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annymation · 5 months

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The Kingdom of Wishes- A “Wish” Rewrite

Chapter 1- The Intro

Our tale opens the same way many classic Disney movies did before, with a story book.

The book opens, and we are presented with the illustration of a king looking down from his tower, and we listen to the narration of an elderly male voice:

Long ago, there was a kind and wise king, who wished that all his people could live the happiest and most fulfilling lives in his kingdom, and have all their dreams come true. "But how can I fulfill ALL their dreams?"The king pondered.

Then, he had an idea. Using his vast knowledge, the sorcerer king developed a new kind of arcane magic, Wish Magic. With it, the king granted the wishes of all the citizens in need of his help. And so, this became the tradition, in the Kingdom of Rosas...

But this is not his story, oh no no, King Eric was just the first of this loooong line of wish granting kings.

The pages of the book flip, revealing in each page a different king, each generation, and each one with their names written on the top of the pages, these kings are all named after the 9 old men, the famous animators that worked in the creation of Snow White. This is the first of many Disney references I’ll throw around in this rewrite.

Our tale begins with the birth of the 10th king of Rosas... Prince Magnus.

We see an illustration showing a young king Magnifico learning magic with his father, king Ward.

Young prince Magnus grew in power as quickly as the evening primrose blooms in the night. However, the young prince feared he'd never be truly worthy of following such a great legacy. With that in mind, the King and Queen decided that a... second option could be required in the future. And thus, prince Florian was born.

The two brothers grew into powerful sorcerers. But once it came the day to choose the heir to the throne, Florian was chosen, for Magnus didn't feel like he could be just as great of a king as the ones that came before him, he felt like there was something... missing in his life, something that would give him the confidence and strength he required.

And sure enough, that something, or rather, that someone arrived.

The most beautiful maiden Magnus had ever laid eyes upon. She was found by fisherman, passed out and floating adrift in a boat. By King Florian's orders she was brought to the castle, once she woke up, the maiden introduced herself as Amaya.

We see an image of young Amaya being found ashore by fisherman, she's dressed in a white dress similar to how Ariel was found by Eric in The Little Mermaid.

Amaya wanted to thank the young king for his hospitality, she didn't ask him to grant her wish, all she wanted was to serve in the castle as the king's personal alchemist, and Florian gladly welcomed her in his court. And as the days went on, Magnus and the mysterious maiden became hopelessly in love, and together, they felt as if they could do... Anything.

The narrators voice sounds confused with that last statement, like he doesn't know what's referring to. But he continues.

After a year of the kingdom prospering under king Florian's rule, Magnus, inspired by his new found love, decided to go on a quest for adventure, to leave the kingdom for once in his life.

We see an illustration of Magnus and his brother hugging each other goodbye next to a boat. It's a sunny day.

But every tale must have a tragedy, and Magnus faced the most painful tragedy of all once he returned to Rosas, and found out his dear younger brother fell ill and passed away while he was away.

We see an illustration of Magnus now back to Rosas, looking devastated, but one important detail is that he's now holding a staff with a green gem we haven't seen in any of the previous pages, it's a treasure he got from his quest.

But from this tragedy, Rosas reemerged stronger, with Magnus and Amaya as our new rulers. Magnus let go of his fears and swore to make the kingdom shine brighter that ever before, It's what his brother would've wanted after all.

Magnus changed the way that wishes were granted, instead of granting just a few per month like the kings that came before him, he granted dozens per week, by sending them up from the top of his tower, and making them float down to their wish makers as they sleep.

The kingdom was so happy and so grateful for their new king and queen that they started calling them by nicknames that reflected their magnificence and their passion. From then on, they were to be known as King Magnifico and Queen Amable.

The End

The book is closed by an old man's hand.

We now see the face of the man who was reading the story, Sabino, Asha's grandfather, looking ever so slightly younger than he was in the movie, but still very old.

He's laying on the bed with a smile, admiring the golden and flowery details on the book cover, and he says:

"I admire your interest in more sophisticated books Asha but ummm don't you think this one might be a bit too advanced for your age? hehe"

the man chuckles looking down to his side, where we see a little 5 year old Asha under the bed sheets.

"Yeah... I thought it would be better cause' the cover was so pretty, I wanted more fantasy, but its just romance... yuck" she makes a face of disgust sticking her tongue out.

"One should never judge a book by it's cover, what you got here is a history book." he tells her as he get's up from bed to put away the book and blow away the candles in the room.

"Sure doesn't explain things very well though, like where did queen Amaya even come from? And what's the deal with this staff the king found? And what sickness did his brother have? The book explains none of it." The little girl says frustrated with all these questions unanswered.

Her grandpa can’t help but chuckle, he's way too familiar to these unceasing questions of her's, Asha always had the habit of questioning everything.

"Well, 1. the queen is quite reserved about her past, it's best to respect that. 2. that staff is just a souvenir that the king got from his travel. And 3. sometimes bad things just... Happen, with no explanation, and there's nothing we can really do about it but to move on." The old man explains to her wisely "Now, it's time for bed."

"Noooo!" Asha interrupts before her grandpa blows away the last candle in the room "I want another story, this one didn't count because I didn't like it"

"And since when that was a rule?" her grandfather sounds amused by that

"Since now, I just decided" the 5 year old claimed proudly

"Hehehe and what exactly didn't you enjoy in this story?"

Asha thinks for a moment, but then she has an idea "Weeeeell for starters, romance is yucky, there was nooo villains, and I like villains in fairytales, and most importantly… it didn't have MY favorite king and queen in it"

(Ya know, I laugh to myself while writing this because not only Asha will grow up to live a romance in this rewrite, but also because there are indeed villains in that fairytale, it just so happens that the villains made themselves the protagonists.)

Sabino looks confused "... Your favorite king and queen? Now what do you mean b--" Sabino realizes who she’s referring to, and his confusion melts back into a tender smile "Oooh... hehe you mean THEIR story, huh? Say, didn't I already tell you their story this week?"

"And the week before that too, yes, but I just love it! Pleeease saba, then I promise I'll go to sleep, honest"

"*sigh* alright alright, but only because it's my favorite too"

Sabino sits down on his rocking chair next to the bed, no book required for him to tell this tale.

Once upon a time, there was a king, who traveled to a far away place with his son, his prince. They were looking for a place peaceful to make it their home, and they found it, a quiet house in the middle of the forest, not so far from a kingdom called Rosas. The prince was quick to meet the people that lived in the nearby kingdom, and among the people he met there was-

"A FAIRY!"

"Who's telling this story again?" Sabino glanced at Asha smugly

"Sorry sorry, hihihi keep going" she says hugging her pillow tightly.

So yes, the prince met a fairy, a fairy with the most incredible of powers, she could bring drawings to life! The prince was marveled by the fairy's magic, and hurried to tell his father, at first, the king didn't believe it "Drawings that move? That's absurd, son" but sure enough, the prince invited the fairy to their home, and she proved it to the king, she showed him her sketchbook and flipped the pages quickly, and all her drawings together seemed to move as if it was magic

"Because it WAS magic" Asha corrected

"Hehehe you're right, it was"

Years went by, and the love that the prince and the fairy shared only grew more and more. The fairy became an art teacher, sharing her magic and artistry, while the prince became a philosopher, passing on his wisdom and knowledge about the stars. And one day, they were blessed with the most beautiful little princess.

"That's meeeee"

"Yes, that's you" Sabino looks at Asha with eyes full of administration for the girl’s enthusiasm for such a simple story he only came up with to teach her about who her parents were.

And they lived ha--

Sabino interrupts himself before he finishes that phrase, he knows that's not how it went.

But he has to finish the story somehow, so he just says

And now that little princess is going to sleep, the end.

Nailed it.

"Very well Asha, a deal's a deal, good night now-"

"Saba! Look!" Asha points to outside the window with a huge smile "It's starting!" She jumps out of bed and runs to the window

We see countless wish bubbles floating out of the castle, like glowing lanterns filling the sky and making their way down to the people of Rosas.

"Huh, he started earlier today... Or rather, it's even more past your bed time than I thought, come on, back to bed mi nieta" Sabino rushes her back to bed, talking more sternly now.

Asha doesn't want to go to sleep yet though so she tries to stall some more "Saba, when I'm big, what if I wished to have magic like mama's?"

Sabino's eyebrows raise in surprise by the question "Y-you mean wish to make drawings move?"

"YEAH! I wanna be a great artist like her! I bet mr. King Magnifico could grant that wish pretty easy, right?" The little girl says cheerfully, her eyes shinning as she still looks up at the glowing wish bubbles in the sky.

Asha isn't seeing it, but her grandfather has a sad and conflicted look on his face, like he's trying to find the right words to tell her something really important.

"Heeey... You never told me what was YOUR wish to the king!" Asha realizes, turning back to the older man and walking closer to him on his rocking chair "What did you wish for?" She asks him curious with a big smile.

"... I don't know" He admits, trying to hide from her how sad that makes him feel with a forced smile.

"... Huh?" The girl tilts her head confused

"I was asked to give my wish when I moved to Rosas and... To this day I can't remember what it was... But maybe that's just how it works" He shrugs like it's no big deal. But it clearly is.

"That doesn't sound fair... He hasn't granted it yet?"

"... Could be…" Sabino admits what has been thinking for a long while, his eyes light up with an idea and he turns to his granddaughter with a serious expression "Asha, can you promise me something?"

Asha looks at her grandfather attentively and nods positively.

“When you turn 18… Oh never mind, you’ll probably not even remember this talk anyway”

“Yes I will, what is it?” She asks determined.

“… When the time comes for you to make your wish to King Magnifico, DO NOT wish for him to make you an artist like your mother, Sakina spent years practicing to master her craft… and I think she’d like you to do the same”

“Okay! I’ll practice everyday! To make drawings just as pretty as mama’s!” Asha’s joy returned with full force, she actually couldn’t wait to draw more in the the morning.

She jumps back to her bed, now ready to go to sleep since she has something to look forward to.

Sabino seemed pleased “That’s good to hear, thank you”

“But what should I wish for then?”

Sabino fell silent for a moment and just said simply “You have quite a lot of time to decide, I’m sure you’ll know by then... Now all I wish is that you'd stay in bed and went to sleep hehe” He jokes with a gentle smile.

He get's up from his rocking chair and goes to blow out the last burning candle in the room, but before he does so Asha says

"Saba... Do you miss them? Mama and papa?"

Sabino looks at the candle with downcast eyes.

"Yes... But it's alright, I still get to see them everyday"

"WHERE?" Asha exclaims, thinking her grandpa just casually admitted he sees ghosts.

"In you" Sabino tells her as he caresses her head "You have your mother's talent and beauty, and my son's intelligence and curiosity... They live in you, dear"

(Is this a Lion King Broadway musical reference? Yes, yes it is)

"You think I'll be able to make magic too, like mama?" Asha asks with a big smile

"If you keep trying, and never give up, you can do anything, my dear." He says calmly, looking at her full of pride.

"Okay... *yaaaawn* good night saba, I love you" She says while getting comfortable in bed.

"Good night mi nieta. See you tomorrow."

Sabino blows away the last candle, it all goes dark.

We cut to a sequence similar to the opening from UP.

(oh yes, it'll be that level of sad)

So as happy background music plays, with no lyrics, no lines, just visual story telling, we get a series of scenes showing some snippets of Asha’s life over the years.

We cut to the same little Asha waking up in the morning with a big smile on her face.

She's waken up by her grandfather, and she gives him a hug.

Sabino prepares breakfast while Asha draws on a sketchbook.

Sabino looks proud with Asha's doodle and hangs it on the wall.

Suddenly, they hear someone knocking, Asha goes to open the door and we see a young Dahlia selling sweets.

Sabino buys some, and as Dahlia walks away Asha notices she could use some help carrying all that food, since she's walking with a crutch.

Asha looks at her grandfather as if she's asking for permission to go, and he nods reassuringly.

Off she goes to help Dahlia, and the two quickly become friends

Asha get's back home after sunset, dinner is ready

she and her grandpa read some books together.

Asha went to sleep

This cycle would keep repeating during the whole musical sequence, and I don't want this to take too long so just imagine we see events similar to this repeating 7 times, each time we see Asha meet a new friend, and we see her grandpa become more and more senile and more dependent on Asha, as she gets older.

I'll just give a few more examples to illustrate it but if you're curious about how Asha met all her friends and in what order just read it here: Reimagining the 7 teens

We’ll skip the sequences showing how she met Simon and Gabo.

The music sounds slightly less upbeat

Asha wakes up, now looking more like a 10 year old

She’s ever so slightly less excited when waking up but still smiling

She goes to wake up her grandpa, who seems a bit lost at first but smiles once he sees her

She makes them breakfast

The walls of the house are covered top to bottom with Asha’s drawings

She helps her grandfather walk as they go watch a children’s play at the plaza, her friends Dahlia, Simon and Gabo are with them

Asha notices a young girl looking very uncomfortable on stage

Once it’s her scene, the bashful girl runs off stage

Asha goes back stage and we see her sit next to Bazeema and give her some words of encouragement

Bazeema goes back stage and plays the role of the queen perfectly with her eyes closed

Asha gets a new friend in her friend group

Sabino looks pleased

Asha prepares soup for dinner (remember she’s 10 here)

Asha takes her grandfather to bed, because he’s struggling to walk

Asha reads him some books

Asha went to sleep

…

We gonna skip to the last friend Asha made

Asha wakes up, now looking 13

She has a hopeful expression, it’s another day

She helps her grandfather get out of bed, he’s not smiling anymore, his expression seems distant

She makes them breakfast, and help her saba with eating it

There’s even more drawings on the walls, and they look way more detailed, showing Asha’s art skills improved

She and her 6 friends all go hang out for what was supposed to be a short walk

They spot a girl trying to practice juggling and failing miserably

Asha asks if they can help, but the girl just smiles awkwardly as if she says they can only help if they could make her a proper entertainer in the snap of their fingers

Asha indeed can’t grant that wish BUT she knows how to help her

Cuts to them all in Asha’s house, the 8 preteens all sit together on a round table and Asha brings in some papers, pencils and a book titled “Jokes and tales for jesters”

We see the whole gang now formed, as they talk and laugh together, helping Hal come up with jokes for her act as a royal entertainer

All is well until, Asha noticed her grandfather coughing on a chair right behind them

She rushes to give him some water and stays with him, while her friends watch from the table, with expressions of sadness and pity

Asha is hugging her grandfather when she feels a hand on her shoulder, she turns around and it’s Dahlia, with the other 6 behind, they all give her a reassuring smile as if to tell her it’s gonna be alright

Simon brings a blanket to cover her grandfather, Bazeema makes some tea, Dahlia prepares dinner, Hal plays some songs with her flute, Safi and Dario are dancing to it with Asha (as a reference to the “Silly Song” scene from Snow White where she dances with Dopey and Sneezy) and Gabo is just sitting there tapping his feet to the music.

Asha finally got a break, a moment to just enjoy herself

They all have dinner together, Gabo offers himself to help Sabino eat.

Asha waves her friends goodbye as they all return to their homes

Asha helps her grandfather go to bed, we don’t see his face much

Asha went to sleep

…

Asha wakes up, now 15 years old, she has an excited smile on her face just like how she had 10 years before

She shakes her grandfather to wake him up

He doesn’t move

She tries again…

No answer.

The music turns silent.

Her smile fades away.

…

We cut to her in Sabino’s funeral.

Asha is crying all alone, until she once again feels a hand on her shoulder.

She turns around to see all her 7 friends, all of them grieving with her.

They hug.

…

Asha wakes up, now in present day.

It’s her 18th birthday.

“… It’s another day” she says with a hopeful, but somewhat worried smile.

End of intro.

Chapter 2

Final Thoughts

And so it begins. This is just the first of a LOT of chapters.

This is my first time actually writing a story, in English no less (I’m Brazilian btw) so this has been a pretty big deal for me, please give me suggestions on how to improve if you have any, it’s really appreciated.

Asha and Sabino’s relationship hits really close to home for me, I think whenever we write something it’s inevitable that we bring a little bit of our own experiences into it, and here’s it’s not different, in my case I also had a really close relationship with my grandpa, and I grew up watching him develop Alzheimer’s, just like Asha I used to draw a looooot and my grandpa had a whole wall in his room dedicated only for my drawings, so yeah I got pretty emotional writing about that.

Rip Vovô Dudu

Anyway, what I wanted to accomplish with this intro was establish:

- King Magnifico and Queen Amable’s backstory… Or at least what the people of Rosas think it’s their backstory.

- Who were Asha’s parents and how they’re important to her and shape who she is.

- How Asha met all her friends, as well as who they are.

- How Asha is always going out of her way to help others.

- How her life went from being taken care of by Sabino to being his care taker, which in turn made her become more mature and hard working from an young age.

- But nevertheless, even with all the loss and pain she felt, she always remained kind and optimistic.

With all of that established, we can actually start this story, see you all on chapter 2!

Thank you for reading!

#disney wish #wish #wish 2023 #wish asha #wish disney #wish movie #wish rewrite #king magnifico #queen amaya #wish reimagined #rewrite #long post #kingdom of wishes

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zexalmonth · 11 months

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Zexal Month 2023's coming up! From August 1st to the 31st, we’ll be celebrating our 7th Zexal Month! We're doing a Tarot theme!

All our prompts are based on the 23 Major Arcana! You can follow the written prompts or just draw something based on the actual arcana for the day!

For those who are with us for the first time, we have prompts with some suggestions attached to them. You can focus on characters, concepts or OCs, as long as it’s somehow Zexal related and we'll reblog it if it's tagged with #zexal month 2023. In addition to the daily prompts, we have a list of alternate prompts at the end of the list! We hope you have fun with it.

Week 1: Welcome to the Kingdom

1st: The Fool upright | Beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, a free spirit The king calls you all to introduce yourselves. Hello, fools! Who are you and how did you get into Zexal? 2nd: The Magician upright | Manifestation, resourcefulness, power, inspired action Duel monsters are the manifestation of the soul, so show us your favourite duel monster or card! Alternatively, show us your favourite Numbers Card! 3rd: The High Priestess upright | Intuition, sacred knowledge, the subconscious mind Music can do miraculous things to the subconscious mind. You can make something based on the soundtrack or themes/motifs you like. As a challenge, put on one of the Zexal soundtracks and try to make something before the song ends! Show it to us! 4th: The Empress upright | Femininity, beauty, nature, nurturing, abundance The empress summons you to talk about someone you truly care for. What makes your favourite character your favourite? If you have an OC, feel free to talk about them! Also, we love women, so if you want, show some female characters appreciation!

Week 2: Secrets of the Royal Court

7th- The Emperor upright | Authority, establishment, structure, a father figure All hail the barian emperors! Show us a piece about our favourite alien warlords and/or Don Thousand. You can also show us a non-barian Character as a Barian or something else Barian-related. Alternatively, an upright emperor also represents a father figure. Kazama? Faker? Tron? An OC or self-insert? Show us daddy issues something inspired by them! 8th- The Hierophant reversed | Personal beliefs, freedom, challenging the status quo The reversed hierophant means freedom and non-uniformity, so it’s dress up day! Put a Zexal character (or OC) in a new set of clothes they would/wouldn’t wear! Historically accurate clothes for Barians’ past lives? Mini skirt IV? Droite in her wrestler attire? Astral in a tutu? Just show us fashion! 9th- The Lovers upright | Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices Time to spread the love! OTPs? OT3s? BROTPs? Character x Reader? Character x OC? The lovers card is all about ‘belonging’. What relationships do these characters have? Draw us your ships, friendships or your favourite group of characters (Number’s Club, Sanyuushi, Arclights etc.) enjoying each others’ company. You can also show us the families of your favourite characters and create relatives for them if you prefer. 10th- The Chariot reversed | Self-discipline, opposition, lack of direction Sure, we have a “plot” but Zexal has lots of filler episodes and fun, zany detours! Show what sort of sports or hobbies the characters would get involved with in their spare time. 11th- Justice upright | Justice, fairness, truth, cause and effect, law Time to put a Zexal character on trial! What crimes are they charged for? What is the verdict? What is the punishment? Feel free to get silly with this (Phoenix Wright, anyone?) or be as grim/morbid as you like. Will Vector finally pay for his transgressions? Up to you!

Week 3: Into the Woods

14th- The Hermit upright | Soul-searching, introspection, being alone, inner guidance As you are banished into the woods for your hot takes, you’re able to reflect on a long-forgotten friend. Make something based on your favourite obscure or minor character. Give those one-shot duelists some love! 15th- The Wheel of Fortune upright | Good luck, life cycles, destiny, a turning point Let’s just put your favorite characters on a game show. Can you imagine a Family Feud with Arclights vs Tenjos? Does anyone get lucky? What sort of entertainment (outside of card games) do you think you’d see in Heartland City? 16th- Strength upright | Strength, courage, persuasion, influence, compassion Fight! Fight! Fight! In a contest of pure strength, who would win? Who do you NOT want to face in hand-to-hand combat. Who would you duel? If you want to keep yourself out of the fight, show two characters in a fight/duel! Bonus points if they haven’t canonically fought before. 17th- The Hanged Man upright | Pause, surrender, letting go, new perspectives A change of perspective! Is there any character you didn't like at the start, but ended up loving, or vice versa? Who is it and why? Alternatively, what relationships do you wish we saw? What interactions did Zexal deprive us from? 18th- Temperance upright | Balance, moderation, patience, purpose Sometimes, your friends get on your nerves and you have to be patient with them. But it’s really hard when they’re mostly middle schoolers. How do you think characters would spend a Boys/Girls’ Night Out? What about a slumber party instead?

Week 4: Exile

21st- The Devil reversed | Releasing limiting beliefs, exploring dark thoughts, detachment Show us your villains or your favourite character(s) as a villain. Does their deck change as well? 22nd- The Tower upright | Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening Show us your favourite punching bag hurting emotionally (whether from a death, tragedy, breakup or something else), in physical agony, or just having a good cry. Zexal is no stranger to angst, after all (we got how many death montages at the end of the series?). If there are triggers or graphic themes/visuals, remember to tag them! 23rd- The Moon reversed | Release of fear, repressed emotion, inner confusion Some parts of Zexal were confusing and some plot points were forgotten. What do you wish you could have seen MORE of? Alternatively, is there something you didn’t like in Zexal? What and why? Show us what you would have preferred/thought was interesting! Explore a scenario that could have drastically altered Zexal. e.g. What if Kaito died of space cancer at the end of season 1? 24th- The Star upright | Hope, faith, purpose, renewal, spirituality Let’s change the tone of this week. Zexal is full of mythology and spirituality. Show us some of your favourite themes/lore in the show! 25th- The Sun upright | Positivity, fun, warmth, success, vitality The sun represents warm feelings as much as it represents treasure/wealth. Give your favourite character a cursed weapon or treasure. How do they react? What do they do with it? If you want a challenge, grab an image of Yuma’s room and pick a treasure/object. Draw it and/or give it a story. III definitely would love to hear you talk about it!

Week 5: Court of the Dead

28th- Death upright | Endings, change, transformation, transition How’s the future for Zexal characters? Show us what you think a Zexal character (or several) are doing post-series or how they look when they grow up? 29th- Judgement upright | Judgement, rebirth, inner calling, absolution Zexal ended a long time ago but it’s time to give it a bit of new life. It’s crossover day! How would a Zexal character look/act in the world of the fandom you're into now (or vice versa)? 30th- The World upright | Completion, integration, accomplishment, travel Scenery appreciation! (Tell us what’s your favorite location in Zexal). Alternatively, show us a location where the Zexal characters you like would go on vacation or for an adventure. 31st- The Deck Summarise your Zexal Month 2023! What did you like? What didn’t you like? Any shout-outs you want to give?

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Alternate prompts

As per usual, alternate prompts are meant for ANY day and you can do as many or as few alternate prompts as you like. I can’t stop you if you want to do prompt 10) thirty-one times during Zexal month.

Holding back/recklessness

Manipulation/poor planning

Dreams/delusions

Age-swap/younger days

Insecurities

Parallel worlds / Fused world

“But there is only one bed…”

“Can you explain why I have to bail you guys out of jail AGAIN?”

A heist!

Middle school/High school AU

Lunchtime shenanigans

Fantasy/Fairytale AU

Hygge: A very strong feeling of cosiness, of a special moment, alone or with friends, where you feel utterly content, secure, reassured, comforted, and even kinship if you’re among loved ones.

Verschlimmbessern: To fix something but only make it worse

Backpfeifengesicht: A face badly in need of a fist.

Body Swap/Soul swap

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As usual, feel free to do whichever prompts you like in whatever order you want. These prompts are a guideline, rather than a hard rule, and you can make art, write fanfiction, make amvs/animatics or just talk about it! Just do what you can manage! No need to do all of them if you don’t want to.

Also, we have a new mod on the team to join me and Iris. Welcome mod Fla!

We can't wait for this August to see what you share with the fandom! Please share this around and spread the Zexal love!

Love Mod Pyra

#Zexal #ygo zexal #yugioh zexal #zexal month #Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal #zexal month 2023 #Zexalmonth #zexalmonth2023

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stripetkattelalala54-gf · 2 months

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Rainbow Madness

Summary: While riding a roller coaster, Mario gets a little bit too much reminded of a certain Rainbow Road incident. Takes place sometime after the movie.

TW: Panic attack

Characters: Mario, Luigi, Mia, Pio, Tony, Arthur, Sofia (Mario and Luigi's little niece)

“I wanna go on that one!”, Sofia exclaimed excitedly, bouncing on her feet as she pointed to a massive roller coaster that extended high into the sky towering over all the other roller coasters that were nearby. It was her 10th birthday so the whole family had agreed to do something a little bit more special than usual to celebrate it.

Since they all knew how much she loved the Mushroom Kingdom ever since Mario and Luigi took her and the rest of the family there to show them around and how much she loved amusement parks, they agreed that combining these two things together would make a good birthday present for her.

So, Mario had asked Peach if amusement parks existed in the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach had looked at him confused at first but after explaining the concept, her face lit up and she informed him that the Mushroom Kingdom indeed had something like an amusement park albeit under a different name.

Now it was him, Luigi, Uncle Arthur, Uncle Tony, mom, dad, and Sofia walking through the FunMush park. They played various games, went on different rides, and tried food which they had never heard of before. It was nice and everyone was having fun. Aunt Marie hadn’t been able to come with them as she had fallen sick. Sofia was sad at first that her mother couldn’t come with them, but that sadness vanished as soon as they set foot in the FunMush park.

Sofia was still bouncing on her feet as she looked at them excitingly.

“Sure, thing sweety we can go on that one”, Uncle Arthur said, laughing. “Who’s coming with us?”

“As if you even have to ask”, Uncle Tony responded with a smirk. “Mario, Luigi you coming too?”

“Of course”, Luigi said without hesitation. Just like Marilyn, Mario could see the excitement radiating off his brother. Despite of everything that Luigi was afraid of, his brother loved roller coasters. Mario normally enjoyed them too but today he couldn’t help but feel uneasy whenever they went on one. Up to that point, all the roller coasters had been relatively small. Still, memories of the Rainbow Road fiasco resurfaced whenever he found himself on one of those rides, but it was manageable.

Now looking at this big roller coaster that was a few feet away from them, made the knot in his stomach that had been there ever since the first ride he went on today, grow even more. It absolutely didn’t help that the roller coaster was very bright and colourful itself.

Mario swallowed thickly but immediately recovered when he saw his whole family staring at him as they still waited for an answer from him. He forced himself to smile. “Yeah, sure I’m coming too.”

It was probably going to be fine anyway. It was only a roller coaster. He would survive a ride on this even if it made him uncomfortable. He never told his family about the Rainbow Roadpart of his adventure not even Luigi. It was a part of his journey that he’d rather forget, the feeling of terror when the explosion threw him off the road and the feeling of hopelessness and despair when he and DK were swallowed by that eel was not something he was eager to voice out loud.

Besides it was probably nothing in comparison to what his brother had to endure during those three days. His family didn’t need to worry about him too when Luigi was already clearly struggling because of everything that happened. It was fine. He could deal with it himself. He pointedly ignored the voice that told him that he hadn’t slept a full night since he came back because he had nightmares about either the Rainbow Road incident, Luigi dying or Bowser beating him up or some combinations of those scenarios that way too often involved that Luigi somehow got hurt or died because he was unable to protect him. Or that he once almost had a panic attack when there had been a sudden loud noise. Or that one time when Luigi came back home a bit later than he’d said he would. Or-

“Mia, Pio are you coming as well?” Uncle Arthur asked, pulling Mario out of his racing thoughts. “I think we rather sit this one out”, his mom said with a smile. “But you go and have fun. We’ll be waiting just right next by the exit of the ride.”

“Well then let’s go!”, Uncle Arthur cheered. Sofia let out a happy squeak before she was running off on her own. Uncle Arthur laughed following her right behind. “C’mon”, Uncle Tony waved, signalling for Mario and Luigi to follow too.

They made their way through the crowd and before Mario knew it, they were right in front of the roller coaster. Uncle Arthur and Sofia were already standing in line waving them over as soon as they saw them.

Only now that they were right in front of the roller coaster, made Mario realize just how big it was; It was towering over them, its twists and turns extending high into the sky and the colours were dizzyingly bright. It made his heart beat faster but not in a good way.

Mario’s heart felt like it would stop when he got a look of the name of the roller coaster. “Rainbow Madness” was written in the same bright colours as the roller coaster was itself. This had to be a joke. Because of course the name would have a remarkable resemblance to the thing he absolutely didn’t want to think about. Just perfect. It did not help with his growing uneasiness at all.

The nearer it was their turn for the ride, the worse it got. He clapped his fingers together in a nervous manner and he could feel a cold sweat forming on his brows.

His uneasiness must’ve been more visible than he thought because Luigi suddenly nudged him gently into his side. “You okay?”, he asked in a concerned tone but silent enough so that others wouldn’t hear him. “I’m fine”, he waved his brother off. Luigi didn’t seem to be convinced. “Are you sure? You’re really tense”, he pressed again. “Yeah, of course”, Mario smiled this time in the hopes that it was enough to convince his brother that he was fine.

Luigi looked like he wanted to say something more but before he could do it, the line cleared up and it was their turn.

Mario climbed into the seat next to Luigi while Sofia and Uncle Arthur took a seat together behind them and Uncle Tony a seat behind those two. Then the safety harness clicked into place. His heart started to race even more now that he knew that there was no going back. It was okay. It was only a roller coaster nothing bad would happen while riding it, he told himself.

The roller coaster suddenly gave a jolt, and before Mario knew it, the ride began its way up the steep descent. His breathing quickened even though he tried to remain calm. It was okay, he told himself over and over again. It was only barely working. He gripped the safety harness tighter as the ride went up higher and higher. This had been a bad idea. He should’ve just stayed down and made up some excuse why he wasn’t coming on the ride. Just as they were about to reach the peak of the ride, a loud bang echoed through the park and Mario’s heart dropped and his breath got caught in his throat.

And then he was falling. His ears were ringing, he couldn’t hear anything. The explosion had been deafening. He was falling. He was going to die. He was going to die without being able to safe his brother. Luigi was going to die because of him. Their family would never know what happened to them. They would never know it was his fault.

He was falling and he was going to die and there was nothing that he could do about it and why was it so hard to breathe and oh god he was still falling, was this never going to end-

“Mario!”

Mario gasped for air as his surroundings came vaguely back into focus. He was on a roller coaster that was moving at a breakneck speed was the first thing he realized. The second thing, he realized was that he wasn’t breathing right. He was choking and he could barely get enough air in.

It’s gonna be okay, just hang on!”, a voice shouted next to him, but Mario could barely hear it over his own heartbeat. The roller coaster took its twists and turns, and Mario could do nothing more than to just hold on.

He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching the safety bar of the roller coaster as if it was a lifeline. His breathing was still too fast, making it hard to get enough air into his lungs. Dizziness was washing over him, and he felt like he would pass out at any moment.

Suddenly the roller coaster came to a screeching halt, and everything stopped. Somebody took him by the arm, nudging him to stand up but his legs felt like jelly. They only supported him for a few steps, and he would have collapsed on the ground if it hadn’t been for the person’s firm grip on him.

He was being led away a few steps before he was being gently lowered down to the floor. Everything was spinning, his chest felt like it was too tight making it impossible to get enough air in. His hands gripped at his chest, pulling at his shirt. He needed it off, he needed room to breathe, he needed-

A hand touched his shoulder shortly, but it was enough to make him flinch.

“Hey”, the voice suddenly spoke again. “Hey breathe with me. Just follow my lead.”

“In. Hold it. Out.”

Mario tried desperately to do as he was told, but the air just wouldn’t fill his lungs. He coughed and choked.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, try again.”

“In.” Mario took a shaky breath in. “Hold it.” He held it for a few seconds. “Out.” Mario breathed out again.

“Good, very good. Try again.”

Mario did. He did it again and again until he was finally able to breathe normally.

That was when his surroundings finally came back into focus. Luigi was kneeling only a few inches in front of him, concern and fear clearly written over his face.

A little bit more behind standing, were Uncle Tony, Uncle Arthur, his parents and Sofia. They had the same concerned expression while Sofia looked scared, clutching Uncle Arthur’s hand. Oh. Oh no.

“You back with us bro?”, Luigi asked in a soft tone.

Giving a shaky nod was all that Mario was capable of. His throat felt like it was on fire making it impossible to form any words. He felt completely exhausted. It was as if all his energy just got sucked out.

Mario could hear footsteps and then his mom was kneeling right in front of him too. She put her hand on his cheek which made him instinctively lean into it. He felt like he could fall asleep right there.

“What happened tesoro? Are you okay?”, his mom’ s concerned voice brought him out of his haziness. She gave him the same worried look as Luigi.

Mario opened his mouth to give a respond, but his throat still hurt too much to speak. And if he was being honest with himself, what would he even say? He didn’t want to tell what actually happened. He would only ruin Sofia’s birthday even more than he already had, and he would make his family unnecessarily worry about something that he shouldn’t even be struggling with. But he was also physically and emotionally too exhausted to come up with a lie.

“Mario?”

His mom looked even more worried than before which made Mario realize that he must have stayed silent for a bit too long. He gave her a smile and a quick thumbs up to signal her that everything was fine, but it was clear that she and Luigi didn’t believe him.

“Mario-“, Luigi started this time but Mario interrupted him.

“I’m fine”, Mario pressed the words out. It hurt but it was necessary to convince Luigi and his mom that he was fine enough to continue because he really didn’t want to ruin Sofia’s birthday completely and he certainly didn’t want to talk about anything that happened back there.

Luigi and his mom still didn’t look convinced, but they seemed to understand that Mario wouldn’t talk, so they didn’t press any further.

“Alright. Then let’s go back to the others”, his mom said. She gave his shoulder one last comforting squeeze before she stood up.

Luigi got up from his kneeling position too, extending a hand towards him to help him stand up as well. Mario gratefully took it. His legs still felt wobbly, but it wasn’t as bad as it was before. Together they walked to where Uncle Tony, Uncle Arthur, Sofia and his dad were standing.

They all looked worried but before anybody could say anything, his mom spoke up: “Everything’s okay now.” She gave them a pointed look that clearly said, “no asking questions” and Mario was glad for that. Then she turned to Sofia with a smile. “Say, Sofia what do you want to do next?” At that Sofia immediately brightened up as she pointed to the next thing she wanted to do.

The rest of the family joined and so the day continued. Mario tried to be joyful during the whole time, forcing himself to smile and laugh whenever Sofia pulled him and the rest of the family into new games to try out.

While he knew that Luigi and his mom could probably look right through him as they kept a close eye on him, he hoped that at least the others wouldn’t be able to. Though from time to time he could see that even his father gave him a concerned look, so it didn’t seem that he was doing a convincing job. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was lay down in a bed and sleep forever.

Finally, the day came slowly to an end. The sun had already begun to sink behind the horizon as they went back home. Since Aunt Marie was sick, it was his mom who took over with cooking. She prepared spaghetti with meatballs as Sofia had wished for her birthday.

After dinner there was cake that Aunt Marie had already baked the day before. Sofia was still in high spirits even though it was starting to get late and even though they spent the whole day at the FunMush park.

Mario though for his part felt very tired. Not having been able to sleep through a whole night, either because of his own or Luigi’s nightmares, since he was back plus the panic attack from today, really made the exhaustion catch up with him for good. So not long after the cake but also not too short to seem unpolite, Mario excused himself.

Nobody said anything against it, not even Uncle Arthur or Uncle Tony teased him about getting to bed ‘quite early for someone his age’, which probably meant that he must’ve looked as bad as he felt. They all just wished him a good night and then Mario was finally alone in his and Luigi’s room.

He put on his pyjamas, brushed his teeth, and crawled under his bed sheets, ready to just fall asleep and forget everything that happened today when the door to the room opened. Mario didn’t even need to open his eyes to know that it was Luigi.

The light was turned on, footsteps could be heard before he felt the bed dip beside him. A hand touched his shoulder.

“Hey”, Luigi began in a soft tone. There was a longer pause before he continued, seemingly needing to gather his thoughts first. “You- This afternoon on that roller coaster- you really freaked out there. It really scared me too. What happened? I’ve never seen you like this.”

Mario took a few seconds before he finally turned around to face his brother. There was nothing but concern written over his face. He knew he couldn’t lie. He was in no state to pretend that everything was fine, and Luigi already knew that something was wrong. But he also really didn't want to talk about it. He didn’t need Luigi to worry about additional things when he already had enough to deal with himself.

But then again, he knew that he would need to talk about it at some point because he knew that Luigi would absolutely worry if he didn’t talk about it. Mario sighed. Better get it over with now.

Mario sat up so that he was able to face his brother.

“I guess”, he started, “this roller coaster just reminded me of the whole Rainbow Road fiasco.”

“Cranky- DK’s father- suggested using karts to quickly return to the Mushroom Kingdom via a shortcut so that we could ambush Bowser and his troop during their attack”, Mario explained. “The shortcut was a rainbow road. Literally. It was a rainbow that served as a road. It was unbelievable.”

Mario paused and took moment to gather his thoughts. He didn’t know why it was so hard to form into words what happened back there. Still, he forced himself to continue.

“So”, Mario went on, “it turns out that Bowser knew we were going that route and his troop ambushed us instead. The whole chase was crazy. It kinda felt like being on a roller coaster.”

Mario took a deep breath.

“We did almost manage to escape them. But then a blue-shelled koopa flew towards us and exploded right on me and DK. I don’t know how, and I honestly try not to think about it”, he chuckled but there was no humour to it. “Anyway, the road broke and we were falling. I thought I was gonna- but then we hit the water. Which was good I guess until we were eaten by a gigantic eel.”

Not wanting to go into more detail, Mario just carried on. “But of course we made it out and yeah. That was that.” Not really knowing what to say anymore, he stopped talking.

“Whoa.” Was all that Luigi said.

“But it’s okay, I’m fine-“

“No you’re not”, interrupted Luigi. “Are you even listening to yourself? You had a panic attack today because of what experienced on that rainbow road. You are clearly not fine.” There was no anger in Luigi’s voice. It was like he was just stating a fact.

Mario’s first instinct was to protest that he was fine, but he paused. He did have frequently nightmares about it even though it was not the only event he had nightmares about. The panic attack today didn’t make things better. He was tired. He was so so tired.

Luigi took gently his hands into his. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were struggling this much. I-“

“No, Luigi, no!” Mario couldn’t help but stop Luigi right there. “It’s not your fault, you weren’t even supposed to know. You have enough struggles yourself you don’t need to be burdened with mine.”

Luigi gave him a sad look.

“We can take care of each other”, he said. “You don’t always have to be strong you know. I’m here for you too just like you are for me.”

Before Mario knew it, he started trembling. Everything was just too much. A lump started to form in his throat and his eyes started to burn. He swallowed but the lump didn’t go away.

Warm arms enveloped him. He was being pulled close until Mario was buried into Luigi’s chest. The trembling intensified, and before he could stop it, the tears started to trail down his face. A hand started to stroke through his hair while Mario tried to focus on Luigi’s heartbeat to help get a hold of himself. It wasn’t working.

His body shook with his sobs, so he gave up and just let it go through the motions. Luigi held him the whole time, never once letting go.

When he finally managed to get a hold of himself, he felt even more tired which he didn’t think was possible. Mario didn’t have the strength to protest when Luigi laid him down and covered him with a blanket.

“Sleep. I think you really need it”, was the last thing he heard before he fell asleep.

Later that night, he awoke again from a nightmare. He shot up, trembling and shaking. It was hard to breathe, his throat was on fire like he was drowning. Like he was back in that cold water waiting to die, knowing Luigi would die too because he wouldn’t be able to save him-

And then warm arms were suddenly around him, holding him close very similar just like a few hours ago. “You’re okay”, Luigi said as he soothingly rubbed his back.

Mario didn’t say anything, he was just clinging to him until he was able to calm down. He vaguely realized that Luigi must have anticipated that there was a chance that he would be having a nightmare tonight. Mario had gotten used to wake up quietly after a nightmare so he wouldn’t wake up his brother and tonight hadn’t been any different.

So, either Luigi stayed up the whole time or he was just sleeping very lightly which often happened when he was worried about something. It was probably the latter one.

Finally, after who knows how long, Mario managed to calm down again. Still, he didn’t want to let go. He wasn’t ready to lose Luigi’s comforting touch just yet. He didn't… he didn’t want to sleep alone. He also didn’t want to voice all of these things because he didn’t want to inconvenient Luigi any further than he already had. Apparently, it wasn’t even necessary.

As if Luigi could read his mind, he took Mario by the hand and guided him over to his bed. No words were spoken, and they didn’t need to. Luigi gently laid them both down on the bed in a way that Mario was now laying on Luigi’s chest with arms wrapped protectively around him.

It was a weird position to be in. Normally Mario was the one who held Luigi like this. Arms wrapped protectively around him, letting his brother know that he was always there for him, giving him comfort and a sense of being protected. Being the one who was receiving this kind of hug now was definitively something he was not used to.

It felt good though. It felt good to be able to be vulnerable and knowing that somebody was there to hold you through it.

Mario closed his eyes and let sleep wash over him.

#smb #mario #luigi #super mario bros #super mario bros movie #the super mario bros #super mario #braincellfic #slightly nervous about posting this but I've been working on this way too long so here we go #tw panic attack

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clemswinecorner-socials · 1 year

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Getaways [JMC]

Yourusername 🔒

London, United Kingdom

liked by collegefriend, yourneighbour and 485 others

yourusername post christmas/pre semester break

posted january 15th, 2023

yoursister why does it look like jm is drinking coke in a starbucks cup

yourusername help it was an iced americano yoursister he's at starbucks and gets an iced americano??? yourusername don't question it

juanmanuelcorrea_ cute as ever

... view more comments

Yourusername 🔒

miami, florida

liked by yourfriend, yourcousin and 348 others

yourusername post testweek mid semester miami getaway

posted april 26th, 2023

yourroommate casually goes to the other side of the world

yourusername had to see my dogs🤞🏼 juanmanuelcorrea_ your dogs?

yourfriend you look so happy in the first one aw juanmanuelcorrea_ we should do this more often

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Yourusername

liked by juanmanuelcorrea_ and 1,246 others

yourusername torn between watchu looking at and what the dog doing as a caption

posted june 10th, 2023

juanmanuelcorrea_ bae i dont want anyone to be looking at that thats for my eyes only😠😠 juanmanuelcorrea_ cute dogs, where'd you get those?

yourusername idk found them with some guy on the street

yourcollegefriend are you ever going to stop posting his dogs

yourusername no🥰🥰

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Yourusername

Hungary

liked by clementnovalak, jakcrawford_ and 3.618 others

yourusername mid-summerbreak rawe ceek tagged juanmanuelcorrea_, marcusarmstrong

posted july 26th, 2023

marcusarmstrong steameeeed parcferme.co was good to have you on the team again!

yourusername full season next year? juanmanuelcorrea_ i say yes

richardverschoor didn't know you brought your dog mate @/juanmanuelcorrea_ jamesharveyblair still a crime you missed the tina turner songs

yourusername had to be a mom and pick up jaky moon 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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Yourusername

liked by vanamersfoortracing, marcusarmstrong and 6.721 others

yourusername happy valentines day from my boyfriend and my boyfriends' boyfriend (and me) tagged richardverschoor, juanmanuelcorrea_, vanamersvoortracing

posted february 14th, 2024

vanamersfoortracing happy valentines day to our fav photographer juanfanacc omg???? juanmanuelcorrea_ happy valentines baby💞

richardverschoor i see how it is juanmanuelcorrea_ i was talking about you babe

motorsportlvr the second pic goodbyeeeeee juanmanuelcorrea_ 💝💝

yourusername love u, happy valentines juanmanuelcorrea_ happy valentines <3

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other social media works & main writing masterlist

#juan manuel correa #formula 2 #formula 2 x reader #formula 2 imagine #f2 #f2 x reader #juan manuel correa x reader

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little-diable · 9 months

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Little-Diable's 15k celebration

15k how fucking insane is this?! It's a number I certainly can't grasp, yet I am so insanely grateful for it. I love y'all so much, thank you for loving my writing, for loving my weird self, and for being so kind.

But enough with the sappy words, let's focus on a proper way to celebrate this milestone, shall we?

As promised this is a celebration for writers and readers (a big thank you to @deathofpeaceofmind for brainstorming with me and for designing the lovely header): here is what we'll do:

Be aware, this challenge/celebration is tied to a prize you can win.

I've chosen five of my all time favourite books, which are: The Song of Achilles, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Hamlet, Lord of the Rings (all parts in one), The Last Kingdom (first part of the series).

For the writers:

Choose one of the following characters: Tommy Shelby, Dean and/or Sam Winchester, Aaron Hotchner, Spencer Reid, Negan, Sihtric, Finan, Tom Riddle, Kylo Ren, Jasper Hale, Loki

Send me an ask with the character, the genre (smut, angst, fluff), and a number between 5 and 159

I'll choose one of the books listed above and will select a sentence I can find on the page belonging to the number you've chosen for your ask. You can do with the sentence/quote as you please, but it has to show up in the fic.

You'll have time to write your fic till the 10th of December 2023.

Please only write reader-insert fics, use a keep reading tag, and use appropriate warnings. It can be as dark, as angsty, as smutty, as fluffy as you want, there is no limit for the word count. You can combine this with other challenges if you want. You can also write more than one fic for this celebration.

Post the fic with #little-diable15k, message me if I don't reblog it within two days.

Since this is a challenge where you and a reader can win something, please try to actually post your fic till the 10th of December.

For the readers:

You have to actively read the stories posted for this celebration (of course only the ones you are interested in/comfortable with)

On the 11th of December I’ll post a Google doc where you’ll have time to vote for your favourite fic. The doc will be open for one week.

I'm asking you to reblog and comment the fics you enjoy, since this is tied to the prize you can win. I will also reblog every fic, so you can find them on my Tumblr as well.

Now about the prize for one lucky reader and one lucky writer:

Writers: I will list the fics you wrote in a google doc (the fics will be added on the 11th of December), where readers can vote on their favourite fics. The fic which gets the most votes is the winner of this challenge. I will contact you on Tumblr should you win, if you're comfortable with sharing your address / or a PO box with me, I'll send you a small gift; if you don't want to do this @deathofpeaceofmind will design a header for one of your fics as your prize. If there are more winners (meaning if there's a tie) we will find another prize more of you can have!

Readers: If you add your username to the google doc I can see who voted the most and who actively took part in reading. The one of you who votes the most (I will check if you did comment/reblog the fics on Tumblr), will be contacted through Tumblr, if you're comfortable with sharing your address / or a PO box with me, I'll send you a small gift; if you don't want to do this you can request a fic from me instead. If y'all are super active (which I’m hoping for!) we'll find another prize more of you can have!

I hope this is all clear and somewhat understable! I am so so excited for this, and I hope lots of you will take part in it!

Tagging some mutuals and writers/readers who may enjoy this:

@negans-lucille-tblr @writethelifeyouwant @writingliv @zablife @runnning-outof-time @notyour-valentine @springsteens @cillmequick @band--psycho @smellingofpoetry @sihtricfedaraaahvicius @earlgreydreamreplies @footballffbarbiex @thinkinghardhardlythinking @luveline @firefly-in-darkness @holylulusworld @gemini-mama @honeypiehotchner @bluetreecloud20 @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @carolina-thiell

#little-diable15k #writing challenge #dean winchester smut #tommy shelby smut #loki smut #negan smut #jasper hale smut #aaron hotchner smut

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life-winners-liveblog · 4 months

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Story time? Story time! The translation might be a little off but the singing flower is an interesting one, I promise

A king had two children, a boy and a girl. Since he was old, one day they told them "to the one that will bring me the golden ball I'll give my kingdom".

The two kids left and arrived at the woods. There, they saw two roads; the little boy took the one to the right and the little girl the one to the left.As they already looked for some time, the boy having found nothing but the girl found the golden ball.

They came back to where the road forked and the boy was jealous of the luck his sister had.

"Give me the golden ball" said the boy

"I cannot"

"Give it to me or I'll kill you"

"You will not get it"

Then the boy killed his sister, dig a hole and put her in it. He took the golden ball and brought it to his dad.

"Where is your sister" asked the king.

"I don't know, she stayed in the wood" lied the boy.

But on the little girl's grave grew a rose bush with a pretty bush. A shepherd, going this way, take the flower and put it in his pocket. The rose began to sing.

"Shepard, shepard

It's my brother that killed

To get the golden ball

It's my brother that killed me

To get the golden ball"

The shepherd got scared and brought the rose to the king. The shepherd took the rose in his mouth and it began to sing. The king did it too, and the rose again began to sing.

"Father, father.

It's my brother that killed me

To get the golden ball

It's my brother that killed me

To get the golden ball"

The king called his son and made him put the rose in is mouth too.

"Brother, brother

It's you that killed me

To get the golden ball

It's you that killed me

To get the golden ball"

And the king understood everything . He asked the shepherd to guide him where he found the rose, and began to dig the grave. But, as soon as he began, the little girl was alive again. The king was happy to see his daughter again and put his son into a bag, throwing him alive to the water.

- General

Scott: I did not expect that ending... It's surprising.

Grian: Guess It's time for another story?

Scott: I've done 2nd reign then 4th reign, I think we could do some 3rd reign literature...huh

Grian: Is there a problem?

Scott: 3rd reign literature tends to be poetry so I don't know what stor- wait nevermind, I know just the one! Once upon a time there was a wise king, the king on birthday made an announcement: he invited the 10 strongest and most powerful witches of the land to prove their worth in front of his court and him and the winner would become the kings personal spellcaster granting them riches and resources others wouldn't even dream of.

Scar: Ohhhhhh! Magic battle!

Scott: The 10th witch, powerful in the arts of the flame, never arrived to the challenge thinking herself above such competitions, and the 9th felt too insecurr to partecipate, leaving 8 witches to compete-

Grian: Stupid decision really.

Scott: The first challenge was easy, the witches had to find a diamond needle in a muddy plain. The 8th witch, the witch of ice and snow appalled by the tought of reaching into the mud quit the competition, while the 7th witch, the witch of the deserts, was incapable of finding the needle in the mud and was eliminated.

The second challenge was slightly more complicated, around the forest were scattered magical items that had to be found. The 6th witch, surrounded by the power of the sea barged into the forest without plan and was never seen again, the 5th witch covered by the smell of dark magic and undead attracted the attention of the forests spirits and was eaten by the forest itself.

The time for the third challenge came, the witches had to convince the kings daughter of their worthyness trough speech alone, the sound of ticking clocks that accompanied the 4th witch annoyed the princess and she was denied, the 3rd witch covered in vines and blooms was also denied for her fake flattery had enraged the princess.

The fourth challenge was the biggest, two dragons had been terrorizing the kingdom and had to be slayed. The 2nd witch armed with the gift of lightning attacked the dragon head on and managed to defeat it but her brash actions left her wounded and poisoned to die little time later. The last witch however was full of wisdom and she had known the dragon was not attacking the village for evil, but only because of a curse, so instead of slaying the beast she freed it from the curses influence and the dragon indebited swore his loyalty to the kingdom. The Witch was immediately made the kings spellcaster for she had not only accomplished the tasks but she had also gained the kingdom a powerful ally.

#asks #trafficblr #traffic series #scott smajor #grian #goodtimeswithscar

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torturedpoetemotions · 3 months

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Once Upon A Midnight: A Nandermo 10th Kingdom Fusion AU

Guillermo de la Cruz is an overworked, underpaid general manager who daydreams about a world more like the one he used to glimpse in the fantasy books and films he loved growing up. Nandor the Relentless is a vampire/werewolf hybrid imprisoned for nearly one hundred years in the dungeons of the Staten Island Vampiric Council.

When their worlds collide, Guillermo finds himself caught up in an adventure beyond his wildest imagination. Thrown into a world where dogs talk, vampires are real, and the big bad wolf plays at being prince charming, Guillermo begins to discover that he, too, is more than he has always seemed.

But in a fairy tale this fractured, the road to happily ever after is bound to have a few bumps.

Chapter 1: Wishing On A Star

Chapter 2: Just Can't Let You Go From Me

Chapter 3: Coming Soon!

#wwdits #nandermo #what we do in the 10th kingdom #once upon a midnight #wwdits fic #nandermo fic #fanfiction #my writing #this chapter is unhinged #you have been warned lol

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alexiavettel · 10 months

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chapter six

"The world was whole then, the sun and the moon together as one"

pairing: charles leclerc x fem!stroll¡reader

word count: 2.3k+

warnings: explicit language, reader manipulating her father to create chaos basically, Seb retirement, Lawrence is almost a good dad (i love him, i hate to make him a bit toxic), reader and charles being sassy and quite aggressive towards each other, Leclerc being obnoxiously sexist.

disclaimer: any photo used is not supposed to represent the reader, are all Pinterest pics that match the context

<<< previous part

April 10th, 2022

Melbourne, Australia- post-race

“We're gonna reveal in the next race” Charles notified you right after entering your trailer “Binotto wanted to be in Monza but it’s too far. So.. I was thinking that we could walk in on thursday holding hands” he starts planning.

“We didn’t agree with soft launching?”

“For god’s sake, Stroll! We’ve been soft launching for months! I had never gone out so much even with my real girlfriends, there are more pics of us in gossips accounts than on our own phones, we do more press together lately than when we were in the same team. Everyone figured that we are together already” he seats down on your couch.

“But why Imola? We could wait a bit, don’t we?”

“They decided already. Better be soon in the season, no?”

“I will find a way to not let this be a main thing this weekend…” you murmur to yourself but Leclerc managed to hear it.

“What are you planning, Satan?” The man gets up and comes closer, eyeing you suspiciously.

“I don’t wanna be in the spotlight… with you” you whisper.

“Gotta be clearer, sweetheart” he looks at you quirking his brow.

“You’ll see it!” You turn to him and smile over sweetly.

“I don’t like the way you say this-”

“Do you want all the questions this weekend to be about our relationship? Yeah, I don’t think so. My team had something planned for a while so I think we could announce it now and it’ll take a bit of the spotlight from me- us”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s a bit of a risky move, but I’m gonna figure it out”

•

“Dad, please! I would never ask you for something like this if it really wasn’t important!” A lie, you would. You have done it multiple times already.

“Do you know how many problems this may create?” He grew uncomfortable in his seat. Having a serious conversation like this one, wasn’t your first option but the anxiety won.

“Daddy… An upgrade was already planned for Imola, we gonna announce it this thursday anyway. So thinking in a business way, it’ll attract to us a lot of attention. Since we’re having a good development this season, it will create an expectation in everyone that we are turning into a brand new team and one of the main ones. Announcing Alonso will create so much speculation and basically initiate the silly season”

“Kitten, there will be so many questions,” he sighed tiredly “did you stop to think how risky that is? To you, specifically. No one's gonna think Vettel is retiring, they will question your talent and ability, sweetie. I think I can do what you ask me but are you ready for all that?”

“Yes, I am. I’m not a kid anymore, you know I can take a bit of shit from the media with my head high. I’ve done it already, I can do it again. Thank you, daddy!” You hug him dearly. Really happy that the plan worked out and that he trusted you enough for that, but quite worried about the consequences.

“Don’t worry, kitten. But I’ll need your help to talk with Vettel, see if he’s okay with all this. I’m gonna take care of the rest, let’s see if Alonso allows it. But I’m gonna make it happen, anything for you baby girl. Just… Don’t disappoint me, okay?”

“Never, father. But if Seb isn’t okay with it you don’t need to do it, deal?”

“You are the most perfect teammate, sweetheart” he shuffles your hair affectionately.

•

April 20th, 2022

Silverstone, United Kingdom - Aston Martin Headquarters

You told Seb everything yesterday, from the point of taking the attention away from you and Leclerc to open opportunities to other teams' proposals, as your official (and undisclosed information) contract ends this year.

Your dad was happy about Vettel’s acceptance and already set everything up for today’s breaking news. So let the silly season begin! While on Sim, Sebastian gave you a lesson about how risky that could be and if the media starts to go too harsh on you, you can call him up anytime. You have been ignoring Leclerc for the past few days since he hasn’t stopped asking what you're going to do and you can’t wait to see his reaction. Liv told you the news release time, not before calling you crazy and “Can’t you fucking accept that you and Charles are a couple?”...

Your mobile started ringing like crazy but you just put it on the ‘do not disturb’ mode and follow with your day. It actually made you curious sometimes throughout the day but you tried to concentrate on training, and gossiping with Seb helped a lot.

“So… People enjoyed the news?” Vettel asked when we were about to get out.

“I don’t know, didn’t touch my phone since it came out” you admitted picking up your stuff.

“You’re not curious?” He side-eyed you smirking.

“Yes… But we already know what they’re talking about either way”

“Get your phone, if you're not curious I am!” You did what he said and got shocked by how many missed calls, hundreds of messages and social media notifications.

“God’s sake!...” You showed your phone to him and he started laughing at your reaction “Let’s search the news”

“SILLY SEASON BEGAN: Fernando Alonso joins Aston Martin for 2023. Who will leave?”

“Is Y/n Stroll remaining in Formula One?”

“Vettel OR Stroll? Who will leave Aston Martin?”

“Will Lawrence Stroll be brave enough to fire his own daughter?”

“Is it possible that Sebastian Vettel is going to retire?”

“Is Sebastian Vettel going back to Ferrari?”

“Who will replace Fernando Alonso in Alpine?”

“Will the only female driver on the grid be fired?”

“Did you see Leclerc’s message?” Sebastian asked after you two read all the news.

“He’s probably just freaking out. Did you already explain to him the Ferrari beef?” His reaction said enough “Why not?”

“Do you really think it will help his relationship with Mattia? I can tell him after I retire, I heard Binotto will retire depending on this year’s performance…”

“Really? That could explain why he had gone so far for Leclerc’s reputation. Shit, he’s fucked!” You laughed out loud while Seb attempted to scold you but failed and started giggling with you.

•

April 21st, 2022

Imola, Italy - Media day

Y/n Stroll POV:

“So the ghost comes to pay me a visit?” He was suited in his classic Ferrari polo when he opened his hotel room’s door.

“Shut up, Leclerc” I enter the room and sit on his bed.

“You ghosted me for more than a week and I can’t be mad?!” He closed the door harshly.

“Stop being dramatic…” I shuffle around his messy bag of clothes.

“I’m not being dramatic!” He’s probably so mad that he doesn’t even care that I’m going through his stuff.

“Why do you care that much?” I found less embarrassing trousers, a white tailored one “Missed your pretty girlfriend?” I look up at him teasingly and he just avoids me looking at the trousers.

“Fuck you. What’s that?”

“I’m not being seen with you wearing those horrendous pants! Change to this white one and then we can go” With a sweet smile I shove him into the bathroom.

As he took time to change I used the opportunity to read all the messages he sent to me in the meantime. 150 messages all about him going crazy like “WTF ARE YOU DOING?” “ARE YOU GETTING FIRED?”, it made me giggle.

He didn't say anything while walking out of the bathroom, just gathered his things in silence and didn’t wait for me to get out of the room.

“Are you really that mad at me?” He was waiting at the lift door. “Silence treatment now?” He remains silent.

The elevator arrives and we enter with quietude filling the air. If we stay in this situation the remaining 14 floors will be unbearable.

“I am not getting fired”.

Fourteenth floor

“I didn’t tell before ‘cause I didn’t know if my father would allow”.

Thirteenth floor

“You’re not gonna talk to me? Really? Stop fucking ignoring me!”

“Are you really that embarrassed of me?”

Twelfth floor

“Embarrassed? Only of your sense of style, Leclerc”

“It’s a lie”

“No, it’s not! Why would I be so embarrassed of you?”

“You’re gaslighting me!”

“I am not! Why can’t fucking answer me properly?!”

“Look how much chaos you created just to not hold my fucking hand!” He scratched his neck after messing up his hair nervously.

“That’s not the problem!” I pick up his hand, interlacing our fingers “See!”

“Then why did you do all this? You don’t want this fake shit, I know it really well. I got you! But was this all necessary?!” He shook my hand away and widened his eyes.

“I don’t want the spotlight in my face!”

“You don’t shy away! Like never!”

“Can’t you put yourself in my place one fucking time?! You and the others can change girlfriends like a pair of shoes and will be treated normally!”

“And?”

“Stop playing dumb! Having a boyfriend will be the main point of my weekend to them. Especially if it is with a driver! They gonna question my ability, if I’m able to discern my personal and professional life, that I’m a whore who couldn’t keep it in the pants with a coworker!”

“They’ll do the same with me, don’t play the victim” He messes his hair madly.

“You’re a man! You’ll be the best one ‘cause you got a hot girl at work, you’ll be the player, an ‘alpha’. Now aside from ‘getting my seat from daddy’s money’ my good performance will be explained it’s because I’m fucking you or some bullshit like that!”

“Okay, I understand but! Why ignore me like that?! I can help and will! Why don’t you talk to me?”

“We are not friends! Why would you help if not for your own image? Stop pretending you care!”

“You are so self-absorbed!” Shit.

“Leclerc!” Shit shit shit shit shit.

“Don’t ‘Leclerc’ me! You screamed at me so can I!”

“Leclerc! Listen-”

“No! You listen!-”

“Charles, shut up! Look!” I show the floor pointers stuck between the twelfth and eleventh floors. And right at that moment, the lights go off just resting the emergency one.

“Oh fine, great. Amazing really! Exactly just what I needed!” He shouts pressing the emergency button repeatedly “No one sees this fucking camera?!” He asks loudly, waving his arms like crazy to the small thing pinned on the corner.

“Are you fucking blind?” I nervously point to the only light on us.

“I’m gonna kill myself-” He desperately leans against the wall.

“Do you have a stick up in your ass?” I come closer to him starting to feel my blood boiling more. Everything he said is piling over and getting me even worse.

“What did you just say?” He starts to look down at me.

“Do-you-have-a-stick-up-in-your-ass? Did I forget something?” If he can look down at me like I’m shit I can do as well.

“Why can’t you stop being a bitch for a second?! We’re literally trapped here!” He approaches me caging in the wall, he narrows his eyes with a newfound intensity. Not just anger but something indescribable.

“Yeah, nightmare material. Not like we got to choose!”

“Nah, I don’t believe you…” he starts smirking.

“You’re the one who is a breath away from me, Leclerc” I tilt my head to look directly at his eyes.

“Fuck off!” He distances himself mad.

“I gladly would. And look, just because I love torturing you, doesn’t mean I like spending time with you” Teasing him is a bit better when we’re not trapped in a lift and I can get out after this point.

“You really aren’t making this any easier, are you?” The driver started trying to open the door "I can't open it!"

“It's protected against idiots” I giggle as his arms shake after only opening about 5 cm of the door just to be concrete. We are literally in between floors, great. I hope we don’t die.

“Listen here” He corners me at the end of the lift, putting his arms around my head caging me and holding my jaw to look at him “Dare me again and I’ll fucking break you off”

“Wow!” I say cynically “That cute little face you’re pulling didn’t scare me before and it definitely won’t now. Put it away” I grab his jaw, pushing his cheeks together. and slapping him away weakly.

“You find my face cute, huh?” He scrunches his nose, pushing my hands away and smirking.

“I hate- Fuck!” The lights come back and as the lift starts to tremble we stumble over each other. If it wasn’t for his hand on my hips we both would’ve been on the ground right now.

“Don’t panic! We are getting you two out of there!” We heard a masculine voice through the small opening in the elevator’s door.

“So… What you were saying?” He didn’t move his hand away.

“I hate you so fucking much!” The teasing is gone. I’m just mad right now. I don’t know how or why he can make me thrilled so easily but I would do anything to change that.

“Oh really?” He puts his right hand on my cheek, smirking.

“I don’t know what you’re doing. But yes, Leclerc really.” I managed to stare back at him defiantly.

“Lying doesn’t suit you, sweetheart”

“But you know what does? You getting off of me, sweetheart” I don’t like the feeling of my cheeks burning so I slap him off and go close to the door, with my back turned to him. “I hope we don’t get too late to the press…” I think out loud after a bit of silence.

“Lucky enough we were early. Probably going to arrive just in time, chérie” He acts normally, just checking the time on his watch.

@laura-naruto-fan1998 @honeyric3 @tempo-rary-fix hope you enjoyed <3

my taglist!!

#formula 1 #f1 imagine #f1 #charles leclerc #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc imagine #f1 fanfic #f1 x reader #charles leclerc x female reader #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc fanfic #aston martin f1 #f1 x female reader #f1 x y/n #f1 x you

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balladedutempsjadis · 1 year

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Ponniyin Selvan (The Book vs. Movie edition)

I've just today finished the five volumes of Kalki Krishnamurthy's epic historical novel Ponniyin Selvan, which was the basis for the two-movie series of the same name which I ADORED after I watched the first movie for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And ... I have some thoughts on the books and on the adaptation of the books. First of all, some general thoughts about the books:

I really wish I could read this in the original Tamil. In my understanding, these books are a beloved modern classic of Tamil literature, and the English translation, though perfectly fine and serviceable in terms of explicating the plot, rarely has memorable language.

Perhaps this is a function of the translation, or a different literary tradition, or the author's style (and I'll never really know which), but there is a lot of stuff that I can best describe as static. Actions and events are often described after they occur so as a reader, I felt distanced from what was going on in several scenes.

There are a LOT of coincidences (the entire Sembian Amuthan plotline is heavily based on coincidences) and repetition.

Even if I didn't know this was serialized, I would have guessed because of the repetition mentioned above, frequent flashbacks, and the padding out of some of the scenes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (it reminds me of Dickens' novels, which I happen to be quite fond of) but it's definitely a hallmark of the novels.

I felt sometimes that Kalki was having a bit of a struggle with the historical characters having to do what they did in history versus his fictional characters like Nandini being able to do what they wanted. So sometimes I felt the characterizations were a bit lacking (and I definitely skipped some of Sembian Mahadevi's musings, SORRY!)

Now for the differences between the books and film versions (SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS AND BOTH FILMS BELOW).

In general, with one exception I'll talk about later, I think the scriptwriters did an amazing job of adapting this immense series to film. In fact, for a number of things, I think they improved the pacing of the narrative and cut out extraneous stuff that detracted from the momentum of the main story - these were things that may have worked in a serialized novel but would have drowned even a gigantic six hour film series. All that follows is just my opinion, of course!

First of all, a fair number of characters were just cut out of the story, which I thought tightened up the narrative. (For example, Manimeghalai was completely unnecessary IMO for the story to proceed and she really detracted from the scene between Aditha Karikalan and Nandini when Karikalan dies; the intensity of that scene would have suffered from having anyone else observe it.) Poonghuzhali's brother and father (her sister-in-law Rakkamal is still there but not related) are gone in the film version. And that's all fine, I think it would have made things more confusing and I don't even think a tv series would have been able to use ALL these characters. (Also, I think I like that Poonghzhali seems more stable in the movie.)

I also liked that they cut out the astrologer. I thought the book relied way too heavily on the astrologer's predictions and while that may have been an accurate portrayal of 10th century Chola society, it also removed the jeopardy from the characters. If Arulmozhi Varman's sister would be confident that nothing terrible could happen to him because of the lines on his palm, then it was really hard to generate suspense about him within the story. (I mean obviously as readers/moviegoers we might know that he became Rajaraja Chola and therefore survived the assassination attempts, but his contemporaries and the fictional characters in-universe didn't know that he would end up being a great king.)

For me, it was more powerful to see how much the kingdom mourned him and his family mourned him than to have his sister shrug and be like "oh well, the stars don't say he dies so he's probably alive." And the way that they mourned him also helped develop their characters (To be fair, I also can't figure out what Kalki believed re:astrology either, because occasionally the author's voice is very skeptical about the astrologer as well.)

More controversially, I think they were right to cut out the whole Senthan Amuthan storyline about being the real son of Sembian Mahadevi and the previous king etc. etc. The hidden identity heir business was just way too melodramatic for me even in the book, and I don't think it would have worked at all for me in the movies. I mean, SA doesn't really even have much characterization in the book anyway (he's there a lot and helps out when he can but other than the fact that he loves Poonguzhali and has a nice voice, I couldn't tell you much about him.) Plus that would necessitate that Fake!Madhurantaka be Nandini's twin etc. and that would also have not been believable.

Now ... onto the main characters books vs. movie:

Aditha Karikalan: I honestly liked him much more in the movies than in the books. He was the tragic hero of the movie, with a clear arc, and Vikram brought oodles of charisma to his role. But in the books, he was a lot more opaque to me (his love for Nandini is not his focus - so he maybe falls in love with Manimegalai? - and that moment where he chooses to die isn't as crystal clear.) Also, Book!Aditha is a bit of an asshole towards all of his friends, frankly, which movie Aditha is not.

His chief faults in the movie are that he's ruled by his emotions (which is both why he sins against Nandini by beheading an unarmed man - Veera Pandyan - in a fit of rage that Nandini is pleading for his life AND why he tries to atone for that sin by committing suicide, which of course doesn't actually solve anything and in fact embroils innocent people like Vandiyathevan in a horrible situation).I still think he wouldn't have made a good king, not least because he would not listen to ANYONE'S advice, whether that someone was his grandfather, his friend, or his brother or his sister.

Book!Aditha might have made a better King - he actually goes to Kadambur not just to see Nandini, but partly in order to find out and allay the different Chola clans and possibly cement one of their loyalties by marriage to MM, so I thought that made for an interesting contrast. Even in the books, though, Kalki compares how the people mourned Aditha (as a great warrior whose absence threatened their kingdom's survival) and how they mourned Arulmozhi when he was believed to be dead (as a beloved son/brother even if they didn't know him personally.) The book (and movie though to a lesser degree because it's so preoccupied with Nandini/Aditha) has a lot to say about power and responsibility (so there are constant contrasts between not just Aditha and Arulmozhi but between the Pazhuvettarayar brothers and Arulmozhi - for example, over whether the Chola kingdom should supply the army in Elangai or whether they should live off the land. AMV is much more farsighted and knows how important it is to not make a conquered populace feel subjugated because they will rebel.)

Nandini: I feel like she was a lot more fleshed out in the film than Book!Nandini, and as she and Aditha were the emotional focal point of the movies, it makes more sense. Her motivations seemed clearer to me, and I also appreciated that we actually found out what happened to her, and she didn't just disappear off the page. I also liked, as mentioned above, that they didn't bother with the False!Madhuranthakan who was actually Nandini's twin etc. I liked that they fleshed out the love story between her and Aditha and gave Kundavai a role and also showed how it was Aditha's impulsive declaration that she would be THE Chola Queen that directly led to Nandini - who had done nothing wrong - being unceremoniously bundled off to wherever. (Would I also have liked a little more of how Aditha reacted to his family's banishment of Nandini? I think I would. Like we got a little bit of that in PS1 when he blames Kundavai for being jealous but not much more than that?)

Kundavai was very awesome in both book and film, but she had a lot less to do in the second movie. As I mentioned above, I loved that she actually believed her beloved younger brother to be dead so we got to see her reaction compared to Aditha's. (Aditha basically goes into beast mode and is like “I can fight whoever to avenge my little brother” and Kundavai is, as usual, a lot more rational even in the depths of grief.) I also really liked that brief scene the film gave us with all three siblings together which was a nice addition to the story. I felt there were not very many differences between Book! and Movie!Kundavai - although the book definitely played up her influence over her younger brother a bit more. She is the mirror to Nandini and maybe Nandini would have been like Kundavai if she had not had such struggles in her early life? I do like that in both books and movie, the female characters are so strong (I mean, well-characterized) and different from one another.

Vandiyadevan is just a great character! His resemblance to D'Artagnan was even stronger in the books (he had time for even more adventures) and his verbal sparring with Nambi was great and nicely translated to screen, I thought. I did think his presence in Kadambur and his (partial) witnessing of Aditha's death and aftermath was handled with more pace and worked better for me in the film (again, no Manimegalai was a great decision. And the picnic that Nandini goes on with Aditha and Vandiyadevan and MM and others (I think?) It was late at night when I was reading and I was like WTF so I might be misremembering it) dilutes the Aditha/Nandini meeting a lot. Anyway, back to Vandiyadevan - still sooooo charming. I loved Karthi in this role and am going to watch Kaatru Velliyadai (although I understand he's very different in that one!) sometime this week. But I found Book!Vandiyadevan lovely as well. I think his character translated perfectly from book to screen.

Arulmozhi Varman - I thought the books would focus more on him than they did, given that he's the title character. And I was a little surprised that he still wasn't the main focus of the books (though there's more focus on him in the later volumes), but there were some nice little character moments that I wish could have come into the movie. (Though there were a couple of things in the movie that I also really liked which showed his character beautifully.)

I read Kalki's afterword about how the pivotal scene in all of the books is Arulmozhi Varman's sacrifice of his crown, because that is an amazing thing for any ruler to do, to voluntarily give up his own power and step back. The books talk about the Chola ancestor Sibi, who was willing to give up his own life to protect a pigeon from an eagle because the pigeon was under his protection. I believe we are meant to understand Arulmozhi's sacrifice in a similar light. He is all about protecting the realm, even if it means sacrificing his own ambitions and that makes him Sibi's worthy heir. (In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the peerless warrior prince, but his brother Yudhishtira is the Dharmaraja - the best of all; and I think we are meant to see echoes of Arjuna (and his son Abhimanyu, alone in the midst of his enemies) in Aditha and echoes of Yudhishtira in Arulmozhi.)

The books and the movie handle this immense sacrifice a little differently; in the book, we get a lot more motivation for that action: AMV is steeped in the history of the Singhalese kingdom and horrified by how bloody their succession battles were (he references fathers killing sons and vice versa more than once) and he is super clear that he doesn't want to bring that mess to the Chola kingdom or cause a civil war or anything like that. But there are two more elements as well, that I mostly got from the book: he truly loves Vanathi and she has sworn an oath that she doesn't want to be empress, so he can't have both Vanathi and the throne (but it's also a political decision, since if he's King, and marries Vanathi, then he'll be seen as privileging her clan above all others unless he marries a bunch of other girls as well). I also genuinely think he also wants to go hang out with Vandiyadevan and have adventures (while also doing the necessary jobs of fighting pirates and expanding trade and all that other stuff.)

The movies don't make that explanation as explicit, but there is this golden thread of self-sacrifice that runs through Arulmozhi's scenes in the movies as well: first of all, he refuses to take the throne of Elangai, though it is offered to him by the monks who crowned all the kings of the island. (This happens in both the books and the movie, but the books make this a more political decision - AMV says Elangai is too small for the scope of his vision, and that he doesn't want it to look like he's setting up a parallel second kingdom to the Cholas in opposition to his brother - whereas in the movies, it is clearly a matter of dharma. And the movie really sells that.)

Then Arulmozhi jumps into a stormy sea to swim to a ship full of people who want to kill him, in order to save Vandiyadevan. (I mean also some breathtaking confidence in himself that he and Vandiyadevan by themselves can defeat the Pandya rebels. He definitely does not lack for confidence :)) I cannot believe I actually forgot about this and had to come back and edit this post.I guess I am too used for Arulmozhi being awesome for this even to register on the scale?

The third self-sacrifice is when Arulmozhi is recovering from his life-threatening fever amidst the Buddhist monks at Nagapattinam. In the movie, somehow the Pandya assassins find out he's there and rile up the crowd which threatens to destroy the monastery which they claim is hiding their beloved prince from them. Although AMV is encouraged to slip away to escape the Pandya assassins, he refuses to repay his hosts by allowing their monastery to be destroyed. So he goes out to face the crowd, despite knowing that he's putting his life in danger by doing this. In the movie, he makes a choice to reveal himself and once again we see that Arulmozhi will always privilege the good of the people under his protection (the people of Elangai, Vandiyadevan, the monks, and ultimately the whole populace of the Chola Kingdom) over his own desires, and even his own life if need be. Over and over again, he shows himself to be the true heir of Sibi. (I also thought the elephant-goad plot was REALLY well done in the movie; even knowing obviously that AMV survived this, I was SO tense during that entire sequence. The book version just wasn’t as tense. Anyway …) So in the movie we keep seeing WHY Arulmozhi will be the great king he becomes but also why he will not take the crown at the end - and by not taking it, he makes himself all the more worthy of it.

In the book, in contrast, he leaves the monastery because there's about to be a devastating cyclone and it's not safe there any more. His disguise is revealed against his will by Rakammal hailing him as the prince; he's not given any choice in the matter. And he has very good and valid reasons for not wanting to reveal who he is which are also an excellent lead-up to his giving up the throne. Book!Arulmozhi wants to avoid a civil war over the succession at all possible costs. And he knows the public is fickle and easily swayed (there’s a whole subplot about there are rumors that HE had Vandiyadevan kill Aditha Karikalan so he - AMV - could be crowned, which only one character says in the film and everyone ELSE is like “Arulmozhi would NEVER!” But in the books more people seem like they are could be swayed by that thought - and giving up the throne to his father’s cousin is one spectacular way to give the lie to those rumors. And here’s also me, getting so angry on behalf of a fictional /historical character ;))

I think the movie version and the book version of this event both work really well for their respective media in terms of establishing who this man is, and what his character is, which lead up to his ultimate sacrifice.

The last sacrifice is, of course, that he give up the kingdom that *everyone* wants him to have. I think in both the books and the films, it's clear that the weird succession situation from his great-uncle Gandaraditha's day (where the throne when to the younger brothers of the king, and then to Sundara Chola - AMV's father - Gandarathia's nephew - rather than to Gandaraditha's own son) was bound to create a locus for discontent and coups egged on by the enemies of the Chola Kingdom. And that internecine strife is, from Kundavai's and AMV's perspective, what killed their brother and even put AMV in line to the throne at all. (They don't know all the backstory about Nandini and Aditha's guilt and his essential suicide. Also, I think it’s an interesting contrast between Aditha Karikalan who offers to give up the throne - once to the council of plotters where he says he’d do it if he had an army to go get himself another kingdom, and once when he proposes to Nandini that they just run off together. Arulmozhi had his chance at a kingdom won by force of arms - Elangai - and said no, and when he gives up the throne at the end of the books/movies it’s for love of the country he was expected to rule, not for love of an individual.)

The one thing I wish the movies had done was flesh out the Kundavai/Vandiyadevan and Vanathi/Arulmozhi connections. The actors did a lovely job with what they were given just from facial expressions and eyes (Vandiyadevan looks hopeless in love in the course of a single conversation when he's dressed as Krishna's uncle) and I bought into Vanathi and Arulmozhi's love for each other with nothing more than him reading her message in PS1 and a couple of times they looked at each other (so much love for Jayam Ravi and Shobita Dhulipala's facial expressions which sold the connection), but IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE FOR BOTH THESE COUPLES TO HAVE A CONVERSATION! But I realize I've seen a couple of Mani Ratnam's Hindi films (Dil Se, and Raavan - though I really want to watch the Tamil version of that) and he does doomed romance very adroitly. (Although from reading the plots of his several other films, apparently he also does do happy endings sometimes and I sort of wish we could have shifted the focus from Nandini/Aditha A LITTLE BIT to maybe just get a tiny conversation between these two other couples the I also loved. But at least I got some crumbs in terms of the full videos of the songs of "Veera Raja Veera" (for AMV/Vanathi) and "Aga Naga" (for Kundavai/Vandiyadevan. (FYI, the Veera Raja Veera video song is super hot - Rajaraja Chola is looking at his beloved while she dances as though she is an extremely tasty snack he can't wait to sample :P)

ALSO, if anyone wants to make PS3 with these actors I WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER. In my head, it would be about Vandiyadevan doing wild stuff and flirting with EVERYBODY while Arunmozhi Varman sort of sighs and goes along with him to try and exercise some control over him* because Kundavai will kill him if anything happens to her boo, and they keep getting embroiled in weirder stuff and getting hit on the head (Vandiyadevan) and chilling out looking at Buddhist cave art and talking to elephants (AMV) and Kundavai just sits back and continues to run the kingdom (because she knows that AMV will not let anything happen to her boo). And of course, Nambi would be keeping an eye on both of them as well. Meanwhile, Vanathi is doing lots of dancing and going on some of the art tours with her husband, and also hanging out with Kundavai and rolling their eyes over their husbands. That would be totally fine!

*one of the things I loved in the books was that Vandiyadevan is influenced by Arulmozhi to be more truthful and upstanding, while Arulmozhi gets more devious after he meets Vandiyadevan. I feel this dynamic (along with the real-life bromance of Karthi and Jayam Ravi - every interview I've seen with them is the two of them having a great time!) would be AWESOME.

OK, this is insanely LONG again but I really enjoyed the novels and the movies - each medium enhanced the other for me, and in my head, the version of Ponniyin Selvan is what takes the parts I liked the best in movies and film. So Movie!Aditha and Movie!Nandini, BOTH the Vandiyadevans, Kundavais, Arulmozhi Varmans and Vanathis live in my heart :D

And I've also acquired Anirudh Kanisetti's Lords of the Deccan (which is more about the Cholas' predecessors and opponents like the Rashtrakutas and the Chalukyas) and Kamini Dandapani's Rajaraja Chola, which is about Ponniyin Selvan (but also about his predecessors and successors.)

#ponniyin selvan #Ponniyin Selvan 2 #aditha karikalan #arulmozhi varman #kundavai #vandiyadevan #vanathi #aishwarya rai bachchan #vikram #trisha #jayam ravi #shobita dhulipala #mani ratnam

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avatar-news · 2 years

Photo

Everything we know about Avatar Studios’ first movie

It’s time for a good ol’ masterpost!

Here’s everything we here at Avatar News know about Avatar Studios’ first movie! Info that Avatar News is the exclusive source for is specified, otherwise everything is official public info from Paramount/Avatar Studios/etc.

Last updated on February 18th, 2023.

Title

The movie is currently designated “ANIMATED AANG AVATAR” in Paramount's slate, but is untitled

The Avatar franchise has been officially named “Avatar Legends” since 2022

A potential working title is Avatar The Last Airbender: Echoes and Aftershocks, based on a Paramount employee’s resume

A rumored title is Hidden Kingdom

Release

Release date: October 10th, 2025

Will be released in theaters exclusively at first, then stream on Paramount+ after

Previously estimated for 2024 internally at Paramount, but not announced publicly (source: Avatar News)

Story

Featuring “Aang and his friends”

Aang and Team Avatar will be young adults (source: Avatar News)

A movie with a Zuko-focused storyline was/is in development, it’s possible that this is that movie (source: Avatar News) - Update: The Zuko movie is separate

Brand-new original story, not an adaptation of an existing story from a comic, novel, etc.

Crew on this specific movie

Director: Lauren Montgomery (storyboard artist on ATLA, supervising producer on TLOK Books 2-4, showrunner of Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Writer: Kenneth Lin (Netflix’s House of Cards, Paramount’s Star Trek: Discovery)

Producers: Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (showrunners of ATLA and TLOK, Chief Creative Officers of Avatar Studios), Eric Coleman (executive in charge of production of ATLA, suggested the creation of the character of Zuko in early development)

Production companies: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Avatar Studios, Flying Bark Productions

Crew at Avatar Studios whose involvement in this specific movie, if any, we don’t know yet

Composer: Jeremy Zuckerman (composer of ATLA and TLOK)

Writer: Tim Hedrick (writer on ATLA/TLOK/VLD, showrunner of Fast & Furious: Spy Racers)

Head of story(board): Steve Ahn (storyboard artist and assistant director on TLOK)

Executive art director: Christie Tseng (character designer on TLOK)

Art director: William Niu (background designer on TLOK)

Consultant on native representation: Migizi Pensoneau (Reservation Dogs)

Many, many more crewmembers, of course.

Animation

Animation studio: Flying Bark Productions (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018-2020), Glitch Techs (2020), Monkie Kid (2020-), Marvel Studios’ What If...? (2021), Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022))

Animation style: traditional 2D + substantial CG

History of statements on animation style: Sep 2 2021: “series of CG films” - Brian Robbins (president and CEO of Nickelodeon and chief content officer of kids and family for Paramount+) Dec 2 2021: “outstanding and customized [...] unique production look” that “integrates [...] traditional 2D and CG” - Paramount recruiting for Avatar Studios Jun 29 2022: “our main bread and butter is 2D animation” / “homage to anime” / “[not] gonna be [...] hardcore straightedge 2D” / “start with hand-drawn, handmade artwork and then: what can technology do to help us enhance it, to help us deepen it, to help the filmmaking, to make it more cinematic” / “not [...] starting purely 3D and then trying to stylize” / “looking hard to form our own look” / “not doing anything purely 3D” - Bryan Konietzko (Avatar Studios co-Chief Creative Officer) Oct 13 2022: “2D Avatar feature film” / “couple traditional 2D animation with substantial CG elements” - Flying Bark Productions (the movie’s animation studio)

Cast

No cast info for this specific movie yet

Dante Basco is attached as Zuko, reprising his role from ATLA

A global casting call is going out for Asian and Indigenous voice actors in their 20s for Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph

Janet Varney, the voice of Korra in TLOK (2012-2014) has announced that she doesn’t want to voice Korra in the future; she wants an Indigenous voice actor to voice Korra (Korra is from the Water Tribe in the world of Avatar, which is inspired by Indigenous culture in the real world). It’s possible other voice actors will make the same choice.

Characters we know will definitely be in this movie: Aang - previously voiced as a child by Zach Tyler Eisen in ATLA (2005-2008) and as an adult by D. B. Sweeney in TLOK (2012-2013) Katara (source: Avatar News) - previously voiced as a child by Mae Whitman in ATLA (2005-2008) and as an elder by Eva Marie Saint in TLOK (2012-2014) Zuko - see above “Aang[’s] friends”

Other

Three theatrical animated movies are currently in development at Avatar Studios

Each movie has a standalone story-- they’re not a trilogy-- so the story of this movie won’t be continued in the next movie after it

The second movie is focused on Zuko (source: Avatar News)

The third movie is focused on the new earth Avatar after Aang and Korra (source: Avatar News)

The image above is official canon art of the Gaang as adults, but it’s from the lead-up to the release of The Legend of Korra in 2012, not from this upcoming movie. Fun fact: it was drawn by Joaquim Dos Santos, co-showrunner of TLOK and director of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2024)!

#news #movie #aang movie #masterpost

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frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers · 9 months

Text

Frozen: Forces of Nature Podcast

Everything we know so far:

So as we all know and have been talking about for the past few days, there's a newly announced podcast called 'Frozen: Forces of Nature'. The podcast will tell a cannon story set after Frozen 2 and before Frozen 3. The podcast is going to be a 12 part series, 15 - 20 minutes each episode and this will be season 1. The story will feature two new characters; Queen Disa of Sankerhus and Wolfgang is the Duke of Weselton's nephew. It is set to release in October ahead of the 10th anniversary of the franchise (and the first movie). The plot goes as follows:

'The series follows Queen Anna, who has a lot on her plate – there are visitors in her Kingdom, a friend in need, and even the Duke of Weselton’s nephew skulking around – so when the Spirits of Nature start acting up, she knows she has to solve the problem – and fast – before things get more out of control. But when Anna and Elsa travel to the Enchanted Forest, they find mysterious copper machines that are disrupting the natural order of things. Who made these machines and what are they doing in the forest? And more importantly, how do Anna and Elsa stop them?'

In other official sources, they've given a little more detail about the events going on:

'Queen Anna has a lot on her plate. She has welcomed Disa, the Queen of the small neighboring nation and her people to Arendelle when their kingdom is flooded. Disa is eager to learn about the scientific nature of magic.

Also in Arendelle is Lord Wolfgang, the Duke of Weselton’s nephew, on an apology tour for his uncle’s behavior. He very much wants to secure Queen Anna’s forgiveness and hopes to convince the people of Arendelle of the merits of trade with Weselton.

When a mysterious fire happens at the castle and the Spirits of Nature start acting up Elsa, Anna, and Disa travel to the Enchanted Forest to uncover the cause, where they discover mysterious steam-powered copper machines: automatons.

Where do the automatons come from and what are they doing? Who is directing them? Most importantly, how do Elsa, Anna, and Disa stop them from upsetting the natural balance of the Enchanted Forest and Arendelle?'

So let's point out the key things here and other information in other official sources too:

- Anna is feeling the pressure of being Queen so far, which for me is no surprise given she wasn't prepared to be Queen so soon.

- The Duke of Weselton's nephew, Wolfgang is visiting Arendelle to apologize to Elsa and Anna on behalf of his uncle for the things he did in Frozen and restore the trading relationship of Weselton with Arendelle

- Queen Disa's Kingdom, Sankerhus, is flooded (most likely due to chaos in the forest) and hence she and her people temporarily move to Arendelle

- Sankerhus is one of the neighbouring Kingdoms of Arendelle, like the Southern Isles

- Queen Disa is intrigued by the "scientific nature of magic"

- A mysterious fire occurs in Arendelle castle which causes the spirits to go wild causing Elsa, Anna and Disa to travel to the Enchanted Forest where they discover steam - powered, copper machines called automatons

- The person who created these machines will most likely be revealed in the podcast

Some of you may be wondering why a podcast? Why not an official novel/ book? Why not a short? I was wondering the same thing when this was first announced. I had mixed feelings on this too. But the more I read posts and the more I thought about it the more I started seeing why the story was chosen to be in this format. I think with books and movies it's typical that that's how stories would be told to us. But I think Disney is trying a new way of telling stories without animation involved with audio steaming as a first of its franchises. It is said that it's also for parents to help kids reduce screen time and I also so that they save money for future animation projects especially for Frozen 3, which is a sensible thing to do honestly speaking. Perhaps they didn't make it a Short because the story was more detailed than just a simple one like Frozen Fever and Olaf's Frozen Adventure and the story would not fit in a short but a long enough to be a movie.

But you still might be unsure about the story of the podcast being with the whole nature Vs machine thing. But to be fair we don't know much about these machines or what their purpose is so we can't really say anything about it yet. All we know is that they are "steam powered, copper machines" and when I searched them up on Google I found images like these:

They sound (by the name of it) and look very appropriate for the time period Frozen is set in. But let's not panic if you're still unsure with the machines taking the focus. Frozen is about magic - in each and every movie, long or short, they've explored some kind of magic. So it's given they're not gonna go all out with this science Vs magic theme. The characters and their intentions in the story are the focus of the story. When the sisters find out about these machines they will stop them because it disturbs the enchanted forest. That's the point - to get rid of these machines. Obviously what this person is doing is wrong and has to stop and that's what the sisters will be doing in the first season of the podcast. Besides the podcast cast multiple seasons so this will be the plot for season 1 only.

And no this isn't going to be the plot of Frozen 3 or anything similar because why would they make it the plot of the podcast and not of Frozen 3? Frozen 3 will be entirely different from this podcast. We still have a couple more years til Frozen 3 is out with a rough estimate. They might drop some Frozen 3 plot hints in these podcasts and some of the characters might make an appearance in the upcoming movie but the plot will be different. but highly doubt they would make Frozen all industrial machinery. If the person behind these machines has a good intention they might use their machinery to help advance Arendelle just a little more (I'm guessing). But they won't play a role in it. Frozen is about the characters - some of which have magic! Elsa and Anna have no links to machinery or anything so let's not jump to conclusions and judge the story without, let alone listening to it, but it even being out yet.

I don't think the podcast will be crucial to the story in Frozen 3 so if some of you don't want to watch it by all means don't but Frozen 3 is something different altogether. I think they're just trying to expand the franchise and keep the fandom alive and talking and theorising in the run up to the movie because it's fine Frozen fandom would die done because Frozen 2 was originally going to be the last movie of the movie series, but now that's it not they want to make sure we're all back in the game again.

We only have theories of our own. Nothing is confirmed regarding Frozen 3 other than the fact that the main Original cast will be returning (voices of Elsa, Ann, Olaf and Kristoff (plus Sven!)) and that it will be run with a new director instead of Jennifer Lee. Who else will be returning or will be joining new, we have to wait and see.

New changes to something old we love is hard but we have to give it a try in order to see if the change was good or not.

But in conclusion to this post, that's all we know so far about the podcast. Hope some of you found this useful if you didn't know something about the podcast.

#disney frozen #frozen #frozen 2 #frozen 3 #elsa #anna #elsa and anna #olaf #Kristoff #sven #disney #podcast #frozen podcast #frozen: forces of nature #frozen forces of nature #forces of nature #the spirits of nature

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