#she is more than a servant

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

M'lady, doth this harlot bother thee?

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[yunmeng-jiang]

that man does NOT think of wei wuxian as his gege

[blujaydoodles]

I can't remember whether I ever posted this guy? Drex 'Pooka' Berenockt is Melliwyk's homunculus servant, because she may already have two familiars and the tiny servant and unseen servant spells but none of those things have hands and an intelligence higher than 2. he has wings modeled after an earwig's origami'd into a back panel and he curls down into a sphere when he's deactivated. he is also A Leetol Guy and I love him 😌

[clonerightsagenda]

Something that frustrates me whenever I watch or listen to British media is that I know there's a wealth of information about people's class and background encoded into their accents, but I can't catch most of it because I wasn't raised in a situation where making those distinctions mattered. It's like something being lost in translation even though it's still English. There are Layers here and I am missing them.

[rainbowsandwhumperflies]

The Winged Servant - 11

content warnings: vague medical care, narrator who does not realize he was a victim of violence, unreliable narrator who believes in the divine right of a monarchy, fantasy discrimination against angels, I swear this is actually much less political than these warnings make it seem

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The thing about angel wings was that humans didn't know much about them. Prince Ryan had done some research, early on, just in case, he'd said. From the look on this doctor's face, though, I didn't think she had done the same.

The other thing about angel wings was that I didn't know much about them either.

I wasn't an angel angel, of course. Not like the ones from the bible with eyes all over themselves, begging people not to be afraid of them. I was the type of angel that hadn’t been too different from humans, way back in the early days. Back when people paid egregious amounts of money for the ability to fly. Humans and angels were only separated by a surgery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, still all called humans, until the scientists had learned to change the genetic code of children before they were born.

Wings got a lot less valuable once kids could be born with them. It didn’t help once people couldn’t control if a kid was born with them or not.

“Angels” was a nickname first, and it spread, although I never was sure if it was just the wings or if it was the idea that angels would come to the earth while the world was ending. It didn’t matter. Everyone thought that the world was ending, and maybe it had. But people still ate and slept and laughed and cried, and the world went on.

And once the angels started to show differences from humans, humans stopped caring to know about them.

I knew very little about my wings besides the fact that they weren’t the wings of a bird. Prince Ryan, while in one of his better moods, had explained some of it to me once. Bats were mammals, like humans—easier to attach, easier to maintain. Of course, the prince was human, and I was not, and I would never be able to have his level of understanding with matters like these.

There were humans in this castle, though, that also didn’t seem to have his level of understanding.

The doctor that Kieran had brought me to had taken one look at me, smiled politely, and left me alone to talk to Kieran outside the door. “Just stay put for a minute, sugar,” she’d said, voice strained, a southern accent bleeding through her words as she left me to avoid eye contact with the guard who’d had to help me walk down the hall.

Her voice was less strained when she’d returned, but she still didn’t seem pleased that I was there. I shrunk back onto the cot I’d been left on.

“Onyx, Ma’am.”

“Alright, Onyx, that’s good. Do you mind telling me what happened to your arm?”

“It got hit by a sword, I think, Ma’am.” My memories of the night before were hazy, but it was a sword, right? My arm had been… it’d gotten hurt when we were in a hallway, in an endeavor to get us out of that hallway. And Prince Cardan had pushed me in the way. Maybe.

“Mkay. Looks like you got lucky and it just nicked you, hun. Won’t even need stitches. I’ve just gotta disinfect it and bandage it. Would that be alright?”

I nodded jerkily, not expecting the question. Prince Ryan had told me what he was doing to me, sometimes, but not like this. Dr. Charlotte had been smiling the whole time, soft and kind. Prince Cardan smiled at me sometimes, but it was always due to amusement on his part. Of course, that was his right, because I was a servant, but Dr. Charlotte had been smiling as if it were for my benefit. She’d asked before touching my arm. That wasn’t… how people were supposed to act about angels and servants.

“I’m afraid I can’t do much about your wing, sweetheart,” she said once my arm was bandaged, and I nodded. I’d expected that much. “I haven’t ever worked with angel wings before, and I wouldn’t want to make anything worse because of my lack of experience. But I can find someone who knows more about it, alright?”

I nodded. Dr. Charlotte seemed like the type to tolerate questions, probably. “May I ask a question, ma’am?”

“Sure, hun.”

“Why do you want to fix my wing?”

She blinked, and then laughed lightly. “Well, I’m not quite sure what you mean. I mean, I think everyone should get medical assistance that caters to them. You don’t mean to give up on that wing just because I wouldn’t know where to start with it, right? We’ll find someone else. Do you not want it fixed?”

I frowned. “Good servants don’t have wants, ma’am, other than serving the royal family. Her Majesty has always had my best interests in mind, including when my wing was broken to prevent me from flying. And I don’t have a preference, of course, but I don’t know if she wants it fixed.”

“Her Majes- Are you talking about Lucia?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dr. Charlotte’s willingness to refer to the queen with her first name was dangerous, to say the least, and I tried not to let my heart rate spike.

“Okay, well, I’m not sure if she mentioned this to you, but she hasn’t ruled a country for the better part of the last decade. Last night was a pitiful attempt to get the country back under her control. Bless her heart, she might have actually believed it would work.”

I stared at Dr. Charlotte. I wasn’t supposed to contradict the things said by people who ranked higher than me, which included everyone, but holy shit. Holy shit. Talking about the queen that way was treason of some kind, without a doubt, and also flat out wrong. Sixteen generations—the monarchy had been theirs for sixteen generations. “Are you sure you aren’t misinformed, Ma’am?” I settled on eventually.

“Quite sure. Have you ever actually seen Lucia with any of her subjects?”

No, but I wasn’t a traitor and I knew that I was supposed to take the royal family’s word on things. I was a good servant and I would act accordingly. Except-

Except I had just left a room of the entire royal family, tied up together. Except we had murdered three guards to get into this castle, and we’d lived in a house with three bedrooms. Except that the royal family had a total of two servants working for them, and neither of us had been allowed to leave the house.

“Her Majesty’s family has been ruling the country for sixteen generations,” I said weakly.

“Yeah, well, no one wanted Lucia to rule because she’s a dick and hates everyone. So we did something about it. I can’t get you to start hating her—that’s up to you—but you should probably know the facts, and the facts are that she’s not a queen and she never will be again.”

And that was- not my decision to make. Nothing was ever my decision to make. Of course political affairs like this wouldn’t make sense to me; I was an angel and a servant, and my only job was to do what I was told.

That was what Prince Ryan had said, even. Do what they tell you. Don’t get hurt. Even if this Dr. Charlotte was wrong about things, I was supposed to do what I was told.

“Hey,” Dr. Charlotte said softly, and I glanced back up at her. “I’m sorry for overwhelming you, dear. Now that your arm’s all fixed up, Kieran’s got some questions for you, if that’s okay.”

Do what they tell you. Don’t get hurt.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

~

Taglist: @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @rainydaywhump @risk606

[lunakataaahhh-1228]

LMAO WHEN DID I MAKE THIS?!

If this isn’t what it felt like to fight ORT then idk what is

[cienie-isengardu]

There is visual storytelling with Bi-Han's frustration with Liu Kang, but story mode does nothing to validate his frustrations at all, making said frustration seem unjustified, and that he's in the wrong for feeling this way, as he's the only Lin Kuei who actually is frustrated. Not everyone saw his frustration, so is the visual storytelling intentional, or coincidental? It's ironic, as Mortal Kombat is not known for its subtlety at all.

In advance, forgive me for starting with introduction-digression about Mortal Kombat 1’s storytelling - I promise it has a point related to Bi-Han.

Mortal Kombat 1’s main purpose is to set the ground for future storytelling so understandably, we can’t expect this game to spell out every detail to us at once right away. We, as freshly introduced guests to Liu Kang’s timeline, take a lot at face value about characters and setting because we simply don’t have enough knowledge about them yet. However I wouldn’t say MK1 lacks subtlety or it didn’t show us a pretty nuanced world already. The best example is the Edenia admired and praised by Liu Kang, as a beautiful, knowledgeable and wealthy place

and indeed the first impression fits well what Fire Lord told his champions. Yet under the gorgeous facade lurks the much darker, uglier side of Edenia - and by extension, of Royal Family. 

When the wonderful and joyful parade was disrupted,

the scene following was there to explain the conflict between Li Mei and the Royal Family, however the visual side of story foreshadows what Baraka’s chapter will reveal - the sick people are treated like unwanted trash. Here alone, they aren’t peacefully led outside the city, they are bound like criminals - both (potentially) sick and those who refused to hand them over to the authorities for "quarantine" (a word used by Li Mei, but as next chapters will shown, the quarantine means banishment and dying slowly in miserable conditions). This one chapter alone gives us two sources about Edenia - Liu Kang’s words and the background details which frankly paint two different pictures. Liu Kang noted how Sindel spared no money for the festival and Tournament (Mileena added it is to honor the memory of Sindel’s late husband and her father)

and how he does not judge the Queen, only admire 

- but apparently the Queen cared more for Festival/Tournament and to make Edenia look as a great nation than she cared for her sick subjects who for years were dying in poverty, excluded and persecuted by edenian society. She even blamed Mileena for getting sick and said that to her face. Sindel also accepts Umgadi system that literally forces edenian families to give up their first daughters for training (indoctrination), so the ruling Family have a loyal Palace Guard to uphold their safety - and power -  and Liu Kang, like most of characters, admired those warriors showing no criticism toward such practices that strips born-free citizens from their freedom, family, even from right to fall in love. All in the service of Edenia’s monarchy. 

My point is, what we are told about Sindel - the beloved good Queen - and what we are shown by details happening in background or brought by tie-in materials (character BIOs, intro dialogues) are not mutually exclusive, but those for sure highlight the contradictory and flawed image the new Mortal Kombat saga introduced in its first installment . However the main criticism toward Sindel is not focused at presented by story flaws and errors, only at her relationship with Liu Kang and Earthrealm and comes from General Shao and his allies. Considering who he is, it is easy to side with Sindel yet we can’t say the game didn’t laid some solid ground for a very serious criticism, both for Sindel, the ruling Family and Liu Kang who always spoke highly about the Queen, King and Princesses.

Now, let’s talk about Bi-Han.

On one hand, intro dialogues and story mode itself are too consistent and repetitive about Bi-Han’s firm take on freedom & enslavement to think it is coincidence, especially for a character so sidelined as Sub-Zero was. Clearly, someone made a deliberate choice to emphasize those two values in regard to motives behind Bi-Han’s action, even if the official BIO itself appointed POWER as his main theme. 

On another hand, there is no doubt that the game was not intended to focus on Sub-Zero’s frustrations nor examine its roots in any great detail, at least not at this early stage of introducing a new timeline. It doesn’t help that Bi-Han was seen in two first chapters, one his own (ch. 8) and in following Scorpion’s (ch.9) to disappear from the story for good and returning as the Champion/Titan Sub-Zero only as an alternative choice of player.

However! Even with such limited focus, the game in my opinion laid enough ground, both as what we are told and what we are shown by story mode alone, to get the feeling Bi-Han’s frustration didn’t come out of nowhere. Could it be handled better? Of course! But I must disagree with the opinion that visual storytelling didn’t do its work. It may not hit fans straight in the face with all its nuances, yet there is a clear difference in how Lin Kuei characters are treated by Fire Lord in contrast to other Liu Kang’s Champions and friends.

And this is not just about Bi-Han, but also about the treatment of Kuai Liang and Tomas. 

For one, the story always presented Lin Kuei doing Liu Kang’s bidding - be it testing the new Champions or eliminating a threat (black op mission). We do not see Fire Lord interacting with them outside of Lin Kuei servitude, while he clearly spent time with Johnny, Kenshi, Raiden and Kung Lao outside of their main (game) purpose. This is especially visible at the end of the story, when all of them dinner together at Madam Bo’s, clearly celebrating their success. Bi-Han’s lack of presence is understandable, yet Kuai Liang and Tomas? All we are told about Scorpion is that he was tasked with making a new clan to replace the rebellious Lin Kuei (thus he is doing another bidding of Fire Lord while Champions are allowed to take a break and enjoy time with friends)

while Smoke is completely omitted - even though the man fulfilled his duty to Earthrealm as any other Liu Kang’s Champion did and now helps to build Shirai Ryu clan. 

Frankly, not acknowledging Lin Kuei in itself contrasts a lot with how Liu Kang interacted with his Outworld friends and Champions. Bi-Han has never been addressed as Grandmaster of Lin Kuei (nor by his codename?), even during introductions to Kung Lao, Raiden, Kenshi and Johnny. Meanwhile, the edenian Royal Family’s titles are always respected. Jerrod is called outright a friend and so is Geras - yet not once in story mode Liu Kang expressed regret over the premature death of Bi-Han, Tomas and Kuai Liang’s father. Smoke actually was omitted all the time by Liu Kang and visually/story-wise speaking, Liu Kang alienated Tomas more than Bi-Han did in the few scenes the brothers shared together.

Even the recruitment of new Champions is questionable. Liu Kang took Bi-Han - a Grandmaster who had his own duties to a whole clan  - on a trip to test the new fighters. Since Bi-Han and his men weren’t fighting to the fullest of their strength, what was the point of dragging Sub-Zero in the first place instead of just picking fighters more closely in level to Kung Lao, Raiden, Kenshi and Johnny? Was Bi-Han’s presence there truly necessary, when already two other sons of the late Grandmaster took part in the test too? All done just to lose so the precious Champions could brag about their victory? That alone must be frustrating if we remember that members of the Lin Kuei weren’t trained to fight the “honorable kombat match”, as in one on one, but to kill the enemy as fast as possible - as chapter 8 and 9 clearly showed.

Sure, the story mode - be it the words taken at face value or visual storytelling alone - didn’t go out of its way to hit us in the face about Bi-Han’s frustration yet there is a clear contrast in how Liu Kang treats his Lin Kuei subordinates and how he interacts with people he openly admires and likes. There are plenty of nuances laid out for people who will bother to look for those hints and compare them to the rest of presented material. 

Also, a thing worth to remember: just because Kuai Liang and Tomas are content with their life and duties, it does not mean Bi-Han shouldn’t be frustrated by things the way they are. Just because he is not trying to be sympathetic, doesn’t mean his feeling of injustice is invalid or that his points have no merit whatsoever.

I may be disappointed with the creators' choices, but I can't say that MK1 is devoid of nuances and interesting contradictions. All comes down to fans and their personal perception of what the story tells us through characters and what shows to actually happening.

[girlbob-boypants]

As time has gone on I have gotten more obsessed with Marika's whole narrative haunting thing to the point where I'm finally pretty satisfied with her not being the final boss

[palaceoftears]

Omg I didn't remember this. THE NERVE

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

i am confusing kali and durga but you did make design of fgo her right? can i ask you to repost it bc i scoured your archive and i still cant find it

It was kali! The actual post is here but I’ll post some of the pictures here as well

I’ve been planing on doing proper ascension-like art for her for a while now, just haven’t found the time between work and making my normal content for the blog ;v;

[randomnameless]

The phrase “we have been aware of the high levels of competency from KT's writers, especially with their work for 3H” is worrying; i'm not going to shit-talk them just for thinking that 3H has a good story, especially when someone's standards for what makes a story good or not is subjective and could be different from ours, but KT's story-telling skills are never going to improve if people keep only telling them that Three Houses' deeply-flawed story was actually a narrative masterpiece, instead of a self-contradicting mess with plot points it introduces solely as gotchas and has no intention of ever following up on in any meaningful way, characters getting assassinated left and right to try and argue that female Ashnard might actually be right and not so different from them in terms of morality and goals (while they're in the middle of fighting for their lives and watching their friends die in battle because she decided to invade their home unprovoked and solely for a landgrab), and an over-powered villain group that should have ended the story long before it even started because the writers decided to give them a stockpile of magic nukes they can launch at anywhere in the world, which was also introduced solely for shock value and without them realizing how much of the story is ruined by making it so that the villains who want to kill everyone and take over the world can just nuke anyone they want (that isn't inside Garreg Mach when they launch it) with no consequences.

I just don't like what it means for the future of FE stories if the worst story in the series keeps getting praised as one of the best, even by separate developers, is all.

Wait and see anon!

For what it's worth, while Engage's sales are apparently not as stellar as Houses in the same timeframe (like House after month 1 and Engage after month 1?), Nopes totally crashed.

Amazon isn't the only market in the world, but in some places in the world (tfw not for amazon.fr) Nopes is now sold at around 15 bucks, which is ridiculous considering older games released on consoles still being in circulation are more expensive than this thing that is barely 1 year old(even the first FEW?).

Also, Engage was supposed to have been released earlier but Covid and Houses being released later than planned meant it was delayed, but Engage was supposed to be Fodlan's antithesis, at least writing wise - you'd think IS would have tried to retrofit more Fodlan themes (maybe more uwu maybe some villains aren't BaD and earl grey because they luf u) but they didn't.

Imo, fwiw, while KT apparently loved how Fodlan was received, IS is aghast and doesn't want to touch it within a 10 meters radius, only if it means selling units in FEH and even there, they sometimes retcon Fodlan units (hello F!Billy/Sothis) or challenge them in various FB (Brave!Supreme Leader, but also in the most recent one, Sylvain harping on his Crust being BaD...) clearly showing how they don't really want to follow KT's direction regarding those units - at times, it's almost as if the CoS receives more development in Heroes than in both Fodlan games!

So I'd like to see what IS has in store for the next FE games (or the next non remake FE game), even if in my opinion, given how Heroes has to retcon/finish the writing (Mercedes reveals more about her Adrestian family in FEH than in two of her games!) for characters just to sell them in the gacha game ffs, speaks volumes on what they think of Fodlan's writing.

On top of that, FE16 was the first game where people received surveys/mails from Nintendo/IS asking them if they understood the game... - so despite Fodlan selling well (better than expected?), imo it's clear the writing isn't to praise, at least for IS, and they don't want anything to do with it (Nopes' DLC was scrapped, when shiny!Rhea's sprite was datamined, so either they made an useless sprite, either this sprite might have been used in a future DLC?)

They can still butcher a future remake (plz no jugdral) by adding pointless supports between units and trying to uwu more than needed the red emperor - or add an OC waifu du jour who will sell merchs and try to uwu her if she is on the side of the red emperor - but I feel like we will see where they will go with a brand new game (since Heroes's writing is... as consistent as a fog and basically circles around "women sad'n'lonely*, men evyl", female playable OC simps after the avatar and is useless in the resolution of the plot because Alfonse will finally find a mc guffin way to defeat the villain of the year).

*i truly hope Vero isn't any indication to what the writing of the future games will be, like heavy retcons from her first apparition to "i was brainwashed and akshually everyone supports me from my home even if i send them to death against askr because the voice in my head told me to do it" because that'd suck, but vero is a young woman, thus she could be monetised for alts, figurines and even DLC content in a main game!

[cryptcombat]

4 am can't sleep bc of period cramps, might as well drop some circe lore 😳

Circe is a necromancer who is both obsessed with the dead and values life "all life is equal dr. tenma monster" style... she's obsessed with the idea to leave no life forgotten, she feels the urge to preserve the history of every person who died no matter how "unimportant" they seem.

[hats-paradox]

Hoppin on the starbound train bc YES first of all: ma’am please just 💍 one chance that’s all i ask pl

Second of all: what was the florist like while she was alive? Did she and the prince/Vanessa know each other in any capacity, like were they tight? Or is this a(n objectively devastating but narratively hilarious) case of this poor customer service worker doing her job and serving a dude some flowers and literally got murdered over it (along with everyone she knows)? Bc if so then OOF

She knew them in the sense that the royal family regularly ordered flowers from her (dad’s) business (she took over once he got older- he passed away before the whole ice fiasco) and she had a hand full of interactions with the Prince.

In short, she knew of both of them, and had opinions as far as politics go, but she really didn’t know either of them personally

Personality wise, she mostly spent time with her dad and working. She’s mostly cheery and calm, but she can get a bit wild if she finds someone she really meshes with.

[beneaththeshadows]

Okay, I just found out that this girl is named Elinda Massey, and I'm currently questioning whether a lady in waiting, in attendance to a royal princess, would dress herself like this (even if it was for more mundane tasks) or even help in the labor, like, I legit thought that she was a simple servant like Alicent's ones. I always thought that ladies in waiting would dress similarly to the queen and the court, like normal courtiers, and mainly just accompanied the queen around without taking any of the "heavy duties"

[np5enkidu]

i need fgo to acknowledge servants horses more

[blastthechaos]

When you think about it, Naeceles is like the Savvy Guy, Genki Girl dynamic that looks switched only that it actually plays it straight. Since Makoto is the down to earth guy exasperated with his girlfriend extravagance (but still loves her anyways) while Celeste is the girl who lives in her own fantasy world with her fake name, made up crazy life and chasing an wacky dream who drags her boyfriend around for all her activities.

Ok I know it's not 1:1 with the trope and Celeste is barely Genki but you get my point.