#the tyrant answers

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

I saw a couple of posts here and on ao3 where you talked about how TOA Apollo has a stilted view of romantic relationships. Would you be comfortable explaining that, it got me really interested!

OKAY

SO

gonna be putting this under a cut for length

Apollo and relationships. Specifically, ToA Apollo and relationships.

let's see if I can formulate the thoughts into words.

Right off the bat, Apollo does have a hard time avoiding those red flags (hello, Commodus), so much so that he can see them...he just ignores them.

This already tells us that he doesn't have the healthiest view on relationships, or what specifically a healthy partner would be like.

In RRverse canon, these are all of his confirmed, canon relationships/love interests;

Hyacinthus

Commodus

Naomi

Darren

Latricia

Cyrene

Daphne

Sibyl

(I probably missed some asdfhjk)

Anyway, I've noticed that in canon, Apollo's relationships tend to fall into two categories; Sweet or Sour, we'll call them.

Now the majority on the list are Sweet! They are fulfilling relationships with no indication of any bitter feelings- Apollo is not shy about telling us about his love life, and certainly doesn't keep it from us when a relationship went south.

What I find interesting is that all three of the Sours can help pinpoint Apollo's more jaded/stilted view on romance.

Let's kick off with Daphne.

First things first, Apollo is quite literally forced to fall in love with her. Like. That has GOT to screw with a guy. What's more, is that when Apollo explains to us how Eros's arrows work;

What people do not understand: Eros’s arrows can’t summon emotion from nothing. They can only cultivate potential that is already there. Daphne and I could have been a perfect pair. She was my true love. She could have loved me back. Yet thanks to Eros, my love-o-meter was cranked to one hundred percent, while Daphne’s feelings turned to pure hate (which is, of course, only the flip side of love). Nothing is more tragic than loving someone to the depths of your soul and knowing they cannot and will not ever love you back. The stories say I chased her on a whim, that she was just another pretty dress. The stories are wrong. - The Hidden Oracle

There's an implication that he and Daphne may have actually been...friends. Or at the very least acquaintances.

It's never stated in canon when Daphne happened, and the mythology itself is weird about the timeline, but it certainly happened earlier in Apollo's life.

Imagine being forced to fall madly in love with someone you know and they are made to despise you.

The self-confidence definitely took a blow here.

What's more...

When she begged Gaea to turn her into a laurel tree in order to escape me, part of my heart hardened into bark as well.

Apollo tells us plainly that what happened with Daphne shook his views on romantic endeavors. Though, it didn't keep him from engaging in romance, either.

Now, back to Commodus real quick. We already covered the No Red Flag Bell with him, and honestly, I won't spend too much time here because I got a whole meta list waiting to dissect these two XD

But Sibyl reveals something else about Apollo and romance- sometimes, he sees it as transactional.

The story of Apollo and Sibyl does differ from the mythology of them- in mythology, Sibyl tricks Apollo into granting her a long life, and he kinda just shrugs and says 'okay, but you didn't ask for eternal youth either so...whoops?'

In ToA, Rick switches it up a bit by having Apollo grant Sibyl a long life after she jokes about it, and when she further rebuffs him, he curses her with no eternal youth.

Alas, I knew what I’d been thinking—that she was a pretty young woman I wanted to get with, despite the fact that she was my Sibyl. Then she’d outsmarted me, and being the bad loser that I was, I had cursed her. - The Tyrant's Tomb

I promised you life, not youth. You can have your centuries of existence. You will remain my Sibyl. I cannot take those things away, once given. But you will grow old. You will wither. You will not be able to die.

Yeah, it sounds like Apollo more or less curses her with no eternal youth here.

(Daily disclaimer that mythology Apollo's love life is actually very good and you should read up on it :3)

Back to the transactional thing-

"You cannot refuse payment." “Payment?” She balled her hands into fists. “You dare think of me as a transaction?” “I didn’t mean—Obviously, I wasn’t—”

Now, do I think Apollo sees all relationships as transactional? No. But let's consider the Olympian influence for a moment here.

Olympus in the RRverse is rather fucked, no doubt about it. The gods do not help without first being given something, and that permeates through their whole lifestyles.

Apollo's not being transactional because ✨misogyny✨. He's being transactional because that's what he's been raised to believe. If he gives something, he gets something back. That goes for all the gods, male and female and everything in between.

Bacchus helps the demigods in Mark of Athena because they paid tribute to him. Whenever a god extends aid, burnt offerings are made in thanks- which is probably part of the reason why Hera got angry with Annabeth when she refused to give her burnt offerings in The Battle of the Labyrinth after she helped her on her quest.

Apollo doesn't seem to be as picky as some (ie, The Titan's Curse, where he helps out to help out. You can argue he got his sister back in exchange but that's not really typical godly exchange lol), but it's clear that mindset has somewhat transferred over into relationships.

Now, I also want to talk about how Hyacinthus affected him- because let's be real, he was the one that affected him the most without outside interference (looking at you, Eros).

Apollo has told us time and again that Hyacinthus was one of, if not his greatest, love. His death really left a mark on him, and I am of the firm belief that it's that mark that made him wary of forming too close of a relationship with others- even when he tries to convince them and himself they are his One True Love™️, it falls flat inside his own head.

Because let's face it- that spot is occupied by Hyacinthus, and the hole he left in Apollo's heart.

This isn't to say Apollo loves his other lovers less- heck no! Love is one of his defining qualities. He has much love in him!

It's just that Hyacinthus had a particular impact on him, and how he views relationships.

*vibrates in Hyapollo multific* I have...my own personal ideas...on what that entails...

And we see how touch-and-go Apollo is with other lovers! As soon as Commodus becomes emperor, he's gone. And only comes back in disguise, never revealing himself until he kills him.

Naomi, Darren, and Latricia are all obviously loving relationships from what we can gather, but it's clear it was never long-term.

Cyrene, really, is where I'd argue he got the closest to a long-term relationship with a mortal-ish person, but even so, they aren't in a permanent long-term relationship either.

Hyacinthus, however? I can see he and Apollo maintaining an everlasting romance.

...Also because that is exactly what happens according to the Spartans and who are we to deny what the Spartans declared about their national hero?

The only other exceptions to this I can see are his relationships with the Muses and (hello, fellow Apricity shippers) Boreas.

But even so...the Muses give off like, 'married co-workers' vibes, if that makes sense, and Boreas is more or less a winter fling (fandom forgive me, you know I am a shipper🫡)

Anyway. Hope this rambling makes sense or at least provides a platform for someone to put coherent thoughts together lmao

In conclusion: sometimes Apollo is transactional in relationships because of the culture he was raised in, and he has commit issues because of just how hard Hyacinthus's death hit him :)

have fun pondering :3

[eye-of-yelough]

🫵 GORTASH ENJOYERS‼️‼️‼️

me and my most of my mutuals seem to agree that he was born evil, but we know it’s not the popular interpretation. either way it’s something we discuss a lot and it’s become a bit of an echo chamber, so, tell me your thoughts in tags!! i’d love to hear them!

[dilfdyke]

yall need to stop using chatgpt for math it cant do that

[whatsamatteratsu]

I'm curious to see what the diavolo would be like if he acted like a tyrant

Hmm in the case of this comic; Diavolo and Belphie would both have dishevelled yukatas. Also Diavolo would probably be with Belphie faster.

In terms of the entire series, I think the brothers would be kept on a very tight leash and I don’t think Diavolo would be as interested in uniting the three worlds. No one would be describing Diavolo as “so nice it’s hard to believe he is a demon”

[the-king-official]

Question for you my king, but what is the point of freezing a kingdom without the life of it. Sure you can view it like a museum, but there is no true kingdom to it. The people help make the kingdom, and them frozen in fear and anguish only makes it feel like it had already vanished. Like that.... like that one thing on the tip of my tongue that hurts to try and think of.

I’ve had about enough of people who don’t understand, arboreal one… What I do is not for the sake of others… It is for the sake of Vaugarde. I am protecting it… ooooh… preserving it so that it does not disappear… like the island every blinding one of you keeps bringing up…!

It will not disappear! IT WILL NEVER DISAPPEAR! NOT IF I CAN SAVE IT! NOT IF I CAN PROTECT IT! IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND? IS IT?

[brightsstar]

I was going to comment on how you've collected one of each version of Eclipse to rehabilitate except the backup-- but then I remembered that DUSK is the backup >u< But we've got two OGs in Eclipse and Nova, the backup in Dusk, and now the sad soggy cat in Ember <3 I love your boys so much.

We got the OG, a Servant, a Backup, and now the Resurrected wet cat, we almost got all of them lol

And thank you!

[master-thief-gray-shadow]

Reading about the San Francisco zoo on wikipedia and looking over the controversy section. Jesus Christ what the fuck is going on over there

[little-tyrant-gortash]

How does Gortash have ADHD? He is neat and organized, focused and not easily distracted, he's the opposite of that! He makes mistakes because he's too full of himself.

Dear friend of mine,

With all the respect and patience that exists in the heart of this neurodivergent individual, I'd like to strongly recommend you to research ADHD and how it can possibly look like in adults.

I'd also like to recommend research OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) in adults.

Yours truly,

Someone who actually has ADHD and was diagnosed as an adult 🖤

[deiscension]

﹄ ◇ ; @h3artf3ltint3nt / has caught the wind master's undivided attention.

     ⌜◈⌟    ▌ ──   "𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐬? Not to worry; you can tell anyone who takes offense that the Wind Master dragged you away against your will." Shi Qingxuan's fan does very little to hide the grin painting itself across wine-sweet lips. She offers the other her crooked arm. "So then, where shall this Wind Master lead you? Now is the best time to get your bearings if you already haven't. Or we could descend." Her eyes glitter with the prospect of donning a more human disguise and wandering about the mortal realm for no other reason than they could. "But I'm getting ahead of myself! It's your call to make."

[sualne]

Heyo, you've mentioned that in your AU Crocodile isn't going to try to destroy Alabasta, so I was wondering if his end goal is still Utopia but he's going to try other methods or if he has a complete different end goal?

im thinking his main goal is to secure a safe future for luffy, this version of croc started baroque works and his schemes after luffy was born, so if he's aiming for a utopia of sort it'll mostly be for his kid.

[tulipsnflowers]

nexomon character: Hilda

Hilda! As the resident ghost type expert I sure hope I don't disappoint about the ghost lady

Hi, so.

Hilda is the 5th Overseer we see, Ivan, Remus, Ira, Khan, Hilda

Everyone in the ghost town seems scared of her because she turned them into ghosts (Recently, if reactions are to be trusted), and she kidnaps Deena and stuff but then she turns out to be- very nice

She turned people into ghosts to protect them, and such, and she helps you speak with Ulzar.

Hilda are- are we not gonna talk about the people who talked about your maze like they died in it? no? alright,

I really like her because she's very nice and yeah, wisps are bad, but she would have revented it if not for a certain psychic cat, or so I choose to believe

She does actually help both Blue/whoever and Sols, and I love her for it

Oh! She's also Khan's apprentice, might I add. Which is always neat, and I love how Khan and her stick together like how Eliza and her Kinda do for Bolzen.

In n2 she plays a role much later on and still maintains that "oh crap she's going to hurt me- oh nvm she's great" and I love her for it

(Also I wonder if part of the reason why Hilda had to die, other than killing psychics, is so that ghosts would stick around, who knows)

[vegalocity]

Ok but like the oblivion au-

They do get into heaven. Via Nezha. Like, LBD still happens, and the sumadi fire. Mk is kinda like, “Ok, so imma put brain washing everyone on hold.” And he meets Nezha when the time comes.

Months later, when shit goes down, he brings in Nezha via Wukong, and gets him under. Using a special track for celestials. And boom. Celestial realm is his.

.....

Ayo wtf are you spying on @unseelie-robynx and I's discord Dms or smth?

Ok but actually Nezha being involved is absolutely part of the whole thing as it goes. Admittedly- this whole thing DOES happen after LBD, the Oblivion series in its canon is post-LBD but pre-Bull Family officially calling it quits for now on the world domination thing (I mean ive always been of the mind that the quick turn around on the villains is to the show's detriment but granted how short a runtime it has they have to work with very little and i respect that)

But in the Bad end/Tyrant Prince timeline, Nezha does in fact get involved. Because- well... the Celestials aren't SO detached that they don't notice a city suddenly being ENTIRELY run by Sun Wukong's successor who's now running around calling himself a prince.

And since he has a history with Qi Xiaotian, Nezha is sent to investigate. By this point there aren't speakers lining the outside of the city streets just yet, fully pumping the air with a low level oblivion high to keep everyone placid and happy, but in most shops and public/government buildings it's being very softly played, so Nezha as he does his investigating isn't... really finding anything too odd. People seem to be going around just as normal.

And it's so... oddly tranquil... the kind of sensation that makes you just... want to not cause trouble for other people, just go about your day and be kind. (and the fact that that thought is so eloquent and dictated doesn't occur at this point) And Nezha is of course lured into such a state of 'well this is fine actually' that he doesn't see any real danger in approaching Xiaotian himself to check in.

Nezha leaves Xiaotian's new home, some old abandoned estate that he was in the middle of restoring with the help of Red Son and Long Xiaojiao, positive that this new direction the city was being taken in was for the best. In fact he was ready to immediately return to the celestial realm and leave a glowing report on the matter. Because Qi Xiaotian is truly a VERY well meaning person and he's so very aware of the issues that mortals face from his own humble beginnings so he can be trusted to look out for the people of the city.

He doesn't realize the thoughts in his head don't sound like his own internal voice until he's just beyond city limits, and the sun has set, when it was high in the sky when he had entered.

In the Tyrant Prince canon- he only notices this because it was a slip up in Xiaotian's messier Prince Days, he had forgotten to tell him to fully disregard and reason away anything like gaps in time and other such oddities. So when Nezha realizes he's missing SEVERAL hours that don't relate to the information he had- and trying to think about the particulars of the conversation he'd JUST been part of... the details become fuzzy like he's remembering something from thousands of years ago.

And it scares him.

He doesn't return to the celestial realm, he's afraid that in that missing time something was put in his head that would make him a danger-

So he just...doesn't go back. That thing you mentioned in the ask? That's like his biggest fear during all of this 'tyrant prince' stuff, that he might be used as a sleeper agent, a cataclysm that would give the child unprecedented control over the celestial realm.

He makes it to safety in canon- and in fact it's his testimony that shuts down the entire celestial realm into quarantine, nobody allowed in or out of the human realm.

and it also catches the ear of someone that might be able to do more than just watch with nervous eyes as to what may happen next. Someone with a personal stake in this as a dear friend is caught in this web.

Someone that may grow fed up with this sooner rather than later.

[thesovereignsring-if]

1. How would the Ro's and Mc's brothers react to Mc going cold and distant.

(after their Aunt's death if is not spoilers)

2. How would the Ro's react to Mc ruling like a "tyrant" in reality their just a very good and just ruler but absolutely merciless to their enemies

(and anyone who disrespects their dearly departed aunt).

(Their cousin and pretty much everyone walking on eggshells everyday trying not to get on Mc's bad side since the whole Sins of the Father card gets you a one way trip to the dungeons or the torture chamber).

(just break their bones but let them live they say)

This ask is hard to answer without spoilers, but I will say that are certain characters in the cast who detest tyrants, even those with good intentions. How to you deal with your enemies/desenters will color your character as much as being kind to your allies.

How far can you justify cruelty? Your biggest enemy in the game will be your family. How far will you go against the law for your own means? How far will you go to punish someone with good intentions, but ambitions/ideology that go completely against yours? Would cruel punishments be warranted in that case as well?

Some characters/RO(s) will may to justify cruelty and ruthless for a better cause, but even they have their limits. Especially when there are better options involved.

I haven't decided on how ruthless/cruel you can be, but if you guys want to go that route, all I'm going to say (for now) is watch who you sleep next to. Your reign might be short in the end.

[apaleflame]

im not far into da4 at all but i really don't like the decision the writers made that seemingly EVERYONE knows that evanuris were evil tyrants... like, how did everyone find this out? did the inquisitor go around and tell everyone and experience zero push back? (because there's not oodles of evidence laying around that's easily accessible to back up the inquisitor's claims that "fen'harel told me so")

some some of the first dalish elves we meet are already "oh no the gods are back, this is terrible" and i think it would have been much more narratively interesting if they didn't all believe you right off the bat that elgan'an and ghilan'ain being free is bad

[redtsundere-writes]

no chapter this week? _(┐「ε:)_

I had the chapter ready lol but yesterday was Day of The Death in Mexico and I got carried a little away with the party *sips vodka*

I'm posting it now lol

[notafraid-ofyou]

It's more of a swat than a boop, but he's pretty sure he didn't do it hard enough to do damage. :/

She’s lucky she ducked when she did otherwise she would have a decent concussion. She’s returning the boop by smacking his shin with a pipe.