#porto do son

[agustivm]

Louro. San Francisco. Playa San Francisco. Ría de Muros. Vista de Porto do Son. Vista nocturna. 16 de agosto de 2023.

[athleticbilbao]

that gordon ramsey meme when the kid is on your team vs when the kid is on the other team

[dlyarchitecture]

[quebraram]

Às vezes a solidão chega silenciosa, como uma brisa fria que atravessa as frestas da minha alma, preenchendo cada espaço vazio com uma melancolia tranquila. As ruas parecem mais longas, os dias se estendem sem pressa e as vozes ao redor se tornam meros ecos de uma vida que já não parece sua. Eu caminho entre as sombras buscando algum sinal de vida, algum indício de que ainda há calor no mundo, mas tudo que eu encontro é a ausência. Às vezes dá vontade de me afastar de todo mundo e ficar sozinho, mas aí eu lembro que já estou assim. A ironia disso me faz rir, mas é um riso seco, quase sem som, que se perde na imensidão do silêncio. A verdade é que a solidão não é apenas a ausência de companhia, é a presença constante de si mesmo. É encarar o próprio reflexo no espelho e perceber que apesar do mundo continuar a girar, você está parado no mesmo lugar. As pessoas passam, seguem seus caminhos e você fica sempre ancorado nesse mar de vazios, tentando encontrar um porto onde possa finalmente descansar. Mas o porto não chega... E talvez nunca chegue. Porque a solidão quando se instala, se torna parte de quem somos, ela não é apenas um estado de ser, é uma lente que através dela vemos o mundo, distorcendo as cores, abafando os sons, tornando tudo um pouco mais distante e assim seguimos em frente ou pelo menos tentamos. Levo a solidão como um fardo, mas também como uma companheira inseparável, que me lembra a cada passo que a única pessoa de quem nunca conseguiremos nos afastar somos nós mesmos.

— O meu nome é solidão, D. Quebraram.

[missrainworld]

Per una piccola parte di me <3 0.1

La parte più difficile in ogni cosa è iniziare, come adesso. Non è facile trovare le parole giuste per aprire la strada alle milioni di cose che vorrei dirti. Ogni inizio è spaventoso, difficile. E me lo ricordo che qualche mese fa di paura ne avevo tanta, temevo tutte le cose che avremmo dovuto vivere.

Tu sei la prima volta in cui ho perso il controllo, in cui mi sono buttata nel vuoto e mi son detta 'Ora o mai più'. Perché in fondo te lo senti che alcune cose puoi farle solo in un determinato momento e che non c'è altro tempo per viverle.

Sei il mio momento giusto, su questo non ho dubbi, mi sei piombato addosso per caso e senza alcuna pretesa, nessuna forzatura e nessuna speranza, sei rimasto.

A volte mi chiedo perché, dopo aver visto tutto il casino che sono, tu sia rimasto. Non hai neanche dovuto lottare per entrarci nella mia vita, perché ti avevo lasciato ogni porta aperta, era troppo tempo che non davo così tanta fiducia a qualcuno ma stranamente con te mi sentivo al sicuro. E ci sono tutti gli ingredienti le farfalle, le palpitazioni, l'impazienza di essere tua.

Ci sono tutti gli ingredienti perché tu possa distruggermi e forse, per la prima volta, voglio correrne il rischio.

Probabilmente, anzi, sicuramente mi sono innamorata prima io ma come dovevo fare? Quando mi guardavi e mi parlavi di filosofia, di storia, cose che non mi hanno mai preso, ma che dette da te diventavano la cosa più interessante del mondo.

Non mi sono innamorata di te perché necessitavo di avere qualcuno al mio fianco, sono sempre stata bene da sola.

Non mi sono affezionata a te perché avevo bisogno di qualcuno che mi rendesse felice, ne perché stessi cercando qualcuno con cui stare.

In realtà, non cercavo proprio nessuno.

Mi sono innamorata di te perché mi sono sentita apprezzata, perché sei l'unica persona che mi restituisce tutto l'amore che do. Mi sono innamorata di te perché mi fai stare tranquilla, potremmo anche stare seduti senza dire nulla e guardare tik tok ed io non avrei ansia.

Siamo così simili ma in certi sensi così diversi, eppure sei esattamente quella parte che mi manca per essere come vorrei.

E' bastato un istante, uno sguardo e ti ho riconosciuto, come se in fondo ti avessi sempre aspettato. Delle volte sono istanti piccolissimi a cambiarci la vita, momenti così insignificanti da non rendercene nemmeno conto, ogni tanto mi chiedo cosa starei facendo ora se non ti avessi mai scritto, se tu non mi avessi mai baciata, se fossimo rimasti solo amici.

La maggior parte delle persone si limita al “mi piaci”, Kierkegaard invece scrisse: “Ti muovi costantemente sulle onde dell’intuizione; eppure, ogni singola somiglianza con te basta a rendermi felice. Perché? É a causa della ricca unità del tuo essere o della povera molteplicità del mio? Non é l’amare te, amare un mondo?”

D’altronde hai avuto tutto, prima ancora che te ne rendessi conto. Ti ho parlato di qualsiasi cosa, quando per me parlare di sentimenti o emozioni risulta essere complicato, tendo sempre a sopprimere qualsiasi cosa, penso perché da piccola venivo etichettata come “la bimba matura “e qualsiasi persona contava su di me ed io non avevo tempo di pensare a cosa realmente provassi.

Forse ho perso la testa, tu mi hai fatto perdere la testa, perché adesso non sento neanche di essere io, ho meno paura di tutto e provo cose talmente diverse che mi destabilizzano. Ti ho parlato di cose che non voglio ammettere nemmeno a me stessa, che portavo, e porto, come un peso, con vergogna, ma tu sei stato così paziente e mi hai ascoltato quando probabilmente quello che dicevo non aveva senso nemmeno per me.

Ti ho amata fin da subito ed ho avuto paura della velocità con cui un sentimento del genere sia cresciuto, d’altronde sono un overthinker e mi son chiesta, che vuoto lascerà una persona del genere nella mia vita? Come mi faccio domande, mi do anche risposte e Tu lasceresti un vuoto enorme, incolmabile.

Oramai occupi tutto, tutto lo spazio che c'è, sei ovunque e neanche me ne rendo conto.  Se conquisti la mia mente ci sarai sempre dentro.

Hai reso tutto pieno di significato, pieno d'amore e di timori. Per la prima volta ho davvero paura di perdere qualcuno, per la prima volta penso che non esista qualcosa che non farei per te, qualsiasi cosa pur di farti stare bene.

Non lo dico perché ti amo, ma lo dico perché sei una persona speciale. Meriti qualsiasi cosa di bello possa esserci, tutta la felicità che possa provare. Hai così tante cose dentro, che non dici e che non mi mostri. Ed io vorrei sapere tutto, conoscerti meglio di te stesso perché niente che ti riguarda mi è estraneo.

Ho capito che ero fottuta quando non mi sapevo dare una risposta al perché ti amassi, lo faccio e basta.

Ogni volta che dico di amarti significa che ti accetto per la persona che sei, e che non voglio trasformarti in qualcun altro. Significa che ti amerò e starò al tuo fianco anche nei momenti peggiori. Significa amarti anche quando sei giù di morale, non solo quando è divertente starti vicino. "Ti amo" significa che conosco la tua persona e non ti giudico. Significa che ci tengo abbastanza da lottare per quello che abbiamo e che ti amo abbastanza da lasciar perdere, se ciò significa vederti felice. Vuol dire pensarti, sognarti, volerti e aver bisogno costantemente di te, e sperare che tu provi lo stesso per me.

Mi stai donando qualcosa che non potrò che inscrivermi nel cuore, quelle cose che ti porti gelosamente dentro, che sai di poter vivere solo con una determinata persona.

Alla fine, ogni cosa mi riconduce a te. Sei nei libri che sottolineo e nella musica che ascolto, in ogni film che mi segno, in tutte le parole che scrivo, persino in quelle che non scrivo ma che custodisco gelosamente dentro di me, tra l’anima e il cuore, in quello spazio che solo tu riesci a raggiungere e che vorrei non abbandonassi mai. É come se dopo un viaggio molto lungo tu mi avessi finalmente riportato a casa.

Mi hai dato talmente tanto che adesso sono piena di te e non potrei dimenticarti mai, seppur volessi.

Mi hai riempita di un amore che non credevo avrei mai provato, così forte che adesso fatico nello scrivere senza commuovermi, senza sentire quelle stupide farfalle, perché pensarti mi fa questo effetto.

Esattamente come quando ti guardo troppo a lungo, penso a quanto sei stupenda, a quanto sai farmi stare bene e mi escono dagli occhi tutte le parole che mi rimangono bloccate in gola. Non riesco a dirtelo mentre ti ho davanti, ma hai dato alla mia vita un valore aggiunto e che avrei milioni di parole da dedicarti se solo riuscissi a concentrarmi mentre mi guardi con quegli occhioni da cui non riesco a fuggire.

Quando mi guardi dimentico tutti i miei difetti ma allo stesso tempo ho paura che guardandomi troppo o standomi troppo vicina tu mi veda come mi vedo io.

Vorrei rivivere ogni ora passata insieme, per rendermi conto di quanti dettagli mi son persa, ma poterli assaporare tutti, coglierli e conservarli. Sei un regalo grandissimo, per il quale sarò per sempre in debito verso il destino. Non so cosa succederà un domani, non importa se un ti amerò esattamente come adesso, probabilmente di più, ma sarai sempre e comunque tu, niente ti renderà diverso di fronte ai miei occhi, adesso non vedo altro che la tua essenza. Non vedo l'ora di poterti baciare, mi manchi da morire e niente mi rende felice come averti accanto e poter sentire il calore di un tuo abbraccio che tanto ho desiderato. Sei ciò di cui ho più bisogno e che non voglio lasciar andare per nulla al mondo.

Ti amo, come non amo altro.

Tua, A.

[zeusraynar]

⚡'Cause when I commit, I get away with it

... ou Headcanons de conhecimento público.

10 lâmpadas enfeitam um colar de prata. Uma correntinha bem fina, com os adornos espaçados igualmente. Cada lâmpada acende em sequência, indicando um nível de poder acumulado do filho de Zeus. A última, o número 10, é de um azul brilhante. Sua sensibilidade é tanta que é capturado até os menores valores, quando está distraído e bem. A intensidade da luz também é um excelente indicativo.

Raynar tem sensibilidades aos sons, mais especial aqueles que envolvem vozes. Multidões, discussões em voz alta, atingem um lugar muito incômodo em si. Logo, não é adepto das músicas mais escutadas no acampamento, e sim das trilhas sonoras. Sejam elas épicas e divertidas ou carregadas de suspense e tensão, a melodia e os instrumentos são seu porto seguro. Costuma treinar sozinho com fones de ouvido, mas sem a função sem ruído (ainda quer estar consciente dos arredores).

O comprometimento na Simulação de Ataques é tão conhecido quanto a fama de sério e carrancudo. Como um filho de Zeus, a vida nunca foi fácil. Sempre chamando monstros com o cheiro, com a estatura. Realmente, é um milagre ele estar vivo até os dias de hoje. Então, por consequência, não dar margem para 'passar pano' em quem o escolhe como instrutor. E, vamos dizer, seu papel de vilão é tão bom que gera preocupação.

Quando saía em missão no mundo mortal, Raynar coloca uma proteção de metal ao redor da perna direita. A névoa transforma em prótese e ele consegue ficar com a lança, esta como bengala. Continua à procura de um metal que não gere tanto problema no detector de metais. Ou de uma carranca menos ameaçadora para os policiais, porque quando não é a prótese... Suas feições geram suspeita e inquietação.

Surfe, snowboard, skate, patins, ski... Esportes e atividades que usam o equilíbrio são suas preferidas. E os mais de dois metros não atrapalham tanto. Quanto mais 'radical', melhor. Já que sua vida é uma aventura cheia de adrenalina sem sua permissão, os esportes dão uma espécie de controle da própria vida. Um gostinho de liberdade.

[jaimemes]

what was the pokemon? like what did it look like?

Oh, I can actually copy down the excerpt she wrote about her encounter (translated from Paldean, of course):

I should have known to trust my instincts— perhaps there is the blood of a seer in our family after all. But with time running out and my son growing weaker, we had no choice but to press forwards through the desert in the daylight. It was then that a raging sandstorm caught us by surprise. A most unfortunate turn of events, but my companions assured me that it would be manageable. But none of us could have accounted for a desert scourge of titanic proportions. A being so massive that we mistook scutes for mountains and scales for rock. A slithering serpentine mass beneath the sand, with jaws so wide that it swallowed three of our Tauros whole in a single bite. A being that I have baptized the Titan of Asado. I should have known from the way the desert seemed abandoned by any of its Pokemon inhabitants. Even under a cruel blanket of churning sand, usually Sandile or Hippowdon could still be found comfortably buried in the dunes and Bramblin flapping in the wind. And yet here there was none of that— as if there was something they feared here. If that was not enough, then perhaps the weariness of our Cyclizar should have clued us in to the imminent danger we were in. Perhaps they could have sensed the vibrations of something lurking beneath their feet. But we were desperate for solace from the sandstorm, and thus we thought nothing of it. In hindsight, I do not believe I would have lived to tell the tale if we had stopped to rest within the desert. After about an hour of travel past the fallen watchtower, a hulking mass suddenly sprang upon us from behind, leaping from the sands in a flash of red like a Wailord breaching from the sea. With a single snap of its long jaws, three of our livestock were gone in an instant. We took off running, but the Titan cut through the sand like a fish through water. Though its body remained mostly submerged, the top of its head lurked above the sand. It hunted us down with a crooked smile— it hadn't a need to open its mouth to reveal its massive teeth as long as my arm. We are fortunate to only have lost three Pokemon to the scourge of the sands. Upon telling the tale of our encounter to the doctors in Porto Marinada, they regarded our claims with heavy scrutiny. I do not blame them— it is quite an outlandish tale that would place me in the same circle of exaggerative fabricators like Heath. But I am beginning to believe Heath may not have been as exaggerative as I initially believed. Tomorrow, I plan to bring definitive proof that we did not suffer a collective mirage or attempt to explain the loss of three Tauros with a tall tale of epic proportions. Travelers of the desert deserve to know the dangers that lurk beneath the sands. Though I risk encountering that Titan again, what good of a Velasco would I be if I did not? I intend to return tomorrow with something to show of my efforts. — Sofia Constanza Velasco

The next day, she returned with a picture of the Titan taken from a distance, leaping from the sand to capture an entire Donphan in its jaws.

[yanderefairyangel]

Ranting about Go away Romeo

So, i have already been ranting a bit about Rosaline tellings of RomiJuri but I didn't went into great details (at least to me) about what makes them specifically not work and this one webtoon called Go Away Romeo has been renting free in my mind so I kinda want to rant about it

Warning : spoilers, potential mention of triggering subjects and in general pretty negative about this adaptation

So Go Away Romeo is a webtoon putting a twist on Shakespeare's play and focusing on a universe where RomiJuri didn't die while Rosie serves as a protag

In this timeline, Rosie feels invisible in her family and falls for Romeo, the two of them have a secret relationship but Romeo becomes cold as time goes on. Her life is shaken by the death of her cousin Juliet and that of Romeo, however she discover that she is pregnant with his child, so a child born of wedlock called Mino. Problem is that the lovers weren't dead, they succefussly faked their death and run away into Mantua while Rosaline (somehow) discovers all of this and 3 years later, she is focused on trying to make her son accepted by the aristocracy, catching the eye of Prince Escalus and Count Paris, howvever Romeo and Juliet ends up comming back and potentially threaten her now peaceful life : what's a poor girl to do ?? Willl Rosaline manage to protect what she holds dear from big bad Romeo ?

As you can tell from my tone this premise had me mixed... Conceptually speaking, antagonistic Romeo is hot and Romeo and Juliet being a villain couple sound very stylish however in this day and age, Romeo Montague is a character who suffers from villanization on all side for reasoning that are kinda dumb which makes me on the fence about such portrayal....

That being said, I was still willing to give the webtoon a try, hoping that maybe, MAYBE, they would be able to live up to the conceptual promises of this story...

Oh boi.... oh was it not it.... it was sooooooooooooooo disappointing

And before you all go in and go "well a retelling doesn't have to stick perfectly faithfully to the original" and look, I am at no point saying that a retelling straying from it's source material is a problem.

Again, Shakespeare himself went to adapt this story from a poem by Arthur brooke, whom also took liberties from the faithful translation made by William Painter of Bandello's version, which also deviates slightly from Da porto's version who completely changed anything comming from Masuccio Salernitano's version safe for a few plot beats (and don't worry Lope de Vega I ain't forgetting about you)

These are fine but it's also fine to question whether or not these changes are meaningful and it the concepts were well executed

Moreover, to ensure that it wasn't my Shakespeare biais that wasn't blinding my judgement, I forced an innocent bystander who NEVER read the play and only knew the outline of the story (my mutual) to read through it and we both came to similar conclusions before I told him about how much the webtoon broke away from it's inspiration which got him to ask "... then what was the point of using Romeo and Juliet as a source ?"

So what can I say about it... maybe let's start by the art and designs because I am very mixed about it

For the record I actually like a lot of designs, Rosaline looks very pretty, Mino is cute, Escalus and Paris are pretty by the books when it comes other characters tho.... well

Benovolio is eh honestly, not a big fan. I actually like Tybalt's design but god... this design doesn't suit him at all !!! (but so does his webtoon personality)

As for Mercutio... move on. I. freaking. hate. this. design. I.can't.stand.it.....

I mean look at him

UGGGGH

Regarding Romeo and Juliet, I am glad the webtoon had the deceny to keep the "contrast" motif that can be found in adaptations

Let me explain. I have read my fair share of adaptations and I have noticed a pattern : 1) The Capulets are in red and the Montague are in blue (as seen here, the webtoon also does that) 2) Romeo and Juliet's design is made to contrast each other, if Romeo has dark hair Juliet has lighter hair, if Romeo has lighter hair then Juliet will have darker hair

In this iteration Romeo has darker hair (brown) and Juliet ligther hair (blonde) and I think they look kinda nice when the webtoon isn't doing something that kinda annoyed me

(my fav art of them they look so good there)

Regarding the fashion sense I like a lot of them but also sometimes I have qualms about it

See webtoons like to have their female lead have thousands of different outfit and different hairstyle but Rosaline often reuses the same clothing and the problem is that it can serves as time check for readers so it happens that having Rosaline wear the same clothing makes the timeline more confused + makes it difficult to remember in which chapter she wore something and thus to remember in which specific chapter X or Y event happened

Moreover... I have other qualms but more on that later

And yeah it's time to dwell into the artstyle and I am... mixed... I think it's pretty but also sometimes I am a bit taken off by it notably the change of weight in the lineart and sometimes it made me wonder if the artist was the same due to the way it evolved

Also my qualm, the lips. The artist draws lips by using a soft pink glow which is mostly used for female characters or male characters supposed to be hot (implying this version of Tybalt isn't somehow) which was fine at first, Miss not so Sidekick had that and it wasn't that jarring to me but hum...

As time went on, it became bigger and more troublesome, especially for male characters

That's just a nitcpick tho, others complains i have is the very clear overreliance on CSP assets and... look normally I don't judge because they are meant for that but sometimes they use 3D ressources and don't even draw them !!! like I get having a webtoon means shorter delays but come on !!

(I will come back to talk about this please wait bear with me) this scene is clearly meant to hightlight the fish yet said fish is just in 3D... like it could have been very easy to just translate it in 2D (speaking as someone who use CSP... and ends up drawing everything by hand because I am too used to it) this just feels jarring to have everything 2D and the random 3D elements....

Other issue would be that it creates accidental anachronism. See the thing with most webtoon is that they take place in a fictional western historical period that isn't really specific where they can basically do whatever they want, especially as a lot of them tend to have rather soft worldbuilding even if based on clothing alone, 17th, 18th and 19th century aesthetic are the most used and often mixed together but you know, because it's a lalala land we can excuse it

But when you choose RomiJuri, a play set in Verona, you are kinda stuck to real life Italy and granted, you can try to pull some stuff to get back liberty as a writer such as placing them in a modern setting (Romeo + Juliet) or some sci fi cosmic twist for the setting (like Romeo x Juliet did) but Go Away Romeo doesn't do any of this, we are lead to believe we are in Verona, the same Verona Shakespeare set his plot in, so 14th century Verona.

Thing is that historical accurency doesn't really offer the possibility to be as stylish as one desires so I am usually very lenient on that and don't really care that the characters are more dressed with 16 century fashion than 14th, doesn't really matter but... I draw the line at some stuff such as the settings

The inn don't feel like inns but restaurants which are overly used in webtoon and what made me lose it was ... well this

There are more of this and look, I get it, CSP's mob brushes and image material are helpful when it comes to save times but... we have established the clothing is supposed to follow 16th century fashion... why is there suddendly 19th century clothing appearing ???? What is going on ??

Again I generally don't mind much anachronism and God knows Shakespeare didn't really care about being faithful to history either (in Shakespeare's voice :" What do you mean Danemark was the one to conquer Norway ? Nah, you read wrong")

These type of moments really breaks immersion and you know what else does ? The fanservice...

Yeah see, despite it's apparently innocent premise the webtoon still aims at being serious and all but there are wayyy too many moments aimed purely for fanservice to the point of making a lot of moments feel strange.....

Yeah here it's more of a fashion problem than anything but Romeo's open cleavage doesn't work for the type of clothing he is wearing, it makes it look like someone ripped off Romeo's shirt to show off his abs and he tried to fix it by adding lace .... and... aaaa...you know who pulled it off good ? Mabinogi Hamlet

Now weird fanservice moment 2, Paris is being a lot, and i mean a LOT shirtless, like when he paints (yes he paints) we see his abs through his shirts, we see him wearing naught but a very revealing dressing gown a lot of times etc.

And the winner is Escalus as he fishes a fish naked (entirely naked) and proposes to Rosaline (yes it's a real scene)

Look I get it, fanservice for the ladies and anime does it too but you know that fanservice can be distracting right ? Well, here it is, especially this Escalus scene like who thought it would be a good idea seriously it just feels so strange.... ahhh anyway now let's more on to the actual story criticism and as a stand alone

This is... so by the book. Like a lot of webtoons have a very by the book scenarios but this one doesn't even try to exploit it's interesting premise, no it's just your average webtoon, literaly everything in it, every plot beat is something you'd find in any other webtoon

Also the plot is ... nonsensical but this mainly comes from how the characters are written for sure, like there are so many plot points that are just randomly thrown away and never expanded

For example, there is a girl called Claudia who appears at first to be a minor antagonist who will play the role of the mean girl as we see in many webtoons... well no, because she doesn't, despite seeming like she will she just appears a few times and never again.... I wish I could be kidding, I even forgot she existed !!! Like what was the point of pretending to have a mean girl and then not using it ??? Why ??

Then we have Rosaline's rivalry with her own father and her uncle, Bernardo Capulet, Juliet's dad (this time it's Bernardo and not Giovanni, no one will ever name him his Da Porto name and Bandello name, Antonio, except Lope de Vega, I see how it is) which is exploited only once, during Escalus's art contest and then never again.... like why ? Why set up something you won't pursue ? What about this whole convo where Bernardo rallies his brother against his own daughter ? This makes even less sense with Rosaline eventually becomes the matriarch of the Capulet house (I promise you we will get to that) because she managed to get this role with seemingly no effort ? Like they didn't even tried to pin on her the responsability for the previous matriarch's death in order to prevent her from getting the title ?... o-ok...

Then we have this plan with Friar Lawrence... ok so quickly Lawrence is made into a big bad priest who works with Romeo because no one escaped anything... basically Friar helps Romeo in his plan to become the ruler of Verona instead of Escalus however it's made clear that the Friar had his own plans and seemed to view Romeo has a pawn for his own objectives as he tried to use Mino and his relationship with Rosaline against Romeo... problem is that he gets arrested and betrayed by Romeo before this even goes further... I wish I was joking

Literaly. every. Single. Minor antagonist or ally to Romeo is sideline so that he can be the main big bad meaning we are left with at least 3 unfinished side plot that had been previously introduced, just nothing more about them...

That's not the only time tho, see when Romeo and Juliet reveals to the grand public they are still alive and make their story about being poor unfortunate lovers whose love got threaten by jealous politicians greed and jealous people (the worst part is that it's technically not false) and guess how the webtoon frames this

As we can see clearly the jealous one are supposed to be Paris and Rosaline, the love rivals of Romeo and Juliet respectively, so it might make it seem like the webtoon is gonna develop on this to make our new couple seem like responsible for what happened to Romeo and Juliet and -- No... No, no no.... it only hints at that with having some people gossip that Rosaline might have something to do with it just because she is dancing with Paris... nothing substential even though later on the webtoon involves Romeo and Rosaline dancing so perfectly that their past as lover seemed obvious to anyone

So it just uses it to make people seem petty and win pity points for Rosaline and not to create actual tension

Shakespeare would have screamed at this because he was the king of introducing his side plot and Romeo and Juliet is a good example of that in how he set every elements for his tragedy to make sense (one of them being introducing the wedding with Paris much earlier than the traditional version which usually brings this point only after Romeo was exiled and Juliet heartbroken - for context in Da Porto/Bandello/Brooke's version Juliet's sadness is taken by her mom as depression cause she isn't married yet unlike all her others friends so she and her husband go find one for Juliet.... yes I know it's dumb, so we can all thank Shakespeare for turning into Paris wanting to marry Juliet and Lord Capulet being initially reluctant due to her age and ultimately agreeing to it for the big climax moment)

Also gotta love how the webtoon strayed so much from it's intial premise. Basically, it was supposed to be about the struggles of Rosaline as a single mother with her child while we were meant to hate Romeo and Juliet for causing her pain and all... but that completely went downhills, we ended up being more focused on Rosaline acting as a political woman near Escalus and Paris with Romeo being bad for several others reason among which his desire to become king of Verona... yes, you heard that right KING. Not prince, but KING. And yes before you ask Escalus was a prince in the webtoon before Romeo overthrew him and became king....king of Verona you can't make this up... (this remind me of Romeo vs Juliet's weird thing with Verona having a grand duke instead of a prince like... searching the history of Italy before the 19th century unification isn't that hard)

So normally I don't take issue with something seemingly more slice of life going into a darker turn but the problem is that it makes Mino completely useless and he ends up being used for cheap drama instead... like i kid you not we don't even know why Romeo would have any use of this kid because his goal is to be king and he is kind, maybe he wants him to be his heir but he could have just made a child with Juliet whom at some point as to pretend being pregnant because of him and even made me think that maybe he would try to kidnapp Mino to claim him as his and Juliet's child (no it didn't happened) but that doesn't work either because Rosaline makes his plan foil by admitting he is the father of Mino and telling of her story to a whole crowd (and Romeo let her do this mind you, even thought it can destroy his reputation) and it goes nowhere... actually no it does goes somewhere but it's so stupid I wanna band my head against a wall whenever I remember this...

Point being that Mino doesn't work for the story anymore yet the webtoon try to shoehorn him non stop in a plot that no longer revolves around what it was supposed to and thus it doesn't work, it just feels like the writers remembered what was the initial premise and didn't wanted to make it sound like it strayed as much as it actually did

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Speaking off, this might sound picky but Juliette, and above all Paris not noticing sooner that Mino looks identical to Romeo makes it even less believable, seriously....

And the characters....oh the characters

1- Rosaline

She is our Mc, and while seemingly interesing in concept she is incredibly boring

She is just your average webtoon heroine who is perfect in every way, she is supposed to be hated by everyone because she had a child out of wedlock but putting aside the gag of Mino being described as so cute he easily wins the heart of the ladies gossiping Rosaline, she is also portrayed as succeding in everything with little to no effort.

I usually don't like calling characters Mary sue especially when the webtoon clearly struggles to make her struggles but there is limits

For instance, when she has to participate to represent the Capulet along with her father and uncle at Escalus's art contest, she decides to ask help from Paris because he is the most renown painter (despite the fact she somehow didn't recognized him at Escalus's birthday party) but Paris gives her an impossible task in hope she will back off, she doesn't because this is supposed to show how determinated she is, she gets injuried, faint, Paris takes her in they discuss, Paris remarks that while she did get one of what he asked, she failed to provide the rest, he argues that he can't rely one some nobody unable to use her connections to her advantage... and she replies that he send her to do an errand that none could fufill anyway and that given what she accomplished he could acknowledge her with Paris arguing he is doing this for her good, she should give up, she says she won't and eventually Paris just accepts

Now that might make it seems like she failed but no because the point wasn't to get the ingredients, it was to convince Paris to join her when he clearly didn't wanted to, and in that aspects she clearly succeded despite not fufilling his tasks even tho... PARIS HAD A POINT HERE !!

It could have been a good occasion for self reflection on Rosaline's part, she is literaly said at the begining to have no allies because she is invisible in her own family, that is why Romeo approached her and that is why she wants to fight back now and teach that to her son. And that being established, this means that she indeed has 0 political input, in fact her taking part in the contest is literaly meant to help her have the bare minimum of attention from her family, her first steps, this SHOULD have been used as an opportunity for her to reflect about all the way she has to go and how she believed that she could rely on her strengh alone when in reality she is gonna need to play the dirty game of politics but no, no, Rosaline ends up having the last word by making Paris looks like an hypocrite for sending her on a quest she couldn't fufill anyway

So instead of acknoweldging that what she does is go "but you send me on a fool's errand" which makes everything fundamentally void because this just gives her an easy win... whether Rosaline managed to gather the material or not is ultimately useless when she can just show how stubborn she is by insisting and boom, Paris is in her pocket

Like really wow... and obviously this means Rosaline's ascension is incredibly easy, she doesn't have to work to get more recognition from her family and the whole of Verona, gaining noble trust etc. Nope, would have been more interesting but nope.

Also this motif of "Rosie lost but in reality she wins" is gonna happen again

Escalus is hosting a art constest to please the nobles, and Rosaline participates in hope of gaining her grandma's favor, her grandma the Matriach of the Capulet house (yes this is going where you think it will) but her dad and uncle are at a point where they are presented as rival to her, and she can't present the painting Paris had been working on because someone sabotaged it... you know ? To make sure that we understand that in normal times people who aren't named Rosaline don't stand a chance because she can't have genuine rivalry with anyone

So she improvise and makes Paris sketch portraits of Escalus and destribute them to the commoner which is meant to show that Rosaline is very clever because she isn't relying on just presenting something to show her power and wealth but because she care about the people, because we had seen her worried about the security of the town unlike the others nobles who are all selfish entitles brat, because she even tell Paris she apologized for having treated his art like just something to win a contest when it deserves more respect, because of stuff like that....

I get what the webtoon is trying to do but it forgets that Rosaline was originally going to present something like any of the others nobles and that at no point we have a Ann Nakahara moment where she goes "wait I have an idea" getting her epiphany from looking at the people

Because when Ann Nakahara does it for her own manga (and God knows she loves this type of plot) she has her heroines comes to a realization throught X or Y element she ends up noticing, often trapped in her own throughts for example, Kirarin realizes that she is doing her marketing wrong because she heard people talk about their personal tastes and tried to come with an idea to solve this issue (yes this very old manga did a better job with this plot than the webtoon) but NOTHING, NOTHING in this episode could allow her to have such an idea.... which mainly comes from the fact that technically it was Paris's idea so... like how does any of this makes her special ? This isn't something she came up with herself because she had a realization moment, no, it just happens for the sake of our FL seeming special and nothing else

And thus, despite losing the contest, she still wins Escalus heart and thus her granny's approval... I swear to God, and not even an episode later we see a fully naked bathing Escalus offering her to marry him while naked..... now to be fair, he wasn't serious... because Rosaline's reaction was to be like "do you think I am so easy"

And this type of reaction is especially annoying when it's with Tybalt and Romeo... with Tybalt he is clearly meant to be some type of double agent so whenever he and Rosie have a verbal joust of some sorts the real reason why Rosie is winning.... is because Tybalt is on her side and that's just a way to show how strong willed she is by having her talk about it out loud while Tybalt congratulate her for being so strong willed and telling her to stay that way...

As for Romeo, whenver this happens it just feels like some petty girl roasting her ex "hmph I am so much better than you" type of stick

Worst part is that despite trying to push this idea of girlboss strong independant Rosaline, she still need men to defend her and by men i mean Tybalt, Escalus and most of the time Paris because love interest

As a matter of fact this begin very quickly with Paris going from telling her that bringing Mino in this party is exposing him to danger when he is so young to defend the kid and her mother when he accidentally bumps into a rude nobleman

I swear, Rosaline is this type of Mary Sue who has eveyr characteristics but because the author made sure everyone hated her for no reasons, they are all so cartoonishly evil towards her it's diffcult to believe any of them to be humans made of layers, they are just cartoon board meant to make us root for Rosie by using our pity and angers points... in short, cheap

What makes it worse is that the webtoon does try to make Rosaline struggles and give her vulnerable moments but these moments don't really make sense because we are given a Rosie that is constantly in the right (Someone is telling me that I might put my son in danger ? How dare they think of me as a bad mother ! They are telling me that I have no power ? How dare they when they literaly send me on a fool's erand) and that when she does self reflect it's not about any of these, it's a simple "Am I doing enough ?" to give the impression she does self reflect and has doubts.

Other example which is honestly the funniest bit of all times is how the webtoon describes her a having being invisble, meek, timid, easy to manipulate... all that

Meanwhile Episode 47 :

They said " SCREW THAT" and gave us a flashback where Romeo remembers about her and I kid you not that's how he describes her

This is a joke... we are told that in the story she behaved differently from the main webtoon only to have this flashback where she behaves EXACTLY LIKE HOW SHE DOES IN THE WHOLE COMIC WHAT ON EARTH ?! So if i understand she is supposed to easily fall for his words but at the same time acts like she can't be fooled, she is both a niave timid meek woman and someone with a tongue and wits as sharp as a dagger despite Romeo remarking on her changing - CONSISENCY ??? WHAT IS CONSISTENCY ???

They can't even respect the own flaws they gave her this is not possible, this is so gigantic and we are supposed to get along when the story is contradicting itself non stop to make Rosaline looks good... the problem is that it does the opposite of course because it just makes her flat and everything

And not I am not gonna comment on this flashback contradicting the begining of the story because it was clearly meant to just be a wink at the famous balcony scene but with Rosaline instead...

And yes I know she is shown to be trembling in front of Romeo and Juliet but here is the thing, the thing is that at some point she looks at Paris and think to herself "unlike me he didn't overcame his past" but she clearly didn't move on either and does the webtoon uses this as an opportunity to show Rosaline realize in reality she is still stuck in the pas-no, of course not, everything unfolds and despite trembling and need to support herself she still tries to resist because she has to be strong no matter what...

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't....oh wait, right there is more

So I mentionned the existence of a Matriarch of the Capulet's family who is supposed to be the grandmother of Rosaline, Juliet and Tybalt. Yes she doesn't exist in the play, yes she exists solely for Rosaline to end up being the Matriarch herself because girlboss. To the webtoon's credits at least it wasn't as predictable as I thought but still bad : basically Romeo manipulates Juliet to have the Martriach dead because... hum... ahh anyway she dies, she tells Rosaline she wants her to become the new Matriarch and of course this happens...

This is the finale of season 1, Romeo is supposed to have won but because this dunce decided to make a deal with Rosaline, literaly everyone survives and thus she lost nothing... except her grandmother. But this is mainly an excuse for her and Paris relationship to have an obstacle in it. Once she is in this position, she can easily plot behind Romeo's back because again, the idiot didn't killed her allies, heck, she even manages to manipulate Benvolio, who is in Romeo's camp, by exploiting the fact he is starting to fall for Juliet (more on that later)

So yeah basically a perfect Mary sue...

2-Paris

Paris doesn't fare much better, he is the most basic a love interest can get. At first he is introduced as the typical broody man who tries to protect Rosaline by acting cold and all that... it's how he is in the first couples of chapter which are essentially dedicated to slow pace action in the time Romeo and Juliet reveals themselves and Romeo just goes on full evil, as times goes on he drops the facade to basically becomes more and more obvious about his feelings for Rosaline including in a fanservice scene where her reaction made me go "you are a mother... you literaly had a child with someone... why are you reacting like this when you are more experienced than him"

So basically he comes off as protective very early and thus unoriginal, he is portrayed as the perfect man like every single webtoon male leads... actually that does give him one common point with his Shakespearian counterpart in that they are both very shallow just in different ways and it wasn't intentended because Paris is supposed to be caring, having trouble expressing his feelings and haunted by his failing of saving Juliet to the point he lost interest in painting

And I promise you that if you think it sound interesting it's only because it SOUND interesting, the webtoon doesn't do anything interesting with it, worse, this flasback of Juliet and Paris's relationship was meant to show how tormented and deep and complex he is... when in reality it only soldified my opinion Juliet was going to be the only good character in this webtoon... and no joke, my friend throught the same and when I told him that this was in reality meant to show that Paris is a deep character, his jaw dropped

It is that bad. Now as to why the writers choose to pair Rosaline with Paris, I think that's because of their very obvious roles as foils for the main couple which is still more to them than Rosavolio (Rosaline and Benvolio being such a popular ship will never not weird me out)

3- Escalus

Also very unoriginal, he is basically your typical "ha ha you are interesting" king with weird hobbies like fishing naked and kinda arrogant and hedonistic and all that

Rosaline catches his eyes because she isn't like others girls and is pretty much a major character whose dealing with noble shenaningans and has something against the Friar because we will see later and he loses his throne because Romeo made a coup and just lives desisted while Rosaline is plotting to make him come back to the throne... and I have nothing more to say, again, every character is just a blanket archetype played straight with nothing more to them

4- Tybalt, Mercutio and Benvolio

Yes I am putting all of them together for a specific reason we will see later

So Benvolio... basically a tsundere, he is portrayed as one of Romeo's man (and cousin) who helps him and is more calm than Mercutio but when Juliet breaks up with Romeo it's Benvolio who comes to find her and he starts to fall in love with her because... well Benvolio is doomed to be a replacement for his cousin and nothing more, needless to say I sighed seeing this

As for Mercutio and Tybalt, they basically switched personality

Tybalt is portrayed as an ADOPTIVE cousin of Juliet and Rosaline (and look, it was also dumb when Goodbye my Juliet did it ok, literaly what is the reason) and a trickster archetype where he acts like a double agent for the matriarch because he wants to make amends for the fact he let Romeo into the Capulet house hold do as he pleased with Rosaline and then Juliet... yeah so basically he acts shady and all that and pretends to work with Romeo and co to then reports to the Matriarch

Ok so this might seem like a tangent but there is this manga called Bloody cross that I read and find myself finishing just for the sake of finishing it because it was overdoing the "double agent" trope to the point I couldn't find myself invested with the characters or their relationship

Tybalt follows the same logic where he acts shady and constantly does 180 to make us wonder what's his deal but it's so poorely done that it just makes you feel lose interest in him... I saw people calling him deep and complex like Shakespaeare's Tybalt and please, please, I beg of you to raise your standards... having your characters act like this isn't deep or complex it's just lazy try to make them look complex

As for Mercutio, to take my friend's words, he just act like a mafioso, he is violent, rash, extreme and described as Romeo's lap-dog to make him a fuel to the Prince of cat (I swear none of these retelling understand the nickname and it shows)

I am also gonna mention how Friar Lawrence is also turned into a villain and the nurse is reduced to a background characetr for Juliet's traumatic backstory we still didn't go more info about

These characters have so little flesh on their bone that I have nothing else to say

5 - Romeo

Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore are you this evil and stupid Romeo ?

Not gonna waste any more time on this, Romeo is just Sovieshu from Remarried empress but hotter.

Like really, every man in this webtoon's personality can be summed up to evil, or hot and Romeo is meant to be both

He is supposed to be a calculating, clever, ruthless individual but he really isn't

Ok so you remember how he said that he had a lot of fun with Rosaline and wanted to use her because he thought she was uselful, do you wanna know why he went for Juliet instead ?

... yup, he went for her because he had too much fun for Rosaline, so he had to settle for the least good options....

See how stupid he is ? The supposedly seductive guy couldn't simply use his sweet words to put Rosaline against her family because else he wouldn't be the villain, no, instead he has to break her heart by choosing his cousin whom, by his own admission, is less useful to him than Rosaline was

Not only does this read as yet another attempt to glaze Rosaline while putting down another female character because god forbid that the antagonist who dumped her for her doesn't believe Juliet to be superior to Rosaline, no, even then he has to think of Rosaline as the best thing and thus he appears stupid

This doesn't go any better as we see him being an arrogant self centered jerk whose so callous that he doesn't even act with some guile... as seen per how he freely goes to the Capulet estate to woo the ladies and even admits to Tybalt to have had a blast which made the man's jaw dropped... basically he is cartoonisly evil with no nuance, nothing, nothing

And again, I cannot stress how stupid he is. He does manage to get the throne as he wanted but he makes a deal with Rosaline and indeed... accepts to spare the people who mattered to her... like really... even the original prince and no, it's not even because he is just portrayed as someone who believes ends justify the means with some limits, no, he is EVIL, it's just that like this it gives the story an excuse to spare everyone else so that Rosaline doesn't lose anyone else because I assure you that despite having lost her grandmother and Romeo gaining a throne, her situation in season 2 doesn't feel different at all, nor does she no character developpement in this skull of hers

And yet, yet we have the most stupid moments ever linked to his relationship with Rosaline because when she uses the same tricks of seduction he is supposed to have used on many ladies, he reacts by being flustered

And this culminates by Rosaline making whatever he planned to do with Mino fail by publicaly admitting he was the dad but they wouldn't get married by him exclaiming... he loves her...

(you and I we want to punch him for completely different reasons)

as for his relationship with Juliet, well he is supposed to be manipulating her, given she is wearing the same clothing on the masquerade as the one she wears when they are shown in bed I am assuming he managed to seduce her in one night and basically she is his puppet, except it's less because he is a good manipulator and more because of Juliet's situationship but ... his plan makes no sense ?

He accepted to fake his death for her just... so he could solidify his grasp on her ??? Why did he do it other than Juliet begging him for it when what he wants is becoming king of Verona (because the writers believe that being king in Italy at this time was possible idk) like what kind of sense does it make to have a random break of 3 years in his becoming king plan and just getting back at it because Juliet is fine with his plan now I--my --my head

Ahh also it seems that he didn't married Juliet in this timeline despite the two of them having being in a relationship for 3 years because of several dialogues implying as such

He also doesn't really try to mask the fact he believes Juliet to not be that good because he is terrible at manipulation, much like how when he actively pretends to not have anything to do with Mino when it's obvious as day it's kid, you'd think for a manipulator he would be better at lying but no

Just talking about this version of Romeo makes me angry but wait till I tell we compare everyonee to their counterpart

Rosaline is originally a character in absententia in Shakespeare's play, Romeo is in love with her before he meets with Juliet and all mopey over the fact she rejected him. Yup, you have heard me, this Rosaline rejected Romeo, as a matter of fact, she rejected love in general. Few is known about her, she is described as beautiful, intelligent (wise), like Diane (so a fierce chaste beauty). Rosaline matters less as a character and more a foil for Romeo's love for Juliet

So first departure, Rosaline falling very easily for Romeo instead of rejecting him and love in general and can I say it ? Juliet in the play was way more clever because she outright told Romeo that she didn't wanted to have anything to do with him if he just wanted to have fun and leave, either he marries her before they do anything, either he can leave... Rosaline didn't do that despite the fact that the narrative decide to contradict itself about her meek personality that would have justified her falling so easily

Moreovern this Romeo seemed more infatuated with Rosaline than Juliet whom he belittles whenever she isn't there but still want to keep somehow and believes she is gonna come back to him and- ok stop this isn't what happened in the play... like at all

Ok so in Da Porto's version, Romeo got rejected by a lady he courted, got sad and his friends forced him to go to parties to find new love, despite going to these parties he can't find any other ladies no matter how beautiful they are until he meets Juliet at the bal hosted by the Capulets. Bandello took this and decided to go further by presenting Romeo has having being in love for Rosaline for 2 years and trying to court her without success, and being so love sick he wanted to leave the country so he could forget about her, his friends dissuade him from doing this and insist he stays, they will go with him on parties to help him find someone else, that doesn't work until they go the Capulet party and he meets Juliet. Brooke makes some changes by making Romeus's infatuation shorter for a few month, but that aside he keeps the lovesickness, the Romeo trying to find a new love by going to parties and still not managing to heal his broken heart until he sees Juliet.

Shakespeare sticks closer to the Brooke version in how he handles Romeo's infatuation but because he cannot afford to make the play's plot 9 month long (unlike Brooke) it seems that his infatuation was a lot less serious which, compared to the love he shows Juliet is meant to showcase character growth on his part for realizing what it feels to be truly in love and understanding that he wasn't really in love with Rosaline

The webtoon doesn't do that, it plays both relationship as being a fake out and his love for Rosaline feels more like an obsession (and is so stupid it's literaly because everyone has to fall in love with her because love triangle guhhu)

Having Rosaline falls for Romeo and even have a kid with him completely break the premise of the play because every version necessitated Romeo to go to the party to heal a heartbreak to make his meeting with Juliet seems like the work of chance which enhances the fatality : he went to many parties, and yet it's in that specific party that he found the love of his life who oh so happen to be the daughter of the rival family. The fact it's even shorter with Shakespeare enhance the fatality, it's really happening by chance but no in reality it's the work of destiny, all that.

The worst part is that the webtoon tries to use the idea of destiny and fatality, nomely in Paris and Juliet's relationship but that doesn't work...

So yeah Rosaline is both defined but still blank enough to leave liberties to writers and it seems that the webtoons tries to make her seems similar to her Shakespearian counterpart without fleshing her out (by the way, Rosie being a cousin to Juliet is purely shakesperian, in the previous version she is just some woman rejecting Romeo, sometimes not even given the dignity of a name)

Many insist that it would be good for her to have a voice in a story in which she has no horse in, like Rosaline rejecting not just Romeo but love as whole means she has nothing to do in a love story, and people constantly trying to shoehorn her into it are missing a lot, especially by having Romeo being portrayed as a play boy

Rosaline's lack of presence is meant to enhance her role as a Petrachan muse, I need to get to Romeo to talk more about it, but her lack of presence and the ficklness of Romeo's love for her all makes perfect sense so when you break this premise you really need to justify it and like many adaptations, the webtoon fail

Now regarding others characters such as Escalus... this guy had like a total of 3 apparations in the play why is he such an important character in the play is beyond me, but his characterization from a severe austere ruler incapable of handling the feud (seriously it's only at the begining of the play he had enough and banned duel, Mercutio and Paris death are his punishement as well fight me on this) into an archetype of character who is in hight position in webtoons doing weird stuff like fishin naked, hedonistic etc. I think I already mentionned this but it's even funnier when you know he wasn't being portrayed like this in any version which makes sense Escalus is just the anglicized name of Bartholomeo della Scala who wasn't exactly a light hearted person

Friar Lawrence went full evil here and it's because the webtoon had to keep his connection with Romeo while making Romeo evil so he became a minor villain because of Romeo. In all versions Friar Lawrence was Juliet's confessor and a friend of Romeo, hence his role as a supporter of the couple. In the play tho, he is only Romeo's confessor, Juliet doesn't trust him as much as seen per her overthinking, but he still supports them thinking their marriage might stop the feud. His reason to help Romeo and Juliet are always given but not here, no no, we don't know why he helps Romeo when he clearly has his own goal, we don't know how they met, what where their relationship, nothing

Also instead of being a simple monk loved by many he became an evil hight priest nicknamed devil blood by Escalus because evuuuullll...

As for the Nurse, she was a pretty important character. It was Bandello who came up with her and in all versions, she also supports the lover's mainly because of Juliet. Given how Juliet cannot really move as she pleases due to her status of daughter, she has to rely on the Nurse. In the play, she is mostly comic relief and is a grotesque character in the original sense, she also serves as the mother figure Juliet doesn't have (because Lady Capulet isn't exactly very supportive of her daughter) but she is biased in Paris favor rather than Romeo and eventually, this ends up cutting her from Juliet in the moment Juliet needs her most.

The webtoons does something interesting because while they cut her off (yeah a pretty important characetr got cut off and became a backstory character... help me) this helps making this Juliet into a more interesting character than the whole vast of this webtoon combined : while she eats, Juliet has a PTSD moment where she recalls her nurse being worried over the fact she doesn't eat enough and she is fired because Juliet's parents deemed her to be a bad infleunce and to spoil her, so we have implications of the Capulet being abusive and of the nurse to have been one of the few people caring for Juliet putting her in an environement where she received little love (and yes this is interesting) but so far, the webtoon didn't go further with that

Ok so now Benvolio... Benvolio is, along with Romeo the only Montague that has real relevance. I mean Lord Montague has as much screentime as Escalus while Lady Montague has a total of like 2 lines and dies of grief that her son was banished and she won't see him ever again.

Benvolio is presented as being Romeo's friend who, upon hearing about the Rosaline thing, weeps to see him in this state and offer to help him recover, notably encouraging him to go to Capulet's party. Mercutio describes him as easy to poke but in reality, that's not the case. Benvolio is shown on his first appearance to try to stop the servants from fighting and offer a prime contrast to Tybalt who actually tries to add fuel on the fire and even attacks him. He goes along with Mercutio's jokes but he isn't really this passive character who is ready to supports more feud so him eventually turning away from Romeo makes sorta sense in that respect but again, it's just to make him a replacement for Romeo and he doesn't have much personality... like at all

Now it time to explain what I mean by Mercutio and Tybalt switched personality huh ?

Trickster Tybalt is a lie you tell yourself. In every version including Shakespeare, Tybalt is a violent and arrogant man who revels in fighting and hates the Montague more than hell. His italian name, Tebaldo, apparently means audacious, but Shakespeare plays a pun to link it to the name of Tibert, king of cats from Reynard le fox. This nicknames is supposed to indicated Tybalt's violence in an humourous way with some commenting that it would also be a reference to an italian profanity, meaning "prince of the prick"... obviously, from Mercutio's mouth this nickname makes sense but the webtoon makes it seems like it's a nickname Tybalt actually claims by having characters call him that way. According to Lady Capulet, he is the son of her brother so not an adopted kid and while the webtoon as him playing on both side, Tybalth is way too implusive and rash to go along, we are talking about someone who constantly picks fights with the Montague and even tried to attack a guest during the party, going against hospitality customs (leading to the notorious you are a saucy boy line). While the webtoon has Tybalt poke fun of the loyalist for being like a stock of beasts, play Tybalt IS a loyalist, a fierce loyalist of the Capulet side. The play counterbalance his violence by also showcasing that his obsession for duel is linked to an ideal of heroism perputuated by the feud culture he lives in which he fully embrace and where boys become men by fighting for their factions, but the comic doesn't do anything with that giving him a completely different personality, transfering this one to Mercutio who has 0 nuance in there.

And yes this Tybalt should have been Mercutio because Mercutio was the closest character to work as a trickster personality wise. And to show what I mean about execution being the end and all of everything.

In the previous versions, Mercutio is a minor character. He is one of Juliet's courter, a overpowering man who lacks sense of respect, a "audacious among maidens as a lion among lambs” (so a womanizer) whose cold hands makes Juliet appreciate Romeo's warms hands in contrast. His participation stops as a minor romantic rival of Romeo. Shakespeare on the other hands develop him into a fully fleshed out character. Relative of Escalus and best friend of Romeo and Benvolio, he is a free spirited youth that plays comic relief with a rather dark and cynical sense of humour. His grotesque foils with Romeo's sublime and he is pretty sexist when you look at his cues, that are very on the nose when it comes to the innuendos. He very often mocks Romeo's current state viewing it as a lack of virilty, his vision of love is pretty cynical and pragmatic, he does care about his friend tho given how he rejoice to see Romeo have returned to his usual self. That being said, the portrayal of Mercutio has a being a loyalist member of the house doesn't make sense because Mercutio is a neutral force, the reasons he battle Tybalt is more linked to his character being quick to provoke and the fact that like Tybalt he also upholds the feud culture as the idea that makes a man a man. That's why he wished to see Romeo defeat Tybalt, he views it as a coming of age and he gets mad when Romeo refuses to fight his new in law so he does it himself after calling him a coward.

I guess the webtoon sorta respects the rivalry between Tybalt and Mercutio but it misses that Tybalt is mean to foil the whole trio, not just one of them, and instead he is being made into a double agent that joins said trio that isn't the trio of young friends anymore

See the mess or ????

Now let's talk about Paris (booo tomato tomato boooo) Yes I know

As I mentionned the only common point Paris has with Shakespeare's Paris is that he is shallow but not in the good sense because while Go away Romeo's Paris isn't supposed to be shallow but ends up feeling that way because he stole all of Romeo's qualities with none of his flaws, Paris is purposefully meant to feel shallow.

In all previous versions, he is a guy that Juliet's parents want her to marry because they thought her sadness over losing Romeo was due to doing a depression that she wasn't married unlike others girls her age. It's Brooke who named him Paris (additionally, he described Juliet as being so pretty that Paris of Troy would have kidnapped her which speaks enough about how this man is supposed to feel). He wants to marry an already married woman, like Paris of Troy, and this didn't ended well in the Illiad. Thanks to Shakespeare solving this stupid plot by introducing it earlier, Paris also has a more proeminent character and thus serves as a foil to Romeo, notably in how they treat Juliet;

Like Paris of Troy he is beautiful, but we are never told anything anymore about him than his beauty. The Nurse calls him a "man of wax" to comment on his beauty, however this metaphor implies he is as shallow as a wax figure. Lady Capulet is using Petrachan sonnets to describe him, however these sonnets implies an exageration so an innacurate representation of reality. Combined with the fact that they only focus on selling his beauty, it's very obvious Paris doesn't have anything else to sell hence why Juliet isn't exactly convinced by her mother and nurse (she does agree to give him a chance but it's more to please her parents than anything else). If we compare it to how the Nurse describes Romeo, she claims Juliet doesn't have good standards to choose her man, barely talks about his physical beauty (she does it in "well I mean sure he is hotter than most man but really ? That guy ?") and even comments he isn't the flower of courtesy (possibly implying that Paris is given how he was called the flower of Verona) but she assures Romeo is as gentle as lamb. So here the main selling quality of Romeo isn't his beauty (which is mainly something Juliet praises him for) but rather his gentleness and that's a quality that made him being respected by Lord Capulet himself (calling him a well governed youth with a good reputation despite being his enemy !!)

Paris's shallowness is also shown through how he intereacts with Juliet... they have only ONE dialogue, one, their first proper conversation is when Juliet goes to seek for Friar Lawrence's help and Paris happens to be there. Juliet usually uses monosyllabes to talk with Romeo and uses "thou" to refer to him = formal language. Meanwhile with Paris, she uses formal language and refers to him using "you". For the record, Romeo didn't ask for the Capulet's permission but rather Juliet's permission to court her, this is something also to be found in Lope de Vega's comedy where he meets her in less iconic balcony scene and begs her to give him permission to court her. And Romeo didn't had to rely on anythign than his own charms to win Juliet's hearts (and this worked). Paris on the other hand made no effort to win her heart despite being given by the Capulet permission to woo her as seen per how the play never shows him properly trying to woo her. Yet, when he meets her he immediately starts to call her his wife, basically, having obtain the yes from the dad was all it took for him to just assume Juliet would love him. Despite the fact that Juliet is being very cold to him and sending him hints, he doesn't catch any.

This is very different from how Paris and Juliet intereact in the webtoon where Paris tries to understand her sensing something is off with this young woman only to feel like he failed her when she died and caring... about her feelings... like he tells her if she doesn't want to go through she can just tell him

That is completely different from Mr "Younger than she are happy mother made. Thy face is mine and thou slandered it". I can't stress it enough he told her that in their first proper convo, using casual language and objectifiying her. Also, the images of the flowers that he uses to describe her are classical images yet Romeo never called Juliet a flower which contributes to this foiling in how they treat Juliet even as a poetic subject. We can also contrast their reaction to their death.

Paris is affliected by her death, he goes to mourn her and when he dies killed by Romeo, he begs to be placed near Juliet so her does care about her but the problem is that Paris vanity and the way he objetifies Juliet goes in the way of his love and just highlight how you can love someone and still treat them badly. That being said it doesn't compare to Romeo deciding his reason to live died and returning to Verona only to see her one last time before he takes his own life. And if we look at Hamlet for a moment, Laertes, despite being Ophelia's brother, is still so afflicted by her death he ends up jumping on his sister grave to be burried with her and his affection for his sister is meant to foil Hamlet's love as seen per how the prince openly claims his love to be superior to 40's times of Laertes deep love for his sister. Meanwhile Paris, whose supposed to love Juliet as one who wants to take her as his wife to the point he didn't even wanted to wait for her to be older so she wouldn't be an age where she would be in danger (like Capulet literaly has a a whole discourse about unfortunate young girl married to early) would also feel like live is meaningless and say something about wanting to die (I stress it before he eventually dies at Romeo's hands) but no ? He doesnt ? And even in the webtoon Paris's feelings for Juliet feels less like love and just meeting someone you wanna help so like... paris has the right to mistake his feelings for Juliet for love but heaven forbid young teenager Romeo mistakes his infatuation for Rosaline for love and then moves on...

speaking off...

Look I have said it and said over and over, but antagonistic Romeo can be interesting but the problem is that Romeo Montague doesn't work as an antagonist, he was never written to be one.

When Shakespeare write his hero, he has to deal with material showcasing Romeo as a beautiful virtuous young man of Verona (20 in Bandello's version, 16 in Brooke) whose rejection lead to a state of melancholia until he fell for Juliet Capulet. In these version, Romeo is still pretty flat due to the fact this tale is mainly archetypal but Shakespeare develops him into a fully flesh out character, a complex and layered one at that. He keeps Romeo's reputation as being virtuous and sociable, well respected around Verona. He lessen the focus on his appearance by character outside of Juliet, Mercutio and Benvolio focus on mentioning how Romeo is habitually (when he isn't crying under sycomore trees, I see what you did Shakespeare) and the nurse arguing that while he does have beauty, that's not what she consider his prime assets, praising his gentleness instead. Shakespeare might have made his love for Rosaline a lot less intense than previous versions, but this allows him to introduce what previous Romeo's were lacking : flaws and the complexity they create within his character, notably the fact that Romeo can let himself driven by emotions especially when he is pushed emotionally and lacks maturity and experience about love.

His love for Rosaline, as I have mentionned is often compared to be a love of youth and nothing more, a step that helped him grow as a person and prepare himself for the relationship with Juliet. Scholars have noticed that Romeo uses Petrachan sonnets to describe both Rosaline and later Juliet, however there is a huge change in quality. The attempts at sonnets by Romeo are poor, forced, weak, amateurish, reflecting a lack of experience. When he talks about Juliet tho, his skills have improved a lot. This lead to speculation about it being potentially a reflection of Shakespeare's own skills, arguing that Shakespeare wrote the sonnets for Rosaline when he was less experienced as a poet but that when he talks about Juliet, he is more mature and skilled.

In short : either Romeo talking about Rosaline is reflecting a young inexpereinced Shakespeare as opposed to Romeo talking about Juliet meant to reflect a more experienced and mature Shakespeare, either Shakespeare is so talented at writing inexperienced character that it seems authentic enough to fool scholars.

Anyway, textually, this means that Romeo's love for Rosaline express through unexperienced way and thus reflecting a lack of maturity in this love as opposed to Juliet's. Moreover, Romeo uses Petrachan imagery that he doesn't use when talking about Juliet, notably the way he describes Rosaline being alike a goddess as opposed to Juliet (he never calls her a goddess, not once instead he calls her a saint and an angel, we could even argue that the more religious christian image for Juliet as opposed to pagan image for Rosaline is meant to further than his love is no longer blind idolatry). He also focuses a lot less on her and more about his feelings while is described as a sort of abstract being with a few key characteristics and mainly focusing on her beauty. Finally, by Shakespeare's time, Petrachan sonnets where considered to be out of fashion.

So all of this combined paints Romeo as a Petrachan poets who forgot the time he is supposed to live in, a walking anachronism of sorts which contributes to make his love sounds clumsy, like it's the first time he is dealing with these feelings and misattribute them to love when it's more of a crush.

Again, in all versions Romeo only loved 2 women : Rosaline and then Juliet, with these previous versions mentionning he had the occassions to meet many ladies yet he didn't fall for any of them until he meet Juliet. His love life starts with Rosaline and ends with Juliet. 2 people. This is enough to showcase he didn't experienced a lot of relationship, especially when his first love was unrequired, meaning he had only one relationship in his whole life. When you work with a character like that, it's becoming incresingly obvious that his lack of experience is what causes him to not understand his feelings, to the point he claims that it's only when meeting Juliet he actually felt what it truly feels to be in love. His dialogue with Friar Lawrence act 2 scene 3 also showcases this when he doesn't understand why the Friar is surprised that he moved on from Rosaline when he blamed him for loving her to which the friar answered "doting not loving" implying Romeo doesn't get the difference between the two.

This is the precise reason why Rosaline isn't given a proper character nor appearance, it's because she needs to stay a foggy abstract concept. As Scholars pointed, Rosaline feels like the perfect petrachan muse, Romeo is presented to be enamoured with the state he is of loving her when she is out of reach despite crying over the fact she wont love him back (more specifically won't sleep with him but hey). While the characters do feel pity for him it's hard to not look at this moment with a bit of cynical eye cause in my view this further highlight the fact that unlike Bandello and Brooke who mentionned the failed courtship, it's dubious whethere Romeo even tried to woo Rosaline in the first place. Some of the Friar lines seems to imply so, but Romeo himself doesn't really say anything about it and it just makes me think of Dante in Vita Nova describing him as being very in love with his childhood friend Beatrice but incapable of even saying 2 words to her... like he got sick because he was so happy she waved at him and is so moved to see her he trembles and faint and stuff like that...in short, he is so impressed by her he can barely talk to her and can only describe her as unreachable and all that while he himself hasn't made any real effort to seduce her, weeping on how he can't win her heart

In short a mocking image and frankly, as much as I dislike these types of readings, given Shakespeare wrote anti petrarchan sonnets I think this can be substantified. Basically, Rosaline represents the Petrachan muse but the poet must forget about her and instead embrace the mordern muse symbolized by Juliet from a meta pov, with possibly and even bigger dig with Romeo's love for Rosaline being mere desire that the lad is too young to be aware of, implying that the Petrachan poets cry for these women they worship when in reality it's barely an actual love since there was no intereaction.

Note that it's mainly my reading but this is important to undersand why Rosaline not being part of the story outside of being a character in absentia matters and why her rejection of Romeo with the possibility the dude didn't even try (like come on he is literaly forced to go to a ball help by her family by his friends, even when he says "meh ok but just to see her" he backs up a few scenes later) and this contrast to how he actually approaches Juliet and is even showing excitement at the prospect of talking to her (balcony scene, he see her say something and he wonder if he should talk to her, he then hear her confess her love and debates on whether or not to talk now and he eventually does the 3rd time)

Needless to say how vastly different everything is but the worst part is that I could have been ok with Romeo having a slightly different personality because this can makes different iterations interesting and unique but the webtoon makes him as deep as a piece of paper, a character whose level of complexity is soooo hight that his name itself would be worth a whole commentary and spuns a motif in the play itself

You can write a character so flat as this Romeo when the Romeo of the play is such a complex character and expect people to not be mad

Ok but you might think what about Juliet because I havent talked about her a lot

Well... mark my words, she is the only good character in this webtoon

She isn't faithful to her counterpart but that's still better than the rest of the cast and the webtoon does try to built on elements she shares with her play counterpart

In the play, Juliet is first portrayed as being passive and obedient, accepting to let Paris court her only to please her parents when she doesn't really care about marriage. The webtoons takes this further by making Juliet into the star of Verona where is she only loved for her social persona and what she can brings to people and not for whom she truly is. Much like in the play, we are shown that her dad cares about his daughter but his ambitions gets in the way. Lord and Lady Capulet do love their child but they wouldn't hesistate to sell her if it meant fufilling their ambitions (kinda like Polonius huh). While Lord Capulet is happy to see his daughter alive and moved to tears, he quickly shows how abusive he can be by reacting negatively to the her (fake) pregnancy, the implications of why Juliet's nurse was fired or the fact he tries to push her once more into a relationship with Paris.

In that sense, Juliet is a compelling character because she is pushed in a society determined to robb her of her agency and has to still pretend to be smiling to hide it all, this made her an easy prey for Romeo who took advtange of her desire of freedom and her lack of love for being who she is (saddely this Romeo is not convincing so this hurts her character a bit), she craves to find agency in their relationship only to be used even more and it takes her doing a lot of harms including the murder of her grandmother for which she feels intense guilt for her to break up with Fakemeo (her slap was more satisfying than Rosaline's mark my words) and ends up living a quiet life as a waitress far from him, plus she has har funny side and all that

So she is mainly build off Juliet's lack of agency which is present in the play, she has to marry whoever her parents choose rather than someone she choose for herself, has to ask persmission to get out and needs to rely on her nurse to intereact with Romeo as she can't do it herself. Juliet's relationship with Romeo in the play, however, isn't something where she craves to find agency because it's something that gaves her the agency she lacked. This article mainly covers this in greater detail but I don't really agree with everything in it, starting by the taming of Romeo being considered to start at the balcony.

In reality, I think it starts from the moment Romeo talks with her. Romeo is using metaphors to talk with her so he can assure of his feelings in a non threatening way (compares that to how Paris immediately starts assuming her feelings for him) but this modern form of courtship relies on the lady to respond to the metaphors. If she pretends to not understand, then the man is rejected but Juliet goes along and even expands on this metaphor. This means that Romeo willingly accepts to let Juliet be the one to lead the relationship, he subjects himself to her decision in that moment. This happens again when Juliet tells him "deny thy father and refuse thy name" and he answers that he will accept to be new baptized. He is fine with renoncing his name and everything it represents. This is where we assist to a scene where Juliet is essentially teaching Romeo how to court her as seen per how they intereact. In that scene, she is anxious and tells him that to keep his affection for her she would accept to play hard to get and so on but she wants honest vows, however when Romeo is about to swear upon the moon, she cuts him off because of 1) the image of the moon 2) the fact he was about to start a petrachan sonnet. She does that other time as well because this is a form that she distrust due to the dishonnesty within it coming from its exageration whereas she expects from Romeo a direct answer. Romeo on his part asks her what he should swear by implying that 1) he doesn't know because lack of experience his kicking again 2) he wants Juliet to tell him so he knows what to tell her to appease her. This didn't existed in their previous intereactions because he wasn't speaking in sonnets, rather the two of them were because their replies were forming together a perfect sonnets to show the harmony.

You see, unlike the previous writers, Shakespeare can't affort months of courtship so to make their love feel convincing he has to rely on shape and imagery. And this first convo that forms a sonnets also establishes how Romeo and Juliet are going to be expanding on each other's metaphor (relgious metaphors, bird imagery etc) and the motif of Romeo's name, it's also a clever usage of the hands (in Brooke's poem, it was about the warmth of Romeo's hand meant to convey his benevolent and loving nature, Shakespeare used it to spin a pun of the meaning of Romeo's name).

Again, Juliet being the lead of their relationship and setting the pace (she is the one who comes up with the marriage and Romeo depends on her consent for his courtship) is because Romeo is ok with it since he love her as seen per how he reuses the faulcon imagery to call Juliet his nyas when she compared herself to a faulconer and calling him a tassle gentle and later on when he tells her he'd gladly be her bird that she can keep near her. (in short Juliet could be telling Romeo "jump" and he'd ask "how hight")

Obviously the webtoon doesn't really follow that by making Romeo the lead and also making him a manipulator whereas in the play this relationship is where Juliet can enacts some agency and it's overall a balanced relationship, and that even tho Juliet is presented as physically above him so supposedely out of reach (the balcony scene)

Granted, for the sake of Romeo to work it had to be done but he didn't work in the webtoon so ... yeah

Moreover Romeo being unconvicing as a controlling partner isn't the only thing that harms her character, do we talk about this nonsense of matriarch ?

The reason why Romeo and Juliet works so well to paint both Romeo and Juliet as lacking agency is because it's a partriarcal world. Romeo's virility is constantly being belittled by other characters and even himself for the fact he doesn't behave in the same way as other men do by engaging with the feud and being more occupied with love life (as seen per Mercutio's remarks or when he blames himself for having let Juliet made him effeminate for refusing to fight Tybalt and even trying to bring peace), Mercutio and Tybalt can been seen through their adhesion to feud culture as being part of these youth pushed into toxic masculinty and don't get me started on these 2 weirdos of servants in scene 1 acte 1. The 2 families are entertaning a dangerous environement where many innocents are hurts and where young men are likely to die at any moment because they were encouraged to kill one another.

The webtoon doesn't really exploit well this feud and focus on amking Romeo the mastermind of everything so yeah, screw that

As for Juliet, while her love for Romeo made her fuels her determination and is what pushes her to refuse the wedding in front of her parents, it's not like she goes full girlboss either, what she does is beg and get on her knees in hope of mercy but gets none from her parents, not even her Nurse later on. This further shows how dependant she is because of how she has been raised, can only hope help from someone and when she loses her last ally she goes to Frair Lawrence rather than do anything by herself.

Now, tell me how much would it made sense in a word where the leader of the Capulet house is a WOMAN ?? because Matriarch implies only a woman can do the job, which goes against the idea of a partriarchal society !! this makes no sense !! What's worse is that Rosaline was actually striving to make her son accepted as an heir of the Capulet yet at no point did she ever shown interest in becoming a Matriarch like her granny, it just falls on her head after she dies... so even at presumaly feminist elements this webtoon fails huh ?

Anyway, I am still hpong Romeo's motivations will be reveleaed soon because he better need a good excuse to want to be king of Verona this is literaly the only reason I am still reading this I will not give up until we get an explanation for all of this

But I gotta ask, what is the point of using Romeo and Juliet ? again, the only interest was the premise but the rest is soooo vastly different from the play it could have been it's own original thing and no difference at all

Also here is what my friend had to say

[milich96-ocs-blog]

sooo what's the story of caden's return? I need to know. What has malakay been up to all this time

Caden was born in a small village in the hills, into a peasant family. He made himself known when at 16 he managed to chase away a vampire spawn that had been oppressing his fellow villagers for months. Having become a small local hero, he defended the village from other attacks by little monsters until he was 20, after which he left to become a soldier of the Flaming Fist. During the military service his dreams of doing something good were soon destroyed: many soldiers only aimed at power, making money, they didn't care too much about defending others. The straw that broke the camel's back was seeing one of his legion companions beat the hell out of a boy slightly younger than Caden.

He abandoned the hood and decided to return to his origins: son of farmers, the land and nature are our greatest assets and we must preserve and protect them. He became a paladin of the ancients - venerator of Chauntea. He led his happy life for many years, protecting the druid coven of Emerald Woods, but he also realized that his life was limited. Being human, he could only help them until he was 70 at most. Seeing his friends elves, gnomes, dwarves, halflings not age like him brought him a sense of sadness and anger towards himself, his nature. He decided to do something crazy: he made a pact with the hag from the nearby forest.

He asked her to have the chance to live forever and never grow old again. The hag agreed at the price of adding another purpose to Caden's life: fighting for someone he loved. The human was surprised. That's all? Fighting for someone he loved? But he was already fighting for his friends in the woods and his loved ones at home. The crone replied: "It's not enough. You have to have someone, a favorite person and fight for them too." However, he didn't have a favorite person, he had never bothered to cultivate love as he was too busy defending nature. And he didn't even think he had a chance with other people. The hag spoke "there is no problem - I will find them for you. But you will have to swear to fight with soul, mind and body for them"

Caden did not understand the gravity of that request and accepted. The person the hag chose was a devil who had recently stolen 4 crow's feet from her: a certain Malakay Avaritia.

Malakay until then had lived a normal life in Cabrafè, together with his family. He met Caden when he was 20. He found the paladin more of a nuisance than dangerous: annoying at best. He never hurt Mala, but it was creepy and kinda weird. At 24 Mala met Octo for the first time and fell deeply in love (he would never admit it). So much that he left home to follow the god. Caden was devastated and began roaming the world to look for Malakay, while also following his paladin path.

Mala has travelled for centuries with friends and lovers, and has now bought at home in Porto Veneno, where he lives with his 3 husbands and 2 children. As for Caden we are still cooking up something for him.

[beau-est-la-vale]

Igreja do Carmo, Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹

Pastéis de Nata son unos de mis postres favoritos 🤤

[nemo-of-house-hamartia]

Hiyo! Evening everyone!

Do you remember that Aesthetic game that I did for my characters a while back? well, I had these moodboards lying around from when I first started to draft this AU, so I decided to share them the same way I did my previous moodboard! so, here you have Dorothea, Colette and Lucia as their counterparts in my "The Witches of Månenshavn" story! Enjoy! <3

⭐DOROTHEA MORGENSTERN🔮

MOODBOARD

"Dorothea is a Lunar/Cosmic Witch. She is connected to the Night Sky, The Moon, the Stars, and the Celestial Bodies. She is mostly up at night, her head literally among the clouds, and works with crystals, compasses, and armillary spheres, studying the lunar Phases and the Planetary movement, being in deep contact with the Vault of Heaven and all the stars above. She has Seer powers, and her magick is connected to dreams and the future, and she leaves stardust as a trail behind her. Her familiar is a Raven that goes by the name of Belial. To her, it's connected the Element of Air, and hers are the Winds."

PLAYLIST:

"Caribbean Blue" - Enya "The Mystic's Dream" - Loreena McKennitt "Follow Me" - Celtic Women "The Arcana: Memory" - Keith Holden

QUOTES :

"If all you told was turned to gold If all you dreamed was new Imagine sky-high above In Caribbean blue" ― Enya, Caribbean Blue

“In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.” ― Janos Arany

“Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. ” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

🌹COLETTE DE BEAUMONT🐈‍⬛

MOODBOARD

"Colette is a Hearth/Green Witch. She is the literal Heart of the house in Månenshavn, and she generally can be found either in her garden tending to the herbs she needs for her potions or in the kitchen, brewing all sorts of concoctions, oil, and balms, along with protective and cleansing spells. Her magick is connected to plants and nature, and her potions are known to be incredibly powerful. Her familiar is a Snake named Girouette. To her, it's connected the Element of the Earth."

PLAYLIST:

"The Arcana: Magic Hour" - Neil Cross "My Girlfriend is a Witch" - October Country "Mother Earth" - Within Temptation "Élan" - Nightwish

QUOTES :

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Witches were a bit like cats. They didn’t much like one another’s company, but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them.” ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.” ― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

📜 LUCIA BARBARIGO💀

MOODBOARD

"Lucia is the mischievous one, and she is a Death/Chaos Witch. She is the one that is most attuned with the Spirit world, and she is also the House Medium and the one that practices Divination through tea reading, runes, and tarot reading. She is also the one responsible to create an antidote to poisons, and she is generally found in the kitchen side by side with Colette, often bickering because of the dangerous ingredients Lucia uses. She is the most mysterious of the three, and has quite the impish sense of humor, if a little morbid. Her familiar is an owl named Vieri. She also has a normal cat, Martino, who is always up to bother Dorothea's Belial. To her, it's connected the Element of Fire."

PLAYLIST:

"The Dark Ones" - Karliene "Ballo in F♯ Minore" - Angelo Branduardi "The Circle" - Blackmore's Night "Savage Daughter" - Ekaterina Shehelova

QUOTES :

"Sono io la morte e porto corona Io son di tutti voi signora e padrona E davanti alla mia falce il capo tu dovrai chinare E dell 'oscura morte al passo andare"

― Angelo Branduardi, "Ballo in F♯ Minore"

“Even death has a heart.” ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

[saiyanprincefiregod]

How I would reboot and reimagine MegaMan (Classic), MegaMan Zero, and MegaMan X pt. 1

Mega Man's story telling is horrible. It leaves way too many untold details about major plot points. I understand that it was done due to console limitations in some cases, but when there's current day ports of these where the info isn't anywhere to be seen, I really can't let that slide. For example, how many of you know about Elpizo's backstory, which is the whole reason why he acts the way he does? Or the fact that Mamoru is the son of the Yoka Inn owner, and Tamako's nephew, making them sisters? Or that the guardians died to shield Zero from Omega's explosion? Or even something as basic as knowing the base plot of Mega Man 3? Either your answer is "I do, because I listened to the audio dramas, bought every book, or read it on the wiki", or "What the fuck are you on about?". And not just that. Plot holes, dropped plot points, and just bad writing in general in some parts. Who remembers the Wily plot point in X2, X5 and X6? Great, now who remembers it being elaborated on and given a proper conclusion? Precisely. Every series suffers from this, no exception. Or how characters are killed of just because, like, for example, Red. Or how characters get dropped out of nowhere, like Dr. Cain, Dynamo, Douglas, etc.

So here's how I would reboot MegaMan, MegaMan Zero, and MegaMan X.

For Classic MegaMan, I would add more story and lore behind Dr Thomas Xavier Light, Dr. Albert W. Wily, ProtoMan/Blues Light, MegaMan/Rock "Rocky, Mega" Light, Sanitary/Roll Light, Bass, Dr. Cossack, Kalinka Cossack and Duo as well as add new characters Yuta Kobayoshi, Akane Kobayoshi and their parents Mr. and Mrs. Kobayoshi and I'll call them Hanasei Kobayoshi and Minato Kobayoshi via their story and lore, Yuta and Akane are best friends of Rock and Roll, Minato is a close friend of Dr. Thomas Xavier Light. Geo Stellar is also in this reboot but he goes by code name BlueStar and Sonia Strumm who goes by the name of Harp Note, Geo and Sonia are affiliated with Porto Man and they are best friends of Proto Man.

Now for the Chronological Story

Mega Man.

Mega Man 2.

Mega Man World: Dr. Wily's Revenge

MegaMan 3.

MegaMan World 2

MegaMan Origins

MegaMan 4

MegaMan World 3

MegaMan: The Wily Wars

Mega Man 5

Super Adventure MegaMan

MegaMan World 4 [Geo and Sonia's first appearance

MegaMan World 5

MegaMan 6 [Yuta and Akane's first appearance]

MegaMan 7

Mega Man: The Power Battle

MegaMan 8

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 

MegaMan and Bass

MegaMan 9

MegaMan: Dr. Wily's Return

MegaMan 10

MegaMan Unlimited

MegaMan: Rock Force

MegaMan Eternal

MegaMan 11

MegaMan Eternal 2

MegaMan Revolution

I'll come up more Classic MegaMan Reboot but for now this part of Rebooting MegaMan, MegaMan Zero, and MegaMan X.

[moiteneia]

The Murder Club (On Thurdays only): Guapoduo AU

O Clube de Assassinatos (das Quintas-Feiras): 🌙

f!Cell estava livre. Quer dizer, ele havia se feito “livre”. Tinha fugido para o mais longe que conseguiu após sair das amarras que f!Pac e f!Guaxi tinham o colocado e conseguiu pedir por ajuda para um navio de carga. 

Deu uma desculpa qualquer que seu navio inteiro havia naufragado e tinha sido o único a sobreviver. Bom, isso pouco importa, assim que chegaram no porto, ele desapareceu e foi para bem longe.

Se deu um novo nome: Balanar. E se escondeu naquela cidadezinha monótona e esquisita feita de velhos religiosos, policiais entediados e pais esquecidos pelos próprios filhos. Monótona, mas segura. Ninguém perguntou nada, ninguém o reconheceu, e ele pode se infiltrar na comunidade como um amante das flores e livros.

Claro, ele ainda fazia suas pequenas…Saídas. De vez em quando uma senhora rude que maltratava o filho, desaparecia. Às vezes um homem que ousava levantar a mão para a esposa, de repente, tinha aparecido morto sem qualquer carne em seu corpo. Oops.

Ele fez o seu papel. Como um doce dono de livraria, se mostrava preocupado, assustado. E, tentando parecer querer ajudar aquelas pobres ovelhas, ofereceu a comunidade fazer um clube em sua livraria para investigar aqueles assassinatos e se sentirem mais seguros próximos um dos outros.

Isso…Até que um novo policial ser designado para a cidade de Quesadilha. 

Roger. 

Um homem sério, fumante, que só usava preto e não parecia paciente para gracinhas. Tinha sido machucado por muitas pessoas e não gostava que brincasse com seus sentimentos. No entanto, por algum motivo ele rapidamente se afeiçoa pelo dono da livraria. O problema? Logo de primeira vista ele começa a desconfiar de Balanar, ao mesmo tempo, ele não consegue prende-lo, apenas querendo assistir até onde o loiro iria com aquilo…

Talvez até decida entrar pro seu clube.

————————- ENG ————————————

The Murder Club (on Thursdays): 🌙

f!Cell was free. That is, he had become “free”. He had fled as far as he could after leaving the bonds that f!Pac and f!Guaxi had placed him in and managed to ask for help from a cargo ship. He gave some excuse that his entire ship had sunk and he was the only one to survive. Well, that doesn't matter, as soon as they arrived at the port, he disappeared and went far away.

A new name was given: Balanar. And he hid in that monotonous and strange little town made up of religious old men, bored police officers and parents forgotten by their own children. Monotonous, but safe. No one asked anything, no one recognized him, and he was able to infiltrate the community as a lover of flowers and books.

Of course, he still made his little…outings. Every now and then a rude lady who mistreated her son would disappear. Sometimes a man who dared to raise his hand to his wife would suddenly appear dead without any flesh on his body. Oops.

He played his role. Like a sweet bookstore owner, he seemed worried, scared. And, trying to appear to want to help those poor sheep, he offered the community to form a club in his bookstore to investigate those murders and feel safer around each other.

That...Until a new police officer is assigned to the city of Quesadilha.

Roger.

A serious man, a smoker, who only wore black and didn't seem patient with jokes. He had been hurt by many people and he didn't like being played with his feelings.

However, for some reason he quickly becomes fond of the bookstore owner. The problem? Right from the first sight he begins to distrust Balanar, at the same time, he is unable to arrest him, just wanting to watch how far the blonde would go with that...

Maybe I'll even decide to join his club.

[anjoscaidos]

Às vezes a solidão chega silenciosa, como uma brisa fria que atravessa as frestas da minha alma, preenchendo cada espaço vazio com uma melancolia tranquila. As ruas parecem mais longas, os dias se estendem sem pressa e as vozes ao redor se tornam meros ecos de uma vida que já não parece sua... Eu caminho entre as sombras buscando algum sinal de vida, algum indício de que ainda há calor no mundo, mas tudo que eu encontro é a ausência. Às vezes dá vontade de me afastar de todo mundo e ficar sozinho, mas aí eu lembro que já estou assim. A ironia disso me faz rir, mas é um riso seco, quase sem som, que se perde na imensidão do silêncio. A verdade é que a solidão não é apenas a ausência de companhia, é a presença constante de si mesmo. É encarar o próprio reflexo no espelho e perceber que apesar do mundo continuar a girar, você está parado no mesmo lugar....As pessoas passam, seguem seus caminhos e você fica sempre ancorado nesse mar de vazios, tentando encontrar um porto onde possa finalmente descansar. Mas o porto não chega... E talvez nunca chegue. Porque a solidão quando se instala, se torna parte de quem somos, ela não é apenas um estado de ser, é uma lente que através dela vemos o mundo, distorcendo as cores, abafando os sons, tornando tudo um pouco mais distante e assim seguimos em frente ou pelo menos tentamos. Levo a solidão como um fardo, mas também como uma companheira inseparável, que me lembra a cada passo que a única pessoa de quem nunca conseguiremos nos afastar somos nós mesmos....

-Sarinha annaberg

[royalty-nobility]

Portrait of D. Carlota Joaquina Princess of Brasil

Artist: Giuseppe Troni (Italian, 1739–1810)

Description: Portrait of Carlota Joaquina of Spain (1775-1830), wife of João VI of Portugal (1767-1826).

Date: 18th Century

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: National Museum Soares dos Reis, Porto, Portugal

Carlota Joaquina of Spain

Doña Carlota Joaquina Teresa Cayetana of Spain (25 April 1775 – 7 January 1830) was Queen of Portugal and Brazil as the wife of King Dom John VI. She was the daughter of King Don Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma.

Detested by the Portuguese court — where she was called "the Shrew of Queluz" (Portuguese: a Megera de Queluz) — Carlota Joaquina gradually won the antipathy of the people, who accused her of promiscuity and influencing her husband in favor of the interests of the Spanish crown. After the escape of the Portuguese court to Brazil, she began conspiring against her husband, claiming that he had no mental capacity to govern Portugal and its possessions, thus wanting to establish a regency. She also planned to usurp the Spanish crown that was in the hands of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. After the marriage in 1817 of her son Pedro with the Archduchess Leopoldina of Austria and the later return of the royal family to Portugal in 1821, Carlota Joaquina supported her son Miguel in his intrigues to gain the throne, but their relationship deteriorated and she ended up being confined in the Royal Palace of Queluz, where she died alone and abandoned by her children and political allies on 7 January, 1830.

[translucent-at-best]

Scatter-brained...

"Black bitch, purple cunt..." That line from "Nissan Altima" has been stuck in my head for weeks. Finally listened to Doechii's album in its entirety. I love it. I love her.

Jax's wigs in Reasonable Doubt get on my gotdamn nerves. Her character does too, but at the same time, I appreciate seeing her and all her flaws every episode. Now, the show as a whole... not my favorite (not even close), but my mom likes it and wants me to watch it with her and I love that lady, so... you know.

The founder(s) of Porto's deserves (*googles*) deserved to get their ass ate.

Morris Chestnut been fine my whole life. I need a father-son comedy starring him and Niles Fitch from This Is Us.

I've been working on reigning in my pride and not letting it get in the way of my relationships with people. Today, I experienced something that I know I would've handled differently had it happened to me a few months ago. I'm proud (hehe) of me.

Damn, this is really my last weekend being funemployed. I start my new job on Monday. The way I've been able to enjoy myself this summer... thank you, God. I know it wasn't nobody but You.

I have a decent amount of reading and catching up on shows to do before getting back to work.

I tried shroom edibles again for the fourth time today. I've increased the dose little by little each time, but yet again, I ain't feel shit. Let me just stick to the rivers and the THC gummies I'm used to.

The relief that washes over your body once you find and loosen that too-tight loc in the ponytail is up there with (but still not equal to) the relief of taking your bra off at the end of a long day.

Do I need to listen to Sabrina Carpenter's album? The way I've seen folks (Black women, in particular) going up for it lately is making me wonder...

I don't think a lot of people realize how insanely talented Chloe and Halle are. Although I've been a fan of their music, I'm realizing that I might unintentionally be a part of that number. I was looking into their songwriting and producing credits the other day and discovered a song from WILLOW's album called "Lonely Road" and I'm loving it. The parts and harmonies are insane. And that song "Want Me" from Chloe's album has been on repeat for the last 48 hours.