#this is just not a story where the emperor is relevant

[david-talks-sw]

hey david! Do you have any George quotes regarding the final Vader vs Obi wan fight? Like did obi wan deliberately throw that fight and let vader kill him or did vader win the duel and obi wan did the Force ghost thing as a last resort?

Here's the quotes I could find that are relevant to the subject:

"A particular case is the confrontation between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. You know there's something, some relationship they have to each other, 'cause they talk about meeting again ‘and now I'm going to get you’ and all this kind of stuff."

"So there's some kind of old battle going on that we don't know anything about that works amazingly well considering that all it is, is ultimately this one scene between him and Tarkin where he says, “He's here. He's come for me. And it's our destinies to meet up again. And I'm gonna handle this myself. I have to."

"This confrontation with Obi-Wan and Vader— it works just as a confrontation between the good guy and the bad guy. I mean, he’s— Obi-Wan's, at this point, the strongest good guy. He’s the one that has the most knowledge— the father figure that has taken on Luke. Then you have the bad father figure who is the evil father."

"And the subtext of this, which is that this is the culmination of a larger issue… has never really played, I think, for people. It's really just the confrontation between bad and good. Then the surprise at the end of this, is that: Vader doesn't kill him… but that he's able to join the Force, and by being one with the Force, influence things in a more powerful way than he can just being a Jedi." - A New Hope, Commentary Track, Special Edition DVD, 2004

"When he loses Ben, [Luke] freaks out. He’s depressed and all the things that you would be. But Ben has put that idea in him that things happen naturally and there’s also this other thing that’s never explained, which is that he allowed himself to be killed. He didn’t really die. He disappeared. There’s more to this than just a death. Later on in the movie, Luke hears Ben say, “Use the Force!” It mitigates that loss a little bit, because he knows Ben’s somewhere and that something’s going on." - The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983, 2018

So there you have it.

In a destined confrontation between good and evil, good triumphs not by defeating evil but by ascending and growing beyond it.

So it feels to me that it's a "when in Rome" kind of decision on Obi-Wan's part, wherein he realizes he won't win this fight, and so he decides to make his end meaningful, so that he can show Luke that death is not the end of the journey... he's joining the Force.

Now, if we're talking power-scaling...

... you could argue that Ben might have put up more of a fight, had it been necessary.

George acknowledges that Ben's an old man when explaining the more dynamic fights in the Prequels... but back in the early days, he ranked him as more powerful than Vader/equal to the Emperor.

"Maybe we should set up some kind of levels of achievement. Ben can say that Luke is now a level 2 and Vader is a 4; ‘‘I was a 6 and the Emperor is a 6, and he’s on his way to becoming a 10, which will be a force so powerful in the universe that nothing can stop him. You must stop the Emperor before he achieves the level 10.’’" - Story converence, 1977, as transcribed in The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, 2010

"[Vader] ended up losing his arms and a leg and became partly a robot. So a lot of his ability to use the Force, a lot of his powers, are curbed at this point, because, as a living form, there’s not that much of him left. So his ability to be twice as good as the Emperor disappeared, and now he’s maybe 20 percent less than the Emperor. So that isn’t what the Emperor had in mind." - Vanity Fair, 2005

Now, the first one is an old quote from the development of Empire Strikes Back, when the story was very different; it's take it or leave it, if you ask me. Power-scaling is invented to justify storytelling, so if the story changes, it's not guaranteed the power-scale remains.

But if you're going by "everything Lucas said is canon!" rules then you could make the argument that, in terms of power...

If Ben = Emperor and Emperor > Vader then Ben > Vader.

And thus can argue that Ben might've beaten Vader if this confrontation was/turned into more of a Force-based contest than a physical one.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Since there’s a bit of a hiatus in Dracula Daily right now, I thought I’d take the opportunity to ramble about what I know of vampiric folklore and history in Europe because I cannot contain my infodump and it’s actually really interesting.

Painting it in very broad strokes, the earliest folkloric creature we would recognize as a vampire was acknowledged in Europe in the 1100s and earlier as a human corpse that physically rose from their grave and returned to their former home/village to drink blood. (A 12th-century English text, The Life and Miracles of St. Modwenna, mentions two examples of this type of vampire.) These vampires’ victims did not become vampires as well, but sickened and died, usually from wasting diseases. What caused the original person to become a vampire was variable, but usually involved being, just, an absolute jerk when they were alive, or an increasingly convoluted series of ways in which they attracted bad luck/evil while they lived, after they died, or as they were buried.

This is where the traditions of stuffing a stone in the potential vampire’s mouth, decapitating them and putting the head in the grave between their knees, burying them facedown, cutting off their hands or feet, burying them in a too-small grave, piling stones atop the grave, or burying them with broken legs came from. All of these are regional or historical variations on ways to quite literally prevent the presumed vampire from digging their way out of the grave and causing trouble: an “And stay down there!” maneuver that we’ll see survive into modern pop culture in the form of a stake through the heart.

This was the predominant form of vampirism up until roughly the 1700s: someone nasty in the village died, and after a while, would start reappearing to their family or loved ones at night, slowly draining their lives away as they fell to a wasting disease like tuberculosis or leprosy. Once the villagers caught on, they would exhume the body, find it suspiciously preserved and with blood trickling from its mouth, and then take steps to neutralize the vampiric threat by beheading, staking it through the heart to literally pin it in the grave, stuff a stone in its mouth, or a combination of all three. 

(You may have heard of the Venetian mass-burial plague pit an archeological team discovered: one of the skeletons had a brick shoved in her mouth. She was the only body treated in such a way, implying that she was thought to have been a vampire: hypothetically even the vampire that caused this local upswing of the plague.)

A cultural shift happened in the 18th century, however, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire gained territory in Serbia and other portions of the Balkans. Since they were neighbors with the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarians kept a heavy military presence in these new territories, and the emperor of the time (Charles VI, I believe) asked the occupying forces to collect reports on the local customs and folklore and send them back.

A number of the reports they sent back included vampire stories.

Now, this was the Age of Enlightenment: many countries were pulling away from old superstitions and following the new methods of science. Belief in vampirism was a rural thing, and widespread plague situations had faded enough that they really weren’t relevant anymore and had fallen out of a lot of people’s memory. 

But the thing was... science was still new, and this whole vampirism thing sounded just plausible enough to be extremely interesting. The Austro-Hungarians sent all sorts of scientists, doctors, and clergy members to collect and dissect and discuss these stories, and for a short spate of time vampirism was the hot new discussion topic in esoteric circles. And for then and a while after, if you wanted case studies, debates, and just about any reference material on vampires, you knew you’d find it in Austro-Hungary’s library.

Eventually the scientific community all concluded that this vampirism thing was just silly peasants not understanding the process of decay, but the arts crowd -particularly the Sturm und Drang folks in Germany- remained very interested in this exotic new creature steeped in mystery and death. Sturm und Drang translates to “storm and stress” and if I had to describe their style in modern terms, I would say (roughly, and with affection) “a love of edgy tragedies.”

There were a number of poems and works spawned from this flurry of interest, but this Austrian version of the vampire still shared a common theme: more like a revenant than anything else, coming for their loved ones first, and a lot of their horror was tied up in how blasphemous and unChristian their very existence was. Less emphasis was placed on getting rid of the vampire and more was placed on the artistic allure of vengeance from beyond the grave and the vampire’s inherent exotic mysticism and threat.

Stoker, in fact, directly references an example of this in Dracula! On May 5th, when Dracula’s telling the coach driver that he knew they were trying to get Jonathan out of there before he showed up, because he himself drove fast enough to intercept them, one of the other passengers whispers to his friend “Denn die Todten reiten schnell,” which translates roughly to “For the dead ride fast,” a quote from Burger’s Lenore.

Lenore is a poem about a young woman whose fiancé died in the Seven Years’ War (connection with Austro-Hungary). In her despair, she curses god (old-school invitation for vampirism), and the following night, her lover knocks on her door to take her on horseback to their marriage bed (vampires attack their loved ones first). He takes her on an increasingly terrifying ride through the night, prompting the above quote, which ends in a graveyard, where he is revealed to be a skeleton and Lenore dies.  

Lenore was written in 1774, and although William is not technically a vampire, the poem is an example of the old-school vampire type. The vampire is a physical reanimated corpse that does not create more of its kind, but causes the people around them to die/waste away, and attacks their loved ones before anyone else. The transition to what we finally would recognize as a modern vampire started with Carmilla and was solidified in Dracula.

Written in 1872, Carmilla is a blending of both old and modern vampiric tropes. It uses the then-expected setting of the Austrian Empire, all of the titular vampire’s victims wasted away and died rather than rising as vampires themselves, and Carmilla’s coffin was filled with blood when she was unearthed. However, she was also able to shapeshift into a cat and walk through walls -no longer just a revenant- and she could walk around during the day without harm. She also does not target the people she knew and loved in life first: Carmilla is a vampire centuries old and her current victims are chosen indiscriminately. The vampire as a folkloric creature was evolving.

And, side note, while it was used partially as a narrative device to show how evil and unnatural Carmilla was, she was also gay. Gay as fuck. People who lost their shit at 

“Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper: ‘Yes, I too can love’” 

will go absolutely mental at Laura going

“It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, ‘You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever.’"

Anyway. Queerness is baked into the concept of the modern vampire from the very beginning, what of it.

With Carmilla as the springboard, though, Stoker was free to finally create Dracula, which was essentially the turning point between modern and archaic vampire depictions. He took all of the old stuff and reworked, revamped (heh), or added to it to get the foundation of the stereotypical vampire we know today.

He shifted the geographic vampire hotspot further over from Austria-Hungary, landing it in neighboring Transylvania. Dracula’s victims weaken and die and seem to be inflicted with a strange wasting disease, but can also turn into vampires themselves. Driving a stake through his heart and cutting off his head is no longer an attempt to pin him in his grave and keep him from rising, but merely to destroy him. He was dead, yes, and very unholy, but he also had powers beyond merely being a risen corpse, and his power set became the standard for future vampire media.

Hence, Dracula becomes the foundation for the modern concept of a vampire, which is why pop culture usually treats it as the beginning point of vampirism in general.

[mossy-rock-in-a-field]

My Elderly Mother Plays Baldur's Gate: Part 3

(For those who missed it, my mom is having me play Baldur's Gate for her because she's not good with controllers but she still wants to smooch Gale, set things on fire, and see the story. For Part 1 and 2 of her adventure, click here.)

Yesterday my mom wrapped up Wyrm's Crossing and finally made it to the Lower City. I told her that this is the part of the game where the decisions start getting a little harder and morally grey, but she didn't really believe me. Eheheheh.

Here's how Act III is going for her:

Something I forgot to mention in my previous post is that my mom reads every line of Tav’s dialogue out loud so she can pretend like she’s actually conversing with the characters. I have to time the dialogue selections so the NPCs respond to her at just the right time for immersion purposes. She gets a kick out of it.

Upon finding a sachet of silkroot in a smuggler’s cave and being informed it was essentially drugs, her first question was: "Can we sell these drugs?" I asked her where this energy was when I was a teenager, and she said, "The economy of Baldur's Gate needs to be supported." We did, in fact, sell the drugs.

She always stops to talk to Withers and recite “fate spins along as it should” in a silly voice. She also does Withers’ little hand gesture with it because she thinks it’s funny. We both say it together now. It's not relevant, I just think it's precious.

I asked her if she plans on killing Gortash to save Halsin from Orin but she said, “Sacrifices need to be made, dear. Desperate times!” (I guarantee she'll try to save Halsin anyway; she really likes him, but she's super scared of Orin. Probably why she's toying with the idea of killing Orin first.)

I wish I could describe the face she made when THAT scene with the Emperor showed up. It was somewhere between horror and blatant confusion. I honestly couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard. (She turned him down, obviously.)

She has made a pros and cons list in her Baldur's Gate journal for both Gortash and Orin. So far, Gortash is winning because my mom really dislikes Orin and thinks she's spooky. I honestly have no idea who she'll kill first at this point.

My mom had Astarion rob the donation box beneath the Stormshore Tabernacle (which contained our fucking donations so idk if it’s robbing or just taking back our stuff). However, she got the “castigated by divinity” curse, and when Shadowheart removed the curse at camp, a big celestial popped out of Astarion and proceeded to murder Gale in his tent. My mother was very distraught; I was crying laughing.

We left off at Lorroakan's office last night; my mom is coming back over today so she can watch Dame Aylin break his bitch body in half and do a bunch of other stuff.

I'll keep you guys updated on her crimes!

[miapcain]

Hi! I found your blog just recently and I love the Vesnaposting - the art, the comics, the gifs from the game, all of it. I've got so many questions:

How did you got yourself interested in this time period? Why Bohemia? Where exactly could the castle be found? Do you plan to connect your story with some "greater events" from that time? Will your OCs travel a bit?

Please, continue with all of this. It looks great and I would also love to play the game one day!

Thank you very much for the questions! I love getting intricate and thought out things to answer, and I'm humbled you like it!

I've been a sort of amateur medievalist for a while now- I can't point specifically to when it started, but it might have been reading Pillars of the Earth as a teenager, or finding out that the town I grew up in had an important courthouse that was closed in the 1300s- that's a scale of time that overwhelmed me then, and still makes me feel a deal of frisson now. The 1200s specifically sit at an intersection of really cool stuff in central europe- it's right before Franziscanism spreads and shakes up the monastic system, Waldensian heretics were prefiguring how the church would later fracture (I feel they resemble specifically the czech utraquists in some of their stylings and beliefs), and the Pope was in open conflict with the holy roman emperor; On the political side, Friedrich II was nearing the end of his reign, and his death would lead to the interregnum, where the empire is effectively without an emperor for years on end; The Popponer dynasty is about to crumble in Austria, and the Lion of Prague Ottokar II Přemýsl is about to add all of Austria to the Bohemian Kingdom, interrupting the ongoing Ostsiedlung (German Eastern Colonization, for those who don't know), all to the backdrop of endless failing crusades. It's just before the Habsburgs gain greater relevance and europe slides into the rennaissance, in my mind putting an end to the "proper" middle ages.

I've been curious about Czechia for a long time; I was too young to really notice when the country joined the EU, but even years later, I remember grumbling that they were going to "ruin" us, by flooding our country with cheap labour or products or somesuch. It's always struck me as odd. That energy ended up getting redirected towards migrants from the near east in the 2010s, but it's stuck with me; Here's a country Austria has, in some form or another, struggled with for centuries, dominated terribly through to the very end of our wretched pitiful attempt at an 'empire,' tried to keep chunks of as recently as 100 years ago, and yet I didn't learn so much as a single thing about it in school. Austrian schooling is dead set on not mentioning a single thing between about 1500 to 1933 (and even then, we often gloss over just *how* enthusiastic a lot of austria was to participate in the holocaust and become part of germany- or how no real denazification took place after the war), and obviously reading any history at all immediately got me hooked on finding out more. History aside, I love the bohemian massif dearly; the rolling hills, deep shadowy forests, little brooks, misty autumns, distant alps, it's one of my favourite regions on earth; I grew up in southern upper austria, but studied near Freistadt, which is where I gathered a lot of reference material for Vesna.

The castle doesn't have an official location, but there is a general area: "north of Freistadt, east of Rožmberk." Here are some rough indications on a modern Vesna era map, a rennaissance map, and google maps:

4. Not to spoil anything, but yes- Franzesca's father, a Bavarian, is a true believer in the "stupor mundi" Frederick II, and the need to "germanize" the backward slavic populations of Bohemia; He detests Saint Václav and forbids castle servants from speaking czech. The timing of the events of Vesna is chosen very specifically to be ironic in this regard- but you'll see when we get there :P

5. Yes, at the very least you will get to see Vesna and friends in the Machlant, Rožmberk and Linz. Franzesca will travel to her family home of Innsbruck and to Normandy, and it's likely more will happen, depending on where the story goes.

Thank you again for the questions! I hope to be working on Vesna for a long time, if it stays interesting :)

[sepublic]

Hunter telling Luz that it could’ve been anyone else who Belos tricked into helping him find the Collector has another side to it, because yes it helps Luz forgive herself for giving a dictator what he needed to rise to power and commit atrocities and attempt genocide. But also?

It helps remind the viewer that yeah, it could be anybody who would be roped into these things; Even you. Because the realization that Luz helped Belos isn’t just following off of her questioning and self-loathing over whether she caused more harm than good coming to the isles; It follows Luz questioning how anyone could fall for Belos earlier that episode, it seems so obvious right?

And that’s what we all think when we view it from an outside perspective from the comfort of our screens, knowing the narrative tropes and the like. But Luz didn’t realize she was being duped while Lilith, someone who had been manipulated by this exact same guy before, who recognized his tactics because of that, pointed it out to her.

Lilith is also relevant because in this episode where she observes this, she and Luz see how they relate to each other in a lot of ways that Luz doesn’t necessarily relate to Eda over, it’s a wonderful dynamic. But it hearkens back to Luz hearing Lilith’s side of the story, about why and how she joined the Emperor’s Coven. Plus Luz seeing —and briefly relating to— Gwen’s neglect as a mother to her. Luz saw how Hunter was tricked after thinking he was doing good, and remember that he’s the one reassuring Luz over this interchangeability out of self-awareness, even if Hunter’s impact is nowhere near as grand.

So Luz understands plenty, actually, how anyone could fall for that, how anyone could be tricked into doing these things. Luz was drawn to the Covention and Hexside against Eda’s advice, and had to experience the problems with the system firsthand to understand and rebel. She knows from others and even her own mother that you can care and hurt others because of it. She sees the Collector. Her little brother loved fantasies and stories about destroying his enemies. Luz was so caught up in being the hero delivering righteous revenge to a popular girl, twice, that she ended up getting Willow and Gus in trouble/hurt, twice.

And it’s part of why Luz thinks of herself as bad as Belos, because she really internalizes the possibility that she could’ve been him! Even then Luz doesn’t make excuses for Belos and his Puritan circumstances she likely learned about in school (even if not two specific Puritans), she calls him out on being a racist hypocrite with delusions of grandeur… She is hard on herself, after all. But as the Titan points out to Luz, she means well; She’s coming from a place of good faith, while Belos isn’t.

Because there’s no good faith about genocide, people don’t do it because they secretly care or are just misguided. So while Luz could’ve done harm to some extent, like Lilith or many others, it’s inevitable that Luz would do better and change, because Luz cares. She’s open-minded. She wants to learn and consider different ideas because she loves what’s different and is different.

Good faith isn’t an excuse but it IS a factor worth considering, especially when it comes to guilt and forgiveness, Luz saw Willow forgive Amity when she saw how she still tried to care in her own way. And because it could’ve been anyone else tricked by Philip, it’s another reason why Luz’s friends forgive her, because they get it themselves with their initial support of the coven, their own participation in some of Luz’s aforementioned mistakes, etc. And if Luz forgave them for that…!

Even if Luz were born a Puritan white boy, she’d ultimately go the route of Caleb over Philip, and that’s another reason why Caleb exists; To show the difference between good and bad faith, how you’re not doomed to never know any better, especially when there’s evidence and people to show you otherwise.

And if you keep an open mind over your own pride, you can forgive yourself for mistakes once you know you tried your best and intend to learn from them. Because sometimes, you can’t reasonably expect the fallout of a decision, especially when it was someone taking advantage of your compassion, and that’s how Luz’s own mother reaches out to her as well; Three climaxes for Luz, in the third season of the show, to truly come to terms with every facet of her guilt.

So Luz understands enough, she understands all she really needs to when confronting Belos and condemning him fully, without having to do the same to herself, without having to be a hypocrite to do so unlike Belos saying witches deserve to die for being inhuman, because Luz understands the difference; An actual difference. And she understands without having to personally see a flashback about the Wittebanes, which is something a lot of people miss. And on some basic level, it’s just common sense that genocide is always bad, even if a lot of people IRL seem to not realize this…

[gideonnavtheninth]

FINALLY name time! Abigail name time!!!!

Once again, Pent and Quinn are 5 in Greek and Latin respectively, which we all know is the pattern. NOW, first names are fun! Abigail, meaning-wise is biblical. It shows up a couple times, as the name of the wife of Nabal and one of David's wives, and as the name of David's sister. Jewish Women's Archive describes Abigail (Nabal's wife) in this way

Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel, is the only woman in the Hebrew Bible who is described as both intelligent and beautiful ... She is “of good sense and beautiful in looks,” while he is “hard and evil in his deeds” ... Alternatively, according to the written text he is just “like his heart” Later, the narrative recounts that “his heart died within him and he became like stone". Mean and inhospitable, he meets his fate, measure-for-measure, in the petrification of his hard heart. It accounts for Abigail’s motivation: why she intervenes secretly to provide a feast for David and his men without consulting her husband. In a subtle twist, she simultaneously saves her household and allies herself with David, eventually in matrimony when she is fortuitously widowed.

The things that feel noteworthy here are A. Abigail being very defined by having a husband (But, in this case, her husband sucks) B. Several mentions of the heart, which... they are the heart of the emperor! and C. She's widowed! Continuing down her story, we see some more stuff that feels of note

She further portends that God will establish a “sure house” for David, foreshadowing Nathan’s prophecy of an everlasting dynasty for the king. She ends her speech with a hint: “when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid”. David then praises her good sense and expresses gratitude that she restrained him from bloodshed, uttering an oath to counter the prior violent one

Every time I see the word "house" alarm bells start ringing. Anyway, an everlasting dynasty feels particularly familiar here. I mean, Abigail doesn't have all that much to do with Jod, but it still feels relevant to be drawing connections when I see them.

Based on her prescience, the Talmud identifies Abigail as one of the seven female prophets in the Hebrew Bible. More likely, she is keenly perceptive about the shifting tides of history.

Not anything extraordinary here, but the concept of Abigail being "keenly perceptive about the shifting tides of history" feels pretty accurate to our Abigail!

When Abigail returns home, she finds her husband drunk from feasting “like a king” and waits until the morning to tell him what she has done. His heart then strangely turns to stone and he dies ten days later, struck by “the Lord”. David, hearing that she has been widowed, sends for her. She obsequiously prostrates herself, calling David “lord” and herself “maidservant prepared to wash [his] servants’ feet”; though, ironically, she follows the messenger with five maids on donkeys in tow. She then becomes his wife

Feels like she's very defined by being people's wives. If anything, I feel like Magnus is the wife guy in TLT. But, again, we're seeing a whole lot of heart talk, which feels like it has to mean something. The whole point of this reread is rereading so I'm certain I'm missing things, but I never got the impression Abigail was all that zealous in her religion. I will say, I will be keeping an eye out for anything that really makes Abigail feel particularly Jod-sympathizing. In GTN, we don't really blink at people supporting the emperor outside of times where it really stands out, like the Eighth, but I do wanna watch out for Abigail mentioning the emperor at all. Just something to keep in mind.

Good old' Wikipedia describes her name as derived from the Hebrew word ab, "father", and the Hebrew root g-y-l, "to rejoice," Meaning it probably means "father's joy". Again, not all that sure how this relates to Abigail the character, but still gotta cover my bases.

Abigail's self-styling as a handmaid led to Abigail being a traditional term for a waiting-woman, for example as the waiting gentlewoman in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady, published in 1616

The aesthetic makes sense to me. Abigail is very gentlewoman in my eyes.

Nooo Magnus don't get your own post. Nooo don't make the fifth house like 4 different posts nooo Magnus

[daz4i]

could dr. ratio originally be from the laurel wreath galaxy?

this is a repost of a theory i posted yesterday, now slightly more clean and properly tagged 🙏

in case you don't know, the laurel wreath galaxy (possibly a mistranlsation of "star system", if that changes anything) was supposedly destroyed during the emperor's wars. information about it is scattered throughout the game in very scarce ways. later i elaborate on how it went down in a more detailed way!

1. so let's get the most obvious detail out of the way first: he wears a laurel wreath 👍 at least a partial one (one leaf for every phd. maybe one day he'll reach a full head 😩)

these were common in ancient greece and ancient rome, cultures that his design, abilities, and eidolons are inspired by (both in aesthetic and language)

2. the laurel wreath galaxy was ruled by scholars - the philosopher union, until inorganic life took over during the emperor's wars. to give a very short tldr, civil war between organic and inorganic life, robots killed the head of the philosopher union, due to having no leaders the organic life of the galaxy was defeated

here we already have another obvious connection - philosophy, one of ratio's phds, that he even discusses with the trailblazer in one of his daily messages

3. one of the in-game sources about this place is the curio "rationality's fall". here is the first part of story attached to it for you to consider:

What is truth? No one truly knows. Supposing that "stupidity" is an incurable disease in this world, then disseminating knowledge counts as a treatment for the universe.

hm. we got a) truth (aka. ratio's name) b) a description of stupidity as a disease, which is something he claims repeatedly and thus seeks to cure it, in part by distributing knowledge (which is why he joined the guild, and why he's a teacher).

3.5. only other somewhat relevant part of this description is its mention of books ("Through such absurd means, books cleansed a world of its impurities once more") but that's not necessarily related to him obviously. however it's worth pointing out that one of his interactions on the express is literally all about how much he loves books and implying that they are relatively rare these days ("The touch of a paper book is a sensation I frequently find myself missing"). just a little something to think about

4. in gold and gears, there is an occurrence - cogito hair salon: intelligentsia guild - that implies that ratio is 2000ish years old. afaik these occurrences all happen around the same time as the emperor wars, aka when all the shit went down in laurel wreath

now. if you've read literally any of my other ratio theories. you know i don't quite like this, bc i find that ratio being 2000+ years old kinda defeats his whole Thing as a character. but we can't deny that it's there (tho possibly a mistranslation from what i gathered, but i can't say for sure) so i'm gonna use it for this theory 👍

5. here's where i'm gonna become full-on conspiracy brain. don't say i didn't warn you

after the whole defeat of the union, there were followers of aha who rose against the inorganic lifeforms and infected them with what's described as a "troll virus" called Philosopher's poison. i can't quite tell you if it's poison *to* philosophers (bc from what i gathered the inorganic life of laurel wreath were also philosophers) or caused *by* philosophers (implying these followers of aha were themselves philosophers as well. i like this interpretation more tbh)

what you're supposed to get from all that^ is that there was a large number of followers of aha in this galaxy, and they were wise enough to stand against robots that tried to wipe out their people, and even overthrow their army.

it's a pretty common theory by now that ratio has connections to the elation (beyond just the worm theory :P tho a lot of relevant info that i bring up here was gathered by @/b1adie in said theory which is very helpful, please go check it out 🙏) which, if he is indeed from laurel wreath, may add another layer to his past

some connections between ratio and aha, off the top of my head:

a. has an owl mask on his right shoulder, close to where aha has an owl mask located as well + his eyes fit aha's color scheme

b. refers to himself as a "side character" in the sticker book - sampo and sparkle, our known fools, do as well

c. can basically instantly disappear when characters aren't looking at him - as seen in his conversations with aventurine - which i can say for sure sampo does as well (like in the museum mission chain), possibly sparkle too tho i can't recall a specific instance to back this up

d. bows to the audience at the end of his quest, same as sampo does at the end of the belobog storyline

e. known to work from the shadows and pull the strings to make things happen or for his observation, which is how aha is described too at times, as well as their followers (sparkle is literally shown pulling strings of puppets in the "it's showtime" light cone, also sampo *gestures at literally everything he does during the belobog arc* Yeah)

f. in the herta space station, he creates a bit of a panic and theoretically puts people in danger, but in the end they all turn out okay. a similar instance can be seen in the "bestial ferocity" mission, where zhongshan, another masked fool, creates chaos for her own entertainment, which does end up hurting the people involved but absolutely not in major ways. in a way, at least in her view, she solved their problems too. while ratio probably doesn't cause chaos just for entertainment, but rather for information, you can argue these cases are similar, especially when at the end of the day they do end up helping these people in their own way. you can also claim that sparkle and sampo do similar things in their own respective arcs for their own reasons (sparkle with. the bombs. and sampo with dragging tb & bronya to the underworld. i'd argue neither of them do these for entertainment but that's an analysis for another time) aka this is a pretty common behavior for masked fools!

g. a smaller thing, but, the main part of his kit is follow-up attacks, which is aha's thing in the simulated universe

h. is his headpiece considered a mask? in his first conversation with tb on the astral express, he ends by saying "With this mask on, I intend to keep the world at bay". this is in reply to tb saying "i hope you are swayed by the express", and given ratio's main uses for his headpiece (dull his senses and block out stupid people), it makes most sense that he's referring to that here. we see him wearing it in-game precisely when he is about to cause chaos, too

also he has a mask on his shoulder. as already pointed out. so. not beating the masked fool allegations

^all this was actually to make you fall for the fool ratio theory. sorry. but i swear it's related to this post's main theory

-

so to connect this back to laurel wreath. the followers of aha used a virus. one of ratio's phds is in engineering, so he could've used that to create the virus. it might even be one of the achievements attributed to him that caused him to be recognized by the university as eligible for teaching in the first place, who knows

combining everything laid out here, you can probably see where i'm going with this - was ratio one of the followers of aha who took down the inorganic lifeforms of laurel wreath using this virus?

also, just for extra spice - this could add another layer to ratio's disdain towards the genius society, given that the one who incited the emperor's wars was a member of it

that's all i have for you for now 🙏 idk if this was intended, but i love speculating about ratio's origin and backstory, and i think this is a pretty cool option for it!

[velvetwyrme]

i eat up ur recs with a spoon and have almost gotten to the end of the list!!! do u have any other self insert recs? thank u! u have great taste

MWAH MWAH ILY !! THANK YOU and yes ofc I have more recs (not as many as last time, but it should still be a decent list to sink your teeth into <3)

Take care when reading, and always be sure to check the tags!

Same notation as last time, with STATUS of each fic labelled as such: Finished, Ongoing/Unfinished, Discontinued. (Unless the author specified that the fic is Discontinued or on Indefinite Hiatus, I will mark it as Ongoing/Unfinished. Oneshots are also marked as such.)

Spicy (Explicit) and/or Dark fics have also been labelled if relevant. (I won’t mark ones with just suggestive themes/moments, since I cant guarantee I’ll catch all of them. Similarly, unless there is consistent graphic death or gore I [probably] won’t mark it as dark.)

MULTICHAPTERS

As always, tread carefully while reading and take care of yourselves <3

Edit: Fixed a missing link or two!

These Masks We Wear - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

TIME LOOPS BABEY!!!! This reader is a delight from the get go because they have been stuck in a time loop and are... rather impulsive because of it, which lands them in a bit of a mess, because these strange, dangerous monsters have just emerged from the mountain. (I'm screaming and yelling at this fic very intensely)

Resisting the Current - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

If you haven't read this yet please do yourself a favour and read it. The premise was enough to get me irrevocably hooked (anti-harem but the gf is ALSO into you. ALSO SHE'S YOUR EX) and the writing is just FANTASTIC. I'm obsessed with the dialogue and description at every turn. Also, I would very much like to kiss Quinn please and thank you. The plot is beginning to set in now, and it's so good??? I have to cut this short or else I'll talk forever <3

ALSO the same author recently posted the first chapter of Wishbone which has me in a vice grip!!! AHH

Comic Classifieds - Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

*kicks in the door* DID I HEAR... FAKE DATING? Very sweet VERY funny, with an extremely extraordinarily awkward reader. (Who is also "cute in an awkward, baby giraffe kind of way.") It's sooo good please please check it out.

Stolen with Friendship, Captured by Love - Papyrus/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

2016... I still love this fic deeply <3 It's so SWEET and it reminds me of the good days of fic... Papyrus is. a Lot to deal with, but the reader takes it all in stride. He is SO full of energy and I want to sqUISH HIM.

Tough Choices, Tougher Consequences - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

I loooooove stories where soldiers get thrust into awful political matters. After you are forcefully removed from the battlefield, the Emperor gifts you his finest gladiator- Papyrus. He intends for the monster to be a toy to you as much as you are a toy to him, but you can't accept that and quickly broker a deal with Papyrus for his freedom.

Already There - Underfell!Sans/Reader - Finished

[Warning: INCREDIBLY SAD AND GOOD]

BURSTS INTO TEARS. Like for real though I adore this fic, it will break you into a hundred million pieces. My beloved son!!!!!!! I can't believe I didn't add this one to my last list it's such an influential piece of my existence like genuinely

There is also a sequel! Which hasn't updated since 2018 BUT STILL IS REALLY GOOD. If you want a slightly less heartbreaking story, the author also has another Sans/Reader; A Tale of Dog and Monster which makes me want to cry but in a happy emotional way instead.

Here's to You, Doll - Mafia!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Ah... this one is very fun. You're a scientist who gets accidentally isekai'd into a Mafiatale universe and becomes stranded there. Unfortunately for you, Don Gaster and his brothers think you are a spy, so you're kinda stuck with them. Also Sans is kinda a little freak in this one at times (/appreciative)

Soul Collector - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

The reader (the Soul Collector) gets transported into another universe and has to stay with their alternate, who is the skeleton's terrible neighbour. You look just like her, of course, resulting in a lot of VERY confusing interactions. I wasn't expecting to, but I actually really like Meyer.

Consequences - Papyrus(?)/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Anti harem, but the reader gets mcfreaking MURDERED (and so does classic Papyrus?!) so now they are both Ghosts. Focus is currently more on platonic relationships and REVENGE but I'm enjoying the twist on the typical anti-harem structure!!

My Soulmate is a Pastel Goth (And Other Concerns) - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Edge is very cute in this and I also feel really bad for him, he's trying so hard but the MC will not give him the time of day ;w;!! I looove me a good tumultuous soulmate fic. (Note: this fic also features Fem!Frisk as Sans’ soulmate in the bg, so if you’re not a fan, that’s something to note ^^! Fr//ans isn’t quite my thing, but tbh I’m really interested in seeing how things turn out here!)

ERROR: Not Found - Error!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Error, gets obsessed with the reader and kidnaps them! It's slice of life, so don't expect TOO much hard hitting angst here, it's more about being woo'd by the strange stalkerish entity who knows everything about you <3

When Death isn't an Option - Horror!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

I'm a sucker for immortal readers, especially ones that get stuck in HORRORTALE of all places. This fic is very fun and plays in the Horrortale sandbox in a fun way- I'm enjoying it a ton so far :]!!!

Additionally... if you liked that or if you're like me and love immortal readers forced to make decisions of extremely dubious morality and sense because of their immortal nature, you should also check out Cadarverous and 𝚎𝚊t. which are both very dark and very compelling.

Babysitting with Extra Morbid Steps - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

So the first thing you need to know is: Papyrus is dead.

... WAIT WAIT WAIT HEAR ME OUT- this is a really brilliantly written fic about like. SO much fucked up shit happening. The reader is Sans' friend, who he has hired/tasked with guarding the various alternates he has. just straight up imprisoned(?!?!). I avoided this for a while because of the aforementioned Papyrus Being Dead thing, but HOT DAMN I'm glad I read it in the end. Delightfully horrifying, but it gets sweet I swear!!! I would say read the tags but those are Spoilery ;)!

Additional note; the comments section often has Really Interesting dissections of characters and their motivations, which if you're into that (like me) then you should read those too!

All You Knead is Loaf - Sans/Reader - Finished

[Warning: Contains Explicit Content.]

Super sweet, VERY punny fic that updated over the course of a month iirc. It's a cute food-centric Sans/Reader!

Like a moth to flame…or a lamp - Mothman Horror!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

BIG MOTHMAN HORROR!!! He's so sweet and sad this poor man. He has mistaken the reader for his mate and is trying to woo them again...

Those Times I Met His Brother - Sans/Reader - Finished

Essentially you befriend Papyrus and keep getting left with Sans, during which you grow closer. Love Papyrus' not-so-subtle attempts to get them together afjkdfjsf,,

Just Try and Help (Lil Old Hopeless Me) - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Skeleton reader! Very angy skeleton reader. They do not Want to be here (understandably, considering they were essentially kidnapped) but their former caretaker is gone, and they have nowhere to go.

Lovely House of Bones - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Six monsters get stranded in a snowstorm, and you help them not freeze to death by inviting them into the house you inherited. I'm really excited to see where this one goes :D!

Maybe In Time, You'll Want To Be Mine - Underfell!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

More!! Soulmate stuff!!!! SOULMARKS BABEY!! Love it when there are misunderstandings! Love it when there are cuuuuute background character kiddos!! AUGH it's cute! And angsty! But cute!!

No Good Deed - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Finished

You volunteer at a local homeless shelter where you meet a strange, less-than-friendly volunteer. Short and sweet!

Nothing but Skin and Bone - Horror!Skelebros/Reader - Finished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

MORE Horrortale content! This one only finished last month or so- it goes from angsty to sweet/cute and it's real good!!

If you read that and want EVEN MORE sadness and gore, the author's other work Vivid Blood, Pale Scars (DARK) is very tragic and very fucked up because you get saddled the Horrorfell boys this time. MUCH Hurt and No Comfort!! All the endings hurt me in different ways and none of them are happy. LUCKILY(?) the spinoff/AU where the skelebros and reader from VBPS get pulled into a multiversal skeleton house; Blurred Lines, Opened Wounds has just started!! Surely nothing can go wrong. Surely.

The Princes' Bride - Skelebros/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

What if you got kidnapped by the king to marry his sons. "Why" is a good question. And an even MORE pressing question is: how do you get OUTTA here. (Papyrus is a sweetie, Sans is distrusting, and King Gaster is a mysterious weirdo who is a good dad and bad everything else.)

MorTificaTion - Bad Sanses/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Reader from Outertale gets yanked into Horrortale! They then have to masquerade as Sans' wife and Aliza's mother, all the while trying to just stay alive. Not to mention the other Sanses running around... really fun premise and I'm excited to see where it all goes >:0!! Also extra kudos to the name of the fic because YAY Murder Time Trio (MTT) mention!

So here's the plan... - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader/Underswap!Papyrus- Finished

[Warning: Contains Explicit Content.]

VERY CUTE!! Love them. Fake dating except there's a third conspirator involved. Each of them was also trying to set the other two up in a couple uwu. Chapter 1 is cute, and chapter 2 is spicy ;)!

Just a Cat - Swapfell!Skelebros/Reader - Finished

The reader is in fact, not just a cat. (He is a shapeshifter, and pretends to be a cat.) Shenanigans ensue.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Asshole Away - Swapfell!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Unhinged. When I say unhinged I mean it in the best possible way but it IS unhinged. They're all a bunch of little FREAKS. Please read it, if only to experience the absolute TERROR of Miss Bluebell and also Steve. What the hell (appreciative)

Honey Lemon Tea - ...?/Reader - Discontinued

RAGHHH I'm so sad this was discontinued :(( I loved the set up and the mystery so much... the author did leave an end note with how the plot would have played out though!

Shifting Morals - Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

You go stargazing and have an encounter with a mysterious stranger :0c?! (It's Sans. He's a cool beasty guy, and he is very very sadly Entirely alone.)

Additionally, this fic was suddenly revived 5 years after posting the first chapter which I have immense respect for.

The Key To Freedom - Yandere Buttontale!Papyrus/Reader - Finished

Yandere Papyrus! Not a common sight, but this fic does it particularly well. He mostly wants to eat your soul at first, but then he starts getting... attached. The bittersweet ending!!! AUGH.

Milky Tea and Souls - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

What if you could summon bitty versions of your soulmates!! And oh stars why are there so many- WHAT DO YOU MEAN MORE KEEP APPEARING??? The reader has a handful of skeletons and more to deal with!

The House on Lane 66 - Various/Reader - Finished

[Warning: Contains Explicit Content.]

I feel like legally I have to include this (/lh /j). I finally finished it recently and went "WOAH..."

I stopped reading for a while (because of the length...) BUT I returned to it because I really really enjoy the world building (like holy SHIT!!!) but oh my god that sure is. a Million words now. It is TECHNICALLY finished, but that's only because the next part is in the works(?!?!?!)

Love Grows - Farmtale!Sans/Anomaly!Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

🎵 Love grows where my rosemary goes~

The reader doesn't have a physical body or a way to interact with the world while they watch over Saejun and the rest of the Farmtale characters. They inhabit a scarecrow to have some semblance of personhood, but they remain unable to talk...

Falling - Underswap!Skelebros/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

You are dying. You are dying and all of a sudden your dad is asking you to pick out a fucking slave of all things. The monster does not trust you (fair) and he thinks you are faking your illness for attention (less fair. what the fuck). Really interesting dynamics in this one!

Se Brûler - Grillby/Reader - Finished

[Warning: Contains Explicit Content.]

I reaaaally love this fic! Sweet fluff! Angst! THE DRAMA!!!!! AUAUUUUGH I have too much to say about it just go read it.

Early Bird Special - Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

Old fic that's still updating!!!! Really interesting plot that just keeps getting More Dramatic as time goes on (in a good way). It's a Slavetale AU, in which the reader ends up joining the resistance after a few chance encounters. The author also has a spinoff fic with the same premise but featuring Underfell instead, which results in quiiiiite a lot changing.

nemesis & nike - Various Horrorbros/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

The reader essentially starts off in a zombie apocalypse and then gets transported into an alternate universe where they initially think that the various skeletons they meet are zombies. Turns out they are not in fact, zombies, but like most of them still want to kill the reader so...

Rules to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse - Swapfell!Skelebros/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes] [Warning: Contains Explicit Content.]

More zombie apocalypse stuff! Except this time you're stuck there with a pair of weird skeletons! You give them nicknames so you don't get attached, but of course you end up getting attached anyway.

To My Horror - Horror!Skelebros/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Post-surfacing Horrortale fic where the skelebros get to go live their farming dreams. With you! Slice of life with a dash of intimidation and angst.

If you enjoyed the Horrortale/Farmtale fusion, you'll be glad to hear there's also...

The Skeleton Stalks - Horrortale!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Another Horror-farm-tale fusion which has just begun recently! You live on a farm and all of a sudden there is this Big Intelligent Dog hanging around. Eventually, your new neighbors are sent to check in on you and your Great(er) Dog, which leads to some sweet interactions.

The Ruse - Swapfell!Sans/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

This is a rework! I read the original fic while it was being originally posted and I ADORED it, and the rework is superb <3 Sans is the Captain of the Royal Guard, who must fight valiantly against the villanous Eclipse, who exists only to spread terror... and you're just some human chilling on the sidelines, posting treasonous Soriel posts on the Undernet.

I'm so so so excited for it to return auauusgfhfhdj THE ORIGINAL FIC IS GONE SO I CAN'T EVEN READ IT TO SATIATE ME...

Almost Alone - Swapfell!Papyrus/Male!Reader - Finished

I love the sleepy, slow atmosphere this fic has- it's so befitting of both SF!Pap and the MC in this. It's soft and sweet and melancholic auauuauauuughgh I LOVE IT... *bursts into tears again*!!!! Also, there is a side fic which follows different POVs throughout the story, which is similarly well written!

=========================

ONESHOTS

Date night Purring - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Oneshot

SUPER CUTE (and slightly suggestive)! Also Edge has a feminine body in this which is always fun. Booba <3

Scares and a Sudden Friendship - Horror!Sans/Reader - Oneshot

Reader's shitty boyfriend leaves them behind in the haunted house in which HT!Sans is working as a scare actor. Sweet little meet cute! (Meet spook?)

Fallen Star - Underfell!Gaster/Reader - Oneshot

An ooooold fic but one that never fails to break my heart. Written from the perspective of UF!Gaster recording experiment logs about the newest fallen human.

Birdy -Mafiafell!Sans/Reader - Oneshot

LET THE BIRD FUCK SHIT UP!! I love the way the Avian... siren(?) reader is characterised... there's also another oneshot in the same series which I enjoyed- love me some weird Creature Body Horror!!

I also really enjoyed the author's other fic: Moss & Mycelium, wherein the reader is a skeleton :]!!

Skeleton's Curiosity - FellswapGold!Skelebros/Reader - Oneshot

SUBNAUTICA AUUUUUUUUUUU YEAAHH BABEY!! I love mermaid AUs and I love Subnautica! Real cute!

Chance Encounter - Underfell!Papyrus/Reader - Oneshot

ANOTHER SUBNAUTICA AU :D!! Except it's just UF!Pap this time <33 !!!

Leaving A Mark - Sans/Reader - Oneshot

The twist(?) made me laugh so hard I almost cried. It's VERY cute also.

Nice to Scare You - Various/Reader - Oneshot Series

A fun series of oneshots of the spookier variety! Or more Halloween-y at least. All very good <3

=========================

MISC. / OTHER

The Escort - Lust!Sans/Reader || &Reader - Finished

[Warning: Contains Discussions of Explicit Content.]

No romance! (But lots of kind-of-onscreen fucking.) This fic feels like looking at a bunch of polaroids, seeing a snapshot of existence. Life out of context. And it works SO well. It makes me feel sad and existential and I really love it.

Rubble & Ramparts - (An R&R-Inspired AU Fic) - Various/OC || Various&OC - Ongoing/Unfinished

Not a reader insert, but it's like. An AU of a reader insert so I'm including it here!!! Rubble and Ramparts is of course, inspired by R&R (Rabble & Rampallians), which was on my previous list but is getting linked here again for ease of navigation

ALEXIS my beloved!!!!!!! I am in loooove with the way things are going in this fic. It's so COOL and Alexis is such a freaking DELIGHT. Also I just really love reading all the notes from the Cutting Room floor, which the author has kindly included in a separate fic for your reading pleasure!!

ALSO in writing this I also remembered there is Another Spinoff AU fic which IS a reader insert (that I'm enjoying)...

Perception & Patronage (An R&R Spinoff) - Various/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

Thank the stars I remembered this, it's really fun!! Also judging by the tags there is also plans for. not only Various Sanses/Reader, but also READER/READER, which is such an underrated thing I love it, but I digress. It's a really fun spin on a really fun fic <3

Teen Livin' - Various Skelebros & Reader + Frisk/Reader - Ongoing/Unfinished

[Warning: Contains Dark/Heavy Themes]

Cute and sad! Platonic reader insert. The reader is a troubled teen who befriends Frisk, and gets to meet a bunch of skeletal guardians. The skeletons have a familial/friend's cool cousin vibe with the reader, which is really sweet! The fic is currently going through a Halloween Special which I'm enjoying quite a bit (Haunted dolls! Ghosts! Blood!! Still very sad :[...)

Something Good - Fellswap Gold!Papyrus/Reader(?) || /OC(s) - Ongoing/Unfinished

Technically not a reader insert since Coffee is the MC, but I can forgive it because I'm really really invested in this and I really adore the character dynamics so far <3 Coffee striking it out on his own is always a fun thing to explore, and I'm excited to see more!!

=========================

I love writing up these rec lists- it's such a fun way for me to rediscover fics I've enjoyed, thank you for giving me another opportunity to reread some of my favourite fics and more importantly to share them with you! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did :D!!!

I'll probably leave it here for now or else I'll end up rereading fics forever lolol it's already like 3am I gotta sleep SOMETIME

[scotianostra]

Holy Rood Day is a religious observance celebrated on May 3rd each year.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, to give it it's more convulated name, celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine built on Calvary by Constantine, which mark the site of the Crucifixion.

So what is this got to do with Scotland? Well it ties in directly in with one of our fondest remembered Queens, Margaret, and one of Scotland's most treasured and enigmatic relics, the Black Rood, said to be a piece of the True Cross set in an ebony crucifix. Here's the story to date.

The Black Rood is said to have been brought to Scotland by Margaret who fled north in the years after the Norman Conquest and married Malcolm Canmore, Malcolm III. A bit of Margaret's background is relevant. She is said to have been born in Hungary but was in England during the reign of Edward the Confessor who was her grand-uncle.

On her death in 1093, Margaret is reported to have left the Rood, described by contemporary historians as a ''great national palladium'', check out the link for a great telling of how Margaret called for the rood as she lay dying in Edinburgh Castle.

To the Scottish people. It is recorded as having been taken south along with the Stone of Destiny in 1296 as part of Edward I of England's booty from his Scottish ''tour''. Its significance for the Scots is indicated by the fact it was only restored by special treaty.

Almost half a century passes before it surfaces again, this time as one of the relics carried by the Scots army in 1346 to the Battle of Neville's Cross near Durham where we were soundly drubbed and David II was taken into captivity, (Remember my wee post on this the other day courtesy f my friend Andrew Spratt)

The English considered the acquisition of the Black Rood almost as important as the victory itself and it was kept for the next 200 years in Durham Abbey ''on the pillar next to St Cuthbert's shrine in the south aisle''. During the chaos of the Reformation, like so many other religious artefacts, it disappeared.

You don't have to believe in all the religion surrounding the Holy, or Black Rood to understand that this was one of the most treasured relics from our medieval history, just rooting around in history and you can find other legends regarding pieces of the Cross, so much so the reformer John Calvin thought there were enough pieces of the "True Cross" floating around to build a battleship or I would add, perhaps an Ark.

Check out the link for more info on the Black Rood here

[corpsentry]

i have derailed myself. down terrible for shaoshang xinghancanlan lltg and speedrunning both parts as fast as possible with my mother. we um. binged 30 episodes in the last five days………….. me when the hetero period drama is treated not like a trashy ya novel where everyone has big eyes small face (listening to 银河漫漫盼归期 on the bus to jb like a weirdo) it is hard to put into words the sheer kind of resignation i have approached the xianxia/wuxia/general chinese period drama genre with for the past few years as after cql and woh we watched love between fairy and devil and til the end of the moon and who rules the world and dawg that shit made me Cry…. after much thought i have come to the realization that i have a personal vendetta against stories that only progress because there are 1) evil characters and 2) stupid characters i.e. there is blinding frustrating cheek gnawing cruelty askance but that shit just keeps looping because the protagonists are sooooo nice — that is to say, STUPID AS BALLS— and don’t assert themselves. xinghancanlan (and the drama we finished just before, xihuazhi (blossoms into adversity (dogshit english localized titles, i sob)) is so incredibly fucking refreshing on a basic storytelling level because it doesn’t linger. no misery porn (see: love between fairy and devil, til the end of the moon), no dragging out the jealous cousin who keeps torturing the protag and co, instead the plot! just! keeps! moving! it’s got places to go! and it motherfucking goes to them. god i want to eat til the end of the moon’s flashbacks alive anyway (separate story, very long) xinghancanlan also does so many levels of character storytelling and it does it like HELL the amount of care given to each parent child relationship in particular lord i haven’t seen a parent child relationship written with such nuance and care in a long time, if ever, as the one between shaoshang and her mom there is no villain!!! everything is terrible!!!! art imitates reality. and then you get her and her dad, ling buyi and the whole situation going on over there, the emperor, even wang ling’s family— these are not archetypes. they’re people. and that’s so nice. that the homies over there produced a show that lingers not on the agonizing nail ripping sobfests but on how hard it is to be a person

and then there is the fact of the production itself. not to fist my own ass or pat this one’s but this show approaches scene writing and transitions the way i approach my own writing and i have never seen that in any tv series let alone a chinese period drama where girl meets guy and it goes so FUCKIN HARD. i give example. character A and B gossip about character C for a brief period. “C is such a whiny bitch,” B says (this is a close-up shot). cut immediately to a close-up shot of C whining to D, and then one of D replying. just like that we have transitioned between place, time, and characters with this kind of fun witty filmography and writing that makes it feel like this scene is a continuation of the last due to the same style of face to face interrogation. but we are in an entirely different place

or, abruptly there is a scene of violence and brutality yet unseen in the show. it fades to black, and character H shudders awake at her desk. “i just had a terrible dream,” she says. but the scene after that is a continuation of the violence and brutality of earlier and we come to realize that this is very much a real moment in the story. the audience has been played by an inverse ‘it was just a dream’. it was not just a dream. even though it was shocking and gruesome. the story is moving to new places now

and more generally, the score reminds me so strongly of beijing opera with the way the music describes and foreshadows minute gestures; shifting eyes, a tic in the left hand, the slightest drop of one’s shoulders. there are new and interesting, relevant, thought provoking transitions in each scene. the framing of shots emphasizes specific character emotions and mental scapes. and shanjian is an emotionally repressed loser. it’s just so. so. (howling for 85 years). fucking dazzling to see a piece of art that has clearly been made with such care, my guys. and also is fun to watch. and is obviously having fun itself. i am reminded of the ways in which art can save people’s hearts as this saves mine. and shaoshang makes me want to cry, is such a hot mess and not at all one, gives so few shits and altogether too many, is just learning how to hold the love that others give her without trying to call it something else-/ she is so tender. i’m throw myself off a cliff right now. all day i have been wandering around jb muttering to myself about the beautiful and good things in the world. it can change your life to see someone smile even if it is fictional character cheng shaoshang from xinghancanlan. cannot stop thinking about this damn show. thank u for listening

[themattress]

Random thoughts based upon this post.

As the beta build of Pokémon: Black/White shows, there was originally a difference in Ghetsis' characterization. He originally was supposed to lean way more heavily into the self-righteous religious hypocrite mold: he truly did believe Pokémon training and the whole system around it being evil and wrong, raised N to believe the same, preaching against it in public, and sought to have it abolished by conquering the world and instituting his own system that hypocritically was far more harmful to people and Pokémon but Ghetsis is deluded into thinking it's good and just since he thinks he is good and just. In the finished product, Ghetsis has shifted toward being more of a politician than a pastor; he doesn't actually believe in the system as a moral wrong and only fools others into thinking it is to advance his own agenda: seeking to take over the world to satiate his insane narcissism.

Now of course there is a debate going on if the Ghetsis we could have gotten was better, or if the one we got is preferable. Proponents for the former say it would have made Ghetsis both more interesting and more frightening, which is fair enough - after all, the most frightening version of Ghetsis is the Pokémon Adventures manga version that re-incorporates the religious quality into his character even if largely as motifs rather than anything fundamental. Where I draw the line are those who also say that the beta version would have been better because having a villain who doesn't actually believe in the morality of what they're preaching somehow cheapens/betrays/ruins the story and its message / undermines N as a character.

I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it: this is bullshit.

First of all, let's purely focus on beta Ghetsis. His character archetype can be done very well, as I have noted with Disney's Frollo and Emperor Belos / Phillip Wittebane. The problem is...

....Well, just read that beta dialogue again!

"I will not yield although I am surrounded by the forces of evil!"

"How befitting for I, the hero of justice who will rule the world!"

"Why, why, WHY? Why does everything go the evildoers' way?"

It's just "I'm good, you're all evil!" over and over and over again.

What made the likes of Frollo and Belos work, beyond better-written dialogue, is that we actually get insight into their psyches, we are shown why they hold their hypocritical and extremist views and why they have a psychological need to double down on it when faced with adversity and opposing viewpoints. Frollo spent his life trying to be the most pious religious devotee there could possibly be, and doubles down when faced with realities that contradict this position. Belos murdered his brother over his religious beliefs, and now must double down to avoid admitting he was unjustified in committing the mortal sin of fratricide.

Ghetsis in the beta build doesn't feel like that sort of character. He feels like a strawman, namely of the PETA types who have long attacked the Pokémon franchise over the training and battling system. It's literally a character sharing that exact moral stance, framed in a religious way, who is themed name-wise, design-wise, and action-wise after the Devil. An embodiment of evil yelling that everyone else is evil while doing evil. He feels less like Frollo and Belos, and more like Oliver Crangle from the Twilight Zone episode "Four O'Clock".

And with that said, I turn back to the Ghetsis we have. Not only is the deceptive, cruel, narcissistic politician angle more realistic and relevant than ever given our current real life political situation, but he still succeeds in the exact same contribution to the story and its message / N's character as his beta counterpart: he is the moral's antithesis. He represents inflexible intolerance, the refusal to stop seeing things in black and white terms and accept other points of view. He may not believe in the Pokémon liberation cause he espouses, but he still does believe in himself. He's perfect, he's always right, he's the strongest and smartest and best-suited person to rule the world and dictate what everyone else does. The larger point wasn't him raising N to believe in Pokémon liberation, it was him raising N to be that same sort of person...and N ultimately not becoming it. N still retains many of his Pokémon liberation-based beliefs; what he no longer does is try to force them upon others and not consider others' beliefs on the matter. He is open to a dialogue on the matter, which is the exact opposite of Ghetsis who feels like there's no need for a conversation on anything because he believes he already has all the answers...and suffers a mental breakdown when he is unable to enforce those answers on other people and make them bow to his genius.

So as to where I stand on the matter: I'm glad that we ended up with the Ghetsis we did.

[thegreymoon]

The Story of Minglan

Minglan, save me 😭

I have one more day of work tomorrow before I can take a couple of days off. I've been working 10-hour days for the past twenty days (well, 9, with a one-hour break in the middle) straight. I have so many non-work related things to do but I will probably do none of them and just sleep. I'm just so drained and counting on a c-drama to give my brain an extra boost to get me through tomorrow, though Minglan at this point in the show is probably a bad choice. The Empress Dowager and the stupid court politics just exhaust me and I'm just hoping for a miracle at this point 😭😭

***

Does anyone actually care about these random people and their manufactured drama?

We see so little of Molan and Changbai, Rulan and Hualan have dropped off the face of the Earth and instead, we are here debating if this rando raped that other rando or if he was set up over some dumbass scheme I couldn't care less about. If all this doesn't start becoming relevant with super speed, I will be very pissed off.

***

How convenient 🙄

So, was she murdered or did they pay her to kill herself?

***

OMG!

Is this the first time we've seen her with her hair down? She's so pretty!

***

Ah, so that's what we are getting at.

Honestly, I am not buying the whole contrivance. If the Emperor had simply said, "Gu Tingye, you go!" I would have been aboard at once, it would have made sense, it would have been what was expected. We really didn't need this whole mess with their army buddies. All it did was annoy me.

***

I am so looking forward to this baby because there will 100% be some drama like Madam Qin trying to smother him in his cradle or something and I need this drama to go back to being interesting ASAP.

***

LOL. LOL. LOL.

There is a reason the plot is pushing so hard to send him away right at this precise moment. Sorry, Minglan, but I am looking forward to your attempted murder.

On the bright side, at least they can't stuff him with another concubine while he's away on the pretext that his legal wife is pregnant, eh? 🤣🤣

***

Wait, where is Nanny Chang?

Why isn't she with them already?

***

Granny's back, at least.

Small comforts.

***

LMAO, drag her Minglan.

This aunt Kang is the most pointless villain on this show and it is about time Minglan stopped putting up with petty bullshit.

***

LMAO, shut up, bitch.

She has several, all of whom could eat your shitty ass for lunch and still walk away hungry.

***

What even.

Again, I ask. When does Minglan start murdering these people?

***

LMAOOOOOO 🤣🤣

Nanny Chang going out to murder people is fine by me, too!

***

LMAO, merchandise?

Is this a translation thing or do they really call it that in Chinese? Like bun in the oven?

***

LMAOOOO 🤣🤣

End her, Nanny!

***

Nanny is taking no prisoners today!

58 episodes into this drama and this is the first time I'm seeing someone openly tell a bitch to fuck off 🤣🤣

***

OH MY GOD, SHE JUST KEEPS GOING!!

***

Ah, so her true surname is Wang after all!

I keep wondering why they address her by her married surname when all the other women keep their maiden name even after they marry, including her sister.

***

LMAO, is she for real?

Bitch, Gu Tingye will skin you alive!

***

AAAAAAAAND SHE'S BACK!!

I AM LIVING FOR THIS CARNAGE!! 🔥🔥

[yarameijer]

HI

I hope your doing well

So yeah!! My question is

Does Tenma's parents know about all 5 sector, travel to past, aliens and in space

If yes. How did they came to know

What were their reactions

Also any conversation between Teams coach or any other member with them

Heyhey! Yes, I’m doing well!

It actually differs for each of my stories whether Tenma's parents know about his adventures or not, but specifically in AR, the answer would be ‘’sort of’’. Tenma has quite regular contact with them through phone calls and does tell them a bit about his adventures, but not everything.

For example, in the first season they know Fifth Sector exists and that the Holy Road is a competition to decide its next leader. They know Tenma isn't a fan of the current leader, but they don't know any of the details - they're assuming that the current Holy Emperor is making too strict rules, or not really putting the money where it should go (the soccer clubs), also because Tenma mentioned the Raimon team was in poor state when he first joined. So yes, they know there are issues because Tenma told them, but he also kept out a lot of the details because he wasn't sure they'd take him seriously. 

On the other hand, they know nothing about the time traveling, simply because Tenma doesn't think they'll believe him. Tenma may have told them a few stories, but edited out the “oh yeah this happened 500 years in the past” part. Rather, he's told them he made a new friend (Fei) and that there was a problematic soccer team they dealt with, plus some details about specific things that happened during their travels. While, of course, leaving out the time relevant details.

They do know about the Grand Celesta Galaxy, for a very simple reason: the Earth Eleven players were minors, and parental permission was needed for them to be allowed to be part of the team and travel to space. This was handled by the Japanese Youth Soccer Association, most likely Gouenji himself, in hopes of convincing all the parents. That took quite some effort, not just with Tenma's parents but also those of the other members, but eventually they succeeded.

That being said, Tenma has told his parents quite a lot about his time in space and this time didn't leave out the details, also because they were very interested in what space was like. Since they already know the truth, Tenma isn't worried about them not believing him, so he's quite open about it.

As for their reactions, as mentioned before they don't know the full truth about Fifth Sector, so they were mostly just disappointed for Tenma when he told them Raimon (initially) wasn't what he expected, and supportive towards him during the Holy Road. And, of course, happy and proud when Raimon won and Tenma seemed to have found his place in the team.

Their reaction to the Grand Celesta Galaxy was a lot more dramatic. When Tenma joined Inazuma Japan they were proud, but when they found out about the alien part they were against him going, and very worried even after they did eventually give their consent. They worried the whole time he was away, but once he returned to Earth and told them about space, they were very proud of him. But also sort of unwilling to let him do dangerous stuff like this again (not that that's stopping him, he just doesn't tell them).

As for contact with Tenma's team… no, not really. They trust Aki to be his acting guardian while they're not present, so school issues mostly go through her unless it's very dramatic, and so far nothing has happened that classifies as “very dramatic”; Tenma's grades are okay, he's not a troublemaker in class, there's nothing that really needs their interference. They did meet Gouenji and Kidou when they were told about the Grand Celesta Galaxy, and are aware that Kidou was Tenma's coach at one point, but those conversations were really focused on the whole “aliens are real and we need your son to fight them” thing.

They do eventually meet some of Raimon's members, but I'm planning to write one-shots about that for the AR one-shot collection, so I won't say anything more than that!

[mxtxfanatic]

Book of the Week: Who Cares

Author: Casanovanic Bookworm / Feng Liu Shu Dai (風流書呆) (风流书呆)

Genre: ancient setting, rebirth, revenge, josei

Rating: T

My Synopsis: You wanna talk about mess? Try being Guan Suyi, who spent half of her life trying to be the perfect wife to her indifferent husband, the perfect daughter-in-law to her uncaring mother-in-law, and the perfect mother to her malicious step-children, only to discover that the reason why she has never been accepted is that not only was her husband still in love with his first wife, his first wife is still alive! You wanna talk about mess? Enter Huo Shengzhe: current emperor secretly feared and shunned by his own people and falsely deemed a "wife stealer" due to the machinations of the wife of a former friend (I'll give you one guess). Can Guan Suyi and Huo Shengzhe still find their way to each other in this very dramatic game of Wife Swap where Huo Shengzhe has already unknowingly married the love of his life off to another man?

My Review: I think the way Guan Suyi is portrayed is masterful. She is introduced as this overly severe woman, so much so that you forget just how young she is until she's finally free of the shackles of her first marriage and is able to just be a mischievous teenage girl again. She's not petty, but she's also not a "forgive and forget" type of girl. She is in no way afraid to push the envelope, and the fact that the macro conflict is driven by philosophical debate just gives her all the more reason to flex her skills as the beloved daughter of a revered Confucian scholar. Also, I love how what Hunnar falls in love with is not Guan Suyi's famed beauty but her intelligence, which ends up almost single-handedly thwarting a major antagonist (LOL). AND THE PAY OFFS TO THE SETUPS??? Yeah, this the one.

Umm, the family of her first marriage? The worst already happened to them and they still needed worse. That terrible man and his self-hating ass daughter? They needed death. There's also some content warnings for this work, which is very egregious misogynistic treatment of women (which part of the plot is the main character working to undo in her timeline), torture and rape (neither of which is explicit, but one shared in backstory and is plot- and character-relevant), and some us-vs.-them, "barbarian"-vs.-"the civilized" themes (though this is not as egregious as other stories). My only complaints are that I wish the story was longer and that the added parts would be more of her relationship with her sister-in-law and Mu Mu. I feel very robbed of mother!Guan Suyi, especially since a lot of her mothering moments were wasted on those terrible ass step-children!

Translation: complete

[commonblackbirdxx]

Heya, Written by the victors is back for chapter 2.

Crossover between httyd and rotg.

Pairings: Hijack, Hiccstrid (past)

Alternate History for httyd where the dragons did not go into hiding and that dragons coexist with humans in modern society. The guardians of childhood need to seek out a group of elusive autumn spirits to gain information on Pitch and his allies.

Chapter 2 summary:

Jack and the other guardians try to make sense of Man in Moon's message.

While a certain someone reads a news article about themselves.

1,000 years of history: Emperor Hiksti Hræðilegt Haddock III under the lens of modern pop culture

Roughly 1000 after his death, Emperor HIksti Hræðilegt Haddock III remains one of the most relevant and influential figures of history. From being the social pariah of his tribe to becoming an emperor, his story had captured the hearts and imagination of countless people.

With Nowflix announcement of creating a live-action series about the emperor and his dragon riders. The Daily NIghtfury recount how pop culture portrayed the emperor Hiksti Haddock III in the last 300 years.

How to train your dragon series (1704) by Cressida Howell

300 years later, Cressida Howell’s ‘How to train your dragon’ is still influential in how pop culture view the emperor. As one of the more popular children’s books in the North and South America, it ignited an interest about the life of the late Hiksti Haddock III.

Charming, dutiful, sarcastic and slightly awkward. The Hiskti Haddock III from ‘How to train your dragon’ (1704) by Cressida Howell is an adventurer and an engineer who wanted to explore the world and just happened to be a very endearing character. Originally released in America as a children’s book, it was a breath of fresh air compared to the gritty portrayals of the emperor in a serious and dramatic historical novel of Europe in the late 1600’s and early 1700s. It was released in Europe 5 years after its American release with mixed reviews from European critics. Though a century later, Europe have warmed up to the slightly whimsical portrayal of the emperor.

Where no one goes (1806) by Richard Broom

Introduced in 1856 to a polarising audience, it goes against the common depiction of Emperor Hiksti as a charismatic military commander in a dramatic historical novel full of glory of the war. ‘Where no one goes’ simply portrays King Hiksti III as a man in his 30s and so full of melancholy, unlike the popular novels which focused more during his youth and great battles he fought and less about his older self during the time of peace. Battle hardened and weary, ‘where no one goes’ depicts the brutally of war as the now adult King Hiksti recounts his youth. Of sleepless days where he dreams of enemy soldiers who burned to death by dragon fire, his question of morality as he builds another weapon of destruction and in the end of the novel ends with the emperor longing for the simpler times of his youth.

Highland seas series (1989) by Rachel Brook

Derided by the critics as a shallow bodice ripper novel, nonetheless it managed to have a dedicated readers to become a series. Set in an alternate universe where Hiksti Haddock III did not become a king and instead became a runaway before the final test against the monstrous nightmare, he finally become an adventurer he was meant to be. Readers have bemoaned the lost potential of the novel, setting aside the wonderful worldbuilding from the first chapters to focus on romance and softcore porn.

The Great King (2007) by Hiksti Blackwood

‘The Great King’ by Hiksti Blackwood took Emperor Hiksti’s steady image and shook it to its core. It’s a historical novel about Emperor Hiksti Haddock III but also works as a study on childhood and coming of age in medieval society, child marriages and traumas of war.

[himbeereule]

Hello! I just read the demo. I loved it!! I'm excited to read the remaining parts of this prologue. By the way, I'm surprised at the trouble you took with the reactions to MC's attractiveness. Depending on our appearance will there be an important impact on history?

Anyway, thanks for the demo! I loved everything ❤️❤️❤️

Ehmm I have quite a few questions: 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

1 - Why is MC so popular? What is the reputation of the siblings among the people?

2 -Is there any reason why the empress is so absent in the lives of her children?

3 - Who besides the emperor and brother knows about Lebedev's incident with f! MC?

4- Will there be a funeral for the royal family?

5- I just love Lavrentiy. It seems like he was jealous (?), although he equally loved MC

6 - What were the last thoughts of MC's family before being executed? Will we see more of them in the future?

7 -How did other monarchies react to this "revolution"?

8- How rich/relevant is Nevtskiya in the world? And it has great military power? Besides agriculture, is there any other important sector for the economy? Can we promote the development of the country?

9 - What is the standard of living of the general population?

10 -Will there be much difference in the story of a male or female MC?

11 - What religion does the country have?

12 - Were there many other popular protests in the past?

PS we are lucky that the rebels didn't leave MC's body hanging or decapitated in some public place haha

Hey~

About the attractiveness: there will be scenes like the ones with Sabilov where it'll play a role, but it won't have a really important impact on the story overall.

1- MC is popular because the newspapers pushed them as a celebrity. As for why they did that... you'll have to find out eventually. As for the siblings: Artemiy is revered as the Crown Prince, but he's a pretty distant figure, so it's more formal than personal popularity. Lavrentiy is very controversial due to his escapades (you'll learn more about that). Sasha/Tasha is very private and mostly unknown among the public.

2- This'll be expanded upon in the scenes with your siblings I'm planning to add to the Prologue - basically, she realized the person she married (arranged marriage, but initially she was very happy with it) was an absolute asshole. So she ended up getting the kind of depression where you isolate yourself from everyone and everything.

3- Nobody, though at least one person is guaranteed to find out. Towards the end of the story, though.

4- No. You'll see why later...

5- I said it before, but I'm super happy people liked Lavrentiy. I hope his additional scenes will cement his image of "would actually be lovely if he stopped being so mean"

6- Can't answer, spoilers ^^"

7- There won't be intervention armies, but they see it as a prime opportunity to expand their influence. Whether you'll let them sponsor you or your enemies at the cost of getting dependent and owing favours will be a major decision later on.

8- Nevetskiya is huge, and old, but that's pretty much it. It's a regional power, too far behind in economy, society and technology to really contend with any of the great powers - but it is still counted among them. Industrialization is already beginning to happen, hence the revolution, and its development will be a factor in the story and especially the gameplay.

9- For the nobility - extremely high. For the clergy and the emerging traders and industrialists - pretty high. For the accountants, bureaucrats and landowners - okay. For the peasants and workers (which is almost the entire population) - abysmal.

10- There will be some exclusive story arcs for all genders.

11- I haven't really touched on religion yet, as of now it's just a vague polytheistic copy of the Orthodox Church. I'll develop its lore more once it comes up in the story.

12- Yes, there were peasant revolts every one or two years, but they were quickly and brutally suppressed.