#she is a regent and her kingdom is that town lol

[angelicgilbert]

what is your place in the royal court?

the queen

dignified in your regality, you are a beacon of reason… the true power behind the throne, you take heed of all, cautious in each move you make. some may call you callous in your calculation, but they do not know your heart.

tagged by: the dash tagging: @honorhearted , @pagetreader (peggy) , @retrograderesemblance (townsend) , @everythingheard (stefan & klaus) , @ensnchekov , @outlawiism , @thejadedking , @cardiomyapathy

[ninapi]

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Premise: Prince Keisuke was known to be a troublesome lad, often bringing problems to the queen herself. In an attempt to tame the wild prince, the queen calls for a powerful witch to aid him with his cause, hoping to put an end to this quest sooner. What she didn't count on was love being what he needed most.

Word Count: 2516

Note: Welcome to my first Tokyo Revengers series~ I know it's weird for my first series to be an AU and not cannon, but I've had this idea in mind for some time now and really wanted to let it out of my system lol, I hope you guys like it~

*＊✿❀ Bewitched ❀✿＊*

Chapter 1: The witch and the Prince

The Kingdom of Tokyo was noticeably the most powerful in the entire realm.

The previous King had done nothing but good things and had taken them to the highest position they could ever wish for; but he was reckless, and ended up passing at a very young age, leaving a promising future to wither with his corpse.

His wife, ended up as queen regent since their son was still too young to assume the throne. But sadly, he had inherited his father’s wild nature, and was nothing but a headache.

Being honest, the queen didn’t want to be it at all. She had married the king without even knowing who he was, it was pure love at first sight and truth to be told, his wild and reckless side was what drove her to him. She was not prepared to be queen and clearly had no interest of ever being so, but she had to take care of her husband’s legacy, at least until their son became of age to assume his role as king.

Baji Keisuke, also known as the crown prince, was not your average prince…

While he wasn’t lacking on the looks of one, his attitude was the complete opposite of what one would expect.

He was indeed smart and well versed in the arts of ruling a kingdom, yet his passion laid in battle.

Just as his father, he was constantly in the field instead of sitting on the throne listening to the town people’s complaints.

The royal guard were more like his friends than anything and would follow him anywhere.

At the head of the Royal guard was the youngest knight in history, Matsuno Chifuyu, the prince’s right hand. While he was young and seemingly inexperienced, he did more than a fantastic job aiding the prince in all his endevours, just as the second officer in command did, Satou Ryusei; though he was a lot more unreliable. 

But the prince didn’t need protectors, he was strong enough. Hence, the entire army would listen to him and just him, even if Sano Mickey was indeed their actual leader and the best there was.

While the Kingdom of Tokyo was normally pretty safe and wasn’t under an ongoing war, there was a terrorist group that wanted to destroy the royal family and overtake the kingdom.

They called themselves, Valhalla.

While Hanma Shuji, their leader in name, wasn’t that much of a threat, Hanemiya Kazutora was.

He used to be a good friend of the prince, grew up playing together with him and the head of the army duo, Sano Captain and Ryuguji Ken, his right hand. They used to be best friends, all sneaked in the castle daily just to play with the young prince who was very much bored practicing how to write properly, a true joy and his best memories of childhood.

But his state of mind wasn’t always the best and after committing an awful, unforgettable crime, he was sent to the dungeons for well over a couple of years. There, he made friends of the wrong kind, and that’s what led him to be part of this horrible organization that threats the wellbeing of the entire kingdom.

So for obvious reasons, the prince was even more involved in this quest of sorts than usual. He wanted to dissolve this stupid gang, not so much thinking of the wellbeing of the kingdom, as he should be doing, but he really wanted to save his friend, to punch some sense into that empty head of his and make him realize that’s not his place to be at but at their side, just like the old times.

This quest of his resulted in multiple assaults to the Royal guard, the prince himself getting hurt in the process…and that was the last drop of patience for the queen herself.

“Keisuke you moron! Until when are you going to keep chasing that lost sheep? He’s a threat to our kingdom just send Ryusei to kill him, he has no feelings towards him…I’m sick of this quest of yours, you should be leading this kingdom not punching children!” the queen wasn’t one of decor, but that was part of her charm.

“I’m not leaving him, mother…he needs to understand what he’s doing is wrong. If his friends give up on him, then who’s going to save him?”

“Have you ever stop and think maybe he doesn’t want to be saved? Maybe he likes being with this kids better than with you. Maybe he is happy with what he’s doing and doesn’t want you saving him…” she really wanted to smack her son on the head, but he’s all covered in scratches and his arm might be broken according to the royal doctor. 

“You don’t know him, mother…not like we do…” he was visibly exhausted, but his resolution would just not let him give up on his friend.

“That’s it, I’m calling her..” this got his attention, “Calling who?” he could feel anger bubbling up in his core, she was definitely going to send an assassin of her own guard to kill them all, his worst nightmare. “The witch of the forest of course.”

“Who?” that was not what he was expecting…

“The witch of the forest. You need help if you want to end this Valhalla gang thing. They don’t have magic do they? Well you’re the prince, you have more resources, if you want to “save” this friend of yours, I’m going to help you capture him alive. But the rest of the gang…I won’t accept any of them unharmed. Understood?” like the happiest puppy wagging its tail to their master, he got up and the annoyed frown from his face was nowhere to be seen. “Yes, mother.”

In all truth he didn’t like magic. To him using magic felt like cheating, but if that would avoid Kazutora from being hanged in the plaza for treason, he’d take it.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

The witch of the forest, a legend of sorts, has always been present in the lore of the kingdom. An unknown force loyal to the crown, always there to rely on her in times of need.

No one knew how old she was, or what she looked like even. So to say Baji Keisuke was surprised when he saw the most beautiful young woman he’s ever seen in his life standing in front of him, smiling warmly as she bowed greeting him, was an understatement.

“I thought you’d be like 500 years old…” really smooth Keisuke…Chifuyu could be seen shaking his head in the background while Ryusei couldn’t help but bursting out laughing.

“I’m about our age, your majesty. The title of the witch of the forest gets passed down through generations, just as the crown will be yours one day.” she was so gracious, the way she moved, the way words came out of her mouth so beautifully, she was definitely not a normal human…

“Ugh…ok yeah…good! I mean…” he cleared his throat as to clarify what he was trying to say, “It’s good that you’re not an old lady, it would be awkward to work together since we are all in the young side…” he could feel Chifuyu’s disapproving gaze on the back of his neck. He was really not the best at talking to pretty girls, but then again, he never has to…

The lovely giggles that left your lips caused an entire tornado of emotions go rampage inside the prince, he could swear a cow just went flying by his liver as she looked at him with those sparkly beautiful eyes. “I won’t really need your help though, as you may know, we are already pretty strong. Your job is to put Kazutora in some sort of restraint so we can take him with us. The army will take care of the rest.” Ryuguji Ken, otherwise known by everyone as Draken, was nodding at his orders representing the military portion, so you just nodded as well. “Very well, my prince. I will do as you say.” 

Her prince? He’s now ‘her’ prince…? Yes…he definitely was…100%…

His face was doing all sort of things now as his brain went down a dangerous path full of pink hearts floating, when Chifuyu got closer, whispering to his ear, “My king…you’re everyone’s prince…she doesn’t mean anything by that statement.”

“Oh….um…I knew that already…” coughing awkwardly, he got up from the throne, barking orders for everyone this time, “We'll leave tomorrow at dawn, I expect you all to be ready for battle by then.” He just went down the stairs, bumping onto your shoulder and giving you a nasty glare. While he was dying in the inside, he was also just a tiny bit upset that he was reading too much into things.

“He’s a great guy, think nothing of it. He’s just a bit embarrassed.” Chifuyu, being the angel he is, wanted to make sure his beloved friend wasn’t misunderstood, “He’s a bit rough in the outside but he’s a wonderful friend and has a very generous heart.” you smiled back at the blonde knight, blushing a little at his charming and soothing way of carrying himself. His words did make you feel better though and you were grateful for that.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

It was now time to leave and you were going through your bag making sure you had everything you needed, waiting for the prince by Chifuyu’s side. Which seemingly bothered Keisuke.

The queen had given you another set of orders, you were to follow her son’s commands, yes. But you were also supposed to keep him safe. He was to return safely without a scratch on his handsome face, otherwise you’d be hanged in the plaza with the rest of Valhalla. So you’ve prepared a bunch of healing potions, just in case.

“What are you, his shadow now?” Keisuke scoffed as he saw you behind Chifuyu. You weren’t even that close, he was doing his thing and you were doing yours, nothing to fuzz about, but oh boy, was he jealous…

“Chifuyu, go with Ryusei. Witch, you go with Draken.” nodding, you walked over to the tall man wearing his military uniform, smiling warmly up at him he lifted you up like a princess and set you up on his horse before sitting behind you and keeping you close so you wouldn’t fall.

“Well shit…” 

“See? She was better off with me…” Chifuyu snickered as he went on his horse all the way to the front to lead everyone out and towards Valhalla’s hidden territory.

The way there was actually lovely, the weather was nice and you’ve never seen as much of the kingdom. Draken was a gentleman and he would show you things of interest along the way, even picking a rare flower from a tree that you were interested in.

In reality, you wanted it for a potion, and that’s why he got it for you. But all Keisuke could see was a lot of flirting and giggling, love in the air as one would say. “What happened to Emma-chan you bastard…?damn womanizer…” 

Chifuyu, Ryusei and Mickey could only laugh at his reactions, he was truly adorable, like a child who got his favorite toy stolen.

Though, once you arrived, the mood changed quite rapidly.

Even the trees seem to be changing, no longer green and lush, more like the dead landscape of winter. “I thought…they didn’t use magic…”

“They don’t…do they?” Draken was suddenly taken aback by your statement, all sources indicated they were nothing but a bunch of raunchy teens.

“You see those trees? We are in the middle of summer, Ryuguji-san…this is definitely a magical field. A powerful one, it’s giving me goosebumps…the blood thirst in the air…” 

“Good thing we brought’ya then.” nodding, you got your staff out, getting ready for a different type of battle.

“Your majesty, the girl says they have a magic wielder. We must be cautious.”

“Cautious my ass, I’ll kick them all where it hurts and we can go home with Kazutora before lunch.” 

The prince had a reputation of being invincible, but this was different, you had an awful gut feeling, though before you could say anything, scary looking guys came out of nowhere from every possible direction. They looked almost like zombies, like if someone was controlling them like puppets. “Chifuyu…they have a high level wizard amongst them. I will go see where the spell is coming from, they’re being controlled, don’t hurt them.” he just nodded and kicked one of them on the face as it was coming after you, giving you enough time to go your way.

On top of a big pile of trash rested a hazy figure, a dark aura coming out of him, “So they called back ups…I won’t let you interfere with my plans…”

“Who are you…?”

“Kisaki Tetta at your service, lovely. Wielder of dark magic and the one who will kill the Baji dynasty, the commander of the army must become our true leader…Valhalla is where he belongs…”

“Kill you say….?” without letting him finish you sprinted back to where the fight was, desperately looking for Keisuke…”My prince…where are you…?” drops of blood kept flying from everywhere, making your uneasiness grow, but then you saw a dash of blond hair running towards the prince with a knife in his hand. 

Casting a spell has never been easier, in a split of a second Prince Keisuke was floating in a bubble above everyone else. Kazutora was left speechless as his target disappeared right in front of his eyes, the confused crazed look on his face a disturbing sight. “I will not let you touch him, you rat! CHIFUYU NOW!” In a matter of seconds Kazutora was surrounded by the top tier of the royal guard and the army as well.

“Capture him alive, respect the prince's wishes. The wizard already escaped…but I had to save your majesty...” 

“You did good (Y/N)…thank you…” Chifuyu lost two lives at the moment he saw you cast your spell, seeing his best friend and role model almost being killed right there and then, an awful revelation.

Keisuke was watching everything from his comfortable and safe bubble, the way you commanded his men, the way you saved his life…how you chose to save him even if that meant letting a dark wizard escape. Even if these were his mother’s orders, he could see in your face how terrified you were when you saw that knife in Kazutora’s hand. You can’t order people how to feel, that was real fear.

It made him feel warm inside…for a few seconds at least, until he realized the weight of the situation and the fact that one of his best friends really wanted him dead…

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Masterlist

[vhagarswar]

It will likely be that whatever story wins will be my main focus to work on for right now.

Sandstorm: SandStorm is a reader or Oc x dark aemond. She is from House martell and is Dornish. She is to be married to a lord in the tierarcy for her father's ambitions. However she is allowed to go on vacation to the Seven Kingdoms first, as part of her reward for following her duties. But she won't ever return from her trip. Aemond, who has become redacted has a plan to conquer dorne and it involves our Mc/Reader. Possibly a one shot. (Request!)

Gasoline: Gasoline is reader in modern kingslanding who searches for her addict sister Dyana. After a tip she stumbles into the criminal lair of Aegon II targaryen and his sadistic "problemsolver" Aemond. After it turns her father has become vice president of the Seven kingdoms after a successful assassination attempt, Aemond nor aegon want to see her go. Lots of gore and blood. Possibly mini series.

Fire & Blood: Follows the story of reader or Brienne Beesbury. She lives in the Red Keep and is close friends with the boy she educates, Prince Aegon. After a while she and Aegon and Aemond begin a agreement where they have sex with her. After the usurping of the throne and the murder of her father things change for Brienne and sees the boys for who they truly are...Big series

Pillars of salt: Maella Targaryen is the twin of Jacaerys and After a message from her best friend Floris she flies to storm end, to be with her for her last moments. She is shocked to discover it was all a plot by Aemond to capture her. Big series

Snow falls: Willa or reader has been living her life sheltered in the Wyldecrest keep in the North. Since her illness she has been in the castle. Something saved her life years ago but no one knows what. Aemond Targaryen comes over to gain support for his brother and to force a marriage alliance. Willas father is not interested and Aemond takes offense. He murders Willas family and takes her as his own reward. Very dark bookish aemond. Big series

The death of duty: Y/N is a maid in the red keep and not a very good i might add. She runs from chickens, drops foods, steps on peoples toes and is in general unfit to be even near noble people. She and Aemond met in the library and he offers her to either become his special servant or to get thrown out of the red keep before morning comes. (This was a request but i love it lol) darkAemond centric, mini series

Ashes burn: Y/N is a bastard of a city that Aemond is planning to take. He takes her as his bedmate and commits war crimes and forces her to join him in this (feeding orphans to his dragon, stuff like that) Until one day a certain Prince of Dragonstone who has been left traumatised and one-handed after his battle comes to liberate the town. Except he plans to make YN/Mc suffer first. deeply. (Starts as dark!Aemond central but ends in Dark!Jacaerys central) Mini series? ((second most recent work)

The spare: The spare is about Vaella who is the daughter of Daemon and Rhaenyra. Her twin sister took Aemonds eye and after this he has been obessed with both of them and making them pay. After the Greens take Kingslanding, Vaella and her sister are taken hostage with the plan that Aemond marries Alyssa, her twin. but things dont go according to plan. (Dark!Aemond fanfic and dark!Aegon fanfic) ends with ?????????? (theyre both fucked up here) mini series

Whispers of dragons: Y/N is Neserya Waters, when our story starts a 9 years old orphan from the streets of Kings landing who did what few can claim: She found a wild dragon and claimed it. The Targaryens are worried for this child and plan to make her their ally. Aemond takes a interest in her (hes 10) and purposes a marriage. Once he has his own dragon he drops her as dirt and she vows revenge. (Aemond central fanfic, but due to mc being unhinged this aemond is not dark at all) mini series perhaps ((WHISPERS HAS A EARLY FANFIC PHASE WARNING!)

Queen of king’s landing: Y/N is a nameless crime leader in the city of kingslanding and needs to try to free her father from the prison of kings landing. Things dont go accoding to plan (do they ever in westeros) ((dark! (spoiler) Aemond) Mini series.

Lion brat: Leyonara Lannister/Yn is the best example of a spoiled brat. After insulting Aemond/Aegon (calling aemond a ''one-eyed charity project'' and aegon ''a good for nothing drunk'') ((where is the lie?) she gets visted by the two brothers during the hour of the owl and is taught a few lessons about respect (Brought back from the grave for my friend) ((while they are very domish in this story they are absolutely not dark) (aegon/aemond endgame??)

First night: Bessie was once a lady from a noble house and got kidnapped by dotraki. A boy of her age was her only friend during these terrifying times and after he became Khal, the two of them fell in love. After the fall and massacre of his Khalasar the two returned to Westeros. Now they have hosted a wedding and are ready to become one soul. A king and a prince show up at their wedding, arent pleased with bessies lies and decide to call back in a horrible tradition known as the first night. (????oc endgame) mini series

Here's my masterlist with almost all stories listed here in case you wanna read something before voting for it but its not like a need. You can vote on title, on pairing, on darkness, on plot, i dont mind xx

[adammilligan]

i ABSOLUTELY want to hear about the fantasy au!!!

OKAY! this is gonna be a ride so strap in. if it's incomprehensible and confusing then whatever let's do this anyway

so adam is from a town up in the far north, right. he lived there with kate until he was fourteen and kate (who worked as the town healer) passed away. kate was respected in the town because she was the best at her job but adam, as a bastard child, could never quite manage to win that same respect from the townspeople (and ofc it being a small town that same distrust generally gets passed down to children as well) so when his mom died adam was like yknow what? fuck it??? i'm leaving i'm out and if i'm gonna die of starvation sooner or later i'm at least gonna visit someplace beyond this icy wasteland for the first time in my life. so he takes what he knows about traveling through the snow and what little possessions he can carry with him and he just fucking. bails. if the town wants a healer they can do it themselves❤

so anyway he travels south and he damn near doesn't make it because he's fourteen and entirely unused to traveling because he's lived in the town his whole life and doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. but he's also stubborn as all fucking hell and doesn't let himself collapse until he starts seeing deciduous trees instead of coniferous and then he's like "wow. that's pretty" and just fucking faceplants. right in the grass.

so of course he doesn't die yet, right, he's found by somebody who drags his scrawny ass to some shelter and it turns out she's a sort of traveling healer??? and like...adam learned a lot from his mom but she was supposed to start REALLY teaching him when he was fifteen and obviously that didn't happen. so adam decides, since he has literally nowhere else to go and nothing else to live for basically, that he'll ask to be the woman's apprentice and (to his MAJOR fucking surprise) she accepts. so for the next six-ish years he basically spends time learning how to properly heal people and traveling along EVERYWHERE (he absolutely has a little summer fling with kristin in a seaside town. this is non-negotiable) and eventually all good things have to come to an end, right? so the woman isn't OLD old but she's certainly hitting an age and she decides that she's gonna settle down and just pass all her shit on to him and though he doesn't wanna leave the only person he's known for years he decides that he stills wants to Go Out and See Things and Help People and so they part ways.

meanwhile, in the world of royalty, there's a battle brewing because one kingdom just Will Not Fuck Off at the border between them and michael's acting as the prince regent right now because chuck is indisposed one way or another and he just sort of decides yknow what? fuck it? if these motherfuckers aren't going to leave then we're just gonna make them leave? and takes a party of knights down to the border to make them fuck off.

adam, who just so happened to be headed straight for the border, is not amused. but we'll get back to him in a moment.

anyway the fight starts, shit gets wild because there were more people down there than they thought, and michael's party is pretty much forced to in the midst of battle (like some "EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES" thing) but the PROBLEM is, michael gets hit and he gets hit BAD. like someone sliced him up and then a fleeing horse trampled him for good measure. the thing though is while michael's party was forced to flee, the opposing side was also forced to retreat because more of their numbers were taken out than he thought. so michael's essentially bleeding out on the forest floor, adam's been hiding up a tree this entire time because....what the FUCK just happened. and then he sees someone who's very obviously royalty just laying on the grass and decides to go up to him and poke him with a stick because if he's dead then HEY⁠—free stuff he can loot off his body to sell, right? give him a break he could always use the coin.

so, as it turns out, the dude's not dead! fan-fucking-tastic, right?

and adam TRIES to leave him behind. he really does. but then he thinks about how he would've died if the healer hadn't helped him and he thinks about what his mom would do and he bangs his head against a tree a couple times before finally turning around and performing the speediest emergency patch job on this man who might not even make it and all the while he's just like "don't wanna be here. people are gonna accuse me of murdering nobility. i have better things to do that be executed. cmon" and he's not even sure that the royal dude's gonna MAKE IT but he does his best anyway. he's using up supplies for this. royal dude better be fucking grateful.

once it finally seems like royal dude's not gonna die if adam moves him more than two inches, adam (veery slowly) drags him to a nearby cave system that he'd seen when he'd passed through the area before and decides to just look after him from there.

eventually, after adam has been looking after him for a While, royal dude wakes up. and he's Not Happy about it. so, naturally, he and adam get into an argument where he declares he's a prince and how dare adam lay his filthy hands on him yada yada yada and adam's like lol i'm not the one with the major fucking injury but alright. but also he's worried that michael's gonna kill him after he gets better but he doesn't want to leave him to die either and also he put too much work into this pretentious mf to just leave him now SO he might as well risk death.

and michael TRIES to do things independently at first. he REALLY does. he tries to the point where he keeps tearing his stitches and adam starts absolutely raising hell about it because his supplies are already wearing thin enough without angryfuck mcstubbornmeister fucking ruining them every chance he gets. and then he just fucking storms off for literally eight hours and michael's like "FINE. DIDN'T NEED HIM AROUND ANYWAY" but is also worried because he really can't move around all that much and he doesn't WANT to die and just as he's sort of accepting that he's been left adam storms back in with new supplies that he spent the last of his coin on and literally just starts raving about how if michael fucks these up too adam will LITERALLY smother him in his sleep. prince or not. and honestly adam's surprised michael didn't try to forcefully claw his way out of the cave but michael's just surprised that this commoner didn't just leave for good.

they both make an effort to get along a little better after that.

and then they actually get to talking and realize that they have more in common than they thought. which is odd, because they're also so different but they're similar in all the ways that matter and eventually they start trading stories while adam starts helping michael finally move around again and oftentimes the caves would echo with their laughter, so loudly would it reverberate around the stone walls. when michael is finally able to start walking (albeit REALLY stiffly) without assistance, he insists that he's going to go hunt because adam's been doing it for the both of them all this time and he hates just sitting around doing nothing. and when he ends up unable to catch anything because the pain flared up a bit too much, adam doesn't say a word, just flashes him a smile and shoots down a rabbit that they share without a word. and then adam lets him get water from the river instead, and somehow they end up laughing and soaking wet because they started a little splash fight even though adam starts fussing about the wounds afterwards.

but then the day comes; the day that michael can finally move around normally without too much strain, and at first neither of them acknowledge it. at first, they still sit by the riverbank and fish and tell each other whispered stories (whether fact or fiction) by the cooking fire, faces tanned from the heat and sitting a little too close than they'd like to mention. but michael brings it up one day, with hunched shoulders and a weary frown at the reminder, that he has a kingdom to rule. that his father was out of commission, and the longer he stayed hidden away the weaker the kingdom would seem, and adam sighs and concedes.

michael asks, a little hopeful, if adam would come with him. he could be appointed as the court physician, and he wouldn't ever have to worry about money or shelter or supplies ever again. but adam is used to small houses and worn paths and the ache of travel and the hard earth as his bed and his pillow, not downy mattresses and pampering. besides, constantly having to be in the presence of all those snobby nobles would be the absolute death of him, and he knows it.

so he says no, and very nearly changes his answer when michael's form deflates, the prince regent's face pulling into something downright sorrowful, and adam promises to accompany him to the border before they part ways.

they make it to the border, and it isn't even two moments of them awkwardly standing there shuffling their feet before adam thinks to hell with it and pulls the prince regent of one of the largest kingdoms in the land into a hug, except...they don't separate. they don't separate until adam pulls back, just enough to look michael in the eyes, before kissing him. it's soft and light and chaste, something that begins and brings with it the promise of never quite ending, even after they finally break apart, their foreheads gently meeting as they stare at each other.

michael asks if they'll ever meet again. adam doesn't know what to say, because life is tumultuous and messy and he might die before the year is at an end, so he only smiles. he smiles and he kisses michael once on the cheek and tells him that his kingdom is waiting for him, all while thinking (but never voicing) that it is his kingdom that needs him and michael has never been nor ever will be bound by the wants of a nameless travelling healer, and they finally unwind from each other and turn their separate ways, determined to not look back even as their minds scream for them to.

michael heads south, towards his kingdom, and adam heads west, always veering just the smallest bit north but never quite making it back to the town of his roots⁠—what holds him back, he's not sure yet. but there are people in need of help, and he'll be damned if he's going to let them suffer.

and so, it ends.

(until the unwritten sequel, where michael returns to his kingdom⁠—only to find it in utter shambles)

[visarcana]

What do we know about... Egzardia

Okay, let’s finally do this. Egzardia is another of Asturia’s neighbors and allies and the home to a certain snake of a prince in my fic; not a popular character I guess, but also real fun to write!

So what do we know about this country from the series, artbooks and other official material? So, similar to Basram (the previous in the WDWK series), this fictional country seemed to have an obvious source of inspiration, which was the Earth’s France. Or was it?

Canon information

1. Egzardia is a country famed for its fashions

And that is what first pointed into the direction of France. The pants that Millerna wears are somewhat outrageous in Asturia but in Egzardia, where she got them from, they are the height of fashion. Here’s Millerna, her pants, and a bonus “come at me bro” Allen.

So, the new trends for the daring come from Egzardia, as the Filmbooks confirm also near the picture of the soldiers (”when it’s not uniforms, Egzardia seems to set the trends in fashion”).

This sort of goes together also with the fact that “they try to make even their guymelefs beautiful” (Roman artbook). The same book also says their guymelefs have elegant, round shapes (the Mazdas of guymelef world haha).

2. Egzardia is a neighboring country to Asturia

Because Asturia formed an alliance with its neighboring countries (episode 23).  The map of Gaea (from the Vision of Escaflowne Fanbook) puts it north of Basram and South of Zaibach. Makes you wonder where the border with Asturia was supposed to lie? But yeah, as we know now, this whole map is fanon.  

3. The design of the soldiers/guymelefs

Regarding the soldier designs, it is, again, obvious that somebody did their homework and looked up the 17th-18th century military uniforms as an inspiration.

Here is the Egzardian general named Jardi (Jarudi) and his regular soldier underling. There are no official transcriptions of these names so we can only guess how it was supposed to be transcribed (Giardi? Jardie?).

Anyway, what I was able to figure out was that the inspiration for the general was the European uniform of a grenadier (the soldier who throws grenades) that became distinguished from other troops in 17th century. Mostly because of the mitre cap (like the Pope wears) which is a trademark of this troop.

Upon closer look, the closest examples look to be the British grenadiers! The bottom part of the mitre above the forehead in particular looks very British (compare).

So was I off with France after all? When you google French grenadier, you see that mostly their mitre caps are all fur and they look a bit further away from our guy Jardi... but he does have a French-looking pom-pom on the top of his hat... and the gillet, the gaiters... guess the uniforms of the era had these elements often in common.

Here’s image for ants of Jardi from the back (Settei Artbook). I want to use the ponytail and bow on Gilles’ design as well.

4. The flag/coat of arms

It looks like this (this is my work using the sketch in the artbooks and coloring it according to the scheme shown in the anime).

So, what do you think it represents? I think the other crests are more obvious in that than this one. The only thing that comes to my mind is a variation of Fleur de Lys, but I guess it’s because I’m partial to France with this. Or maybe a fancy-looking spear? They definitely use spears on the battlefield.

(don’t ask me why Basram flag is involved in a shot of mostly Egzardian soldiers lol)

5. The Egzardian warship is called Triville. 

For this, we have a transcription from the official subs. Tréville is a commune/family name in France (okay, not to be too partial to France, you can find another little town called Treville in Italy). And also a character (based on a real historical figure) called Monsieur de Tréville in Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. The name seems related the region of Trois-Villes, so basically, tréville is a fancier way of spelling “Three Towns” to my understanding. But there was also a French admiral de Latouche-Tréville who had three French ships named Latouche-Tréville after him, so this seems the most likely inspiration, if there was any.

So what did I do with this information so far?

Not too much to be honest. Obviously, I named the prince Gilles and I made up the name of the capital of Egzardia as Marsial, just a play on Marseille. I made Gilles dress flashily, but he would not pause at it as an Egzardian. Since Basram is said to be the only republic among the known countries, I made Egzardia a kingdom as well, but put Gilles himself further down the succession line.

This was necessary because this engagement with Millerna is a “plan B” not only for King Aston (who had her engaged to Dryden before that), but also for Egzardians. Gilles’ older brother, who is the current king in Egzardia, is already married with a son. If Millerna (or any of the Asturian princesses) had been considered for the marriage, they would have arranged it much sooner, while Gilles’ father had still been alive. Instead, this deal is closed in wartime with the younger brother being sent. Who’s all women, hunts, games... that sort of stuff. And not too eager to marry. But he quickly takes liking to Millerna hahaha!

I would also like to point out that the order of succession is male primogeniture, so the sons of the older brother pass over Gilles as they are born (and he already has one), so poor guy really can’t think of getting the throne in Marsial anytime soon. Which is another reason for Gilles to be married off to Palas, where he can think of being a king regent through Millerna.

This isn’t an ideal situation for Aston either, because it becomes possible that the two countries will be joined after his death, and not necessarily with Asturia coming out on top, if the older brother has much power over Gilles. So yeah, it is a plan B for a reason, even though it may seem a better match at the first sight. It’s not necessarily an upgrade for Millerna to marry an actual prince instead of the wealthy local merchant prince, who brings the money and at least keeps the power securely in Asturia.

But the war goes on, Grava needs allies, he is sick, and he has to make sure Millerna has a suitable husband after he’s gone. Coughwhoisnotallencough. Because once he’s dead, Millerna can do whatever she wants, she’s a queen. And Eries won’t have the “older sister” privileges much longer either... since she didn’t want to be the queen, at some point she would have to bow down and respect Millerna’s will, not the other way around. I wrote a bit of this change of dynamic in Chapter 9 already .

So yeah, Aston really has a grudge against Allen in my head, so he could even play dangerously to prevent him from marrying Millerna. But then, Asturia and Egzardia could be joined also with Palas as the capital. Asturia is the strongest after Zaibach, so currently stronger than Egzardia. So if Gilles held some grudges or an ambition to take over his brother once he’s married to Millerna (and she lets him rule her country and do as he pleases), there is an option of that. So yeah, a risky game, but the possible gains (and losses) for everyone involved are great with this marriage.

By the way, Gilles and his as of yet unnamed older brother also have two unnamed sisters. I’ll probably name them only if they appear in the story. Gilles is the youngest one, that is why he’s had all the time and resources in the world to play around until now. He has a guymelef as a member of the royal family (guymelefs are rare and expensive goods) and is a skilled swordsman. He’s quite charismatic and quickly became popular with the Asturian courtiers.

I made his character a bit of a play on the trope of the rakish handsome brute who after his youth spent womanizing falls for the innocent heroine (possibly with an arranged marriage involved)... aand then does a magical 180 by the power of love, becomes a great man and off they ride into the sunset. But that’s another story which is no longer worldbuilding, so I’ll just stop here. Sorry for the long post again.

[astrologista]

AA4 Medieval AU

getcher apollo justice fantasy/medieval au right here. (spoilers for aa4 kinda tho)

this idea will not leave my mind so... take it... i think i messed up some details lol but this is just for fun so please, don’t rake me over the coals for it.

(time is screwed up here so before the timeskip apollo is 7 and trucy is a baby. after the timeskip apollo is 14 and trucy is 7. for the sake of it i’m gonna have klavier also be about 14 post-timeskip. other ages may be scaled down for consistency... idk i had to make it work somehow.)

Once upon a time, King Magnifi of the House Gramarye ruled the land in peace. In his old age, his daughter Princess Thalassa readied herself to become queen. It came time for Thalassa to choose a royal consort, the person who would also be the next king of Attornia.

There were two choices, Zak and Valant. In the end, Princess Thalassa chose Zak. Disgraced, Valant left for parts unknown. Thalassa and Zak married and received Magnifi’s blessing before his death. Thus began the reign of Queen Thalassa of House Gramarye, and King Zak Enigmar.

It wasn’t to last, however. Seeing his chance to seize power, Count Kristoph of the House Gavin, King Zak’s closest advisor, betrayed King Zak and murdered him in cold blood. All the evidence vanished without a trace, and the case was never solved. In the process, he was able to cause Queen Thalassa significant injury, as well. The people assumed she, too, had been murdered in this incident...

Though hotly debated throughout Attornia, no one could deny that the line of succession had been broken, since Queen Thalassa and King Zak had not had any children, and therefore no heirs or heiresses to the throne. According to the law, Count Kristoph, at the age of 25, was now able to seize power and become King Kristoph of Attornia.

His rule, while considered by many to be stable, measured, and fair, was completely tyrannical. He arranged for the citizens to worship him like a god, encouraged a cult of personality, tripled work hours on the poor and taxed basically all the citizens into poverty, then used all the tax money to build extravagant monuments to himself, and expand the palace into his personal utopia complete with gold, jewels and hundreds of servants. One of his servants is a young foundling named Apollo Justice, who’s about 7 years old when he was left at the palace gates. King Kristoph decided to make Apollo his successor... someday. But for now he’s being trained as a servant, because he’s just useful like that, and he’s eager to please.

But, there is still hope for Attornia, as Queen Thalassa has one trump card hidden up her sleeve. She was spirited away from the palace by her attendants, and forced into a life of hiding as the mysterious wise woman, Lady Lamiroir. Her memory had been taken from her by the injuries sustained during Gavin’s assault. What no one knows, though, is that she was pregnant at the time. Luckily, the baby was unharmed. She is Trucy Gramarye, the one true princess. To keep her safe, Lamiroir entrusts the girl to a trusted man, Phoenix Wright.

Some seven years have now passed since then, and Attornia is still suffering under the reign of the House Gavin. Trucy Gramarye is 7. Apollo Justice is about 14. The day comes at last when Apollo meets a strange man in town, a mysterious stranger in peasant clothing named Phoenix Wright, who tells him a tale of the true and rightful heir to the throne. By rights, Trucy should be crown princess, as she has royal blood. (Phoenix will serve as regent king in her place until she’s old enough to rule.) At first Apollo doesn’t and can’t believe it, because King Kristoph would never lie to him, right? And Apollo then learns that he, too, has royal blood... except for the little issue that he’s a product of an illegitimate relationship between Princess Thalassa and a bard named Jove Justice and therefore has no claim to the throne. This crushes Apollo as all his hopes of becoming what Kristoph has been training him to be all his life are dashed. (I kind of waffle on whether Jove should be alive as a bard or dead in this AU. Alive would be good. Let’s go with alive. Or else this AU is going to be too traumatic for Apollo. How he got separated from Apollo is... something I’ll think about later but it’ll probably be sad)

But, once Phoenix shows Apollo once and for all how the poor are suffering under the reign of Gavin, Apollo eventually changes his mind and decides to join the effort to investigate and restore peace to the realm, with the help of Phoenix, Trucy, Lamiroir, and... others!

One thing Kristoph doesn’t want to draw attention to is his brother, Klavier, who is a knight in training (and a bard with a lute on the weekends). Instead of granting him a lofty government position, he hides him somewhere in the ranks of the knighthood and otherwise avoids interacting with him. Daryan is one of the other knights in training (and is also a bard). The captain of knights in training is Romein LeTouse. The foremost of all knights is Sir Edgeworth. (Simon Blackquill is one of the other knights because yes. And who doesn’t want Knight!Blackquill with Taka?)

Supporting cast includes weird jester Spark Brushel, a medieval pub run by Eldoon and Olga Orly, a scholarly monk named Wesley Stickler, a small village/hamlet run by the Kitakis where Wocky is considered royalty, royal healers Pal Meraktis and Alita Tiala, and a certain Marie-Curie-like young woman named Ema Skye who is a relatively well-off lady to most, but secretly has a whole science lab running experiments with beakers and a lot of steampunk stuff. Phoenix keeps an eye on Lady Lamiroir who has to stay in hiding. She takes in a young boy named Machi Tobaye, who reminds her of the son she lost many years ago (she doesn’t know that Apollo is that son, or doesn’t find out until later). There’s also the royal portrait painter Drew Misham and his daughter Vera.

The gang ends up diffusing some diplomatic troubles between Wocky’s family and Alita Tiala when it comes out that Alita is just looking to marry into royalty. In the next plot, Daryan is revealed to be a traitor to the knighthood and is doing some shady stuff on the order of King Kristoph, such as tailing the gang to find out how much they know. (If Kristoph finds out about Trucy and gets to her first, it’s all over...) Klavier eventually becomes part of the gang, turns out his knowledge is extremely helpful, but Apollo does question whether he can even be trusted considering his relationship to Kristoph. Most of the rest of the plot is attempts to destabilize Kristoph’s regime and reveal his evil and selfish acts. For some reason I’m seeing a situation with a play, where somebody gets to say (probably Apollo) “So the play’s the thing wherein we’ll catch the conscience of the king?” because, yes. In the final plot, royal portrait painter Drew Misham and his daughter, Vera, are in trouble and are at risk of being executed by King Kristoph (botched portrait of the king maybe??). The gang has to stop that at any cost. And, they have to reveal to the entire kingdom the true nature of King Kristoph... and the fact that he’d be willing to execute an innocent painter and a young girl is definitely going to make clear that true nature to everyone.

And finally, of course our heroes triumph in the end, and Phoenix becomes King of Attornia, as regent for Trucy who will one day be Queen! Lady Lamiroir also gets to return, and she is still considered a beloved ruler despite her injuries preventing her from fully embracing the role, she still supports Trucy and Phoenix from the background. And some of her memories return! Apollo of course will always have a place as part of the family, too, and decides royal life isn’t for him. He instead becomes something of a local mediator of disputes! And they all lived happily ever after!

As for King Kristoph, he is pissed and promises he’ll return with a vengeful scheme. For now they just exile him to some remote island like Napoleon where he’ll hopefully just rot and die. But we still have to set up the sequel somehow right??

Now someday I need to find the time to... actually write this and make it like a 50k or something longer... oh boy

[glowstickhaloboy]

i just spent an hour typing this klance sleeping beauty/witch AU in a text

one day lance wakes up in a forest with few memories and no idea how he got there. He stumbles upon a stone dias with a veiled, sleeping young man on it and figures he’s dreaming and that’s got to be the part of himself that’s going to wake up eventually. 

Then a bear comes crashing out of the trees, and Lance knows he can’t let the bear hurt himself or... himself?? Whatever. So he manages to draw it under a loose boulder and then topple the rock down on it. Then the bear transforms into a big brown man who says his name is hunk and thanks lance profusely for changing him back. 

“The wicked monarch lotor doesn’t mind using curses on anyone, no matter how insignificant,” he says. Then he sees the sleeping person on the dias and asks if he hurt the prince, and lance is like ??? 

So hunk explains that lotor cursed the rightful heir to the throne to sleep forever, then brought him into the middle of the woods so he would never be found, and hunk, the unfortunate stable boy who had been tasked with transporting him here, had been turned into a bear to attack anyone who got too close. 

At this point lance is like, “wait, im not dreaming?? And that dude is a real person?? Okay so uhh sounds like this monarch is totally evil and we should get this sleeping guy back on the throne??? Whys he asleep how do we wake him up??”

And hunks like “shrug.” 

So lance is like “WELL ive got quite a reputation for being a dashing hero” 

“oh really whats your name” 

“uh, the names LANCE” 

“GASP LANCELOT??” 

“Ye-! What, no, who is that wtf” 

“oh then ive never heard of you” 

“whatever shut up you’ll have heard of me after we pull this off together, lets get this guy to a town or something and tell the people whats going on, that way theyll know lotor is a fake” 

“oh its not going to be that easy,” says hunk, ever the man of exposition. “lotor has guards everywhere, at gates and bridges and checkpoints on the roads to every town, nobody can get in anywhere with anything secret, especially not so blatantly carrying a body”

but then they meet a group of smugglers!! Led by allura and pidge, the strategist and the genius, who agree to help lance because of lotor’s ridiculous taxes + security. 

“But” says pidge “theres no way we’ll help you when he’s like this. You gotta wake him up first. He’s practically dead, we’re not going to smuggle a corpse, its useless. Coma patients cant lead kingdoms.” 

And lance is like “idk?? How??” 

And hunk is like “drop a rock on him” 

and lance is like “NO HES A PRINCE” 

and pidge is like “no curse is foolproof, theres got to be a way to break it” but doesn’t offer any helpful solutions so lance sighs and goes to hang out with sleeping Keith to see if he cant come up with something.

The smugglers helpfully offered a tent to keep the prince in so it doesn’t cause much of a ruckus among their crew. Lance enjoys the privacy because he’s starting to doubt that he can pull this off, and he apologizes to Keith for that even though he knows Keith cant hear him, and lance explains that he doesn’t know a lot about himself but he feels like he has a history of letting people down and he’s sorry, he’s sorry, but he’s going to try his best, and maybe providence will smile upon Keith and everything will work out anyway, and if lance fails he is at least a necessary stepping stone to restore Keith to the throne. 

He falls asleep there, and when he dreams, he’s inside a beautiful palace watching a man with a prosthetic arm write a letter at a desk. 

“That’s my brother,” says a voice behind lance, and thats... Keith walking up into the room, talking to him?? so casually?? And the man writing the letter cant seem to see or hear them at all? And Keith continues, “his name is shiro. He’s feeling particularly frustrated lately because theres nothing he can do to stop lotor from screwing over our people. He was supposed to inherit the throne. After one year as king, he sent supplies to the kingdom of a sworn enemy while their people suffered from starvation, and lotor got the council to label him a traitor and revoke his right to the throne. I was the only heir left. And, well, you know what happened to me.” He smiles and lance is still like WHAT THE HELL?? And Keith says “you’ll figure it out. I trust you” and lance can feel himself waking up so he misses the next part and only gets the word “witch” before he’s back in the tent and Keith is still passed tf out and he has NO IDEA how to break this curse, so he asks hunk if there are any witches nearby. 

And hunks like “shrug” 

and lance wants to bash his head against a wall. 

But allura overhears and is like “im a witch lol” and lance is like “YOU CAN DO IT THEN YOU GOTTA FIX HIM” and allura is like “?? i’ll try but I have no idea how I would even begin” and lance is like “ANYWAY I CAN HELP I WILL” 

so he hangs at allura’s elbow all day while she stirs potion after potion, consults books, consults Pidge, attempts to cast spells, and nothing’s working, so the day passes and she gives up for now and says she has to rest, and lance reluctantly sees her out of the tent and falls asleep himself. 

This time he dreams he’s in a witch’s tower, and he knows this must be the witch he needs to find, but it’s empty. He doesn’t know who lives here or where they are, and yet it feels familiar, and then Keith appears again, and lance wastes no time in asking where they are this time. Keith shrugs and says this must be one of lance’s memories, Keith has never been here before. 

And lance looks around in confusion like, “one of... my... memories??” before it clicks why he knows this is a witch’s tower without even looking around, and he remembers the tree outside the window and the apples that could be magicked inside from the branches without even leaving the comfort of the couch, and thats because its HIS witch’s tower. He’s in his home! 

And as if to prove it, he spins around and sees himself perusing his own library with an apple in hand, humming, and Keith smiles at him and says, “Witch,” before lance wakes up again and this time he understands, he remembers, that he is the only person who can save Keith, and that is why lotor cursed him with memory loss in the first place!! 

He also remembers... a lot of embarrassing thoughts he’d had pretty much his entire life... lance had followed the prince’s progress from afar, had attended his coronation and offered his services consulting as a court sorcerer (which the royal representative lotor had always overlooked with disdain because they HAD a court sorcerer, thank you very much, and honerva had more life experience in her little finger than a little spell-monkey like lance) and when the prince went missing, lance toiled over a solution, and he came to the new regent, lotor, and proved that he’d crafted a spell with the power to locate one’s truly heartfelt desire, and then he proved that his desire was keith’s safety, was keith, and then everything went dull and fuzzy, and then he’d woken up in the forest. 

And all of this is to say-- lance does not know how to break a sleeping curse. 

He only knew how to find Keith. Why did Keith have such faith in him? He would try anyway. He would brew a remedy so powerful it HAD to work. 

when pidge comes to check on him next morning, lance informs her that he has a lead on the prince and is not to be disturbed, and he spends all day sending hunk and allura out for ingredients, tugging out his own hair, briefly crying, then scraping himself up to keep working, and just as he thinks he might be on the right track, theres a scream outside, and then more, and lance doesn’t want to leave the cauldron but he has to make sure the camp is safe-- and it isn’t. 

Lotor’s armed guards have raided the smuggler’s camp and lotor himself is there too. Lance knows he has only one chance. 

He dashes back into his tent to finish, knowing full well that lotor saw him and theres no time at all, and then half the tent spontaneously begins to fold in on itself, and the cauldron is knocked from its briar and the potion! Most of it spills out, and lance, without thinking, takes the rest into his mouth because he doesn’t have a flask, and if he has to feed it to the sleeping prince like a baby bird then he WILL.

but lotor rips open the front of the tent before lance can make it to the bedroll and raises lance by the throat off of the ground. By force, he squeezes every golden drop out of lance’s puffed cheeks then casts him aside, preparing to finish Keith once and for all now that his secret is found out, (and in his mind he is thinking how nicely this will all blow over, to pin it on the smugglers and an unfortunate accident in the raid) but lance is swept up in a force of protective rage and creates a gust of wind powerful enough to uproot the tent, catch up lotor, and drag him away and pin him down. 

While lotor struggles against the fabric, lance scrambles to keith’s bedroll and prays that this will work, that theres enough remaining to have any effect at all-- and he presses his potion-coated lips to keith’s and wishes as hard as he can. 

and keith’s lips press back. 

And keith’s hand catches at lance’s collar. 

and lotor bellows in rage and lance sits up in wonder and the prince is awake and alive. 

He does not move like someone who has been lying still for over a year. He leaps to his feet, summons a dagger from seemingly nowhere, and meets the regent monarch head-on in a duel so fearsome that, when lotor is eventually defeated, his armored guard immediately drop their weapons and bow to keith.

Keith orders the guards release this camp (on the grounds that the laws they bent were unjust in the first place, and they’d harbored him safely in his hour of need), and then he finds himself and lance a horse and finally gets a moment to thank this witch who saved him-- and perhaps, if lance can forgive him for being somewhat useless throughout all this, he would like to accompany Keith to the castle as his court sorcerer? Of course, the mother to a traitor cannot serve the crown. 

And lance can hardly believe he’s being offered this new lot in life, because hes-- hes-- HIM. He never wins! But he has this time. He has.

He all but yells “YES” and almost makes an ass out of himself but reigns it in at the last second. They ride back to the castle together and are married later that year and live happily ever after.

[luthienliveblogslately-blog]

Milestone write-up!

Since the story seems to be closing one story-arc and moving on to another, I feel this is a good place to take stock, summarize what we know and make some more or less educated guesses at what might happen in future. It got a bit away from me (”a bit” lol), so here’s a read more for your convenience. 

Players on the board

Last we left off, shit had decidedly hit the fan. We got painful confirmation that the elves successfully assassinated King Harrow, but they in turn had a painful price to pay. From what we can tell, Runaan is the only survivor, and he has been captured by Soren and Claudia. Claudia thinks he might come in “useful”, whatever that may mean. Might be they’ll interrogate him for information about Xadia, might be that Claudia has some more nefarious, magical things planned. She might ask him about Rayla and the egg, but it’s not like he can tell her anything that she doesn’t already know, aka Rayla and the boys have the egg and they plan to return it and use it to restore peace. Maybe, if they keep talking for long enough, he might actually get her to see that the egg really is just a yet to hatch baby dragon and therefore a sentient being in need of protection, and not just a powerful magical weapon to be used by whoever sees fit. If Runaan manages to escape or communicate with other elves, our heroes will have some real problems. He clearly sees Rayla as a traitor and seeks to punish her for the perceived crimes she committed, and there’s still that pesky magical bounty on Ezrans’s head… 

It’s hard to say what Claudia and Soren will do next. I think it depends very much on if Viren is sticking around the castle or not, and what his plans are. As to what his plans might be… god knows. Just how much does he want the egg back? Is he willing to go after it himself, or will he maybe send Soren? How much does Soren know about all this anyway? Five bucks says he had no idea about anything tbh. You know what still hasn’t been opened yet btw? The fucking letter. It’s still in Viren’s study. If it really has a contingency plan like “Callum becomes prince regent until Ezran is old enough to rule” I get the feeling Viren might pull some GoT-style shenanigans and try to put himself on the throne. At this point there isn’t really anything I wouldn’t put past him. In any case though the kingdom might be thrown into serious chaos for a while. After all: the King is Dead, long live the…. wait, who now? The crown prince is missing? The step-prince is missing, too? Well, guess it’s time for some good old-fashioned power grabbing! 

And then there’s our three four protagonists. We don’t know where the kingdom of Katolis is exactly, but in any case they have a long journey ahead. They will have to stick to the woods for most of it and avoid towns I think. Rayla can’t be seen by humans, the egg can’t be seen either, and Viren might try and put a bounty on all of them anyway, so the boys might not be save either. I trust Rayla will be able to get the foods from the woods though, so that should be alright. And then eventually they’ll reach the Breach and have to make their away across it and around however many standing armies manning the border from both sides. Yikes. Though we have no idea how far they’ll go in three remaining episodes. There are after all at least 5 more potential seasons in store for us, so there’s a good chance they won’t even remotely come close to the Breach in this one.  What I’m really worried about is Rayla keeping the truth about Harrow from the boys.  While it breaks my heart just thinking about them having to mourn their dad, I’m worried about Callum lashing out at Rayla in his grief. We already had a scene when he found out about the assassination plot and subsequently flipped out at Ez out of fear, and Ez hadn’t even really done anything. How much worse will that reaction be if she’s been lying to them for several days, even if it was just to spare them the pain? It might damage his trust in her, Callum might even try and make them split up and continue without her. Sounds like a really bad idea, but people do stupid things when they’re angry and sad. 

Other unresolved plot points

WHAT DOES THE FUCKING LETTER SAY

What’s up with the Mirror? For that matter, why is the mirror fishy enough to be covered up but not fishy enough to be hidden in the Lair of Dead Things? 

What’s with the picture Harrow looked at last time we saw him alive? It’s gotta be something, right? Why would they make the camera zoom in on it lying face down on the bed otherwise? Just have Harrow put it away and then forget it exists, don’t give it an extra shot!

Pip! Is he still alive? D: 

Callum still has the Storm Stone, but he might have to get his hands on a book or find himself a teacher to learn some new spells probably? 

WHAT DO THE BLACK EYES DO? DO THEY EVEN DO ANYTHING OR ARE THEY JUST FOR CREEPY EFFECT? 

Viren’s staff! Just cool historical artifact or actually relevant to the plot? 

Shameless Tin-hatting aka Foreshadowing Fucking Everywhere aka Miscellaneous Shit I Noticed While re-watching ep 1-3

Callum’s drawing of a Dragon roasting a Marshmallow Monster -> this show’s version of the Cookie Cat jingle? Possibly depicting Viren’s inevitable demise? 

Not foreshadowing, but I realized when the Narrator says “on the eve of last Winter’s Turn” in the opening what is meant with “last” is just most recent, as in “last month” or “last Christmas”. So it probably was some solstice type date after all. Makes sense with it now being spring. 

People keep pointing out how shit Bait is at hiding. I’m afraid at some point they’ll have to hide from something REALLY BAD and Bait will get them found. :/ Really, Bait being called Bait just seems super unfortunate in general. 

You know how Rayla says “My Heart for Xadia” during the ritual? Yeah, I’m getting the feeling Rayla will be instrumental in getting Ezran out of the magical contract, possibly in a super heroic way by just doing what her heart tells her to and saving the day, or possibly just… by dying in his stead. Oh god I feel like I jinxed her. :( 

You know how Callum was like “You’re so lucky, you get to learn magic!” and Claudia was like “You get to learn sword fighting!” and then Callum was like “I’d switch places in a second!”? Well, he’s doing magic now, so…. the little disaster bi that is myself is praying for Claudia in armor with a big-ass sword being a BAMF. ´

Anybody else who really wants to know what is under that OTHER, BIGGER tarp in the Lair of Dead Things? Because I really wanna know. I bet Ezran knows already. 

Harrow said about the letter that “[Callum will] understand in time.” What makes me think there’s more in there than just his last will, possibly it’s also his last confession. What terrible shit has he done over the years of his reign, how much of it did Viren have his fingers in and how much of it can Viren use against him post-mortem? And how will the boys react when they get confronted with their dad’s uglier side, possibly via what the elves or even some direct victims have to say about him? 

I’d really like to have a look at that book Callum is carrying everywhere. I figure it’s his sketch book and not relevant to anything, but it might still be fun to get to see some pages anyway. 

Stuff that I got spoilered on because there’s too many tags to block :( 

I saw some pics of the Dragon Prince after hatching! D: I’m sorry, it feels like I robbed myself of an awesome surprise and you of a genuine reaction. :( I didn’t look very closely, I just saw that he was adorable and had roughly the same color scheme as his dad. Which leads me to some more tin hatting: What with Thunder being called that and also breathing lightning, I’d like to propose that the Storm Stone still has a big role to play after all, other than just providing Callum with a magical source he can carry around. 

I saw General Amaya of the Standing Battalion being name dropped in a text post. I scrolled too fast to see any context, but considering who she is I guess we’ll get her as an upcoming character in some capacity.

I know that the elf making the MAGIC TREES amulets gets another ending slide at some point, and that people are theorizing he and Runaan are a Thing.  I’m not a super big fan of Runaan at this moment in time so I couldn’t give less of a shit about his love life tbh, and as much as I like to ship things I usually need a bit more than literally two pictures to get me going, so. I dunno, don’t expect much from me on that front until more material comes out in later seasons I guess. Like… if there isn’t enough for people to make emotional gif sets out of, can you even really call it a ship?

Netflix tried to push Chapter 4 on me when I went to re-watch the others. I got it shut down quickly enough, but I still saw the title. I think it was… Bloodthirsty? Bloodlust? Either way I think either Runaan is gonna have a REALLY bad time very soonish or our protagonists will have to run REALLY fast from people trying to catch them.  Maybe both.