#there was one period of time when i actually believed that it's possible that lu guang and liu xiao were brothers before obviously

[oftheblue]

Another thing I wanted to mention was THAT scene with Vein when it was basically revealed that Lu Guang caused him to have a heart attack via an ability we didn't even know he had.

And we know who else has a heart related ability: Liu Xiao.

I had my suspicions before but with this I feel it's actually really likely that Liu Xiao is someone from Lu Guang's past. Not just as a random stranger that turned out to have it out for them for some reason but that it goes way deeper.

[majorproblems77]

Another day another LU analysis with me!

Dawn 9 is here and with it the end of the next arc of the LU comic is done!

This update did a lot and is also a full 10 pages long! So there's a bunch to unpack!

As always linked universe belongs to @linkeduniverse and Jojo, I own none of the pictures I'm using and please give the original post some love. It's very well done and I love this comic so much.

You can find the comic here!

Oh, and obviously spoilers for the most recent LU update if you've not looked at it!

Now, checklist. Popcorn, water and time to read half an hour worth of rambling.

Without further ado!

The letters!

So, Twilight, four and Time all appeared to get letters, with Time getting multiple (More on that later)

Twilights reaction to the super sale was my reaction while playing TP (I recently finished it for the first time! :D) when they opend the store in castle town. Every time i couldnt get there to get potions i was low key gutted.

And Four. Four's grandpa is a mood and i hope we get to meet him.

HE

blorbo blorbo blorbo

The master of standing 🧍

Beloved blorbo i love him

Okay im done

(Im not done)

Poor Sky He's so sad about it D:

But... I, as a part of the The team is heading to Skyloft next, team. Believe that Sun has done this on purpose. (Or that the Skyloftians dont have the mail system for him to retrieve anything) but i like to think its the first one.

Hmmm.... Time got multiple letters. (That takes care of the letter discrepancy)

Twi asking about the ranch, Time looking to one of the letters. This tells me one of two things.

The letter he's looking to could be from Malon, and he's genuenly not concerned.

or The letter he's looking at isnt from malon. Infact, by the way he's looking at it i think its from his Zelda. Possibly a report about black bloods in his time period. (As last time we see them in Time's era. They dont actually fight anything)

Twilight being cheeky and Time's dad face are giving me life.

But... as we know, Time is Twilights direct decendant only by a few generations at most. With the infomation we have from Twilight princess with Shade. And from jojo with Time and Twilight. I'm seeing this conversation as more of a father and son conversation over brothers.

And the rest of this conversation follows this same pattern. Twilight is very much being scolded. He's biting back with what he see's as Time's own words. (not that time know's as such)

Twilight looks genuenly shocked to hear this.

From the hero's shade (Time) in twilight princess.

"You may be destined to become the hero of legend...but your current power would disgrace the proud green of the hero's tunic you wear. "

I am screaming

And now im screaming more. Twilight nooooooooooooo

The we care about Twilight's well being gang. Spoiling us with the full body shots againnnnnnn.

Give me more of these three i love them all together.

And I'm convinced that theres going to be something bad happens to time directly after the end of the LU timeline.

Time is missing an eye. So we know that Shade and Time are closer together than the hero of time (In game). SO.... If time dosent Die on the adventure with the chain. I'm almost convinced he does almost right after he returns back to his time.

The armour is almost identical. He has most of the scaring which lines up....

If the helmet turns up, then i think Time dies during this adventure. It's the only thing i can see as missing.

Twilight.... Now i think Twilight thinks that the gods are giving him an opportunity to save the hero of time from dying to become the heros shade. but thats the funky thing about timetravel.

(Depending on how Jojo and LU time travels works.)

I believe that the timetravel in LU solidifies the adventures of the other links. And that nothign that occours in this adventure impacts their adventures. Even if something was changed it wouldnt change the past.

IE - Twilight breaking his shadow crystal wouldnt mean that wild didnt remember having the wolf on his adventure - as its already happened.

(I hope that makes sense. - time travel is confusing i see it as an alternative timeline type thing)

Moving on!

Wild is best brother 101

Also twilight getting flustered about a girl oh bless this man i low key love him okay

Her!

Also

Smiley man

Epona is a wonderful girl and i love her so much okay

Also Warriors!

HE LOOKS SO HAPPY AGAIN

Man got his emotional support scarf and is no longer stressed (Atleast not visably)

HE!

BELOVED AGAIN HE IS SO HAPPY I AM NORMAL ABOUT THIS MAN

okay

Please understand how much i am cackling at the shenanigans of these three.

Wind rolling around because it is clearly faster mode of travel

Go zoomies wind go zoomies!

Wind rolled down the stairs you cant convince me otherwise. Look at his little superhero pose as hes moving around the corner.

Older brother alert, dont ruin the kids fun warriors they are just getting excited about being on the road again.

Also Warriors, This is normal link behaviour. Just ask Time. He would eailsy tell you that he rolled around hyrule field.

I LOVE HIS LITTLE FACE OKAY

MY BELOVED BLORBO 🧍

(if i run out of pictures i swear to hylia)

There's so much brotherly energy in these panels i love them all so much okay.

Also Sky offering to Pay Time back for the Inn Fee this is why i love the wonderful blorbo okay

Guys im sorry, he's their dad. You cant change my mind.

Thats a dad walk, with a dad sentence.

'Okay guys i need to make sure you are not gonna get killed please have swords.'

The blacksmithing gang getting the love they deserve.

Sky leading the charge! (I know its cause he knows the way and stuff But...)

It also makes a lot of sense. If Sky is the slowest of the group(Again not confirmed but we have had jokes about his stamina), it makes sense to put him at the front to maintain pace of the group. Stops people going too fast and prevents people from being left behind.

Which i might add has already happened. (Warriors and Hyrule im looking at you.)

We just need to read the boss partterns for a bit so we can then decide how to fight it. You know, like we did when we were in our adventures and had to figure out boss mechanics.

Important that hyrule is saying this as his game is arguably one of the hardest. He probably spent a long time on each boss learning attack patterns.

Oh this arc was fun! So much fun i love it so much okay

Thank you so much again for hanging out with me while i write these. I love making them and i really appreciate all the support on them. (If you could share it around i'd really appreciate it :) )

Have a wonderful day! :D

[audreydoeskaren]

I have a question, did Ming women wear puffed up skirts, was this a specific period of time or was it not common and out of the norm for Ming women / Ming skirt silhouette? Would trousers under the pants be common or was it a another type of undergarment?

Hi, thanks for the marvelous question. As far as I'm aware of actual puffy skirts were only popular for a very brief time in the late 15th century, notably the 1470s and 80s. Apparently this trend was not limited to womenswear, as there is written and visual evidence of men wearing robes with puffy skirts as well.

Source here

Closeup of 明宪宗元宵行乐图 (Lantern Festival follies at the Chenghua court) from 1485 showing court ladies in short robes and enormous skirts. As you can see the skirts of the 曳撒 yesa worn by the men also seem very puffy.

As to how these large skirts were achieved, the common explanation seems to be the wearing of 发裙/马尾裙 horsehair petticoats/crinolines. Crinolines were horsehair fabrics woven using the hair of a horse’s mane or tail, which were stiff and could hold structure very well, allowing the outer garment to puff out. Here is an excerpt from the book 寓圃笔记 written by 王锜 Wang Qi in the mid to late 15th century. The translations are my own.

发裙之制，以马尾编成，系于衬衣之内。体肥者一裙，瘦削者或二三，使外衣之张，俨若一伞。然系此者，唯粗俗官员、暴富子弟而已，士夫甚鄙之，近服妖也。

The petticoats are made from horsehair and worn underneath a shift. Those with a plumper physique need only one, whereas more slender figures require two or three, to make the outer garment appear puffed like an umbrella. However, the wearing of these petticoats is limited to vulgar officials and the nouveau riche; the literati despise it and consider it degenerate.

Wang is not talking about womenswear here as he mentions officials and literati, though I assume women would’ve worn similar undergarments to achieve the puff effect. 服妖 fuyao or degenerate dress was a very commonly used term in the Ming and Qing to denounce outrageous fashion, mostly by the aristocracy; I would not take the opinions of the literati seriously since they would always talk shit about a trend before becoming obsessed with it themselves🤡

As of now I don’t think any artifacts or pictorial evidence for 15th century Chinese horsehair petticoats exist so I’ll give you a Western visual:

Source here

1840s Western petticoat made of horsehair and cotton.

Crinolines are commonly believed to have originated in Korea and spread to China by some means. Maybe they were brought to and sold in China by the Korean tributary entourage during their visits to Beijing. Later the trend also spread to the south, Jiangnan specifically. 菽园杂记 written by 陆容 Lu Rong in the 1470s or 80s has a detailed explanation:

马尾裙始于朝鲜国，流入京师，京师人买服之，未有能织者。初服者，惟富商、贵公子、歌妓而已，以后武臣多服之，京师始有织卖者。于是，无贵无贱，服者日盛。至成化末年，朝官多服之者矣。大抵者，下体虚奓，取观美耳。阁老万公安，冬夏不脱：宗伯周公洪谟，重服二腰；年幼侯伯驸马，至有以弓弦贯其齐者。大臣不服者，惟黎吏侍淳一人而已。此服妖也，弘治初始有禁例。

Crinolines originated in Korea and had spread to the capital. The people of Beijing bought them but couldn’t yet produce them. At first, they were only worn by rich merchants, young noblemen and singers, but as military officials started donning them they began to be made and sold in Beijing. Thus, regardless of rich or poor, more and more went on board the trend. At the end of the Chenghua era (1464-87), the majority of court officials wore them. ... (cannot translate the people’s titles) ... This sort of degenerate dress was only banned in the early Hongzhi era (1487-1505).

I’m not entirely sure when puffy skirts became fashionable in Korea, but it probably wasn’t long before the 15th century. Apparently crinolines remained fashionable in Korean menswear for another couple decades after they were banned in China, and puffy skirts are still a staple of Korean clothing nowadays, though they’re more of a womenswear thing. Since I couldn’t find any artifacts for 15th century Korean crinolines I looked up modern hanbok petticoats to see if there is any continuity but most of them seem to use 20th century Western materials and construction methods? Like they look like rockabilly or lolita petticoats, both the fluffy “cotton candy” and hoop styles. There are also modern hanbok petticoats which suspend from the shoulders, but I don’t think those were worn in the 15th century because back then skirts in Korea didn’t have the ultra high waist yet, so a full length petticoat wasn’t necessary. If anyone knowledgeable about historical Korean clothing could share with me what 15th century Korean petticoats looked like it would be amazing :D

Source here

Puffy modern hanbok.

Source here

Commercial hanbok petticoat using tulle to puff out.

There is another book with an entry on structured petticoats but it was written in the 1570s or 80s, 100 years after the trend had passed, making it less believable. The book is 谷山笔麈 written by 于慎行.

尝闻里中长老传，数十年前，里俗以袷为裙，袷长衣下，令其蓬蓬张起，以为美观。即无袷裙，至系竹圈衬之，殊为可笑。及读王莽传，莽好以猪毛装楮衣中，令其张起。乃知古亦有之。

I heard from some elders that many decades ago the custom was to wear a  long shift (袷 ?)----which was longer than one’s robe----as a skirt to make the robe puffed, and that was considered beautiful. Had one not been in possession of a long shift, one would use bamboo hoops instead; quite laughable really. If you read the biography of Wang Mang (politician 45BC-23AD), it’s documented that he liked to stuff pig’s hair into his clothes to make them puffed. From this it can be known that [puffy undergarments] had existed since Antiquity.

I cannot verify if this was true but I am really amused by the idea of bamboo hoops. Since bamboo strips were very flexible, I guess it’s not far fetched to use them as boning for a hoopskirt. There is no evidence of bamboo hoopskirts but I guess they would look either like Spanish farthingales or mid 19th century European cage crinolines; there aren’t a lot of other possibilities for a garment of this kind😅

Source here

1865 elliptical cage crinoline made of rows of boning suspended by fabric tapes.

After puffy skirts were banned in the late 1490s they disappeared quite quickly and were never seen in Chinese clothing again. 

Source see watermark

Reproduction of Chenghua era puffy skirts by the 装束复原 team.

Normally in the Ming and Qing women would always wear pants or petticoats underneath their skirts, albeit not puffy. During the popularity of puffy petticoats, underpants or another layer of petticoat would still be worn underneath the crinoline. When pants became popularized in the late 18th/early 19th century, women would also wear underpants or long drawers under their outer pants because knickers didn’t exist.

I consulted this article for this information. I hope this was useful and not too boring!

[m-evelynn]

What if Mei Nianquing was the one who became Bai Wuxiang instead of Jun Wu?

So I just came across a fanart of Mei Nianquing on twitter today and it's the AU that Junwu and Mei Nianquing decided to commit war crimes together (the art it's super beautiful but I kinda lost it or else I would put the credit here 🥲). And it got me thinking about some reverse AU shit: what if our beloved guoshi was turned into Bai Wuxiang? 

We all know that Guoshi was very fond of his highness, perhaps worshiping him a little. 

And after the whole bridge plan failed, Jun Wu, His Highness the glorious sun of Wuyong, was suddenly treated like garbage.

This made Guoshi feel betrayed and he had started to have some dark thoughts about how things might have turned out different if they hadn't gone with the whole save-everyone thing. He also thinks it's unfair how other gods get worshipped while they ain't do shit. 

So the AU would go like this: During the period in which Jun Wu was first kicked out of heaven after the whole bridge plan fell apart, he was treated worse than dirt and suffered a lot from the hands of Wuyong people, the very people he had given up everything to save. He even got stabbed to mush which caused Mei Nianquing to be deeply traumatized upon seeing his beloved prince laying there half-dead. This is like the ultimate betrayal and it's so painful to watch for Mei Nianquing, so he decided to do anything he can to help His Highness ascend again. Finally tired of the pain, one day, the prince just whispered that he wanted everything to end and wished that everybody would go to hell. Mei Nianquing actually took this to heart and started to think about human sacrifice to silence the mountain. 

He would quietly arrange the sacrifice ritual, trapped people who had stabbed his prince, then enchanted them to go with him to mount TongLu. His plan was found out by the other vassals and they tried to stop him but failed and was accidentally pushed into the kiln with the Wuyong people. Mei Nianquing then created three paper dolls to replace the missing vassals to keep the prince from suspecting him.

The mountain stopped, and people started to worship Jun Wu again, which got him to ascend again. Mei Nianquing was happy, but he couldn't stand the fake welcome-back smiles of the other gods when Jun Wu came back. They were the one who caused his prince to descend after all. So Mei Nianquing slowly killed them one by one to avenge Jun Wu. Jun Wu, of course, went out on an investigation but couldn't find out anything and was completely unaware of the real culprit right beside him. 

Mei Nianquing's plan worked, for a while, but then Jun Wu started to see how weird Mei Nianquing and the rest of his vassals were acting. So one night he decided to spy on his guoshi and find out about the whole human sacrifice plan. Shocked, Jun Wu couldn't believe that his soft and gentle guoshi could commit such a cold hearted crime. He later confronted Mei Nianquing at the mount of the kiln. Mei Nianquing admitted his crimes, but said that it was necessary for Jun Wu's ascension and he never regretted anything (except maybe a little regret for the death of his three dear friends). They fought. Mei Nianquing lost and got pushed into the kiln. Jun Wu tried to catch him but it was too late. He left Tong Lu with a heavy heart. 

Mei Nianquing, however, didn't die. He became the first Devastation, and released the Human Face Disease to wipe out Wuyong. He felt like he was betrayed by the god that he once worshipped, and swore to destroy everything that Jun Wu held dear. After Wuyong was annihilated, he hid for centuries to escape the heaven's government as well as waiting for the perfect time to strike again. Then he met Xie Lian and noticed how Jun Wu seemed to favor this boy. Mei Nianquing also saw a lot of resemblances between Jun Wu and Xie Lian, which made him more determined to ruin Xie Lian's life. He blended into Xian Le kingdom, became the guoshi, taught and treated Xie Lian like a beloved student. Jun Wu did notice the strange familiarity he felt with the Xian Le guoshi, but looking at how well the guoshi treated Xie Lian, he kept his suspicion to himself. However, just to be safe, he made sure that Xie Lian ascended as early as possible. 

Guoshi slowly took control of the kingdom behind the shadow. He then caused the rift between Xian Le, and planned the accident at the gate which later caused the civil war to break out. Just as he thought, Xie Lian came down to help his people. Guoshi then faked his death and put on the Bai Wuxiang mask, taunted and made Xie Lian life miserable more than dead. 

This time when the Human Face Disease was about to be released upon Yong An (right after Wuming's death), Jun Wu actually came down and fought Bai Wuxiang himself. However, upon discovering the true identity of Bai Wuxiang, Jun Wu's guilt and feelings for Mei Nianquing made him unable to kill the guoshi, thus giving Mei Nianquing the chance to escape. He came back to mountain TongLu and entered a deep sleep there to heal himself and plot the next revengex which led to the events in the book. 

And maybe in the end Jun Wu was forced to confront his once-faithful-follower-turned-his-worst-enemy and heal their broken bond. 

Should I write a 30K slow burn friends-to-enemies-to-lovers about this?

[bordeleaubeau]

idk you yet - luke hughes (part one)

wc: 2830

warnings: probably a few curses, i honestly can’t really remember:)

inspired by idk you yet by alexander 23.

---

how can you miss someone you’ve never met?

the words forming on luke’s arm startle him at first. there’s a tingling tickle-like feeling as each letter appears, but luke can barely believe his eyes. he was just about to turn seventeen and until that moment he had no sign of his soulmate whatsoever. but now? now he had proof on his arm that his soulmate was out there somewhere. that meant the boys could finally stop teasing him in the locker room about possibly not having a soulmate. 

it felt like everyone around luke knew their soulmate was out there. it was such a rare possibility that someone didn’t have a soulmate - if their soulmate passed away, chances are they would too due to the pain from the loss. and, well, luke hadn’t died yet, so that was his only hope of his soulmate being out there.

the initial shock is soon replaced by pure adrenaline. luke can barely pay attention to what ever mrs. clemmens is writing on the board; all he can focus on is writing back to his soulmate. whoever she might be. 

i don’t know you yet, but i need you. do you know how long i’ve waited to hear from you?

you’re smiling down at your arm - it was always a game whenever you’d finally be able to contact your soulmate. some were able to as soon as their fifteenth birthday, some couldn’t until their eighteenth. and well, if you hadn’t contacted them by then, there was some bad news to be delivered. but it was all a waiting game. the day you were able to contact them was supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life, but there was only one catch: your soulmate could be thousands of miles from you.

and what about me with you?

“mr. hughes!” 

luke’s attention snaps to the front of the classroom, where the middle aged woman now has her hands on her hips staring at one of her best pupils. luke’s eyes are wide, the color draining from his face as each head of his classmates turn to look at him.

“care to share what’s gotten you so smiley, luke? or will you pay attention to my lesson for at least three seconds?” luke sputters for a few seconds, causing the woman’s eyebrows to spike up in question. “out with it.”

“i’ll, i’ll pay attention, mrs. clemmens.” the brunette finally manages to get out, sinking back in his seat. the color returns to his face, but this time it’s the same shade of red as the apple on mrs. clemmen’s desk. he didn’t want to leave her hanging, but he wasn’t going to risk getting in trouble again. he wasn’t going to out himself for finally finding his soulmate - and being one of the last in his grade to do so.

luke feels his phone vibrate in his sweatshirt pocket, and upon just the right moment he pulls his phone out to see tyler had messaged him.

tyler b: were you finally able to talk to her? 

luke isn’t able to respond to tyler in fear that mrs. clemmens will have a few words for him, and surely enough he didn’t need to get into any more trouble with one of his teachers. one more write up and he was going to be benched for an entire month. so against his better judgement, he sticks his hands in his pockets and pays attention to the lesson going on. all while trying to ignore the tickle feeling on his hand.

“i can’t believe you were finally able to talk to him!” mal gushes, her eyes glued to your arm that had a mix of jet black and purple ink scrawled on it. there was game @7 written on your hand in purple ink, along with a star next to it. “how do you think tyler is going to react?” 

your heart nearly drops in your chest. tyler. your boyfriend - of almost a year, in fact. in the midst of it all you seemed to of forgotten about him, your mind elsewhere, and it was on your soulmate. your soulmate that wasn’t him. 

“i have to tell him, don’t i?” you look up at your best friend, eyes glossier than they had been seconds before. “mal, i dunno, i dunno if i can do that. tyler is- he’s so sweet. he’s gonna be crushed.”

“who’s gonna be crushed?” 

speak of the devil. 

tyler drops his bag on the floor, sitting down in the seat next to you like he always did in english class. mal notices the slight tension, turning back to face forward in her seat as she waits for class to begin. you take a quick breath, turning to your boyfriend, you grasp both of his hands in yours. “ty, i have to tell you something.”

tyler’s eyes glance down to your wrist, and only the slightest bit is showing from the sleeves of your sweater riding up, but he sees it. the black ink. “anything, y/n.” he clears his throat, pretending like he hadn’t seen anything at all.

“you’re not my soulmate.”

“i know.”

your eyes widen ever so slightly, and you watch as tyler slides up the sleeve of his hoodie. there are a few little sentences scrawled on his skin, ones that were clearly not on yours. you can’t quite find the words to say. your mouth opens and closes a few times before finally, you’re stumped, and you sit back in your seat with your eyebrows furrowed. you let go of his hands, your own falling into your lap. 

“how long?” you finally manage to muster out, meeting his regretful eyes. he had reassured you multiple times that he hadn’t heard from his soulmate yet, but you should’ve gone against your better judgement when he was suddenly wearing long sleeves all the time. and it wasn't just for the winter, you now realized. 

“about, about three months.” he notices the look on your face, and just like moments before he takes your hands in his. “y/n, just because you aren’t my soulmate doesn’t mean i never loved you. i still do love you. i just-”

“it’s okay, i get it.” you cut him off, pulling your hands away from his. “it’s okay, ty. i just wish you would have told me sooner, that’s all.” your voice trails off to a whisper. tyler grabs your hand once more, and he presses a kiss to the back of it. 

“friends?” he asks, and when you nod your head, he presses another kiss to your skin before releasing his hold on your hand. you have to swallow the lump that’s forming in your throat. of course you were upset - you had every reason to be. but you weren’t expecting to be this upset, and you also weren’t expecting tyler to say he already knew the two of you weren’t soulmates.

the english period seems to drag on and on, and after what feels like two hours the bell rings. “walk with me to lunch?” you hear the brunette next to you speak, and you find yourself nodding. “y/n/n, please, talk to me. i hate when you’re mad a me.”

“i’m not mad at you, ty. i promise you that. i just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.” tyler gives you a tight lipped smile, and before the two of you can start to walk to the cafeteria, tyler pulls his hoodie off, revealing his inked arm. it’s a pang to the heart, but you know that you’ll get over it eventually. “what’s she like?” you ask quietly, the two of you starting the few minute trek across the school.

“she’s, she’s really nice. she’s pretty, too. i follow her on instagram, actually. her name is gabby.” tyler glances over at you a few times as he speaks, and you can only find yourself to be nodding along to his words. “i know she’s my soulmate and all, y/n, but she isn’t you.”

you stop in your tracks, causing tyler to turn around to look at you. “don’t. don’t say that. she’s your soulmate, and i’m not, for a reason, tyler boucher. don’t say that about her. i’m sure she’s lovely, and she’s everything that i can’t be for you.”

“i’m sorry i just-” tyler cuts himself off with a sigh, going to reach for your hand but he stops halfway. “i wanted it to be you. i thought it was you. and then one day, i had writing on my wrist, and i looked at yours and it wasn’t there. i know that’s supposed to be one of the happiest days of our life, but it was one of the worst for me. because i wanted it to be you, y/n. so bad.”

to say the least, the two of you were pretty much the ‘it’ couple. your entire friend group adored you both, and you were the first girl that the boys allowed over when they all hung out - but only occasionally. it was never an all the time thing, which you understood. but still, you and tyler had been through a lot together for not even being together a year. 

“it all happens for a reason,” you say, tears welling up in your eyes as your feet start moving again, and tyler is following after you, quickly matching your pace. “i just, i don’t know, tyler. there’s not much we can do about it and that’s fine.”

“you’re right.” the brunette mumbles, head hanging in despair as you walked down the steps to go into the cafeteria. the rest of the walk between the two of you is silent, but a comfortable one.

the lunch table you, tyler, all of the boys, mal, and a few other girls came into view. and as soon as they realized tyler wasn’t wearing his sweatshirt and his arms were fully exposed, along with the pen ink and the looks on your faces, they all knew. they knew that you finally knew.

the conversations going on didn’t completely stop, but they quieted down for a few brief moments when you and tyler took your usual seats. you try to avoid the eyes of your friends, but it’s nearly impossible. your eyes catch luke’s, and he’s giving you the puppy dog eyes from the other side of the table.

“are you okay?” he asks quietly, and all you can do is shake your head ever so slightly. “oh, y/n.”

luke wants to reach across the table and grab your hands, but he wants to save himself from the teasing he’s sure he would get from the boys if they saw the girly handwriting on the back of his hand. “i’ll be alright, lu. promise.” you give him a reassuring smile, but of course he doesn’t believe it. not in the slightest.

“are you still gonna come to our game tonight?” tyler asks quietly from your right side, and when you turn to look at him he’s already looking down at you. if this was yesterday, you would’ve leaned up the three inches and kissed him.

“of course i’m gonna.” you say, eyes glancing down to his lips but you quickly turn away to look down at your hands. “there’s no where else i’d rather be, ty. besides, luke is still my best friend and i still have to support him.”

luke sends you a smile from across the table, one that makes you smile right back at him. for majority of the lunch period, everyone leaves you alone to wallow in your own sadness. even luke couldn’t cheer you up, and that was something. you know you shouldn’t be this upset - this happened to like, every couple that dated before finding their soulmate. but for some reason you thought you and tyler were the exception. 

another period drags on, and after what feels like forever you find yourself getting up from your designated lunch spot. luke stands, waiting for you to walk to the other side of the table so the two of you can go to art class together. “see you boys tonight,” you call over your shoulder, tearing your eyes away from tyler, and walking away hearing the boys responding saying they’ll see you later that night. 

“rant. cry. do whatever you have to do.” luke says, glancing over at his best friend that looks like she could burst into tears at any moment. luke had been waiting all day to tell you that he had finally heard from his soulmate - but as soon as he saw the look on your face he held back. he didn’t want to rub it in when you had just found out about tyler. the biggest secret he had ever kept from you.

“i just,” you purse your lips, eyes locked straight forward to avoid looking at him. “i just wish he would’ve told me. the last few months of our relationship feel like a complete lie.”

“y/n, tyler absolutely adored you. he still adores you. he never even stopped. and i can tell you for a fact that he still loves you. he’s always talking about you - he was talking about you when we were in second period today!” luke exclaims, and finally you look over at him. “i can promise you, y/n, it was not a lie, it never was.”

you can only shake your head, bottom lip between your teeth as the tears well up in your eyes. “it was supposed to be him, lu. ty and i have talked about our entire future together because we swore we were gonna end up being soulmates.”

“maybe you are soulmates,” luke says, holding open the door of the art room for you. “it’s just, not in the way you’d prefer. ty and you are soulmates, but just not romantically. do you get what i’m saying?”

“i guess.” you sigh, luke following into the classroom after you walk in. his heart yearns for you - he wants to lift up his sleeve and show you the purple ink, but he can’t bring himself to do that. 

later that night you find yourself getting ready for tyler and luke’s game, trying to decide between the 13 or the 6 jersey - jerseys the two boys had fought numerous times over which one you would wear. once tyler found out luke had given you one of his old jerseys he had outgrown, he was immediately giving you one of his as well. that was even before you and tyler were dating - he always had the biggest crush on you.

which was why he was sitting in his stall, head in his hands wondering where he had went wrong.

“ty, buddy, what’s going on?” dylan asks, noticing the brunette that has his head hung. immediately, tyler lifts his head and dylan’s eyes widen. “you look like shit, dude.”

“i feel like shit,” tyler grumbles, slowly moving to tie the laces of his skates that he always saved until the very end of gearing up. he catches a glimpse of the ink on his arm and he grimaces, wishing he could just wiped away at his skin and everything would disappear. that everything would be okay.

luke catches the eyes of his best friend and he frowns seeing the hurt in his eyes. “are you still upset about y/n?” he asks cautiously, fingers working at his laces, eyes barely glancing back up to tyler.

“yeah, i am actually. i know i don’t really have a right to be upset and all, but it still feels wrong. we went through a lot together, it just doesn’t feel real that we aren’t really soulmates. that the .  girl i was practically in love with since i got here isn’t my soulmate.” tyler shakes his head as he spills his feelings for the day out. he couldn’t wait until he got to step onto the ice and forget about the day’s events.

until he saw you sitting in your normal seat, and instead of the number 13 jersey, you were wearing the one with the 6, and the seven letter last name on the back was now one letter shorter. 

“oh fuck me,” tyler grumbles, and you’d be lying if you said your heart strings didn’t tug seeing him step out onto the ice. if the two of you had only been dating for two months rather than almost a year, maybe you would’ve felt different about the situation. but that was tyler. your tyler. or rather, gabby’s tyler now.

“y/n?” bella asks from besides you, trying to tear your sad eyes away from the brunette. when you finally do and look over at one of your best friends, she sees your teary eyes and her face softens. “oh, y/n/n. you’re taking this hard, aren’t you?”

“i don’t want my soulmate if it isn’t tyler.”

[dangermousie]

2020 End of Year Post - cdrama edition

This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2020; if I had to make a post about all the cdramas I watched this year, I would still be doing it in three months...

Overall it’s been a fairly decent cdrama year (certainly better than the very lacklustre kdrama year.) It’s no miracle that 2019 was (so many excellent dramas!) but overall pretty solid.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

44 The Legend of Jing Yan - the worst cdrama I have seen this year, and possibly the worst drama of 2020, period. The hero and heroine were both uncharismatic, incapable of acting and saddled with such shrilly moronic characters, the only suspense was how they haven’t both perished long since from forgetting to breathe. Nor was anyone in the rest of the cast much better; the screenplay was written by a lower mammal and the cinematography was the best a third-rate wedding cinematographer could offer. Stay the HELL away from this one.

43 Unicorn Girl - the only unicorn about this bland yet irritating piece of pap was the fact that I was supposed to believe the leads are hockey players.

42 Autumn Cicada - I like spy stories, Allen Ren, and Republican Era settings. I can tune out Communist propaganda with the best of them. Yet, the propaganda ate the story to such a degree that there was nothing left; pre magic change Pinocchio was less wooden then this narrative.

41 You Complete Me - no you do not.

40 Skate into Love - the only positive thing I can say about this is that at least it’s better than Unicorn Girl, if for no other reason that only one of them is supposed to be a hockey player.

39 Irreplaceable Love - how do you make a story about fake siblings with a mad mother falling for each other boring? I don’t know, ask the makers of this.

38 Eternal Love Rain - I hate to rain on their parade, but these two actors cannot act, have about as much chemistry as a piece of bread, and are trapped in a story perfect for entertaining the mental abilities of the leads of Jin Yan.

37 For Married Doctoress - ummmm, you could do worse I guess. It only made me break out in mild hives. The sadistic ending did make me laugh though.

36 Dance of the Sky Empire - why you get Xu Kai and waste him in this insipid mess of a story is beyond me.

35 Love Designer - it’s inoffensive except to my sense of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with it but oh God is it bland.

34 Love a Lifetime - It felt like a lifetime watching this, but I didn’t love it. The story is incoherent, the actors have no chemistry and it’s all an epic waste of time.

33 Love is Sweet - so sweet it gave me diabetes. I like Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu, but there is literally no plot. I don’t need to sink into a plotless morass to watch pretty people engage in PG-rated make-outs. I am an adult with access to stronger stuff if I am thus inclined, though to be fair they could get x-rated and I still wouldn’t be able to sit through so many episodes of plotlessness for that.

32 Fake Princess - I love Zhao Yi Qin, but the guy needs to pick better projects. The female lead in this one has the voice and personality that can strip paint but the story is also doing nobody any favors.

31 The Changan Youth - I lost my brain checking this out. I had to go and read a dense treatise on medieval coinage or Mayan farming to try to recover it.

30 My Dear Destiny - kinda cheesy fun. It honestly shouldn’t be as low except it really feels like community theater.

29 Handsome Siblings - why is the Nic Tse version so good and this one so bad? True mystery for the ages. Chen Zhe Yuan is the sole reason this isn’t lower, because that kid tries SO HARD to make this drama bearable and almost succeeds. I can’t wait to see him in Sha Po Lang which actually will give him something to do.

28 In a Class of Her Own - see my comment on The Changan Youth. But at least Song Weilong is gorgeous to look at.

27 General’s Lady - inoffensive, pretty and so utterly pointless.

26 The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion - those two leading actors are a no go to me but at least they considerately acted with each other instead of ruining two dramas for me. It’s very pretty though.

25 Jiu Liu Overlord - it’s a mess and I bailed, but I placed it this high merely due to the fact that Lai Yi finally gets a leading role and he’s sexy as fuck and I am shallow. Whoever styled Bai Lu should never work again except at a circus, however.

24 Cross Fire - not my genre and Luhan will always look too much like my cousin for comfort, but it’s a surprisingly gripping and dark drama. I liked it!

23 God of Lost Fantasy - if you want to watch a mediocre wuxia/xianxia, this is not a bad choice. Probably better than Legend of Fei actually, because at least it doesn’t have an A-list cast to waste and gives us Sheng Yilun himbo and shirtless.

22 Renascence - the insane cuts (it went from 70 eps to 36!!!) made a fairly cheesy story into a total mess. But I had a good time until I finally bailed mainly because of the male lead (Chen Zhe Yuan yet again carrying a not-good 2020 drama on his shoulders; the guy should be nicknamed Atlas) and the insane but in a fun way story. The female lead (both the character and the actress) were not up to par but oh well.

21 Legend of Fei - only this high because objectively there is nothing I disliked it. But there is nothing I liked either. The most uninspired drama on the list. If you could eat cardboard, this is what it would taste like.

20 Ever Night 2 - compared to EN1, it’s a waste of film. On its own merits, it’s not very good (the cast replacements are uniformly inferior and Dylan Wang is so wrong for Ning Que I cannot even put it into words; the script is useless.) But it had some parts I loved so very VERY much (all the shippy stuff was perfection) so I don’t feel too bitter.

19 Castle in the Sky 2 - a lovely if not too complex fairy tale. It is inferior to its prequel because it doesn’t have Zhang Ruo Yun who elevated it, but it’s still a solid bit of fun.

18 The Great Ruler - it’s very high fantasy, very pretty, and surprisingly involving.

17 (tie) Legend of Two Sisters in the Chaos - the secondary couple steals the show but the rest is not too bad if not too involving.

17 Legend of Awakening - a solid bit of fun with a seriously BDSM streak (theme this year apparently - but come on, the lead’s powers only activate when he’s in extreme pain!) It’s a bit generic and the costuming is done by a blind person, not to mention the OTP is a NOTP, but the rest of relationships (romantic and platonic) are wonderful (I live for the found siblings story in this one) and I like most of the characters.

16 Consummation - a rare modern cdrama I liked; a sweet coming of age story (and love story) even if wrapped in a pretty weird virtual reality concept.

15 Oops the King is in Love - this is how you do a low budget, sweet, silly piece of fluff. Our heroine pretends to be a eunuch and crosses paths with a powerless young king and they are adorable, even more so than the drama.

14 Song of Glory - pretty solid, though draggy and I didn’t love the toothpaste filter. But A+ cast, excellent leading couple chemistry, Li Qin being a BAMF and a leading man (Qin Hao) who is actually an adult.

13 And the Winner is love - objectively kind of a mess (and the heroine has the brainpower of a gnat), but the OTP chemistry is excellent and Luo Yunxi fighting and flirting with a fan as finally a leading man is worth the price of admission.

12 Miss S - snazzy and snappy and stylish and whatever else starts with S.

11 Eternal Love of Dream - I don’t know if it would work for you as well if you weren’t a hardcore shipper for this OTP in Three Lives but I was and this was such a darling, wonderful, shippy delight; plus I love this type of high fantasy.

10 (tie) Maiden Holmes - solid and sweet and a wonderful OTP. Proves that functional doesn’t have to mean boring. If you watch one cross-dressing drama this year make it this one.

10 Qin Dynasty Epic - srs bsns history epic. I am not far into it but it’s so good and smart and visually stunning (if you love battles, this one is for you.)

9 Love Lasts Two Minds - I adored this so much more than I should objectively have, but it’s so beautiful (and no I am not just referring to Alan Yu’s face) and the OTP has wonderful chemistry and the story is solid, and the whole trope of her memory being wiped but falling for him all over again while he’s constantly and utterly devoted is a fave; plus he’s in pain and semi-dyng for most of it so sluuuurp (happy ending, don’t worry)

8 To Love - yes, a modern drama is this high! But it involves intensity, tragedy, genuine adults and sexiness that is Lin Gengxin. And there is an actual plot and darkness OMG!

7 Legend of Xiao Chuo - so beautiful, so fun, so full of gorgeousness of Shawn Dou. Plus, Liao is a rare setting for a cdrama and there are a lot of characters and stories I liked a LOT. Less ship content than I wanted but more than I expected.

6 The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so so delightful. I was literally laughing out loud. I have no idea if it will work as well if one isn’t a seasoned watcher of period cdrama/reader of web novels, with bonus for watching/reading Goodbye My Princess, but it was a complete delight for me (and yes, I shipped for real, as well. Best of both worlds.)

5 Twisted Fate of Love - Jin Han gets a leading period drama role! And he’s enjoying it to the hilt, excellent as a smart, twisty bastard who is also charming and so madly in love with heroine. Sun Yi is beautiful and tough and her chemistry with JH is on fire, the story never drags, and it’s so twisty and fun and just awesome.

4 Love In Between - the most underrated drama on this list. It has no big names or big budget, but it’s wuxia that’s clever, driven, tragic, hopeful and so beautifully shot. Three separate (amazing) OTPs, a leading man who is so not typical (a doctor who cannot fight and who never acquires this ability) and who is intense and smart and damaged, a heroine who puts her quest ahead of her emotions, an unhealthy degree of involvement by yours truly. This is a drama Fei should have been.

3 Love and Redemption - such a lovely, addictive, utterly romantic fairy tale. I was obsessed with it for a reason. All the tropes you love and some you didn’t know you did, a star-crossed OTP to the nth power (and a secondary OTP I hardcore love), a twisty yet coherent plot, some insane chemistry and so much whump and hurt/comfort they must have bought blood packets in bulk.

2 Go Ahead - yes, I can’t believe it either. A contemporary slice of life cdrama made it this high on my list. But the way it feels so real, the found family perfection, the characters I love and loathe, the perfect cherry of a wonderful OTP that hits my narrative kinks on top, and just a perfect storm of loveliness all around with this one.

1 The Wolf - is that any surprise to anyone who’s checked out this tumblr for the last couple of months? Tragic, intense and gorgeous; so romantic and angsty and passionate it made me lose my mind (though some of it was gone the moment the camera panned to Darren Wang) - all my favorite tropes and then some; this is a drama that may not be perfect but it is 100% and then beyond perfect for ME.

FAVORITE DRAMA

The Wolf - I have seen objectively better cdramas; even this year. But it has been literal years since I have been this hardcore obsessed, this utterly pleased, this emotionally catered to and devastated at once. A beautiful dark fairy tale that manages to own me despite the storytelling gaps due to censorship, it took me for one of the biggest emotional roller coaster rides of my drama watching career. Visually gorgeous, poetic, intense, and so romantic it took my breath away, this is not just my favorite cdrama of 2020, it’s my favorite drama this year period, and the one cdrama this year to make it into my permanent Top 10 cdramas list.

WORST DRAMA

Legend of Jin Yan - see my write up for it for why as I refuse to waste more time on this stupid mess.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Wolfie, The Wolf - he is such a haunted, tormented, complex, dark mess; loving and violent, severely damaged and with a hidden yearning softness, longing and aloof. And the amount of charisma and sheer masculine sex appeal Darren Wang brings to the role is insane and not something I see much of in a cdrama. Plus, that character arc with its rapid fall and slow painful redemption is A++++

Runner Up:  Sifeng, Love and Redemption - has a male lead ever loved more utterly and selflessly, suffered more thoroughly and beautifully, and managed to have such chemistry with both his leading lady and his leading man (that his leading lady temporarily turned into) at once? The answer is no.

Almost made the cut - Feng Xi, Twisted Fate of Love, Han Shuo, The Romance of Tiger and Rose, Qing Ci, Love in Between.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Xiao Qian, The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so funny, so much the reason this drama was such a delight. I adore her beyond words.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

Murder Daddy, The Wolf - I am sad the censors robbed us of seeing him die on screen. He was fully human but nonetheless managed to be the worst monster in a drama full of literal ones.

Ling Xiao’s Mom, Go Ahead - I hate her so much I don’t want to look up her name. She abused the kid, the disappeared and came back to abuse him some more. I mean she literally gave her child mental health issues. She is the WORST.

FAVORITE SHIP

Xing’er x Wolfie, The Wolf - are you kidding me? Who else could it ever be for me? They destroyed each other and saved each other, sworn enemies and childhood lovers, soulmates and epic messes, they couldn’t live with or without each other. The longing, the passion, the intensity, the angst, the epicness. LIKE THERE ARE NO WORDS!!!!

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Si Yuan, Shen Manqing, Love in Between - I loved them as much and often more than the main OTP. So much angst and passion and a happy ending! She is a seeming sect darling (except the sect is horrible and also sexist so her only worth is as a marriage candidate) and he’s an information broker who is actually one of the members of a destroyed sect that’s blamed for the massacre of her family. That chemistry and yearning is insane. The scene where she touches his face when he’s unconscious was in serious running for my favorite scene of 2020.

NOTP

Legend of Awakening - I have never seen a couple that didn’t just have no chemistry but exhibited actual revulsion towards each other before watching Chen Feiyu and Cheng Xiao try to act as lovers in this one. It was almost entertaining to be honest.

FAVORITE SCENE

It’s a tie and both are from The Wolf. One is a sequence where Wolfie marches to the walls alone, seeking death at Xing’er’s hands and the whole sequence with the battle and rescue follows. The other is the intercut between Xing’er going to her wedding and Wolfie going to his execution, and the auto-da-fe being intercut with her wedding.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Wolfie, The Wolf - Ummm have you seen this tumblr lately, it’s basically a drool shrine to the man.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Yelü Yansage, The Legend of Xiao Chuo - I have loved this actor since The Myth and he continued to competently steal every scene he was in.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

To Love - come out of the coma, dammit!!!!!!!

NEEDS A DIRECTOR’S CUT

The Wolf - duh. It started out as 59 eps and got cut to 49. I reaiize some stuff is never gonna get put in due to censorship, but some of the stuff that got cut got for time reasons because they were deluded and hoping to get a TV broadcast so ep count had to be under 50. I mean I doubt the censors would care if they kept scenes of Wolfie building her a swing or whatever. I really really want a director’s cut the way Goodbye My Princess did even if like with GMP it’s only three extra eps. Hell, I will take extra three minutes, as long as those three minutes are Darren Wang shirtless or with a sword. Ahem.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

The Song of Glory - it’s a fairly solid drama but honestly it didn’t need to be as long as it was and kind of got draggy and I got lost interest. (I could have gotten snarky and said all the dramas I didn’t like needed scissors taken to them in their entirety but decided to play nice.)

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

There are a number of dramas I could complain about with regard to this (hi there, darling The Wolf!) but this award goes to Renascence - poor Renascence was never going to be a masterpiece, but it had the potential to be a bit of good cheesy fun until it had its run time cut by more than half and became an incoherent piece of insanity.

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Dumb shrill innocent heroine who can’t tie her shoes - see basically all the cdramas I didn’t like this year.

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Male lead torture - I mean it’s always open season on that in cdramas, but between Love and Redemption, The Wolf, Love Lasts Two Minds, Love in Between and so on, it was a banner year!

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Legend of Fei - what a waste of that cast; what a waste of our finite time on this Earth. What a waste of my intelligence to hope for something better and stick with it for a dozen eps. I have had stale wonderbread that had more personality than this drama.There is absolutely nothing that stands out about this drama in any way,  from half-dimensional characters, to actors who are sleepwalking, to a plot that moves at the speed of an arthritic snail, to uninspired cinematography and direction, to lack of any chemistry between anyone in the cast. If paint-by-numbers was done by a group of particularly linear robots, it might come across the same way as this drama.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

The Wolf - honestly, I did not expect it to come out AT ALL EVER let alone to become my favorite drama of 2020. I was not familiar with the leading man (hahah), I liked Li Qin but wasn’t yet obsessed with her, and Xiao Zhan was excellent in The Untamed but I was hardly going to follow him from drama to drama (and I don’t do SLS any way.) And the trailer was enjoyable but unlike seemingly everyone, I didn’t think it was going to be some epic masterpiece. And then it came out and while it wasn’t objectively an epic masterpiece, it pulled out all the favorite tropes, shippy and narrative kinks from the deepest darkest recesses of my id. And I fell harder than I have in years. 

2020 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

None. Covid Year gave me PLENTY of time

BEST NON-2020 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2020

Novoland Eagle Flag and Joy of Life - they are in my Top 10 dramas from anywhere now. They are quite different except being smart and giving me protagonists to obsess over.

ETA: Also The Untamed because @idlewilds3 pointed out I actually watched it in 2020 even though I didn’t think so because this hellyear has lasted about three decades.

MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2021

I am gonna limit it to dozen and leaving out ones that aren’t necesarily supposed to air next year (Joy of Life 2, Love in Flames of War, Novoland Princess from Plateau.)

Monarch Industry, Novoland Pearl Eclipse, Silk Washing Stream, Dream of Changan, Sword Snow Stride, Wu Xing Shi Jia, Ancient Love Poetry, Immortality, The Long Ballad, Mirror Twin Cities, The Imperial Age, Fall In Love

[nordleuchten]

La Fayette in Prison - Part 3 - Neisse

We continue our journey from Magdeburg to Neisse, a town in the region of Schlesien. Schlesien originally belonged to Austria but was annexed by the Prussian King Frederick the Great in 1741 and included into the territory of Prussia. Neisse is today part of Poland. At first La Fayette was the only one of the prisoners who was transferred to Neisse. Alexander Lameth was too ill to be transferred. He stayed behind in Magdeburg and was eventually released on parole. He recovered and enjoyed many more years on this earth. The two other prisoners, Latour-Maubourg and Bureaux De Pusy, were first transferred to a prison in Glatz and only from there to Neisse were they stayed roughly twelve days before being brought together with La Fayette to the infamous prison in Olmütz. La Fayette therefor stayed the longest in Neisse. He arrived there, once more heavily guarded on his way, on January 16, 1794 and stayed until May 17 of the same year.

Now would be the perfect time to wonder why the prisoners were so frequently removed from one place and brought to another. Wesel was never intended was a permanent solution. It had simply been the nearest secure prison at the time of the groups arrest. But what with Magdeburg? After all, in 1805/6 Magdeburg was by far the safest and most secure fortress in all of Prussia. The problem in 1794 was, that there was a war going on – and it did not looked too good for the Prussians. The Prussian King was slowly but surely considering the possibility that he would be force to make peace with France. Such a peace treaty would most certainly include handing over his prisoners. He therefor brought the prisoners to Neisse, a town close to the Austrian border, and negotiated with the court in Vienna the transfer of the prisoners in order to prevent their release. The court in Vienna obviously agreed and that is how the prisoners came to Olmütz. La Fayette was distraught about being separated from the others but as soon as he could he wrote them that he was well and that they should not worry too much about him. I wrote in the post about Wesel, that his servant Augustus stayed with him and that another man, Pontonnier, was forced to leave him. Well, it seems as if Pontonnier was not a valet but his secretary and therefore stayed with him. There is also mentioning of another valet, a man who was called Pierre Compte/Comte, who also stayed with La Fayette ... you see with regard to his staff I am a tiny bit confused .... but it seems as if Pierre and Pontonnier were certainly with him and concerning Augustus, well, I think I have to go on and do little bit of digging to find out where exactly his guy had been in 1794. In Neisse La Fayette once again fell ill and this illness seemed to be so worrisome that he thought he would not make it. He also feared that this sudden move from Magdeburg to Neisse was in preparation of his execution. With these two things in mind he wrote a short farewell-letter to his family:

“Adieu, then, my dear wife, my children, my aunt (...) whom I shall cherish to my last breath.”

There were other letters from that time, not from La Fayette but from his friends, that I would like to show you. But first, there is actually one handwritten document from La Fayette from his time in Neisse. It is the short excerpt from a written statement that La Fayette made and today part of the online collection of the Wien Museum.

Now, on to the other letters. The first letter is by Joseph Brown who wrote to George Washington from England, giving a short report upon a recent debate in the House of Commons. He wrote on April 2, 1794:

“N.B. You will probably Sir before the receipt of this Letter have heard that an ineffectual attempt has been made in our Ho. of Commons to stir the Governmt to interfer in behalf of your ill-fated Friend (my respectable & ⟨va⟩lued Correspondent) M. de la Fayette: Burke opposed it on the ground of his having been in Arms against this Country: whereas he saw no improperiety formerly in himself moving for the enlargemt of Mr Laurens, who had been a President of Congress from the Tower, & afterwards meeting him at my House, though the motion was not immediately successful.”

The next letter is from Doctor James McHenry. McHenry wrote Washington on April 3, 1794:

“I thought that perhaps it might come within your view at this juncture to send a commissioned person to Vienna to solicit the release of Mr la Fayette with powers to proceed to France on a like errand in favor of his wife and children, in order that the whole might be removed to this country. I perceive by the act of Congress for discharging his pay during the war the new obligation you have laid up on your unfortunate friend. If it is possible to go beyond pecuniary aid, or so far as to restore him to liberty and his family how would he rejoice to owe that blessing to the man he affectionates most upon earth; and what sublime pleasure to me to be an humble instrument in its accomplishment. The friendship he has always expressed for me; the friendship I feel for him; a conviction of the patriotism of his principles and purity of his motives; the esteem in which he is still held by America; a remembrance of the moment and his youth when he embarked in our cause, and the services he rendered it in the course of our revolution, all conspire to make such a project peculiarly interesting to the feeling heart: at the same time, Sir, you must be sensible, you who on former occasions have not deemed me unworthy some portion of your confidence, that such a mission would reflect upon you its author, and from whom alone it ought to proceed, as long as exalted friendship shall be ranked among the virtues, a lustre which philosophy must delight to contemplate and history to diffuse among mankind for their benefit or instruction. The friendship of Achilles for his dear Patroclus, as celebrated by Homer, has survived the fate of empires and the charges of time, as if destined to serve as a perpetual monument sacred to friendship. May not another Homer arise to consign yours for Fayette to equal immortality, and tears of pleasure flow at its recital like an exhaustless stream through the long period of future ages.”

McHenry was aide-de-camp to Washington was well as to La Fayette during the Revolutionary War. His letters touches on McHenrys feelings for La Fayette, on Washington’s friendship for La Fayette and how this friendship was perceived by others but also illustrates how many people tried to help La Fayette. It also touches on the act from Congress that I discussed in the Magdeburg-post. Furthermore, there is a little, almost comical detail. McHenry wrote this letter in a town in Maryland, conveniently named Fayetteville after the Marquis de La Fayette.

Last but not least there is this wonderful letter from Washington himself addressed to the Prussian King. A cabinet meeting some time prior had deemed it acceptable for Washington to write as a private citizen on behalf of La Fayette. Here is the protocol of said cabinet meeting:

At a meeting of the heads of departments at the President’s, on the fourteenth day of January 1794. It was propounded by the President, whether in consideration of the eminent services of M. de la Fayette, to the U. S. and his present sufferings, it be not adviseable for the President, in a private, and unofficial character, to address to the King of Prussia a letter, requesting his release on parole, founded on motives of personal friendship only. The opinion is, that such a letter is proper to be written. H Knox Alexander Hamilton Edm: Randolph

And here is Washington’s letter – it gets me time and time again ...

“Philadelphia Jany 15th 1794. Sire, However unusual it may be for your Majesty to receive an address from a person, who, at the very moment of making it, disclaims the exercise of any public function, and acts as a private individual; yet it is believed from your illustrious character, that the Motives, which lead me to the Measure, will serve as an ample apology. I cannot longer resist the impulse of friendship, to lay before you, who know so well, how to appreciate its force, my personal and affectionate anxiety for the welfare of M. de la Fayette. Report informs us, that he is under confinement in the dominions of Prussia, and therefore at your disposal. At an early period of his life—at a season, and on an occasion, far remote from the time and causes, which have subjected him to his present condition, he pursued his military career, with so much benefit to my country, and honor to himself, that he acquired a most endearing place in my affections. A sincere attachment then commenced was strengthened by an intercourse which continued after the return of peace had seperated us until more active and interesting scenes served to interrupt it. Upon the events, which succeeded, I shall be silent; only entreating your Majesty to be persuaded, that as I seperate myself, in this letter, from my official station, to render a tribute to your liberality; so I beg to be understood as intending to observe that delicacy, which becomes every man, whose country has, with perfect sincerity, cherished peace and impartiality towards the whole world. Permit me then to ask and obtain from your Majesty, a favor, in which the most lively sensibility of my fellow-citizens is engaged—the release of M. de la Fayette on his parole—If his word should not be deemed a sufficient pledge, I shall regret, that your Majesty does not entertain the same conviction of fidility, as a full experience has impressed upon myself. But I can never be persuaded of the possibility of his departing from that innocence of conduct, which is always to be expected from a prisoner of war. This request, unsolicited by, and unknown to him asks the patronage of your Majesty’s sensibility; and is dictated by a confidence, that he could not be in the power of any sovereign, who would more delight in indulging a friendship, which cannot acquit itself, without thus endeavouring to deliver him, under your benevolent auspices. I pray God to preserve your Majesty in his holy keeping Go: Washington”

Washington made it clear that he wrote as George and not as President Washington. He send the letter to Thomas Pinckney, the ambassador to Great Britain, who in his turn passed the letter on to John Markham Marshall for him to deliver the letter to the Prussian King. In June of 1794 Marshall wrote Pinckney how things had developed:

“I deliverd your letter to Prince Henry of Prussia on the 28th of April and at the same time declared to him my intention of following implicitly his advice in the business which had been entrusted with me—he appeard highly gratified by the confidence which was placed in him, and express’d himself in terms of the warmest admiration of our President, & friendship for M. de la Fayette. Whilst I remain’d with him he wrote a letter to the King his Nephew—informing him of the letter with which I was charged, and urgin⟨g⟩ a compliance with the request which it contained On my departure from Rheinsbg—his Royal highness gave me a letter to the Minister of State on the same subject who immediately inform’d me that nothing could be done for M. de la Fayette, as an agreement had actually taken place by which he was to be deliver’d up to the Austrians and he added that probably the agreement was already executed. he spoke favorably of M. de la Fayette & lamented that it was not in the power of Prussia to comply with the request of his friends[.] As the only chance which remain’d, I endeavor’d to discover if it were possible to prevail on the ministry to favor the escape of Fayette from the fortress where he was confined. [Philipp Karl] Alvensleben the Minister of State to whom I made the proposal, acknowledged his wish that it could be done but declared to me that it was too late[.] I could not press the subject further but as the Minister had not said that M de la Fayette was actually in the hands of the Austrians, I wrote requesting permission to se⟨e⟩ him before that event took place, intending if my request was grantd to renew my proposal. I enclose you the answer of Alvensleben, my business with him was at an end. I wrote, as I had promis’d, to give Prince Henry an account of my want of success, & to enquire if he could point out any step by which I could yet be of service to M. de la Fayette[.] the answer by the Baron [Karl Friedrich Hieronymus] Münchausen I enclose you, I can not very well understand it, but I clearly perceiv’d that Prince Henry could do nothing for Fayette, and as I did not wish to be obliged to converse with him, on what our government might possibly yet do to procure his enlargement, I declined the invitation to Rheinsburg”

La Fayette had met Prince Henry in the autumn of 1785 during the Prussian Review of 1785. They were on rather friendly terms with La Fayette writing to Washington on February, 6 1786:

“(...) prince Henry I Have Kept for the last, because it is By far the Best Acquaintance I Have Made—I don’t Examine who is the Greater General His Brother or He, a Question that divides the Military World—But to Abilities of the first Rate, Both as a soldier and a politician—to a perfect litterary knowledge, and all the Endowments of the Mind—He joins an Honest Heart, philantropic feelings, and rational ideas on the Rights of Mankind—I Have spent a fortnight with Him in His Country seat and We Keep up an epistolary Correspondance (...)”

With that in mind, I actually believe Prince Henry when he expresses his sympathy for La Fayette.

There is not much more to say about La Fayette’s stay in Neisse and so we can finally move on to Olmütz. Olmütz will take some time because there is simply sooo much to discuss. La Fayette’s imprisonment in general, his failed escape, the arrival of his family, and more. Bevor we tackle Olmütz though, I would like to take the time to talk about Adrienne’s fate in the meantime.

[tiramisiyu]

【未定事件簿】 Tears of Themis: Main Story 7-11 Translation

Translation Masterlist | Video

Chapter 7 – Rains of Monte Cristo: 7-1 / 7-3 / 7-5 / 7-7 / 7-9 / 7-11 / 7-13 / 7-15 / 7-17 / 7-19  ♦️ ♦️  7-20 / 7-22 / 7-24 / 7-26 / 7-28 / 7-30 / 7-32 / 7-34 / 7-35

In the afternoon, Yan Wei received Lu Jinghe and I at the city police station.

Yan Wei: So it was you who took on Wang Chunchong’s case?

MC: Yes, Leader Yan, I’ll have to trouble you again.

Yan Wei: No need to be so polite.

Lu Jinghe: We’ve already gotten an initial understanding of the case, though there are a few questions that we’d like to confirm with you in detail.

Yan Wei: No problem, go ahead.

START QUESTIONING

Murder Case Details

MC: This murder happened at the beginning of the year, so the police must have dealt with it like a missing persons case back then, yes?

Yan Wei: Indeed.

Yan Wei: At the end of January this year, Hang Jiahe reported to us that her parents Hang Fei and Qi Yu might have gone missing.

Yan Wei: The unit immediately dispatched people to their residence for investigation, but…

Yan Wei: Aside from noticing a few washed plates on the bar counter and some dragging marks on the nearby floor…

Yan Wei: There were no abnormalities in the home.

Yan Wei: After, we obtained the surveillance videos of the apartment and a few nearby streets, from which we did not discover their whereabouts either.

Yan Wei: So back then, this case could only be temporarily deemed as a “missing persons case”, to await the appearance of more clues to make a conclusion.

Lu Jinghe: But this wait went up until one week ago?

Yan Wei: Yes. I believe that you know what happened after.

Yan Wei: We detected only the fingerprints of the third person on the murder weapon – Wang Chunchong’s fingerprints.

Yan Wei: And the G24D found within the bodies of the victims is only being sold by Wang Pharmaceuticals…

Yan Wei: Thus, using Wang Chunchong as the focal point, we re-investigated locations related to the case.

Yan Wei: This time, aside from the nature park’s entrance surveillance video, we also discovered something new in the victims’ home.

MC: Discovered something new…

Police’s New Discovery

Lu Jinghe: What did you notice in the victims’ house?

Yan Wei: We detected a large amount of abnormal scalp tissue residue on the sofa cushions.

Yan Wei: That residue was not due to typical skin cell shedding, as there was also a small amount of blood on it.

Yan Wei: Combined with the dragging marks we discovered during the first investigation and the cleaned dishes…

Yan Wei: We believe that, on the night of the crime, Wang Chunchong first brought food with G24D in it and entered the victims’ home.

Yan Wei: When the victims lost consciousness and the ability to resist, perhaps to prevent blood from splattering, or perhaps to muffle the sound…

Yan Wei: He carried the two onto the ground, placed the sofa cushions on their heads, then started to deal aggressive blows at them.

Yan Wei: This resulted in the deaths of Hang Fei and Qi Yu due to intracranial bleeding.

MC: (It sounds overall like a reasonable course of events, though I still need to confirm details.)

MC: (Aside from that, why was the scalp tissue residue only detected on the second time?)

MC: Leader Yan, can you confirm that the inspected sofa cushion was always the same one?

Yan Wei: We confirmed with the photos of the crime scene from before – they’re the same.

Yan Wei: Additionally, we also investigated Wang Chunchong’s related circumstances at the same time, and discovered the proof that he took G24D, as well as his crime motive.

Yan Wei: Combining these with the nature park surveillance videos and the murder weapon creates the chain of evidence that we accused Wang Chunchong with.

MC: (Right, there’s also the surveillance video from the nature park.)

Surveillance Video Abnormalities

MC: Leader Yan, regarding the nature park’s entrance surveillance video…

MC: This video only records entrances into and exits from the mark. It does not involve any movements after one enters the park.

MC: Why did the police judge that Wang Chunchong went to discard the corpses when he appeared in the video?

Yan Wei: This comes from combining with the fingerprints on the murder weapon, as well as the time that Hang Fei and Qi Yu died, deduced by forensics.

Yan Wei: According to the inspection results and the final actions of the victims before death, Hang Fei and Qi Yu were murdered at 10pm.

Yan Wei: We retrieved the entire surveillance records of the apartment’s main entrance as well as the nature park’s entrance between 10pm to the next day at 12am and compared them.

Yan Wei: We ended up discovering that within this time period, Wang Chunchong just happened to be transporting items towards the nature park.

Yan Wei: Of course, to exclude the possibilities of others performing the crime, we also audited all others who appeared within this time period with suspicious actions.

Yan Wei: But the detection results still indicated that only Wang Chunchong’s suitcase had the victims’ DNA. No one else was out of the ordinary.

Yan Wei: Thus, we concluded that on the night of the crime, Wang Chunchong discarded the corpses in the nature park.

MC: (Could it have to do with the victims’ final movement trails…)

Victims’ Final Movement Trails

Lu Jinghe: How were the two victims’ final whereabouts confirmed?

Yan Wei: Based on the apartment main door’s surveillance videos.

Yan Wei: The video indicated that on the night of the crime at 9pm, Qi Yu once left the apartment.

Yan Wei: 45 minutes after, she returned. After, she and Hang Fei never appeared again.

Lu Jinghe: Are you sure that the person who appeared then was Qi Yu herself?

Yan Wei: We’re sure. The security guard of the apartment saw her back then.

--

[Flashback]

Yan Wei: Are you sure that the person you saw was Qi Yu herself?

Security Guard on Duty: I’m sure. I even helped the madam carry two suitcases onto her car.

Yan Wei: Suitcases? What for?

Security Guard on Duty: The madam said that they contained clothes and blankets she was preparing to send over to a new house in the suburbs.

Security Guard on Duty: Those two cases were pretty heavy, and it was quite exhausting for me.

Yan Wei: Then did you feel like something was up with Qi Yu back then?

Security Guard on Duty: Aside from how she wasn’t very talkative that day, and was also wearing a facemask and hat…

Security Guard on Duty: There were no other abnormalities.

Security Guard on Duty: It was near midnight, after all, and quite cold that day, which is why the madam would be like that.

[Flashback end]

--

MC: (It sounds like there aren’t any issues, but regarding the details… I feel like it’s strange.)

MC: (I’ll record it first, then investigate it after.)

Yan Wei: Although about that apartment, there’s something that I’m not sure if you two know.

Yan Wei: Hang Jiahe, Wang Chunchong, as well as the murdered couple lived in the same building.

Yan Wei: Hang Fei and Qi Yu lived on the tenth floor, Wang Chunchong lived on the eleventh floor, and Hang Jiahe lived on the twelfth floor.

MC: These three sets of people actually lived in the same apartment?

Lu Jinghe: Yaofu Community is a very well-known high-end community.

Lu Jinghe: Many of the wealthy who live in Stellis City and those who’ve returned from abroad have all purchased real estate here.

Lu Jinghe: It’s not too strange for them all to live here.

Yan Wei: Although, the locations of their homes are also somewhat particular. You two can go see the location after.

MC: Sure.

G24D

MC: Leader Yan, what was the proof that Wang Chunchong had G24D?

Yan Wei: When we examined Wang Pharmaceuticals’ warehouse outgoing goods records, we noticed that in a period of time before the case…

Yan Wei: A small portion of G24D was signed off and taken by Wang Chunchong.

Yan Wei: Are you sure the person who took the drug was Wang Chunchong?

Yan Wei: We aren’t extremely certain about this. It’s been a while since then, and the warehouse management couldn’t quite recall.

Yan Wei: The only thing that we could draw conclusions from was the signature on the warehouse record.

MC: …

Wang Chunchong’s Murder Motive

MC: Leader Yan, how did you decide on what Wang Chunchong’s murder motive must’ve been?

Yan Wei: Regarding this, you can see the victims’ examination reports first.

I opened the examination reports that I’d received earlier.

Yan Wei: Forensics noticed that when the crime occurred, multiple fierce blows were dealt.

MC: Many times… then if the murderer was not severely fearful, then they were severely angry…

[Obtained Hang Fei and Qi Yu’s Inspection Reports!]

Yan Wei: Correct. After, we interviewed the neighbors around them, and found out that Wang Chunchong had gotten into a conflict with the couple due to the betrothal gift before.

Yan Wei: It’s said that they had quite a few fights, and there was once when the fight almost got taken to the police station.

Yan Wei: We suspect that Wang Chunchong has held a grudge over this the whole time…

Yan Wei: So under the excuse of an apology, he entered the victims’ home on the day of the crime and carried out the murder.

MC: Then how is the relationship between Hang Jiahe and the murdered couple?

Yan Wei: Based on the interviews, their relationship is decent, and they’re a happy family.

Yan Wei: The neighbours often seen Hang Jiahe go out on vacation with her adoptive parents, and the family will also have dinner together on set dates.

Yan Wei: There are also neighbours who say that, though Hang Jiahe and Qi Yu are not biologically related…

Yan Wei: But their physiques, appearances, as well as their attitudes and relations with each other are just like a biological mother and daughter.

Yan Wei: We also investigated Hang Jiahe’s actions that day. She has ample evidence that she was not there.

Lu Jinghe: …

Proof that Hang Jiahe was not there

Lu Jinghe: What was the proof that Hang Jiahe was not there?

Yan Wei: On the day of the crime, Hang Jiahe left her residence at 7pm towards a suburban vacation villa to rest.

Yan Wei: She stayed there until the morning of the next day.

Lu Jinghe: Can anyone attest to this?

Yan Wei: We looked up the vacation villa surveillance videos. It matches her actions.

Lu Jinghe: …

MC: Then what were Wang Chunchong’s actions like on the day of the crime?

Yan Wei: Aside from the hour when he headed for the nature park, he stayed at home all day that day and never left the apartment.

Yan Wei: As for what he went to the nature park to do, he said himself that to the eastern shoals of the park to stargaze.

Yan Wei: But that shoal was not open at the beginning of the year due to the water level rising, so it couldn’t be entered.

Yan Wei: So…

MC: I understand.

MC: Aside from Wang Chunchong and Hang Jiahe, has the proof that any others related to the case weren’t at the scene of crime been investigated?

Yan Wei: All of it, yes.

Yan Wei: Hang Fei and Qi Yu stayed abroad before and only returned to Stellis City in the past few years. Thus, their interpersonal relationships are extremely simple.

Yan Wei: Aside from their daughter Hang Jiahe and son-in-law Wang Chunchong, they basically had no interactions with others.

MC: (Not even with Xu Yin? But compared to the relationship she described between her and Hang Jiahe…)

MC: (There shouldn’t be no relationship at all between her and Hang Fei and Qi Yu, right?)

MC: (Could it be… Xu Yin was lying before?)

MC: (Or… there’s something else fishy going on between Xu Yin and Hang Fei, so they didn’t want others to know about their connection?)

END INTERROGATION

 Lu Jinghe: Right, Leader Yan, have you investigated who Hang Jiahe’s biological parents are?

[Obtained Police Investigation Results!]

Yan Wei: That we haven’t. Hang Fei and Qi Yu claimed that they adopted Hang Jiahe.

Yan Wei: But we didn’t find the adoption records for that year. They might have gone through an informal process.

Yan Wei: Because there is proof that Hang Jiahe was not at the scene of crime, as well as how clearly this case points toward Wang Chunchong…

Yan Wei: Our prior investigations centered on Wang Chunchong, and we didn’t have time to perform deeper investigation on Hang Jiahe’s matters.

Lu Jinghe: Is that so…

Lu Jinghe and I traded glances.

MC: (Looks like Xu Yin and Hang Fei didn’t let others know about Hang Jiahe’s true identity.)

MC: Leader Yan, have you already made a judgement regarding Hang Fei and Qi Yu’s case?

Yan Wei: Not yet. For one, we haven’t been investigating for very long, and the evidence we’ve obtained requires additional confirmation.

Yan Wei: For another, Wang Chunchong has insisted the whole time that he didn’t kill anyone. This requires high-level attention.

Lu Jinghe: But the information circulating outside is everywhere, and they’re almost on the verge of convicting Wang Chunchong. This…

Yan Wei: We also found it weird – the investigation of this case was always a secret, and we have no idea how it got leaked.

Yan Wei: Plus… to be honest, I feel like there’s something odd about this case.

MC: Odd?

Yan Wei: Yes. First, when we were inspecting Wang Chunchong’s suitcases, though we did detect DNA of the victims…

Yan Wei: But that DNA only came from a few strands of hair.

Yan Wei: Based on my experiences, cases that are used to transport corpses won’t be left with such few traces.

MC: (Plus, Wang Chunchong was able to think of discarding the corpses, yet he didn’t think of dealing with the suitcases?)

MC: (Why are the suitcases still there after so long? Why not throw them away?)

MC: (Going back another step, if Wang Chunchong theoretically really was this careful, even if he didn’t discard the suitcases…)

MC: (He’d still end up cleaning the suitcases to make them seem normal…)

MC: (Things like hair should be much easier to clear out than blood or sebum, right?)

MC: (Is it really possible for the police to detect that this easily after an entire half-year?)

Lu Jinghe: …

Yan Wei: Additionally, when we were investigating Hang Fei and Qi Yu’s interpersonal relations, we noticed…

Yan Wei: It seemed like Hang Fei had a gambling hobby, but Hang Jiahe claimed that she and Qi Yu knew nothing about this.

Yan Wei: Can a gambler really hide their habit from their family members and have the money and time to live a “happy life” in the eyes of outsiders?

MC: It is a little strange…

Yan Wei: That’s why we kept the case investigation a secret before, in fear of omitting something.

Yan Wei: But…

Thinking of the inexplicable leaking of case information, Yan Wei couldn’t help sighing.

Yan Wei: But now that you guys have joined in, I can actually relax.

Yan Wei: If there’s anywhere where you need my help in the upcoming investigation, don’t hesitate to find me.

MC: Thank you, Leader Yan. If we notice anything, we’ll also let you know as early as possible.

--

After sending off Yan Wei, since Wang Chunchong hadn’t arrived at the meeting room yet, Lu Jinghe and I had a simple conversation.

Lu Jinghe: For now, it doesn’t seem like there are any major issues with the police’s investigation results.

MC: But there are some specific parts that don’t seem to be quite right. We’ll have to hold off on making a judgement until after we finish asking Wang Chunchong.

Lu Jinghe: Right. Plus, based on Leader Yan’s description, the relationship between Hang Fei’s family and Xu Yin is also worth pondering over.

Lu Jinghe: I feel like there’s some sort of secret hidden in this family.

MC: …

MC: Let’s also ask about this when we see Wang Chunchong.

Lu Jinghe: Yep.

[warriorssurvivalandstuff]

Thinking about a non-bender Zuko AU that changes things up for the Fire Nation by a lot, Zuko is the one majorly altered to start a butterfly effect here but I haven’t written that much about him, actually. Full text with musings under cut.

Summary: Ozai yeets Zuko out of the palace, family, succession as he was a non-bender. Ursa manages to keep him somewhere relatively safe but they are still separated. Azula no longer has a punching bag that always distracts her mother from her and instead receives the blunt of the consequences from Ozai’s little show to usurp the throne, she is to capture the Avatar, a dangerous, time-consuming, and generally seen as impossible feat. Vehemently trained by her father and accompanied by her mother, the princess sets out on her mission. During so, she meets many faces, the Avatar, some old friends, and a mysterious figure wielding swords who seemed to defend both the Avatar’s team and her.

Major events/points:

Ozai casts Zuko out

Ursa finds somewhere to keep him safe, but cannot keep him close

Zuko is raised outside Ozai’s influence

Iroh goes to look after him after Lu Ten’s death

Zuko fully relies on his swordsmanship, trains under Piandao still with word from Iroh

Would join Aang probably due to Iroh

Azula is basically an only child

She has most of both Ursa and Ozai’s attention

Ursa is still troubled and kinda distant but is still significantly closer to Azula than canon

Ozai is always subtly distancing the two however

Azula is more learnt on compassion and empathy, but really it’s mostly just soft manipulation compared to always using fear

There would be genuine friendship with Mai and Ty Lee however I imagine

So Ozai makes his move to replace Iroh and Azulon orders to sacrifice Azula

Azula hears it and confides in Ursa, who is reminded of Zuko

Ursa confronts Ozai, simmering with all the repressed ferocity 

Ozai wouldn’t do anything permanent to Azula of course, she’s too valuable

He proposes to have Azula sent on some dangerous mission

Azulon sets the mission as hunting the Avatar, who had been missing for nearly a hundred years and is very able curbstomp a child even if found

Ozai manages to bargain for training time for Azula before the mission

Ursa all but demands to go with her

She can’t firebend iirc and Azulon is punishing Ozai so he allows it, believing she won’t make much of a difference

Ozai isn’t too happy but having Ursa to look after Azula would be favourable to her survival

He does make it clear to not try anything and makes it his task to tell Azula

Ozai and takes over Azula’s training for the period and his grooming intensifies, her time spent with Ursa is taken over by training

After some time, Azula and Ursa set off on their hunt 

Some time into the hunt, Zuko would get involved

He would probably not fit into any side initially and only show as the Blue Spirit

He is against the capture of the Avatar but will not let harm come to Ursa and Azula

Possible for Mai and Ty Lee to join her after Azulon’s death 

I do not have the motivation to get further.

First, Ozai makes good of his word and has him out. Ursa manages to keep him somewhere away, but safe, either secretly or not, Ozai would probably find out some time anyway. However I think as he sees Zuko as absolutely nothing, nothing immediate is done. He makes sure Ursa knows what he can do and uses the knowledge to threaten and blackmail her. She is kept in the palace to separate them and Zuko is raised by some old friends.

I don't know when or how non-firebenders can be determined with high certainty especially with pressure from Ozai so Zuko might fully remember or have hazy memories of his past, though clearly remembers his mother. The two scenarios would lead to rather different development for him so I won't comment too much, but I believe he would have been rather young when casted out and he would not have as much influence from Ozai as canon so act kinder from the start. At some point Iroh might get involved after losing Lu Ten, though it wouldn’t be direct, maybe through Piandao and White Lotus. Zuko would still pick up sword fighting and hone it even more without the ability to bend.

Back at the palace, Azula is now an only child. There's no competing for affections but Ursa is troubled and still distant with her daughter, not that Ozai want her too close to his prodigy child anyway. With that said, I do think Ursa would still manage to have observably more influence on Azula than canon. That or there's no one so heavily antagonised by Ozai like Zuko always being around, Ursa may fall somewhere close but canon Azula does have an attachment when really young to her mother, don't think it could be severed that easily. 

Most important part is when Ozai makes his move after Lu Ten dies, Azulon would have ordered to sacrifice Azula instead. Ozai had indeed casted his actual firstborn away but Azula excelled both mentally and physically, referred to as a true prodigy and so cannot be compared to Zuko’s case. Azula still eavesdropped and learns of the Firelord’s order, she knew no matter how much Ozai took pride in her abilities, he could not defy the Firelord. She sought comfort from Ursa and she is reminded of what happened to Zuko, then determined to protect Azula from harm. She is aware that Ozai might save his own skin over anyone, including his prodigy daughter and prepares to confront Ozai on the matter.

Ozai expected her and states that he values Azula upon her entrance, stopping the worst case scenario Ursa thought of. She skips to enquire him on any plan he has for Azulon’s order and Ozai’s reply was to have Azula in a situation the Firelord could take as as good as gone, which he suggests to be some sort of grand mission. [On the alternate options of Agni Kai and assassination, I feel Ozai would’ve gone for Agni Kai to challenge Azulon if he could, though he was bent on making Zuko’s life hell, being commanded to kill his own child and just taking it seems kinda weak. With an Agni Kai victory he might as well claim the throne as well. Assassination was suggested by Ursa in canon, which was a rather desperate option she resorted to with about only herself unwilling to let harm come to Zuko. We don’t really know if Ozai had considered that, wouldn’t put it past him to consider it before Ursa barges in with a hand. So it could be similar to canon and the two have Azulon dead, just Ozai would be the one to raise it most likely... But that’s boring and I need to have someone go after Gaang, I doubt Ozai/Iroh has any reason to chuck Zuko off to find the Avatar or that he would try to capture the Avatar himself.] Ursa contemplates the plan and their other options, then makes a condition that she would travel along Azula should the Firelord accept the proposal. Ozai tries to brush her off and talk her out but Ursa wouldn’t back down and makes points on how she would be useful. At last, Ursa is triumphant and Ozai decides that he would mould Azula before the long time that she’ll have to spend away, when Ursa is sure to sow her own beliefs on their daughter and he would not be able to tell Azula otherwise, Azulon would make sure they are to have minimal contact.

Azula would most likely hear the discussion as well, I haven’t thought up if this would cause much impact, she would probably make some suggestions to improve it if she could. Unsure if she has a strong enough opinion on Ursa coming along to talk about it.

Ozai and Ursa presents the proposal to Azulon the next day with the most convincing tone he could muster, Azula is to be sent on a mission away from the Fire Nation with the company of Ursa, with some time allowed for training prior. Lu Ten had died in battle, and there’s no reason to just throw someone skilled like Azula away for nothing, she could do to help Fire Nation’s conquest. Azulon accepts and states his conditions, he would set the goal, only a minimal crew as company, Ozai is not to communicate with her during the mission, training is to be overseen by Azulon etc. He had expected similar requirements and does not object, then Azulon drops the bomb by setting the goal as capturing the Avatar. [I don’t really know much about Azulon so I didn’t complicate things on his end. Avatar hunt is basically a wild goose chase, disappeared for about a hundred years with no hint of location and expected to be extremely dangerous, perfect for getting rid of someone.] The prince and princess had expected something along those lines, but still tensed at the impossibility of what the Firelord set. Regardless, they had got what they bargained for, and Ozai prepares Azula for ramped up training.

Azula is a quick learner and has talent, but Ozai and Azulon’s training is enough to burn even her out in just a few sessions. She is pushed to her limits, expected to master multiple forms simultaneously at quadruple normal speed for one. Ozai is already tough on Azula and does not shy away from potential non-permanent injuries, but Azulon seems like he’s straight up going to murder her at times. [Something like this: Lightning 101, after they tell her about conjuring lightning, Azulon charges up a lightning bolt and just fires at her general direction without warning, then Ozai interrupts it with a bolt of his own. Azula is then expected to know to counter it at the next blast.] Training also shortened the time she was to spend with Ursa beforehand, which he fully took advantage of, emphasising strength and power. When Ursa did not seem increasingly impressed by her quickly widened set of moves, Ozai would tell her to ignore her mother, not to seek from her and continue training with him. [Ursa does praise her, but kinda repetitive in wording... and she isn’t familiar with bending forms to notice new things. I can’t describe it clearly but to Azula, it seemed like she was saying for the sake of it, and more words just made it feel smothering.] Azula soon gains her signature blue flames and lightningbending, but also grew apart from her mother and closer to Ozai. 

Training allowance passed, Azula with Ursa is sent away on her hunt. I have not thought about basically anything that would transpire with her hunting Aang in place of Zuko and with Ursa instead of Iroh to temper her dedication to the throwaway quest. Ursa doesn’t consider the possibility of actually finding the Avatar and awaits for Azulon’s day but Azula does ponder it and genuinely looks for information. [Ursa would have picked up some extra skills to help with the hunt, mostly for defence, on top of herbalist knowledge. It would be funny if they come upon Aang right when Azulon dies. Ozai sends them the note that they can return and he instead gets their report of having found the Avatar. Though for storytelling, it might be better that he does so after the events of season 1. Unsure if Iroh would ascend to the throne in Ozai’s place in canon, he would probably stop the war then and there, and Ozai might challenge him and take the throne anyway.] No particular points of interest come to mind as this gets to the start of the show. Azula would no doubt be more effective and ruthless, and the Zhao rivalry that happened with Zuko would not happen, but something else.

Back to Zuko, he would first make appearance as the Blue Spirit [not definitely the same chronological events] then be revealed to Ursa later down the line. He would start on the Avatar’s side but be held back once he recognises Ursa. Afterwards he would probably harbour some resentment for his situation and confront her one day. Ursa tells him the whole story with an apology and Zuko tries to convince her to drop the Avatar mission. Ursa thinks it’s unlikely for Azula to change her mind but does what she can.

No clue what happens next.

[armandyke]

Let the world turn without you tonight

Summary: At 16, Luther is sent on an academy mission with his brother. And of all the people to find out about his fear of thunderstorms, he really didn’t want it to be Diego.

Word Count: 2210

Square Filled: Crack

Characters: Luther Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves

Warnings: Swearing

A/N: The third of nine entries for @tuacreatorsbingo!

You can read it here, or on my AO3

“This is bullshit.”

Luther took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to block out the sound of Diego’s incessant whining. Their mission was simple enough. They’d been bundled into a car and driven to a park at the edge of the city, with strict instructions to set up camp and watch for “suspicious activity” in the apartment block across the street. So they… Well, he, had set up a small tent in the grass, and now they… He, was keeping watch, while Diego, as usual, did whatever the hell he wanted. 

Apparently all Diego wanted to do right now was be as irritating as possible, which seemed to come naturally to him. For the last thirty minutes he’d been alternating between long winded speeches about his plans to leave the academy, and throwing small pebbles at the back of his head. As if on cue, another stone hit him and he clenched his jaw, looking over his shoulder at him. Diego, who was lying on his back in the tent, one hand beneath his head and the other rolling yet another pebble between his fingers, smiled innocently at him. 

“Stop it,” Luther muttered. 

“Stop what?”

“Throwing stuff at me.”

“I’m not.” Diego chuckled as he flicked the pebble at him, hitting him in the centre of his forehead. “Must be your imagination.” 

“Look,” He said, exasperated. “I get that this is all a big joke to you, but can you please just let me concentrate on our mission.”

Diego smirked at him and shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure. You get back to saving the world.”

“I will.”

“Fine.”

“Good!”

“Great!”

An hour passed in blissful silence and night began to fall, with only the dim glow of a streetlamp at the edge of the park lighting their camp. It was starting to become apparent that the apartment block Luther had been watching the for better part of the evening was unoccupied. The windows remained dark, and he had yet to see anyone come or go. In fact, he hadn’t even seen anybody walk past. Maybe that was the “suspicious activity” dad had been talking about. He’d been pretty vague in his mission briefing, which was unusual for dad, and although he wasn’t about to admit it to Diego, he wasn’t entirely sure what they were actually supposed to be doing here.

He heard a rustling noise behind him, and when he glanced over his shoulder he saw Diego rifling through his bag and pulling out a pack of chips. 

“You want some?” He asked when he noticed Luther watching him. “I packed loads.” 

They’d been sent off on their mission before dinner, and it hadn’t occurred to Luther to pack any food while he was getting ready. Still, despite the growling in his stomach, he shook his head. 

“You shouldn’t have those,” He muttered. “Dad doesn’t like junk food.” 

“Dad doesn’t like junk food,” Diego mimicked. “Do you hear yourself when you talk? It’s embarrassing. If dad didn’t want me to eat junk then maybe he should have fed me before he sent me out here. I can’t stab people on an empty stomach. Messes with my concentration.” 

“We’re not here to stab people,” Luther argued and Diego cocked his brow curiously, leaning back on his elbows. 

“And what are we here for, exactly?” 

Clenching his jaw, Luther looked down at the grass. “Our mission is to-” 

“There is no mission, you moron,” Diego cut in. “This is just dad’s not-so-subtle way of getting rid of us for a few hours.” He pointed at his face, where the black eye he was sporting was still clearly visible, so swollen that his eye was half closed. “This is why we’re here.”

Luther cringed. He hadn’t meant to hit Diego that hard. It was easy to forget that for all his talk, his brother was a lot more fragile than he was. Unfortunately it seemed that nowadays they spent more time throwing punches at each other than anything else, and that morning it had gotten so bad that Pogo and Grace had to physically wrestle them away from each other. He couldn’t even remember what they’d been arguing about anymore. Probably something stupid. They both knew exactly how to rile the other up until even the smallest disagreement escalated into a fight. Still, he didn’t see what that had to do with their mission. Dad had been pretty mad at them earlier, but he still seemed to trust them enough to send them out on their own. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He said quietly, frowning when Diego rolled his eyes at him. 

“You and me got into a massive punch up and suddenly dad sends us out into the middle of nowhere on a super vague, completely pointless mission. You really think that’s just a coincidence? He wanted us out of his hair.” 

“That’s not true.” Luther scowled at him. “He wouldn’t have sent us here if it wasn’t important.”

“He sent us here because he’s a psychopath who wouldn’t know what good parenting was if it smacked him in the face.” 

“Shut up.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decides to leave us here forever.”

“I said shut up! ” Luther snapped, clenching his fists furiously. “He wouldn’t do that.”

Shrugging, Diego tossed a chip into his mouth and stayed silent. There was a low rumble in the distance and they both sat upright, looking around for the source of the noise. Diego was the first to relax, sliding his knife back into his belt. 

“It’s just thunder,” He said as the first spots of rain started falling. “Relax.”

The two of them scrambled over to their tent as the rain started to get heavier, Diego tucking himself up in the far corner while Luther sat at the edge, determined to continue his surveillance of the building. 

A sharp crack echoed around them as lightning streaked across the sky and Luther flinched at the sound, hugging his arms tightly around himself and drawing his knees up to his chest. They didn’t get many storms in their town, but Luther hated them. The thunder claps and the cracks of lightning and the sound of the rain hammering down were all overwhelming. It felt like he was back on another mission, surrounded by the chaos of guns and fighting and breaking bones as they all tried to fend off men twice their size. He tried to disguise the way he flinched with each roll of thunder, but eventually Diego noticed, and Luther could hear him snigger behind him. 

“Quit being a baby,” He teased, prodding him with his toe. “It’s a storm, not the end of the world.”

Luther could have made a jab about Diego passing out when Grace explained how his T shots were gonna work, but he kept his mouth clamped shut as he tensed up in preparation for the next explosion of noise. Thunder boomed above them and he whimpered, digging his fingers into his arms and squeezing his eyes shut. Why did this have to happen now? There was no way Diego was gonna let this go, and there was no way he was going to cry in front of him. He felt Diego prod him again and braced himself for more teasing, but his voice was softer this time. 

“I was just joking, Lu,” He said quietly, shuffling over to him when Luther didn’t reply. “Seriously, are you okay?” 

Luther nodded, sniffling and wiping his eyes on the back of his sleeve. 

“You don’t look okay.” Diego was quiet for a moment before turning towards him again. “The storm’s ten miles away,” He said confidently. “You don’t have to worry.”

Perplexed, Luther looked up at him. “How do you know that?”

“Easy. You count the seconds between the thunder and the lightning. Five seconds for every mile. That was fifty seconds so… Ten miles.” He grinned proudly at him. “I read it in a book.”

“Wow,” Luther said quietly. “I didn’t know you could read.”

“Ass.” Diego elbowed him in the ribs and they both laughed. 

Letting out a sigh, Luther tucked his knees up against his chest and rested his chin on them. Outside the apartment block, two people were huddled together under the canopy, trying to get some shelter from the rain. Last time Luther checked, that was neither evil or suspicious. Diego was watching them too, wrinkling his nose up periodically as water dripped from the edge of the tent onto his head, but stubbornly refusing to move a few inches to the right to avoid it. 

“Who names a team ‘The Umbrella Academy’ and then doesn’t even give them actual umbrellas,” He muttered and Luther sniggered. “The man’s a lunatic, I’m telling you.” 

Another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by another crack of thunder. Luther flinched again. Diego didn’t say anything this time. 

“It’s getting further away,” He observed quietly.

Luther nodded, though he wasn’t sure whether to believe him. The noise sure didn’t sound like it was getting further away. 

“Do you really think dad’s gonna leave us here?” He asked after a few minutes. The storm seemed to have washed away all his resolve, replacing it with a niggling sense of doubt and uncertainty that made him question if maybe Diego was right about him. 

For a moment Diego was silent, shaking his head and turning away from him. 

“Nah,” He said, picking at the grass by his feet. “You’re our Number One. No way he’d kick you out.” 

The rain seemed to be dying down, and the thunder was nothing more than a low rumble in the distance. Apparently Diego knew more about storms than Luther gave him credit for. 

“You should really eat something,” He said out of nowhere, nudging Luther’s arm. I’ll keep watch for a while.”

Luther frowned. “I thought you said-”

“Forget what I said,” He interrupted. “Just… Eat something, please. There’s stuff in my bag.”

Hesitantly, Luther turned his back on the apartment block and crawled across the tent to Diego’s bag, rifling through it until he found a bar of chocolate. Diego glanced over his shoulder at him, relaxing and leaning back on his elbows once he was satisfied that he was eating. 

“Sorry about your eye, by the way,” Luther said between mouthfuls and Diego shrugged. 

“I’ve had worse.”

Luther’s eyes fell on the cut across the side of Diego’s face, now a faded pink colour, and frowned. 

“Klaus said it makes me look cool,” He said, as though he could feel Luther looking at the scar. “When I leave, I’m gonna pick up so many girls with this baby.” 

He tapped the side of his head and grinned at him, and Luther gave a halfhearted nod, unsure of how reliable Klaus was as a source of information. 

“Are you really gonna leave?” He asked, because for all Diego’s talk about his plans, it was hard to imagine him actually leaving. 

“Yup,” Diego said without a second of hesitation. “As soon as I’m eighteen. I’m gonna get a job, buy a car, and get as far away from this place as possible.”

Luther blinked at him. “As in leave the city? ”

“Leave the city, leave the state. Whatever. Hell if I’m staying here for the rest of my life.” 

The two of them fell into a solemn silence as they both considered the reality of that. Whenever Diego talked about leaving, which was a lot, Luther always imagined he would just live a few streets down, stopping by for breakfast or dinner a few times a week. Not leaving as in actually leaving. Not leaving as in never seeing him again. Diego didn’t seem to have considered it before either, suddenly looking a little less sure of himself as he shifted uncomfortably. 

“You could come with me if you want,” He said quietly, folding his arms. “Not just you, obviously. I’ll ask the others too. We’ll all go.”

For a moment, Luther found himself genuinely considering it, but the idea of abandoning dad, abandoning the academy, abandoning his duty, was too much and he shook his head. 

“I can’t.” 

“You can’t stay here forever, Lu.” Diego scooted over to him, his expression turning serious. “That asshole’s gonna control you for the rest of your life if you don’t stand up to him.” 

“Don’t call him that,” He mumbled as he hung his head. 

“Surely you realise that he-”

“Don’t,” Luther warned, and Diego backed off, slumping his shoulders and turning back around. 

The storm had circled back around towards them, the thunder growing louder again and the sky lighting up with bolts of lightning. 

“You okay?” Diego asked and Luther nodded, wrapping his arms around himself. 

Diego didn’t look convinced, grabbing his coat from the corner of the tent and folding it into a makeshift pillow. 

“Try and get some sleep,” He instructed, guiding Luther’s shoulders until he had no choice but to lay down. “I’ll wake you up when the storm’s over.” 

Luther closed his eyes, the sound of the storm a little less overwhelming with Diego’s hand resting on his shoulder, reminding him that, for now at least, he was still there.

[the-archlich]

Would you prefer a DW game to be completely Historic without any fictional aspects like characters like Diao Chan and battles like Hu lao gate or do you like that DW leans heavily on the fictional aspects of the Three Kingdoms ?

Take from this answer what you will. My opinion on any semi-historical adaptation is as follows: (this turned into a long, kind of rambling essay.)

First and foremost, I think it is the responsibility of anyone adapting something from history to represent the real people involved with integrity. People who did terrible things shouldn’t have that covered up for the sake of the narrative. People who did heroic deeds shouldn’t have their efforts dismissed. Even if used fictitiously, these were real people. Their hopes and dreams were real. Their suffering and struggles were real. And if you’re doing any kind of adaptation it is important to represent those things honestly. You have a duty to show people for who they were - or, more practically, who you perceive them to be.

Obviously the easiest way to do that is to stick as close to recorded facts as possible. The less you deviate from the truth, the less you have to worry about. If the narrative just doesn’t let you incorporate something factual, then it’s your responsibility to try to get as close as you can. The Sanguo Yanyi usually has Taishi Ci die heroically at Hefei. And while that didn’t happen it does show him as a brave man and a powerful warrior whose unexpected death is widely mourned. That’s now how it happened, but it at least represents the spirit of the man faithfully.

And sure, there’s room for ambiguity. Who is the “hero” in a story about Wei’s Zhengshi period? What were someone’s real motives? What were they really like? Our records only show certain sides of people. That’s okay. That ambiguity is where you have room to improvise and build a historical figure into a character. But if you’re taking advantage of ambiguities to wave away serious problems, you’re not acting in good faith

There is a lot of ambiguity, for example, in the Zhengshi period. At the same time, there are some interpretations that are simply not made in good faith. I don’t believe that anyone can look at Sima Yi’s actions and honestly believe that they were selfless, taken only in the interest of preserving Wei. You could argue that they were justified and logical, but saying that he was doing it all for “the greater good” would be dishonest. Depicting Cao Shuang and his group as innocent victims attacked senselessly by a jealous rival who just wanted to seize power is just as dishonest, as it requires one to ignore the efforts they made to consolidate power. You can build a good character in the ambiguities and the things left unsaid, but it should always come from a place of honesty.

This is a roundabout way of saying that the most important thing to get right - the thing that matters to me more than anything else in adapting a story - is representing the people involved with honesty and integrity. They were real and whether you see them as heroic, villainous, or elsewhere or that spectrum (most people were, of course, in the gray area between) it is important to show them honestly.

The easiest way to do that is, as I said, to stick as close to recorded facts as possible. The more inventions you toss in, the farther from the truth you’ll wander. You mentioned Diao Chan and Hulao, and those are actually two good examples on the opposite ends of this continuity.

Hulao is, of course, a fictional battle. It is often preceded by a battle at Sishui (which appears to have been another name for the same mountain pass) and followed by a battle where Cao Cao gets ambushed and is no longer able to pursue Dong Zhuo. The Sishui battle is pretty directly inspired by the battle at Yangren, the battle at Hulao is inspired by Sun Jian’s battle against Dong Zhuo at Dagu Pass, and the ambush is inspired by the battle at Xingyang between Cao Cao and Xu Rong, which actually happened before Yangren and Dagu.

As an adaptation of those three historical events (Xingyang, Yangren, and Dagu) Hulao is terrible, particularly at the Sishui and Hulao portions. at Yangren, Sun Jian defeated Lu Bu and killed a staff officer named Hua Xiong (a man of no special importance. Then at Dagu he defeated Dong Zhuo himself and drove him off to Chang’an. At Sishui, however, Sun Jian is unable to accomplish anything and Hua Xiong cuts through many fictional characters before being killed by Guan Yu - who was not at Yangren, the battle that inspired it. At Hulao, Lu Bu does the same feat before Guan  Yu, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei fight him to a draw. Again, none of those men were actually present at Dagu. That was all Sun Jian.

So in adapting Yangren and Dago into Sishui and Hulao to better fit the narrative, Luo Guanzhong completely cheats Sun Jian out of all credit. He was the only character to have success against Dong Zhuo, but he is rendered a minor figure and upstaged by three men who didn’t even fight against Dong Zhuo (they were in Qing or You at the time, nowhere near the campaign against Dong Zhuo). This is an adaptation with no integrity. Sun Jian is robbed of his heroic accomplishments and glory is showered on people who did not earn it.

The Diao Chan story, on the other hand, is a pretty fair adaptation. The woman herself is fictional but the events the story depicts are reasonably close to the truth, if a bit embellished. There was a rift that formed between Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu - and while it wasn’t due to both desiring the same woman that rift was very much a real thing, brought about in large part due to Dong Zhuo’s terrible treatment of Lu Bu (even throwing a halberd at him once). And Wang Yun did take advantage of this rift to turn Lu Bu against Dong Zhuo. This allowed him to arrange Dong Zhuo’s assassination by Lu Bu’s hand - all of which does happen in the fictionalized version of the tale with Diao Chan. My only major qualm is that it writes out Shisun Rui, who was another major architect of the plan, but he didn’t want credit for it anyway so I can let it slide.

What I’m saying is, it’s all about integrity. It’s easiest to represent people honestly when you just stay close to the truth. Inventing and embellishing things is fine - that’s how you get a story instead of an essay. But those inventions and embellishments should serve to reinforce who these people really were, not cover it up.

So what I ask from any adaptation of any historical period - Dynasty Warriors or something else - is this integrity. I don’t demand strict accuracy or realism but it’s easiest to achieve this integrity when you stick close to the truth.

One other thing I’ll add is that in most cases, and especially in the Three Kingdoms, I find the truth to be far more interesting than the stories made up later. I prefer that any adaptation/narrative about the period stay close to the truth not just to represent people with integrity but because the events that actually happened are usually more exciting than invented tales. And history can get away with things that fiction can’t. The story of Taishi Ci rescuing Kong Rong is downplayed in the Sanguo Yanyi because even for a novel like that, the truth seems hard to believe.

[carnistcervine]

The Storm AU

Last AU I’mma post for now. I think this is enough AU spam for now. :’D

(I still have dozens more lol)

*The Gaang gets caught up in a sudden freak storm while escaping Azula.

*While flying away from her royal evilness, they start coming upon a strange patch of ocean with what looks like bony-white hands sticking up from the water.

*Remembering hearing about the Sea of Lost Souls from his ship days and about how it was filled with the cursed spirits of drowning victims, Zuko warms the group to fly around.

*But Azula is closing in, so they have no choice but to fly over, and a freak storm starts.

*The storm blows Azula's ships back, but the gaang end up crashing into the ocean and wake up in an alternate universe where the war never happened.

*The group wakes up on a Fire Nation vessel, and at first they think they've been captured.

*Naturally they don't trust Captain Zura or her crew and assume that it's a Fire Nation trap or something.

*Nevertheless, Zura is horrified by the accusations the Gaang throws out, and the Gaang are utterly bewildered by the FIRE NATION of all people offering kindness and hospitality.

*In this world, there was no century old war. And by extension, no Air Nomad genocide.

*In fact, the Air Nomads are just fine and still very much around.

*The Fire Nation are not enemies of the Avatar, instead they are the Avatar's staunchest allies.

*Instead of trying to spread their influence by conquering the world, the Fire Nation uses their good fortune to give aid to nations in need.

*Not that other nations always accept the aid. Some leaders(particularly those in the Earth Kingdom) see themselves as being "too good" for handouts.

*Also, the Gaang have all been missing for quite awhile in this world. Aang has been missing for over a century, Zuko has been missing for three years, Sokka and Katara have been missing for over a year, Suki and Toph have been missing for months.

*Iroh is Fire Lord, Lu Ten is alive, and Azulon is still hanging in there(He old as fuck tho).

*Also, Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai aren't evil. Ozai's kind of a dick, but he actually loves his children and isn't vile enough to burn Zuko.

*The Gaang aren't sure what's going on, but they do eventually go to confront their parents.

*Sokka and Katara are beyond elated to see their mom alive. Hakoda and Kya are equally happy to have their kids come home safe and sound. Kya is horrified to find that her children thought SHE had died. She's also horrified by her children's stories of their prosperous tribe being raided and stripped away by the Fire Nation.

*The Kyoshi Warriors are quite happy to have their leader return in one piece. The Kyoshi Warriors are equally stunned and horrified by Suki's stories of refugees, and a line of genocidal, megalomaniac Fire Lords that wiped out the Air Nomads, stripped the South Pole, and raped the Earth Kingdom.

*Zuko is nervous about going home. When he ultimately makes the trip home, he's given a very warm welcome by his family, save for Azula. While Ursa and Ozai are happy to see their son alive, they're horrified by the disfiguring scar he's received. They press Zuko for answers, but he doesn't know what to say/isn't ready to talk about it. Fire Lord Iroh is outraged, someone hurt his beloved nephew. Azula takes the opportunity to completely mock and taunt her older brother over his new scar. Zuko ends up holing himself up in his room, self-conscious and unwilling to talk to anyone.

*Toph doesn't want to go home and avoids doing so for as long as possible. She has the distinct feeling that nothing will change. When she eventually does return to her family, she finds that she was correct. Toph doesn't say anything of her travels with the Gaang.

*Because Aang vanished when he was twelve, the Avatar was never revealed to the world, and all anyone knows is that he's been missing for about a century.

*When Aang returns to the Southern Air Temple, the only people who knew he was the Avatar have died long ago. Without that heaviness weighing on his shoulders, Aang quickly makes new friends. Being as Aang is already a mostly-realized avatar, and one that cannot access the avatar state, he "neglects" to mention that he's the Avatar and just lets everyone believe that he's a normal airbender. While the monks are quick to accept Aang back to the temple, they do have some serious questions about that nasty scar on his back, and why his chakra is blocked. Aang avoids the topic for a long a possible. However, one day he forgets that he's trying to be just an airbender and waterbends. He's pulled in front of the monks and comes clean about being the Avatar who vanished a century ago. When they start talking about training him, Aang is quick to say that he's already learned all four elements and even mastered the avatar state. ...Until his chakra was blocked after being killed by a lightning strike in the avatar state. The monks are horrified when Aang mentions being killed in the avatar state. Aang then goes on to explain, or over-explain his whole journey with the Gaang, the Air Nomad genocide, the Fire Nation's conquest, all that fun stuff to these poor horrified monks. They end up interrupting Aang, having heard enough of his nightmare-scenario and send him to his room to have some (drugged) tea as they try and figure out what to do with the poor boy.

*While Suki's life just goes back to normal, the rest of the Gaang find themselves trapped by newly overbearing parents/guardians. Although for Toph, they just double down on being overbearing.

*The monks keep making Aang drink "calming" tea, and insist on constant healers and meditation to try and unblock his chakra. Aang hates it every time they try, because it causes him to have flashbacks or suffer a panic attack. They mostly make him stay in his room, and only let him go outside with supervision. Aang hates this, as he really just wants to go see his friends, but the monks keep him trapped in his room and making him drink tea that makes him drowsy.

*Hakoda and Kya insist that they aren't punishing Sokka and Katara, but the two are no longer allowed outside of the South Pole, and they have body guards constantly watching over them. The water sibs are happy to be treated like celebs at first, but quickly grow tired of being treated like they're going to vanish if someone takes their eyes off of them for a moment.

*Toph's parents become so much worse. Now she's under constant surveillance and barely allowed outside of her room. She's not allowed outside the house, period. She's only allowed an earthbending tutor to go over with basics with her, because benders who don't use their bending go mad. Her parents often mumble amongst themselves about how they wish they could take that 'earthbending curse' away from her. The thought of losing her earthbending is the most terrifying thing Toph has ever considered and genuinely leaves her paralyzed with fear.

*Even though Zuko voluntarily hid inside of his room, it seems to have been decided that he's not allowed outside of the palace and must have guards accompany him at all times. His family constantly pressure him to explain what happened to his face, and Zuko just shuts down even further. When he finally comes out of his room, he's rather annoyed and upset to find that not only are guards following him everywhere, but also he's not allowed outside of the palace. His family now treats him like he's made of porcelain, and Zuko explodes in frustration, claiming that he's more than capable of defending himself. Because Zuko refuses to explain how he got his scar, his family starts to wonder if it was self-inflicted.

*Sick and tired of being treated like porcelain and smothered, the Gaang all run away from home and start a new life on the run from their parents.

[jessread-s]

Rebel (Legend, #4)

Book Review: Rebel by Marie Lu

Rating: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ (4.0)

The following review is spoiler free.

Review: I first read the Legend series back in middle school around the release of Champion in 2013. I remember being absolutely devastated after the series conclusion, my soul crushed under the weight of my favorite ship being teared apart. Over time, I came to appreciate the way Marie Lu brought Day and June’s story to a close. I moved on. Then Rebel was released in October. I bought it the day it came out... but I didn’t get to it until now. I guess I was skeptical, as I didn’t see the need for a fourth book. I didn’t want my love for my absolute favorite series to unravel if things didn’t turn out the way I wanted to with this fourth book. After finally getting to Rebel, the fourth book in my beloved Legend series, here are my thoughts. 

What Worked:

01. The return of June and Day. Rebel takes place ten years after the time period established in the novel Champion, so I was eager to see how all the trauma they experienced with the fall of the Republic would effect their adult lives. I was especially curious about how June and Day would cross paths again, as Champion ends with the duo parting ways. I was not disappointed. Marie Lu did an astounding job capturing the moment June and Day reunited for the first time in nearly ten years. My heart ached as Lu described Day piecing his memories together to discover how June played a role in his life. The numerous amount of times my heart beat against my chest as I had to watch the two start from scratch to become comfortable with each other, trying to serve as each other’s support system to calm the inner demons plaguing them from their time under the rule of the old Republic. It was almost as if I was witnessing Day fall in love with June all over again and that made reading Rebel all the more worthwhile.

02. In this novel, we got the perspective Eden, Daniel’s brother, which I thought was very interesting. In the Legend series, we know Eden to be the brother who was struck down by the plague, later allowing the Republic to experiment on him to find a cure for the very plague he was infected with. Eden’s perspective allowed me to get a glimpse of how he himself was effected by the revolution that saved the Republic of America. I had been so focused on June and Day’s storyline, that I hadn’t even considered how Eden might have felt after the dust settled. Like Day, he lost a brother to death by firing squad and witnessed his mother’s murder. He was on the brink of death after catching the plague and had to worry about his only remaining family member, Day, who nearly died due to the Republic’s tampering with his brain. Marie Lu shed light on Eden’s struggles with fitting in, the constant nightmares about the death of his family, and living in his older brother’s shadow. This perspective really added a lot to the novel and helped me to better understand his relationship with Daniel. 

03. Rebel’s ending. I intend not to give away what happened at the novel’s end, but I will say that it was extremely satisfying. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. 

04. The relationship between Daniel and Eden. I thought the Daniel and Eden’s dynamic was very interesting. Lu characterizes Daniel as overprotective brother figure. This makes sense to me, as Daniel nearly lost his entire family at the beginning of the series. For him to constantly keep watch over Eden just goes to show how afraid he is of his past. Naturally, Eden views Daniel as a “helicopter parent” who will not allow him to do anything on his own. What caught me off my guard was Eden’s annoyance with being in his older brother’s shadow. I thought that was an interesting concept to explore. Rather than being referred to as Eden Wing or Eden the extremely intelligent individual who is at the top of his class, many simply call him “Day’s brother.” This is what actually creates the divide between Eden and Daniel. Eden believes that his legendary brother has moved on from the past and does not experience the same trauma that he does. Daniel, however, does not confide in his brother about the hauntings of the past in order to shield him from dangers in the possible future. I love how Lu built up the conflict between the two and how they eventually let their walls down. 

What Didn’t Work:

01. Rebel didn’t offer anything new to the table. Sad as it was, the ending to Champion was beautiful, dare I even say perfect. Day and June meet again in the epilogue after ten years spent apart and we are left feeling hopeful. Though it isn’t explicitly said that the two will have a happily ever after, it’s something we can infer. We are left on the edge, fighting for more even though we cannot have it and I love endings like those. Endings where things aren’t neatly tied up in a perfect bow. What bothered me about Rebel was that it practically repeated everything that had been established within Champion and even Life after Legend with the addition of a predictable storyline and the perspective of Eden. To make matters worse, the ending to Rebel was nowhere near as powerful as Champion’s epilogue. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the book, but I think it would be better suited as a spin-off than an actual novel in the series. 

02. Eden’s story is just not as compelling as the stories of June and Day. When Lu announced that she would be releasing a fourth book in the Legend series, it felt as if my prayers had been answered. I had always wondered what happened to my favorite couple after the conclusion of Champion and I was hoping for a happy ending to their story. As the release date drew near, I discovered that Rebel would be primarily Eden’s story, not June and Day’s. It pains me to admit this, but I was saddened by the loss of June’s perspective in the novel. Eden’s point of view could not live up to June’s. I found myself completely ignoring Eden’s side of things in favor of focusing exclusively on June and Day’s side story. Therefore, I have to agree with many fellow reviewers who have stated that Rebel should have been a novella. I would have enjoyed the story a lot more if Rebel had been a spin-off rather than an actual book in the series. A spin-off would have allowed for Lu to strictly tell Eden’s tale in a manner that would have been short and to the point, without my mind rushing through Eden’s chapters to get to Daniel’s. 

03. Eden’s perspective. What baffled me was Eden’s behavior. Being a twenty-one-year-old, I did not expect him to to act so childish. He would purposely get himself into trouble to punish Daniel for being overprotective and lash out at him for not understanding what he was “going through.” I will admit, that there were aspects of his story that I really enjoyed, but some of the justifications for his actions did not make sense to me, thus painting a picture of an annoying little kid. 

04. The plot. Rebel just did not have the most complex, interesting plot. It pales in comparison to its predecessors. It pains me to say this, but I was not impressed by the villain, nor was I impressed by the predictable storyline that had me frustrated at times. 

Jess Approved?: ✓ Review posted to Goodreads

Buy on Amazon: US | UK

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 1373

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 1373

Spoilers, obv.

(I say I do these before the next issue came out. I was posting this yesterday and my tumblr account died. As in, my tumblr account was terminated.There’s a couple of things which make me think it’s a glitch (not least there’s no reason for it I could think of, unless Tumblr really loathes writer notes about a lucifer nun. I contact them going “Huh?” and come the morning, it’s back. Hmm. Anyway - here you go, and the next special - Wicdiv: the funnies is out today) 

The final historical special, which seems to require my notes to pull them together and talk about the larger intent. Sitting here and writing, I’m not sure I want to. The backbone of the specials have been the relationship between various Lucifers and Ananke across the centuries. You get a chance at least get acquainted with four Lucifer’s, and get to compare and contrast, and you get to see more developed portraits of what Ananke has been up to across the centuries. As the last one in the printed chronology, that means this one ties all that together, plus (as the other one) introducing some key ideas for the next arc.

It differs in another way – while that’s how the reading order will work for anyone working in single issues, in trades, it’s another story. These are going to be gathered together as Volume 8 (OLD IS THE NEW NEW) and printed chronologically (as in, 455, 1373, 1833, 1922). That’s how people in trades are going to first experience them, which creates a different spin and will bring different elements to the surface.

To state the obvious, the big thing in this one is “oh – here’s how bad Ananke can be.” By implication, it raises the stakes for the final arc in terms of what she could do if her back is against the wall.

I admit, I’ve always been a bit worried when I see a handful of people assume the specials aren’t essential to the story. I don’t believe we’ve ever said that, and it’s simply not true. You can skip them, sure, but it breaks the story as much as skipping any individual issue of WicDiv. What we’ve said is that trade readers don’t need to buy the specials to follow the story. I’m trying to think of anything I could have said that could have been misconstrued? Possibly the “anything we use will be reintroduced”? I dunno.

Anyway – this is simultaneously the biggest and smallest of the special. The idea came to me early – a Lucifer having escaped to a nunnery, repented and lived past the end of her two years. Then Ananke and Minerva catch up with her. Apart from that, I knew that it would give the clearest statement of what Ananke has been doing, and that it would end in fire. The rest of this issue was a process of discovery.

(I’ve talked influences here. Ken Russell’s the Devils. Carrie. The Seventh Seal. Black Narcissus. The Sound Of Music. One of these is a lie.)

To get it up front: I was raised Catholic. This issue caused Katie and Chrissy to basically glance side-eye at me, as if encountering an alien. I’ve done something similar to this before, with Generation Hope’s Idie, but this is a far deeper, darker dive into that.

Fun time, for everyone. The response has been interesting. The people who loved it adored it. Catholic Guilt fist-bump.

Jamie/Matt’s Cover: This is just a stunning one. Jamie’s ability to switch modes is something we rarely push in WicDiv (mainly in icons) but doing stained glass is a hell of a thing. But Matt comes out with something else, and actually making this thing glow. Numinous. Totally Numinous.

Ryan’s Cover: Ryan and I first worked together in Three, and I’d first really fell for his work in his Northlanders arcs, so there’s historical fiction previous. This is a particularly grimy issue of WicDiv, and he’s leaned into it. Lucifer, penitent, looking up – at us, but as we go further, we realise her Father. This is the only place we see with her horns. Clearly, having this on the cover and seeing what she looks like inside has an implied story.

IFC

The icons were oddly tricky here, and Jamie had to work for a period drawing of Satan to riff on. However, the Minerva is a delight. If anyone has seen my attempted drawing of a Minerva symbol when signing Volume 7 will know, this is about my level of physical accuracy.

One thing about the specials I find interesting is what’s the minimum of historical data we have to give to make a story make sense. Obviously “It is thought to be the greatest natural of all time” is loaded. Especially the word “natural.” I wish I tweaked it to make it clear I was talking about the Black Death’s effect on the world rather than just Europe though. The Black Death devastating Europe isn’t the biggest natural disaster – it’s the Black Death full stop.

Page 1

I wrote this issue sparsely. It’s designed to be mediative. As such, a slow long pan opening, setting up the themes visually.

The host… well, do I have to explain Catholicism here? The Host is transformed in the ceremony into the body of Jesus Christ. In this period, however, the actual eating of the host was relatively rare. As such, most ceremonies were more about the simple act of observing the host – the holding up in the modern ceremony is a hold-over for that, as well as the larger size of the host itself so folks can see it better.

Of course, that the observation was the key things make this scene possible – it’s possible for someone to observe the host without actually entering the church, as this long slow pan back from the divinity of the church to the rats on the streets show.

Avignon was home of the Papacy in this period. Generally speaking, there was less research in this special than any other one. I read enough to get the Black Death details I needed, to trace its path and various other things, as well as hitting up period Catholicism. However, it’s also the special that’s most based on my own actual pre-existing knowledge.

Page 2

Size is meaning, as always, and an intro to Lucifer’s cheery catchphrase for the issue.

Oddly, getting period Nun garb for lucifer was hard. I wanted originally for her to be a noviate (as in, Novice)but I couldn’t get reference I trusted, so I went full Nun. FULL NUN. Or NUN MORE GOTH as several excellent people put it.

Page 3

By this point we should realise that Lucifer wants her Father To Forgive Her. I am subtle and elegant in my writing, so you may have missed this.

Good stern mother superior here. The choice of the reds in the eyes is strong. And the reveal of the sawn off horns, which says everything about her.

Page 4

From Ring a ring o’Roses, which folks say is about the plague, but apparently dates from far too late.

Page 5-6

And hello, Minerva. You’re having a bad century too. Trying to signal that she’s falling apart but it’s not the plague was a tricky thing, and we obviously do a lot of pointing in the dialogue.

It’s only here that you start getting the weird and uncanny cleanness of the mud-rolling Lucifer. That she’s addressed as the Girl Who Walks Through Plague makes it even odder. This is an unusual notes for me – I haven’t looked at the issue in a while, so some odd stuff is striking.

“None of us are irredeemable” – god, this issue is king of the loaded lines.

The dispensation thing is a reach, but not an impossible one – during the plague there was a dispensation given in various areas where layfolk could hear each other’s confessions when there was no access to a Priest. This seemed a logical enough extrapolation.

Lucifer’s last lines… oh, I’ll save that. She’s got more WTF ARE YOU SAYING ones in a minute.

Page 7-8-9-10

The Two Days Later loc cap reminds me of what I was doing in terms of setting the date of the story – it’s the Sunday before lent kicks off. That google lets us easily find the calendar for the period and work out when Lent would start is A+.

So much mud! Matt is known for the hyper-bright effects, so to go into something as low-key as this is great. See how it works with Ryan as well.

Flagellants are one of the bits of the research which tweaked the story a little. Self-mortification was on my mind – it’s a key thing in The Devils – and the Flagellants are the avatar of religious injuries, so I was thinking of them anyway. After all – they’re a great image, this mass of people whipping themselves and lamenting loudly. Anyway, I do the research, and discover that as well as travelling the country lamenting, they also were basically a wandering lynch mob killing Jews. Which takes the fun out them, y’know?

“A ditch of god’s good earth is closer to paradise than I deserve” – that’s the kind of line that had me looking at my fingers as if they were alien beings. This issue was structured loosely – Lucifer is called, experiences things on the way, and hears Ananke’s confession” with me writing to explore the setting and characters. As such, it was a surprise half the things Lucifer said about the world around her. This shouldn’t surprise me though – I had a similar experience with Idie, in terms of just being afraid for her.

That Lucifer is THE GIRL WHO WOULDN’T BURN is another connection to Idie, of course. And also foreshadowing.

The nudity is the hardest thing to do, especially when you add whipping to it. I wanted it objective, nature of fact. I have no idea if we pulled it off or not. I do like the space that Ryan puts between the head flagellant, Lucifer and the rest – as if they’re a little intimidated, not wanting to be involved.

And then Lucifer’s judgement. Lucifer’s pride and self-hate are fascinatingly intertwined. I’m not sure if I could have dealt with writing much more of her, but part of me would love to have.

(God – just had the image of Lucifer as my crucifix, which is so OTP I laugh)

The silence at the end of the page makes it linger. The expression Ryan gives Lucifer at the end of the scene – utterly ambivalent to the violence behind her – is one of the more quietly chilling things in the book.

Page 11

I could have just had Lucifer find Ananke here, but I wanted something to show her heading through the town – as well as a chance to look at the plague symptoms. The idea of Ananke having arranged all these corpses to guide the way seemed both chilling and very Ananke.

Worth noting – these are the wrong symptoms for Plague circa 1373. This is the original Black Death symptoms, because Ananke is still carrying the O.G. Plague. It’s not the sort of thing I suspect anyone would ever notice, but it’s there.

Lucifer entering the hut on the last page is a great one – Ryan modulating tone towards Lucifer. This is a straight horror shot.

12-13

And hello, Ananke. You look well, how are you, what have you been up to?

YOU DID WHAT? ANnnnnakkkke!!!!

I like the central framing of this. Purely Objective.

The core question of the issue right at the end of the issue – I do like how Ryan has Ananke pushing up the villain here. Ananke knows how this is going to go. Anankes always don’t really want to die, but I suspect this one may be an exception. This has been no fun at all for her.

The Harrowing Of Hell is basically when Christ went down to Hell to free all the souls from Satan. In short. I’m really not sure how much of this stuff I have to say – a lot of you are Americans, and a far less secular culture than us Brits. Most of my readers didn’t know any of this, which did lead to dialling back the allusions a little.

From now on the issue is basically two women talking in a room, one of whom spends the whole time weak in bed. This is not exactly dramatic comics, so we have to work to keep it visually interesting. To be honest, I always like the challenge. One of the most fun issues I wrote at marvel was just Cyclops and Wolverine in a cell, arguing, with just a six pack for company.

Anyway – some great expressions here from Ananke. Look at panel 5 on page 13. Such contempt!

Page 14-15

For those working out what’s up with Minerva, 14 would be the page to go into. We already know from issue 36 what happens if she can’t complete the ritual.

The flashback to Lucifer’s transformation is an interesting one – the pink colouring really makes me think of 90s Vertigo, and the non-pop-comics they put out then seem to be the closest to this issue.

I like the steel in Lucifer’s glance in panel 2 of page 15, and how uncomfortable that makes Ananke.

Page 16-17

The main thing to try and keep this scene less static is Ananke’s Knife. For these two pages it’s a “Oh – Lucifer’s picked it up. That implies something.” The second is “is she going to use it”. Keep things interacting.

These pages are the simplest explaining of Ananke’s methodology. A lot could be extrapolated, but this ties it together. The other side of this pushes forward what I originally conceived for the historical specials  - as in, seeing how Ananke’s desires twist a little across the centuries. Frankly? She hits the beat again later, but this is a snapshot of how she’s feeling circa 1373.

Page 18-19 “Adieu” is the one bit of actual french in it. I’m not normally a big one on this. It just sometimes feels right.

The tension of the previous page turns is born of the knife, but here’s it’s all about Ananke’s questions. The pauses panel on page 18 is the thing which lends the question weight. I’m fond of “Frozen” panels where you don’t really get to see someone’s face.

The Father on Earth/Father in Heaven enters the story, of course. This is at the heart of the book.

Yet more dead parents on issue 19. WicDiv, eh?

Wherein, Lucifer has the world’s worst superhero origin story. It’s… like, Guilt? I’ve always had a sort of twinge of “Hmmm” towards Spider-man. Guilt is a motivation that has to be unpacked.

Anyway – Lucifer’s fundamental tragedy.

Page 20-21

Here’s a thought experiment for writers – try re-arranging the statements in the first panel here, and realise why we did the order we did and the implication it would carry if we did it in another way. “The Flagellants” is yet more precision to make sure you demarcate stuff.

The plague traveling comes from the research, and as far as I can work out, is accurate. Of course, there’s far better theories to explain this weirdness than “An invulnerable Old Lady was driving the ship”. People will come to respect my genius in years to come, I’m sure.

Ananke is laying it on a little thick, of course. Like… this is a very strange confession. Confessions are strange. There’s a question of what power is.

This is one of those pages which I suspect will become more important when collected with the other specials and read as the eighth volume before the conclusion.

Page 22-23

Great building rage here from Ryan, and what Matt does with the mood is also A+. The arrival of the wet, gore reds after an issue of the mud and old blood is something else. Compare and contrast to the reds and oranges in Lucifer’s eyes.

I look at this and think about page turns. In an ideal world, the 22-23 would be a page turn – you can see she doesn’t stab Ananke, and the self-inflicted injury by glancing to the right. But space is always a premium, and frankly every page could do with being the reveal-turn in this sequence. It’s that or pad it, right?

Ryan added a panel to draw out the pulling away the flesh, which I love.

“this is my body” is about the point where we realise THIS IS REACHING PEAK CATHOLICISM.

Page 24-25-26

I’m feeling if I explain the sacrament here, I’m patronising folks, and if I don’t, these notes kind of are missing the point. I say a bit earlier here, but Google Transubstantiation if you don’t know it. Suffice to say, this is a particularly blasphemous flip of the core regular miracle of the Catholic mass. Bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Lucifer’s body into fire.

I can’t remember where I had this idea from. I knew it ended in fire initially, but didn’t realise it would be this. It was just there when I needed it. It made sense, and that it makes sense worries me. Comics!

Anyway – everything goes Carrie, as the fire consumes them both. The full horror stretching out and out as much as we can, and we return to the “father forgive me” which haunts this book. Which, by this point, everyone knows is loaded.

I like this Lucifer. She’s one of my favourites. I’m glad I got to write her.

Page 27

And Minerva heads off, with her bag of you know what, into the future.

Page 28

Yes “Transubstantiation” pushes the WicDiv design to breaking point.

That’s enough. Thanks for Ryan to join us on this one – he’s an incredible talent and we were lucky to have him. As I write, WicDIv: The Funnies drops tomorrow, with WicDiv returning for its final arc in November.

Thanks for reading.

[romcomathon2016]

Crazy Rich Asians (USA, 2018)

This week on Romcomathon, a special bonus edition! We saw Crazy Rich Asians last night. Enjoyed it very much. You should go. You should all go. Tonight. Tomorrow. The day after tomorrow. Heavy spoilers ahead.

Predictions: We predicted that everyone would be crazy, rich, and Asian! (We had both read the book.) Then we saw the trailer and further predicted that everyone would be good-looking, and indeed they were — though, this is a romcom, so we would have predicted that anyway.

Plot: Constance Wu is your above-average Chinese-American gal. You know, teaching game theory at NYU, chilling in cute coffee shops with her cute boyfriend, Henry Golding. Little does she know, her cute boyfriend (who loves to play basketball at a smelly YMCA) is actually the scion of a whole bunch of unbelievably wealthy Singaporeans. When Henry Golding invites her to attend his best friend Chris Pang’s wedding in Singapore, Constance Wu happily accepts, thinking, “No problem! I’ll just charm his family! It’s fine!” But oh no, Constance Wu, it’s not fine. As it turns out, Singaporean high-society gossip travels at the speed of light, and within a matter of seconds — literally seconds — everyone in Singapore above a certain income bracket knows that *GASP* Henry Golding, the most eligible bachelor in the world, is off the market.

No one is pleased is about this, but least pleased of all is Henry Golding’s ice-queen mother, Michelle Yeoh. Nonetheless, Henry Golding, bizarrely oblivious, whisks Constance Wu onto Singapore Airlines, into a phenomenally beautiful private first-class cabin, which...kind of forces him to admit that his family is financially “comfortable.” OKAY, HENRY GOLDING. JUST LIE DOWN ON YOUR AIRPLANE BED AND PUT ON YOUR SOFT FANCY AIRPLANE PAJAMAS BECAUSE YOUR FAMILY IS “COMFORTABLE.” (Weird, though, that he never brought this up during the two years they’ve been together. Did he not think that, at some point, maybe he should mention, “Hey babe, my family pretty much owns Singapore. You know, that really expensive place in Asia?”)

Constance Wu and Henry Golding arrive in Singapore; are greeted by Chris Pang and his fiancée, Sonoya Mizuno; and head off, a foursome, to chow down on some of the most amazing food we’ve ever seen in our lives. Just a normal delicious time between some normal friends, right?? WRONG. The next day, Constance Wu goes to visit her old college roommate Awkwafina, whose own family is not too shabby. They are living in a gold-plated house that her mother based off of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. So, you know, it’s very understated. During her lunch there, Constance Wu finds out from Awkwafina’s parents — by the way, her dad is Ken Jeong — that a) Chris Pang and Sonoya Mizuno’s wedding is basically the most important event of the season. Like an inauguration or the Royal Wedding. b) Henry Golding is so rich that Awkwafina’s family’s wealth pales in comparison. Compared to Henry Golding’s family, these knockoff-Versailles-house people are just barely making gold-plated ends meet.

Great! Now Constance Wu is even more nervous! (Nice job not preparing your girlfriend at all, Henry Golding, by the way.) She heads off to Henry Golding’s grandmother’s estate, where his grandmother Lisa Lu is just having “a few friends over,” AKA it’s a huge party at the biggest house we or Constance Wu have ever seen. There, Henry Golding finally introduces Constance Wu to the fam, who obviously see her as a gauche American peasant. Which...look, it’s all relative!!!! Michelle Yeoh, in particular, is Not Impressed and makes it very clear through her politeness how very Not Impressed she is. But it’s okay, guys! It’s Lisa Lu’s opinion that matters — and she seems to like Constance Wu! Yay!

Hold on, though. Before we can get further with Lisa Lu, Constance Wu must attend Sonoya Mizuno’s huge bachelorette party -- on a smaller island that Sonoya Mizuno’s family (literally) owns. Constance Wu feels out of place amidst all this opulence, but luckily she finds a kindred spirit in what turns out to be Henry Golding’s ex-girlfriend. SPOILER ALERT: EX-GF IS NOT A KINDRED SPIRIT. IT IS A TRAP. Everyone terrorizes Constance Wu at this horrible party, except for Sonoya Mizuno. And Gemma Chan, Henry Golding’s favorite cousin, who, besides being genuinely nice, is preoccupied with her husband’s affair.

Upon returning to Singapore, Constance Wu lays into Henry Golding for -- well, OBVIOUSLY. Henry Golding is very apologetic, but also, “We have to go make dumplings with the fam. That’s cool, right?” They go back to Lisa Lu’s manse, where things are going okay, until Constance Wu compliments Michelle Yeoh’s ENORMOUS emerald ring. It turns out that Michelle Yeoh was given this ring by her husband, Lisa Lu’s son, who had to have it custom-made because Lisa Lu wouldn’t give her son the family ring...because she though Michelle Yeoh was not good enough. Sound familiar? Yet somehow, this does not make Michelle Yeoh sympathetic. In fact, she tells Constance Wu all of this simply to preface her announcement that Constance Wu is definitely not marriage material.

HOO BOY. Constance Wu, a bit taken aback, gets a pep talk from Awkwafina, who, along with Nico Santos, gives her a Classic Romcom Makeover (TM) for the wedding. Constance Wu shows up to the wedding looking like Elsa from Frozen — but with flowers! Seriously, though, it’s a fab look. Everyone loves it. Except Michelle Yeoh. At the wedding reception, Constance Wu is feeling pret-ty good about herself...but come on, we know this can’t last!!!! Lisa Lu and Michelle Yeoh ambush her and Henry Golding with the news that Michelle Yeoh hired a private investigator to look into Constance Wu’s background. Surprise! Her father, who she had always believed was dead, is not so much, and Constance Wu is actually the result of an affair her mother had. Oh dear. Lisa Lu tells Henry Golding that he cannot possibly marry a girl like this (oh yeah, Henry Golding told Chris Pang earlier that he was planning to propose to Constance Wu). If he does, she will disown him. Constance Wu runs off in tears.

Sad times -- all is lost -- no amount of Henry Golding calling or coming by can repair this damage. Constance Wu just spends days and days moping at Awkwafina’s house until her mom, Tan Kheng Hua, shows up. Her mother admits to the affair and explains that she had an abusive husband. Constance Wu forgives her, uh, remarkably quickly for lying about this her whole life, which...is a bit odd, but you know, it’s a romcom. Who has time for subplots anyway?! Constance Wu agrees to meet up with Henry Golding one last time. He proposes to her, heedless of his family, but *GASP* she turns him down. Then meets up with Michelle Yeoh, secretively at a mahjong parlor, in order to make clear that she could have had him -- but walked away because she didn’t want him to lose his family, be estranged from his mother, blah blah blah. SUCK ON THAT, MICHELLE YEOH!!!! YOU’RE INDEBTED TO ME NOW!!!!!! ME, THE AMERICAN PEASANT. HA HA HA. HENRY GOLDING AND I WILL BOTH BE SAD, BUT MY HORSE IS MILES HIGH!!!!!!!! (...is what we imagine she feels.)

Satisfied, Constance Wu swaggers into economy class with her mom. But lo! Who should arrive but Henry Golding, chasing after her because Michelle Yeoh -- post-mahjong-showdown -- went to him and gave him the ring?! THE GIANT EMERALD RING!!!!!! OH EM GEE, YOU GUYS, IT’S SO SYMBOLIC!!!! This time, as he proposes in a crowded airplane aisle, Constance Wu says yes. Cut to their excessively opulent engagement party, where Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh share a Look, and Gemma Chan meets Harry Shum, Jr. (Not bad, for an extremely wealthy, recently jilted lass!)

Best Scene: So many good scenes, but probably our favorite is when Awkwafina drives Constance Wu to Lisa Lu’s estate and the two of them are met by two extremely severe Indian guards outside the gate. The guards are wielding bayonets. It’s very funny, as are all of Awkwafina’s scenes.

Worst Scene: ...Weeeell, Ken Jeong spends most of his time in this film creepin’ on Constance Wu, his daughter’s friend, which definitely made us uncomfortable. But, to be fair, we wanted an American romcom starring Asians, and no romcom would be complete without us being a little grossed out. :|

Best Line: There were many funny lines. Pretty much everything out of Awkwafina’s mouth was solid gold. Constance Wu also had some good zingers. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen the movie once so far and can’t quote directly.

Worst Line: Ken Jeong and his son both creep real hard on Constance Wu, so probably something one of them said.

Highlights of the Watching Experience: Well, there’s the obvious — that this is the first (hopefully not last!) Hollywood romcom we’ve ever seen starring even two Asian people, let alone an entirely Asian cast. Plus a fun, fantastic, mostly-Mandarin soundtrack. Some of us may have cried. (“It was not me,” says Alex.) Also, Michelle Yeoh looked FUCKING AMAZING. How old is that woman now? IMMORTAL, is the answer. Also, we, as Chinese-Americans, are obsessed with food, so we appreciated that that common cultural trait was well-demonstrated in this movie, particularly by Constance Wu.

How Many POC in the Film: EVERYONE! EVERYONE WAS A PERSON OF COLOR! There was even one black extra in the wedding scene. We sighted her in the corner and got VERY excited.

Alternate Scenes: ...N-none? Honestly, we thought this was an excellent movie adaptation -- and just an excellent movie, period, which is maybe even more impressive. Yaaaay! No joke, we have already purchased tickets to see it again.

Was the Poster Better or Worse than the Film: Worse. The poster is fine, but the movie is better, of course, because the movie was good! It was a good movie! We saw a good movie!

Score: 10 out of 10 crazy-rich-Asian smooches. We never pretended this blog was objective, okay? No, but actually -- it’s a great romcom. If you love seeing unrealistically beautiful people kissing in unrealistically beautiful locations, as we assume you all must if you are reading this blog, you will enjoy this film. Go see it! Support non-white and non-Netflix romcoms! Plz. <3

Ranking: 3, out of the 149 movies we’ve seen so far.

[shenmeizhuang-blog]

Do you have any cdrama suggestions for a baby beginner? I think Empress of China is the most famous one I’ve heard of but I’m curious about others too!

B-baby beginner? No, my friend, when it comes to cdrama, we simply throw you into the pit…

Just kidding! Although, for a myriad of reasons, being a Chinese drama fan outside of Asia without a hold of the language is admittedly rather difficult (so to the “international” cdrama fandom: you guys rock!). 

Unfortunately, your answer did not really help me narrow down my answer after all. I believe Moonlight Drawn By Clouds, your recent fave, is very romance-centric, but I feel like everyone tends to vacillate in their mood, preferring super romantic escapism one minute and demanding tight storytelling the next. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling and actually get to the point:

personal recs, in general*

I just couldn’t really “categorize” these?

peace hotel (2018): currently in the midst of watching this still, but I’m really enjoying this! honestly. especially with how the female chars (most of the chars are written.) it’s this mix between super suspenseful espionage and really cathartic humor. the plot twists are also so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

let’s shake it! (2017): alien crashlands to the tang dynasty! it’s super cute and quirky, but there’s also a strong, coherent plot and some angst in the latter parts. definitely one of my faves of last year, though it’s punny sense of humor doesn’t always get through. it’s also very appreciatively meta ;) the subs apparently aren’t complete, as my friend complained to me, but I personally find the language real simple

medical examiner dr. qin (2016): the interactions between the crime-solving trio are gold. also, like the only modern show here?? (as you can tell, I am really mostly a period show watcher.)

go princess go (2015-16): it’s really low-budget and cracky, but trust me, there’s a reason it went viral. zhang tian ai does feel like the saving grace a lot of the time though, and I didn’t exactly give it a high score, but it just might be your thing. who knows?

nirvana in fire (2015): i don’t think it’s the best c-drama ever, unlike a lot of people on this site, but it’s still a very solid show. I also find it a lot more shoujo than most fans—it’s really not just a revenge-political drama—but when it was emotionally gripping, boy, it was emotionally gripping. 

wuxin: the monster killer (2015): technically only season 1—I have yet to see s2—but weirdly enough, I found the poignant ending especially fitting. just assume from the title? yue qiluo is one of the more interesting villains out there, and gosh I just adore yueya so much

bu bu jing xin (2011): extremely poignant, complex look into polymagy/patriarchy during the qing dynasty from the lens of time-traveller zhang xiao who takes the identity of court lady ruoxi. even if you don’t ship any of the romances, it is so worth it for pretty much everything else. but if you do, obviously also an extremely heart-wrenching watch. a lot of people’s first cdrama. 

schemes of a beauty (2010): lots of spying, secret chambers, poison, women control the men. 

*I would want to recommend The Legend of Zhen Huan and The Glory Of Tang Dynasty, but they’re 76 episodes and 92 episodes long, respectively. Content-wise, it’s also stuff that requires lots of trigger warnings, and overall just not for the “baby beginner”. Battle of Changsha is definitely shorter, and a definite recommendation, but also just not for the “baby beginner.” 

no dubbing 

(Peace Hotel, Battle of Changsha, NiF, Medical Examiner Dr. Qin)

the advisors’ alliance (2017) + growling tiger, roaring dragon (2017-18): a mix of no dubbing and some dubbing. it’s a pretty creative to take the viewpoint of sima yi in this three kingdoms historical piece. I feel that it’s rather accessible to viewers, honestly, and the production values are great on this one. 

nothing gold can stay (2017): only 4 eps in—it’s very solid so far (74 eps though, but I would say quite mainstream and easy to watch)

ten miles of spring wind can’t compare to you (2017): do I really want to rec this though? in the end, I really did wish I had someone to vent about this to and discuss with about, because in a lot of ways this really did give lots of food for thought. let’s just say that our three main chars are deliberately rather fatally flawed…and I still feel rather ambivalent about how to feel about this. (the first 10-15 eps are super cute, meta, adorable but also with great sexual tension and then it sort of goes to melodrama but anyway…) you could at least practice your chinese? it is harder than the average modern cdrama, given how pretentious qiu shui can get

shoujo period romances

We all have a soft spot for these :’)

sound of the desert (2014): just yesterday, there was quite a lot of discourse on this show on my dash, interestingly. female lead xin yue (liu shi shi) is raised by a wolf pack, though she eventually enters the capital city sometime during the han dynasty. she does at first fall for a crippled, broody flute player played by hu ge (imo one of his more lackluster roles) but it’s her chemistry with HAWT general wei wuji (eddie peng

female prime minister/legend of lu zhen (2013): again, freakishly sizzling chemistry. it focuses more on lu zhen rising up the ranks as lower-level female ministers, but mostly still very very romance-centric. (the otp falling-out in the last 10 eps or so was kind of stupid, I will admit, and also 200% all on gao zhan but it had such a strong addictive quality to it.)

gong/jade palace lockheart (2011): I haven’t seen Boys Over Flowers/the Japanese original/any official remakes of whatever that is, but a lot of people have called it Boys Over Flowers + modern girl time travels to the Qing Dynasty + 9-prince succession conflict during Kangxi’s reign. it was rather stupid and petty at times, but it’s more comedic and the romance is super addicting. I don’t care about the half-bald Qing queues at all, and this is actually one of the only roles that I’ve found Feng Shaofeng attractive in. (yes, it is possible to love bbjx and enjoy this)

Oh yeah, and all these end all happily and fairytale-like. None of the above would qualify as my “faves” at all, but all are very accessible to someone unfamiliar with cdrama and love the Romance and the Pretty. 

others (I found rather lackluster or dropped): Perfect Couple, The Eternal Love (very popular among international audiences, but not for me), General and I, Oh My General 

wuxias/xianxias

This is just going to be an embarrassing amount of childhood nostalgia. Like, literally, with the exception of the first one, I watched all of these in elementary school, with varying amounts of rewatching in between. The recent wuxias and xianxias just haven’t been to my liking. (I could get into how NiF takes lots of wuxia elements but I would just confuse you a lot so, strictly on the more fantasy/action side of things here.) I simply haven’t watched Eternal Love/Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (very, very popular) at all. I’m sorry. 

vigilantes in masks/strange hero yi zhi mei (2011): I believe the international equivalent is “Iljimae”? It’s like Robin Hood, sort of, but mostly Liu Shi Shi’s Yan Sanniang is so amazing here. 

chinese paladin 3 (2009)

return of the condor heroes (2006)

chinese paladin (2005)

lotus lantern (2005)

also 武林外传, which is 80 eps, but kind of more like a wuxia sitcom way back in the day. there’s in-show ppls, tons of modern references, etc. and also like lots of satire/social commentary. I did a rewatch (of brief clips ofc, I don’t have that much time) recently, and realized I missed so much when I watched it with the family back then. (I’m kind of embarrassed about the more lewd references…lol…)

*line break*

Whew! Anyway, the takeaway is, there is a lot of stuff to choose from, and I definitely left out a lot of stuff. There’s also a lot of modern cdramas. This answer might clarify about those shows. 

(that being said, I really personally would not recommend empress of china. I mean, aside from 96 eps, just 2 eps in I could tell it was going to be an unsubstantial mess >_