#adjacent. it's part of the saga | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

david-talks-sw · 11 months

Text

An allergy to the Prequels

While I'm putting together a post about the evolution Lucasfilm's transmedia strategies, this part kinda turned into its own thing!

So I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but, uh... there hasn't been that much Prequel content since the Disney sale, right?

'Couple novels and comics, some episodes... but nothing meaningful.

The more I look into it, the more it feels like a deliberate avoidance to touch on anything Prequel-related - beyond the required quota, that is - to a point where they'd rather tell stories set during periods that are Prequel-adjacent (Dark Times, High Republic) than something set around Episodes I, II and III.

On-screen policy: "pretend they never happened"

I mean, this one's no secret. When The Force Awakens had been announced, with J.J. Abrams at the helm, everyone sighed in relief. "Finally, George Lucas won't keep ruining the franchise."

When Abrams had been announced as the director of Episode VII, I remember this cringey animated video started circulating online, titled "4 Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again" or "Dear JJ Abrams":

“Star Wars isn’t shiny and clean... Star Wars is a western.”

If you ask me, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

'Cause Star Wars has always been both, for many Prequel kids. Both clean and dusty, Coruscant and Tatooine. There was never a disconnect between the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy.

Even the documentary The People vs George Lucas shows Prequel-hating fans begrudgingly admit their kids felt all six episodes tied seamlessly.

Abrams, on the other hand, said: "I think [the "Dear JJ" video] was right on." Later on, he also said:

he considered "putting Jar Jar Binks's bones in the desert" on Jakku, somewhere, and

he intentionally made the lightsaber fights "rougher", "primitive" and "more powerful" unlike the fast-paced ones in the Prequels.

Later, we found out he wanted to blow up Coruscant.

It's clear he wasn't a big fan of the Prequels.

But y'know what? Not many fans over 20 were, at the time. And when The Force Awakens came out, most them celebrated it as a wonderful love letter to the OT.

Star Wars is cool again. Mission accomplished 🙌 !

However movies keep coming out, and references to the Prequels - if there are any - are literally just that... references.

Sometimes in the shape of a cameo ("hey look, Genevieve O'Reilly from the Ep. III deleted scenes is playing Mon Mothma again!")

Sometimes in a name (Luke name-dropped "Darth Sidious"!)

But nothing set during the Prequel era, and nothing treating the events that happened in that period as relevant or impactful, beyond subtextual nods.

In fact, the trend of avoiding anything Prequel-related continues as the final film in the Skywalker Saga comes out:

The Rise of Skywalker has a secret Sith society that chants the name "Palpatine" instead of his Sith name "Darth Sidious",

the film pretends the Kaminoans never existed,

and neither TROS nor Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script even try to bring Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker back on screen. Let that sink in, we're talking about the Chosen One, Skywalker Senior, whose sins caused this whole mess... and his name isn't even uttered once in the final chapter of what Disney dubbed the *Skywalker* Saga (or the entire Sequel trilogy, for that matter).

But hey, The Clone Wars got renewed for one last Season! That's cool right? So many stories had gone unfinished and somehow the animation looks even better than befo--

-- oh. It's not 22 episodes? Only 12?

Four of which had already been shown to us, but hey! We need to set-up the Bad Batch series, so let's shoehorn those episodes in there, and forget Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple or Crystal Crisis.

*sigh* Better than nothing, I guess.

In other mediums: "just not a priority"

Now this is something that I'll explore more in the transmedia post (and purely my interpretation), but the noticeable change between Lucasfilm's transmedia strategy *post-ROTS* and the one post-Disney sale is that:

Before, the games, comics and novels were the main content. After all, Revenge of the Sith had been released, so that was it, for the movies. Thus, a variety of other content was being cranked out to keep the Star Wars franchise relevant. There were comics set 100 years after Episode 6, comics set 25,000 years prior, games set in the Old Republic era, other stories in the New Republic era, novels galore, a couple of parody films and an animated show, The Clone Wars, which sometimes received its own tie-in comics, novels and games.

After the sale and ever since, most of the transmedia products have had only one goal: promoting the films & streaming shows.

So while in 2015 you won't see an abundance of Prequel content... you'll see an avalanche of OT books and comics come out.

Why? Because the heroes of that era will be in the Sequel Trilogy movies. It provided context to the kids who hadn't seen the OT yet, and reintroduced those films to a new generation of fans, while priming them for the Sequels.

A multimedia marketing strategy that ultimately proved successful.

However, it continued even after The Force Awakens came out.

Don't believe me? Compare how many comics there have been set during the Prequel era vs the OT era.

If they make comics about the Prequels, they're limited runs.

Case in point: before the current Yoda series, the best any Disney Prequel-set comic series ever got was 6 issues.

Note: it's worth pointing out that the frequency of mini-series aren't just a Star Wars-specific thing, it's a comic book industry thing. The readership for comics is dwindling, many people are reading scans online, and so no publisher wants to commit to a story that lasts more than 4-6 issues. My problem is: there absolutely would be readership for a Prequel comic series to warrant an extended run instead of a mini-series.

Let's talk books. There have been give or 64 canon novels published since the Disney sale.

Only 11 of them are set during the Prequel era. And even those stories only came out when the planets were aligned.

Almost half of them were released while being a part of some bigger multimedia push.

Example:

Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was being released on Disney Plus, we'd had one novel and like two comic stories about him during the Prequels... released between 2012 and end 2021. That's about three pieces of content in almost ten years.

Clearly a low frequency.

Then, when the series is around the corner, two books and a comic story comes out in the space of months, plus an anthology book with an alt cover with his face on it and a comic with a story of him and Anakin in the first issue, all in 2022.

My takeaway: short of there being a film or series that needs to be promoted, you'll rarely get any Prequel comics or books.

And this is OBI-WAN we're talking about. The character who even the Prequel haters love. Imagine how little attention the other ones get.

Gaming-wise, Battlefront had no Prequel content at all (again, 2015 was the year where OT content was shoved down the consumer's throats to prep them for Episode VII), and Battlefront 2 only released Prequel content a full year later.

All that being said, we did seen some Prequel elements here and there. After all, some actors got to reprise their roles, books and comics came out featuring Prequel characters... but there's a catch.

The stories they appear in are set in-between Episodes III and IV, a time-period known as "the Dark Times" or the "Imperial era".

"Dark Times" being used instead of the Prequel era

It's easy to see the appeal of this era. You keep the same threat from the Original Trilogy - the Empire - but redress it with Prequel elements... while also cherry-picking the best characters of both the OT and the Prequels and giving them a chance to shine again.

The situation is more clear cut, as opposed to the complex one in the Prequels. Bad guys are stormtroopers, good guys are anyone else. And the stories no longer take place in the shiny capital, you're back on the frontier.

But at this point... it feels like a cop-out.

When you consider how much content has been set during the Dark Times, it's nothing to sneeze at. Since the sale, we've had:

2 movies (Solo, Rogue One)

4 series set in that time-period (namely The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Star Wars: Rebels).

2 video-games (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor).

17 novels (such as Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, the new Thrawn books, etc)

And just a whole bunch of comic book series & mini-series (like Kanan, Princess Leia, various Vader-centric comics including Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith, many tie-in mini-series promoting Rogue One, Jedi: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, etc).

There's been so much content made for this time-period that it feels like an unwillingness to do the work and create something set something during the Prequel era, let alone something that follows its Jedi.

After all, why make a story set in the Prequels (disliked by vocal fans) when you can just take the characters in that story and put them in an OT setting (which will appease the Prequel-haters)?

Maybe these stories get relegated to the Dark Times because:

there seems to be a perception that anything set in the Prequel era won't sell?

or maybe the current SW writers weren't fond of Episodes I, II and III, and don't find those Jedi characters likable, thinking they're too righteous and dogmatic which makes it hard to craft a story around them.

Or maybe it's because they're under the impression that the Prequel Jedi are bad. Like, canonically, in the narrative. Not just in a "I don't like them" sense, but also in a "the story is all about them becoming corrupted" sense.

Let's expand on that last point.

Retconning the Prequels as the "Fall of the Jedi" era

Somehow the rare stories set during the Prequels that we do get seem to automatically be about how "the Jedi lost their way/failed".

The series Tales of the Jedi is explicit about it...

... and I already explained why it contradicts what George Lucas established here and here.

You also see it in Rebels and the new season of The Clone Wars...

... in comics...

... in games...

It gets to a point where the Prequels era has now been redubbed the "Fall of the Jedi" era by Lucasfilm.

You wanna know what that period was referred to before the Disney sale? The "Rise of the Empire" Era.

Because - and I'll never get tired of saying this cuz it's factual - the Prequels aren't about the fall of the Jedi, they're about the fall of the Republic and Anakin, and rise of the Empire and Vader.

So in addition to being overdone, the "Jedi lost their way" is not even the intended narrative of the Prequels (if one puts any stock in Lucas' words). It's a minor subplot at best, hardly the focus of the films, let alone a whole time period.

But dubbing it "Fall of the Jedi" implies that there's another era in which the Jedi were in their heyday.

Because Star Wars authors are in luck! Yet another alternative has presented itself in the shape of a new transmedia initiative, and it's even better than the "let's set it during the Dark Times" solution:

A new transmedia initiative: The High Republic

You wanna deal with the Jedi before the Empire, but for some reason you wanna avoid dealing with the ones seen in the Prequels?

Look no further. Meet the Jedi of the High Republic.

Noble, adventurous, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, they're everything the OT kids dreamed about when they heard ol' Ben Kenobi talk about the Knights of the Old Republic.

That's more like it!

Note: the High Republic was created for other reasons and has many more upsides than the ones mentioned above. Namely, a fresh new spot in the timeline that allows for creative freedom and a beautifully-coordinated transmedia storytelling effort where retcons are non-existent. However it does seem evident that not having to deal with the 'unlikable' Prequel Jedi and their "fall" is one of those upsides.

Another perk that the High Republic era offers is more freedom in terms of storytelling compared to the Prequels.

In 2016, Pablo Hidalgo tweeted he still quotes to authors the following excerpt of West End Games' guide for aspiring Star Wars writers, from 1994.

You can't write "this was the best day in Luke Skywalker's life", for example, because another author may want to write a better day than the one you just wrote.

My guess is that a similar approach applies to how all characters from the movies are treated. They're massively iconic. So you can't write a book that drastically changes how Mace or Yoda or Obi-Wan are perceived overall.

The stories need to be self-contained, disregardable if necessary, because you'll have dozens of writers coming up with new stories for those same characters, and you need to leave them some room.

Examples:

Notice how in the book Dooku: Jedi Lost we never see how Dooku turns to the Dark Side and joins the Sith.

Same goes for crossover comic book arcs of the Star Wars issues, like Vader Down or Crimson Reign... the characters don't really change by much in those comics. You could stick to just watching the movies and you wouldn't really miss anything.

But with The High Republic, you indeed can develop these characters as much as you want.

All stories featuring Avar Kriss leave an impact on her, you can nail down who she is perfectly in one book or one comic arc, both being just as meaningful to her character.

The fact that she's not as iconic/famous a character as Mace Windu means that authors can go to town on crafting an interesting and nuanced character arc for her that'll have a beginning, middle and end... something Mace will never really get.

CONCLUSION:

Back in 2015... let's not kid ourselves. The Prequels were unpopular and Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation. Opting to make as much money as possible is what they do.

It's the same reason they decided not to go with George Lucas' original plans for the Sequels, in 2012.

I mean, imagine you're Disney. You just dropped 4 billion dollars, with a B, on this franchise. Your next Star Wars movie needs to be worth the price tag. Now, you can pick between two options:

Option #1 is uncharted territory and it explores the midi-chlorians (the cursed word…!) and the guy who presented you with this option also openly admits that a big chunk of customers won’t like it, but he wants this to be done because it’s his vision.

Option #2 is very simple: a soft reboot, that plays on nostalgia that the same chunk of customers (aka the 'boomer and Gen-X fans who grew up with the Original Trilogy and now have kids, grandkids and MONEY) will like.

It's a no-brainer. They gave the customers what they wanted.

But time has passed, the fans who were children when the Prequels first came out have grown up, and grew up with characters like Yoda, Mace, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and other Jedi as their heroes, aside from main characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more?

No, let's either ignoring the storytelling potential of these characters or reducing it to them being "righteous, arrogant and dogmatic".

God forbid we get a story showing the Prequel Jedi in a *gasp* more positive light? One where their POV is more understandable, instead of the same old "we brought this on ourselves" storyline.

There's a whole decade between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... you're telling me there's no space to show us Anakin's training and how he formed bonds with the Jedi we later see in The Clone Wars? I tried my hand at it here:

Interesting or fun Prequel-set ideas from other pro-Jedi fans on Tumblr can be found here, here and here.

And y'know, part of the Star Wars intent is for fans to take the ideas in the movies and come up with their own stories. You're supposed to create headcanons.

What I'm saying is fans of the Prequels are being given less "imagination food" than the rest, and many of us who like the Jedi in particular are forced to rely on headcanons only. "Better than nothing" is no longer an acceptable standard.

There's a range of recognizable Jedi characters that have already been established in films and TCW, can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more, instead of whole new ones?

#jedi order #star wars #sw meta #long post #meta #lucasfilm #star wars prequels #prequel trilogy #sw prequels #high republic #the high republic #dark times #imperial era #the clone wars #tcw #sw negativity

337 notes · View notes

theoutcastrogue · 1 month

Text

Tagged by @st-just (thanks!) to just press shuffle on my general listening playlist 10 times and relate the results.

Thing is, I don't have a general playlist, only current ones, and I'm currently making a mixtape of execution ballads. So sadly, you're not getting any variety. You're either getting a preview of the project (I wanna make a booklet for this, I'm aiming for the moon, baby!), OR, since the grander the project the higher the chances of me never finishing it, a taste of what could have been.

The Dubliners - Sam Hall (a classic execution ballad with many versions, some of which brim with rage, while this one is rather stoic and dignified)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Up jumped the devil (a song about a man doomed from the start to play the villain's part, and the origin of this blog's #swinging from the gallows tree tag)

Johnny Cash - 25 minutes to go (peak gallows humour at Folsom Prison, uproariously funny and defiant, and somehow still conveying the terror of a man who doesn't want to die)

Let's Play Dead - Heaven and Hell (an execution ballad recently written for the series Harlots)

Brown Bird - Gallows (an alt-folk song not strictly about gallows, but adjacent)

Joan Baez - Long black veil (a country ballad about a man falsely accused of murder, who lets himself get dragged to gallows because he won't reveal his alibi: an affair with his best friend's wife)

Ewan MacColl - Go down ye murderers (a folk song about Tim Evans, who hanged for the murder of his wife and child in 1950; the real murderer confessed 3 years later, and the case played a major role in abolishing capital punishment in the UK)

The Tiger Lillies - Hang tomorrow (the pioneers of dark cabaret reimagine Brecht's Threepenny Opera, and here, disturbingly, take all the suaveness out of Macheath)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat (the Mercy Seat is the electric chair, and this is a torrent of a song, a whirlwind, a masterpiece, a 7-minute cynic snarl)

Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock - Ballade des pendus - The OG Ballad of the Hanged, written in the 15th century by the OG poète maudit, François Villon. It paints an indelible picture:

Tagging: @tuulikki, @lafcadiosadventures, @niannianyabao, @honourablejester, @swordsagedachsie,

@mrspookyfox, @vanwolffen, @ffxiv-swarm, @thelivingautomaton, everyone at @weareadventurers and anyone who wants to

#swinging from the gallows tree #prison ballads #trs #folk

43 notes · View notes

lightningonatether · 1 year

Text

OKAY

list of C!DREAM BLOB LIKE ANIMAL submissions

the criteria was white, tiny, and blob-looking. LET ME KNOW if you'd want me to run a dranimal poll with all of these afterwards it might be a fun dreblr activity. Thanks everyone who contributed :3

heres all of them with a little bit of propaganda for each:

this tiny bird called the long-tailed tit. its Literally just a blob. very good. approved. imagine its fragile breakable wings

2. white mouse! also very good. very blob. innocent and loves to scurry around. perfect size for handholding.

3. Ermine!! this is a little on the bigger side, but its also so silly and a little bloodthristy. fits cdream pretty well

4. ghost bat! i think this is appropriately tiny, also a predator, and has both a silly face AND a fitting name

5. White sugar glider. look at him. he is so stupid. big beady eyes. tiny and fluffy. this is what sam locked in the prison.

6. a puss moth! i think this is the tiniest guyon the list. c!dream butterfly imagery anyone?

7. white hamster. this is both incredibly blob adjacent and ALSO. have you seen those angry hamster videos? its our guy <3

8. snowy owl. hes a little too big to hold in your hand but hes got the blob spirit. is there a single thought behind those eyes?

9. jerboa! this thing is So miserable and fragile looking. for a tiny blob form its pretty perfect

10. a gerbil! now this ones good because this whole saga started as a part of my plushie au, so I asked for animals a pallas cat might hunt. gerbils are one of them, so i might have a bit of a bias...

#dreblr #c!dream

154 notes · View notes

hanzajesthanza · 2 years

Text

what does dandelion (jaskier) look like in the books?

(jaskier (buttercup) also translated as dandelion, marigold, larkspur, and lovage...)

this post is a third installment in my "witcher character descriptions in the books" series.

physical appearance

physical build

Bounds of Reason, Pt. III: Beside him, a slim man with a fanciful little plum hat pulled down over his eyes, adorned with a silver buckle and a long, twitching heron’s feather, was reclining, gently plucking the strings of a lute.

Eternal Flame, Pt. I: A slim man in a little plum hat with a white feather jumped aside like a scalded cat, and the flowerpot crashed onto the ground just in front of him, shattering into pieces.

Something More, Pt. VIII: He looked down. A slim man in a cherry jerkin and a little hat with an egret’s feather was jumping up and down and waving his arms on an abandoned cart loaded with cages which had been shoved off the highway.

dandelion is slimly built.

a good start to this post would be to remember that n*tflix is only one in a line of adaptations, and it's not the first where jaskier's appearance has not matched that of the books - from an interview in 2001 where sapkowski answered questions from fans, one fan explained all the reasons for why he did not agree with the hexer's casting for jaskier. in his opinion, zbigniew zamachowski was, quote...

Kaszycki Nestor: Next - troubadour, Jaskier - he is pretty, young, popular with women, he is athletic (jumping on the roof in "Blood of Elves" and entering through the window to find Geralt and Shani). And unfortunately Mr. Zamachowski, in my humble opinion, does not have all these features. I know that the film does not have to be a true reflection of the book, but please, have some limits! The stories are really of the best quality, I wish you further successes and I hope that the film will be released soon, staying true to what you really wrote.

sapkowski, of course, replied that it was not his fault because the adaptations are not his to meddle in:

AS: All comments - especially requests - are directed at the wrong address. After all, like all vain artists I consider my work the only creative material. Sapkowski answers the questions of the active users of "Sapkowski Zone" (2001)

the fan is, of course, referring to this scene, which, to his credit, is indicative of a degree of dandelion's athleticism, likely gained over the years from escaping out bedroom windows of his various fiancees when their husbands arrived home:

Blood of Elves, Ch. 5: He slipped unseen into the garret, clambered out by the window vent, slid down by way of the gutter onto the roof of the library, and – nearly breaking his leg – jumped across onto the roof of the dissecting theatre. From there he got into the garden adjacent to the wall. Amidst the dense gooseberry bushes he found a hole which he himself had made bigger when a student. Beyond the hole lay the town of Oxenfurt. (...) He merged into the crowd, then quickly sneaked down the backstreets, dodging like a hare chased by hounds. (...) He climbed the ladder to the thatch and leaped onto the roof (...) Gripping the moss-covered roof tiles, he finally arrived at the window of the attic he was aiming for. An oil lamp was burning inside the little room. Perched precariously on the guttering, Dandelion knocked on the lead frames (...)

it's also worth mentioning that dandelion is able to pick up and swing around essi "little eye", who is like a sister to him. she is described as a young woman, not older than eighteen, and very slim.

A Little Sacrifice, Pt. III: "Ech, Puppet." Dandelion seized the girl around the waist, picked her up and spun her around so that her dress billowed around her.

although he does, i won't mention the part where dandelion picks up yennefer because it's spoilers for the very end of the saga and it's insinuated that he had help in doing so... but also for context, yennefer is "short, even in high heels" (the last wish) and "willowy, slender" (a shard of ice) so she, like essi, also likely doesn't weigh too much.

i'll also mention that dandelion sometimes exercises good judgement in quickly dodging or leaping aside when he needs to, but is not prone to bouts of athleticism or agility. he just seems... pretty average.

if you want more specifics, just think of a poet who spends half of his time writing, half of his time in brothels, half of his time in restaurants, and half of his time starving alongside an equally starving witcher. and none of his time at the gym :)

hair and eyes

Eternal Flame, Pt. IV: Tellico straightened up abruptly. His face’s features, still those of the Witcher, blurred and spread out, and his white hair curled and began to darken.

Note: The context for this scene is that Tellico (otherwise known as Dudu), a doppler (also known as mimic - a shapeshifting creature), has taken Geralt's form but is now taking Dandelion's, so the description here is of comparing Geralt's features to Dandelion's. White is the absence of color, so changing it to any color at all would have "darkened" it... though this passage was misleading before Season of Storms (which explicitly calls Dandelion blond) was published in 2013, and led many to believe Dandelion has dark hair.

however, he is also stated to have fair hair on his chin in the story following eternal flame, a little sacrifice:

A Little Sacrifice, Pt. III: The troubadour looked down at the ground and scratched his chin, which was covered in light, soft stubble (jasnym, miękkim zarostem). Drouhard, mouth gaping, moved closer.

i've also seen this translated as "peach fuzz".

and in the mentioned season of storms, he's blond:

Season of Storms, Ch. 4: (...) A dandy in a fanciful hat with an egret feather stuck into it, with shoulder-length blond hair curled with irons.

it's also mentioned in the original saga that his hair is long and curly:

Baptism of Fire, Ch. 2: As for Dandelion the dandy, he had already been mistaken a few times for an elf or half-elf, especially since he had started wearing his hair to his shoulders and occasionally used curling irons.

dandelion has shoulder-length hair blonde hair, which he often curls with irons.

Bounds of Reason, Pt. III: A pair of cheerful cornflower-blue (modre) eyes shone from under the bonnet, now shoved back on his head.

dandelion has blue eyes.

age

Blood of Elves, Ch. 5: "I know you’re almost forty, look almost thirty, think you’re just over twenty and act as though you’re barely ten."

Tower of the Swallow, Ch. 3: "You, Dandelion, are still not forty. Writing was drummed into you in the temple-cliff school with a cane in the butt when you were eight. Even if we assume that you have written rhymes ever since, you’ve served your mistress poetry no longer than thirty years."

dandelion is in his mid-to-late 30s during the saga and "looks" to be in his late 20s or early 30s.

and yes, he was at least in his 20s when he met geralt. here's why:

he is already a famous poet during the time in which he first met geralt in edge of the world:

Edge of the World, Pt. I: “Eh, famous witcher? Haven't you wondered why?” “I have, famous poet. And I know why.”

he only became famous after studying for four years, then did a fifth year teaching, and had to gain fame over at least "several" more years of travelling:

Blood of Elves, Ch. 5: (...) considering he had studied there [at Oxenfurt] for four years, then had lectured for a year in the Faculty of Trouvereship and Poetry. The post of lecturer had been offered to him when he had passed his final exams with full marks, to the astonishment of professors with whom he had earned the reputation of lazybones, rake and idiot during his studies. Then, when, after several years of roaming around the country with his lute, his fame as a minstrel had spread far and wide, the Academy had taken great pains to have him visit and give guest lectures.

and he only "seriously" began poetry when he was nineteen:

Tower of the Swallow, Ch. 3: "(...) But I don’t have to assume, because you yourself have frequently said that you started seriously rhyming and composing melodies when you were nineteen, inspired by the love of Countess de Stael. That makes one less than twenty years of service, Dandelion."

though it's worth noting that shani, a medical student at oxenfurt, is seventeen years old and in her third year, and it's also referenced in other areas of the series that novices at aretuza also begin their schooling around 14 years of age, if dandelion began his schooling at oxenfurt when he was 14, the comment about him seriously beginning poetry at 19 would make no sense because he would have already graduated by then. so perhaps there are different starting ages for girls and boys?

it can be estimated that dandelion started his education at the academy of oxenfurt when he was 18-20 years of age, due to the specific reference that he seriously became involved with lady poetry when he was 19 years old.

i'll say 18, and adding 4 years to this, he would have been 22 when he graduated, and 23 as a lecturer. now let's say "several" is around 3 to 5 years of travelling. he would have been in his mid-to-late 20s by the time he became famous, and in his late 20s by the time he met geralt. (and if you indeed want to have him enrolled in oxenfurt at 14, he would still be in his mid-20s by the time he meets geralt).

"that doesn't make sense because of the amount of time that passed between the short stories and the saga—" and i'm telling you, it doesn't need to. i may write a longer post about dandelion as a litmus test for geralt's character development throughout the series at some time, but the fact of the matter is that sapkowski likely just forgot about dandelion's age being a plausible thing, because it mattered so little in relation to the actually important parts of his character.

clothing

buckle up, buttercup! i've decided to chronologically structure this section of the post because dandelion features a myriad of outfits throughout the saga and he's described as wearing something different almost every time we see him; however, there are also some steadfast articles of clothing of his, which i'll make note of at the end. but these are all the times in which i can remember his outfit being mentioned.

edge of the world, pt. i

They climbed onto the cart. The witcher stretched out comfortably on the straw. Dandelion, evidently afraid of getting his elegant green jerkin (kubrak) dirty, sat on the plank. Nettly clucked his tongue at the horses and the vehicle clattered along the beam-reinforced dyke.

the last wish, pt. vii

“That's all. And now…” Dandelion pulled himself up, brushed his jerkin, adjusted his collar and fancy—if dirty—jabot (żabot). “…perhaps, gentlemen, you'd like to tell me the name of the best tavern in town and where it can be found.”

the voice of reason, pt. 5

A peal of laughter and the strumming of a lute resounded in the corridor and there, on the threshold of the library, stood Dandelion in a lilac jerkin with lace cuffs, his hat askew. The troubadour bowed exaggeratedly at the sight of Nenneke, the heron feather pinned to his hat sweeping the floor.

season of storms, ch. 4

Geralt didn’t know who he [the person who had intervened] was. But he knew perfectly well who the noble-looking man’s companion was. A dandy in a fanciful hat with an egret feather stuck into it, with shoulder-length blond hair curled with irons. Wearing a doublet the colour of red wine and a shirt with a lace ruffle. Along with his ever-present lute and with that ever-present insolent smile on his lips.

bounds of reason, pt. viii

Dandelion tried to trip Gar (, but ineffectively; Gar clung to the bard’s rainbow-hued jerkin (tęczowy kubrak) and thumped him between the eyes with his fist. Yarpen Zigrin, leaping from behind, tripped Dandelion, hitting him behind his knees with the haft of a hatchet.

eternal flame, pt. i, pt. iv

‘You don’t keep up with the fashion,’ the bard grimaced, brushing a chicken feather from his gleaming, cornflower-blue kaftan (chabrowego kaftana) with puffed sleeves and a serrated collar. ‘Oh, I’m glad we’ve met (...)’

‘Phew,’ sighed the bard, springing up, ‘I’ve got it. It’s fine, Geralt, we can go now. Admittedly my cloak with the marten collar is still there, but too bad, let it be my grievance. Knowing her she won’t throw the cloak down.

‘Dudu,’ he said to Dandelion’s strangely deformed cordovan boots sticking out of the rolled-up kilim. ‘Copy Biberveldt, and quickly.’

EDIT: note that the polish word kaftan does not refer to the same garment as it does in english, the long robe-like garment, but rather something like an elongated kubrak, (jerkin), reaching below the waist but coming up to above one's knee, long-sleeved or sleeveless. this was specified by @karanfile 💖 thank you!!

a little sacrifice, pt. ii

They had already sold Geralt’s gold signet for food, and an alexandrite brooch the troubadour had once been given as a souvenir by one of his numerous paramours. Things were tight. But no, the Witcher was not angry with Dandelion.

something more, pt. viii

A slim man in a cherry jerkin and a little hat with an egret’s feather was jumping up and down and waving his arms on an abandoned cart loaded with cages which had been shoved off the highway.

blood of elves ch. 1

He got to his feet, fastened his belt and pulled on his jerkin, all the while looking at the nobleman standing at the threshold.

baptism of fire ch. 2

Dandelion dogged Zoltan's company. He wore a quilted jacket he had acquired from the dwarves, and he had replaced his crumpled feathered hat for a marten fur cap that made him look like a scoundrel. In his wide brass studded belt, he had planted a knife he'd been given as a gift, giving him the look of a true rogue. The knife had a bad habit of pricking him in the groin every time he bent forward. Fortunately, he soon lost the roguish dagger and didn't have another to replace it with.

it's worth mentioning that this outfit is likely what he wears for the next month during his travels with geralt through to tower of the swallow / early october.

baptism of fire ch. 5

dandelion is injured in an escape and has to have his head bandaged.

Geralt took off his jacket and tore off a sleeve. The tip of the arrow had scratched Dandelion’s ear, leaving a cut that reached to his temple.

‘I will give you a few stitches,’ Regis said, still not paying any attention to the witcher or his sword. ‘Be brave, Dandelion.’ Dandelion was brave. ‘I’m finished,’ Regis finished his treatment. ‘Between now and the wedding, as they say, you’ll heal. A wound is perfect for a poet, Dandelion. You will walk as a war hero with a big bandage on his head and the heart of the girls who look at you will melt like wax. Yes, truly a poetic wound. (...)’

baptism of fire ch. 7

Behind Regis and Geralt rode Dandelion on Pegasus with his head bandaged like a war hero. Along the way the poet had composed a heroic song, in which military rhymes and melodies resonated and was reminiscent of their recent adventures.

we don't hear anything about his bandage in tower of the swallow so i assume it healed over the course of the month of september

tower of the swallow ch. 3, 5, 7

in september 1267, dandelion has a leather tube of manuscripts which was the first draft of half a century of poetry.

‘From these notes’ – Dandelion showed them a tube filled with papers – ‘my life’s work will be created. Memoirs under the title Fifty Years of Poetry.’

Dandelion pressed the tube with the manuscripts to his chest. He had not separated from it recently, even for a moment. You could tell that he was struggling with his thoughts. And the thoughts were winning.

‘And just in time!’ Dandelion shouted, coming up together with Angouleme and a small group of pilgrims, lute in one hand and his trusty tube in the other. ‘And not a second too soon. You have a sense of drama, Geralt. You ought to write works for the theatre!’

he loses it in anna henrietta's closet sometime in april 1268 when he cheated on the duchess with baroness nique.

‘Dandelion!’ Geralt had only just noticed what he should have noticed much earlier. ‘Your priceless tube! Your centuries of poetry! The messenger didn’t have them. They were left in Toussaint!’ ‘They were.’ The bard nodded indifferently. ‘In Little Weasel’s wardrobe, under a pile of dresses, knickers and corsets. And may they lie there forever.’

lady of the lake ch. 3

The man who greeted them was Dandelion, coiffured and arrayed like a prince.

lady of the lake ch. 4

He found Dandelion in the knights’ hall. The poet was wearing a crimson beret, as big as a loaf of sourdough rye bread, and a matching doublet richly embroidered with golden thread. He was sitting on a curule seat with his lute in his lap and reacting with careless nods to the compliments of the ladies and courtiers surrounding him.

lady of the lake ch. 11

‘You are free to go, Viscount.’ ‘And my property?’ yelled Dandelion. ‘Eh? You can keep my chattels, copses, forests and castles, but give me back, sod the lot of you, my lute, my horse Pegasus, a hundred and forty talars and eighty halers, my raccoon (szopami) -lined cloak, my ring—’

A ducal messenger caught up with them almost at the very border of Toussaint, from where one could already see Gorgon Mountain. He was pulling behind him a saddled Pegasus and was carrying Dandelion’s lute, cloak and ring. He ignored the question about the one hundred and forty talars and eighty halers. He listened stony-faced to the bard’s request to give the duchess a kiss.

his hat

up until baptism of fire ch. 2 / mid-august of 1267, dandelion wears a plum hat with an egret or heron's feather, a sight which is iconic:

Geralt knew this little hat (kapelusik) and this feather, which were famed from the Buina to the Yaruga, known in manor houses, fortresses, inns, taverns and brothels. Particularly the brothels. ‘Dandelion!’

it's called a "bonnet" in the official english translations, but this is somewhat misleading as it is called "kapelusik" in polish, translating to "little hat" because it's just the diminutive of hat (kapelusz), likely indicating that it's a hat that is not a wide-brimmed hat.

"bonnet" is not completely out of line with the character, because it likely refers to a tudor bonnet (as opposed to, like, a milkmaid's bonnet), and at this point is just a feature of the translation. as you can read above dandelion also wore a large beret in toussaint, which is essentially what a tudor bonnet is without the brim.

in season of storms, it's clarified as to what shape and material dandelion's hat is made of, as geralt compares the hat of frans torquil, a constable of gors velen, to dandelion's:

The constable took off his hat and brushed needles and seeds from it. His headgear was of identical cut to Dandelion’s, only made of poorer quality felt. And instead of an egret’s feather it was decorated with a pheasant’s tail feather.

we can infer from this that dandelion's hat is made of a high-quality felt, and is like a hunter's cap (i've had this reference saved for a while)

though make note that his hat has an egret or a heron's feather:

his lute

dandelion received his lute as an apology from the elf toruviel who broke his previous one. her lute was a work of elven craftsmanship.

Edge of the World, Pt. VIII: “By the gods, Geralt.” Dandelion stopped playing, hugged the lute and touched it with his cheek. “This wood sings on its own! These strings are alive! What wonderful tonality! (...)” (...) laughed Dandilion, carefully turning the delicately engraved lute pegs.

Time of Contempt, Ch. 5: He removed a lute from the saddle’s pommel. It was a unique, magnificent instrument with a slender neck. This was a present from a she-elf, he recalled, stroking the inlaid wood. It might end up returning to the Elder Folk . . . Unless the dryads leave it by my dead body . . .

his horse

he has a horse during the events of the short stories, but during the massacre of cintra and the flight from the jaruga, this horse is stolen:

Something More, Pt. VIII: ‘What are you doing here, Dandelion? How did you get here?’ ‘What am I doing?’ the bard yelled. ‘You want to know? I’m fleeing like everybody else, I was bumping along on that cart all day! Some whoreson stole my horse in the night! Geralt, I beg you, get me out of this hell! (...)’

in blood of elves, he's gotten a new bay gelding, and in time of contempt and baptism of fire it's revealed this horse is named pegasus.

Blood of Elves, Ch. 5: Dandelion smacked his lips at his bay gelding and rode on, making his way through the crowds roaming the streets.

Time of Contempt, Ch. 5: The ravine was sombre and damp, and the wet clay and carpet of rotten leaves lying on it muffled the thudding of his dark bay gelding’s hooves. He’d called the horse ‘Pegasus’. Pegasus walked slowly, head hanging down. He was one of those rare specimens of horse who could never care less.

Baptism of Fire, Ch. 5: She [Milva] first recovered Pegasus. The poet’s gelding was ignoring the kicks to the ribs and the cries of the peasant who was riding him. He would not gallop and walked among a birch grove sluggishly, lazy and slow. The peasant was left far behind the rest of the horse thieves. When he heard and saw Milva approaching from behind, he jumped off the horse (...) Milva (...) jumped into the saddle, ringing the lute strings strapped to the saddle. Familiar with the horse, she was able to force the gelding to a gallop. Or rather a sluggish run, which Pegasus considered a gallop.

tl;dr

his physical appearance: blonde, long-haired, curls hair with irons. blue-eyed. slim. looks to be in his late 20s, though he is mid-30s. ever-present insolent smile.

his usual outfits: jerkins and doublets in a vertiable rainbow of colors, including rainbow! his "basics" or undergarments worn underneath include shirts with lace cuffs and ruffles. he also has some jewelry and fur-lined cloaks.

his outfits change during the travels with geralt in august - september of 1267, and during his stay in toussaint in october 1267 - april 1268. see baptism of fire, lady of the lake sections for more.

his hat: plum hat with egret or heron's feather. see section. he doesn't have it after mid-august of 1267.

his lute: elvish. see section.

his horse: a lazy dark bay gelding named 'pegasus'.

#the witcher books #the witcher #dandelion #jaskier #c: dandelion #character descriptions in the books

222 notes · View notes

concerningwolves · 4 months

Note

do you have any like, folkore book recommendations? it could be of any folklore! although, i mainly know about Greek & Norse. or maybe perhaps, books about witchcraft & demonology?

Anon I am kissing you on the forehead. thank you for this ask

If you like Norse myths, Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is a really good starting point – I adore how Gaiman weaves a narrative through the tales so that they feel cohesive. (I think this can be a slightly problematic practise, but imho it's also very effective if you want to just read and enjoy some myths). I read it in one day and then had Many Thoughts for the rest of the week.

Northern Lights: Legends, Sagas and Folk-tales edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland is a collection of Norse and Germanic stories. I've been meaning to reread this one because I don't think I was in the right headspace to really enjoy it the first time, so I can't give much of a review other than I feel it gives a really nice entry-point to anyone who wants to branch out beyond the more popular Norse myths. (Plus, it's up on the Internet Archive)

For a more scholarly deep-dive into Norse myths, I wholeheartedly recommend Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H. R. Ellis Davidson. It's a deeply fascinating book which looks at the cultural history around Norse myths, then walks through how much we actually know about each Norse god and goddess. (I am still haunted by the fact Davidson says that Heimdall has been described as a "woodpecker god" and then doesn't elaborate)

Moving into Greek myths, I'm a big fan of the Mythos series by Stephen Fry. It's three books, one covering the cosmology of the Greek mythic world; one focusing on the myths around heroes and demigods; and the last telling the story of the Siege of Troy. Like with Gaiman's Norse Mythology, Fry brings a sense of narrative cohesion to the myths, but he's not just telling a story – he talks about the sources and different variations of the myths, which I find so fascinating. I've listened to the audiobooks three times now.

The folklore I'm most into is British Isles folklore. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs is a fast favourite. Despite the title, she also looks at a wide variety of fairy-adjacent folkloric beings. I had so so much fun reading it.

(And on the subject of English folklore, two recent-ish favourites are The Folklore of Sussex by Jacqueline Simpson and the Folklore of Hertfordshire by Doris Jones-Baker; they're part of a collection of regional folklore books which I'm determined to read in its entirety. I really appreciated the way Simpson wrote about witchcraft and the kind of people most often accused of being witches).

I cannot talk about folktale books without recommending English Fairytales and More English Fairytales by Joseph Jacobs. I've only read More English Fairytales, but I've read it... so much. I killed my first copy with love and had to get another one. I picked up English Fairytales in a secondhand shop last week and I'm excited to start reading it. I think both are available online for free, too.

I'll have to go look at my cabin bookshelves tomorrow because I'm sure I'm forgetting some other favourites; I just wanted to answer this now before it got swallowed by my drafts forever

If anyone else has any recs of books on folklore, I would greatly appreciate them :3 (and I'm sure anon will too)

#book recs #misadventuring in Mythology and folklore #folklore #fairytales

16 notes · View notes

ddejavvu · 5 months

Note

speaking of, how would you recommend getting into star wars? i’ve been wanting to get into it because of your blog but i don’t know if it’s necessary to watch all of the movies or if i can just watch the series that are on disney… basically any advice you give me i will listen to 😭

if you want to see the characters I write about, you'll need to see at least the first 6 movies! that sounds like a lot, and it is, but they're enjoyable, and you can take them slowly.

the original trilogy, the main star wars movies, are episodes 4, 5, and 6. You'll watch them in order, 4 (A New Hope), 5 (Empire Strikes Back), and 6 (Return of the Jedi). After you watch those 3 movies, you can move onto the prequels, which is the main trilogy that I write about (Obi-Wan and Anakin are both a part of the prequel trilogy). You'll watch episode 1 (The Phantom Menace), 2 (Attack of the Clones), and 3 (Revenge of the Sith). It's important to watch the movies in that order, (4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3) as that's the order they were released in, and subsequently how they were intended to be viewed.

There are three movies beyond those six, the 'sequel trilogy', and while they have their good moments, I've never written about any of their characters before, so you won't go into it with any exposure to those movies. They have.. a bad reputation, and I can't say I disagree with it, but it's really not the actors' fault; the movies were written differently than the previous ones and not a lot of people enjoyed that new writing style. Regardless, I think they're still worth watching, if only to get a full scope of the 'Skywalker Saga'. So, if you're going to give them a shot, the movies should be watched in this order: 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9.

After those movies, if you're interested, you can start peppering in some of the television series. The one I write most adjacent to is The Clone Wars, a 7 season animated show with an accompanying movie that should be watched before the series. That show details a war effort that features Anakin and Obi-Wan as well as their fellow Jedi. I highly recommend it, it's very popular within the fandom and for good reason.

After clone wars, you might be interested in shows like The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, The Bad Batch, Rebels, Ahsoka, or the animated shorts Tales of the Jedi.

I know this all sounds overwhelming when it's laid out like this, but don't panic. You are, of course, not required to watch anything at all, but I wanted to lay out a map of the content you'd be most likely to consume if you wanted to get into the franchise. At the very least, I think the movies are a good chunk of the franchise; you can watch them and be completely satisfied with star wars without ever touching the shows, or the numerous comics and novels that accompany that content.

however you indulge in the franchise, i hope you enjoy it! It can be a lot of content but it's my personal opinion that a lot of it is worthwhile, and what isn't can be made up for with what is.

#mei's mail

15 notes · View notes

ettawritesnstudies · 7 months

Note

Do you know any good fantasy (with maybe a hint of romance?) That are clean and not necessarily Christian but at least aren't full of anti Christian values? I am trying to find books to get my 12 year old sister to read, but I just don't read a lot of fantasy that isn't super complicated. I got her to read Caraval and she's loving that.

And you seem to know about a lot of books!

Absolutely!

The Rangers Apprentice series is a lot of fun as a character study. The worldbuiling falls apart after book 2 in the fantasy department but it's still a good story. It follows an orphan named Will as he learns how to be a ranger and protect the kingdom so there's a lot of themes about duty and devotion and friendship that make it really wholesome. There are depictions of battles and fight scenes where enemies die and characters get hurt but it's mostly PG. Book 3 does deal with some addiction and drug use but it's painted in a negative context. Extremely slow burn romance friends to lovers stretching over several books. There are references to Norse adjacent gods in the fictional swears but the religion aspect is pretty much irrelevant to the story. My 9 year old sister and 13 year old brother have read these and love them and they were my favorite when I was that age.

The Chronicles of Prydain is very similar to LOTR in theme and setting but it's geared towards kids so it's VERY fast paced by comparison. Absolutely one of my favorite series of all time, it follows Taran Assistant Pig Keeper as becomes a warrior and a man and learns that being a warrior is less important than being a good man. The one female character Eilonwy is great, she gets kind of sidelined by the author but the fandom (esp. @highqueenofprydain ) have fics to fix that. Also slow burn romance that doesn't get resolved until literally the last page of the series.

The Wingfeather Saga is my newest all time favorite. It's by a Christian author and has a lot of biblical references in it and the storytelling is incredible. It has the most realistic depiction of siblings in fiction I think I've ever read and the worldbuiling is genius. Implied romance in the form of childhood crush but it's very cute and feels like it'll build to more after the book is closed.

Some of my old favorites are also A Wrinkle in Time and The Little Prince. I recently read Coraline which is kind of scary but also really great. Amazing short stand alones with messages of courage and love triumphing over all.

Daughter of the Sun (the mothmar trilogy) by Amanda Auler is a new Christian fantasy that's a little more heavy/dark in theme so I would maybe hold off on recommending it to your sister until she's more in YA territory but it's EXCELLENT. I reviewed the first book here and I should have a ARC going up for the second book in the next week or so. Slow burn romance, brilliant worldbuiling, deep themes.

Heart of the Sea is another book I just read recently which is clean but also YA and more towards the romance side. It's a pirate adventure and it's just a lot of fun so for a standalone I think she'd enjoy it.

I remember when I was in high school I really liked the Lunar Chronicles series which is sci-fi fairy tale adaptations. Because it's classic princess stories there is romance and it's YA clean, and the sci-fi adventure part is exciting and very fun.

A lot of classic children's books are very good too, I would have to find a list but I grew up on the likes of Treasure Island and Anne of Green Gables. Not fantasy but it's always cool to read stuff that was written in a different time period.

I hope this helps! I'll add to it if I can come up with more.

#book recommendations

9 notes · View notes

amchara · 1 year

Note

i love the specific situation when i see you reblogging things and i immediately think it's tsc without looking at the context and then immediately spiral into a tornado of confusion and/or horror before the moment of clarity washes over me and i realize it's fate the winx saga

you have no idea how many times i've seen fairy-esque discussions on your blog or drama-adjacent things and I'm like "WHAT HAPPENED TO MARK AND KIERAN WHAT DID I MISS oh wait-"

Hahaha, I do feel a slight pang of guilt sometimes for TSC fans who followed and are still here. I mean- I am still into Shadowhunters! But I mix it up a lot more these days.

But more importantly- you made me spiral with your question of WHAT HAPPENED TO MARK AND KIERAN... that I had to think, what does happen to Mark, Kieran and the Blackthorns and Emma in a Fate universe context?

SO- buckle up, we're going fusion with Fate and The Shadowhunter Chronicles.

I'm going to stick mainly with The Dark Artifices characters for this but I do have to do a shout out to the fact that we do have some direct parallels but mainly TMI related.

Sky = Herondale with Jace's weaponry skill and daddy issues, James' gentlemanly behavior hiding a dark side, and Kit's jacket + sarcasm. That boy suffers beautifully, as all Herondales must.

And Bloom = Clary Fairchild, independent red-head discovers hidden world of magic and finds a close knit group of friends who help her save the world. Though the narrative punishes Bloom a lot more than Cassie ever did to Clary.

Therefore Bloom/Sky roughly equals Clary/Jace

Fate: The Winx Saga actually fits the mold of original flavour TSC quite well even if the other character archetypes don't exactly align with the Fate characters.

But... if we get to The Dark Artifices and the more morally grey Blackthorns and add in the Unseelie Court, this is where I had to stretch the imagination. Not because it can't be done but I had to shift a couple things to fit into the Fate context.

So, first of all- Emma is clearly a Specialist in this 'verse. Trains all day, weapons fan and a drive for revenge? Absolutely she'd be an awesome Specialist. Her background in Fate is that her parents were killed by Burned Ones - and they were also part of Rosalind's elite squad and so as a consequence she's brought up at Alfea by Silva, alongside Sky. She's Julian's Specialist partner.

Julian is a Mind Fairy. I considered all the other elements and nope, we've got to acknowledge he'd be a fucking powerful mind fairy, and he'd be a protege of Headmistress Farah Dowling. When Rosalind inevitably returns... she'd sense his power and there would definitely be attempst to push him to give in to the more manipulative side of his powers.

The Blackthorn's 'dark secret' in this 'verse is that Mark and Helen's mother was a Blood Witch, in a time when there wasn't as much division between fairies and Blood Witch.

We keep Julian's dark past in that he had to kill his own father when he was younger, who was possessed by a Blood Witch trying to get revenge for the Aster Dell massacre. In this battle, Julian protects his younger siblings but Mark is taken by some of his mother's relatives and goes off to live with the Blood Witches. Helen is a Specialist and has been banished by Queen Luna to the wilds of Eraklyon to check the Barrier (and her fairy partner Aline goes with her).

Anyway, when our story starts, Mark's just been returned to Solaria, through some backroom negotiations by General Bavani, and he's causing a stir at Alfea, as most people don't trust him due to his background. Oh, and he's an Air Fairy nominally but learnt it through Blood Witch practice, which makes his magic super erratic. He and Julian are trying to get back to their old bond but it's hard and there's the whole point of Julian trying not to admit he's in love with Emma because... okay, there's no parabatai issue but let's go with the idea that Mind Fairies can't be in relationships with their Specialist partners because if they get hurt/their partner gets hurt, it makes the magic go Kaboom or something, so it's Highly Frowned upon). But obviously Mark has no issues with this so we can keep the Emma-Mark-Julian triangle from the first book.

Kieran, as some kind of son of an important Blood Witch clan- maybe even still a Prince, shows up undercover (ala Beatrix's background), but in this 'verse, clearly Mark knows. So he's trying to out why Kieran is there without getting Kieran in trouble. So he and this other Specialist he's been getting close to- Cristina Rosales - are investigating and trying to figure out Kieran's ulterior motives. And of course, the OT3 still develops. 😌

Whew... going to stop here before I write a full-blown AU but thank you for spurring on this ridiculous fusion post. Hope you enjoyed and once you've watched the pilot, maybe even know some of the names I've been throwing around. 😀

#fate the winx saga #the dark artifices #kieran kingson #mark blackthorn #julian blackthorn #emma carstairs #cristina rosales #this is extremely niche and will appeal to exactly two of my tumblr followers i suspect 😂#clary fairchild #jace herondale #sky of eraklyon #bloom peters

24 notes · View notes

rowerambles · 3 months

Text

Getting ready to end my Spotify subscription when it expires at the end of the month but I’m keeping the account up so here’s all of my playlists that I’ve made since I joined back in summer 2020

Downloads (the Big One)

2023:

March 2023 (v proud of the cover for this one; can’t believe I’ve been doing these for a whole year)

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

Fourth Of July 2023 (Rowe’s Version)

august 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December 2023

March-December 2023

2024:

January 2024 (platonic breakup season woooo)

February 2024

March 2024

The monthly playlist idea was stolen from @trenchcrows. Each playlist has as many songs as there were days in that month (except when they don’t because some of them used to have Lovejoy/Wilbur songs in them). They were my favorite/most listened to/most looped songs from each month. It was a fun project and I think that it’s cool that I can look back and figure out exactly when I got into certain songs or when certain things were happening to me. November-January was certainly A Time.

Queer Playlists:

Aspec (aro and/or ace songs)

🏳️‍⚧️ (trans/nb songs)

🏳️‍🌈 (gay gay homosexual gay)

Podcast Adjacent Playlists:

Favorite SFBO Episodes

Favorite Podcasts

Songs from Let’s Learn Everything!

Playlists For Specific Artists/Albums:

GLOOM DIVISION (new idkhow album go stream it)

We’re Not Panicking! At The Disco Anymore (by Fall Out Boy)

Everything by Jon Walker (all of the songs/bands mentioned in Everything)

Jon Walker favorites

Waterparks songs named after colors

Waterparks Songs Named After Pixar Quotes

Sparrow Sleeps

Infinity on High but it's my favorite parts (by fall out boy)

Local Dreamers (the Wait I Need to Listen to Twenty One Pilots More So They Show Up on My Wrapped playlist)

American Beauty/American Psycho, but with 9% more Demi Lovato

Razzmatazz, but with 9% more Tessa Violet

Playlists For Specific Situations:

Songs to listen to at the end of the year

Beachy

Therapy :( (Rowe is not having a good time)

Therapy :) (Rowe is not having a good time but she’s trying to be optimistic now)

✨ Seasonal Depression ✨ (Rowe is not having a good time part 3, now with more Christmas)

Christmas Songs That I Actually Like (We’re going to ignore the fact that Every Snowflake is Different isn’t technically a Christmas song ok?)

Relationships:

Breakup songs

Show Me The Door (break up songs; a playlist dedicated to my mother)

/ (love songs)

Hopeless Romantic Bittersweet Yearning (more love songs)

& (songs about friendship)

Spotify Wrapped:

Rowe’s 2020 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2021 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2022 Wrapped

Rowe’s 2023 Wrapped

Rowe’s Wrapped 2019-2023 (I had Spotify in 2019 but was using a different account at the time)

Minecraft:

Fallen Kingdom Saga

Minecraft Songs

The Minecraft Archives:

TMcA

tmca!Tommy

(The Minecraft archives was a mcyt (dsmp/Hermitcraft season 8) tma au that I was working on which I am no longer writing because of Current Events)(I also had a TMcA!Wilbur playlist but I deleted it back in February along with all of my other Lovejoy playlists because fuck Wilbur)

The Rest Of Them:

Saturday Saturday Saturday Saturday (sometimes you just wanna listen to songs with Saturday in the title; here’s a playlist for that)

Favorite Covers

Walmart Radio but it’s the songs I actually like

# (songs with numbers in the title)

Duets & features

Inside you there are two wolves (aka Fall Out Boy are liars)

Eurovision Favs

and finally,

Some Songs That Aren’t Lovejoy:

When did this happen why are there so many of them this post took like an hour to make

#Spotify #playlists #music

5 notes · View notes

avatarskywalker78 · 4 months

Text

It's Thirsty Thursday so here's links to my series (the ones with more than on part, anyway!)

flufftober 2021 (recently reshuffled into the correct order!)

flufftober 2022

flufftober 2023

Nicky Connors, Cobra Adjacent

bad boy (no more)

Cobra Kai Mini Rewrites

The Shieldmaiden Saga

Cobalt Blue and The Flash

emerald legacy (remember this one guys??)

the thompson archives

Old works (my FFN imports)

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @dream-beyond-the-fantasy @vexic929 @negative-speedforce

#thirsty thursday #flufftober2021 #flufftober2022 #flufftober2023 #nicky connors cobra adjacent #bad boy (no more)#cobra kai mini rewrites #the shieldmaiden saga #cobalt blue and the flash #emerald legacy #the thompson archives #old works

4 notes · View notes

armoredisopod · 2 years

Text

Arknights CN Thank You Celebration 2022 PVs

youtube

New Operators

Lunacub, 5* Deadeye Sniper

Let the hunt begin.

Vigil, 6* Welfare Tactician Vanguard

I am no stranger, to the use of violence.

Penance, 6* Juggernaut Defender

The law is not to be ignored, it will prove its worth.

Texas the Omertosa, 6* Limited Executor Specialist

I will keep you safe, Doctor. Not only is it necessary for the mission, but also any reunion is a rare occasion.

Also added new operators to the voucher shop

Qanipalaat, 5* Core Caster

Quartz, 4* (unknown new branch) Guard

Operator Skins Update

6 new additions for the Epoque brand

Quercus' Path Not Leads To Home - Free Login Event skin

Honeyberry's Wilderness Behind

Sora's Melodiosa

Rosmontis' Become Anew - L2D skin

Nearl the Radiant Knight's Relight - L2D skin

Passenger's Dream In A Moment - L2D + Special Voicelines skin

Announced skin reruns

Series 1 & 2 of the Ambiance Synesthesia brand skins

Epoque brand skins for Pallas, Rosa, Andreana, Texas and Dobermann

~52 other skins as part of the thank you celebration edition of Rhodes Fashion Review

If you bought Texas' skins using OP, skin vouchers will be given to you when her alter arrives

Operator Modules Update

Texas the Omertosa and Lunacub being part of branches with modules immediately gets their modules

Texas the Omertosa's module base effect: ATK increases when there are no allied units in the 4 adjacent tiles

Lunacub's module base effect: If the attacked enemy remains alive, gain 1 additional SP

Pionner Vanguard branch gets 2 module types

Module 1 given to Siege, Courier, Scavenger, Zima

Module 2 given to Flametail, Texas, Chiave, Saga

Schwarz and Hoshiguma gets their second modules

Schwarz's second module base effect: When attacking an enemy directly ahead, attack power increases and ignores physical dodge

Hoshiguma's second module base effect: DEF increases when blocking

Events and Stories

Il Siracusano, a Siracusa side story event

CC#11 Operation Fake Waves, brings a new 0011/Tempest brand skin for Aciddrop to the cc shop, along with Greyy's Eggcellent Craftsman skin for people that missed it

Operator Archives update for Vigil, Mountain, Wild Mane, Meteorite, Elysium and Spot

Misc Stuff

CN voices for Texas the Omertosa, Vigil, Penance, Lunacub, Qanipalaat, Quartz and 15 other operators

Weedy, Elysium, Asbestos and Tsukinogi added to Recruitment

Industrial Cooperation Forum - a daily orundum lucky draw with the ability to select negotiation techniques to affect the outcome, each contract can grant 300 ~ 600 orundums

Livestream Stuff

Showcased Texas the Omertosa being a 6* Executioner Specialist that can reactivate her skills upon defeating an enemy once per deployment, her skills allows her to deal Arts damage and inflict different debuffs

Showcased Penance being a 6* Juggernaut Defender with a new barrier mechanic that can also be replenished by defeating enemies, her skills focuses on increasing her damage output in different ways

Showcased Vigil being a 6* Tactician Vanguard with a wolf pack reinforcement that can grow and increase their block count and hits per attack, the extra wolves also act as extra life, his skills allows defensive and offensive gameplay

Showed the special mechanic of the new side story, there are civilians and a progress bar that slowly fills up as the level progresses, the bar will quickly fill up when a civilian or certain enemies are defeated, when the bar is full it spawns a hitman that attacks your operators and powers up enemies on the field

Removed the restriction preventing players from putting alters and their original version in the same squad/in the base at the same time, also coming with this change future alters will not give skin vouchers or material refunds and the existing alternate operator tasks will be removed from the CN version after Dec 1st 2022

Announced Italian voices for Vigil, Penance, Lappland, Texas the Omertosa and Texas are in the works

Announced CC#11 and plans to put the gamemode on hiatus after CC#12 to make some general adjustments and will return at an unknown date

Announced changes to the Stationary Security Service gamemode, making it less tedious to farm overall and adding special faction buffs

Teased a new mode for IS#3 where you can get even more buffs/debuffs in battle

Announced plans for a new gamemode 'Reclamation Algorithm' that has resource management and survival gameplay elements

Victoria lore video in the form of a folklore story being told to Reed, either a teaser of an upcoming Victoria intermezzi story event or future main story episode

Showed a picture of buildings in Yumen, a teaser for the next Yan/Sui siblings event

Confirmed Monster Hunter collab coming in 2023, and showing a collab operator being 3 Felynes stacked on top of each other

Showed the 4th official trailer for the Arknights anime

Talked about the upcoming Ambiance Synesthesia 2022, along with purchasable physical merch and an in-game shop package

Talked about the Vol. 1 RESET art book and announced a Vol. 2 art book and a collection of various settings in Terra are in the works

Showed more merch including pajamas, character figurines, plushies and a 1/2500 scale model of the RI landship still in the works

Ended the stream off with an MV of Running In The Dark by Monkey Majik ft. Amiya, Ch'en and Kal'tsit

Terra Exploration 3.0 covering Columbia, Laterano and Iberia then interrupted by an emergency broadcast from the Aegir region

#arknights #video #arknights CN news #long post

29 notes · View notes