#so although it had some minor flaws it was a great story!!

[fiftytwoeightythree]

what marry my husband taught me was that it's a f*cking scary world out there when it comes to friends and lovers and their intentions with you - and the only way out (and keeping these leeches away) is to always believe in yourself, stay strong while facing hindrances, know your worth, learn from your mistakes as you correct them and give as much to people as much you receive. then you will gain true friends, mental peace and a 6-foot tall, handsome, rich man that loves you so much he's ready to kiss even the ground you walk on. you fight, so you will win.

[applepie2523]

" HOTD's Issues Writing Women Part 2: The Whitewashing of Rhaenyra

**This is part 2 of my analysis on the issues with the writing of the two main female characters. If you haven’t already please read my part 1 post where I analyze Alicent’s character assassination which you can find on my profile.** I think many fans on the Blacks and Greens and in between regarding HOTD have been concerned and disappointed with the way the two main female characters: Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower have been written in HOTD seasons 1-2. This is very understandable. Female characters in general in HOTD and I think a lot of Hollywood films nowadays are not being written as well as they used to be and could be. Go on Youtube or Google and you'll find many film reviews/tv show reviews that critique the Mary Sue and Girlbossification or just poorly written in general female characters that are taking up a chunk of characters in Hollywood. Rhaenyra and Alicent to me were such great characters in F&B. They were two different kinds of medieval women in a fantasy setting. One, the medieval queen who gains power/influence through her relationship with men and advocating for her son. Two, the medieval queen who sought power in her name and defied some norms that make her compelling but also immoral in their eyes. They are two deeply flawed and complex characters fighting on opposite sides of a dynastic civil war.

This post is here to address the main issues of whitewashing when it comes to writing Rhaenyra Targaryen.

\***Some disclaimers: This is no issue with the actor themself. Emma D'Arcy while I may disagree with their opinions from time to time, they are a wonderful actor who is doing the best they can with the scripts they're given, so this is by no means a critique of them. I am going off of the show canon although the book will be mentioned.**

**So firstly... What is whitewashing?**

The modern definition of white washing is to cast in a show/movie or rewrite a character of a minority and make them white. For example, if someone decides to do a movie about Rosa Parks and they cast Emma Stone. However, white washing has another definition. It means to essentially remove or hide negative unpleasant facts or traits of a person or thing. I think Rhaenyra Targaryen suffers from this problem as many of her written negative traits or deeds so far are either not shown, projected onto another character close to her (Daemon Targaryen mostly), or severely downplayed. This results in a character that is almost too virtuous and bland for the setting she is in and a far cry from who she should be. A character whom doesn't seem to fit in the ruthless at times immoral world of Westeros. A character whom is almost a close to a Mary Sue. As I am very much on the belief that flaws versus virtues are what make a character compelling and human.

**I will say not every change made to Rhaenyra story arc and personality are necessarily all bad. Some are good ideas just poorly executed (ex - exploring more of Rhaenyra's hinted bisexuality, as there are hints in F&B that her close relationship with Laena may or may not have been more than platonic) and others are just good changes in general.**

*1. Victims vs. Villains - Biases in Writing Female Characters*

In the words of the iconic Grey's Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo, “Women are one of two roles. You’re either the victim or the villain. But the victims are only victims because they don’t have what it takes to be the villain.” I think she states the major issue with writing female characters nowadays that HOTD has an issue with. Women must either be victims or villains. The character assassination of Alicent and white washing of Rhaenyra to me stems from this: Alicent is the villain in Rhaenyra's story to Rhaenyra's victimhood.

*2. Rhaenyra's Negative Traits: Arrogance, Hot Temper, Frivolity, and Bad Decisions to Peace-Loving and Plainness*

Rhaenyra had many great qualities in the book but it is only when coupled with major character flaws are we truly compelled. She was a loving mother, passionate, intelligent to a degree, etc. However, she was also very ambitious and power-hungry, arrogant at times, quick to anger, slow to forgive, and frivolous at times. **As a writer myself, I firmly believe that characters are truly humanized and compelling when they have major character flaws coupled with their virtues. Flaws they either have to overcome or use to their advantage. Flaws that make them who they are. Flaws create layers of complexity in a character. Or Flaws that help foster the characters downfall.**

I'm not saying the Rhaenyra in the show isn't flawed. She is! For example, I think what's great is that a flaw they gave Rhaenyra is something show Viserys also had: the ability to ignore or downplay potential conflicts or hard truths versus facing them head on. Viserys refused to see the potential conflicts in naming Rhaenyra heir or pretending her elder three children are trueborn. Rhaenyra in the show refused to listen to Jace whose concerns regarding his parentage as her successor and the dragonseeds were ignored or dismissed. The issue is thought, Rhaenyra is not given the flaws that she most certainly had, **flaws that helped lead to her downfall**. She's not flawed the way she's supposed to be.

Similar to many other Targaryens including her half-brother Aegon II, Rhaenyra was quick to anger and slow to forgive. We have some brief moments where we see Rhaenyra's temper and quick witt, but we don't see the major moments where her major character flaws are shown. Alicent provokes Rhaenyra for example in season 1, having her take Joffrey to her moments after he is born. We never see Rhaenyra provoke Alicent back. Any times where we should have seen Rhaenyra's sharp temper at the slightest of remarks are not shown.

Rhaenyra's actions herself were also very whitewashed with how they were portrayed. We either see their negative consequences downplayed, not shown, or the actions were projected onto another male character. In the books due to how similar Laenor and Rhaenyra were in looks (I mean they were both white) there was still a tad more ambiguity as to whether or not Jace, Luke, and Joffrey were bastards. Race changing the Velaryons made it even more obvious her elder three boys were bastards. I took issue with the writing of Rhaenyra's dialogue and that of the characters around her, not truly showcasing why having bastards, especially as a woman, is a truly egregious thing. The potential chaos Rhaenyra could cause was completely downplayed.

A few actions for example that were incredibly violent and evil were butchered. First example being the murder of Vaemond Velaryon. I was disappointed with this scene. Firstly, we only see Vaemond protest Luke inheriting Driftmark which sets it up as more so an ambitious second son seeking power versus a man who doesn't want his house to be run by someone not of his blood. We don't see other Velaryons protesting with him. After Vaemond made his little speech, Rhaenyra orders him dead and Daemon kills him on **her orders**. She then viciously has his corpse fed to her dragon Syrax. I think this scene was crucial as it foreshadows the danger Rhaenyra would be in the future to House Velaryon and sow more seeds of discontent that are crucial to the house's eventual turn to the Green side. Not only is Vaemond killed more viciously, Viserys orders the tongue removal of even more Velaryons who sided with Vaemond with Rhaenyra's consent! Instead, the show projects this entirely onto Daemon. Daemon goes Rogue (see what I did there) and kills Vaemond on his own accord. Rhaenyra stands there shocked and doesn't even order the body fed to her dragon. Rhaenyra is absolved from all blame to Vaemond's unjust execution without trial.

The thing about B&C is Rhaenyra was paralyzed with grief for her son, Luke. The moment her child died was the moment where her descent into madness and powerful wrath began to truly manifest and she would stop at nothing. I was very disappointed in the fact that she has one episode of grieving and then continues to be so level-headed. I couldn't feel her grief, rage, and resentment towards the Greens for her son's death that makes the war even worse. Daemon tells Rhaenyra that he would avenge her son. I loved the acting of Matt and Emma during their argument about the aftermath. However, I felt like Rhaenyra wasn't acting on character with the book. I don't think book Rhaenyra was 100% okay with a child dying as her vengeance, but I do feel with how angered and filled with grief and hatred Rhaenyra should be, Rhaenyra should be a bit more hardened. She should have not been so sorry about the child's death.

I also think that one of Rhaenyra's most controversial and evil decisions in the future are going to either not be included, blamed on someone else, or downplayed. It's very clear at the end of season 2 episode 8 that my favorite dragonseed Nettles is being cut and given to Rhaena who had her own plot and dragon hatchling. After Ulf the White and Hugh Hammer betray her, Rhaenyra's paranoia goes overload and declares that all the dragonseeds are traitors. Corlys advocates for Addam Velaryon and Nettles and Rhaenyra responds by having him arrested. He warns Addam, and is then bound, beaten, and thrown into the black cells. One of her most powerful allies is now thrown in the black cells. This causes the fleet of House Velaryon to turn against her. Later, she attempts to violate guest right, which is sacred in Westeros (which is why the Red Wedding was so horrific to Westeros even more so), by plotting to have Nettles murdered. As Nettles is being cut, I doubt they'd show this truly negative action as Rhaena can't have Nettles's complete plot. Rhaenyra's unjust arrest of Corlys and House Velaryon turning from her from what they're doing so far might just be blamed on someone else, have a different excuse that is not the one that the book gave, or not shown whatsoever.

I also think they might just be setting her up to be innocent of the torture of Tyland Lannister. After the Greens flee with most of the treasury leaving Rhaenyra in Kingslanding pretty broke, he refused to tell her where the gold was sent. Under Rhaenyra's orders he was tortured and castrated and blinded and disfigured to point of being disgusting. They might just have him be tortured by Mysaria or Daemon on their own accord without Rhaenyra's orders, leaving her innocent, or they will have him tortured by the Triarchy or something. Maybe after Mysaria and/or Daemon torture him, they'll frame it as vengeance for Jace and then Rhaenyra might let him go to appear merciful to an audience. As they cut Maelor whose murder was the breaking point that caused Helaena's suicide, we might not see how another child under the war was murdered by her faction. I worry that they won't show how how her cruelties that she did on her own accord caused her to be hated just as much if not more than her half brothers Aegon II and Aemond. They might not truly set the tone and show actions that lead to her being "Rhaenyra the Cruel" and "Maegor with Teats" they might not show the actions, or blame them on someone else or something else. They might not have her tax into oblivion the smallfolk or send her knight inquisitors to execute dozens upon dozens of supposed or proven Green traitors. I was also confused by the characterization of the smallfolk as these naive little lambs who will follow whatever. There is no famine or riot against the Greens at the point the show showed it. I was pleased with the fact that we saw the book-accurate support the smallfolk gave to Helaena after her son was murdered and how angered they were at Rhaenyra and the Blacks. However, days later they are singing her praises. It makes no sense to me that they would forget something so easily. Of course, I argue in another post on my profile why the riot and famine made no sense. So they might continue to get rid of her all of her negative actions.

**These evil actions make her even more compelling and even more realistic in a violent medieval world. It shows how both sides commit great evils as both Rhaenyra and Aegon II were not remembered fondly by their own descendants, smallfolk, and nobles alike.**

I also hate how they hardly showed just how feminine almost girly Rhaenyra was. Rhaenyra notably loved fashion and wearing beautiful intricate gowns that always showed off her beauty and figure. She dressed very richly as befitting her station, wearing gowns of purple with maroon velvet and Myrish lace. Her bodices often had pearls and diamonds. She always wore rings on her finger that she'd play with and turn when anxious. I honestly found these traits very endearing and relatable as someone who is a girly girl. Finally, a "strong female character" who is a leader who is also very feminine and girly. She doesn't need to be a tomboy and wield a sword to be a badass. But no... we don't see that. Yes the costumes Emma D'Arcy wore were nice I guess on the show but they didn't feel like something book Rhaenyra would wear. I get they had budgets but still... you couldn't have made something else? Like where is the purple and maroon? She's mostly wearing just red and black. No rings. No nothing!

*3. Unequal Screen Time and Too "Modernized": Rhaenyra is the Main Modern Girl*

I feel like HOTD has a problem with perspective. GOT had it perfectly done! The original ASOIAF were written from the perspective of multiple characters so we got a perfect ensemble cast with writing that highlighted the stories and perspectives of many different characters. Jon Snow's narrative didn't overtake Daenerys's screen time and vice versa which is just how it should be. However, I feel HOTD makes a mistake especially in season 1 with framing. Rhaenyra as the main with secondary-main perspectives of Alicent and Daemon. We get most of season 1 from Rhaenyra's perspective and to a lesser extent Daemon and Alicent when the show should have been formatted like GOT as multiple perspectives were given in F&B. We should have gotten an ensemble cast with equal development and perspective from multiple characters, especially an equal development of both Aegon II and Rhaenyra. We get both of Rhaenyra's weddings, two births, her raising her children, many scenes with her dragon, her perspective, and her interactions. Our first intro to her sets her up in a more heroic light as she's a beautiful princess riding her dragon. We don't get Aegon II's wedding or Alicent's. No birth scenes for Alicent or Helaena. We hardly get their perspectives compared to Rhaenyra. We should have seen more of Aegon II's childhood and perspective versus just him being a bully and later a rapist. While they improved perspective a bit more in season 2, it's not enough to take away from what was done in season 1. Rhaenyra is the protagonist and **THE main character versus A main character.**

What I think they should have done is showcase the real dynamic of Alicent and Rhaenyra more. They can start off with their friendship but then transition it to the dynamic that both women had at court: competition. Both women wanted to be First Lady of the Realm and first priority to King Viserys. The Queen vs the Princess and named heir.

Rhaenyra does at times come off as more modern than she should be. I think her and even her aunt Rhaenys. For example, in the book Rhaenyra is at times very homophobic by our standards to Laenor. When she discovers she's to marry Laenor Velaryon in the show, we see her initially not too excited about it, but not fully antagonistic. She in fact has a very decent and friendship like conversation where she uses the metaphor of preferring roast duck to insinuate she understands and accepts Laenor for being gay, deciding to do their duty and support one another, while pursuing their own pleasure with each other's consent with whomever that may be. They appear to be very supportive of one another times, at least on Rhaenyra's end. She compliments him deeply when he says he wishes he were different.

While I'm sure on some level Rhaenyra wishes Laenor was bisexual at the very least so they can have more than a friendship and have trueborn kids together, Rhaenyra is almost too accepting for her medieval context. In the medieval world, same sex relationships were a HUGE no-no. In fact being gay was considered a mental illness and sickness up until the 20th century! Rhaenyra appears too accepting of Laenor, appearing too modern in just how accepting she is. In reality, while I'm sure Book Rhaenyra cared for Laenor on some level and had some kind of respect for him and affection, it wasn't this deep and this accepting. Laenor did mean something to her on some level, after all he is still the man she married, and very important to her storyline---however Rhaenyra in the book as a much more medieval reaction and medieval view on his sexuality. She was notably very unhappy about her betrothal to him. It took serious threats from King Viserys to remove her from the line of succession in order to get her on board and she did so reluctantly. She notably even said that "My half brothers would be more to his taste." This is a very cutting and almost homophobic statement. I mean her half-brothers were still toddlers. However, we never get any true antagonism, frustration, or even subtle or outward homophobia on Rhaenyra's end. While this statement is mean and homophobic, that is a more medieval response. It's sad, but it's true. Rhaenyra is a medieval woman in a medieval setting. She is a product of what her society raised her to be, which is being gay isn't something one should accept.

The same issue occurs with Rhaenys having an almost too modern point of view or opinion that doesn't fit with her medieval setting. When she discovers her husband Corlys Velaryon has bastard children, Addam and Alyn of Hull, she is neither furious nor disappointed or horrified. In fact, Rhaenys advocates that they deserve to be "raised up and honored not hidden in the tides." This is an incredibly unrealistic and unfitting reaction on Rhaenys's end. In our modern day society, even, if a woman finds out her husband cheated on her and sired kids off his side chick, she'd be furious. Of course, I think a moral modern woman wouldn't take her anger out on the children, but still. Rhaenys's reaction is almost too modern and too gracious. Characters are products of their circumstances. Despite Westeros being a fantasy world, we feel how medieval the characters are through their beliefs and behaviors. Catelyn Stark or Cersei Lannister's reactions to their husband's bastards is far more realistic---specifically how Catelyn and Cersei hated what their husbands had done and felt it was an affront to them personally. Corlys in the books was terrified of Rhaenys finding out as it would dishonor him, her, and their dead children together which is why he tried to pass them off as Laenor's no matter how ridiculous is sounded. Rhaenys should have been more realistically horrified at Corlys and angry. She shouldn't be advocating for them to be anywhere near her house or imply they should have been raised amongst their own trueborn children.

I think this does two things: 1) Makes it though Rhaenys is fully on Rhaenyra's side when raising her bastard children of Harwin as if they are her trueborn grandsons and 2) Modernizes her too much. That is a main issue. The show attempts to modernize her and make her appeal to a more modern audience. However, there is a way to do that without modernizing her so much that she doesn't seem to fit with her medieval context.

was very disappointed when I heard that the directors told Olivia Cooke to portray Alicent as "woman for Trump" and Rhaenyra is this "punk-rock Hillary Clinton." Modern day politics and movements and ideologies have little to no place in the way Westeros should be written as its a **realistic medieval setting with realistic medieval characters in a fantasy world**. Rhaenyra is too modern in her interactions and beliefs that she doesn't seem to fit well in Westeros. Rhaenyra as well is also presented as this more feminist character.

*4. Two Things Can Be True At Once: Women Can Be Victims of Sexism AND Still Do Terrible Things, Be Self-Serving, and Wield Significant Amounts of Power*

**What I ultimately believe that Condal and the HOTD production seem to get wrong is that in a medieval setting like Westeros, women are ALWAYS overlooked and dismissed and cannot take so much significant power. I feel like they believe that women can't do terrible things in the patriarchal system of Westeros while being victims of sexism.**

Women in the real middle ages and Westeros in Martin's story are not feminists by our definition. At times we see women take advantage of and gain power from the sexist patriarchal society they live in. We see it with Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell, Daenerys Targareyen, Catelyn Stark, Olenna Tyrell, Ellaria Sand, Lysa Arryn, Melisandre, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, every woman in the original GOT series were victims of sexism and an oppressive patriarchal system of Westeros just like real women of the Middle Ages AND YET they still were able to wield some power and do terrible or morally gray things. We can view them as victims of a horrible system but still see how they take advantage of it, gain power and agency as they have no choice to use the system versus fight it, do horrible things, but still view them as victims.

Rhaenyra is one example! I will say that this is partly more so the interpretation of the modern casual audience versus a writing issue, but it is still a writing issue that there are people who believe her to be a feminist. She's not! Of course just because she isn't one doesn't mean you can't root for her, but don't root for her if you think she's a feminist. We might never see the moments where Rhaenyra herself is denying women rights of inheritance from Lady Stokeworth to Lady Rosby. We should have been emphasized that Rhaenyra is not the closest thing to a modern day feminist. She is not advocating for women's rights or to make the world better for women, but to be an exception to the rule. Like most medieval woman in power, she takes advantage of the patriarchal system and gets power from it. Laena Velaryon is older than Laenor. She takes advantage of patriachal rulings to install her (bastard) "son of Laenor" as future Lord of Driftmark versus advocating that the eldest child, Baela Targaryen, daughter of Laena Velaryon, the elder sibling, to inherit Driftmark.

Victims can be villainous too! Soft power. Rarely in the Medieval world do we see women wield a hard power in their own name. Of course we have outliers, but in the end most medieval women wielded a soft power---gaining influence and power through manipulating their relationships with men (their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, etc.). Did real Medieval women know they were oppressed? Perhaps they did, and perhaps they accepted it. Did real Medieval women make efforts to change it? I wouldn't say so. Many women upheld the status quo of men being dominant.

For example, in keeping with British history that Martin is so inspired by, going off of blood-ties alone, Lady Margaret Beaufort had a stronger claim to the English throne via her Lancastrian blood than her own son Henry VII, and yet she advocated for her son not herself to be the next ruler of England. Queen Elizabeth Woodville had three daughters (Elizabeth, Cecily, and Mary) before she had her son Edward V. Like any medieval woman with three daughters alone there was growing pressure to secure her husband's line and her own position by producing a male heir. She never tried to name any of her elder daughters over her son once she had him nor did she ever try to advocate to her husband King Edward IV that he didn't need a male heir, he had his eldest daughter Elizabeth of York.

Rhaenyra Targaryen as well is presented almost like she's pursuing power to make Westeros better and that she has more altruistic and kind intentions behind her actions. I mean this weird "Aegon Prophecy" contributes to it. I think we should have seen a more realistic medieval and Westerosi character by having Rhaenyra, just like Alicent or Aegon II, pursue power because she can! Pursue power and queenship for the sake of having it and because she believes herself entitled to it versus these more "virtuous reasons." I mean in the book she never considered accepting the peace terms despite how generous they were because she refused to renounce her claim and back down! She wanted power because felt entitled to it and because every character in Westeros wants power to some degree. Ambition is a theme and characteristic that unites every character in Martin's world.

**My Takeaway? The Writers are Biased and Fail to Understand the Medieval Context of Westeros and Martin's Female Characters. Don't implement modern politics and biases into a medieval show**

I love that Martin tries to write his women the way he writes his men. He has explicitly stated that he writes his women the way he writes his men. He states that women are people too. They can be driven by the same things men are in Westeros and/or the real world: love, anger, hatred, a desire for power, vengeance, grief, guilt, bringing glory to their name and themselves, a desire to protect their family, etc.

Most of all: **Westeros is a realistic medieval world with realistic medieval characters in an unrealistic fantasy setting.** So you have to look at it from primarily a medieval lens in order to fully understand it and its character. While its okay to analyze using some modern concepts and lenses (ex - analyze how Daemon is a pedophile) you have to couple it with a lot of grace and understanding of their medieval context and morals that impacts the way the characters behave as we are products of our own historical context (ex - remembering that pedophilia and child grooming isn't much of a concept in the medieval world. The moment a girl has her first period, they are a consenting woman in his context).

So I find it disingenuous to write off all of Rhaenyra Targaryen's negative traits as just nothing but maester propaganda and due to sexism. I disliked how they downplayed her ambition, arrogance, rage, and cruelties to make her appear more modern and peaceful and the most virtuous character on the show. Yes, perhaps sexism could have had some tie into how Rhaenyra was viewed in Westeros. However, historians in the real world can't just dismiss reports about what a medieval woman was like simply because of the sexist world they were living in. By that standard, perhaps a woman like Queen Anne of Brittany wasn't all that bad or Margaret of Anjou. By that standard anything that was negative about the personalities of any medieval woman in power is all just rubbish and not true.

I felt we should have seen more of the kind of women that Martin writes. The kind of women that fit with his medieval-fantasy narrative that showcases how pursuing power at all costs leads to nothing but ruin. We should have seen layered women. We should have seen a more book-accurate Rhaenyra. We shouldn't have to settle for a lackluster story where Rhaenyra is nowhere close to her book counterpart.

**And most of all, the HOTD team shouldn't subtly or outwardly bash the original source material as nothing but sexist propaganda to excuse the lackluster writing of the female characters being nothing like their book counterparts or subtly or outwardly write off critics and fans like myself as toxic for pointing it out.**

**If you like this analysis, read on my profile my part 1 when I delve into the issues with HOTD’s Alicent.** "

[a-frostitty-ninja]

Hi. After following you for so long, I decided to give Senran Kagura a shot. The Video Game, I mean. So, I started with Burst Re:Newal

So I have to ask. How is this story so good? I get it's just Magical Ninja Girls, but how is this story so good?

Katsuragi, the lesbian pervert, has so much depth. She's an orphan who lost her parents. But not to a car accident like she thought. Her parents ran away because they were Ninja who failed a mission and had to commit sepaku. Now she seeks strength to become a leader of the light shinobi, all so she can pardon them herself.

Yomi, the destitute revolutionary, lost her parents in elementary school. They lived in the slums of Japan, unable to feed their daughter. So they sold themselves to slavery, so they could give her a better life. Instead of living lavishly, she takes her money and feeds the slums, working as a villain in the dark shinobi to do so.

I could go on and on with each character, but they're all awesome. (Except for Mirai. Wanting to slaughter your family and friends because you're a late bloomer is kinda stupid.)

And the overall morality comparison between the light shinobi vs. dark shinobi.

Light shinobi, secret warriors who work for the government of Japan and its public, accept only perfection. The only light shinobi are Elite shinobi, warriors that can take on hundreds of regular enemies. They have rigorous training, difficult testing, and high moral standards.

But this is also their downfall. For most people aren't perfect. For minor infractions, one can be excluded and banished from the ranks of the light. Which kinda makes them bad guys.

Dark shinobi, warriors who work for corporations and private entities, accept all who wish to join. For that's their saying.

"Where the light shines on the few, the darkness accepts all."

Which makes a scary amount of sense. All of these shinobi who didn't make the cut for the light, the dark accepts them wholeheartedly, flaws and all. And somehow, this makes them good guys too.

Which brings me to my ask. How does this game about Sexy Ninja Women come up with a comprehensive moral controversy that rivals mainstream media. And makes corruption arcs make sense.

Note: the scene with Hikari, the girl who lacks emotional responses, crying over the (fake) death of Mirai. It's just. Oh my. I was crying too. Like, she loves her friend enough that she just cries involuntary.

What is this game?

im glad you gave senran kagura a shot, its an incredible series that is often overlooked as just some generic ecchi! it was great reading your thoughts and it makes me want to go replay the games as its been a while although i resent you comment about mirai!. senran kagura is a whole package - the lore, the characters and their designs and animations, the style and the music is marvelous pun intended. i love the opening songs for all the games they live in my head and the anime has one of my favorite op/eds in general

i hope you play all the other games too, even the cooking rhythm game (bon appetit) is brilliant! its pretty cool that you can play the more recent games on PC these days and even peach beach splash supports VR! playing the original burst on 3ds with the slider turned to max though is an experience lol - the shinobi arts 🥵. i recommend the anime series too if you didn't check it out yet - the second season is top tier!!!

as for why the fuck this series bangs so hard its because of this genius who loves boobs and action games. this guy didnt want to just make a generic pervy game he fucked around and created a master piece. read his interviews too he is cool as shit. shinobi are cool as shit and senran kagura is just cool as shit.

[thelunarfairy]

Hello again, I saw your response to a person in which they talk about a scene from the manga where Mei scratches Hanako's face, making him "obsessed with his brother", obviously we know that Tsukasa and him's relationship is not normal and it is not they have normal feelings, a large part of the fandom finds it difficult to accept that because it is strange and its dynamics are very uncomfortable. I also think that the day they become more interested in this, some people could leave the fandom because the content will be very, very strange.

But a moment in which I saw a lot of people uncomfortable was the Sumire and Hakubo arc because sexuality was talked about in a serious way, in addition we have already talked about the desires that Hanako has, when I began to analyze certain behaviors that he had with Nene, I thought I was thinking everything wrong, but after reading your analysis I realized that I was not wrong, Hanako really has desires towards Nene, which is not bad because as you yourself said, he was entering the stage of puberty in which it is normal to feel those desires, but the fandom is not ready to talk about it either, I have seen few people talk about this, I think your analysis is the most explicit and best explained :)

I find it very interesting how AidaIro tell their stories, which at first glance seem harmless but once you get into them they are dark, they deal with serious themes but what has saved them from a strong cancellation is that they are not so explicit, of course Somehow they make some serious topics not feel so strong or difficult to digest. I don't blame the discomfort because let's remember that most of the characters are minors and we can also consider some of them children, so seeing them in such serious situations is quite strange, uncomfortable and, for some, annoying. But I am very intrigued by how they will tell the story of the Yugi brothers after Tsukasa's return, how their relationship deteriorated and how it became darker.

Regarding the second, although we know that Hakubo and Sumire did not have a romantic relationship, there was a lot of closeness and Sumire had a desire for Hakubo, to which I question whether if Hanako and Nene entered into a romantic relationship, it would be touched upon the topic of sexuality in a serious way and not as a joke? I don't know but it intrigues me.

Another topic which I would like to see developed more is Mitsukou, because it seems that the situation is also becoming serious, Mitsuba somehow seems to admit that she has feelings for Kou and he seems to be developing them, although well nothing has been mentioned anymore after the conversation that Mitsuba had with Nene :( In short, there are many issues that are being developed but we will see how AidaIro It seems that they are capable of everything and they suprices us a lot in a good and bad way ;)

POR CIERTO FELIZ NAVIDADDD :D

ESPERO Y LA HAYAS PASADO BIEN :)

Particularly, Aidairo is a great writer, of course, with her flaws and successes, but it's impressive how she managed to turn an initially so harmless story into one so profound with dark themes.

Allow me to tell you from my experience, when I first saw Hanako-kun I imagined it to be just a silly romantic comedy between a dreamy girl with bad luck and a mysterious ghost. Things only change when Tsukasa appears, and it was at that point that everything became more interesting for me.

I'm an adult, I'm already mature enough to deal with certain more intense and heavier themes, so I gradually noticed how Aidairo slowly included these themes. I think it's glorious when stories address strong real-world themes to debate and criticize. At no point do you see Aida romanticizing suicide, abusive love, on the contrary.

On the other hand, I see some parts of the fandom shipping visibly problematic relationships that Aidairo herself throws in our faces that are harmful on a deadly level. What happens in JSHK happens in the real world often, for an adult like me, who follows the news, I can see the fine line between reality and fiction.

If we remove the supernatural and fantasy part of JSHK, we will have the story of several characters with serious self-esteem problems, with obsessive loves, with intensely selfish desires, with seriously abusive relationships, with feelings of incomprehension and pain so intense that they wish for their own death in search for their own relief.

The supernatural is a detail.

But, if we are going to talk about desires, cannibalism and incest, we must talk about symbolism. Aidairo likes to use metaphors to express herself, to have more freedom when approaching a topic.

For many people, the scene with Hakubo and Sumire is more acceptable than a scene between Hanako and Tsukasa kissing (assuming they are not shippers of the twins). People are more used to seeing violence than this kind of love. And like you said, they are minors.

Children who love, who suffer too much for some kind of love, who don't know how to show it. That's why most relationships are abusive, because they don't know how to deal with love because they are children, pre-adolescents who have had bad experiences in the past and don't know how to deal with it.

Their age corresponds with their attitudes, the lack of experience leads us to make mistakes more frequently than in adulthood. But what about the twins' love? That's what intrigues me most.

Why is this theme included? They love each other like brothers, but why does it seem like this love is so much more intense that it gives the feeling that they want to touch and love each other like lovers?

What is the objective of this theme? Was it because he loved his brother in a forbidden way that Amane decided to hide his feelings so intensely that even to this day he can't be true?

Was it because he loved his brother in a forbidden way that he felt forced to devour this feeling to the point that he could no longer bear it and became obsessive, jealous and insecure? Was it this love that made Hanako who he is today?

Does he desperately hide this love to the point of being embarrassed when they find out, to the point of wanting to hide the past at all costs? If his greatest sin was killing his brother, but everyone already knows that, what does he fear they will discover in the past?

Do you know what I mean? There is a reason why Aida can include this theme, and she can build and clarify for us why Hanako is like this, why he killed his own brother, why he is so insecure.

There is a clear motivation for choosing some themes, this is how a story should be told, it needs the pieces to fit together. So, if it's really the case that the twins fell in love, the story will still make sense.

Even if people feel uncomfortable.

When I understood this, I felt freer to accept that maybe this love could happen. It's not something I admire, it's not something I like to see, it's not something I ship, it's something that I understand is part of the story and that Aidairo is trying to show me how she built her universe and characters.

When we stop thinking about our opinions and desires, we can better see that other people's stories are not related to our tastes, but are a new universe created by someone brave enough to share.

I don't know if the two really were or are in love, but there are signs, there's no way to pretend otherwise. I talk about this, always trying to be as light as possible, today I see that the fandom is realizing this love between them and they are slowly accepting that this possibility exists. I always receive requests to talk more about this, so I address the topic quite frequently.

I hope more people feel comfortable talking about it too.

Just think that it is JUST a possibility. It's more likely that Aidairo uses this just to provoke, to get attention, it's just a misunderstanding.

But the signs are everywhere, and now they're getting closer and closer. Amane saving him, not complaining that he kissed Nene, them having a friendly conversation, the way Hanako despite everything still shows trust in Tsukasa when he throws Nene to him, and, of course, how he shows concern for the Tsukasa's attitudes.

They are getting closer again.

I'm always in the middle of the way, on one side there is brotherly love between them, and on the other there is brotherly and romantic love, which one should I believe in?

For now I don't know how to answer you, but I still have doubts if Aidairo would have the courage to show the love between brothers in a romantic way, instead of repelling me, he made me more attracted, the question that echoes in my head is always the same

Will she really put romantic love between them?

That's the answer I want to find out.

Regarding Hakubo and Sumire, she saw him in the role of her husband from the beginning, he was just doing his duty. Despite this, a type of love was born from their interaction, Hakubo just took a while to understand what he felt, it was necessary for him to lose her to be aware of it.

Mitsukou is stagnant. Their development is very slow, lately only focusing on melancholic and pseudo-romantic moments. Kou can't organize his own ideas and desires, it's difficult for him, but he doesn't want to lose Mitsuba, while Mit just wants to leave. They've been in this tug of war for a while, but neither of them can really resolve anything.

It is complicated….

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! Hahaha I hope you had fun too ^^

[stelladess]

Since star rail is moving on to a new planet soon with Amphoreous ill give my thoughts on Penacony...

It had the highest highs and the lowest lows of the game so far.

Visually it is a treat, I also like how it really feels like a major popular place in the universe by how much more diverse the NPCs are then the rest of the planets, both in terms of humans who look more different from each other but also alien species too. This diversity is not reflected in the playable cast of course but it is still a plus for the planet in the way it makes it feel more like a less isolated part of the universe then previous "planets".

Story wise it is mostly incredible, with some really great characters and character arcs (Firefly, Acheron and Aventurine being the main standout ones for me personally). I really like how Stelle was used here as a narrative foil to Firefly but I feel the handling of her gaining the harmony path could have been a little better to deliver a more satisfying arc. I also think it is honestly downright absurd how little Himeko was involved with her having been the actual person invited to Penacony and how important the past trailblazers were. March and Dan Heng are both used well even if they have much more minor roles, same for Welt.

Robin is horribly underutilized. Which I feel is kind of a problem when her brother was the main antagonist of the arc. Also I appreciated how Aventurine is a very messy and complicated but sympathetic character... who has a straight up negative relationship with our player character.... up until they forgot that in the last of the updates and they are suddenly on friendly terms. Sunday himself is fine as a villain though I feel he would have worked better if we actually got to interact some more with him. Again I feel this sort of falls in with Robin being under utilized since their relationship is supposed to be so important.

I also like a lot of individual nice touches with some scenes, like a thing I really enjoy is when the game decides to have Stelle have (or have the option to) have more serious emotional reactions to stuff. The fact that a mostly comedic and silly character can get really angry at injustice (some quests in Belobog mainly but also some other side quests here and there) or genuinely very upset (like here in Penacony main story) kind of enhances that. Stelle struggling to process her emotions about Firefly at parts (mostly after her death and then after finding out she actually survived, although some of this you only get if you go back to the secret hideout). Having the option to lash out at Acheron when she was only trying to help after Firefly´s first death is a very nice option that I went for. In general Stelle and Acheron have an actually very interesting relationship.

Even if you do not know the HI3 references with Acheron the general gist of how she went through a lot of very traumatic things to save her planet only for it all to not matter because of the nihility, and how she feels attached to Stelle due to reminding her of her now long dead more optimistic friends is nice.

Acheron could have maybe used a few more scenes but I expect her to appear again later so it is kind of fine. Firefly arc here was the most satisfying and least flawed part of the story to me, the main issue being that it can be slightly hard to follow some parts of it, especially if you do not keep up with supplementary media that helps explain things like her backstory better.

I also felt the arc wraps up too neatly. The express crew get too heavily rewarded for what happened, the IPC do not get too much power over Penacony and the cult of order is fully dealt with seemingly. I really hope the whole "shareholders of Penacony" thing gets undone at some point because it feels like it ties the express down to Penacony too much in a way that I do not like or otherwise makes them look horribly irresponsible. Which would be fine if they acknowledged that and made it an actual flaw of our heroes but they have not really.

I also feel like the problem of how the IPC despite being as a faction pretty villainous has no really villainous characters appear in game (except for like, Skott and maybe Jade, jury is still out on her) has grown. Id say Aventurine is a lot more villainous then Topaz but I would not call him an outright villain. He is selfish and reckless to a dangerous degree (and his self destructive tendencies risk catching other people in the crossfire...) but he is a mostly sympathetic more "neutral" character (doing bad things to unnamed background characters barely counts as evil in a game like this). Hopefully they commit to Jade being sorta evil and introduce Oswaldo Schneider at some point so we have actual villains associated with this faction they keep showing as pretty clear bad guys (if a lot more morally nuanced then say the antimatter legion).

I do not wanna talk about the trailblaze continuance but.... that one was just bad. Rappa has an interesting backstory but they do not really give her any interesting development from having to face her real memories so it felt like it was kind of a wasted chance. Boothill was just handled badly and our main trio were barely relevant to it. Their scenes are mostly good but it is mostly just comic relief they play in this arc with anything serious being carried by Rappa and Boothill. Robin was again horribly underutilized. Also the monkey and banana puns got extremely annoying after a while, they were clearly meant to be but it still made the experience worse even if it was the intended emotional response.

Of course plenty of characters I did not talk about here because it would take too long, nor any of the events or such... just know that the origami bird clash event was peak and that the bartender event was close to peak. Other then those it was fairly forgettable stuff on that front so far.

[waffleweirdo]

Finished Path of Radiance!

In total it took me about 40 hours and about 4 months (oops)

Long story short I really liked this game both in story and gameplay!

Now for some more rambling thoughts:

*will include spoilers*

Gameplay:

The best way that I can describe what I enjoyed about the gameplay is a good balance of information. I think there are a few other facts that could play into this (this is the fe game I went into the most blind, and difficulty). But in general I felt like there was a good balance of systems and ‘calculations’ to manage in battle. My wording here might be nonsense, but essentially there aren’t as many active effects like engage or fates that make everything overwhelming. While there aren’t as many automated tools like the later entries (I.e aggro indicators in three houses) have so I was more so forced to check possible outcomes manually. Now this probably isn’t ideal if you really want to play strategically, but I don’t! I typically play these games mostly around feel, and this method of play helped me develop a kind of sense of what would likely happen and a greater familiarity with my own and enemy units and I thought that felt cool!

Another possible contributor to this was the difficulty. It started off a bit difficult while the units were all still weak, then got pretty easy in the mid game (except daybreak!!), before getting fairly tough again around the last 6 or so chapters. Which is a curve I generally like! There were moments I would’ve liked it a little bit harder, but it was overall very satisfying! (For context I didn’t use any bonus exp until after chapter 18, and only used the majority of it around chapter 27).

Some other minor gameplay things. I thought the mechanics surrounding laguz were cool too manage! Plus they tied in really cool thematically and I felt awful attacking helpless laguz (the fact that the game made me feel awful is a good thing!). This game was the fe game that I knew the least about going in, and I managed to only ever use a guide for one chapter which I enjoyed, but I do think it means I probably missed a few recruitable characters. I’m pretty confident I missed at least three, though it might’ve been more oops… I really liked the use of bonus exp it was a cool way to still level up units that don’t necessarily earn a bunch naturally, or buff underperforming units, and as a sort of difficulty regulator. Gameplay wise my favorite unit was far and away Astrid. She snowballed so quickly! I was shocked when Titania had beaten her for most victories. I though item management was a bit tight sometimes, but not really in a good way. The fact that the shop had different stock every chapter was a bit frustrating, especially when it would remove basic iron weapons so units with only an e rank couldn’t train at all. But overall it wasn’t too big of a deal. I also didn’t realize how op forging was until the mid to late game, but that’s on me.

Characters:

Ike was BY FAR my favorite fe protagonist. His consistent attitude and personality made him a lot more interesting. Although he didn’t have the most complex character journey ever, he was still enjoyable, and always felt like an engaging character, rather than being one note. He consistently works well with the rest of the cast, and the way that he serves as an optimistic force, yet isn’t without flaws is really nice. I think he’s just a great character! I also really like that he didn’t turn out to secretly be a noble. I think this is the first fe game I’ve played with a protagonist who is not a noble, or secretly revealed to be a noble!

I feel very guilty that I never got around to using Soren much and thus didn’t get many of his supports because he was really interesting and I would’ve liked to see how he grew past his outward facade. But even so the story did a good job of depicting his growth, even if it was somewhat subtle. I also guessed that he was the spy for Daein, but nope!

Elincia was great too. She never stood out to much, but throughout the whole game she was engaging, and it was nice to see her growth. Again I didn’t get to do too many of her supports which was a bummer.

I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about supports. The way the PoR levels them up based on deployments? Very cool! Really excellent idea. The support conversations I read? I really liked them! Why. WHY is there a limit on supports? And even more so why was it so strict? Essentially what this meant was I was constantly juggling which characters I cared about the most, and if I ever found another character whose supports would be interesting? Well let’s hope I have a bunch of supports left, or I have to change my mind, or hold supports for possible future characters. It’s awful, and locked me out of probably 3/4 of the supports I was interested in. It sounds minor, but honestly really did affect my play through a lot. I care about supports and having them so limited sucks!

Jill ended up being one of my favorite characters. I was interested when she first joined us. I think my first thought was, “what is she up to?” But her story of learning the truth behind Daein’s propaganda and choosing to oppose them was really touching, and equally tragic. The dialogue where Mist offhandedly mentioned that she and Jill were about the same age… augh!! Plus Jill’s supports with Lethe were great, another reason why supports shouldn’t have bee-

I think the other character I want to highlight is Nasir. He’s one of my favorite characters for sure, and his story is really intriguing. Even learning his relationship with Ena and his ultimate motivations it still feels like there’s so much we never got to learn. Especially never having truly gotten to reconcile with Ike… it’s just really interesting. He traveled with us for so long, and always felt like a mystery, and even finally understanding him came too late… it’s just really neat.

Story:

The story of this game was interesting, the main plot thread was helping Elincia retake Crimea, which was a fairly standard though well done story. Archetypal in a sense. But largely what I cared about was the story in regards to the laguz and beorc. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just interesting to note. In that sense some moments of the plot felt largely unremarkable to me, while some moments where the two converged felt really interesting. The discovery of the truth behind the Serenes massacre and Ena’s reunion with Rajaion stand out to me. In the sense it’s sort of hard for me to reconcile my thoughts on the story. I didn’t really care much when Ashnard was killed, but the moment I understood who Rajaion was I wanted to cry. I think largely PoR’s story is a success, as there were more moments that I was interested than moments were I was disengaged, and I do generally think of the story fondly.

Having the full vision of how the conflict between laguz and beorc was depicted I think there are probably some things to critique, especially in some moments where it doesn’t feel as far reaching as it largely should. As in sometimes it feels like that racism is far too easily ‘solved’. But ultimately I think it fits PoR. PoR isn’t trying to be a story that is incredibly focused on fictional race relations. But it doesn’t shy away from including and exploring them, and out of the fire emblem games I’ve played it does by faaaaaaaarrrrr the best job. Plus it does have many really good moments that I think are genuine standouts.

As an aside, I’d also like to say that the info system is really good at adding in additional plot relevant reactions by characters, and showing the effects of your actions on civilians and the world around in such an excellent way. I can’t exactly pinpoint why, but some of my favorite moments just come from the one off interactions in it with characters you know you’ll never meet again. It’s cool!

I guess my thoughts of PoR’s story and themes come down to the fact that they are far from perfect, but ultimately succeed where it matters.

Sequel?:

I wasn’t really sure what to call this section, oops. This is the first time I’m playing Fire Emblem game that has a clear sequel! Which I know even less about going in than PoR.

Knowledge going into PoR: It has the Black Knight and Ike

Knowledge going into Radiant Dawn: It has Micaiah

So these are a collection of things I’m still wondering about which might possibly come up in the sequel? Though even if they don’t I’m satisfied with the conclusion of PoR’s story, and leaving loose ends isn’t a bad thing.

Ahem. What’s going on with Goldoa’s royalty? What’s going on with Sephiran? The apostle is a descendant of one of the warriors that fought the dark god? Is the Black Knight really dead? And most importantly Chekhov’s amulet that contains a literal dark god???!??!?!? Anyways I’m sure that will end just fine.

One of the moments that I’m most interested in was Ike’s final fight with the Black Knight. I took one look at the battle forecast and saw that Ike would immediately die, remembered Ike and Titania’s promise and booked it. Though I really wonder what might have happened if I did something different. Though honestly I’m okay just wondering.

Aaaaand yeah. That’s everything I can think to say at the moment. I liked this game a lot! I’m not quite sure how I’d rank it among the fe games that I’ve played. But I’m very excited to play Radiant Dawn and see what that has in store.

[aurora-nova-fic]

Mixed feelings about Picard episode 3. I think some characters were handled poorly for the sake of the plot, although I love the new twist. Spoilers, obviously, so more under the cut.

What I liked: I did not see the involvement of the Dominion coming, so that was fun, and I can see this as a logical extension of the Dominion War. The Founders spent millennia fearing and loathing solids, so it makes sense to me that some of them are not going to be on board with Odo’s “no really solids can be our friends” spiel. The reference to Odo, even if he wasn’t named, was also good (RIP Rene Auberjonois).

Zen Worf is cool so far, especially because he’s still a badass. “Beheadings are on Wednesdays,” that’s great. Very Worf. Am somewhat confused by why Worf looks so old when DS9 established that Klingons have longer lifespans than humans, but I’m rolling with it for now. Michael Dorn’s voice isn’t always as deep as it was previously, but perhaps that’s harder to sustain with age, so I tried not to let it pull me out of the scene.

I liked the model of Voyager in Seven’s quarters, and Sidney La Forge’s little speech. I also like Seven generally, even if she had a relatively minor role in this episode. Jeri Ryan is always good, and has been a highlight of the entire series so far, in my opinion.

What I did not like: The episode did disservice to the characters of Troi, Crusher, and Riker. In her brief appearance Troi sounded... well, honestly, she sounded more like Marina Sirtis (who is fantastic, don’t get me wrong) than Deanna Troi. I guess we can excuse that away as new motherhood, so we’ll move on.

Crusher not telling Picard he had a son did not sound to me like Beverly Crusher. The woman had her teenager on the Enterprise, where he regularly courted death! And now she’s all afraid? I don’t know, this seemed like the writers desperately looking for some reasoning because they have a story to tell. I think part of the problem is because we were told it, not shown it, and because it was a more radical character change (as opposed to older and wise zen Worf), it feels like they’re retconning Beverly’s character.

And Riker. Ugh. Can we get him out of the captain’s chair, please? It seemed to ruin his up-til-then good characterization. I did not like having him and Picard at loggerheads, I did not like them arguing on the bridge as if they didn’t know better, and I didn’t like him telling Picard to leave the bridge as though it wasn’t Riker’s choice to take his advice.

The Trill doctor was not very competent. How did she not know scanners don’t pick up some kinds of internal bleeding?

Also still struggling with the timeline issues, because I feel like these main characters’ kids are all a little older than they should be. It doesn’t help that Jack Crusher is played by a 34-year-old actor (who is a perfectly good actor but just seems too old for a young man who should be in his early 20s).

In all, despite the flaws, I’m invested, the story continues to intrigue me, and hey, Raffi went a whole episode without greatly annoying me, which is a series first. (Mr. Nova commented that the series would have been improved by letting her die last episode. We are not Raffi fans.)

What did you think?

[jasonsutekh]

Basil: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

A young girl’s father is kidnapped by a criminal mastermind and only the great Baker Street detective and his new ally can assist, also they’re all vermin. As a parody it takes itself just seriously enough to work as a reasonable story in itself without devoting entirely to the comedy side. The story is also coherent while following the expected methods of a mystery story. The animation works very well and has enough range to to explore a little variety in style, in particular the villain who shows some various aspects. Although Vincent Price is an iconic villain and would easily make a wonderful Moriarty, the voice never quite fit the imagery, being a little too comical in some scenes. The protagonist was a little too distant from events to be truly relatable, ignoring both allies and the needs of victims. There was also an odd sexual reference which felt out of place. The villain’s voice works in some circumstances, in particular the fact that Ratigan wrote, composed, and performed an entire song for a murder scene which seems unusual for Price but showed that the antagonist really put the time in. There were a few brief amusing moments and it lead up to a fairly satisfying finale with enough aesthetic durability and threat to be enjoyable. Some aspects of the threat, such as being eaten by the cat were never as credible as they needed to be so the suspense wasn’t always as strong as it needed to be. The bat didn’t die when appeared it had suffered the certain death sentence, that’s acceptable for the heroes but a fluke henchman survival isn’t so effective. A couple of minor flaws were that it never quite committed to the puns and wasn’t as intense as a true Holmes adventure, with most of the science and deduction being deliberate jibberish. 5/10 -Can’t find a better example of average- -The last Disney feature film, to date, to be set mainly in England.-The voice of Basil Rathbone was used as the human Holmes from an archive recording.-Disney’s Dumbo briefly appears as one of the clockwork toys blowing bubbles.

[sealwithfeels]

I finished Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War!

Wew after 50 hours I'm finally finished! It certainly was an experience, and on the whole worthwhile. Excellent story and the gameplay was an interesting divergence, but had flaws mostly in that it could be a bit of a slog as turns took ages.

Some general thoughts

Played the Project Naga translation patch, hence some names and thoughts might only apply to that.

The storytelling is very different to modern Fire Emblem, but has its own charm. It's a lot more like a histoy book or epic stage play, and it's got its strengths and weaknesses. The story is told on a grand scale by a few major players, so it feels suitably epic and dignified, but at the cost of supporting characters falling by the wayside. The lack of support conversations hurts minor characters a lot here, although the conversation events do help a bit.

The game has so many funky little differences to regular FE, like everyone having their own reserves of gold, no one is able to trade but you have to use the pawnbroker instead, weapons (and some staves) have 50 uses and can be repaired from broken and repairing them enough powers them up, and abusing the arena is encouraged. All of these odd quirks quickly become quite endearing and give the game its own character, although if you don't know how to properly use them I can imagine them being more annoying than fun.

What is less fun is that the maps are HUGE and they take ages to complete. Or rather, the huge maps let you feel the scope of the story and there are some really fun tactical bits, but there are also some real bullshit things it drops on you that are more of a slog than anything, and often large stretches where you're just moving your units across the map without anything interesting happening. But making your way across the map and seeing all of the other characters (enemy, neutral or ally) acting and reacting makes it feel more alive and immersive as a game.

Horse Emblem is real here, and anyone who doesn't have a horse really falls behind when it comes to traversing maps. Ayra and her kids (Ayra x Lex OTP btw) turned out so strong, but it was so hard to use them because they just couldn't move as far ;_;

Ced with Forseti is absurd, but lacks a horse.

The pairing system is obtuse and inheritance is kind of terrifying at first, but fun to plan out. I definitely got some unintended pairings out of nowhere (Sylvia x Alec wtf) but most of them were planned and the kids were set up appropriately, and let me tell you it's very fun to make broken demigod child units /Awakening player

The ending bit was really cool, very modular and they all said their goodbyes in a way that felt pretty natural, and it was great to see everyone still alive and going off to rule well in the world. Except Verdane, Verdane got screwed because Jamke didn't marry anyone.

Oof I got some kind of glitch that set everyone's 'losses' to 116, even those that didn't fight, and my combat ranking was an E.

I really liked the story itself, and a lot of the characters stood out to me, even though I wished many of them had more dialogue and relevance. Often you'd get characters making a strong impression only to fade into the background, occasionally popping up again.

I definitely see all the inspirations that modern FE took from this. Awakening got the generational story and shipping system and demigod child soldiers. Three Houses got the epic scope and fleshed-out worldbuilding, and Edelgard owes a lot to Arvis (and I kinda wish she was more unapologetically villainous despite good intentions like he was, she feels like a watered down version, but I still <3 her), and the academy aspect probably draws from Sigurd and Eldigan's shared backstory. Fates got the incest. idk about Engage

Would I recommend it? To someone who's familiar with SRPGs, interested in a more epic grandiose story, and has a lot of patience, yes! To a newcomer or FE fan who is here for the anime hijinks and shipping, maaaaybe, depends on how appealing the gameplay all sounds - but if interested in the story and characters I'd still reccommend watching a playthrough.

Not sure where I'd personally rank it out of all the FE I've played, but story-wise it's definitely up there, gameplay-wise it's perhaps less so.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hihihi this is may be a weird question but is your opinion on the main hypmic cast?

In brief:

(Spoiler alert: It was not brief. Stuck under a cut for length)

Ichirou: He's a good kid. I wasn’t super into him at first, as main protagonists very rarely hold my interest, but I appreciate him now for the struggles he goes through and the growth he’s experienced across the series.

Jirou: Jirou is also a good kid in his own way. I didn’t know what to do with him for a while, but now I feel like I understand him too. I don’t think he quite gets what makes Ichirou be as loved as he is, nor does he really understand what makes people love him for who he is. But that’s okay. He’ll get it someday.

Saburou: If you had tasked me as a fourteen year old to create an idealized anime boy sona, I would have come up with someone shockingly similar to Saburou. I’m fond of him. He can be a bit mean at times in a very fourteen way, but deep down, he’s a good kid too. All the BBs are good kids.

Samatoki: I just can’t not make fun of him. His posturing is so ridiculous to me that I am constantly filled with the urge to clown on him. Oh, you think you’re so tough? You think you’re a big tough guy? Well, I’m just a little bastard; what are you going to do about it? But underneath the posturing, I do feel sorry for him and admire his strengths a lot. He’s a good kid too under a very funny exterior.

Juuto: I’m enjoying learning more about him from the BB/MTC+ manga, but I’m a bit surprised at how much of a dick he is even deep down. Still, he has plenty of good qualities too, and I like him in a vague sort of way. I’d throw fruit at him over a fence but wouldn’t put any malice in it.

Riou: What a delightful individual he is. The BB/MTC chapter about him really resonated with me. For a character so outwardly obsessed with the military, Riou has an incredible understanding of the weight of his actions and such a deep appreciation for every living thing. There’s a lot of his depth to his simplicity, and the level of care he exhibits towards everyone is delightful to witness. An absolute favorite among the cast.

Ramuda: Self-recognition through the other (derogatory). In all seriousness, Ramuda’s story arc and actions are great narrative tools for me to examine some things about myself and grow to try to be a better, more considerate person towards myself and others. I want to see him achieve freedom and happiness.

Gentarou: I enjoy Gentarou quite a bit, although I think he gets overshadowed by the other members of Fling Posse at times due to my sheer passion for Dice and Ramuda. He’s my favorite character to translate at the moment, which is apparently heresy among Hypmic translators. More than the sheer fun of writing his witty banter, I find him to be a very intriguing individual, and I’m excited to learn more about him. I want his happiness too.

Dice: Oh, Dice... He’s a really good kid in a way that the BBs could never be. He’s deceptively good, and he does choose to hurt other people and himself in ways that characters like Ichirou don’t. But he also finds the goodness in the oddest places, like a person finding a coin in a cracked sidewalk, and that’s delightful. His narrative is one of the most compelling for me. What a champion of a character.

Jakurai: Wow, what a good foil for Ramuda. Let me bounce narratives off of you like a mirror. I’m slowly learning to find him compelling in his own right, however. This is also a self-recognition through the other (derogatory) scenario, but there’s more of an emphasis on the derogatory part.

Hifumi: A funny little individual bearing a lot of sadness and a whole lot more courage. Like most of Matenrou, I admire him a lot, but I think that Matenrou resonates much more strongly with other people than they do for me, so I prefer to sit back and let other people appreciate them. I think he’s very brave and very fun to read/write.

Doppo: The biggest fucking mood in existence. When you move past the stereotypical aspects, you end up with another character who has a lot of deep flaws but also an incredible amount of courage. I’m excited to see where they go with him, but again, I’ll sit back and let others take the first row here.

Kuukou: Having already drafted Saburou, if you came back to me at age eighteen and asked me to make an idealized anime boy sona, you would probably have ended up with a character astonishingly like Kuukou. He brings me sheer joy. Astonishingly, I feel like Kuukou has exhibited the least growth out of any of the cast, and yet I do not mind a bit. He is the closest to the perfect man I have ever met. I would drop everything to be this dude’s homie if he existed in real life. Just a champion individual.

Juushi: Juushi’s a good kid. I’m very fond of him and like writing him, but much like Matenrou, I feel like he does a lot more for other people than he does for me. Therefore, much of how I work with him is less, “How do I enjoy this character as a reader?” and more “How do I nurture the traits about him that other people love?”

Hitoya: Hitoya strikes me as a damn good person with a lot of heart who sometimes lets his anger drive him a bit too much. He’s also utterly ridiculous, of course, but I try to write him with as much strength as possible to be present behind his words. He honestly seems like a great person to know in real life, not simply as a fictional character, as well.

Sasara: I have to clown on him to assert dominance. Joking aside, I admire the depths of his character and the growth he’s shown over the series. He can be pretty callous at times and goes to odd lengths to get what he wants, but I think he’s now starting to realize how much his actions affect other people. For a while I was really in his camp as a hardcore Sasara lover (back before he was a main cast member - I love writing quirky minor characters), but now I approach him with the idea mentioned above, ie how I can present him for other people.

Roshou: Whenever he’s around the rest of Dotsu Hon, I think he’s kind of an idiot. I mean that in the best way possible. It’s very endearing. Yet moments when he’s on his own are where I think he best shines, and I would love to see more solo material for him. He’s an incredibly good support character, and I admire his passion for his students.

Rei: I really enjoy asshole antagonists, which is why I liked Ramuda for a while before the clone story came up behind me and struck me into the ground with its mighty fists. Now Rei fills this role. I would love to learn more about him and team up with the Buster Bros to pelt him with rotten eggs in a fun bonding activity. I’m sure there is some strong backstory that will absolve him of at least some of his shittiness, but until now, I’m still not excusing his whole abandoning his children thing, not to mention the human trafficking thing he pulled with Ramuda.

Otome: I hate translating her, if only because she and Rei frequently talk about things in extremely vague terms that I have no context for. It’s hard to make her sound idiomatic in English while also not shooting myself in the foot by accidentally filling in the wrong information. But with that aside, she’s okay. I like her, I guess. Her motivations are pretty interesting.

Ichijiku: Ichijiku was written for people who are sexually attracted to women, and I’m not at all, so I 100% approach her in terms of her pull on other people. She’s fun on her own, though, and I’m impressed at her ability to walk in high heels. Her complete disrespect for everyone but Otome brings me no end of entertainment in reading and writing.

Nemu: YOU. Maybe this is some stupid toxic masculinity thing, but I always feel embarrassed speaking affectionately about male characters but not at all about female characters. Therefore Nemu gets all of my loveposting. She’s a wonderful girl! She has such a strong spirit, and I’m completely overjoyed that she’s making her own decisions and becoming her own character defined on her own terms. I want to watch her grow up big and strong. Fuck yes, baby girl! Fuck it up! I’m very proud of her.

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Darkness Within (1x12)

Amazing! I can't believe how happy I am with this whole season, it's just caused me so much joy from beginning to end. I can always find flaws in any thing I watch, and I'll talk about those briefly, but wow. I'm happy. I'm so happy.

Cons:

But let's start with a couple of things I wasn't totally sold on, although I wouldn't call them huge problems or anything...

The resolution of the cliffhanger with Keyleth didn't quite land for me, and it was mostly a minor pacing issue. We end the episode with "holy shit Keyleth is going to DIE," but this final episode isn't about that at all... We have a drawn out period of time where we are struggling to bring Keyleth back, but to me it lacked tension because when Keyleth did wake up, it was like "oh hey, we don't have time to deal with this" since Percy and Orthax were now the obvious focus. If I had been the one writing the scene, I would have replaced the weeping and the long pause before Vax realizes he can try the herb and dirt thing, and instead have it be more frantic, like, "oh shit, no more potions, quick, grab the dirt!" keep the momentum, make it more of a triage scene than a true resurrection-type scene. I get that they wanted the stakes to feel very serious, but it didn't quite gel the way I wanted it to in the aftermath. In short, while I loved the decision to make Keyleth the one in peril in the last episode, I'm not sure the resolution to that plot beat landed in the context of this episode.

And for a much smaller pacing issue, this was such a small moment and I only want to comment on it because the show has been so good at pacing character beat moments all along, so when there's a slight misstep it stands out. After Scanlan throws Percy's gun into the acid and we see the bubbling Orthax goop, there needed to be an extra beat of silence before "well I'll be damned" and then another extra beat before "thank you, Scanlan." It happened so quickly, I wanted more space for the incredulity to build. Like I said, this is tiny, but it stood out to me as a moment that wasn't paced entirely right.

And then for the "big" one, and by big I just mean comparatively, this is the most negative thing I have to say about the episode... I mentioned in an earlier installment that the pacing was my biggest concern for this season as a whole. These are short episodes and there's a lot of story to tell. They managed to build in a lot of character beats among the action and chaos, but these past few episodes especially have had very little in the way of breathing time. And that makes sense, I don't need breathing time when everything is action-action-action, go-go-go. But the consequence of that is... well...

In the aftermath of what happens at the Ziggurat, we see that Whitestone is trying to recover from the rebellion and zombie horde attack. The Briarwoods are defeated, as are all their henchmen. What happens next? Well, Percy decides that he isn't fit to lead, it should be Cassandra, and then he immediately fucks off with the rest of Vox Machina to Emon, since they need to tell the sovereign and the council what happened with the Briarwoods and all that noise. This... feels cheap and anticlimactic to me in the show, in a way that it didn't in the original version. See, there, they hung around in Whitestone for a while, they had a festival, we had conversations with Percy and Keeper Yennen. The reason Percy leaves with Vox Machina in the story is because it's a D&D campaign and Taliesin wasn't leaving the game. The reason Percy leaves here is... not well founded. I get that he feels like he needs to work on himself and can't be a leader, but that's not actually a reason he needs to leave town literally hours after defeating the great evil.

And this is a consequence of pacing - if we could have had some sort of montage showing that a couple weeks had passed with Percy and the whole of Vox Machina staying in Whitestone and helping Cassandra establish herself on the throne, helping the people to clean up and grieve after what they'd lost... hell, a scene where we see a monument, where Percy has a moment to grieve and say goodbye to his family and to Archie and all the people of his community who died, since he was forced to flee and never got to honor them at home... I just felt I was missing that final emotional resonance that we could have gotten with honestly just five more minutes of screen-time here in the finale.

I understand why they rushed everyone back to Emon. I knew exactly how they'd end season one of this show, a lot of people guessed it and they were correct, and I get wanting to end on a bad-ass shocking cliffhanger that gets people hooked in for what's next. But it did rob something from the epilogue of Whitestone specifically. I hope that we get to return there, maybe repurpose some plot beats from the next arc and set them in Whitestone so we get that chance to have Percy check in with the home he thought he'd lost forever.

But anyway! Enough of my complaining!

Pros:

While I stand by what I said about Keyleth's near-death being imperfectly executed, I do want to say that I loved the character work and the acting here. Vax's utter despair, Vex's disbelief and grief... and Percy's coldhearted focus on his revenge even as his friend lies dying. I like that Scanlan gets to be the smart one to figure out about the orb causing an anti-magic field. It mimics the fact that Sam is often the first one to cotton on to a clever mechanical aspect of the gameplay at the table, since he's got quite the strategic mind for this kind of thing. You've also got the tenderness of Grog taking Keyleth from Vax and carrying her, that little moment of solidarity between the two men... so tender!

But the bulk of this episode is focused on Percy vs. Orthax, and it is one epic showdown. I don't really know where to start in praising this aspect of the episode, and to be honest these reviews have gotten a little out of hand with their length so I'm going to try to restrain myself, but I probably won't succeed.

Percy goes insane at Delilah, doesn't kill her quickly, instead saying: "I'll shatter your ankles for my sister Vesper. your hands belong to Julius..." oof. Chilling. He breaks out into Percy's maniacal laughter, and when Vex says "something has possession of you," he and Orthax answer together: "and we are better for it." I just love how Percy has been doing this shit all season and yet the extremity still kind of catches you off guard, the degree to which he's gone off the deep end...

And let's just talk about the moment with Vex, because... fuck, I'm so happy with it. I knew they wouldn't let us down, I knew they must have moved this moment to a more pivotal place. First, you get Vax's panicked yell: "Vex'ahila, what are you doing?!" as Vex stands between Percy and Delilah, the object of his vengeful hatred. And then she says the thing. "Darling, take off the mask." The reveal of Percy's face under the mask, just full on sobbing, is exactly what I expected it to be and yet it still hit so fucking hard. Because this is the thing, right? The mask is so creepy, but what is it hiding? Not just the glowing eyes of Orthax, but the real anguish Percy has been feeling all along. Percy tries so hard to stop Orthax from controlling him, ends up pointing the gun under his own chin, but Orthax takes control before he can end it...

Everything about Orthax and Percy's fight is gorgeous. The animation, the voice acting (Matt does an amazing job as Orthax, holy shit!), and the whole psychological journey of seeing Percy's past and his present collide. This works for me on so many different levels. You have the flashes of his family being killed, and then said family insisting he avenge them, you have Percy trying to kill his tormentors again, but actually aiming at his friends... and then meanwhile Vox Machina is darting around trying to avoid him, Scanlan is dragging Delilah around like a ragdoll trying to avoid Percy's shots, the names of his friends are appearing on the barrels of Percy's gun... the intensity just won't stop!

I like that we're doing the possession trope too, this idea of "only he can stop it," and the power of love breaking through. Vex gets a moment where she manages to penetrate the fog, and Cass makes her speech to convince him. The reason this all works for me is that we learn that in some ways Percy asked for this. Not in the way where it's his fault, of course, but in the sense that he wanted vengeance, he wanted to kill those who had wronged him, and he let himself live in denial about Orthax and the darkness consuming him all this time, in order to achieve his goal. It's not some straightforward thing where Percy has been controlled this whole time so actually none of his behavior is his own fault. It's a series of escalations, a series of decisions that culminated in this moment where Orthax is trying to take all his choice away.

And then Cass is there, she says "I'm here for you", and Vox Machina is there, and Vex says "we all are", and my heart skipped a beat, I was so happy!

I like that the way of subverting Orthax was deceptively simple and yet still enormously thematically relevant. Percy shoots his own hand instead of shooting Cass, thus paralleling shooting Desmond's hand all the way back in episode three.

And then there's the silence in the aftermath. There's Cass asking for assurances that it's really Percy, and Percy saying: "I'm afraid so. Well, most of me anyway." There's Vex's declaration: "So... that was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen, and I hang out with Scanlan."

But of course, there's still Delilah to deal with. Her grief in the aftermath of Sylas's death, and her failure to resurrect the Whispered One, were excellently portrayed. I like how she basically goads Percy to kill her earlier on, and then after Percy defeats Orthax, she mocks his failure to finish the job.

And then Cass gets the kill. It's perfect, it's bloody and brutal, and the line delivery on: "I'm glad you forgave her brother, but I could not" was honestly so perfect it gave me chills.

And then we're in the epilogue, basically, and the setup for the cliffhanger.

Taliesin's voice acting in the aftermath of Orthax's defeat is so perfect. He sounds different, like the Percy we got to see briefly back in the earlier episodes, but even lighter, even more free. It's only with the contrast that you realize how gradually and how entirely he has been consumed by the darkness. It's a brilliant performance from Taliesin Jaffe, I just can't say enough about what a good job he did with all of this.

And of course next let's talk about Vax and Keyleth! We got to see Vax's sincere grief and even a kiss on the hand when he thought he'd lost Keyleth, and then they spend the rest of the episode just a little too busy for a conversation... it's cute that Vax is holding Keyleth up, though, that she knows she can lean on him.

And then the final conversation between them out by the Sun Tree. It's obviously a lot shorter than the full conversation that played out at the table, but it amounts to something similar. Vax tries to reopen the conversation and say he meant what he said, and Keyleth shuts him down with a soft no. She doesn't say "I don't feel the same", but rather "we can't", because of responsibilities... honestly the reason why I love their relationship so much is that it does start with this rejection that is pretty clearly "I don't think I'm in a place for this right now" and not "it's impossible, I don't see you that way." It's a distinction that matters because of where the story is going, but Vax is going to respect her rejection and be her friend anyway, and I am honestly feeling very tender about it. Of course, Vax saying "I'm gonna walk away" was a lovely little comedy beat and a fun reference for all of us Critters out there who saw Campaign One.

To be honest and I don't want to be negative here but I've seen people saying some completely unfounded stuff about the Vaxleth content, and I don't agree with them at all. I think the people who are disappointed with Keyleth and Vax in this episode aren't paying attention, or something. I keep seeing people say "it was played for laughs" which is... absolutely not accurate to what literally is happening on screen? What are you even talking about? Just because a moment has some levity to it, or there's a laugh in there somewhere, doesn't mean an entire scene is being played for laughs, written off as nothing more than a joke. I even saw someone say that the Vaxleth dynamic was completely different from the stream, and that's not even remotely true. This is exactly what the dynamic was in the stream, they just haven't kissed yet. Calm down.

Sorry, I just really can't stand it that people are seemingly looking for reasons to be unhappy? The campaign is the campaign, and the show is the show. They are going to be different, but to look at what we saw with these characters, their relationship dynamic and think it was disrespectful and diminishing... I could not disagree more, as a huge Vaxleth shipper. To me those responses reek of entitlement. If you don't like what you saw, that's fine, but to act like you deserved something different betrays a lack of understanding in so many things. This show was made with love, and the obvious respect and attention given to Keyleth and Vax and their relationship is plain to those of us who aren't determined to be negative. I get steamed about this because the people who don't like something and are cool about it, that's awesome and great. I've listed my complaints in these reviews, the things that didn't line up for whatever reason. But I don't turn around and say "how dare they not give me the version I wanted." I've seen people go so far as to imply that people who disagree with them are watching the show "wrong" in some way. I've seen people doing that, and it grates on my nerves like nothing else. Okay, sorry, end of soap box.

This epilogue also has adorable Vex and Keyleth moments, like Vex calling her "Kiki" as they're being hailed as heroes, and then Vex encouraging her: "darling, you've got this" as Keyleth prepares to cast her spell to take them through the Sun Tree. Keyleth blushes, it's super adorable, and of course I love Vaxleth but honestly Kiki has got such a crush on Vex and we love to see it.

While I wanted more of Percy coming to terms with his home being rescued, I still did like the brief resolution we did see, with him leaving Cass to rule. He gets to say another classic Taliesin line, slightly altered and taking place at a very different point in the story: "we live as long as Whitestone lives." I loved that the line was in there, it was such a lovely tribute to the campaign but also a lovely setup for an imagined future prosperity for Whitestone, depending on how much of that future we actually get to see.

And then we're back at the keep in Emon! Percy is tinkering with a new gun, which I think might surprise some viewers but it's part of what makes Percy the deeply complicated character that he is. He knew what he was unleashing on the world when he invented guns, and he did it anyway in his quest for vengeance. He can't put that back into a box, and so instead he'll keep refining, and keep using the weapon he created when he was lost in darkness. Also, his hand gem thing thing is so cool! I bet I know where they're going with this based on a certain glove Percy has in the campaign, and I think that's such a fun way of showing a lasting consequence from what happened in Whitestone.

We also get an all-too-brief flash of domestic bliss at the keep, with Grog trying to do some repairs and dropping a door on his foot, Pike doing some healing and also some reading of a certain romance novel previously glimpsed at Gilmore's, we see Vex and Vax hanging out with Trinket, the best member of Vox Machina finally returned. While I think the pacing issues are a bit of a thing here, in that I would have wanted a bit more time to relax in this space before the end, I was still quite pleased with what we did see!

And then we're at the Cloud Top District. Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei is making a speech - he's stepping down as sovereign and handing rule over to the whole of the Tal'Dorei Council! What a shocking twist for the end of the season, right?

Oh yeah, and four massive dragons are flying towards the city. That's also a thing that happens.

I've got to say, I love me a good cliffhanger, and this one was so much fun because us in the know were all waiting for this exact ending! They teased us with not a whole lot in terms of character design for the Chroma Conclave, but what we saw has me super hyped for what comes next.

God, what else is there even to say about this show at this point? I'm already excited to do a full re-watch, and I know I'll be delightfully revisiting these twelve episodes for as long as I have to wait until season two comes along and gives me more to obsess over! I'm so happy that this show was made with such obvious care and love and attention to all the characters we already adore. You can tell this is a labor of love and even the times when I didn't agree with a choice or felt a joke fell flat, I could still sense the passion and effort behind every frame. It's all more than I ever could have hoped for.

High points of the season for me were probably episodes three, eight, and eleven, but honestly the whole season is a roiling adventure and a heart-stopping joy to behold. The finale gets...

9/10

[lazyliars]

The Quackity Meta: a Tale of Two Absolutes

More than anything else, Quackity wants control, and to never, ever lose his own autonomy. And that is why he despises Technoblade.

But wait, how is Technoblade a threat to Quackity's autonomy? Techno is all for individual freedom! He wants to eradicate the government so that no one can be controlled!

There's the question though... How do people exercise control within the framework of a video game like m/inec/raft?

“a person exercising power or control in a cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary way.”

Power on the Dream SMP cannot be translated one-to-one with real  life power. In real life, yes, a government had infinitely more power than an individual, for numerous reasons. But on the Dream SMP, the government's power is always directly tied to the power of the individuals who are willing to defend that power.

Technoblade is powerful. This is not debatable. How he uses this power, historically, has been a mix of generosity and self-interest*, although primarily the latter.

Generously, He gains resources and then distributes them to his allies during the Pogtopia Rebellion, gearing everyone up and giving them a fighting chance against Dream. However, in the aftermath of Tubbo's being appointed president, Techno turns on them, swiftly and mercilessly. The moment that it becomes clear** that Pogtopia's interests don't align with his own, he crushes them with the aim to prevent them from ever recovering.

( *I use self-interest as a neutral term here. Everyone on the SMP is selfish to some extent – it doesn't make them evil, and in fact has been treated as a positive at times, as well as a negative.

**I want to note that whether or not Technoblade knew of Pogtopia's goal of reinstating the government is unclear. It would seem that from Techno's POV that he didn't know, or assumed that it was a minority who wanted another government. But on the other hand, no one was actively lying to him about their intent, and people like Tommy and Quackity made their goals very clear.  Further doubt is cast on the idea that Techno had no idea when you take into account that he enchanted the Netherite armor in the vault with worthless enchants like Fire Res.

Ultimately, there's no way to know until it is confirmed by cc!Techno himself, and it doesn't pertain that much to this analysis, but I'm aware that it's a hotly debated topic so I wanted to address it.)

It can be argued that Techno's destruction of L'manberg, both the first and especially the second time, was necessary. It can also be argued that it was cruel and a disproportionate retribution against both culpable and innocent parties. Extant of these arguments however, how does it feature into control?

Well, we can’t talk about control without mentioning the most controlling force on the server and the other person on Quackity's hitlist, Dream.

Dream is a tyrant. I don't think anyone can really make an argument against that in good faith at this point. He ticks off every box, no matter how vague or esoteric. This makes the interactions that Quackity and Techno have with him very interesting.

Quackity despises Dream. He's one of the earliest adopters of the hating-Dream-train, to the point that some people have compared him to Cassandra, a priestess who was cursed with the vision of prophecies that would always be true, but never believed. And indeed, Quackity's apprehension of Dream comes in as early as Pogtopia, and grows at a steady pace after the fact.

But despite his rightfully calling out Dream's hypocrisies and his controlling tendencies, Quackity was largely ignored on this front, especially when the time came to exile Tommy and Quackity basically predicted the next arc – If they gave Dream this concession, they would never be able to get out from under his thumb. Flash forwards to the Green Festival, and the moment Tubbo hands over the discs, any illusion of nicety drops and Dream proceeds to destroy them, side by side with...

Technoblade has always had an amiable relationship with Dream. From their first proper interaction on the server being Dream giving Techno some hefty resources, to their snap team-up on Doomsday, they've had a smooth time, with some notable bumps.

Techno fought against Dream during the Pogtopia rebellion, but when it became clear that Dream was more invested in chaos than his other allies, Techno temporarily allied with him to summon the Withers and drive the nail deeper into Manberg’s coffin.

The only time Techno has really bothered to challenge Dream directly is when he came for Tommy in exile. Techno went to great lengths to protect Tommy, hiding him and distracting Dream.

He did give Dream the option to call in his favor and take Tommy, but there are arguments to be made that he did this more as a challenge – that Tommy is worth the favor. Again, we probably wont ever know.

The difference in their relationships with Dream is polarizing. It also reflects the difference in personality – Quackity is an aggressive, ambitious person, whereas Techno leans more towards passivity and caution. Quackity is looking for enemies to challenge, where Techno is avoiding them, people who actually stand a chance against him most of all.

Technoblade is an individual with extraordinary amounts of power. Others have pointed out that he is rarely challenged by other characters or the narrative, and regardless of the merits or flaws in that, it paints him as nearly untouchable. His being in the good graces of Dream only adds to this.

And like with Dream, the only way that people have been able to threaten Techno is when they work together. The Butcher Army, for all it's flaws, managed to capture Techno through numbers – with Tubbo and Fundy (barely) holding off Techno's blood rage while Quackity snuck off to take Carl hostage. And they would have gotten away with it too, if the other most powerful person on the server hadn't stepped in – both by pointing Techno to a totem of undying in the days before the attack, and by getting Punz to cause a distraction and directing Techno to the final control room, where he could escape with Carl.

So, if the most powerful person in the world can only be threatened by people working together, and the most common form of organization is by government, then what does it say about Technoblade, who wants the government destroyed?

People like Tubbo, Fundy and yes, Quackity, all benefit from organizing and working together. They all tend to be less armed, less ready to defend themselves, and completely unable to stand up to titans like Techno and Dream on their own. It's safety in numbers, but it's also control, and control is power.

Ranboo's insistence that Snowchester is a Government is interesting when viewed through this lens. Ranboo is another person who is insanely rich, and able to defend himself and his belongings consistently. Ranboo doesn't need other people to defend him – he's living with Techno and Phil not out of necessity for his survival, but out of need for connection with others.

This seems to be the main difference he finds with Snowchester, which has a more structured environment, geared to defend itself and it's people, if harm should come their way.

Which makes sense, considering it's founder, Tubbo, holds no earthly belongings, and Jack, another prominent member, has made a character trait out of losing his things every other day. The two of them have no conceivable way to defend themselves against people who are stronger than they are. But together, holding the keys to nuclear armaments, they can suddenly play on the field of gods.

The anarchist commune, despite having all members working together and being on good terms, aren't really an organization, they're individuals with common goals and interests. They don't need to live together to be strong, they're all already strong, they choose to be near each other because they want to.

Snowchester is not a government and has no ruler, but together, it's members hold power. They have sway in the world when they work as a collective, and most members have a vested interest in keeping themselves and each other defended because of this. Consequently, the “identity” of Snowchester becomes more prominent, resulting in the flag, the uniforms and the, well, identity.

(Now, the more perceptive among you might have noticed that I basically just compared Techno Phil and Ranboo to the ultra rich 1%, which. Um. Is a pretty serious comparison to make about in a block game rp?

And I wanna say that I don’t think this was necessarily intentional on the parts of either the CCs or the characters, and beyond that, it’s just one way of examining the text. This analysis is by no means the “Right” way to view the story, just a different one.

Regardless...)

Techno uses his considerable power to further his own goals, first and foremost. This is not inherently good or evil, it just is.

Contrast with New L'manberg's cabinet; Four people, pooling their limited power to further their shared goals. Not good or evil, just a way of exercising power.

But power is not static. Power is fluid and changing, moreso now on the SMP than ever before, and Quackity and Technoblade are fighting to define what Power means going forwards.

Techno is fighting for the status quo, knowingly or not. Individuals with power should lead the world, and those without should strive to emulate their betters. He destroys all forms of government, which strip away the rights of the individual in exchange for hierarchy and consolidated power within that hierarchy.

At it's best, this is a very freeing ideology, where nothing and no one can hold back the individual. The world is your oyster if you are willing to work for it.

But at it's worst? “Violence is the only universal language,” is the key phrase. Where does this ideology leave people who aren't strong? Where does it leave those who cannot fend for themselves? If Violence is the only universal language, then the weak have no means to speak.

Quackity is fighting to get a foothold for a contrary ideology – One that prioritizes words over violence and offers alternative methods of gaining and exercising control, such as through currency and conversation. Quackity has tried to varying degrees of success to implement this on the level of his own individual power, such as during the elections, but his attempts at employing this on a grand scale have all been short-lived.

At it's best, this ideology can uplift anyone, regardless of their strength. It encourages more communication, more commerce, and thrives under, you guessed it, strong government.

At it's worst however, it creates a brutally controlling environment. Where a few people gain absurd amounts of power through the complex machinations of a fiat currency, and are then able to use their sway and influence with governing forces to exercise power that they would never be able to hold on their own.

Again, neither of these ideologies are inherently good or evil. They both have flaws and benefits, and benefit no one more than perhaps Techno and Quackity respectively, while hindering the other.

Techno is benefited by anarchy because he holds incredible amounts of individual power. He is the strongest person on the server, he is rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and on a meta level, he's straight up good at the game. The current status quo puts him firmly at the top of the food chain, and this is most obvious on Doomsday, when he and the other two most powerful individuals (Dream and Philza) come together and crush the combined forces of New L'manberg. They are not meaningfully challenged in any way, whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Quackity is deeply hindered by the current status quo. He's not strong, he's poor, and he's vulnerable to anyone who wants to bully him with brute force. On a meta level, cc!Quackity just straight up does not play m/inecraf/t as much as some of the other people that on the server. (To be clear, I do not mention that as a criticism, just to contrast Techno. Neither of their levels of play are better or worse for content, they just add to the experience differently.)

On the other hand, in a government? Quackity “Law Student” HQ is suddenly on top. He's charismatic enough to debate with Wilbur “Can Talk His Way out of Anything” Soot during the elections, and come out of that arena smelling like roses. Back during the days of El Rapids, Quackity held his men back from conflict with Dream, and talked him into a corner of technical truths where Dream had to concede that he viewed El Rapids as an independent nation if he wanted to get involved with their conflicts.

And Techno, while he is brilliant and an English Major, suddenly loses a lot of his intimidation factor if he has to respect laws preventing brutal murder. Techno can certainly debate, but his go to conflict resolution is usually violence, and if you take that away, you take away the threat of challenging him. Because make no mistake, challenging Technoblade right now? Is suicide.

And this duality, this grey morality and clash of ideals, is why Quackity is my favorite character on the SMP. He isn't strong. The power he holds is tenuous and balanced on a knife's edge. It would make more sense for him to stay quiet, keep his head down, and if anything, try to change things from the shadows, where he'll be in the least danger.

But he isn't quiet. He doesn't just challenge authority, he challenges the authority; Dream, Wilbur, and of course, Technoblade.

And in all but one of those matches, he's come out with a concession from his enemy gripped between his teeth. He schooled Wilbur in the debates. He forced Dream to grant El Rapids Independence at a time when he hadn't done so for New L'manberg.

But he failed miserably when he challenged Technoblade. Quackity lost that fight in the final control room before it began. He lost the moment he formed the Butcher Army. He would have lost if he managed to kill Technoblade, and he lost still when he died.

He lost because he conceded that the only way to achieve his goal was through violence. He decided that the only way to establish himself and New L'manberg as powerful? Was to kill Technoblade. And he lost that fight and he always will. There was never a way that he walked out of that fight with the victory; Quackity lost the ideological battle long ago.

But not the war.

As of writing this, Quackity is in the process of introducing an economy to the Dream SMP, on Sam's initiative. There is no action I can think of that is wiser for him to take right now. Now, when Dream has been deposed and there's a vacuum in power; Now, when people are getting tired of endless violence and the loss it brings; Now, when people are looking for something new.

An economy is a direct challenge to Might Makes Right. Trading, supply and demand, politics. It offers a new way for people to obtain resources and a direct alternative to brute force; other methods to pay for slights and breaches of honor and etiquette. No more will pet wars be fought with iron swords and shields, but with money! A healthy sum of cash for the murder of Fungi!

If Quackity can get this system off the ground (and with Sam's help, he definitely can,) the stage would suddenly be tilted in the favor of not just Quackity, but the people who he has associated himself with most closely – Tommy, Fundy, even Schlatt. They're all business men, all scammers. This could be Quackity's world, and he's damn well intending for everyone to live in it.

We’ll have to see what Techno thinks of this - Quackity hasn’t made any moves to start another government, and an economy doesn’t inherently contradict anarchy. But it does hold a potential threat to Techno’s current power.

And as for Quackity? What will he do once he’s at the top? Will he finally become a true tyrant? Will he usher in a new age of equality and justice? Or will he eschew all of that in favor of personal riches. For once, the cards are in Quackity's favor, and we might get the chance to see what he does when he holds real power.

[redheadgleek]

2022 Books read part 2

Last year, I read 49 books total.

I just hit 45 books for this year. Definitely the most books I've read since medical school. In my defense, some of the books were on the short side, but I'm definitely using books as escapism right now.

What I read in Jan-April:

May:  A Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow - I love fractured fairytales and this one was a fun novella. A Tale of Sorcery read by Chris Colfer (audiobook). The last book of his "Tale Of" series and it was a satisfying tie-up to the series. Hyperbole and A Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened by Allie Brosh. I loved her blog back in the day and her comics would have me gasping for air. They weren't quite as funny now, and I'm not sure why. What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon. I still have complex feelings about this book. Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Kaz my beloved. Inej my beloved. Nina my beloved. Jesper my beloved. Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Jaigirdar Adiba. Sweet, if not very deep. Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher. It took me way too long to figure out the twist. But it was worth it. Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher. Hot. So hot.

June: I'm So Not Over You by Kosoko Jackson. A great idea (exboyfriends fake-dating) and so poorly executed. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. A direct continuation of Six of Crows - so many twists I did not see coming. Stranger Than Fanfiction read by Chris Colfer (audiobook). It's not Shakespeare, but man, do I love hearing him make his characters come to life. I still have thoughts about the ending. Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher. I love these stories about ordinary people with just a touch of magic.   King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. Nina my beloved. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer. I read this in a day - really absorbing while reading it, falls apart if you spend too long thinking about the premise. Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher. I love this world. I love these complex, world-weary, broken women and men who come together to try to save their world. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher. I had to wait for the Wonder Engine to be available from the library. I need the sequels now. A Mirror Mended by Alix Harrow. A Spindle Splintered didn't need a sequel and I'm not sure that this was the sequel that should have been written. The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher. An excellent finish to the series. Here's To Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. I really didn't like What If It's Us that much - the characters were too young and differentiating between their first person perspectives was iffy. This was much better. I still would have made them a touch older, but it works. One Last Stop by Casy McQuiston. I liked Red, White, and Royal Blue better and I wasn't expecting a time-travel story. Still there was a lot of atomosphere and sweetness to the story. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. I really liked this although I still ahve so many questions. But this captured the feel of the outer Sunset district of San Francisco and made me homesick.

Midyear book review:

@gorgxoxus tagged me a couple of weeks ago on this one.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022? A Marvellous Light by Freye Marske. The world-building was fantastic and the chemistry between the two main characters was steamy.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022: I think it's unfair to call Crooked Kingdom a sequel, since it's a direct continuation of Six of Crows, but wow, I did not see so many of the twists of that book.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to: On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi. It's a chick lit romance written by a doctor, so I'm intrigued. I have it on hold at the library.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: Husband Material by Alexis Hall and Heat Wave (The Extraordinaires #3) by TJ Klune.

Biggest disappointment: I'm So Not Over You - the premise of a reverse fake dating situation (boyfriends who had broken up and then had to pretend to date) sounded so fun and it was just executed so badly. The writer needed better editors.

Biggest surprise: ... I can't think of any?

Favourite new author (debut or new to you): T. Kingfisher. I checked out A Wizard's Guild to Defensive Baking and have since devoured 7 other books of hers and have at least 3 more on my to-read list. They are realistic and somewhat dark but also filled with a lot of fun and whimsy. The "Temple of the White Rat" feature older, world-weary characters who save the world and fall in love (Swordheart had better have a sequel soon!).

Newest fictional crush: Stephen from Paladin's Grace. He's a paladin who went on a murderous rage when his God dies and he copes by knitting socks.

Newest favourite character: When I watched Shadow and Bone on Netflix, Jesper was my favorite. When I read Six of Crows, Kaz took his place. I also love Nina.

Book that made you cry: We Are Okay gave me a throat lump today, but I haven't read anything that has made me cry for a while.

Book that made you happy: So This Is Ever After. It was tropey and lighthearted and endearing. Loved it.

The most beautiful book you’ve bought this year: I haven't bought a lot of books this year as I've been mostly reading library ebooks, but the cover for We Are Okay is quite lovely.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? My currently reading list: The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, Rule of Wolves (sequel to King of Scars), The Secret of Life (yes, I'm still making my way through), Medical Apartheid (ditto), Struck by Lightning (audiobook which I should finish this weekend) and Dracula Daily. Books I hope to read by the end of the year: A Restless Truth, The Enigma Game, The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks, The 1619 Project, Nettle & Bone, What Moves the Dead.

[scotianostra]

23rd August 1305 saw the trial and execution in London of Sir William Wallace, one time Guardian of Scotland.

I posted yesterday stating the trial happened then, it came u in a source I was reading about Wallace, sometimes the historians can get it wrong, but the post yesterday served as more of prelude and a taster of todays more detailed one. Wallace is said to have accepted his execution without resistance and a brave heart. He even made a final confession to a priest and read from the book of Psalms before his punishment.

Types of execution at The Elms ranged from burning at the stake (for heretics) to the tried and tested hanged-drawn-and-quartered method for those convicted of high treason. For those unfamiliar with this method, it involves being dragged by a horse to the place of execution, hanged  until almost dead, then disembowelled whilst still conscious, beheaded, and finally being chopped into four pieces (i.e. ‘quartered) and subsequently having these pieces put on display across the city, or in Sir William Wallace’s case, the country.

I think it only right to give a background post about Sir William Wallace so hang on to your hats, there’ll be no mention of French Princess’s, Blue painted Australians or the like. 

Much of what we know about Wallace comes from  Blind Harry, also known as Harry, Hary or Henry the Minstrel, is renowned as the author of The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, more commonly known as The Wallace. The trouble is how reliable can Blind Harry’s account be, it was written over 150 years after Wallace's grisly demise, the stories about oor erstwhile hero would have been handed down through  word of mouth, possibly even in song. 

Harty claims that Wallace's father was named Malcolm, and on this basis Wallace has traditionally been identified as Sir Malcolm Wallace, a minor landowner from Renfrewshire. Sir Malcolm was a descendant of Richard Wallace, a native of the lordship of Oswestry on the Welsh border, (Wallace itself meaning Welshman),  who first came to Scotland in the twelfth-century in the service of Walter Fitz Alan, first High Steward of Scotland. This Stewart connection has also been used by historians to explain Wallace's place in the 'patriotic' struggle of the 1290s.

But  Harry’s story has some flaws, now I’m not decrying the story, just some details like his age.

No reliable evidence exists to gives us an estimate of his age. Harry claims that Wallace was 'forty and five [years] of age' when he was executed,  but also states that he was 'bot eighteen yer auld' shortly before the Battle of Stirling Bridge, which would place the year of his birth around 1278/9.

It shows how difficult it is to build a picture of Sir William.

The contemporary English chronicler William Rishanger implies that Wallace was a young man when he emerged as the leader of armed resistance to the English in southern Scotland in 1297, but this does little to narrow things down. According to Hary, Wallace was raised by his two uncles - both clerics - who saw to his education after his father was killed by an English knight named Fenwick

 One of his uncles was from Dunipace, a wee town not far from my home in Falkirk, it is through this uncle we get an oft quoted phrase  “This is the truth I tell you: of all things freedom’s most fine. Never submit to live, my son, in the bonds of slavery entwined.” The second pic shows part of the quote, it is on a paving stone on Falkirk High Street  that I often walk past.

He does seem to have had two brothers, Malcolm - who would provide Wallace with much-needed support in the later part of his career - and John - who would later be executed for supporting Robert Bruce after 1306. His activities before 1297 are also uncertain, but they may have been less than wholesome. Contemporary English accounts describe him as a 'brigand' and a 'thief', suggesting he may have lived outside the law even before the English invaded. Of course, these may simply be attempts by hostile writers to blacken his reputation. However, a legal document of August 1296 mentions 'a thief, one William le Waleys' as an accomplice of a cleric named Matthew of York who had in June of that year been convicted of robbery at Perth. This could well be our William.

Again I am not trying to blacken his character, I am merely pointing out the difficult job that historians have when piecing together his life. 

Whatever the details of his early life, following the English invasion of 1296 that Wallace first emerged into the mainstream of Scottish affairs in a big way. The death of King Alexander III in 1286, followed by the death of his granddaughter Margaret of Norway in 1290, had provoked a major succession crisis in Scotland. Efforts to settle the ongoing dispute between the competing Balliol and Bruce factions had led to increasing English interference in the governance of Scotland, culminating in a full-scale invasion of the kingdom in 1296. I’ve covered all this in posts regarding King John Balliol, the sacking of Berwick and  the first Battle of Dunbar all in 1296.

One of Wallace’s first encounters with the English is told in typically dramatic form by Blind Harry, the story goes that William was fishing  when he is accosted by five soldiers in the service of 'lorde Persye'  Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy who was the warden of Galloway and Ayrshire .  The honest, unsuspecting Wallace offers them some of his fish so long as they leave the rest for his uncle - 'ane agyt knycht' - Wallace hopes to feed, but the soldiers demand all of his fish and attack him when he refuses them. Remarkably, Wallace disarms the first attacker using only a 'poutstaff' ('fishing pole'), seizes the discarded sword, kills two of the soldiers, severs the hand of another, and chases the survivors off! 

The earliest confirmed encounter between Wallace and the English administration occurred in May 1297, when Wallace and a small band of supporters killed William Heselrig, the English sheriff of Lanark, shortly before an assize was due to be held in the town. According to the indictment against him in 1305, Wallace and his men also dismembered Helelrig's corpse. Famously, Hary claims that Wallace's attack on Heselrig was in retribution for the killing of Wallace's wife - Marion Braidfute, as Harry identifies her. 

It is apparent from contemporary English accounts of the incident at Lanark that it proved to be a powerful recruiting tool for Wallace's rebellion. As Walter Guisborough put it, 'the common folk of the land followed him as their leader and ruler; the retainers of the great lords adhered to him; and even though the lords themselves were present with the English king in body, at heart they were on the opposite side'.

What I find remarkable is that the killing of the soldiers and then Heselrig kickstarted, the uprising against Edwards army and around 4 months Wallace and Andrew de Moray had assembled a combined army of over 6 thousand troops that ambushed the English as they crossed the Forth at Stirling.

Before Stirling we also had the capitulation of the Nobility at Irvine, I have also covered this in a previous post.

In the wake of the Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge, the English administration in Scotland all but collapsed. The Scots were once again able to form a government of their own, and at its head - now as Guardians of Scotland - were Wallace and Murray, although Murray's tenure was cut short when he died - probably of wounds sustained at Stirling Bridge - in November.

This was the zenith of Wallace's career. He had emerged from obscurity to the very summit of Scottish society, all in the space of a year. It also meant he had a price on his head and was the most wanted man in Scotland.

Edward I returned from the Continent in March 1298 and set his sights on Scotland, he marched with an army North in late June and quickly discovered that Wallace's response to the threat had been to devastate southern Scotland and withdraw with his army out of reach of the English. A bitter and frustrating campaign followed, with Edward almost abandoning the chase altogether. However, in late July Edward got wind that the Scots had been sighted near Falkirk, and hurriedly moved his army to meet them. 

Precisely why the confrontation at Falkirk happened is, as with so much of Wallace's career, uncertain. Until this point in the campaign Wallace had carefully avoided the English army, a prudent strategy that would later pay off for the Scots under Bruce. Guisborough claims that Wallace had learned that Edward planned to withdraw and hoped to attack the English in the rear. This would at least explain why Wallace so suddenly abandoned his previously cautious strategy. However, given the potential challenges he was facing from the nobility of Scotland it may equally have been the case that Wallace felt compelled to face the English in open battle sooner or later and prove that his success at Stirling Bridge - which was after all arguably at least as much Murray's as it was Wallace's - was not just a lucky accident. 

Whatever the case, the battle that followed was an utter catastrophe for the guardian. Abandoned by the cavalry, who may have lost their nerve as they had at Irvine or - as claimed by subsequent Scottish chroniclers - betrayed Wallace, Wallace's schiltrons - tightly-packed bodies of infantry armed with long spearmen - repelled the English cavalry but fell prey to English archery, which broke up their formations and left them vulnerable to a renewed assault by the cavalry. Wallace escaped the battle with his life, but his position as guardian had been irrevocably damaged. It is not entirely clear precisely when or where he resigned the guardianship, but by the end of 1298 Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick (the future king), and John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, were jointly exercising the office of guardian.

Wallace's time as guardian may have been decisively ended, but he remained an active opponent of the English in Scotland. The resistance he offered to the English in this period was not always in keeping with the wishes of the guardians. For instance, in August 1299 an altercation took place at a council at Peebles at which Wallace's plan to travel to France was condemned by Sir David Graham as being 'without the leave or approval of the Guardians'. Wallace's plans were defended by his brother Malcolm, who argued that they were at least 'for the good of the kingdom'

Wallace did indeed leave for France in 1299, apparently on a diplomatic mission to seek the support of King Philip IV against Edward I. Wallace's reception in France was initially hostile, since at the time Philip was himself seeking peaceful relations with Edward I, and Wallace was briefly incarcerated by the French king. However, in November 1300 Philip was writing to his envoys to the pope asking them to promote Wallace's case at the papal court. It is possible that Wallace himself visited to Rome assist in making the Scottish case to the pope in person, and the fact that when he was eventually he reportedly had on his person a safe-conduct from King Hakon V of Norway may suggest he also travelled to Norway on diplomatic business (although he may simply have planned to do so at some point). By 1303 - possibly earlier - he was back in Scotland and again involved in armed resistance to the English

By this point the tide in the war was slowly turning against the Scots. The French were once again pursuing a peaceful policy towards the English following their own military reversal at Courtrai in 1302. Scottish nobles were gradually making their peace with the English, and the surrender of Stirling Castle marked the effective end to organised Scottish resistance on a large scale. In light of his increasing success, Edward I was generally willing to be fairly accommodating towards those Scots who were willing to submit to him, but this was not so with Wallace. Indeed, in the general amnesty offered to the Scots by the English, Wallace might at best 'render himself up to the will and mercy of our sovereign lord the king, if it shall seem good to him' - hardly an encouraging prospect. When Wallace's long-standing cohort Simon Fraser submitted to Edward in July 1304, he was welcomed into the king's peace only on the understanding that he would assist in the ever-intensifying hunt for the fugitive Wallace. Nevertheless, Wallace remained at large until 3rd August 1305, when he was seized near Glasgow by men in the service of Sir John Menteith, keeper of Dumbarton Castle on behalf of King Edward. Menteith - identified as Wallace's 'gossop' ('godfather') by Harry.

Having finally captured Wallace, Edward I refused even to see him. Instead, Wallace was taken to London for what for want of a better word might be called a trial.

Sir Peter Malory, one of the king's justices, presided over the proceedings, which were little more than a formality. The charges were considerable. Wallace had, according his accusers, been a traitor to King Edward, perpetrated armed resistance against him and slain the king's officers (William Heselrig was mentioned by name), assumed the authority of 'a superior' of Scotland, submitted 'to the fealty and lordship of the lord king of France and [gave] him help to the destruction of the kingdom of England', made war on the northern counties of England, 'feloniously and seditiously assaulted, burned and devastated religious men and nuns...[and] inflicted [upon] all, old and young, wives and widows, children and babes the worst death which he could devise', and 'harmoniously and eagerly...refused to submit himself to the lord king's peace' even after being defeated at Falkirk. According to the Annals of London, he 'answered that he had never been a traitor to the king of England, but granted the other crimes charged against him'.

In the eyes of the English as an outlaw, Wallace had no recourse to a defence. Instead, he was summarily sentenced to be executed in the manner reserved for traitors. Wallace was thus 'dispolyeid of his weid' as Hary puts it and dragged naked on a hurdle through the streets of London. At Smithfield he was hanged by the neck 'for the robberies, homicides and felonies which he carried out in the kingdom of England and the land of Scotland'

Before he could suffocate he was taken down and emasculated and disembowelled 'for the dreadful wickedness which he did to the church'. His 'heart, liver and lungs and all the bowels...from which such perverse thoughts proceeded' were then burned. Presumably now dead, Wallace was beheaded - the punishment for outlawry - and his body was divided into four parts. His head was to be displayed on London Bridge (where it remained until at least September the following year, when it was joined by that of his former comrade Simon Fraser). The remaining quarters were to be displayed on gibbets at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Stirling and Perth, 'to put dread in and to warn all by-passers and observers'.

The savagery with which Wallace was dispatched contrasts sharply with Edward I's attitude toward the Scots in general, but let’s not forget it was the usual punishment for any person deemed to be a traitor.

However it appeared that Longshanks earlier experiences with the Scots had convinced the ageing English king that a more conciliatory approach to establishing a lasting English administration in the kingdom. Edward's new plan for the settlement of Scotland envisaged a ruling council composed primarily of Scots - including the likes of Bruce and Comyn - which would advise an English lieutenant who would retain overall authority. Scots law and custom was to be respected, at least in the short term, and it may have seemed to many at the time that the objections that had fuelled Wallace's original rebellion in 1297 had been addressed. 

As we know, the matter would be rendered moot less than six months after Wallace's death when Robert Bruce killed Comyn, forcing him to make public his ambition to become King of Scots. In many senses Bruce's struggle was quite unlike Wallace's, being primarily motivated by his own ambitions and perception of his rights. That being said, if Wallace had not maintained the momentum behind Scottish resistance to the English, particularly in the crucial year of 1297, then Bruce may never have had his opportunity to make his successful bid for power.

Pics are statues of Sir William Wallace around Scotland in order, Bemersyde near Dryburgh, Aberdeen, opposite His Majesty's Theatre,  Edinburgh Castle, Newmarket Street Ayr, St Nicholas Church, Lanark, Stirling Town Centre, The National Wallace Monument Abbey Craig, Stirling, showing it before and after it’s recent restoration,  Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and his memorial at Smithfield, London. There are others around the world that remember the Scots Patriot who so bravely stood up to fight for his country.

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

do you think there is any significance that alex's colour scheme is green and pink? or do you think rr went "u know what this character needs? to look like a watermelon"

((Prefacing this by saying that I'm giving RR way too much credit here, but you shouldn't take anything an author does for granted— even a serial author who often makes blunders and mistakes.))

A while ago I saw a (pretty unfair) assumption that RR made it green and pink because blue and pink would be too obvious, but that his intention was obviously to reinforce the gender binary by using two distinctly gendered colors for a character with two distinct genders. Of course, they did not phrase it so delicately. No offense to whoever made that post, but I disagree.

Although that may have had to do with it, there's other things to consider. One of them is color symbolism. And oh. OH. I ADORE symbolism— especially flower/plant symbolism (Language of the Flowers and all that jazz), seasonal symbolism (there's a reason that evermore is my second favorite Taylor Swift album), and color symbolism.

GREEN

Let's talk about green first. Green can symbolize a lot of different things, and there are a few that can be applied to Alex's character. The most obvious thing that green often represents is jealousy— hence the expression "green with envy." But envy is not really one of Alex's character traits. Feel free to argue with me if you think that Alex is significantly envious. Just because I couldn't think of substantial textual evidence for it does not mean that there isn't any.

One of the traits that Alex does have is wealth. Green is the color of American currency, and since both RR and Alex are American, it's safe to take an American lens while looking at this color. Alex's socioeconomic background effects her in a big way. I mentioned in a previous post that I think that Alex's fatal flaw is her sense of entitlement. That kind of entitlement is a quality not exclusive to but common among the upper class. However, her distance from her wealthy background enhances the sense of irony in the story, which is a VERY big thing that we NEVER talk about within the fandom.

This is kind of a little thing, but it's worth noting that when it comes to Valhalla and everything, Alex is "green"— as in new and inexperienced.

The color green also emphasizes Alex's connection with nature. This is one of the parts of Alex's character that the fandom consistently underplays, which is an absolute shame. I don't think I have to explain why the color green is associated with all things natural. Alex's association with nature provides a few key things to her character:

It makes her a more well-rounded character. Another criticism of Alex I believe is totally unfounded is that "being genderfluid is her only personality trait because it influences her philosophy on pottery, which is her only hobby." I'm probably going to make another post in, like, a few minutes about why I find that argument a little silly, but the primary problem is that pottery is not Alex's only hobby. She also loves camping, hiking, and ice wall climbing (I bet y'all forgot about that last one!)

It gives her a connection with Magnus. I mentioned in a previous post that Magnus and Alex are foils, but I neglected to bring up why that also makes for very good chemistry between them. Of course, yes, they have different goals and philosophy, which is what makes them foils in the first place. But foil relationships function best when the characters also share some traits. As it turns out, Alex and Magnus share several hobbies, and one of them is a mutual love for nature. This is a very unexplored thing in fics. Start doing it more plz.

Finally, and this one's kind of minor, but the Alex's green gives her a connection to Natalie. I know, whenever Alex and Natalie are compared, either in canon or in fandom, everybody kind goes "eww. Oedipus complex." Which is very fair and true. But they really do have a lot of similarites. The green of Alex's hair and clothes connects her to the green of Natalie's eyes. It's worth saying, too, that Alex has one amber eye— and amber is pretty close to dirty blonde, like Natalie's hair.

If I had more faith in RR, I might bring up the concept of intextuality and how Alex wearing green is an allusion to The Great Gatsby and how Alex is elusive to Magnus, just like Daisy is to Gatsby. But I don't.

PINK

To give credit to the person who wrote the post I mentioned at the beginning of this spiel, I do believe that part of the reason pink was used was to support femininity. Please keep in mind that Alex dresses in an androgynous way— not that there is an actually "gendered" way to dress, since gender as we perceive it is mostly made up. But Alex's existence as a transfemme person (which I will maintain until my dying day) means that pink has a certain significance to her. A lot of AMAB people embrace traditionally feminine things because if they don't, they will not be accepted as genuine women or genuine nonbinary folks, since masculine dress is unisex and kind of the default. So Alex wearing pink probably had something to do with her gender, yes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it's certainly not an unrealistic thing.

Speaking of Alex's gender in relation to the color pink, let's talk about pink's use as a queer rights symbol. Alex was RR's first character to be introduced as a queer character from the start. This was not an insignificant thing, especially in the year of our Lord 2016 (which, despite popular belief, seriously had an entirely different landscape of queer rep. Though it's commonplace now to include genderqueer characters, it was exceptional at the time— especially by such an accomplished and mainstream children's author.).

Let's go back in time to Nazi Germany. Some of you might know this, but for those of you don't this transition must seem jarring. I swear there's a point. In addition to Jews, Romani individuals, people with disabilities, and Poles (among others), gay men were victimized by the Nazis. If you're wondering why lesbians weren't persecuted, it's because the Nazis didn't see them as a serious political threat, or as a threat to the perpetuation of the Aryan race since they assumed gay women could be forcefully impregnated if need be. Yeah, ew. Anyway, much like the Star of David being used to mark Jewish people, gay men were forced into concentration camps and forced to wear a pink triangle. Years later, after the gay population somewhat recovered, the pink triangle was reclaimed and used as a symbol for gay men. Some people who were not gay men used it, too, but that's somewhat controversial since it wasn't their symbol to reclaim. When the first pride flag was created, it had a pink stripe at the top to signify sex (this was later dropped so flags could be more easily produced). The pink triangle (inverted) was used during the AIDs epidemic with the caption "Silence=Death."

My point is that this is a very important color to queer folks. Having one of the first genderfluid characters in kid's lit wear pink...... I mean, it makes sense.

The last and final thing that pink represents, in this context and in general, is innocence. Granted, this kind of connects to feminitity since women (especially white women) are often infantalized and seen as innocent— which is another issue. In any case, the use of pink to represent innocence in Alex's dress is ironic. Alex has been robbed of her childhood innocence, first by her abusive parents, then by her life on the streets, and then by her eventual death at age sixteen. But then she actually regains her innocence. At the beginning of the—

Hold on. I just had a revelation. I'll make a post about it soon.

At the beginning of SotD, Alex is acting a little childish. The most obvious example is him jumping on Randolph's bed to "make noise." Alex's life is stable and relatively healthy for the first time in the years, and she experiences something that a lot of queer folks experience: a re-emergence of childhood at a late stage.

I imagine you didn't expect a post this long. I either make essay responses to asks or I add on one sentence and post it. Oops. Anyway, I believe the mcga fandom can be more creative than calling Alex a watermelon. Here are some other (kinda romantic) pink-and-green alternatives:

Roses

Dragonfruit

Grapefruit

Cherry blossom trees

[paraphernaliawagon]

I highly recommend the “Innsmouth Legacy” series by Ruthanna Emrys. Emrys is a Jewish lesbian author and serious Lovecraft nerd who basically made her own version of the mythos universe that’s more SF adventure than cosmic horror. I mean, there is horror, but it’s mostly caused by people. She got the idea from a throwaway line in “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” that said the US government imprisoned the Innsmouth residents in camps after their raid on the town. Some of the Lovecraft bros who sent her hate mail (because that is of course what the gatekeepers of this fandom do, sent hate mail to women and minority authors, and anyone who dares refuse to fall in line with their cult of personality that considers anything other than endless imitation and apologism for Lovecraft himself an insult and a betrayal) actually had the gall to accuse her of making that up, because actually reading the source material closely and taking what it says seriously is actually NOT what they want, apparently.

The story takes place in 1949 and is from the point of view of one of the few survivors of the Deep One community on land. So it’s about the Deep Ones as a hated, dehumanized religious minority that’s survived attempted genocide justified by lies about them practicing human sacrifice. And one of the other main characters is Jewish.

It’s a heavy read because of the literal concentration camps (scenes that take place there are only in flashbacks.) It has its flaws—for one thing, she also attempts to tackle the subject of the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII, and doesn’t do a great job of it. (Nearly every time Neko Koto, who is the most prominent Japanese-American character and is basically the heroine Aphra’s teen sidekick, spoke in “Deep Roots,” I was like “wtf no real person talks like this.” There is no way she would call the Deep One elder S’vlk “S’vlk-sama.” Nobody else present speaks Japanese. I think she would call her by her title Khur S’vlk, or just S’vlk because that is what everyone else calls her. Also, yeah, her name is literally Neko. It’s a nickname that she prefers to her given name, Nancy.) And the story is kind of disjointed, especially in the second book, because it’s trying to do too many things with too many characters at the same time. IDK if it’s among the very best modern Mythos literature, but it’s definitely interesting, original, bold, and heartfelt, with a large and diverse cast of interesting characters. And also extremely gay. Worth checking out if the words “gratuitous lesbian fishwoman kiss” make you excited. (there’s one of those in the second book, “Deep Roots”). Basically it’s about marginalized people finding community together in the face of a hostile, frightening and uncaring world. And it’s for people who read the ending of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” where the narrator talks about swimming out to Y’hanthlei to live forever with his Deep One kin and worship Cthulhu, Dagon and Mother Hydra and thought “i wish i could do that.” (although there’s also that cult in the first book who thought exactly that and tried to do it despite not understanding anything about what they were doing and literally drowned themselves because of cultural appropriation. “cults are bad” is also a major theme here)

I’ve been meaning to talk about these books for some time, but @minerfromtarn ‘s post about Jewish lovecraft protagonists reminded me of them again