#that said - logistically i have no idea how to make such a thing canon?

[arolesbianism]

Thinks oh so hard abt raccoon au printing pod doomed yuri.... What if you were a robot in love with your fellow robot but your past human selves had to fuck it all up and murder eachother 🙄

[lemonhemlock]

the thing is i don't care about how hard it must be for the hotd writers to adapt from book to screen with budget and time limitations (even though i am historically sympathetic enough to these difficulties and i do understand the need to make changes to fit the story in a different medium)

but what i see as understandable excuses would be shoddy cgi or costumes and less impactful action scenes or even fewer action scenes/battles. which we already got anyway, the only battle (rook's rest) is humdrum and rather spiritless. to a certain extent, i can even excuse cutting out characters or merging them or simplifying storylines.

be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that, even the scenes which should have cost the least amount of money in this whole production, i.e. the sitting-around-in-rooms-talking genre of scenes for which GoT became famous, SUCK. the politics in this show are non-existent. the characters' motivations are so wishy-washy to the point of parody. the character arcs look like they were settled via a game of russian roulette. the S2 version of characters doesn't make sense as a progression of their own S1 canon.

and this has nothing to do with money OR time constraints. it plainly only has to do with bad writing. a talented writer can absolutely have a canon-divergent vision and an understandable desire to adapt their own vision. but they have to recognise if they have the TIME or the BUDGET to bring that canon-divergent vision to life, if they can sufficiently commit to integrating those changes in a way that feels organic to the characters. IF NOT, THEN DON'T DO IT.

i get it if they're big rhaenicent stans or if they really, really like this version of alicent that lives in their heards, the one that would ditch her kids in favour of rhaenyra or if they're so enamoured by the idea of heroic rhaenyra (and that's just scratching the surface when it comes to all the points the show fumbled). but if they don't and can't fit those changes in a way that doesn't destroy the logic of the narrative, in a way that doesn't leave other characters hanging dry with no motivation left to carry out the plot points they have to hit, they should have had the maturity to drop those ideas and settle on something else that could have been easier to film with the resources available.

i said it before and i'll say it again: 1) whether fans are satisfied with the changes made to the source material and 2) whether those changes make sense in the context of the show are two separate issues that apologists sometimes try to merge in other to muddle what the actual problem is. "oh you're just mad because it's not book canon" or "you're mad because your headcanons diverge" or "we had logistics limitations" are not pertinent responses to critiquing the integrity of the show's storyline!

so i hope the writers and executives see all these criticisms and choke because they did a piss-poor job of everything and turned S2 into a goddamn hack operation

[beforetimes]

Okay listen.

Listen.

Hear me out.

Your Shizun!Luo Binghe AU where he and Shen Yuan "switched roles". But acctualy it's an AU of your AU where it was still SY who died for LBH. With basically the whole plant-body thing still happening tho.

Imagine the angst.

ouhhh i do see the vision... logistically there would be a lot going on! like!!!

one ) the issue of the plant body. i don't think it would work in this au, unfortunately. i think i recall the plant body deteriorating when in contact with demonic cultivation/energy. so unfortunately it wouldn't work out long-term for shen yuan D: maybe instead of that, it would be more of a situation where? shen yuan's half-demon body was torn apart to such a degree that it seemed as though things were hopeless and he was dead. but piece by piece, bit by bit, his body dragged itself back and stitched itself together again. if you are catching my drift.

i think that this sort of scenario would give the story enough time between his death in jinlan and his eventual return!

two ) in canon, it's luo binghe having an awful time because of xin mo before shen yuan stepped in and died. here, though? i don't see a reason for luo binghe to be having one of those fits. at least not to the intensity where it'd tear someone apart and self-sacrifice was the only option. maybe we can still go with the idea of shen yuan being the one freaking out, losing it under the influence of xin mo, before luo binghe tries to step in to help.

and it's his shizun stepping in to help that really snaps him out of it! and doesn't necessarily stop the disaster in its tracks, but makes shen yuan realize that there's no way that he can let luo binghe be hurt because of him — not after the mess with the water prison (which i haven't said much about yet in any of my posts but! i have ideas!) and decides to take xin mo and turn it on himself, taking himself out of the equation before the sword could even think of touching luo binghe.

which would still lead to the aforementioned scenario of shen yuan's body being torn apart and needing to find its way back to itself. but also leave luo binghe behind.

three ) luo binghe's reaction! first: devastated. deeply irreparably devastated. the first time shen yuan died, luo binghe threw himself into his work and refused to acknowledge it. this time: watching it happen again, so close yet unable to stop it the same exact way it happened the first time—? luo binghe would have to be verbally wrangled down from leaving the sect entirely. i think it'd only be the combined efforts of liu qingge, yue qingyuan, and ming fan that would convince luo binghe to stay on the mountain. but he would absolutely regress back to the depressive state he was in before shen yuan entered the narrative. doubly so, even, when you think about how he didn't even really know things could turn up for him before. now he knows what it feels like to be coaxed out of that dark spot in his mind. and realizes the one person who could do that is gone forever.

liu qingge wouldn't know what to do. he'd try breaking into the bamboo house but all his bravado would quickly dissipate when he went into the dark house. small and silent, somehow feeling claustrophobic when he could recall the open windows and lights flooding the space before. he sees luo binghe, curled under the covers with a blank look in his eyes and his heart aches. tries to coax him out for food, only to get a barely-there, croaked and apathetic reassurance that he was practicing inedia and would like to go into seclusion so could no one bother him please?

and liu qingge would just be. so out of his depth. everyone would be, really. they leave luo binghe alone for the first year, and when he finally comes out around the third, people are careful with him. luo binghe, in the meantime, has decided he needs to find shen yuan a second time. he invites liu qingge to come with him; yue qingyuan tells liu qingge, when he informs him of this, that he can't feed luo binghe's delusions and that he's unwell. but liu qingge just purses his lips and tells him firmly that he's not asking for permission but rather informing him. because he will be going. nothing anyone says will convince luo binghe that shen yuan isn't out there and liu qingge knows deep down that if he doesn't go with him, he will never see luo binghe again.

so they leave cang qiong mountain, chasing ghosts for two years before hearing miraculous news in a tavern somewhere close to home, almost too good to be true, about the ghost of a demon lord wreaking havoc near cang qiong mountain, demanding to see proof that peak lord luo binghe wasn't dead.

edit: or maybe not exactlyyy this ending. i think i underestimate shen yuan's obliviousness. maybe he'd still be trying to get away from luo binghe — either because he thinks his shizun would kill him or because he thinks luo binghe will somehow get hurt because of him. either way he might also just choose to! stay as far away as possible. only to eventually get caught out by luo binghe and liu qingge endlessly chasing him down to find him again. shrug. i like the idea of shen yuan terrorizing cang qiong mountain a-la-hua cheng for a while to get his shizun back though lmfao

masterpost

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

Pieces of media my mom has seen and the popular MLM ships in them that she doesn't think are gay:

MCU - Stucky (note that she does get a kick out of Stony stuff and she believes wholeheartedly that those two hate fucked in a not-filmed scene of Avengers 2012 so this is not about her thinking "oh Captain America is so straight-laced because he's the ideal American man" or anything)

MCU - Poolverine (she's fully aware and accepting of the fact that both Logan and Wade are canonically queer characters but she thinks all the flirting Wade did with Logan in the newest movie didn't necessarily mean anything because "he talks like that to everyone". Side note though: while she believes Wade should be with Vanessa, she does think that Logan can and should shoot his shot with Wade after Vanessa inevitably dies since he and Wade are both immortal. It's just that she thinks Wade should get his happy ending with Vanessa first.)

MCU - Lokius ("Mama have you ever seen a man fix another man's tie like that" "No but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen! I wouldn't know though; it's been like 15 years since I worked a corporate job.")

Sonyverse/Marvel - Symbrock ("They literally have a symbiotic relationship. That doesn't make them gay." So I showed her the comics where Eddie calls Venom "love" and gives birth to Venom's babies and she said "Fine you win but please never show me alien man birth ever again."

Supernatural - Destiel ("They're like Steve and Bucky! They're brothers in arms! They've been through hell and back together!" Note that she only watched through season 5 but she does know about a lot of their later interactions because I told her about them)

House M.D. - Hilson ("Dot I watched that whole show and they were never anything more than good friends" "What about when House admitted to thinking about Wilson during sex? What about that whole episode where they pretended to be gay for each other to prove a point to a neighbor and Wilson proposed? What about that whole episode where Wilson had to furnish the apartment and House told him not to let a woman tell him what to do but Wilson let House tell him what to do? What about the whole ending?" "Why can't two men just be close enough friends to joke about that stuff with each other?"

Real life - Me and my best friend of the same gender orientation who I've kissed multiple times and have had a requited crush on for years that neither of us have ever persued for logistical reasons (I literally used me and this friend to try and prove my mom wrong about Stucky and Destiel. I asked her if she thought me and this friend were like brothers and she said yes with a straight face)

Sherlock - Johnlock (to be fair this is the BBC ship name, but she doesn't think any iteration of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are the slightest bit gay. "They're business partners and roommates.")

Our Flag Means Death - BlackHands (Should go ahead and say that I'm not really a BlackHands shipper myself; we both really enjoyed Stede and Ed's romance in the show. BUT it takes so much away from Izzy's character and his development if you don't acknowledge that he was jealous of Stede and in love with Ed, at least a little. My mom thought Izzy was just an extremely loyal first mate.)

Also, for the record, I'm not trying to call my mom out as homophobic. I'm queer and so are two of my siblings and she's very supportive of us. There are gay romcoms she enjoys like Our Flag Means Death and Red, White, and Royal Blue. The reason I'm making this list is because I think it's really funny how she doesn't understand the concept of queerbaiting (not that all of the above listed ships are queerbaiting). She thinks things are either explicitly straight or explicitly queer (whether it's gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc) and cannot comprehend the idea that some character relationships are deliberately pushing the boundaries of straight friendships into queer relationships to get more minority viewers and I think her explanations are funny.

[itsa-me-lily]

This was yet again, not what I was intending to write. I was going to try to do the fic for the spa day hint but I got too caught up in my head on logistics. Remember kids, don't let logic or canon stop you from writing the fiction you want to.

This is a pallet cleanser for me after posting 'It's a Quarter after One'.

Here is the rest of the Simon & Thimble playlist.

Here is the MPS AU masterlist

Warnings;

Nothing really. Just tension.

Movie nights, were supposed to be peaceful. A way to unwind from the day and maybe, possibly, in the realm of, spend some time with a person who's existence didn't drive you crazy. So how this turned into you using Simon like a living barbie doll you weren't sure, but you couldn't complain.

That was a lie, you knew exactly how it turned into you belting Simon's pillows around his waist. You had a fucking point to prove.

Simon had been willing to watch a new documentary from the Smithsonian with you, a piece about historical fashion and the myths that spiral out of it. You hadn't thought that Simon would want to watch it, but he had shrugged when you'd ask and well, gifted horses and mouths and all that.

You had made veggie snacks for the boys, and popcorn for you and Simon, queued up the film and the night was off. For the most part it was alright, some stuff you already knew, others you didn't. Simon was pretty silent the entire time, until they got to the corsetry and the discussion of tight lacing.

Simon wouldn't believe the idea that it was mostly an illusion trick. Said that men were obviously smarter than that. You called bullshit. He called your bullshit bullshit. So belting his pillows to his ass.

And no, you weren't going to think about how thick his waist was, or how solid he felt as you tightened the cord around said waist. And you especially weren't going to look up at him because you were positive he was doing that thing where he was staring down at you with his dark eyes that made you feel like you were being sucked in via your soul and did not make your heart skip. Not thinking about it at all.

Giving the improvised belt a tug, and not thinking about his...everything, you nodded, pleased with how the pillows bulked around his waist. Now just for the final piece. You grabbed a throw blanket from the couch, wrapping it around the front of your husband.

(How dare that man be a fucking brick wall of muscles. Seriously what the fuck.)

Once you were ready you grabbed your phone, snapping a photo and disregarding the unimpressed look on Simon's face, already talking over his silence to prove your point.

"Look your shoulders are already broad enough," (Not thinking about it) "So we just had to balance out the width of your hips. Now instead of looking like a Dorito, it's like an hourglass, and your brain gets tricked into thinking your waist tinier."

You're zooming in to show him what you meant when there's a knock on your door, making the both of you freeze to stare at each other. You weren't expecting anyone, and given how tight his shoulders drew in, neither was Simon.

It was tense as you waited to see what would happen. And it only got tenser as there was another knock, whoever was at the door insistent.

"Oi LT, ye in for the pub? Never answered me earlier."

Oh. It was Johnny. At the door. To see if Simon wanted to go out. Because Simon hadn't clarified with him earlier? You almost felt like your strings got cut as you relaxed, looking at the door as you answered for Simon before the Scot could start knocking again, or break down your door.

"Just a second Johnny."

You looked back at Simon and felt your breath catch. He was so...intense sometimes. For a moment all there was, was you and him, the TV lighting half his face and showcasing the curve of his brow that lead to the bridge of his nose, the rest of his face hidden by his surgical mask.

"We should get the door."

"He can wait."

Simon's voice couldn't possibly be that deep most of the time. You'd have noticed it before right?

You had to swallow, your mouth turning dry as you tried to think of something to say.

Thankfully a certain impatient Scot saved the day by knocking yet again, though sounding uncertain this time.

"Are ye alright in there? Am I interrupting-"

"We're fine MacTavish."

You had to make a break for the door then, or else you were all going to be stuck in some loop of talking through a door or not talking while the oxygen apparently left the room. You made an effort to try to ignore whatever Simon was doing behind you as you made the few steps to the door to open it, unaware of the flush that was painting your cheeks.

"Sorry about that, come in."

Oh. Kyle was with him too. You waved over Johnny's shoulder giving the young man a happy greeting, but both of them were too busy staring over your shoulder into your living room. You hadn't really give Simon time to unpillow his ass...oops.

"I was trying to show Simon how proportions with creating visual illusions..."

"Ye look thinner Lt."

You shot Simon an 'I told you so' look, which you were pretty sure he did not appreciate. Instead of trying to get himself out of his pillows he just crossed his arms over his chest, leveling his sergeants with a look.

"Not going out tonight."

"I don't think you have a matching handbag there Ghost."

You couldn't help but grin at Kyle's joke, though you tried to bite your lower lip to hide it. You had done this to the poor man after all. Neither Kyle nor Johnny gave the same consideration as they snickered. Simon didn't seemed impressed with any of you though as he came over, thankfully not tripping over his improvised skirt. With a curt good night he just shut the door in the boys face, though it didn't shut out their laughter as they walked away.

You two didn't say anything as you listened to the laughs fade into the evening. Once it was clear that your guests had left you looked up at Simon, noticing how the tips of his ears looked just a little redder.

"You could have gone out with them if you wanted. I wouldn't have minded."

Simon didn't seem to hear you at first, instead turning to head back to the couch, the blanket making a soft swish noise against the floor. When you didn't follow him he simply turned to sit on the couch, making it clear that there was space next to him on the couch.

"You proved your point. Now get over here so we can finish this."

Edit;

Simon does not care about if tight lacing was a common practice or not. He simply argued to a) argue with you and b) because a part of him was a 'little' hopeful that you'd pull a corset out of somewhere to model or something. Play stupid games get stupid prizes.

Edit edit;

Soap bribes reader to send him the photo of pretty princess Ghost and he hoards it for just in case black mail.

[mariacallous]

If it is not a burden to you, could you share details about old Star Wars EU, particularly about '80s-'90s, that you find interesting? Kind of interested in The Mindset that writers and fans had in the day.

Sure! Placing this under a read more because I have a lot to say and don't want to subject everyone to walls of text right away. I don't know if this addressed your question or if there's more you'd like me to discuss/explore!

The first thing I'll say is that what's interesting is that, from the beginning, canon and continuity have always been incredibly flexible with Star Wars. There are essentially no fans who follow or accept what's established or set as canon in its entirety, which is one of the reasons that Star Wars has endured so long and how people are able to stay with it in spite of the Everything of it all. Essentially, everything has some level of truth or accuracy or canonicity to it, even if the overall work itself does not.

Lucasfilm (and now Disney) have always reserved the right to make changes and retcons, too.

Additionally, George Lucas said there were "two universes" - the stuff he came up with in the movies (and other select works), and then the stuff expanded upon in the other works like comics and books. They're meant to reference each other and try to be consistent, but they can (and do) go off in other directions, with the films or George Lucas-stated canon idea or element invalidating the EU one.

I think what's important to know is that for the longest time, George Lucas stated that anything that happened/was set, in-universe, prior to the start of A New Hope/Episode IV was off-limits to writers and creators (this is a general statement and oversimplification, because there are things which were explored/allowed at times), so most of the books, comics, cartoons etc. took place after ANH and especially after Return of the Jedi/Episode VI. So because of that, for the longest time, the years prior to the Battle of Yavin were sort of nebulous and indistinct - obviously characters and events would be referenced or used, but you would never actually really *see* those events take place. Obviously, once the prequel trilogy was released starting in 1999 with The Phantom Menace/Episode I, that changed because now we have a fixed point in time and fixed series of events leading to what happens in the original trilogy movies.

Hitting pause on that for a second, the other thing to keep in mind is that it wasn't really until the late 80s/early 90s that there's an effort for continuity and consistency (partly because that's where you have some of the most successful and interesting books released, like the Thrawn Trilogy, and things starting to reference or more focusedly build off of each other, and so now Lucasfilm and its licensing staff *have* to start being more thoughtful and careful because now everything is becoming more referential) which is pretty apparent if you look at the comics and some of the other works and then the works that came out in the 90s and onwards (up to 2014 when the Legends shift occurred).

Anyway, all of that to say is that, much like with Star Trek and its fiction writings, there wasn't always a consistent effort and then, when it became more profitable and successful, a more singular continuity was established.

Now that I've spent all this time providing some of the logistical and other background, I think some of the ideas that I really liked and found interesting about the EU, and why while I'm sad that the shift happened in 2014, I can also see why it did (even if I don't agree with it) because a lot of the works reflect a late to post-Cold War but pre/early days of the War on Terror way of thinking about things.

I will also say that the definitive beginning of the end, for me, is the New Jedi Order series - which came out in 1999, at the same time as The Phantom Menace, and from that point on you see the shift to the War on Terror era kind of thinking, and the financial crisis and all of the cracks and insecurities that we were dealing with in terms of how the world order and, particularly in America, how our system of government was creaking and struggling and how far things had gone. The stories both get grittier and bleaker and it's also where you can see how the environment would come about that led to the sequel trilogy and the new continuity.

Anyway, the things I like about the EU from the 80s and particularly the 90s:

-The difficulties of governing a diverse and fractious democratic coalition, particularly in the wake of the downfall of a racist autocratic dictatorship which itself arose from the flaws and failures of a brittle and weakened republican system. Even without all of the crises and enemies and Doomsday Weapons of the Week, there's so much pressuring the New Republic and the tensions involved in trying to address them without completely abandoning the core beliefs which drove the Rebel Alliance that established said New Republic. There's everything from corruption concerns to bitter factionalization to resource constraints and balancing the needs, sometimes mutually exclusive, of different groups. Sometimes this is handle or illustrated better than others, but it is consistent, and in a way that isn't just pew pew pew laser gun baddies badding. That obviously happens, but there's more to it than that.

-The focus on non-main characters and non-Force users. Some of the best books, IMO, are things like the X-Wing series, which involves a diverse squadron of fighter pilots taking on enemies of the New Republic and navigating life and the galaxy in those changing times. They're all gifted and skilled, but not necessarily in any extraordinary way - they're just a group of beings coming together to fight wrongs and help others. They're so interesting and (usually) handled well by the writers. They have some of the most enduring characters and just really kind of go into a different perspective with more average and common individuals.

-There's more exploration of different parts of the galaxy and different ways of life and situations - I just love how much it helps reinforce how large and diverse and interesting the GFFA is.

[lizzybeeee]

It's just a minor thing, but I'm annoyed at how during those missives about the South falling they start pretending like Skyhold is the only safe place that any of the population can stay in, but like--Chateau Haine was also designed to hold a huge population of people in case of the Blight! This, and a method of getting large quantities of people there using makeshift "aravels", is something that was detailed in Last Flight! The book they heavily referenced for Davrin's mission! If they were going to treat Isseya the Way They Did, they could have at least referenced her ingenuity that rescued so many people before she went mad. It wouldn't have fixed all of it but it would have at least been a nice touch. Hell if they had let us say Hawke survived, they could be responsible for leading people there because they visited Chateau Haine and know about this. It could be another of those "South repelling the Blight" counter things I saw in one of your replies, like how it makes no sense for Orlais to not ally with Ferelden out of "paranoia" in a worldstate where Celene is in charge.

Isseya & Chateau Haine

Loving the idea of Hawke (or maybe even Talis if you didn't anger her!) leading survivors to Chateau Haine!!! That's what the retreat was built for, after all! Since it's connected to Isseya it would provide an in-game reason for the Chateau Haine/aravels to be brought up as well?

I would have loved for their to be more mentions of (pre-mad) Isseya and Garahel in the game - what we see and hear of Isseya is so limited beyond her being the 'griffon boogeyman'' which really does her no justice. While we do get some humanizing moments/dialogue with Davrin, the whole time I was wondering why she was here? Bringing her back just to make her relive her greatest regret - I can get why they chose her, 'thematically', but I thought she had such a satisfying conclusion in the Last Flight. :(

(Also what happened to her when you defeat her? She just lays down and dies? lmao.)

If anything, the entire 'Blighted Weisshaupt' feels like it would better suit the Architect/Awakened darkspawn as some dark reflection of the Grey Wardens? Which was what the Architect was doing in Awakening: the inverse joining ritual, darkspawn consuming blood of the wardens, etc... That entire area looked like it could have been part of Awakening.

2. Skyhold

I was also really puzzled about how Skyhold seems to be the only fortress capable of withholding the darkspawn according to datv? The moment I read that they had brought refugees to Skyhold - as some final refuge from the blight (since Redcliffe and Denerim have both fallen by the last missive) my heart dropped because Skyhold is, comparatively, tiny.

Obviously, BioWare had limitations with their resources/engine and made a Keep that was limited in scope - I know that logically. But Skyhold is no Theirinfall Redoubt, Redcliffe, or Chateu Haine! A new player won't know it's size - but I do! I jumped off every staircase and walkway - I know that place!!! Even in cutscenes it's not shown to be much bigger!

(It's a nitpick, I know, I'm sure there's some logistics/retconning that make this less fatalistic - but how grim is it to imagine that Skyhold, of all places, is somehow large enough to house Ferelden's remaining refugees?)

3. Celene & World States

Like you said about Celene, the idea that she suddenly had such a radical turnaround in her position on foreign relations/policies (for no reason provided outside of paranoia!) was genuinely baffling. I can see it happening for Gaspard or for a world state where all three were forced into a truce - but Celene alone???

In trying to be as vague as possible about the south, they only managed to make it more noticeable that they were avoiding mentioning specific people: 'The leaders of Ferelden' and 'Orlais' rulers'. At the same time they canonize events/people like Harding talking about Blackwall/Thom Ranier and Sera? Two characters you can not recruit?

Losing the DA Keep in this game was a damn shame. It could have been a great way to have past decisions we made come back meaningfully in showing how the south of Thedas can defend itself against the double blight. It's not even a new idea! The comment I made about a 'south repelling the blight' counter was based off of Mass Effect 3 and how they used the galactic readiness meter.

You got a series of messages/cameos relating to quests you did in previous games, with people pledging to help you in taking back earth...it was genuinely heartwarming and rewarding to see how a person I helped two games back came to help Shepard. Certain decisions also could really bite you in the ass and I loved seeing that! It could have been a great way to provide closure for what choices we made through letters/missives/dialogue - showing that our Warden, Hawke, and Inquisitor did made a difference.

(It would also be an incentive to play and buy earlier games - to get a better ending! Unlike datv which really gives no incentive to play previous entries in the series.)

Just off the top of my head:

Bhelen is King -> he allows casteless dwarves to fight the Blight and support the warriors.

Harrowmont is King -> he refuses to let casteless dwarves fight and half the warrior caste dies.

If the warden is a dwarf commoner -> you can have Rica lead a coup and depose Harrowmont, becoming Queen.

If the warden is a dwarf noble -> they kick Harrowmont out and install Gorim as King.

If Branka was left alive -> she goes crazy from the blight and creates red lyrium golems or something else horrifying. To stop the golems the dwarves have to abandon Ortan Thaig.

A Dagna who was supported in her studies manages to create some newfangled rune that helps hold the tide back and she becomes a paragon.

(I recently just finished a dwarf commoner playthrough so i have a lot of dwarven thoughts at the moment lmao)

Thanks for the ask! You got my brain going with this one! :)

[chaifootsteps]

Brandon Rogers said that it can be scary as a fan to not know where all the characters will end up by the end. But the fact it’s all planned out and that they as writers know everyone’s “resting place”, makes it a bit less scary and more comforting. (I think he said “all the characters are where they need to be” and implied what they actually need is different than what they thought they needed.) he said knowing their fate is less stressful.

But not to me really? I’d be a lot more comforted if I felt like the stories could still evolve and change at least partially based on the feedback from the audience. I guess that’s the thing with animation taking so long, the story is set in stone and we can only watch and react too late. Viv is completely in her own head when she’s writing this stolitz stuff, and nobody close is brave enough to tell her straight that this is abusive, it isn’t romantic whatsoever just because people ship it. At some point we have to admit the point of shipping is playing with dolls in an idealised way we prefer, it doesn’t reflect the reality of the actual story and the dynamic of characters.

As it is, the statement above comes off as them harshly doubling down on whatever they have planned. And it’s starting to get to me a little that whenever they ‘talk’ to the fandom, it feels like they’re only talking to just stolitz shippers as if they’re the whole fandom, when they actually aren’t. And I mean really, not one person saw what went down with Circus and said “Viv, I know the kiddy shipping fanart is cute, but please don’t undo years of work and the story of an entire season, by retconning the writing around the whole series” Like she did when she ditched the pilot for making stolas look too mean, despite the heart and soul put into its art, and how fun and uplifting it was not because of but despite stolas.

She wrote s2 when LooLoo land was airing, I feel like she should have waited a bit to see the responses and how it comes across on screen. And maybe pay better attention to Stella. Especially with the ash-tray blitz scenes and the infamous chain scene. That’s why I feel like The Circus is nothing like the actual ongoing canonical story, it’s just a grandiose piece of stolitz fanart. Please medrano, don’t do that again.

The fact that it's Brandon Rogers saying this, and that he said the characters end up where they need to be, gives me a hairline amount of hope. Not much though, since it's obvious Viv's running the show and her idea of "where the characters need to be" is fellating each other and leaving the logistics of whether it all makes sense for her fandom to slap headcanons on.

It's true though, and I'll never understand this crew's obsession with spoiling as much of their plots as possible. I don't want to know that it all ends up okay, I want to bite my nails wondering whether these characters will make it to the final credits alive or not.

[blorger]

Can I ask how the headcanon of Desi Harry came about? I'm curious, is all.

As much as I enjoy it, I sometimes have troubles with picturing Canon James as anything other than white (so in the end I always separate Canon James and Fanfic James as two existence that have zero relations to each other). I think it would be fun to HC Lily as POC, but seeing as that would also make Petunia less likely to be married to Vernon (if I remember correctly, well, he's a general bigot), I would hit a wall.

I actually can't pinpoint what fic/fanart started the brown Harry movement. For as long as tumblr existed there's been a racebending faction of the fandom who liked the idea of non-white Harry; the headcanon could very well be much older than that.

I was so sure the idea of a brown/desi Harry was inspired by a line in OotP where Harry is described as having gained a golden tan during the summer at the Dursley's (from spending so much time outside trying to listen in to the news) but I went looking for it and it's not there, which means I've once again mistakenly incorporated events from fics into canon (that happens more often than you'd think). Even without discussing Harry's ethnicity, fics have definitely been using the world "golden" when referring to his skin for a long time -at least since the before DH times but probably earlier than that- and that could very well have contributed to the brown Harry idea.

As for fics describing the logistics of said headcanon, a popular method is making Harry's paternal grandmother indian/middle eastern/some other ethnicity, leaving the Peverell/Potter line white. I definitely have seen fics that have James/the Potter line be fully brown but I can't say I know of any works where Lily is the non-white parent, most likely because she's a redhead and non-caucasian redheads are quite rare. Like you mentioned, the Petunia thing definitely works against headcanoning a different ethnicity for Lily because Vernon definitely gives big bigot vibes, though I imagine some fanworks have found a way to make it work; personally I haven't seen any non-white Lilys so I can't speak to that.

At the end of the day I'm guessing the brown Harry headcanon originated from the same mindset of wanting a more diverse cast of characters that spawned black Hermione. If you want to read more about desi Harry you can check out this tumblr; it's no longer up to date but there's a lot of discussion on the theory behind the desi Harry movement, hope this helped

xoxo

[zeravmeta]

Super Sankta 2 Exu sounds like an excellent idea Zerav. For maximum meme, she's a John Wick style Guard- just uses guns to bash in people's skulls.

Super Sankta 2 Exu whose going John Wick style on people is funny but my concept for Exia Alter was always based on like, the concept that Skadi Alter first introduced that we all thought at the time was gonna be the standard fare for alters

My Ultimate Sankta vs Exia 3 concept was based around the idea of a "Bad End" Exia the way Skadi Alter is, where Exia would be further mechanized ala Executor and become an emotionless seraphim-type unit who would essentially be the ultimate Sankta weapon. This would happen as the result of Laterano having some kind of big event that would cause them to pull all remaining Sankta from all corners of Terra for their promised day of ascension where they would leave Terra and all its problems behind, with certain Sankta (Like Exia) essentially being the vanguards and protectors of these people (I essentially just took the idea of the Rapture and assigned it to the Sankta), with the event concept in question being Penguin Logistics invading this holy land to save their girl.

So like. you can imagine how hard ive been popping off with all the new lore reveals we've gotten over the past 2 years. That said, this concept is a little outdated, and just leaving it at that would be no fun

So here's my pitch for how Exia Alter 4: The Quest For Peace would go with modern foresight (added read more because reasons)

The Popes basement computer in Zwillingsturme just let out a directive that they need to gather their best Sankta to fight against the end of the world. This is in conjunction with the last few events squarely tying together Iberia's Seaborn plotline with both Laterano and Siracusa and their dividing faiths. Now, all of this is in conjunction with the hints we've been getting that Penguin Logistics is going to split up (Lappland and Mostima have already flown the coop, and currently the rest are in Siracusa helping Texas the Amogus, but that will likely not last especially bc Exia's own anniversary line all but majorly hints at this split happening because they all got different stuff going on)

If Penguin Logistics splits, Exia will well and truly be left without a support system.

Now, Exia has always been kind of off as far as Sankta go, because for all intents and purposes she shouldn't be out of place: We see just how Sankta tend to act in Guide Ahead, and Exia didn't really seem all that different. Yet, when we look at her history and actions (she was basically kicked out, she was super accident prone which made other Sankta hate her, as part of Penguin Logistics shes constantly drunk, Texas herself says that Exia being an optimist makes her different, etc), she's actually Really different.

Almost like she has an abnormality compared to other Sankta. Me and a few others (check out @annierosaart post here) have speculated on her being different, but we also don't really know WHY: Even if she was suddenly disconnected from the Sankta empathy powers, we don't see any indication of how, and unlike Ezell we don't have any sort of 'wake-up' moment for her.

But given the weirdness about her and her lines, I think I know what the exact nature of her abnormality may be (and heres my pitch) when looking at the most relevant characters who have abnormalities, namely Executor and Arturia, because I think she falls in line with them (shameless plug to my old exia/executor buddies post):

Executor's abnormality is that his emotions are incredibly muted compared to others. He isn't heartless or emotionless, but more that his heart and mind runs on rationale and logic first and foremost, which almost disqualified him from being canonized had he also not been Laternos single most competent man because saint fedex is entirely disconnected from caring about petty things like being racist.

Arturia's abnormality is that she is receptively empathetic to the point she has nothing within her. She can remove the inhibitions of people, and this is in service to understanding them, because she lacks an understanding of herself: She has a grand dream of an empathy for the world even beyond the Sankta Empathy power, and to accomplish this she draws out the emotions that people hide. As a result, she reflects the emotions of others within herself and thus is incredibly empathetic to the point she's also lacking in emotions and a self.

Exia? I think that her abnormality is that she's too emotional, that the emotions she feels are far more amplified compared to others.

I believe this for a couple of reasons: All the weirdness surrounding her aside, whats the one thing that's always defined Exia? Her Rapid Casting EX. It's always been memed about, but simply firing a single bullet from a gun is akin to casting an Arts attack, with guns serving as a type of wand in these cases. Exia is the only character within the series whose been noted to be so fast with her arts and casting.

This post here does a phenomenal job expanding on this point, but Arts are an expression of the soul, they're influenced by emotions and become stronger with them because they are ultimately expressions of the self, which all characters in and of themselves having a "unique" arts inherent to them. Hell, all of Leithaniens arts are based around using musical expression, while Sarkaz are noted for their arts based on souls and memory, with the literal main heroine of Arknights having an empathy based arts superpower.

Exia, having Super Emotion as her Sankta halo abnormality, could explain why shes so good at gun, even without Oripathy, because said emotions are boosting her casting ability. Remember, anyone can use originum arts, it's just that oripathy is needed for them to be able to do it without a casting device.

This heightened emotion could also possibly explain her crush on Mostima, and even why Mostima is so weird/cruel about her: Mostima was simply a childhood friend alongside her and her sister, and yet when she left for Lungmen, Exia was hot on her trails and then waited 4 YEARS to be beside her and meet her again. She joined Penguin Logistics specifically because of Mostima. It's incredibly likely that Exia might have just had a small crush on her that then spiraled heavily because of this, and Mostima (with her chronic backstory-itis letting her find out that the whole Sankta and halo thing is a scam from her op files and events) might even be aware of this aspect of Exia, and may have wanted her to get over it, always leaving to try and make Exia move on but also always coming back because she needs to look after Exia. After all, if Exia had heightened extreme emotions, what are the chances she could die of grief? She already gets drunks regularly, and despite being cheerful and optimistic, Exia is wearing a mask hiding an incredibly depressed individual.

It could also be possible that the reason why Exia never noticed this is because while it doesn't let other Sankta feel her emotions, she can still feel that of others. She's always confused as to why back in Laterano people always accused her of being disingenuous, because can't they feel her emotions? Well, if she has Super Emotions, it could potentially be overloading her halo, so while she can receive signals, they can't be felt by others. Moreover, this mechanical aspect blends in well with her E2 art, where she is the single operator in the game without an animal/living motiff

Even other Sankta have birds and/or human statues and robotic elements (funnily enough, Executor Sniper only has crosses but even then he is clearly being themed as specifically an angel), but Exia? She has her guns, becoming wings as a ring forms with them. She's literally ascending while her wings become darker.

So what does all this mean?

Well, the Pope's basement bonzi buddy just sent out a directive for the Pope to gather the best Sankta to fight against the end of the world, and who else to recruit but a vulnerable, lonely Sankta who was kicked out for being TOO destructive? Exia's profile does make mention that despite appearances, she is also incredibly pious just like other Sankta, and if the Pope himself came knocking, wanting to give Exia a place back in Laterano, and in a high ranking, respected position no less?

She would jump at the chance, not only to be beside her sister (and possibly Mostima), but also to be accepted back into Laterano society.

Executors own halo has a mechanized element to it, where he also gains more parts to it when he goes from normalest man to saint fedex, so he likely underwent some kind of modification to go along with his promotion, especially because he also now carries an Nier Automata companion cube with him straight from the machine

If Exia is to be canonized, she might be adjusted in a similar way by The Law.

She might even be fully altered into becoming Laterano's perfect weapon to fight against the end of the world. The Witch King himself describes this approaching threat as a void of infinite knowledge which seeks to eliminate them, an unshakeable truth of existence that drives people insane.

The Creator must perish.

What better weapon to fight against such a thing than one who feels her own emotions so strongly she cannot be swayed? Or better yet, an equally as unshakeable, emotionless machine?

[thetarttfuldickhead]

I know that Jamie/Colin isn't the focus of this blog, but I really liked your "Locker Room Conversations" ficlet, and I was wondering if you had any headcanons/thoughts on how, in an alternate universe, a Jamie/Colin might shake out.

Well, to be honest I’ve never really thought about it too much since I don’t particularly ship Jamie/Colin, but let’s see what I can scrounge up for you, ey?

The one actual headcanon I do have:

Colin had a bit of a crush on Jamie back when Jamie first joined the team, and Jamie knew about it but never said anything. I entertain this notion at least half-seriously because I find it’s very entertaining to think about Jamie knowing and not really reflecting much on it, other than to go “uh yeah of course he has a crush on me who can blame him i mean have you seen me?”

Pre-canon angst

If you want something early and angsty and potentially canon-compliant, you could have the two of them hooking up before Jamie and Keeley get together (we have no idea when that was, but I think it was after Jamie joined Richmond purely for logistical reasons – hassle keeping a London girlfriend when you live in Manchester),. For Jamie it’s mostly about getting off and feeling a bit better about himself (both from making Colin feel good sexually and from Colin being a bit of a fanboy, giving his ego a boost) because Jamie’s not in a great place at this time. For Colin, there’s also feelings, so yes. Angst. Could end on that unhappy note, or you could go full AU and have Jamie slowly realizing that actually, he cares for Colin. (SHOCKER!) Obviously you’d need a turning point of Colin taking a stand and breaking things off with Jamie because he doesn’t want to be used like this anymore. He is a strong and capable man who deserves better! Cue Jamie having to prove his genuine affection and woe Colin back. Very classic rom-com vibe, and thus not my style at all, but I’m trying to give offer you a variety of flavour here.

Season 2 Enemies to lovers

In an another world, I think there’s a lot of potential for something set early during season 2, when Jamie first returns to Richmond. As mentioned in my recent post, I’m very intrigued by Colin’s reaction to this and how they go from him being very angry with Jamie to loving him so much, man. Besides, enemies to lovers is my one true ship trope, so I might even read this if I ever came across it.

Vanilla version: Colin is working hard to convince himself that he’s a strong and capable man, and he doesn’t need Jamie Tartt reminding him – simply by being around – of the person he used to be only a year before. Jamie is hellbent on repairing their friendship, though, and while initially Colin finds some measure of petty satisfaction at seeing Jamie’s bumbling attempts at making amends, he’s little by little and in spite of himself won over. I can see Jamie persistently taking him out on friend dates and Colin first agreeing only because he kind of enjoys torturing Jamie a little by being an ass, but Jamie is undettered and then they start having a really good time together and in therapy Colin comes to realize that part of his anger with Jamie is really anger with his own past behaviour – and maybe some shame over having had a crush on someone who was such an asshole. Over time, soft and mushy feelings develop. There are lots of hand-holding and cuddling and watching reality shows and bitching about the contestants together. They go on really stupid fucking adventures and love clubbing and once they come out to the team they are really kind of insufferable because their joint himbo energy is a threat to all of mankind, but they are so fucking adorable it’s hard to be mad (except for when they bring their bitchiest selves and team up to bring it down on everyone else, epic sassy style).

Dark/angsty/kinky version: Jamie is doing his best to make things right with the team, but Colin’s still not having it and in the end Jamie (remembering the crush Colin once had on him) offers sex as a way to make amends/prove how sincere he is. Colin can’t resist taking him up on the offer because even if he’s long over his crush the idea of Jamie kneeling in front of him, of Colin’s fist twisting in Jamie’s hair as he fucks his mouth, of Colin using Jamie however he sees fit and Jamie letting him… That does things for Colin, particularly when he’s in this vengeful state, yeah? Can end on a dark note, if that’s your jam, or end with some sweet comfort, aftercare and reconciliation.

Cracky post-canon poly shenanigans

Keeley is dating both Roy and Jamie, and while Jamie and Roy are not dating each other there’s this tension between them and yeah, maybe they wanna give this whole also sleeping with each other thing a go, except neither of them has ever done anything with another man before and so they’re a bit unsure about how to proceed and things keep Not Happening. (In this universe, Keeleys staunchly refuses to guide them, no matter how hot she’d find it, because she’s very much and rightly on the let Roy and Jamie sort Roy and Jamie out track.)

Jamie, glorious solution oriented himbo that he is, goes to Colin for some pointers on how to be gay, mate and after Colin stops staring inredulously at him he shrugs and gives him some general hints, the more gay love the better right, only Jamie soon comes back for a more hands-on tuition session because no, i tried, mate, but i just couldn’t figure it out, could you maybe show me instead? and Colin is a good friend (who once had a crush on Jamie), so yeah, that happens.

Keeps happening too, because everything Colin is teaching Jamie is working great and Roy and Jamie are very much getting it on and having a grand old time – but to no reader’s great surprise, there’s also some feelings starting to grow between Sassy Himbo No. 1 and Sassy Himbo No. 2. and in the end Jamie is not only dating Keeley and Roy but Colin too!

Colin only dates Jamie, though – the very idea of being involved with Keeley, a woman, or Roy, a Roy, is slightly nauseating and somewhat scary to him. There are no joint dates, no dinners for all four of them. Isaac is a little perplexed and initially concerned over the whole set-up but he sees how happy it makes his best friend so he rolls with it, even if he does end up having a talk with Roy about how he needs to make an effort to not look angry when Jamie and Colin go off together after training. I’m not angry, that’s just my face, Roy protests. Yeah, Isaac agrees, I know, bruv, but it’s freaking Colin out a little so maybe make an effort to not look like yourself, yeah? So the next time, Roy tries for a smile and Colin has trouble sleeping that night.

(For an extra helping of crack if Jamie/everyone is your thing: When the rest of the team learns of this, a few of the lads complain that it’s not fair that Keeley and Roy and Colin all get to have Jamie as their boyfriend when they don’t, but Jamie quickly assures them that he can be their boyfriend too! [Right… ? with sideway glances at Roy and Colin who just nod.] There’s plenty of Jamie to go around! Except he’s kind of busy with the partners he’s already got so maybe they need a scheduele and it’ll mostly be odd dates, but yeah, everyone who wants to can sign up for the Jamie Tartt Boyfriend Experience and in the end one fourth of the team is dating Jamie in some shape or form.)

That’s what I got for now. I hope at least one of them tickled your fancy, even if I strayed into OT3+ territory there for a bit...

[shmowder]

Noticed recently that there’s a lack of poly content on this blog and low key I’m shocked but then again I don’t imagine that there’s alot of poly content demand in this fan base but whatever I think it’s time to suggest the idea of a reader with two hands and those hands are for Daniil and artemy why pick one hottie healer when you can have both? Especially when said healers already have homoerotic tension with eachother! This is either going to be the most unstable polycule ever or shockingly calm one there’s really no in between in my opinion

Reader puts Daniil and artemy in a get along shirt and makes them hold hands everytime they fight

Putting them in a get along shirt? These men are making out in the corner of the room as we are speaking rn anon.

I get that the fandom plays on their rivalry for funsies and all but they're actually friends in canon, aren't they? They hold a begrudging amount of respect to one another and would've gotten along wasn't it for the families in powers toying with them like puppets on a string.

I mean Daniil was looking forward to meeting Artemy in a way, Isidor wasn't just an acquaintance to him but a dear colleague. Daniil held admiration for him and described him as selfless and kind hearted, Dankovsky actually complimenting someone!?

Daniil's problem is with the town and not Artemy or Menkhu's ways, Artemy just adores this town above all and took it personally. Otherwise, both of them always acknowledged how skilled the other healer is.

Then the whole murder thing happened, and it gave Daniil a false bad impression, leaving a bad taste in his mouth since Isidor was his friend.

They wouldn't be at each other's throats in a love triangle is what I'm saying, absolutely the opposite in a poly relationship even.

You'd have a harder time tearing them off of one another without them persuading you into joining, Daniil's honeyed words coaxing you, Artemy's heavy gaze undressing you.

A poly with them wouldn't be unstable or always calm, it will certainly have a strong foundation and a lively atmosphere.

Daniil wants his time alone? Artemy will keep you company instead.

Artemy is too overbearing? Daniil will keep him occupied while you get your personal time.

It's hard to feel neglected with Artemy and even harder to feel suffocated with Daniil. They balance each other out, they agree to disagree on certain things while their interests overlap on another.

They're absolutely unstoppable together, good luck winning anymore arguments if the two of them decided to team up or put their mind into something.

But they also share drastically different tastes and prefer contrasting lifestyles. Daniil wants the fame and recognition, he wants to live at the heart of the capital and keep up with the cutting edge technology. The conferences and galas, the upper crust society he wishes to mingle with just for a chance to spread the word about Thanatica even more.

While Artemy doesn't try to impress or appease anyone, he doesn't have anything to prove and couldn't care less about the legality of him preforming medicine. He has all this skill and knowledge which he will gladly put to use on anyone who asks for his help, no payment required in return. He wants a domestic quaint life in his hometown while he walks the footsteps of his father.

That's the one thing the two of them will always disagree about, and there are only so many weekly train rides between the two locations you can endure before it starts making you sick.

Artemy would want you closer in a way? He wants you involved in his life, in Sticky and Murky's life. His kids are part of him, it's a package deal.

While Daniil wouldn't only getting a fraction of your time, he is gentle with children but treats them as... children rather than humans or future adults. While nice, he won't form any deeper connections with them, more akin to an uncle than a parent.

The logistics of making it work will be very hard, not because of their personalities, they get along very well, but because of their contrasting lifestyles and differing ambitious.

The most tension between them there will ever be is when Artemy keeps making scrambled eggs while Daniil huffs and gets up to make his own sunny side eggs since that brute clearly can't follow instructions while Artemy rolls his eyes because once a Capital dandy will always be a Capital dandy huh Danya.

[fairytaehl]

YESYES I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID!! i loved the little detail with mu yao being the girl miaomiao defended (pei xiacen or smth is her name, i think?), and i feel like that was just a detail that was purely coincidental while ziqi was writing the novel, but it kind of makes sense at the same time?

i read that fanfic, too! while i liked the idea, i didn’t think it fit their characters but it was a good read nonetheless. ooh, yes, the fact ziqi and miaomiao are the only ones to remember it is so special to me as well, but it just makes me sad because they surely miss the other three a lot. i think it’s my roman empire tbh. it needs to be talked about more imo!! like, the bond between the four bamboo masters is just so ughofkgm.

wait, i really like that. honestly, it’s a bit funny to me that although 4/5 of the four bamboo masters have a trace of them in the modern world, liu fuyi just has none, LMFAOO?? i can definitely see her as a nurse, it lowk fits her! is guo xiu being his surgeon actually canon or is that your headcanon? because i love that idea sm hello??

honestly, this helped my lgief cravings a lot and i’m satisfied with the answers + it gave me stuff to ponder about and work with, hehe. I love to hear about your opinions of lgief and eat it up everytime.

yeah unfortunately i believe it was just coincidental. if we were to consider it seriously, and this is an american football field length stretch, but since mu sheng puts mu yao on a pedestal, and that girl is who miaomiao defends, theoretically, does he (ziqi) put that girl as mu yao because he sees her as something important and vital, in the sense that, to our knowledge based off what the drama shows, that was a scene that really impacted ziqi and how he saw her (miaomiao.) she (the girl) essentially is not even a person, but an event that is an entity in the form of her. and that is a core memory that he has to protect.

again, unlikely, but figured id think about it. and also, im not sure when CD was written in the timeline with this? so, who knows how that affects things. if we add on that girl being mu yao it makes it more confusing in regards to the transmigration. ive covered in other convos in regards to ziqi and miaomiao being mu sheng and lin yu so i wont go into it here, but yeah.

i agree with you! the bond between them, especially towards the end, was so nice. it wouldve been neat to see how their journey affected it, with their development; ziqi and his self-hatred and secret, fuyi with his guilt, mu yao not having the weight of avenging her family, and... miaomiao with her memory lol. shes just there basically. but we only get to see a snippet of it and the couples finally being together. i cant imagine much of what would actually happen in the CD world post-canon because it relies on fz's realization of overcoming the catastrophe of heaven, essentially ending their story, so a rewritten ending or something of the sort would be required in order to even touch upon anything after for them there.

its only for a millisecond and his face is mostly covered but im 99% sure this is guo xiu lol.

ofc! feel free to send me anything anytime! its fun to think about, except the ending. not gonna lie, the logistics of it hurts my brain so much i just nod and accept it. i have an understanding but nothing more than surface level tbh. mostly bc i care more for what happens during everything else, and its not quite necessary to comprehend to write fanfics either, which i may eventually get to post-canon miaoqi fics, unsure of if or when.

that also being said, totally open to anyone who reads this to ELI5 (explain like im 5) in regards to the transmigration gunk and the entirety of scenes we see in ep 32 LMAO.

[icespur]

Resurrected Akeshu Daughter Third Semester AU

Warning: Angst, and discussion of premature infant death. 

Extremely pissed Goro Akechi 

Please pray for Maruki's safety, because god, does he need it. 

Warning for graphic descriptions of murder and maiming.

I’m going to describe some of the brutal things Akechi might do to Maruki as an example of how furious and scary Akechi is here. But please don't take it as me attacking or disrespecting Maruki’s late English Voice Actor, Billy Kametz. This is in no way related to him and was never intended to. He's a wonderful man who got taken away too soon, cancer sucks. 

I enjoyed you, Anai, Rui, White Blood Cell. As of writing this I have not played Persona 5 Royal myself, but I can't wait to experience you as Maruki.(Wait, are those really all the anime voices I've heard him as? I thought there were more, bummer guess that's it) 

Rest well ❤️ 😇

………………………

4/27/24: Edited to in an attempt to make it read better, spaced out paragraphs towards the end, slight rewording, and replaced commas with periods at certain point

The timeline I have for Akeshu daughter wouldn't work normally with this scenario, unless we—-say, move the third semester to take place a full year later (so like, way after Strikers, December 25th 2017 - February 3rd 2018) 

So we are entertaining the concept that the Third Semester takes place a year after Strikers instead of right after Base Game Yaldabaoth fight going into a new year; for the sake of Goro and Akiren's daughter being born by then. 

Now remember in my past, very long sloppy “Panicked ParentGoro” post I said their daughter would be born 27 weeks premature and would have to be in an incubator for a while? 

Well, in this scenario, what if she sadly—didn't pull through and died. 

Goro's death and resurrection by Maruki would be a bit weird here. Logically in this scenario Goro would have to have really died in Shido's palace and so never got to reunite with Akiren and learn about the baby and stay, but for the rest of my idea to work, Goro would have to be alive and reunited with Akiren to witness their daughter’s birth and short moments of life for this to fully hit hard. 

So in that sense, the rest of this post won't make much sense logically with the timeline, but try not to think about the logistics too much from here, okay? 

Goro would witness the birth, follow the doctors to the NICU out of overprotective parental panic and stay by his daughter's side. But---between her early emergency birth, and her underdeveloped organs and frail body, it proves to be too much and she flatlines—-----in front of Goro. 

Akiren and Goro are both heartbroken but Goro is especially fucked up because he witnessed her death, so that just adds a whole other layer of guilt and grief to him. 

And then—-Maruki starts to change reality, not only is Akechi resurrected, but—---their daughter is too. Not only is she resurrected but she's full term and healthy. 

Now, this would make refusing Maruki's reality choice a lot harder for Akiren. It was already a conflict in normal canon Third Semester with Maruki bringing Akechi back to life for him, and it was “Accept false reality and live brainwashed in a happy world with an alive happy Akechi” or “Refuse false reality and join Akechi to defeat Maruki, take his treasure and bring back original reality even at the risk of Akechi going back to being dead.” 

In here it's: “Accept a false reality and live brainwashed in a happy world with Akechi and your baby girl that got taken away too soon, so the both of you can spend this reality living life as new parents.” 

Or: “Refuse false reality and join Akechi to defeat Maruki, take his treasure and bring back original reality even at the risk of Akechi going back to being dead again, and your daughter back to being a necklace of cremated ashes.” 

Now, I don't think the add-in of their daughter being alive would make Akechi struggle with wanting to stay, like Akiren would. He saw himself being resurrected as a leverage for Maruki and saw the perfect reality as enslavement and no better than being a puppet to someone else's desire. 

No, Akechi would still firmly want to return to the original reality. If anything he'd be even more dead set on returning because—--

You use his life as a bargaining chip in an attempt to convince his boyfriend of your view? Shame on you. 

You use not only his life, but the life of his deceased baby girl as a bargaining chip in an attempt to convince his boyfriend of your view? 

Oh—--

Oh—--- 

You must have a fucking deathwish, Doctor. 

You think “Newly nonconsensually resurrected” Akechi was unhinged and scary? 

Try: “Newly nonconsensually resurrected and still internally grieving and guilt ridden from seeing his infant daughter die only to see her alive, full term and healthy all for the price of your boyfriend accepting a false reality and stripping away yours and your daughter’s freedom” Third Semester Akechi. 

Akechi is LIVID. 

Takuto Maruki resurrected the wrong former Metaverse assassin and premature infant. Akechi doesn't give a fuck about how good of intentions this pacifistic bitch thinks he has. The man just unknowingly signed away his rights to a heartbeat and open casket funeral of old age. If Maruki wants to be in one piece and values having all his limbs attached and organs in working order, he better pray that he never ends up in a room alone with Akechi, because it will not end pretty. 

Akechi straight up tells Akiren, in a calm voice that you can hear struggling to not commit to manic and rage filled, but is somehow still just as startling at how calm it is; that if Joker wants to only injure Maruki and take his treasure to return to reality--- he better pry Akechi's phone out of his hands to make sure he can't access the Metaverse or Maruki's palace because:

“If I go with you, and I lay eyes on that bastard, I can't be held responsible for what I'll do next.

A mental shutdown is too good for that man----

I am going to take up sculpting and tear his face to shreds to recreate a mental shutdown with my own bare hands by gouging his eyes back into his skull until he bleeds tears.

I am going to shove my sword so far down his throat it will come out his ass---

I will borrow your dagger to manually castrate him--

I will tear his chest cavity open to rip his beating heart from his body and replace it with his cognitive treasure...

I will unleash every Almighty attack in my arsenal until I either pass out from exhaustion or until he finally collapses to the ground, where I will then empty all my bullets into him--

and for good measure to make sure there is nothing left for someone to even attempt to bury, I will tear him limb from limb, chop those limbs into tiny bite sized particles, and eat them along with the rest of his minced corpse.

Then, you and Mona are going to drive us down to the depths of Mementos, where we will seek out the biggest. Bottomless. Black. Pit. So I can proceed to shit his remains into.” 

Do not mess with Resurrected angry parent Akechi. 

Joker is also angry at Maruki, but not on the same level as Akechi is. Even he’s like “Akechi, I completely understand your anger but I don’t think Maruki Sensei had completely malicious intentions of bringing our daughter back to life, he thought he was helping us. I mean, I agree, it’s still not worth giving up our free will in the name of an ideal reality, but you’re at a thousand right now, and you need to take it down to at least 50.” 

[inkblackorchid]

Can I ask you something? Have you considered doing a fanfic of Aki facing odd against her hold black rose witch persona which I'm surprised wasn't a episode to begin with I mean the idea is too good to waste

The ask box is always open for a reason, my friend!

But to answer your question: Yes, I absolutely have considered the idea of Aki coming face to face with the Black Rose Witch and being forced to confront her own past in a very literal way. The problem with this scenario is mainly one: Logistics. Seeing as Aki can hardly physically split herself in two, making this possible would require supernatural shenanigans of some kind, if you ask me. And sure, 5Ds has plenty of those, but what to use? Time travel? (High potential to shoot yourself in the foot.) A sort of supernatural test of willpower? (Okay, sure, but where, why, and how?) Try to keep it simple, say it's just a nightmare and all in Aki's head? (Possible, but pretty basic.) Say Iliaster creates another signer double, and Aki has to take it down same as Jack took down his? (Runs the risk of being a rehash of the fake Jack episodes, unfortunately.)

Depending on how they're written, I don't necessarily think any of these options are better or worse than the other, and I agree, the opportunity to have Aki literally confront herself would have been great. As far as my own writing is concerned, my main issue, personally, would be where the hell to slot this into canon. Because writing it just as-is, with zero context and no place on the canon timeline, isn't my style. Therefore, I'd have to find a spot for this, and ideally give it some kind of nice payoff, too. And the way my Aki stuff is going right now, especially with the next, big fic I'm currently working on, I'm not sure I could fit this in anywhere. (At least not without making things seem really, really bloated in terms of plot threads and tension.)

That said, I have thought about it before, and may yet think more about it in the future. So I'm not categorically denying I'll ever write this. I'd just love to place it somewhere where it makes sense and haven't found that spot (nor the best way to execute this scenario) just yet.

[piandaoist]

Sometimes, I get stuck on Iroh's siege. Like, it spins in my head like a microwave plate. Weird, I know. After all these years, why am I still thinking about this bullshit siege?

I just… The walls of Ba Sing Se are made of stone, and they're in a kingdom filled with people who bend stone and dirt. It seems like the least viable option would be to attack these massive walls that your enemy's children can bend at you. Yet the Fire Nation kept "hammering away" at the Outer Wall as Azula put it. We can tie this nonsense 'strategy' into things like stupidity, hubris, greed, ambition, ego, the Fire Nation's unwavering belief in its own Exceptionalism despite all evidence to the contrary… And, let's be honest, there are a lot of real-life examples of people who are, frankly, just doing all kinds of stupid things for reasons rational people wouldn't understand. Personal reasons we aren't privy to, for example. Coercion and mental instability can also play a factor. Then there is the fact that some people truly believe they're smarter than the rest of us. But I don't want to speculate about the motives of every Fire Nation knob who tried to take down Ba Sing Se's Outer Wall because 'It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

For what it's worth, Iroh's motivations are both clear and uninteresting. He said he had a 'vision' of conquering Ba Sing Se. Which is…whatever. (Imagine you're the top general and you make all of your decisions based on Destiny.) I would have preferred canon give us something more interesting than 'destiny', but here we are. Who are we to dispute this claim from a guy who can see into the Spirit World? Not to mention, 'destiny' is one of ATLA's core themes. Personally, I always found it suspect how 'destiny' always seemed to line-up with ambition. It was Iroh's destiny to conquer/liberate Ba Sing Se (to further an agenda). It was Zuko's destiny to become Firelord (even if that meant he had to take down his own sister). Is destiny really on their side, or is it just bullshit Iroh was making up as he went along? Another discussion, another time, I suppose.

I'm more interested in the siege itself. How did Iroh ever get through the Outer Wall which, again, is made of easily-bendable earth? This next part is all speculation. No idea if any of this is covered in supplemental materials because I haven't been keeping up. But I needed to develop this for a story I'm not writing, so I have thoughts…

I think Iroh's siege was always meant to fail, just not in the way it happened. It was a trap. The planning went something like this…

A siege takes a lot of preparation--months, even years of planning. Logistically speaking, it requires moving around a lot of resources to get the resources and manpower ready for a huge push. There are a lot of moving parts. EK spies would have noticed things like resource reallocation, uncharacteristic troop movements, shipments of wood and other materials for the building of siege forts, a lot of weapons and artillery being moved to a specific location, maybe they'd gotten some inside intel… It's a bit of an undertaking to keep something like that a secret.

There's a good chance Iroh didn't know about the Dai Li presence in Ba Sing Se. Maybe he had an idea of some secret police in Ba Sing Se from some intel received decades earlier from some infiltration team, but he had no idea of their scope or reach. It's pretty clear they call the shots, not General How. How gets his walking orders from the head of the Dai Li, probably Long Feng. So, what happened? And why?

In the Five General's War Room, in Ba Sing Se, How confirms the intel that the Dragon of the West is going for the wall. A smart-ass makes a comment about how they should let Iroh's forces knock down parts of the wall and then they raise it like "Psych" until he gets tired and retreats. ;)

How looks at the general who always thinks he's the funniest guy in the room and says "Here's what we're gonna do. You're not gonna like it. We need you to take one for the team…"

A siege is probably one of the worst types of warfare. They often drag on for weeks, months, years… Resources are depleted and, if the enemy cuts your supply chain, you're looking at starvation and the rapid spread of disease as well as a shortfall of more men, weapons, ammo, and other materials. It's bad for morale because time erodes the men's resolve and frays their nerves. Iroh probably knows this but, you know, it's his destiny. Whatever. EK generals would know this, too; they're counting on it.

After six hundred days, due to various unpleasant circumstances, Iroh's army drops to an acceptable number of tired and broken men--a number the Dai Li is prepared to fight. Also, the Dai Li had to make it look like they were actually putting up a fight hence the timetable. But now it's time for the wall to come down.

The Fall Guy, General Funnyman, is there with his 'army', ready to surrender, giving Iroh his knife as a show of 'respect' for the unbeatable Dragon of the West. This gives Iroh's ego the boost it needs to convince himself that he can turn the tide in the siege. If, for a brief moment when Iroh's men were dropping like flies he questioned his destiny, that moment has now passed. He's within striking distance of his goal. The Inner Wall is literally within his sights, and an EK general is in his custody…

The remaining EK generals and several Dai Li have infiltrated Iroh's ranks. It isn't like Iroh knows the thousands of men under his command. How could he? And his command is in shambles, anyway. They're just running on desperation and hope at this point and no one is really looking at anyone else. They're all looking ahead, at this massive Inner Wall looming on the horizon, at the far end of a vast expanse of wide-open land.

All How and his handful of earthbenders needs to do is follow the last vestiges of Iroh's army inside the Outer Wall so they can close it behind, trapping Iroh's men between two walls. And those farms that maintain the land that feed the people inside of Ba Sing Se's wall and the structures built into the walls themselves are just crawling with eager earthbenders ready to take their pound of flesh from the Dragon's army. They can't wait to see the look on Iroh's face the moment he realizes it's a trap.

As Iroh is about the give the order to advance forward toward the Inner Wall, he gets word Lu Ten has died. You know the rest.

When Iroh abandons his siege, the commanders who are left realize they cannot take down the wall without him. Maybe some of them have figured out this is probably a trap? Others are doing the math on their losses thinking they just don't have the numbers or resources to mount a another siege on the Inner Wall? Maybe they think attempting to move across this landscape toward the Inner Wall is too great a risk? Some of them just probably want to go home. For whatever reasons, they retreat.

Iroh doesn't conquer Ba Sing Se and the Dai Li don't capture the Dragon of the west. Maybe the Dai Li capture Iroh's men, but they don't know where Iroh is because he just left… All that bloodshed and nobody got what they wanted.

Point is, things never go as planned. Life happens. Best laid plans, blah, blah, blah. Everybody just has to live with it. Everybody took huge risks with that engagement and thousands died and nobody came out ahead.

But at least General Funnyman got out alive. How was never gonna let anything happen to him even if he is super annoying.

Maybe when Iroh realizes how many Dai Li there are in Ba Sing Se, and of what the city is like, he realizes his siege was a trap. Maybe he realizes that Lu Ten's death saved his life.