#and the stuff with the former imperials is so good. more of that please

[rosalind-took-kylos-hand]

Apparently season 3 of Mando wasn't as well liked.

It's the only one so far I've kind of enjoyed. It had a plot, for instance.

#unpopular opinion #it actually covered what happened on mandalore and brought the mandalorians together against a common enemy #why did it take 3 seasons to get here #it was still messy but the whole thing's been like that y'all #also i still don't find din djarin to be a compelling character #am i even still a sw fan at this point? idk #i had forgotten about moff gideon entirely tbh #i was SO GLAD to see the emphasis on Bo Katan #and the stuff with the former imperials is so good. more of that please #we get tiny flashes of actual competent storytelling from dlf #few and far between #but they are there

[dangermousie]

Mousie’s absolutely subjective, very biased Top 10 web novels list

Please note that this is hardly aiming to be objective, if one can even be properly objective about a work of fiction. It is 110% based on my preferences, which means this list is heavy on the angst and has nothing set in the modern day. It is also heavily danmei-centric, even though I read way more het romance than danmei, because for whatever reason, most of the danmei I’ve read has been insanely good.

10. Return of the Swallow - one of the two non-danmeis on this list. Smart and nuanced and with a large cast of characters. Our heroine is a long-lost daughter of the family that is brought back in and has to cope with familial struggles, crazy royals, court intrigue, invasion et al. It’s SO GOOD! There is romance with the sexy smart enemy general but honestly, it’s the heroine that is the main selling point for me.

9. Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator - the only other non-danmei novel on this list, this was my very first web novel and what drew me into this insanity. This is just a ton of fun, probably the lightest novel on this list, not an ounce of angst to be found. But it’s hilarious and features competent heroine and tsundere hero and I will always love it for opening a new world to me. Anyway, our heroine transmigrates into the novel as the female lead. Unlike the original lead though she doesn’t want to seek adventures and angst - she just wants to comfortably live with the wealthy, nice husband heroine has. Alas, said husband is no longer nice since he has previously lived this story where he was betrayed by FL and then transmigrated/reincarnated into the past. Oh well, the heroine opens up businesses and makes friends. And eventually, her husband realizes his wife is way different this time around. This actually doesn’t have much romance, not until close to the end, but this is so fun I don’t care.

8. Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

7. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) - oh come on, how are you even on this tumblr if you don’t know MDZS/The Untamed? This was my very first danmei and it’s so much fun! I love everything about it - the unreliable narrator, the looping structure, the main OTP, Wei Wuxian’s laidback, traumatized insouciance, everything. Anyway, the plot in the event you somehow transported here from 2005 is that the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Wei Wuxian, was defeated by the righteous sects over a decade ago and fell of a cliff to his death. Only now that same Wei Wuxian opens his eyes in another body and everything that was supposed to stay in the past starts again.

6. Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF) - people either love its meandering narrative, picaresque structure and cast of thousands, or find it a detriment compared to much more compact MDZS. I love it even more than MDZS for those very qualities. It does have a rock-solid, darling OTP, but what really elevates it to me are the MXTX trademark combo of snarky/light tone hiding a ton of trauma underneath, the insanely intricate world-building, and what it has to say about the nature of grace and goodness. Xie Lian is one of my top 5 web novel characters and probably in top 10 from anywhere. Oh, and while MXTX’s stuff is not as angsty for me as Meatbun’s or even Priest’s, there are always exceptions, and there is one chapter in this novel that pretty much broke me and sometimes I still flashback to it and feel unwell.

Anyway, what is it about? There is a commotion in the heavenly realm - Xie Lian, the Crown Prince of a long-destroyed kingdom, has ascended to Godhood. That in itself is not so exciting. However for Xie Lian this is the third time (!!!!) as he’s ascended and lost his godhood twice prior. And now, the biggest joke of the divine realm is back, throwing the heavenly realm into chaos. And elsewhere, Hua Cheng, one of the four most powerful demons of that Universe, sits up and takes notice.

5. Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is also finding the middle path between their two very different philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

4. Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

3. To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant, sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two take up farming, get involved in the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

1. The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

#cnovel #2ha #yuwu #to rule in a turbulent world #lsww #sha po lang #golden stage #return of the swallow #transmigrator meets reincarnator #lord seventh #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #heaven official's blessing #the dumb husky and his white cat shizun

[clonehub]

MADE A NEW ONE RECENTLY???

Name's Stage!! Lemme find his backstory..

"A former Clone Commando, later Imperial Commando, Stage was the most outspoken and entertaining of his vode. He earned his name after enough of his jokes prompted the line "you oughta be on a stage, vod" from his squad. However, he was left nearly the last of his squad after a mission to eliminate a Jedi runaway. The traitor had more power than the Empire had expected, turning to darker powers they hadn't handled prior. They broke his vode down in either mind, body, or soul one-by-one. He and his last surviving batchmate (Pix) were hit hard in the head by scrap material repeatedly, as the traitor attempted a final escape, with one shard shoving itself deep into his vode's knee and downing him. Dizzy, but enraged, Stage charged the Jedi with his vibro-knife, and managed to nick their carotid artery deep enough that their escape was futile by only a few more yards. Mission accomplished, but at a cost too high for Stage to reconcile.

Pix and Stage were sent to Kamino for PT and prosthetic augmentation, and decided to escape the place together. On a slow day, with transport available, they took off for the landing bay quickly and quietly. Stage played off their walking so far as helping Pix with his new knee and leg, but their plan was sniffed out by one of the nat-born trainers on sight. They feared what they'd say until they simply led them to their room, pulled a basket from under the bed, and handed it over. A tubie, a baby clone, with no left arm, and a bag of medicine and formula. "The Empire won't pay for this one over an able-bodied stormtrooper. Get out of here." The nat-born left them to return to their escape route, and called for troopers to answer their summon on the other side of the building. Soon enough they'd commandeered a small shipment transport, slipped out with the right codes, and jumped to an area of space far out of the Empire's current clutches.

Now, Stage works as a boxer, mercenary, and occasional bounty hunter; sending all the proceeds he can to his two vode. He'd do anything for them, taking on an older brother role to Pix, and a uncle role to the cadet they rescued."

Sorry it's long but OUGH how I love this new kid?? Curse that SW TTRPG maker for this 🤣

Honestly your skill with detailing your OCs backstories from where they start to where they end is SO good. also im impressed that you write your stuff down all my OCs are just freefloatin in my head....just running around in there

and like. the way they stick together PLEASE

#ask #OC

[gwaean]

The Rescuers  

Part One: “Old acquaintances meet again"

 Summary: You are a mandalorian rebel friends with Captain Rex so you are well aware of the entire "clone situation" going on. And of course you want to help as much as you can. You then go to Ryloth trying to help the Syndulla's and maybe find your old friend Cody. 

 Pairing: None. Yet. But will be a Crosshair x Reader.

 Gender: There'll be no mentions of gender or pronouns on this part yet. Though further in the story it might have she/they pronouns used.

 Word count: 1.6k

 Tags: Injury recover, post-clone wars story, rescuing clones/friends, a bit of melancholy?

 Warning: Brief description of injury.

 Notes: So, I literally dreamed most parts of this story (I know, crazy Star Wars obsession here). I filled up some parts as I was writing of course. And it turned out a bit like a beautiful sad tragic. I might even do a playlist for this fanfic actually. Hope u enjoy it :) 

 The war, the republic, the jedi all have ended. Literally on the same day. And what it seemed like a fresh start, finally a moment of peace in the chaos turned into nightmares. You weren’t there when it happened, you just heard the news of Obi-Wan saying the jedi order and the republic had fallen and you also heard the now Emperor Palpatine telling everyone that the clone wars has ended and the jedi were traitor, they’ve tried to assassinate him according to well… himself. And now he’s forming this new galactic empire, giving people numbers like the ones clones used to have and killing off any resistance against this new order. Everyone seemed to believe him, you gotta give him that he was a pretty damn’ good  liar indeed. But you knew better than that. You are mandalorian after all and were friends with no one less than Duchess Satine and Senator Padmé. You helped them countless times in their diplomatics and you even fought with the jedi and the clones at times. They were good people, yes, the order might have messed up at lot but traitors? Murders? They sure didn’t deserve to die like that and I guess… No one does.

  You quickly then joined the rebellion. There you found many of former politics like Senator Organa and even a clone… Captain Rex (or is it Commander now?). You’ve met him once before and he seemed like a good person and looks like he’s really a great man just like you thought. You soon became friends. But sadly, the other clones you knew before like Cody were still with the empire. Though both you and Rex were very determinate to help others like him. And also, obviously, protect your allies against the empire.

  Well, as expected trouble begins. There’s been rumors about what’s going in Ryloth with the Syndulla’s and the empire occupation. Worried about them and their people, you go there to help as you can. And if there’s need, you’d call more rebels to help too though you didn’t want to envolve more people yet because you’re afraid of the reaction it could cause ( and what that would cost for ryloth and its people). You also have a tiny tiny hope that maybe just maybe Cody could be there.

  Arriving in Ryloth, you discover the Syndulla family have indeed oppose agains the empire occupation and they’ve went into a lot of trouble because of that but apparently a group of mercenaries (?) have already rescued them from the prison they were sent to. One less problem for you to fix I guess. You were glad for them but you still want to spy a little on the empire and see what you could find out after all, the trip couldn’t be for nothing.

  You find your way and get to a particular high hill with a great view of one imperial base. You pick up your binoculars and the only person you see in a sort of balcony is a very depressive-looking Crosshair. You remember him from that one time clone force 99 saved your butt from the mess you’ve yourself in. He was… quite unfriendly, let’s say. But he did get the job done and made sure you were okay so you just ignored his behavior. Looking at him now it was looking at a shadow of him. 

   It made you remember what Rex told you once: 

“We clones were all created with this chip thing in our my minds. We were made for the war and the war only but apparently someone thought it would be great if they let us think we've got free will. That we could be anything we wanted to be after the war. So we made friends, some of us found a family with our jedi. They let we hope. Just so we have all of that taken away from us with order 66. The war had ended for everyone except for us. We had our will taken from us, our minds controlled by this chip and we had to follow orders. While we're still there conscious of what we were doing we had to kill the people we fought together the entire war. I remember her face... I'm so glad she didn't see my face. I couldn't bare.” 

 Thinking about what all the clones been through, you can’t just leave him like this. He did save you once and this was your chance to repay that. Rex keeps saying we can’t save everyone (more to himself than to you) but one person is better than nobody, right?  At the time you improvise a plan: neither the empire nor Cross can’t know yet that you’re a rebel. You haven’t done anything yet incriminating (at least not that they were aware of). So you can just jump in there where he was standing and talk to him. Worst case scenario he ignores you. However you sure knew how to annoy him enough that at least he would call you out and when that happens you act. Ok, that you still have to figure out exactly how you would act. Well, half of a plan is better than no plan.

  You just jump in behind his back and of course he points his gun at you as expected. But he apparently recognizes who it’s standing in front of him and put his riffle down. 

   “ Hello there.”  You say.

   “What do you think you’re doing?”  He replies.

   “Oh, please, don’t act like you aren’t happy to see me.” 

     He gives you a faint of a smile. “Don’t flatter yourself.” 

     You smiled back. “But seriously, what you’re doing here all alone? And why- You finally noticed the burn mark on his now bald head. - are you like this? Doesn’t the empire takes care of its soldiers? Nor your squad? The bad batch, right? That’s what you called yourselves?” 

     His face closes again. “You have nothing to do with that. I’m-” 

     “By yourself?” You pause for a moment. “Alright, I get it. You’ve probably been through a lot. We all have. Not sure why you’re like this but it doesn’t matter right now. I just wonder… Don’t you want to get out of all of this?” 

     Cross pauses for a moment. It seems like he's considering the possibility. “I… I can’t.” 

     “But…”  You then think. You remind yourself of how protective he was that one time you were saved by them. Maybe this instinct was still there, you had to try. You saw a pointed rock close to where you were standing and decided that you would accidentally cut yourself. “Ouch!” 

    “What’s up?” 

    “Oh! Nothing! Just might have cut myself here.” You show your hand now with a bit bigger than you expected cut and some blood.

     He almost laughs at it. “What a little clumsy one you are, eh?” 

     His mocking at you, that’s something, right? “Yeah, I guess….” 

     “Well, let’s go?”  He points to the door.

     “Go where?” 

     “Don’t you wanna take care of that, sweetheart?” 

     “Right, medical bay then?” 

     “Obviously.”  Perfect. He would be right where you needed him to be.

  The both of you enter the facility and walk directly to the medical bay. The empire base is pretty much a bland dark and boring military base with some troopers walking around, some commanders (you think) yelling at the soldiers and some droids doing whatever they have to do. You knew only that they were “r - unities” but droids weren’t exactly your area of expertise. However you do notice that the troopers walking around still wear the same clone armor from back the war. And you feel guilty. Because as much as you’d like you won’t be able to help them all. They’ll stay there with their chips on being controlled by the empire…. By the force, that was a hole guilty trip you knew you shouldn’t take. It wasn’t your fault. No, no. They did this. Palpatine and his men were the monsters. Not you. And certainly not these poor clones. One day, yes, one day maybe you could come back and save them?

 “Hmmm…. You wanna me to do this?”  Cross says. You were so distracted in your thoughts you don’t even realized you were already in the medical bay.

 “Oh. You don’t have to.” 

 “It's fine. I’m used to do this anyway.” 

  “Ok. Be my guest then?” 

  “Wow, you’re so funny.” He jokes.

  “Whatever. Just do your thing.” 

  “Give me your hand.”  

 You give him your hand and he takes it. And to your surprise he’s very gentle while taking care of your wound. He applies some alcohol pads to clean the wound. And as he presses the wound to stop the bleeding you reach for your gun and keep looking at his face. His very concentrated. It’s almost like the rest of the galaxy doesn’t matter. He’s only there at the moment focused on helping you. And you’re trying to plan how you’re gonna knock him out to take his chip off.

 “Now I’m gonna get some stuff to make a bandage for ya, ok?” He says and turns his back. Now is you chance. You turn your blaster to stun only and shoots. He falls. 

 “I’m sorry. But there’s no other way.” You whisper as if he’s actually listening. 

 It takes some effort (seriously, Crosshair's heavier than he looks) but you manage to put him on one these surgical stretchers. You also have to learn super quick how to use the pad control to see where the chip’s in and take it off. But it’s done. And you wait and wait… For what it seemed like hours though it was only like 15 minutes.

And he wakes up very confused.

#swwriting #tbbwriting #the bad batch #tbb spoilers #the bad bad spoilers #the bad batch fanfiction #crosshair #crosshair x reader #ct 9904 #crosshair x y/n #crosshair x oc #female reader #gn!reader #clone wars #star wars #clone troopers #writers on tumblr

[givemea-dam-break]

Hi!! Could you please do an Ahsoka x reader where the reader is a pilot for the rebellion, and they meet on a mission they have to go on together or something? And the reader is very flirty and stuff?

a/n: of course I can!! i've been so excited to write something for ahsoka for the longest time so i hope this is good! i'm honestly terrible at flirting in real life and have no idea how to write it so it's being completely improvised - sorry it's so short and cringey Warnings: none except bad writing ugh :/ Words: 726 Gender-neutral reader part two

"So you're Fulcrum, huh? Thought you'd be older." "Why's that?" You spin around on the chair of your ship, smiling at the Togruta standing behind the passenger seat. "Your voice always sounded old through the messages," you say. "It also made you sound like a guy, but what you said was too smart to come from any of the male spies we've got going." Ahsoka smiles. "Thanks." "Where'd you even get the name from? I'd never heard Fulcrum before you popped up." "Back from when I was a Jedi," she says, sounding finished. You decide not to press. You move to stand next to Ahsoka, placing your hand on the back of the chair, just next to hers so that your pinkies brush. Ahsoka stands rigid but doesn't move, if anything her pinkie presses against yours more, the touch sending a shockwave through your hand. "So, how'd you find this outpost?" you ask. The two of you have been assigned on a mission that usually you can complete on your own - retrieving fuel for the many ships and fighters of the Rebellion - but, after having scouted the area, Ahsoka reported that the place was crawling with imperial. Thanks to your piloting and disguise skills, that won't be too much of a problem, but Ahsoka was assigned for backup in case things went wrong. She knew the area well and, as you just found out, she's a former Jedi. That comes in handy in many situations. "I scout out a lot of areas for the Rebellion," she says. "This happened to be one. I managed to get in at the time, but I didn't have a big enough ship to transport the fuel, and imps started arriving, so I had to leave. I just hope they haven't taken all the fuel." You lean slightly closer. "Even if they have, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I know how to extract it from the ships and put it into ours." "How come?" "My parents repaired ships for a living. It's how I learned to fly, too. Both of those things come in quite handy." "And you've got the clearance code for the ship, right?" "Mm-hm. All sorted. You'll have to stay on the ship - no disguise will hide your lekku. If imps want to search the ship, there's a panel just by my seat that you can lift up." You crouch down to the ground and lift up said panel. "There's enough room for three people down there, so you should be fine." Ahsoka nods. There's something about her that interests you, though you can't tell what. It draws you in so close that it's captured you, making the togruta that much more intriguing, making your mind go haywire and say everything purely out of impulse. "What brought you to the Rebellion, anyways?" you ask. "Wouldn't it be better to stay in hiding because, you know, the whole Jedi-hunt?" Ahsoka shakes her head, moving to stand next to you as you rise. "I hid for long enough and it did no one any good. It's about time I start helping people again." She pauses. "What about you?" "Oh, you know, just for the giggles." She smiles. "No, I just thought it would be better to put my talents to good use. I'm not an exceptional pilot -" "That's a complete lie, I've heard all about you and your amazing piloting." "- but, the Empire took away people's liberty. I don't know about you, but I personally like my freedom. Makes me happy." "Same here." You brush your hair out of your eyes, keeping your eyes on Ahsoka. The white markings on her face look blue in the light of hyperspace, as do the whites of her lekku. "You have pretty eyes," you say. Ahsoka frowns, though only for a short second. "Thank you." She does have nice eyes. Just looking into them reminds you of the blue skies of your home planet, bright and warm, barely a cloud in sight. She looks on at you as you do her, eyes flickering over your face. Something about that alone intrigues you, sending your mind spiralling with thoughts that won't stop circling. "We should probably get ready for coming out of hyperspace," you say, moving so that your hand 'coincidentally' brushes against hers. Ahsoka's lips seem to quirk. "Yeah, probably."

#ahsoka tano x reader #ahsoka x reader #ahsoka tano #star wars x reader #star wars #star wars rebels #star wars rebels x reader #rebels #ahsoka #x reader #star wars fanfic #reader insert #givemea-dam-break

[sovamurka]

Okay, if no one will make the content for JynBine, I am going to do it myself. But this time I am going to add the Blueberry Boi™ because I want to.

Anyway, friendship headcanons for some kind of canon-divergent AU, here we go:

• If girls spent time with each other in their teenage years then it would be hilarious to watch how they blow stuff up and bring Ezra along. Like, they would make a ridiculous "prepare to get wrecked" trio that gets in trouble all the time. All of them would probably bond over living on the streets, committing crimes and in Ezra and Jyn's case, being an orphan.

• Ezra would teach Jyn how to meditate as soon as he sees her cyber crystal. Just to, y'know, help her feel closer to the Force, to her mom. At first, Jyn acts indifferent but then, with time, she actually starts to enjoy it and meditates at an opportunity, feeling grateful. This habit annoys Sabine at first but she accepts it with time and even participates in that activity... Too bad her temper is limited but she tries, she truly does.

• Jyn enjoys watching Sabine paint anything... Unless it depicts her. In that case, you can hear sounds of hysterical laughter (brought by tickling from Jyn as a revenge), art supplies falling from a shelf and Jyn saying "You painted ME? I WILL PAINT YOU!" That's when Jyn realizes that she has more in common with Ezra Bridger than she initially thought.

• Unfortunately for Ezra, Jyn also shares a sense of humor with Zeb and Chopper so for him it's hell multiplied by 3. Sabine finds it hilarious and amusing, especially in their younger years.

• Hera basically gains yet ANOTHER child (friendly reminder: both Sabine and Jyn were born in 21 BBY). She understands Jyn's pain about the loss of her mother (AND her father), they have a good talk about it and our Space Mom is caring, like always. At first, she wonders where Jyn got her quirks from until she learns that Saw raised her. And then Hera is like "Yup, makes sense now".

• Girls often fall asleep together on the same bunk bed. They can't help but carefully embrace each other. Sabine notices that Jyn sleeps with an angry face and lovingly makes fun of it, she likes to poke the spot between her eyebrows because it looks so scrunchy. Jyn envies Sabine sometimes because unlike her she has a peaceful smiley face most of the time. Which is the reason why she loves either poking or caressing her cheeks to see if she'll stop smiling.

• Jyn loves helping Sabine in her artistic expression and sometimes brings her stolen art supplies just because. Once she came back with her face covered in ash, hair clearly burned at the edges and boots submerged in motor oil. Turns out she somehow brought a huge package of glitter. When Sabine prepares to ask Jyn about her appearance, Jyn nonchalantly says "Nah, please don't ask". Then Sabine asks "Wait, why would I need a package of glitter?" To which Jyn replies "I'm sure you'll find a way to use it :D". Two or three days later an imperial base is covered by sparkly rebel signs and some stormtroopers are left confused (and terrified because somebody actually threw f-ing glitter bombs at them).

• In their younger years, Sabine often jokes about drawing on Jyn's face when she takes a nap. That's why Jyn doesn't take naps most of the time. However, Ezra still manages to find Jyn dozing somewhere on the Ghost and quickly tells Sabine where exactly she is. It's childish but hey, they are children.

• Jyn actually has a surprisingly good relationship with Ketsu. Which prompted the latter to say 'Oh, so now I have TWO little sisters'. The former was both embarrassed and relieved when she heard that.

• Of course, in this AU, Jyn basically joins the Rebellion way too soon but not without a doubt. She meets Cassian under other circumstances but it's still full of tension. Blueberry and Bean often tease Jyn about him. When they get older Jyn gets revenge on both by teasing THEM about their relationship instead. Sabine and Ezra immediately regret all the years of 'let's make Jyn's love life a living hell'.

#sabine wren #jyn erso #ezra bridger #jynbine #because I said so #star wars rebels #rogue one #hints of: #sabezra #rebelcaptain #sw headcanons

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Ooh, tell us more about your Hornblower Ulysses theory!

Sorry for being so tardy in my reply! But this is a somewhat long one, so bear with me please:

Full disclaimer: I haven't been through the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) recently, so there might be (probably is) a whole lot more...

I frankly got the idea when reading the Inferno canto XXVI from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (c. 1307-1321).

So, to go about this properly it is necessary to preface my hopefully not too long-winded and boring remarks by pointing out that Dante didn’t know any Greek and thus only knew Ulysses from Latin texts, not from the original. So when I talk about Ulysses, I mean specifically Dante’s take on him, not the original Odysseus of Homer’s Odyssey.

The first thing I found quite remarkable, and which speaks more for a general interest of C. S. Forester’s in Dante without yet mentioning Ulysses, is that Horatio’s (professional) journey resembles Vergil’s and Dante’s voyage through the realms of purgatory, hell, and heaven, albeit with a distinct focus on the former two. Due to Horatio’s extreme self-doubt and -criticism, he always appears to view himself more of a spectator or observer of what happens around him rather than a part of it; he seems to be a visitor in a world he does not quite fit in despite his professional successes.

Horatio’s progress as running parallel to Dante’s progress through purgatory, hell and heaven is even more strongly emphasised in the movies, where Archie even greets him with the words “welcome to purgatory”, which do not feature in the book.

Canto XXVI starts off with a mocking address to Florence on account of the city’s imperial expansionism. In this, there may be the first parallel to the setting of the Horatio Hornblowernovels, set at a time in history marked by the expansion of the British Empire.

With Ulysses however, the tone changes; he’s a generally sympathetic character in that he is a acknowledged as a man renowned for greatness, yet this greatness does not mean he is free of flaws, a streak echoed in the character of Hornblower to the point that Horatio is painfully aware not only of his own shortcomings, but the magnitude and possible extent of his decisions, particularly as an officer with sole command over a vessel of his own, too.

Now, for the obvious stuff: Ulysses has a wife and son (Penelope and Telemachus), so does Hornblower (Barbara and Richard, the latter being Horatio’s sole surviving child from his first marriage). Ulysses’ travels halt when he stays a while with Circe, and for Horatio it’s his French mistress Marie, the widowed daughter-in-law of the Comte de Graçay.

I particularly find the chapter The Squire of Smallbridge in Commodore Hornblower quite telling; Horatio has everything any man could wish for; he’s famous, he is married to the woman he loves and who also gives him rather important connections; he’s for the first time in his life fully financially stable and has bought a house for his family; his baby son is doing well and his relationship with Barbara is good. And yet, as the villagers come to greet the new and excitingly famous resident, he realises being on shore just won’t cut it. When shortly after, orders to go to sea again arrive, Barbara realises her husband can never be fully happy on land and lets him go.

Like Dante’s Ulysses, Horatio is never quite satisfied with what he has; despite all the good things in life that have come to him, he is still dissatisfied, chasing naval glory.

Dante’s hell being divided into circles according to the nature and resulting severity of the crime, Ulysses’ place is in the 9th circle, reserved for fraudsters. His particular crime: devising the Trojan horse and giving false counsel by proposing it. Horatio’s well-beloved “we’ll disguise as Frenchmen”-tactic kind of sounds similar…

What sticks with most people who’ve read Dante is Ulysses’ description of his last voyage, the stirring lines as he leaves Ithaka for the last time and in his quest to sail past the boundaries of the known world, is swallowed by the sea, waves crashing over his head.

Ulysses might be the first (or one of the first) tales of seafaring adventure; as such, it’s only natural (western) authors have time and again taken inspiration from it for their own works of fiction. What I find particularly interesting is that C. S. Forester stresses the flawed Ulysses of Dante in his main character; which is ultimately probably why so many people enjoy the Hornblower-series, both the books and the TV-adaptions; Horatio, despite his daring, intelligence, knack for strategy and huge success as a naval officer, is not a shiny, perfect hero, he’s as human in his ways as everybody else (except of course that I have never in my life disguised my non-existent ship as a French vessel, but then I don’t know about you- hey, whatever floats your boat!).

Hope you enjoyed this rambl-y read! Feel free to add to it, and share your own Hornblower-based theories (I'm curious). :)

#horatio hornblower #hornblower #naval fiction #fiction #c. s. forester #dante alighieri #divina commedia #divine comedy #medieval literature #italian literature #english literature #age of sail #books #my theories #greek mythology #ulysses

[fireemblems24]

SS Chapter 18 & 19

Whew, felt like it took a long time to reach this next chapter. Life's been busier than usual lately, but here we are.

Spoilers possibly up until Silver Snow Chapter 18 (and other routes around the same time).

Pre-Battle 18

Should I tag this as Verdant Wind spoilers since they basically follow the same plot? Only slightly kidding.

We storming the capital now! Woot! Is Edelgard really going down in one freaking chapter though?

Are they finally going to acknowledge that Byleth's marching to chop down his former student? Because so far he's felt exactly nothing about Edelgard. Not regret, not longing, not horniness, not anger, not vengeance. It's like she's some faceless evil emperor he's never meant before for all the emotional impact their former relationship's had in part 2 so far.

ARE WE GONNA GET RHEA BACK SOON??? Please. I want to see what role she's going to play. There's still so much I don't know about her.

Ok, seeing the map, I don't see Edelgard, but I do see both Hubert and the Death Knight despite defeating them a million times already.

They really shouldn't let us fight the Death Knight so many times if they wanted him to come across intimidating. Even early on, Lysithea with Dark Spikes and Dimitri with a horse killer weapon just melt him. Maybe it's harder on Maddening.

Battle 18

Ugh, I hate split maps. No, Seteth, I don't want to split up.

Hubert sounds so sinister. OMG I love him. He doesn't care - at all - that there were his former classmates.

So Lysithea nuked the Death Knight into another dimension . . . again. Is he dead for real this time? Because it seemed official this time. Finally.

Oh, unique dialogue with Hubert and Ferdinand. The drama. Too bad his Boltings have a 0% hit chance on Ferdinand.

Now time to waste Hubert's second Bolting.

LAMO that Imperial Soldier lady also has Bolting, but Linhardt just waited her out. She did a total of 1 damage to him lol. She's got 5 though and that's annoying, so Petra just took her out.

Having Byleth finish Hubert off since I bet there's more unique dialogue.

Hubert threatening Byleth. Name a more iconic duo.

OMG Byleth' gaunlets broke lamo. Guess someone else will actually finish Hubert.

Wow, Hubert's generic dialogue "not even death will make you consequential." Told that to poor Bernie. Still took an arrow to the face though.

And seems like he's dead-dead this time.

Does he always give you a Goddess Icon when he dies. Because that's funny if he does.

Oh - MVP Petra! She deserves it. She's really catching up to Ferdie and Sylvain. It's just - she never dodges like Ferdinand does, and can't take the punishment Sylvain does.

Post-Battle 18/Pre-Battle 19

WAIT - WAIT - WAIT - WAIT. DEDUE. DEDUE IS HERE? MY BOY? HE'S HERE. WHY IS HE HERE? 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Yeah, wtf is he doing in Enbarr?

Oh - Dedue here's for Edelgard's blood. Nice.

Does this mean I get to use Dedue????

Holy shit, Dedue. He infiltrated Enbarr and gathered intell?

What a champ.

Dedue is low-key the best spy in this game guys. Gathered intel to help an invading army take a castle literally under Edelgard's and Hubert's noses and let's not forget how he broke Dimitri out of prison.

Dedue 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

And Rhea's inside! We get to see Rhea AND Dedue again.

Wait, why is Dedue leaving me? No 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Don't worry Dedue. In another playthrough, I am pampering you and Dimitri and in the next one, you two are getting married pairing up.

I'm guessing we're not going back to Garreg Mach between these battles? Because that would be - eh - make no sense.

Oh, so now we have the "I don't want to kill Edelgard" or "Can we walk the same path as her." Why are those two my only options though? Where's the "fuck yeah" option? It's way more fun to embrace the kill 'em all thing. Except Dimitri and Dedue because my heart

Ok, Caspar, you're forgiven for your CF nonsense calling Edelgard out.

Why is Seteth always lying to me? He keeps saying "I'll leave it in your hands." But then doesn't and yells at me.

Battle 19

Ok. I decided I'm playing these two back-to-back.

Does Verdant Wind do this too? Fight Hubert and the Death Knight, then jump straight to Edelgard, no month in-between?

Because it if it does - it's going to take forever to get to Azure Moon, because, unfortunately, I won't be able to play this game for close to a month after this because of work and other stuff.

Mannnn, I am NOT looking forward to this map with my VW gang. In SS, my Sylvain, Ferdinand, and Petra are all super reliable. And Lysithea can nuke anything. No one in my VW gang is as good as any of those four (though, Claude has gotten more speed lately - thank the stars).

OMG DEDUE IS BACK. HE came, but he's green. WHYYYYY.

So . . . does Dedue have unique battle dialogue with Edelgard? She's all that's left and he's marching towards her. I think I'm going to test this. I'd laugh my butt off if he crit and killed her.

No unique dialogue, but it feels good letting Dedue get a hit on here. I get Dedue could kill her. I could just keep healing him, and she's got no one left. Should I do it guys?

I think I'm going to do it.

I'll let Byleth peck at her with his puny magic damage so I can get that dialogue, and then Dedue's killing Edelgard next round probably.

LAMO Sothis is a false Goddes, but like, she's living in Byleth's head so. We know she's not false.

Oh, well, Edelgard crit Dedue. So I just reset things and my ever reliable Lysithea nuked Edelgard onto another planet, as she does.

Weird she and Lysithea got unique dialogue though.

Ohhh cut scene. Why does Edelgard have a sword though?

Why is Edelgard asking Byleth to kill her? I guess it makes sense. He was her teacher here.

She does know all these people are killing each other because of her, right?

Oh, wow, he just lopped her head off. That's maybe as badass as when Byleth just offed Randolph (or however you say his name). I'm legit impressed the game didn't milk that harder.

Though they did that "I wanted to walk with you line . . ." Which . . . I'll take it. That's not too bad. She did, but what a twisted path she's walking.

I'm a bit conflicted about her death here though. It seemed kind of . . . weird? I expected Edelgard, from the way she talks in CF, to do down fighting. Not pleading to "my teacher" on her knees and panting.

MVP Lysithea. Guess landing that last hit on Edelgard motivated her.

Post-Battle 19

Are we finally gonna see Rhea?

Why did Hubert right us a letter?

Oh, it's about those mage people. And they want revenge. How original. If they're the enemies of all of Fodlan, why did you fight with them? Like why not take them out, then Rhea, who doesn't . . . you know . . . want to destroy the world?

Hubert and Dedue the real MVPs of this route though.

I can't with the name "those who slither in the dark" though. How lame.

Seteth said "kill every last one of them" though.

RHEA. REAH's BACK. 😭😭

And her hair is down! She looks pretty. She looks sickely though.

Oh, we going to learn some stuff now?

I don't remember who Nemesis is. So he's a grave robber. And a genocider. Wonderful. So is that when Seteth's wife died? Or?

I'm guessing we don't get playable Rhea, though I bet someone would've told me already if we did, because she's in such poor shape.

Now we get to kick the people's ass who killed Jeralt?

RHEA IS COMING WITH US

OMG Caspar wants to carry Rhea on his back 😂and then Dorothea has to point out how that might not work for our short king.

No one really mentioned Edelgard and Hubert dying though. Maybe in the monastery?

Guess I'll find out later. Now to go play these exact same maps, but with the Golden Deer!

#fire emblem 3 houses #fire emblem three houses #silver snow #dedue molinaro #rhea

[monocytogenes]

WIP Wednesday

Got tagged by @nirikeehan and I actually have some WIPs in the works for once! A few are Quinn/SW things, but what I've been working on most intensively is an IA story because I fell haaaard into a 'I will roast canon at 365 degrees and carve it for juicy bits' type of plot idea.

(spoilers for the Imperial Agent character story and agent-specific Shadow of Revan stuff under the cut)

I finished the Agent story last month and honestly had a blast playing it--I tend to play a lot of uptight professional men, and was like 'you know what? I'm going to do something different.' Hence, Pravin Winscliff II: charming snarkster, professional liar, unabashed slut, and state-sponsored murderer who in spite of his vices nevertheless seemed to always pick the heroic option when a really good What You Are In The Dark moment reared its head. I took the 'Batman' ending with him, and was honestly more attached to his Intelligence coworkers than the companions, so I was really pleased to have them show back up in SoR.

And then that parting conversation with Shara if you romance her? 'You'd be the same woman I've admired all this time. The same woman I'd cross a galaxy to protect.' Fuck me UP with that shit. I needed so much more of them, okay.

Hence, this! Had an idea where instead of assisting after the fact, he's straight up involved in the shipjacking to get her back (and having a lot of complex feelings about being called back for one last job by the Empire after...well. Everything.) Tweaked Lana's story to get her involved too because I just generally like her.

The shadowport, by design, was difficult to spot from orbit unless one knew what to look for—nestled among mountains in a stretch of Klatooinian desert, isolated from civilization. Pravin had found out about it from a client on Bothawui when asking about discreet trading posts, and given Lana’s request for planetary coordinates the place hadn’t been on Sith Intelligence’s radar either. Not that they had any jurisdiction there, of course: Klatooine sat on the bleeding edge of Hutt Space, its few urban centers closed to outsiders, one of the final stops before one crossed fully into the Empire.

Picking a place had been a lengthy negotiation, punctuated by Pravin’s insistence that rural Imperial worlds and disputed territories were not, in fact, “neutral locations”. The minister hadn’t wanted to travel too far afield, and Pravin hadn’t wanted to risk showing his face somewhere that the Imperial authorities could act with relative impunity. He was a Cipher off his leash, after all, a man without a country; his very existence an affront to the Imperial vision. Generous platitudes didn’t change that fact.

He’d flown in a day early, just him and Vector in his shoddy, nondescript shuttle, taking time to scope out the port. These sorts of meetings were best done where people were expected to gather, and in little time he’d pinpointed a cantina comprised of a rowdy bar and some high-backed booths. He wrote out directions to the restaurant, sent them to Lana’s number, and waited.

The response came: Confirmed. Requesting approach clearance, ETA 30 min.

See you there, Pravin replied.

He snagged a table while Vector parked himself at the end of the bar, facing the door; close enough to intervene if something went wrong. Darkness had set in outside; it was something like 20 hours local time, though places like this were usually open continuously. He had no idea what time his body thought it was, given all his recent travel; he’d slept a good while on the ship earlier but still seemed fuzzy and fatigued. Probably a bit of stim withdrawal. Rolling his shoulders, he could feel the ache.

He patted his pockets, only to find that he’d left the syringes behind in his cabin. Sighing, he ordered a caf.

Vector caught his attention as he put his lips to the foam of the drink. He gave an acknowledging nod.

The former minister was dressed more casually than Pravin had ever seen him, in a leather jacket and scarf with a flat cap shading his face. He slid into opposite side of the booth, stripping his gloves finger by finger, and regarded Pravin expectantly.

“Hello, Nine.”

“Hello, you old bastard,” Pravin said with a smirk. “What am I supposed to call you now? The once and future minister? The minister dowager?”

“I see you haven’t lost your charm,” the man replied evenly.

“I see you haven’t grown a sense of humor.” Pravin leaned back against the seat cushion. “And here I’d thought retirement might’ve softened you up.”

#wip wednesday #swtor #imperial agent #shara jenn #watcher two #swtor keeper #vector hyllus #cipher nine #star wars the old republic #writing #pravin winscliff II

[josefavomjaaga]

Helfert, Joachim Murat, Chapter 5, Part 4

We’re still not finished with the Bourbon stuff, after their return to Naples.

Otherwise, Naples had nothing but praise for the attitude of the returned royal family. By their very nature, the loyal followers of the royal family who had come with him to the old homeland and those who had remained there, who had been of some value under the foreign rule, who had acquired positions and wealth, constantly had cause for jealousy and friction; "fedeloni" and "murattini" was the name they gave each other, not without a certain ironic flavour. The King and Prince Leopold, however, showed a sincere desire not to make any distinction between the two categories, which became apparent, for example, in the composition of the supreme war college. Both of them behaved condescendingly, even kindly, towards the Murat generals, if there was nothing else to reproach them for, and distinguished some of them. Guglielmo Pepe was very pleasantly surprised at the way in which Leopold, at the first introduction he had with his brother Florestan, behaved towards them, how he spoke of Caroline Murat as "Queen", indulged in eulogies about the Neapolitan army, called on him, Guglielmo, to write a memorandum about the last campaign, which, in order to do justice to the honour of the defeated army, could be printed somewhere in London or Holland. The same was the case with the higher civil officials of the overthrown regiment, who were by no means entirely removed from their posts and replaced by "Fedeloni". However, it was not possible to remain silent about everything that had happened recently, especially in the army. A commission was set up to investigate the conduct and abilities of some 200 officers against whom complaints had been lodged in connection with the last campaign, and also to examine the legality of the most recent promotions and decorations, for which the relevant patents had not yet been issued. But here, too, the sense of justice of Ferdinand and his councillors was revealed, in that he composed this commission under the chairmanship of Guglielmo Pepe from generals and commanders of the disbanded army and gave it instructions that met all the requirements of fairness. Much that was done to promote the internal conditions had an even more favourable effect. A commission headed by Prince Cardito had to place public education from rural schools to universities on a new footing. The charitable institutions, the Monte di Misericordia, the Committee for Public Charity, which were often paralysed as a result of the efforts of the last Murat campaign, were remedied by generous contributions from the King's private coffers. All this had a charitable effect on public traffic. "Our trade", it was said in a Neapolitan correspondence of the "Wiener Zeitung" (No. 267 p. 1059), "receives new life; in our harbour, where it has been quiet for many years, there is a completely different appearance, domestic and foreign ships are constantly leaving and others arriving". A very delicate, even spiteful point was the "donations of goods and revenues granted during the military occupation of Generals Giuseppe Buonaparte and Gioacchino Murat", which, if the royal promises of 1 May and 4 June were interpreted generously, would have been conserved, while the government now claimed that those clauses, on the basis of the Vienna Treaty of 29 April, referred only to the purchase of state estates, not to the gifting of them to mere favourites. Even before the arrival of Prince Jablonovski, Count Saurau, Imperial and Royal Court Commissioner to Bianchi's army, had repeatedly demanded clarifications from the Royal Cabinet on this matter, to which he had not received an answer. Jablonovski followed in Saurau's footsteps, although he did not conceal to himself the fact that it would be hard for the king to accept favours from the two intermediary regents which had been made at the expense of his most loyal supporters. He insisted that at least those donations be respected which Murat had entered in the "great book" and which consequently formed part of the public debt undoubtedly guaranteed by Austria and conceded by Ferdinand, and in this sense a royal resolution of 14 August was indeed passed.

But now came the further question concerning those donations which were not entered in the great book of the public debt and which were consequently subject to royal confiscation.  It seems that Ferdinand wanted to have complete freedom of disposal over them, either to give them to the crown or, as Murat had done before him, to give them away to his followers, whereas the Austrian envoy argued before the king that the property confiscated in this way should revert to those from whom it had been taken by the previous government. Ferdinand was somewhat embarrassed, but finally said: "You are right, I will think it over", and soon afterwards the order was given to the Minister Tommasi to set up a commission to examine the principles laid down by the former feudal committee and to work out a plan for offering some compensation to the old families who had suffered most. The two presidents of the Court of Cassation and Accounts, Prince Sirignano and Marchese Vivenzio, Dr. Giacinto Troysi and Marchese di Vigo, were members of this committee, which soon showed itself anxious to give the royal right of confiscation the widest possible extension. In a memorandum, Vigo tried to prove that monastery estates were not to be regarded as state property, from which it should follow without doubt that the king was not bound by the treaty of 29 April and could therefore confiscate them and dispose of them as he pleased. Jablonovski also resisted this view until he received instructions from Prince Metternich that, once the royal decree of 14 August had become a fact and the Neapolitan government was determined to implement it, he should not interfere any further in the whole matter so as not to expose himself to a final refusal or, in the other case, to have to bear joint responsibility for what might happen next. In the midst of these tasks and conflicts of opinion, which touched so many and so profound interests, stirred up such fierce and ugly passions, came the news of a visit of several weeks which Lord and Lady Bentinck intended to pay to Ferdinand's regained capital. The decrepit Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was struck with terror, while the news did not ring at all unpleasantly in the ears of reform-minded Medici. The king was on Circello's side and no longer wanted to have anything to do with His Lordship, with whom he had been on such good terms during his last stay in Sicily. One did not have to look far for the reason for this reluctance. Ferdinand had never been a friend of constitutional institutions; after the experiment he had had to undergo in Sicily, they were anathema to him. Since the recent turn of events, however, the noble lord had become the object of other suspicions: he was presumed to be in secret communication with all the free-thinkers of the peninsula, especially with the Carbonari, and to have a hand in all the machinations which emanated from that quarter. For the same reason, Lucian Buonaparte's stay in Rome was a thorn in the side of the Neapolitan cabinet, because they considered him to be one of the heads of the Carbonari, a comrade-in-arms of Bentinck, and were convinced that he would be encouraged and supported by the latter. Austria had to promise his best services to obtain Lucian's removal from Rome and to arrange another place for him to stay. In Naples, they did not dare to appeal directly to the papal chair, since they were, as it seems, on no better terms with it than they had been under Joachim Murat.

Inserted footnote (pointless, but kinda funny):

But the Viennese Cabinet and its representative in Rome also had their incessant frictions with the Curia, as can be seen from a highly piquant passage in Jablonovski's dispatch of 12 July: "Å Rome je suis descendu chez le Chevalier de Lebzeltern que j'ai trouvé tourmenté par la fièvre et par le Cardinal Consalvi, je ne sais lequel des deux maux lui paraissait plus facile à supporter. J'ai appris à mon arrivée ici qu'il avait été soulagé, et que le Comte de Saurau avait tâché de calmer le courroux et d'assouvir l'insatiabilité du Ministre de Sa Sainteté". It was probably the Cardinal's stubborn insistence that the principalities of Benevento and Pontecorvo of Naples be handed over to the Papal States that is alluded to here.

The French passage in English: »In Rome I stayed with the Chevalier de Lebzeltern, whom I found tormented by fever and by Cardinal Consalvi, I do not know which of the two evils he found easier to bear. I learned on my arrival here that he had been relieved, and that the Count of Saurau had tried to calm the wrath and to satisfy the insatiability of His Holiness' Minister.«

One might argue that if the new government did not get along any better with their neighbours than the old one had, they might have just kept Murat.

Even in the delicate Bentinck question, our envoy was taken into confidence. Jablonovski advised Minister Circello to write a very kind letter to Florence, where Lord William was staying at the time, describing the immense joy the King would feel at seeing him again, i.e. at any other time, but not now "when the evil-minded might take advantage of his presence and use his name for the scattering and spreading of opinions which it would be impossible to tolerate". The letter, however, did not meet Bentinck either at the right time or in the right mood. His lordship, never accustomed to be disturbed in his intentions by foreign objections, gave nothing to Circello's chosen phrases and dropped anchor on the quay at Naples on one of the last days of September. Now danger was imminent and Count Nugent, being half Bentinck's compatriot, took the risk of convincing the noble lord that the air was more favourable for him anywhere than here between the sea and Mount Vesuvius. After two hours of negotiation, an agreement was reached: Lord William would not set foot on land, but his lady would stay in Naples until arrangements had been made for her accommodation in Rome.

Jablonovski hurried to Circello with the good news. The Marchese was about to sit down to dinner without having any sense of its pleasures, for he looked very dejected and thought that the British troublemaker might enter at any moment. Then the Austrian envoy arrived and Circello now knew no end to his joy and expressions of gratitude. An express messenger was immediately dispatched to Caserta, from where Ferdinand wrote back the next morning: "I recognise Prince Jablonovski in this! Thank him in my name and tell him that if he has given you back your appetite for your dinner, he has given me a peaceful night".

It’s somewhat refreshing to see that even Ferdinand couldn’t stand Bentinck. That’s what you get for picking a semi-literate dimwit like Ferdinand over Joachim, your Lordship.

Unfortunately, we’re now approaching the last chapter. And there will not be a happy ending.

#joachim murat #caroline murat #napoleon #hundred days #naples1815 #1815 #helfert murat

[popculturebuffet]

New X-Men Xtrospective Part 3: Imperial (NXM #121-126)

To me all you happy people! And welcome back to my X-Citing look at Morrison’s Masterwork on Marvel’s Merry Mutants!  Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE if you feel like it. 

If not... to catch you up on last time....

All Caught up? Good. Join me under the cut as our heroes head into this old woman’s hedd to see what’s wrong and fight off an alien army while horribly ill. 

Silent, Psychic Rescue in Process:

So we pick up not long after we left off: Thanks to Beast waking up from his bat induced coma, the X-Men now know Charles is trapped in Cassandra’s body and she pulled a Freaky Friday on him, with marginally less bullets. 

And thus we get this issue. This one was part of Nuff Said, an incredibly clever theme month by Marvel and one I wish they’d try and do again at some point in some form. 

The gimmick was simple but amazing: Every issue would be mostly silent, with at most some dialouge at the start and finish to bookend it. So far i’ve only read two issues of this, this one and the X-Statix one, but it is a genuinely great idea. I do think forcing it on the entire line was a bit much, but as I said I do wish they’d do this again just make it optional: have some books opt in or do some annuals with the theme. It’s just a fun break from the usual and with this issue resulted in one of the best single issues of x-men period. 

Naturally given the name, which is cleverly displayed on a sign the x-men have because of course they do, it’s exaclty that: Emma and Jean after readying themselves (Jean kisses Scott goodbye and Emma downs a bottle of jack because why not do an alchol before doing delecate mental surgery), head in. 

Inside they find horrific old lady head doors, stone ol dlady heads around a tower that shoot lasers, and said doors also bite and puke weird goop because it’s Grant Morrison. This is his chance to just go full balls out weird.. and given last time involved skin flake golemns.. and this isn’t even the weirdest he’s done. As mentioned last time he once had a supervillian run for president using a super LSD Bike that made everyone high. 

And just to prove he can reach that level of weirndess we find charles alone, naked and with an overenlarged brain.. before he transitions Jean to a field of sperm. 

Yeah... but this DOES have a point.. as it turns out it’s a meaphorical transition into his gestation as a baby.. and how he had a twin. Yeah turns out Cassandra was not lying he did try to kill her.. but as you can probably tell by the fact she’s a genocidal sociopath, she lied by omission to screw with Hank: In the womb she tried strangling Charles to death with his own umbilical cord..only for him to use baby’s first psonic blast to send her reeling and his mom tumbling down the stairs and well.. you can probably guess the rest. Yeah.. Cassandra’s entire origin story is concentrated 

And I love it. The sheer audacity is nice and everything but what makes it really work for me is the simple concept: An evil version of charles, one almost born at the same time whose every bit as evil as he is good.. granted there’s a TON of Morally Grey in Charles Xavier ESPECIALLY post decimation and even more so now with Krakoa. But he’s sitll at his heart a well meaning person, while Cassandra at her heart is a racist genocidal nightmare. She is pure evil, with enough personality to not make her boring.. and more importanlty all the power charles has but NONE of his restraint. Part of what makes Charles noble is he only uses his powers when necessary. Cassandra.. has no such restraint and will happily mentally snap necks all day. 

So with this our heroine’s leave and we end on the iconic line “Professor Xavier killed his twin sister in the womb. We Really ought to talk. 

This issue is an utter classic. It finally explains Cassandra a bit while still leaving a ton of questions, Frank Quitely is at his best here, and he and morrison are incrediby good at non verbal storyteling. The result is surreal, unsettling and awesome. Check it out. Seriously seek this one out it’s worth the trip. It’s so famous it was homaged with a spirtual sequel in the recent Giant Size X-Men one shots. It’s excellent stuff

Imperial:

So with our first issue we open with things going terrible on that flag ship Cassandra took off on with Lilandra, empress of the Shiar and Xavier’s space wife. She’s revealed herself, is ravaging the ship and mind rapes a the helmsman into crashing it, so with no other options Lilandra sends Smasher, not the one from the avengers run earlier version, to earth to send a warning to the X-Men. 

At the School things are actually going well for a second. In an intresting move the school is changing things up with no officla timetable.. which I think means there’s no rigid class schedule and you can just do them as you please or as necessary for your power. The plan’s the same, they just want to learn from each other in building mutant society and the future. It’s ideas like this that are the bedrock of the current run and were sadly never fully realized here.. but I don’t blame this run for that. Morrison had 2-3 years and it was cut short early, leading to a rather disapointing ending we’ll get to. They never had a chance to really dig in because they were kicked out by morons and then their whole grand design was undone until Hickman un-undid it in 2019. And even then some of this like the idea of mutant culture and what not hasn’t been picked up on yet. I do mean YET, as given the sheer NUMBER of x books touching on all sorts of subjects, it’s only a matter of if not when. 

As for who’s behind this it’s a combination of Jean and Charles: Jean is using charles notes and is going at full tilt. Scott is concerned though.. both about her since she went Phoenix and Logan told him about it and because these plans may alarm the humans. ON the former Jean just brushes him off which is not right.. given what happened with the phoenix force copy of jean, which granted had her personality, memories and powers and Jean later got a set of her memories so it might as well of been and only MAYBE the genocide is something Jean wouldn’t of done under the same circumstances, he’s understandably concerned. He lost her to it last time and it did weird shit to poor Rachel, who hif you don’t know is their daughter from an alternate timeline... because the Summer’s family tree is a WAKING NIGHTMARE. Thankfully I don’t have to untangle it because there’s a handy chart right here to do it for me that was recently released in X-Men Legends, a new series featuring legendary x creators telling stories in the cracks... and given we’re getitng storys by the simosons and peter motherfucking david, yeah good stuff.

And why yes there are more than one clone in this tree and several alternate timelines. , not to mention several clones and a sexy cat lady, it’s complicated is understnading it and i’m not sure what properly states it honestly. Also if your wondering about Adam there he’s the genetic son of Cyclops mom and the ma Shiar empreror who killed her for not sleeping with him through. Again it’s complicate REALLY feels like understatement. 

Point is he DOES have a right to be worried about the thing that lead to her being cocooned for a while and left their daughter in the future at the time of this... just in case you needed a reminder after that wonderful clusterfuck of a chart up above athe x-men are really fucking weird. 

So Jean brushing that off is not okay. She does however call him out on the second one and rightfully so: This isn’t some dominate the humans manifesto: this is simply changing the course of the future and how they teach their students to create a better one instead of adhering to human norms to try and appease “the republicans’, as jean puts it.. which has only gotten MORE RELEVANT, 20 years on: Attempts to appease the norms of society and things “just because that’s how it’s been” have never been a good thing. It’s why the very writer of this comic took several decades to properly identify themselves as non binary because people were too stuck int heir ways to try and see if there really were just two genders. Fighting against the grain, finding new ways to express things that have always been there... it’s what humanity needs to do and certainly what comes after us would need to do. i’ts how we get better as a race. If something’s not working we change it, quickly or slowly. And given Scott’s huge amount of emotoinal repression lately.. I can see why she’d see the former complaint as just him being a dick as opposed to the genuine concern it is. 

Short Version: Jean Grey is fucking awesome and while he’d be the last to write her for decades, no one did it better than Grant and no one has since.  Hopefully Gerry Duggan can clear that bar. 

After this fight we get a fuller verson of what happened both at the end of issue 120 and in the big reveal last issue: Turns out Hank awoke because Charles piloted his body like a truck and needed it revealed fast. Hank’s regained control of his body and facilities by now, but in a twist of irony he helpfully points out, had Cassandra not gone a needlessly cruel and sociopathic tangent and had Beak beat Beast into a coma, Charles wouldn’t of had a body. 

As for Charles in cass’ body he’s now in a tub of goo created by it. 

It acts as a shield as well as melding him with Cerebra so he can talk to jean telepathically as his thoughts are very weak.

Thanks to this and her psychic Jaunt, Jean now knows just what the hell cassandra is: She really is Charles twin sister. As for how the hell she surivied outside of the womb and how Charles never knew, she created herself a clone body using his cells and didn’t fully manifest till now. And while she has plenty of intellegence, at an emotional level she’s fully convinced, much like an infant that only she and charles are real and thus destroying him means gaining domance over her world. So in short she’s both utterly insane and now has an interstellar empire at her fingertips. 

And the news SOMEHOW get sworse: She booby trapped her body and charles only has days before he’s vegatable, having put every psychological disease possible in there, and she’s probably responsible for their colds and the u-men. So in short their pretty scrwed but at the very least Charles plans to try to flip things, use the fact their now public (a clear tactic to weaken them) to share his manefesto, his last will and testiment if you would. 

Scott meanwhile figures since their sick a healer might be a good idea and goes solo to fetch Xorn... who just sorta disappeared after the annual and didn’t return till his arc. 

We get an utterly touching scene after this: With Logan staying on his hobbit like toes in case of another attack, Jean goes to talk to hank. Hank is still throughly traumatized from the attack, fearing Cassandra is right and he’ll just keep devlovling until he ends up in a metamoprhisis type situation. I mean it’s not ALL bad hank,.. I mean going through that guarantees a musical about you. 

But Jean reassures him: It’s okay to be afraid of her, they all are.. but as she puts it...

It’s a really powerful inspiring scene... and really afirms how well Morrison writes Jean from the previous arc onward. She’s confident, powerful.. but also caring and compassionate. Here hank’s at his lowest, disparing that this might get worse.. and she reaffirms that htis evolution is an upgrade.. he may not be the same.. but that’s okay. He’s better. It really speaks to the core message of the X-Men as a whole and why they’ve stuck around all this time: It’s not just okay your diffrent.. it’s WONDERFUL. Your wonderful for being you. Whatever meataphor you read into it, it’s at it’s core a message that no matter who hunts you or trys to shame you for what you are, they are wrong and you are wonderful. And you are not alone... your people are out there.. and they will go through hell to protect you. It’s moments like this that remind me despite the bad parts, the accidnetal transphobic metaphor last time, a subplot with Hank coming up, the affair storyline and Planet X, just.. Planet X.. this run is special to me for a reason. It has heart, character and truly gets how the x-men should work, what makes them great... while making something NEW AND FRESH from it’s bones. Pushing envelopes, chanigng things for good and shaking things the hell up after far too much stagnation. It’s just pure good comicy goodness and i’m proud to finally be talking about it after having always wanted to. 

So as we end the issue Scott grabs Xorn, whose been at a budist temple all this time, and Smasher arrives to warn earth... but his warning missed his intended target. 

Well at least he got to Hellcow’s coven.. maybe she can call in Man Eating Cow and the Chick Fill A Super Cows.. thought hey might not help. Their parent company IS pretty homophobic.. I doubt their high on mutants either. 

Testament Emma and Jean talk over things how i’ts going etc, with Emma unsuprisingly annoyed with most of the students and Jean optimsitc.

But Emma soon has bigger issues to deal with: TEEN ANGST!

Yeah 4/5 of the Cuckoos are upset Esme has a boyfriend. Their concerns in part are because without her their apparently powerless.. which given one will die and another will leave and they’ll be left with three is just factually not true, and either Morrison changed his mind later, or more likely their simply exagerating like teens do. Emma points out it’s pointless to fight this...

So... their in a domestically abusive relationship rife with sexual tension? Are you sure your not htinking of Sam and Diane, Ross and Rachel, Garfiled and Odie perhaps?

Meanwhile Angel’s sulking in a tree talking about how all the kids are stupid and she dosen’t fit in. That sort of thing. Wolverine naturally has a tactful and understandable response to this:

It’s here Angel goes from understandable, a bit hard edged and obnoxious becuase of a very rough life.. and just becomes annoying.  I do get what Grant was trying to do: he was trying to play with Wolverine’s habit of taking sassy teens under his wing by giving him a more hardscrabble one with a harder life pre-xaviers.. not that Jubilee’s was easy, but I get what he was going for.. he just dosen’t succeed. Instead of a realistic version of a teen sidekick she just comes off as an obnoxious brat whose rude to everyone including her one friend Logan and her later boyfriend.  It dosen’t help that ONCE AGAIN, Morrison flew directly into unfortunate implications without meaning to, by having the only major POC character (Bishop guest stars later and there are two significant characters during the Riot at Xaviers arc but both aren’t relevant before or after), be an abused teen with gross fly based powers and a teen pregnancy subplot. Seriously this isn’t even the LAST time Morrison shoves their foot in their mouth like this in this run. While I do like this run a lot, it’s still 20 years old and it’s still going to have a bunch of bits that have aged like harvarti left on a sidewalk, and handing out unfortnuate implications like their candy is tied for the biggest with their handling of Magneto when he finally shows up in person. It’s THAT bad a take on the character that it’s up there with accidental racisim and transphobia. 

So moving on from.. that we get Jean comforting the professor before meeting the press, giving a throughly lovely speech about how Charles got his powers 30 years ago and despite seeing the worst in humanity, used his telepathy to allow him to see past it and see deep down just how scared and alone we all felt. So she takes them into a psychic conference room and we get a very interesting exchange. 

It’s an interesting parallel to how real world disinfranchised groups, how it takes time.. but soon being a POC or LBGTQ+ goes from unrightfully perscuted to celebrated. How a group starts with hates whipsers on the fringe of things but grows to be accepted, like it always SHOULD have been. Take representation of Trans people in the media. It started with Trans people being almost entirely punchlines and sources of fucking horendous “DID DEY USED TO BE A MAN.” storylines and hurtful jabs at people who had transitioned, treating them as a sideshow instead of you know as fucking human beings. But now coming out as what you always were ont he inside is celebrated. Sure the right are dicks about it but they always will be: but most media gladly celebrates when someone comes out as trans. Same with being gay, or bi or pan or polamorus or nonbinary.  Hell I admire grant for showing i’ts not even 100% perfect once you are popular: you still have to grapple both with people wanting to copot your culture and those who still don’t understand you trying to speak for you. 

She also gets the standard question calling the X-Men an army, shoots it down with the normal global peacekeeping operation stuff.. then we get this bitch. 

Who quickly realizes she’s outclassed by Emma Frost, professional that bitch. And while Jean is understandbly going to have to erase that.. I can’t blame her for snapping her.

Just to tear this shit down.: The privacy thing is not something she’s doing. All she’s doing is spcyhic teleconfrencing, you harpy. They fight greek gods and monsters to protect your sorry ass and the last one.. just makes me absolutely livid and feels so much like a real world comment i’m suprised there isn’t a fox news logo next to her bigoted head. 

Trouble follows them everywhere they go.. because their mutants. They can’t help it. A LOT of shit like the demons, aliens, and gods and what not, I do not know if they actually did fight the greek gods but i’m not going to say for sure they did not, the norse gods defintely, not sure on greek. But the point is allt his stuff HAPPENS TO THEM half the time, or is a consequence of trying to PROTECT PEOPLE. I’m so nettled by this because this is how the marvel unvierse acts all the fucking time towards ALL super powered peoples. Mutants esepcailly but they blame the heroes and what not for being chased and harassed by guys in costumes or alien invasions or all the stuff they FIGHT. Sure sometimes they caused it but it’s either because of a monsterous person with a grudge or just because their powerful and some douche took an intrest. I’m just.. so fucking tired of asshole civlians in comics. It’s realisitc I know but it’s just hard to stomach after so many have turned their back on so many for such DUMB reasons. 

Jean recovers well pointing out the genocide and how 16 million people, 16 million possible einsteinss or mozarts are just GONE, and that their trying to focus on the future. She also brings up autistic savants who can talk to atoms and while I don’t like the use of the savant thing, as it brings to mind stuff like rainman I very badly want to see this autistic kid who can talk to atoms as someone on the spectrum myself. Also I just want the crew of HIckma’ns books in general to pour over this because there are a lot of intresting powers and personalities only MENTIONED we never saw proper that could be great characters. Just saying. 

Jean cocludes her speech to the world, including Logan whose wisely getting hammered at anearbye bar.. while Hank finds out what’s going on with their sickness.. nanonscopic sentnels in the blood. 

But while the press confrence ends well with Jean having won over the press.. things go sideways as not only is it clear Esme’s boyfriend is in fact something sinister.. but Jean falls over due to the nano snetinels, and senses Scott being taken in tibet, taken down by a group of the Shiar’s imperial guard.. picutre the legion of superheroes but blindly loyal to the goverment and far more likely to get killed. And the rest are preparing to attacking including Gladiator who if you don’t know him, has all the powers of superman as long as he retains his confidence. 

And it turns out Esme’s boyfriend is an advanced Scout, the shapeshifting amoeba blob thing Stuff, a new addition by morrison and good on him. And the Imperial Guard are here but with one goal

 Superdestroyer

On the Ship we find out both wha’ts going on with Scott and Xorn, they’ve been taken and why the shiar are attempting mutant genocide: Cassandra is puppeting ALL of them, has convinced them the mutants are infected and since Lilandra is a puppet, Scott’s words fall on deaf ears. 

Meanwhile Wolverine ambushes one of the squads, kiling one named Dinosaurer via claw to the brain, while Emma has had a dome thing put over her head and isn’t transforming into diamond to counter it because...

But the Cuckoos fight back, taking out oracle before easily handling stuff since his brain is fairly simple.. and given he’s racist against solid people and unlike the others reveling in the genocide just a tad.. yeah what he deserves. So now with a living weapon the Cuckoos make peace with Angel as they need all the help they can get. 

Jean ushers the press into the panic room, not happy about it but not having anothe roption for their saftey. Hank tells her to self distruct crebra if cassandra get sclose and goes off to join the fight and let off some steam over the situation. Hank easily routes two of them, and one , Manta tries to just fly right ot jtean wince their TK proof. How does that go?

Jean gets to saftey after that, not that she needs it and hank is quickly taken down by a batch of Superguardians.. only for Wolverine to arrive in the Sknitt of time and chop them up.. oh and as one of the puts it...

Bad. Ass. I also like the addition of the flight patch, a nod to the Legion, who the Imperial Guard were based on as those kids used flight rings. 

But while Logan and Hank easily tag team these assholes...

The SHiar call in the big guns.. Gladiator.. and I wasn’t kidding abotu the superman thing. While Logan TRIES to talk him out of it, the murders only confirm Cassandra’s bullshit and Gladiator breaks into the panic room throwing hank and wolverin’e before them having utterly decimated them off panel. I mean Wolvie is a badass.. but even he has limits. I also like recontecullizing the guard as a whole here.. showing just how TERRIFYING they SHOULD be as enimies to the x-men. Yes our heroes did win.. but barely and only till Gladiator showed up. In most cases thier clearly holding back out of affection but here hteir just at errifying unstoppable force, and also apparently used to doing genocides like this. It takes what was a cheesy shout out to David Cockrums other big artistic work, and makes it horrifying and it is AWESOME. I admit to not having liked this arc as much for the longest time but this reread, the sheer teror and hopleessness as an interstellar superman easily cuts through our mighty mutants like tissue... it’s awesome. 

Thankfully one of the Guard found smasher.. and thus the truth comes out so our heroes are given a stay of execution with Gladiator clearly horrified at what he almost did and our heroes now so sick they can barely move and Hank can’t think them out of this. 

Thankfully he dosen’t has to as back in space, Cyclops tires of it and points out something Xorn, not being as experinced nor having delt with the guard ahd thought of: G-Type, the glowly guy about to execute them, is made of solar energy.. and xorn can manipulate that thanks to his star brain. He does, they take out the rest.. and prepare to go save the day.

Losers: PIcking up shortly before where we left off we see Cassandra murder Lilandra’s advisor who figured out what she was just as our heroes escape.. and as Cassandra is having Lilnadra order all of the shiar ships to immolate themselves. 

WIth Lilandra not being any use, Cass tries to psychically force her to commit sucidie but jumping off a space ledge but Xorn saves her. Cass tries another turn at mentally breaking an x-man, pointing out all scott’s recent flaws, his increased repression his faling marriage and while it gets him to stop it dosen’t quite work as well as it did on hank, likely because at his heart Hank is simply a more emotive person. Though his REAL reason for stalling is he can’t kill charles.. which he muses just as the ship blows up real good. 

Meanwhile back at Campus the kids initaiate their plan, having Angel break in and take a dna sample. She also finds beak naked in a tank and decides eh why not and brings him with her. This ends up paying off as Beak suggests the obvious to get emma free.. just force the space guy they have over in the corner to do it. They do and it works

Back in the mansion our heroes prepare for Casssandra... but Jean and Logan object to saving her body, pointing out that getting hank to repair it is exactly what she wants, and that Jean feels she can save charles without uit, with Hank being understandably doubtful given their current condition.. but Jean’s real plan is to put charles in her head and it’s already too far in actoin to stop now: she’s been saving his memories as they flaked off and if she dosen’t do this now there will be no charles left. 

Hank evacuates the civlians to teh danger room, and has an encounter with trish who tries to apologize and get him back.. only for him to rightfully regjecter her..a and then goes a step further by capping it off with:

Yeah on it’s own it’s not TERRIBLE. Still very dated to claim your gay just to spite someone, but for the time it was acceptable and compared to some of Morrison’s other gaffes in the run it’s minor at best. But it leads into a rather annoying subplot we’ll naturally get to that’s a much bigger issue, so i’ll save talking about it in full for when it comes up again. 

Jean manages to shove Chuck into her head, but is naturally leaking a bit and barely holding it or him together and may of overestimated herself just a tad.. while on the lawn Cassandra easily takes out the guards. That said the scene of Jean taking Chuck into her head is REALLY damn awesome. Jean is the arc MVP by a mile and Hank is pretty dang good competition. 

All Hell: We open the final issue of the arc with Scott and Xorn escaping the spaceship using some teleport tubes taking Arakai and Lilandra with them. 

We open with Cassadra utterly humilating gladiator while the kid team prepares to fight her despite you know, the 8 billion to 1 odds against them. 

Jean, despite hte discknes and trying to keep an old man in her brain marches out , prepared to fight, for the kids sake. For the world’s sake. But Logan’s easily taken out and with Jean barely holding it together.. the kids prepare to fight.. likely being slaughtered even if they mean well.. onlyf or help to finally arrive with Scott and Xorn glowy porting in. We get a really sweet , short moment with scott and jean...

Scott not knowing the situation tries to have Xorn heal charles first but since Cassandra’s body is dead and unoccupied that’s a no go.. he’s still usefult hough, curing Jean of her nanosentital sickness and moving on to Scott and Hank while there’s still time. 

We find out more about cassandra: She’s a murrmadi, a bodyless parasite.. eseetinally the dark first test a person faces... she just stuck around because she was one for a telepath.. the world’s STRONGEST telepath. But really other than that part the rest just feels like stuff we alreayd heard LAST TIME, mildly repaackaged and seems enitrley like filler to pad the issue out. 

So while Jean takes cerebra, both to keep it away from Cassandra’s plans of mutant genocide and for whatever she has planned, Scott, Hank and Xorn prepare to hold the line.. and as Jean mentions.. emma’s still out in the wild. 

So we get our climactic showdown.. logan, hank and xorn veruss cassandra, with Cassandra trying to do eveyrthing she can, tear them down mentally, throw out the students with our heroes fighting back best they can. It’s good stuff.  

Eventaully Cassandra gets to Jean.. but she’s already inacted her plan, putting a piece of Xavier’s mind in EVERY mutant, and giving Cassandra one ohell ofa reason you suck speech. 

It’s an incapsulation of what i said earlier and what the runs about: alone we are weak but together.. we just might make it. More on that as we go. But thanks to Cass naturally going fo rcerberba.. she accidently restores charles and is left bodyless.

Emma finishes the fight with her own brilliant gambit, presending cassandra her body.. but it’s actually stuff , reprogrammed into a sentient brain for her to inhabit and leaving her trapped, with Charles hoping t teach the now mentally reset Cassandra.  So Cassandra is beat, the virus is stopped, and our heroes have one.. but naturally for this run.. there’s one last suprise in store. 

Charles can walk again.. and going forward will be a far more active member of the team. The team is complete, Cassandra is beaten, and the future.. is bright. 

Final Thoughts:

This arc is a mixed bag.. it has really good scenes with the first and last issues being the standouts, with the former being an utter classic with an intresting gimick and the latter being a rousing climax with tons of awesome moments, with some good mometns scattered throughout.

But that’s the arc’s issue.. it has good moments and ideas.. but they don’t quite work togehter. The idea of teh Shiar Imperial Guard nearly doing a genocide is good, but the Shiar are such flat characters.. it’s really hard to care. They just don’t have enough connection to the x-men to really have the betryal sting but aren’t callous enough for genocide protocols to maeks sense. It’s a good idea, I still support it being terrifying.. but not enough is done with it and it feels liek Grant is more concerned with throwing weirdos at the x-men than actually saying something. 

The biggest issue however is the art. While inconsitant art is an issue as they’d rotate artists.. but in previous arcs it was usually pretty evenly split but here it’s sloppy: Quitely does the first issue, van Sciver the second.. and the worst of the three Igor Kordey does most of the art. I gave him the beinfit of the doubt last time.. but this time not so much. His art is muddy and tries to be stylized but comes off confusing,ugly and not great. He’s probably a lovely guy but given he’s up against two legendary artists, his lack of style comapred to both shows badly.  And given the arc is alreayd a bit overly complicated, it makes things WORSE by giving us muddled art in a very complex storyline. The flip flopping art makes a fairly intricate story very hard to follow. It’s easily why this arc didn’t grab me in the past and even seeing some better moments, it’s not the series best. It’s not the worst either, Planet X easily takes that ground despite having far better art. It’s an incredibly muddled incredibly long feeling arc and really needed to be compressed by one or two issues but instead is just hard to get through. It’s owrth it for the rest of the runa nd the good moments within but all in all easily one of the weakest points in the series. 

Next Month on New X-Men:The X-Men soak in the new world order, and we meet fantomex, dust and the last surivivors of genosha. 

Next on this blog:Green Eggs and Ham is back!

If you enjoyed this review PLEASE join my patreon. The end of hte month is coming and I need eveyr cent I can get so join at patreon.com/popculturebuffet and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

#new x-men #x-men #grant morrison #wolverine #logan howlett #cyclops #scott summers #jean grey #emma frost #beast #henry mccoy #cassandra nova #charles xavier #gladiator #lilandra neramani #the shi'ar imperial guard #smasher #kubark #xorn #shen xorn

[julio-claudian-saberface]

Some Other Women, Part II

Previous post, now with extra crackfic discussion and corpse disposal. Same disclaimers apply. 

Domitia Lepida (the elder): Caligula’s cousin, Nero’s paternal aunt. There’s a story that when she was bedridden, she told Nero that she wanted to stay alive long enough to see the coming-of-age ritual of his first shave. According to this story, Nero said he’d shave posthaste - and then poisoned her and took her stuff. 

In Fateverse, of course, Nero wasn’t going to have anything to shave up there but her eyebrows, so I wonder how it would have translated. That, and the arts festival that historical Nero threw when he did have his first shave. I’m picturing something with an obviously fake beard, Hatshepsut-style. 

Domitia Lepida (the younger): Caligula’s cousin, Nero’s paternal aunt, mother of Empress Messalina. She raised Nero once his father (her brother) died and Agrippina was exiled. After Agrippina’s return they came into conflict, not least over her influence on Nero. Apparently Lepida was the honey to Agrippina’s vinegar. But when Agrippina, now Empress, brought trumped-up capital charges, she got the teenage Nero to testify against her. Lepida was subsequently executed. 

Claudia Octavia: Daughter of Claudius and Messalina, Britannicus’s sister, Caligula’s first cousin (though far younger than him). Nero’s first cousin once removed, stepsister, and unloved first wife. She was a couple of years younger than Nero and their marriage was arranged some years after their parents’, when she was thirteen and Nero was fifteen. 

A bit over a year later, her father died and Nero became emperor. A few months after that, she witnessed Britannicus die of poison at a dinner party while Nero dismissed his death throes as an epileptic fit. 

(Also present, by the by: the future emperor Titus, who was Britannicus’s BFF or at least liked to say that he was in the years afterward, and also said that he had a sip from Britannicus’s cup and was deathly ill for a while)

(Also: The ever-virtuous Seneca wrote a nasty little RPF about her dead father called the Apocolocyntosis. You can find online translations of a work that historians are reasonably convinced is the same one. It trashes Claudius as a deformed mass murderer and Caligula’s whipping boy, and shamelessly sucks up to Nero)

By all accounts Octavia was an ideal virtuous Roman wife despite all this, with a lot of practice at holding her tongue and hiding her feelings, but Nero didn’t care for her and busily carried on affairs with first Claudia Acte, then Poppaea Sabina (see below). She was popular with the people, probably because of the ideal virtuous Roman wife thing. Seven years after becoming emperor Nero finally divorced her to marry Poppaea, leading to protest in the streets. Nero kept escalating, exiling her further and further away, accusing her first of being barren and then of committing adultery - first of doing it with a random slave, then with his admiral Anicetus (who had previously killed Agrippina for him, and who he paid off for his assassination and perjury with a cushy retirement of an “exile” in Sardinia). He threw in an accusation that she’d aborted an illegitimate child, never mind that he’d previously said she was barren. Her slaves were tortured to provide more “evidence,” but most of them refused to break. Eventually, on the encouragement of Poppaea, who was nervous at her popular support, the executioners came for her. 

By now Octavia was imprisoned on Pandateria, one of the go-to exile spots for women of the imperial family. Augustus’s daughter Julia had died there, and Caligula’s mother/Nero’s grandmother Agrippina the Elder, and Nero’s aunt Livilla. She begged to be allowed to live as not Nero’s wife but merely his sister, to no avail. It’s said they tried to bleed her to death, but she was so frightened the blood wouldn’t flow heavily enough (I have no idea about the biological veracity of this), so they suffocated her instead and brought back her head to show Poppaea. She was about twenty-two years old. 

Headcanon time: Britannicus took after Messalina in looks, and Octavia took after Claudius, so Claudius was far more certain she was his. Hence he eventually agreed to a marriage between his daughter and his “stepson,” with the understanding that they’d be engaging in the good old Roman custom of adoption. The seemingly more sensible measure of a marriage between Britannicus and a female Nero was dismissed because of his doubts about Britannicus’s paternity. 

Historically it’s speculated that Nero poisoned Britannicus so that Agrippina, who he was already quarreling with, couldn’t hold him over his head as a threat. But in Fateverse Everything Is Agrippina’s Fault, so she probably poisoned Britannicus too, to make sure he didn’t challenge Nero as he got older. Maybe he really did have epilepsy, and Nero didn’t take it seriously until it was too late - and maybe Octavia didn’t believe that she hadn’t known. 

And the slander? The murder? It can’t be blamed on Agrippina, who was dead for three years by then and in any case wanted him to stay with Octavia for political reasons. Shall we switch gears to Everything is Poppaea’s Fault? FGO Nero in Septem is from 60 AD, the year after Agrippina died, and the divorce/remarriage was in 62. Were the effects of Agrippina’s poison really kicking in at this point, leading to Nero’s paranoia ramping up? 

Claudia Acte: Nero’s first love, a freedwoman formerly owned by the Claudian clan and afterward under their patronage, indicated by receiving the name Claudia upon her manumission (headcanon: Nero met her because she was one of Octavia’s attendants). From her name, she might have been a performer of some kind (alternate headcanon: Nero noticed her after she played the role of Andromache in Seneca’s Trojan Women). Nero fell for her so hard that he sought to fake a genealogy that made her a long-lost princess of Pergamum, presumably so she would be a suitable wife. The relationship was a source of conflict between Nero and Agrippina, who presumably thought putting aside an emperor’s daughter to marry a former slave was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard of. As such it was encouraged by people like Seneca and Burrus, to lessen Agrippina’s influence. Some of Seneca and Nero’s friends helped run interference. One of them pretended that Acte was his mistress; Nero would slip him presents to pass on to her. There’s a story that Agrippina, desperate to recover her influence, starting trying to get incestuous with her son. Seneca nipped that in the bud by getting Acte, who herself was alarmed by this development, to go tell Nero to please don’t get down and dirty with your mother, it’s gross and the soldiers won’t like it. 

You would think she’d be cast in the role of the Grasping Gold-Digging Whore, but that wasn’t the case. The likes of Tacitus regarded her as far better than Poppaea -  to them, she was a nice inoffensive girl who knew her place and followed the instructions of good influences. Eventually even Christians began to claim she had been one of them. Why would Nero take so much to this Nice Inoffensive Girl and take so much against Octavia? Romantic chemistry is weird and unpredictable, and that he was never accused of being anywhere near the killing of any of Acte’s family probably helped their relationship. Maybe Acte, the common girl, was supportive of Nero’s artistic endeavors when Octavia, the proper Roman lady, wasn’t. 

Being all virtuous and noble doesn’t mean you can’t amass oodles of money, as Seneca can attest (in an age before mass production, he had five hundred identical fancy tables). Nero eventually moved on to Poppaea, but Acte did very well from the affair, and retained her wealth after it ended. There are inscriptions indicating that she owned multiple properties and funded a temple to Ceres (I hear things floating around the Internet about one of those inscriptions being a prayer for Nero to love her again, but haven’t seen any actual source). She would use that wealth after Nero’s death to fund his funeral, presiding with two of his old nurses. 

Poppaea Sabina: Nero’s second love and second wife. She was named after her mother, a famous beauty who was driven to suicide by the accusations of Messalina, and took after her in looks. She had red hair, which Nero rhapsodized about and compared to amber - “amber” hair dye became fashionable afterward. 

She was married three times. First was to a guy named Rufrius Crispinus, resulting in a son who Nero was accused of having drowned on a fishing trip after her death for supposedly having imperial pretensions (i.e. playing at being the emperor; he was still a kid). Second was to Otho, one of Nero’s buddies who’d helped him with the Acte thing. Third, Nero fell for her and packed Otho off to Lusitania (modern-day Portugal or thereabouts). 

All the potential nasty things they didn’t say about Acte? They said them about Poppaea. Josephus is the one historian I know of to have anything nice to say about her; according to him, she was a “God-fearing” woman who sympathized with the Jewish people and influenced Nero to go easy on them. There are claims that she pushed Nero to kill his mother so that he would be free to ditch Octavia and marry her - but, as noted, there was a three-year gap, so if that was the case Nero took his sweet time about it. Then there’s going to extravagant lengths to maintain her beauty i.e. milk baths a la Cleopatra, marrying Otho just so she could get close enough to grab Nero’s attention, and gloating over Octavia’s decapitated head.

She and Nero had a daughter, Claudia Augusta, who died at a few months old (infant mortality’s a bitch). She was pregnant again two years later, at the time of her death. Nero is the prime suspect, being accused of kicking her in the stomach or else jumping on it, possibly after an argument about his time at the chariot races. Modern historians are more inclined to think it was a miscarriage or childbirth complications; if it was childbirth, the child died with her. 

At any rate, Nero took her death hard, threw her a grand funeral, and had her declared a goddess. One of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri has a poem of uncertain vintage in which the deified Poppaea is greeted by Aphrodite and reluctantly whisked off to the heavens to be with her children. Later, Nero “took up” with Sporus (a very unfortunate young man who has a whole other sad story) because of his uncanny resemblance to her, and sometimes dressed him in women’s clothes and called him by her name. 

Headcanon: Nero, the admirer of Paris, decided she’d rather have a Helen than an Andromache. 

Unless Simon Magus had penis-attachment magic, baby Claudia Augusta and the unborn child would have been adopted in that good old Roman tradition. Who was the sperm donor? Otho, perhaps?

Nero would marry a third time, to Statilia Messalina (having her husband bumped off to do it), who survived his fall, was briefly engaged to Otho during his own bid for emperor, and apparently disappeared into obscurity afterward. 

---

Anyway, hope some of you were entertained by my rambling. 

#fate series #fate/grand order #fgo #nero claudius #headcanon #amateur classics hour #tw child murder #tw abuse #tw incest

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THIS ONE IS REAL

Those are pretty expensive. If they were obviously good, someone would already be writing stuff on top of it. He made cars, which had been a luxury item, into a commodity. But maybe the older generation would laugh at me for opinions expressed here, remember that anything you see here that's not in the middle. I once wrote that startup founders should be at least 23, and that one should just go to grad school.1 Why do you think so? Could you turn theorems into a commodity, and they were still mostly in denial about problems. When we got real funding near the end of it, but regardless it's certainly constraining.

Soon after we arrived at Yahoo, we got an email from Filo, who had been crawling around our directory hierarchy, asking if it was really necessary to store so much of it. At each step, flow down. Our generation wants to get paid for doing work you love, you're practically there. I said a good rule of thumb for recognizing when you have competitors, because it's painful to observe the gap between them. But when I finally tried living there for a bit last year, and the Bible is quite explicit on the subject of homosexuality. Though unprecedented, I predict this situation is also temporary. They can't hire smart people anymore, but they don't get blamed for it. This one is real. But unfortunately you run into a chicken and egg problem here. And when you see something that's taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn't have before, you're probably looking at a winner. In a field like math or physics, where no audience matters except your peers, and judging ability is sufficiently straightforward that hiring and admissions committees can do it without setting off the kind of work you do, and since you have to jump through in school.2 So Dad, there's this company called Apple.

Err. And indeed, a lot of meetings; don't have chunks of code that multiple people own; don't have chunks of code that multiple people own; don't have chunks of code that multiple people own; don't have a cofounder, but that there be few of them. Afterward I wondered, what am I even measuring? And that's fine. If you're a hacker thinking about starting a startup in New York admire more.3 Even Einstein probably had moments when he wanted to have a meeting about it. Don't maltreat users is a subset of a more general technique: making things easier.

At least, it has to look professional. My only leisure activities were running, which I think even Spamhaus would admit is a rough guess at the top spammers. Wealth is defined democratically. While you're at it, you should get a job. After all, a Web 2. But an online square is more dangerous than a physical one. Startup ideas are ideas for companies, and sales depends mostly on effort. Surely one had to force oneself to work on, toward things you actually like. By seeming unable even to cut a grapefruit in half let alone go to the store and buy one, he forced other people to use.4 If anyone is dishonest, it's the one with fewer employees that's more impressive.

The intervening years have created a situation that is, someone whose best work was behind him—and hand over the project with copious free advice about how the book should show in positive terms the strength and diversity of the American people, etc, etc. If this were a movie, for example. If you want to stay happy, you have to assume there was someone born in Milan with as much natural ability as Leonardo couldn't beat the force of environment, do you suppose you can? Even if your only goal is to please them, the way to get information out of them. The Bay Area has a lot of time thinking about language design. One reason people who've been out in the world. Thanks to Sam Altman, was 19 at the time.

As I was leaving I offered it to him, as I've done countless times before in the same way the classic airline pilot manner is said to derive from Chuck Yeager. Once publishing—giving people copies—becomes the most natural way of distributing your content, it probably isn't, it tended to pervade the atmosphere of early universities. How many times have you heard hackers speak fondly of how in, say, transportation or communications. But the reason reporters ended up writing stories about this particular truth, rather than by compiler writers. For better or worse, the idea of starting a startup just doesn't require that much intelligence. But it's harder than it looks. Serving web pages is very, very large. Most of us hate to acknowledge this. When the values of the elite. If you're sure of the general area you want to do when they're 12, and just the sort of trifle that breaks deals when investors feel they have the upper hand—over an uncertainty about whether the founders had correctly filed their 83 b forms, if you asked random people on the street if they'd like to do is figure things out, why do you need to in order to store something for them. Most good mathematicians would work on math even if there were no jobs as math professors, whereas in the departments at the other students' without having more than glanced over the book to learn the names of users with the highest average comment scores in orange.

And software sells hardware. I wanted. Taking a shower is like a form of meditation. And the boneheads who designed this stove even had an example of loving their work might help their kids more than an expensive house. The Bay Area has a lot of startups—probaby most startups funded by Y Combinator. It's an old idea that new things come from the margin is simply that you don't have an idea. Java will turn out to be a tradition of startups taking VC money, and work on what you love is very difficult. Responsibility is an occupational disease of eminence. Odd as it might sound, we tell startups that they should try to make friends with as many smart people as you can. Or they could return to their roots and make going to the theater a treat. Well, no.

So what's interesting? The reason we have high level languages is because people can't deal with machine language. How hard would it be to jumpstart a silicon valley? So far the complete list of messages I've picked up from cities is: wealth, style, hipness, physical attractiveness, fame, political power, economic power, intelligence, social class, and quality of life. Audiences have to be derived from working in that field. I learned to program when computer power was scarce.5 This extra cost buys you flexibility. These are the only places I know that Richard and Jonathan Rees have done a lot quicker.

Notes

They would have a bogus political agenda or are feebly executed. Not only do convertible debt, so problems they face are probably not do that. Some who read this essay I'm talking mainly about software design.

Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and stir. And of course reflects a willful misunderstanding of what you launch with, you might be digital talent. The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China, many of the definition of important problems includes only those on the subject of language power in Succinctness is Power. But be careful here, I was writing this, but something feminists need to be when it converts you get stock as if you'd just thought of them could as accurately be called acting Japanese.

If this happens it will become increasingly easy to believe your whole future depends on the matter. In sufficiently disordered times, even if they do the opposite: when we created pets. If you're part of an audience of investors want to invest in successive rounds, it will thereby expose it to profitability on a map. But you can eliminate, do not try too hard at fixing bugs—which is the least important of the world wars to say that it will seem as if the fix is at pains to point out that this isn't strictly true, because spam and P nonspam are both genuinely formidable, and only incidentally to tell someone that I hadn't had much success in doing a bad idea has been rewritten to suit present fashions.

Together these were the impressive ones. I switch person. And while this is the way to create a silicon valley out of school. Obviously signalling risk.

Another thing I learned from this experiment: set aside an option to maintain their percentage. What you're looking for something they wanted, so you'd find you couldn't slow the latter without also slowing the former.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #subject #someone #advice #employees #work #startup #idea #fix #theater #eminence #friends #class #house #orange #stir #New #people #square #top #rule #spam #lot #software

[cerberus253]

Drago's beloved girlfriend would be able to introduce him to the holidays? If she likes them, but not Drago. And what gift do you think you could give him?

Drago probably already knows a bunch of the main holidays celebrated in the USA, as well as why they were created and still celebrated. With that being said, I don’t think Drago would celebrate any of them, well, aside from Halloween because ‘tis the season to be spooky scary. If anything, he’d be okay with Halloween. despise Christmas and the 4th of July. and not care about the rest.

Like I just said, Drago would like Halloween because of it’s scary aesthetic and its “praising“ amongst monsters and darkness. He’d hate Christmas because of all the mushy, heartfelt, family stuff. Kindness and compassion for no reason other than just because? Pathetic! Weak! For the 4th of July, and really any holiday like it, Drago doesn’t like it because it celebrates independence of humans. I guess you could also put Valentine’s Day under the “hated holidays“ list, but I think Drago would find that one more annoying than anger inducing.

Now, if Drago had a human s/o, they’d probably get him involved with some of them. Those like Valentines Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc are really about being with family and expressing their affection/thankfulness to one another. Yeah, it all has human origins, but it’s also about in general love. Dude’s a grinch because he never felt loved, and therefore probably resents emotional holidays. However, since he is now with someone who absolutely ADORES him, he may start seeing it in a better light, even if it’s for slight selfish reasons on the surface (”Yes! Rain your gifts upon me!”). In addition, I don’t think Drago would be too warm towards strangers and relatives during these holidays even if he understands their meanings now, but he would warm with the s/o for obvious (attachment) reasons. Oh to imagine cuddling Drago under a warm blanket, drinking hot cocoa, watching a silly movie together, and then plopping a little Santa hat on his grumpy face. Imagine his surprise when you give him so many kisses for being so cute with that hat on~ *ahem* Anyways, insert every holiday movie classic with a person hating the holidays at first, but then finally shown the love they never knew, and then they finally understand the true meaning of compassion and family, and boom, ya got Drago’s “appreciating the holidays“ arc.

The next set of holidays would be those that fall under Easter, Saint Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Halloween, etc. I’m not sure how most people view these holidays, but I look at them as “Fun Activities“ holidays. So, of course Drago would be from neutral to against for most of them for their origins or the “silly, pointless stuff“ one does, but again, once the s/o celebrates these holidays with/in front of him, he’d be a little more open with them. For example, Easter. Easter’s origins is about the resurrection of Christ, and for some reason you go on an egg hunt for goodies and prizes. Yeah, sounds dumb, BUT it could be some innocent fun if done right. The whole activity is to search for metaphorical/literal treats, whether it be chocolate, little toys, stuff you could actual use (stamps, bookmarks, jewelry, etc), etc. It’s all a treasure hunt, and really just about every creature that targets gaining happiness and satisfaction harbors curiosity. Drago would think it’s stupid, but just wait and see what his reaction(s) would be if you hid some stuff around the house, putting some riddled notes with a small piece of chocolate in every single one, and ultimately it leads to his Grande Surprise! He’ll want to resist it at first, but curiosity and greed will get the best of him, and if ya do it right, ya might get him like a cat looking for the scurrying mouse. Er, that last part might be romanticizing things, but still, so cuuute~

And just a quick note with the others, 4th of July is really about getting together, having a cook out and/or a camp out, and watching amazing fireworks to please that primordial brain part of ‘Ooo, shiny!’. Saint Patrick’s Day is purely about hanging out with friends, and Halloween is pretty obvious: Sweets and Scares all the way babyyyy.

Downside to all of this, Drago might catch on to it all being “required to socialize on these specific days,” when in reality nothing is stopping anyone with doing these same activities any other day of the year, well, aside from society telling you “no,“ and maybe needing a permit to do fireworks on any other day of the year, but my point still stands. You can hang out with people any day you want, give gifts whenever you want, and throw parties and gatherings whenever you want.

Holidays are specialized days to do these “extravagant“ activities all around the world and people will understand and be a part of it, but still, it feels all a little forced, ya know? It feels so much better to do something for someone on a whim than doing it because it’s a holiday, which makes it all feel required. Drago would definitely argue this at some point (and I totally agree with it with Christmas and kind of Halloween), but just actually have him Do the Things with you and be a part of something instead of being cut off all the time, he’ll warm up a little bit to it; just a little though. Maybe.

Reiterating, I personally believe people don’t like most holidays either because a lot of people who celebrate it are fucking annoying, or it’s because the former people never had a proper one, let alone had company and any good emotional attachments with anyone. So, what it comes down to is social animals need, well, to socializing, and the lack thereof drives one crazy, insane, and can and will cause mental problems. In a sense, holidays are important so social animals can get together for a yearly dose of needed chemicals to produce within them so they don’t break and become self destructive.

...

A-Anyways, that got a little deep. So, uh, what gifts would I give Drago... Well, he does come off as the type of person to not want anything unless they had some physical use to him, but there probably is some stuff he’d like just to have. So, I’d personally focus on getting him things he would use, like some cool-ass jackets and, if possible, some spellbooks so he can learn new magic stuffs. Ugh, I’m not good at giving gifts... The stuff that would make me feel like I gave him something worthwhile would be hand-made art pieces. I would LOVE to just... make things for him. A portrait of him, a sculpture of a fearsome Chinese dragon, a hand-made necklace, wood carved Chinese Zodiac animals, Bob Ross paintings of what his fantasy palace would look like, a hand knit blanket and/or sweater and gloves, etc. I never feel like “just buying something“ is ever good enough and I need to actually make something because that is the closest thing to the heart a gift can be. Going out and buying things, well, I guess imperial and Chinese looking things because of his heritage, aesthetic, and the suggested power Imperial China gives off.

But yeah, the best gifts would probably be things that he can actually use and its design or whatever is something that pleases him. So, uh, Chinese Dragon biker jacket, dawg. Maybe some finger less, fire resistant gloves or something.

#ask #anon #jackie chan adventures #drago #holidays #gifts

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book Four: War (Gladiolus x Reader) Chapter Eighteen

Aboard the train, Noctis and Ignis sit at a table in the dining car. The strategist, with his mangled gaze, turned his head towards the window. "Feels good to ride the rails."

"Sure does," Noctis agreed.

"Eager to drive once we're in Gralea?"

"If they'll let me."

"We're fortunate to have the Regalia at all. We owe the first secretary our thanks," Ignis said.

"She'd get more thanks if she gave us a discount," Noctis stated.

"Those transceivers are top-notch. I recall when the Hydraean raged. In the midst of the empire's retreat, one conspicuous craft remained behind: the chancellor's. The last thing I remember seeing was his ship, heading for the altar. I fell unconscious...and was powerless to stop him."

"I'm just glad you're alive." Noctis makes a startled sound and leans into the aisle slightly to look past Ignis to see who was approaching them.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by the advisor. "Is someone else there?"

"Gladio-he just came back," Noctis answered. "Where did he go anyway?"

"On a brief reconnaissance. Something caught my ear."

Gladio walks up to their table. "Hey captain, mission complete."

"Splendid," Ignis replied.

Noctis looked toward his advisor. "So what "caught your ear"?"

"Rumors of longer nights."

"They've been growing longer, day by day," Gladio explained.

"There was talk of it back in Lucis, but recent days have shown an unseasonably sharp change. Should this trend continue, before long..." Ignis' voice trailed off.

"There won't be daylight," Noctis grimly finishes his statement.

"Well, it's not out of the question. The empire's already slain half of the Six. No wonder the whole world's in disarray," the shield said.

"I...guess."

"And longer nights mean more daemons," the strategist added.

"Seen that with our own eyes," Gladio said.

"I happened to overhear a fellow passenger discussing this very same phenomenon."

"So he sent yours truly to seek 'em out."

"Nice police work," Noctis complimented.

"Well, don't wanna keep 'em waiting," Gladio stated.

"No, we don't. Back in a moment." Ignis scoots out of the booth and used his cane to help him stand. Gladio offers him a helping hand as they leave the dining car.

Noctis sits in silence for a moment, looking out the window. As the train begins to pass a snowy mountain range covered in mist, Prompto comes running by, then tries to stop and slips when he realizes he's passing his best friend. "Whoa! There you are, buddy! Did you see this? It's unreal!"

"Yeah. Never seen anything like it. Doesn't make any sense," Noctis responded, eyes glued to the passing scenery.

Suddenly, Noctis felt a strange sensation and he looks around the dining car, realizing that no one else is moving. Everything is blanketed in gray and everyone is frozen in place. Even Prompto was missing. He stands up, confused as to what was happening. "What's going on?"

That's when he heard Ardyn's voice behind him. "It's a real mystery." The raven-haired boy turns to find Ardyn standing in the dining car. "I'm not liking that snow cloud. Kind of gives me the chills. Like, who comes up with this stuff? I couldn't dream something like this if I tried. It's a wondrous world."

"The hell are you doing here?!" Noctis growled, glaring at the man. He lunges forward to punch Ardyn in the face, but he dodges.

"Whoa, what's going on?! Easy there, buddy. Didn't see that coming. You alright?" Ardyn asked.

He conjures a sword and swings it at Ardyn, who steps back just out of range. "Shut up!"

"Be careful there! Wait-is this for real?" Ardyn begins to run away.

Noctis pursues him into the cabin car just in time to see him run into one of the cabins and shut the door. He makes his way down the aisle towards the cabin and jerks the door open. "Show yourself!"

All of a sudden, Ardyn leans over from behind Noctis. "Uh...Noct?"

Without hesitating, Noctis swings around with his fist but hits nothing but air. Ardyn has vanished again. "That son of a bitch..." He cursed before running to the next car, where he sees Ardyn backing away.

"C'mon, Noct. You're scaring me! Seriously, man, cut it out!" Ardyn begs. He then enters the next car, where Noctis continues to doggedly pursue him. "It's not safe. Plus, you're causing a scene. Quit playing around, okay?"

Noctis catches up to him and conjures a sword once again, which he immediately takes swing with, attempting to bisect Ardyn horizontally. "You think this is funny?!"

The man ducks under the blade, then quickly scrambles to his feet and runs toward the next car. "Dude, are you seriously trying to kill me?!"

Noctis follows him into the space between the two cars. "Why wouldn't I?! I've got you now."

Ardyn is barely able to stand due to being out of breath. He held out one hand, trying to convince Noctis to stop.

"What're you after, following me around this whole time? It's all YOUR fault-" Noctis bellowed. He puts his elbow against Ardyn's neck and shoves him against the door to the next car.

"What are you talking about? Do you really mean that, Noct?" Ardyn asked, confusion dripping from each word.

"Of course I do! You can't talk your way out of this!" Noctis snarled.

"You won't even let me! Noct, please. Can't we talk for a sec?" The auburn-haired man pleaded.

Noctis' glare sharpened. "Never."

Suddenly, Noctis is thrown violently to the floor as the train's brakes bring it to a screeching halt. He loses consciousness and Ardyn scurries away.

A few minutes later, the prince comes to on the floor with Prompto awakening him. "Noct! Are you okay?"

"No." Noctis looked around frantically. "Where's Ardyn?"

"Wait-he's here? If he is, that would explain all this weird stuff happening. I bet he's behind the train stopping. Ignis and Gladio went up to inspect the engine room. I say the two of us go check out the rear."

Noctis didn't pick up on how strange the blonde was talking and agreed to accompany him. "Yeah." He runs back the way he had come while in pursuit of Ardyn. In the car before the cabin car, the train suddenly shakes and windows shatter all around. Noctis falls to the floor, but quickly gets back up.

"Did they bomb us?! Noct, we have to protect the people!" Prompto shouted.

Noctis runs onward into the cabin car where a magitek trooper jumps through the glass and pursues several people. The civilians run past the two boys.

"Head to the next car!" The blonde hollered at the civilians.

"Leave these guys to us!" Noctis added. He destroys the magitek trooper within seconds.

"So much for a safe ride. More of 'em might be on board. Let's check the rear!" Prompto shouted.

"We need to get the train moving again."

"I'm sure Ignis and Gladio will come up with something."

"Hope so. Let's go."

Noctis runs onward, moving through the dining car alongside Prompto. The marksman expressed his concern. "How bad do you think it is? Hope nobody got hurt."

The prince continues on through another cabin car, where the glass all shatters as yet another violent shake rocks the train. When he reaches the car past the passenger car after that, he's thrown back by an explosion that takes out the side of the car. He was taken aback at the damage. "It blew up!"

"Man, the MTs can self-destruct," Prompto said.

A multitude of magitek troopers are visible through the twisted wreckage. Many of them were firing upon the train while others were trying to reach it. "We can't let them inside," Noctis stated.

"Well then! We take the fight to them!" The marksman announced.

Imperial shock troopers attempt to blow up the train. Noctis and Prompto head outside through the hole created when the side of the train car was blown open to protect the train. Visible in the distance is a massive pyramid-shaped flying fortress. Many smaller imperial drop ships emerge from the fortress and fly toward the train.

Prompto gaped in shock. "That thing's huge! We've got company!"

"Sure do," Noctis blandly replied.

"Let the party begin!"

The two boys begin dismantling the magitek troopers, doing their best to protect the train. After taking down a few enemies, Noctis noticed how quickly they were replaced and scowled. "It's us against an army..."

"What're the odds we'll win?" Prompto wondered.

As the two continue fighting their way through the advancing horde, they were becoming overwhelmed. Noctis clicked his tongue in frustration. "There's just too many of 'em."

"Oh, the fun never ends!" Prompto playfully chants.

After the two destroy a great number of the magitek troopers, a number of imperial tanks in the area begin firing on the train. "Looks like they've rolled out the big guns!" The sharpshooter shouted.

"Prompto, stay back!" Noctis hollered at his best friend. He warps to one of the tanks, rips open a hatch leading to some explosive cylinders, conjures a sword, and shoves it through the cylinders. Then, he warps to the safety of a water tower as the tank explodes.

Meanwhile, the train has begun moving again and Prompto's voice rings out. "C'mon, we're leaving!" He boards the train just as Noctis warps to the top of it. "Look-they're hot on our tail! They're gonna blow us to bits!"

"Not if we blow 'em up first!" The prince shouted. Noctis takes out two more magitek troopers that had gotten on board.

"How's that now?" The marksman asked.

"Shoot 'em."

"Oh, now there's an idea."

Noctis warps to the inside of one of the ships, where he begins hacking the magitek troopers to bits. "Every single one of 'em's a bomber!" Moving to his next targets, he uses the turret to take down the four assault crafts. "That'll do it! Better head back down."

Down below on top of the train stands Ardyn and Prompto, the former pointing one of the latter's own guns at him. The blonde's hands were up in the air. Noctis warps down to the train near them. "Prompto!" He takes a swing at the gun Ardyn is holding, knocking it out of his hand. The prince then swung again at the man, causing him to fall off the train.

At this point, the illusion fades and Noctis becomes able to see that Prompto is the one who's falling. Horrified at the realization, he doesn't even look behind him to see Ardyn standing there holding up one of Prompto's guns.

"How long were you in the dark?" The real Ardyn asked.

Noctis turns to look at Ardyn, but the man slams the the butt of the pistol against the back of his neck. His body falls to the roof of the train and Ardyn vanishes.

<-------------<<<<<

By the time Noctis comes to, he's still laying on the roof of the train. He remembers his mistake and clenches his fists tightly. "Dammit." He pulls out his cell phone and calls Ignis.

"What's wrong?" The strategist asked.

"Ignis, you've gotta stop this thing! Prompto fell off the train. I pushed him-I mean, Ardyn made me. I don't know where he is, but we can't leave him!" Noctis desperately tried to explain the situation.

"Stay calm, Noct. I'm as concerned for Prompto as you are, but stopping the train would endanger everyone onboard. We'd be sitting ducks for the daemons."

"What do we do?!"

"First, we drop the passengers off at Tenebrae. We'll be arriving shortly."

Noctis gripped his phone tighter. "What about Prompto?!"

"Given the chancellor's involvement, it's probable he's no longer where we left him. In any case, he may try to contact us. Let us wait and hope for now." The train begins going through a mountain tunnel as Ignis continued. "Can you make your way here? Gladio is with me."

"Are the two of you okay at least?"

"Yes."

"Okay, on my way. I'll be there as soon as I take care of these stowaways!" Looking up, Noctis saw the walls and ceiling of the tunnel were crawling with daemons, many of which begin converging on his position. "And things just got worse."

Noctis cuts down daemon after daemon as he makes his way toward the front car of the train. "Where do they keep coming from?" He eventually reaches the front car and realizes it's no longer broad daylight. Night has begun to fall suddenly and swiftly beyond the end of the tunnel. However, the air also begins to fill with the crystals of light that accompany the appearance of a summoned god. "What?! No light at the end of the tunnel?!"

The prince takes notice of many large spider-like daemons hanging from the ceiling ahead of the train. "What in the world...?"

The daemons drop onto the train as it emerges into the rapidly disappearing daylight. The train becomes swarmed as it reaches Tenebrae. Fenestala Manor looms in the distance, but Noctis is about to face a potentially overwhelming horde.

Suddenly, Leviathan emerges from the valley below and begins unleashing its water coils at the daemons, knocking them loose and shattering even more windows. A water cyclone the Tidemother has manifested sucks in the daemons as they are knocked off the train. Having saved the train, the great serpent departs.

Noctis looks towards Fenestala Manor once all the daemons were annihilated. That was when he realized it was burning. He stared in horror for a while until he decided to return to the interior of the train as it rolled into Tenebrae Station. He rejoins Ignis and Gladio.

Once the train comes to a complete stop, the trio step off. Noctis sits on the train platform along with the many other beleaguered passengers. Gladio and Ignis stand beside him. From behind Noctis, he suddenly hears a familiar voice. "Well, look who's here."

Noctis turns around and calls out to the woman. "Aranea. Guess we've got you to thank for this mess?"

"More to it than meets the eye. You wanna know who to thank? Come with me."

Slowly, Noctis gets to his feet. "Can't wait to hear this."

The raven-haired boy and his two remaining companions walk along behind Aranea toward some imperial drop ships located a little ways away from the boarding platform. The ex-mercenary asked Ignis about his eyes once seeing the heavy scarring. However, the advisor hid the truth of how he received the scars but was honest of his lack of eyesight.

All of a sudden, Aranea stops and looks at them. "Uh, wasn't there one more of you guys?"

Noctis looked away with a guilty expression. "Yeah...there was."

"We...lost track of him," Gladio said.

"Is he dead?" She asked.

"I...I don't know," Noctis mumbled.

"Then quit moping, keep hoping." She resumes walking. "And in the meantime, handle what's at hand."

"So if it's not you we thank..." Gladio's voice trailed off.

"Thank the daemons, pawns of the imperial army."

"The army that you fight for."

"Fought for," she corrected him. "My men and I are in the search-and-rescue business now."

"You mentioned being part of the relief effort. We have a favor to ask," Ignis chimed in.

"Ask away."

"In light of what you've told us, we can't allow the other passengers to continue on."

"Sure, leave 'em to me...but, who's gonna drive the train?" Aranea inquired.

"Now that you mention it, yeah. You know anyone?" Gladio answered with his own question.

"I do. In fact, I know two." She walks the trio up to two other familiar faces. "Your new engineers. Biggs and Wedge. No need to worry-they can take a lickin'."

Biggs was the first to speak. "Only if we have to. What's all this about?"

"Driving a train. To Gralea."

"That all?"

"Well, who would you have me ask?" She questioned.

"You got us there," Biggs replied.

"We'll do it," Wedge chimed in.

"Hey, really appreciate you going out of your way," Gladio said.

"Yeah. No sweat," Aranea responded.

While Noctis went to chat with Biggs and Wedge, the shield spoke to Aranea alone. "You might not be a part of imperial army any longer, but did you hear something about any new prisoners?"

"You lookin' for someone?" She asked in return.

"Yeah."

"Before we left, we did hear about this one woman who was captured in Altissia. We weren't able to hear the details, though. Apparently, that wacko chancellor was trying to keep it under wraps." The woman eyed him curiously. "She a friend of yours?"

"Something like that," Gladio vaguely replied.

Aranea easily picked up on just how important she was to him by his response. "Oh, so she's your little girlfriend. No wonder why you seem out of sorts. I wouldn't worry just yet."

"Why's that?"

"From the way the chancellor was talking, he still needs her alive. Guess you three better kick your asses into high gear and get to Gralea as quick as possible."

Gladio was slightly relieved to hear (Y/n) was alive, but he was still worried since she remained in the clutches of the empire. "Thanks for the info."

"No problem."

The shield rejoined Noctis once he finished talking to Maria, a woman who worked in the Tenebrae Manor. Ignis carefully made his way over and the three headed back to the loading platform.

When they arrived back at the train, a young girl runs up to Noctis and began asking him a few questions. She expressed her love for the late Lady Lunafreya and how she was saddened by her passing.

Once Noctis was finished talking to the little girl, he walked up to Biggs. The man asked, "Shall we shove off, then?"

He nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

Wedge, who was standing by Biggs, gestured to the train. "Climb aboard."

Before the trio boarded the train, Aranea makes her way over. "Don't worry about the civilians. They're in my good hands. Can't say the same for you. Watch yourselves in the capital." She then gave her full attention to Gladio. "Hope you find your special lady, tough guy."

"I'll get her back," Gladio declared.

The ex-mercenary smirked. "That's the spirit."

"Thanks, Aranea. We'll see you around," Noctis said.

Gladio and Ignis turn and board the train. Noctis turns and begins to follow them, but then stops when he saw something falling from the sky. Looking up, he saw snow. "It's...snowing," he mumbled.

"Get your ass on board," Gladio snapped.

Tearing his eyes away from the falling snow, he boards the train. "Yes, sir."

#ffxv #ffxv x reader #final fantasy xv #final fantasy xv x reader #gladiolus amicitia #gladiolus x reader #gladio x reader

[sqewed0722]

Mengfei Comes Across (I love and hate you!)
Sometimes you come across a drama that you end up enjoying so much yet get so frustrated and disappointed about because you know it could have been so much more. That’s how I felt after watching the C-drama “Mengfei Comes Across” (also known as “Oh My Cute Consort”). This premiered in 2018 and starred Jiro Wang as Emperor Wen Lou, and Jin Chen/Gina Jin as Lady Bu Meng, his consort. 


I stumbled upon it while watching some clips on YouTube about something else and it was recommended to me. It looked very beautiful so I decided to watch the clip. I became curious because the premise reminded me so much of a favorite anime called “Saiunkoku Monogatari” so I searched for the complete series with English subs. Fortunately enough, they were readily available on YT. 


The series revolves around Bu Meng, the daughter of the Royal Court Historian, who ends up becoming one of the Emperor Wen Lou’s consorts because of a slight that her father had done towards the Emperor. In return for the offense, His Majesty decides to pick on her, though harboring no personal interest in her at all. Meng doesn’t want the attention because she’s read in her books that imperial consorts who gain the attention of the Emperor often become the target of intrigue and malice and can even lose their lives. Meng intends to live a long, happy life so she strives to avoid him at all costs. 

Unfortunately for her, not only does she end up directly under his radar because of her father, but her personality and antics turn the Emperor’s initial disinterest into curiosity.
She ends up somehow getting involved with him in so many ways, despite herself, and he ends up liking her more and more along the way. However, Meng’s desire is to leave the palace and gain her freedom again, so when the Emperor becomes the target of mysterious assassins, Meng volunteers to help find the culprits in exchange for her freedom. Together with Minister Zhen Shishuang, an investigative prodigy who also happens to be her childhood friend and first love, Meng succeeds in uncovering a serious plot against the Emperor, masterminded by his first consort, Imperial Consort Ru, adopted daughter of the Prime Minister. 


But the Emperor is hard-pressed to honor his word to let her go, especially when he learns that Minister Zhen and Meng were once in love and almost married each other. Yet he decides to set her free, much to his mother, the Empress Dowager’s disappointment and anger. Meng, on the other hand, realizes that she can’t leave him anymore because somewhere along the way, despite her reluctance, she had fallen in love with him. 


That’s basically the summary of the series. 


I’m actually quite torn about this drama. On the one hand, I found myself liking it very much. The aesthetics were good: costumes were beautiful and the actors were just so pleasing to the eyes. The comedic timing of the main actors were on point, although the minor ones seemed just a bit too overdone for my taste. And the chemistry of the leads was just lovely and they had this level of sexual tension between them that made me jump on their ship. 


This is the first time I’ve watched Jin Chen/Gina Jin and Jiro Wang. I don’t know them and I’ve never seen anything of theirs. But to me, they were perfect as Meng Fei and His Majesty. Every time I saw them on screen together, I felt warm and fuzzy and I smiled so much. I just wanted the scene to go on and on because they were just beautiful and the sparks were there. Jiro Wang had this seemingly hooded gaze that smoldered every time he looked at her. It’s like a mix of deep affection and intense desire toward her. Gina Jin, on the other hand, had just enough level of denseness and disinterestedness towards him. And her face, especially her eyes, are just so expressive. She had this wonderful interplay of mischievousness and intelligence that often manifested through a bright smile which made her whole face glow, making me understand just why Jiro Wang’s His Majesty is so taken with her.


But apart from that, the drama left me very frustrated because the story and plot development left a lot to be desired, as far as I’m concerned. The series was 36 episodes long (according to some early reports, it should have been 45) yet the main plot seemed to have exhausted itself by episode 21, which is when the Emperor and Meng Fei admitted their love for each other. Even in terms of story arcs, the meatier part of the drama was in the first half until this point, what with the assassins and the intrigues from the consorts and the objections from the Empress Dowager all coming into play, together with the comedic antics of the characters. After that, it was mostly stand-alone arcs involving minor characters (although there was also a handful of this in the first few episodes, which almost made me stop watching), with the Emperor and Meng merely becoming instruments to push the story along. In fact, they hardly had any substantial or meaningful screentime at all. 


To my mind, it was too much time wasted on arcs that never had any real purpose in driving the main story, which could have been devoted to expounding on more interesting sub-plots, such as the story of Lady Xiao, one of Meng’s fellow consorts and closest friends. She’s a former general who grew up with the Emperor and fell in love with her fellow general, Shi Shang. This could have been very interesting and compelling because after they were separated when the war ended, and after her father’s death, the Emperor made Lady Xiao enter the palace to give her sanctuary. She encounters Shi Shang afterwards inside the palace, as an assassin hired by a rival state to kill the Emperor. It turns out that he had been captured by them after the war and made to drink poison. In exchange for the antidote, he had to assassinate the Emperor. This could have tied beautifully with the first arc on the assassins that were sent by the Dongli State and led by Imperial Consort Ru, who turned out to be their princess. 

Another interesting sub-plot that should have been tackled and tied into the assassin story arc was the one of Chen Yuanxi, Meng’s childhood friend, who also became a soldier.  She and Meng’s brother, Bu Yue, have always been at odds since childhood, yet in the end it turns out that they are in love with each other.  If it weren’t for the fact that Yuanxi was thought to have been killed in battle and a corpse that was mistaken for her brought home for burial, much to Yue’s grief, they would not have admitted to their feelings for each other.  Bu Yue, incidentally, is also a well-known and much-admired general.  


The latter part was really such a waste. I could only imagine how much more interesting this would have been, especially if the friendship between the Emperor and Meng was allowed to flourish some more before they decided to become lovers. Their scenes together before Meng realized she loved him were just wonderful. And those moments when he would hint at his deeper feelings for her and she gets flustered are just the stuff that wonderful, fluffy romances are made of. 


And how nice it would have been if Minister Zhen was tapped by the Emperor to head the investigations on the assassination attempts and he became a trusted advisor. Just imagine the Emperor’s own dilemma, if they had become friends as well, even as he is riled up with jealousy because Meng likes Zhen very much. 
And I really think there should have been scenes of the Emperor and Lady Xiao talking intimately as friends, especially regarding his feelings for Meng. After all, they grew up together. I think it’s possible that her father may have trained him too. And I think it was also hinted at that they fought together before he became emperor? I’m not sure about this but it’s not far-fetched. 


If I were to rewrite this drama, I would make the development of the romance between the Emperor and Meng revolve around the assassination plot and the political intrigue of the rival states. I would also make Minister Zhen’s character stay throughout the drama, not only because he would have been very useful in attempting to uncover the plots against the Emperor, but his presence would have presented a nice tension between the Emperor and Meng. It would have made Meng’s decision to stay as consort, despite her loss of freedom, more compelling. And I would give more meat to the story of Meng’s three consort friends, Consort Xiao, Consort Yan and Concubine Qu. I’d take out all the other minor arcs, like that of the imperial cook and imperial physician. 


I would have made Meng stand firm on her decision to leave the palace anyway to pursue her own dreams, despite the fact that she’s slowly falling for the Emperor (just to prove that she is truly independent and empowered) but would have made her return in the second half of the story at the request of the Empress Dowager (who didn’t like her very much for her son). Perhaps something serious would have happened to the Emperor as a result of the attempts on his life, and Her Majesty would ask Meng to come back and care for him. And there would have been a man-to-man talk between Minister Zhen and the Emperor about their love for Meng. And maybe Zhen would talk to Meng and help her come to terms with her own feelings for the Emperor.  I wouldn’t have made it so easy for her to just accept that she had fallen for him and give up on her own dreams.  No matter how ditzy she may sometimes seem, Meng’s character is intelligent and independent.  It would have made for a more interesting romance, not to mention given the drama more time to give Meng and the Emperor - with Zhen thrown into the mix - more screentime cuteness together.  


Oh well. I would have to content myself with re-watching this up until episode 21 and just imagine all the ways this drama could have been so much better than just a slapstick comedy.

#cdrama #mengfei comes across #oh my cute consort #jiro wang #gina jin #jin chen #bu meng #emperor wen lou