#who therefore puppets everyone around him to appear to have power when he’s the one who has it

[avelera]

I’m re-listening to The Vampire Lestat audiobook right now, and it has in it a stunning and timely reminder that Armand is one of the most powerful telepaths of all time amongst vampires.

… which is to say that at no time while Daniel was clumsily pretending to be taking notes instead of messaging the Talamasca (something even a non telepath could have spotted DANIEL YOU ARE BAD AT THIS) or when Daniel was getting ready for his big Columbo-style “Just one more thing” reveal of the stunning extent of Armand’s betrayal, at NO POINT would Armand not have seen that coming.

Daniel has no telepathic defenses. Louis casually invades his mind at will but Armand is literally so powerful that at his level you are just constantly receiving ambient thoughts unless you block them out. When Armand goes into people’s memories he can see stuff from YEARS before with absolute ease. If Louis is a microphone, Armand is a goddamn satellite dish, the kind they use to listen for sounds coming from space.

My point being that we’ve all followed Daniel’s reasoning throughout that Armand’s far too powerful to not be lying when he said he couldn’t prevent it. Indeed, he was the director of the tragedy, all while wearing a stunned, slightly saddened expression when the tragedy finally occurred as (he) planned.

An expression much like the stunned, slightly saddened one he wears when he is “caught” in his lies by Daniel, who poses about as much threat to a vampire who can read every thought in your head back to the day you were born and can actively puppeteer humans to say whatever he wants or even stop time for them, as Sam the Vampire was a threat to Armand with his theater prop scythe.

Armand is not caught off guard by Daniel’s reveal. He knew what Daniel was going to say before Daniel said it. Quite possibly weeks or years before he said it, because IMO Armand is once again the director of his own violent breakup with his companion(s) of decades, because that’s how this motherfucker rolls.

[sonadowkismesis]

prev u fucking get it !!!!!

the more i think about it the more i realize how much theatre symbolism you can read into shadow. it goes deeper than just his design or voice or how extra his mannerisms are at times, because theres something abt theater that rlly hits thematically with shadow as a character

i think you rlly hit the nail on the head w the idea shadow was made to perform. time and time again he has to play the role he was given, carry out someone else's wish, whether it's gerald's, eggman's, black doom's, even maria's. and when he does he always gives his all to deliver a flawless performance, bc he's a perfectionist at heart.

the way shadow wears "the ultimate lifeform" title is also interesting in this aspect. more than being theatrical in how dramatic it is, it's a role he was placed into. theres a kind of artificiality in that, where his capabilties arent from nature but from human intervention to mimic real life.

and ultimately, thats what theater performance is about: it's mimicry, it's an exaggerated recreation of reality. it's impersonation.

when sonic calls out shadow for impersonating him, it's a direct attack to his abilities. it's not just calling out their artificial roots, it's also an accusation that theyre all show. power and authenticity are intransically linked here.

because if a good theater performance is measured by the intensity and soul actors give into their roles, shadow measures his own performance in strength. his confidence in his identity revolves around his ability to perform well, to prove he is stronger than his double is also proving hes not the impersonator here and is authentic. unfortunately, shadow dies anyway, he even goes as far as giving up his title, basically his identity to sonic, thus placing himself in the role of the impersonator. power is authenticity, and shadow didnt have the strength to live this time. why?

to go back to what you said, i think shadow's true setback in his early appearances was his (conscious or not) inclination to perform other's desires. puppet theater comes to mind, as the incentive for his very conception was to follow the script his creators had for him ; who couldnt see him as a living being, but a shell to instill and act out their goals.

except he's not playing in someone else's show anymore!! post shth shadow found his purpose and character motivation, he became the leading actor of his own life... shadow has always had the strength to carry out his own wishes, all he needed was the willingness to do so in spite of everything and everyone else :33 love him so much

((ALSO forgot 2 mention this in og post but david humpfrey also did a lot of theater (specifically musical theatre) aside from his role as shadow. aint that fun

srsly though, other than its theatrical use, i often think about how the transatlantic accent came to be and how it relates to shadow.

the thing about this accent is that it didnt start out as a product of cinema/theater: originally, it was taught in upper class, fancy schools in america from the 20s to 40s. that's right, taught. its not an accent you could learn naturally, theres no "transatlantic" region where one could speak it from birth, you had to take classes and everything. the overall gist is its a deliberate pick and choose of american and british sounds, taught to the upper class to sound more sophisticated.

then during a time (around the 30s or so) where sound in cinema was just beginning to appear thanks to technological improvements, renowned stars in the industry found themselves unequipped to give good vocal performances on set. therefore they were urged to take classes to work on their eloquence and such, and ended up learning the ta accent, which is why it became so widespread in cinema at that time.

and i think theres a lot of thematical weight in giving shadow this accent. a deliberate selection of characteristics optimized to sound the most superior, reserved for the elite, artificial in how you cant find it anywhere in nature..... it fits so well for shadow, this premeditated perfection))

srry for rambling but im insane so. thumbs up

ok but i find it interesting how shadow's appearance was partially inspired by kabuki theatre

like ooo that makes sense. that makes a lot of sense actually

funny thing is it kinda fits perfectly with shadow's first va using a slight mid-atlantic accent. i thought the accent was a nod to him being from the 50s when it was still in use, but the fact it was almost exclusively utilized in theatrical and cinematic settings kinda makes me wonder if it was an intentional reference to the theatrical aspect of shadow's design as well? his dramatic demeanor sickens me

[dboliklover]

Breathless Whispers - Shu

My new series. Will take a while to complete (don’t mind the fact I am STILL working on the Easter Smut series). It’s based off an ask I got and is very sinful and I implore everyone who is triggered by the following to NOT INTERACT WITH THIS SERIES. The tags will vary from each entry but “Breathless Whispers” is a SAKAMAKI BROTHERS X STEPMOTHER! READER Smut series. As such Cheating/Adultery and pseudo-incest/stepcest are always going to be included in the chapters. 

Tags for this chapter: Stepcest/pseudo-incest, cheating, NTR (Netorare) ((Karlheinz gets cucked)), dub-con (the reader believes she has feelings for Shu), dubiously-consensual implied impregnation, mentions of pregnancy, blood, and my out-of-practice smut writing skills that border on cringe, Happy sex (?) 

This is as vanilla as it’s gonna get for this series, methinks. Next chapter it’s Reiji’s turn. ;) Happy sinning ❤

WORD COUNT: 5.8K (11 pages)

___

In his life, Shu learnt to try to ignore meaningless things around him and to feel as precious little as possible - he didn’t need to feel, it added no enhancement to his life. To love was to have weakness and those he loved and cared for often ended tragically.

It was only natural that he chose to stick to himself and become a solitary creature after all that he’s been through, was it not? Solitude meant safety. Slowly but surely Shu cut as many emotions away with a metaphorical knife as he could, opting instead to be careless regarding all matters. He didn’t need anyone else, just himself. Only himself.

But there was one emotion that refused to leave, one emotion he would never allow the chance to withdraw from his heart - hatred. Pure, unadulterated loathing towards the man who caused his, his brothers’ and their mothers’ tragedies - Karlheinz. The hatred he felt was coated by a layer of would-be indifference - he knew better than to challenge the man, at least for the meanwhile - memories from the North Pole haunted him still. His father was a cruel, demanding man and Shu felt abhorrence, perhaps it did not reach the hatred felt by some other brothers but it was there and undying.

Karlheinz’s largest sin of all was the pain he caused his mother - the burdens he put onto him were a close second, however. But Beatrix’s suffering still wounded Shu to think about even after so many years had passed. The guilt instilled in him from that time flowed through his veins, unrelenting. His mother had her streaks of emotionally tormenting him but after all she merely wanted to prepare him for a difficult life ahead and Shu missed her presence as demanding as it was. And that was why when his father chose to re-marry yet again, Shu felt nothing but slight pity for the bride but regardless, he felt towards her as he did with most things; wholly indifferent. That was, of course, until he got to know the woman - he recalled the wedding day, it was a boring event and the fact his appearance had to be publicly seen bothered him for he’d much rather be doing anything but - still, he did as told and attended, albeit with minimal effort.

You made for a blushing bride, he couldn’t deny that. Glamorous appearance was hardly something he heeded though, and his father was known for choosing beautiful women as his wives - you knew nothing of the terrible fate that was bound to befall you in the coming months or years. At least all the other wives were long dead, namely Cordelia (whose torments only fed into the neglect his father served his mother, furthering her agonies) so you’d have no other competitors for Karlheinz’s horrid affections. He felt nothing for you, then. But unbeknownst to him, that detachment would not last forever and soon thereafter Karlheinz sent his bride away to live with his sons: what drove his father to such a foolish decision baffled Shu and he felt it somewhat of a ploy, another experiment to conduct. Maybe it was, but then again it only wasted time and energy to speculate on what went through Karlheinz’s mind. But you were their new stepmother, not one of their sacrificial brides; that was made clear, if unspoken. You were not their shared property but the property of the vampire king and it was to be respected, even if you had a puppet authority or no true power over them.

He avoided you at first, in his mind getting to know anyone was worthless;  and yet you persisted under the guise of ‘getting to know’ him and the others, wanting a relationship with your new stepsons. None of them really wanted a relationship with you, except for perhaps Reiji who hoped that you’d speak well of him to his father, ever-the-suckup.

You were a vampire of course, although it was surprising to learn that you were not a pureblood as they were. Karlheinz always made his decisions for a reason and he knew the reason for marrying you wasn’t love: therefore must’ve been something else entirely.

Karlheinz was incapable of love.

Gradually he found himself enjoying your attempted affections and voice - you figured out his disposition and chose to talk to him without expecting anything more than grunts and hums in return, knowing he preferred to listen to his music. Even he wasn’t sure at what point in your relationship he started to favour the sound of your melodious voice to his earphones, but it happened and he soon found himself turning down the volume as you spoke about your day if only to listen to your sweet voice far more vividly. He started to seek you out, something...unusual growing in his soul at the sight of you - he began appearing in places you were around the mansion, silently guarding you against the likes of the others (such as Laito). He liked being around you - a feeling he’d lost long ago ever since the “death” of Edgar - true companionship. But it couldn’t last perpetually, as nothing ever could, and those amicable feelings grew until they bloomed into something far darker than protectiveness towards his new stepmother and prospective friend - his heart yearned for you in the most unusual ways. It was troublesome for an overwhelming variety of reasons, primarily because he couldn’t have you. His romantic intentions soon turned to a subtle obsession. He needed to be close to you, always there - watching.

You’d always smile and greet him pleasantly, innocently - how on earth you could be so innocent after centuries’ worth of living on this earth, much less so after marrying Karlheinz, he had no clue. Your naivety and sweet nature brought him to you, made him fall into insanity because of you. It wasn’t instantaneous, things rarely were. Months went by but eventually he could no longer cope, his dreams were haunted by your form and always the exact same: you laid nude, breasts perfect and demure for him to corrupt, moaning out his name like the most delightful song from an ephemeral musical meant only for him. But when he awoke he was alone.

You tempted him without even knowing it but it was only a matter of time before it would come back to haunt you, he couldn’t be expected to have control over his instincts and needs forever and the time came when he finally snapped.

Stepmother or not, he was going to have you. In a way, it served as the most exquisite form of perceived vengeance towards that man - to steal his wife. He was hesitant about how to approach his desire to seduce you, such things were really more of Laito’s expertise, but he’d be damned if he failed to achieve his goals. You were too good for Karlheinz - a kindly thing to the point of intoxication and frustration, too pure for a vampire. He wanted to be the one to fully spoil your spirit, he wouldn’t permit his father to shatter your psyche as he did with all his previous wives. Shu was going to protect you, but in order to do that he first had to take you; claim you for himself. And that’s when he came across the most intriguing sight: your hushed moans of pleasure as your [slender/chubby/elegant] fingers stroked your glistening cunt in your private chambers - the same chambers which were supposed to be blessed in sacred matrimony if only his father hadn’t left you here all alone at the mercy of his ravenous sons. He must’ve assumed such a thing would happen sooner or later, hadn’t he? If not, then...well, Shu couldn’t help but think it his father’s loss from his own folly. “Shu.” Your angelic voice uttered his name - not his father’s, not your husband’s - but his. In your moment of unholy ecstasy, it was him on your mind; thoughts of him that edged you to your bliss. His obsessive passions were returned to him in kind, it seemed, and he couldn’t be more glad.

“Shu?” You questioned the following evening at dusk, that blossom-pink blush dusting your cheeks like an undead Aphrodite, tempting him further into his hidden lustful hunger, “Is...is everything okay? You’ve been staring at me all evening and I just wanted to ask if there’s something wrong-” He sighed, eyes half-lidded as if tired but it was his internal frustration revealed. “There is.” “Oh?” You pouted and fuck, he wanted to bruise your plump lips right there and then until they held his mark. “You really are more trouble than you’re worth,” It was a lie, of course, but he was a guarded man and his words reflected that. “Shu…? What do you mean?” The sadistic aspect of him was fuelled by the subtle distress in your eyes, however, you tried to remain calm, he’d said harsher things and you knew he scarcely ever meant them but something...something seemed so offbeat tonight. No, not just tonight - as of recently, but you couldn’t place a finger on the exact date when things began to change between you.

Your hands were down, pressed together as your thumbs nervously rubbed the other. You just wanted answers. “Heh,” He smirked, “You have no idea how alluring you are, do you?” His tired eyes stared earnestly into your soul and you felt stripped of your integrity. An innocent blush flooded your visage with lecherous embarrassment at such a sensual suggestion, sputtering out various syllables as you rushed to find your footing and speak out in protest of such an inappropriate topic between mother and son - that was what you were, related or not...you were his mother, even if merely by marriage. Guilt clogged your throat up as you thought of your own lust for your stepson, he was only slightly younger than you were and handsome beyond compare (as much as you loathed to admit it, your carnal self preferred Shu’s indescribable silent grace and steely blue eyes to the snowy tresses of his father) and disgust for yourself stung you deeper than a knife dipped in holy water - had he...witnessed your acts of depravity in your chambers? Did he know? “S-Shu, I...I don’t know what you mean,” You were drowning, unable to form proper words, “Don’t.” He cut you off before you could deny what you both knew at that moment. You weren’t as innocent and proper as you made yourself out to be. As you wished to be. No, you were a creature of tainted prurience and Shu was more than happy to play into your fantasies. You paled and nodded, if you were human your heart would’ve surely been palpitating by now. Fear wholly consumed you - would he be disgusted by you - no, he would’ve made that clear by now. Shu hid his thoughts and feelings from others but if he’d felt abhorrent disgust he wouldn’t have chosen to speak to you or indeed even be around you, you trusted that truth if nothing else. But then there was only one explanation for his demeanour, one that made you clench your thighs tight as you stood before him, a woman. He stood from his seat, no longer laying on the windowsill. “You’ve been a terrible wife,” Tears of crimson welled in your eyes while your knees felt weak but you nodded, ashamed. “Yes.” “And a filthy mother,” His harsh breath on your ear and neck made you whimper, “Y...yes,” You stuttered out with another whimpering moan, “Shu please don’t toy with me, I’m sorry I-” Without another sound escaping your painted lips you felt the amorous pressure of your stepson’s kiss, disclosing the intense emotions he returned for you. Your mind screamed at you for your sins and yet you were both inhuman creatures; Perpetuity of faithfulness was boresome and your husband had done little but ignore you and your hopes for a good life. Shu, however, had been there since the beginning of your marriage - even if you’d started out as nothing more than his father’s wife - now you were so much more, immensely more. Your knees buckled as you gave into the kiss, unable to avoid your feelings for him a second longer - you needed him just like this and he needed you too.

Human or not, the inherent wrongness burned your flesh and chest. You’d tried to be a good wife but your husband had practically abandoned you here with his sons bred for him by other women, he’d left you here and did little to even write to you. Loneliness was an obvious side-effect and it was only a matter of time before you would’ve fallen into another’s arms. But your debauchery brought you right into his son’s embrace. A terrible wife indeed.

Shu devoured your moans, swallowing your lust and increasing his own as his ample size grew in the confinements of his pants. “Fuck,” He huffed out as you pulled away from him, blinking. Your thighs burned with a need only he could satisfy. A shy hand wandered down his body towards his growing erection, stroking it from the fabric of his pants. Your efforts were rewarded by the sound of his deep groans. How long had it been since anyone touched you like this? Since you’d been able to make someone feel unutterable pleasure - since anyone made you feel wanted? You had slept with Karlheinz only a couple of times and he failed to sate your inner hunger as Shu was doing with only kisses and loving groans. “You’re playing with fire,” He breathed out, staring at you and sealing you in place. “I...know,” You swallowed thickly, “P-please, I...I need-” “What do you need, whore?” His teasing words of degradation made you feel alive, you were the object of his uttermost attention. His lips traced your neck, licking and gnawing but never piercing, fangs flying over the tender flesh. “You.” The certainty in your otherwise meek voice nearly made him burst right there. He was done restraining himself, pearly fangs sharper than needles pierced your neck as Shu drank the sweet nectar beneath. Your pleasured moans filled the hallways of the Sakamaki manor and he prayed his brothers could hear you wherever they were knowing that he won you. And he was going to keep you. You were going to no longer be just his stepmother - you would be his woman.

The blood, thick and plentiful, dripped down your neck. The droplets were not wasted as his tongue gathered them before they could drip onto the marble flooring. Shu was going to get addicted to this taste - your taste - he was sure of it. This was what you were made for; to belong to him. As he did this you toyed with his pants, unzipping them and releasing his erect cock from its prison, letting it spring free, wet with precum. “Oh fuck,” You whimpered at the sensation, pumping up and down his length. You wanted this, you wanted him so badly. You could feel yourself slowly dripping with clenched thighs. This was wrong - it was revolting - but you couldn’t stop the heat inside you, your inner desires. On your quest to befriend your sons you inadvertently ended up falling in love with one of them and never before had you longed to be held by someone as you did when you were with him.  

You wanted to be his, no one else’s. But you couldn’t be, for you already were a taken woman; despite the truth, you wanted to succumb to your immorality; to pretend that, for tonight alone, you were his.

Once he pulled away from your neck Shu chuckled lowly, “You’re such a lewd slut, mother.” You cringed at the name, reminding yourself of the positions between you two and, for a short-lived second, you attempted to pull away except the moment you did he caged in on you, back shoved against the wall with burning eyes glaring at you. “But you’re going to be my slut from now on.” his breath hitched as your hand movements sped up, blushing crimson from your wicked sensuality. You were loving this, in all its sinfulness. “Y-Yes,” You choked out submissively as you brought him to his edge, creamy cum coating your hand and sinking into the fabric of your dress, physically tainting you. It drove you wild.

The sight of you in front of him, dress dripping with his cum made him hard almost instantly as he ordered you to strip for him after he grabbed your arm and pulled you into the empty music room - he didn’t want to be interrupted by any of his bothersome brothers.

“Strip for me.”

You nodded and bit down harshly on your lip, droplets of blood still flowing from your neck at the open puncture wound, staining the white semen-soaked fabric as you unzipped the back and slowly released your hold on it as it fell down your form until you were exposed in only your undergarments, intimate and raw. This was incredibly embarrassing and yet, for him...you didn’t mind humiliating yourself. You were convinced of it, now: you were in love with him. Soft hands twirled around to unclip your bra, feeling as though it wasn’t merely your body which you were exposing to him but your very being as your breasts bounced free from the cups’ confinements, bra forgotten as you threw it down onto the floor, not caring about anything else but him. ‘Don’t do this’, your sanity pleaded but whatever morality may have existed in the cage of your heart was extinguished with a single gaze into his yearning eyes. If you didn’t do this the lack of his touch on your skin would surely drive you insane. You just wanted to be loved, cherished and used.

You were married - and although that sentiment alone should have been enough to snap you out of this sexual haze you were trapped in, it did little to sway your lust-filled judgement. Swallowing nervously your fingers dipped below the strips of your panties, sliding down your silky thighs, pride consumed you as you watched his subtle but intense reactions, the way his thick member twitched in anticipation made you feel powerful for the first time in your life. You couldn’t wait to feel him inside you. “Come here,” He growled, making you squeal as you nodded like a good little whore and fell onto your knees, crawling over to him - you felt like putting on a show for him, filled with risque concupiscence. If your husband was to ever find out you feared the consequences and despite the dangers, it drove you further into the arms of his eldest son to consider how taboo, how wrong such a union was. There was something unspokenly intimate about this. An intimacy from which you never wished to awaken. As soon as you were at his feet you admired his cock, glistening from residue cum in the moonlight. “Oh God,” You were about to cross a border from which you could never return and it turned you on profoundly to think about how your relationship would develop from here. Opening your mouth, you took his length inside your warmth, (e/c) eyes staring up at him like a sweet gazelle, pumping your head up and down and twisting your tongue around him as you sucked his member with a fierce determination to please. He believed this was the closest to heaven he would ever be; you, his personal fallen angel at his feet, his cock in your mouth.

Shu thought you were perfect just like this; doing all the work as you fucked your mouth on his cock, giving him your all as he sat back, eyes fluttering shut to focus on the pleasure you were providing. You were so good for him, such a pretty girl. Such an ideal woman, his woman. Further lewd commentary fell from his lips as he prompted you on. He wanted you on your knees for him each night, and you would be. He would make sure that things would stay this way forever now he was so close to having you all to himself. Even if it meant having to fight against his father, even if it meant the most intensive of efforts and having to use all the energy he had stored in his muscles - though he’d never utter it aloud, for you he would do anything.

Even if the only way to keep you would be to commit patricide. You were worth it. Just before his release, he pulled your head back by gripping your hair forcefully causing a pained yell to escape from you, your voice full of physical anguish that set off a primal need within his chest. “That’s enough.” He then lifted your chin to look him in the eyes, “Ride me.” You gulped back the juices in your mouth and shakily stood as your thighs were flooded with slick. “Y-Yes I…” You blushed vehemently as you aligned yourself with his cock, sucking in a sharp hiss as you felt the heat of it against your burning cunt. “I want you to make me yours.” Instantly you sat down, thighs clenched as your walls adjusted to the intrusion, making you cry out in ecstasy. Did you seriously almost orgasm simply from having his length inside of you? You couldn’t be blamed - not when your husband had neglected you. But it was going to be all better now that Shu was here to help you. Just as a good stepson should. “Fuck,” He gasped out quietly, breath falling from his chest. You were so fucking tight he could’ve potentially fooled himself into believing you were still virginal. That was, of course, until he reminded himself that his father stole that honour for himself and elicited underlying rage in Shu. With the buck of his hips he drove himself inside you as you cried out his name, holding tightly onto him, arms tied around his neck as you rode him, clumsily moving your hips and revealing your sexual inexperience to him; the knowledge that his father didn’t seem to take any time cherishing your body like this, lewd and sinful, eased him somewhat because it meant he could be the one to make you completely lose your mind and become his perfect little whore.

Maybe he’d even make you his wife, along the way.

His arms held your waist and he lazily guided the movement of your hips. You were insatiable, rapid. He could tell you wanted to go faster but his strong hands consistently ceased your attempts - he was going to force you to take your time, to truly feel the way his cock filled your insides, to ensure your walls would take the shape of his dick.

He wanted you to know that he was superior to his father, that no one could ever please you better. He never felt so attached to anyone prior to you, you did something to him. Something dark. Enchanting. And he was never going to let you go after this. By giving your body to him, you have given yourself in your totality.

Even if you didn’t know it quite yet, or didn’t fully apprehend the consequences sex with him would bring.

Your whines became far more desperate with each blunt thrust. Slow, steady but forceful; Shu’s cock reached into the deepest parts of you, lovingly rubbing your cunt. It was indisputable that he was focused on your enjoyment as much as he was on his - it wasn’t anything like what sex with Karlheinz was like, he was self-gratifying and solely cared about his own high, Shu (much to your surprise) paid attention to your smallest reactions to ensure this was as great for you as it was for him. His fingers delved below and started to mercilessly torment your clit, electricity flying through your spine and cunt clenching as more love juices were produced, soaking his cock and helping to lubricate the thrusts.

He wanted to show you how mindblowing sex with him could be, to show you he could love you in ways no one else ever could. In the eyes of his brothers, especially in Reiji and Ayato’s point-of-view, he was the one who got everything; the golden, careless heir. But they did not and would never understand that he had everything he didn’t want. His entire life the things he truly yearned for were stolen from him, his happiness, his innocence, his friends and beloved companions of human and animal kind; destroyed, ruined, killed. It reared his indifference to the material goods he possessed for they held absolutely no value of their own. And now there was you. You, you, you. Sakamaki Shu knew that, without a single shred of disbelief, he would happily give up all of this if it meant he got to keep you. All the wealth and grandeur and power that his position brought was worthless in comparison to his beloved whore whimpering above him as she impaled herself on his cock.

“S-Shu,” You moaned out into his ear, “Fa...faster, please,” You choked back spit as you made feeble attempts to catch your breath, the intense friction between your joined bodies making it difficult to think. It wasn’t as rough or primal as you initially thought it would be like, it was...better than that, intimate. Was this what they mean when they say sex can be ‘making love’? This closeness between bodies as they become one, the heat and passion in the air and bouncing breasts and thighs clasped around one’s lover? It wasn’t fucking - it was so much more. A proclamation of love, even, though you could never dare and utter that belief out loud. His self-satisfied comments, “Hm,” He playfully paused completely, making your eyes widen as you stared at him with desperation for him to continue, to let you reach your climax. Your nails scratched his back like a needy brat as you cried out pleas, “Please - please Shu, I need you to keep going I-” You swallowed thickly, blinking wildly as your core ached without movement and he kept your hips down, unable to fuck yourself on his dick regardless of how hard you tried. “Say you love me.” “W-What?” You gasped out, sweaty and needy but with enough common sense to know that saying something like that to him - even if it was true - would seal a secret deal between lovers, it would open all the nightmares of your very own Pandora’s Box.

But you loved him - you did, somewhere along the way you became enamoured by your stepson and now he was inside of you, fucking you with a tenderness that made you sure that he must love you, too. “I…” You smiled weakly, genuinely. You pulled back ever-so-slightly, (e/c) eyes sinking into his. There was a vulnerability in his eyes that he was finally permitting you to see; he trusted you with his heart, you could see that now. Your hand stroked his cheek, his hard dick still throbbing inside of you (you knew he wanted to keep going but held himself back, resolved to get what he wanted out of you). He melted into the caress, your hands were soft as angel feathers. “I am in love with you, Sakamaki Shu.” Despite the arousal that filled your mind you earnestly tried to convey the true depth of your affections for him and it seemed to awaken the beast of passion as he soon started to bounce you up and down his thick, throbbing member at a speed only vampires could achieve, determined to claim your womb for his own.

It wasn’t hard to notice your maternal longings, your desire to baby the boys despite their inherent aggression towards you all but proved it. And if was a baby you wanted, well...who was he to deny you of that right? His hushed grunts only sent you further into ecstasy - You had the power of feminine sexuality over him and it gave you somewhat of a power rush. It was paradise - not worthless fucking like animals - but true divinity here in his arms, where you felt appreciated and loved and as though you finally had a raison d’etre - You wanted to be his so badly it caused you physical anguish but you were his if only for the moment, connected to him so snugly. “I love you,” You sobbed out as tears welled in your eyes from the intense satisfaction and your own emotions coming to the surface, “I love you, I love you,” Each word sent Shu into a brand new dimension of rapture. You loved him, you loved him - more than anyone else in this world. If binding your bodies together didn’t officially make you his your whimpering confessions just did. The urge to impregnate you with his seed only grew with every passing moment as you mechanically moved in perfect timing to his thrusts, nails once again clawing at his flesh. “That’s a-” He inhaled sharply, stopping mid-moan, “That’s a good girl,” He breathed heavily, you felt so perfect on his dick, his personal cockslut, the love of his life, stepmother and soon; the mother of his children. “F-Fuck you’re going to look...fucking amazing,” He sighed out as he felt your fluttering walls try their hardest to milk him, “When you’re swollen with my troublesome brats, heh…” He could only smugly smile at your immediate reaction to the statement being to clunch down on him, tightening as if your womb was begging him to cum inside, to fertilise your pussy and breed you over and over. “Pregnant?” You exhaled out, teary-eyed as you locked your eyes with him, fucked out to the high heavens with sweat causing your hair to stick to your reddened forehead and lipstick smudged with perky, puffed lips. “Yo-You want to get me pregnant…?” The timidity of your voice betrayed your excitement. Logically you wanted to escape, to push him away and scold him for even suggesting such a thing - you couldn’t become pregnant with his child! It was atrocious enough that you were currently having this affair with him, your stepson, but to be bred by him was in a category all of its own - truly disgusting.

No matter how much your husband neglected you he didn’t deserve to for his wife to not only cheat on him with his own son but to be inseminated by him - but the inner beast within you was wanton, a silent whisper in your mind that tried to persuade you to surrender fully to your hopes for motherhood, to allow this man in front of you, this beautiful vampiric prince, to fill you with his seed and claim you as his bitch, his bride; to be stolen from the man you originally wed and live your eternity as Shu’s whore. “I-...we can’t, Shu! We-” Morals renewed, you tried to get through to him, “Please-” “Shut up.” He ordered and you instantly did as told, being the good girl that you were. “Don’t lie to me. You’re loving the-” He moaned, “-idea of...of my children growing inside of you. I felt you tighten up at the notion, you’re such a fucking lewd woman. My lewd slut.” You hated yourself because you knew he was right; it was true. You wanted this so badly, to give birth to his kin, to feel your uterus painted white with his cum. Primal needs craved relief. “No, we...we can’t, I...don’t…” You choked on your words as he kissed you roughly, his thumb on your clit twirling and pulling until you were unable to form anything more coherent than mindless stutters. “S-Shu! Fuck, fuck, fuck I...I...I love you! I do! I do, please I just...I want-” “What do you want, pretty whore?” “...I want, I w….want your cum! I need it, I need you to fill me up and get me pregnant!” The last remainder of your will crumbled under the pressure of your sudden orgasm. ‘I’m so sorry, Karl…’ you thought bitterly as amazement overtook you, making you screech in the midst of the night in the moonlight, squeezing the lifeforce out of your stepson’s dick. Shu groaned and laughed in dark victory as you came undone around him, biting into his neck instinctively mid-orgasm. The sharp sensation was enough to push him completely over the edge.

Your tongue lapped over his neck, sipping the blood that flowed with delicious fervour as the heat of his semen poured into your deepest depths, coating your womb with his lust. Once you pulled away you felt almost faint from the intensity of your love-making, concupiscence fading as the realisation of what you just did hit you in full force, causing your eyes to open. “Shu..oh fuck, I...we...just--” You squealed and tried to hop off but he kept your hips forced down, still inside your leaking cunt despite slowly growing soft. “No.” Shu was serious, now, eyes grave. “You’re not running away. You,” He exhaled, bringing your lips closer to his, “Are mine.” “Shu-” The distance between your lips was closed as he fought with your tongue. Your heart yearned to return his kiss and despite the inner war ongoing within your soul you did, tongues dancing in the warmth of your mouth. When he pulled away he smiled.

And you felt yourself smile too, hand travelling to the spot below your stomach but above your cunt. “You’re mine now, troublesome woman.” You laughed, nodding and kissed him again. The conflict within you wouldn’t fade, and you were terrified of what might happen now to yourself and to Shu. But maybe it won’t be that bad. It was only one time - you can surely find some form of birth control to ingest before the next time, and he’d never have to know. It was...one time, so you shouldn’t get pregnant this time...right?

Somehow you felt proud - proud to have his cum flowing from your core, to know it’s his seed that potentially is currently fertilising you and not your husband’s. You did feel authentically guilty but the guilt made you more aroused. Karlheinz didn’t deserve...this and despite that here you were, and the worst part was you knew you wouldn’t be able to stop anytime soon, there was no point in vowing to yourself that this would be the ‘last time’ because you knew that the moment he came inside you you were already addicted to him. The child of your lover...realistically it was an awful, unspeakable idea but a sense within you wanted to go through with it, to allow yourself fertility, to fully become his.

Little did you know you would have no choice in the matter.

[boldbrash-fandertrash]

Ignore me, unless I’m right in which case I fucking called it

So I was rewatching the episode for the fourth time and one I realized that Remus is much much smarter than we give him credit for and two I can generally predict how the rest of the story is gonna go.

We’re gonna have another aside video with Patton and Janus before the big season finale, and that aside is going to be one of the most important videos to the general progression of the plot.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the pattern so far, two sides who diametrically oppose each other being forced to work together on a problem they vastly disagree about, usually turning the small issue into something much messier than it ever would be and them learning something about themselves in the process.

Each pairing exists to point out to the viewer exactly what issues exist with each side that need some form of resolving, and the big unifying theme amongst them is “you’re not listening to me”. Roman and Virgil dragging Thomas across the cafeteria in favor of or agains him talking to Nico, Logan and Remus deliberately ignoring and working to undo the others work in an attempt to break Thomas out of the depressive funk he found himself in. Nobody is working together here. The only side to even remotely cooperate with the group was Virgil body checking Thomas into Nico, and it took him and Roman bullying each other and Thomas for an entire video to even get to that point.

Watching Logan and Remus interact, one, brought me immense joy and I will be chasing that high for weeks to come, and two, after an ounce of critical thinking was frankly painful to watch. Any critiques Logan offered to Remus were immediately discarded with absurdity and any critiques Remus offered to Logan were discounted as absurd.

During the obvious scene at the end with the Eyes™️, Logan claimed he wasn’t pretending Remus didn’t exist, but honestly, he kinda was.

The Dunce Cap Scene really accentuates this point. Logan pulls a holier than thou, why won’t you learn I’m always right, bullshit passive aggressive remark, Remus does his dramatic repenting student shtick, starts singing directly into Logan’s ear, and makes a kink joke. Literally the words Remus sings are “can’t fix this guy, all by yourself”. Remus is saying this inches from Logan’s personal face and even still the logical side ignores him outright, because of all the fluff around the message. Hell, in Remus’s introduction video, Logan likens him to a screaming baby on a plane, essentially saying “well eventually he’ll stop screaming so just bear with it for a while and you’ll be fine”. He’s ignoring Remus outright due to a preconceived notion and missing out on valuable information because of it.

The dunce cap scene indirectly calls back to learning new things about ourselves, where Logan is completely unreceptive to the puppet bit because of its perceived absurdity and absolutely refuses to acknowledge any potential the medium might have for learning until he physically cannot anymore.

Remus is capable of, and does often, make valid points and offers genuine critiques of shit happening in their lives. In Forbidden Fruit, almost every single line harkens back to some idea the other sides had been trying, and failing, to communicate to Thomas. “Good and bad is all made up nonsense”, “if you shared those musings with your friends i doubt they would forgive you”, “why deny yourself knowledge, say, knowledge of yourself” “people don’t like me much, Thomas, but that only just cause I’m honest”, “these sorts of things are only thought in the mind of a man who’s soul is truly rotten.”

Despite all of this, he is ignored outright because of his medium. Just like Logan is ignored due to his monotone cadence and large volume of content, just like Roman is due to his flair for the dramatic and artistic display of ideas, just like Patton is due to his playful and childlike nature, just like Janus is due to his perceived role as the Villain, just like Virgil /was/ due to his perceived role as the villain.

They all have become accustomed to being stepped on by the other sides because of who they are and how they communicate, and have in turn learned some less than ideal methods of being heard again. Logan yells and gets passive aggressive, Remus ups the fear factor for everyone around him, Roman shuts down anyone who tries to talk through bullying and raising his voice, Patton manipulates the others into feeling guilt and covers it up with a smile, Virgil whips out the tempest tongue and incites fear in Thomas, and Janus physically silences anyone in his way.

And here’s why I say the next asides episode is going to be the most important one developmentally. Patton and Janus are going to be forced to work together. Patton, who is in the midst of an identity crisis, and willing to listen to any new ideas provided they offer a valid solution to the shit he’s found himself in, and Janus, who knows a lot more than he’s willing to let on, who concerns himself exclusively with Thomas’s self preservation, and loves to talk when given the opportunity. Janus is gonna have a thing or two to say to Patton when they’re inevitably faced with their moral dilemma, and Patton is going to be in just the right mindset that he’s willing to listen. And Janus is going to end up being right, and the small issue they’re facing will be resolved, which will therefore strengthen Patton’s trust, and his openness to changing for the better.

Patton is goofy, and childish, and kinda ditzy sometimes, and because of that we as a fandom tend to overlook any of his moments that are anything but that, but we are not giving this man enough credit. When Patton sets his heart on something, he throws his whole self into it, and is willing to stand up for his beliefs in the face of extreme opposition, and would gladly do anything in his power to defend his family. Once Patton decides that he’s willing to grow, and if he believes that this growth will help put his family back together, nothing can stop him, and that will be absolutely crucial for the growth of all the other sides around him.

Whatever him and Janus discuss during their aside will absolutely give Patton the information he needs to help stitch together the rift between everyone.

I predict the next official Sanders Sides video is going to be the longest one yet, possibly over an hour long, because there’s a LOT of work that is going to need to be done, and Everyone is going to be in it. The big issue of “you’re not listening to me” won’t be resolved, but it will be acknowledged in a serious light by everyone. We won’t be getting any appearances from the Orange Side I don’t think, that would end up just complicating matters even more when each character is already incredibly shaky in their own identity.

Something less than ideal is gonna happen between Thomas and Nico, he’s gonna summon the initial three to deal with the matter but the other lads are gonna worm their way into the discussion, everyone’s gonna start screaming at each other, and Pattons gonna do something that stuns everyone else into silence (I’m guessing he’ll start crying, considering the start of season two was all about him repressing negative emotions and what better way to show character growth than to sob openly on camera).

Once everyone just fucking stops for ten seconds that’s when the apologies start. None of the sides are ever the first to apologize, we’ve seen that time and time again. Their desire to be in the right as well as their pride will always get in the way, however if someone starts the apology train everyone will eventually follow suit. We see that in Alone On Valentines Day, My Negative Thinking, Growing Up, Accepting Anxiety, Fitting In, Moving On, actually in pretty much every video where an apology actually takes place, once one person apologizes the other will immediately follow suit.

Patton is gonna be a goddamn mess, he’s gonna apologize to everyone in the room for anything he thinks he may have done to wrong them, and that’s gonna be what gets everyone to acknowledge all the shit they’ve put each other through, and the others are going to jump between trying to console him and trying to apologize to each other. They’re going to come to the unified decision that they need to work together more on future issues, the group is all going to offer up a solution and decide together on a remedy to whatever happened together between Thomas and Nico, and that will be that. Season three will be about them finding the balance between stepping on toes and being stepped over, while also working out how the orange side fits into everything.

Thus marking the end of my rant.

I started writing this at 2 and it’s now 4. I have to be up in three hours. I have an essay due at 3pm tomorrow that I haven’t started, but instead I typed up all this bullshit. I hope any of this made any sense, and I hope this is a suitable replacement for my emotions essay that’s completely untouched because chances are this is what I’m presenting to my therapist tomorrow. Wish me luck.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Tell me about that time the Yiling Patriarch accidentally acquired a harem?

Untamed verse

It was Nie Huaisang’s fault.

He would argue it was the fault of the extremely stupid fierce corpse that violently lunged right at him when he was trailing behind his older brother and the others on a night hunt he didn’t want to go on, causing him to hide behind his saber and therefore accidentally taking the first kill of the night; his brother had been so pleased (and trying very hard not to laugh at him) that he’d agreed to Nie Huaisang’s request for a vacation.

He’d even allowed him to go visit Yiling, with one of their cousins saying in passing that Nie Huaisang should probably not let anyone know who he was or why he was there given the political scandal it would cause. Nie Huaisang had left while his brother was still arguing with their cousin about whether or not the Nie sect gave a single fuck about political scandal; he was pretty sure the actual argument they were having by proxy was his brother yet again defending Nie Huaisang’s right to be the heir, and those arguments went better if he wasn’t around.

So he went to Yiling to visit Wei Wuxian. He liked Wei Wuxian, they’d been good friends at the Cloud Recesses no matter how short a time, and he’d liked him every time they’d met afterwards, and really it seemed rude not to come with house-warming presents even if he hadn’t been invited the house-warming party itself.

“I fled here in the middle of the night, in the rain, illegally,” Wei Wuxian said. “There was no party.”

Nie Huaisang patted him on the shoulder. “It’s fine, really. I promise I’m not insulted. I’m very forgettable; you wouldn’t have considered involving me at all.”

“I’m tell you, I didn’t have a party.” Wei Wuxian frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe I should have a party?”

“We are not having a party,” Wen Qing said, sounding a little testy, but Wei Wuxian handed her a plate of meat – it was a traditional house-warming gift, and it wasn’t as if the Unclean Realm wasn’t chock full of people who would be more than happy to go practice their sabers against wild boars so that Nie Huaisang could drag along a preservation chest full of pork – and she stopped complaining.

“We could invite Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang said. “You know he can’t resist an invitation to a party.”

“Did you not hear about the fight -”

“Party invitation.”

“…it might make him less angry, actually.”

“I’ll go get decorations!”

That was how Nie Huaisang found himself in the town at the bottom of the Burial Mounds, shopping; that part was probably still fine, but then he’d made some sort of slip-up in casual chitchat and everyone in the town figured out that he was visiting the Yiling Patriarch.

“Are you one of his disciples?” someone asks.

“No, of course not,” Nie Huaisang said at once, because forget his brother, he had some very scary great-uncles that would find him and rip him to pieces if he ever denied being a Nie.

“Then why are you here? I thought he’d been rejected by the whole cultivation world.”

“Uh,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Is there going to be trouble?”

“I don’t –”

“They’re celebrating something,” another person chimed in, looking at the bags Nie Huaisang was carrying. “What could they possibly be celebrating? A marriage?”

“Definitely not,” Nie Huaisang said.

“You couldn’t possibly be here willingly, could you?”

“No,” Nie Huaisang said, finally annoyed. “I was sent as a sacrifice by the cultivation world to join the dreadful Yiling Patriarch’s harem as a panacea against his threats to conquer the entire world through a little bit of unorthodox cultivation that involves a great deal of complicated flute playing and exactly zero practice because he’s obnoxiously talentedly like that. It’s all very tragic at first, but eventually we will overcome all obstacles and he’ll make me his empress of an empire composed of ghost puppets. Happy now?”

Maybe he should become a writer or something, because apparently they were very happy about it, and the story spread like lightning.

“I cannot believe you,” Wen Qing said, since Wei Wuxian hadn’t yet caught his breath once from all the howling laughter he was doing. “Of all the irresponsible, ridiculous –”

Nie Huaisang wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about it, and it only got worse when Lan Wangji showed up to visit and just – refused to leave.

That surely wasn’t related to the harem rumors, though of course the presence of an unbearably pretty man like Lan Wangji just made the rumors worse, especially since he was very obviously from a different sect than Nie Huaisang.

According to the rumors, there was intrigue now: a more beautiful concubine had appeared, challenging Nie Huaisang’s efforts to get the redeem the vile Yiling Patriarch through the power of love and a great deal of sex, and of course there would be all sorts of jockeying for position happening.

Jiang Cheng’s furious arrival to yell at Wei Wuxian (and to attend the party, because he really couldn’t resist a party invitation – he hated being left out) only convinced them all that there were at least three separate sects fighting for attention, as if Wei Wuxian were an emperor.

“I can’t – I’m dying –” Wei Wuxian sobbed with laughter, burying his face into Lan Wangji’s shoulder. “Lan Zhan, help. It’s too funny. I’m an emperor now. And I can’t even grow potatoes!”

“Radishes are more efficient,” Wen Qing hissed.

“The common people are really very strange,” Nie Huaisang opined from where he was drawing over in his corner. Wen Qing believed everything to be his fault, so he’d promised that he’d do something nice and calming and not disruptive like drawing; he’d bought himself some ink and a great deal of paper as proof of his good intentions. “They’ll believe anything.”

“Don’t you start,” she snapped. “You’re drawing porn. Of this!”

Wei Wuxian’s head snapped up. “You are? Is it any good? Wait – who is it of?”

“It’d better not be of me with him,” Jiang Cheng grumbled, serving himself some of the pork with radishes. “I’ll kill you.”

“Mostly Second Master Lan,” Nie Huaisang admitted. “He’s the only one staying still long enough for me to get a good view.”

That made Lan Wangji frown and come over – which, joke’s on him, Nie Huaisang has no shame about his excellent artistic skills.  

“Oh, well done,” Wei Wuxian said, peeping over Lan Wangji’s shoulder at the artwork. “Is that me with the legs in the air?”

“Yes. Can you pose later so I can get the face right?”

“Obviously yes!”

Lan Wangji’s ears were very red for some reason.

“Shouldn’t Wei Wuxian be the attacker?” Jiang Cheng asked, coming over as well. “Not that I care about any of this. But if the story is that he’s the emperor –”

“I can’t disappoint my readers by breaking up my romance with him,” Nie Huaisang explained. “And between me and Wei-xiong, I’m obviously more fit for the role of the pure maiden in distress – there’s a great deal of convention in erotic art circles, you wouldn’t expect it – and so I’m having Second Master Lan be the seducer instead, see? That way there is even more conflict.”

“I’m still going to kill you for including my brother,” Wen Qing said.

“I didn’t give him any sex scenes! He’s a wallflower! And you’re the Yiling Patriarch’s right hand man; what more do you want?”

“For my brother not to have fans that want to see him naked!”

“How do you even know about that?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“I read the mail,” Wen Qing said. “We’ve gotten an awful lot of it in the last week.”

“…is there any about me?” Jiang Cheng, who’d never met a competition he didn’t have to win, asked.

“Oh, yes, you’re very popular, Jiang-xiong,” Nie Huaisang assured him. “I included some falsified backstory about the two of you being childhood friends torn apart by Wei-xiong’s turn to evil and unorthodoxy –”

Both of them looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“– and now everyone wants to see you have a sandwich with the Wen sibilings.”

“Have a sandwich?” Jiang Cheng asked, distracted. “Are they hungry or something?”

“They certainly want to lick –”

“A sandwich means what,” Jiang Cheng yelled after Wei Wuxian finished whispering in his ear.

[tiifalockhart]

End of the F**king World

Pairing: Sephiroth/Reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: major character death, implications of stalker behavior, mentions of torture, mentions of insanity, portrayal of mental illness, end of the world, anxiety, depression, alludes to suicide

A/N: this wasn’t a request, however, this idea had been on my mind for quite awhile. with lots of motivation, i finally put it into words. please keep in mind that there are huge trigger warnings for this content, since it is probably the most angsty and intense thing i’ve written on this blog!! i hope you enjoy reading, feedback is greatly appreciated

Ao3 || Masterlist 

After it all had fallen apart, there was nothing left to hope for. 

Genesis was gone, Angeal was dead, Zack was dead, Sephiroth was... Dead? His body was found deep inside the destroyed Nibleheim reactor, so it was possible that Sephiroth was dead, right? But...

You aren’t supposed to see dead people.

So why was it that Sephiroth was constantly following you around? Why was he silently watching you at all times? No matter where you looked, he was there. It was chilling to see his cat-like mako eyes pierce into your skull. His twisted smirk made your stomach churn and want to run away as fast as you could, but there was no where to run. He was always with you. Whether you wanted him or not, it seemed like you didn’t have a choice. 

What did you do to earn such a strange connection to the dead? 

That’s right... In Nibleheim, you were there. You were one of the sole survivors that witnessed it all. The roaring flames, the deafening screams and cries of dying people, the sound of buildings collapsing and blades crashing against one another, you relived it every time you closed your eyes. 

Sephiroth sought out to kill you, even though you were a simple bystander. But... That wasn’t the complete truth, was it? You were more important than anyone else at Nibleheim. That’s why he came after you, right? Think of it as... Young love, a childhood best friend, his only friend, that’s what you were. That is, until you mysteriously disappeared and left him all alone. You were taken far away from Shinra after being deemed as... “Intruding.” You and Sephiroth were just children, you didn’t understand the world. You always thought wishfully because even as a child, you knew that Sephiroth didn’t belong in a laboratory twenty-four-seven. You put all of these ideas of “running away” or “sneaking out” into his head. He became obsessed with the idea for the longest time. He wanted to run away, he wanted to experience this life that you mentioned so many times, he wanted to experience normalcy. 

When Hojo caught wind of this... Disobedience, he sent you and your family far away. He sent you as far away as he could. Your father began to work at the Nibleheim Mansion as a book keeper as punishment for your indiscipline. Sephiroth felt betrayed by your disappearance. He blamed you for the punishments he received for wanting to escape. He blamed you for leaving him alone to deal with it. He never forgot about it, instead he bottled it up and chalked it up to some kind of cruel training he had to go to. 

As he grew up, those thoughts bothered him less and less. He figured he would never have to see you again, therefore he would never have to face that trauma again. Instead of coping with it, he pushed it away to the deepest place he could and tried to forget about it. But as things around him began to crumble, all of his past traumas began to surface again. Genesis ended up leaving him, so did Angeal. His two friends, his only friends since you, ended up leaving him. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for him to snap. The moment he knew he was being sent to Nibleheim for a mission, dread began to build up inside of him. As if it were a sixth sense, he knew something was going to happen here. He made sure to keep his guard up as they arrived at Nibleheim, who knew what was going to happen?

What he didn’t expect, though, was that the threat he was dreading would end up being himself. Dealing with the loss of his two friends was enough, but he never expected having to face you after all those years. You looked exactly the same from when you were a child. Sephiroth knew who you were in an instance when he saw you in that village. He knew that he couldn’t stay. He had to run from you, he had to run, he had to. He avoided you like the plague, unwilling to unpack the bottled-up regret and anger he held for you. His mind couldn’t stop wandering to his childhood with you, he began to question everything. Why were you here in Nibleheim? Why did you leave him? Why was he punished because of you? Why did Genesis and Angeal have to leave, too? He felt sick, he felt weak and dizzy, nothing was making sense anymore. 

That was just the tip of the iceberg, though. 

The moment his eyes landed on those monsters in the reactor, he felt something inside of him shatter. He needed answers. He needed anything. 

He needed something. 

Something to grip onto.

He was losing his mind. 

What was reality? What was real and what was fake? 

He couldn’t hear himself over his own thoughts anymore. He was descending into madness. He couldn’t stop himself from wandering into that library. It was similar to a deep, primal instinct. It felt like he was hunting for prey. But there was no prey. He was hunting for... Nothing? It didn’t make sense, nothing made sense anymore. The voices of concern were drowned out by his mind screaming at him. His mind told him that he couldn’t eat or sleep until he had answers. Who was he? Who were his parents? Why did he want to escape? What are these voices in his head? 

He paced back and forth until his legs were numb, his fingers frantically flipped through the pages of those books, his heart pounded in his chest to the point where it was deafening. He was terrified for the first time in his life. But it wasn’t because of some foe he had to face. No... 

He was terrified of himself. 

That’s when he stumbled upon the documents named ‘Project S.’ His fingers trembled as his eyes scanned the pages. His arms grew weak, he couldn’t stand anymore and ended up collapsing against the wall. He slid down the wall slowly as he took in every bit of information. 

He was... A monster? 

No.

He was an Ancient...

He was a God.

This was his world. 

It all belonged to him.

He was betrayed by everyone. He was treated like an experiment on his own Earth. He was destroyed and numbed to the cruelties of this Earth, used by simple humans for their own bidding. He was dumbed down to a puppet. Everyone else had to have known, right? His mother was Jenova... The J.E.N.O.V.A.? They lied to him. How could they all keep this from him..? His own friends, his mentors and companions? Why did they... It didn’t make sense. Even Zack hid all of this from him... His last friend...

It all started with the books. 

Sephiroth burned them all. He was caught up in a fit of rage. He was betrayed by everyone. Everyone he’s come to know has known what he is, but decided to hide it. His entire existence was a lie. It was all fabricated from birth. How many people knew besides the scientists? The people he laid down his life for ended up betraying him. He would never forgive the human race for what they’ve done.

Before he knew it, the entire village was in flames. Overcome with rage, Sephiroth decided he was personally going to rip the world apart. Everyone would suffer because of what they’ve done to him. There was no room for negotiation anymore, they lost that privilege many years ago. 

During this fit of rage, Sephiroth’s eyes managed to land on you. This was where it all started, wasn’t it? You could have saved him, you could have told him the truth. You knew what he was, but you participated in treating him like... Like some lab rat. You lied, and you were just as guilty as everyone else. 

He couldn’t stop himself from raising Masamune over his head. His vision was red with anger, he was no longer thinking for himself. His mind screamed at him. This is what they wanted, wasn’t it? A truly powerful being... 

He’d show you what power really looks like. 

It was all your fault. 

How you managed to escape was a mystery to all. How Sephiroth was still alive was a mystery to you. You couldn’t wrap your head around it. 

You remembered that day very clearly. You hadn’t even known Sephiroth was in Nibleheim. You didn’t know that he still remembered you. You didn’t know that you planted the seed for his inevitable mental break. 

Now, you were cursed with a daily reminder. His eyes would never leave you for as long as you lived. You assumed the same fate followed you into the Lifestream. 

The day of the Nibleheim Incident, you took off into hiding immediately. You couldn’t face the guilt that possessed you. You could still clearly hear the pain in Sephiroth’s cries as he stood over you. “You took everything from me!” It played in your mind on repeat. He died knowing that it was all your fault this happened. His last few words would be permanently ingrained into your brain. You slightly wished that he had just finished the job in Nibleheim... But you somewhat convinced yourself that that wasn’t his intention. 

Now that he was staring you in the face, you couldn’t believe that he intended for you to die in Nibleheim. He fully intended on you living with your sins and carrying that burden until the end of your time. 

It’s been months now since his first appearance. You remembered when you first saw him after Nibleheim many months ago. You were making your morning deliveries, casually walking around the Sector 5 slums. You approaching the small orphanage located at the top of the slums, ready to face the children when you suddenly stopped in your tracks. Your eyes had been focused on the ground as you walked, so when you saw black boots suddenly appear in your vision, a confused expression formed on your features. You slowly lifted your head to look up at the mysterious figure, only to let out a blood-curdling scream and fall back. 

In front of you stood the silver-haired SOLDIER, he wore a twisted and sickening smirk, his eyes held a glint of... Desire. His left hand tightened around the hilt of his blade as he stared down at you. Fear consumed you as you prepared to finally die, your eyes squeezing tight as your hands came to cover your head. 

When nothing happened, you slowly lifted your head again to see everyone around you staring at you in confusion. Sephiroth was gone as if he completely vanished into thin-air. The ladies working at the orphanage stared at you, fear evident in their eyes. They held the children back from approaching you, as if you were the one to be feared.

No one else had seen Sephiroth. 

You were the only one. 

You quickly got up, not bothering to dust yourself off or gather your things, before taking off to your small shack. Surely, it was part of your imagination. People have mentioned having hallucinations and stuff, maybe that’s what happened. You tried to think it through logically as you splashed cold water on your face. When you lifted your head again, you felt his presence in the back of the room. 

“Why are you here?” You asked, your voice shaking as you turned towards him. He was leaning against the wall casually, his smirk still present. Instead of answering you, he simply looked in your direction before walking further into the house. His gaze sent chills down your spine. What kind of desire is he holding inside? 

Life went on like that for months. Eventually, you were forced to grow used to his presence, no matter how oppressive it was. He would follow you anywhere, basically. He hardly said anything, if he did, it was probably something obscure and ominous. Eventually, you began to talk to him more, finding it unreasonably hard to cope with what life has become. You were never sure if he was listening or not, but deep down inside, you kind of hoped. 

You were never sure what Sephiroth was intending to get out of spending all of his time with you. It kind of made you anxious, knowing that you had some... Purpose to him, something that made you special from everyone else. Even through the hard times like the fall of Sector 7, he hardly ever left your side. 

There was one night where you felt particularly lonely. Sephiroth seemed to be gone, no where to be found. It was odd, even if you were his sworn enemy, you still found yourself concerned if he wasn’t around. That night, to somehow distract yourself, you wandered out into the Sector 5 slums, hoping to cope with the suffocating loneliness. That’s when you heard the news channel booming from the monitor at the center of the town. You approached the crowd quietly, feeling your heart drop at the announcements. 

President Shinra was dead. They claimed it was from Avalanche, but you knew better than that. From behind you, you heard his chilling voice. 

“You agree that he deserved it, don’t you?” Sephiroth asked, his voice low. It sounded like just a whisper in your ear. The question was odd... He wasn’t asking for your opinion, instead he was asking which side you were on. 

President Shinra did deserve it, though, didn’t he? While you would never wish death upon someone, it was undeniable how terrible of a man the President was. You could only respond with a weak nod of your head, feeling too repulsed to give him anything more. 

You moved to take off back to your home, only to feel the burning sensation of his gloved hand wrapped around your forearm. “The end is nigh... Who’s side will you be on?” He questioned. You forced yourself to look back at him. 

“What end?” You asked, your voice shaking as you spoke. Sephiroth didn’t give you an answer, instead he let go and slowly backed into the shadows, leaving you alone once again. 

What end was he talking about? ...End of the world? No, he doesn’t have that kind of power, does he? Honestly, you weren’t sure what Sephiroth was capable of in this form. He was powerful before he died, but what is he capable of now that he is dead?

You wouldn’t know his true power until it came to you in dreams. Since President Shinra’s death, and your odd conversation with Sephiroth that night, you had been having weird dreams. They weren’t the kind of weird that you forget in an instance of waking up, no... These dreams were visions. They were of what was to come. You saw visions of people you didn’t know dying, you saw a giant star in the sky slowly closing in on the Midgar tower, you saw visions of the Lifestream erupting from the ground... They had to have been connected, didn’t they? 

Sephiroth was no longer around for you to question him. It’s like he suddenly vanished, like he never existed after Nibleheim. Had you imagined it all up? It was getting hard to tell. You couldn’t bring yourself to search for him. You didn’t want to see him anymore. Truthfully, you wished you had never seen him in the first place. 

It seemed like months had passed since then. You were really keeping track of time anymore, honestly. Things began to change in the world around you, though. Above you, in the sky, a meteor pushed against the atmosphere of the world. Everyone else was terrified of it, but... You honestly couldn’t say that you were afraid of it anymore. After months of visions, you saw it coming. 

This was the end that Sephiroth was talking about, wasn’t it? 

The end of his torment.

The end of the human race.

The end of the fucking world. 

You hated him for it. There was no one that could stop him... He knew that, everyone seemed to know it except for the innocent lives. You heard the daily questions from bystanders.

“Why is this happening?”

“Are we all going to die?”

“There is nothing we can do to stop it, is there?”

Humanity’s downfall rested in the palms of a revenge-stricken God, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

By now, you had already accepted death. It was inevitable at this point. The fates of everyone were completely compromised at this point, death stared everyone in the face. It was only a matter of time until the Meteor made contact with the Earth. 

You remembered when the evacuation of Midgar began. Every single person was forced onto trains, cars, buses, whatever mode of transportation was available in poor attempts to escape fate. You watched from the window as the bus drove away, your eyes glued to the Meteor. Only a few days from then...

Those next few days were absolute torture. The entire world played a waiting game. There was really nothing to do to prepare for impact. Any preparations would be futile. In the end, there seemed to be a collective loss of morale. 

This was the end.

Just a few hours before the Meteor struck, you remembered hearing that familiar unsettling voice. “What a beautiful creation.” Sephiroth commented, his eyes fixated on the star. You looked up at him, your burning gaze quickly turning into one of shock. He stood next to you, blood decorating his face and suit. 

“What happened to you?” You asked softly, your brows furrowing slightly in concern. As much as you hated to admit it, you still cared for him. 

He shook his head slowly. “I...” He hesitated, seeming to return to his old self for just a moment. He slowly turned towards you, regaining that twisted look. “Will never be a memory.” He hissed, before completely dissipating in front of you. 

Below you, the ground began to shake. Your eyes shot up to the Meteor, expecting to see Midgar destroyed by now, but to your surprise, streams of green were fighting it off. There were screams coming from the people around you, they all cheered on the Lifestream. You couldn’t bring yourself to cheer though. This was fate, wasn’t it? You found yourself strangely conflicted. 

In the end, the Meteor ended up being destroyed before it could even touch Midgar. You watched as the Meteor disintegrated into small rocks. The population around you cheered unendingly, thanking the Gods for survival. You found yourself unsure. You survived, but at what cost? This battle with Sephiroth isn’t over... You knew that deep down. A quiet sigh left your lips as you turned away from the celebrating crowds, finding it hard to relate. 

This wasn’t the end, after all. 

[kpop-zone]

[Hogwarts AU] Red Velvet reaction to their s/o using dark magic to defend them

Irene

“I’ve heard her parents are death eaters.”

“They probably fought with Voldemort.”

“They are said to have killed countless muggles.”

When you walked up to your girlfriend and heard the evil words that were being hissed behind her back, you could feel an untamable hatred starting to bubble inside of you. The entire student body was lowkey intimidated by Joohyun for various reasons. Some were jealous because her beauty could force whole countries to their knees. Some were in awe because no one mastered spells quicker than her. And others were scared because of her seemingly cold aura. No one was willing to admit that though. Instead, it was so much easier to talk viciously about her behind her back in order to feel powerful. Joohyun always told you that she wasn’t bothered by that, but you could see how her beautiful eyes always got a little sadder whenever someone spread another ridiculous rumor about her. You loathed every single one of those cowards. Therefore, you sat down next to Joohyun while flashing the students behind her a death glare.

“Don’t pay attention to them.”

Your girlfriend smiled sadly and you nodded in response, although your anger forbade you to follow her demand.

“Do you think she killed some too?

“She’s definitely capable...”

Enough was enough. You weren’t going to listen to those jackasses a second longer.

Slowly, you pulled out your wand and aimed at the group of students behind you.

“Mucus as nauseam.”

You whispered with a smug smirk on your lips before letting your wand disappear in your pocket again.

“What?”

Joohyun asked confused and you quickly shook your head.

“Nothing, I was just talking to myself.”

You answered quickly and your girlfriend looked at you in confusion before returning her attention to her homework again.

Her quiet study session was interrupted though, when the students behind you suddenly started sniffling violently before eventually breaking out into fits of sneezes and coughs. Sneeringly, you laughed to yourself until you turned your head and found your girlfriend staring at you angrily.

“Did you hex them?”

Joohyun asked in disbelief and you chuckled nervously.

“Hm? What? No of course not.”

You lied, but the death glare of your girlfriend was telling you that she didn’t believe a single word.

“What? They deserved it.”

You justified yourself and Joohyun huffed while running her hand through her hair in frustration.

“I can’t believe that you would do something like that, Y/N. I’ve told you to stay out of this.”

She whispered in order to not let anyone hear your conversation, but her tone wasn’t any less intimidating.

“Have you thought about how that makes me look? Everyone will think that I hexed them; playing right into the hands of those idiots.”

You gasped in shock when you realized that Joohyun was right and you let your head hang in shame. When you felt fingers intertwining with yours though, you dared to look up.

“I appreciate that you are looking out for me. There are better ways than dark magic though, ok?”

Her voice was soft again and you nodded without hesitation, causing her to smile.

“Ok, then let’s get out of here before we get caught.”

Seulgi

“Sangsik, stop! Please give me back my wand.”

You could already hear your girlfriend’s voice from a distance and your blood immediately began to boil. You didn’t need to see the scenario in order to exactly know was going on. Sangsik, star chaser of Gryffindor’s quidditch team and a world-class A-hole, had made it his job to tease your girlfriend at any given opportunity and you were tired of it. You got it; she was the perfect victim. She couldn’t stay mad at anyone for longer than two seconds and violence was not even a word in her vocabulary. But Sangsik hadn’t taken you into account in his calculation. You wouldn’t let him make fun of your girlfriend.

Furiously, you pulled out your wand as you rounded the corner, just in time to see Sangsik flying in circles on his broom in the courtyard, parading the stolen wand for everyone to see. Seulgi was standing there helplessly while some other Gryffindors laughed at her maliciously.

No more.

“Relashio!”

You yelled as soon as you stepped into the courtyard, aiming your wand at Sangsik who only had time to look at you with a dumb expression on his face before his hands magically let go of his broom, causing him to fall off. With a dull thud he landed on the ground and the laughter and excited chatter around him ceased. With fire burning in your eyes, you stormed up to him and ripped Seulgi’s wand out of his pocket.

“If you only come near my girlfriend one more time, I will repeat this spell when you’re 70 feet over the Quidditch field.”

Your threat was only for Sangsik to hear and his eyes widened in fear. Satisfied with this effect, you turned on your heel and walked to your girlfriend.

“Come on, jagi.”

You said softly and Seulgi followed you wordlessly.

At first, you didn’t think much of your girlfriend’s silence, but when you were almost at the Hufflepuff common room, you were starting to get nervous. Had you scared her with your anger?

“Really warm today...”

You chuckled nervously in order to break the silence, while tugging on the collar of your uniform. Instead of joining in your small talk, however, Seulgi abruptly came to a halt. Confused you followed her example and turned around to look at her.

“You know, I can defend myself. I’m not the idiotic Hufflepuff that everyone thinks I am.”

She huffed frustrated, causing your eyes to widen. You hadn’t intended to hurt her with your action. Before you could explain yourself though, your girlfriend piped up again.

“I especially don’t need you to defend me with such horrible spells. Dark magic? I really can’t believe that you would ever stoop so low, Y/N.”

This was the first time that you had Seulgi ever seen so angry and you gulped nervously.

“I-I don’t think that you’re an idiot. I just wanted to- Seulgi wait!“

Before you could finish your sentence, she stormed off and disappeared behind a painting into the Hufflepuff common room. A feeling of shame and regret caused tears to pool in your eyes and you stared blankly ahead.

You had really messed up this time.

Seungwan

“They really let anyone into Hogwarts these days... who’s next, muggles?”

When you heard Jooeun’s malicious words, you needed to bite your tongue in order to stop yourself from yelling profanities at her. You knew exactly that she had said it loud enough for your girlfriend to hear who she hated with every cell in her body. Jooeun was born into a “pure-blood” family, how they liked to call themselves, and she despised everyone that was of muggle descent. Therefore, she loved to bully your girlfriend.

Like in every class, she sat in the last row with her gang of puppets and gossiped viciously about everyone who was “unworthy” in her eyes. But you knew that it was useless to start a fight with Jooeun. It was impossible to change the mind of such people.

“Come on, let’s sit further in the front.”

Gently you guided your girlfriend through the classroom in hopes that you couldn’t hear Jooeun and her gang all the way in the front row. But unfortunately, your hopes were crushed when you heard her say a word that immediately caused you to burst in anger.

“Mudblood.”

It was the last thing that you perceived clearly before absolutely going blank.

You heard yourself yelling, “Oppugno!”, while pointing your wand at your pencil case before swinging it towards Jooeun. A second later pure chaos broke loose as all of your pencils developed a life of their own and shot in your target’s direction. Jooeun could only do as much as throw her arms in front of her face in order to block the pencils. She yelled at you to stop, but you wanted to make her pay. Only when you could feel Seungwan pushing down your arm, you ripped out of your trance and looked around in shock. Jooeun had several little bleeding wounds in her face and on her arms and the rest of the students were staring at you in shock. Helplessly, you turned around to Seungwan who grabbed your hand and pulled you out of the classroom.

“Are you out of your mind, Y/N?? Do you know what McGonogall will do with you if she finds out about this? Oh my god, do you know what Jooeun’s parents will do with you?? You could be expelled!”

Seungwan’s voice was trembling in anger and fear as she pulled you through the empty hallways to your dormitory. She kept ranting on about how incredibly dumb your action had been and by the time the two of you reached your room, you were feeling nauseous.

“You can’t change someone like Jooeun! When will you finally accept that? And where did you even learn this really impressive, I mean, unacceptable spell?!”

When you met the eyes of your girlfriend for the first time after fleeing the classroom, you could see that she was upset, worried, but also...curious. You didn’t know anyone who was smarter or more gifted than Seungwan. She had mastered every spell in your schoolbooks and you were sure that she was secretly intrigued by the mysterious spell that you had used. Learning was her passion and it was clear that she would sooner or later outgrow the methods that were taught at Hogwarts. For now, however, she strictly abided by the rules of the school and her anger definitely overweighed her curiosity.

Therefore, you hung your head in shame as your girlfriend continued to scold you some more while already making plans on how to save you from a school exclusion.

Joy

“Come on, drink something with me.”

Sooyoung huffed in annoyance when Joonghoo suddenly appeared next to her again and breathed his smell of alcohol into her face.

“For the last time, leave me alone!”

She basically yelled at him by now, because she just couldn’t stand having the hands of this douchebag all over her anymore. He was in love with her since the first year and just didn’t accept a no for an answer. He didn’t even care that she was dating you. Whenever he had the chance, he still tried to woo her; which was especially annoying when he was drunk like right now.

“Come oooon, just give me a chance. You won’t regret it.”

He slurred before gripping her hips and pulling her against his body. Sooyoung gasped in shock and was about to slap him when a loud voice made her flinch.

“Sooyoung, get back!”

She immediately recognized your voice and complied to your wish. With a hefty push, she disconnected her body from Joonghoo’s and jumped back, just in time to hear a spell rolling off your tongue that was unknown to her.

“Confringo!”

You yelled loudly, causing the bottles and glasses on the counter next to Joonghoo to explode. With wide eyes, Sooyoung looked at him, noticing that he was suddenly clutching his arm while his face was contorted in pain. Completely dumbfounded, Sooyoung averted her gaze from him to look at you and saw how you storming up to him with big steps.

“If you don’t keep your disgusting hands from my girlfriend, I will aim at your head the next time!”

You snarled and for once, Joonghoo didn’t have a cocky reply in store, but chose to nod wordlessly instead. Satisfied with his response, you let him be and turned to Sooyoung instead.

“Let’s get out of here?”

You asked and she quickly followed you as you left the pub without paying attention to all the people that were staring at you.

The anger was still written all over your face when the two of you walked back to the school and Sooyoung was still at a loss for words. She knew that that hadn’t been a spell from your school books. It was way too powerful and it did definitely not serve defensive purposes. It must have been dark magic. Sooyoung felt flattered that you had protected her and was also impressed that you had managed to master such a spell. But at the same time, the thought of you using dark magic made her feel nervous. It was too easy to get seduced by the wrong powers as a sorcerer and she didn’t want to be the reason for you to get into trouble. Therefore, she decided that she needed to talk with you about what had happened.

Nonchalantly, she interlinked your arms in order to catch your attention and cleared her throat.

“Y/N...”

She said hesitantly, not knowing how to address the matter without offending you.

“I know. I know that I shouldn’t use dark magic. But seeing him all over you had just made me so angry.”

You cut her short, already knowing what she had wanted to say.

“It’s not like I don’t appreciate you defending me. Because I do. Maybe Joonghoo needed something like this to finally get the hint. I just want you to be careful, ok? Dark magic is not something that should be used carelessly.”

Sooyoung said softly and smiled at you to show you that she wasn’t mad at you. You nodded in agreement before averting your gaze from her again. Using this chance, Sooyoung quickly pressed a kiss on your cheek to break the awkward tension, causing you to giggle happily.

There was no need to dramatize this incident as long as you knew where your limits were.

Yeri

“Maybe we shouldn’t have come here...”

Yeri whispered and clung to your arm even tighter.

The finals were inching closer and closer and by now, all of the students were basically studying 24/7. As a Gryffindor, she didn’t really appreciate that, so you had suggested to sneak out tonight and do something thrilling in order to get out of your heads for a while. At first, Yeri was totally hooked by that idea, but now that you were standing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, surrounded by trees that looked like they were alive and hearing all sorts of weird noises, she began regretting her decision.

“Yeah maybe we should have just explored the dungeon or mixed up all the trophies to annoy Filch.”

You admitted sheepishly while looking around in fear.

“Let’s go back?”

Yeri asked and you agreed without hesitation.

With big steps, the two of you hurried back to the castle, but before you could escape the thick forest, a loud cracking sound caused Yeri to flinch.

“What was that?”

She squealed panicked and you held her hand tighter.

“Nothing! Let’s just keep walking.”

You answered breathlessly, but Yeri knew that you were just lying to calm her down. Your clammy hand was giving away that you had heard the noise too.

The two of you picked up your pace even more, but it seemed like whatever was making the noise did too. The cracking sounds got louder and louder and eventually Yeri could see a movement in the corner of her eyes. Reluctantly, she turned her head, gasping in shock when she was able to make out the dark silhouette between the trees.

“RUN!!”

She yelled, not wanting to get eaten by the gigantic spider that was running towards the two of you in lightning speed. Without talking back, you began running at full speed through the thicket that was making your flight exponentially more difficult. Yeri tried to lift her feet high enough to prevent stumbling over one of the thousands of roots that were sticking out of the ground. But unfortunately, she was running too fast to really have control over were her feet were landing. She could already see the castle between the trees in front of her when she stepped on something uneven, feeling how her ankle gave in. With a loud thud, she fell down and winced in pain as her face collided with the ground. Yeri couldn’t care less about her injuries though as she heard the trampling of eight disgusting legs directly behind her.

That was it. This was how she would die.

She closed her eyes, prepared to be perforated by the fangs of the giant spider any second now. But instead of feeling unspeakable pain shooting through her body, she suddenly heard you yelling something.

“Petrificus Totalus!”

Your echo jumped from one tree to the other before complete silence surrounded the two of you.

Confused, Yeri opened her eyes and saw that the spider was motionlessly laying next to her. She was completely speechless and stared at the monster in trance until you pulled her to her legs.

“Come on!! This won’t last long.”

You tugged on Yeri’s arm and she followed you obediently, not wanting to fear for her life a second time tonight.

As soon as the two of you stumbled out of the forest, you fell to the ground with all of your limbs stretched out and your chest heaving violently. Yeri, on the other hand, was still staring at you in awe. She knew that you were an excellent sorcerer because of the classes that you had together, but seeing you using dark magic was even more impressive.

“Can you teach me?”

Yeri blurted out and you looked at her in confusion.

“Can you teach me the spells that they don’t teach at school? I also want to be able to defend myself from creatures like that.”

She explained, causing you to look at her contemplatively before shrugging.

“Sure.”

You answered nonchalantly before leaping to your feet and taking her hand again.

A wide smile spread on Yeri’s face and she started to ramble excitedly as the two of you walked back to the castle after deciding that you had caused enough trouble for the night.

She couldn’t even wait to finally become the outstanding witch that she always knew that she could be.

[dearlittlefandom-stalker]

People be like “If you don’t get the vaccine then you deserve to die!” or “If you get the vaccine you deserve to die!”

and I’m like....no one deserves to die??? What the heck?! Like, seriously? We are saying these things? Are we really here, at this point of extremism? Are we really so prideful as to think thar other people with differences in opinion deserve death? Wow. The amount of sheer hatred circling around is staggering.

That is bad enough on it’s own, but it’s really hard for me seeing professing Christians saying things like this. Are you being a witness for Jesus right now? You might want to check your heart. And I get that emotions run high and people say things they don’t necessarily mean, but come on. You can’t just wish death on people. Is that really what the world needs right now?

The bottom line is, life is sacred. God gave all humans free will and the ability to make choices, think, and do things. That gift does not go away if the person uses it for evil.

If God Himself, the creator of the world and reason for life to begin with, allows people to purposely choose evil over Him again and again, then who are we to try to puppeteer them ourselves? We saying that people deserve death because they think or believe something is equally preposterous as it is dangerous. ESPECIALLY coming from people who are supposed to be doing the will of God.

God wants ALL to come to salvation:

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Now, there are consequences for actions and choices. You make the bed, you lie in it so to speak. Vengeance is the Lord’s, however, and not for us to give out. The point is, eventually everyone will die. When that happens, God will judge them accordingly (I might remind you that Christians-the Church-will be judged first) and then they will either enter Heaven or Hell.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

Obviously, after death there is no second chance. That is it. God wants us to be saved. He sacrificed Himself for us so we could be! He does not want us to die in our sins.

Therefore, if any Christian -professing or legit, that is between you and God- says that someone deserves death for a belief, even if it is a wrong belief, then they are completely missing the point. While there is life, there is hope! They might yet be saved! You trying to deny them this option is violating the very word of God upon which your own salvation rests. Repent! Just stop it, make amends where you can, and ask God to guide and guard your tongue. Read the book of James.

Proverbs says that the power of life and death is in the tongue. Is your tongue being an instrument of life...or death?

Oh Christian, do you not know that Hatred itself is a sin unto death? That hatred will keep you separated from God and in eternal torment?

Oh Christian, do you not know that unless you forgive others for their wrongs, that God will not forgive you?

Oh Christian, do you not recall that we are supposed to be drawing people towards Jesus, not condemning them and pushing them away?

Oh Christian, are we not commanded to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us, to pray for them that they might be saved?

Oh Christian, are you God that you have the right to condemn others? Are you not a human capable of sin? Pluck out the beam of pride that is in your eye before you try to get the speck out of another’s.

Anyway. Sorry for the rambling rant, it just really bugs me when people let themselves get stirred up for no purpose. It doesn’t do them or anyone else any good, and gives a black eye to the rest of us.

[sanktagenyas]

alrighty so i guess coherent thoughts about this book might be a very generous estimate of what i’m about to write here but i’ll write down my thoughts anyway ‘cause i wanna share and possibly hear yours like for real interactions with my posts are not just welcomed they’re encouraged.

ok so to start our protagonists are alina and mal and our antagonist is the darkling and i pretty much related to alina right away because i love a hero with insecurities and doubts, i love an underdog so of course i was always meant to fall in love with alina starkov on sight. now the darkling... should be that i and everyone else would be beyond tired of the dark, tall, handsome and mysterious/scary men in fiction especially when they whisk our hero away for even more mysterious and/or nefarious purposes that they leave them completely in the dark about BUT the charisma fucking jump off of the pages i don’t know what else to tell you. and i am deeply intrigued about him and his backstory and also him and how he feels about our protagonist because when you catch the attention of a centuries old immortal being that says something about you but it says more about said immortal imo.

we come to learn that the darkling is beyond ruthless and yet he still a capacity for love after all this time even if it’s quite out of use to say the least. and just the fact that out of the thousands of people who have crossed his path there’s this one girl he saw and he was like well look at that someone who’s not unremarkable for once. and i know that’s not exactly a romantic sentiment but that’s how it starts, folks.

but anyway to cap my little ramble here despite the fact that i’ve seen that kind of villain before i do still really love the darkling. i like that we don’t have all the facts yet about what led him to become who he is so there’s just the right amount of mystery around him to keep you wanting to discover more and he is just human enough that he is not this caricature monstrous villainous figure (alina would beg to differ but i don’t listen to what alina yells at people when she’s angry)

now onto mal. i’m trying to word this in a way that doesn’t make me come off as a raging anti because the truth is that would require me to be invested in mal enough to hate him and as of now i’m just not. with book one being told entirely in alina’s perspective it’s pretty in your face that we should care about mal. our hero loves him and we want her to be happy, right? plus we really shouldn’t ship her with the villain there are so many wrong aspects about that dynamic just to name one aspect the deceit and the lies. the foundation of darklina is so fucked we should not ship it, right? well see that’s where i would argue that my biggest issue with darklina as a ship is the darkling in the final act all but saying fuck alina’s agency i’m going to make her my puppet for eternity not because that is necessary to accomplish my plan but because i’m jealous and resentful that she left me behind and didn’t embrace my plans for ravka and therefore embrace me.

and you might think wait i’ve lost the plot we were talking about mal and now we’re talking about darklina and the darkling but rewind back a little i said my issue with darklina in the final act of the book is the darkling pissing all over alina’s agency. and he might do that in more extreme ways than mal but mal certainly does seem to view alina as property at times and that implies him not respecting her agency. i could point to the fact that saying “don’t tell me we don’t belong together” is only framed as romantic statement because it comes out of the mouth of one of our protagonists and not our antagonist but that’s a cheap shot, it’s easy. instead i’ll echo my thoughts i shared about that malina reunion in chapter fourteen. mal was not one bit concerned about alina there and even though he says later on that not one hour was spent not thinking about her and wondering about her wellbeing all that flies out of the window the second he sees her with the darkling during the fete and here’s the thing if he had caught them mid makeout session i could understand him letting jealousy completely overtake him to the point that he doesn’t ask if she’s ok or how she’s been treated here and just assumes based on appearances (let’s not forget before she unlocked her powers alina was well and truly miserable regardless of the luxury afforded to her by her new grisha status so appearances don’t mean shit malyen) that she must be hunky dory and then tiptoes the line around slutshaming her but definitely crosses the line over into making her feel like shit for circumstances beyond her control territory and all that over seeing her do magic trickery at a party with another guy. 

alina is allowed to be attracted to another man, she’s allowed to have feelings for another man. they’re both guilty of miscommunication as they obviously both feel the same way about each other but alina has the decency to keep her jealousy to herself and not have outbursts about mal getting close to other girls like she owns his ass or something. that put me off and then i was hoping there would be a talk that would clarify things and he would apologize and that happened but it also came with the revelation that mal was upset to see her happy with the darkling. so he’d rather see the woman he loves miserable and alone rather than happy and belonging? and that’s the romantic lead i’m meant to be fawning over? i’m just not seeing it right now and that’s why even as he so generously offers her absolution (idk if you can read my sarcasm but just to be clear it’s sarcasm) for having loved the darkling and tells her he loves all of her even the part that loved the darkling i’m like..... i don’t believe you boy.

i guess in summary my thoughts about mal as a love interest is i need some consistency you cannot have him throw a jealous fit over seeing alina standing with another man (that’s literally all they were doing for real) and looking happy about it and then have him be like i don’t care i love you anyway. you cannot have him act as though he owns alina and in the same breath throw in her face that the darkling owns her (i hate this foreshadowing thank you very much) and you cannot have him get cold or angry at so much of a mention of a life she might have that doesn’t include him and then expect me to believe he’s made peace with her having feelings for more than just him. he’s not even able to accept a scenario where she goes off and does shit that doesn’t involve him as he shows no interest in her life in the little palace for the longest time. meanwhile you can literally read all about alina wondering what happened to him and what he went through trying to get to her. and for the love of saints i would love it if alina would stop acting like she needs to be forgiven for these feelings i absolutely get that she feels conned and ashamed about it but you do not need to ask anyone for absolution for falling someone who made you feel seen for the first time in your life. fuck that noise.

i just know trust issues are gonna arise and i know he doesn’t feel that way truly. if alina turned around and at some point decided to show mercy to the darkling mal wouldn’t understand or accept it and i’d fully expect a guilt trip to ensue.

now that’s my thoughts on mal as a romantic lead and that’s about the biggest aspect of him we’re focusing on but i do think he is a brave man who genuinely cared for his friends and genuinely cares for alina as that whole journey to hunt morozova’s herd definitely proved. he loves her i don’t doubt that but one grand gesture doesn’t excuse the way he treats her earlier in the books is my point and as been pointed out by others i don’t like how much alina relies on him even when he isn’t here. her refusal to let go of him was directly affecting her happiness and overall health as she couldn’t come into her powers before she thought he was lost to her. if i’m not liking who the hero becomes when she’s with the love interest it’s a big indicator i’m not gonna love said love interest as much as i’m clearly expected to by the author. i like mal just fine, he’s not without redeeming qualities, i just don’t love him yet and i may never do and that’s ok.

now i wanna take a moment and a couple sentences (it won’t be a novel i swear, pinky promise!) to talk about the twist that i should have seen coming miles away and i already know once my sister watches the show or reads the book whatever comes first i will be mercilessly teased about not seeing it coming. but when i found out the black heretic and the darkling are one of the same my jaw dropped. as memers might say i took that personally. and even though we have a lot of grounds to covers still and unanswered questions such as is the darkling still alive? if he is what is he up to now? is baghra dead in a ditch somewhere or worse? will alina and genya ever see each other again? why was zoya so standoffish and violent with alina, what’s her story? the question in my mind most prominent is what happened to the darkling? what happened for him to become who he is. i love the quote monsters are not born they’re made and i much prefer to see a villain who wasn’t always one than one who is just evil for the evulz. so i want a backstory and i also wanna learn about baghra while we’re at it.

it’s all fun and well for her to denounce her son’s actions but and i hate to break it to her but YOU RAISED HIM LADY. so yeah baghra’s whole speech to alina is missing parts for sure because she’s not just gonna admit her hands are covered in blood as much as the darkling’s are. not without some pressing at least. 

sooo to cap off all this i guess i would have just two throwaway remarks and that is that i am getting a lot of gay vibes from alina and if i took a shot every time she remarks on genya’s beauty or just gushes about genya in general i’d be drunk by now and i hope we get an actual queer romance somewhere in these books even just between side characters. second remark would be ivan i’m waiting for you to find some redeeming qualities my dude, i was rooting for you! at first he is a raging dickhead about it but seemed to mellow some and then near the end it’s right back to square one and i am really sorry about his brothers dying but having lost family members is not actually a get out of jail free card that gives you free range to mistreat people just because you can.

[nadziejastar]

Is there any evidence, or even hints, that Lea and Isa’s relationship is more than platonic?

Xaldin: Precisely. That is no ordinary rose. The room is in tatters save for one corner—because to him, at least, it is more precious than all the castle’s riches. Our work here is done, Roxas. The beast's weakness is clear.

Roxas: It is?

Xaldin: To hold something dear is to let it hold you. His heart is in thrall to it, don't you see? And that, Roxas, is ample weakness.

Roxas: I'm not sure I follow.

Xaldin: Nor should you. You have no heart to love with. Come. We return.

Yes, there was definitely a lot of hints and evidence that their relationship was more than platonic. Especially in the novels. 

Roxas: Well, you were right. He does have something he wants to protect. Something he cares about.

Xion: Really?

Roxas: Yeah, but Xaldin says that's a weakness.

Xion: Why would caring about something be a weakness?

Roxas: I dunno. I didn't get it either.

Xion: I hope Axel comes home soon.

The best evidence, though, is in 358/2 Days. The whole subplot of the Beast’s Castle hinted at Axel having romantic feelings for Isa.

Day 150: Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can't bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it's our pasts, because that's all we have to remember the pain of losing something.

If Axel’s memories of his past are what’s most precious to him, then what was most precious to Lea as a human? Axel says that his memories are all he has to remember the pain of losing something.

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It's a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don't feel like it anymore. It's strange, but I'm content with just missing what's gone. I'm not the one who changed. You did.

And his memories of his past are all about Isa. And Axel has a lot of pain over missing what’s gone between him and Saïx. The story STRONGLY hints that Isa was so precious to Lea, he couldn’t bear to lose him. There was something very special between them that isn’t there anymore.

Roxas: Love is a power?

Xaldin: None you or I will ever grasp. Nor will they, for long. The love between them will wither and die. Love never lasts.

Roxas: But you don't have a heart. How would you know?

Xaldin: I have eyes, and a brain. We have no further business here. Try not to dawdle.

Roxas: That still doesn't explain what love is... Is love fighting to protect what's most important to you? Where does its power come from?

The main theme of Beast’s Castle is “love”. Having something you can’t bear to lose is what love is. And love is a weakness that the organization exploits. Axel has a tragic backstory that is hinted at constantly. The story hints that his fear of losing Isa was used against him at some point.

Roxas: I found out about love on today's mission--that it's something powerful.

Axel: That's true. It is. But I'll never get to experience it.

Roxas: Nobodies can't love?

Axel: You need a heart, man.

Roxas: Right...

Axel: Love is what happens if there's something really special between two people.

Roxas: You mean, like, if they're best friends? Inseparable?

Axel: Well, you can care about your friends, I guess, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Just look at the way Axel talks about love. He longs for love. Love is even compared to being best friends. But Axel is very specific that it’s a different feeling. He’s always speaking from experience, like when he talked about best friends, summer vacation, etc. He’s speaking from experience here, too. He’s been in love before. That is what is being hinted at. Now, this isn’t the same as Nomura coming out and saying “yes, they’re gay”. But there’s no way they wrote the story like this on accident.

Beast: It's no use.  She's so beautiful, and I'm so...well, look at me!

Mrs. Potts: Oh, you must help her to see past all that.

All of this talk of love takes place in the world of Beauty and the Beast. That movie is all about the power of love allowing you to see past the exterior. That’s what the story of 358/2 Days is all about, too. Roxas can see Xion as Kairi because he has a heart. Axel can see her as Kairi after Castle Oblivion, and he grew a heart while he was there.

Riku: The process of putting his memory back together has gone nowhere... They have what's most precious to Sora...his memories of Kairi.

Xion is just a robot, though, and not really Kairi. She doesn’t even have a concrete appearance. It’s Sora’s memories that make it look like Kairi.

Xion’s memories were really Sora’s. But the form she had taken was reminiscent of Kairi. And that was because of Sora’s memories inside Roxas—the memories that knew Kairi as someone precious to him. Like Xion had become someone precious to Roxas.

She was created out of Sora’s most precious memories, which were of Kairi, who he LOVED. Xion is just a reflection of Sora’s LOVE for Kairi. Those most precious memories were the whole basis of the plot of CoM. They were the weakness used to manipulate Sora.

My precious existence is surrounded by memories that have been burned into my heart, as well as important memories that guide me. The more precious the memory is, the further it regresses into your heart, making it hard to remember, you know?

“Why do you always go around picking up stray puppies left and right?”

“I want to leave an impression with a lot of different people. I can live forever if I remain in their memories.”

Isa then laughed at me bitterly.

“Well, at the very least I’m sure you’ll always be in my memories, whether I want you to or not.”

During that time, we had no idea that memories could be erased. Memories are not always clear, and they can even be replaced with something else.

I haven’t seen Ventus since.

The sunset today is burning red again. We finished our training and watched the sunset from the top of the hill near the Secret Forest.

Axel’s journey in Castle Oblivion was all about HIS most precious memories, too. He said he and Sora had a lot in common, which is why he decided to help him. Axel’s memories of Isa were the equivalent of Sora’s memories of Kairi. It’s never explicitly stated, but Sora LOVES Kairi. Axel LOVED Isa. Once Axel started to remember his most precious memories, which were of Isa, he started to grow a heart.

“Do you know why the sunset is so red? Light is comprised of a variety of different colors, and within that spectrum, the red color permeates the furthest!”

“And how come you’re so versed in this all of a sudden?”

I remember speaking with Roxas about this on the 255th day when we sat on top of the clocktower. Although I know I should have had more precious memories of that time, I couldn’t remember them. I know there’s something that I was supposed to remember, but for some reason I just could not remember it.

You know how Day 255 is such an important day, it was even featured in the opening? It’s never explained why that day was so important. Axel tells Roxas about the red sunset. And just by the way he said it, you could tell that he was recalling a very precious memory from his past. Axel’s Character File story even confirmed it. The red sunset was not a random bit of trivia thrown in for no reason. It was a very precious memory from Axel’s past.

Someone had once told him why sunsets were red… Who was that?

The novel hints that Isa was the one who told Lea about the red sunset. But Axel had forgotten this by the time of 358/2 Days.

“Yeah. Have to hang on to something, right? It’s not like I have memories from before the Organization. Don’t you remember? I acted like a zombie.”

Axel stared at him as if trying to figure something out and then grinned.

Axel was trying to remember a specific precious memory from his past. It was bothering him. And it came back to him on Day 255 when he was talking to Roxas. It’s why he sounded so nostalgic. And it’s why that day was so significant.

Why did Axel remember that precious memory on Day 255? It was called “The Longest Day”. The longest day of the year is called “midsummer”. The entire story was most likely inspired by Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The most famous quote from that play is about how love makes you blind to someone’s flaws. Roxas’s love for Xion blinded him to the fact that she was just a Replica being used to absorb his power and destroy him. Xion was his weakness.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Day 255 was the day Saix was revealed to be “blind”. He wasn’t seeing what everyone else saw when he looked at Xion. He was like the Beast. He had no love in his heart. He couldn’t see past appearances. 

Axel: The Organization made her to duplicate your powers. She's a puppet.

Roxas: Have you gone nuts? Xion's a person, not a puppet.

Axel: She's smoke and mirrors, Roxas.

Xion was a reflection of Sora’s love for Kairi. Smoke and mirrors. An illusion made of precious memories.

Xemnas: About Axel? The poor fool. How long will he keep chasing the illusion of friendship, when he himself lacks emotion? Trying so hard to retrieve what he has lost, when it may never have existed in the first place. He deserves nothing more than our pity.

Saix was ALSO smoke and mirrors. Axel’s relationship with him wasn’t real and never existed in the first place. It was just a reflection of Lea’s most precious memories and his love for Isa. Axel desperately wanted to retrieve what he lost. His love for Isa made him “blind”. His burgeoning replacement heart gave him the power to look past the exterior of Saix to see the person he loved. It blinded him to the fact that Saix was a Nort and no longer the same person anymore. Saix was being used by Xemnas to manipulate Axel. Isa was Lea’s weakness.

Everyone is free to interpret the story as they wish. I know that Axel/Roxas is the more popular Axel ship. But I do believe Lea/Isa was what the writers intended and is the “correct” way to view the story. If you view the story with this idea in mind, Axel’s character arc makes SO much more sense. 

[andysmetahell]

One for All and All for One: The study in complimentary and infinite (wasted) potentials

One for All and All for One: two Quirks whose history we can, in the universe of Boku no Hero Academia, treat almost as the history of society. Their users had left enormous impact on everyone in the series, and through hints we can see their influence stretching long, long back to the first appearance of the Quirks.

Neither Quirk can be considered ‘normal’, though: the ability to take away Quirks at whim and an ability to share Quirks with others (which would inevitably leave you Quirkless) are both complete anathemas to the society that by and large is half-in love with the idea of simply having a Quirk (which deserves a whole breakdown in on itself, but that’s not what I’ll be writing about here!). And yet, One For All users are all heroes, and All for One users are all villains as far as we know (written after the release of manga chapter 280).

How is that even possible? With how objectively similar they are, why aren’t they both heroes, or both villains?

Well, before we take a crack at how Horikoshi coded the Hero society that made this happen, let’s first take a look at just why I’m so surprised the two Quirks aren’t on the same ‘side’. Also, obligatory ‘spoilers ahead’ warning for everyone who’re anime-only watchers, or haven’t gotten past Meta Liberation Army arc in manga.

Purely from the activation/mechanics point of view, All for One and One for All are warped mirror images of each other. All for One functions on the assumption that a) the user knows the other person has a Quirk and b) the Quirk doesn’t have an inherent clause that disallows itself to be taken by force when it comes to taking it. One for All is the only Quirk so far that has shown the resistance to the b), as it is encoded in the very nature of the ‘share-along’ Quirk that forms the true base of One for All that it can only be given away willingly.

Why is this so important? Because All for One doesn’t only take Quirks, it’s also capable of releasing them and giving them to others, whether the recipient is willing or unwilling. In this regard, One for All is startlingly identical: it can be forced upon someone else, as long as the DNA is exchanged and the previous user is willing to give it away. This little fact is often overlooked (likely deliberately) by the existing canon in favor of emphasizing the ‘cannot be taken forcefully away’ which makes sense plot-wise, but not ethics and logic-wise.

But who knows, maybe Horikoshi is holding back on us, and One for All ends up being the ultimate villain of the story.

… yeah, not likely. But the idea is interesting, isn’t it?

Moving onto the way they interact with their users and other Quirks, One for All and All for One are again very, very different, but with a shared approximate visualization of usage behind it. The closest approximation of how they interact with other Quirks would be, in my opinion, be gravity – but two very different applications of gravity.

There are two relevant things you need to know about gravity: it is defined by the masses of an object interacting with another object, and every single object in the universe has its own gravity field. (thank you, Physics nationals I went to once, for forcing me to learn more about gravity!)

All for One is more akin to a star within a stable planetary system: it holds planets, satellites and comets (other Quirks) locked in its orbit, but any change can make all those objects lose their orbits and go wander in the deep space. Its hold is strong, but the fact still remains it can be nullified in order to give away Quirks. It’s also stable – its attraction/hold power doesn’t change with the number of Quirks taken, it simply gives it a bigger array of powers to work with.

One for All on the other hand would be closer to black hole: its gravity is so enormous even light, the fastest object in the universe, cannot escape it, and its mass (and therefore its gravity) grows stronger with every object it swallows. Once it grabs a hold of anything (its user’s other Quirk) it merges it with itself and keeps it for forever, with very little chance of it ever surfacing again as individual Quirk (unless your name is Midoriya Izuku). However, it heavily relies on the energy (other Quirks it merges with) to provide power-ups; hence the ridiculous difference between Izuku’s and Toshinori’s One for All. (also protagonst shenanigans, but we’re not going that far into metatextuality here – that needs its own essay)

So, concept-wise, One for All and All for One are again identical in the idea behind it, but drastically different in application – both still fucking scary, but what can we do here, our main protagonist and antagonist need to have OP armor around themselves.

This leads us to the probably the biggest spoiler I’ll discuss in this essay:

this panel.

In chapter 270 of manga, Shigaraki Tomura is revealed to have been passed All for One, which is a whole mindfuck in on itself that Horikoshi needs to explain stat because I’m going crazy over here with theories (!!!), but moving on. The short and extremely brief summary of what happens afterwards is: Heroes discover where Tomura is while he’s still being transferred All for One, they wreck the Nomus and facility, Shigaraki gets partial All for One and his original Quirk Decay goes absolutely nuts again, Izuku runs off to face him, and at one point point, while using Ragdoll’s Search, Shigakari utters a very strange sentence while seemingly under the influence of All for One (the Quirk):

“You will be mine… little brother.”

Moments later, Shigaraki snaps out of it and comments about Sensei (All for One) no longer being his puppeteer, that he’s making his own choices and not Sensei’s.

Here we get a stunning punch in the plexus about what we already have been hinted at during Izuku’s fight with Shinsou Hitoshi, during Kamino Ward and Joint Training Arcs:

One for All and All for One both retain the echoes of their past owners.

Now, here comes a million dollar question: is this something both the baseline ‘share’ part of One for All and All for One possess (which would further link the two Quirks, and also explain a lot of characterizations in the series so far), or is it an imprint of All for One on ‘stockpile’ part of One for All that ‘share’ part absorbed and made its own? Both possibilities are extremely intriguing and make any future possibility of unification (which was apparently Sensei’s original goal before, judging by that one panel) extremely volatile, and very intriguing if Horikoshi pursues that idea to its end.

Speaking of the man himself, now we arrive at the question that really started the whole essay here: how come it was All for One chosen to be the ultimate evil, and One for All to be ultimate good? As we’ve seen so far, both Quirks are startlingly similar; theoretically, could All for One be a ‘heroic’ Quirk and One for One for All ‘villainous’?

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, because theoretically, switching the two would still make the story work; it’d change the motivations of characters drastically, sure, and turn the story of generations of good trying defeat one evil into one good fending off generations of evil, but it’d work – and no, because that’d fundamentally change the society in which Boku no Hero Academia’s current time frame is, and society is the key underlying factor in this entire story.

Let me explain through the examples of three characters and a faction.

Midoriya Izuku is Quirkless person in a society who is, like I said at the beginning, half-in love with the idea of having Quirks – the fact that you have them makes you seem useful, someone with potential, no matter how objectively useless some Quirks inevitably can be in certain lines of work. By their standards, he’s without potential, and therefore is largely useless out of gate. Had All for One been in public eye and celebrated as Hero, he’d be the pinnacle of useful: there’d be no danger of bad reactions to donated Quirks in his DNA, and he, someone who wishes desperately for a Quirk, could easily be given a Quirk of someone who finds their life unbearable due to it.

Bakugou Katsuki, someone with extremely property-damaging Quirk, would constantly be told that if he doesn’t behave himself, he’d be sent off to All for One to have his Quirk taken away – in essence, he’d be no one special, just another kid with a Quirk. Since All for One is so visible, it’d be all too easy for parents and teachers to threaten their kids into compliance whenever they throw an over-powered tantrum with the removal of a Quirk; it’d also be a good deterrent for any Pro Heroes that existed there to not get too comfy with their jobs, because they could easily be taken out of it if they manage to anger All for One enough, which would deter some people from being Pro Heroes.

Shigaraki Tomura (Shimura Tenko), someone whose Quirk came in during an extremely traumatic event and left him so scarred mentally he was never quite the same again, could easily simply give away his Quirk and have something far less volatile and triggering if he wished so, and also have a chance of potentially one day seeing his Quirk in the hands of someone like Izuku or Melissa, who could use it to its full potential without being constantly triggered by it or being re-traumatized again and again by the society who would rail on him for having such a potentially devastating Quirk.

Meta Liberation Army (which is a poorly disguised Brotherhood of Mutants on Genosha in X-men cartoons, let’s be realistic – the whole thing about the superiority of fight-compatible Quirks was not subtle at all) would be a much smaller and a lot less influential group. The publicity of a Quirk being able to take away other Quirks would make the existence of Deika City clones very, very difficult; it’d take but one hint, one whisper of a fringe group amassing in remote location that wants to eliminate so-called ‘useless Quirks’ for All for One to act – as much of an asshole as he is, he was shown [cite] to like all kinds of Quirks, despite only keeping the ones he felt were the most useful to him.

OK, but what about them being on the same side? You might ask yourself. If they’re so similar, why not make them both on the same side?

One, drama is always more delicious if there are high personal stakes involved, and nothing gets more personal than family drama – that’s just a fact. (Kardashians, anyone?)

Two, this is shonen – openly bad guys being the protagonists isn’t often done (in mainstream at least).

Three: we need some material to make all those ‘Izuku’s related to All for One or One for All first user’ for our satisfaction before Horikoshi josses the whole thing, okay??

(no, this is certainly not a call for you to make more ‘Izuku is related to original two brothers’… but it’s heavily suggested lol)

Thank you for sticking around until the end of this essay! Have a cookie, and enjoy the hell my mind led me to during the binge-read of the last 5 released chapters of manga:

[avengerscompound]

The Tower: The Queen of Asgard - 13

The Tower: The Queen of Asgard An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Pairing:  Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 1832

Warnings: just some sexual innuendo

Synopsis: The twins are now three and while the Avengers know that Clint and Thor are the biological father’s none of them know or care which blond, blue-eyed baby is related to which man.  When Riley gets the power to control wind and it becomes evident that she is the heir to the Asgardian throne, Elly, Steve, Thor, and Tony take the twins to Asgard to train her.

Not every Asgardian is happy with their king’s choice of consort, nor the impurity of the heir’s blood.  While others expect Thor to make things more official.  What’s clear is, the role of Queen of Asgard is not easily filled.

Author’s Note: Written with the human pin-cushion @fanficwriter013​

Chapter 13: Keeping Safe

The next morning I woke still nestled in between Tony and Steve but Thor was nowhere to be seen.  I managed to wriggle out from in between them, and as soon as I was clear they moved toward each other, obviously not ready to wake yet.  I used the bathroom and then went into the living room to find Thor working at a desk.  Volstagg was guarding the door to the children’s room.

“Good morning,”  Thor said looking up.  “Glad to see you’ve joined the land of the living.”

“Are the kids okay?  One of them normally wakes the other and they come and get us.”  I asked.

“Still asleep,” Thor said.  “I checked on them.”

“Do you need help with anything?”  I asked.

“I would appreciate your insight on this scheduling.  There are so few I trust here, making sure the warriors get the rest they need and having everyone guarded is difficult.”  Thor said.

I came over and sat down in his lap and he put one hand on my thigh, tightening it for a moment before just letting his hand relax.  “I’d prefer that you stay with me.  I think that will be the best way to keep you safe.  I’d like at least two people with the children at any time.”  He said.  “I know that Steve can handle himself, so I am not too concerned about him.”

“And Tony?”  I asked.

“I don’t want to say he can’t handle himself.  I know he has the suit…”  Thor said.

“But you’re aware of his fragile mortality?”  I said.

He nodded and put his chin on my shoulder.

“Well, he’s going to want to go to the lab and work on the bots now.  That’s for sure.  Would you trust Tony and Steve alone together?”

“Perhaps.  I think together they should be strong enough to at least hold out a fight long enough for Loki and I to get there.”  Thor said.

“Well, what if Steve and Tony stick together.  And I’m with you.  Then the warriors and Loki can rotate keeping the kids safe.”   I suggest.  “Then when the bots are done there’s extra security on everyone.  Plus the others will be here soon enough.”

“I can make that work,”  Thor said with a nod.  He filled out the timetable and began to write a letter.  I couldn’t understand anything he wrote though as he was writing in what looked like runes.

“I should go and dress for the day if I’m tailing you around,”  I said.  “You could always have either you or Loki with the kids at all times too.  So if you put down when you’re needed to do things elsewhere, Loki can be with the kids.  He won’t mind even with the warpath he’s on.  He loves spending time when Pietro.”

“He does love that little boy,”  Thor said.

“He does.”  I agreed.  “I wonder what that is exactly about?  I’d put it down to the fact he loves books so much.  But remember when he came to meet them?  They were still all floppy and only just learning to roll over.   Even then he wanted to hold Pietro first despite the fact we said he was the one that was more likely to cry.”

Thor shook his head.  “Maybe he always suspected Pietro wasn’t mine biologically and therefore not the heir to the throne.”

I nodded slowly, mulling the hypothesis over.  “Could be.  Perhaps he wanted to make sure he always felt worthy the way he didn’t feel that.”

“It’s hard to say,” Thor said.  “If I understood the inner workings of my brother better, we wouldn’t have the trouble we do.”

I went to stand and he took my hand and looked up at me.  “How are you feeling this morning?  I feel like I ought to check in on you.”

I smiled down at him.  “Better.  Sleep helped.  It was dreamless too.  So that’s good.  I’m obviously still anxious, but so are you.  That’s not going to go away until this is all put to rest.”

He kissed the back of my hand.  “We will get to the bottom of this.”

I kissed him gently and went and bathed.  I changed into a less formal looking Asgardian dress than I had last night.  Though saying that, it was still far more elaborate and formal than I normally dressed.  The dress was gold with black thread work through it and wrapped around me.  Over the top, I wore a blue and black cloak.

When I came back out to the living room Steve and Tony were both up as were the kids.  Pietro was sitting in Thor’s lap drawing on some paper as Thor continued to work, while Riley tore around the room.

“Mommy!”  Riley squealed and slammed into my legs.

“My goodness, you are so hyped lately,” I said, crouching down and cuddling her.

“That might be her connection with Asgard and her newly obtained powers,” Thor said.

I nodded and moved to the couch.  “Sounds reasonable.”

The door open and Loki stalked in.  “Surprise brother.  Apparently, we have more siblings.”

Thor looked up startled and Pietro reached for Loki.  “We what?”

Loki took Pietro from Thor and the little boy snuggled into his uncle’s chest.  “I do not know who this woman is.  But she seems to be an envoy from the kingdom of Heven.  Before either of us were born our parents had two other children.  First was a son named Aldriff.  Back then Asgard was waging war everywhere.  Aldriff was killed by a spy from Heven as an infant.  Next was a daughter.  I have been unable to find anything else except word that she existed.  It’s like every record pertaining to her has been erased.”  Loki explained.  “This new faction is claiming that Aldriff was never killed but taken and raised in Heven to one day take the throne here.  Much like our parents did with me, intending I return and take the throne on Jotunheim.”

“If our brother is a worthy ruler, I’d gladly give him the throne.  Why all the subterfuge and violence?  We have no quarrel with Heven.”  Thor said.

“Wait… just back up a second.”  Tony interrupted.  “There’s a Heaven?”

“Of course, Tony,” Thor said while Loki rolled his eyes.  “These myths you have on Earth usually have an origin elsewhere.”

“Well, regardless, it looks like Heven may have been holding on to some past anger and plan to put their own puppet on the throne,” Loki said, turning the conversation back on track.  “There may be descent in your council.  I will continue to look into it.  If we can smother that it should crush any further attacks.  Heven is not strong enough on its own to take us.  It needs the support of the people.”

“And you’re sure our guest is of Heven?  Aren’t they usually possessing wings?”  Thor asked.

“I don’t know what to tell you, brother.  This is all I know so far.”  Loki said with a shrug.

There was a knock on the door and Fandral lead in the same chef from last night along with some others who were all wheeling trays of food.

“Yay!”  Riley squealed, running over to the carts.  “You maded yummy food.”

“I did, little princess.”  The chef said.

“Fank you.”  She said, looking up at him and bouncing on her feet.

The chef picked up a plate and turned crouching down and offering it to her.  “Made special for the princess.”

She clapped her hands and a breeze picked up. “Fank you.”  She took the plate and then very slowly and carefully carried it to the table.

“You are most welcome.”  He said.  “I’ve made something else for the little boy if he’d like it.”

Loki brought Pietro over and took the plate.  He tasted something and looked down at Pietro.  “You can eat it.”  He said.

“Fank you,”  Pietro said, looking over the food and then carefully sampling some, exactly as Loki had just done.  Meanwhile, Riley had made a complete mess with her food already.

“I’ve taken some liberties with the cuisine to try and make it more to your tastes.”  The chef said.  “I hope you enjoy.”

“Thank you so much,”  I said.

“Is yummy!”  Riley added, enthusiastically.

“This is the highest of praise.”  The chef said.  “Thank you, princess.”  He bowed and left the room followed by his staff.

“Winning hearts there, Rie?”  Tony asked and she grinned up at him, her face completely covered in food.  He came over and began looking over the carts as I helped myself to a selection of things.  “So, what’s on the menu this morning?  You know, aside from -”  He made an obscene gesture and I hit him.

“Tony!  The kids.”  I yelped.

“Uh-huh,”  Tony teased.  “You know you want it.”

I rolled my eyes and took a seat at the table.  “Riley, please use your fork.”  I sighed.

She scrunched her nose and picked up her fork.  She stabbed her food with the fork and then took it off the fork with her hand before putting it in her mouth.

Steve chuckled.  “That’s not how you do that, Riley.”  He said.

“I use dem.”  She said defensively.

“You put the food on the fork and then the fork in your mouth.”  He instructed.

She attempted to do as he said but the food fell off her fork and spilled down her dress.  Steve chuckled and sat down, putting her on his lap and helping her eat.

After we’d eaten the kids got cleaned up and we prepared to split into our respective groups.

“Alright.  The children are mine now.”  Loki said.

“Who’s staying with you?”  I asked.

“That would be me, my lady,” Fandral said, making a large sweeping bow.  Loki looked at him with an expression of complete boredom on his face.  “The lord Loki appears very excited to have me.  That’s okay.  We shall have fun.  Shan't we, your majesty?”  He said kneeling in front of Riley.

She did a wobbly curtsy and patted his cheeks.  “I’m majesty.”

“Where do we want to go, children?”  Loki asked.

“Wibwawy,”  Pietro answered quickly.

“No…”  Riley whined.  “Is borwing.”

“Let us compromise.  First, we shall spend time in the library and then we shall do something Riley would like to do.”  Loki said.

Riley scrunched her nose.  “It's okay, your majesty.  I'll be there.  We can make it fun together.  Annoy your uncle Loki.” Fandral said.  He offered her his hand and she took it.

“Alright, kiddos. You stay with Loki and Fandral.  No wandering off and no talking to strangers.”  I said as Loki and Fandral headed to the door with them.

“Subtle, Elise.”  Loki teased as the twins called out ‘bye-bye’.

After they were gone Hogun led Tony and Steve down to the lab and Thor took me along to a meeting with his advisors and I got to see exactly what being the King of Asgard actually meant.

// NEXT

[untamed-sun]

MDZS vs Untamed Plot Differences

Now that I’ve written (a grand total of two) fanfic for MDZS, I wanted to sound out some of my thoughts on the plot differences. Or rather, some of the struggles I have with deciding which parts to use with which. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll write, but it will probably have spoilers if you haven’t finished at least one of these stories.

The problem is that the plot differences are interconnected. For example, if I have Jiang Yanli end up with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng after the fall of Lotus Pier (something I had considered because I really liked her conversation with Wei Wuxian, where he admitted feeling responsible for what happened) then I have to consider how to remove her from the situation before Wei Wuxian gives Jiang Cheng his golden core. 

In the CQL they did this by handing her over to Song Lan. But in the novel, Song Lan (and Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang) all appeared after Wei Wuxian’s death. Which means I would either have to include the CQL timeline for Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang or find some alternative way of leaving Jiang Yanli behind.

Something similar happens with Wei Wuxian’s death. On the one hand, I really really like the novel version of the second siege at the Burial Mound. It makes more sense, plot-wise, to have them all become truly desperate before Wei Wuxian draws a lure flag on himself in order to draw away the puppets. The blood corpses of the Wen Remnants are powerful, and make it more believable that Wen Ning would realize Lan Sizhui is Wen Yuan. The novel version also really develops some of the ongoing novel themes regarding blame, forgiveness, etc. 

But.. the novel plotline also seems strange to me. We get it in bits and pieces, and if I understand what happened correctly we have the following:

Wen Qing and Wen Ning turn themselves in.

Wei Wuxian goes to Nightless City, it turns into a bloodbath.

Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian leave, and hides him in a cave somewhere.

Wei Wuxian tells him to go away, Lan elders come... Lan Wangji fights with the elders and ultimately winds up back at Cloud Recesses where he is severely punished.

Wei Wuxian winds up back at the Burial Mounds, and although I’m fuzzy on where all the stuff happened with Lan Wangji (to be fair, the novel is narrated from Wei Wuxian and he pretty much forgot all that, so... shrugs), it apparently took three months after Nightless City for the sects to gather enough strength to attack (i.e. the first siege at the Burial Mound). That’s where the remaining Wen are killed, Wei Wuxian destroys the Stygian Tiger Amulet and dies in the backlash. Oh, and Wen Yuan is hidden by a tree, where Lan Wangji finds him (after hearing about Wei Wuxian’s death and rushing over).

Three months? Three months, where we don’t really know what Wei Wuxian was thinking or feeling. It seems sort of stupid that they all just sat around on the Burial Mound waiting for the siege? And the whole bit with the cave, and telling Lan Wangji to go away, and the elders... I’m not really clear on it, probably because Wei Wuxian isn’t. It just doesn’t really make sense to me?

The CQL version has it’s own problems, though. It’s weird how Wen Qing and Wen Ning make a big deal about sacrificing themselves, and tell Wei Wuxian he’ll be taken care of by the others for the three days her needles knock him out... and yet they all just... leave? To die?

On the one hand, it makes Nightless City even more understandable. Wei Wuxian feels he’s truly lost everything. His brother and sister, all of Lotus Pier, being at his sister’s wedding... and now all the people he’d made those sacrifices for are dead, and he thinks everyone hates him.

I still prefer the death-by-backlash (Wei Wuxian isn’t really suicidal in the novel, despite being seriously messed up. Unless he knew the backlash would kill him?) and in one fic I basically decided he could tell the backlash was coming, and chose to fall of the cliff as a way to let it happen away from everyone, but whatever. 

It condenses the plotline and makes it cleaner, neater, but the CQL version doesn’t have that moment where Lan Wangji protects a Wei Wuxian who is telling him to ‘Get Lost’ (the CQL explanation for Lan Wangji’s punishment, where a grieving Wangji fights off anyone trying to get close to Wei Wuxian’s den seems... a bit odd given Wei Wuxian is already dead, but people do weird things when grieving so I’m not saying it’s completely wrong. I’m not quite sure where finding Wen Yuan fits in this timeline... he did it before Wei Wuxian died at Nightless City?). 

Deciding which version of Wei Wuxian’s death to use therefore depends on what you want to have happen in the second siege, as well as the relationship you develop between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. 

I touched on this already, but the Yi City Arc is another place where you really have to know what you want in your fic. In the novel, Wei Wuxian never got to  meet Xiao Xingchen. It’s sort of poetically tragic? Xiao Xingchen trained with Baoshen Sanren, same as Wei Wuxian’s mother. I gather that sort of relationship is a big deal (based on how Wei Wuxian acted in CQL when they met, and various other things) so it’s kind of sad that they never did? Also, Xue Yang had an easier time pretending to be Xiao Xingchen because Wei Wuxian had never met him... so you didn’t need that whole face mask trick Xue Yang did in CQL.

I rather liked their interaction in the CQL timeline, but if you adopt that then you probably have to adopt the Yin Iron plot. That, or come up with some justification for why Wei Wuxian and gang were there at the time.

It also messes with the novel timeline a bit, since in the novel Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find yet another missing piece of Nie Mingjue’s corpse at the former Chang Sect residence. 

These are the sorts of problems I run into when trying to piece together the bits I like of the different plotlines.

Like - I like some of the scenes in the CQL. They develop the characters in greater detail and some of them are really, really cute. But then you generally have to adopt other aspects that I find less compelling. I find the Yin Iron plot a bit... deficient. (They make a big deal about how terrible Yin Iron is, and how uncontrollable it is... and then they just destroy all the pieces off screen, except for the Stygian Tiger Amulet? And it takes away from the whole ‘inventing an entirely new cultivatation style’ to make the Wen use Yin Iron like that. It takes a story that really tries to deal in nuance and grey areas, and makes it more black and white. I could go on, but you get the gist.) 

I also find the whole ‘locate missing pieces of Nie Mingjue’s corpse, which then are assembled together and go after Jin Guangyao at the Temple’ a better plot then ‘go to the Nie ancestral hall just to realize the sword spirit you’re dealing with is actually Nie Mingjue’s saber spirit, then find the headless corpse of Nie Mingjue at Coffin City... and fight the saber spirit as it first possesses Wen Ning and then just floats into the coffin where Nie Mingjue’s corpse lies’ 

All of which is a rambling and complicated way of saying that there are some things I like and things I dislike about both storylines and that trying to weave together the parts I like is challenging.

I do recommend reading/watching both, though. :)

[shit-she-wrote]

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: The hero loses to the villain. There was nothing he could have done, and, if he listened for a second, he could realize that maybe he hasn’t been fighting the real villain after all.

Word count: 1973

Content warning: n/a

Author’s note: inspired by this tumblr post and later expanded ^.^ hope you enjoy it!! (and, if you can, I would be eternally grateful if you could buy me a coffee!)

New Gods

a short story

The Old Gods could not save the world from destruction.

They fought with all their might, and after defeat, they simply shrugged when the world was burning after a battle for leadership, and they scurried away so they would not be a part of a clean, leaving it all to me.

And who am I, you ask? I am Destruction.

At least, that is what they call me, the people whose gods I chased away because it seemed fitting to them because it sounded far more fearful than Kullah. Therefore, I am Destruction, the leader of all lands, the one who put out the godly fires, aimed to kill me, with floods that saved many but that also destroyed their homes. I am King, although no one dares to call me that, for the missing Old Gods would detest it. I am Chaos, I am Misery. It is what they had been told before the battle, the people, and what even I believe to be the truth by now.

You see, I was only a child when it all started. I was chosen for a mission by the Gods, to bring harmony among the people, and everyone treated me, since the ripe age of twelve, as the child of prophecy I was. It made me reckless, as you might believe, drunk on power and angry when suddenly life passed me by and I desired revenge on those who took away my childhood for their own laziness.

And suddenly, Kullah, Great Kullah, The Chosen One, Brave and Powerful Savior, became The Betrayer of Gods, Fearsome Kullah, Destruction. It is quite funny how quickly people start treating you differently when you grow up to think with your own head.

None of that matters to me, however, for I am still on the route to fulfilling my destiny. I am only taking a different path, where I do not blindly bow down to the will of others, and rather decide on people's benefits on my own. It is a long-term process, especially most of my people hate me, but I am a fair ruler and I am striving for a better future that I, as a half-god, know how to achieve better than Old Gods, who have never laid their feet to the land in order to learn what a better future means to people.

Despite their defeat against me, the Old Gods are not sleeping. In fact, they have planned a way to bring me down once and for all, to get rid of me and reclaim what once was theirs. And so, I am standing in the middle of a large burned-down field, a reflection of me in the past standing before me. A half-god, I knew immediately from the fire in his eyes, a powerful soul, chosen by the Gods to defeat me and bring back the long-forgotten past.

However, I see no hero in front of me. There could never be one in this boy, who has barely grown in a permanent set of teeth. He is no older than I was when I was called upon by the Old Gods, not even far enough into his teen years to be anywhere near being close to adulthood.

"Cowards!" I scream at the sky at the top of my lungs, a distinguished fury in my eyes. "Cowards! You hear me? Each and every one of you is a coward! How dare you send a child to fight your battles! Have you no shame? You already ruined me, and now you are on your way to ruin another one. Come down and kill me, bastards, if you want. Do it yourselves! I will not let you put murder on this kid's conscience."

"Don't call me a kid!" The boy yells, his childish petulance visible on his frowning face. "I am strong enough to take you! I have trained-"

"Oh, yes?" I ask, my voice quieter, turning to him. "You think you are enough?"

He says nothing, gulping once his eyes met mine directly. I have such an effect on people, rendering them speechless with a glance. My appearance is not to blame, oh no; it is what they see behind it that frightens them. The fires of my soul, burning up the rules the gods had set down, creating chaos within myself and glowing brightly through my eyes. They think I will contaminate them, too, that my freedom will be their downfall. However, I never would force my own opinions on others. I am unlike the Old Gods in that way, too.

I pitied the child. I truly did. Up until that moment he has at least pretended to be brave and has been, perhaps, convinced that he truly could take me down, to stop Destruction in its core. Now, he is doubting himself at last.

This is your savior, I think bitterly. Fuck, you weren't even able to find a good actor for the role.

In a menacing impulse, I swing my hand at him from afar, let him be struck down by lighting I have conjured up in the sky. He falls down but remains alive, conscious even. The Old Gods at least prepared him a little. Maybe they put a protection spell on him, maybe they gifted him with their own divine powers. None of it matters, though. One strike and he is down, defeated, barely able to rise up to his knees.

He looks at me and there is a flash of something in his eyes. I see smoke and lightning and fire in them, just barely. he raises a hand towards me as I stride forward, bares his teeth as I stop before him.

"You cannot harm me," I say matter-of-factly. "It was unfair of them to make you believe you can."

"I have been chosen to end you," he grits out, angry tears and tears of sorrow gathering in his eyes. "I am-"

"You are young," I say and kneel down next to him. "You are naive enough to believe them. This is why they chose you. To fight their own battles when they care not about what happens down here even a little bit. We are nothing but entertainment."

I see he is bleeding – a scratched forearm from the fall. Feeling slightly guilty, I reach out for him to see the wound, but he pulls back, creating a new distance between us.

"Let me see that. I want to help."

"I don't want your help."

"No." I sigh. "You only want to fight me."

Dropping back, I sit down on the ground as well, respecting the space between us.

"I used to be like you, you know. Before all this," I tell him and for the first time, he looks at me with something other than anger. It barely lasts a moment, though, and then he is back to his glaring.

"You're lying."

"Not in the least," I say, a smile on my face feeling like coming home. I haven't smiled in such a long time. "I know my own kind when I see them. Demigod, am I right? The son of one of the higher-ranking ones, otherwise you would never even be considered for something like this."

He neither agrees with my guess nor denies it, but his face softens and that is good enough response to me.

"People will sing epics about you, kid, just as they used to sing them about me," I say. "Kullah the Bringer of Peace, Kullah the Brave and Powerful and Kind, and every other adjective they thought to add to my name. I was the one everyone built their hopes into, I was considered almost a god myself. Because I was the messenger of the Old Gods, and I did their dirty work here, on the land they would never set a foot upon. But the truth is, I was no one. Yes, I fought those monsters, yes, I built that monument, yes, I helped create a city or two, yes, I followed the Gods' plan all along. When it came to being myself, my personal desires and dreams of the future, nothing was there except some image of puppet controlled by the Gods for all eternity. So I decided to do something about it. I marched myself up to their divine palace and I wreaked havoc with the very powers they had gifted me. It was the day I lost my name and my reputation. And now, I am a villain, and you are the new puppet marching in here thinking you can kill this monster."

"I am no puppet!" the boy snarls at me. I chuckle.

"No," I agree. "Hopefully, you aren't. What is your name, by the way?"

"Kethan," he mumbles it out unlike any true hero ever would. I remember crying my name out with joy, announcing myself proudly, ignorant of the fact that no one actually cared for it. At least Kethan knows his place already, or maybe he hasn't built up enough pride to be arrogant yet.

"Kethan," I repeat, offering yet another smile in hopes of appearing more approachable. We are on the same side, after all. "What have they told you about me? What have you come here to do?"

"To destroy you." He spits the words out with such hatred that it makes my blood boil. I look up to the sky and hope they see me glaring at them. Who abuses the ignorance of youth to poison it with malice, and calls themselves good after?

"And what have you come to destroy?" I ask, turning my attention back to the boy before I lose myself in some empty yelling at the sky again.

"You are Kullah, Betrayer of Gods." He says my name boldly as if to show me he isn't afraid of it. As if that would intimidate me. As if I ever wanted anyone to fear my name. "I have come to destroy your ministrations upon this side of our world, to take back what you have stolen from the Gods. I have come to take back what is rightfully theirs and what you have destroyed."

"Destroyed?" I laugh. It's that word, destruction, that keeps getting used as the sole weapon against me. "Look around, boy. What destruction lies upon my land?"

He does look around, over the edge of the castle grounds. The village beneath it is flourishing. The clouds make the scene more beautiful instead of gloomy, bringing out the vivid green in the wind-swept grass, upon which white cattle rest and whiter sheep are prancing around like snowflakes. People are working on wheat fields, children are playing. To me, and my people, this is paradise. Freedom.

"But ... I ..."

"You imagined barren lands and muddy rivers." I smile, standing up.

"No life such as this can exist in the world anymore! Not until you're gone!" Kethan protests, scrambling to his feet and pointing wildly. "This- this is an illusion!"

"Is it? Or did the Old Gods find it easier to say I am responsible for your misery when they are too lazy to take care of you?"

Lost in doubt, Kethan looks back to his side of the land. Barren, dusty, wretched. I know who he is thinking about; his mother, waiting for him to return. His friends, each living a worse life than the other. His father, who has never been present until it suited him.

"If my people denounce the Old Gods," he says, so quietly the even the Old Gods can't hear him, "can we come and live with you?"

Again, he makes me smile. People really will sing epics about him and he is going to deserve them much more than me. Kethan, the Bringer of Peace. Kethan, the Brave and Powerful and Kind.

Kethan, Denouncer of the Old Gods.

[mutismoerassegnazione]

"THE RISE OF SKYWALKER" as I would have liked it to be (fanfic)

I saw "the rise of the skywalker" at the cinema and I didn't like it. In addition to the criticisms that everyone made and which I fully agree with, I believe that it is not only a "betrayal" of the previous film, but precisely of the sense of the great moral strength of the original saga. I thought that even I, who am a man with no talent for writing, could have done better and I decided to do it. The following is a similar script that contains the main dialogues that for me had to be present to conclude the saga and explain to the public what there was to understand. The action scenes are not described, if not a generic "battle in the space" and the comic scenes (which are an essential part of the complete films) are completely absent, I leave the reader the space to imagine them. Finally, I ask you for clemency considering that everything was done in a few hours. If you think it would have been better than what the film actually is (because that's what it is, let's make a reason for it), give it a thumbs up.

warning, this is a google translation from itaian original.

titles that flow

3 years have passed since KYLO REN became the supreme leader of the first order, meanwhile the resistance, thanks to POE DAMERON, has reorganized, finding new allies and more modern means. Thanks to this, the resistance managed to get some victories.

Unfortunately LEIA ORGANA's health has deteriorated, and now it seems that she has little to live on. For this reason, all the main exponents of the resistance rushed to his bedside, even REY, who interrupted his JEDI studies just to run to the princess

SCENE 1

everyone is at the bedside of Leia, who appears very weak, when Rey also arrives, so the princess asks to speak only with her.

rey: Leia, how are you? you're making us all worried!

leia: I feel that the forces are abandoning me, my body and my heart have gone too far, that's why I made you come, there is one last thing I feel I have to do.

rey: is it about Ben?

leia: yes, even if we have never fully dealt with the subject, I feel that something has happened between you two, something that goes beyond fighting against the first order; as a mother I wish I could at least understand ...

rey: he ... killed Snoke to save me and then asked me to reign over the galaxy together and I ... (looks down) I was tempted to accept. Even today I continue to think about this offer and see myself on that throne next to him ...

leia: I had imagined something like this, Ben has always been a kindhearted child, but he has always had difficulty managing his emotions and externalizing his feelings; as a mother I ask you to try to understand and forgive him in spite of everything, I am sure that if she did these things it is because she really loves you. After my father he too seems to be the victim of a curse, but you have a strong heart, promise me that you will try to break it ...

rey: (sketching a smile) okay, if you ask ...

leia: thank you my dear, I know that Ben has understood that you love him too…. (with less and less voice) now I have done all I had to, I can also rest in peace.

Leia dies, the others come too and everyone is sad and downcast. Phrases of circumstance.

SCENE 2

change shot, the coffin is loaded on the Millennium Falcon while Chewbecca, C-3PO and R2-D2 also rise, with rey talking to Chewbe, Rey and the others are on the ground.

roses: where will they take it?

finn: on Naboo, where there is also the tomb of Han solo.

rey: Chewbe ...

chewbecca: (makes his verse)

rey: maybe you're right, this is our war and it is right that our generation will fight it, but i will miss you. I hope one day we can all meet again.

the Falcon leaves and Rey sadly returns to a building alone. Here he realizes that a connection in force with Kylo is about to begin. On the edges there are also r2-d2 and c-3po who will remain on Naboo as guardians of the tombs of their masters, since they are not heirs of Han and Leia still alive.

kylo: (contemptuously) oh, after all this time, you finally deigned to grant me your presence.

rey: (sad) Ben! I must tell you that your mother ... is no longer among us ...

kylo: I know, I felt it in the force.

rey: (angry) why ?? why you have to be like this, she was your mother, a wonderful woman and it seems that you don't care!

kylo: here is little orphan Rey looking for parents who makes me moral! you don't know anything and you want to give lessons to everyone !!

Rey takes a look between the injured and the angry, but the connection ends. Meanwhile, Poe and Finn arrive and tell her to prepare, because they have to go to a planet to meet a spy in the first order.

A droid enters Kylo's room

droid: supreme leader, the meeting is about to begin, the general staff is already present

kylo: the meeting is canceled, now go away, i want to be alone until tomorrow.

SCENE 3

When they arrive, however, they are attacked by an assassin and go in pursuit. However, this is a trap and it turns out that Rey is the target, suspected of being Palpatine's granddaughter and that she may therefore be "enlisted" by the followers of the old empire. Arrived at their refuge, the bandits capture Rose and FInn

bandito1: the game is over! surrender and give us the girl.

finn: Rey! you don't have to give yourself up, we can't allow the first order to win!

bandito2: you don't know what you're saying, we'll take down the first order!

rose: (surprise) but we are the resistance! if you are against the first order you are on our side!

bandito2: on your maybe, certainly not on the side of the jedi girl.

finn: are you kidding? she is our best ally!

bandito2: that's why I say you don't know what you're talking about! our sources have clearly indicated that among the nostalgics of the old empire they have identified the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine in an abandoned girl on Jakku. They want to make her the new leader, not only by recruiting a good part of the first-order army, but also by many who have not yet lined up.

rose: it is not possible, even if she was really Palpatine's granddaughter, she would never accept being the puppet of the empire! you don't know it!

bandit1: and you don't understand how dangerous this thing is. We will not allow this risk to be realized!

In the end, however, Rey and Poe manage to defeat them and put them on the run, even if the angry version of Rey makes the bandits exclaim that he is the worthy heir of Palpatine.

poe: I can't believe it, but are you really Palpatine's granddaughter? this would explain your predisposition to force!

rey: No !! I'm just Rey and not somebody's granddaughter.

poe: but ...

rey: that's enough, I don't want to talk about it anymore !!

poe: ok…. but…

rey: then !!!

finn and rose: come on Poe, stop it here!

SCENE 4

Back at the meeting place, they stop at an inn, where Finn, Poe, Rose and Rey sit at a table and start talking while waiting.

poe: I still can't believe ...

rey: Poe !!

poe: ... that Leia is dead! (the other 3 nod) I knew her since I was little, for me she and Han were invincible heroes and instead look what a sad fate they had !! and all because of Kylo Ren. First he killed her son, then her husband! and then she died of pain too; at least he will be able to rest next to Han, his son never found his body.

finn: but how, you don't know? Kylo Ren is the son of Han and Leia.

poe: what ????? Ben's wimp is Kylo Ren? .... at the same time I am surprised and not surprised. I mean, he was the guy who stands alone in a corner and never speaks to you, but at the same time he was making a lot of trouble when he got angry. Now that I think about it, he actually blew things around him by force, in desperation his parents had to send him to his uncle Luke. Who expected it to become so powerful if I think about how hard it was when he tortured me !! what did he do to you, Rey ?

rey: (sadly) did nothing to me.

finn: what if he caught you and questioned you? that is a ruthless man, we have seen what he is capable of !!

rey: (with more determination, but always sad) no, he didn't hurt me during the interrogation, indeed he never tried to really hurt me.

poe: (absorbed in his thoughts) killed his father !! and he probably tried to kill her too, I believe that Leia died of pain !! That's a monster capable only of bringing ruin ...

rey: no, he ...

SCENE 5

rey realizes that a connection in the force is about to begin, so he gets up in a hurry and runs away to the back (closet?) of the place.

finn: Poe, look what you've done!

poe: but I ...

finn: Rey wait !!

rose: stop! let me talk to you, you two have already done enough damage

meanwhile, hidden from prying eyes, the connection between Rey and Kylo has begun.

kylo: what a surprise, after only a month you speak to me! and this time it was you who called me ...

rey: it was certainly not the result of my will

kylo: Snoke is dead and I didn't try to contact you ..

rey: (smiling) so in the past you've been looking for me

kylo: (embarrassed) certainly not to offer you to be by my side again. But you still haven't told me why you activated the connection.

rey: I repeat that I didn't do it on purpose, perhaps discovering that even as a child you was not well seen by others, although in those days you had a heart for good, it connected us again.

kylo: I was just pathetic and weak back then. Thanks to the dark side I now have the strength I need.

rey: yet there is still some good in you, even if you do everything to make me forget it.

kylo: The mistake you made showing me mercy won't make me falter, I know you don't care about me, just your rebellion. Well, I will destroy you and let you contemplate your defeat !!

rey: how can you say this Ben! all that we have gone through, all our feelings, I know that you also perceived them in the force! why don't you go back to the light side!

kylo: never! only on the dark side will I be able to fulfill my destiny, the galaxy needs order and only a strong leader can guarantee it. Giving to feelings has brought me only misery, the next time we meet we will be enemies, be prepared.

rey: (angry) I already beat you and I will do it again, I was just a fool trying to forgive you.

the connection ends, and Rey starts crying desperately. Rose enters the room and the girls embrace each other.

rose: Rey, I'm sorry, I ...

rey: Rose!

rose: I saw you talking alone to the wall. You were talking to Kylo Ren, weren't you? (Rey nods) do you love him?

rey: i don't know, all i feel now is my broken heart

rose: but I've seen you make the most beautiful smile of these three years. Come on, let's go back to the table.

Rose and Rey return to the table where Finn and Poe are waiting for them worried.

rey: well, i ...

poe: Rey, sorry, we said too much

finn: yes, sorry, we didn't want to sadden you

rose: ok, let's end it here, let's not forget that we came with a purpose.

rey: (angry) in fact, we have to defeat the first order !!

Finn looks at Rose with a questioning look, and she nods to him that there is no need to investigate

poe: right! indeed the spy should be here by now, his identity will be a surprise.

a hooded man approaches the table and when he takes off his hood he turns out to be Hux.

rey, finn and rose: You !!!

finn: why, you are the supreme general!

hux: why I can't stand Ren being the supreme leader! I prefer everything to go down the drain than to submit to him.

poe: whatever his reason for us is a unique opportunity to defeat the first order.

hux: right. But let's not stay here, let's go to a more secluded place.

leaving the room they find soldiers with weapons in hand ready to arrest them

poe: what does this mean?

finn: I knew it couldn't be trusted!

hux: for these years I have been your spy and I have also provided you with modern means, but now things have changed.

rose: what do you mean?

hux: it is very simple, we have discovered that there is a descendant of the emperor Palpatine still alive, thanks to her all the old guard will rise against Ren, I will be able to see his ruin and remain in my place. You don't need me anymore, I just have to eliminate uncomfortable witnesses. Goodbye!

poe: it's Rey! Rey is the one you are looking for. she is Palpatine's granddaughter.

hux appears surprised, but seems to believe in poe.

hux: if it really is, it means that we are still allies, but only if the girl accepts her role

rey: never! I will never associate with anyone who wants to restore the empire !!

hux: don't be in a hurry, if you really want to bring down Ren you don't have much choice, there are whole cruisers ready to die for you, just for who you are. When you have made a decision, in the meantime our little collaboration will continue.

Hux and his men board a ship. Left on the ground, the four confront each other with different feelings.

rey: Poe, how could you!

poe: but we are alive! that's what counts!

finn: are we allied with Hux ?? it's a nightmare!

poe: but think about how many resources and what advantage we can have!

rose: i feel bad

poe: this is our chance to destroy the first order from the inside !!

on the ship Hux and his crew seem satisfied

officer1: we fell for it! they really believe that Jakku's waste hunter is the emperor's grandson!

hux: in fact, leaking the news first to the bandits was an excellent idea. Now at least a third of the troops will turn against Ren and at the same time the alliance will cause him many troubles. When they are all exhausted we will intervene and the whole galaxy will be ours!

SCENE 7

meeting of the general staff, an important rebel base was identified.

hux: then we will deploy four cruisers, but I also suggest a hunting fleet, to intercept any fugitives.

kylo: well, I expect an overwhelming victory. We proceed.

the first order fleet arrives and starts bombing the planet. Meanwhile Kylo feels that Rey is there, takes his shuttle and goes down to face it. As the battle rages on, the duel between Kylo and Rey also begins. Although their strength equals, Kylo eventually disarms and lands her. Instead of giving her the coup de grace, she stops and lowers his sword

rey: do you call this order? I only see violence and destruction

kylo: this is only the consequence of the disorder brought about by your useless rebellion, sacrifices must be made!

rey: then come on, sacrifice me too to your thirst for power, sacrifice the whole galaxy.

Finn and Rose also arrive, trying to save Rey by shooting at Kylo, ​​but as he did with Poe, he manages to block the laser and the two assailants.

kylo: Rey, I never lied to you and I never really wanted to kill you. I won't even do it today, take my vehicle and your friends if you want and leave, forget about this war, if you are not ready to make sacrifices.

rey: i'm ready to sacrifice myself.

kylo: I also had to sacrifice something, my humanity

rey looks painfully at kylo

kylo: that's why I'm letting you go. With my vehicle nobody will dare to stop you.

rey, finn and rose start, but rey first says one last thing to kylo

rey: Ben, at least I want you to know that I was really tempted to accept your proposal that time, just because I know there is still some good in you.

that said, they leave while Kylo rejoins the troops. Meanwhile Poe decides to call Hux.

Poe: then we agree. Tell everyone that the girl accepted the inheritance of her grandfather Palpatine.

Hux in his room smiles.

SCENE 8

the news of Palpatine's heir had its effect, many were the defections of the old admirals, which also joined some local troops, while resistance seems to have intensified. The first order has suffered big losses, but it is reorganizing itself and launching a counterattack. In the Kylo war room, Hux and the other officers are preparing the decisive battle in the solar system of Naboo. The plan includes a battle between space cruisers and a battle on the ground for control of the planet. After the meeting everyone returns to their rooms, first we follow Hux, who has a secret meeting with his loyalists and ren's knights.

hux: everything is going according to plan, the final battle will be on Naboo, when we are at the end of our strength we will also intervene and finally we will triumph our ideal. Kylo and the girl, however, you will have to eliminate them, knights of ren, and thus carry out your revenge.

officer1: and what about resistance?

hux: we will also need them to balance the forces on the field, but we must provide them with new means; where can we meet them?

official2: Jakku is a loyal planet and far enough away, we can fix it there.

hux: perfect, prepare everything.

the scene moves to Kylo's room where Luke appears as a ghost of strength.

kylo: it looks like i can't get rid of you, even after your death.

luke: Ben, I warned you that if I hit me I would always be with you. I'm here to warn you; the path you have taken will not bring you anything good and you know it too, otherwise why would you have let Rey go, with a meaningless excuse?

kylo: killing her would only make way for unnecessary feelings that a leader cannot have to hold the galaxy together, as when I killed Han Solo.

luke: at least you're admitting that you have feelings for her. Don't make the same mistake as your grandfather, believe in who believes in you!

kylo: (snorts) the only thing that interests her are her friends and her resistance, I was just a means of getting rid of Snoke. it was only because of the little Ben Solo that was left in me that he was able to achieve his goal, but now even that small part of me has gone with her.

luke: amazing, once again everything you said is wrong! it is precisely because that part of you that you think has disappeared becomes stronger every day that I can be here in front of you. and if you look clearly in strength, you will also know that for Rey you are as important as she is for you.

luke vanishes and kylo remains alone and thoughtful

SCENE 9

Poe, Finn and Rose (and others of the resistance) meet on Jakku

poe: guys, how are you? and Rey?

rose: we are fine, but Rey is quite down, being defeated by Kylo Ren was a serious blow and the fact that you made her famous as a Palpatine made her anything but pleasure.

finn: I still managed to contact her during her training and she said she will come.

meanwhile they walk through the village where Rey worked, it seems bigger and with more life. Rey is coming.

rey: Poe, how could you !!

poe: you're right, but I won't apologize. The situation was desperate and thanks to my decision the first order is now faltering.

rey: you don't understand, I'm not Palpatine's granddaughter !!!

poe: how can you say that? a hidden girl on Jakku, sensitive to force, is practically your description.

rey: I repeat to you that it's impossible!

poe: even if it were, the description fits perfectly and thanks to this we have broken the power of Kilo Ren.

rose: Rey, why are you so sure you're not Palpatine's granddaughter?

rey: (ashamed) because ... because ... because my parents were the bad guys who sold me for buying a drink.

everyone is surprised and embarrassed

finn: Rey, how did the training go?

rey: honestly, badly. It seems that no matter how much effort it takes, I have less and less strength ..

poe: and this is where I enter the scene! don't worry about your loss of shape, today they will give us new means by which we can finally destroy Ren and his kingdom !!

in the meantime some people are approaching, including the old woman seen in the foece awakening that worked with Rey.

man1: Rey, it's you then! I didn't think I would see you again!

rey: man1, how nice to see you again !, Old woman! but how are you?

old: since you left things have changed a lot and for the better

rey: what happened?

man1: the supreme leader Kylo Ren !!

old woman: yes, one day he came here with his troops and freed us. Now we no longer work for the minimum food ration in order not to die, but we receive a fair compensation. As you can see we have money and we can afford to live in real houses by putting something aside.

man1: here we are all loyal to the supreme leader. some even enlisted to fight alongside him. what are you doing here?

rey: (visibly confused) well, I have deals I have to attend to.

after greeting the old acquaintances, he heads out of the country to meet Hux for the delivery of new fighters. After the resistance took possession of the new means, while they are heading towards Naboo, Rey decides to deviate the route and go to Ahch-too.

SCENE 10

Rey gets out of Kylo's vehicle and heads determinedly towards the dark side area.

luke: Rey, you won't find any answer there!

rey: master Luke! how can you still be here?

luke: I became a ghost of force, because I still had something to teach you.

rey: master Luke, I'm confused, I don't know what is right anymore! I thought I could stop Ben, to bring justice back to the galaxy, that he only wanted to crush the population !!

luke: and why are you confused now?

rey: he came to Jakku and really freed everyone who was in my same situation. If I think about how much we waited for someone to make such a noble gesture! and instead now in the resistance we speak only of destruction ... I thought I could distinguish between right and wrong, but now I don't know anymore !!

luke: Rey, every generation has to face their choices and understand where the right and the wrong are. Open your heart to the force and you will find the answers.

rey: now i just feel that my heart is broken, master luke, help me.

luke: maybe knowing my family history will help you. As you know my father was Dart Vader, but his real name was Anakin Skywalker and together with his mother he was a slave boy with no future on Tatoonie, despite the fact that the republic still existed at that time.

rey: I didn't know this was his origin, I feel I have a lot in common with him, this thing scares me a little ...

luke: not many know these details, we often like to idealize the past and see only what we want. One day, however, a very particular group of people arrived who had broken the course, They were a young girl with her escort who also included Jedi, since that girl was the queen of Naboo and was also my mother, Padme Amidala. Incidentally they came into contact with my father and realized that his predisposition to the force was exceptional and then redeemed him to make him a jedi, convinced that he was the boy announced by an old prophecy according to which he would restore balance in the force. However at the end of his training, when he was already an adult, he met my mother again and they fell in love. But a jedi cannot bind to an exclusive love, moreover she had become a senator and she feared that the scandal would overwhelm not only her life , but also his work and therefore decided to marry in secret. I think this was the beginning of my father's descent to the dark side.

rey: do you mean that those who undertake the ways of the force must forget their affections? what are we fighting for then?

luke: it was the vanity in wanting to keep up appearances, the greed of not facing the consequences of one's choices that placed malice in their hearts. from here the tragedy began. If they had acted in the open, they certainly would have had to give up the life they had known until then, but they could have started a new one, in the light of the sun. Instead, due to the constant fear of losing everything, my father let himself be seduced by the dark side, became a sith in the service of Chancellor Palpatine and together they destroyed the Jedi and established the regime of the empire. My mother was unable to follow him on this path and so, after giving birth to my sister and me, she died from the pain of having lost the love of her life.

rey: it's a very sad story, I feel that it touches me deeply, I see so much of the relationship between Ben and me. But how did you manage to defeat your father and the emperor?

luke: (laughing) but I didn't defeat the emperor, it was my father!

rey: how ?? but wasn't he a disciple of his? I knew that you had faced and defeated them to destroy the empire.

luke: it was true that I was part of the resistance and that I had already clashed with Vader, but when I finally found out that he was my father, I understood why I always felt uncomfortable dealing with him: he was still good in him and I could no longer ignore him . So I left the political struggle aside and decided that I wanted to bring my father back into the light. Once in his presence, however, there was also the emperor, who manipulating our feelings pushed us to fight in order to bring me to the dark side; It was in the heat of battle that I realized that from violence I would get nothing, so I threw my sword. The emperor took advantage of the thing to attack me and this moved my father, who understood that the love he felt for me, his son, exceeded all the life he had spent in the dark side and killed him the emperor, dying he too shortly thereafter.

Rey looks thoughtful for a while, then shows a serene look.

rey: thanks master Luke, now i know what i have to do. And sorry, but I can't be a jedi ...

luke: Rey, may the force be with you!

rey leaves

SCENE 10

the main scene is the battle between loyalist and separatist cruisers, with an uncertain outcome, and battles on the ground around the royal palace can also be seen. Kylo Ren is located there. Rey arrives and manages to land as a member of the resistance in the separatist controlled area. At this point Hux reveals his cards and attacks both factions by bringing them to their knees. In particular, with two knights of Ren assaults Rey and nostalgic officers (separatists).

SCENE 11

separatista1: Hux, what does this mean?

hux: (laughing satisfied) that you all fell into my trap. But did you really believe that the emperor could have had a child he cared about? and that a waste rummage was his granddaughter? nostalgic fools blinded by pride like my father. And you will end it.

rey: it won't go as you think, Ben and I will stop you.

hux: I don't know who this Ben is, but you're going to have a bad end. Knights of Ren fix them all !!

rey fights against the two riders of ren and manages to defeat them, at this point he also captures Hux.

separatista1: will you kill us now?

rey: why should i?

separatista2: because we have been defeated.

rey: I don't kill anyone for such a reason, consider yourself defeated and under arrest though.

separatista1: certainly, there is still a minimum of honor left in us.

rey: perfect, and keep hux in custody too.

hux: what do you think you can do now? Kylo will be dead too, you have defeated two of the knights, but the rest have gone to look after him.

Rey then takes a vehicle and leaves for kylo.

SCENE 12

Kylo fights against Ren's knights and defeats them, but is injured

SCENE 13

Kylo is sitting on a staircase when Rey arrives with the activated sword.

kylo: in the end they sent you to kill me? apparently I can't escape this fate.

rey: you're wrong, i didn't come to take your life, but the opposite. (turns off the sword and throws it away). I finally made it clear in my heart: I love you and I know that you love me too, and I don't want to live a day away from you anymore. But at the same time I cannot follow you on the path of the dark side, so I beg you, go back to the light side and I will stay with you whatever life you decide to do; it doesn't matter that you want to be the new emperor, a smuggler like your father was, a farmer like your uncle and a scavenger  like I have been doing all my life, as long as I can be with you it will be the best life I can have.

kylo: (visibly shaken) it is too late for me now, I have committed too many crimes, I have killed my own father and my mother and my uncle are also dead because of me.

rey: you have a whole life to remedy the evil you have done and I will always be by your side. I always knew everything you did as Kylo Ren, but I fell in love with you anyway.

kylo: are you sure what you want? I never thought that Ben Solo could deserve to be loved.

rey: Kylo Ren is just the mask you hid behind all this time, I know, I could know your heart, it's Ben's!

kylo: and your resistance friends? what do you call your family? I don't think they'll ever accept me, are you ready to say goodbye to them?

rey: they will always have a special place in my heart, but i can go on living even if they decide not to want to see me anymore, if i lose you i know i would end up like your grandmother. I would simply stop living.

kylo: I've already made you plead too much, the truth is that I can't tell you no whatever request you make. The same things you said are true for me too, in these three years it has seemed to me that I am no longer alive, I regretted every single day that I did not do more to convince you to grab my hand in the Snoke tron ​​room. But…

meanwhile Rey has approached Kylo and, smiling, puts her hand on his face

rey: but?

kylo: I feel I don't deserve all this, to be loved, to be happy.

rey: i know we both deserve it

Rey approaches his mouth and they kiss

kylo: I'm afraid we won't be able to enjoy it for long, unless you find a doctor ...

SCENE 14

Kylo continues to lose blood, Rey takes him to the royal palace in search of treatment. They find C3PO which recognizes Rey and Ben as the son of Leia and Han and consequently as the last real descendant of Naboo, and so the staff takes courage and takes care of Ben. Meanwhile, the last remaining force on the field is the resistance that is determined to kill Kylo Ren. The rebels surround the royal palace and put it under siege

SCENE 15

Poe orders the few guards to turn Kylo Ren over to him, but gets refused, so they prepare for the siege. When the fight is about to begin Rey arrives.

poe: Rey, how nice to see you! did you defeat Kylo Ren? we won?

rey: no. Ben is fine and I'm not here to fight him. (to everyone) The battle is over, there is no reason to fight anymore, please go away.

poe: what do you mean? all the other armies are gone, this is our chance to kill Kylo and free the galaxy.

Rey retrieves his sword with force and ignites it.

rey: I'm not going to let anyone hurt Ben.

everyone is flabbergasted, especially finn, while Rose seems almost happy.

finn: Rey, what does that mean? Did Kylo Ren do anything to you ??

rey: i'm acting of my will, friends, please, there is no more reason to fight.

finn: but why, how come you defend Kylo Ren ??

rey: (hesitates for a moment) because I love him!

poe: I can't believe it, you have betrayed our ideals for a couple of beautiful eyes !! leave us no choice but the clash !!

finn: Poe, wait! Rey is a friend of ours, we have to give her credit.

poe: you too? but what's wrong with you all? if we don't kill him now we will regret it in the future !!

rose: but if we act in this way, how will we be better than the first order?

the rest of the rebels appear confused, some are on the side of Poe, others on the side of Finn

finn: I'm tired of fighting, if Rey says there is a hope of bringing peace back, I believe her.

rose: and me too!

rey: guys, thanks!

poe: I can't believe my ears !! Rey who passes on to the enemy for a crush, you who give her credit because you are tired !! but have you forgotten about our dead comrades? that he established a dictatorial regime? I can't give up now !!

walking with difficulty Ben also arrives.

ben: what is this noise, sweethart?  

Poe acts instinctively and shoots Ben, but Rey blocks the laser with his sword.

rey: Ben, come on, lean on me

Ben puts his arm around Rey's shoulders, the two look at each other and smile.

rose: you see? we must fight to protect what we love and not to destroy what we hate! Rey is our friend, let's trust her!

poe: Rey, how long have you been cheating on us? I can't believe I didn't notice anything !!

Ben gestures Poe's rifle away.

ben: measure words, you're talking to your empress! (addressing everyone) the war is over, my men are coming. But do not fear, no harm will be done to you, you are free; indeed from now on we will build a new galaxy together.

among the rebels, the reactions are varied, there are those who seem happy, those who are sad. Poe leaves evidently angry immediately, while Finn and Rose embrace each other enthusiastically.

SCENE 16

Finn and Rose visit Rey, they are in a very beautiful room and she is dressed in precious clothes, there is a mannequin with Padme's wedding dress, it is what Rey will also use for her wedding with Kylo. After some general chat they start talking about their new life.

rose: if I think about how we were a few months ago! especially you Rey, you are about to become our empress !!

rey: don't tell me about it, i'm terrified! already so I am overwhelmed by commitments, I dare not imagine what to expect.

finn: it's the same for us too. Reconstitute the senate and work with all those people who have ideas often opposed to ours, it's a nightmare believe me !! I don't know how Ben does it.

finn: by the way, but how did this Skywalker dynasty come to mind?

rey: well, he's always been particularly proud of his origins, so he came up with this embarrassing idea. Among the others.

rose: that is? tell us tell us, what else is embarrassing?

rey: it's actually just sweet and does everything to spoil me, it's just that I'm not used to it at all. But let's talk about you too, is it really so hard to deal with people of the first order?

roses: a little bit, but at least they are all interested in doing the good of the galaxy, even if someone would have preferred to roast it with a laser! But perhaps this time, by putting all the issues together we can build a better future than we would have expected.

rey: but how are things going between you in the private sector?

finn and rose: (embarrassed) well…. but we don't always talk about us !!

rey chuckles.

rey: uh, have you had contact with Poe?

finn: (seriously) well, to tell the truth it's not that he took all this history of the empire well, but at least he found something to do ... the smuggler. You know he always admired Han.

rey: I'm glad you still feel, and let him know that the door here is always open, but the part of the smuggler ... maybe it's better that I pretend I haven't heard, given the role I'm about to play.

rose: ok, now just chat, FInn go out that Rey has to prepare for the ceremony, now there are few hours left.

the ceremony is held on the same staircase as the other scene, the officiant is halfway up. Ben and Rey arrive and say yes and then kiss.

Then they start to climb again and two thrones-like chairs have been placed at the top of the staircase and the two spouses are announced to the people as Emperor Ben Solo and Empress Rey Solo of the Skywalker dynasty. The celebrations start and at the end we see the silhouettes of Ben and Rey kissing again.

END

[daikini-san]

Sephiroth in Midgar?  This early?  Theories as to why.

Why was Sephiroth shown in Midgar so early in the game in the FF7: R trailer?  

Here's some theories I have, including a speculation.  

If you are new to the world of FF7, there are spoilers.  You've been warned.

While everyone is flipping out about Aeris/Aerith in trailer, not many ask the question why Sephiroth is shown so early in the game.  In the original game, you didn't get a glimpse of Sephiroth until Cloud's flashback story in Kalm.  Here's some theories as to what may be going on in the FF7: R trailer.

Theory 1:  Cloud is experiencing psychosis.  

As it appears, Cloud is alone.  Therefore, it is hard to say if he is the only one who can see Sephiroth.  In the original game, Cloud is known to suffer serious mental aliments due to the many traumas he endured.  Could the explosion of the bomb during his mission trigger hallucinations of the fires in Nibelheim?  PTSD is known to cause hallucinations as well as Schizophrenia.  Take note of Cloud's facial expression just before it pans to the back of Sephiroth.  Then take note of the next frame.  What is this?  Cloud is now cowering.  Well, that doesn't make sense.  He was just looking straight up the frame prior.  Something to keep in mind.  

Theory 2: Cloud sees a projection of Sephiroth while he is on his mission with Barrett and crew in Midgar.

In the original game, it is known Sephiroth has the power to project images of himself to anyone of his choosing from the Carter.  What if what Cloud saw was real-just a projection of Sephiroth?  It would be nice if it showed the others around Cloud, if they were in fact anywhere near him.  I would really like to know if anyone else aside from Cloud could see Sephiroth.  This brings me to my speculation.

Speculation: Sephiroth is the driving force behind Cloud joining Avalanche.  

Okay let's be honest, Cloud doesn't give a damn about his job.  It's like that in the original game.  “What about the planet?!” Barrett would ask.  “Not my problem.” Cloud would dryly say.  Look at his attitude when Aeris/Aerith greets him in the FF7: R trailer.  He has an air of apathy about him.  Now, note Barrett, Jessie, and Biggs (Interesting Wedge is not shown in this trailer at all).  Look and hear the passion in their voices and body language.  They're on a mission to save the planet!  This is their job, but this is what they want to do.  Cloud doesn't have that same energy.  He doesn't care. So then why would he do it then?  He needed the money?  I'm not sure about that one.  Tifa did mention in the original game that she persuaded him to join Avalanche.  It could very well be possible she was the sole mover and shaker behind him joining Avalanche.  However, what Sephiroth says in the trailer:  “Can you bear to see the Planet suffer, Cloud?”  has me thinking he had something to do with Cloud joining Avalanche.  As we know, Sephiroth despises Shinra and anything about them.  Thus, would it be far-fetched to believe Sephiroth coaxed Cloud into joining Avalanche?  The group already has the attitude of dismantling Shinra.  Surely, Sephiroth noticed this and wanted his puppet to join the fray.  I do not recall, but I wonder if Avalanche did something as deadly as blowing up Reactors prior to Cloud's arrival.  Something to think about.  Then look at Cloud's face after Sephiroth says these words.

To me, it seems he's taking Sephiroth's words to heart, but he's also hesitating and there's fear in those eyes.  What could be the cause of this fear?  Is it the projection of Sephiroth?  Is it psychosis? Or is it the power behind Sephiroth’s words?  

EDIT:  You actually do see Wedge in this trailer.  Look to the left side of Jessie, you’ll see him running with them.