Eivor doesn't believe Sigurd and Sigurd thinks Eivor wants to take his title as the jarl (jarls are the bosses of settlements).// And then the end sequence hits. This is where I want to go into somewhat detail again. We go from Sigurd distrusts Eivor to "Eivor, I don't wanna be the boss of the town, so I don't hold a grudge anymore, let's go back to Norway and I'll show you I was right all along" like it's nothing. It's literally just that: You walk up to Sigurd, he says this (more or less) and you sail away. Again: development is taken very seriously in this game. Honestly, at this point I didn't even know that this was going to trigger the ending. My genuine thoughts were "Oh my, finally, after all this grinding, the story is going to start." when in reality of course, ironically, it was going to end. Absolute belter. So you sail to Norway with Sigurd, which takes fucking forever, because OF COURSE you have to sail (for everyone who didn't play the game, yes, sail, that means looking at a viking longship while occasionally moving the stick slightly to change its directions slightly) to your original settlement in Norway, for what feels like far too long, only to say Hi to your dad. Fucking lost it. I thought we were going to assassinate the King? Nah bruv let's just have some quick family talk instead. Some action? Nah. Just get back to the longship. A N D S T A R T S A I L I N G A G A I N. Where? Just around the curve of our settlement in Norway. Yes, they pulled the old trick of the ending is literally just right around the corner of your starting position hehe. Absolute belter. Is this to make it seem like something is about to happen? The calm before the storm? It doesn't work like that. Well, then you actually sail through a storm (lol), which doesn't matter, because Sigurd just says "Let's keep going" and, well, you keep going. Also, to this point the weather conditions have never affected neither Eivors health, nor the ship in any way whatsoever, so why should I be impacted by a storm now? Like, it's a nice thing for atmosphere, but at least make the ship harder to steer or something. Then you walk up a mountain. Funnily enough Sigurd walks in manner that shows that the walk against the storm isn't easy, whereas you, hah, you can just yeet yourself up that mountain like nothing. I could sprint up there. Fucking sprint. Anyway, Eivor and Sigurd enter the Isu temple, because of course, we had to throw an Isu temple in there, I mean, i t ' s A s s a s s i n ' s C r e e d. Was it hinted at before in the story? Not really. Were we chasing or searchig for it? Nah, better get that next alliance going. It just suddenly was. Again: development. So we walk to the main platform of the temple and activate the machine and bam we're in Valhalla (because at some point Ubisoft realised that maybe they should include what is literally in the name of the game). Again, were we looking for Valhalla? Like not in the sense that every viking was, but more in the sense

of was it the main objective of the game? Did Eivor look for a way to Valhalla? Was there anything that led us here other than Sigurd having had a few dreams (that only got mentioned, like, twice?) and being influenced into thinking he was a demigod or something? Nope, Eivor was looking for that next alliance to forge. So, Eivor realises that his experience of Valhalla is fake and he wants to get out. But fake-Odin doesn't want to let him go. In a really weird cutscene (jump to 6:30), Eivor eventually escapes Odin and enters a door with his settlement-family (look, I'm all here for metaphors, but this, this is just utter rubbish. It just doesn't make sense, and there is no payoff whatsoever). Odin actually had a build-up of some sort. In every assassination sequence he's there and talks with Eivor. I actually thought there would be some cool payoff/ending/reveal here. But nah, this ain't it chief. Yet somehow, until here, I had hope. I thought maybe now, building on all this confusion, there's gonna be a relatively good ending. Something enticing. Something that made everything somewhat worthwile. And Ubisoft went: Lol nah. So, you're out of the Isu machine again (for all the non-AC-peoples here: basically like the matrix. Eivor gets hooked up to the machine and experiences alternate reality: Valhalla), and Basim is there. What a twist. The guy that showed up like three times and went from friendly in the first time to super suspicious (like glaring-in-your-face-suspicious) in the two-or-so other major cutscenes he was in, has now been revealed as the enemy. Congrats to that. What a twist. The thing is, and this bothers me a lot actually, it could have been anyone there. It didn't need to be Basim. It wouldn't have felt out of place if it wasn't him. Why? Because Ubisoft failed terribly at making you connect to any character and at building any actual story (or character). It could have been Gunnar, the friendly black-smith in our settlement, and it would have been as fitting as Basim. Then Basim says that this is "for his son". Ah yes, the lost son of Basim, which was mentioned once. Right. Eivor defeats Basim by hooking him up on the Isu machine and gets back to the settlement with Sigurd (in my ending at least. There seems to be a possible ending in which Sigurd doesn't come back.) Cut to the modern day, where Layla now knows the coordinates of the Isu temple, goes there, hooks herself up to the machine, becomes the overseer of time with the other overseer of time which already was hanging out there (I mean yeah, great idea, terrible execution. Build it up, then you can have a payoff. This was just straight outta nowhere, and who cared about Layla anyway.) Anyway, meanwhile Basim, who was still hanging on that machine a fuck ton of years later, pops off, and is now living in the modern day. The idea here is, that we lost the hero (Layla) which caused the (just established) vilain (Basim) to do his fuckery in the modern day. But why should I care? Basim was basically nonexistent in the basically nonexistent story and suddendly I should feel sad or shocked, because he's in the modern day? Is this supposed to be intriguing? And yeah, Layla is "gone". Layla, who had no character building over three fucking games. Why should i be bothered? Why should I care about anything that just happened? Remember when a side character (Lucy) died in AC Brotherhood? That was intriguing. Why? Because they built her as a character we (Desmond) trusted, even though it was in the modern day (which no one really cares about in AC). And this is why Valhalla broke me and Odyssey didn't. Valhalla failed to make me care on a much deeper level. It's just a lot of nothingness. Empty characters in a nonexistent story. And by nonexistent, I mean non-built at all. When I play the game now, I have no actual reason, and throughout the game never actually had any actual reason, to continue. It was a chore. I didn't bother if after three hours of grind I would eventually get a mini-snippet of a husk of a story, and neither do I care now. Everything in

this game is so devoid of sparking curiosity and screams of lacklusterness to the point where I don't even know what I have actually expierenced. For fuck's sake Ubisoft, make me care again. At least once in 40 hours.

May I sum up Valhalla's "story" and content in the glorious words of Catherine Tate: Am I bovvered? The answer, sadly, is a holistic no.

#assassins creed #ac valhalla #sorry for the rant #this is my longest post yet #am i bovvered #sidenote: this is actually the first time that i'm genuinely pissed at ubisoft #i wasn't even this mad with odyssey #and that thing got a lot of hate #maybe i'm gonna delete this again

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gachagamewishlist · 4 years ago

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Guide To The Fate Series Part 1

This is not really a quick answer to “Where should I start watching Fate?” but it is in depth.

Main Timeline:

Fate/Zero

Fate Zero: Onegai! Special

Fate Zero Cafe

Fate/Stay Night

Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works: The Movie

Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feels Trilogy

Basically all Stay Night anime are adapted from a visual novel named Fate/Stay Night and each anime adapts a different route while Zero is an adaptation of a prequel novel that takes place 10 years before it.

So where do you start?

Start with Zero if you want to progress chronologically (keep in mind that the animation studio, Ufotable , animated most of them and improved a lot with each new series) and don’t mind spoilers.

Onegai takes a peek at what happens after Zero

Cafe Zero can not be found anywhere

FSN:UBW or FSN is recommended if you wish to progress as originally made. FSN (either the VN or the studio Deen anime) is not usually recommended over UBW as the anime is the the least faithful and oldest adaptation as they combined several route plot points into one while the VN is lengthy and hard to download. UBW could not adapt 1:1 the VN but is definitely a better experience visually.

Heaven’s Feel goes after UBW full stop, it assumes you’ve watch the tv series and will skip the prologue.

TV Reproduction and the UBW movie are just edited together summaries so I do not recommend them.

Grand Order Timeline:

Fate/Grand Order is a gacha game where you the player are tasked with saving the world with Chaldea aka The Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Finis Chaldea.

Fate/Grand Order: First Order

Fate/Grand Order: Camelot Movies

Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia - Initium Iter

Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia

Fate/Grand Order: Solomon

Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom

Fate/Grand Order: Learning with Manga

Fate/Grand Carnival While you technically can watch FGO through anime only it’s not recommended as you’ll miss out on a lot of chapters but if you wish to know the order to watch them in then here you are:

First Order adapts the prologue of the game and serves as as a good intro to it all as characters from Stay Night show up as new versions of their characters.

Camelot adapts the 6th chapter but as of writing this post has not been released fully yet.

Initium Ilter is an anime only special episode focusing on the backstory of main characters in FGO, Mashu and Romani. I highly recommend watching it.

Babylonia adapts the 7th chapter as a TV series but I can not recommend it unless your favorite character shows up. It’s filled with constant panty shots to the point where after watching an adaptation of one of my favorite chapters all I could think about was what a waste of time it is.

Solomon covers the 8th chapter but has not released yet.

Learning with Manga is actually more of a gag anime and is based on a gag manga.

Grand Carnival is a fun what if scenario that imagines hijinks at Chaldea

Moonlight serves as a prologue for part 2 (not chapter 2) of FGO

Spinoffs:

Fate/Prototype

Fate/Apocrypha

Fate/Extra Last Encore

FATE/EXTRA: LAST ENCORE ILLUSTRIAS TENDOUSETSU

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA

Prototype is a animated short showing what the initial idea for FSN was

Apocrypha is if a timeline split from before Zero and 14 teams battled each other instead of the usual 7.

Last Encore is based on the question of what would happen if the villain from the original Extra games won. and is also very confusing

ILLUSTRIAS TENDOUSETSU is 4 more episodes of it

Kaleid Liner is a magical spinoff based around a character from Stay Night. Apparently the movie and manga have a good story but I do not recommend unless you can tolerate a show that put fanservice in a cast of elementary school kids

Part 2 will focus on everything other than anime adaptations

#fate series

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fourteendaysinaweek · 4 years ago

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Show Recommendations

Grimm

Platform: Amazon Prime

Official overview: Portland detective Nick Burkhardt, descended from a long line of warriors known as Grimms, defends his city from magical creatures known as Wesen, which are part human and part animal. Fighting alongside his partner, Hank, colleague Sergeant Wu and friends Monroe and Rosalee, Nick faces off against internal and external forces, including his police captain, Sean Renard.

My overview: Portland detective Nick Burkhardt thinks he's going insane when he randomly starts seeing monsters at the time his aunt goes into a coma. Turns out he's not, in fact, going crazy. He deals with shit trying to kill him and his girlfriend and friends CONSTANTLY and in reality all he wants to do his keep his city safe, and he accidentally saves the world in the process.

Thoughts on the show: I love it, it does have a habit of setting up for recurring characters and then never mentioning them again, so that's annoying. There are 6 seasons. There are some great romances in the show, and also some iffy ones, but the iffy ones are definitely regarded as such in the show, and eventually either develop past the weird stage or die before anymore harm can be done. Aired from 2011 to 2017

Thoughts on the fandom: Wayyyy too small, I know of 0 people around my age who like it, and 90% of the fan base is obsessed with Sasha Roiz who plays Sean Renard (not that I'm judging). Definitely not enough fics out there, and the ones that I've found seem to be poorly written or basically just pwp.

Warehouse 13

Platform: Amazon Prime

Official overview: Following an abrupt transfer, Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering find themselves in the middle of South Dakota at a massive, top-secret storage warehouse that holds every strange artifact, mysterious relic, out-of-this-world object and supernatural souvenir ever found by the U.S. government. Lattimer and Bering's new task, as directed by the warehouse's caretaker, longtime agent Artie Nielsen, is to investigate reports of unexplainable and paranormal activity in an effort to secure more peculiar and dangerous objects, and to help Artie manage the warehouse itself.

My overview: imagine the TARDIS except it's a warehouse and not a police box (bigger on the inside) and it's full of cursed objects to be kept there so it doesn't destroy the world.

Thoughts on the show: I love it. It accurately depicts trauma and has decent representation such as a black woman everyone is intimidated by because she's the boss, a gay man who isn't sexualized and has development and a personality other than "gay". There is even an incredibly homoerotic friendship between two women that the actress of said women played up because they wanted their characters together, even if one turned out to be not-so-good. The show deals with sexism and victims of neglect. You'll learn a lot of random history while watching the show as all of the artifacts tend to be historically based (the guillotine blade that cut of Marie Antoinette's head, for instance). There are 5 seasons and I'm s3 or 4. Apparently the show does something weird with Pete and Myka at the end, which probably means they get together. Ran 2009 to 2014.

Thoughts on the fandom: again, way too small, although a lot bigger than Grimm. There are quite a few fics out there, mainly for the two women which I ship with my whole heart. There might be some controversy with Eddie McClintock (Pete Lattimer) but I'm not very well-versed in it. I wish Grimm's fandom was as big as W13's.

The Umbrella Academy

Platform: Netflix

Official overview: On one day in 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who creates the Umbrella Academy and prepares his "children" to save the world. In their teenage years, though, the family fractures and the team disbands. Fast forward to the present time, when the six surviving members of the clan reunite upon the news of Hargreeves' passing. They work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father's death, but divergent personalities and abilities again pull the estranged family apart, and a global apocalypse is another imminent threat. The series is based on a collection of comics and graphic novels created and written by My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way.

My overview: adult survivors of abuse with increasingly weird/out-there superpowers due to the weird circumstances of their birth come together to celebrate *cough* I mean mourn the passing of their "father" And accidentally cause the apocalypse.

Thoughts on the show: I love it. I've finished season 2,currenfly there are only 2 seasons, it's still in progress, I love it. I'm sure most of you have already watched it because what is the supernatural fandom if not emo? Also a good one for representation. Mexican man with a stutter, black woman with a daughter she is in a custody battle for, gay druggie veteran, Ellen Page, Asian ghost boy, 58 year old man in a 13 year old's body, and a half-chimp man.

Thoughts on the fandom: big. Big big big. Haven't found any fics that cater to my specific wants in a fic, but there are fics. Some of them have weird pairings, but since the show made two (adopted) siblings canon, I can't exactly blame them.

Lost Girl

Platform: I actually have no idea

Official overview: Bo is a small-town girl on the run after a disastrous sexual encounter with her boyfriend ends with his death. Bo learns that she is not human, but a succubus, who feeds on the sexual energy of humans. She and her kind are members of the Fae, creatures of legend, who walk among humans and feed off them in different ways. As she searches for the truth about her origins and runs from her inhuman urges, she vows to help those she meets along the way -- human or Fae -- who need to right a wrong.

My overview: bisexual woman finds out she's a succubus and she has to choose to be either good Fae or bad Fae (I think it's light vs dark but it's been a Hot Minute) she has a thing with a werewolf and also a thing with a Fae doctor who is human and a woman.

Thoughts on the show: it's good, 5 seasons, don't think I've finished the first season. Back when I started watching it it was on Netflix and has since been removed. It's on Vudo but it costs money which is bullshit. It's a little weird at first, but I like it. Ran 2010 to 2015.

Thoughts on the fandom: have not interacted with the fandom for fear of spoilers. I'd imagine this show's fandom is about the size of Grimm.

Being Human (USA version)

Platform: again, I don't know.

Official overview: "Being Human," based on a BBC series of the same name, features three 20-something roommates who each try to keep a secret from the rest of the world -- one is a ghost, another is a vampire and the third is a werewolf. The three roomies try to help one another navigate the complexities of living double lives.

My overview: again, weird starts off in almost the middle of the story. It deals with abuse, death, fighting urges, dealing with past sins, and, well, being human. The characters are Sally (Ghost) Aidan (vampire) and Josh (werewolf). The three of them are trying to live like normal, Aidan and Josh as workers at the local hospital as Sally works to deal with her death.

Thoughts on the show: I love it I just wish I could find it on a reliable site, again, it's on Vudo but it costs money. It definitely had the set up for a good mlm relationship but from what I've gathered they end up forcing heterosexuality.

Thoughts on the fandom: again, too small, roughly the size of Grimm. I have seen 0 fics.

The Librarians

Platform: Hulu I do so believe

Official overview: Cued by TNT's popular 'The Librarian' trilogy, this series introduces new members of an ancient group protecting mystical artefacts. Hidden below the Metropolitan Public Library, the secret society's longtime leader is Flynn Carsen, whose job has become very complicated. To help, the Library recruits Eve, a counterterrorism agent responsible for organizational security; Jacob, who has encyclopedic knowledge of art, architecture and history; Cassandra, who links auditory/sensory hallucinations to memory; and Ezekiel, a skilled thief and master technician. Overseeing them is Jenkins, the reclusive caretaker of the Library's sleepy little outpost in Oregon. Noah Wyle executive produces and recurs as Flynn, the role he played in the movie series.

My overview: very similar to W13. This time imagine the Bunker, and the Warehouse, and boom, you've got the Library.

Thoughts on the show: good! I love it, I just found out it was on Hulu and am going to be binging it as soon as I finish Grimm and Warehouse. I'd love to see a crossover between W13 and The Librarians I feel like they'd have a feud.

Thoughts on the fandom: probably the same size as W13 if not bigger as the series came from movies. Again, haven't finished the series so I haven't interacted with the fandom.

Eureka

Platform: Amazon Prime

Official overview: In the years since World War II, the U.S. government has been relocating the world's geniuses (and their families) to the Pacific Northwest town of Eureka. Daily life there shifts between amazing innovation and total chaos. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter learns this first-hand when his car breaks down in Eureka, stranding him among the town's eccentric citizens. When they unleash a scientific creation still unknown to the outside world, it's up to Carter to restore order. Subsequently, he's let in on one of America's best-kept secrets.

My overview: a small town but make every person a genius. Has some crossover with Warehouse 13, they exist in the same universe.

Thoughts on the show: I love it so far. Just the kind of weird shit I enjoy.

Thoughts on the fandom: I'd imagine about the size of Warehouse 13's but I've yet to interact considering I'm still in season 1.

#show recommendations #show recs

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berrymascarpone · 5 years ago

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For the last few months, I’ve been rereading the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K Le Guin, and has very beautiful descriptions of idyllic mountain towns and different landscapes. And, of course, being a huge fanfic nerd, I immediately thought of writing a fic like that. So yeah, here’s the result:

Title: Hope Like a Sword, Intolerable

There is no death, there is the Force. The Force is an endless ocean that crashes its unresting waves on all the shores across time and space and eternity, and each life merely an instant of foam on the crest.

One man falls into the Force and tries to keep himself from splintering into foam. He has the knowledge of the Whills behind him, and the clawing desperation of a lifetime. The Force takes, it takes his brother’s betrayal like a red-hot blade between his ribs, the scouring, lonely years in the desert, the candlelight flicker of hope in the war that had no end. The Force takes it all, and leaves the man, clinging, desperate. He thinks he can swim the currents, stay the tide, but the ocean drags him under, into the deep undertow. It draws him in, inexorable, and when it has taken enough, brined the years and sun-bleached distances from his bones, it spits him out like all the beached whales and floating debris on a strange shore.

He stumbles, unsteady, and, with a final crash, he wakes.

===

Obi-Wan Kenobi is born crying.

This is not unusual, but after his first gulps of air, after being cleaned and swaddled and rocked, he continues to wail, thin and reedy, and refuses to stop, except to drink from his mother’s breast and sleep in fits and starts. But his parents, Druma and San-Mai Kenobi, are an older couple who have four other children they’ve raised through sleepless nights and more crying than a Chandrilian tragedy. They are worried, but not overly so. They soothe him with lullabies and gentle rocking, and sometimes a bit of sweet sleep-grass for him to chew on. It’s just a touch of colic, they argue, nothing unusual. He will grow out of it.

He does, eventually, and though he still wakes to his own cries occasionally, he quickly stops as soon as one of his parents comes into the room, staring with wide eyes at Druma’s sleepy face, or San-Mai’s tired smile.

He’s the perfect child, all big eyes and quiet curiosity, and very little fussing. His parents are grateful for a calm child at last, especially because they are busy with the farm and the Shaak herds, and the many things that must be done in a small Stewjoni village around harvest time. Perhaps that is why they don’t notice the way he stares at them sometimes, at his own hands and at the small blue-painted room he shares with his toddler sister Nerva, and the way he reaches out to things with just a bit of hesitation, like he’s reaching for a soap bubble that will disappear once he touches it.

===

He grows.

In his first two years, Obi-Wan is a quiet, somber child. He plays with his toys quietly, moves his little stuffed nexu toy around with a faraway look on his face, though he doesn’t touch the toy soldiers his older brothers give him. He tolerates the antics of his older siblings with an unending patience, letting them tote him around the house and dress him in their too-large clothes. He doesn’t cry much, even when Ric, his second oldest brother, drops him accidentally and he hits his head on the side of the dining room table. He stares at the blood on his hands like it’s the strangest thing he’s ever seen, and Ric is the one who starts bawling, drawing their parents over like concerned hens. He doesn’t fuss, doesn’t do anything to cause worry, and his parents are grateful. They have four other children to chase after and placate, including a toddler girl who is just learning to run, a pair of preteen twins, and a teenage son who is just starting to assert his independence, and they are happy for a little peace from him.

His parents do worry when he does not speak for his first year, does not babble and coo like the other infants, though he masters crawling and his first wobbly steps with apparent ease.

“There’s nothing wrong with him, physically,” the village pediatrician says, “He’s hit all the growth milestones, and there isn’t any sign of physical or neurological issues. Maybe he just needs a bit more time.”

His mother sighs and frets and smooths his hair as he sits quietly on her lap, but his father shrugs. A quiet boy is not the worst thing in the world, especially not after the first few months of non-stop crying. They know his vocal cords work, at least. And his sister Nerva only started speaking real words at eight months, he reasons, though he does not mention she had chattered endlessly in nonsense syllables since she could make sound.

And perhaps their worries are heard by some higher power, because Obi-Wan speaks the next day, a quiet, “Mama,” just before dinner.

Then, he looks at his father sitting in the next chair over, and tilts his head, and says, “Papa.”

His mother cries, and envelops him in a hug. His father is proud, of course, but there is a niggling sense in the back of his mind, that says this is not how the rest of your children learned to talk. He ignores it, because what does he care of the proper order of things, now that his youngest child is calling him papa?

It’s a cause for celebration in the house, and they spend the evening trying to teach them their names. Nerva, already four and speaking in full if not always grammatically correct sentences, laughs happily as he murmurs quiet syllables to her. Ric and Mari point and name every object they can find and try to get him to repeat the words. Even Owen, deep in his sulky teenage phase, musters up a smile for his cute littlest brother, who says his name with a frown, stumbling over the syllables with adorable frustration.

===

Obi-Wan wanders.

He starts wandering as soon as his legs are strong enough to hold his weight, with the aimless curiosity of a child, peering into every burrow and hole around their farm. His father, who has grown up in this town and knows the fields and hills as well the back of his own eyelids, sends him out to the pasture with the goose flock and a long switch made of rushes with which to herd them, as he sent all of his children before, and was sent himself as a toddling child. There is nothing in these hills that can hurt him, and the boy should learn some independence. They sent their akk-hound Maruma with him, though. Just in case.

His siblings sometimes catch him sitting on a rock in the hills, swinging his feet into the air and singing little nonsense songs with a marching cadence. Druma hears him once, and he’s reminded of the songs soldiers sing in the capital, ones he’s heard once in his boyhood years, when his father took him to see a military parade of crisply-uniformed militia members singing their way down the cramped streets, feet pounding a rhythm into the cobblestone.

Once, and only once, Obi-Wan wanders off the farm, past the fences and pastures, and into the forests of tall, dark conifers, and does not come back with the geese at dinner time. His parents are frantic, and send word out to the neighbors, who quickly organize into a search party, combing through the trees.

They find him in a field of vetch and clover, face blotched with crying and buried in Maruma’s soft scales. When they ask what happened, he shakes his head and says, “I can’t find him. He’s gone, gone.” And bursts into fresh tears.

They never do figure out who he meant, who was missing. No one in the village has left or died recently, and even the animals have been safe from predators and disease. No travelers in the summer, or visitors from the city. Druma remembers suddenly the old stories, of ghosts and barrows full of ancestors’ bones, and he wonders. But he does not speak these thoughts aloud.

Occasionally, when Obi-Wan stays up late enough to see the dawning stars, his mother notices a shift in his expression, a yearning, bereft look too old for his face, like he is searching for something loved and lost out amidst the black.

San-Mai feels something almost like fear in those moments, because her youngest, her little ember child, seems so far away, seems poised to leap up and join the cold stars in the heavens. Perhaps he belongs out there—far away among the stars and nebulae. Perhaps he is only here on borrowed time, and one day something will tug on the hook already buried in his heart and call him back.

But the next morning, he is in his bed again, sleeping. San-Mai’s heart is still once more, reassured that he is still here, still theirs.

===

He relearns things he has forgotten.

When he is three, his siblings teach him to fish in the cold mountain streams, how to stomp on the ground to make the worms come to the surface, to bait a hook and to lay on his stomach at the riverbank, holding the fishing line, and to jerk the string back quickly when he feels the faint tremble that indicates a bite. The first time he hooks a fish, everyone cheers even though the wriggling silverfish at the end of his line is only as big as his tiny palm. Owen cleans and cooks the fish over a crackling fire regardless, and Mari, his older sister, blows the crisping skin until he can eat it without burning himself.

His mother teaches him the songs of Stewjon, the lullabies, lays and ballads in the high lilting Stewjoni language that they speak in addition to Galactic Basic, and he mimics her in a wobbly voice, singing of fey creatures in the hills, brave heroes on the mountain slopes, maidens lost and maidens found, and maidens who find themselves. His favorite songs, however, are the ones about the old adventurers coming home, the hero returning after years of toil and war to his ploughshare and his scythe, to sing and rest before the crackling hearth fire, warming his old bones. He listens to those songs, which are not at all popular except in the cold winter months when all people long for warm hearths and friendly voices raised in song, and there is something of heartbreak in his face.

===

Obi-Wan dreams.

He sometimes wishes he could stay here forever, grow up again tall and weedy in the cradle of the valley of his birth, away from all power and darkness, forgetting all hope and horror. Live a farmer’s life, herding shaak and nauga, singing the joyful mountain songs, worrying only for the next season’s rains and the next year’s harvest.

But that is his wish, not his fate.

===

Stewjon is an agrarian planet, full of farmers and shaak herders with their mundane problems, solved by the local villagers’ collective experience and rugged determination. They do not, as a rule, receive foreign diplomats or visitors, except perhaps the buyers of nauga wool and local herbs, or an occasional wanderer looking for some peace. So it is with surprise and not a bit of nervousness that the small village cradled in the valley like a hundred other valleys gets word that a Jedi contingent is arriving the next week. It’s only for an Agricorps project, collecting samples from the buckwheat fields, and collecting information on livestock breeding and rainfall and harvest yields.

San-Mai mentions this fact casually to her husband, a bit of village gossip. She does not realize that Obi-Wan is listening, as he always is. She does notice when he drops the bowl of nauga wool he’s combing and looks up at them.

“Jedi?” He says, wide-eyed, “They’re coming here?”

“Yes dear,” Druma says, picking up the bowl and pressing a large, calloused hand over Obi-Wan’s head, ruffling the fine-gold hair. “They are big, strong warriors, like the ones that fight monsters in the songs, you remember?”

Obi-Wan nods, but there is something different in his eyes. It is a look that sets Druma’s nerves on edge with a sudden foreboding. His child looks so far away. Though he’s looking at Druma, he stares also at something beyond his father, beyond the house and the valley, and his gaze is full of longing.

“Are they here to stop a—a monster?” Obi-Wan asks.

“They’re here to help with the fields,” Druma says, “They are scholars too, you see. Wise men and women, who can feel the crops and the animals and tell if they are sick. They are here to make sure that ours are healthy and hale.”

Obi-Wan hums, kicks his feet as they dangle over the countertop where he’s seated.

“Can I go see them?” He asks, quietly.

“Of course,” San-Mai says. The whole village is likely to be out to see the Jedi. It’s not often that such exciting guests arrive. And though it is hard to remember that Obi-Wan is only four, with how serious he seems, it is not unusual for their youngest to grow excited over new things.

But Obi-Wan does not look excited. His face is drawn and thoughtful, and very distant.

===

Obi-Wan leaves.

The Jedi arrive in town, a tall bear of a Master and his sullen, dark-haired apprentice. They visit the required farms, take the samples they need, all the while trailed by a gaggle of curious village children, brave enough to follow but too shy to approach. Master Jinn smiles indulgently at them, and produces candies from the city from his voluminous sleeves. Padawan du Crion scowls, but when his Master is busy talking to Druma about the rainfalls and Shaak births, he entertains them with a magic trick—juggling rocks without use of his hands, and preens as they gasp and giggle with every little leap of stone and wave of his hand.

Obi-Wan does not laugh, but he smiles, reaches out and—the stones fall, but do not hit the ground. The apprentice gapes, his hands still, and he points at Obi-Wan and says, like an accusation, “You’re Force-sensitive!”

The children scatter, like startled birds, leaving Obi-Wan alone unperturbed.

Master Jinn comes over in two long strides. Druma follows closely behind, and he pales when he sees his youngest son, palms upward, and the stones floating about his head like planets orbiting a star.

“Obi-Wan?” He murmurs, more acceptance than surprise because he has always known, somewhere deep in his marrow where the old stories are rooted, that his child has never been his, has always belonged to another world, another fate. That eventually the day would come to let him go.

From the look on his child’s face, he knows that time has come.

He has four other children, but it is still so hard to give this one up.

===

“There is no death, there is the Force,” Obi-Wan says, and Qui-Gon freezes, looks down at the child with the old man’s eyes.

“All life and years and distances,” Obi-Wan says, “All stars and sunlight, all will and hope. That is what one must give, and that is what the Force demands. We are not saints, but seekers, Master Jinn.”

Qui-Gon Jinn kneels down before the child. Whatever expression his face might hold is obscured by the curtain of his hair, to all except the boy.

“Where did you learn that?” He says, softly. He remembers the words, has read them in ancient texts of Force-ghosts and spiritual presences, as no more than rumors and references in historical accounts. He thinks he might delve deeper to satisfy his esoteric curiosity, one day, when he has finished training his apprentice and has more time on his hands. He wonders, now, if there is some kernel of truth to those whispers.

“From you,” the boy says, quietly enough that no one else can hear, “From life and from loss.”

Qui-Gon is silent for a long time. He says, “What do you want to do, now?”

Obi-Wan’s lip trembles, and Qui-Gon is reminded suddenly that this is still a child in body, despite what his spirit remembers.

He says, “I want to go home.”

#My writing #obi wan kenobi #time travel au #basically a list of headcanons for a fic i probably won't write #star wars fic #bb! obi wan #and obi-wan's family #just let obi-wan be a happy farmer #for a while at least #ambiguous ending #also on my ao3

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beeblackburn · 5 years ago

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Pretender Reads A Little Hatred, Part I, Chapter One

It's time. Goes without saying spoilers ahead for the entirety of The First Law works beyond the keep reading. Read at your own risk.

PART I

"The age is running mad after innovation;

and all the business of the world

is to be done in a new way.”

—Dr Johnson

No joke? This quotes gave me chills as a declaration of authorial intent. I have a slightly more optimistic view of The First Law’s world, but even I knew the first trilogy’s intent was, beyond commenting on how much Abercrombie dug Lord of the Rings so much that he wrote a trilogy to show his... appreciation, to show that, as much as people want to change, they are helpless to actually commit by their pasts, being pieces and pawns to the old ways and grudges of Bayaz and Khalul’s “great” war of two old assholes fighting over grudges kept alive solely two great powers butting heads over wrongs long past.

That human nature is fundamentally unchanging.

But, at the same time? Abercrombie’s throwing down a gauntlet with this quote. With the new flavor of fantasy he’s promising, the new generation of characters he has to usher in to spearhead that new age, he has to change. He cannot rehash the old stories. Cannot repeat the old patterns. Cannot force the old systems continuing to work, having grown rusty and creaky with age. History has to move forward. Meaning he has to pave the path to new ways. The question is, new way in what manner? New ways as in a social progress, positive change, a better world? Or new ways as in Bayaz changing from magic to money, and from spells to cannons, in order to assert the same small-minded ideal of might makes right with different tools?

It’s a new age of madness, but with human nature being what it is? Abercrombie has shown that a little hatred goes a long way to lead us to stepping upon old roads left behind our parents, who they themselves trod on by their predecessors.

Chapter Title: Blessings and Curses Point-of-View: Rikke

“Rikke.”

She prised one eye open. A slit of stabbing, sickening brightness.

“Come back.”

She pushed the spit-wet dowel out of her mouth with her tongue and croaked the one word she could think of. “Fuck.”

Now isn’t that just a typical Abercrombie sentiment. Actually, what I want to focus on is how this opening is lean compared to The Blade Itself:

Logen plunged through the trees, bare feet slipping and sliding on the wet earth, the slush, the wet pine needles, breath rasping in his chest, blood thumping in his head. He stumbled and sprawled onto his side, nearly cut his chest open with his own axe, lay there panting, peering through the shadowy forest.

—The Blade Itself, The End

From Blessings and Curses, we already see a much apparent crispness of voice, short paragraphs broken apart, an unusual situation of a girl opening one eye and having to come back (come back from what?) There’s a surreal quality that Logen’s opening, as much as I like it as an introduction to The Blade Itself, can’t beat beyond the chapter title. Yet, to remind us it’s Abercrombie, someone has to say fuck. Because of course.

“There’s my girl!” Isern squatted beside her, necklace of runes and finger bones dangling, grinning that twisted grin that showed the hole in her teeth and offering no help at all.

HOLY FUCK IT’S CRUMMOCK’S SHIN-KICKER AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

“I saw folk falling from a high tower. Dozens of ’em.” She winced at the thought of them hitting the ground. “I saw folk hanged. Rows of ’em.” Her gut cramped at the memory of swinging bodies, dangling feet. “I saw … a battle, maybe? Below a red hill.”

Isern sniffed. “This is the North. Takes no magic to see a battle coming. What else?”

“I saw Uffrith burning.” Rikke could almost smell the smoke still. She pressed her hand to her left eye. Felt hot. Burning hot.

“What else?”

“I saw a wolf eat the sun. Then a lion ate the wolf. Then a lamb ate the lion. Then an owl ate the lamb.”

“Must’ve been a real monster of an owl.”

“Or a tiny little lamb, I guess? What does it mean?”

So, full disclosure here: I did read the A Little Hatred blurb before reading, so I already knew we were getting something like this... but holy shit, we’re seriously getting a prophet? I’m going to talk my precise thoughts on this later, in full first impressions of Rikke as a character, but man, I usually hate prophecies and prophets, but with Abercrombie? Dude’s earned enough credit (specifically, everything to do with Grom-gil-Gorm’s prophecy in the Shattered Sea series) at my trust bank to get me to care. And I love how Rikke can still feel the sensory details of her visions, the costs of magic. Magic.

Also, am I a terrible person for, seeing the eats in the prophecy, immediately thinking Eaters? I probably am.

I’ll hold off on dissecting the prophecy at the chapter’s end.

"Well, I can unveil two secrets right away.” Rikke groaned as she pushed herself up onto one elbow. “My head hurts and I shat myself.”

"That second one’s no secret, anyone with a nose is party to it.”

"Shitty Rikke, they’ll call me." She wrinkled her nose as she shifted. “And not for the first time.”

"Your problem is in caring what they call you.”

There’s definitely a very winning formula with how Rikke and Isern’s dynamic works: the young, soft-hearted naif butting and bouncing heads against the more world-weary, a touch twisted, experienced warrior. Rikke complains about how much the world will react to her, Isern tells her to suck it up because Rikke doesn’t have to care at all.

Also, not going to lie: part of why I love Rikke is that she shits herself during her visions and fits. It undercuts the mystique of magic with the unpleasant consequences, grounded in reality.

Isern tapped under her left eye. “You say cursed with fits, I say blessed with the Long Eye.”

So. First off, fun fact:

Crummock spun one of the wooden signs on his necklace round and around. “I can’t see her letting Bethod lose, and herself along with him, can you? A witch as clever as that one? There’s all kinds of magic she could mix. All kinds of blessings and curses. All kinds of ways that bitch could tilt the outcome, as though the chances weren’t tilted enough already.”

—Last Argument of Kings, Leaves on the Water

History echoes, doesn’t it? Another i-Phail, another user of the Long Eye, and a discussion about the blessings and curses of magic. The players are different, but the sentiments are similar enough to ripple from the past to the present.

Now, my first reaction to reading this part of the blurb was: WHOA WHOA WHOA, Caurib’s Long Eye from The First Law trilogy? OH MY GOD!!!!! Just more connective tissue to link this book from its past, the earliest roots of Abercrombie’s world-building, when he was still tinkering with what he wanted (long eye isn’t even capitalized in The First Law’s mention of it). It’s a nice reference for us long-time readers and a magical power for the new readers.

Mind you, all I’m thinking is: was Caurib, every time she was decked out and being impossibly beautiful in the way Abercrombie wrote her... was she actually having fits and headaches and shitting for her visions? Because, wow, I can only imagine how frustrated she must’ve been having to make public appearances. I can just imagine her wishing everyone would fuck off so she could have headaches and shit in peace. Already makes me like Caurib a lot more now.

“Huh.” Rikke rolled onto her knees and her stomach kept on rolling and tickled her throat with sick. By the dead, she felt sore and squeezed out. Twice the pain of a night at the ale cup and none of the sweet memories. “Doesn’t feel like much of a blessing to me,” she muttered, once she’d risked a little burp and fought her guts to a draw.

I really do appreciate how much Abercrombie grounds and mixes a curse into magical “blessings.” I was really skeptical of putting in some last trace of magic in anyone, but Rikke’s right in it not being a blessing, and considering magic is on its last legs, there’s no way Bayaz won’t meet her later and clutch his monstrous hands on her Long Eye, teaching her finesse in exchange for getting to aim where it goes towards.

Another tool. Another weapon to kill his enemies.

"Might have to rope you in future, make sure you don’t crack your nut and end up a drooler like my brother Brait. At least he can keep his shit in, mind you.”

HOW MANY SONS DID CRUMMOCK HAVE. THE FUCK!? I can’t even find a Brait anywhere except The Heroes and that was clearly not him. For one, he didn’t drool!

“My head still aches so bad I can feel it in my teeth.” Rikke wanted to shout but knew it’d hurt too much, so she had to whine it soft instead. “I need no more small discomforts.”

“Life is small discomforts, girl! They’re how you know you are alive.”

Another part of why I like Rikke so much is that, as a character starting out, she whines. A decent amount. She’s admittedly got some good reason to do so, but as the narrative points out and Isern especially, at least living means you get to whine about it and too much of it will only enable more discomfort, make the pain bigger. There’s intentional room to grow for Rikke and the fact that Abercrombie lets her be a bit of a whiner at the risk of alienating readers is a writer’s courage I always try to emulate.

Character development’s has to start somewhere.

“Guess not. Just, in the songs, it’s a thing witches and magi and deep-wise folk used to see into the fog of what comes. Not a thing that makes idiots fall down and shit themselves.”

“In case you never noticed, bards have a habit of dressing things up. There is a fine living, d’you see, in songs about deep-wise witches, but in shitty idiots, less.”

Snrrrrrk. I got to love how Abercrombie shades lesser and classic fantasies. He does so well with it.

“And proving you have the Long Eye is no simple matter. You cannot force it open. You must coax it.” And Isern tickled Rikke under the chin and made her jerk away. “Take it up to the sacred places where the old stones stand so the moon might shine full upon it. But it’ll see what it sees when it chooses, even so.”

Huh. Crummock made it clear that there was something special about the moon during his time in Last Argument of Kings. I assumed it was solely just him thinking the moon’s love made men more violent and strong, but did he think it could influence magic? Given his more singular focus on violence and his clear Bloody-Nine murderboner fanboying, I think Crummock was a lot more close-minded about how the moon can affect things. Isern’s a lot more flexible, by comparison.

(Also, are those sacred places that fortress Logen and Crummock and the rest had their last stand in the High Places? Crummock did say it was well loved of the moon...)

“War?”

“It’s when a fight gets so big almost no one comes out of it well.”

“I know what it bloody is.” Rikke had a spot of fear growing at the nape of her neck which she couldn’t shrug off however much she wriggled her shoulders. “But there’s been peace in the North all my lifetime.”

“My da used to say times of peace are when the wise prepare for violence.”

“Your da was mad as a bootful of dung.”

“And what does your da say? Few men so sane as the Dogman.”

Rikke wriggled her shoulders one more time, but nothing helped. “He says hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

Isern’s first line is true, but also makes me think of all the Northmen who came into war, looking for glory and a Name, and came out dead or unable to stop killing, their bloody footsteps followed by fellow warriors with same dreams of glory and a Name, just younger. War chews up men and spits them out, dead or alive, no one living coming out without trauma and/or a score of dead friends.

Also, Dogman’s daughter, huh! Good on him for managing to raise a decent child in the Circle of the World, even if she has her share of flaws. Rikke certainly reminds me of a softer, more whinier Dogman, yet still decent.

Rikke blinked at her. ‘You can’t have been ten years old.’

‘Old enough to kill a man.’

‘What?’

‘Used to carry my da’s hammer, ’cause the smallest should take the heaviest load, but that day he was fighting with the hammer so I had his spear. This very one.’ Its butt tapped the rhythm of their walking on the path. ‘My da knocked a man down, and he was trying to get up, and I stabbed him right up the arse.’

‘With that spear?’ Rikke had come to think of it as just a stick Isern carried. A stick that happened to have a deerskin cover over one end. She didn’t like thinking there was a blade under there. Especially not one that had been up some poor bastard’s arse.

I love Abercrombie’s humor, especially given how actually rather depressing Isern’s age of killing was. It always serves to give levity to some heavy stuff in the story, preventing the darkness from choking most people whole. It’s the “poor bastard” part of that last line that brings the smile and laughter out.

“Girl, you have a ring through your nose.”

“I am aware.” And Rikke stuck her tongue out and touched the tip to it. “It keeps me tethered.”

Hey, you want to know another part of why I really like Rikke? Nose rings are fucking cool. Gives her a distinct appearance and fashion.

Now if only other prophets had nose rings instead of cloaks and vague portents, I wouldn’t find them so bloody boring.

“You’ve a wolf on your shield,” she said.

“Stour Nightfall’s mark,” growled the big man, with a hint of pride, and Rikke saw he had a wolf on his shield, too, though his was scuffed almost back to the wood.

(Looks at his book) Well, shit! The cover’s actually relevant. I was eyeing the UK cover better, but now that this US/Can one has meaning, I can accept it.

Also, Stour Nightfall is the coolest fucking name. Can’t wait to meet him!

“Nightfall’s the greatest warrior since the Bloody-Nine!” piped up the young one. “He’s going to take back Angland and drive the Union out o’ the North!”

(Arches an eyebrow) I don’t take issue with taking back Angland, there’s some valid enough history with Casamir that I don’t blame the North for it, but how did what I theorized to be Calder’s son become such a beef-cake? But really? Greatest warrior since the Bloody-Nine? I can’t help but think him a cut-price Bloody-Nine now.

“The Union?” And Rikke looked down at the wolf’s head badly daubed on his badly made shield. "A wolf ate the sun,” she whispered.

Thank you, Rikke, I studied English lit in high school. I can do my own analysis of symbolism and visions.

Rikke’s arrow stuck into his back, just under his shoulder blade.

Her turn to say, “Oh,” not sure whether she’d meant to let go the string or not.

A flash of metal and the old man’s head jolted, the blade of Isern’s spear catching him in the throat. He dropped his own spear, grabbed for her with clumsy fingers.

“Shush.” Isern slapped his hand away and ripped the blade free in a black gout.

The inexperienced child and hardened warrior dynamic continues with Rikke accidentally, not knowing if she meant to or not, dooming a boy to death and Isern, experienced hand at the black business, aims for the kill and gives her enemies no ground to gain leverage upon her. But, ultimately...

“You killed ’em.” Rikke felt all hot. There were some red speckles on her hand. The big one was lying on his face, shirt soaked dark.

“You killed this one,” said Isern. The lad knelt there, making these squeaky little gasps as he tried to reach around his back to the arrow shaft, though what he’d do if he got his fingertips to it, Rikke had no idea.

... no one’s hands in this world remain clean for too long.

“Then killing ’em was all o’ the one choices we had, eh? Your problem is you’re all heart.” And she stabbed Rikke in the tit with one bony finger.

“Ow!” Rikke took a step away, holding her arms across her chest. “That hurts, you know!”

“You’re all heart all over, so you feel every sting and buffet. You must make of your heart a stone.” And Isern thumped her ribs with a fist, the finger bones around her neck rattling. “Ruthlessness is a quality much loved o’ the moon.” As if to prove the point, she bent down and heaved the dead lad into the bushes. “A leader must be hard, so others don’t have to be.”

First off, I stabbed my own chest with my own finger just now to see how much it hurt. I can only imagine the increased discomfort with doing it to breasts.

Second off, to give my first impressions of Rikke... well, it’s funny. I once talked to a great friend of mine who we love to talk tropes and stories and fiction about and I told him I generally don’t gravitate to the rougher shit-talking tomboy and the prophet character tropes. To be quite frank, the former bores me on general lack of craft (everyone seems to think the trope itself constitutes a strong personality!) and the latter is just dry plot exposition on two legs generally, full of billowing cloaks and being fuck-useless 99% of the story.

Rikke might have been love at first sight for a few reasons.

The consequences of prophecy. I keep nailing this point, but I do for a reason: I have rarely seen a prophet actually endure physical ailments for their magical gifts, and the headaches, the fits, the burning hot eye, and the shitting? It helps ground Rikke’s struggles in less abstract details so we can sympathize better. We might not have had visions, but we’ve had headaches, hot eyes and shat before.

She’s got a personality! She’s rough, she gives as good verbally as she gets, but she’s also kind and not someone who goes for violence as a first resort. But, at the same time, she’s definitely got her flaws. She’s a whiner. There’s a touch of naivety and inexperience that shows when she talks how times were different when Dogman was fighting and Isern shuts that illusion down, there’s even a softness in her with how she said they should’ve given Stour’s thugs a chance.

Her partnership dynamic with Isern is really winning, allowing more of her personality to bounce off of Isern while having some sass of her own to snap back at Isern, allowing her to have a personality to bounce off of. It allows for development of both characters in a way that Abercrombie’s first attempt at having an early traveling pair in Malacus Quai and Logen can never match, given all the personality leaping off the screen.

The tonal difference. Rikke is a really decent kid dropped into the Circle of the World. In any other series, my eyes would glaze over in boredom. In here? There’s so much misery and depressing reality that happens in the Circle of the World, that it looks like it’ll be a treat to see how she’ll interacts with the older, hardened generation of characters and how much decency might touch upon them. And that only makes Isern’s advice to her all the more interesting. Because her being all heart is hardly Bayaz’s ideal tool and I get the sense that her turning her heart into stone won’t be a smooth ride.

The nose ring. I’m sorry if it makes me shallow, but that’s a cool design choice and love the tethered justification.

The morning mist was long faded and she could see all the way across the patchwork of new-planted fields to Uffrith, wedged in against the grey sea behind its grey wall. Where her father’s old hall stood with the scraggy garden out the back. Safe, boring Uffrith, where she’d been born and raised. Only it was burning, just the way she’d seen it, and a great column of dark smoke rolled up and smudged the sky, drifting out over the restless sea.

(winces) Well, that’s one part of the prophecy dealt with.

Isern wandered from the trees with her spear across her shoulders and a great smile across her face. ‘You know what this means?’

‘War?’ whispered Rikke, horrified.

“Aye, that.” Isern waved it away like it was a trifle. “But more to the matter, I was right!” And she clapped Rikke on the shoulder so hard she near knocked her down. “You do have the Long Eye!”

Hah! Somehow, Isern, I think she won’t take the blessing of that statement and only see the curse of it.

So! Theory-crafting on the prophecy itself!

The only tower I know of in the North was in the High Places, and given Isern’s with Rikke, I can imagine that’s certainly plausible. Either that or somewhere in the Union, given its towers, especially the Tower of Chains?

The battle below a red hill will be one of our battle set-pieces. Definitely something like the Casualties chapter in The Heroes.

Uffrith already burnt, but it was the first thing to happen, so the people hanged from towers and the red hill battle are yet to happen.

“I saw a wolf eat the sun” Stour taking down the Union.

“Then a lion ate the wolf” Leo taking down Stour, which I’d normally take as a sign I shouldn’t get invested because I already know the outcome... but given Grom-gil-Gorm’s prophecy twist, I think there’s plenty of ways this could easily turn twisted, especially with Black Calder about.

“Then a lamb ate the lion” I heard a decent amount of people say they thought it’d be straight-up Lamb and, man, NO. The point of Red Country is that, deep down, Lamb was only pretending to be a lamb and was really a wolf in lambswool. Someone who genuinely is worthless... Orso, from the blurb, seems to fit the bill, given that Leo’s been hoping for help there.

“Then an owl ate the lamb.” Bayaz with Orso. Owls are symbolized as knowledge and Bayaz’s being the First of the Magi, feels right for that... and given that Orso is part of the royal family and how Bayaz “ate” Jezal, I can’t say him repeating it with Orso is implausible. My only worry is, how will this be new from Bayaz and Jezal’s deal?

PART I

Chapter One: Blessings and Curses Chapter Two: Where the Fight’s Hottest Chapter Three: Guilt Is a Luxury Chapter Four: Keeping Score Chapter Five: A Little Public Hanging Chapter Six: The Breakers Chapter Seven: The Answer to Your Tears Chapter Eight: Young Heroes Chapter Nine: The Moment

#a little hatred #a little hatred spoilers #the age of madness #the first law #joe abercrombie #rikke #a little hatred part I

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ialreadyreadthatfanfic · 5 years ago

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So I saw the new Star Wars movie

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT PEOPLE

First off: I went to a marathon of the whole sequel trilogy with my friends, and I’m glad that I did, because I forgot A LOT.

Mostly how many good memes there were born out of those films.

The Force Awakens evoked pretty much the same feeling it did during the first watching: it’s a good, enjoyable beginning, with a lot of hooks, not a lot of risks, a bit too much resemblance to the original trilogy, but on the whole a promising start.

The Last Jedi, on the other hand. I forgot how effectively this movie killed my interest in Star Wars for a long, long while. The plot is a mess. Most of the characters are unlikeable, because the idiot balls they’re holding are too big to get past them. Main offenders are: Poe, Hondo, Finn and Rose. The unfortunate Casino subplot, which is tiring. The fact that whoever wrote Rose’s character arc (or rather didn’t bother to write it) did the actress massive disservice, because the way Rose “saves” Finn at the last minute is, frankly, rage inducing and makes her character devoid of any shred of consistency. I have a lot of other complaints about this movie, but the storylines not making sense are a common theme, so let’s not rehash the familiar arguments.

Now, onto the main event.

The Rise of the Skywalker was… mostly okay.

For me personally, it would be hard to match the disappointment of TLJ, so this worked to lift the sequel ROTS up. I went in pretty much unspoiled, actually! I heard the “oh they plan to bring Palpatine back” thing back when the first teaser/trailer was released. But after that nothing more.

Number one: Leia.

It’s such a shame that Carrie Fisher didn’t get to act in this movie. There are several scenes with Leia mentoring Rey, but it is obvious the filmmakers went as far as they could with the footage they had available, but could go no further. Some scenes with Luke and Han (Han especially) are obviously done with Mark and Harrison standing in for Carrie.

Number two: Palpatine and the theme of Rey’s legacy.

This is where the lack of overall plan for the sequel trilogy, and subsequent lack of proper foreshadowing in TFA and TLJ hurts the most, probably. So Rey is revealed to be Palpatine’s granddaughter. Her parents chose to abandon her for her own safety and were killed when they refused to give up her location. Okay, that’s interesting backstory. Sadly, after the WHO ARE REY PARENTS… PERHAPS SOMEONE WE KNOW and the OMG PLOT TWIST SHE’S NO ONE AND HE PARENTS DIDN’T CARE FOR HER AT ALL, the third plot twist gets me merely to roll my eyes and sigh heavily. I wish dearly there was more time to develop this storyline. It’s wasn’t ENTIRELY bad, but the whole thing has this feel of “uhhh people were really pissed off after the last one… what can we do to fix it?? Oh shit we kinda killed Snoke too and there is Big Bad Villain missing bc we want to redeem Kylo… you know what?? Palpatine was the big bad in prequels AND in the original… let’s have a dramatic reveal how it was him all along. It will nicely bring the story back full circle, you know” and so they did just that.

Nr two subsection A: the whole Sith legacy/Final Order thing was interesting, but again: too little time to develop it. It should have been tied into First Order and Snoke in previous movies… and the less said about Deus Ex Machina Sith Fleet in which every ship has a planet-killing weapon on board the better. Just don’t thing about it too much PLEASE.

Conclusion: Snoke was Palpatine’s test tube baby experiment? That actually explains a lot…

Number three: redemption of Ben Solo.

Honestly, this one? Is actually a net positive for me! I had so little patience for Kylo Ren as a villain that redemption storyline actually made me like Ben Solo in the last part of the movie (AT LAST). And while two first movies had me uninterested in Reylo to the point of irritation at its prevalence, the last movie actually made me ship it a little! Maybe I’m a sucker for redemption. Maybe I don’t have patience for characters who themselves have no idea why are they doing what are they doing and they kinda maybe might not want to do it but continue to do it because it’s easier than giving it up aaand you get the picture how I saw Kylo Ren. And how glad I’m that Ben Solo at the end got to move past this stage of his character.

Also, the Reylo Force Skype was strong in this one. And how!

Number four: Finn and the Stormtroopers deserters.

Again, this should have been in TLJ. They should have taken this whole storyline about Finn meeting other deserters from First Order out of sequel ROTS and replaced the goddamn casino thing with it in TLJ. Sadly, they only thought of putting it in the script once the fanbase got pissed off about lack of Finn’s character development/his BACKWARDS character development in TLJ.

Consequently, Rose was sidelined. On one hand, it’s a shame. On the other, I’m a bit relieved; after the mess they made of her arc in TLJ, there was no salvaging it. It’s better to let the actress have a few scenes to note that she didn’t just disappear from the plot, but don’t try to aggressively resurrect her plot and make an even bigger mess.

The unintentionally hilarious thing about this point: Finn suddenly comes across as such Casanova. Here’s Rose! Here’s Stormtrooper deserter lady! (sorry, I forgot her name). Here’s a sly hint that he might have feelings for Rey!! Pick a girl, for god’s sake!!!

Nr four subsection A: Poe also got an old flame lady Who Happens To Help Our Heroes. Just so you know that he’s definitely into ladies, you know, just a heterosexual dude… The relationship in the movie is handled actually pretty well – they’re old flames and while Poe wants to rekindle the relationship, the lady is ultimately like “nope” and the Poe does “aw” face and moves on, so pretty classy overall. Just in the context of Finnpoe and great chemistry they had in the first movie? This is such a shame.

Number five: Poe in charge and the Resistance thing.

Poe’s storyline in The Last Jedi totally ruined this for me, sorry. I couldn’t even get all that invested.

Also, it feels at times like the movie wants to have Poe taking up Leia’s legacy, Rey taking up Leia’s legacy, Ben taking up his mother’s legacy and you know what? Leia’s legacy is big. There’s definitely enough to go around! TOO BAD THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE MOVIE TO SHOW ALL THIS PROPERLY YOU KNOW GOD I WISH THERE WAS MORE ABOUT LEIA’S JEDI TRAINING

Number six: the ending.

Rey and Ben fighting together – I was actually finally sold on Reylo at this point. Their fight together in TLJ against Snoke’s guards was pretty cool (one of few good things in THAT movie), and here their shared fight against Palpatine/Knights of Ren (?) was also great.

Palpatine shooting the force lighting into the sky to disable the whole Rebel fleet and friends apparently got someone in the cinema to go “seriously?!” out loud, as my friends report. Enough said.

Rey dying and Ben trying to bring her back to life: this part actually got me really excited. For a moment there I thought that Ben would fail, and the force ghost Anakin would show up to Deliver Some Hard Earned Wisdom About Bringing People Back To Life And How You Can’t Do It and this would be a very satisfying ending to the whole “Ben/Kylo tries to be Just Like Grandpa Vader” storyline. Well, that didn’t happen.

The fact that Ben brough Rey back, then kissed her passionately, and then IMMEDIATELY KEELED OVER DEAD got the whole theatre laughing (me included). Again, enough said.

The “Galaxy Shows Up To Help Out BC The Resistance Asked Twice And They Felt Bad After Ignoring The First Call”: I got it. You want your feel good moment here. Look how happy ending is when the people of galaxy unite together, aww. Sadly, when you think about it for a two seconds more, this is such a bullshit and disservice to Leia, because the implication is that they didn’t pick up when LEIA was calling, but decided to help after all when LANDO asked… What??? Go fuck yourselves.

The ending-ending was ok. Rey, Finn and Poe hugged (aww!). Two ladies kissing in that 0.5 sec long shot are all Disney needs to show how open-minded they are*. That one kiss with Ben was apparently enough to marry Rey into the family, she’s a Skywalker now. Leia and Luke look approvingly on as they force ghost along, that’s nice.

At least people who wanted Rey to have a double blade got what they wanted in the end.

*So it’s actually genuinely good that scenes like these ARE put into cashcow franchises like Star Wars, but I’m hesitant to give Disney too much credit. Knowing them, they’ll just shove one blink-and-miss-it scene in all their movie and claim that’s comprehensive proof of their supportive approach to alternate lifestyles.

#star wars #the rise of the skywalker #sw #spoilers #sequel trilogy #nebra original #also on my dreamwidth #TROS #the rise of skywalker

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the-archlich · 5 years ago

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Clone Wars: The Mortis Arc

A weird arc, but an interesting one. I didn’t like it the first time I watched it but I think it’s much more interesting now.

The Republic intercepts a transmission from a planet in the far Outer Rim using a Jedi distress signal that hasn't been used for 2000 years. Ani, Obi, and Ahsoka are sent to investigate and as soon as they get there weird stuff starts happening. A bizarre construct appears and sucks them in; everyone loses consciousness and wakes up...somewhere. The seasons seem to change with the time of day, there are no animals anywhere, and the Force is incredibly strong there.

A strange glowing lady who calls herself Daughter appears and leads them to Father. A rock slide separates Daughter and Anakin from the others, so Obi and Ahsoka go back to the ship. But the ship isn't there and they're confronted by Brother. Obi-Wan can sense the Dark Side in him; he admit he's both Sith and not, but clearly DS-affiliated. (Also this is the first time Ahsoka turns on her second lightsaber. It's also green, but a bit of a different color. More of a yellow tint to it. It's also a bit shorter than the standard lightsaber, more suitable for an off-hand weapon. I like the variety. More lightsaber options are always fun to play with.)

Taking shelter in a cave, Obi-Wan receives a visit from Qui-Gon Jinn. And it's worth noting that force ghosts were NOT a thing until this point. Qui-Gon was the first person to pull that off, so Obi-Wan is understandably freaked out. Qui-Gon tells him that that planet is both an amplifier and a magnet; and that there three there who were seeking Anakin because they believed, as he did, that Anakin was the Chosen One.

Meanwhile, having been left by Daughter, Anakin makes his way to a conspicuous monastery where he meets Father. He spends the night at the monastery where he has a vision of his mother. For the first time, Anakin talks about slaughtering the Sand People who killed her, and how he only felt vengeance. And now guilt. He also says that the only love he feels now is haunted by knowing what he'd do if he ever lost Padme. This is a very good conversation to have because this is so core to how Anakin ultimately falls to the Dark Side. It's his fear of losing Padme, and his fear of what that would turn him into, that makes him seek out any desperate means to preserve her life. His "mother" turns out to be a trick who insists Ani has a different destiny.

Anakin confronts Father, who says that he and his children have an unparalleled power to use the Force. Even their physical forms are just a reflection of the Force. Because of their power they withdrew from the world; mostly Father wanted to protect it from his Daughter and Son, and them from it.

Father has his children abduct Obi and Ahsoka and does that dumb "you can only save one of them" thing, trying to make Anakin choose. When Anakin shows that he can control both of them, Father says "Yep, chosen one." He says he's dying and wants Anakin to stay and control his kids, but Anakin says fuck that and they all get ready to fly away.

While leaving the planet, Anakin goes to sleep and has another vision from Brother, who wants Anakin to join him in the dark, saying they'll destroy the Sith and Jedi alike. That's pretty prophetic, given what we all know of Anakin's future. In order to prevent Anakin from leaving, Brother kidnaps Ahsoka to keep Anakin there. Anakin rushes off to find her while Obi seeks out Father for assistance.

Obi arrives while Father is discussing the situation with his children. Brother is getting deeper and deeper in the dark and, tired of his Father's warnings, attacks him with some cool red Force lightning. Daughter is reluctant to actually do anything but does lead Obi to a special altar deep in the planet. There, he finds a unique blade capable of harming Brother, something we've seen lightsabers unable to do.

Anakin finds Ahsoka, who has some kind of extremely visible Dark Side infection. They fight (and I love that lightsabers can apparently be set to "slow extend" for dramatic effect) while Obi and Daughter confront Brother directly. While Obi-Wan runs off to help Anakin with Ahsoka, Daughter and Son fight until Father shows up and throws them both through a window. Brother gets his hands on the Mortis Blade and tries to kill Father, but Daughter gets in the way and gets stabbed instead. Brother freaks out and flees, and balance on the planet starts to fall apart. Also Ahsoka briefly dies but is resurrected with the last of Daughter's life-force. This is the first of 3 times she'll die (the 2nd being in Rebels and the 3rd presumably happening eventually, though I guess immorality isn't out of the question).

While Obi-Wan and Ahsoka repair the ship, Anakin tries to figure out what the hell he's supposed to do about all this. He also gets a Qui-Gon vision, who directs him to a place that is strong in the Dark Side - and implies that instead of killing the Son, the solution will be more complicated than that. Anakin confronts the Son, who shows him visions of his future - him killing Jedi younglings, fighting Obi-Wan, the destruction of Alderaan, Sidious's laughter, and capping it all off with a vision of himself as Darth Vader. Brother insists that they can prevent all that if they work together. Anakin agrees and starts going full Dark.

While Brother is off getting the Mortis Blade to kill Father, Father takes Anakin's memory of his future from him. So Anakin is back on Team Light. During the final confrontation with the Son, Father stabs himself with the Mortis Blade, which also takes away some of the Son's power. Anakin stabs the Son while he's distracted and the whole trio is killed. The whole planet starts to fall apart, there's a bright flash of light...

...and they wake up in their ship, told that only a few moments have passed. That, of course, raises a whole ton of questions, including the obvious "did this really even happen?" one. (To which, of course, the answer is: irrelevant. Whether this was all just a vision to serve as a metaphor to guide Anakin and his friends, or something they physically experienced, it has the same effect on them.)

There are probably a lot of theories about what exactly this trio is, but I think the episode gives us a lot of information if you're paying attention. They might not be exactly "human" (as per the species) but are obviously mortal though hard to actually kill. Father says several times that he brought his children to Mortis for everyone's safety, and they're very familiar with the terms Sith and Jedi. The Jedi code used to draw Anakin to Mortis was from 2000 years ago. From all this, it seems like Father was a Jedi (or Jedi-adjacent) from 2000 years ago who withdrew to this planet that was rich in the Force, where he kept his children in isolation to try and protect them. It may even be that Father is the one who delivered the Chosen One prophecy in the first place.

This is a weird arc but an interesting one. It shows the Force as a more mystical thing, something far greater and stranger than what the Jedi and Sith have boiled it down to. Ultimately both groups have a limited view of the Force, treating it like a hard science with firm rules and limitations. This expands our understanding far beyond that, showing how these traditions restrict a true understanding of something that is much greater. This more spiritualistic view of the Force is something we see echoed in the new trilogy. The Force is a deeper mystery of the universe, and by trying to force it into these little boxes (”Jedi” “Sith” “midichlorians”) we lose our ability to fully experience or understand it.

This whole arc is wrapped up around the whole “Chosen One” thing and the question of Anakin’s destiny; something that Clone Wars really hasn’t been interested in, and is better for it. Ultimately the statements it makes are vague; just some platitudes about bringing balance. I feel like there’s a missed opportunity there, but I also feel like a lot of the ambiguity is deliberate. A lot of this is open to interpretation. That’s fine, but it might have been stronger if it made some solid choices.

#clone fights

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theselfhelphipster · 5 years ago

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I still read every night before bed and when I love a story, I burn my way through it in a matter of days. Hours if I really put my mind to it.

It is scientifically proven that reading is one of the most relaxing things you can do (more than other things even) - it slows down your breathing and your heart rate, which is why it's perfect to incorporate in a bedtime ritual.

Here's the list of my favourite books of the past year or so.

*Affiliate links below!

Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J Maas

This series is not as steamy as the Court-series I wrote about in the previous blog post. However, technically speaking this is definitely a better saga, if you will.

Sarah J Maas has created this epic tale around Selena Galynthius in an epic world full of old-time fantasy characters like elves and fae and witches and wyverns. It's very cool.

The series wrapped up with a stunner of a finale last fall and it was some of the best fantasy I've read in a while. Book 1 is kind of weirdly written if you compare it to the rest, but in book two she really gets the show on the road.

If you like epic fantasy? This is IT.

I'm thinking about buying this box myself (I've read them on Kindle but these are so epic I want them on print) but if you want to start, start with Throne of Glass AND Crown of Midnight.

The Meredith Gentry Series - Laurel K Hamilton

I'm including this one more for lolz than for anything else.

I LOVED these when I was a teen, such smutty books in a fantasy world. Turns out it was either hormones kicking in or I just had terrible taste back then. (Probably both.)

These are TERRIBLE!

They make zero sense, the story is incredibly convoluted and I don't even think the sex scenes are that well-written or hot anymore. They're no Court of Mist and Fury, if ya know what I mean.

I reread them for old time sake, and if you're into Harlequin-esque elf books with a lot of descriptives and dialogues, in a story that only BARELY goes somewhere, go off I guess. If not, steer clear.

Bol.com is like 'fuck you we're not selling this drivel' but Amazon Kindle always comes through for us perverts.

Good Omens - Thierry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

When I saw that wickedly cool trailer for Good OmensI immediately started reading Good Omens. I had had it on my Kindle forever, and it really is a classic.

It's fun, funny, great story and great writing. I'm going to do that online storytelling class by Neil Gaiman and read a lot more by them both the upcoming year.

I've read Neil Gaiman's American Gods, The Ocean By The End of the Lake and Graveyard Boy, but nothing by Thierry Pratchett yet.

I'm excited.

Where to buy? A paperback at Bol.com is just 8,99 right now.

(Also, WATCH THE AMAZON PRIME SERIES, it is SO FUN!)

Caraval & Legendary - Stephanie Gaber

A magical story about two sisters (there's quite a few books I read the past year with sisters) get invited to a once-a-year, exclusive magical live performance where the audience participates. The protagonist has been obsessed with this Caraval as long as she lives. To escape a betrothal of her sister, they go and during the Caraval a lot happens that changes everything.

Apparently there is a third book called Finale, which makes me think I maybe haven't finished Legendary and I need to, because I thought there would just be two.

You can buy the paperback here, and if you want to read it in Dutch you can too: My favorite online writer to follow on Instagram, Chinouk Thijssen translated the book!

Circe - Madeline miller

I've read both this one, Song of Achilles and Galatea. The only one I wouldn't really recommend was Galatea, I just didn't really think that one is interesting. The other two are, though.

I love Greek mythology and when people retell a classic in an interesting new way, and Madeline Miller has done so with this book. I really liked Circe.

The paperback is only 9,70!

Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

One f the most beautiful and tragic lovestories I've ever read. I recommend it to everyone, especially anyone who likes Greek mythology. It's about Patrocles and Achilles, and their lovestory.

I cried like a baby during the last bit.

If you want to purchase this stunning story in paperback, click here.

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

SPEAKING OF CRYING.

If you'd like to be emotionally destroyed and sob incontrollably through the entire last half of this book, go read 'A Little Life'

At first I resisted, and during the first chapters of this book I was mostly confused about who was who, but once you've got it, it is one of those stories that touches you, breaks you and then changes you.

English paperback here, Dutch paperback here.

Fireblood Trilogy - Elly Blake

I read this only a few weeks ago and I burned through these books, if you will. Finished all three in less than a week.

These are SO GOOD. The world is divided into three types of people: Regular, Firebloods and Frostbloods, the last two types having magic abilities that they train and can use, and with the Firebloods and Frostbloods being enemies of sorts.

A Fireblood girl is taken by Frostbloods to help them take down their evil king, but it turns out everything is a lot more complicated than it seems.

Lots of plot twists you can't easily see coming, a lot of friendships, a little romance, and a really good story. It's absolutely lovely.

Paperback here, Amazon Kindle below.

The Bear and the Nightingale Series - Katherine Arden

The prettiest trilogy I've read all year.

Set in Russia, a fairytale of sorts, and the protagonist is a strong girl who believes in freedom, her own decisions and heart, and who falls in love.

Three books to enjoy and swoon over. Try the first one hereor get the ebook below.

Small Spaces - Katherine Arden

By the same author as the previous trilogy, perhaps a children's book, but a good scary story that is easy to read.

A girl who has lost her mom goes on a field trip and turns out, farms and scarecrows are still as scary as they were during Children of the Corn.

I highly recommend; easy and fun scary story, fun to read with a child I think.

You can get it here, or here:

The Mermaid's Sister - Carrie Anne Noble

This is such a beautiful story.

You meet Clara, Maren and O'Neill. Claire was brought to her aunt by a stork, Maren came out of a shell, and O'Neill was found by the woman's husband under an apple tree. As Maren slowly turns into a mermaid, Clara and O'Neill try desperately to save Maren and return her to the ocean.

It's kinda like Frozen with the sisterly love, but has more to it.

Easy to read, with lovely and beautiful sentences, and I cried at the end.

Where to buy? For 12 euros you can buy the paperback here, or the Kindle version for 3.99$ below!

Numina Series - Charlie N Holmberg

This is such a good series, I can't wait for the third book - it's coming out in September.

In this world, magic is a scary underground thing where you need slaves to get possessed by numen, fiery beings from a different plane of existence.

A girl escapes her master who as it turns out, wants to bring the worst numen from that plane to destroy the world. With the help from a charming thief, she tries to save the fellow slaves and prevent world destruction.

Get the first one hereor below:

Magi Bitter, Magic Sweet - Charlie N Holmberg

By the same author, really interesting and pretty fairytale, kind of.

It's about a magical baker, and you should just read it. Buy it here, or below. It's cheaper on Kindle and it's such a breezy book, it's fine as an ebook.

My Absolute Darling - Gabriel Tallent

Horrible but gripping story about a girl called Turtle who grows up with her survivalist nut job of a dad in the woods, and then meets a few boys and a little girl that change the course of her life.

It's hard to read sometimes because the writer has made Turtle into what into my eyes is an eerily accurate portrait of the abused and traumatised. You're rooting for her but you don't always understand her, and you don't always understand her but you're always rooting for her, you know?

You can buy the paperback here for 12 euros or do as I do and buy the Kindle version via the link below!

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein - Kiersten White

I'm a sucker for reinventions of the classics, especially if suddenly we see everything from a woman's perspective. This story is about Elizabeth Frankenstein, the girl who grew up with the boy who will become Doctor Frankenstein and who loves him, and goes looking for him when he disappears from the place he was studying.

It's a very interesting and scary story, and it shows exactly how sometimes the things we do for love, are the very things that make the person we love into a monster.

I'm going to read a lot more by Kiersten White upcoming year, that's for sure.

You can buy the paperback herefor 12 euros, or click below for the Kindle version, for only 8.32$. Fun fact: The copy of the actual story about Frankenstein's monster by Mary Shelby is the second half of the book!

Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares - Laini Taylor

By the author of some of my favorite books EVER (Daughter of Smoke and Bone series), such a well-written and ethereal story. Full of legends, poetry and love.

It is well-written, heartbreaking and especially during Muse of Nightmares it is so great to see how everything pans out.

Buy the paperback herefor 12 euros , or below:

Grim Lovelies - Meghan Shepherd

I literally finished these last weekend, and really fun! Good story, set in France, in which 'Beasties' are animals turned people and used to help magical people like witches.

Can't wait for the sequel that is coming out in a couple of days!

Get the paperback here, or below.

A Blade So Black - L. L. Mckinny

This is such an interesting take on Alice in Wonderland, scarier and darker, but also more fun. The series is called the Nightmare Verse, I haven't gotten around to reading the second instalment: A Dream So Dark.

Incredible about this book is that the protagonist is a black girl and the book also touches upon the horrible terror that you can get attacked or killed just because of the color of your skin.

You can buy the paperback for 11,99, or on Kindle below.

The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

This might be one of the most terrifying books I have ever read. It combines a few of my greatest fears (caving, being underground and diving) into a goosebump-filled adventure as you follow Gyre, an inexperienced caver who lied on her resume in order to get this job, go deeper and deeper into the cave -- as well as into the complicated backstory of her handler, Em.

Guys. It is so scary. And so good. Go read it. It's 14 euros here, or available on Amazon.

The Girl From Everwhere - Heidi Heilig

Timetravel always gives me a headache, but this piratey-spin on int is really fun.

You can buy the paperback for 9,99 on Bol.com and I was pleased to find out there is a second book now: The Ship Beyond Time. Definitely reading this as soon as I finish Frost!

Phew, a whale of a post

As always, I'd love it if you reciprocate with your own (non)-fiction recommendations: Let me know in the comments below what books you loved the past year.

Have a lovely Sunday!

#booklr #books #book #book rec #young adult books #reading community #favorite books

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