#which is understandable the dance is about team black vs team green and the fall of dragons

[bumblesimagines]

Hi! 😊 Just wanted to ask, how many more requests are in line for the House of the Dragon fandom? Could we get any teasing crumbs for those? 🥺🥺🥺

I'm going to be honest... Half of the recent HOTD I've pulled out of thin air 😭

In honor of S2 I've decided to make a list of characters to write for but I've realized I don't care for half of the men in the show 💀 it feels a lil odd writing for Luke cause he's so smol

[gojuo]

https://www.tumblr.com/gojuo/717780379148386305?source=share

What about Aemond? Isn't he male and one of Rhaenyra's enemies why he is receiving a SPA treatment of his character, a treatment that not even the male characters of team black have lmao

Aemond may be on the Green side which means being an antagonist to Rhaenyra, but he is not her narrative foil. Aegon is Rhaenyra's foil and Aemond is Daemon's. And Daeron is the narrative foil to Aemond.

The Targtower siblings come in a package. It's Aegon and Helaena on one side being contrasted to each other: Aegon is a party animal vs. Helaena is a gentle and chaste lady; when B&C happens, Aegon turns his anger outwards towards the world and uses that anger to lash out vs. Helaena breaks into pieces, loses her mind and all of the trauma turns her into a hollow shell of her former joyful and outgoing self; Helaena commits suicide vs. Aegon lives on in spite of it all, etc.

For the other two, you aren't going to understand why Daeron is juxtaposed to Aemond if you don't know their book characters. Anyone who knows anything about F&B knows that Daeron was the single most likeable character in the entire Dance. And Aemond was a psychopath.

If I were to list book!Aemond's personality traits, I would say that he was a loud, brash, arrogant, cruel, impulsive, angry, contemptuous and scornful person. He's also ruthless, psychotic, blood-thirsty and more than a little unhinged. The Greens nearly break through Rhaenyra's forces and win the war but Aemond's recklessness and impatience fucks it all up. He murders every single member of House Strong because he had an issue with only one of them as well as doing it just because he felt like doing it. He takes Alys to bed as a spoil of war and he genocides the people of the Riverlands for funsies. He was a badass and unapologetically himself who was unafraid to speak his mind, no matter how harsh, but Aemond was no brooding, quiet and reserved type who held himself back like in the show. That's Daeron.

I call Daeron Aemond's narrative foil because he was the counterbalance to Aemond's intense personality. It is Daeron who is the quiet, reserved, pensive, and reputable man who is selflessly and completely devoted to the family. He commits/allows for heinous acts of war in Bitterbridge as retribution for what the people did to his nephew (which he regrets immensely), he fights to the bitter end to reunite with his mother and sister in King's Landing, he throws wine in Hugh's face when the man insinuates Aegon is dead, he is the favorite and most loved child of the four, etc.

In F&B, Aemond isn't particularly characterized as caring for his family much. He metaphorically rubs salt in Aegon’s wounds with his comment about how the Conqueror's Crown fits him better than it ever did Aegon, and his refusal to stick to Criston's orders and choose Alys over him and his family is what leads to the Fall of King's Landing and then snowballs into Butcher's Ball, Tumbleton, Bitterbridge, etc. If anything, book!Aemond seems to care about no one but himself — sans Alys when the time comes.

Daeron is courteous, honorable and the valiant and heroic knight of the story. He was The King Who Should Have Been (over Rhaenyra and Aegon). Near the end of the Dance, when Rhaenyra turns full psycho, it is Daeron who is still fighting the honorable fight and becomes the clear cut good guy protagonist of the narrative, trying to put an end to Queen Maegor With Teats who has turned full-on villain at this point in time.

And what happened in the show is that Daeron — the clear cut good guy of the story — has been merged together with the character of Aemond — the clear cut bad guy on the Greens' side.

The truth is that the hack known as Miguel Sapochnik was not going to include Daeron in the show. This is all but confirmed by his Season 2 outlines that were leaked a while back in which there was not a single mention of Daeron + Viserys saying "All of my family here," during the dinner scene in which there was no Daeron + Daemon saying "[The Greens'] three dragons," meaning no Daeron and Tessarion.

The fact that Sapochnik walked away (read: threw a hissy fit and basically got fired for his shitty S02 outlines) and then the second after that happened GRRM went on his blog to assure us fans that Daeron was in the show, they just didn't have the time to mention his existence at all in this entire season with not even 1 fucking line (bullshit) is the cherry on top. GRRM posted that blog entry on October 11th, and episode 9 — which is the very first episode which showed us Alicent's bloodline split and her four children and three grandchildren with a hastily thrown-in VFX at the obvious last minute — aired on October 16th. I suppose October was when Sapochnik got the boot lol.

So what happened was that Daeron's character was combined with Aemond's. What happens when two characters who are each other’s foils are being merged into one? Especially when one of them is a cartoon villain with little to no depth and the other is the classical hero archetype? You get the belief that the Aemond of the show has been whitewashed.

(Off topic, but personally, I don’t like calling what happened to show!Aemond “whitewashing”, because that insinuates there was a deliberate attempt to cover up Aemond’s more than unpleasant book personality by sugarcoating his canon actions — like how the show did with Rhaenyra — but that’s not what the show did. Showrunners and writers just gave Aemond Daeron’s book personality, and there is nothing sugarcoated or whitewashed about Daeron. He just is, objectively, the good guy.)

Now back to the topic: what happens when two narrative foils get merged into one? The character needs to become a foil to someone else. And this new Frankenstein-ish Aemond/Daeron mishmash became the foil to Aegon. Of course, Aemond will always be, no matter what changes about the show, the narrative foil to Daemon: they are second sons, they die to each other in an epic dragon battle, they are both the villains of their respective sides, their names are anagrams of each other, etc. However, in Season 1, it is not quite Daemon Aemond is being juxtaposed to. Not yet anyways, no. In Season 1, Aemond is being juxtaposed to Aegon.

That is why we got the cringe scene of “‘Tis I who studies the sword, ‘tis I who studies history, ‘tis I who studies philosophy,” or whatever the fuck he said. That is why we had Aemond join Criston in searching for Aegon when in F&B that didn’t happen (and stole Kingmaker Cole’s role in convincing Aegon of the crown but that’s a topic for another day). That’s why we got Aegon begging Aemond to just let him go and sail away, insinuating that Aemond was the better option to take the crown (when in F&B that was 1. literally not what happened during that scene at all and 2. one of Aegon’s biggest and most important character defining moments. And they ruined it all in favor of Aemond AAGGRGRHHHHHGG). Remember how I said Daeron was The King Who Should Have Been over both Rhaenyra and Aegon? They gave this trait to Aemond in order to contrast him to Aegon who never wanted to be king at all.

This Daeron-ification of Aemond now makes him “the better man” between him and his brother in the show, and that was done all to the detriment of Aegon's character. It’s also what led to the application of the Aegon IV/Naerys/Aemon-love triangle to the Aegon II/Helaena/Aemond-show dynamic. In the book, this never would've passed because Aemond is the worst of all four siblings, and Daeron was simply too young.

There is not a single character on House of the Dragon who has gone through the same amount of character assassination as Aegon has.

Now, all this doesn't mean that Aemond = Daeron in the show, it means that most of Daeron's characterization has been merged together with the character of Aemond. Because it was abundantly clear that Sapochnik was not going to include Daeron in the show. This is what might lead you to believe that Aemond has been whitewashed, when in fact the character is just a Frankenstein fusion of Daeron the Daring and Aemond One-Eye. Just like the Young Griff-Jon Snow/Daenerys/Cersei fiasco of GOT.

[ekbirchelps]

The Magenaza Epic: Solstice Rising

Serafa vs Coburn

The saloon’s cardsharp and his buddy pay me a visit under the cover of darkness. Even the moonlight is blocked out by dense clouds, providing no light with which to reveal the deeds of the wicked.

Nim is quiet as I stalk through the back streets of town, anger simmering in my belly. What gives Jael the right to order me around? She isn’t perfect. She can be hurt, or maimed, or … No, I can’t allow myself to think that way. From now on, I will never let her work tables alone.

Mama would hate what I’ve become. Her words settle in my gut like a sandstone block. Mama isn’t here! Why does Jael care so much about what Mama thinks? Why does she have to be so damn noble?

I should’ve known better than to wander the streets of an unfamiliar town angry. Wrath is like a fiery wall, burning away anything and everything else—whether it be unkind words or common sense. It prevents me from seeing what would normally be obvious—the crunch of boots, the abnormal shadows drifting along the building fronts, the uncharacteristic silence of a world holding its breath. Expecting.

A gleam of golden light flashes across my vision. Oh, no. Energy spikes in me like lightning. I pull the knife from my belt with a strangled cry, but the golden light is too fast. Faster than I can blink, the yellow light is a hand, an arm, a body, seizing my hand and wrenching it back. Stabbing pain shoots through my arm, and my blade drops to the ground with a muffled thud. Through a haze of panic, I register glowing, serpentine eyes and pointed teeth that gleam in the firelight.

Shamyrin help me.

“Help!” I try to scream. Out comes a feral, piercing thing that in no way resembles human speech, but it’s loud. I scramble away, but arms like iron wrap around my torso and haul me back. I thrash, loose stones raking against my skin, sight a blur of black and brown, breaths coming in ragged gasps. I’m going nowhere, nowhere but back, back, back—away from the safety of firelight and watchful eyes. Abject terror eclipses any reason I still cling to. I jerk against the hands with all my might, horrible, pathetic gasps tumbling from my lips in jagged chunks.

Hand over my mouth. Can’t breathe. Lungs hurt. Arms hurt. I barely notice. Dirt scraping skin. Black spots dancing in my vision. Shadows closing in.

Then I’m hurtling through the air. I plow into something hard and rough—a wall. Then I fall what could be a hundred cubits through open air until I hit something else—the floor. Years of experience have me scrambling to my feet before I can see straight, feet planted, hands balled into fists, sucking in deep, steadying breaths. Several beaconstones hang from the ceiling in grimy lanterns, illuminating the room with oily yellow light. A rug lies under a wooden table sitting in the corner. Other than that, the room is empty.

“… is her, eh?” a male voice says.

“I’m sure I heard ‘em say her name at the stables. ”

“The She-devils of Areva,” the first voice says. He melts away from the dark like a galdu, a demon of the netherworld, eyes glowing in the shadow of his hat. But they are not galdu eyes. They are fairy eyes, right down to their large, upturned shape, narrow pupil, and unnaturally vivid color. His pointed ears twitch as he smiles and jabs a cane at me. “This is the one they call Spitfire. So it’s true: You are a mongrel.”

“After all the rumors, I was expecting someone a bit more impressive,” the other one spoke up. I have to tilt my head up to see his face, which bear the strong, regal features of a humbawi—an Arevai giant. He stares down at me, burly arms the size of my legs crossed over his chest.

I bare my teeth at them, heart pounding so hard it feels as though it might burst from my chest. “Leave me alone.”

“Of course, but first we need to resolve a little problem.”

I’ve witnessed the ungodly speed of fairies many times, but I am never prepared for it. This instance is no exception. The next thing I know, I’m flat on my back, air driven from my lungs in a single whoosh. As I struggle to drag in a breath, the fairy looms over me, green eyes swimming in my vision like polished gems. The end of his cane presses into my chest, right on the bone in the center. “My name is Alastair Coburn, card table worker at Utuma’s Saloon. My colleagues and I are a bit miffed; you see, your silver-tongued she-devil of a sister took something from us. Here in Nim, we don’t tolerate thievery. I ask respectfully that your sister give it back.”

“Why you telling me?” I rasp, throat raw and tight from screaming. “Too scared to ask her yourself?”

I barely have time to witness the burn of hatred and embarrassment in the fairy’s eyes before he stomps on my nose.  

Ow.

“… me, birdbrain whelp,”  Coburn hisses. His face is much closer now; I can make out the swirling brown marks on his face, typical of a full-grown fay. “We over at Utuma’s Saloon run a very tight ship. I don’t appreciate upstart mongrels coming in and upsetting our business.”

Blood drips down the back of my throat, metallic and warm. “You mean you don’t want Jael showing you up.”

“I don’t think you quite understand what’s going on here,” the Elphynian growls. The light casts shadows on his face, making him appear skeletal, otherworldly. “I wield considerable influence in this town. How do you think the people of Nim would feel about Deathdealer and Silver-tongue hiding among them?”

Probably the same as most other towns did. “I dunno,” I replied, words running together in my mouth. My mind buzzes so loudly I can’t string together a comprehensible thought. “But it don’t matter. Jael ain’t ever gonna give you that money back. Not even if the galdu themselves came to fetch it.”  

“We’ll see about that,” Coburn snarled.

“What you gonna do, bitty bobby? Kill me?”

“Of course not,” the fairy replied. “But I can do this. Knock her down.”

Expression like stone, the humbawi seizes me from behind and throws me on the ground.

Well, Jael, you’re always saying I don’t have enough experience to work with you. Maybe this is how I get it. At the hands of a piss-poor loser and his behemoth friend.

Hysterical laughter bubbles up in my throat as I twist back so I can look my assailant in the eye. “I hate you,” I say through a mouthful of grit.

Coburn’s green eyes shine down at me, radiating a sinister glee.   

A vile stream of curses and oaths spills from my lips as I struggle to regain my footing, but the swaying floor and my spotty vision makes it difficult. Propping myself up, I manage to catch a glimpse of Coburn’s pointed teeth as he draws back his foot. Sensing his intent, I try to dodge, but I am no match for Coburn’s speed. His boot plows into my side and nearly expels the contents of my stomach out my mouth.

Blood spatters the earthen floor, smearing against my cheek. Curling into a ball, I tell him as clearly as one can with a gut that feels like it’s been trampled by a team of horses to go and do something Jael would’ve thrashed me within an inch of my life for saying. Coburn’s laughter is acid in my ears, burning my insides, scorching away the pain and leaving venomous fury in its place.     

If only words hurt the way guns or knives or fists could. If only they could tear holes in skin or rip out hair or break noses. If only, if only, if only.

Stand up, I tell myself. You have to stand up. So I do. Arm clamped over my aching midriff, I plant my hand against the wall, shift my legs, and claw my way to standing. All the while, I stare Coburn dead in the eye, daring him to knock me down again.  

“I hate every single one of you fay bastards.” It comes out a wordless groan— rather pitiful compared to the magnificent invectives I’m capable of employing—but at this point I’m grasping at straws. “I hope the lilit find you and rip off your—”

Crack.

The last thing I remember before pain and red consume me is bitter regret. Regret that I wasn’t strong enough. Regret that I might not get to see Jael put Coburn and the giant six feet under. Regret that the last words I spoke to her might be my last.

I’m sorry Jael. I really hope I’ll live long enough to tell you that.

@firewritten, @creativityflows, @eternalwritingstudent, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables

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[sweetwriting]

Tim Drake Week 2017 - Day 6 (part 2): Crossover

Category : Gen

Genre : Angst / Murder / Mystery

Fandoms : DC Comics, Slayers! (Anime)

Continuity : Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint

Summary : Young Justice finds itself face to face with The Greatest Witch in the world and her friends.

Author’s notes : At first I wanted it to be Young JusticexAnimaniacs, but then I realized I didn't not have the experience or ability or mastery over the english language to do that yet. But one day I will (I want Impulse to meet Slappy and Whacko).

Anyway I have little memories of Slayers! as I haven't watched the anime in 7 years nor read the books in over 10 years. So my memories are fuzzy at best. Most of my memories come from the anime so most of the names I think of use the french translation for it rather than the english one I learned when I read the book. I hope the spelling isn't too far from the english version. I wrote this on the subway so I didn't have internet to verify my sources and, honestly I barely managed to keep it around 1000 words which was actually one of the goals I gave myself for this Tim Drake Week (1000 words or less) which was already failed for 3 stories and I know that if I tried to research (and rewatch/reread the series because I'm like that), I'd go way overboard with that....As for the Animaniacs, one day I will do it (actually there’s way more chances than for the Animaniacs)

Word Count : 2918

To read it on AO3

Day 6 (Part 1) : AU

Tim couldn't believe it. He was supposed to go on a date with Steph in the morning and here he and his team were, faced with a red-headed girl wearing a strange red and yellow outfit with a black cape (not that he had much room to talk), some sort of fire dancing in her hands, a really tall man with long blond hair wearing some sort of blue overall and a breast plate, a sword seemingly made of light drawn toward them, a man with green, rock-like skin with his own sword drawn and a young girl who seemed to belong in any other place rather than this one due to being as normal looking as they come (not that Tim would make the mistake of underestimate her if she wasn't fazed by them appearing out of seemingly nowhere…not that it meant anything). They were in a pretty standard forest. He could go on and on about the different trees but he would probably get bored just thinking about it. He still noticed a path parallel to the one they were on, if smaller and that the trees seemed tall, wide and strong enough to stand and run on as well as to use his grappling hook.

"Hello hum sorry to bother you but…where are we?" Anita's presence was a life saver, as always.

The red headed young woman looked at them suspiciously before sighing and making the fire disappear from her hands.

"Alright guys stand down", she started saying before the other girl pushed ahead and took Superboy's hand into her own, effectively interrupting the red head who seemed to look increasingly more annoyed by the second.

"I see that you are wearing quite colorful uniforms! Are you part of a drama troupe? Are you playing Hero minions?"

She then surprised everyone present, with the exception of her three companions, by jumping onto the branch of one of the trees and started screaming:

"I am Amelia Will Tesla Seilune! Princess of the Kingdom of Seilune! I am the bringer of Justice of the land! I am…"

Tim stopped listening as Superboy and Impulse leaned toward him and started whispering:

"Guys do you think that she's like a mix between Batman, Nightwing and Robin's girlfriend?"

"Shut up Kon" Tim answered while Kon and Bart stifled a laugh and only stopped when the girl, Amelia, started falling but was luckily caught in the air by Wonder Girl.

Their four hosts looked at the flying blond with surprised, Tim realized then that they could very well be in a dangerous place for metas. He should have thought to tell his friends not to use their powers in unknown places until they were sure it was safe or unless absolutely needed. Here Cassie could have waited until the girl was almost on the ground.

"Are you a dragon? No but you didn't transform. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MISS LINA ? This girl flew without using a spell!"

Or not, apparently it's not flying itself that was a problem for them. The red head still looked suspiciously at them even if saving the girl seemed to have slightly helped their cause. She looked at their group before asking:

"Where do you come from? Are you even humans? Or Demons?"

Tim tried to take the time to think his answer through but before he could Bart beat him to it:

"We're from a parallel universe or something like that and most of us are humans, some of us are just have special abilities!"

Tim couldn't help the fingers that started massaging the bridge of his nose. Neither could Superboy, Wonder Girl and Empress. The red head smirked before she started staring at us. She then shared a look with the rock skinned man who nodded then turned back to us and said:

"You can't be from Dark Star's world. Are you from Chaotic Blue's or Death Fog's?"

"Who? What?" was all Tim would think to answer the man.

"They're the Demon Lords of two of the four known worlds that stems from the Sea of Chaos. Each world has a Demon Lord and a God", the red head explained with a detached air, "I suppose none of you are from there then?"

"Yeah usually the different universes we can go from and to are linked through hypertime nothing called the sea of chaos…It could be just a different name due to different cultures but the principle of the Demon Lord vs God doesn't really exist in those…Unless" he turned to his friends "Do you guys think Darkseid and the Highfather could be that?"

And that was it. They started talking amongst them, then talking with the group of four. Trying to find a way. After a while the only ones left in the conversation were the red head and rock-skinned man, whom they learned were called Lina Inverse and Zelgadis Greyword, Kon, Bart and himself.

As they reached a point of understanding (there's little chance of their own world coming from the same "Sea of Chaos", however it was possible that they came from their own sea of Chaos which would suggest that Hypertime was actually a being? It was confusing), a light surrounded Tim's group and they were back at the mansion.

Tim turned toward his friends who were making sure they were whole by patting their body. They all turned to each other and kind of shrugged at each other deciding unanimously that Robin was the one who would write the report as the others all went up to their rooms.

Dejected Tim went to the main computer and started writing the report about the alternate world they went to for about 10 minutes and just seemed like a weird dream. When he reached "his" room (there was nothing of his in there) he couldn't help the smile at the small Superboy memorabilia Wonder Girl had left for him on his pillow after they had come back from watching Cissie at the Olympics (and their baseball game far far away) as a thank you for calling Kon out on his machismo. His night was filled with strange dreams of a weird man with a huge mustache wearing clothes strangely similar to that of an eccentric young girl, spouting a similar speech to what Amelia had yelled earlier.

Author’s Note 2 : Here it is. I'm honestly underwhelmed by it. It ends too quickly with little description of what's happening and I barely used the characters (then again there are way too many characters. at first I thought of placing it before the girls arrive in YJ but I wanted to place Anita).YET I still like it and honestly wanted to post it if only because of Amelia. But mostly because I love that universe and even if it's barely there, just writing about it felt pretty great and made me want to rewatch and re-read it.So I I hope you were at least entertained by it because I know I was :)