#benno who

[christianfriedelfan]

Behind the scene pictures of Christian Friedel from his Instagram as Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin Season 4!

#my envy goes out to those who can already watch it #christian friedel #babylon berlin #period drama #reinhold gräf #germany #german actor #woods of birnam #german singer #volker bruch #season 4 #liv lisa fries #lars eidinger #benno fürmann #photoshoot #behind the scenes #aestethic #1920s #1930s #history #republic of weimar #world war 2 #max raabe

[transdimensional-void]

Japanese Language and World-building in Ascendance of a Bookworm

I decided to make this post because a conversation with @mesaprotector made me realize that readers experiencing Ascendance of a Bookworm in English (through Quof’s admittedly excellent translations) might not be aware of Kazuki-sensei’s extensive use of Japanese linguistic features in shaping the world and its characters.

Disclaimer: I don’t have any particular credentials that make me an expert in this area. All I can boast is good enough Japanese language skills to notice these features! But, if you’re interested in my explanation, read on...

About Japanese

Japanese is a language that allows people to easily express their relationship to others through their choice of words. This is likely rooted in Japan’s feudal past, when social roles were much more strictly defined and enforced. Some features that allow this are:

Masculine vs. Feminine Speech: Men and women can (and often still do) use completely different vocabulary as a form of gender expression.

Use of Different Titles: Most manga and anime fans are familiar with titles like -san and -sama used to refer to others politely. Not using a title for someone is also a way to express your perceived relationship to them.

Polite vs. Informal Speech: You use polite speech when speaking to people you perceive as being of a higher social ranking than you, or people you are not close enough to use informal speech with. There are varying levels of politeness. For example, “aru” is casual, “arimasu” is polite, and “gozaimasu” is ultra-super-polite.

Pronouns in Ascendance of a Bookworm

I (first person singular pronoun)

Commoner women, like Tuuli and Effa, use わたし(watashi, written in hiragana) to say I. Commoner men, like Gunther, use オレ(ore, written in katakana) to say I.

Noble women, like Florencia and Elvira, use わたくし(watakushi, written in hiragana) to say I. Noble men, like Damuel and Sylvester, use 私 (watashi, written in kanji) to say I.

There are some commoner women who exclusively use “watakushi,” like noble women do. Frieda does, and so do all of the gray shrine maidens in the temple. Similarly, the gray priests in the temple use “watashi” instead of “ore.”

Well-trained commoner men who are interacting with nobles (e.g. - Benno when he gets fancified) will switch to “watashi” as well.

Even after becoming a noble and referring to herself as “watakushi” when speaking, Myne still calls herself “watashi” in her inner monologue. This is not the case for other women who have been trained to use “watakushi” since birth, so it’s a sign that Myne's inner self is unchanged despite the new, noble veneer.

You (second person singular pronoun)

Commoner women almost never use any version of the pronoun “you.” Instead, they will call a person by their name, either with or without a title depending on their relationship to that person, or by a title only. Commoner men use おまえ(omae, written in hiragana) to say “you.”

Noble women also will usually refer to others by their name, though when they do use a pronoun, they use 貴方/貴女 (anata, either in masculine or feminine form depending on the gender of the person they are addressing, written in kanji). Noble men use 其方 (sonata, written in kanji) when speaking to people of equal or lower rank and 貴方/貴女 when speaking to those of a higher rank.

And then we have 君 (kimi, written in kanji), which I have only seen Ferdinand use, though I believe other men in the temple use it when referring to someone of a lower rank than they are (e.g., the former High Bishop Bezewanst uses it to refer to Myne in the anime, so I’m guessing he used it in the LN as well, though I have not read part 1 in Japanese). Ferdinand normally uses “anata” and “sonata” like any noble man--except when speaking to Rozemyne, who he calls “kimi.” It’s a regular reminder that their relationship began in the temple, not in noble society, and that he feels differently toward her than he does toward any other noble.

Titles in Ascendance of a Bookworm

No Title

This is used among commoners to indicate someone with whom the speaker has a close relationship. For example, Lutz just calls Myne “Myne” with no title attached. Among nobles, it is used when referring to someone of lower rank. For example, Sylvester calls Ferdinand just “Ferdinand” because he is his younger brother and a lower-ranking noble than Sylvester. Noble men will also use it to refer to those of equal rank, and retainers serving the same lord or lady use it regardless of rank to facilitate quick communication. 

-san (-さん）

This title only gets used within commoner society. It indicates distance in relationship between the two people interacting as well as a desire to speak politely. For example, Myne calls Benno “Benno-san” until she becomes a noble. Afterward, she drops the title to indicate that he is of a lower rank than she is, except when they are in the hidden room together and she reverts to her commoner speech patterns.

-sama (-様）

This title is used by commoners when speaking to nobles. It is also used by nobles. Noble men use it when referring to someone of a higher rank than they are. Noble women use it when referring to someone of higher or equal rank to themselves, including their husbands. For example, Cornelius calls Rozemyne “Rozemyne-sama” when he is on the job as her retainer, but when they are speaking as siblings, he just calls her “Rozemyne” because she is his younger sister and therefore lower in the family hierarchy. Rozemyne and Hannelore always refer to one another as “Rozemyne-sama” and “Hannelore-sama” despite their close friendship and equal rank. Eglantine refers to Anastasius as “Anastasius-sama” both before and after they are married.

Family Titles

These are used among both commoners and nobles, though they use different ones. Myne refers to Gunther as 父さん (tou-san, written in a combo of kanji and hiragana) and Effa as 母さん (kaa-san, written in a combo of kanji and hiragana). Lutz refers to them as Gunther-ojisan (Uncle Gunther) and Effa-obasan (Aunt Effa). Myne and Tuuli refer to one another with their names only, no family titles required, indicating that commoners are more relaxed about the hierarchy among siblings.

In noble society, different titles are used by men and women. Noble men use the following: 

Father = 父上 (chichi-ue, written in kanji) and Mother = 母上 (haha-ue, written in kanji)

Older Brother = 兄上 (ani-ue, written in kanji) and Older Sister = 姉上 (ane-ue, written in kanji)

Uncle = 叔父上 (oji-ue) and Aunt = 叔母上 (obaue) 

Grandfather = お祖父上 (ojii-ue, written in a combo of hiragana and kanji) and Grandmother = お祖母上 (obaa-ue, written in a combo of hiragana and katakana)

Noble women use:

Father = お父様 (otou-sama, combo of hiragana and kanji) and Mother = お母様 (okaa-sama, hiragana and kanji) 

Older Brother = お兄様 (onii-sama, hiragana and kanji) and Older Sister = お姉様 (onee-sama, hiragana and kanji)

Uncle = 叔父様 (oji-sama, kanji) and Aunt = 叔母様 (oba-sama, kanji) 

Grandfather = お祖父様 (ojii-sama, hiragana and kanji) and Grandmother = お祖母様 (obaa-sama, hiragana and kanji).

Myne also uses yet another set of family titles to refer to her adoptive family! Sylvester is 養父様 (tou-sama, literally “adoptive father-sama,” written in kanji) and Florencia is 養母様 (kaa-sama, literally “adoptive mother-sama,” written in kanji). She also often calls her older brothers by their names with nii-sama attached, such as Wilfried-nii-sama, as opposed to just by onii-sama. This is probably to distinguish among her multiple older brothers.

Other Titles

A variety of other titles get used in place of calling people by their name or pronouns, both in commoner and noble society. For example, Mark exclusively refers to Benno as 旦那様 (danna-sama, kanji), a title that Lutz begins calling Benno as well once he begins working for him. 

Myne refers to Ferdinand as 神官長 (shinkancho, “High Priest,” kanji) almost exclusively until she becomes a noble. Then she refers to him as Ferdinand-sama when they are outside the temple but still shinkancho when they are in the temple, up until he stops being the High Priest (;_;). She also usually drops the -sama when referring to him in her inner monologue, further indication that while she can walk the noble walk, she doesn’t really believe in the hierarchy.

Professors of the royal academy get called -sensei. Giebes, Aubs, and the Zent also get called by their titles sometimes in place of their names, sometimes in addition to their names. 

Formal vs. Informal Registers in AoAB

I’m not going to list every single word that is different between different registers here because that would be way too long. However, I’ll give some examples. 

Commoners generally speak in an informal register all the time, unless they have been trained to speak politely to people of higher-rank. They use contractions such as -って (-tte, written in hiragana) to mean “said,” and they also often drop the ends of sentences entirely. When they do use verbs, they use the simple dictionary form, e.g. - aru instead of arimasu. Male commoners will often use interjections such as “na” or “ze” or “zo,” which makes their speech sound manlier and rougher. They also tend to use “da” instead of “desu.”

Any commoner who has been trained to use polite language will tend to use the politest forms when speaking to nobles, e.g. - gozaimasu instead of arimasu.

Nobles in general will use politer forms of verbs except in very private, relaxed situations. For example, 参ります (mairimasu, kanji and hiragana) instead of 来る (kuru) or おっしゃる (ossharu, hiragana) instead of 言う (iu, kanji and hiragana).

Noble women have extremely restricted speech patterns. They always speak in the polite or politest registers. For example, a noble woman speaking to a social equal or inferior might use “arimasu,” but when speaking to a social superior, she will use “gozaimasu” or “irasshaimasu.” They also say えぇ(ee, hiragana) to say “yes” instead of the more familiar “hai.” Noble men will use あぁ (aa, hiragana) to say “yes.”

Noble men have a little more freedom in their forms of speech. Many will use informal masculine speech when speaking to social equals or inferiors while still using slightly different vocabulary choice. For example, Ferdinand often says 解せぬ (gesenu, kanji and hiragana) instead of 知らない (shiranai) to say “I don’t know.” They will switch to the polite (but not necessarily politest) forms when speaking to someone slightly above them in rank and reserve the politest forms for those very high above them. However, some men will choose to use polite language all the time, even when speaking to social inferiors.

This is especially notable in the speech patterns of Anastasius vs. Sigiswald. Anastasius chooses to use more stripped-down, rougher language when speaking to social inferiors, whereas Sigiswald still uses “anata” and -masu endings when speaking to social inferiors such as Adolphine and Rozemyne. It demonstrates a stark difference between the two princes’ personalities and how they wish to present themselves to the world.

Another notable use of informal vs. formal is when Myne is in a hidden room with someone who knows of her commoner past. She’ll revert to how she spoke as a commoner. My favorite instance of this is in Part 4 volume 8 when she and Ferdinand are in his hidden room just after she learned he is leaving. As she grows more and more emotional with her threats, she loses the ability to speak in noble speech patterns and starts speaking to him the same way she would Lutz or Tuuli (</3).

In Conclusion

I know this has been a very long post, but hopefully those who are as in love with Bookworm as I am will find it interesting and useful. Kazuki-sensei does a masterful job of exploiting the Japanese language’s unique features to make this world and its characters come alive, and it’s unfortunate that English lacks easy equivalents to allow us to appreciate these effects in translation. When reading the text in Japanese, as long as you know which characters are present and what situation they are in, you can almost always guess who is speaking just from their speech patterns. 

In the English version, Quof will often insert a character’s name to let us know, and also will sometimes add clues such as “spoke in a very stiff manner” to replace the linguistic features lost in translation. I encourage those reading in English to keep their eyes peeled for these little insertions.

My hope is that the above can serve as a window into this aspect of world-building for some English-speaking readers!

#ascendance of a bookworm #bookworm #japanese language #long post

[downtherabbitholethatisanime]

It's 4am and too hot to sleep so you know what that means?? Time to do MATH :D

In ascendance of a bookworm they mention the price of a lot of things and the mention of 'silver coins' or 'gold coins' makes it sound like a lot right there and from the reactions of everyone else around myne it's clear she's spending alot. But I have absolutely no clue how shocked I'm supposed to be cause myne herself doesn't seem to have any problem with throwing money at things she wants. Leise, Fridas chef, actually comments on it in the side chapters of the LNs saying that a poor girl suddenly coming into a lot of money all at once has clearly skewed her sense of money.

So I'm gonna do a very simple conversion just to make the math easier

10 lions=10 cents

Small copper=10 lions=$0.10

Middle copper=100 lions=$1.00

Large copper=1,000 lions=$10.00

Small silver=10,000 lions=$100.00

Large silver=100,000 lions=$1,000.00

Small gold=1,000,000 lions=$10,000.00

Large gold=10,000,000 lions=$100,000.00

So $0.30 for some fruit at a market. Giving a 6 year old a couple dollars as thank for walking your daughter home.

After that it falls apart a bit. Tulli and mynes mom are really excited to be making $2 a hairclip to the point of pulling all nighters. Then again in the light novel myne also shows a lot of surprise that they're so excited over making so little. She has to rationalize with herself that in Japan small crafts like bracelets were sold for 100 yen and she later finds out that the baskets they made the year before likely paid only a couple small copper on top of the families having to provide their own materials.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this cause I'm too lazy to try to find the chapter but Ralph working part time as an apprentice brings home about 8 large copper a month. Or 80$. He's a child only working 3 out of 7 days a week so let's say people who just sign on to be full time (can't remember the term) make double as newly signed apprentices to keep math easy. That's 320$ a month

They're poor and they're not affected by late stage capitalism so this math is still fine especially since it's normal to have several working people

Lutz states later that he feels weird saving money when the most any poor commoner saves is stashing loose copper around the house for winter prep. So 5-10$ stashed here and there as emergency money.

Benno offers myne 2 small gold for the rinsham recipe as a way to help myne save for her devouring. She raises it to 3 and benno, a rich store owner, is incapable of going higher. With this conversion he offered 20,000$ and agreed to 30,000$. Given the circumstances the conversion still holds pretty well

Apprentice outfits for Lutz and myne are either 8 or 11 small silver I can't remember. So between 800 and 1,100$ for hand stitched work clothes for a high end store. Which means it has to be made with higher quality materials and made to order.

So when myne offers a large gold to enter the temple she's offering $100,000. It's no wonder everyone was shocked

Slight spoilers

I'm pretty sure the reward for helping Angelica pass her classes was a small gold for Damuel and Bridgette and a recipe for Cornelius. Thats 10,000$, enough to make a poor lay noble like Damuel weep tears of joy cause he can finally pay off a debt.

She tells the other dutchys she spent 18 LARGE gold on making a book of another dutchys history. She spent $1,800,000 on materials for a hobby (of course it was less for her since she made the stuff in her own workshop but no one else knows that and shes not about to explain it)

This girl is absolutely insane with money no wonder everyone is speechless

Someone add more examples cause thinking it out like this is actually so funny

#ascendance of a bookworm #Honzuki no Gekokujō #honzuki no gekokujou #myne #rozemyne #after so many hours trying to sleep this has been the only thing to actually make me pretty tired #brain can finally turn off #none of these sentences will make sense to me tomorrow watch

[ojamajoprincess]

Idk what it is, I always lose steam at the side stories. I love reading about Roze/myne’s antics and then it’s like “here’s the sovereign knights commander. Want to hear his POV?” Or a retainer or the opposite political faction or a random student from J—.

I enjoy the side stories most from more main characters who give us insight on Roze/Myne’s chaos’s wake— Hannelore, Lestilaut, Ferdinand, Fran, Harmut, Clarissa, Benno, Johann, literally any of her family members (esp Effa, Gunter, Tuuli, Kamil, Kardstet, Cornelius, Eckart, even Sylvester, Melchior). I even enjoyed the archlibrarians last volume, which I was not expecting. Ironically I enjoy Anastatius’, but Hildebrand is such a slog to get through.

Overall, major hit and miss.

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou #p5v2

[aubdrewanchel]

Benno when calling in a doctor.

Doc: your blood pressure is a little higher than it should be.

Benno: I hired a kid who constantly collapses, but she still managed make a new guild, think up dozen of new inventions and on top of it get connections with nobles.

Doc:...

Doc: Your blood pressure is a bit low.

#I miss him so much in P4 #Benno #Rozemyne #Book gremlin's rampages too years of his life #honzuki no gekokujō #ascendance of bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou #anime memes #ascendance of a bookworm meme #ascendance of a bookworm light novel #ascendance of a bookworm manga #rozemyne #ascendance of a bookworm #anime

[reachforthestars-101]

How my sister kinda described it

If you want a webtoon that is like Ascendance of a Bookworm just from Benno pov Try this!

It's about a man who was reincarnated into an old time world but with an engineering degree and magic who want to make money!

With a man who makes the wildest faces to his blue haired boyfriend knight and trying to avoid the doom ending of the story he entered into it a wild ride

I highly rec!

#ascendance of a bookworm #webtoon #webcomics #ascendance of a bookworm benno #benno #aob #aoab #my post #anime #webcomic #the greatest estate developer #tged #comics

[stardustizuku]

Sylvester, Anastasius, Benno who only see Myne as this careless but well meaning child: Oh yeah she is wouldn’t hurt a fly

Ferdinand and Sisgwald who met her as a destructive menace who won’t hesitate to destroy others: She very much has. The fly need therapy now

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou

[tired-reader-writer]

I finally got some concrete details nailed down for my Ascendance of a Bookworm OC and the AU she's in, the AU features queerplatonic aroace-ish Ferdinand/OC with Myne as their adoptive daughter born in Werkestock, and Benno as a broke-ass Werkestock merchant due to the economy being wrecked by the civil war.

I'll put it under the cut:

Horaia was born in the Adalgisa Palace as one half of a twin set— the other half being a boy that looked just like her. Due to their mother having given birth to twins, their mana level was lower than was expected of the offspring of the flowers there, and so to compensate for the lower quality feystone her brother would produce, and because she too didn't have quite enough mana to be considered up to snuff to be either a collateral royal or a flower, it was decided that she would be raised as a seed and her feystone be shipped together with her brother's.

She recovered memories of her past life during this childhood in the Palace, or was supposed to, but due to being exposed to trug constantly her head was a mess and that affected the memory recovery process— she doesn't remember in the sense that Myne does, rather it's... fragmented. Hazy. Something familiar deep down on a gut instinct level but doesn't know why. She craves for things she doesn't know the name or shape of, the clack-clack-clack of the keyboard as she typed, even if she can't remember what a keyboard or a laptop is. Her instincts, reflexes, her morality, they're influenced by her past life but she doesn't know for sure where these instincts or moral compass are coming from. She'd do or say something and then be like “wait why'd I do that”. Though that level of awareness would only come after she's away from the Palace, while being stuck inside it and constantly inhaling trug her ability to tell whether she is [REDACTED] or Novem is severely compromised, and so she... floats through the days as [REDACTED] rather than the child she is supposed to be. As I'm assuming the Adalgisa Seeds are raised communally (if that's not the case in canon I'll just say this is an AU thing) “Novem” has the opportunity to... befriend? develop a potentially codependent dynamic? with Quinta, the boy taking solace in the “imaginary world” and “made-up stories” Novem would tell.

Things get spicy when the girl's twin, the other half of the singular “Novem”, somehow ropes the girl half into killing him and absorbing his feystone. Granted, the children didn't know for sure it would work, just that if they're gonna die anyways there's nothing to lose anymore and if he is to die then he wanted it to be by his sister's hand. So... she did. While her mental capabilities were hella compromised under trug. And somehow took her brother's feystone and swallowed it whole, basically cannibalizing her twin brother. The stone was actually absorbed into her, and the consequence of that was...

Well.

A surge of mana, his blending with hers, almost enough to kill her spontaneously, and... and inherited memories.

They won't be whole, of course. This was a very crude way of pulling this off, and in the end the girl is unable to tell who died and who survived— whether this current consciousness is the one that killed or the one that was killed taking dominance in the subsequent fever, whether she was the one who reincarnated or her brother was. Hell of an identity crisis.

Eventually Aub Ahrensbach, Gieselfried, takes her out of the villa just as Quinta (Ferdinand) was by Aub Ehrenfest, Adelbert. The reasoning I haven't pinned down yet, but the tentative one I have so far is that because she displayed the abilities beyond what an seed of Adalgisa should possess (I doubt they were taught or educated, seeing as they're supposed to be products, born to die, born to be export feystones). She is baptized as the first wife's (who is from Drewenchel) daughter.

Though Gieselfried likely thought he was bringing a son home only to realize that nope, that a girl my dude.

Horaia's gender identity shenanigans (and by the Seven does she got gender identity shenanigans) will be explored later perhaps in another post. For now though I'll just use she/her.

Horaia and Ferdinand reunite as first years in the Royal Academy, and whoopsie-doopsie their codependency might've ratcheted up to an eleven. Basing this on my own experiences as a child stuck inside a... shitty family and household with no escape in sight, the thing that gave me solace was stories. My grandmother's stories about her time spent in Russia, stories found in books, stories found in myths and comics and all that bullshit. It was a bit like escapism. I asked my grandma to tell me about her time in Russia again and again because it gave me comfort— that was the base inspiration for the early dynamic between Ferdinand (or rather, Quinta) and Horaia (or Novem) back when they were still stuck in the Adalgisa Palace, just Quinta taking comfort in the picture Novem's stories painted. And then they both escaped (as outlined above) and... well. Ten-year-old Ferdie isn't gonna be as much of a callous hard-ass shutting everyone out as thoroughly or harshly as his adult self, and so... well. They end up latching onto each other al la Ducky Syndrome™ and it's only reinforced by the time they spent together year-round at the Royal Academy without going home.

(The original plan was for her to be an archnoble not an archduke candidate so that she could more easily marry into Ehrenfest without being vetoed by Sylvester's parents for fear of Ferdinand obtaining a better match than their son so I made her take the scholar and knight courses because it made sense for her character— someone who's really interested in the scholarly pursuits like history and magic but loves moving her body loves being athletic to some degree both from the influences of her past life where she wanted to be a writer and historian and played volleyball in high school and while ditter isn't volleyball it's the closest thing to athletes they got in the academy but then I overhauled the AU and now Ferdinand is the one marrying into Ahrensbach to an archduke candidate so uh I accidentally made Horaia take three courses???? Whoops. But it makes sense for her character so I'm not gonna change it, even if it makes her a little OP. Yolo, booyah! )

Oh yes.

She is a ditter-head.

Dunkelfelger loooooves her.

“Wanna ditter?” “FUCK YES LET'S DITTER”

It's to the point Dunk wanted both her and Ferdinand in the duchy, and so they wrestled two betrothals: Ferdinand to Magdalena, Horaia to Werdekraft buuuuut we all know what Magdalena did so Ferdinand's betrothal was cut off.

And since one of the reasons why Horaia accepted marriage into Dunk was because Ferdinand's safety would be guaranteed and she can keep an eye on him better (remember, codependent ), she declares groom-taking ditter on Ehrenfest and wins, securing a betrothal to Ferdinand instead.

Groom-taking because Ferdinand consented.

Again, codependent.

And that's how Ferdinand marries into Ahrensbach.

They decide to go check on Werkestock because the place is in shambles and y'know, doesn't the Temple help w that??

So they go to the Temple (mostly Horaia's idea tbh) and help around with filling the land w mana via chalices or whatever

And accidentally stumble upon Werkestock's Foundation whoops dunno what its consequence is yet but it happened

Somewhere along the line Myne regains her memories and is going on a paper/craft/food rampage as one does, which catches Horaia's attention when she's downtown under disguise as a young man.

Don't ask. Or do. I did say she's got some gender identity shenanigans going on here.

So Myne gets adopted! This time willingly (Horaia convinced and explained stuff to her, this is relevant to the AU's themes and shit but my brain is starting to shut down so it'll have to be a topic for another day) and without the contract that bars her family from treating her as theirs. They regularly meet up in secret.

Much of Horaia and Myne's bond would be built on the fact that they make each other feel... a little less alone, if that makes sense. Less alone in their grief, less alone in the yearning for a home you can never go back to, less alone in having to cope with the dissonance between your previous world and this one. Solace in the fact that, despite how they most likely didn't grow up in the same society (Horaia is unlikely to have been Japanese, even if I have yet to decide where she's from) there's still someone who knows. What has become utterly meaningless in Yurgenschmidt isn't so worthless or meaningless to each other. A lot of “Well this matters. To me.” bouncing back and forth between each other. Someone who can at least partially understand what Myne is on about and how she differs from Yurgenschmidt nobility's paradigms, where she's coming from, and attempt to bridge the gap.

They're also horrid little gremlins undoing each other's domestication and enabling each other's nonsense, much to Ferdinand's vast dismay.

Meanwhile Ehrenfest may or may not be imploding. You tell me.

Little things about Horaia's past life:

She wanted to become a novelist and a historian. Has a lot of Feels™ about both of her interests.

Had a totally healthy (lying) appreciation for libraries.

She was younger than Urano Motosu when she died.

She submitted one of her drafts/manuscripts to a publisher, but died before she got a response back.

She feels that her writing and the story style she does probably wouldn't be appreciated in Yurgenschmidt and that... bothers her more than she'd admit.

Horaia is Ahrensbach's current Knight Commander.

Myne is also on the aroace spectrum in this AU. Fight me bro (don't actually, I just got out of another fight on this matter and I'm tired okay?)

Myne's noble name in this AU is something different, I'm liking “Enheduanna” a priestess and the first known author in Earth history iirc, but we'll see if I find another one I like.

And here we have a sample writing thing from Horaia's POV while stuck in Adalgisa Palace :3

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou #liminal au #I definitely need a better name for this damn au #horaia (oc) #ferdinand #myne #rozemyne #or should I say #Enheduanna (Myne) #I know shipping Ferdinand w anyone other than Myne and Myne w anyone other than Ferdinand is blasphemy #(or at least it is on discord—) #but hear me out okay? HEAR ME OUT #AROACE FAMILY TRIAD HUZZAH! #finally brave enough to put this stuff out in the world (I kinda did on discord too but) #hope this was interesting to at least somebody here #who's that? me breaking the fandom's homogeneity! #rotten egg's shitty writing #liminal: the unstraying

[tassjis]

My friend is reading Ascendence of a bookworm for the first time and it's amusing to read their theories

Their thoughts below

She is a mage, and her magical tool is going to be a quill or brush

I mean does stylo count?

I fell like Fey will fall for Myne

No

The devouring is obviously magical overload

I mean, yeah

The merchant, I feel he is going to be the bad guy of the story

Benno? The bad guy?

I don't think Benno is evil anymore. I think he will be savour for Myne.

Eh?

Lutz, will be Mynes best friend and likely fall in love with her in time. I am unsure if she will feel the same way for him though.

Probably might have happened if the end of p2 didn't happen

Freida I expect will be the one to convince the guildmaster to give her a magic tool, as she will not want to loose a friend to the devouring.

The guild master will not want to but I see him not being able to say no to his granddaughter.

I see Benno and Lutz have to make a great sacrifice to enable it to happen though as the guildmaster will frame it is such a way to win even if he was doing it for his granddaughter

Freida does give her a magic tool and it was to save her friend but it was also part of a bet...

Close but it's Myne who sacrifices some of her savings

I have a feeling she will meet a noble that will fall for Myne and then give her magical tools as a gift. And it will because of Freida introducing her to someone

Looks at the pile of feystones and magic tools Ferdinand has given her...

Yeah Freida doesn't introduce them

The high bishop is a dick, the high priest seems nice, He's your favourite character isn't he?

Correct on most fronts... Ferdinand is the lord of evil for a reason but he's still a sweetie

Orphanage director at age of 7???

Yes

I get a feeling that the high priest is going to set up Myne for a potential suitor based on the harspiel lol

He is the the suitor x3

Love the pokemon reference.

Alright, I choose you, Stretchy tree thingy!

Hehe

The high bishop is a dick, she should of killed him when he attacked her in the beginning.

What? The evil Santa is a dick? /s

She should just kill everyone who gets in her way.

Then there would be no one left...

She has no shame!

Ah so you're in her memories now

I feel like the knight captain is manipulating Ferdiand and planning to kill the archduke

??? Ferdinand being manipulated by Karstedt??? No it's the other way around and definitely not to kill the archduke... the archdukes mother on the other hand...

I just met Sylvester. He sounds like a dick

He's just childish

I feel like Sylvester is a possible love interest for Myne, after all age gaps are normal here, or they will have some kind of connection

Yeah that connection is father/daughter... but he was the 3rd option of a suitor in Ehrenfest

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou

[the-alexel-lucas]

Looks like it’s AoB essay time, might as well join in. I want to focus on the conflict of the story as well as Myne’s noble persona. This will be getting into end of series stuff so if you don’t like that…don’t look.

So, what is the conflict? Well the easy answer is that it varies, P1 is Myne’s devouring and her struggle to survive, P2 is her struggles in the temple and the inevitability of being adopted, P3 is her adjusting to being a noble and trying to gather the ingredients for her jureve, P4 is struggles of Ahrensbach affecting Ehrenfest, and P5 is the Lanzenave invasion and potential collapse of the country. But that’s looking at the story in it’s individual parts, not as a whole. What I believe to be the true conflict of the story is Myne trying to make her way back to her family.

It is often said that P1 and 2 are the prologue (sometimes this is extended to P3 and occasionally even P4) and this is what I am basing my argument off of. In P1 we are introduced to Myne’s family, Gunther a hard working well meaning father, Effa a caring but stern mother, and Tuuli a supportive and gentle older sister. Initially Myne has little to no interest in them outside of survival but over time she grows more and more close to them, to the point that she would choose death over leaving them even if it could mean having books. This is reiterated and doubled down on in P2 where we and Myne see how poorly she treated her mother as Urano and while she understands that she has to leave them for everyone’s safety she wants to drag that out as long as physically possible, and then that time is cut short. Now bound by magic contract they cannot interact as a family and as time goes on more and more connections to that life are taken from her and it hurts Myne deeply. She is forced to wear a mask at all times, she must be the noble Rozemyne for everyone everywhere, that image cannot slip. However when she is in absolute private with those in the know who are not her family she can drop the act, but her engagement means she cannot use the hidden room where she could be Myne with Lutz, Benno, and Mark, Ferdinand’s engagement takes from Ehrenfest entirely and takes not only her mentor but the only noble who truly knows her. And then once again she must prepare to leave everyone she knows and loves, even if it is just momentarily, to protect them.

Her love for her family runs so deep that when Mestionora takes over her body she must block those memories to keep her occupied. At this point she is no longer Myne, she has become the mask and is fully Rozemyne. When Ferdinand restores her memories he offers to fake her death so she can return to her family and live her happy life but at this point she is much more aware of who she is and what options are available to her, but a concession can be made. And that is where the story ends, with the resolution of the conflict, with Myne returning to her commoner family and putting her hair up like she did in P1V1, because while Rozemyne is 14 Myne has come of age. And is home.

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou #I came up with this in the shower

[the-down-upside-finch]

Heads Up, Seven Up! (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @ahordeofwasps over in this post! (Thank you for the tag!) (Also sorry for the storm of tag games I've been posting today afdushfaijsdfdf--)

Naturally I'll be sharing another bit from Torn of Seeds because once again these unedited lines are so fun for me to post. This one's from Odile's POV:

The group burst out laughing. I hardened my focus on the leaves that I was pulverizing. “She definitely don’t got a lover on this ship,” Benno gleefully said, barely managing to keep his voice down. “So then what’s the problem?” Riccardo demanded. “Let’s just say... She’s off-limits,” Karl whispered. “Says who?” Riccardo scoffed. “Says me.” The group whirled around and jumped back from where the captain was standing at the bottom of the stairs with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

Gently tagging @mary-is-writing, @tabswrites, @shadow-of-tea-and-tea, @sparrow-orion-writes, @fanged-writer, @macabremoons, and @card-queen! Also leaving the tag open for anyone else that wants to join. :}

#ZootaWrites #Snippets #Torn of Seeds #I had a couple snippets I wanted to use but literally all of them were 8 lines so here we are #For slight context. Riccardo is brand new to the crew and Odile is the only woman on the ship #This is from the first scene of the first chapter so take that how you will haha #Writeblr #Tag Game #Heads up Seven Up Tag Game #Writeblr Tag Game

[novaisabookworm]

Im really tempted to make a series of playlists for AoaB characters that are purely soundtrack based, so like game/movie soundtracks etc

if this piques your interest;

#ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujou #//honestly id love to challenge myself and do as many characters as possible #//I have a stupidly massive collection of soundtracks and osts that is ever growing #//also might just slap some names into a wheel spinner and go from there after this

[transdimensional-void]

the lie of nobility in ascendance of a bookworm

i wanted to write a quick meta about why the distinction between commoners and nobility in jurgenschmidt is a false one, a lie perpetuated to maintain an unjust social hierarchy.

in part one of ascendance of a bookworm, our protagonist, myne, slowly discovers that the illness she suffers from is known as "the devouring" and results from her having mana as a commoner. it is a relatively rare illness, we are told, and the evidence of this is the commoners' almost complete lack of awareness of its existence. the only commoners myne encounters who are familiar with this illness are extremely wealthy ones who have dealings with nobles.

one of these, frieda, is able to purchase magic tools from nobles that allow her to remove the mana from her body, preventing her from dying of the devouring. in the temple, myne learns she can dedicate mana to the divine instruments to save herself from dying.

later, once myne gets to know ferdinand in the temple, she begins to learn more about mana and noble society. she is taught that there are different social strata among the nobility, and they are divided based upon their amount of mana. only those with similar amounts of mana can successfully produce offspring together, so marriages among nobles are restricted to those whose mana matches. ferdinand informs her that, based on the fact that the original myne was on the verge of death at the age of five she was likely born with laynoble levels of mana. however, due to myne unconsciously compressing her mana from the time she regained urano's memories, she now has archnoble or higher levels or mana.

we encounter other commoners with the devouring, such as dirk, who is already near death at only six months old. ferdinand indicates that he was born with an amount of mana in the upper mednoble range. there was also benno's childhood sweetheart, liz, who had such a small amount of mana that the devouring didn't kill her until she was near adulthood. we also learn that occasionally gray shrine maidens who are being sexually exploited in the temple are impregnated by nobles or blue priests--in other words, people with mana.

while myne is told that the distinction between nobles and commoners is that nobles have mana and commoners don't, all of the above examples prove that this is actually a lie.

if nobles and commoners were genetically distinct in any meaningful way, people with the devouring wouldn't exist.

as myne learns more about using mana and mana compression, she is taught that she has a mana vessel, an organ inside her where her mana is stored and where she can compress that mana to increase her mana capacity. but myne was born from two commoner parents, effa and gunther, neither of whom has enough mana in them to cause the devouring. nevertheless, despite the fact that they lack mana themselves, they must have the genes necessary to develop a mana vessel. otherwise, how would myne have one?

frieda, dirk, and liz were also born among commoners, but the only way they could have significant enough levels of mana to cause the devouring is if they, too, were born with a mana vessel. it's also important to note that if commoners and nobles were truly genetically distinct, gray shrine maidens (of commoner origin) would never be able to conceive children with blue priests (born of noble parents) or nobles.

in other words, the story itself tells us that many commoners do have mana. "the devouring" is simply the consequences of those commoners being denied access to the magic tools necessary to expel that mana from their bodies. this is further demonstrated by the fate of philine's little brother, konrad. he was born among nobles but develops the exact same symptoms as the devouring once denied access to his childhood magic tool.

it's possible that, if not denied access to magic tools and knowledge about magic, most or even all jurgenschmidt commoners might be able to use mana.

within noble society, myne learns about noble pregnancy and the fact that pregnant nobles must carefully channel mana into their growing fetus. channeling too much mana will cause miscarriage. channeling too little means the child will be born with mana levels not befitting the family's rank. we see this happen with characters such as bezewanst and shikikoza. there's all kinds of horse-trading of children going on behind the scenes in noble society, fully exposing the falseness of the distinctions between different social levels of nobles. an archnoble child can be born with mednoble levels of mana, and vice versa. this is because the amount of mana a child is born with isn't determined by inheritance alone but rather by the effects of mana in utero.

if commoners had this knowledge and were taught how to intentionally channel mana as nobles are, pregnant commoners could similarly channel mana into their growing fetuses to ensure they are born with mana. in fact, something similar to this is likely what causes "the devouring" among commoners in the first place. pregnant commoners sometimes end up unintentionally being exposed to greater amounts of mana than usual--through their food, the ambient environment, contact with feystones, or the like--and that stimulates the accumulation of mana within the growing fetus.

what's more, those born with lower levels of mana can raise their level of mana to one considered appropriate to a different social stratum using a good mana compression method--just as myne and damuel manage to.

in conclusion, the commoners and nobles of jurgenschmidt comprise a single genetic population. there is no meaningful genetic distinction between them. they are able to reproduce with one another, and differences in amounts of mana between them are entirely due to environmental factors rather than genetic ones. the lack of mana-wielding commoner families is due to the nobles' intentional monopolization of knowledge about magic, which leads commoners with mana to die before they reach childbearing age--unless they enslave themselves to a noble.

the stratified society we see within present day jurgenschmidt is set up to reinforce this artificial distinction between commoner and noble, between laynoble and archnoble, between those with "the devouring" and nobles who have simply been denied access to magic tools. the system is set up to concentrate the power and wealth associated with mana in the hands of a few families at the top. the truth about the nobility of jurgenschmidt is that the supposed basis for their nobility, their exclusive possession of mana, is a lie.

#ascendance of a bookworm #reposting because it didn't show up in the tag

[scotianostra]

On January 3rd 1888 O H Mavor, known as James Bridie, the physician and prolific playwright, was born.

Born in Glasgow,Osborne Henry Mavor, He took his pen-name from his paternal grandfather’s first name and his grandmother’s maiden name, Mavor studied medicine at the University and graduated in 1913. He threw himself into the social life of Gilmorehill, notably as a contributor to Glasgow University Magazine and as a member of the University Union. Mavor was the man who started the “Daft Friday” event at the university which is still a traditional part of the University Union and features a night of entertainment from performers, some of whom went on to make their name in the entertainment industry, like Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty, who, as The Humblebums appeared in 1968.

Bridie served in the First World War in the Royal Army Medical Corps and his later career included spells as a general practitioner, a consulting physician at the Victoria Infirmary and Professor of Medicine at the Anderson College of Medicine, before his increasing success as a dramatist led to his embracing that career full-time.. He was one of the leading British playwrights of his generation, the founder of the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, in 1943, and the first chairman of the Scottish Committee of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts established in 1942, (subsequently the Scottish Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain). He was instrumental in the establishment of the College of Dramatic Art in 1950, now part of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

Mavor wrote over 40 plays in his lifetime. His first play, ‘The Sunlight Sonata’, presented by the Scottish National Players, directed by Tyrone Guthrie in 1928, followed by The Switchback, and What It Is To Be Young . The Anatomist, produced in 1930, and based on the lives of nineteenth century vivisectionist Dr Robert Knox, and the murderers Burke and Hare, was his first major success. The Anatomist was made into a Movie twice, first by Hammer in 1956 and then a TV Movie in 1980 with Patrick Stewart in the role of Knox.

This success continued throughout the 1930s and 40s with, amongst others, Jonah and the Whale, Mary Read’with Flora Robson and Robert Donat,Susannah and the Elders, The King of Nowhere with Laurence Olivier, Mr Bolfry’ with Alastair Sim again, and many others.

In 1939 he was awarded an honorary LL.D from Glasgow University, and received his CBE in 1946.

James Bridie died in Edinburgh in 1951 of a stroke and is buried in Glasgow Western Necropolis.

In 1955 Glasgow University Union purchased a bronze head of Mavor/Bridie by Benno Schotz. The Bridie Dinner, introduced that year, became a feature of Daft Friday at the Union. His Grandaughter is the Scottish actress and model Freya Mavor.

#scotland #scottish #history #playwright #screenwriter #physician

[grizeldanyx]

So I randomly decided to check out the show on Amazon Prime again to see if any bonus material (I'm still craving those deleted scenes) was added and I found out that there is this whole trivia section with little fun facts or just interesting side notes written by someone who worked on the show. These were some of my favourites:

At Christiane's home the broken kitchen light flickered when "Zoologischer Garten" was first mentioned, foreshadowing the harrowing future meaning of this place.

It was Dijan who cut Axel's hair. I can't, help, whyyyy.

Axel was really stalked by the Stasi. It wasn't in his head. Wtf.

Christiane waited for Benno at the station for 8 fucking hours.

The other old lady living with Babsi and the grandma was the grandma's sister and she doesn't talk because the grandma is so extravagant and powerful and just a bitch.

The necklaces of Christiane and Benno are supposed to reference Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, somehow.

The last scene zoomes out from the heroin the same way it did when heroin first came up in the show with Axel injecting it.

When Michi can't open the bottle it's because he grew up, lost his child-like marveling and lost faith in himself :(

When Benno and Christiane meet in Gropiusstadt (where Axel sees them) she was supposed to be on her way back from school, but the production team forgot to give her a backpack in the scene.

There were also lots of facts about production background and costume choices. Very interesting.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo

[aubdrewanchel]

❈❀ Wellcome fellow LN Readers ❀❈

I'm Sylvestra or Hanako if you want, (She/Him/They) I don't really mind

I like LNs (Ascendance of a bookworm, Raven of the Inner palace, Apothecary diaries, ect. ), memes and cosplays

Most recent fic: Dregarnuhr's priestess (AoB fandom) 16 chap.

I'd be happy to chat with anyone who likes memes, cosplays, books, and so on!

Navigation below

♜♜♜♜♜ ♜♜♜♜♜

Here are some of the Ascendance of a bookworm posts I do on my page:

(Enjoy!! :P)

AoB stop game

Noble

AoB memes

Awful experience - 21/7/2023

AoB fans problems

Myne and books

Myne and trombe

Types of headaches

Ferdinand and gold dust

Sylvester and Myne

Sylvester and Myne on dinner

Same headache

Pet shumil

Chirping Myne

Ehrenfest's nobility

Fran's backstory

Noble ladies

Ferdinand meme - 23/8/2023

Fran x Mark - 6/9/2023

Damuel, Fritz, Otto - 11/9/2023

Live for the praise - 14/9/2023

Ascendance - 15/9/2023

Ferdinand x Sylvester - 16/9/2023

Vending machine - 17/9/2023

Do it for he - 18/9/2023

Academy priorities - 19/9/2023

Time skip - 28/9/2023

Turns into noble - 2/10/2023

Rinsham - 3/10/2023

Day in temple - 4/10/2023

Rozemyne's family tree - 5/10/2023

Hirschur - 6/10/2023

Scholars - 10/10/2023

Genderbend - 13/10/2023

Romance x Romance - 15/10/2023

Cooking mana

Different adaptations

Noble euphemisms - 18/10/2023

Studying history - 20/10/2023

Noble euphemisms (2) - 23/10/23

Noble euphemisms (3) - 24/10/23

Chameleon - 26/10/2023

Cleaning - 27/10/23

Charlotte trying - 31/10/23

My realisation - 7/11/23

Gods - 12/11/2023

Bank account - 13/11/2023

Euphemisms translation - 14/11/23

Holy water for Ferdinand - 18/11/23

BURN THIS FILTH - 20/11/2023

Angelica and Stenluke

Drawling over Ferd

World is not easy - 27/11/2023

Type of AoB fans - 30/11/2023

Silly bois - 2/12/2023

Tea parties - 5/12/2023

What to read next?

Florencia and her children

Yurgen and traumas

Let's go for second - 25/12/2023

AoB polite Myne series

The brick - 25/8/2023

I'm broke (but polite) - 25/8/2023

The vibes

Fck off

AoB chats

Blood pressure - 16/11/2023

Kinds of idiocy -

How many children - 26/10/23

Bath bombs - 12/10/2023

Wilfred - 27/8/2023

Benno's no. 1 problem

My AoB fanarts

Harisen - 28/11/2023

Boy Myne - 21/11/2023

Tuuli and her dead siblings - 16/8/2023

Myne's siblings - 15/8/2023

Do you have a cookie? - 29/9/2023

0 days without nonsense - 6/10/2023

My AoaB animations

Simple russian EHRENFEST girl - 30/9/2023

You don't get it, you just don't get it - 21/10/2023

AoaB fanfiction (Downfall of a Blibliophile)

(Chapter-1) From a middle duchy to a republic

(Chapter-2) Magecraft lessons

#Ascendance of a bookworm #honzuki no gekokujō #ascendance of a bookworm meme #ascendance of a bookworm