#what the hell is edel doing

[kazmafiette]

This was funnier in my head

[sverige-ikea-employee]

Hey Sve! Who would be a good teammate to work with at IKEA?

Germany… well.. Danmark could learn a thing (a lot of things, really) from him. I admire his work efficiency.

[butwhatifidothis]

it annoys me so much when people say "edel had no other choice" as a thought terminating cliche. like even IF that were true, how one goes about that is still a characterful thing that gets minimized to "so it's not her fault stop being mean to her she just did what she had to". like. does she feel regret? does she apologize ot the people she's hurting? does she view it as righteous? who knows, becuase the argument is only ever used as a "stop being mean to my wife" line and not a character thing.

Yeah cuz like. Okay so let's say that starting the war was absolutely not her fault because xyz circumstance robs her of any substantial say in the matter.

What about using Demonic Beasts? What about her siccing her army and different set of Demonic Beasts on her own "friends" so that she could make more Demonic Beasts? Stealing from a gravesite to do so? What about starving her citizens, and being the only lord TO starve her citizens in their route? What about killing Judith as she ran away from her? Hell, invading the neutral Alliance in the first place? What about helping the Death Knight get away with stealing Flayn if 25 turns pass? What about saying nothing about Kronya even after Solon reveals himself at Remire? What about giving Jeritza a hunting ground to enable his bloodlust and not, like. Professional help?

She couldn't even mention a means she's working on to do anything about her starving citizens? Did she have to blame Claude (and everyone really) not immediately bowing down to her as to why the Alliance was violently invaded, and not her violent invasion being the reason it was violently invaded? What about persecuting Church followers who didn't do shit to anybody, did she have to do that shit too? Never freeing Brigid and instead stationing her men there on her route and sending Hubert there off of it; that was forced on her too? Taking Byleth's credit during the siege instead of letting them get the recognition they deserve - what, just, fate forcing her hand once again?

Are we really going to sit here and say because the war "needed" to happen, Edelgard was forced to do literally all of that (and more)? That because Edelgard was "forced" into war, she was also forced to do literally anything involving the war?

Like you said, her stans saying that she "had no choice" but to start the war does nothing to say anything about her as a character, because they also reject everything else she did regarding her war as having anything to do with her agency. They treat "she had to do this" as a means to protect the moral purity they want her character to have so they don't feel bad rooting for the villain to win, not as something that goes on to mean anything for her.

And I'm not asking for her to save literally every single person ever from any harm ever to prove her care about not going to war exists, I'm asking for LITERALLY ANYTHING. Because she quite literally does nothing to mitigate harm from anybody in this war, and regardless of whether the war was "forced" on her hands or not she absolutely could have done something to make sure her people suffered as minimally as possible. Which damn sure isn't seen in her hiding behind them as she sits in her throne room (a thing Dimitri and Claude absolutely don't do, with either similar or less time to prepare to protect their people). Or starves them, a thing uniquely said about her route (as literally all the other ones have the army go with lacking food supplies). Or allows Thales to conscript them under threat of death. Or openly saying that she thinks weak people would only stay weak after her war because they're "too used to relying on others" - because when her war takes everything away from people, it'd be THEIR fault for staying weak, which is *chef's kiss* so kind and caring amiright guys. Definitely shows off that she understands and/or cares about the ramifications of her war onto the people, and not that she has her head shoved squarely and firmly up her ass.

What does it meaningfully mean for the war to not be Edelgard's fault, if she's not going to do anything to indicate that she cares about other people enough to want to not force war on them? Hell, when she very explicitly shows she doesn't particularly care about how it'd affect people, if it affects people in a way that doesn't align with her beliefs? When she very explicitly says she's perfectly willing to sacrifice her people for her higher cause, and then goes on to sacrifice her people for her higher cause? If she doesn't even try to help others because the war was forced on her, that at best makes her one of powerless victim or uncaring defeatist - neither of which fit the resolute caring ambitious revolutionary they paradoxically also want her to be. So, again, what does it actually mean for the war to not be a result of Edelgard's agency, if she regardless of that still shows callous indifference to those harmed by the war?

It's a question no one who posits this about Edelgard is able to answer, because as you said, it's not meant to be anything more than a shallow defense against her own actions. Letting Edelgard have even the slightest smidgen of agency in her own actions means accepting that she is a massive fucking penis. A huge gaping asshole. A plain ol' jerk. Which again! Is INFINITELY more engaging to watch than this marionette strung along by literally everyone around her into "looking" like a villain, only being her "true" self when she's feeding kittens and dwawing her cwush and burping her googoo gaga babyass girlfriend they also tend to make (f!)Byleth over her shoulder

[official-nrc-prophet]

Twisted Wonderland names... what do they mean?

Riddle, meaning 'Verbal puzzle or game'

Trey, meaning 'Three', and commonly associated with a thirdborn child, though Trey is the oldest.

Cater, meaning 'Someone who bought supplies for a large household.'

Ace, meaning 'One who excels'

Deuce, meaning 'Two Games'

---

Leona, meaning 'Lioness'. Guys he respects women so much his name is feminine.

Ruggie, meaning 'Rough'

Jack, meaning 'Healthy and Strong' boy he sure is

---

Azul, meaning 'The color blue'

Jade, meaning 'Stone of the bowels' because it was believed green gemstones could cure colic in babies-

Floyd, meaning 'Gray-haired' they did the twins dirty

---

Kalim, meaning 'Speaker'

Jamil, meaning 'Beautiful' holy shit yeah he is

---

Vil, meaning either 'Settlement' or 'Hope'

Rook, meaning 'A type of crow' or 'Cheat'

Epel, having connections to the dutch word Edel, which means 'noble' (I know it's a reference to apple, let me have my fun)

---

Idia, meaning 'One who stands firm' he ain't doing that

Ortho, meaning 'Upright' or 'Correct'

---

Malleus, meaning 'Hammer' or 'Mallet'

Lilia, meaning 'Lily' or 'Night'

Silver, meaning 'Silver' wooooow no shit

Sebek, an alternative name for Sobek, an egyptian deity that means 'Crocodile' wooooow no shit

---

Dire, meaning 'Deer'

Divus, meaning 'Belonging to a God/Divine' hell yeah he is

Mozus, meaning 'Taken out of the water' that's why he's so wrinkly

Ashton, meaning 'From the ash tree' well put him back

Sam, meaning 'Told by God'

[superpsychedelicdbd]

(Paragraphs below are copied from the author's notes)

Hey! Coping-hard-edelic here! So uh… this chapter is really, really dark and depressing, so if you're in not in a good headspace (and I imagine most people aren't right now), please don't feel obligated to read it. This chapter has multiple explicit scenes and something else at the end that could be highly triggering. I did my best to bracket those sections with warnings-- one ⚠ for the start of it and two ⚠⚠ for the end of the section if you want to skip them. If you want a full disclosure of the warnings with spoilers, you can find that in the end notes.

Alright, so... after what happened with the election, my mental health is kinda trash right now. Oddly enough, it doesn't really keep me from writing shit like this, but it does make it a good deal harder. I've been kind of wanting to take a bit of a break from this story anyways since I've been working on it for almost two straight years, so I think now is probably a good time to do that. The holidays are kind of a trash time to post anyways, so I'd estimate sometime in January is when I'll update this again. That DOESN'T mean I'm going to stop writing though. I'll probably still end up inevitably working on this story a bit since I can't stay away from it, but I've also had a few ideas bouncing around inside my head for a while now. One of those involves David and a kitten, and I KNOW how much we could all use a bit of fluff in our lives right now, so be on the look out for that! 🐱

In the mean time, I'll be getting my ducks in a row and basking in the schadenfreude that is r/leopardsatemyface and I hope you'll join me there! It certainly made me feel a hell of a lot better about all this! Thanks once again to everyone for reading and sticking with me. Stay strong, carry on, and I'll see you again soon!

[feralpangolin]

Filling in Plotholes

The Texas Slytherin AU stemmed from my desire to give Harry a loving family, and a barrel of wet cement to fill the plot holes that such a scenario would create. Below are the questions that I've already come up with answers for lol

How do you address the family protection spell Lily put on Harry? Easy, give him more biological family.

Why haven't the Dursleys pawned Harry off to that family? Uh, its a very distant relationship. Like, many, many generations back. The Evans family had no idea they had family in America, so Petunia wouldn't've been able to send Harry away.

If its so distant, how does the blood protection work? The bizarre nature of family/bloodline magic! The family magic has some sentience (more on that later), and can appear in varying concentrations in descendants, no matter how distant. High concentrations of the family magic can allow for a Lord of the family to claim those relations, thus magically strengthening the blood ties.

Well then, what family would Harry be a part of? Slytherin! Just for funsies. I wanted to build on parselmouth lore and pureblood culture, assimilating stuff I've read previously and integrating my own spin on it.

Who's Lord Slytherin then? Think about how funny it would be. If the Lord of this Ancient and Founding family, the first one in centuries, was this foul mouthed, heavily accented, Texas child who grew up on a dragon reserve and sure as hell acted like it. The British Wixen world won't know what hit them.

But wait, how does Charlie become Lord? Well, Charlie is a parselmouth, and has a handful of other snake-like traits. This means she's got a high concentration/affinity with the Slytherin Family magic, despite how distant the blood relation is. When she hits age 11, Gringotts sends her a letter to let her know that she's eligible for Heirship. And as she's what the family magic considers to be the only surviving member of the family, she's also able to immediately ascend to Lordship.

Why isn't Voldemort Lord Slytherin? Tom Riddle technically had claim to the title. The only problem is, he never actually did the ritual to become Lord, whether that was due to ignorance of the ritual itself or distaste for the goblins from Gringotts who contacted him about it. But the biggest turning point was when Tom made his first horcrux. It split his soul, a crime against magic and the natural way of things, and thus lost favor of the family magic.

How far back does the relation go? So, I am 100% not fully aware of the canon lineage, so Imma mess with it a bit as needed. But around the 1400's is the last common point in their bloodline, pretty much. Salazar's couple-of-great grandchildren were around when the witch hunts started. Let's say we've got Edel and Isibéal, who are sisters, and a couple of male cousins. Edel is the most snake-like descendant of the Slytherin line outside of their Naga ancestor (more into that later). Her firstborns are twin girls, but they're squibs, Roisín and Lile. When they hit 11 with no sign of magic, Edel has to send them away. Before the witch hunts, squibs would be allowed to stay with their family and perform tasks that didn't require magic; with the hunts, however, the wixen community at large began kicking out, if not outright killing, their squibs. They were too dangerous, and a liability to keep around. Roisín ended up traveling to the New World (America), used her education to get a job as a scribe, and adopted the last name Wright. Her bloodline eventually ends up moving down the coast, and into Texas, culminating into the family Charlie is born in. Lile stayed in the UK, doing who knows what, and her line ends up in Lily Evans and Harry Potter. Isibéal, Edel's sister, is the split where the Gaunt family begins to distinguish itself from the Slytherin line, as she marries one of her cousins and continues that chucklefuck of inbreeding.

This has already gotten longer than I intended, whoops. And there's probably still stuff to address, but I shall do that later.

[chuckeroo777]

Frieren Liveblog- Chapters 49-52

Welcome back! It's been a bit. Been busy writing smut and making niche mods for niche games. Last we left off, no one we cared about died, so that's nice. And Frieren got got by another mimic, so that's nice.

Good to see the golems are as good at their job as you'd hope. And I see Sense is yet another member of the golem appreciation club.

Frieren, if you had the situation under control, why did you spend a minute screaming and panicking?

The path of least resistance is a great spot to put your favorite traps. (Also, a bonus mimic)

Fern continues to act like Frieren's mom. She's just so glad to see her happy!

Hmm... the other mages will be able to get away with rock-paper-scissoring they way past, but I'm a little frightened what a Frieren doppelganger would do. Then again, if the creation of these clones is fueled from some source, it might not have the juice to make a Frieren clone.

Well, shit. Speak of the devil.

If it is channeling her personality, then they may not have to worry about it going all out. On the other hand, it could make use of all her underhanded tactics.

Rude. Accurate to the original, but rude.

The hell is she up to? I really can't get a read on Ubel's motives.

Ah, of course. She wants his sweet doppelganger magic. Doesn't change the fact that she literally risked her life to pull that off though.

I'm still skeptical about how strong this thing is. It was created by a demon. Unless this is some sort of demon elder god, I'm not sure how it would create a clone stronger than itself.

Gently hug the elf.

Hmm, her wording is oddly specific. If I'm correct about this clone having less of a mana pool, restraint magic might work.

Hmm. Sense said she wouldn't help or hinder any of the contenders. I wonder if this clone will follow the same behavior? Also, apparently she has hair powers? That sounds neat.

Well, so much for that idea. Time for Edel to gtfo, and for the others to come up with another plan. Just lure it to Frieren. That should do the trick.

Well, we know for a fact that Fern is quicker at casting than Frieren. I imagine her idea hinges on that.

I'm glad everyone is in agreement that Frieren is a precious cinnamon roll who could easily destroy them all.

They have every reason to hate you Richter. You literally tried to kill them despite your partner telling you no. Anyway, judging from who is still missing, I'll bet Land and Ubel will be pivotal to beating her.

*Casually blasts her master to bits*

I'm not quite sure I understand what this weakness is, but I have a feeling it will make more sense when they exploit it.

Everyone is openly discussing the best way to kill me! Ain't it grand?

Can't healing magic do something about that? No? Okay.

I vaguely remember an epic mage battle I saw as I clip back when the anime was airing. I wonder if that's about to happen?

Also, clearly you've never seen Tomb of Horrors II: Tomb Harder.

And that's it for now. Next time, we fight the final boss.

But seriously, how does a demon make a clone that powerful?

[bnbc]

Alrighty. 4,5 and 11 for the RT lore ;)

WOOOOOO thank you so much for the ask LET'S GO

4. How did your RT feel about Theodora? How did they feel when she died?

Oh, boiiiii! Theodora's ghost haunted the von Valancius' flagship for months, and Idira had nothing to do with it.

Isabella didn't have time to develop any feelings for Aunty Theo when she was still alive but after her death? She became sort of obsessed with her predecessor, tried to know as much as possible about her… and used it to look more like her.

No, Iza didn't model herself and her decision after Theodora, but she worked hard on keeping a certain resemblance between the two of them for people to have less doubts that Isabella has rights to her high position.

Even the signature Isabella's feature, her wig collection, is coming from this place: she wanted to resemble Theodora even visually, so ✨ big hair ✨, high boots, dress jackets and some of Aunty's mannerisms were with Isabella for a long time before the 3rd chapter finally happened.

But this all Theodora lore hunting made Isabella deeply respect her predecessor and regret she didn't have more time with the aunty, even tho Iza suspected that Theodora would find her too soft xD

5. What was their relationship with Edelthrad? Would your RT have been happy with an advisory role, or had they always wanted something more?

Look, I replayed the prologue about 10 times recently and Edel was nothing but a piece of shit to my girlie, who did nothing wrong (yet).

In the beginning, she would be drawn to Edel because he, like her, is a psyker, and as close as Isabella's previous crew became to her, there was always one thing standing between them: they were not psykers. They were her people, but they didn't truly understand if you know what I mean.

And she longed so much for the company of other psykers! After all, she grew up surrounded by psykers and AAT people, so she was even excited to finally have one close, again. But Edel was straight-up hostile towards her.

I think she would be deeply unhappy as one of his advisors, and would long for her old crew she could not come back to. Eventually, Edel would try to get rid of her, and rather sooner than later. I'm not sure she would win this stand.

11. Any non-companion NPC's that your RT has an interesting dynamic with?

Let me indulge myself and tell you how much Isabella von Valancius values her High Factotum. I say 'indulge' because question stands for interesting dynamic but these two are just work besties, nothing truly special — BUT THEY ARE SPECIAL TO ME

So, Isabella spent the last decade serving in the supplies division (I still don't know how you name this service correctly), so when she got to her shiny new position she took it with the motto FUCK IT WE TRADE LOGISTIC MATTER.

First, she gave Janris Danrok the hell, personally diving into details of ship logistics and trade contracts, but she found his work more than satisfying and he found his new Lord Captain understanding the trade and supplies. And they just 👀🤝👀

But okay, to add some spice. I believe I mentioned that at some point Isabella sent Jae from her ship to work from some other spot, saying she's got enough of her lies but still wanted to use her connection and talents. The final straw that bought Jae a one-way ticket from vv flagship was an absolutely minor innocent lie, not worth any drama.

The truth is, Isabella got pissed off because of Jae harassing Danrok, calling her High Factotum all sorts of derogatory quartermaster-connected names, and ON THIS SHIP WE DO NOT TOLERATE HARRASING OUR LOGISTIC TEAM OKAY also Jae never became a friend close enough to find out Isabella served in logistics too, otherwise she would watch her words and wouldn't fuck up so much.

Anyway yes Lord Captain was being fucking petty but who could stop her

TYSM FOR ASKING AGAIN

[atamascolily]

princess tutu re-watch, episode 12

wow, the opening monologue is getting hardcore

love how the rose from last episode has withered, as if we've stumbled into "Beauty and the Beast"

oh my god Tutu had to help Fakir back to his dorm room and he HATES EVERY SECOND OF IT hahhahahaha

cut to Tutu passed out on Mytho's (empty) bed next to him

Fakir: why the fuck are you dressed like this?

Ahiru: Because Tutu isn't technically a student, and if I get caught in here, I can magically ballet myself out of trouble.

Fakir: That is… surprisingly sensible, actually. But don't go around thinking we're friends or anything! I told you I work best alone!

Ahiru: Okay, well, what if we found Mytho together? Just this once?

Fakir: .... No comment.

Rue made a nest in the chapel out of feathers. Mytho is back to being a puppet again.

Rue breaking the fourth wall to address Drosselmeyer directly is HILARIOUS and freaks him the hell out! But she gets him right where it hurts: she offers to tell him the best story, and he is all ears.

(this is where the "Scheherazade" of the title comes from, heh)

are there any official/fan-made maps of Gold Crown Town anywhere?? I'd love to know where all the places are in relation to each other. They seem to visit the pizza place a lot.

I SAW THAT FOND SMILE FLICKER ACROSS YOUR FACE FOR A MOMENT, FAKIR, YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE

oh no, Mytho is evil now. He makes fun of the knight for getting torn to pieces by the raven in the original story.

Fakir: HEY THAT'S THE THING I'M SENSITIVE ABOUT.

oh, that's why Mytho was acting so much like Rue, because it was a crow-puppet Rue was using instead.

Tutu was originally a bit character in the original story, but Ahiru takes the news better than Fakir because she had always seen herself on the sidelines.

Edel: I'm here to be a plot device!

Ahiru: But I love you anyway!

Edel: ... No comment.

Drosselmeyer: I hate it when my puppets develop feelings!

(can you imagine his reaction if all the puppets unionized?)

we hear a random horse neighing and for a moment I thought it was Fakir's as-yet-unnamed horse, but nothing comes of it

Drosselmeyer confirms that he's only using puppets because he can't go directly into the narrative without major consequences.

Bonding time in the catacombs!!

I didn't know ducks could grin so smugly, but Ahiru manages it when she transforms in front of Fakir.

Fakir: OH NOOOOOO SHE KNOWS MY SECRET IDENTITY!!! *barf*

Fakir: "Wait, can ducks drown? No, knowing her, it's possible". (actual quote)

Fakir: Wait, I don't speak duck, please transform--OH SHIT, A NAKED GIRL, I TAKE THAT BACK.

Fakir: Why do you have TWO secret identities, that's so unfair!

Fakir reading the original story to Mytho and him being interested in Tutu's disappearance (and wanting to save her) is so cute!

Rue challenges Tutu to speak her feelings, knowing that's the one thing she cannot do. It's clever and dramatic, I'll give her that. Good thing ballet is all about expressing emotions without words!

Drosselmeyer: Dance, my pretties! Dance for your miserable LIVES!

truly, this episode has everything, by which I mean it's mostly Ahiru and Fakir bouncing off each other for twenty minutes, which is all I really want out of life.

[emblemxeno]

Why do you think the 3H lords are always pre time skip? We know the post skip is more popular from CYL and other things but they honestly pretend like it doesn't exist. My conspiracy theory is if they did post skip they'd have to deal with who Edel actually is and we can't have that! There's no reason to ignore the better designs especially this late past the games release

It's most likely because, in spite of the fact that there's constant discourse and analysis of what happens in the war phase, the academy phase is the most prominent, marketed, and well-known portion of 3H. And usually the longer half of the routes.

The teaching/skill grinding is associated with the school more than the war meeting equivalent, most of the mystery and intrigue happens in part 1, all of the characters are present at the academy during part 1 so it's easy to make house-to-house references, etc. I imagine it's also the more popular look for the characters in the Japanese audience as well, for similar reasons why Persona and it's high school/pre-adult casts and stories are popular; adult life is complicated and hard, so fun, mysterious, school time RPGs and drama is appealing to people getting home from a grueling day at work. Hell, the school calendar in 3H goes by Japanese school calendar rules by starting in April, so home audience appeals are probably important.

[kazmafiette]

So SuFinsthetic

[denmarkdenmarkdenmarkdenmark]

What if I make this a shitty MS paint askblog ?

[sverige-ikea-employee]

I thought I was your favourite?

(@ask-hws-norge)

Not even close.

[butwhatifidothis]

Claude, 15, 16, and 25 for the meme

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

Dimiclaude!!!!!! Like man, there are just so many things about the potential of these two characters being together that FASCINATE me and have me in an absolute chokehold. I've said it before but this ship is actually just straight up my fave in 3H period, and is one of two ships ever that has latched itself on my brain (the other being a Bleach ship I've been shipping since I was, like, 13 lmao). I've seen some pretty, um, yikes-inducing interpretations of them, but that just can't beat how much I just like them independent of anything much to do with the fandom lmao.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

...and on the other hand there's Edel/claude. Like, unironic and genuine Edel/claude, as I personally have exclusively seen it portrayed. It strips Claude of nearly his entire character just to prop up Edelgard in literally every single iteration of it I've come across, and that soured me on it a lot. Plus their vibes do not gel well as anything but Bitterly Divorced Ex's, like holy hell is the chemistry between these two as a romantic ship nonexistent lmao these bitches can't STAND each other.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

First impression: Wow, this guy is gonna be the bad guy for sure. But he also looks like he'll make the ride of bein' bad fun as hell, plus he's the best looking of the three lords to pick from. I'm goin' with him.

Now: Wow so like this guy can be a dick at times but what the hell he is actually so nice and chill. Why is he damn near gap-moe with how mean his words sound vs how nice his actions and beliefs are. FUCK is he handsome

[metanarrates]

go off about the tree axe special boy arc speedrun

I know NOTHING about the axe because we only watched one episode this week (whatever one introduced the tree idgaf about which number it actually is) but good lord. its bad.

okay random numbered list of things because my brain has been depression deep fried lately and its easier to just throw together a list of my thoughts rather than making a coherent post:

- the pacing of this episode and this show in general is so fucking weird. we had like six episodes that were kind of nothing and now we're getting a Major Plot Development speedrun. wham, ahiru has issues about her ability to move the plot. wham, there's a secret drosselmeyer cult(?). wham, fakir's author powers (only introduced last episode mind you) are because he's drosselmeyer's descendant. wham, mytho and rue are having the exact same issues we've seen for the last six episodes. wham, there's a magic tree. wham, fakir gets absorbed by the tree. just kidding princess tutu saved him and now ahirus over her insecurity. any single one of these plot points is worthy of an entire episode but they just crammed it into one? its not good. actively makes me not give a shit about the characters anymore too, since they're now exposition machines

- I DON'T LIKE THE DROSSELMEYER CULT. now part of this is admittedly because I am a cult survivor, and the depictions of "hooded guys with secret knowledge" always bug the shit out of me. those depictions never have anything to do with actual cult life and just exist to make something feel spooky. it's cheap. but there's more to it than that.

so drosselmeyer has been in a weird place this season. s1 establishes drosselmeyer as an odd, ominous figure who stretches his fingers into the plot in subtle ways. he gave ahiru her pendant and can take away her transformative powers if it suits him. he created edel and was responsible for her demise. he can stop time when talking to ahiru. though his power over the world is quite indirect, he is still a force to be contended with. there are clear stakes to dealing with him, and he presents an effective threat to our heroes. how can you fight the author of your narrative when he is using all his power to make it a tragedy?

s2 has demoted him to "funny guy who exposits to the audience." he has almost nothing to do now that the raven is the most active antagonist. he talks. he paces in his clock world. he talks to ahiru once or twice, but he's a far less active manipulator of her than he used to be. all that really sucks, but the introduction of drosselmeyer followers completely obliterate any sense of mystery he may have had. he is no longer a shadowy untouchable force that only ahiru (barely) knows about - he is a physical entity who existed in this world, had children, and those descendants can grasp at his powers. rather than being a completely mysterious force to our characters, he suddenly has people who know all about his mortal life.

it completely punctures his sense of threat. if drosselmeyer's powers can be dissected, inherited, and replicated, what is his effectiveness as a threat? if he is a knowable entity who existed within the world of goldkrone, then what is his relationship now to that world? previously, he existed fully outside of it, which made goldkrone feel like an interestingly surreal collecting place of fairy tales, rather than a place that followed the laws of conventional reality. if drosselmeyer existed within goldkrone, and a character within the fairy tale he wrote is now reincarnated as his direct descendant, is goldkrone instead a previously normal town warped by his power? why isn't there much indication of this? how powerful is/was drosselmeyer? what is he to the world, and more importantly, what the hell is he to the narrative of princess tutu?

he no longer exists as a purely representative entity, is what I'm saying. any sense of an established world and his place outside of it has been destroyed and replaced with something WAY less well-defined to the audience. and as for his power...

-fakir being his descendant sucks.

-no, really, I don't think I need to get into all the ways it sucks. it replaces the fakir we know (guy who is a reincarnated knight from their fairy tale who doesn't wanna get killed) with a different guy with different motives (guy with a mysterious bloodline who wants to use his author powers well????) it doesn't make sense narratively. it just HANDS our heroes the power to solve the story, rather than making them work hard to earn it. it's bad and stupid and sucks. if I make an entire post about it ill just get mad with how many ways it sucks. so I'll just relate all this to the tree problem.

-the tree is almost impressively not symbolically charged. i mean, sure, you could pull some symbolism out of it. it's probably a reference to merlin being trapped in a tree. you could pull out some connection to yggdrasil, and of course it's concerned with all things being connected, which is very... tree-like. but it's not remotely connected to anything in princess tutu's themes or symbolic suites! what does it have to do with ballet, or fairy tales, or fate? hell, what the hell does it have to do with WRITING?!? that's what it's meant to be a power source for, isn't it? why?

and look, I don't like the writing plot. at all. it sucks. but if you must include something for it, the object you use to connect to its power should probably seem appropriately symbolic, right? they call people with that power "spinners" - why not a spinning wheel? that feels like it would easily slot into some fairy tale motifs. or I don't know, a magical quill or something. it would make way more sense than it being a magical tree.

a symbol exists to establish meaning. it's a way to quickly define what ideas a story is working with, and what those ideas mean in the context of a world. I know it sounds silly for me to care so much about drosselmeyer and the tree not representing anything, but it's symptomatic of a larger problem.

what are the themes now in princess tutu? why does the tree suddenly talk about "all is one" etc. as a means to hypnotize fakir? what does that have to do with anything that's been established? sure, it talks about defying fate, but at this point, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. is fate becoming one with everything? is that what the tree's speech means?

previously, drosselmeyer worked as an effective symbol for the concept of fate, as an active personified antagonist who only wanted the characters to experience tragedy. but as discussed, he's been undermined. this new symbol has none of the necessary establishing work done to make it an effective replacement. the raven also doesn't work very well as a replacement. I have no idea what "fate" is in this story now, or precisely why it matters that our protagonists fight it.

and that's the crux of the problem with princess tutu at this point in time. nothing means anything. I don't know what the characters are supposed to be. I don't know what narrative role certain things are supposed to play. I don't understand how certain things are meant to be significant, or what the stakes are supposed to be now. what is happening now has very little to do with what has happened before, and it makes me feel as though nothing that's been established in the show really matters. I'm just watching them all hurtle towards an ending that feels unearned and uninspired.

[phantomdialogue]

˗ˏˋ. ݁₊ ✶ ˖ 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟔 𝐛𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐥𝐨𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐡 - 𝟓/𝟓 ☆ . ݁ ˖ˎˊ˗

boys of tommen book four

premise: joey lynch and aoife molloy are destined for each other, but joey is convinced that he's no good for her. maybe he isn't, but he wants to be. aoife wants to save him from his life that seems to never stop imploding, but some weighted news threatens to push him off the deep end as he deals with the blows of his family one too many times.

couple: joey lynch and aoife molloy

tropes: slight sports romance, high school age romance, friends to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, broken boy, pregnancy

CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING!! - includes themes such as physical and verbal abuse (familial mostly), heavy substance abuse, sexual harassment, and more.

available on kindle unlimited

review below!

review:

um... wow... i really can't decide if this is above keeping 13 for me because it's such a close call. it's so wildly different from keeping 13 even if it happens at the same time in the universe as binding and keeping 13. i loved every second of it. even the most painful parts i was in love with. this series overall is easily 6 stars without question and this book just continued to solidify that for me. i will never shut up about the found family in this series and how much each character has begun to mean to me over these 4 books and i know they will only mean more to me in the next book(s).

joey's story is so heartbreaking and so well written out that i think about him and my heart just breaks in the best way. i do think that i still rank johnny above him in my book boyfriend ranking but that's simply because of my type and i think that realistically they are pretty even in terms of the book boyfriend hall of fame. his struggle with addiction is beautifully explored in this book and seeing the way that his blood relatives have failed him and pushed him beyond reason just shatters my soul.

aoife's story is also so painfully well done. you see her struggle with this fight of wanting to save joey but also the internal battle she has about at the same time wanting to save herself and deciding whether or not it's worth going down with joey. her strength is amazing and i feel like it really matches joey in a way that's not talked about enough.

the underdogs of this story that i was so excited to see from joey's pov was john and edel kavanagh. the way they stepped up and the way that they really made joey feel like he could trust two people that weren't his siblings or aoife made me so happy. the lengths they went to for him really warmed my heart after such heavy angst throughout this book.

i'm just truly in love with this book and this couple. i think it's another situation similar to binding and keeping 13 where the first book was necessary and it built everything up but this second book is where the story and the couple shine so bright. i really enjoyed getting to read what else was going on in this "universe" at the same time as johnny and shannon's books and getting the little crossover chapters where we had read them from shannon or johnny's perspective and now getting joey and even aoife's perspective was so fun and i really adored it. i think that finishing this book is so bittersweet because i know that we are moving into 2006 in the next book and 2005 just feels so vital to this series and the story. i can't wait to see where the story goes in the next year but i'll miss this year in a way at the same time.

q & a:

are they endgame? - i'm pretty sure if you say no, you must be as high as joey was for a good chunk of this book. joey and aoife have literally been through hell and back and i think they built themselves such a strong foundation that can't be cracked in the future. they are one of the most endgame couples i've read in a hot second but i think that that comes from the fact that they also know how to fight. they haven't been a "perfect" couple through these books and that makes them even stronger. their love for each other is so strong and i think they are so aware of how to nourish that love that it will last.

did i cringe? - nothing comes to mind actually. i think at this point in the series, the author has found her footing with a lot of these characters and as a reader you've found your own footing in the universe that nothing really makes you cringe like it might have when reading the first book and it's just become comfortable.

favorite part? - i could list a million things but the main thing that comes to mind, after having spent saving 6 away from the tommen characters, is the connection that joey and aoife build with the characters that we've already attached to from johnny and shannon's books. joey's relationship with johnny and gibsie is one of my favorite things in the world and i can not wait to see it be developed more in taming 7. i also wasn't expecting aoife and gibsie as a pairing so much but they have this really sweet relationship that i think is really underrated and i hope gets more time in gibsie's books. obviously in saving 6 there was some connection between aoife and shannon due to her and joey's relationship but i think it just flourishes into this beautiful sisterly friendship that i fell in love with in this book. aoife is so ready to go to bat for shannon and i can feel that same willingness growing in joey for johnny and gibsie and i love it so much.

least favorite part? - i am admittedly having a hard time figuring out my least favorite part... i guess the main thing that i could pick apart is the event pacing but even that is such a minor nitpick for me. there were some events from binding and keeping 13 that i wish had one or two more chapters or ones that i even thought could have used a little less focusing on. but overall, i really still enjoyed every minute of this book.

favorite quotes (some spoilers here, of course, but minimal):

Because every part of me loved every part of her. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

It had taken me six long years to accept that. When she told me that she loved me, she meant it, and it was as unsettling as it was addictive, because if she only felt a fifth for me of what I felt for her, then I was one lucky son of a bitch.

Teddy was the house they were stuck inside, and Marie was the key that refused to turn in the lock and free them.

“You call and I come running,” he told them in a gruff tone, but his eyes were locked on mine as he spoke. “Every time.”

“Your face right here is the only face I’ve been seeing since I was twelve. Because no matter how off my head I’ve been over the years, no matter how far from reality I’ve let my mind wander, I have never lost sight of this face.”

The only person in our lives that had ever taken the time to dig deeper, to push further, was Molloy. Until now.

“Loving your son is effortless,” I cut her off by saying, pushing my damp hair out of my eyes. “It’s getting him to love himself that’s the hard part.”

When you burn, I go down in flames with you. We’re entwined, Joe. We’re mirrors.

“I fucking love the bones of ya.”

“Can I keep one of these?” he asked, holding up the long strip of sonogram images. “Of course,” I replied, my heart bucking wildly in my chest as I watched him carefully tear one off the strip and place it in his wallet. “It’s your baby, Joe.” “Yeah.” Nodding to himself, he placed the sonogram in the picture slot in his wallet and smiled. “He is.”

She was the only thing that felt real in this moment. She was here and she was real. I could smell her, touch her, feel her. Just her.

Johnny Kavanagh was standing here, in the middle of all of my family’s bullshit, and he wasn’t running. Something about him reminded me of Molloy and I frowned.

I’d never seen a mother throw down like that for her kid. But Edel Kavanagh had, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I got the distinct feeling that Molloy would do the exact same for our kid.

“You protected my son’s future, and now I’m here to protect yours,” he finally said, folding his arms across his chest. “Sounds like a fair trade if you ask me.” “Except that I don’t have one of those.” “I’m sure my wife would argue that statement.” He smiled ruefully before adding, “You’ve won yourself a fan, Joey Lynch.”

He had them? My kids? He had them?

“There’s something about you that calls to him. He’s trusting you with his babies. That’s a breakthrough.” “I am all in with these children,” she vowed, voice thick with emotion. “I am all in with him.”

“There was only ever you for me. Stone-cold sober or off my trolly, my head knows that.”

Trusting wasn’t something that came easily to me, not even when it came to writing in a fucking journal. Hating, on the other hand, did. I excelled at hating the world. Not just the world, but everyone in it.

“Maybe before they moved on, someone wanted to make sure his first love had a fighting chance with her first love.”

“I’ve always been a father!” I roared back, chest heaving. “And I’ve done a pretty fucking good job with the four I’ve raised. And yeah, I’m a mess, and yeah, I’m an addict, but I’m a good father! I’m a good fucking parent, Darren. I kept them alive. I kept them fed, and loved, and nurtured, and goddamn educated. I did that. Not you. Not him. Not Mam. Me. So, call me a junkie and whatever the hell else you want to call me, but don’t say that I’m too young to be a father!”

“You can thank Gerard for those,” she said, pointing disapprovingly to the cigarette in my hand. “He smuggled three packets into the bags I packed for you today.” Good man, Gussie.

“I love your family, Joey,” she cut me off by saying, voice thick with emotion. “Each and every one of you.” She winked. “Especially you.”

“Because Aoife is in no way similar to your mother, and you, my big-hearted boy, don’t have a Teddy Lynch bone in your body.”

“Mister Rugby,” I replied, lips twitching up in a smirk that mirrored his, as I stepped forward and accepted his handshake. “Thank you.” With steel-blue eyes full of unconcealed emotion, he offered me a stiff nod. “Anytime, brother.” And that was all that needed to be said between us. He knew it and so did I.

My heart no longer beat for me. For the rest of my days, it would beat entirely for the child in my arms.

They said he was huge, but he looked tiny to me.

“I feel like I died this summer without you and I’m only coming back to life now.”

Wordlessly, she took my hand in hers and placed it to her chest. “Feel that?” “Yeah.” Her heart was hammering violently against my palm. “I feel it.” “That’s you,” she whispered. “That’s what you do to me.” “Still?” “Then. Still. Always.”

“Because in this version of forever, we get the happy ending, Molloy.”

Joey Lynch and Aoife Molloy: both full of flaws and humanly imperfect and yet so undeniably perfect for each other.