#i am not even a soldier of god and i am being given battles that i can barely get through

[lenaluthoring]

whatever spectrum of emotions these convey is what i'm feeling rn

#i do not even know what to say #i am so overwhelmed #been feeling this indescribable emotion since the end of july #it's most definitely related to this whole honours debacle 🧍 #why can't i have one thing that comes easy in life...i am alwats fighting for my life just for a chance to do what i want #it's seriously so exhausting #you know that saying god gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers #i am not even a soldier of god and i am being given battles that i can barely get through #i suspect i will snap and go insane next yr if i still dont get the opportunities i want #i can only face so much rejection #there is literally nothing more i can do to boost my resume that doesnt involve extreme luck or being hired for a job in my field #and both of those things are so hard to come by for me 🫠 #📜

[thebadboyfanclub]

Grow Forever, Never Yield (Aemond x Reader)

This was actually the easiest one to write, I loved writing this character and wanted to write a slightly enemies to lovers type of thing, this was requested by @aegvn I hope this is what you imagined and you enjoy it as much as I did

“The prince has surpassed me in his sword fighting skills I am no longer a worthy opponent to him, I would like to invite another skilled warrior to court”

“Whom will that be Ser Criston?”

“The lady (y/n) Phoenix”

“Of firebend? They would never allow their own to join our court”

The house of Phoenix at the firebend land was amongst the last of the rebels and as allied themselves with the Dornish during the age of Aegon the conqueror, inevitably they came to a treaty of peace with the Targaryen king that allowed them somewhat freedom if they agreed to acknowledge Targaryens as the true kings, in retaliation they decided to make the words of their house be

“Grow forever, never yield”

The lady (y/n) was the second child of Nevan Phoenix, she was known for her skill at yielding a sword amongst all of 7 kingdoms, the girl was young, mayhaps a year or two Aemonds senior still she had established herself to be a legend and a name that could install fear to any knight with a mixture of the men wanting to meet this legend that came from the far lands of firebend.

“Who would be better at preparing a prince for any battle other than what they call “the strangers' daughter”?”

The house of Phoenix had been in battle when she was just at the age of 14, thankfully the girl seemed to scoff at death, (y/n) had come victorious and led her brothers' army better than any man would have, to gaze upon her stallion as she held her sword and waited to give the signal to charge was a sight only a few could witness,

“If you die, die with honor”

(Y/n) would often say to her soldiers, some even whispered that even though she got injured she kept on fighting, hence the nickname of her being a descendant of the God of death.

Otto leaned back in his chair, it would be a great opportunity to remind the Phoenix of their treaty, with Viserys getting weaker and Rhaenyras claim shaking if Aegon had Phoenix on his side then others would follow only out of fear of facing her in battle.

“I suppose sending a raven would not be so bad”

“I will arrange it, thank you, lord hand”

-

(Y/n) was already bored of kings landing, the place reeked of piss and the common folk is starving, she had opened the window of her carriage and she could already count dead bodies that lay on the streets.

“What is the purpose of dragons and glory if you cannot even take care of your land and people?”

“Unfortunately some kings do not see past their noses and tall castle walls”

Her father responded he was not pleased with the visit either, howbeit he had given up his seat as the lord of the land to his firstborn son Henley since Nevan had phrased it as

“I am too old to support my family, I shall pass the torch and legacy to a mind full of ideas and a heart full of zest for life”

Henley was a noble and wise young man, peaceful and certainly diplomatic, he could talk his way out of anything before his opponent could even comprehend what had happened.

(y/n) was close to her dear brother and was immensely proud of the man he had grown to be, Henley’s first decision was to announce (y/n) as the First Lady commander of the knights, she was the reason he was alive.

“Why did we even agree to this? I do not wish to train a spoiled brat of a prince”

“Aemond Targaryen is a prince and mounts a very large dragon, as much as we are rebels at heart we must pick our battles wisely”

Her father advised her making her blow bubbles out of boredom mixed with denial of his words standing true, they could have easily found a way to deny the invite, she was certain that her brother hid behind this act of kindness, to keep their end of the bargain and appear as a pacifist leader to avoid conflict.

Before (y/n) could utter another smart remark and ridicule the name “Targaryen” even further she was interrupted by the carriage coming to a halt, she took a deep breath as a way to steal time and gather herself along with restraining her attitude.

“Let’s get this over with”

She spoke in a gritted tone before she got off their carriage to stand next to her father, before she was standing at the queen and lord hand, along with a young girl and boy, the queen did her best to hide her surprise at the young lady’s appearance, however (y/n) picked up at the widen eyes and clench of the fists which only made her smirk.

“Queen Alicent, I must thank you for the invite to your court”

“Welcome to kings landing lord Phoenix, it is an honor to have you and your daughter here”

(Y/n) chose to stay silent, her demeanor was cold and stoic as she held her head high and her chest puffed out, she mirrored her father down to his core, a true warrior.

Her copper hair was pulled back to one thick braid making her scar that overtook almost the entire left side of her face even more intense and visible, it was quite ironic since Aemonds had lost his right eye whilst the lady was missing her left.

The scar she held was twice the size of Aemonds, whoever did it wanted to cause pain and even craved to disfigure her, Aemond thought that not only did that person fail but since the lady was standing and had created a legend out of her name the person was unsuccessful, she was the most interesting person Aemond had ever seen, he never thought he would say a such thing but “she wears it well”

Her clothing was a dark dress but if you took a close look the detail of it was marvelous, you could even observe the drawing of a Phoenix at the hem of it, it was certainly eye-catching yet it embodies her character.

“Is this why you asked us to train the prince? You believed I would be best because of our similar injury?”

(Y/n) was visibly offended by this coincidence, it was truly not Ser Coles's intention nor reasoning behind his choice of a teacher, it all came down to the tales of her talent that he had heard amongst other soldiers.

(Y/n) spoke in a calm tone yet her voice was stern and demanding, she stared at Aemonds soul with fire in her eyes, Aemond was also taken back by the lady, it was the first time he had seen someone as young as him that has suffered the same fate as him.

“No, my lady, we do not wish to offend you, we merely admire your accomplishments”

Ser Criston took a step forward as he was the one responsible for (y/n)s arrival to court, silence overtook the group as Nevan was also skeptical now that he was present, he also did not want to intervene since it might make the matters worse knowing his daughters' temper stops at nothing when she feels disrespected or threatened.

“We have heard tales of you but you are beyond our expectations, my lady, we just wish for our prince to learn from the best”

“Very well, I think we had enough pleasantries, we are not here to sweet talk one another, I shall rest for the rest of the day, I will see the prince on the morrow at your training yard, I do not want to be disturbed by anyone unless it is my father until then, whom will escort us to our chambers?”

-

(Y/n) had whipped the prince to shape, she was resilient, cunning, and tireless, Aemonds entire body ached so bad that he had to sit in a bath of scorching water just to ease his muscles for at least an hour.

(Y/n) had once barged in and laughed at him, she ridiculed him with her words as Aemonds face showed no emotion as she spoke, well mostly as she laughed at him from her high horse “Was she also in pain? Probably too stubborn to admit that the practice also took a toll on her” he thought as he watched her go back and forth in front of him, though he was filled with rage from her little stunt, how dare she walk in at a such vulnerable hour.

“What type of lady walks in so shamelessly when a man is bare? I take it as a sign of you not being a true maiden?”

“Is that all you got? Your pride is so bruised that you cannot think of a better insult than one of my virtue? I suppose it suits a man, still, I would take not being a maiden if I had to choose to be that or laying with my brother or uncle”

Aemonds next move was something that she did not even expect, he rose revealing every single part of him, to Aemonds surprise (y/n) was unfazed and just eyeballed him straight in the face, she did not even glance for just a minute past his neck nor was there any sign of her being uncomfortable.

“I understand that in your land you have different customs but you are in kings Landing now, Vhagar is quite peckish around this hour and you would surely be a delectable snack to her”

“You can do as such that is true, are you sure you want to face the wrath of my family? We did not name our land firebend for nothing”

(Y/n) had a way of pushing his buttons, sending him to madness, and forcing him into losing his cool was her favorite hobby, one would suppose it is befitting if you take into consideration that her family's entire legacy was to oppose the Targaryens and remind them that they would always be the thorn that bled their reputation, even going as far as to making their sigil a Phoenix with its wings spread, the animal that is known for rising amongst the ashes, the ashes of dragon fire in this situation.

Aemond relished walking in the garden upon the hour of the ghosts, it was the only time this forsaken castle was quiet, Aemond had lived almost his entire life in solitude, not a child that made friends naturally and that worsened after Driftmark, the silence brought him comfort as the breeze went through him was refreshing.

“Incoming”

A voice erupted as someone attacked him from the back, luckily Aemond was quick on his feet and ducked just in time to miss the spike of a sword only by an inch, Aemond was unharmed and forced to defend himself with his bare hands.

“You sneaky bitch”

He spat as he went into defense, he could barely see her from the darkness that surrounded him as she marched at him with full force, you could hear their grunts as they had a go at one another.

“You think every war will be in broad daylight and fair? Some bastard can attack you even when you take a piss”

She taunted him, (y/n) did not hold back nor empathized with the prince who was put in a situation that wasn’t beneficial to him whatsoever, on the contrary, she was thoroughly enjoying seeing him struggle.

Aemond had suffered from attacks ever since the incident, in this moment he was pulled back into the time he was a boy and had to come out alive after his nephews resorted to violence over Vhagar, his breath was short and sharp as his eye squinted and had started to sweat.

Aemond grew vicious, not caring for precautions or if he made some serious damage to her, in his delirium he was placed in a death or life situation and he would be damned if he did not come out of this alive and well.

(Y/n)s laughter was replaced by a loud grunt and a thud once her back was forced against the wall and Aemonds hand was by her neck, his fingers clenching her airway making it harder for her to draw a breath.

“Yield”

He commanded in a low tone at her as she struggled under his grasp, he detected the struggle in her eye, even then her pride was strong, visible since she refused to make a sound and did her best to keep her composure, she did not want to give him the satisfaction of taking her as weak.

At that moment something in him changed, instinctively his chest collided with hers, the warmth of her body was inviting and her scent of vanilla was mouthwatering, he didn't even realize how close he had come to with his nose tracing her neck.

(Y/n) grew goosebumps at the strange sensation though she was thankful that Aemond was distracted enough to loosen his grip, she remained still as she took a few breaths to relax her system and regain her strength.

“What are you doing?”

“I was imagining a blade gracing this gorgeous neck of yours”

“Strange, I would love to do the same to you”

Aemond let out a sound of pain at the sudden move of (y/n) kneeing him in his stomach, she wanted to go for the crotch still she decided it would be best to spare him this one time.

Aemond took a step back however he laughed between his agony at her stubbornness of not wanting to admit that she enjoyed the intimate encounter as much as he did, his arms hugged him to soothe his stomach from the pain while she looked down at him, her hands were shaking and for a minute she wanted to run away, hide after being caught like a little girl that was eyeing the stable boy.

“It was silly of you to ask me to yield, you have forgotten I am a Phoenix, a word of advice for next time, never lose focus”

“I never lost focus my lady, I had no weapon, so I used what was available, my charm”

“Well judging by the fact I only kneed you and did not draw my sword from the belly button to your shoulder then never do that again”

“Was it truly that repulsive or are you just so prideful that you do not crave to admit that you liked it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous”

“Am I? Sweet (y/n)”

His voice was melodic as he got closer to her once again, now it was her that was defenseless and she was back again to the wall, the eye contact between them never broke as Aemonds hands found their way to the sides of her waist, (y/n) was frozen, for once in a life she did not know what to do.

Aemond was in full control when his nose brushed against hers and (y/n) closed her eyes letting out a breath that parted her lips ever so slightly.

“Seven hells, let us not do this”

“Why? The sweetest bite comes from the forbidden fruit”

“Mayhaps, but I am no fruit, I am a warrior and you are a stuck-up, obnoxious, little prick”

“A little prick that has you blushing, it is alright, I am a gentleman, and I will not expose you if you choose to take a bite”

Requests are open!

#aemond smut #aemond fluff #aemond one eye #aemond targaryen x you #aemond targaryen imagine #aemond x y/n #aemond x you #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x fem!oc #aemond imagine #aemond x fem!reader #aemond x original character #aemond x original female character #aemond targaryen x original character #hotd fanfic #hotd #hotd fic #hotd imagine #hotd x reader #house of the dragon #house of the dragon imagine #house of the dragon x reader #hotd season 1 #hotd aemond #prince aemond #aemond fanfiction #house of the dragon aemond

[darkestprompts]

DD2 Shrine Rewrites Part 4: Boudica did nothing wrong

So why is that a bad thing?

If you have seen this post pop up before, worry not, it's just tumblr mobile being an entire garbage can and posting it while it was still a draft. So let me just get to our favorite rabid redhead. Her case of woobification is a lot more transparent than Audrey's, at any rate.

Boudica as we knew her

The comic explains her relationship to outsiders as well. It's no surprise that her barks show a distaste and even contempt for "city-folk". Her cultural values do not allign with the ones of the ruling majority, there's active conflict between them and her people, and she lives among them not by choice, but only because she was rejected by her own.

The original Hellion comic is straightforward yet impactful. An army that looks very familiar to what we are used to in the game crosses a forested area. A group of rugged warriors in furs and blue paint await to ambush them. A single figure stands back in aprehension: we recognize Boudica. She has good reason to do so. Although her fellow warriors have the element of surprise, the army is better equipped, perhaps more numerous and is able to easily regroup and strike back. The attackers are slaughtered. Boudica does nothing, she can do nothing... but hide and live in shame. The aftermath is confirmed by her CC set. She possesses a Mark of the Outcast and her quote mentions a subsequent expulsion from her clan.

It's a curious thing, how Boudica's comic self contrasts with her in-game presentation. In the game she's bloodthirsty, eager to fight, boastful, brave, disdainful of cowardice. In the comic she's fearful from the very start, like she never wanted to be there to begin with. But given how this event must have impacted her, there's no contradiction. Boudica is compensating for her past weakness with brawn and bravado.

On the gameplay side, the Hellion's kit is all about sudden bursts of power. She can dish out massive damage and painful bleeds, but those will debuff her considerably unless you can use Adrenaline Rush to get her back in the fray. She's a berserker unburdened by tactics, relying on the strength of her rage to get her through battle.

She's very concerned about spirits and ancestors, often remarking their role on the changing tides of battle. It's possible that for Boudica's people a Hellion's battle trance is a form of possession ("A primal spirit has overtaken me. I am... MORE."). It would fit well with their apparent penchant for revelry. Though it's interesting to note that while she's religious in her own way, she can also tell the gods to get bent to strengthen her own conviction ("Reject the Gods"). Is this something accepted in her culture, the idea that a warrior may break taboos or even challenge the gods in the heat of battle? Or did Boudica become a bit of a heretic when she was cast out by her people? She's full of ambiguities and I love her for it.

In conclusion, the Hellion is, on one side, a harsh, violent opponent that delights in battle and, on the other, an exile punished for her fear and unwillingness to fight. She's faithful and blasphemous, proud and ashamed, strong and weak. An unsustainable contradiction, a deathseeker afraid to die.

The outcast

Fury and shame

DD2 introduces a crucial change to the original backstory. While in the comic we saw Boudica as she is in the present, the new game shows her as very young at the time of the fatal battle. In fact, she was only allowed to join the war party at her own insistence and by proving her strength repeatedly! Not a drop of hesitation here. She's eventually accepted into the war party, spends a drunken night with her buddies and off to murder generic soldier models she goes.

We know she's doomed to fail, but here the second change hits us: Boudica tries. She joins the fray and, the way the game plays out, we get the impression that she's first in line, advancing, rallying her companions when they begin to falter, doing her best against overwhelming odds. A world of difference from the comic, where she didn't even dare approach a single enemy soldier. A part of me simply files this under DD2 making every character look better, cooler, faster, stronger, buffer; another part wonders if they were afraid of making the warrior chick a coward. Which would be ironic, considering DD1 Boudica gets one of the most badass Come Into Your Maker quotes, while a most of the girls only get to be terrified or ambivalent (and one day I WILL get to that, just you wait). There was nothing to fix there, either way. Yet here we are.

The rest of the shrines are all dedicated to what comes after her "failure", namely, retreating only when odds were overwhelmingly bad and not dying like an idiot. She wakes up alone to the carrion birds preying on her dead kin that she DID try to save but realistically couldn't. She returns to her clan to the jeers and literal mudslinging of widows. She's cast out. And she's still a kid that should never been sent into battle. It's the Boudica conga line of suffering.

Red Hook, look at me. We get it. Things are tragic and sad. You are starved for space to unfold a narrative due to the constraints of gameplay, there's no need to overstate a point as obvious as "she was shamed and exiled after watching her people get slaughtered--And That Is Bad".

Besides, you already carefully stripped Boudica of guilt by making her young and not actually abandoning her fellows, the more you simply show a sequence of tragedies happening to her the more it sounds like you are desperate to make the audience like the character. That we already liked. In DD1.

Now, I will be the first one to tell you that any successful army has the need to enforce cohesion and discipline. The natural human response to a charge is to break and run for your life, but that is also what gets you and your buddies slaughtered. That's why desertion is punished. At the same time, precisely because you are beating down a person's survival instincts, it's easy to sympathize with the deserter, and for that reason many people hold the position that there's absolutely no moral reason or manner to force an individual to stand their ground and fight. Regardless of your position here, it's not hard to understand that there's a tension between the individual and the collective that makes it a complicated issue.

Comic Boudica abandoned her clansmen, she refused to engage in battle from the very beginning. It makes sense that they held her as a traitor and a coward, especially since it's heavily suggested their culture holds notions of honor and bravery as important. You may agree or not, to different degrees. But I don't think even her harshest critic would deny she had strong reasons for what she did, even if we have no access to her thoughts (did she realize the enemy was too powerful? was she pressured to be there to begin with? were there failed skirmishes before this one?).

So it boggles my mind that they felt the need to make her more justified and blameless. She's young and inexperienced. She shouldn't be there to begin with, even by her clan's estimation. She doesn't avoid the battle. She's on the frontlines. She only retreats after it becomes evident that they'll be crushed. The question we are left with isn't "should Boudica have left her people to save herself?", it's "why is the dumbass kid you didn't want to be there rallying older warriors and leading the charge?". Making her less responsible for her actions has the side-effect of making her clan seem stupid and unreasonable. Speaking of which, it's not enough for her to be ritually banished, as implied by the Mark of the Outcast. She has to be publicly humiliated by an army of angry widows.

I'm not saying that culture isn't a powerful thing and their actions couldn't make sense within their own framework, but here's the thing: we know very little about Boudica's culture. The audience is left to judge by its own standards. And by these standards, Boudica's story is much more clear-cut in her own favor. Again I find myself grasping for a motive. Didn't they trust their audience to still love these characters? Yes, DD2 is meant to be more positive, but the thing about redemption is that there needs to be an action to be redeemed. If you hold characters accountable you need to make them responsible for their mistakes first. Otherwise you end up with horrible unintended readings such as "Audrey is to blame for her own abuse". That, or you undermine your own narrative and the tale about rising from your lowest point turns into just another sad backstory.

Prove yourself

Boudica's shrines illustrate how the devil is in the details. The damage done to her character is disproportionate to what was changed. All you'd need, for the most part, is to give her an adult model and make her fight about avoiding damage. There are certainly less knobs to turn than Audrey's. Still, I'm going to provide an alternative version that is closer to my own vision. Besides, I find the pacing a bit awkward as it stands. You have three shrines dealing with the aftermath of the battle, that's a lot of narrative space going over how she was sad and miserable and guilty and yadda yadda.

The game likes different models for the backstories, so let us starts with a young Boudica too, only younger than the one shown to us. She's playing war or sparring with her peers. She revels on thoughts of bravery and glory. The spirits are said to favor her and it's expected that she will be a great warrior one day. The "battle" is laughably easy. The second shrine is much the same as the Eve of Glory in canon, except Boudica is an adult and perhaps already showing some aprehension. These strangers are coming in large numbers, their armor is heavy, they fight with trickery. The previous encounters haven't gone well for her people.

Then, the moment we were waiting for: Boudica discovers war is not a game. Her knees are locked in place as the warband advances to the ambush. In a blink of an eye there are already so many of her clansmen dead. The "battle" is anything but: all you can do is avoid getting slaughtered. You get skills like "hide", "run", "ignore their cries". Boudica escapes alive, but her pride is broken. The next shrine deals with the aftermath. She returns to her clan and confesses to cowardice. The elders judge and shun her quickly, she is handed the dreaded Mark of the Outcast as a reminder of her failure. She's no longer worthy of her heritage, her destiny. The last shrine describes how she becomes a suicidal wanderer shunned by death.

As I hope you can see, giving the character autonomy and flaws doesn't diminish the potential for audience sympathy. For my part, I find myself unable to care as much if I feel that the writer is pushing someone as a poor moeblob victimized by the narrative. Darkest Dungeon, the original, was proof of how terrible people can still elicit love and pity in the audience. Did they forget that? I honestly can't tell.

Up next, we might move to Alhazred or Bonnie. They illustrate different problems, Bonnie is very unique in that we have no basis of comparison for her past, but I will still take a crack at her.

#darkest dungeon #dd2 shrine rewrites #dd boudica #dd hellion #NOW YOU CAN READ IT #fckin tungle

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 12/03/2024

Hella Pummel

Season 7 Featured on: Rips of Christmas Present

Ripped by venula

Requested by xinos! (Request Form)

God, man - trying to pick favorites from the Jay Eazy takeover of January 7th feels like pulling teeth. It's truly just as Mr. Eazy said - "Shawty's cute AND her circle too" - in that so many of the event's rips are all bangers in their own ways. There's of course You Are Book Smart, the rip I covered back as the event wrapped up, which still stands out as one of the event's most creative in execution - yet in terms of picking out pure BANGERS from the event, Hella Pummel had tons of competition (including one you might've seen floating about here on Tumblr if you're in Splatoon circles). And while I don't really have any attachment to Undertale Halloween Hack itself, getting the rip requested really opened my eyes to just how fun of a listen it is. In xinos' own words, "there's something so infectious about it that it gives me brainworms".

And yeah, I can't say I disagree - mashups like this that modify both songs used to make them really fit together, stuff like Guilty Eyes Creeper, have a sort of hum-along-ability to them that's hard to get out of your head. It's in large part thanks due to how Jay Eazy's songs, primarily Mega Man as used in this event but his other stuff as well, are sort of the perfect blend of being genuinely funny in terms of lyrics whilst having an infectiously catchy beat and flow. But Hella Pummel then also employs the fantastic little trick covered in Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and the days of high quality rips?, where the vocals are given just a slight amount of compression on top, giving them a sort of nostalgic texture and meshing more naturally with the source track used. In having Jay Eazy's part play along with the already catchy Puma Pummel, slowing down and speeding up, leaving reverb and such where it best fits the mashup, the rip feels incredibly harmonious on the whole as a result, with the vocal filter in particular reminding me of Jevil's voice samples in Deltarune in particular.

There's of course the unsung hero of the rip, the surprise appearance of classic YouTube video Epic Rap Battle: Nerd vs. Geek by Rhett & Link for the rip's chorus. What connection the song has to Jay Eazy isn't really something I can comment on (I suppose both have ties to making geek culture into listenable music?) but it serves as an incredibly fun 180 in the rip's high point. The continuing use of the rap beat iconic to Jay Eazy rips throughout the rip keeps it all feeling cohesive even through its different phases, and several small voice samples of the guy are interjected here and there to maintain that Eazy flavor - including putting his best ever bar, "I think my money is gay / There's too many men on top of one another", in the fade-out section at the rip's end.

Hella Pummel is the kind of rip that speaks volumes for itself, yet likely got overlooked by far too many people due to the sheer quality of the event as a whole. I again can't say I have any knowledge of Undertale Halloween Hack itself, but I'm incredibly happy that venula included its distinct music amidst her many sources for Jay Eazy rips during the event. Much of Hella Pummel's competition was rips also made by her, and I am incredibly happy to see that Jay Eazy has such a strong soldier aboard the SiIvaGunner team.

#todays siivagunner #season 7 #siivagunner #siiva #venula #Youtube #Bandcamp #jay eazy #undertale #utdr #undertale halloween hack #uthh #deltarune #mashup #mashups #rhett and link #good mythical morning

[hollow-keys]

I saw Wonder Woman #2 today and I decided to read it out of morbid curiousity, so mamma mia, here we go again:

I read Tom King's Wonder Woman so you don't have to, round two (link to round one here).

First off, framing. Yet again, this issue is narrated by the Sovereign, but this time it's narrated to someone. And that someone is Trinity, Diana's daughter that Tom King created. She gets no lines and she doesn't appear on panel, but given the Sovereign refers to Diana as "your mother," there's only one character it could be. First of all, this is Diana's book, it should be told from her perspective. We get no insight from her, nothing from her perspective, she shows even less emotion than in the last issue. This is not the treatment Tom King gave Batman. Second, I do not care about the OC daughter. I do not want to hear about her.

But on to the actual story. So, it starts with Diana on an open field being approached by Steve Trevor, who is acting on behalf of the US government and is telling her to stand down because she can't win.

Look, I didn't think I'd ever complain about Steve Trevor, incredibly basic WW supporting character, being mischaracterised but. Isn't he meant Wonder Woman's staunch friend who pretty much always takes her side? Hasn't he seen Diana in enough battles to know she doesn't just lose? She's fought gods, armies from outer space, the forces of Apokolips, why does he think the US army is beyond her? He's underestimating her for no reason.

And more importantly, because she is the title character, why doesn't Diana seem to care that her long time ally is being a coward?

And why does Diana care about the soldiers wellbeing at this point? Why is she trying to get them to go home with no consequence and no hint of anger about how her or her fellow Amazons have been treated when they've already made their stance quite clear? People are dead! They've already made their decision, you already tried to extend them mercy. Now you fight. The thing about Diana is that mercy is always her first port of call, but when the other side has made their choice she meets them and she does have anger about the injustices they've committed. Here, she just doesn't seem to care.

Also, Diana's nihilism about the ways of men, that they will always "crash upon the rocks" is at odds with her optimism. She knows that humanity contains multitudes, some crash, some don't.

Anyway, the whole issue parallels her fight against the army with flashbacks to her final fight on Themyscira to prove herself worthy of being the Amazon's champion and Wonder Woman. This parallel makes no sense to me. Those fights were completely different.

One is against an army to defend herself and her people from enemies who want them dead, the other is against an ally in a tournament, a battle where no one's in real danger. Or at least, that's how it should be. Usually when this moment is shown, it's a good faith tournament to find out who the most qualified person to serve as champion is, they're all allies who respect each other. Here, the opponent is shown to be hateful towards Diana, genuinely seriously injure her and there's no sense of camaraderie between them.

While Diana and her opponent are trading barbs before their fight, the other Amazon gives her a chance to surrender. Diana responds "Honour is won with swords, not surrender," which is incredibly out of character for her. Yes, there are cases where Diana would consider surrender dishonourable, but it's not an absolute rule. She believes in compassion and peace, which means surrender is sometimes the right course of action. The framing of it as an absolute here does a disservice to her.

Steve Trevor would not fucking say that, Amazons do not fucking act like that and the last panel makes no sense. It's said by present Diana but only makes sense as a continuation of past Diana's sentence. present WW just said "To tell me who I am." with no words before that. To parallel these conversations, present Diana talking to Steve would have had to have said "Neither you nor anyone else has ever earned the right..." in the fifth panel so the seventh panel made sense for both sides. The composition here was thoughtless. Yes this is a nitpick, but details matter. Where are the editors? Sidenote: her mask is ugly.

Anyway, then we get these choice narration boxes from the Sovereign.

It's just. So bad. I want to make it clear that at no point is the Sovereign framed as an unreliable narrator, despite being the villain who's diametrically opposed to Diana. This just appears to be, Tom King's genuine take on things. I would ask if he understands that you cannot believe in peace and do nothing in the face of violent status quo, but I don't have to. Of course he doesn't. And of course he calls her an idiot while he's at it. Remind me, did he ever call Batman anything like that?

We then get more pathetic "Of course I want Diana to win, I'm still gonna serve with her enemies though" Steve Trevor. I should make it clear tho that he's not actually fighting against her, he's just watching the fight and updating Sargeant Steel.

Anyway, then we get a bit of narration that says:

"Infantry. Be it conscripts or... Well it's always just conscripts. If you can't do it from afar...Or with haste... Then get the grunts to rush in close and kill and die in what you will tell their children was a patriotic mission."

Tom King, stop processing your war trauma here. Any one of these soldiers could have stood down, they chose to enforce a genocidal policy. It's on them. Stop framing them as victims who were taken advantage of, they're grown adults who chose to be there.

Anyway. Another caption box from the still-inexplicably-narrating-this Sovereign:

"...And prepared to meet the onslaught of angry men with the grace of a princess born and proven."

I ask this again, did he ever treat Batman like this? Does he ever emphasise Batman's grace and frame him as being above anger? Why does Diana need to be like this?

And now for an unnecessary Macbeth reference.

"For some time the missiles rained down. No man of woman born could have survived such a salvo. But of course. She was neither a man nor born of woman. She was Amazon. Forged first of clay. Then steel."

I don't think this reference makes sense considering the line in Macbeth is a prophecy, a warning that Macbeth missed. But here it's a measure of power. She's powerful enough because she's not a man of woman born, which makes no sense because that has nothing to do with power. I'm nitpicking. Again. I know. But the Macbeth reference is such a shallow attempt at being badass. And as a sidenote, it should say "She was AN Amazon."

"Potty train." "A pup." God this dialogue is so bad. Amazons do not fucking speak like that.

Then Diana smashes a tank with another tank and there are cartoon stars on the impact sight. This is meant to be a serious battle, why are they there?

"Many people lie about your mother. About her family, her origins, her abilities, her wants her needs. Every tale of the great Wonder Woman provides us with more insight into the teller than into their supposed protagonist. They faithfully project their own fears onto her with the aspiration that her legend can ease their daily panic."

So close to self awareness and yet so far. It's so ironic.

"Men in the field, I admire your courage! I honor your service and your loyalty! I do not wish to harm you! But if you proceed... I will... Over and over... Drop a 55-ton abrams tank on your pathetic little heads!"

Again, why does she not seem to care about the violence they've committed against her and her people? Why does she continue to respect them and wish no harm upon them? Where's her sadness, her righteous fury? And the bit where she says she'll drop a tank on their "pathetic little heads" is so out of character and it's such bad dialogue. When Diana makes threats, it's not like that.

Anyway, y'know the flashback fight? Yeah, well, the issue ends with the reveal that her opponent is the Amazon that committed the massacre which kick started this whole thing, which is such a cheap retcon it makes me roll my eyes.

After all this, I think I put more thought into this post than Tom King puts into any of his writing. I hope the next issue isn't bad enough that it inspires me to do this again. I'm tired.

#diana prince #wonder woman #tom king #dc comics #wednesday spoilers #📨

[chambersandfogg]

November 21st, 1918

They said we’d be home by Christmas and, against all odds, that may very well be true.

It’s over. We will not have to endure another endless winter in the mud and ice, watching our fellow soldiers’ toes turn black. I only suffered one such season, but I believe I may be done with both the cold and the outdoors for quite some time because of it.

I am not built for this. If I am being honest with myself, I don’t think anyone is built for this. There is something inhuman, unnatural, to this war. I understand that man has fought with man for as long as we’ve walked this earth, but this war is something beyond the realm of human conflict. It is as if we’ve been given the power of the gods and have decided to wage war with it despite being mere mortals ourselves.

They are calling it the Great War. Or the “war to end all wars”. I think the former lends it too much grandiosity and the latter is foolishly optimistic. We are all tired, worn out from the endless tension, the dwindling rations, the howling whistle of mortar shells before they explode, and I have no doubt that the other side feels just the same. And yet I also have no doubt that even this unending destruction has failed to sate the blood-lust that seems to run so deep in the veins of man. This war will not end wars; it has merely changed them.

There is no glory in battle. This is what I have discovered. It is not like the tales of knights and kings that I read as a boy. It is brutish and cruel, turning man into something less than he is. I feel diminished.

When it became clear that I had been given the great gift of, at the very least, an exceptionally long life, if not an unending one, I began to revel in the idea that I should get closer to experiencing every aspect of the human condition than any man has ever come before. And I set out immediately to make that true. I have traveled far and wide, have performed on the world’s great stages, have taken lovers on two continents, have read more books, attended more theatrical performances, eaten more delicious food and drank more expensive wine than I could have ever imagined. I have been to war. I have killed.

Not all human experience is made equal. This is at the very heart of the discovery I have made. Fighting in this terrible conflict, seeing the light go out of another man’s eyes, has put into stark relief just how blessed I have been in my life. I had an inkling of my own good fortune, of course. Lord knows my parents always made sure to tell me that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and that I would be a fool to spit it out. But my life had not been without its hardship. I spent decades toiling in a career that I was ready to give up on before the tides turned. I have had public failures and hundreds of arguments with my family. I have been lonely. But I hadn’t experienced true pain until this last year.

Charles has experienced pain in his life. Many times. The loss of his mother hit him terribly hard, and I suspect his childhood was difficult, though he has never told me all that much about it, despite my occasional prodding. He has always been the yardstick against which I measure my accomplishments, but in recent years he’s become a kind of mirror as well. After all, who else on this earth could understand me or the way that I experience the world?

Except he doesn’t understand me. And I don’t understand him, not really. I’m sorry to say that our arguments over my joining the war effort did not cease as the months marched on. I had gone to great lengths to conceal my injury from him while I was still under the watchful eye of the medics—he had no reason to discover that I was receiving his letters to the infirmary—but he uncovered the truth all the same. And it didn’t seem to matter that, by that point, I was back in the field with only a scarred thigh to show for it; he took every opportunity after that to chastise me for getting blown up and encourage me to abandon my compatriots and go home. Yet he refused to be reasoned with when I suggested he be the one to leave the war.

It angered me, that he could so clearly see how ill-equipped I was for the front. Especially considering that he was never in combat the way that I was. How should he know what it takes to drive a bayonet through a man when all his killing occurred in a lab?

I shouldn’t squabble over the ways in which the war has scarred us. And, to be fair to Charlie, I have no idea if he is still relatively unscathed. I know he’s alive, he wrote me on the eleventh, seemingly as soon as he had heard the news, though I only just now received the letter. But I have not seen him in the flesh since his leave in London in ’16. Despite being, I imagine, mere miles apart at times, the war never did bring our paths together. Just as he had wanted. But it does strike me as strange, that I have run into him unexpectedly so many times in my life, but the moment I make an effort to find him, he eludes me.

Perhaps that is precisely the problem. Perhaps whatever means he used to learn of my injury also alerted him to every instance I tried to learn his current whereabouts. Perhaps it wasn’t that I couldn’t find him, but that he didn’t want to be found.

[from the personal diary of J.S. Fogg]

[listen to New Year’s Day wherever you get your podcasts. to read the pre-1917 entries, join atypical artists and get access to the archive of 24 entries (5,000+ words), as well as ad-free episodes. to receive future monthly missives straight to your inbox, sign up for free here]

#journal #fogg #chambers and fogg #new year's day podcast #lauren shippen

[thatwasntverycashmoneyofme]

𝗎𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀

❥𝗌𝗇𝗂𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗍 : 𝗒𝗈𝗎’𝗋𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀’𝗌 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗌𝗈𝗋𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗎𝗅𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗂𝗇 𝖺 𝗐𝖺𝗋, 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖿𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗀𝖺𝗏𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝗋𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗉𝖾𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝗈𝗋𝗋 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀’𝗌 𝗉𝗋𝗂𝗓𝖾 𝗂𝗇 𝖺 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗎𝗅𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝖺 𝗌𝗎𝖼𝖼𝖾𝗌𝗌𝖿𝗎𝗅 𝗋𝖺𝗂𝖽. (𝖺𝗇𝗀𝗌𝗍 + 𝖽𝖺𝗋𝗄𝗂𝗌𝗁)

{ 𝗐𝖺𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗌 — 𝖻𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄 𝖼𝗈𝖽𝖾𝖽 𝖿𝖾𝗆𝖺𝗅𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋, 𝗆𝖾𝖽𝗂𝖾𝗏𝖺𝗅-𝗂𝗌𝗁!𝖺𝗎, 𝗍𝗒𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗍!𝖾𝗇𝗃𝗂 𝗂𝗌 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗁𝗎𝗌𝖻𝖺𝗇𝖽, 𝗂𝗆𝗉𝗅𝗂𝖾𝖽 𝗋*𝗉𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖺𝖻𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝖾𝗇𝗃𝗂 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝖽𝗈𝖾𝗌𝗇’𝗍 𝗀𝗈 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝗈 𝗂𝗍, 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗁𝗈𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝗋𝗀𝗎𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗋𝗒 𝗍𝗈 𝖻𝗈𝗇𝖽, 𝗐𝖺𝗋. }

he was a ruthless king given the nickname ‘endeavor’ after conquering many towns and villages, and on his recent one he’s taken you, now he’s your husband. a tyrant king who cares for nothing and no one but power and the obedience of others, who takes you to his y’all’s bed every night since obtaining you.

his warm body almost as uncomfortable, but not more than, the way he keeps you near him. eyes always burning into your frame making you shift in discomfort. he held your wrist tightly in his big hand that damn near covers half your forearm, throwing you down onto the chair next to him before seating himself.

as soon as he’s sat the servants put out the food giving him the biggest portions, a few minutes go by of awkward silence, the utensils hitting the dishes and the cups hitting the long table being the only noise made in the dining hall before the tyrants’ youngest speaks up. “nice of us to finally see your face not in passing, new queen.” his words laced with malice as you grit inwardly, a small hum of acknowledgment leaving your pursed lips.

“i mean…going from a simple commoner to royalty. you must be bursting at your seams.” you scoff trying to keep your composure as the prince continued. “i wonder if you just seduced my father for his riches.” he tsks. “I wouldn’t be surprised.” you pant in disbelief keeping your tone steady and respectful.

“I won’t be talked down upon by a pompous prince, who would have soiled his undergarments when faced with a sword at his neck. you know nothing about me.” he slams his open palm on the table, making the dishes ‘clink’ against the surface. “you wouldn’t survive in the situation I was put in!”

you weren’t phased by him, not in the slightest as he rose his voice, scarred face holding nothing less than contempt for you. “I did! and many more that’ll have you waking up in cold sweats and looking over your shoulder at the slightest pen drop… now I suggest, my prince, to address me with respect, as if I were one of the soldiers fighting your king’s battle, because I was…a victim paying the price for your idiotic war, so excuse me when I say I’ve seen more bloodshed in a day than you have your whole life… I bet you wouldn’t even be able to handle a godforsaken paper cut.”

“enough!!” a loud deep voice boomed through the squabbling of you and the dual haired male, silencing the already quiet dining hall, servants scrambled over each other to leave the room, his other two kids that were looking between you and their younger brother now tensed and faced the table. “you will treat my new wife with respect or its off to that room with you!”

you sigh looking off to the side, rolling your eyes with a pout as your arranged husband finished his shouting. “you don’t need to do that my… king.” you gulp forcing the word out. “he is frustrated, rightly so…” you turn to face the youngest. “i am not your mother, nor am I trying to be we’re the same age for the gods’ sake… i am a treasure earned through your father’s raid on my village. your siblings are older than me, your father’s wife, you think I am not frustrated also—“

you hear a warning grunt from the burly man at the head of the table making you shift with a sigh. “—you don’t even have to acknowledge me, but do not treat me as if im dying to be in this position…” you feel the kings glare on you looking at him before looking away clearing your throat. “I-i… forgive me, my king, for speaking out of turn and spoiling our supper, i just felt the need to clear up any misunderstandings your heir has.”

・❥・

a voice spooks you as you sit on the terrace over looking the night sky of the kingdom. “are you scared of my father?” you reposition yourself, resting your head on your knees, the young prince takes in the bruise marks on dark skin, as you sigh and look over at him. “I’ve never known fear from any man until your father’s army raided my village, it happened when I was barely knee high things I can never forget… but as I got older my people started a resistance I was apart of it and we started to fight back, we started to win.” you look away, a soft smile painted your face before quickly disappearing.

“but your father couldn’t let that happen. he came leading about 60 men, who slaughtered almost everyone of our male soldiers, by the end there were very few of our battalion left, me and my father, the chief, included. so my father came up with an.. arrangement, and i agreed, for the sake of my people.” he looks at your side profile seeing the pain in your eyes.

“I have not had a peaceful nights sleep since your father overtook my village, even more so than when I got betrothed to him, having to sleep in the same bed w-with that—“ you stop your rambling letting out a heavy sigh. “so you ask me do i fear your father…” a wry laugh falls from your grim expression as you gazed at him in his heterochromatic eyes.

"i am terrified of him.” the prince gently touches his left eye. “you’ll hear no argument from me; the man is a monster under the guise of sovereignty, my family and i know it well.” you let the silence and cool air wash away your feelings as you did every night choosing to not let emotions show and tears fall as you sleep next to your peoples murderer.

“I wish to start over. I want you to forgive my insolence, my queen. I’m told that i judge too fast.” he spoke after a few minutes of quiet, the calm breeze washing over you both, making your eyes widen. “I also do not have much friends except for a few servants and I know that you could use some, being the same age and all.”

a soft smile graced your lips, tone somber as you relive your past, recalling your situation, once again rectifying it’s gravity. “fine just never call me ‘my queen’ again, y/n is just fine I’ve been stripped enough as is.”

𝗌𝗉𝖺𝗆 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾𝗌, 𝗋𝖾𝖻𝗅𝗈𝗀𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌. 𝖣𝖮𝖭𝖳 𝗌𝗍𝖾𝖺𝗅, 𝖼𝗈𝗉𝗒 𝗈𝗋 𝗉𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝗒𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝖾𝗅𝗌𝖾. ©𝖼𝗂𝗍𝗒𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗂𝖺𝗅

#city.writes #black writers #black reader #black fem reader #x black fem reader #x black reader #black yn #giving real ‘i never wanted to marry him I was doing it for the family’ vibes #them servants was getting tea no 🧢 #this fic about enji but it ain’t about him you dig?? #shoto x black!reader #shoto x black fem!reader #mha shoto #bnha shoto #shoto todoroki #angsty mha

[batbeato]

deeply fascinated by media with incredible concepts that have fatal flaws that prevent it from fully exploring said concepts.

today's media is yuuki yuuna is a hero (the anime adaptation) which has the idea of magical girls being sacrifices to the gods, tying back into the idea of virginal sacrifice and also going into how tapping into divine powers is too much for humans to take. having these magical girls be objects of religious worship. and yet it also tying into how fighting, even for an incredible cause (saving the world, in this case) can lead to physical damage that prevents you from living the same way you did before (creating many potential parallels with real life soldiers who come back from war with loss of hearing, loss of limbs/use of limbs, loss of an eye/sight, etc. etc.). especially with how the magical girls are lied to by the religious/government officials the same way soldiers that sign up for wars are fed propaganda.

the section of the story where tougo realizes that outside the divine tree, the world is like hell itself, is another moment that can be laden with metaphor: once you are stripped of the shiny propaganda, you realize that the world is actually a terrible corrupt place. or, perhaps, that without the propaganda, war and dying for a cause isn't a beautiful thing, but a terrible one, a cycle with no end where people are sacrificed for ideals and because there is "no other way", but you are always promised that the end is in sight (it will never come). various ways you can interpret it.

...and then yuuki yuuna ends with the divine tree deciding that it no longer needs sacrifices (because the girls almost destroyed the tree? potentially? though this is never actually confirmed to be the reason why) and the girls are cured of any and all disabilities/injuries that they have obtained over the course of the story. hooray.

this ending not only ignores various points set up by nogi (that she will use her fairies to stop magical girls who go berserk, that the tree demands sacrifices, etc.) but ignores nogi's existence entirely. the anime gives her one silent shot (which can be difficult to tell is her, even, given that we have never seen nogi when not bedbound) and tougou never acknowledges nogi in the finale either, despite having 2 years of fighting alongside her returned (this fact is also not mentioned).

the final battle has yuuna telling tougou that as long as they are fighting together, she doesn't care what happens to herself, and she won't forget tougou. and then this entire point becomes moot because the fighting ends completely for an arbitrary reason (yes, you can make logical arguments as to why, but thematically it comes out of nowhere).

(...I also don't even know what to say about disabilities being magically cured. I don't think I have the tools needed to unpack that.)

But yuuki yuuna has these incredible concepts - divine sacrifice, the losses of war, dealing with newfound disabilities, child soldiers - that it executes well up until this point. It's like wonder egg priority's twin, separated at birth (both have incredible concepts and execution up until an ending that seems abrupt and out of place, though in WEP's case this is due to production issues).

Maybe this ending comes off differently from how it did in the original light novel. Maybe some key details were left out. However, it is the job of an anime adaptation to adapt the source material in such a way that viewers new to the material can understand and follow along without needing to consult the original source for explanations, especially about the ending of the show.

(Yes, I am aware that there's a sequel. However, I feel that the anime tries to wrap itself up in a nice little bow, without saying "the adventure continues in the next season!" so it is not important for my point.)

...Another thing is that, if we assume that the intention is that somehow, Yuuna's heroism inspired the divine tree to change its mind (when, somehow, the original magical girl trio... didn't?) this changes a lot about yuuki yuuna. It means that yuuki yuuna isn't a magical girl deconstruction, and all that entails/implies (psychological horror, exploration of trauma, etc.). Yuuki Yuuna is a magical girl reconstruction. It is "despite the horrors, girlhood and friendship prevail!".

To me, this is infinitely less interesting. Yes, that's nice. They prevail for Yuuna because she is the special chosen hero. And for the rest of the magical girls - they suffer until Magical Girl Messiah comes. (Where was this prevailing when Nogi was bedbound, when her friend died, when Tougou lost her memories?)

...Anyway. Yuuki Yuuna has nice concepts. It deals with them well for most of its run. I like that. And I will eventually find a way to will the ending out of my mind, or interpret it in a satisfying way that seems thematically coherent.

#yuuki yuuna is a hero #yuuki yuuna wa yuusha de aru #spoilers

[musecraft]

alright ! i've had a full 24+ hours to Process — which may have involved a bottle of prosecco ( i don't drink btw ) & going through a few waves of tears — & i'm here ready to talk about the finale. of.md spoilers below the cut, obviously !

some things i actually did like ( a short list ) :

the plot on paper. the beats of a good story were there but it was so rushed through & poorly executed that it just felt messy, unearned, slapped together.

ed thinking stede is dead & disassociating so hard he goes on a rampage & murders several of the soldiers in very sexy ways, ie: bayonet flip. also ed coming out of the ocean like aphrodite, ready to murder in his black leather. slay.

jim & archie kissing Like That before going to battle. also jim throwing knives from in the trees. very hot, powerful trans energy there, i really enjoyed it.

unfortunately everyone on the crew looked very sexy in stolen navy uniforms.

spanish "you best believe everyone in this household is poison trained" jackie.

zheng existing ( i would like to formally request a whole show about her )

stede yelling 'for love !' when attacking the british. romantic stede my beloved.

most of izzy's main dialogue — especially telling ricky that what really matters about piracy is belonging to something in a world that has told you that you are worth nothing. & yes, even most of of his conversation with ed. izzy telling him it's ok to just be ed ? killed me. & blackbeard was both of us ? don't even. i did want him to apologize to ed properly & am still glad that he did but be careful what you ask your god for am i right.

the final panning shot of the crew on the revenge. beautiful shot despite it all.

issues i had ( a longer list ) :

the editing ? why so many harsh cuts ? the way it was spliced together only contributed to the chaotic & disjointed feeling. & of course, the pacing. i think these two issues are connected & probably not the fault of the writers themselves. the show clearly really needed all 10 episodes to do what it really wanted to do, & this finale is just begging for that lost hour of screentime.

it wasn't even a good fuckery lol.

i wish lucius & pete's wedding had been... idk, just more. something more akin to calypso's birthday, a proper celebration for them. i also wish they would have given an indication they're still poly. "i now pronounce you mateys" was good tho.

ed apologizing & saying i love you & stede not doing either one in return. stede not being sappy in his irl fantasy ? impossible, im really confused by that choice.

0 resolution for stede's entire arc ? 0 indication of self reflection on his part ? & thus no resolution for the primary conflict of the show's central relationship ? they didn't even talk about their future, it just cut to them standing there & stede saying "so i guess we're innkeepers now" as if that's all he would have had to say about that ? i know that this show handwaves away a lot of things, like travel times & the realities of sailing, but i thought the story was literally about this relationship, & we don't get to see them decide on what their future together will look like. it's framed as stede just kinda going along with ed's latest whim ( since you know, they've always worked out soooo well for him in the past ) even though it's the exact opposite of what he's been moving towards personally lately, all without even saying a word about it ? i'm not even saying that i don't like this ending, but it just again felt so unearned.

very little actual resolution for ed's arc. his whole deal this season was about deciding who he wants to be, but he flip flops every time something doesn't go his way & the episode gave us no reason to think that would be different now with their inn. also he just killed a bunch of soldiers after having serious trauma surrounding the act of killing throughout the entire series, but i guess we're just supposed to believe that's ok, he's totally fine, he's an innkeeper now ! (will say more on this topic in the final section.)

poly things not being handled well or outright forgotten about. like olu / jim / archie / zheng has all the potential in the world for a beautiful poly love story & we barely got to see them interact together at all. & to think i was all :eyes: when izzy was dubbed the unicorn because i actually thought for a few episodes there that they might be doing the same thing for polyamory in s2 that they had done for queerness in s1, showing the audience that it's ok to see ourselves in stories & not just on the fringes, we're not stupid or freaks reading into something that isn't there. but turns out, it wasn't there, & i was the freak & the clown all along. live & learn.

the elephant in the room ( rip izzy you beautiful freak ) :

here's the thing. obviously i was never going to be happy that they killed my most favoritest old man. the fact that he's dead just when he found something real to live for is literally heartbreaking to me. but i could have swallowed it as a natural & important part of the narrative if one small thing was done differently: izzy could have had an actual sacrifice. & not for ed, but for the crew. after his speech about living for the crew, him choosing to act in a way that compromised his safety but earned their freedom would have felt like a completion of his arc. but instead it was a stray bullet to the left side which he earned in stede's so-called suicide mission ( don't even get me started on that line given where izzy started this season ), an injury which the show has told us previously is 100% survivable.

in the crew sacrifice scenario izzy could have acted as the symbol of piracy itself, a way of life that is dying. he is, after all, The Pirate (aside from blackbeard himself) on the show. & he has a history of letting shit slide that kinda doesn't align with the way of life they're trying to build on the revenge, not just in s1 but also in the scene with lucius in s2 ("& you? are you happy with all this?" "well, this is a pirate ship, & i'm a pirate so... yeah, i'm good with it.") ricky says they are at "the end of piracy" & izzy is the last REAL pirate (including ed because at this point as he is moving away from that life). & as izzy himself says in s1, "the only retirement we get is death." izzy also shows pretty intense self-preservation, & most of his shitty actions in s1 are motivated by often misplaced survival instincts, ("i'm not dying. not for you & not for that ponce,") so having him go against this longstanding character trait to protect the crew would have felt earned after his dramatic growth. it could have worked. it still would have hurt, but it could have worked.

instead, the way it is actually framed, the narrative actively robs izzy of this symbolism & instead makes his death entirely about ed & ed's relationship to piracy. having him die in a random incident & then having his death scene be followed up by ed finally "officially" (for the third time) giving up piracy honestly flattens everything i find interesting about them as characters & their dynamic to each other.

ed & izzy have very clearly been in clearly a mutually toxic codependent relationship (platonic or otherwise) for decades, but the framing of izzy's death being the only thing that can free ed from piracy (& blackbeard) turns izzy from a complex character of his own into a 2-dimensional plot device. & if izzy truly couldn't exist without blackbeard, then it would make sense — but we've just seen that he can, actually ! that he is a person outside of that relationship, despite what he himself thought for most of his life ! that they can both exist outside of them, & there is a very real possibility that neither of them actually need blackbeard anymore. so instead his death feels cruel to me. & because we know this is the show where injuries simply don't matter unless we need them to, we know that this was a conscious choice, that the writers genuinely felt he had to die for the story (ed's story) to continue.

& you know, that's fair on some level. he's the lead after all. but i also think this framing is actually kind of reductive to ed's character ! i don't write ed, but part of what makes him so compelling to me is that he is... kinda a "bad person," but he wants to be better. he's extremely complex. he has trauma & big feelings & he doesn't always act on them in the right way. & he feels guilt & remorse — he knows he has done wrong in the past & wants to be better, even if he doesn't always know how. & izzy has admittedly been an obstacle to him reaching that end in the past, but to frame it as if ed's actions were because of izzy, & actually izzy was making ed be blackbeard & manipulating him into doing bad things that he didn't really want to do, then i guess now that izzy is dead ed is free to skip off into the sunset happily ever after with his man ! the bad influence in his life finally gone, so he is all healed ! never mind that his most recent return to piracy & killing spree as blackbeard had literally nothing to do with izzy & everything to do with thinking he'd lost stede again. never mind that ed's trauma has its roots in things that happened to him before izzy (his father) & things that also happened to izzy (hornigold). nope, izzy was the real shackle all along. he has to die so ed can be free, & he only ever existed solely to develop ed's pain. that's what this narrative feels like. & i just... don't like the taste of it on any level. izzy says himself that blackbeard was both of them. so why does izzy have to die while ed gets to move on, given they both have shown the capacity to do so ?

the bit that i think i like least about how it's executed is izzy saying "i want to go," especially considering how he & ed are both shown to be actively suicidal in the opening of the season, & he has since started to regain his self confidence from that lowest point. & maybe that line could be read as him just trying to soothe ed in the moment, but idk, it rubbed me the wrong way for him to say he still wanted to die when in fact he had just found something he actually wanted to live for.

so ! i think that's all i have to say about that ! if you've made it this far, thanks for reading ! i'll be working today on writing up a basic canon divergence for both stede & izzy, since i don't like how either of them ended the season out. sorry, but stede's simply not ready to give up pirating just yet, even for ed. & in my head, izzy is fine because he was shot on the left side & "science" tells us there's nothing important in that half of the body anyway. : )

#🪐 — ooc / from rosemary. #well... here we are... the day after. #i know i'm being a baby about this idk why it got to me like this. #but thank you to all who listen to me. #i love you sm! #also non rp blogs don't touch or interact with this post pls. #this is NOT disk course this is literally only my opinion.

[blueiight]

lfg… lighting out for the territories

Reinhard had always hated parties, and this one was no exception. He didn’t mind the stiff white dress uniform he was wearing, nor did he mind the food, or the music. It was simply the concept of being at a party, when he would rather be doing something productive.

“So, you’re the celebrity,” Dominique said. Her voice was low for a woman’s, and somewhat sultry.

OMG DOMINIQUE!!! MY MF GIRLFRIEND!!!

i love econ bro rein wiaw reinhard and stringer bell would get along well (or hate eachother) (bc we all know reinhard is a utilitarian goody-two-shoes despite being a conqueror. no love for the fiends & the pushers, von musel!)

the fact that this description is in the first chapter.. very ambitious.. even so early u see reinhard’s cruel outlook “…while the saving of four hundred Alliance soldiers may mean much to their families, in a war where battles regularly involve the lives and deaths of millions of people, it’s insignificant.” u can juxtapose this to yang’s moral dilemma bc reinhard has none. in fact hes like a lot of ppl will die for a greater cause (while that aspect of war torments yang, it is something a younger reinhard can alr rationalize??? rein canon compliant REDACTED?) wiaw reinhard is so fascinating to me bc hes in a far more disadvantageous position than he ever was at any point of canon tl. not to be oh ur sister aint in the kaiser’s ears skirt admiral~~ but its kinda like that. reinhard my baby im so sorry plz dont kill m-

BISHOP DEGSBY…???!!! also rly love the mention of the mandate … the goldenbaums r like this bizarro mix of prussian aesthetic, franco revanchism& legit hitlerite shit especially back in rudolf’s heyday n the intersection of emperor-god more associated in certain eastern cultures than not like theyre sooo weird the empire is so weird.

Reinhard’s smile was cold. “The Alliance is my home, and I am grateful to it for all that it has given me, but I do not pretend that the reason I fled there as a child was out of some ideological purity. It was out of a simple desire to keep the ones I love safe. To say anything to the contrary would be the height of hypocrisy.”

“And yet you claim to hate the Goldenbaums?”

“Hatred is not ideology, Bishop. It’s personal.”

reinhard von musel playa hater of year u.c. 796 😂

im sorry to put on my evil fujo goggles but i think something clicked here so canon lotgh reinhard had kircheis but distance from his family while in wiaw he has his family but distance from kircheis… ofc his hatred of the goldenbaum come from the same core of them tryna sexually barter his sister but its so fascinating here.

omg is reinhard being an econ bro slash amateur space socmed influencer the equivament of yang’s second rate historian bro-ism in canon tl . except reinhard loves this space military shit & the econ is an accidental hustle. that is the funniest shit ever + is actually more adjacent to my relationship w history… and even this whole blog. health bro shoehorned into amateur historian/anthropologist on yaoi tumblr

INGRIDDDD OMG I FUCKING CALLED IT..!!!

YOOOOOOO THIS SHIT CRAZY CULT COERCION MEETS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?? INGRID BEING THE SAME AGE AS ANNEROSE WHEN SHE MET LUDDY? I did not think she was that young at the wedding what is going awnnn hunny.

blackwell is like struggling to parse if reinhard is a fuckboy while reinhard is like im something of a feminist myself, (he really is my baby god its 2019 again the peak of my reinhard cte)

IS CH2 TITLE A ZORA NEALE HURSTON REF? This is the third wiaw chapter title ref i clocked methinks.

another moment id 100% comm is reinhard in jeans & a light 80s style jacket. reinhard always forgets hes in the top .5% percentile of beauty its hilaryus. pretty girl who just wants to be one of the bros

oh wow we’re actually getting ‘earth church being given cogent beliefs outside of being the space illuminati/blood libelesque as they were in canon’ wow thank u so much for fixing up that disasterclass. authornim’s catholic upbringing is bleeding thru but it makes it more poetic! but catholics dont be dope fiends like this. haha love it

MULLER!!!!! Lmao im already so into this game of telephone theyre playing.

It had been a waste of a day, and Reinhard had returned to his apartment in a bad mood. His mood only got worse when he found that his entire apartment had been ransacked while he was out. His personal computer was missing, and it was clear that the thief had left in a hurry, which meant that they had known Reinhard was returning home, which meant that it was not a thief but probably an imperial agent.

Reinhard stood with his hands on his hips in the middle of his studio, and addressed the room in the imperial language, using his general haughty tone, even though he had just had his apartment broken into, and he was somewhat disheveled from his day of training.

“Lieutenant Commander Muller,” he said. “I’m sure that you know by now that I do not keep anything other than my personal correspondence on my personal computer, and that my personal correspondence is of absolutely zero interest to you. Furthermore, you will notice that, although we share similar responsibilities, I have not, and do not intend to, break into your personal quarters. We may be enemies, but Phezzan would have you believe that we are living for the moment on a civilized planet, and I would hope that we can behave like civilized men.

“In the interest of not causing too great of a disturbance to the detente which exists here on Phezzan, I will not elevate this issue if you would return my property to me. I will be at the park at 54th and Lexard tomorrow evening. I will see you there, Lieutenant Commander Muller.”

IM ACTUALLY CACKLING!!!!!! hes so catty i love her. muller trying to look like a student but failing😂

“Well, I mean, he’s not… He’s not from the Empire.”

“Oh?”

“Like he would have been killed under Rudolph. Or at least sent to do labor.”

adding w/e starzone the galactic empire is in as ‘places to avoid entirely if ur any visible person of color’ MY God the absence of metaphor is striking amc iwtv voice . love how reinhard is like oh if u think u got my tea off a blog name then u rly gone get sum. tell leigh send hugs & kisses to my first love xoxo reinhard von musel

“Sir, my sister is more competent than I am,” Reinhard said, which made Blackwell laugh.

And is!!!

“Tell me.” She was a little more direct without the bishop present, which Reinhard thought was both interesting and an improvement.

LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH HER!??? also im Lmbo @ reinhard going ‘well do i look like yo mf mama (earth) ‘ hes such a smartass i adore him. ik authornim oppresses reinhard but they truly Get Him!!!!

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Ingrid said. She looked up at the candle-lit altar. “You may look like a god, but you are only a man.”

Reinhard shook his head, too used to strange remarks about his appearance to be embarrassed. “I’ve never seen a god move anything in the world, so I would much prefer to be a man. Besides, my sister looks better than I do.”

im obsessed w ingrid bodying reinhard in such a manner with religious undertones & reinhard going fuck god. my sister’s cuter than me.

Ingrid’s hand dropped back to clutch the pew. “Part of me lived. Part of me died. A very dear… friend… of mine sacrificed her standing to save me. The Earth Church protected me. I’m very grateful to their patronage.”

DOES SHE FEEL LIKE A DEAD MAN WALKING…. IS THE EARTH CHURCH TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE LOSS OF WHAT WAS HOME FOR HER. MAGGIE😢😢😢HER SON ERWIN💔💔

REINHARD LOCKET…😢👀

As far as the man you encountered at a party, yes, I do believe I know who you’re referring to. I… hope... that you do not have too many reasons to come into contact with him, but if you should see him again, you may let him know that his message was received very happily, and that, quote, “I’m doing what you said to.”

OHMYGOD💔💔💔💔 wait im kinda jtfo at yang pov in this message cuz he prolly thinking to himself aw shit someone could be figuring me out on phezzan meanwhile reinhard & muller is in a quasi one sided homosexual espionage rigmarole

OMG ANNEROSE IS BACK!!!!

Linz had rather kindly made her a sign that read, “If your question is about my personal life, the answer is ‘NO.’ If you have an actual question, please come in.”

⚰️⚰️⚰️

#wiaw read #wiaw

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

American Bible Society: Daily Bible Reading

Zephaniah 1

1 This is the message that the Lord gave to Zephaniah during the time that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah. (Zephaniah was descended from King Hezekiah through Amariah, Gedaliah, and Cushi.)

The Day of the Lord's Judgment

2 The Lord said, “I am going to destroy everything on earth, 3 all human beings and animals, birds and fish. I will bring about the downfall of the wicked. I will destroy everyone, and no survivors will be left. I, the Lord, have spoken.

4 “I will punish the people of Jerusalem and of all Judah. I will destroy the last trace of the worship of Baal there, and no one will even remember the pagan priests who serve him. 5 I will destroy anyone who goes up on the roof and worships the sun, the moon, and the stars. I will also destroy those who worship me and swear loyalty to me, but then take oaths in the name of the god Molech. 6 I will destroy those who have turned back and no longer follow me, those who do not come to me or ask me to guide them.”

7 The day is near when the Lord will sit in judgment; so be silent in his presence. The Lord is preparing to sacrifice his people and has invited enemies to plunder Judah. 8 “On that day of slaughter,” says the Lord, “I will punish the officials, the king's sons, and all who practice foreign customs. 9 I will punish all who worship like pagans and who steal and kill in order to fill their master's house with loot.

10 “On that day,” says the Lord, “you will hear the sound of crying at the Fish Gate in Jerusalem. You will hear wailing in the newer part of the city and a great crashing sound in the hills. 11 Wail and cry when you hear this, you that live in the lower part of the city, because all the merchants will be dead!

12 “At that time I will take a lamp and search Jerusalem. I will punish the people who are self-satisfied and confident, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord never does anything, one way or the other.’ 13 Their wealth will be looted and their houses destroyed. They will never live in the houses they are building or drink wine from the vineyards they are planting.”

14 The great day of the Lord is near—very near and coming fast! That day will be bitter, for even the bravest soldiers will cry out in despair! 15 It will be a day of fury, a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a black and cloudy day, 16 a day filled with the sound of war trumpets and the battle cry of soldiers attacking fortified cities and high towers.

17 The Lord says, “I will bring such disasters on the human race that everyone will grope about like someone blind. They have sinned against me, and now their blood will be poured out like water, and their dead bodies will lie rotting on the ground.”

18 On the day when the Lord shows his fury, not even all their silver and gold will save them. The whole earth will be destroyed by the fire of his anger. He will put an end—a sudden end—to everyone who lives on earth.

Today’s Key Verse: Zephaniah 1:14a "The great day of the LORD is near—very near and coming fast!"

Reflect: What is the LORD’s message to Zephaniah? Reread verses 4–9. What reasons are given for the people’s punishment? How is “the great day of the LORD” described (verses 14–18)? What were your thoughts when you read this message?

Pray Almighty God, you alone are God and I worship you. Draw me close to you and keep me in your care. I seek to serve you always. In your holy name, I pray. Amen.

[befehlvonganzunten]

All Quiet on the Western Front is NOT a war film … or is it?

DISCLAIMER: I’m German and I’m beyond happy with the Everything Everywhere All at Once sweep (except that Stephanie Hsu should’ve won Best Supporting Actress), so this isn't me being bitter about All Quiet on the Western Front not winning Best Picture. What I am bitter about is people throwing around the term "war film" without knowing what a "war film" is or what the term actually means.

Also: I am very aware that I’m probably arguing with a wall here because this is the internet but this bothers me for some reason, so here we go. 

.

.

.

If you want to argue that a war film is a film that depicts war, then yes, All Quiet is indeed a war film. After all, it is set during World War I and abundant with battle sequences. Soldiers are dying left and right by the sheer brutality of early 20th-century war technology and trench warfare, and we follow a rather young recruit who has no considerable military experience by the time he joins the fighting.

However, not all war films are the same - shocker, I know. They can be pro-war, anti-war or even something in-between (see Apocalypse Now for example). The war film genre also has tons of subgenres like the retaliation film, the military (black) comedy, or the recruitment film. Arguing that All Quiet is a war film as in it’s a pro-war film because I don't know how genres work or, you know, because I don't care about the book this film is based on would be kinda stupid, if not outrageously ignorant. Its source material, the novel of the same name, is considered one of the most important pieces of anti-war literature of all time, written by a man who actually fought in World War I and therefore knew what he was talking about. (The novel was also banned and later burned during the Nazi book burnings in 1933, and Erich Maria Remarque, the author, fled the country to avoid further persecution while his sister stayed behind and was eventually executed for opposing the Nazi government in the early 1940s.)

Pro-war means that a war film depicts war as a black and white adventure where there are inherently good guys on one side and inherently bad guys on the other. The good guys have to win and the bad guys have to lose, and people who think that war is bad either don’t exist or have barely any screen time because God forbid the voice of reason is actually given - well - a voice. Bootcamp turns boys into "manly men" who can fight an entire army on their own. From a technical standpoint, the battle scenes are designed as an audiovisual spectacle that is supposed to make you feel excited, not horrified by the way in which the military machine can destroy bodies and nature alike. It is a very simple form of propaganda escapism that can easily bleed into other genres such as fantasy, science-fiction or superhero films, and you should rightfully hate it with a passion.

Anti-war, on the other hand, means that a war film depicts war as hell on earth, which it is. Nobody wins here. Soldiers are used as canon fodder and nine times out of ten neither the government nor the military elite of either war party really give a fuck. Bootcamp is a complete joke and, in its essence, torture. Young recruits are sucked into the slaughter thanks to lies and propaganda, and they are quickly disillusioned by the horrors they experience on the battlefield. The spectacle of war - the battle sequence - is meant to leave you horrified, disturbed and disgusted by what war forces people to do to each other. It’s the very core element of films/novels like All Quiet and the very opposite of  propaganda escapism.

.

.

.

CONCLUSION: All Quiet on the Western Front is a war film that depicts war from an anti-war perspective, which makes it an anti-war film. It is based on a novel written by a man who was persecuted by the fucking Nazis. With this in mind (and I promise you that you can research all of this within minutes), it is absolute bonkers to me how some people can look at such a complex genre and reduce it to "bang boom bang explosion war films" without batting an eye.

In my personal opinion, All Quiet is by no means perfect. It’s a decent adaptation of its source material, and while I prefer the 1930 adaptation, I can see why this one was nominated for 9 categories. I’m a little disappointed that An Cailín Ciúin didn’t win Best International Feature Film, but it is what it is. Hopefully, now that I have managed to get this off my chest, I can go back to rewatching Best Picture Winner Everything Everywhere All at Once in peace.

#oscars #oscars 2023 #all quiet on the western front #apparently i have too much free time #but people are being dumb and it's really annoying

[rainbowvamp]

an unsent letter: 1790

I relive the memory of our meetings more often than is probably wise. 

Your words ring in my ears like the holy bells of every church in England sounding at once. “You need not have come to my defense.”

That glance you threw me. That look you gave me. It took everything in me not to say something stupid. Not to do something so, incredibly stupid.

I wanted to close he distance between us and press my body against yours and ask what other thing you may require of me, then, if defense was not one of them. 

I still feel the rush of a battle running through my veins from that day. I have not fought in a war in well over 300 years, but, oh stranger, for you I would fight any number of battles and come through victorious simply by virtue of being your soldier.

I would fight in your name like a general for a king. You are more king in my heart than James or Charles, Edward or Henry. I hold less allegiance to those royal houses than I hold to you, a stranger who I have met a grand five times in all my life. I don’t even know your name. I have nothing to call you by except my stranger, and yet I would die for you. I would have thrown myself onto Johanna Constantine’s dagger if it meant giving you enough time to run away.

But I didn’t have to. You need not have come to my defense, either, Stranger. I’d have gladly taken any pain she’d have given me to give you a chance to escape her clutches.

But you did defend me. Called forth whatever ghosts she kept at bay and kept me safe, despite my inability to die.

“But you can be hurt or captured.” 

So can you, Dear Stranger. And I would rather it was me than you, but praise be that it was neither of us. 

I haven’t felt the rush of a fight like that since I was fighting for money on the street. I would do it all again, even knowing Johanna’s knife was coming, even without knowing that you would stop her from killing me with it. I would do it all again for you, more my liege lord than any man has ever been before. 

I want little more than to be in your presence again, sooner than 100 years, thought I know this is impossible. Who am I to ask more of you than our centennial meetings? Who am I to request a god come down to earth at all? I am just grateful for what time you give me, when you give it to me. It’s selfish to want for more.

But no one has ever accused me of being a selfless man. My own sins are testament to that. Would that I might sin again, and touch your hand, your face, press my sinful mouth to those perfect lips, lips that blew sand in the face of Johanna Constantine and showed her ghosts.

Are you a grim reaper? Calling ghosts to you as easily a king calls knights? I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll ever know. But I wish to. I wish to know what you are, who you are. I wish to know every detail of you as intimately as I know myself. 

I spend too many nights these days, wondering how your skin feels, how your palms taste, how your voice might sound, deep, soft voice, if I were to do something that pleased you.

I would do anything that pleased you. Fight any battle. Give any token. Perform any act. You would only have to think you might desire something, and I would go through any length to acquire it for you. 

You make me a better man. With your half smiles and your compassion. With your sound advice and your concern for my safety. I would take my knee before you and pledge allegiance to you before all others. I want nothing more this. Nothing save to know what it feels like to know the touch of your skin against mine. 

Stranger, you occupy my thoughts and I am powerless to stop this. I don’t want to stop this. I would much rather long for you and never know what it feels like to satisfy that longing, than to never long for you at all.

And so, I lay awake at night and pen letters and wish for things I cannot have, because wishing for something is better than wishing for nothing. 

I love you, Stranger. More every day of my infinite life. 

--

AO3

#lore's dreamling letters

[four-loose-screws]

FE7 Novelization Translation - Chapter 5 Section 7

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

———————————

Chapter 5: The Distant Plains (Section 7)

With Lyn's Legion claiming victory, the curtain closed on their battles.

The soldiers following Lundgren, upon learning that he was dead, immediately stopped fighting, and all pledged their allegiance to Lyn.

Kent and the others of the main force, now joined by Florina and Dorcas, we're all alive and safe. Lyn patted her chest with a sigh of relief. 

"We won… Now, I will go to Grandfather…"

After confirming that her allies were doing well, she quickly entered the castle. If Lundgren's words were to be believed, then Hausen currently thought that she was dead, and was drowning in the abyss of his despair.

She wanted to go to him and put his mind at ease as soon as possible.

"Are you… Lady Lyndis?"

"Who are you?" The moment she entered the castle, a person asked her a question. She responded with another question.

"I am Reissmann. I serve as the chancellor of House Caelin. I was receiving reports from Kent and Sain, but Lundgren found me and kept me imprisoned until now. I have been waiting a very long now for your safe return."

His slightly hollowed and pale cheeks were proof that he had indeed been imprisoned.

However, both his manner of speaking and body language were very polite, convincing her that he was indeed the chancellor that served Marquess Caelin and his House.

"Thank you… Am I able to meet Grandfather now?"

"Yes, of course. Lundgren has laced the marquess's meals with poison until recently, so it has broken down his body significantly… He has been bedredden for a long time now."

ー

Despite it being day time, the room the chancellor brought her to was dimly lit.

Though the sky had cleared after the battle concluded, the curtains were shut and blocking the sunlight that was finally beaming.

Hausen's frail body was lying on the bed by the window. 

"...Who is it? I said I would not meet with anyone." A weak voice echoed through the room.

His face was much thinner than she had imagined it would be when she first saw it, and it was so painful to see him in this way that she forgot to even say anything.

"What are you doing?! Leave at once…" Having his life targeted by his blood brother and even being led to believe his granddaughter had been killed, the old man was so distrusting of others that he no longer wanted to see anyone else.

If she was in the same situation, she might become like her grandfather and unable to trust anyone, either. With that thought on her mind, she hardened her resolve and called out to him. "...Um. It's me… Lyndis…"

"Lyndis…?! …It can't be!" Hausen's eyes widened in surprise.

"My father's name was Hassar, and my mother's… was Madelyn. They raised me on the plains until I was fifteen years old."

"...Is that true? C-Come here, let me get a good look at your face…" He sat up and beckoned to her with a shaky hand. 

She rushed up to him without saying a word.

"Ah… Th-There's no doubt in my mind… You look so much like Madelyn… Oh…" As he stared for a long while at her face, his eyes watered, and then, he finally began to cry large tears.

"Grandfather!!" Lyn was overcome by her emotions, and flew into his chest.

Her long, long journey was over, and she had now finally been able to meet her grandfather. However, the poison had eaten at his body, and he was wasting away. Knowing that she had to treat him with care, she hugged him lightly.

"Lundgren told me that my daughter was dead. And that… you… were dead as well… But you are alive… and well… Oh… Oh, thank the gods…!"

"Father and mother had their lives stolen from them by bandits last year… I… was the only one who survived…"

"Lyndis, forgive this old fool. If I had given them my blessing… If they had not been attacked by bandits, you all could have lived here in peace." He lightly petted her head, and felt his heart fill with regret.

The decision he'd made so long ago led his daughter to her death, and put his granddaughter's life in danger. He was filled with regret and blamed himself. He didn't know what to say nor how to apologize.

When she heard his words, Lyn pulled away from Hausen and looked directly into her grandfather's eyes. "Grandfather, the three of us, as a family, we… lived happily for all that time. It may have led to tragedy, but… until that day, we really were happy." Within her eyes were neither feelings of anger nor blame towards her grandfather, but kindness to soothe his wounded old heart. 

"I understand… So Madelyn was happy… Just hearing that makes me happy…" As he stared into her eyes, Hausen felt as if a weight had been lifted from atop him. "Thank you, Lyndis. I no longer have any regrets…"

"No! Don't say that!!"

"Lyndis, I do not have much longer… The poison has been eating away at my body for a long time. I cannot go back to who I was before it…"

Not only was his old age weakening him, but he had continuously ingested poison. It wasn't wrong for him to think that it was only a matter of time before he passed.

But Lyn took his wrinkly hands into her own and squeezed them to cheer her weakened grandfather up. "Stay strong, Grandfather! I believe that you will get better!! On the plains, we always said that a strong heart can overcome illness! I'll be with you, so don't give up!!"

"...You'll be with me?"

"Of course! We'll talk with each other, go on walks, listen to music… There's so, so much that I want to do with you!"

"It all… does sound like fun…"

As Lyn would put it, Hausen was starting to experience the illusion that his body was regaining its strength. She also knew the saying, “Disease starts in the mind.” If one has enough willpower, then their body can sometimes show that they have more strength than they normally ever think they could.

Seeing that her grandfather was regaining his will to live, Lyn continued, "It would be fun! Once you get better, I want you to come to the plains with me. Where the skies stretch on forever, and the seas of grass move with the wind… I want you to know the land Mother loved so much, too!"

"The land Madelyn loved… You're right, there is still so much left that I have to do."

"Keep fighting, Grandfather!!"

"Lyndis…"

And that was how the grandfather and granddaughter were finally able to meet.

The time they would be able to spend together might be very short. But however little time they had, she still wanted to take full advantage of it. Hausen was the only family she had left.

Lyn opened the curtains and window that had been shut tight.

The warm beaming light and cool breeze were symbols of the peace that they had finally welcomed, or so Lyn thought, at they very least.

ー

With the battle over and their goal accomplished, Lyndis' Legion decided to disband.

Kent became the new commander of the Knights of Caelin, and Sain their subcommander. Pegasus knight Florina and archer Wil chose to serve as knights under them. Though it was thought that Wallace would return to active duty, he said that he was going to regain his sixth sense, and went off on a journey somewhere. It went without saying that Sain breathed a sigh of relief in private upon hearing that.

Dorcas, upon receiving his pay, went home to his wife. Serra and Erik returned to their initial mission, and Matthew went to give his report, going hiss own separate way to travel home to Ostia. Lucius, saying that he was searching for someone, ended his stay in Caelin, and quickly left.

None of them knew what became of Rath. At the end of the battle, by the time they had realized it, he had already suddenly vanished. But Lyn was not very surprised at all. He was likely following the wind's guidance, and had gone on a journey somewhere.

ー

And so, the curtain closed on the tale spawned by the question of who would inherit Caelin.

However, at that time, Lyn had no idea that one year later, she would thrust herself into the tempests of war once more…

#fire emblem #fire emblem 7 #fe #fe7 #the blazing sword #fe7 the blazing sword #fire emblem the blazing sword #lyn #lyndis #eliwood #hector #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #nintendo #game boy advance #gba #fe7 novelization translation

[roseunspindle]

Soldier and Warrior part 1

Percy had popped into Camp Jupiter again to train with various cohorts, as Hazel and Frank were both quite vehement that it was good for him and the legionnaires and probatio liked to see him. (They wouldn’t explain why that was, even when Percy pointed out he was just a boring college now.)

It was fun, and the exercise certainly helped calm his ADHD brain enough to make studying later not as much of a struggle. 

It was as he was working with some of the newest “recruits” that he first saw the guy. At first he honestly thought he was Ares, then realized that being in Camp Jupiter it should be Mars and there were honestly just enough differences that while Percy was still certain whoever it was, was a god, at least it wasn’t Ares/Mars. (He and Hera held the tops spots for Percy’s least favorite deity’s he wasn’t supposed to attack.)

He decided to ignore him until the god approached, as it was weird enough for him to actually be here, as the gods did not come to Camp Jupiter really. 

Shrugging it off, he went back to teaching eleven-and-twelve-year old’s how to not stab themselves with their Gladius and hold their shield’s to not get stabbed by someone else’s Gladius. (They weren’t at spears yet, one weapon at a time.) 

It became a pattern after that, he would be training someone or even training himself, dueling various older demigods and trying to keep his skills to “not embarrassing” seriously, he couldn’t even beat a giant naked statue of Apollo not that long ago...

Then on brief three day holiday in new york, the god was there observing him in the training fields at camp half-blood. (His mom had encouraged the trip as Estelle had declared that she wouldn’t sleep until Percy left, so as to maximize their time together, for toddler logic, Percy had to agree it was pretty sound, but his mom looked unimpressed.)

So there the Ares clone was, just watching him, and Percy had finally had enough. 

After finishing up the lesson, he got the area clean and worked his way over to were the god was, blatantly waiting. (Percy thought he may have walked into a trap.)

The god smiled, his red-brown eyes keen as he watched Percy approach. 

“So, what’s up with the stalker routine?” Percy asked. (He’d never gotten the hang of the deference thing.)

The god smiled, “It is not stalking if I ensure you can always see me, young warrior. But to answer the spirit of your question, you fascinate me and I find I enjoy watching you practice and teach your craft.”

“Caft?” Percy asked before blinking. “You mean fighting?”

The god nodded. “Indeed, for I am Enyalius, god of soldiers and appreciating the ability and skill of the greatest demigod is a very enjoyable pastime.”

“Oh.” Percy didn’t know what else to say really.  

“It is a pity though,” Enyalius continued; “that you no longer seem to go on quests, as while you are fascinating in training, I dare say you must be magnificent in true battle. I regret that I had been... fading... I think, my father Ares even using my name as his own sometimes, which is quite vexing, so I missed your previous quests.”

“I beat Ares once, though he cursed me for it.” 

Enyalius grinned, something wicked in the curse of his lips. “I am aware, and yes, my father is a sore loser and given your youth and inexperience, he foolishly went in overconfident.”

Percy laughed.

After this exchange, he would approach Enyalius after training, and after some brief questioning involving eyebrows, the god actually started joining in on lessons and both more and less fun, started dueling Percy himself, pointing out that Percy could defeat most demigods easily and that sparring against a superior opponent would only be to his advantage. 

Percy, for the record could acknowledge the advantage but the amount of bruises he got from each bout did dampen his enjoyment somewhat. Enyalius would tease him when he complained, pointing out that simple step into the little Tiber, or even dumping a bucket of water one his head would heal him easily, so that bruises hardly lasted. 

Things continued in this vein until a messenger approached one day before they could start, bowing “My Lords, the praetors request your presence as soon as is convenient.”

Percy’s eyebrow twitched but Enyalius responded before he could ask why he was a “lord” too.”

“Very well, run ahead and inform them of our arrival once we’ve cleaned up a bit. (They were pretty rank, having already done some lessons with a midlevel group working on their spear abilities.)

Well, Percy was rank, Enyalius of course blinked and was fresh as a damn daisy. 

With a groan, Percy headed back to his apartment to wash up. When he emerged from the shower, it was to the presence of not only Enyalius, but also some very fancy armor, complete with purple cloak and a golden laurel crown (the one his father had gifted him after the war with Gaia.)

Deciding to not even bother arguing (Hazel and Frank and pretty much everyone else in Camp Jupiter ignored that fact that he’d barely been Praetor and insisted that he’d never been relieved of his title so the purple cloak was in fact appropriate.) 

It still didn’t explain the way Hazel and Frank straightened and saluted when he entered their meeting area. He was pretty sure as active Praetors they had a higher rank.)

Deciding to let it go for now, Percy asked what was up. (Hazel and Frank looked worried and stressed.)

By the end, Percy understood why that was. 

Apparently Nero was not alone in his “gather up powerful half-bloods and train and brain-wash them to be my minions” idea. The place he, and a hadnpicked by him squad comprised of both roman and greek demigods was a “boarding school” that had opened up sometime in the last year, it was heavily fortified and while it hadn’t been operated long, the ones running it were heavier handed and there had apparently already been one demigod death. Percy was already furious, but added to that, the people had been sending out searchers of their own, looking for very young half-bloods, the youngest currently at the school was a newborn, practically purchased from his grandparents after their daughter gave birth.

The kicker and why they had so much information, was that the newborn child was Zeus’s firstborn demigod child since the Great Prophecy had passed. 

Things happened quickly after that, everyone going grabbing weapons and  supplies.

The blessing received for this trip were impressive to say the least, on the roman side Cuba, Edusa, Levanna, Rumina and on the Greek side Demeter, Artemis, Persephone and Hebe the goddesses of newborns and children were apparently rather incensed about this, Juno/Hera alone refusing to grant one apparently as she naturally would give to aide to a bastard of Zeus’. Apollo joined the blessing spree right at the end, as he was a protector of young boys. 

Enyalius rode with Percy as they headed out, he seemed both pleased and annoyed. When Percy asked him he replied “I have long wished to see you in battle, it is true, but I dislike that the reason is endangered children.” 

Percy nodded, “Yeah, I’ve honestly kind of been wanting to show off for you for a while, but this quest is gonna be all seriousness and probably not fun at all.” Enyalius nodded and the rest of the trip passed in silence.

They met up with the Greek contingent and began setting up a base camp, which included a small nursery area as while the Zeus kid was the youngest, the reports said there were many other toddlers packed away in the “school” as well. A son of Demeter was heading the “baby station” as everyone called it with two daughters of Levanna as his back-up. 

Artemis in addition to her blessing had sent a group of hunters, Reyna leading them. She saluted Percy with her usual gravitas “Ave, Imperator!” which confused Percy and made Enyalius look smug.

With no time to question her on what that word was, they set to finalizing their plans. 

A small group of Hermes and Apollo children joined the hunters as the advance group, who would be scouting out the place and were to “cause trouble” if possible. Cherish Trent, the oldest of the Hermes kids that Percy had specifically requested grinned happily at that and tugged at the straps of the bag of who knows what already on her back. “Got it covered bossman!” She said cheerily.”

That resolved, Percy set about getting the legionnaires and greek campers assembled.  

There initial job was to provide a distraction for the infiltration team, and Enyalius had suggested something that Percy had found plain cool.

So, after they arrived at the gates of the school, he looked at his romans and yelled out “Barritus!” 

As one his legionnaires raised their shields over their mouths and began to growl.

The greeks that flanked each side of the roman legion started grinning wildly as the growl reverberated.

The School gates opened. 

Percy looked at Enyalius as monsters began pouring out of the gates. “Ready?” He asked, battle grin already stretching his mouth.

“As Always.” the god responded. 

The battle commenced.

#I guess this is part one #fanfic #percy jackson fanfic #my actual fanfic for once #Percy x Enyalius #yes another random deity #not even sure where the plot came from #he idea for the barritus comes from the imperator series by #it's just cool #CombatTombat

[basicsofislam]

PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH)’s BIOGRAPHY : The Battle of Uhud.Part2

Consultation with the Companions

The Messenger of God called the notables of Ansar and Muhajirs and consulted them regarding the issue.

The view of the Prophet was to defend Madinah from the inside due to the inspiration given by the dream. However, he also wanted to consult the Muslims and find out about their views.

Most of the notables of the Companions agreed with the view of the Prophet. Ab­dullah b. Ubayy, the leader of the munafiqs, who had never been invited to any meetings before, was invited to that meeting. He also had the view of staying in Madinah.

However, the heroic young Companions who had not joined the Battle of Badr, had heard about the high ranks the martyrs of Badr reached; therefore, they felt very sorry that they had not joined that battle. Thus, they wanted to confront the enemy outside Madinah and they expressed their wish insistently by saying,

“O Messenger of God! They were not allowed to walk against Madinah even in the period of Jahiliyya. How can we allow them to walk against us during the period of Islam? O Messenger of God! We asked this day from God. Take us out of Madinah. We want to fight the enemy hand to hand!”[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 45; Ibn Kathir, Sirah, Vol. 3, p. 24. ]

Some of them said,

“O Messenger of God! If we do not confront them outside, the enemy will attribute it to our cowardice and weakness and they will get spoiled!”

The notables of the Companions like Hazrat Hamza, Sa’d b. Uba­da, Nu’man b. Malik, who were brave and valiant, agreed with the wishes of those young Companions. Hazrat Hamza, the hero said, “O Messenger of God! I swear by God, who sent down the book to you, I will not eat until I fight the Qurayshi polytheists outside Madinah with this sword!”, expressing his wish and view to go out and to attack the enemy.

The Speech of Hazrat Haysama

Hazrat Haysama had drawn lots with his son Sa’d in order to join the Battle of Badr. Hazrat Sa’d had won the lots. Sa’d had reached the rank of martyrdom, which he had desired, in the Battle of Badr. Haysama, the father of the martyr Sa’d spoke as follows:

“O Messenger of God! The Qurayshis collected soldiers from Arabs in the desert and from the Ahabish tribe, their allies. They rode their camels and horses and came to our land. They will surround us in our houses and castles and then leave. They will talk against us. It will increase their courage. If we see them but do not confront them and do not expel them from our land, the Arabs around us will set their eyes on us!

It is hoped that God will make us defeat the Qurayshis. If the second one happens – which is martyrdom –, I was deprived of it in Badr. I had desired it so much. My son, who heard that I desired to fight in Badr, drew lots with me. He won the lots. He reached the rank of martyrdom in the end. However, I had desired to become a martyr so much. I saw my son in a very nice state last night. He was walking around the fruits and rivers of Paradise. He said to me, ‘ Join me in the friendship of Paradise! I found the truth that my Lord promised me.’ By God, O Messenger of God, when I opened my eyes in the morning, I started to long for being a friend of my son in Paradise. I got very old. I want to meet my Lord. O Messenger of God! Pray God so that He will give me martyrdom and make me a friend of my son in Paradise!”

The Messenger of God fulfilled the wish of Haysama. He prayed for him.[ Ibn Qayyim, Zadu’l-Maad, Vol. 1. p. 353. ]

Malik b. Sinan, the father of Abu Said al-Khudri said, “O Messenger of God! One of the two things will be with us. Either God will make us victorious against them – which is what we want – or He will grant us martyrdom. O Messenger of God! No matter which one we receive, it will be good for us, I think.”

Nu’man b. Malik, who was also a heroic Companion, said, “O Messenger of God! I witness that I am one of the Companions represented by the slaughtered cow you saw in your dream. Do not deprive us of Paradise. I swear by God, except whom there is no God, I should go to Paradise.”

The Messenger of God said, “How?”

Hazrat  Numan said, “I witness that there is no god but Allah and that you are the Messenger of God; I love God and His messenger. When I encounter the enemy, I never run away.”

The Prophet said, “You are right and you have told the truth.”[ Ibn Kathir, Sirah, Vol. 3, p. 24. ]

Decision

When the Messenger of God found out that the majority wanted to confront the enemy outside Madinah, he decided to leave the city and fight the enemy in the open terrain. He addressed his Companions as follows:

“If you show patience and perseverance, God Almighty will send you His help. What we need to do is to be determined and to exert effort!”

After the Final Decision

It was Friday.

After leading the Friday prayer, the Messenger of God mentioned the virtue of jihad and how to prepare for jihad and said, “To hesitate to join jihad and to delay is weakness. If you show patience and perseverance, the help of God will come. Show patience and perseverance! If you show patience and perseverance, the help of God will be with you.”[ Balazuri, Ansab, Vol. 1, p. 315. ]

After leading the afternoon prayer, the Messenger of God went to his house together with Hazrat Abu Bakr and Umar. Those two Companions would help prepare the Prophet.

While the Messenger of God was busy with putting on his armor, Sa’d b. Muadh and Usayd b. Khudayr warned the Muslims who were waiting outside by saying, “You insisted although the Prophet did not want to go out of Madinah. In fact, he receives orders from the sky. Let him do whatever he wants and obey him!”

Those words softened the people who wanted to confront the enemy outside Madinah to a certain extent; some of them even regretted it. When they saw the Messenger of God wearing an armor and holding his sword, they said, “O Messenger of God! We do not want the thing that you do not like. If you want to stay in Madinah, let us stay here. We cannot move in contrary to your views!”

The Messenger of God replied:

“It does not fit a prophet to take off his armor without fighting the enemy and before God makes a judgment between him and his enemy.”[ Ibn Hisham, ibid, Vol. 3, p. 68; Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 38. ]

After that, he said,

“Do what I have told you to do quickly. Go by mentioning the name of God. As long as you show patience and perseverance, God will help you.”[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 39. ]

Islamic Army

The number of the Muslims getting ready for the confrontation was about one thousand.[ Ibn Hisham, ibid, Vol. 3, p. 63; Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 39. ]It was about one-third of the Qurayshi army… There were only one hundred armored people.[ Ibn Hisham, ibid, Vol. 3, p. 63; Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 39. ]

There were three standards in the army. Mus’ab b. Umayr carried the standard of the Muhajirs; Usayd b. Khudayr carried the standard of the Aws tribe and Hubab b. Mundhir the standard of Khazraj tribe.

The Islamic army was ready to move.

The Prophet mounted his horse, put his bow on his shoulder and held his spear. He left Abdullah b. Umm Mak­tum in Madinah to represent him. Two armored Companions, Sa’d b. Muadh and Sa’d b. Ubada were in front of him; the mujahids were on his right and left.

The Companion that Desired Paradise

It was when the Islamic army was about to set off for Uhud.

Amr b. Jamuh, who was lame, had a great desire to join the expedition. He had four sons, who always joined the Prophet in expeditions. He called his sons and said, “Take me to the expedition!”

His sons said, “The Messenger of God allowed you not to join the expedition. God regards you as excused.”

Amr, who had the love of God and the Messenger of God in his heart, did not heed what they said and shouted at his sons, ”Shame on you! You prevented me from reaching Paradise in the Expedition of Badr. Do you want to prevent me again from the Expedition of Uhud? I cannot stay at home when everybody goes to Paradise!” Then, he went to the presence of the Prophet and said, “O Messenger of God! My sons want to prevent me from the expedition through various excuses. I swear by God that I want to join the expedition and wander in Paradise limping!” Then, he asked, “O Messenger of God! Do you not find it appropriate for me to fight in the way of God, to be martyred and to wander in Paradise with my lame legs?”

The Mount Uhud

The Messenger of God said, “Yes, I find it appropriate but God regards you as excused. You do not have to make jihad!” Then, he said to the sons of Amr, “You do not have to prevent him from joining the expedition. Let him do what he wants. God may grant him martyrdom.”[ Ibn Athir, Usdu’l-Ghaba, Vol. 2, p. 349; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, Vol. 2, p. 206; Bayhaqi, Sunan, Vol. 9, p. 24. ]

Thereupon, Amr b. Jamuh armed immediately and turned to the Kaaba, praying, “O God! Grant me martyrdom!”[ Ibn Abdi’l-Barr, al-Istiab, Vol. 3, p. 1168. ]

Rejecting the Help of the Jews

The Islamic army arrived at Thaniyya Hill. At that point, the Prophet looked behind and saw a crowded military unit consisting of archers. He asked, “Who are they?”

The mujahids said, “A group of six hundred people from the allies of Abdullah b. Ubay”.

The Messenger of God asked, “Have they adopted Islam?”

When they said, “No! O Messenger of God!”, he said, “Go and tell them to return. We do not need their help!”[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 2, p. 48; Halabi, Insanu’l-Uyun, Vol. 2, p. 232. ]

The Prophet Inspects the Army

When the Islamic army arrived at Shaykhayn Hills, the Messenger of God stopped and inspected his army. Meanwhile, he sent back about fifteen children, who were too young.

However, some of them did not want to leave the ranks of mujahids and wanted to fight against polytheists although they were very young. One of them was Rafi’ b. Khadij. He wanted to seem taller by standing on his toes. A Companion said, “O Messenger of God! Rafi is a good archer” and Rafi did not want to leave the army. Thereupon, the Prophet allowed him to stay in the army.

When Samura b. Jundub, another young Companion, saw that his friend, Rafi, was accepted to the army, he said to his father, “Dad! The Messenger of God allowed Rafi but refused me. However, I can beat him in wrestling!”

His father, Muray b. Sinan, talked to the Messenger of God about it. The Prophet wanted them to wrestle. When he saw that Samura beat Rafi in wrestling, he allowed Samura to join the army, too. Those young Companions, who were only about fifteen years old, wanted to be among the ranks of the mujahids against polytheists enthusiastically.[ Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 3, p. 12-13. ]

#Allah #god #islam #quran #muslim #revert #revert islam #convert #convert islam #converthelp #reverthelp #revert help #revert help team #help #islam help #salah #dua #prayer #pray #reminder #religion #mohammad #muslimah #hijab #new muslim #new revert #new convert #how to convert to islam #convert to islam #welcome to islam