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navree · 5 days

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me @ you calling Lucerys boring! 😆 come on, he's just a kid! cutting out aemond's eye was bad, i agree, but i don't think he was as bland as everyone says. his imposter syndrome in 8 and 10 was interesting to watch at least. he was a brave little boy.

I mean I don't really see anything brave about bringing a knife to a fight he not only had fuck all to do with but where he was clearly at fault (Aemond did nothing wrong, he tamed a free dragon, Baela and Rhaena get a pass because they're grieving but Jace and Luke had no business being involved and certainly no business escalating into 4 v 1 violence against the clear cut victim), trying to literally murder someone because I don't know what the fuck you're trying to do when you stab a knife at someone's face but it's certainly not a warning shot, showing zero remorse for it at all, and at worse acting like a little snot when in the same room with your victim. The fact that Luke got away with this scot free (didn't he literally say "I didn't do anything" you boring little asshole you stabbed out someone's eye that is the opposite of not doing anything!) is an absolute travesty of justice that stains everyone involved (mostly Viserys and Luke but I'm not letting Rhaenyra "pls torture the ten year old stabbing victim until he tells me how he figured out that these white dark haired children aren't the sons of my black platinum blond husband" Targaryen off the hook either). Aemond could have died, not only from the initial wound, but from the myriad of infections or other issues that could have plagued him during the healing process. For God's sake, Viserys nicks himself on the Iron Throne and they have to lop off his arm, his infected injuries and their treatment have already made him pretty firmly decrepit by Driftmark, the fact that Aemond healed without any serious and lifelong and further damaging complication is a goddamn miracle. And even kids know that murder is bad, I'm pretty sure that if I were Lucerys's age and I tried to commit homicide I'd have to deal with some consequences.

And I'm sorry, but I call him boring because he is! They wrote a boring character! That's not on me for picking up on it, that's on the writers and the myriad choices they made that led to them severely underdeveloping several characters, most prominently Lucerys (Jace and Baela and Rhaena at least get another season of life to develop further, Luke gets four episodes and they knew that going in). This is a song I've been singing literally since the show was airing and it's not gonna change, cuz he's dead and therefore stuck with his boring character and complete lack of characterization.

Him being a kid is not a character trait, and it certainly doesn't make him more interesting anymore than, say, his eye color would. The impostor syndrome thing they kinda tried didn't really work because 1) it's not impostor syndrome if it's true, he's not a Velaryon and Vaemond was 99% in the right in that entire thing (I don't like him throwing out misogynistic slurs, you can point out that these aren't Velaryons but Strong bastards without stooping to calling Rhaenyra a whore, I hate men sometimes) 2) in episode 8 it exists for one single line and is not a driving force for him at all for the remainder of the episode to the point that it could be cut out and mean nothing, especially since that scene was only there to introduce adult Aemond and 3) it doesn't even make sense because the person who was set up as having issues with his lack of Velaryon heritage and Harwin being his father was Jace. Jace is the one who hears the rumors and clocks it early on in childhood, Jace is the one who is deeply affected by it to the point of bitterness towards his own mother, Jace is the one who grieves Harwin but also feels angry that he can't express it. All of that was set up as part of Jace's arc, not at all Luke's, who is literally set dressing up until he decides to commit criminal offenses in the middle of the night. And then time skip, and suddenly Jace is A-OK and Luke, who has shown no issue before now (or any personality at all) is slightly concerned about it for one line in episode 8 before going back to being a piece of cardboard until episode 10.

And I'll be honest, the second that scene came out in episode 10, I immediately saw it for what it was, which was a very obvious patch job. The writers were clearly aware that they had not given the viewers any reason at all to care about Luke one way or another, so we weren't going to feel a lot when Vhagar (deservedly, imo) munches on him. So they hastily added in this really heavy-handed scene of poor uwu soft boy Lukey who is so concerned with doing right and needs to blink up tearfully at Mommy and be her sweet boy and get little kisses to assuage his worries, so that we'd feel some emotion and then be said when he becomes the Jonah to Vhagar's whale. It just doesn't work because there was nothing for him before then and therefore I don't care, I just feel bad Rhaenyra.

Luke is a bland and boring character. That's not an attack, that's just what the writers did. They tried to cram too much into a ten episode season, literally twenty years of history, and it caused a lot of characterization problems for a lot of characters, particularly for the Team Black ones. And a consequence of that is that the character with the least amount of time for development got not development and no personality. He's a plank of wood, he's a platonic version of the sexy lamp trope; there's nothing there and he exists only for us to feel bad when the lamp is smashed. Seriously, name me five individual character traits that Lucerys has. He's a momma's boy, even though I'm not really sure that's a character trait but I'll give it to him, and I guess he's devoid of empathy, considering that he doesn't appear to feel literally any remorse for mutilating Aemond (seriously, is it like the Dothraki and "thank you"? does the word "sorry" not exist in Valyrian languages? you can't even send an apology gift basket or a note?). But he's not brave, as there is no scene that shows any bravery or courage, and he's not noble or kind or thoughtful because there's nothing that shows any of that, or anything that shows him being the opposite, cruel or cowardly or weak, because he's a basically a character who could be played by sticking a wig on a mop and waving it around. And any characterization of insecurity exists as something hamfistedly crowbarred in at the last minute in his final episode to try to manipulate the audience's emotions with less sensitivity than D&D trying to tug at our heartstrings by having Drogon try to nudge Dany awake after she's killed.

But there is a character that I do consider to be a brave little boy, though I regret to inform y'all that it is Not a fourteen year old with no depth or personality or written characterization whose main claim to fame is maiming a person without apology and then dying. Nah, the brave little boy title goes to post-Driftmark Aemond. Aemond, at ten, is delivered a life altering injury whose recovery was likely very slow and very painful, involved a lot of worry about whether he'd have to deal with infection or further risk of death, and had to relearn how to do literally everything now that he was half blind, and he did all of it. He survived, and he thrived. He relearned how to walk, how to balance, his spatial awareness. He learned how to fought and even became incredibly good at it, and maintained his bond with Vhagar, as well as trying to keep himself mentally sharp as well. He did all of that, despite the huge setback he was dealt with at age ten. That's brave, go Aemond.

#personal #answered #anonymous #anti lucerys velaryon #the only thing about luke that even gets me remotely passionate is what he did to aemond #but that's because i like aemond and i feel things about aemond #who is a fully realized character #lucery is Not that #and yeah it's a writing issue and a massive writing issue #do baela and rhaena even have ANY character traits at all?#do their adult versions even have more then a dozen lines?#like at least they live through the dance so we can see more characterization develop in upcoming seasons #but honestly the only character more atrociously handled in terms of being made boring than luke are baela and rhaena #who could honestly be completely cut from the story of season 1 entirely and not have it make a lick of difference #like me calling luke boring isn't an attack on the character of luke (because it basically doesn't exist)#it's me taking the WRITERS to task #since it's impossible to set luke's lack of characterization apart from the out of universe creative decisions that led to it #and i've always thought he's boring and that's really not gonna change #there's four episodes of the boy and i've seen all four of them and they're the only four we're ever gonna get #they knew that they knew luke was gonna be set in unchanging stone once he died and they elected to do nothing with him anyway #so he's boring and bland #sucks but it's true

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imfromthemiddlekingdom · 11 months

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I have so much feels regarding Miriel and Feanor. If my mother, whom I love dearly and gave her life for me to live, were stated as being allowed to be reembodied but the only thing standing in her way of being able to is the fact that my father was a horny pos who wanted to fuck this blond bimbo and have babies with her, therefore depriving my mother of her chance at life FOREVER. I too would be resentful and full of hate for anything and everything that represented their Union and my mothers sundering from me.

Finwe and Indis are both in the wrong. He was so young when they wed and had Findis, he barely had time to process his mothers death, however temporary it may have been for an elf in Valinor, but then his dad went “hey so uh, I really want to have more kids and in order for me to do that your mother would have to stay dead forever! YOLO!” I would feel so much resentment not only to him but the other person who was responsible for this. He obviously couldn’t blame his dad, the only living parent he has, so he projects all his loathing and resentment of his father to Indis and her children and their children afterwards. Because how can he hate the last living parent he has when there’s a perfectly good target for all that pent up rage within sight that would not make him an orphan twice over?

You might object by saying that “one year of the year if the trees is like 10 sun years!!! He was perfectly grown!!! He should get over it!!!” But I ask you. How would you feel if your mother, who you either never had a chance to know or knew only sparingly when she was bed ridden died and your father took away her chance of being reunited with you? My father died of his own folly and stupidity and still I miss him to this day, if I lost my mother too I would be devistated beyond words, and we’re HUMAN. We know we only have one shot at life and no chance of reuniting with those who’ve passed on in our life time, but with elves, they can be reborn. They know that death is only temporary. So when your mother died you think to yourself, “I’ll just wait for her to feel better and then she can come back to me and father and we’ll be a family together again!” And that choice is taken from you, your mothers body, which was resting in the gardens or Lorien, is then gone and you now cannot even pretend that she is merely sleeping.

As far as I know, no living souls may visit the dead in the Halls, he no longer can hold his mothers hands and can no longer pretend that she is there, she was so sick when she passed that asking her to make a choice that would affect her for the rest of eternity isn’t the way to go. I suffer from severe depression, and in bad days I think I would be better if dead, and if I had lost my will to live and some godly being demanded that I make a choice right this moment(!!!) to return to life or be forever dead, I would have chosen to remain dead since I cannot think of why living would be better. To put so much pressure on a dead woman, who may or may not have died due to postpartum depression, is not the way to go in any situation where Finwe may have wanted to get a divorce or have more kids.

Elves are immortal, they do not die, why can’t Finwe not wait for who was supposed to be the love of his life? Why did Indis, a supposed friend of Miriels, decide that her getting her happily ever after is worth sundering her FRIEND from her son forever? Why does Indis get her happily ever after and Miriel does not? I can see why Feanor would be so against Indis and her children because under similar circumstances I would have been the same, seeing others get what was promised to me, in the blessed lands where everything was supposed to be BETTER and not getting it anyways is a recipe of disaster.

I do not feel any sympathy for Indis, not really, not when she willingly deprived her stepson of a chance for a mother, not when she willingly agreed to have kids with someone knowing that one of his kids would never have that fea bond with his mother ever again. I cannot sympathize with her selfish desire for dick, not when it hurt a child, which was what Feanor was.

I cannot imagine how Feanor might’ve felt seeing his half siblings with their mother and feeling that gaping hole in his soul knowing that I order for them to exist his mother is gone forever. To look at his brothers and sisters and see what may have been if his mother didn’t put so much of her into him, and feeling so guilty that “if only I didn’t exist my mother would still be alive”. To have it rubbed in his face, no matter how unintentionally, by his father and his new wife when Findis was a newborn that, maybe just maybe, some of the rumors are right and that him and his mother truly are marred because Indis bore a child successfully without dying so there MUST be something wrong with them.

To have that reminder of your mothers death constantly for years and have your father be so happy with his new family that it seems like he’s forgetting all your mother represented, to have the Noldor replace your mother, one of the people who represented what the Noldor are, with one of those golden Vanya princess, is unimaginable to me.

Maybe it’s a personal character flaw of myself but if I were in Feanors shoes I may have done something worse than pull a sword of my half brother when he was trying to convince my only surviving parent to disavow me.

#the silmarillion #feanor #miriel #Indis #house of finwe #sons of finwe #finwe

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heniareth · 3 years

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I was really curious about what your opinions on the DAO companions are :) I know we have talked about some, but I'd love to hear more and about the others as well :D I hope it's ok to pose this as an ask :)

Sure! That sounds like a ton of fun. This might be a long one tho. Mind you, this is not the finished version of the answer. I'd like to link stuff and add a cut, but rn that's not possible. I'll update it when I can.

Edit: I have updated it ^^

Let's go alphabetically bc why not.

Alistair:

Sweet guy. So sweet. There was a moment when I was hard pressed chosing between him and Zevran (alas, Zevran won). Also, he's weirdly tall according to the wiki? How did I not notice that before?

Let's get a bit more serious now, Alistair is a great guy. The only reason he's not the hero of the story is because he doesn't want to. He has all the qualities of a leader: he's good at dealing with conflict (as evident with the conversation with the mage at the beginning. He gets where he wants to get without antagonizing the mage, but without allowing him to trample all over him). He's a solid tactitian and knows how to make allies (he suggests to use the Grey Warden treaties, after all). I bet if he was in the leadership position, he'd even not bicker with Morrigan. His moral code is pretty tight; some might say too tight, but I think it's less about the moral code and more about learning to judge people by their actions, not by the labels they fit into (Morrigan is a proud apostate and therefore bad. Wynne is a humble circle mage and therefore good). He also has a bit of a black-and-white way of seeing the world. I empathize a lot with Alistair, especially with his experience with the Chantry and his subsequent reluctance to deal with it. I really wish I had gotten to know more about concrete experiences he had during his training as templar, but he seems reluctant to talk about it (gee, I wonder why).

Since I've only played the game once, I haven't really picked up on Arl Eamon's abuse towards him, which apparently exists (Isolde, however... I mean, even if he were Eamon's illegitimate son, he's a kid, ma'am, he didn't exactly get to chose his parents. So that's so not okay). Alistair's way of speaking about them both, however, is either sign that he has not come within a hundred miles of acknowledging how much it hurt him, or that he's already gone through the whole process and has decided to forgive them. The latter shows a very strong character; yes, he relies on the approval and leadership of others, he has his issues, but he's already started working on them.

That being said, irl Alistair would be like a little brother to me. I'd tease him relentlessly (all in good fun and I promise to stop if it makes him uncomfortable, but he's just so teasable). I still wish the videogame gave him the chance to take important decisions for himself. But that, of course, would somewhat defeat the point of the game.

Leliana:

Another sweet, sweet person. Her singing voice is amazing. Her belief in the Maker inspires me (I'm a religious person and seeing religious characters represented in a positive light is Very Cool. It's also sometimes a source of discomfort, because the Church has done a lot of very messed up stuff and positive representation can sometimes veer into apologetics for things that should not be excused, but that's a whole other can of worms. The bottom line is that religious characters sometimes work for me and other times don't and Leliana works for me very much bc she's an outsider inside the Chantry).

Leliana is best friend material, tbh. I'd love to get to know her irl, discuss theology and philosophy and maybe even politics? She makes mistakes and has prejudices, but, tbh, so do I. And I do get the feeling that she tries her best to learn. From the times she intervenes in a conversation between the Warden and an NPC, she shows herself to be compassionate and open to the needs of others. What I get from her character is that she genuinely wants to help, which is something that I adore of her. I suspect that she sometimes has a hard time deciding wether she's a good person or not. She has killed and seduced and worked for a morally dubious person, and she doesn't show the same nonchalance about it as Zevran (though they both do discuss their line of work in very... professional terms). This is, however, more of a headcanon than actual factual canon.

I also very much enjoy her girly side, like her interest in shoes and dresses. She's one badass woman who also looses her cool about the latest fashions in Val Royeaux. I like that. Between her and Alistair, a non human noble Warden has as good a help to navigate the Fereldan court as they're going to get. Leliana is also, I can't forget that, clever and insightful. It'd be easy to write her off as the innocent chantry girl, but she's so much more than that. Her kindness is paired with foresight, I think. She knows that taking on the trouble to help now can go a long way in the future. I just have a lot of respect for her.

Loghain:

This one's gonna be short bc I didn't recruit him. He's an amazing villain and would probably be a great Warden as well. He reminds me of Denerhor from LOTR; once a hero/stewart of his people, ambition and desperation have driven them both down a terrible path. I have also only little idea about his past. People say he lost a lot, and I believe it wholeheartedly; it doesn't excuse the fact that he plunged the country into a civil war in the middle of a Blight. I don't have a lot of sympathy for short-sighted politicians. I wish he hadn't made himself regent. That's what I take away from his character.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention that really impressed me was his death. I had Alistair duel him (that was a rough duel), and then it kinda just jumped to a cutscene of my Warden nodding and Alistair executing him. That didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to kill Loghain, and less so in front of Anora. But what impressed me was that Loghain just accepted it. That takes a whole lot of guts. Compare that to Howe's death, and how he screams out that he deserved (more, probably, or anything but death) and it's crystal clear who the more noble of the two is. Loghain strikes me as very lawful neutral, and any neutral alignment has the particularity that it can be dragged towards good or bad, sometimes without the characters noticing it (which is interesting from a DnD perspective; neutral is often concieved of as just as stable as good or evil, but that may not be true. But that's a different post). Anyway, Loghain's death was impactful.

Morrigan:

I could kick myself for not maxing out her approval in the first play-through. I got to enjoy a bit of her friendship by the end of it and boy was even that little bit worth it. Friendship with Morrigan is something that is hard-won. It's all the more precious because of that.

Morrigan is full of paradoxes, I think. She's incredibly wise in some ways, yet also very short-sighted (”just kill them, don't solve their problems”. Morrigan, dear, I'm not going to gain a lot of allies if I kill everybody who poses a problem to me). She is so intelligent, but emotionally... not so. She knows so much about some things, and very little about the next. She's incredibly wilful and knows what she wants, but follows Flemeth's orders all the time through. She hungers for power and independence, yet craves closeness, but won't allow herself to have it. She asks you to prove yourself to her and is extremely critical of your actions, I think, because she's afraid. She bites the hand that feeds her because it might hit her next.

Like with Eamon, I haven't managed to catch the undercurrent of abuse that seems to permeate Flemeth's relationship with Morrigan. Except there are signs, because there must be something Morrigan is scared of and who has instilled all that rage in her, and that's Flemeth. Also, she clearly hates/does not care about her and wants her dead (unless killing Flemeth was part of Flemeth's plan as well? Hm.)

Morrigan is that one person who you are nice to, continuously, because nobody else is. And suddenly she becomes less cold. And then friendly. And suddenly you're asking yourself why everybody hates her, because she's a really good friend! I just wish the other companions came to a similar conclusion, especially Alistair and Wynne.

Oghren:

They did this man dirty. He has such great lines and I'm convinced he was a great person before Branka disappeared. He has that dwarven warrior spirit, and while he looks like Gimli, some of his most impactful lines remind me of Dwalin or even Thorin Oakenshield himself. He could be so noble had he gotten some character development, damnit!

Oghren as he is written is somewhat disgusting. I hate the lechering comments and the drunkenness. And still, I don't hate him because of those amazing lines he has when he's actually sober. It's frustrating and I'll give him that character development myself if the game won't. I strongly associate the song Whiskey Lullaby with him, bc that's how he would have ended up if the Warden hadn't taken him along (warning: the song talks about suicide and alcoholism). Like I said, they could have done such cool things with his character. As he is written now... it's just sad. Moments of lucidity drowned in alcohol and creepy jokes. As you can see, I don't blame the character for either. The alcoholism happens all too often irl. The creepy jokes... I put that one on the writers' tab.

I actually think Oghren could have been a great mentor figure (I know, I shock myself as well sometimes). Next to the Grey Wardens, the ones who know most about fighting darkspawn are the dwarves because they have to deal with them constantly. Especially a warrior caste dwarf like Oghren could have brought a lot of that invaluable knowledge to the team, especially since there are no Grey Wardens in Ferelden but two extremely green recruits. Next, you get the chance to give Oghren the command of the teammates you leave behind in the battle of Denerim with the reason that he has lead men into battle before. Where did that suddenly come from? Oghren should have been right up there telling my Warden that they were doing this wrong, that they needed more food (and booze) and a confident leader to keep the armies they've called together going. Oghren should have been able to tell my civilian city elf who got recruited into the Grey Wardens a six months ago how one leads an army. How one presents oneself to inspire confidence, how one doesn't crack under the pressure, how one gets the leaders of said armies (some who hate each others guts i.e. Dalish elves and humans) to work together. And, last but not least, Oghren could have had a great story about grief. This is a man who has lost most of what made him (and what he hasn't lost he's spilling down the drain with every mug of ale). This is a man who, if you take him into the Deep Roads, has to see what his wife did to his family, how his wife got absolutely obsessed, and can be forced to kill said wife or watch her die. All Wardens loose their home and families at the start of the story. It would really have rounded the whole narrative out if the Warden and Oghren could have recognised their grief in each other and hashed it out somehow. Such as it is, Oghren is a depressed drunkard and there is nothing we can do about that. I find that frustrating.

Rascal (a.k.a. Dog):

Best boy. 100/10. I wish we had gotten to see the reaction of the different origins to the mabari (because elves probably have a whole different experience with them from mages or humans. And dwarves just... I think they straight up have none? XD). Other than that, no complaints. The name Rascal was the one I gave my dog because you have to be a right rascal to survive what he did and play the pranks he plays. Smartest breed in the world indeed.

Shale:

Shale is one of those characters that I recruited rather late in the game, so I haven't had the chance to explore their personality and worldview, really. I didn't even get to take them to the Deep Roads (this will be ammended in playthrough nr. 2). As such, I don't have particularly strong opinions on them (or her? The wiki refers to Shale as 'it', but that sounds weird). But, because I know so little about Shale, I have a lot of questions. First, what were they like before they were a golem? Shayle, as she was called then, was the best warrior of her time if I remember correctly. Why did she become a golem? Was it to be able to eternally protect her people? Was the sarcasm the golem Shale exhibits also part of the dwarven warrior Shayle or did that come later (if for thirty years you have nobody to talk to but yourself, you better be entertaining. And I can imagine how it could make somebody terribly jaded as well).

Next, how attached is Shale to their golem form, exactly? According to the banter, they infinitely prefer it to a squishy fleshy form. If that is the case, however, why go to Tevinter to try and become a squishy dwarf again? It's not like that process could be reversed if they wanted to become a golem again; if Shale survives to the end of the game, the Anvil of the Void is destroyed and Caridin is dead. Was the whole spiel about their indestructible form a façade? It might have been, but not because Shale actually disliked their form. I think it would have more to do with the loss of their memories and with the very invasive experiments and alterations of Shale's body made by the mage Wilhelm. The loss of memories means that Shale is unable to remember life as a fleshy creature. They might be deflecting by pretending that they didn't care for that experience anyway because of the superiority of their golem form. The modifications made to their form by Wilhelm would have alienated them from their body. In light of this, it's significant that Shale asks the Warden to decorate their form with crystals.

All of this is, of course, pure speculation. I may have easily missed or forgotten details that would disprove the above thoughts. All in all, I like Shale and I hope we meet them again in DA4 (given that it's mostly set in Tevinter). It's a liking from a respectful distance, because Shale is tall and made out of rock and also way more experienced than I will ever be (they are literally the oldest member of the Warden's little Blight fighting squad).

Sten:

Sten is another person I'd keep a respectful distance from physically. That seems to be the what he would prefer, at least. I've enjoyed his character a lot, especially because he seems pretty clear-cut at first, but slowly lets the nuance of his person show (gruff and stoic, but then he has an eye for art, a sweet tooth and he likes cute animals). It's also very interesting that there's no moment when you learn "the truth" about him the way you do with Zevran or Leliana. There's no big reveal about his life under the Qun before coming to Ferelden. He says he was sent to monitor the Blight, but honestly? If neither Ferelden nor Orlais knew there was a Blight, how could the Qunari know? I think he's lying, and he takes his secrets back with him when he leaves Ferelden. And yet I think I know him enough to say that a Warden who has become friends with him has nothing to fear from Sten.

One thing I find very interesting about Sten is how he thinks. His conversation about how women can't be soldiers has been analysed a lot on this page I think. He seems to be arguing based on a different paradigma than the one the Warden has. He also seems to have a very clear-cut view of the world. What is fascinating to me is that, when arguing with the Warden and learning about their culture, he is not necessarily becoming more lax about his worldview. I think it's more likely that he is expanding his paradigma, the structure of thought through which he understands the world. I don't think that he is now convinced that women can be warriors as well. I think he rather understands that, in Ferelden, the relationship between occupation and gender is different than under the Qun. Which of the two he thinks is more right or more agreeable, I have no idea. I'm also not very interested in that. But I find it fascinating how he always seems to be looking on quietly, gathering data, classifying it and trying to fit it into his understanding of how the world works. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his original party was a scouting party to see how vulnerable Ferelden was at that moment to outside forces. One thing I don't understand with all of this is why he urges the Warden to meet the Blight head on. No smart soldier would suggest that, except if they are foolishly proud (and Sten doesn't seem like that kind of guy tbh). I get that the Warden takes way longer to gather allies than expected because they first have to solve all of their allies' problems. But surely Sten sees the need to have allies? Is he just that impatient? Does he have a death wish (à la, I lost my sword and am without honour, better to die sooner than later and in glorious battle)? Was he his group's previous commander and is he now having trouble following somebody else's orders? Or maybe it's his way to make sure the Warden knows what they are doing? To push them into becoming the self-assured commander their allies will need once they're all gathered? I really don't know. I like the last option best, however.

For me, Sten is my fellow, more experienced soldier. Like Alistair, he can potentially be the Warden's brother in arms, but he's definitely the older brother here. He probably doesn't take kindly to tearful confessions of how hard everything is, but I feel like he's otherwise a solid rock to lean on. I feel like the Warden can trust him to do what is necessary and count on him no matter what, especially after they get his sword back. His devotion from that point on is honestly so powerful.

Wynne:

Wynne was such a support for my Warden (except with the whole conversation about love vs. duty and that she may have to choose between Zevran and ending the Blight and that she should therefore break up with him. Wynne had a point. Astala was so not willing to sacrifice her relationship with Zevran. But the whole conversation came at a point where she was already so disillusioned that she blew up in Wynne's face (”can i please just have one (1) nice thing????”)). But all in all, Wynne is great.

She has a lot of flaws. She was very marked by her life in the Cricle and, for all her age, she has little experience living outside of it. She is also a conformist despite her strong moral core. In a way, her ability to find peace with her lot in life impresses me deeply because it speaks to a lot of strength of character. Sadly, however, strength can be ill applied and used to suppress. I think she has convinced herself that the Chantry is right under (almost) all circumstances to be able to rationalize the life that mages live. She's had her son taken away from her as a baby and an apprentice killed. Her reaction seems to have been to convince herself that this was right, or for the greater good (and now I'm thinking about the Guardian's question at the temple of Andraste's Ashes; are you wise or do you just repeat what others have told you? The answer is not as clear-cut as it might be). This is why she is so irritated by Zevran and Morrigan. By aligning herself with the Chantry, she is, in her eyes, good. Zevran and Morrigan are not; they do not conform to Chantry morality and they defend themselves tooth and nails against somebody who would try and convert them. This is something Wynne never allowed herself to do; she always did the "right" thing and it has cost her so much. I'm not saying she was right (it would probably have done her some good to rebel from time to time, and to trust her own gut instinct more), but in light of this, it hardly surprises me that she's so judgamental. She has to be, or she would be forced to confront all the evil she has not fought against all those years and all the hurt that has been caused to her by the very institution she protects (and thank God she only tries to argue and can appreciate it when people have found a good life outside of her comfort zone. If she tried to convince by force or, for example, drag her former apprentice back to the Circle... boy oh boy that would get ugly). If you think about it, Wynne really is a good example for what happens if you live by a philosophy of always choosing the lesser evil.

Something that I keep forgetting over her grandmotherly and dignified character is how damn powerful she is. She has escaped the carnage at Ostagar; HOW!? She protected those mage apprentices in the Circle tower for God knows how long. In the battle of Denerim, she wades through an army and comes out alive on the other side. The wiki lists her age at 40, I think, but that doesn't make a lick of sense unless 75 years of age are the Fereldan equivalent to 100. This lady, about whom people make grandmother jokes, did all that. It's impressive.

Zevran:

You know, I would really love to know what Wynne thinks about the events at Kirkwall in DA2. It might be a disaster for her, or it might pave the way for one last bit of character development. She certainly didn't want to return to the Circle after fighting the Blight. That may be an indicator of some change in her stance on the Circle of Magi.

Edit: I forgot that she is what the Circle considers a literal abomination! Holy cow, how could I forget that?? Anyway, her conversation about what being an abomination means is so... heartbreaking, actually. It's so tentative. So careful. "Am I an abomination? Am I the same thing that has killed my students? The same thing as Uldred? Am I lost and damned? Did I invite this spirit in? Is this my fault?" Like wow, Wynne is going through something huge right there. I love it. I have to continue playing the game to see what it ends up as, but it's fascinating and such a huge thing that she allows the Warden in on that.

Ah, Zevran, my beloved (he has stolen my heart so much it's not even funny anymore). He's funny, he's charming, he's so so loyal and it breaks my heart. Zevran is the one about whom I've read most meta: these three wonderful posts for instance, as well as this one about his possible lack of scars, and this one about his lack of freedom. All of these have influenced my opinion of him and they are great reads.

I have talked about Zevran with you before, so I'll just skip to the new stuff. I have come to conclusion that Zevran is an artist at heart. This is totally not biased by the fact that I also do art, but hear me out. One of his preferred gifts are bars of silver and gold. While those have the obvious utility of basically functioning as money (they can be sold to any silversmith or goldsmith and their value is pretty stable through time and in different countries), there's also this from his codex: "Zevran shows an affinity for the finer things in life—hardly surprising for an Antivan Crow—but his appreciation can be more poetic than he lets on. A simple bar of refined silver or gold, uncomplicated by a craftsman's hammer, is elegantly valuable." Tell me that is not an artist's eye that sees that gold and sees the beauty in it. Then, there's also the meta about Zevran the Seducer which I linked above and link here again. It talks specifically about how he lets himself enjoy the target and be seen in his enjoyment. Tell me that is not an artist's eye that beholds the beauty of something he is set out to destroy. Even his talk about his assassinations show this. He talks about it as an art, the way somebody would talk about the brutal intervention in stone that produces a sculpture. Yes, it's a rationalization of the act of killing and yes killing is still wrong. But he doesn't go on about it on a moral tangent the way Alistair or Wynne would (”this person was bad, killing them was necessary”) or even through the argument of survival like Morrigan would (”it was either them or me and it sure as Hell wasn't going to be me”). He talks about the pleasure of a job well done, of the satisfaction of striking the precise point and executing a plan to the perfection so as to minimize chances of discovery and to make a clean death possible. And pleasure in seeing and in doing, this I firmly believe, is absolutely fundamental for an artist.

My favourite part about my Warden and Zevran as a pairing is that Zevran precisely brings out that ability to take your pleasures as they come and to really savour them. Fighting the Blight is tough; it's so important to find good things amidst the chaos to stay sane. If Astala saves Zevran from himself by offering him a place to stay and a purpose, Zevran saves Astala from herself by keeping her from running herself into the ground trying to save the world.

There are some things I don't like about Zev. The incessant flirting, for example, sometimes makes me uncomfortable (it becomes enjoyable for me once the Warden and him are in a relationship, but before that? Nah, no thanks). I wish he would also leave the other female characters alone (and there's so many more shameless comments of his aimed at Morrigan, Leliana or Wynne than at Alistair or maybe even Sten).

---

And that's my take on the Origins companions (this was rather long. Whew ^^' I hope it was still readable and that you enjoyed it!!) Thank you so much for the ask!! It's been a joy thinking about this. I was worrying at first that the less prominent companions like Sten or Shale wouldn't get as much content but... well XD

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greensaplinggrace · 3 years

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honestly THANK YOU for saying all that abt baghra bc i thought i was going crazy from not liking her??? bc i haven't read the books and only summaries of them on wiki and like. i dunno why ppl like her actually even in the show bc this guy, her son, is like "i wanna make the world better for us grisha" and she's just like "no." even tho he sees that she's MAKING HERSELF SICK from suppressing her powers! she's literally like in bed coughing in the flashback yet seem much healthier at the little palace. also like after everything, after her disapproval, after the fold, after centuries of waiting for the sun summoner.. he never abandons her. he makes sure she's cares for. he doesn't harm her. and i have to wonder if baghra has ever thanks him for that, for just not leaving her alone. like i dunno how im suppose ro believe aleks is a heartless villain when he still cares for his abusive mom like this. like has baghra even told her she loved him (honestly she reminds me of a classic emotionally unavailable asian parent but maybe that's just me). also im wondering if baghra ever told aleks that he had an aunt.. bc like.. now that u bring up her isolating him it's like hmmmm...

not at me being like alina... why do u trust the bitter old woman who literally beats u with a stick and verbally abuses u every chance she gets.. just bc she showed a bad painting... like.. pls use two braincells to see that who u figured out as his mother... is also using his protection..

like baghra could've upped and left with alina. but no. she stayed bc she knew she was safe under aleks's protection.

alsoim just impressed that after his first friend tried to drown him and harvest his bones... he didn't go into hiding???? he still wanted to make a safe heaven for grisha!!! HE STILL WANTED TO PROTECT GRISHA EVEN AFTER HIS GRISHA FRIEND TRIED TO KILL HIM FOR HIS FUCKEN BONES. like... this is the guy im suppose to believe is the villain???

honestly i feel like part of the reason why LB's plotlines seem so bad and disconnected (and sometimes outright racist but that's another rant) and why darkles is disproportionately more violent and villainous in the later books is bc she didn't expect the darkling to be so popular and wanted to stick with her guns of making him the villain. but also wanted the money from aleks's popularity. but like you can't have ur cake and eat it too.

Well thank you for sending this ask! It's very sweet and very passionate. I'm glad you liked my post! I didn't put as much thought into it as some of my others lol. I kind of just talked. But it was nice to be able to finally talk about some of the problems I have with both her character and the fandom/author's perception of her.

HERE is the post this is referring to, in case anyone's wondering.

👀👀 You've hit the nail on the head for so many things, here!

Baghra is extremely emotionally unavailable, basically to the point of neglect. She's also verbally and physically abusive, traits which I doubt were only reserved for her students and not her son. Baghra claims she would do anything to protect him, but I've known a lot of parents who have that mindset and yet still harm their children because they think it's "good for them".

Aleksander stays at Baghra's side for years, and even when they're opposing each other she's never too far away from him. Idk if you've read the books but he does eventually hurt her. And as much as I don't like Baghra, I think his actions were horrid. But I'm also honestly kind of surprised it took him so long lmao.

Yeah I mean, in terms of isolation, let's not forget that she never wanted to introduce him to his father, either. Baghra's sense of eternity clouds a lot of her judgments on relationships, which means she views most people as dust and therefore teaches her son to as well. The problem with that is that he's a growing child, and he needs those social and emotional attachments for healthy development.

I would bet quite a bit of money that Baghra has either never told him she loves him or she has told him so few times it's practically forgettable.

And everything becomes more complicated because so many of Baghra's actions are understandable because of her life and her history, but the impacts they have on the people around her, especially Aleksander, are permanently damaging. And the fact that that's never gone over in critical depth in the books or how it's glossed over in fandom is just very disconcerting. Like, acknowledging Baghra's failings doesn't mean we're excusing Aleksander's actions, it just means we're holding Baghra liable for her own. Which the fandom should be doing, considering she's the epitome of an abusive parental figure.

And Alina trusting Baghra over Aleksander is even more confusing! Especially in the show!! This is the woman who beat her and abused her and tortured her friends when they tiny little children (and who probably still does so now that they're adults). This is the woman who mocks you and harasses you and insults you on a regular basis. Why does Baghra revealing she's Aleksander's mother make Alina change her mind?! Like fuck, I'd just feel bad for Aleksander. No wonder he kept it a secret, I would too! And that painting is enough evidence?! Really?! A random painting shown to you by this abusive mentor that's been making your life hell. That's what you're going to betray your new lover over?

The friends trying to harvest his bones thing is a good point, too. I think Aleksander, especially show Aleksander, is incredibly idealistic. I think he cares too much for others - those he's deemed worth his care (a sentiment given to him by Baghra). Despite everything she's tried to teach him about hiding and abandoning others and never caring and never doing anything to help or reach out or connect with people, Aleksander still continues to do so. It's likely because he never got it from Baghra growing up, and so is desperate for those emotional needs to be fulfilled elsewhere.

His turning point, when Baghra tells him it was understandable that those kids tried to kill him because the world is such a hard place for them - that's crucial. And the reason it's possible as a motivating factor is because of that idealism and that desire to help and that desire to be everything his mother isn't. Baghra tells him this trauma he just experienced was because of the oppression of his people, and instead of following her lead and accepting that, going into hiding and abandoning everybody to their misery, he goes I can do something about that. I can make it so this never happens again. Which is usually how trauma like that combines with one's core personality traits at a young age, especially when there's none of the essential support systems in place to aid in recovery (ie, the role Baghra should have been filling but wasn't, because she decided to exacerbate the problem instead).

And yeah, one of my biggest problems with the ham-fisted "beating you over the head with a sledgehammer of evil deeds" look-how-bad-this-character-is! portrayal of the Darkling in the later books comes from the impression I get that Bardugo doesn't trust her readers. She's so desperate to have us hate this character and think him an irredeemable villain, not trusting any of her readers to engage critically with a morally gray character, that it feels quite a bit like condescending fucking bullshit. Which ew, I know how to engage with literature, thanks.

She really does seem to look down on a large part of her fandom, and imo, the infantilization of the female characters in her books seems to carry over to her impression of most of her female readers as well. Which is why the Darkling's character arc gets fucking destroyed. But he's still a good cash grab, of course, so she'll shake his dead corpse in front of the fandom for money every time she wants something from it.

Also! Another reason I think her plotlines feel disconnected (I'm sorry Bardugo I respect you as a person, but shit-) is because the writing in SaB is just bad. I mean, nevermind the absolutely nauseating implications of the way she portrays the Grisha as a persecuted group who's situation is never actually fully addressed as it should be, considering Grisha rights is what her main villain is fighting for (imo for a series called the Grishaverse, LB seems to be pretty anti Grisha), but her characters and story alone are just wrong for each other. They don't fit together.

And the ending is one of the main pieces of evidence in that regard! You can’t say the ending where Alina isn’t Grisha anymore is her “going back to where she started” when she’s always been Grisha. She just didn’t know she was Grisha because she denied that part of herself that she was born with.

Alina is reluctant to move forward or change, she struggles with adapting, and she’s very set on the things she’s grown attached to throughout her life. She also has some latent prejudices against the Grisha, and so denies the possibility of being Grisha for those reasons as well.

Alina’s lack of powers in the beginning of her life because she willfully doesn’t learn about them to avoid change versus her lack of powers at the end of the book when she’s accepted them and then they’re stripped away from her by outer forces are two entirely separate circumstances. You can’t make a parallel about lost powers and lack of Grisha status bringing her back to the start when she was always Grisha and she always had powers and she simply refused to come to terms with it because of personal reasons.

The first situation is an internal conflict that indicates a story about growth and a journey of self acceptance. Denying herself the opportunity to learn about her heritage and to find acceptance with a group of people like her because she’s tied to the past and because of the way she was raised is the setup for a narrative that tackles unlearning prejudice and learning how to connect with a part of her identity that was denied her and learning how to grow independent and self assured. It’s the setup for a different story entirely. The second situation is an external conflict that centers around the ‘corrupting influence of power’... for some reason.

In a world where Grisha do not have social, political, or economic power and they are hunted, centering your heroine’s journey of self acceptance and growth around an external conflict about... the corrupting influence of power (in a group of people that don’t actually have any power?!) just doesn’t work. It is literally impossible to connect the two stories Bardugo is trying to push in Shadow and Bone without seriously damaging the main character’s developmental arc.

The only way a narrative like this would work, claiming that she has gone back to where she started, is either a) if the Grisha weren’t actually a persecuted group and instead were apart of the upper class, or b) if the one bad connection between the two instances is acknowledged - that Alina denied a part of herself crucial to self acceptance and growing up, and that losing her powers at the end has also denied her. It is a tragedy, not a happy ending.

Alina suffered because she didn’t use her powers. She grew sick. It was bad for her. This was not a resistance to 'the corruption of power and the burden of greed', it was her suffering because she couldn’t fully accept herself.

Framing the ending as a return to the beginning can’t be done if you don’t address how bad the beginning was for your main character. You brought her back to a bad point in her life. You regressed her. This should be a low point in her arc. It should be a problem that’s solved so she can finish developing organically or it should be something that is acknowledged as a tragedy in it’s own right, for the future the world (the writing) denied her.

This is a ramble and it makes no sense and I’m really sorry, but my point is that Bardugo put the wrong characters in the wrong story. The character arc required for organic development doesn’t match the story and intended message at all. The narrative doesn’t fit the cast. She's got two clashing stories attempting to work in tandem and she ends up with both conflicting messages that fans still can’t comprehend in her writing and an ending that doesn’t suit her main character to such an impossible degree that it’s almost laughable.

So yeah, there's a few reasons why I think the story and the plot feels so bad and disconnected. I hope you don't mind me making this answer so long! 😅 I was not expecting to write this much.

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ughhheragain · 3 years

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Hi!! I just came across your blog and love it! Could I request something where you get hurt by a rivaling gang and Tommy freaks out?

stolen | t.s.

Business wasn’t going as great as usual lately and Thomas could feel himself slowly slipping on the edge of insanity. A rival gang was apparently intending to take over Birmingham which, until then, had always been Shelby’s territory and even if he would never admit it, the man was loosing confidence regarding his positions.

However, he had sworn himself that he would never put you in the confidence in fear to worry you even more that you already were, no matter how bad things could get. But, one thing he had apparently failed to remember was that the easiest way to get to a man’s head wasn’t to attack him directly - but instead, hurt his dearest ones.

And so, that’s what the irish rival gang meticulously planned to do. In fact, you had uknowingly been spied on all week, from the minute you left the house to go run some errands to the moment you came home after a night out at the Garrisson with some friends. They had even managed to do it without raising any suspicion among the coppers Tommy had hired to protect you in his absence.

They wanted every single little thing the Shelby’s owned but also, to have the pleasure to ruin the infamous Thomas Shelby’s reputation. It had been such a shame that his wedding had been shown in the medias because then, they knew exactly who to aim at in order to get to the man’s head.

One night, you had informed your husband that you wouldn’t be home given that Ada had invited you to join her and Lizzie at the pub for a girls night and he hadn’t said anything since he too, had a business meeting planned.

An hour later, you walked down the stairs under Tommy’s attentive gaze and walked up to him. "I’m going to be even more hated on that I already am with you walking around the town looking like that, doll," he complimented you jokingly, as he took one of your hand in order to make you spin to show off your dress to him. "Well, well. I’d better not keep you from going partying, hadn’t I?"

You smiled and tilted your head to the side as you slid your hand to the back of his head, "Don’t worry honey, you’ll meet me later and have me all to yourself then."

"Mmh, mmh," he mumbled, satisfied before you could go to kiss him softly.

You had now been dancing for more than two hours with your friends when you felt like it had been enough and that it was time to come home to Tommy.

"Alright girls, I think I’ve done my part, I’m exhausted," you shouted loud enough for Lizzie and Ada to hear, who were by then drunk and still eager to dance some more. Ignoring Ada’s complaints and attempts to make you stay a bit longer, you grabbed her by the waist and kissed her cheek before doing the same to Lizzie. "Keep an eye on her and make sure that she doesn’t bring anyone home along with her," you asked her lightly while glancing at your drunk sister-in-law who was dangerously eyeing a gentleman in the distance.

Giving one last encouraging smile to Lizzie, you turned on your heels and exited the loud pub. You figured that some fresh air wouldn’t hurt you given that you had been breathing cigar smoke all night long.

After a few minutes of walking in the cold and dark streets of Birmingham, you felt a presence behind you which you decided to brush off at first, blaming it on the alcohol you had consumed in not so reasonable quantities. But, time was passing by and the presence wouldn’t disappear. Worse, you could hear footsteps which confirmed that you were being followed. Your heart was now beating faster as you were trying your best to remain calm but also find a way to get home as soon and safely as possible.

Hurrying a bit, you threw and eye behind yourself. Mistake.

"Tss, tss. Your husband never told you to not walk the streets alone at night? Didn’t he tell you that someone might take you?" the voice took you off guard and made you jump slightly. Unfortunately, it also made you freeze which gave the man enough time to wrap his arms around you in full force and drag you down an alley, where a car was parked.

Next thing you knew, a cloth was wrapped around your head to cover your eyes and another around your mouth to keep you from screaming for help any longer, "Enough, enough, God I hate it when you women scream." That remark alone brought anger in you which hadn’t resurfaced in a long time but this wasn’t the main focus at the moment. "There. Now you’ll shut up."

You then felt the car start moving to an unknown location and hoped that by now, Tommy had been noticed of your disappearance.

Indeed, a man who had worked for Tommy in the past had seen you get dragged into the alley and thought that it would be best for his life to notice his former boss.

"Whisky?" The business man asked Tommy who was still reading a twelve pages long contract, "Mh, sure but that’ll be my last, I’ve got someone to come home too and I doubt she’ll be pleased-"

"Tommy! They took her," stormed in Arthur which made the man miss the glass by an inch and spill the liquid on some papers. Tommy didn’t think twice and immediately got up.

He walked out of the office in no time, making his way to his car but Arthur stopped him. "Tommy, wait!"

"What?" his brother snapped loudly as he turned to face him. "They saw her get dragged in a car but don’t know where they headed," Arthur tried to explain as clearly as possible as to not frighten his brother any more. Tommy looked straight in Arthur’s eyes, unable to form a coherent sentence. He clenched his jaw as to keep himself from lashing out on his innocent brother and took one deep breath. "Start from the beginning, would ya?"

Arthur then proceeded to repeat every information he had been told and made sure to not forget any. In the meantime, the men who took you had brought you to a basement which smelled like mold and humidity. You could hear them almost celebrating in advance but also preparing their actions once Tommy and his men would come to your rescue. "Do you know that Tommy will blow you brains out the second he comes in, right?"

Of course, you had to open your pretty mouth, you thought right after receiving a harsh smack on your cheek which did, bring some sense back in your brain at last. By the next hour, a dark red would surely paint this side of your face and take such an annoying amount of time to cover up.

You were ready to insult the man’s entire bloodline but got cut off by gunshots which made you scream in shock, since your eyes were covered and therefore prevented you from seeing anyone coming.

You didn’t know who had shot, who was now laying lifeless on the ground nor if whether it was good news for you or not. But, your worries faded away the second you felt two familiar hands holding the side of your face - which made you wince in pain - and a cigarette-scented breath you knew oh-so-very-well.

"Thank God you’re okay," Tommy hushed as he hurrily took the cloths out of your mouth and away from your eyes. "Tommy," you let out in relief.

"I got so fucking worried. I’m sorry you had to be-" excuses were flowing out of his mouth as quickly as they could, surely as a way to cope with everything he was feeling at that moment but you cut him, saying "I love you." This made him come back to his senses and soften up, "So do I," he whispered before leaning in to plant a kiss on your cold lips.

He stayed kneeling on the ground for another minute as he examined your face to see how badly the men had hurt you. "I should’ve tortured this son of a bitch," Tommy grunted as he glanced at the man he had just shot a few moments ago and whose blood was progressively painting the floor a dark red.

But, you grabbed his face with both hands to force him to look at you. His hands came to hold your waist tightly. "Babe, I’m okay now. You already shot him, the man’s dead and so are the others so let’s just leave, please? I don’t want to spend another minute in this shithole."

Tommy chuckled, exhausted but also amused to see that even after what had just happened to you, you still found a way to be whiny about it. "Alright, - he said as he tapped your hips before getting up -, let’s get you home and cleaned up."

"Yes, please."

okay so this was my first one-shot in a very first time.. i really hope that you guys liked it :/

#tommy shelby fiction #tommy shelby #tommy shelby headcanon #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby fanfic #tommy shelby imagine #peaky blinders #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinder headcanon #peaky blinders preference #peaky blinders x reader #arthur shelby x reader #arthur shelby #arthur shelby imagine

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aangarchy · 4 years

Text

Reasons people have listed for hating Aangs character and me debunking them

1. He ran away from his responsibility as the Avatar and got encaved in ice resulting in the airnomad genocide. A bullshit reason. Aang was a 12yr old monk who only just mastered airbending, found out he was the Avatar sooner than he was supposed to (they’re not supposed to know until they’re 16) and then found out they were planning on seperating him from his mentor. He was an upset child that ran off and because of stupid coincidence he got into a storm, resulting into his Avatar spirit kicking in and protecting him. It’s not his fault that it lasted for 100 years and it’s not his fault that a dictator decided to eradicate an entire race.

2. He crumpled up the note for Bato containing the map to Hakoda’s camp. Katara and Sokka promised to Aang that they would stick by him. They were his new family. They said so themselves. By telling Aang this they not only agreed to accompany him to the North Pole, they agreed to help him save the world. Of course they would want to see their dad, but their responsibility is to Aang first now. Aang was excluded the entire evening at Bato’s. He tried to include himself in the conversation several times and got dismissed. He has a right to be upset by that. Then he hears that the people who promised to accompany him and who promised they were his new family might leave him to go see their father. Once again, Aang has the right to be upset. Crumpling up the note and hiding it was a shitty move, but Sokka and Katara’s reaction was shittier. Instead of letting him explain they yell at him and tell him to go to the North Pole by himself and with that, save the world by himself. They went back on their promise. This situation was a miscommunication on everyone’s part. Solely blaming Aang is not only wrong, it’s bullshit.

3. He pushed his beliefs onto everyone. Show me a scene where Aang forces Katara and Sokka to eat vegetarian. Show me a scene where Aang forces everyone to meditate. Show me a scene where Aang gets upset when people eat meat in front of him. You can’t. Why? Because this statement is simply not true. The only scene you could possibly pull up is Aang begging Katara not to choose revenge. He tries to help by telling her he knows what she’s going through. He tries to help by giving a metaphor that the monks taught him, because it helped him. All of this comes from a place of love, not a place of wanting to force everyone into airnomad beliefs like Zuko suggests. Aang never tells Katara explicitly “I forbid you from going on this journey and executing your revenge.” He even acknowledges that this is a journey she has to make. He just asks, because he knows how toxic revenge is. He tries to relate to Katara by going “how do you think I felt when the sandbenders took Appa.” This is a valid point to make bc he nearly killed all of the sandbenders in a blind rage fueled by revenge. Katara stopped him then, now it’s his turn to stop Katara.

Another point I’d like to make with this one: everyone else was pushing their beliefs onto Aang when they were trying to force him to kill the firelord. They never asked kindly like Aang did, they said “you have to.” Why? Because they believe there is no other way. Aang believes otherwise because once again, revenge is a toxic notion.

4. He didn’t kill the firelord. Are you seriously wondering why a 12yr old pacifist monk in a kid’s show didn’t murder a man on screen? Really? I’ll refer to number three to tell you exactly why this is bad: it’s other people forcing their ideas and beliefs onto Aang. I’ll also refer to a few other Aang posts I’ve made where I talked about how this outcome, where Ozai isn’t dead, is better than a scenario where he is. His supporters would have used him as a martyr to demonize the Avatar. The same thing happened in the Chin village with Avatar Kyoshi. She killed their dictator leader, and 300 years after that they still hated the Avatar (not just her, all Avatars) and even charged Aang with murder. Killing Ozai would have backfired immensily. The cycle of violence wouldn’t have ended, it would have continued. With Aang showing him mercy and taking his firebending away he broke the cycle and a new era of peace could begin.

5. He’s immature. This is a short one: he’s a CHILD. He’s not supposed to be mature. Think back to how you were when you were twelve. Think back on how twelve yr old boys behaved when you were at school. Aang might have the responsibility of the world laying on his shoulders but he’s still twelve, you should at least expect him to act his age, even if he sometimes has wisdom beyond his years.

6. He lied in the great divide. Lmao pls don’t act all high and mighty here. Everyone has told a little white lie to save themselves once in a while. Yes Aang lied to those clans about that age old ceremony, but it ended up solving a 100yr old fued. Sometimes lying to make people feel better is good. I’m a very honest person but I have told lies to make people happy or to save my own skin. It happens.

7. He’s a bad father. This was started by LoK, when two of Aang’s kids, Bumi and Kya, suggested that they were neglected by him because Aang took his other son, Tenzin (the only airbender) on trips without the other two. At that point Aang and Tenzin are the only two airbenders known to exist. Aang wants to keep his culture alive, it’s why he started the Air Acolytes, therefore he must have been thrilled to finally have another airbender to share his knowledge with. I don’t think we can fully blame Aang for spending more time with Tenzin while trying to teach him about airnomad culture. It’s Aang’s job as the Avatar to keep the balance and without airnomads the balance is disrupted.

Then we have the fact that kids memories are often blown out of proportion, or not reliable bc they don’t have all the facts. For example, I remember several times in my childhood where I was left out by my older friend when she found someone her age to play with. Those are the memories I have of her. But through looking at pictures and hearing stories from my parents, I realized there had been several times where I wasn’t left out by her and that we got along great. I don’t remember those, I only remember when I was left out. There might have been plenty of trips that Bumi and Kya did attend, but they only remember the ones where they felt left out bc they didn’t come. Kya and Bumi are also older, there might have been years before Tenzin was even there where they had Aang all to themselves. But they don’t remember that. And even if Kya and Bumi were to come on these trips, they’d probably be complaining that they were boring bc Aang would only be talking about his culture and teaching them about it. Then the complaint would be “dad would drag us along on these boring trips just to teach tenzin airnomad stuff”.

Let’s all also remember that Aang is in fact the Avatar, as in, one of the most important people in the world. He must be a busy man. And while yes, your children should be your number one priority, the Avatar is an exception to this rule because his responsibility is to the world first. Not to his wife, not to his kids. Aang has struggled with this before (choosing to save Katara over mastering the Avatar state) and probably struggled with this later in life too.

This is a long way to say that you can’t judge someone’s parenting over one scene in LoK where Bumi and Kya aired their frustrations about Aang to Tenzin in a moment of stress. Later on Kya even showed them a happy family picture, and they didn’t seem to think Aang was that bad anymore. People definitely jumped the gun to claim Aang was a bad father after hearing one (1) complaint about his style of parenting.

If you guys find more weird reasons people have given to hate Aang’s character, definitely send me them!

#avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar #aang #avatar aang #analysis #katara #zuko #sokka #the legend of korra #tenzin #kya #bumi

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cupcakegirlpower · 3 years

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I haven't posted in ages so I thought I'd post a "Why Fredric Was the True Villain in S1 of TTS" and "Why Rapunzel Is Innocent". Aka, "Why I Love to Hate Fredric 2.0" This a rewrite of a Character Analysis I did on Wattpad.

Fredric Analysis 2.0

I am going to explain who the true villain of Tangled the Series Season 1. No, it's not about Varian, we know what he did was obviously not good, but I don't see him as the main villain. So who am I talking about then? I'm going to talk about the person's decisions that caused the entire issue that led to Varian's downfall.

When I first watched the series I put the blame on Rapunzel; but as I rewatched it, the true villain was suddenly waving in my face in plain sight. He was hidden before because I hadn't priced everything together and had forgotten minor details. New things appeared before me that I had missed.

I am convinced that the true villain is none other than King Fredric.

I didn't hate Fredric at first. In fact, I actually only saw him as an overprotective father. A typical Disney father. In the beginning of the series, I understood why he was like what he was and I realized that he just needed to learn to let Rapunzel breathe. However, once he locked Rapunzel in the tower with iron bars on her window, I was done giving him excuses.

Rapunzel is an adult that has been trapped her entire life. Now that she was free from the tower and her abusive kidnapper, she was being held back by a stranger. She didn't actually know Fredric, but here he was keeping her in a castle. Rapunzel basically traded her tower for a bigger cage.

Fredric had good intentions to protect his family, specifically, Rapunzel. But there are times when you can take it too far when protecting the ones you love. One way is by literally locking them away. Another is when you harm innocent people for the sake of keeping them away from your family. And there are more ways to cross the line (pun intended), but I want to discuss these two in particular. Two boundaries that Fredric overstepped big time.

Fredric, by the end of season 1, has eventually made it to the point where he's no longer protecting Rapunzel. Rather, he's no longer doing what's best for her, but doing what's best for himself without realizing it. And he has very good reasons to want to protect Rapunzel, but he's recreating the very thing that kept his daughter from him. Fredric basically imprisoned Rapunzel, which is absolutely awful; but the worst thing Fredric does is what he does to the people surrounding Rapunzel. That is what we're going to talk about.

1. He took the sundrop flower after being warned what it would do to the kingdom.

Because of this, he decided to risk the lives of his kingdom for the sake of his wife and daughter. Although he had good intentions to save two people, he also threw out the fact that he was willingly hurting good and innocent people for the sake of two. Now if the majority kingdom had been in agreement with this decision, then it would be fine, but this was a hush, hush ordeal.

This act, I can forgive, though. I really do understand how hard it is to choose between your loved ones and everyone else. Putting myself in his shoes, I would have tried a different way, but he was honestly desperate. However, it doesn't exclude the fact that he was hurting innocent people for the protection of Rapunzel.

2. Fredric killed people and was a tyrant king.

Although these people were criminals, they were given way too harsh of punishment, such as death. Lady Caine's father is merely an example. No doubt that there were others from how the people talk in the series. He was a petty thief, probably stealing for the sake of keeping his daughter alive. Jail time was fine, but his death was uncalled for. Fredric was a hypocrite to do this if this was true.

3. Fredric blames Varian, a mere child (his currently dead friend's son) for a crime he did not commit.

The series doesn't actually say this specifically, but the facts lead to it. Fredric uses the rumor to give him the excuse to send the undercover guards to keep Varian and Rapunzel apart. He did this because he read Rapunzel's diary, therefore learning that Varian had knowledge about the black rocks. Thus, Varian was seen as a threat to Rapunzel's safety, even though he was not a threat at this time.

I originally thought the rumors were spread by Nigel, but when I thought about it, it doesn't make sense. Fredric was the one that sent the guards after Varian, which means Fredric probably got the rumor from Nigel, but it wasn't exactly Nigel's fault. Nigel gave the king his side of the story, and no doubt Fredric had Rapunzel's side of the story. Fredric knew Varian was innocent.

It was important for Fredric to keep Varian away from Rapunzel, because the prodigy knew too much. He had information on the black rocks, and black rocks meant danger for Rapunzel. This is where my next point comes in.

4. Fredric lied to Rapunzel and manipulated her so that she wouldn't think about going to see Varian.

Fredric obviously had to keep Varian away from Rapunzel, but he also had to keep her away from Varian. Originally, I was super angry at Rapunzel for not going to Varian directly after the storm, but I realized she didn't have the chance or choice.

Fredric told her that Varian's situation was taken care of. He then tasked her with "Important Royal Duties". Things that weren't actually important. In fact, Nigel was even super confused and asked Fredric why he was making such a big deal about the Griffin. Of course, Fredric gave an answer, his true reason was to make Rapunzel think that the fate of Corona depended on her to make Griffin agree to their terms. He was also very forceful about the painting. He did this to keep Rapunzel from going after Varian, so I can't exactly blame her since Fredric made it sound like both these events were important for the entire kingdom's greater good even though they actually weren't that important.

Fredric made it very clear that he had no regard for helping Varian or even his own friend. He was willing to lie and manipulate his own beloved daughter to keep her from doing so as well.

5. He sends Cassandra away.

Since he read Rapunzel's diary, he learned that Cass was the reason she learned about the black rocks. So he sends her off to a covenant (which doesn't end up playing out). This, much like what he did with Varian but not as extreme. The plan was to keep her away from Rapunzel, due to the black rocks. Of course, this was under the agreement of the Captain of the guard. However, in doing this, Cassandra's whole career that she wanted was ruined. If this had played out, her dreams would have been utterly crushed as she was forced to live the life of a nun. The life of a nun is something you should choose not be forced into, because once you commit yourself, there is basically no getting out. Which is basically just unofficially locking Cassandra up.

Cassandra was a threat to Rapunzel's safety in Fredric's eyes. She could sneak his daughter in and out without his knowledge, and he probably assumed that Cassandra influenced Rapunzel to want to go out. He probably thought that separating them would solve Rapunzel's wish to explore beyond the walls of Corona. The latter is more of a speculation, but I think that it's fine to assume that this was going through his head.

Season 3 was wise to erase his memories. This gave us a new start with Fredric's character, and I like him much better in that season. He was fun and even a little relatable in the Queen of Hearts episode.

#tts #tangled the series #rta #rapunzel's tangled adventure #king Fredric #varian #Rapunzel

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neoptolemid · 3 years

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Neoptolemus super doc ? ??

ARE WE ABSOLUTELY SURE,, , ,, ,

uh okay, I pull together my super document of Pyrrhus, have pardon cause it's a bit old and i'm gonna spread it through like 3 or 4 posts probably , , so uh enjoy and I'm sorry for all grammatical errors

Skyros

Pyrrhus was born by the name Pyrrhus and this was based either on his red hair or due to Achilles name of Skyros being Pyrrha.

When it comes to appearances I generally describe him as a good mix of both Deidamia and Achilles’ traits, having inherited Deidamia’s red hair and Achilles Blue/teal eyes. He is around the middle of both of his parent’s height as I make Achilles 6’0 and Deidamia 5’3 when full grown, Pyrhhus rounds out to be 5’6. He also has a number of beauty marks which are similar to Achilles’.

It is unknown how long Achilles stayed on Skyros or when Pyrrhus was born. Either way Achilles did know about his son, we know this from the fact Achilles makes references to his son within the Iliad and Odyssey.

I like to believe that part of Pyrrhus growing up with his mother and aunts is that he has a lot of appreciation for women’s crafts and what they do. That he as a younger child would simply sit and be by his mother and/or aunts as they worked enjoying their company.

He would try his best growing up to join into their songs and dances, and at least once dressed himself in girls clothes to show his mother and aunts which got a good laugh out of them.

From Quintus ‘Fall of Troy’ we are informed that learning to fight and it was Odysseus and Diomedes who came with their black sails to ask him to join the war cause. He was promised to marry Menelaus’s daughter Hermione, he was also promised to have Achilles’ armor and gold, riches, and glory for coming with them.

While work will generally age him to being a young man or simply portray him to be very well spoken, if you follow along with the time line it is very possible that Pyrrhus is only 11 or 12 when he leaves Skyros, I tend to write him as being 13 for my own comfort.

Another thing to note form Quintus’s piece on Pyrrhus is they depict this being especially sad for Deidamia, she is written as having weeped and weeped. She doesn’t want him to leave because she doesn’t want him going to war and leaving her. She doesn’t want him hurt and she doesn’t want another person she loves leaving her again.

Deidamia Pyrrhus’s mother is written as loving him and I interpret bits of this story as Pyrrhus is the only tie to Achilles she has. Generally I prefer the idea that Deidamia did care for Achilles and so it did break her heart that he left and she had hoped that he would return eventually to her and their son.

Over the years she understood more and more that he would not return, so all she had was her son, and then eventually they come and take him from her as well.

Mattering on the version of the story, it is fully possible that Deidamia may have never seen her son again once he left the island.

Dawn climbed the wide-arched heaven, straightway they rose from their beds. Then Deidameia knew; and on her son's broad breast she cast herself, and bitterly wailed: her cry thrilled through the air, as when a cow loud-lowing mid the hills seeks through the glens her calf, and all around Echo long ridges of the mountain-steep; so on all sides from dim recesses rang the hall; and in her misery she cried: "Child, wherefore is thy soul now on the wing to follow strangers unto Ilium the fount of tears, where perish many in fight, yea, cunning men in war and battle grim? And thou art but a youth, and hast not learnt the ways of war, which save men in the day of peril. Hearken thou to me, abide here in thine home, lest evil tidings come from Troy unto my ears, that thou in fight hast perished; for mine heart saith, never thou hitherward shalt from battle-toil return. Not even thy sire escaped the doom of death -- he, mightier than thou, mightier than all heroes on earth, yea, and a Goddess' son -- but was in battle slain, all through the wiles and crafty counsels of these very men who now to woeful war be kindling thee. Therefore mine heart is full of shuddering fear lest, son, my lot should be to live bereaved of thee, and to endure dishonour and pain, for never heavier blow on woman falls than when her lord hath perished, and her sons die also, and her house is left to her desolate. Straightway evil men remove her landmarks, yea, and rob her of her all, setting the right at naught. There is no lot more woeful and more helpless than is hers who is left a widow in a desolate home."

Lemnos

Pyrrhus agrees to go with them and on the way they stop by the island of Lemnos to get Philoctetes. Odysseus makes Neoptolemus lie to Philoctetes because he knows that he hates Odysseus because he is the man who abandoned him on Lemnos and he knows that Philoctetes doesn’t want to go to Troy but back to Greece and to his home.

This causes a Pyrrhus strife because he has been taught to be noble up until now, in the play Philoctetes by Sophocles we are shown multiple times how this causes him strife because he is having to lie. Philoctetes also considers Pyrrhus to be a friend because Pyrrhus lies and says that he wants to go back home to Skyros because of the way he is treated by the other Greeks even though he hasn’t met any of them yet to our knowledge.

Good lines from this play that I personally characterize him are

‘It would have been better if i had never left scyros. Everything around me oppresses me ..’

‘He’ll (odysseus) claim i’m too soft-hearted’

‘I can’t. It is right and in our interest to listen to those in authority’

Some of the best development to see from this is how he was raised to be noble and how he doesn’t want to trick people or lie, he wants to be honest.

Another thing I find interesting to read from specifically this play is how Pyrrhus is very rarely called by his own name, he is almost always referred to ‘son of achilles’ and also in this play he is often referred to as ‘child’ or ‘boy’.

While none of these things are brought up as an issue in the play I do think it is a detail you can play with, like how it might weigh on an individual to be always referred to by your famous father or how people don’t recognize you by your name but by your father’s.

I think these are things that would weigh on Pyrrhus he wants to live up to his father but it also oppresses him to be referred in such a way. He wants to be like his father but he is still his own individual which he doesn’t feel recognized by as people continually anything but his own name.

To the idea of playing into the fact he is also often called ‘boy’ or ‘child’ These could be names that eventually upset and anger him. He is being dragged into this war like he is old enough to fight, which he is not and yet he is not recognized as such by those around him.

It is a case of a child feeling indignatinge by being called terms which denote being naive, though I like to think there is some justification for his anger because this isn’t just a small thing but he is being taken into a man's world.

In Philoctetes he is referred to by the name Neoptolemus, he was given this name by Phoenix, a man also considered to be a father by Achilles. Phoenix is one of the oldest men in the Trojan war and he is either involved with Pyrrhus coming from the island to Skyros to the war or some time later down the road. He gave him this name because it means ‘new war/warrior’ it is meant to reflect how Achilles himself was a young man when he entered the war.

It is honestly more common to see Pyrrhus referred to as Neoptolemus by the Greeks and Pyrrhus by Roman sources to my knowledge. (i’ll be using Pyrrhus just for simplicity)

Troy

There are a lot of various stories that have to do with the fall of Troy, we have records again from Quintus “Fall of Troy” and the “Aeneid” by Vergil. There are also a number of plays by the three tragedians of Ancient Greece(Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus) that have to do with the end of the war and various stories of the aftermath.

While Pyrrhus doesn’t appear in these very often they still help to give more insight to his possible character.

Pyrrhus makes a minor appearance within the play of ‘hecuba’ and is in the background of ‘andromache’, he makes no appearance within this story but he is directly related to things happening in the play.

Back onto the subject of the fall of Troy, he is regarded as the killer of both Astyanax and Priam. These are generally agreed upon details and sometimes Odysseus fills the role of Pyrrhus when the story decides they don’t want to introduce more characters.

He is generally described as being ‘battle-eager’ ‘Fierce-hearted’ and a few other epithets relating to fighting. In general he is not described as being worse than anyone else. The fall of Troy is a greek work and all the Greeks within this work are killing and fighting people. He is by all means a competent fighter within the text.

In the Odyssey when Odysseus goes into the underworld and speaks with the dead, and when Achilles comes to speak he asks about his son.

Odysseus describes him as

‘but I can tell you all about your son Neoptolemus, for I took him in my own ship from Scyros with the Achaeans. In our councils of war before Troy he was always first to speak, and his judgement was unerring. Nestor and I were the only two who could surpass him; and when it came to fighting on the plain of Troy, he would never remain with the body of his men, but would dash on far in front, foremost of them all in valour. Many a man did he kill in battle- I cannot name every single one of those whom he slew while fighting on the side of the Argives, but will only say how he killed that valiant hero Eurypylus son of Telephus, who was the handsomest man I ever saw except Memnon; many others also of the Ceteians fell around him by reason of a woman's bribes. Moreover, when all the bravest of the Argives went inside the horse that Epeus had made, and it was left to me to settle when we should either open the door of our ambuscade, or close it, though all the other leaders and chief men among the Danaans were drying their eyes and quaking in every limb, I never once saw him turn pale nor wipe a tear from his cheek; he was all the time urging me to break out from the horse- grasping the handle of his sword and his bronze-shod spear, and breathing fury against the foe. Yet when we had sacked the city of Priam he got his handsome share of the prize money and went on board (such is the fortune of war) without a wound upon him, neither from a thrown spear nor in close combat, for the rage of Mars is a matter of great chance.'

In general from the greek sources he is described as nobly.

He is noted for killing quite a few people during the fall of Troy but his most notable kills are Priam, who he kills within the throne room (to my knowledge) and Astyanax who is killed after Troy has fallen.

In the Aeneid by Vergil he is described in ways that frame him a more villainous or evil way

‘The fatal work inhuman Pyrrhus plies,’

During when Pyrrhus is about to kill Priam there is a line that I believe characterizes him as more of a tragic character than anything else. Before killing Priam, Priam berates him about how Pyrrhus is about to treat Priam because of how Achilles showed him humanity and how Achilles gives Priam his son’s body back. This is partly brung up because Pyrrhus getting into the throne room kills one of Priam’s sons in front of his face.

The line basically translates out to be Pyrrhus telling Priam that when he dies and sees his father to tell him of the terrible deed of his son, of how terrible his son is.

In the translation that I read they use the line ‘Tell him of degenerate Neoptolemus’

When in the context of the Philoctetes I think this paints Pyrrhus as being a rather tragic and sad character, because prior to going to the island of Lemnos Pyrrhus tried to act most noble, he wants to be noble like his father. When on Lemnos he has his morals questioned and is forced to go against his morales at the hand of Odysseus.

I interpret this as him vocalizing how he might be upset with himself as he is forced to look at the reality of war which isn’t noble or glorious at all. He wants to live up to the noble idea of his father and everything he is forced to do makes him feel terrible.

I personally think that Pyrrhus probably doesn’t know a lot about the terrible things that Achilles has done or he tries to ignore them. When fighting in the war he might realize his idea of his father might not truly be acturte, he was raised on stories from his mother telling him of his outstanding father.

In terms of justifying his actions during the war because going off my own headcanon he probably wouldn’t be so interested in killing so many people, I imagine he kinda just turns off his head and acts purely on his emotions and just acts like that of a soldier. (Is this PTSD?)

He follows the orders given to him and acts without questioning and lets all his emotions out. I personally don’t assign Pyrrhus that much pride but I like to think he inherited some of his fathers famous anger. All of his anger at what he is being forced to do comes out when he is forced to fight.

That is where the brutality of his portrayal within the Aeneid comes from.

#super doc sorry #my thoughts #my terrible terrible thoughts of my boy #I am sorry some of these thoughts are kinda old and need to get updated lol #neoptolemus #pyrrhus #the iliad #(I guess)#my super doc of all things

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yellowmagicalgirl · 3 years

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AU where Douxie attended Arcadia Oaks High instead of the Academy?

Okay, so first off, I’m using my revised backstory for Douxie for this AU. Therefore, no time travel, and Douxie is literally only 17 years old. (However, he was born 1491 years ago.) Also, I’m only putting the first five fun facts above the cut because this is getting long.

1. Douxie got cast as Paris in the school play. He recognizes that Jim is using the Daylight sword, and Douxie knows that the Daylight sword is extremely dangerous. (Douxie also spies on Jim to be sure that yes, this is the real Amulet of Daylight.) One day, when Douxie and Jim are alone, Douxie reveals that he is a wizard and he helped make Jim’s amulet, and Jim needs to make a fake version of the sword or else Jim will kill Douxie and whomever is playing Tybalt. From there on, Douxie becomes an ally to the trollhunters. Archie does as well, though he’s far more cautious because he does not want to become lunch. The Hex Tech wizards might get involved as well?

2. A running gag is that Douxie keeps on flirting with girls/women... except according to him, he is not flirting. He is being chivalrous and it’s not his fault that in modern times American society believes that being chivalrous to someone of the opposite sex is flirting.

3. Douxie has a very warm perception to Claire joining the team right up until Claire claims the Shadow Staff. Not because it’s dark magic and it was Morgana’s staff once, but because it’s a staff.

Douxie: no you can’t use a staff yet you aren’t trained enough

Archie: Wow you sound just like another wizard we know

Douxie: Who?

Archie: Merlin.

Douxie: 😣 I hate to say it but maybe the old man had a point... but I was trained and she isn’t! 😣

Eventually Douxie comes around and starts training Claire in magic. Due to this, she has powers beyond shadowmancy.

4. Douxie’s worst fear in the pixie episode is of abandonment.

5. Ash Dispersal Pattern only has members from Arcadia Oaks Academy, so Douxie would either be teaming up with Claire or he’d be a solo guitarist for the Battle of the Bands

6. After Toby tries to give Jim flirting tips, Jim tries to go to Douxie for advice. After all, Douxie knows how to be flirtatious and charming. In a frustrated tone of voice he tells Jim that not only does he not intend to flirt with girls he also never learned how to speak to a potential romantic interest because wizards weren’t allowed to ever marry back in Camelot.

7. Douxie is not the waiter for the double date, specifically because Jlaire+Darby do not go to Benoit’s. They know that depending on how the conversation goes, there’s a chance that either Douxie will be awkwardly fifth-wheeling the date or Darci will be unknowingly fifth-wheeling trollhunting conversations.

8. The exorcism is tense. Douxie uses the shadow staff, plugging in his earbuds/headphones and listening to loud emo/rock music in order to block out Morgana. However, she tries to convince Strickler that he could have Barbara if he took the staff from Douxie, and Douxie ends up pulling out an earbud as he yells at Strickler about how Morgana is an illusionist. Afterwards, Morgana focuses on tormenting Douxie, calling him out on every single thing that he has feared since his childhood, as well as offering to give him power if he betrayed Merlin. Eventually, he tells her that he hates her. Morgana tries to claim that his loyalty to a master who never cared for him is blinding Douxie (untrue, Morgana was the one person other than Merlin who knew just how much Merlin loved Douxie.) Douxie then yells that he loved Morgana like family, and she threw that away. And by throwing that away, she ruined his life because her war with Merlin made Merlin decide to send Douxie and Archie away. Realizing that there was nothing she could do to make Douxie join her side, Morgana creates an illusion of Douxie’s hands being covered in black cracks, like those of a corrupted shadowmancer. She sneers about how he’s corrupted himself, and Douxie drops the Shadow Staff in shock. Douxie is on the side of “no let’s not stab Claire”.

9. Douxie isn’t around when Barbara, Ophelia, Javier, and Nancy first interrogate the kids. After all, he’s a year older than them, and thus he has different finals to study for.

10. When Douxie comes to the house, Barbara asks where his parents are. Before Douxie can make a snide comment about how he’s been asking himself that since he was an abandoned two year old, Archie tactfully reveals that he raised Douxie.

11. Douxie is very quiet when he learns that Claire found Merlin’s tomb. He never thought that Merlin could have died. He pulls his hood up and wraps his arms around himself.

“He promised he’d come back for me,” Douxie says.

“It’s been a millenium and a half,” someone else says, tone gentle but with a face of “dude people don’t live that long”

“I know of wizards who’ve lived twice that long” Archie says, glaring at everyone while wrapping himself protectively around his wizard.

12. Douxie fixes the amulet while everyone else is exploring the tomb. Jim is able to use the amulet to fight Gunmar. Draal lives.

13. Merlin has enough sense not to make the “Jim I’m your father” joke, not when his actual son is standing right next to Jim, overjoyed by how Merlin wasn’t actually dead.

14. In a total reverse of the “Douxie stop flirting”/“I’m not flirting” gag, Douxie starts acting weird and awkward around Krel. Jim, Toby, and Claire ask him what he’s doing, and Douxie tells them that he’s flirting with Krel. Or at least, trying to. When Krel sets up a rave in the Janus Order, Douxie ends up putting a hand over his chest and saying, “Be still my beating heart.”

15. Merlin gives the kids their armor, including Douxie. However, he accidentally made Douxie think he was going to finally get that staff. Douxie, trying to prove that he’s useful, enchants the armor so the three of them can put it on/take it off quickly. (Merlin is a little mean about how no, Douxie has not yet proven that he can have a staff, but also Merlin can’t make a staff for Douxie until he has his magic back.)

16. I’m not sure how Douxie would react to the whole troll!Jim thing aside from complaining that now Jim’s taller than him. But, I don’t know if this would make his relationship with Merlin more tense or not.

17. I feel like it makes a lot more sense for Douxie to go with Merlin and the trolls to New Jersey, plus it would be mean for Merlin to make him stay in Arcadia Oaks. In character, but mean. On the other hand, if Douxie were to stick around for 3Below, he would call Eli out on the “wizards and aliens hide among us” thing because hiding is a safety thing, possibly also joking that “oh no, what next, are the gays going to invade our humble town”. Also, Douxie slowly gets better at talking to Krel. Krel doesn’t seem to show any romantic interest in Douxie, but he also doesn’t do anything to indicate that he doesn’t like the idea of Douxie being romantically interested in him. At least, not until Krel gets concussed/knocked out (again) and put on pain killers. While high on pain killers, Krel tells Douxie, “Don’t tell Douxie but I might be in love with him.”

#hisirdoux casperan #jim lake jr #toa archie #claire nuñez #tales of arcadia #toby domzalski #walter strickler #toa morgana #toa merlin #trollhunters #krexie #3below #eli pepperjack #krel tarron #my au's #answered ask #anonymous

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stardust-walker · 3 years

Text

The (Victorious) Princess Bride: Chapter 2

Summary: Scott Lang is tasked with one of his hardest missions ever. Keep a trio of kids occupied as their parents decide to go on date nights. Never one to turn down a challenge or miss the chance to impress one of his superhero idols, Scott accepts. After his usual tricks for amusing kids fall through, he falls back on one of the classics: a story. If princesses, sword fighting, pirates, Valkyries, and magic are what it takes to keep these kids from tearing the house down, then he accepts.

Infinity War/ Endgame never happens. Mentions of chaotic dad Tony Stark. Loki x Sigyn.

CHAPTER SUMMARY: After Loki gets 'killed' by the Dread Pirate Fury, Sigyn vows to never love again. Fast forward 5 years and she's being forced to marry the Grandmaster and is suddenly in the hands of a familiar cast of characters. One of them happens to look a little too familiar.

MASTERLIST

Scott had never been more grateful for Thor loving his own stories as he tried to continue with his own. He would really have to thank him for it later, honestly.

Loki had more than enough money for marriage, but more importantly he would need approval from his father. The time came when he had to pack the few belongings he had and left the farm to seek his fortune in the war with Svart...awhata.

“You said it wrong,” The dark haired boy piped up. His brother nodded in agreement.

“Who’s telling the story here, buckaroo?” Scott furrowed his brow as he continued.

Fine. The war with...Sakaar. Still, it was a very emotional time for Sigyn.

“I fear I’ll never see you again,” Sigyn sniffled as she clung to Loki like she truly meant her words. She wanted to never leave the spot where they stood. She knew that the war was dangerous and there was more of a chance that she would never see him again than either of them would truly like to believe.

“Of course you will,” Loki reassured her.

“But what if something happens to you?” Sigyn wiped at her eyes as the tears began to fall in spite of herself.

A small smile crossed Loki’s face as he wiped one of her tears away. “Hear this now. I will return for you no matter what.” Sigyn opened her mouth to interrupt him, but Loki continued. His face was more stern now, a determined look in his eye. “This is true love. You think this happens every day?”

Sigyn’s heart fluttered as she studied his face. There was no hint of trickery in his eyes or anything to make her think the words he spoke were false.

The blonde let out a weak laugh as she threw her arms around Loki’s neck. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and nuzzled her face into his neck. He might be speaking the truth, but there was no telling what the Norns had in store for them.

“Loki never reached his destination,” Scott stated solemnly. “His crew was attacked by the Dread Pirate Fury. Now the Dread Pirate Fury never kept captives alive. When Sigyn got the news that Loki had been killed…”

“Murdered by pirates?” The blond haired boy sounded shocked despite trying to come off as disinterested.

A small noise behind him made Scott turn quickly in his seat. “Wait who got murdered by pirates?”

“Jesus,” Scott yelped as he placed a hand over his heart.

The young girl on the couch threw her arms in the air. “Peter! Come sit! Uncle Scott is telling us a story and Loki just got killed by pirates!”

The confused look on Peter’s face seemed to grow even more quizzical as he practically tiptoed over to take a seat on the couch. “Wait as in Loki Loki?”

“Of course not,” the dark-haired boy scoffed. “He would never let himself get killed by something as easy to beat as a mortal pirate.”

“Wait Dread Pirate Fury? Is that because of the eye-”

“How did you even get inside? Aren’t I the only one on baby-sitting duty tonight?”

“Oh!” Peter grinned. “Mr. Stark gave me a key!” He produced a house key from seemingly out of nowhere. “I was in the neighborhood and I was hungry but if you’re telling a story, I’m down.”

“Where was I?” Scott frowned as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Killed by pirates,” the two young boys answered together.

Peter eyed the two of them nervously before he turned and nodded at Scott.

Anyway . When Sigyn found out that Loki had been killed, she went into her room and shut the door. For days, she didn’t eat or sleep. She swore she would never love again. After the death of his youngest son, Odin grew weaker. The war with Sakaar was eventually lost with the Grandmaster naming himself ruler over Asgard and his own country. The other prince had disappeared shortly after the war was lost. There was almost nothing left to remind her of how life was before anymore.

Five years passed, the main square of Asgard was filled as it hadn’t been in years to hear the announcement of the great Grandmaster’s bride to be.

The extravagant Grandmaster stepped out onto the balcony of the castle and raised a hand as the crowd grew silent. “Hey there, Sakaarans. I have a fantastic announcement! A month from now, our wonderful country will have its 5th anniversary of joining with the slightly less incredible country of Asgard. But look how much you’ve improved in only 5 years!” From where she stood, Sigyn rolled her eyes. “On that sundown, I shall marry a lady who was once a commoner like yourselves.”

While that may have been true, at least Loki had never called her a commoner. At least not to her face anyway. Everything about the Grandmaster made her stomach turn and her blood boil. Most of all, she hated the fact that she had been sold off like a high prized goat to the man that was the reason her true love was dead.

“But perhaps, you will not find her common now. My people! The Queen Sigyn!”

The blonde woman took a deep breath as she allowed herself to be led out into the blinding sunlight. She had no doubt that the fanfare would have been just as grand if Odin was still king, but still. It might have been the way that her name sounded when the Grandmaster spoke, but it felt like the world was spinning. People were bowing to her and it took everything in her not to beg them to just stand up.

She didn’t want this. She missed the farm and her horses. More importantly, she missed the way the kingdom was before. She missed Loki.

Sigyn’s emptiness consumed her. Although the law of the land gave the Grandmaster the right to choose his bride, she did not love him. Despite his reassurance that she would grow to love him, the only joy that Sigyn found was on her daily ride.

Sigyn couldn’t stop herself from smiling as the horse galloped along through the orchard. As the wind blew her hair back and she felt the fresh air in her lungs, the woman felt at peace. Her hazel eyes narrowed as she spotted figures in the distance. She grew close enough to see them clearly and pulled on the reins to slow her horse to a stop.

“My lady!” A bald man spoke from the center of the small group. “A word.” She didn’t like this man, but still she didn’t make a move to get going. A smaller woman stood beside him with a taller blond man alongside her. Something about the blond man looked familiar. “We are but poor lost circus performers. Is there a village nearby?”

The hair on the back of Sigyn’s neck raised as her eyes darted around quickly. “There is nothing nearby, good sir,” she replied briskly, “not for miles.”

The blond man’s relaxed expression seemed to crumble slightly as she heard something move behind her.

“Then there will be no one around to hear you scream,” the bald man grinned at her.

Sigyn turned and her eyes widened as a bright green hand moved towards her. A startled yelp stopped halfway through as his fingers pinched her neck. She fainted. The blond man stepped forward quick enough to catch her as she swayed forward and began to fall from the back of her horse.

“Well done, Hulk!” Skurge made a move like he was about to clap the green giant on the arm but some common sense got into him as he lowered his hand.

The dark-haired woman furrowed her brow as the blond walked over with the fainted woman in his arms. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Don’t you lot want to get back at the Grandmaster for stealing your home? And more importantly, my stuff. ”

Hulk grunted as he stomped over to rejoin the group.

“Easy there, buddy. I think you’re a bit too big for the boat, yeah?” Valkyrie raised a hand in the air.

The green monster let out a low growl of annoyance as his hands began to quiver. Before their eyes, he transformed back into a man. A much smaller, more nervous looking man than the fainted woman could probably guess. He exchanged a worried look with the blond man as Skurge went to work on a piece of cloth.

“Are you sure that this is the best way to get back at him? I mean isn’t this a little...extreme?” The nervous looking man asked.

“The best way to piss this git off is to take his stuff. Blondie here is his future bride, therefore,” he slapped the horse on its backside, “one of the most important parts of his stuff.”

Valkyrie’s eyes narrowed as he continued.

“I just placed a piece of fabric with Jotunheim’s crest on it on the lass’s horse. Everyone will think that the Jotun’s took her. Bang, boom, Bob’s your uncle. He’s got a war on his hands and we all get paid. And Val here can go back to drinking her sorrows away.”

The woman moved her hand dangerously close to her sword as Banner stepped forward. The man raised a hand slightly and she seemed to freeze.

Her sword remained in its sheath, but her eyes narrowed a little more dangerously as he continued.

“When he finds her body dead on the shores of Jotunheim, his suspicions about them will be totally confirmed! It’s genius!”

“It’s murder,” Thor frowned as he glanced nervously at the warrior woman beside him. “You never said anything about killing anyone.”

“I hired you to help me start a war, your highness . Unless you and Hulky would rather go back to fighting in the pits,” Skurge shot them a poisonous smile.

Banner let out a sigh as he turned to board the small ship with the others following behind him. “I don’t think it’s right to kill an innocent girl!”

“Oi!” Skurge shouted. Valkyrie stopped halfway through her check of the ropes on the sail. “Am I going nuts or did the word think escape your lips? No offense doctor, but I didn’t hire you . I hired the big man. You’re only here because he’s too big for the ship!”

Skurge didn’t give a damn about the other three in his crew, that much was evident.

“The sun’s getting low,” Thor said calmly as he laid Sigyn down and began to tie up her wrists.

“I agree with them, unfortunately,” Valkyrie shrugged as Banner began to pace the small deck of the ship.

“What happens to her is none of your concern, ya got it?” Skurge rounded on her. Valkyrie stared right back. “When I found you, you were so slobbering drunk that ya couldn’t buy brandy.”

Sigyn was beginning to stir now even as Thor continued to tie check the knots on her wrists.

“You were friendless! Wrecking havoc wherever you went,” the bald man continued his rampage as Sigyn regained consciousness.

Thor tapped her on the hand gently as he rose to his feet to join the others. She couldn’t help but feel perplexed about the whole thing. First of all, she’d been stupid enough to let herself get kidnapped. Second of all, one of the kidnappers had been gentle with her as if she were a baby. Now what were they doing?

“That Skurge,” the woman whispered. “He can fuss.” She grunted as she pulled on one of the ropes.

“I think he likes to scream,” Thor smirked as he climbed the small ladder towards the helm, “at us.”

“Probably he means no harm,” Valkyrie snickered even as she watched their boss’s shoulders tense in frustration.

Banner chimed in. “He’s really very short on charm!”

“Enough of that! The lot of ya,” Skurge shouted.

“Bruce, are those rocks ahead?” Valkyrie called out in a sickly sweet voice.

“If there are, we’ll all be dead,” Banner deadpanned.

Thor let out a roar of laughter as Skurge fumed even more.

What the hell had Sigyn gotten herself into.

“I bet his face was really...red,” the little girl grinned.

Peter let out a small laugh, “Nice one.”

“This rhyming game sure seems like it would be a lot of fun,” the blond boy raised an eyebrow.

Realization dawned on Scott’s face. Then his expression turned to one of amused horror. “Wait a minute, guys…”

“To play this game one would have to be very wise!” The black haired boy’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

“I wonder if we would win some sort of prize”

“Parker!”

“Aw,” Peter grinned. “Cmon Scott don’t be such a….a…”

“Barker?” The girl offered.

“Martyr,” the blond boy leaned forward in his seat.

“Oh that’s a good one!” His brother nodded in agreement.

“Alright I guess you guys don’t want to hear about the screaming eels and the,” Scott let out a sigh as he paused for dramatic effect, “cliffs of Insanity.”

The two boys cheered even as Peter inched a little further away from them on the couch. At least the kids weren’t trying to burn the house down like they did with their last babysitter.

#loki x oc #loki x sigyn #loki x reader #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #loki friggason #loki #my writing #scott lang #peter parker #we love and respect our angel son peter parker in this house #princess bride au #kind of?#scott lang is the chaotic uncle all these kids deserve

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dettiot · 3 years

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the prince heir 1/2

Luke lived on a small farm on the planet Coruscant. His favorite activities were working on his speeder and trying to find out their farmgirl’s name. She had never revealed it and was generally distant and reserved as she went about her duties. It was like she was trying to hide from something--or someone.

Even though Luke tried to be friends with her, asking her questions and doing his best to lighten her heavy work load, she never said anything other than “As you wish.”

When he was young, she sounded stubborn and determined, refusing his help. As he got older, he thought she softened a little. When she said “As you wish” to him, the words sounded softer, happier.

And then one day, when she said “As you wish,” Luke realized what she was really saying was “I love you.”

It filled him with joy, because he knew he had loved her for his entire life.

When he told her that he loved her, he asked her once again for her name. And this time, she told him: Mara.

With their love confirmed, they started making plans for their future. Mara wanted to travel to her home planet and recover her dowry. Luke didn’t think she should make such a journey on her own--he didn’t like the idea of being separated from her for so long. But Mara was still stubborn and determined, and she could protect herself. Luke knew this, and so, he let her go.

Three months after she had left, the word came that her spaceship had been attacked by the Dread Pirate Ohnaka, who never let prisoners live.

Luke locked himself in his room for days. He mourned the loss of Mara deeply, with a sorrow that touched every part of his soul.

“I will never love again,” Luke vowed.

XXX

The next five years were long and sad. Not even the revelation that he was the secret son of Darth Vader, and therefore third in line to the throne of Coruscant, could change his sorrow.

For while meeting his father and his twin sister helped, nothing could change the fact that the other half of his soul was gone.

Luke did his best. He learned about Coruscant’s military and political position, tutored by King Palpatine himself. The king acted like a kindly old grandfather, but Luke did not trust him.

There was his father, though: a strong, impressive man, one who had fought wars and was the hero Luke had dreamed of being one day. And his sister Leia, sharp-tongued and warm-hearted, reminded him a little of Mara.

Although the king reassured him that his heart would heal and there was satisfaction in doing one’s duty to one’s planet, Luke often felt like he couldn’t breathe. On those times, he had to take his speeder and leave, driving through the city streets of Coruscant and out into the country.

One day, he took his usual route. As the city fell away, he breathed deeply, then paused when he spotted three beings by the side of the road, beside a speeder with sparks flying from it.

Pulling up beside them, Luke said, “Do you need help?”

The slimy slug creature spoke in a language Luke didn’t recognize, and the man said, “It’s fine.”

The giant furred being let out a growl and Luke felt a flash of worry. “There is no one around for miles,” he said, stepping out of his speeder. “Let me help you.”

A blue flash filled his vision and Luke slumped to the ground. His last thought was of Mara and how much she would have teased him for being surprised like this.

XXX

Luke sat beside Jabba, the slug creature, and tried not to wince from the blaster painfully poking into his jaw. He heard footsteps, and Jabba let out an oily laugh and then spoke.

“You’re that smart?” said a voice. A voice that sounded . . . familiar?

No, it must be Luke’s imagination. He tried to catalog what he knew so far about the woman in black that had been chasing them since this morning, as his kidnappers attempted to get him to Exegol.

She was strong. Smart. She must know her way around a blaster, if she had gotten past Han. And she had to have brains and brawn to have defeated Chewbacca.

Jabba rumbled something, and the woman calmly said, “Then we are at an impasse. Therefore . . . I propose a battle of wits.”

That seemed to get the slug excited, from the sound of his voice. Luke kept listening, but between the woman in black not saying anything and Jabba’s incomprehensible speech, he didn’t know what was going on until the woman in black finally spoke.

“I have placed iocane powder in one of these goblets. You must decide which one has the poison, and then we both drink. Then we shall see who is right and who is dead.”

Luke felt his heart pound. He wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of the woman in black winning . . . but being her captive must be better than being Jabba’s.

For a few long moments, Jabba debated, the woman in black responding without giving any hints. Finally, Jabba made his choice--in a way that made Luke suspect the creature was trying to get one up on the woman in black--and they both drank.

There was a long silence, and then Jabba began laughing in a deep, booming tone. He spoke and kept laughing, but then his laughter abruptly cut off and there was a thud.

Gloved hands reached for the blindfold around his eyes and Luke looked up at the woman in black.

“Who are you?” he asked in surprise and shock.

“I am no one to be trifled with. That is all you need to know,” she said firmly, bending down to remove the binders around his wrists and ankles.

He looked at Jabba’s corpse, the eyes wide, and looked back at the woman in black. “And to think, it was your cup that was poisoned, wasn’t it?”

“They were both poisoned,” the woman said, her voice a bit gruff as she took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “I’ve spent the last few years developing an immunity to iocane.”

And with that, the woman in black latched on to his wrist and started pulling him away.

XXX

She set a grueling pace, even for someone like Luke who had grown up working on a farm. Clearly, his days of learning to be an heir didn’t have enough physical activity.

After he spent ten minutes trying not to pant too loudly, the woman in black let them pause at a group of boulders.

“Rest yourself,” she said, sinking down on a large stone.

Luke took a few moments to breathe, then turned to look at her. She was nearly his height, dressed all in black, with a mask covering her face and hair. Only her chin and jaw were revealed, her skin smooth and pale.

“I didn’t really need to ask your name,” Luke said. “It’s clear who you are: the Dread Pirate Ohnaka.”

The woman eyed him, then gave a deep nod. “I am.”

For a moment, his vision whited out with his anger and pain. Because this was the woman who had killed the love of his life.

“You are the only person I allow myself to hate.”

She looked at him for a long moment. “And why is that, your highness?”

Luke kept his eyes on hers, refusing to soften. “You killed my love.”

With a shrug of her shoulders, the woman in black rose to her feet. “I kill a lot of people. I suppose she was some kind of princess? All simpering and sweet?”

“No--she was a farmgirl,” Luke retorted, his anger bubbling up. “Poor and perfect. With eyes like the first day of spring . . .”

His voice trailed off, and then he gave himself a shake and tried to latch back on to his anger. “On the high stars your ship attacked, and the Dread Pirate Ohnaka never takes prisoners.”

The woman shrugged again. “You can’t, because once you make an exception, everyone starts to take advantage.”

Luke looked away, swallowing hard at such callousness.

There was another silence, colder and harder, before the woman broke it. “I think I remember this farmgirl of yours. This would have been . . . five years ago?”

As much as he wanted to know more about Mara’s last moments, part of him wished the woman would be quiet. Because once he knew how she had died . . . it would be the end. There would be no sense in waiting any longer, because she would really and truly be dead.

“Does it bother you to hear?”

Doing his best to hide the tear he wiped away, Luke shook his head.

“She died well. No bribe attempts or blubbering. She just said . . . ‘Please, I need to live.’ And when I asked her why, she said, ‘True love’.”

The woman in black paused and looked at him. “You should thank me for saving her from discovering who you truly are.”

“What?” Luke shouted, rising to his feet. “How do you know anything about who I am?”

She scoffed. “You are a prince, the heir to your father and his master’s throne. Now, tell me: when you heard that farmgirl was out of the way, did you go running to your father immediately, or wait a week out of respect to the dead?”

Luke stared at her. “How--how can you be so cruel? And so wrong? I died that day!”

The sound of speeders made the woman in black look away from him, her eyes scanning the horizon.

And Luke, exhausted from all this emotional and physical upheaval, lost his temper.

“And you can die, too, for all I care!” he said, shoving the woman in black.

She hit the ground and began rolling down towards a small valley. As she tumbled head over feet, her headwrap began to come loose, revealing long, red-gold hair.

Hair he knew.

And then he heard her voice.

“As . . . you . . . wish . . .”

“MARA!” he shouted, throwing himself after her. Desperate to be reunited with his lost love. No matter what, nothing would part them now.

to be continued . . .

#luke skywalker #mara jade #luke/mara #star wars #my fic #the princess bride #GIVE ME ALL THE AUS

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magaprima · 3 years

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Part 4 One Shot: Meeting Baby Adam

The memory of the sheer fear and desperation she’d felt the night she’d...infected herself with the Dark Lord’s seed wasn’t one she was ever likely to forget. She’d known he intended to kill her, and it would neither have been quick or painless. But, as always, she’d found a way to survive, as...unpleasant as the entire arrangement had been. She’d known Lucifer’s ego wouldn’t have been able to resist the promise of a son, especially one that wasn’t diluted by mortality as Sabrina was. A stay of execution he’d called it, and that was exactly what she’d expected; after all, thirteen months was more than enough time to come up with a plan, to finish Lucifer once and for all, and ensure her own life was protected in the process. She’d hadn’t come so far only to...retreat all the way to the beginning once again.

The baby therefore had been a means to an end. She’d birthed demonic creatures before-- not traditionally, she’d never actually been pregnant, but they were all still her children, she had given something of herself each time to make them, and they did all call her Mother. But she didn’t love them, she didn’t...excessively care for them. She’d had no reason to think this child, this Morningstar would be any different. And any sickness she’d felt, any...over-whelmining nausea he’d caused had only cemented the idea in her mind. Anything that caused her to feel this sick, this weak, at any point was not exactly going to earn her affection.

But....whenever her stomach was settled, whenever she didn’t feel ill, when she’d finally developed a particular potion that eased those symptoms, she couldn’t deny that being aware of something growing inside her was oddly...connecting. She’d even, on occasion, found herself smiling, even humming to herself in private contentment. She decided it was due to the fact she was slowly forming a plan, that everything would, eventually, come together. The fact she flinched in displeasure whenever Lucifer named the child ‘my son’, however, was something she hadn’t really wanted to explore. Besides, there had still been many months to go, almost a year, in fact.

If not for what happened.

It had been a twinge at first. A muscle spasm. A brief shot of pain that had hurt but wasn’t of any real concern. But then it came again. Bigger. More painful. She’d known instantly that something was wrong and it wasn’t merely her witch instincts that told her that, but something else, some...intuition telling her there was something bad happening to the tiny life growing inside her. The pain quickly became unbearable, even in its initial short bursts. She’d tried to swallow it, to breathe through it, but something inside her was ripping through her, pushing at organs, all of her insides. Pushing them violently.

The sudden, accelerated growth had been agonisingly fast, ripping through all of her, kicking through every part of her relentlessly, carelessly, destroying and cutting through parts of her to make room for the life inside her that was growing so much faster than was possible, even by infernal standards. And the sudden weight, the sudden change of weight of what had been nothing more than an almost imperceptible fetus becoming a complete and whole baby, had brought her to knees, unable to balance anymore than she was able to bear the pain.

Her concern should have been for herself and only herself. The baby was killing her and she should have thought of nothing but how to stop it, how to survive it...and yet, despite herself, her first flicker of a thought was to her son. My baby. If it was ripping her apart, then that meant he was being torn apart too; growing too fast, ripping out of her, would kill him as much as it would kill her....and not only did Lilith hate that she knew that, she hated that she cared.

She’d known where she needed to go, the only people who could actually help her-- and her son. She’d known it even if she didn’t like it. The last time she’d gone to the Spellmans for sanctuary she’d be turned away, but if they did that this time, Lilith knew she’d die. The Spellman Sisters were not just witches, they were skilled midwives, with centuries of experience of delivering babies of all varieties. They'd been her only hope and one that, thankfully, hadn’t been misplaced.

As she’d lay writhing on that bed, she’d known her baby was tearing apart. She hadn’t just felt it, she’d known it. She’d known then that that was what was meant to happen, someone was tearing them apart, someone was trying to kill them both, and Lilith wanted to hate the child for giving her this vulnerability. If she hadn’t been pregnant, if she hadn’t been carrying him, no one could have used this spell on her, she would have nothing to exploit, no vulnerability. The pregnancy might have, briefly, saved her life, but the baby had made her weak. It had made it possible for her enemies to not only attack her, but to succeed. She’d be ripped apart on this bed, she’d be dead and everything would have been for nothing, all of it. She’d be gone. Dead because her baby had made her weak.

And then the pain faded. Gone. Nothing but a dull hum as all around her the witches screamed in agony, taking on her pain. She’d been bewildered, confused, not just by the power of the spell, of how it had been possible in the first place, that a mere prayer of a spell from Zelda Spellman had compelled the Goddess of Witches herself to intervene, but also that any of the coven would be willing to do it, that they’d want to spare her the pain. And she felt them pushing, all of them. All of them pushing with her, physically pushing, all of them joined to get the baby out of her, to share the pain and the suffering, all of it, to help her survive. It gave Lilith time not only to realise that she wouldn’t die, that these people were not going to let her die, but that her baby wouldn’t die either, that she’d see him, that in minutes she would, actually, see him. And she didn’t want to. She should be hating him, she should be cursing his existence for what he’d done to her....but she wasn’t. She tried, she tried so hard to hate him as she pushed, but that hatred, that oh so familiar and comforting emotion wouldn’t come. If she couldn’t hate him now, for all this, when she’d never even seen him, held him...Lilith had dreaded what it would mean when she did.

This had not been part of her...emergency plan to save her own life. The baby had been nothing but a means to an end. A pregnancy to spare her life and a child that could, potentially and possibly, be used as some...bargaining chip at a later point. Caring for the child was never her intention nor was it her desire. And as she’d felt the creature finally slip out of her, she’d felt a cold dread grip her. She didn’t want to see him. She didn’t want to see him. But she knew Hilda would make her, that, inevitably, he would be brought to her. A son to his Mother. She didn’t want it. She didn’t want him. She didn’t want what it would mean. She was the Mother of Demons, not a mother of some actual baby. She didn’t want to be that. She didn’t want to care for something other than herself. It would make her weak, make her vulnerable, just as the pregnancy had. She wanted Lucifer gone and she wanted the throne. That’s all. She wouldn’t have some....satanic miracle change that, interfering with it.

She could hear him crying and she’d still refused to look, instead keeping her eyes on the ceiling, avoiding everyone in the room, all of it. Trying her best to ignore as Hilda cut the cord, as she wrapped him in a blanket with the clear intent of....presenting him to Lilith. She didn’t want this. She’d never wanted this. Take it away, she thought silently, take it away, even as her head turned to look, to watch Hilda. She could see a hand, just the tiniest glimpse of a hand....and she wanted to see more. She’d delivered him, it had nearly killed her, she should at least see the cause of that, to put an actual face to her near cause of death.

But the nearer Hilda grew, the more Lilith had felt the desire to do more than see him. She wanted to hold him. He’s mine, she thought silently. He’s mine and I should be the one holding him. He’s mine. He’s mine. Without even realising what she was doing, Lilith reached out for him, her arms stretching towards Hilda, encouraging her to hand him over. She just wanted to see him, that was all, to know what it felt like....what he felt like. They’d both been attacked after all and they’d both been through the pain and trauma and....searing agony of this...unexpected delivery. Both of them. Together.

Lilith reached out more eagerly, feeling Hilda was not being...prompt enough. And then she saw his face. Crying, upset by everything that happened and she’d felt an overwhelming desire to soothe him, to remind him he wasn’t alone in this, and to make him feel better for it. Please, give him to me, she thought, and the moment he was in her arms the....wariness disappeared, the attempted resentment, all of it, giving way to something entirely different and entirely...overwhelming.

She loved him. There was no escaping it. She loved him. He was perfect. Instinctively, she hushed him gently, rocking him a little, wanting to soothe his cries and dry his tears. I know, she thought, I know. We were attacked, we suffered...but we survived. We’re both survivors. This love was different than anything she’d ever known; it didn’t feel like it was taking from her, it felt felt like it was giving. She’d worried that being even remotely attached the child would mean she would be weak, that she would...give up on certain goals in favour of newfound motherhood. Instead, it was the opposite. Lilith felt a flame inside her burn brighter than ever as her determination became fiercer than ever too. For him, for her son. Her son who she loved and who she would protect at all costs. He’d started his life in suffering, but she’d make sure he wouldn’t live that way. Lucifer wouldn’t come near him, none of Hell’s Court would...not until she and her son were both ruling over it.

She’d never known love could be such a...rallying strength, how powerful it could really be, until now. She loved him and she had no desire to deny it, not to herself, not to anyone.

“He’s perfect” She declared, “A perfect little devil”

#p4 one shots #this has been in my head for a while #i didn't focus too much on the actual birth because i feel i've gone into that much more in analysis #and this was more about lilith's connection to adam

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chaossmagic · 3 years

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Explain why you hate Jack and Andy so much? I’m only asking because I love hearing your Jack and Andy rants. I hate Jack and Andy too. Poor Robert having to put up with them throughout his childhood 😭

Jack was abusive, mentally, verbally and (in Robert’s case) physically, treated both his sons like he could bend them into whatever shape he wanted them to be and if they didn’t, then it was their own fault for being ‘bad, and generally an all-round Massive Dick.

Notably in Robert’s case, who resisted Jack’s attempts to force him into the Good Sugden Heir model and therefore Jack saw that as a sign that there was something inherently ‘wrong’ with him. He took that even further when Robert, depressed and lonely after his Mum died (which he witnessed at barely 14 years old) started lashing out because he felt unwanted and not listened to, and when Jack and Andy conspired against him to keep the truth about his mother’s death from him (i.e. it was Andy’s fault, a botched attempt at an insurance scam to get the farm more money).

The more Robert grew up into Not Mini Jack Sugden, the more his father tried to force him to ‘correct’ his wayward behaviour and do what he wanted him to do. When it didn’t work, he decided that Robert was inherently rotten to the core and wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t behave, wasn’t a ‘normal, decent’ child who could set an example for the next generation.

He ignored him, belittled him, treated his rebellious behaviour as childish attention-seeking instead of deep-seated trauma and grief, lashed out at him verbally and literally told him he was worthless. He was violent towards him (and not to Andy). He openly preferred Vic and Andy to him. He never wasted an opportunity to tell Robert he was useless and awful and a terrible person. He punished Robert much more excessively for things he did wrong than Andy, even in situations where it was Andy’s fault! (For example, the accident that killed Max was pinned on Robert, even though Andy had been driving and Max had been in Andy’s car).

Jack also beat his child for being queer...and that alone is enough to make him the shittiest, lowest shitstain of a human being there ever was. The fact that even Robert himself believed into adulthood that it was because he was ‘bad’ and therefore deserved it (and that Jack wasn’t what he clearly was - a bigoted, violent homophobe who didn’t just have a problem with Robert being bisexual but with anyone who was not straight - and, while we’re at it, so did Andy) and not something that wasn’t okay is testimony enough.

And then we have Andy. Complicit in the years of verbal, emotional and psychological abuse Robert endured under his father, he never once spoke up for his brother - even though they were best friends once. He never defended him or tried to protect him when Jack treated him like dirt. He’s a gaslighting piece of shit who even in adulthood refused to treat Robert like an equal and still acted as if they were both teenagers. He told Robert that he was ‘imagining’ his - their - abusive childhood and whenever he tried to speak up about what Jack was like, he got shot down or told he was exaggerating, or just plain making stuff up to get attention.

Because Robert is always the spoiled, whiny brat who throws a fit when he doesn’t get what he wants, and Andy is the Perfect Saint who can never do anything wrong. Even as adults when Jack was long dead.

Andy beat his first wife and went to PRISON FOR IT. He shot Jack by accident because HE WAS AIMING FOR ROBERT. He waited outside Robert’s caravan where he was living ALL DAY waiting for the opportunity to SHOOT HIM when he left. What the hell?! He hired Ross to shoot him a SECOND time. He made Robert’s life hell for the first couple of years or so after he returned to Emmerdale.

And then he had the gall to beg for his help when the Whites turned on him!

Which, of course, Robert did, because he’s been so conditioned and groomed and gaslit by his abuse that he felt he owed Andy something ‘because he was still his brother’ and that meant that he had some kind of duty to him. Bullshit! I’ve always hated those scenes in Andy’s exit because it just feels so gross knowing that Robert still felt compelled to apologize to ANDY for what had happened and forgave him despite everything that he’d done to him. I hate it so much. I wish those scenes had never happened.

Robert’s childhood was awful and I wish the show would acknowledge that more (or I wish they had acknowledged it more) and the lasting impact it had well into adulthood for him. He couldn’t talk about it with anyone except Aaron and even then the show didn’t really dive into it to the extent that they should have. It breaks my heart because Robert has been made to feel alone, worthless, unlovable, unworthy of love and ‘defective’ his whole life, and now his worst fears have all come true. He always deserved better.

#anon #i'm always down for hating jack and andy for being the worst people ever #I DESPISE THEM #so thank you for letting me rant about how terrible they are

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wcamino-confessions · 3 years

Text

anyway have some major points from my "Warrior Cats Rewrite" outline. long story short im rewriting the entire series bc i can, feel free to suggest things youd like to see :)

Overall:

-Please note that some of these bullet points dont make sense in the order theyre in bc i forgot to put them in chronological order and didnt have much time to fix it

-Each book has a different protag in a different Clan

-Some names, families, and pelt colours will all be switched around/changed

-Some characters will be aged up or down depending on when it makes sense to me for them to be born

-StarClan is fucking powerless. Instead these fiesty battlecats have a religion similar to greeks, with their main gods are based around the moon. Its considered super lucky for a kit to be born under a full moon, and naming a cat/kit "Moon-" is considered super disrespectful and can get both kit and mother shunned by the Clan or exiled

-WindClan never stopped tunneling

-Oakheart is still alive

-Assume no cats are related unless I state otherwise

-Lostsong, Wildblaze, Ferncloud, Ashfur, Brambleflower, and Tawnystorm are all related (Bramble, Tawny, Ash, Fern have the same father, Wild, Lost, Bramble, Tawny have the same mother)

-Acorn and Squirrel are Dust/Sand's kits, though they 2 are no longer mates

-The medicine cats cant have mates or kits rule is thrown out the window bc its stupid

Name Changes:

-Brambleclaw -> Brambleflower

-Tawnypelt -> Tawnystorm

-Sandstorm -> Sandstrike

-Firestar -> Sparkfern

-Leafpool -> Acornleaf

-Brightheart -> Lostsong

-Yellowfang -> Mirestorm

-Ravenpaw -> Ravensight

-Swiftpaw -> Wildblaze

1st arc (The prophecies begin):

- Protags are Sparkfern (ThunderClan, book 1), Yellowfang (ShadowClan, Book 2), Mistyfoot (RiverClan, book 3), Tallstar (WindClan, book 4), Tigerclaw (Book 5)

-1st book goes more or less the same with only minor changes until you reach the point where Sparkpaw was supposed to run into Mirestorm

-In this rewrite Brokenstar "out of the good of his heart" allows Mirestorm to stay in ShadowClan under 2 conditions. She gives up being a medicine cat and goes back to being a warrior, and she isnt allowed anywhere without a guard. She accepts

-Tigerclaw goes through with the plan to kill Ravenpaw but fails. Ravenpaw, terrified for his life, decides to switch to being a medicine cat

-WindClan hasn't been driven out, but only because Tallstar gave ShadowClan a good half of their territory

-Tigerclaw doesn't try any backhanded traps like the thunderpath one

-That being said, Cinderpaw still gets caught on the Thunderpath bc she wasnt paying attention to where she was going

-She still goes back to warrior training though bc this ThunderClan doesn't discriminate

-All the ShadowClan stuff happens a bit later than it does in canon

-Spottedleaf lives, but she's fucked up really bad (Blind in left eye, intense scarring on face and right side, unable to use back leg without pain, etc etc) and decides to demote herself as a medicine cat and mkve to the elder's den

-Ravenpaw still isn't fully trained, so ThunderClan enlists Barkface's help

-Ravenpaw ends up being named Ravensight sometime around the middle of the 3rd book

-Sparkpaw becomes Sparkfern around halfway through the book bc i dont try to pack what should be a month of buildup into 2 days so theres timeskips when theres nothing happening

-Sandpaw and Dustpaw become Sandstrike and Dustpelt before Sparkfern and Greystripe because they were apprentices for longer

-Tigerclaw kills Sparkfern by the end of book 1

-Tigerclaw tries to kill Bluestar, but she runs out of the den and Tigerclaw gets exiled

-Mirestorm decides to say fuck it and in book 2 pushes Brokenstar into the gorge in RiverClan territory

-After Redtail's death Whitestorm is made deputy

-Since WindClan never needed to be brought back Whiteclaw is alive now too

-Instead of Nightstar, after Brokenstar's death Blackfoot becomes Blackstar

- Whitestorm ends up getting killed so Sandstrike is made deputy

-On that note since Sparkfern is dead Sandstrike was Cinderpelt's mentor

-Both Swiftpaw and Brightpaw live, but both are heavily scarred and are renamed Deadspot and Lostface by Buestar

-Tigerclaw still leads the dogs onto ThunderClan territory, but instead of coming up with the canon plan they all live in fear until RiverClan decides that this is painful to watch and help out

-Deadspot and Lostface end up having a 2nd run in with the dogs and Bluestar looses her last life saving them

-Sandstar renames them Wildblaze and Lostsong

-ThunderClan don't actually hate Bramble and Tawny for being Tiger's kits, but they both feel irrationally guilty about it and that causes just as much of a strain

-Brambleflower is the one who leaves ThunderClan this time, while Tawnystorm stays

-Silverstream and Greystripe never get together. Feathertail and Stormfur are Silver and WhiteClaw's kits

-Also Leopardstar dies earlier and Stonefur becomes Stonestar

-Tigerclaw takes control of BloodClan and renames himself Tigerstar

-When Tigerstar tries to take over ShadowClan Blackstar tells him no

-Tigerstar tries approaching Stonestar for an alliance and the whole "shun half clan cats" thing, not knowing that Stonestar is a half clan cat (Bluestar still told both Mistyfoot and Stonefur the truth) and Stonefur tells him to get fucked

-tigerstar decides to merge with WindClan instead

-The whole fourtrees stand off still happens, but Brambleflower kills Tigerstar (who due to being a faux leader and not going to the moonstone only has one life)

2nd arc (The New Prophecy):

-Protags are Brambleflower (ShadowClan, book 1), Feathertail (RiverClan, book 2), Crowpaw (WindClan, book 3), Tawnystorm (ThunderClan, book 4), Nightcloud (WindClan, book 5)

-The cats that go on the quest are Tawnystorm, Brambleflower, Feathertail, Crowpaw, Squirrelflight, and Nightpaw (Nightcloud)

-Squirrel (who was born earlier than in canon and is therefor now already a warrior) follows Tawny on the quest

-Squirrel has a puppy crush on Tawny and she makes this fact painfully clear

-Nightpaw follows Feather around like a lost dog

-Crowpaw ends up dying instead of Feathertail bc Nightpaw was in danger

-Nightpaw becomes Nightcloud after the journey and develops a crush on Acornleaf

-She's torn between the two until she realizes Acorn doesnt feel the same about her (Acornleaf is in love with Mothwing in this rewrite bc i said so)

-Nightcloud is briefly devastated but then realizes that this makes things so much easier for her and starts dating Feathertail

-Tawny and Squirrel get together after 4 1/2 whole books of obvious pining

-Daisy is still there, but she only has one kit as the others have died (The living kit is Berrynose, now renamed Hay)

-Daisy gets in a relationship with Lostsong and Cloudtail bc thats my OT3 and bc i said so

-After loosing Hazel and Mouse she finds that she can't bring herself to get too attached to Hay so Tawny and Squirrel adopt him and Daisy just becomes that cool aunt™

-Insert a good 7 pages of Bramble freaking out that he's an uncle now

-Hawkfrost is still evil and traps Sandstar in a fox trap, but Mothwing kills him this time.

-Mothwing ends up badly injured from her fight with Hawkfrost and Acornleaf takes care of her

-Stormfur ends up dying

-Feathertail leaves RiverClan to be with Nightcloud

-Daisy/Lostsong/Cloudtail end up having Whitekit (wing), Rosekit (petal), and Honeykit (flower)

-Acornleaf and Mothwing become mates at one point and love each other very very much

-Mothwing is trans (comfort hc ive had aince forever, not purely for the sake of her and Acorn having bio kits i promise) and her and Acorn end up having Swanblaze (Hollyleaf) and Goldenfern (Lionblaze)

-since both Moth and Acorn are their Clan's only medicine cat neither can join the other's clan so Moth takes Swan and Acorn takes Golden

-a good 7 moon timeskip between arc 2 book 5 and arc 3 book 1

3rd arc (Power of Three):

-Protags are Mothwing (RiverClan, book 1), Crowstorm (WindClan, book 2), Goldenfern (ThunderClan, book 3), Littlecloud (ShadowClan, book 4), Swanblaze (RiverClan, book 5)

-[Everything that follows happens between TPB and the beginning of PO3]

-Since there's no "medicine cats cant have kits or mates" rule its common knowledge that Swan and Golden are Moth and Acorn's kits

-On RiverClan's side Graymist (who becomes a queen earlier here for the sake of convenience) nursed Swan alongside Sneeze and Mallow. Besides the feeding Swan spent most of her time hanging around and playing with Motha

-On ThunderClan's side, since Rosepetal is the medicine cat apprentice, Leafpool nurses and raises Golden. The entire Clan treats him like their kit though, especially his aunts Tawnystorm and Squirrelflight

-[Everything that happens this point happens in the actual arc]

-The 3 are Swanblaze, Goldenfern, and Crowstorm (Night and Feather's adopted son. He counts as part of the 3 bc Redtail (Sand's father) was half WindClan in this rewrite and his WindClan father also had Night and Crow's mother

-While both Swan and Golden knew they had a sibling in another Clan, they didnt officially meet until their 2nd gathering, when Moth and Acorn intoduced them to eachother

-Swanpaw met Crowpaw when Crow was chasing a rabbit and couldn't stop himself from falling into the river.

-Mothwing, who had taken Swanpaw on an outing to help her collect herbs, ended up saving him and bringing him back to camp while they waited for WindClan to come back and get him

-While Crow is intended to be Jayfeather's replacement here, he isn't blind. He is, however, deaf. He's still training to be a warrior though bc fuck canon

-Night, Feather, and Crow developed a sort of cat sign language they spread to WindClan to help make it easier for Crow

-It eventually ended up spreading to Bramble and Moth, who spread it to their Clans

-Different powers and shit

-Swan has a sort of foresight. She can tell whats going to happen a few moments before it happens. While she brushes it off as good instincts, when she develops it more later in the series her foresight stretches up to a moon in advance

-Golden still has super strength. He aint invincible tho cuz that was a horeible plot point

-Crow can see and speak to ghosts in the living world. Not just StarClan or dead cats, but any dead animal. If he wants to speak to a dead fox he 100% can

-The 3 still know about the prophecy due to Swan training as a med cat and accidently getting it (She eventually ends up dropping it and Willowshine becomes the med app instead)

-Sol comes in and then the eclipse happens

-Golden and Crow are 100% ready to trust this strange cat they met 2 days ago but Swan is like yo dudes wtf

-That whole plot point happens, Sol tries to go to ShadowClan, but Blackstar tells him to fuck off so he does

-Swanpaw ends up accidently killing him (tried to threaten him into leaving the Clans alone using the dunk and let breathe method, ended up drowning him). The guilt she feels from it is what causes her to drop being a medicine cat apprentice and become a warrior.

-Ashfur still had a crush on Squirrel and is extremely jealous of Tawny. He tries the whole fire scene thing with Haynose, but before he's even halfway done with his monologue he stops for 3 seconds, looks around him, and realizes just what the fuck he's trying to do

-He helps Squirrel and Hay out of the fire, apologizes profusely, and turns himself in to Sandstar, accepting whatever punishment she gives him

-Bramble 100% visits both Hay and Swan at least once a week. Sand and Stone have realized by now that stopping him wont work so they just allow it

-There's no huge gathering scene this time because there isn't a big secret to tell

-The arc does end, however, with Swan finding Stonestar's lifeless body laying in his den

4th arc (Omen of the Stars):

-[NOTE: This section is unfinished due to lack of ideas]

-The whole Stonestar's dead body thing is going to be addressed, but i just dont have any ideas for that so its not addressed for now

- Dove and Ivy are both spoiled rotten by their aunts and grandparents

-As such Dove gains a sorta "entitled" attitude. Like not full tantrum entitled, but getting moody/snappy when she doesnt get what she wants

-Ivy is the same way, just a bit less snapping and a bit more silent treatment

-Brambleflower!!!! Has kits!!! With Rowanclaw!!!

-Yes, I am a big fan of the trans Rowanclaw hc

-I am giving Bramble Tawny's canon mate

-why?

-bc its what he deserves

-Anyway, Their kits are Brindlekit/heart (Tigerheart), Dawnkit/shade (Dawnpelt), and Russetkit/tail (Flametail), who I am aging down bc in canon these 3 already have their full names

-Tawny and Squirrel 100% babysit from time to time

-Dark forest trainees stay the same, but this time add in Dovewing, Bumblestripe and Briarlight

-Haven't read, unable to make an outline

-Briarlight didnt make it in time to push Longtail out of the way, so Briarlight isnt paralyzed and Longtail is dead

-Bumblestripe still has a crush on Dovewing, but is way more lowkey and less "creepy" about it

-Swanblaze becomes mates with Minnowtail

-Acornleaf dies in the Last Hope

-So do Brambleflower, Goldenfern, Honeyfur, Graymist, Spiderleg, Applefur, Olivenose, Redwillow, Ferretclaw, Tallpoppy, Whitetail, Heathertail, Reedwhisker, Robinwing, Mosspelt, Pouncetail, and Dovewing

5th arc (A Vision of Shadows):

-[NOTE: This section is empty due to me not having finished this arc.]

6th arc (The Broken Code):

-[NOTE: This section is empty due to me not having read this arc]

#submission #off topic #yes i am rewriting the whole series #why? you might be asking #and bc it gives me an excuse to reread every book in the series a good 100 times :)#< tags added by submitter

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carewyncromwell · 3 years

Photo

“Everybody's been there, everybody's been stared down By the enemy, Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing -- Bow down to the mighty... But don't run...stop holding your tongue! Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live; Maybe one of these days you can let the light in... Show me how big your brave is! Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out! Honestly...I wanna see you be brave With what you want to say and let the words fall out Honestly...I wanna see you be brave!”

~“Brave,” by Sara Bareilles

x~x~x~x

For my next installment in my Valentine’s Day series where I focus on each of my MC’s with someone that they care about, I’m going to do something different again for my MC Anastasia “Ana” Read and focus on her relationship with her beloved stepfather, Bradley Pinkstone!

After Ana’s mother Bonnie divorced her father John Read, Bonnie -- being the sort of person who’s unable to be on her own -- dated several other men in rapid succession. Unfortunately none of those men were much in the mood to “share” their new girlfriend with her daughter from a previous marriage. Not only was Ana a constant reminder of Bonnie’s relationship with “the ex,” but she also was a socially awkward, chubby little girl who would cause weird “accidents” whenever her mother’s boyfriends were over. Ana would claim she never meant to do anything wrong (and honestly, how could she have done those things anyway, one might think -- no one can make a glass shatter from the other side of the room), but she nonetheless took the blame onto her shoulders and, in response to those boyfriends’ active dislike for or avoidance of her, soon learned to hide away in her room whenever they came over. After all, none of them came to see her, and none of them wanted to -- so it was probably best that she just stay out of the way. And she thought things would be the exact same way when her mother met and fell in love with Bradley Pinkstone.

Ana had heard plenty about her mother’s new fiance before meeting him, but it was only after she received her Hogwarts letter that Bonnie -- looking oddly nervous -- told her that Bradley would be coming over to have dinner with them. Ana dreaded the prospect: she just knew something was going to go wrong. All of the weird things that had happened to her mother’s old boyfriends had to have been her fault, after all -- what if she messed everything up for her mum again, just like she always did? And sure enough, not long after the bright-eyed, curly-haired man in the obnoxious yellow-diamond-patterned pants named Bradley Pinkstone had entered their flat and walked over to Ana as if to offer her a handshake, part of the floor disappeared out from under him, making him trip right into a side table and send several knick-knacks crashing to the floor. Distraught and ashamed, Ana bolted out of the room and up the stairs, even as Bonnie tried to call her back. Ana slammed the door of her room, locking it behind her, and then huddled up in a miserable ball on her bed, dead-set on never coming out again.

You can imagine Ana’s surprise, therefore, when her bedroom door swung open, unlocked, to reveal Bradley Pinkstone standing there, a small smile on his face.

“Hey,” he greeted gently.

Ana flinched, but didn’t answer. What could she even say? Should she apologize? How could she, without explaining that what had happened was her fault? Witches and wizards weren’t supposed to talk about their magic, right?

Noting the girl’s nerves, Bradley entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him, and slowly migrated over toward her bed in the same manner one might approach a scared animal.

“That...wasn’t my smoothest introduction, was it?” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve fallen flat on my face plenty of times figuratively, but never literally.”

Ana hugged her knees close to her chest. She hated him standing over her -- it made her feel even smaller and more pathetic than she already did.

Bradley tilted his head to the side and considered Ana for a moment, his expression becoming more serious.

“...I know it wasn’t your fault, Anastasia.”

Ana looked up at him, startled.

“Those sorts of things happen, when you’re feeling an intense emotion,” said Bradley sympathetically, “and what you did was easily undone. The floor’s been put right, everything on the side table’s fixed...even my pride will recover eventually.”

He gave a bright white grin.

Ana stared at him, very confused, as she absently let go of her knees. The way he was talking was so matter-of-fact, so nonplussed. It was...well, bizarre.

Bradley raised an eyebrow, his dark eyes twinkling.

“Would you like to know a secret?” he asked.

Ana’s throat was too tight to speak, but she gave a small nod.

Bradley reached into the back pocket of his yellow-diamond-patterned pants and slid out a long stick made of ebony wood with an intricately carved, gold-encrusted hilt for her to see.

It was a wand.

Ana’s gray eyes grew very, very wide.

“You...?”

Bradley tucked his wand back into his pocket with a white smile. “Yep -- I’m one too.”

Ana was stunned. Her mother’s fiance...was a wizard? So he...he knew everything? About the Wizarding World, about Hogwarts, about...how to do magic? ...Was that what he meant, by everything being fixed? He’d been able to undo what she did with magic?!

Her posture was still slightly guarded as Bradley lowered himself down onto the bed next to her.

“This is why your mother and I decided it was time we meet, before the school year begins,” he explained. “I hadn’t known you had magic when I met your mother...I couldn’t tell her about me being a wizard, thanks to the Statute of Secrecy, so I had to act as if I was non-magical myself. Admittedly I don’t like to use magic as much as many wizards do. There are many non-magical methods that work just as well if not better than magical ones. And there are many advancements people who don’t use magic have made that witches and wizards are still woefully ignorant of.”

He gave Ana a small wry smile.

“But...well, Bonnie would talk about you sometimes on our dates, and some of the things she said...well, it reminded me of Jasper and Preston, when they first started showing signs of magic. My sons,” he added, upon seeing Ana’s confused expression. “They’re both quite a bit older than you...but they went to Hogwarts too. Preston just graduated, actually. I’m sure Jasper and he will be really happy to tell you all about Hogwarts. And after you and Bonnie move in, I can always help you with some spells over the summer. Normally you shouldn’t do magic outside of school, of course, but the Ministry won’t punish you if you’re in a house that’s already filled with magical signatures...”

Ana could hardly believe what she was hearing. Of all the people in the world her mother could’ve decided to date, she’d somehow managed to meet a wizard? Not only that...but he actually wanted to help her with her magic?

“...Why...”

Bradley raised his eyebrows. “Hm?”

“...Why do you care?”

Bradley blinked in surprise. Ana knew her question had come out more harshly than she meant, so she tried to backpedal slightly.

“I mean...thank you -- for putting right what I did, but...I’m not your kid. You don’t even know me. I mean...”

She bit her lip and looked down at her hands in her lap.Everything she said kept coming out sounding rude, despite her best efforts.

Bradley, however, didn’t look the least bit offended or hurt. Instead his eyes looked a bit sad.

“You’re right,” he said quietly. “I don’t know you. But, for what it’s worth...I think I’d like to.”

Ana looked up at Bradley, whose face had grown a bit more gentle.

“Let me tell you something, Anastasia -- I’ve lost a lot of people in my life...many people I loved dearly. I even lost my mother when I was about your age. It hasn’t been easy to bounce back from any of that...but one thing I have learned is the value of loving the people in your life, as best you can. We Pinkstones...aren’t the most popular in the Wizarding World, for our stance on magical and non-magical integration...so family is very important to us. And if your mother and I are going to be married, then you will be my family. And that means I’ll do everything I can to love and protect you -- because that’s what family should be.”

He tapped his heart with his fist lightly.

“I know I’m not your father, nor do I ever want to replace him -- but I’d love to learn more about you from you, rather than just from your mother. As nice as it is to hear about how bright and imaginative you are...I’d love to see that for myself.”

Ana stared at Bradley for a long, long moment. Her gray eyes were still guarded and faintly nervous, rather like a stray cat hesitating before letting someone pet them for the first time. Then, after a very long silence, she nodded mutely. Bradley smiled.

“To start with...what are these books here you’ve got lined up on the bottom shelf?” he asked curiously. “They’re perfectly organized by number...I assume they’re volumes of something?”

Ana nodded.

“They’re manga,” she mumbled. “Japanese comic books.”

Bradley’s eyes lit up. “Really? May I?”

Ana nodded again, and he bent down to slide one of them from the shelf and look at the cover, which depicted a blond, blue-eyed girl with a blue-skirted white jumpsuit, a red-ribbon choker, and round red barrettes in her hair buns.

“‘Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon,’“ he read off the front cover.

He glanced from Ana to the book and back and his smile grew brighter and larger still.

“...Ahh, so that’s why you’re wearing a red ribbon around your neck -- you’re dressed as this character today!”

Ana looked down at her lap, her cheeks flushing as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her blue skirt self-consciously. “Mm-hmm.”

“That’s brilliant,” said Bradley brightly. “Oh, Jasper is going to be thrilled -- he’s quite a fashion icon himself. He’s into the ‘Gothic Victorian subculture’ -- from what I understand, it’s a fashion movement that celebrates both period clothing from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, as well as the darker Gothic aesthetic. Jasper has quite a collection of top hats and waist coats.”

Ana perked up slightly. “...So your son likes to dress up too?”

“Yes,“ said Bradley. “He comes by it honestly, really -- I don’t know if your mother told you, but my sons and I work in a theater, in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Jasper’s the most ‘stage-oriented’ out of the three of us: he works as an actor and stage-combat choreographer. Meanwhile my younger son, Preston, works in our tech department -- he’s a master of special effects. Though that’s partially because he likes to cheat and make some of the stage magic a bit more literal than it probably should be.”

Despite a mild attempt at disapproval, he was smiling mischievously. Ana felt her shoulders loosening a bit.

“What do you do?” she asked.

“I’m a stage manager,” said Bradley, “so I do a little bit of everything. Casting. Marketing. Settling disputes. Putting right what goes wrong.”

Ana shifted over slightly to better face him. “I guess with magic...doing that’s a bit easier, huh?”

“Sometimes,” said Bradley. “But magic isn’t always like how people who don’t use magic depict it, in stories. There are limits to what magic can do -- just as there are limits to what people who don’t use magic can do. Magic is just like any other talent you might have, in the end...like fencing, or mechanics...”

“Or writing?” asked Ana.

Bradley grinned. “Absolutely. It’s something you have to practice at and constantly refine, in order to be good at it...but once you have mastered it, you can be capable of amazing things. Once that happens, though, you then have a responsibility to use those talents for the benefit of others.”

Ana’s gray eyes were very bright as she nodded in agreement.

“‘You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed,’” she said softly. “‘You’re responsible for your rose.’”

Bradley quirked an eyebrow in interest. “Which book is that from?”

“The Little Prince.”

“I’ve yet to read that one. Would you recommend it?”

Ana bit her lip in amusement. “Well, it’s a children’s book...but the man who wrote it ended up writing it after escaping France, when the Nazis took over. I have a biography about him.”

She got down on her hands and knees to reach into the corner of one of her other bookcases, take a white-covered paperback off the shelf, and hand it to Bradley. He took it and turned it over to read the summary on the back.

“‘From a master biographer, the life story of the daring French aviator who became one of the twentieth century's most beloved authors,’” he read aloud.

Bradley’s grin grew a bit broader. “I must say, you have quite an extensive library. Might we exchange book recommendations, once I’ve finished with this one?”

Ana’s face at long last burst into a smile too and she nodded eagerly.

“Yeah.”

#hpma #magic awakened #anastasia read #bradley pinkstone #jasper pinkstone #preston pinkstone #my art #my writing #YAY FIRST TIME DRAWING BRADLEY #bradley is the best dad ever okay??#I love him so much #daveed diggs is his face claim by the way #ana's skirt is really high-waisted because her mother has coached her to wear them that way #as when she wears them at her natural waist she looks like (in bonnie's words) 'a sack of potatoes tied in two' because of her tummy #bonnie does have her subconscious weightist tendencies >>;#but yeah ana's wear a red ribbon a white shirt and blue skirt and her bright red sneakers to try to channel sailor moon #she's also wearing her favorite sailor moon crescent moon earrings too <3 #she's disneybounding before disneybounding is a thing hahahaha #she thought channeling one of her heroes would make her feel braver #once ana and bonnie become part of the pinkstone clan bradley preston and jasper all start calling anastasia 'anya'#and of course all three of them adore her like she was their flesh and blood #and she loves them back just as much!#just like I love my stepmother and stepbrother <3

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