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missbunnybunny · 9 months

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🫧『𝕺𝖍 𝖜𝖍𝖔 𝖎𝖘 𝖘𝖍𝖊? 𝕬 𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞 𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖗𝖞』🫧

Tw: dark kink, unprotected sex, non-con, dark content, rough sex, bondage, kinky, breeding, praise, degradation.

A/n: If something is incorrect, please let me know. using Google Translate for Russian words. I simply put down what came to me and spell-checked it. I'm not sure whether it even makes sense or not but enjoy!

Note: I'm interested in seeing how good my writing is, therefore I'm giving it my all. I have high hopes, for this one. This is a long boy. Your meal has been served, it was my pleasure serving you all 🍽️🤵🏽‍♀️.

🎐𝕻𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝟐🎐

Oh, Who is she...

-Russia, Kubinka.-

The sky was a never-ending sea of white and grey, with no sight of the sun to sprinkle a sliver of sunshine as the snow gently fell to the earth, painting everything white as far as the eyes could see. People were spotted marching up and down with their warm jackets and hats, guns in hand, flawlessly matching one stride at a time. Not one man, hair, or step out of line, just as they were trained.

An automobile stopped in front of a large structure, the driver's door opened, and a hefty man crouched down and carefully exited the vehicle. Soon after, three more doors opened, and three guys came out of the car, closely followed by a lady. Her e/c eyes surveyed her surroundings as she expelled a little puff of air and watched it develop and dissipate, demonstrating how chilly it was outdoors.

The group entered the building and proceeded to a table; the woman sat on a couch a few meters away from the table, setting her weapon down. Her colleagues each pulled out a chair and sat. You gazed at them silently as you picked up the riffle you had placed down as you walked in, taking it into your hands and starting to disassemble it. You were cleaning the scope aimlessly when you were dragged out of your thoughts by someone calling out to you.

" Rusalka." He exclaimed. Rusalka a water spirit or a water fairy. She was frequently linked to the mythological concepts of a nymph or a mermaid. The term "Deadly but Beautiful" was given to you by your superiors. You liked the name Rusalki because she was a deadly dead creature and cursed ghost that resembled a young woman. Your countless enemies would hear your name before being struck down.

timid, helpless, and frail, some would say she was. But even the most beautiful flower may be toxic when needed. Judging a book by its cover would get you killed. You were nothing but skilled, powerful, and lethal.

"Yes, Captain Azhdaya." It signified dragon. He had a bulky physique. His face is studded with minor battle scars, except for the bigger ones. One on his left cheek a few meters from his lips and concluding just shy of his ear, a scar at the bridge of his nose, and a split on his lip. "Your location will be here," he says, pointing to a map as you stand to investigate.

"You will cover the team from this distance." He ended by tugging his finger in a direction. It was an excellent location with lots of trees and tall grass; blending in with an all-white outfit in an unending field of white snow would make it simple to conceal from the adversary and get a vantage point at the same time.

A misty memory

Leshy, the forest's guardian. His honey-brown eyes examined the chart, humming a tune under his breath as he took everything in. At 5"8, he was a few inches shorter than the captain.

Vodyanoy was discussing options that they might take advantage of. The hues of the woodland were reflected in the eyes. They were two colors, yet they were as enthralling as an unending expanse of trees and flowers. He was 3 inches shorter and had less muscular mass than Azhdaya, yet he was still a terrifying opponent to face in a fight.

Chuma and Leshy were the same height. He was a man with few words. But he was always in the mood for black humor jokes, making you both laugh and smile as the captain gazed on in fear. His eyes were clear and wonderfully polished blue proportions. He was a lovely soul, like your brother, even though you threatened to slam your foot up his ass for nearly getting killed.

You made your way to the table while reassembling your riffle. As you read the orders, your pupils narrowed. Objectives Destroy the English task force and safeguard the nuclear weapons in the ware home. Your hand reached for your hat, pulling it down slightly and readjusting it.

" Put on your armor and prepare your weapons. We depart at 0800 and expect to arrive by 1000." Azhdaya spoke up, dismissing you all from the briefing to prepare for the upcoming expedition.

You all walked out of the room and into your individual rooms. There would be no time to waste. Blood would be spilled tonight, and your squad would either win or die at the hands of the enemy.

A haunting face

The trip was uneventful. You all sat in the rear of the armored truck, silently double-checking your coms, gear, and weapons. Your seat was at the rear, and you were staring out the window idly. Watching as the colors of the night and the red glimmer of the tailgate blended together in one fast move before disappearing into the darkness. Only to pick up again.

You'd lost count of time, your attention only on the glittering lights in the night. It was lovely. Azhdaya was checking in with everyone to ensure that everything was in order. The squad represented family to him. The boys were like the sons had never had, and Rusalka, like the youngest, leave her alone, and she was going to destroy the world.

His gaze was drawn to the short figure in the rear, and he made a mental note to ensure she was mentally sound. She was threatening the guys, telling them she'd stick her pistol up their asses if they died on her.

The car came to a complete halt. "Rusalka, we're here." The person next to you spoke, Chuma patted your shoulder and stated. You blink and glance up at him, then nod your head, rise up, and grip the firearm close to your chest.

The expedition had begun; for better or worse, may you all return home.

Is she a lost embrace?

You and your riffle were hiding on a hill. A light coat of snow covered your body from head to toe. If someone looked in your direction, all they'd see is a mound of snow, plants, and trees.

They might see the glimmer of scope if they looked carefully enough.

Do you copy, Rusalka?- As a voice spoke up to you, you heard the communication link come alive. That was your captain - Yes, over. -You talked quietly and quietly so as not to draw attention to yourself.

If you detect any activity, alert us - He said, staring out the window, his figure masked by the night's darkness. The others wait in their respective holdings for any others to either fire or rethink their future movements.

It was completely quiet. You had no idea how much time had passed. More snow blanketed your body like a giant chilly blanket, completely immersing you beneath it. Your hands were numb from the cold, and you had to push yourself to remain motionless as little shivers and trembles brushed your skin.

Am I in love with just a theme?

From the looks of things, tonight was going to be unremarkable. Until you heard it, that is. Your ears picked up on the faint crunching sound. It was too big for a cat, too quiet for a fox, and too tall for a dog. It was a person, but you had to make certain it wasn't a civilian.

You adjusted your riffle slightly and focused your attention on the shadows you saw slipping away in the darkness. When you saw it, they were holding firearms and wearing protective gear. -Humans- were the words that came out of your mouth as you turned on the coms connection.

You observed three towering people headed toward the structure. One taller than the other, he wore a hood, another wore what seemed to be a skull mask, and finally, a man with a Mohawk? You hesitated briefly, resisting the impulse to chuckle quietly. You had to admit it suited him. Oh well, He was still the enemy.

Static came from your coms, and it quickly came back to life to instruct you. -headcount?- he gruffly asked you. - 3, sir.- You hurriedly spoke. - Keep a lookout two missing people. He advised you that there should be 5. You dropped your sight and examined your scope.

You gazed about the area for a while before seeing it. A person towards the front of the building, next to a shrub. - 4 shrubs at the entrance - You spoke as you gazed at the man you would have missed if you hadn't seen his little movement.

Or is Ayesha just a dream?

You were told to shoot as soon as they broke through the door. The instruction was to shoot to injure and, if necessary, to kill.

Something caught your attention. You didn't know what it was, but something was awry on the opposite side of the field. Was it the stillness, the swearing misleading figures appearing in your vision?

You couldn't rely on your vision. The darkness and shadows might generate illusions that will stymie your enthusiasm and your team's life. The door to the building burst open while your attention was elsewhere. It caught you off guard. You looked up immediately to see that they were entering the building.

They entered the building, permission to shoot.- You talked softly but rapidly. As you waited, your finger slowly fell to the trigger. - Granted-, that was all you needed to shoot at the figure as it slowly made its way inside.

You kept an eye out for any opportunities. You pulled the trigger when you saw it. The bullet sliced through the air as it approach its victim. His leg was struck. His blood had stained the snow underneath him.

A mystery

From then on, all hell had broken loose. Ghost talked on the coms after Soap was shot. When he informed his crew that bullets had been fired, their senses went into overdrive. König was ahead of the group, gun lifted, trigger finger on the trigger, ready to fire on the suspicious enemy.

Ghost was on the right, Soap was on the left, and Price was just behind them. Soap was hobbling a little, but the gunshot had not killed him. Ghost unlocked the doors and searched the rooms for any indication or sight of someone. The weapons were reported to be at the far end of the facility, according to the information.

A gunshot struck the side of König's skull, missing him by an inch. As soon as the doors leading to the weapon room opened. He and his men retreated hastily behind the door and the walls, firing back at the culprits.

Both sides were heavily armed. It could be heard over the coms as the sound of gunfire broke out in the air. Making the night more silent, quiet, and foreboding. After a while, everything was silent; neither the wind nor the crickets wanted to make an appearance. Sometimes silence was never a good thing.

Oh, who is she?

You waited with bated breath - Leshy and Chuma were shot - a voice came through. Vodyanoy was there. You exhaled a breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding. You stood there watching as the man who had entered the building burst out the door.

You watched as the man with the Mohawk was assisted by a man wearing a helmet. The tallest of them all had the arm of the man in a skull mask over his shoulder. Their blood stained the snow with a brilliant scarlet tint.

That's when something occurred to you. - Vodyanoy, tell me where Azhdaya is. Unlike your normal calm and collected manner, you raised your voice. -The captain was shot in the abdomen.- As you received the news, your heart fell, throbbing and hurting. - I've already made the decision. But I require your presence.- You entered the building without hesitation, without caring if it would get you killed or if it was irresponsible.

The mission was successful, but at a high cost: everyone was severely hurt. The cost was cleared when the medical team came. Unfortunately, someone had to remain behind. You offered to remain behind because there wasn't much room in the truck, don't know how but it happened. Your team was against it, but you shot them down. You were the least harmed and would be hiding in one of the nearby hideouts.

Oh, who is she?

You arrived at one of the hideouts, an abandoned structure by a river. Your firearm was never far from your side or in your hands. Even though it was familiar ground, you could never relax your guard.

As you got closer to the building, you noticed a towering person. You'd seen him before. If you recall, he was the colonel on the other side of this combat field. You knew you could play the helpless citizen if you were simply charming to him. You could at the very least eliminate him and his squad.

You took a gamble knowing you were about to collide in this combat field unknown to him but not to you. He was tall, far taller than you would have anticipated. He towered over your commander. You choose to have some fun. You taunted him by messing with his thoughts. You become the night's shadow, the illusion that swirled in his unfocused eyes.

You observed him as he twisted and turned. Look to the right and left, up ahead and below. You chuckled a little, watching him feverishly search for you like a lost puppy. But you were disappointed since your spot had been snatched from you; you heard shouts and froze. The man in the skull mask exited the building beside the colonel. You made the decision to walk away from him. You locked eyes with him as he lifted his firearm and spoke harshly. " Get her."

A misty memory

You rushed out of there on your heels, seeking for a new hiding spot. You rushed through the deep forest, crouching low to avoid hitting a tree. You made the mistake of looking back and confronting death.

He was swiftly catching up with you. You ran and ran, and you appeared to have lost track of time, but one thing bothered you: they were both following after you, but when you looked around, you noticed the one with the skull mask.

You inhaled the frigid air, allowing it to enter your aching, anxious lungs. You proceeded to the abandoned building, taking in as much air as you could and watching for a while to be sure it was clear. You seek refuge in a dark area with access to the entrance and window.

You closed your eyes and lay back against the corner, rifle in hand, succumbing to tiredness and allowing sleep to overtake you. You were too sleepy to notice that your safe way was going to be your undoing.

A haunting face

As Ghost and König stood in front of the building König had seen you walk onto, it was late. Ghost had lost track of you, and the snow had made everything appear so familiar that he couldn't tell right from left. He waited until König returned, informing Ghost that he had discovered where you were hiding.

Now when they were standing in front of the building, Ghost crept inside quietly, not wanting you to flee. You being valuable to them since you know the ins and outs of the building. He creeps closer to the room, discovering you in a corner with a riffle in hand. Your head hung down, hiding your features. He eased you out of the corner.

He straddled your lap and took a knife from his thigh strap, pressing it to your throat. " You know, that's not nice. Everyone told you, you have a sexy waist." You voiced to him, as you looked him up and down, making eye contact, a little grin tugged at your lips.

Ghost's eyes narrow as he looks at you, moving his knife closer to your throat, a line of scarlet slipping from your slashed flesh. "I'm the one who asks the questions here." His tone was harsh and low. Sending shivers down your spine as his icy, almost lifeless eyes glared down at you.

You can feel his breath fan your face as he leans forward. You feel your cheeks get hot and flushed. Were you indeed roused by a masked guy riding your lap? Perhaps nothing is impossible in love and war.

Is she a lost embrace?

You heard a stir from behind you and tilted your head to see a tall man towering over the two of you. The moonlight behind him accentuated his silhouette. Huh? The lost puppy returned in search of his owner, you guessed. König kept staring into you quietly, observing your very move.

"as much as I would enjoy having you in my lap," you said to the masked man, carefully moving your hand, not revealing your plans for the following few seconds. "You've never said your name." You sweetly spoke, but they couldn't see it anyhow. Finally, make contact with your riffle and grip it tightly.

You heard him say, "König." His voice is deep and low, and just hearing it makes your stomach twist and spin. "Ghost," remarked the man next to you. "Rusalka," you say, raising your arm and smacking the riffle's bud into the ghost's face. Making him lose his equilibrium somewhat, providing you exactly the right amount of change.

König charged at you as Ghost was cradling his bloody nose. You couldn't feel his body as much as you wanted to. You turned and hurried out of the room you were in and into another. Will the mouse escape or will the cat devour the mouse?

I call her name

As you approached the front of the building, you could see the light at the end of the corridor. It was probably time to look for a new home, but unfortunately, like the cat that ate the canary, you were apprehended before you could safely fly away. Something heavy smacked your back, forcing the breath from your lungs in a huge gasp.

You're not sure how long you were out, but when you awoke, your wrists were bound behind your back and you were tied to a chair, your legs connected to the leg chair. "Well, aren't Kinky?" you said, glancing up at the two guys looking down at you. They look at you. Ghost approached you, his hands resting on your thighs. You could feel the marks framing the outline of his hands as he squeezed so hard.

"Since you don't want to behave, I'll teach you manners." Ghost spoke, harshly grading your chin. You felt hands on your legs before Ghost shoved it away. König knelt down and unfastened your legs. As König rose up and came to Ghost's side, you maintained eye contact with him.

Know that your thoughts were not going in circles. You noticed that it was cooler than usual. Looking down, you noticed your gear and jacket had vanished. Ghost came up behind you, untying your hands from the chair just to re-tie them. So you're not going to attempt anything.

Across an endless plain

Your face was smashed against the dirt floor in the blink of an eye, and your pants and underwear ripped off your waist as though a wild beast desired something more. Your cunt has been exposed to the stranger, Ghost. "You may scream all you want. It's just three of us here." As you felt something hard push against you, he groaned. "You want me to behave," you exhale, shifting your face to face him. "Make me," you spat in his face, you weren't going down that easy.

His cock pounding pierces your pussy lips and presses deep inside of you. Your eyes roll into your skull, erupting in a whining moan. You wept and pleaded in a high you'd never known, with each thrust driving your face further and harder into the floor, yet he never yielded. Instead, his muscular arms just held you in place until release arrived in the form of his sperm blasting forcefully into your womb. " Should've behaved." He talked as he stood, leaving your ass up on the floor, his cum flowing out of your pussy onto the floor.

In your haze, you noticed boots in front of you and looked up to see König staring down at you; you blinked up at him, blinking away the tears that had gathered in your eyes. From the fuck Ghost had given you. He lowered himself, stroking your cheek and brushing away some stray tears with his thumb. "We might let you go if you give us what we want." You forced your lips together tightly, not making a single sound. Looking him straight in the eyes.

She'll answer me

"She's a lot more stubborn than we thought, König." Ghost declared as he picked you up by your tide hands and watched your legs try to remain erect. Ghost's knife ripped your shirt, tearing it apart in front of their greedy gaze. His left hand touched your face as he raised his mask, tilting it so he could passionately kiss you. You trembled as an enormous chilly hand clutched your chest, his right hand still firmly gripping your roped-tied hands.

Squeezing and licking your nipples like a ravenous starving man. König sucked and bit, leaving a trail of vibrant markings from your chest to your stomach and then to your core. While pounding two of his enormous thick fingers into you, he spreads your lips while kissing and relentlessly sucking your clit.

Your thoughts were racing with pleasure and overstimulation. Your lips were still being taken. You fell undone under them, Ghost's ravenous lips snatched the chances to breathe. König sipped your juices, humming to himself as if it were his sole source of relief for his parched throat. As he drank his fill, you felt the vibration against your pussy, and he drew away, licking his lips and letting his hood fall back down his face. His gaze fixed on your crumbling body.

Ghost, you let go, and you fall to the floor, your legs too weak to support you." It appears that we will have to break her." You didn't know who said it since you were too fucked up to notice or care, "Bite me." Your response was more of a drunken rambling than confidently articulated.

Wherever she may be

You became crushed between Ghost and König, and König pulled his hood up and pushed your chin up for him, tenderly kissing you and caressing your hair. While ghosts' hands raced across your body, searching every inch until nothing remained untouched by his fingers.

You could feel König's cock throbbing and dripping little pearls of cum against your tummy. Your body was drawn up until you were hovering above his quivering, gushing tip. As he split you in two, your arms swiftly curled around his neck, covering your face in his chest.

König drove himself more and deeper inside you, and with each inch, you gasped for breath. "That's a good girl…" He praised you, and you let out a tiny curse in your native tongue, feeling as though his words had kindled a fire within you. Soon after, his base kissed your cunt's lips. He let you relax for a few moments before grabbing your supple hips. It began slowly and steadily until you felt something hard press against your ass.

You totally filled König and Ghost in one fast motion. They began to thrust; being full of könig was one thing. But being filled by them both over and over again had you groaning and moaning like the slut you were for them. Every vein pressed against your walls as they gently stretched you out, shaping you to the shape of their dicks with each deep push. Bouncing you up and down, hitting every deep area that had you seeing stars. Fuck, the entire cosmos.

Oh, who is she?

König was concerned that he would inflict too much harm on you. After all, you were so little compared to him and Ghost. Nevertheless, he was losing control of himself, his eyesight obscured by the need to fill you with his seed. His head and judgment, his cock longing for release. König held you to his chest. Something about the whole event you excited in a deep primal lust, a never-ending hunger.

The only thing your lust-filled thoughts wanted right now was to be taken from behind and in front by two huge beasts like them. The lack of König's cock was already causing your insides to ache for him, and you whined for him. König whispered into your ear as he gripped a fistful of your hair, his hot breath thick on your neck. "mine! your fucking mine." He hissed low and commandingly. how you loved it, squeezing them tighter.

In one seamless stroke, könig sheathed himself into you up to the hilt, one hand on your neck and the other securely gripping your hip. The loud yell that the movement elicited from you was addictive in and of itself. They couldn't get enough of you, making an obscene squelching sound as König and Ghost brutally pounded their big cock as if you'd vanish if they didn't.

They grunted deep animalistic grunts as they pushed into your swelling pussy and ass, and you swallowed them in and contracted around them like there was no tomorrow. Not wanting to give up the mind-bending bliss.

A misty memory

"дa да да да" [yes⁴] You screamed in pleasure, feeling your body tense and quiver every time König's balls made contact with your clit and his head pressed against your womb. " я кончу! чувствую себя так хорошо. заполните меня, пожалуйста." [am gonna cum! feel so good. fill me up, please.] You mumbled in your native tongue, head clouded with pure raw lust.

Their ears were filled with your moans. They totally engulfed themselves in you, with König pushing all of himself past your lips and his head pressing against your cervix. They didn't care about the lew sounds, popping in and out of you. Not with them making you feel so amazing. " I'm-A-AHHHHH!" You could feel his cock's head pushing in and out faster and harder, a couple of thrusts of their hips. With a loud cry that tore itself straight out of your lungs, you spammed and squeezed around them.

You'd never experienced anything like this in your life, and it rocked you to your core. Underneath them, you were a trembling mess. Squeezing around them, feeling you tighten and flutter, was enough to induce them to cum inside you.

His hips were forced against you, and his cock was shoved in as far as it could go. As he poured hot ropes of sperm into your womb, his veins surged and his skull flashed. They were coming inside of you in ropes and ropes, and you were breathing heavily. Their cocks beat rhythmically with your constrictions, their testicles contracting with each spurt of come blasted into your small pussy and tight ass. There was so much of it that it started to pour out of you and onto the floor.

A haunting face

You were in ecstasy. You were warm, full, secure, and safe. You'd just had the most exquisite fuck of your life by the same enemy you were supposed to kill, and they were remaining inside of you as if they'd die pulled out of you. You've never felt more at home than right now, beneath both of them. You turned your head and kissed his cheek, despite his hood covering it.

You awoke in the middle of them, it was still dark, König's hand was wrapped around your waist, while Ghost's hand was wrapped around your thigh. You gradually broke free from their grip. You discovered your gun and jacket. You hand no pants or underwear, much to your dismay. Just a jacket, some equipment, boots, a hat, and socks. You gazed at the two men, your hat partially covering your face, but it wasn't gonna work. Ghost wouldn't mind if you searched through his belongings; after some searching, you discovered what you were seeking.

You discovered his balaclava. It was just like his. Everything was painted on the skull. His eyelashes were virtually white, and it was rather sad that your enjoyment had come to an end while admiring their loveliness. Because of obvious reasons,-Rusalka, why is your line off?- The person on the other end of the telephone chastises you. - ну да xpн, Vodyanoy.- [oh fuck off].

Vodyanoy placed his palm over his heart and added, -The love, am touched. I got you what you asked for.- He chuckled, knowing you had a scowl on your face. He was the one person you could contact and ask him to deliver your clothing with no questions asked.

Is she a lost embrace?

You did take some Vodyanoy and Leshy, as well as Chuma on occasion. They accompanied you when you went shopping for new clothing and even underwear; someone had to carry your luggage, and it wasn't going to be you. Vodyanoy was the only one who knew your exact measurements; it was actually rather amusing. He looked like a lost child the first time he went to the store to assist you pick out new clothes.

You could hear tires crunching on the snow as you walked away from the building. " I finally tracked you down. Get your ass in the car before you freeze. Short bitch." He chastised you like a child caught sneaking a cookie when they weren't meant to. As you move to the rear, you give him the middle finger.

You were finally warmed up again after changing your clothing. "Sooo… What fucked you over?" said Vodyanoy as he drove in silence. He wonders if the cold has finally caused you to lose it and go around nude. "As if you'd know." If only he knew, you retorted cynically. You snicker that he could be having a heart attack.

Somewhere across the sea of time

It was approximately 0700 when you arrived at the base. You could still feel hot ropes trickling down your leg. You were sore. Your entire body felt like it was made of cement, weighing you down. You were about to walk into your room, but life doesn't work that way.

The captain wanted to visit you in order to obtain an incident report. "Rusalka, what has happened to your face?" He inquired. Remembering the vivid moment when Ghost slutted you out on his dick and banged your face into the floor."Nothing, sir," you say as you avoid eye contact, "are your injuries better?" You shifted the topic on which he indulged.

You were surprised to learn that the higher-ups were relocating the nuclear weapons and reassigning the personnel in charge of them. You were disappointed, which meant you wouldn't be seeing them again.

"Rusalka, I was wondering where you found that?" Azhdaya inquired, pointing to his face to indicate what he meant. Oh, you reasoned. Ghost's balaclava, which you stole. "In an abandoned building. I like it," you stated casually while caressing it. It was silky and smelled like tea and dark wood. You were reminded of him, but you wouldn't tell them the truth. A tiny white lie will not harm.

You were curious whether Ghost had worn it before you stole it from him. You miss his touch, and you consider yourself addicted to them.

A love immortal such as mine

Ghost and König awoke at 0800 in the morning. He gazed about, feeling the lack of warm skin underneath him. König sprung to his feet, having awoken from an abrupt shift next to his body. He two saw someone was missing, and you were no longer there.

Everything about you had vanished, even your weapon and ripped clothes. It was almost as if you were a ghost that appeared for one night of pleasure just to vanish into the darkness. They went around the building but couldn't find anything, which is when he discovered it.

There was something in his thigh pocket, where his regular skull balaclava would be. It was a white hat. The hat that you wore when they discovered you sleeping in the corner. He investigated for any other missing items and discovered that his knife had also vanished.

As König and Ghost stood there grabbing and repairing their equipment, Ghost stated, " Clever girl." His dark eyes narrowed as he glanced at the hat he clutched in his fingers. If he gets his hands on you again, he'll tie you up and imprison you in his house like an animal.

Will come to me

Soon after, König and Ghost were picked up and joined the others. Price enquired as to why they had split up, but Ghost disregarded the question by adding, "We were surveying that area when a storm caught us." He side-eyed könig who nodded in agreement.

When they landed in England, the Price informed them that their plans had been altered by higher-ups. Laswell informed them that the weapons had been relocated to an unidentified location. And that, for the time being, they would do other things until they figured out where.

König's shoulders fell, and Ghost remained cool on the outside, but he was in turmoil on the inside. It suggested that there was a little chance they'd stumble across you on the battlefield. König hoped to see you again, to feel your delicate skin, and to hear your whimper as you unraveled. He urgently needed you, your cunt, all of you.

Ghost was disappointed because he hadn't completed educating you who was in control. And that you were nothing more than his to break and train as he saw fit.

Eternally

You'd met the two men a month ago. To say you missed them would be an understatement; you were ravenous for them to break you, make you their slave for their cock, to give you pleasure. But you'd never say it to their faces. You enjoyed the sight in their eyes when they believed they could control you, and you liked being controlled by them. win-win.

You submitted to training, gaining new skills and experiences. You even earned your nursing license. You had a good time mocking Chuma for getting into problems due to Leshy and Vodyanoy. He was like the group's older brother… getting hurt for the stupid things his younger siblings did.

Azhdaya summoned you to his office. You were aware of the situation. You submitted your application for a move in two years. You adored your team, but you felt it was time to go out to new waters.

"Are you sure?" Azhdaya asks, setting the papers down and staring at you. looking for any signs of unpleasant emotion on your face. "Yes, Sir." You formed a little smile on your face and nodded. " Alright. " He sighed and continued to talk to you.

Immortal she

It had taken two years, but the day had finally come. Tomorrow was your departure day from Russia for your new home base. The crew surprised you with a farewell party. Providing you with goodies that you may not find in your new home.

Leshy and Vodyanoy were sobbing uncontrollably. Leshy shakes you back and forth, imploring you, or rather pleading with you, to stay with him. Vodyanoy clutched your leg as if he were a kid, imploring you not to leave him alone with Leshy, and explaining that Leshy was this and that. You stroked his hair. You could have been the one who lost a screw, but Leshy was missing the box and the lock that held it in place.

You ate and drank as if there was no tomorrow. They dropped you off at the airport the following day. giving you a hugs and best wishes. - The flight from Moscow, Russia, to London, England, is about to board.- The announcement was made over the speakers.

König tapped his foot nervously. Ghost stared at him as he waited in line with his other 141 task members, giving him a supportive nod. They didn't know anything about the newcomer. They were meeting them for the first time today.

A vehicle was spotted approaching the base and slowing down before completely halting. The door opens, and a figure walks out, their h/c hair gently swinging in the breeze that blows past the base. They exchanged handshakes with Price.

When könig and Ghost turned around, they could only gaze as your s/c skin sparkled in the sunshine. The way your h/c hair complemented and framed your face, making you appear ethereal. Most importantly, the sunbeams in your eyes, causing them to glitter like a Dimond on exhibit for its beauty.

Return to me

"прывітaнне, я Русалка. It's a pleasure to meet you, " [Hello, my name is Rusalka.] You spoke quietly, offering your hand, never breaking eye contact with Ghost and König as you smiled at them. They knew, and you knew it wasn’t your first encounter with them.

To be continued......Maybe, if people like it.

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hayateart · 7 months

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Now I have a Mermaid Moshang Au going around in my head.

So, let's say, Airplane still wrote a book, but it was about mermaids, and the main protagonist, Luo Binghe was half merman, half human. With the exception that mermaids are the obvious good guys, so the sects and cultivarors are the mermaids, and the demons are humans, with demon lords being researchers.

Rest is under the cut, because what I wrote could be a fic on its own.

Airplane dies and becomes a merman Qinghua. He saves young teenage Mobei Jun, Little Mermaid style, and falls in love instantly. However, he knows they cannot be around each other, so he leaves Mobei safe on shore.

Years later, Mobei becomes a scientist researching oceanic life, all in search for a merman he is not sure is even real. Maybe he has only dreamt about him.

Since he is so accomplished and clearly inclined to believe in the existence of aquatic mythological creatures, he gets a job in secret research facility where they already research real life mermaid.

And this is where my angst love popped in.

Mermaids cannot speak human language. They communicate in chirps and screeches like dolphins. Their teeth are sharp, their eyes alien. They are treated at best as objects, at worst as potential threat that needs to be researched, studied, cut open to see how it works and how best to kill it.

Mobei cannot let others know he has sympathy for these creatures or else he would be banned from research. He finds a kindred spirit in one of the research leads, Shen Qinqiu, who appears to be the most ruthless person he ever met but is surprisingly gentle with the creatures they handle, and proposes that maybe, just maybe they are not malicious at all. No more than people, at least.

[I needed Cucumber to be human for this one, for better BingQiu purposed. In the original novel that Airplane wrote, Shen Qingqiu was the most heartless of the scientists, doing research on a captured, teenage protagonist. His abuse caused the young merman's ancient powers to awaken. He learned how to control water Aquaman-style, how to speak the human language and thanks to his ancient magic - his father was half water-dragon - how to change shape to appear human. But that is all irrelevant, because Shen Yuan does not want to capture and operate on Binghe at all.]

However, as it happens, the plot must make its appearance.

Shang Qinghua was careful. Was very, very careful, He never had OOC function to unlock because he has always been Shang Qinhua. So he thought, he can avoid original Shang Qinghua's fate which was being captured by humans, implanted with a tracking, which led the humans to his colony, and to Binghe. He as so careful! But the system tricked him, and Qinghua gets captured anyway.

He is panicking. This is the worst! He will be experimented on, forced to out his kin, or, if he is lucky enough, just killed. What sort of world he wrote?! What sort of fate he created for himself!

He deserves it, of course. He wrote mermaids to be peaceful, hunted, tortured and killed. Of course, he deserves it for condemning an entire race. At least, he gets to see his favourite creation one last time. Because, Mobei Jun is here.

In the original story, Mobei blamed mermaids for the sinking of the ship, from which Qinghua saved him in this storyline. He did not become a researcher but a whale hunter with a penchant for mermaids. Only meeting Luo Binghe changed him, and he became the fiercest fighter for mermaid cause afterwards.

Qinghua is sure Mobei is there for revenge. Mobei recognizes Qinghua but he needs to keep up appearances. However, Shen Qingqiu recognizes the character of Shang Qinghua as well. He knows how the story goes. Qinghua is 'researched' and then let go with a tracked. He cannot let that happen but the other scientist would be suspicious if he was kind to a merman. Instead he proposed to kill him, and research the body - in his mind, it would be a mercy killing, after all.

Mobei keeps his cool, but underneath, he is boiling with rage. On one hand, he sees the kindness in Shen QingQiu's decision. He sees the mermaids in their tanks every day. How sick they are, how empty and unhappy. It would be a mercy killing. On the other, that us the marman that saved him all these years ago. In a small tank, terrified and crying, and shaking, and begging them with his eyes only to please, please, don't hurt him. Just let him go, please.

Mobei suggests waiting with the decision to the next day. Clearly, they caught only a runt, a shrimp. it is weak and won't do much for research but maybe it is more valuable alive. They should consider their options. In reality, he plans to free Qinghua over night, when nobody is watching.

He is not the only one with the same idea. Cucumber gets to Qinghua first. Under the assumption that mermaid cannot understand human language - they could not in the book - he breaks Qinghua out cursing all the while - at stupid plots, at stupid authors and at pointless characters who turn out to be so much bother!

Except, Qinghua understands him. Of course he does! He is the author. He gets Cucumber's attentions, drawing characters with water on his coat. Cucumber at first thinks nothing of it, until he notices the pattern. It is the title of the novel!

Cucumber immediately understands that Qinghua is a transmigrator, just like himself! He gets him paper and pen and they communicate.

And then Mobei Jun steps in. Qinghua and Qingqiu are caught red handed. Qinghua is panicked at his sight. In a desperate attempt to save himself, he grabs the pen and Cucumber, and holds him as a hostage, pressing the pointy end of the pen to the other's neck.

It would be terrifying if it weren't so sad. Qinghua cannot hold himself up out of the water very well. He is shaking from fear and his hold is lose - if Qingqiu wanted to break out, he could with no problem. It is clear that Qingqiu is shielding the merman.

There isn't much that Mobei can do except lift his hands in a peaceful manner and promise:

"I want to help. Please, let me."

TBC? Maybe?

#moshang #mobei jun #shang qinghua #svsss #mxtx #fanfic idea #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #bingqiu #cumplane #mermaid #au

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thegayhimbo · 6 months

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Stranger Things Flight of Icarus Review

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 2 of 2)

Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors Review

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 1 of 2)

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 2 of 2)

Synopsis: Hawkins, Indiana: For most, it’s simply another idyllic, manicured all-American town. But for Eddie Munson, it’s like living in a perpetual Tomb of Horrors. Luckily, he has only a few more months to survive at Hawkins High. And what is senior year, really, but killing time between Dungeons & Dragons sessions with the Hellfire Club and gigs with his band, Corroded Coffin? At the worst dive bar in town, Eddie meets Paige, someone who has pulled off a freaking miracle. She escaped Hawkins and built a wickedly cool life for herself working for a record producer in Los Angeles. Not only is she the definition of a badass—with killer taste in music—but she might also be the only person who actually appreciates Eddie as the bard he is instead of as the devil incarnate. But the best thing? She’s offering him a chance to make something of himself, and all he needs to do is get her a demo tape of Corroded Coffin’s best songs. Just one problem: Recording costs money. Money Eddie doesn’t have. But he’s willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means relying on his dad. Al Munson has just stumbled back into Eddie’s life with another dubious scheme up his sleeve, and yet Eddie knows this is his only option to make enough dough in enough time. It’s a risk, but if it pays off he will finally have a one-way ticket out of Hawkins. Eddie can feel it: 1984 is going to be his year.

Observations:

Ordinarily, when I do these reviews, I sum up the synopsis in my own words to convey my experience reading it. This time, I took the synopsis word-for-word from the book cover because I found it unintentionally hilarious and teeth-grinding that the publishers at Random House Worlds would try to bait Stranger Things fans like this. They had to have known most people who bought this book already saw the fourth season and were aware of Eddie's eventual fate. Even if they hadn't seen it, a.) It's pretty much an open spoiler at this point, and b.) You can figure out real quickly from the title (Flight of Icarus) and your basic knowledge of Greek Mythology exactly how this story is going to go. Giving both the audience and Eddie a Hope Spot in thinking things might improve for him was a cruel joke.

I know that prior to this books release, there were fans accusing Netflix of trying to milk Eddie's popularity with the audience despite his eventual fate in season 4. Having finally read the book myself.................it's a little more complicated than that.

Yes, the book does bait the audience with the idea of things getting better for Eddie when we already know that's not going to happen. At the same time though, it wasn't a book devoid of substance. There were themes and character interactions that left a lot to chew on, and might even play an upcoming role in season 5. Just like with Rebel Robin, there were aspects of the book that struck a personal nerve with me because of how they related to what's gone on in my life and what's currently going on in the world right now.

I'll discuss the book in detail here (Spoilers Ahead!) and let you decide for yourselves if this is a book you want to read.

Part 1: Eddie's relationships to other characters

The synopsis covers the majority of the plot. Eddie's in senior year, failing school, and coasting by on the Hellfire Club, his band, and his dead-end job at a bar. Unlike his friend Ronnie, he has no future prospects ahead of him until he encounters a girl from Los Angeles named Paige, who overhears Eddie playing one night and invites him (and Corroded Coffin) to record their music for a studio called WR Records. The hopes are that her boss, Davey, will be impressed enough that he'll invite Eddie and the band to later fly out to Los Angeles for an audition with the executives. Following them recording for Davey, Paige reveals to Eddie that Davey's more impressed with him than his band and only wants him to come out to LA to become a rockstar. However, Eddie still needs the money to make this dream a reality. So when his dad shows up with an illegal job that involves stealing weed from a Kingpin's truck so they can sell it for money, he reluctantly agrees despite knowing things could go wrong.

And just based on where Eddie is by the time season 4 starts, you already know how this is going to turn out.

Eddie on the show was already established as being an outcast who gets blamed for the murders committed by Vecna, but this book further explores that he was the town scapegoat way before any of this happened. Part of it has to do with his low socioeconomic status, part of it has to do with the bad reputation the Munson family has in Hawkins as crooks and lowlifes thanks to the behavior of Eddie's father (who is a loser and a sorry excuse for a dad), part of it has to do with the Hellfire Club and all the pearl-clutching parents did in the 80s about D&D being linked to Satanism (which, as Erica puts it in season 4, was bullshit), and the rest are people in Hawkins projecting their issues onto Eddie. They want to believe the worst in Eddie, and don't care about creating a self-fulfilling prophecy with they way they treat him.

Wayne Munson also gets fleshed-out more in this book, which I appreciate because he's one of the few adult characters on the show that I like. Unlike Al, who is constantly absent from Eddie's life unless he needs something from him, Wayne is a parental figure to Eddie who made sure he was being fed and taken care of when he needed it.

He's also one of the only people who treats Eddie like a person and believes in him when no one else does.

On top of that, Wayne is shrewd and able to put the pieces together just by reading a situation. He's the kind of person who can look at someone and figure out if they're being honest or not. When Al comes back into Eddie's life, he knows Al is up to no good, and he puts together pretty quickly that Eddie is going along with Al's con to get money. He allows Eddie to make his own choices, but he also warns Eddie that he's lying to himself if he thinks this is going to go well for him.

On a semi-related note, the way Wayne is depicted here gives more context behind why he was willing to let Nancy interview him when Eddie went missing after Chrissy's death: Unlike other reporters , who were either gearing up to paint Eddie as the villain before anything was confirmed, or else were trying to get their big break with this story, Wayne could tell Nancy wasn't just there to advance her career. She genuinely had an interest in what happened, and Wayne likely suspected something else (i.e. the death of Barb) was motivating Nancy to look into this case.

Another relationship that gets more context as well is the one between Jason and Eddie. There were hints in the fourth season that these two had a history with one another before Jason wrongly suspected Eddie of killing Chrissy and led the basketball team in hunting him down. This book confirms that history. I will admit I had a headcanon for a while that Jason and Eddie used to be friends before falling out (which is also something Mason Dye joked about), but this book blows that out of the water by revealing they've been enemies since they knew each other. Jason was a part of a jock group led by Tommy Hagan (Steve's former best friend) who bullied students like Gareth who were either outcasts or part of the Hellfire Club. But because Tommy and Jason were valued basketball players at the high school, they were able to get away with their behavior whereas Eddie would get punished simply for trying to help out his friends.

This puts the cafeteria scene between Eddie and Jason in a whole different light: Eddie's disdain for Jason in that moment wasn't because Jason did basketball, but because he knew Jason as a bully and had nothing but contempt for him:

Just like with Lucas on the Line, this book doesn't paint Jason in a good light. Not only is he associating with Tommy (who is just as loathsome as he was in season 1), but the book also hints at the darker, zealot side of his personality that's going to be on display in two years following the events of this book:

Chrissy also makes an appearance, and she's just as nice of a person as she was on the show. She actually intervenes (unsuccessfully) on Gareth's behalf to stop Tommy and Jason from bullying him, and we get to witness the flashback to the talent show when Eddie first encountered Chrissy and she showed him empathy and compassion in a moment when Eddie was feeling vulnerable after his dad didn't show up to watch him perform.

While I'm not an Edissy/Hellcheer shipper, I understand the appeal of that relationship, as well as why the Duffer Brothers later regretted killing off Chrissy when there was more that could have been explored with her character. I'm also deeply sorry Grace Van Dien was harassed by immature Stranger Things fans because she liked the Eddie/Chrissy ship (to the point Joseph Quinn had to speak up in her defense). No actor or actress should ever have to put up with disgusting behavior like that. I wish people in this fandom would grow the hell up already, and stop treating the actors as if they're props to project themselves onto. 😒

We also get to know more about Eddie's parents in this book. Eddie's mom is dead by this point (though her love for music is a big reason why Eddie was inspired to take up guitar) and Eddie's dad is a contender for one of the worst fathers in the series. He isn't as awful as Neil Hargrove, but he makes little to no effort to raise Eddie (to the point Eddie is often fending for himself), is constantly engaging in illegal activities and ending up in trouble with the law, only comes back for Eddie when he needs something from him (something that Eddie is painfully aware of), and straight-up abandons his son to the cops the moment his heist plan lands both of them in trouble and results in a police officer getting shot. He's a selfish man who's good at lying to everyone around him, and even to himself. The sad thing is, because Eddie is so desperate to get out of Hawkins, he willingly believes his dad's plan to get them rich so they can move to LA and fulfill his dream, which makes it more of a gut punch when everything eventually goes downhill.

Given Eddie's death in season 4, I seriously question if his dad is going to show up at all if he ever hears about what happened to his son. Somehow, I doubt it.

The final character with any real significance is Gareth. In this book, he's a freshman who's up-and-coming in the Hellfire Club, and there's a whole subplot dedicated to Eddie helping him to craft a perfect D&D character that resembles who Gareth is rather than having him borrow someone else's character. Also, as noted before, Eddie is one of the few people who defends Gareth from high school bullies, which is why Gareth has a lot of loyalty towards Eddie. I know Gareth became an Ensemble Dark Horse for many fans when Season 4 premiered, and I would be thrilled if he, along with the rest of the Hellfire Club and Corroded Coffin, got significant roles in season 5. Maybe they could team up with the Party to defeat Vecna.

The rest of the new characters are by-the-numbers. Ronnie is Eddie's lifelong friend who has a future at NYU, and they both have a falling out due to disagreements with Eddie's choices. Paige gets into a romantic relationship with Eddie for a while (which also falls apart later), but she isn't really memorable and doesn't stick out the same way that other characters from tie-in materials do (i.e. Mr Hauser from Rebel Robin, Joey Kim from Zombie Boys, etc). Mr. Higgins, the principal who has it out for Eddie, is the embodiment of Mr. Vernon from The Breakfast Club, and his interactions with Eddie are pretty similar to the ones Vernon has with Judd Nelson's character (John Benson) in the movie. Officer Moore is a stereotypical asshole cop who harasses Eddie because he sees him as a future criminal who will grow up to be just like his dad.

There are a few brief cameo's from the main characters: Hopper appears towards the end when Eddie is arrested, and is one of the few people sympathetic to Eddie's plight. Will and Jonathan also make an appearance when Eddie defends Will from jocks who make fun of Will for being "Zombie Boy," gives Will some encouragement about being who he is and embracing his love for D&D, and even offers to sell Jonathan some weed (which is cheeky foreshadowing for Jonathan's drug habit that develops in season 4).

Out of all the interactions with the main characters, the one between Will and Eddie was my favorite. Even though Will never joined Hellfire Club due to moving to Lenora, it's nice seeing these two get to interact and bond over something they love.

So that sums it up for the characters and main story. Let's talk about the main themes:

Part 2: Eddie and "Forced Conformity"

Just like with El in season 4, and even Steve, there's always been this stigma that because Eddie did badly in school, it meant he was dumb. However, unlike El, who struggles to catch up with her peers because of the way Brenner raised her (but is keenly aware of concepts even if she doesn't have the words for them at the time), or Steve who was more interested in chasing popularity at the expense of his grades (but has demonstrated his intelligence and ability to make connections that other people miss), Eddie doesn't put effort into school because he doesn't care to. School and homework doesn't interest him. D&D, Corroded Coffin, playing songs on his guitar, and even the works of J.R.R Tolkien do, which is why he invests more time into those things:

There was a GIF set last year with bits of trivia about Eddie, and something that was noted in it is that Metallica's album Master of Puppets was released on March 3, 1986. Given the night Eddie performs their song "Master of Puppets" in the Upside Down was on March 27, 1986, this means he had less than 3 weeks to learn how to master the song on his guitar. Some fans will probably dismiss this as "lazy writing" (which I notice gets thrown around a lot these days when people don't want to think critically), but I beg to differ. Eddie is invested in music. It speaks to him. That investment, combined with doing something he loves, means he's going to put time and effort into learning the song. I can buy he learned "Master of Puppets" in less than 3 weeks because he's that good of a guitarist, and he was passionate about the song in the same way he's passionate about D&D and Tolkien.

The problem though is those kind of interests aren't considered "acceptable" by the school system, which is more interested in churning out "productive members of society" and punishing those who don't get on board with the program (This is a theme that's also explored in both Rebel Robin and Lucas on the Line). It doesn't help that Hellfire Club, D&D, and the music Eddie loves to play constantly come under fire due to the Satanic Panic at the time, which only causes Eddie's resentment towards Hawkins and his school to fester.

You'd think things would have changed in the 4 decades since this series took place, but given how we're still living in an era of "concerned parents" wanting to ban specific books from being read by kids, or else enforce a conservative viewpoint in schools that prevents any kind of critical thinking, it's fair to say we haven't. In fact, there's an argument that things have gotten worse in recent years.

We can talk all day about the problems with the education system and school curriculum in the United States until the cows come home, but the point is Eddie is aware of the "forced conformity" schools impose on students, and is having none of it. As a result, he's punished for rebelling against the system.

It doesn't help that none of the teachers, nor Mr. Higgins, are remotely interested in trying to reach out to Eddie. They have decided in their minds that Eddie is a waste of space, and are either condescending or dismissive towards him. Even Robin, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will had teachers like Mr. Clarke or Mr. Hauser who were interested in bringing the best out of their students. Eddie has been written off as a lost cause, and aside from his uncle Wayne (who's limited in what he can do for Eddie), no other adults believe in him. That just makes his eventual death later on harder to stomach.

I hate teachers and school authorities like Mr. Higgins. I get they have to put up with a lot of crap, both from kids and from the stress their jobs can bring, but I have no respect for teachers who either go to the lengths of bullying their students, or come up with preconceived notions about a student and then unfairly project that onto them so they can feel justified in treating them with contempt.

I had two teachers like this when I was growing up: One of them was from fifth grade. The second was my English Teacher from my senior year of High School.

The former was a straight-up bully who had a reputation for making kids cry (I was one of them) and was a Bitch in every sense of the word. I do not have good memories of her class, and I know several students who had their lives impacted by her for the worst: One of them was someone I went to the same church with whose mom later pulled him out to be home-schooled because he was frequently targeted by that teacher. The second was a former friend who had a rough time in her class, and later forfeited going to college entirely (and now works in retail) because of the impact she left on her. I make no secret that I DON'T miss her, and I hope she's no longer teaching.

As for my English Teacher, she was a condescending twat. She presented herself as an expert in literature, but I later found out that A LOT of her so-called "discussions" and "lessons" were taken straight from SparkNotes. I remember her going out of her way to publicly humiliate me in front of the class because I did a presentation that she didn't like, and then she later got patronizing with me over a different assignment several months later, saying she could see how I was struggling and then said "Allow me to give you some advice: Try harder." This was when I was also juggling 4 other AP classes and a Spanish class, along with my extracurricular activities, so this wasn't like I was half-assing my work. Once again, I was not the only person she treated like is. Multiple students despised her, and there was even a rumor for a while that she was a misandrist, which is why she treated the girls better than the boys. I can't confirm if this was true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. My brother (who's one of the smartest people I know) was fully aware of her reputation prior to his senior year, and specifically took a different English class just to avoid her. I still maintain that was the best decision he ever made.

I should briefly mention that, despite the two examples I just listed, I had some wonderful teachers growing up. Ones that not only encouraged me, but made their classes engaging to the point that I took an interest in topics I hadn't before. The entire reason I later pursued a degree in History is BECAUSE of my teachers in High School.

Regardless of whether people want to admit it, teachers are some of the most important people next to parents in a kid's life. They can either be the ones to elevate a student and set them on a good path, or they can be the ones to tear them down and dismiss them as a lost cause. It's a big reason I feel strongly about who teaches in schools and how our education system is structured, and why I get angry whenever teachers or school authorities either abuse their power, are apathetic about their jobs and their students, or else project their issues onto kids. I'm not saying there aren't kids out there without major behavioral problems that need to be dealt with (I literally had one such kid yell "Fuck You" at me two weeks ago from a speeding truck for no discernible reason, so I'm not advocating that all kids are sweet angels), but it infuriates me to see characters like Mr. Higgins who are smug in their belief that they have teens like Eddie figured out, and don't want to hear anything that contradicts that. People like that shouldn't be teaching in schools, period.

Part 3: The Evils of Society

Back in 2005, there was a horror movie called Chaos that was released, which got negative reviews and a scathing response from film critic Roger Ebert, who proceeded to call the movie "ugly, nihilistic, and cruel." The film's writer and director didn't take this well, and posted a letter to the Chicago-Sun Times where he condescendingly told Ebert that the movie was supposed to be ugly, nihilistic, and cruel as a way of conveying what evil was like in the 21st century, and smugly asked Ebert if he preferred the movie was sanitized of violence. Ebert later responded in a very classy and intelligent manner, where he not only called out the director for his sanctimoniousness, but also deconstructed his whole argument of depicting evil in a movie with no meaningful point or catharsis:

"I believe evil can win in fiction, as it often does in real life. But I prefer that the artist express an attitude toward that evil. It is not enough to record it; what do you think and feel about it? Your attitude is as detached as your hero's."

"Your real purpose in making "Chaos," I suspect, was not to educate, but to create a scandal that would draw an audience. There's always money to be made by going further and being more shocking. Sometimes there is also art to be found in that direction, but not this time. That's because your film creates a closed system in which any alternative outcome is excluded; it is like a movie of a man falling to his death, which can have no developments except that he continues to fall, and no ending except that he dies. Pre-destination may be useful in theology, but as a narrative strategy, it is self-defeating."

I've seen fans who've complained about the direction season 4 took in its tone and it's depiction of bullying and the Satanic Panic, with people complaining about it being "trauma/torture porn," which............I strongly disagree with. Trauma/Torture porn is (as Ebert points out) the kind of thing that has no point beyond indulging in meaningless suffering. Season 4 was dark (probably the darkest season they've done so far), but there was a message the Duffer Brothers were making with it; Not just in depicting how and why bullying becomes a pervasive problem, or how Vecna acts as a metaphor for depression and trauma driving people into despair, but also how the current social systems and attempts to force people to be "normal" cause long-term problems.

Bullies like Angela and Jason didn't suddenly decide to become awful overnight. Their behavior was enabled, not just by their peers, but by the adults around them who did little to nothing to stop the way they acted. Look at when El gets publicly humiliated at Rink-O-Mania by Angela and her friends, and how the adults there either participated with the other bystanders in it, or did absolutely nothing to stop what was happening to El (yet were conveniently available for Angela's benefit when El smashed Angela's face in with a roller-skate). Look at how Jason was able to turn a room of adults into a lynch mob to go after kids who were a part of the Hellfire Club by appealing to their fear of the Satanic Panic, as well as their fear of all the terrible things that had been happening in Hawkins.

Adults play a major role in whether kids become spoiled, entitled brats, and that was absolutely the case with Angela. As for Jason, he was a star basketball player who made Hawkins High look good, which is why Mr. Higgins and other teachers always looked the other way at his behavior (as depicted in both this book and Lucas on the Line). It's also why both Angela and Jason felt justified in their awful behavior: Angela was able to convince herself that El had snitched when she hadn't, and therefore deserved to be punished for it. And when El finally had enough and lashed out, Angela twisted the narrative in her head to make it out like she was the innocent victim and El was the bully. Same thing with Jason in regards to how he treats Eddie: Jason sees himself as the perfect "All American Boy" and Eddie as the freak who may one day become a criminal and gives Hawkins a bad name. And while the deaths of Chrissy and Patrick (combined with witnessing how Patrick died which he chalked up to Eddie being in league with Satan) played a major role in Jason's actions, he already had preconceived notions about Eddie without truly getting to know him first. There's an argument to be had that, even without Chrissy's death, he would have looked for any reason to go after Eddie if he felt justified in doing so.

Even isolated areas like Hawkins Lab weren't exempt from this: Dr. Brenner specifically fostered a culture among the special kids where he would put them at odds with one another to fight for his approval, and allowed El to be viciously bullied by Two and the others in the hopes it would unlock her potential and get him the results he wanted. Brenner established the institution where El grew up in, and was the main person who benefited from it. Two was a vicious bully similar to Angela, but the reason he became that is because Brenner and his cronies enabled his behavior (only punishing him as a means of building up resentment among the other kids towards El and making her more of an outcast as part of his plans).

Likewise, there's an interesting parallel between Eddie and Vecna: Both are "outcasts" whom society tried to force to be "normal." However, while Eddie still maintained compassion and empathy for others, as well as making it his mission to look out for other outcasts like Mike, Dustin, and Lucas so their lives wouldn't be miserable, Vecna internalized the rage and resentment of "performing in a silly terrible play, day after day" until it consumed him and turned him into the monster everyone feared. Now he intends to destroy everything and everyone so he can create the world he wants.

It's the Harvey Dent quote from The Dark Knight:

Eddie, despite being treated badly for most of his life, died as a hero, protecting those he cared about. Vecna lived to become the villain, and has abandoned his humanity in pursuit of his goals.

Tying this all back to Roger Ebert's letter: While Season 4 may have been dark, there was meaning to be found in the darkness: The season hit on the theme that, in spite of how Hawkins looks like a perfect suburban neighborhood, there's a lot of rot underneath, and NOT just from the Upside Down. There's an inherent bigotry in the town (and others like it, such as Lenora), of institutions trying to mold students and teachers into "productive members of society" at the cost of their happiness and well being, of punishing anything that's considered abnormal or against the status quo, of how ostracizing "outcasts" can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the person either becomes the monster (Vecna) or is scapegoated and can never escape those stigmas no matter how hard they try (Eddie).

The Duffer Brothers aren't apathetic in their attitude about how they depict characters and themes on the show. If anything, they care deeply. It's why they wrote the character of Eddie in the first place, and based him off of Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three who was wrongfully convicted in 1994 of the murder of three boys in Arkansas, with a lot of bias directed at them due to the three of them being "delinquents" (as well as how the police pressured them into giving false confessions), which resulted in their lives getting ruined. Likewise on the show, Eddie is accused of killing Chrissy when he didn't (simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time), and his life got destroyed because of it. Even if he was a delinquent with his own personal issues, he didn't deserve what happened to him. Neither did Damien Echols. Society failed both of them, and allowed the true killers to go unpunished.

There are a lot of problems in our society today that have carried over from the 80s: From cultures that enable bullies and punish their victims, to attempts to control what kids learn in schools and how they should act, to bigotry and biases that aren't just rooted in people but in the institutions and laws that uphold the social structure, to people like Jason who take the law into their own hands regardless of the collateral damage it will cause, to government corruption, to people dehumanizing others because it's more important for them to be right over being nice, and so on. Stranger Things may be a love letter to the 80s, but it does not shy away from deconstructing the uglier aspects of that decade, and conveying how some of those issues had carried over into today's culture.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this book is a mixed bag. It gives interesting details about Eddie and his life, and provides better context for certain scenes in season 4. Given that Caitlin Schneiderhan (the author of the book) had talks with the Duffer Brothers and other Stranger Things writers prior to penning this, it's likely this book can be considered canon. It's also a book that inspires discussion (as you can tell from what I've written), which is always a plus.

However, if you're a fan of Eddie, and you were upset over his death, this book isn't going to give you any catharsis. Unlike others, I'm not going to claim it's milking off of Eddie's popularity. At the same time though, it is hard to read when it teases that things might get better for Eddie and you already know what Eddie's fate is going to be.

In other words, you have to decide for yourself if this is a book you want to read. I hope my synopsis and this review gives some idea of what to expect.

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lilareviewsbooks · 1 year

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Gay Mermaid Books!!

Are you excited? 'Cause I'm literally so excited -- who doesn't love a gay mermaid book? Honestly, I think mermaids are a little underrated as fantasy creatures, and so it's time we change that. And be gay along the way. 'Cause why the fuck not, right?

I've compiled this list with all the gay books with mermaid and mermaid-adjacent creatures I've read before. I've also made a GoodReads Shelf with more books, as some lovely people from SaphLit (a sapphic bookclub you should definitely join!) contributed. I haven't read the ones that aren't here, though!

The Deepwater Bride, by Tasmyn Muir

If you're a veteran of queer books, you've probably heard of Tasmyn Muir! She's the author of The Locked Tomb Series, which starts with Gideon The Ninth and is about gay necromancers in space! It's a wonderful series, but before she sat down to write that, Ms. Muir penned this novellete, which is featured in the July/August 2015 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

This is a more Lovecraftian take on aquactic creatures. The Deepwater Bride follows a young girl who can see the future, and the weird things that begin happening in her small town. All the while she's falling in love (with a girl, duh)!

This one will give you Ms. Muir's traditional cheeky style, which includes phrases such as the iconic "the drowned lord who dwells in dark water will claim you. the moon won't rise tonight, and you'll never update your Tumblr again". Not to mention, it's a quick read, and still takes you on a rollercoaster of a ride that will leave you wanting more.

Aquicorn Cove, by Katie O'Neill

Another quick read, Aquicorn Cove is the sweetest graphic novel you'll read. It's a middle grade, but like Ms. O'Neill's other work (The Tea Dragon Society, which you should also take a look at, by the way), this one can be enjoyed by all ages.

Aquicorn Cove follows Lana, a young girl who comes back to her family's seaside town to help clean up after a storm, and soon discovers the aquicorns - seahorse-like sea creatures. And, don't worry, there will be mermaid-like creatures as well!

This one is extra special because of how cute and fluffy it is - if you're looking for a nice, comforting read, look no further! Aquicorn Cove will fill your heart and make you feel warm and fuzzy inside!

The Girl From The Sea, by Molly Knox Ostertag

The Girl From The Sea is also a graphic novel! This one follows Morgan, a 15-year-old who terribly wants to leave the island she grew up on. But everything changes when she meets a selkie called Keltie, and her desire to leave seems to lessen...

What I really loved about this one was the introduction to the mythological figure of the selkie. It's so rarely seen in modern SFF and I thought it was lovely to see it here. Not to mention, the art is super sweet and it follows that queer first-love plot-line every gay person needs to read every once in a while. Definitely recommend!

Ice Massacre, by Tiana Warner

This is the first book in a trilogy I haven't completed yet, but this first one impressed me so much, I couldn't help but recommend. It follows Meela, who lives in the fictional Polynesian island of Eriana Kwai, which has been attacked mercilessly by mermaids. As a solution, the elders send groups of young men out to sea to try and kill them, but it hasn't been going well - the men fall prey to the mermaids' songs. Now, Eriana Kwai is trying out a different strategy - sending young women, and Meela is among them. But she might not be as immune to the songs as all the other girls are...

Ice Massacre is action-packed and is perfect if you're in need of a post-Hunger Games-revival fix. Most of the story follows the girls in the boat, as the situation progressively gets more and more dangerous, and it definitely feels like reading about Katniss in the arena. Although the story does skew a little younger, I do think it's a good read, and it had me totally hooked from start to finish!

The Deep, by Rivers Solomon

This is definitely the most interesting of the mix, and the one I recommend the most! The Deep follows an underwater, mermaid-like people, descendants of enslaved African women who were thrown overboard slaver ships. Because of their painful history, they have designated someone to hold one to their collective trauma: Yetu, a young mermaid, is their historian. But this role can be more draining then it seems, and Yetu might find herself wanting something else.

The world building in this novella is just so unique! And it draws you in. The writing is very atmospheric, making you feel like you're in the ocean (and I'm super scared of deep water, so that was a weird experience lmao). Not to mention, Mx. Solomon seemlessly weaves in themes relating to slavery and the Black experience, not to mention the queer representation. It's definitely a must-read!

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 11 months

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Sometimes I feel the kwamis lore is extremely wasted

For example we know miraculous have been part of history and religion. But this brings the question: what kinds of miraculous influenced what?

There’s multiple myth of persons turning into monsters so has nooroo been miss-used for thousands of years?

what kind of miraculous created Christianity? What kind of miraculous caused all mythology’s to involve snakes to some point (hydras, Chinese dragons, leviathan, jormungandr, etc) what kind of miraculous created the idea of demons and hell?

Then there’s the possibilities of them being concepts and how inconsistent it can be at times.

Like what’s the difference of genesis and Creation? The tiger miraculous power (which I can’t rembeber) and destruction? They are all very similar. So why can’t we just say “screw it” and we get creative with the miraculous

What about Modification? Demolition? Consequences? Translation? Manipulation? Regeneration? Infection? Fortification?

Why kwamis want to help mortals? Why all kwamis accepted being in a miraculous if things like Gabriel could happen? Why isn’t there a evil kwami? (If Plagg extinguish the dinosaurs then I see any other kwami doing despicable things like causing tyrannies, destroying country’s, murder or other evil things but everyone seems totally innocent but plagg)

If there’s a miraculous of illusion then where is the miraculous of reality? Whats the relation of the prodigious with the kwamis? if the kwamis are living concepts then what could their distant cousins be?

How can someone break a miraculous? How can someone absorb that power and put it in a piece of jewelry?

Imagine if Gabriel experimented with the miraculous to make permanent Akumas, imagine if someone used the miraculous to make weapons? We know the power of the miraculous can be transported through technology so why isn’t there Cataclysm/tiger miraculous powered canons yet?

The possibility’s are there but is a lot of wasted potential

My biggest letdown was knowing a single sentimonster destroyed the order of the guardians of the miraculous when their job is to defeat the miraculous yet a simple sentimonster they themselves have written in the book killed them all

Imagine if a rouge kwami escaped because of feast and then destroyed the guardians. We could have a potential antagonist which we know is dangerous since it killed all the guardians and we know how powerful kwamis are

Seriously a kwami has a villain is a 100% times more threatening and interesting has a final threat than Lila or Gabriel. It also makes sense to have has a final Thanos like threat to defeat if they want to make Gabriel relatable. Also lila is a kid so making her the unredeemable monster and not Gabriel would be like fuel for Chloe stans to point out the classic “adult? Redeemable. Teenager? EVIL” everyone is angry for since season 3 ended

With the concept of the Miraculous being used through history, you can do one of two things:

Use it to flesh out the mythology of the world and explain how the Miraculous affected history while furthering the story.

Just cut loose and connect Miraculous to all kinds of historical events, making it clear it was done to just have fun with the concept.

Instead, all the show does is occasionally mention that the Miraculous have been used throughout history while focusing on the modern conflict. I get why that's more important, but if you're going to introduce something like the idea of Joan of Arc using a Miraculous, do more to explain how history changed as a result.

The idea of a rogue Kwami could also be interesting, as most of the Kwamis are one-dimensional characters who do nothing but spout random advice and screw around when they're not being used. Too bad we needed to give Gabriel three different villain identities instead.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt

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irregularjohnnywiggins · 1 year

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talk about iron will's importance. now

Iron Will's importance to the series is kinda threefold, tbh.

On one level, it's clearly a reference to the Dragonslayer of Berserk fame, and therefore one of Taro's clear inspirations for especially the first Drakengard, where it appears as Hymir's Finger*.

Consequently, it's also tied in to Caim as the 'discount Guts' of the Drakenier universe***, which is extremely important to the events of Nier. See, I may be wrong about this, but aside from the Nameless Blade you get at the start, Iron Will is I think the only weapon the game... gives you? Like, there's weapons you get in the course of the story, but Iron Will is the only weapon the game itself hands you in a cutscene, and as such is kinda... by necessity relevant? Like, active thought had to go into handing you that sword at that point in the story, and considering that this is very early into Act II of the game, where our protagonist takes a darker turn along with the rest of the story... well, I may be too far up Mr. Yoko's thematical backside (please see next paragraph for evidence of that), but... I don't think it's an accident that you get given a weapon so closely associated with Caim at this point in the story, especially when the conversation immediately following Iron Will's completion ends with Nier resolving to help Gideon's mad quest for revenge purely because he gets to kill a single Shade at the end of it.

On a level deeper than even that load of nonsense, the evolution of the Iron Will as a weapon kinda mirrors the evolution of the series itself? As presented in Drakengard 1, the weapon story is about the weight of death, with the unsettling implication at the end that perhaps the sword has found a wielder who is unconcerned with death, a perfect microcosm of Taro's then-philosophy of 'you have to be pretty fucked up to kill people'. This evolves down to Nier, where the sword begins by boasting of the people it kills, but in the final part of the story admits that it dreams of things beyond its status as a weapon of slaughter. Then Drakengard 3 portrays it as a thing that despises its own existence as a weapon, consumed by bloodshed and longing for something it cannot have - kinda like Zero, eh? And finally**** Nier Automata, where the Iron Will is rusted, useless and abandoned, but dug up regardless to engage in unceasing pointless war, over and over again. That's the inherent advantage of the Iron Will, I think - it allows Taro to present the theme of the games in microcosm, because the weapon itself does not need more explanation than 'Dragonslayer at Home'.

Soo... yeah. I think the Iron Will is really important to the themes of Drakenier, and I'm really exited to kill all of humanity wielding it this time around the Replicant train.

*whose name, incidentally, plays into the 'reverse religious morality' thing that Drakengard 1 has going on thematically - in much the same way that the final two routes are the literal Red Dragon of the Book of Revelations fighting the literal angels of heaven alongside a man named after a literal demon, you do it wielding a sword named after what might be interpreted as either the creator god or the father of evil from Norse Mythology.**

**Which, in a weird way, also plays back into the Berserk influence - Guts in that series is fighting against something called The God-Hand, after all, but we're not here to get into Berserk right now.

***I don't know for sure if it's the sword Caim uses in Drakengard 2 - looking at the video of his arrival now I can't tell if it's Broken Iron or his own personal sword - but honestly it feels like it should be Broken Iron, so I'm counting it.

****I know what the DOD2 and Reincarnation stories say, but Drakengard 2's is about as bland as everything else about that game, and Reincarnation has the inherent problem of being a LiiiiVe SeeeRvICE, so you can't easily sum up the themes of every single story in it.

#nier #drakengard #drakenier #nier replicant #nier automata #drakengard 3 #iron will #yoko taro #my deepest apologies if this came off as incoherent and rambling #my abyssal apologies if it didn't #I just... really like the themes of Drakenier #it's really special to me

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cyberr-v0id · 10 days

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Could you tell me more about yourself?

It is for something important.

Oh yeah sure!

I’m cyberr, I go by a lot of names, currently my favourites are Phoenix, Leonardo, and Jackdaw. I use any pronouns and I am asexual.

I have numerous skin conditions, feet bones in the wrong place, and a really bad back at the moment, as well as chronic daily headaches . So uh. You could say that I am as fit as a fiddle, if the fiddle in question is the one in my garage, which has all its strings snapped.

I really enjoy reading, and have done since I was seven. I’m currently reading the reappearance of Rachel Price, as well as the Iliad. Some of my most favourite books include: the wizards of once, how to train your dragon, murder most unladylike, all about romance, Sherlock Holmes, and treasure island.

I’m also a writer, I’ve been working on this one story for five years now. Hopefully I’ll finish it one day. I write a lot of poetry.

I love mysteries and have been apart of numerous mystery solving groups, several founded by me.

I’m an artist, of course, and my top three mediums are pencil, watercolour, and digital. I’m not the best at digital tbh. I hate acrylic and acrylic hates me.

I usually do a lot of sports but right now because of my back I can’t do a few of them. I can still do swimming, archery, rounders (tragically:/), stand up paddle boarding, and roller booting. Because they don’t involve as much bending down.

I’m gay

I’m a part time goth, which is to say I listen to goth music (my favourites atm are fields of the Nephilim and all about Eve) but only sometimes dress goth, and in varying degrees of goth. I am the most inconsistently dressing person I know, and right now my catchphrase is ‘the duality of man’. For some reason.

Music wise I listen to a lot. One day I will truly be able to say that I listen to everything. But not yet. My most favourite band is the crane wives

I want to be a marine archaeologist when I’m older, or, failing that, a famous actor. Let’s be honest here, unless I do become a really famous actor, neither career path is likely to pay well. Marine archaeological, or maritime archaeology, is all about ships wrecks, and how cultures of the past interacted with the ocean and other bodies of water around it.

I like all the animals. Genuinely there is lot a single animal that I don’t like. Well- I’m not too keen on bugs but I wish them all the best, and may many of them please stay away. I have a severe phobia of moths, and slight arachnophobia that depends on how I’m feeling and what the spider is. Tarantula? No problem, big and hairy enough to be a kitten. Now let’s move away from it in case it sprays its hairs. Brown garden spider? Bloody Mary on a motor bike get it Away.

My attention span is low. I am a theatre kid. As I type this is have a musical going in the background.

. I’m so sorry I’ve kinda made this really long, idk how much information you need

Fandoms: rise: tmnt, Percy Jackson, the owl house, the dragon prince, httyd, the inheritance cycle, red wall, Sherlock Holmes, mythology, epic the musical, so much more I can’t think of right now

I love the ocean

Lmk if you need anything else, hope this has helped, and uh. Yeah it’s kind long winded

#cyberrs asks

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markantonys · 7 months

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Do you think they'll start to get into the fear and hatred of the Dragon as a figure in s3? Cause right now that's one of the most glaring things that's missing from Rand's arc currently. And I worry they won't do it at all cause they introduced the idea that the Dragon could be a woman and since Saidar isn't Tainted there wouldn't be any reason to fear a female Dragon. They could frame it as whoever was LTT reborn would be feared just cause of what he did or the Dragon being feared regardless cause they signify the end of the Age. But if they don't introduce it at all I feel like it would be a mistake cause it's such an integral part of Rand's arc

i feel like i've gotten this question 1 Million Times already, so let me pose you a question right back: do you in the year 2023 spend every day of your life fretting about how scary achilles was and how destructive the trojan war was? no? then why do you expect the general population of randland to be constantly hung up on something that happened THREE THOUSAND years ago?

there has been no opportunity or reason to get into societal fear of the dragon in the first 2 seasons because no one has any CLUE that he's been reborn (bar the like 7 specific characters in the know, all of whom know rand personally and don't have reason to be afraid of him just yet). the figure of the dragon is SO FAR REMOVED from anyone's everyday life at this point in the story. LTT and the breaking are to them what the trojan war is to us - something that they know probably did really happen, but it was so fucking long ago and there have been so many stories spun about it since then that it feels more like myth than history. and it CERTAINLY doesn't feel like something they need to be concerned about in any way.

people have been whining that the show's making it out like only aes sedai hate/are scared of rand, but that is because they are the ONLY people so far for whom the dragon is a present and pressing reality. we will see wider societal reactions to the dragon once rand has been Public Dragon for more than "5 seconds in front of people who are just happy their city's not getting blown up anymore." (plus, it's safe to assume that Average Joes don't know or don't care about vague prophecies of the dragon being reborn, Someday, and causing more problems, in the same way that aes sedai know and care. Average Joes need concrete evidence that this is a current, real problem for them personally before they will start to get worried.)

at risk of sounding like a broken record from my 1 Million previous responses to this question, just because the show hasn't gotten to a certain Theme yet doesn't mean it never will. the early books were focused on rand's internal struggles with being a male channeler, and we did not start seeing much in terms of societal reactions to the figure of the dragon reborn until rand became Public Dragon starting in book 4. the show hasn't gotten there yet. relax. something isn't "missing" if it was barely a thing yet at this point in the books either. people really need to stop going IT'S MISSING when later-series things haven't yet appeared in the first 2 seasons. now, if we get to season 4 and everyone is holding hands and singing about how much they love the dragon reborn, then feel free to say "i told you so", but you know as well as i do that that is most certainly not going to happen.

also, the show suggesting that the dragon could be a woman is irrelevant. people don't go around every day saying "i'm so worried about 3000-year-old mythology repeating itself again Right Now, but oh! the dragon might be reborn a woman, so it might all be fine!" like no. NONE of this is on their radar WHATSOEVER at this time. and sure, IF they heard "the dragon has been reborn and it's a woman" then maybe they'd be less afraid. but that's not what they're going to hear, so it's irrelevant.

(besides, the mythology is that the dragon could save or break the world. a female channeler could turn to the dark and could break the world just as easily as a male one, even if she isn't affected by madness. or since last time the dragon was male and the dark one corrupted saidin, maybe this time if they were female then he'd corrupt saidar and the events of 3000 years ago would repeat. the show suggesting that the dragon could be a woman does not in any way lessen the inherent danger of the figure - in fact, the show implies even more strongly than the books do that the whole dragon-breaking-or-saving-the-world thing has happened infinite times. and maybe only 2 of those times had saidin madness as a factor.)

#anonymous #answered #wot show spoilers #wot book spoilers

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ancientphantom · 1 year

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Do you think the original Phantom of the Opera book has any sort of fairytale-like elements to it? If so, could you list some?

This ask is seven billion years old, but yes!

For one thing, the Phantom story is essentially a more specific version of the old Beauty and the Beast fairy tale - in both, a father "gives" his daughter to a terrifying monster who appears to be dangerous but turns out to love her, and she must find a way to love that monster in turn in order to keep herself safe and search for a happy ending. The Phantom story adds embellished elements, such as the heavy focus on music and the Phantom being a disfigured human instead of a cursed one, but the story is essentially the same, which means it carries over a lot of beats from the original fairy tale.

If you didn't know I'm a sucker for Aarne-Thompson-Uther, you do now, so let's go down a quick list of some of the fairy tale elements we see!

The Child Who Won't Leave Home: Lots of fairy/folktales have this element, where a child needs to leave home and make their way in the world or they will never truly grow up (which usually, in these stories, means they won't be able to be happy and/or they'll be a burden on their aging parents/community). Christine fits this trope, remaining somewhat locked in eternal childhood, focused on her memories of her father and his tales of the Angel of Music, until she is finally forced to see reality and make choices about her adult life.

The Girl as the Monster's Wife: This is a common fairy tale/folklore stock element: a beautiful young girl is given to a monster to become its bride. You see echoes of it in dragon/monster sacrifice tales, too, but the story usually uses its fairy tale themes to address real-life anxieties about women in earlier centuries having little to no control over who they married or how they were treated when they did. (And parents' fear over that for their daughters!)

The Animal Bridegroom: A subset of the Monster's Wife above, there are an absolute load of stories about young women being forced, either through trickery, blackmail, or magic, into marrying actual animals. Often, these animals can later be turned into humans through the power of her love and/or loyalty and devotion, but sometimes the moral is more about making the best of a weird situation. Obviously, the Phantom story inherits this from its Beauty and the Beast roots, even though the Phantom is no longer a literal animal.

The Dangerous Husband: The most common version of this is probably the tale of Bluebeard, but it appears in many stories and cultures (from the same anxieties as above!). In these stories, the husband is hiding a dark secret, and his innocent wife must realize he's evil and get out before it's too late or join others he has previously preyed on; in the Phantom story, Christine must realize that her "angel of music" is actually the murderous Phantom, and is in a constant state of discovering things like torture chambers and death threats until she and Raoul finally resolve the situation and escape.

Disenchantment by Kiss: In many fairy tales, the curse/transformation/evil is broken or defeated by a pure kiss from a loved one; in the Phantom story, it is Christine's kiss on his forehead (or mouth in later derivative versions) that causes him to realize that he has been behaving like a monster and end his reign of terror.

In addition to all this, there's also of course the mythology angle, which I mention a lot in reviews! Greek mythology is especially good with this - the Phantom story has heavy overtones of both the myth of Hades and Persephone, in which the god of the dead rises up from the underground to kidnap the beautiful young goddess of spring and everyone goes absolutely bonkers trying to get her back, and the myth of Eros and Psyche, in which the beautiful Psyche is forbidden from seeing her lover, who always comes to her in darkness with his face hidden, and when she breaks her promise and brings in a light to see him destroys the relationship and suffers as a result. The first has obvious parallels to Erik's kidnapping of Christine, while the second is a pretty clear comparison to the unmasking scene.

#phantom of the opera #mythology #fairy tales #anne pretends to be a real librarian #did you guys know they'll just let you learn about this stuff? for free?

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mermaidsirennikita · 6 months

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ARC Review: Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha

4.25/5. Releases 11/28/2023.

Vibes: a complex love triangle, handmaiden/princess, arranged marriage, dragon heroes that fuck, and enemies to lovers with actual stakes.

Princess Sachielle is betrothed to the Dragon, a god feared for killing his previous consort a century prior. What the Dragon doesn't know is that she's been charged with killing him--and her own life is forfeit if she fails. He also doesn't know that Sachi's handmaiden and lover, Zanya, is much more than she seems. And neither Sachi nor Zanya expected their very different connections with the Dragon--or his determination to win both of them.

It's not easy to find FFM menage romances, and of course, it's therefore even harder to find good ones that don't treat the women as side dishes next to a hero entree. But this? This is really fucking good. And it's really good fantasy romance, at that. If the other dragon romance book (which I personally liked as well) was too light or tame for you--this uh... will not be that. This one is wild, and it is the beginning of a series--while this isn't exactly a cliffhanger, it doesn't end in a fully resolved manner, and I'm excited to see what comes next.

Quick Takes:

--Menage romances often favor one bond over the other; while I love them in general, I find many that do not... work. Here, it's pitched perfectly--and I suspect some of that has to do with the fact that we still have some story to tell, and development to watch unfold. Zanya and Sachi have a very established, loving, and passionate long-term relationship, and that is never in question in this book (despite the necessity of them keeping it a secret, initially). Sachi and Ash (of course the Dragon goes by Ash) have an immediate chemistry and physical attraction, which puts a real wrench in the "I'm here to kill him" thing. It only deepens into something more as they spend time together, with Zanya looking on--not quite un-jealous, but not really threatened either.

Zanya and Ash's interplay might have been my favorite, though. She is determined to keep Sachi safe no matter what, and she is vicious. Ash? Loves and relates to both of those things. The very literal sparring scenes between these two? So hot. And while I feel very sure about the dynamic between Sachi and Zanya and Sachi and Ash, these two still have a ways to go. Zanya is a hard character, with many emotional walls (and her reasons are super valid). Ash, on the other hand, is all heat--and while he's initially determined to make nice with Zanya because of his feelings for Sachi, over the course of the book you feel him become more interested in her, and excited to get to know her better and be with her for the long term. Zanya? Still needs some convincing. I am pumped to see how he wins her over.

--The way sexuality is handled in this book is so casual, and I fucking love that. Really, the main obstacle to Sachi and Zanya being together in public is related to class and Sachi's duty to marry Ash. The gods they meet are pretty much universally bisexual, and Ash's previous consort was a prince, not a princess, which doesn't seem unusual or remarked upon.

--I think it would be very easy for Ash to come off as a "just happy to be there" guy, because Zanya and Sachi have such a strong love, and such an established relationship. But he's really so lovable, so patient with both of them (well, Sachi has to be more patient in their case--he's very worried about hurting her) and so charmingly teasing. Like, he's a protective dangerous dragon guy (and to be clear: for most of the book, Ash is totally this big hot man dude, he shifts separately into a dragon form) but he's also just? A good guy?

--I loved the world of the gods and their mythology. It's fun, it's hedonistic, I identified several cool characters I'd love to see find love in their own books, and it feels like they're both... above humanity and sweetly emotional. It's a hard balance to strike, but I think they got it in this one. (Fun fact: Kit Rocha is a pen name for two friends.)

--In terms of "how fantasy is this and how romance is this" it's a romance novel, despite the fact that it doesn't end on a totally resolved note (I trust that will come in the future). But the fantasy is strong without being too hard to follow. I feel like fantasy purists who are Very Vocal On Twitter may complain about the level of fantasy in this but like. The world was very much solid enough for me. I got it. It was the right balance for me, as a romance reader, and I refuse to accept romantasy as a thing unless it defines itself better, because it feels like fantasy romance is all I really need to know about.

The Sex:

Um, one of the hottest books I've read in a while. It takes a bit before you get to the first sex scene, but once it gets going it's going. Most of the sex scenes involve all three parties in one way or the other. Sachi is absolutely a brat with both of her partners, and frankly, we love to see it.

One thing I really loved was the evolution of Zanya's role in the sexual aspect of the relationship. We see that she and Sachi have very defined roles in bed, they know each others' bodies so well. Ash is respectful of that, as he is respectful in general--and he's willing to learn from both Sachi and Zanya (and I get the impression that while both of them are clearly bi, neither has much or any experience with men due to their longstanding, presumably monogamous involvement with each other). He's such a great example of writing a romance hero who's like... an animal where it counts, but so respectful of consent and so willing to be taught. So, as time passes, you see Zanya's more dominant side come out with Ash as well, and the way in which she begins to shift her focus from just Sachi to Sachi and Ash. Which of course, very much aligns with the fact that she's catching feelings. Oops!

I can't give away too much, but--there is one sex scene towards the end of the book that is just. Beyond.

Like I said, it's kind of hard to find FFM, and I jumped on this book because I was so excited to see that--and of course, I want to read more fantasy romance. I'm really happy with where it's going, and I look forward to the next book.

Thanks to Montlake and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#romance novel blogging #book recs #arc reviews #netgalley #romance novels #book reviews #books

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3kiripima3 · 29 days

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Hi!! I’d love to request a matchup for Hazbin Hotel! (could I please not be matched with Valentino or Nifty?) <33

my pronouns are she/her and I’m asexual biromantic (I’d prefer a male character but if you think one of the girls fits me best any gender is fine). I’m an ESFJ and a Gemini. I have green eyes and dyed cherry red hair. I dress with vintage/“fairy grunge” clothes. Long skirts and corsets are my fav type of outfit. I wear lots of rings and crystal/pearl necklaces and love to exchange them with others. I also have tattoos, currently I have three but I’m planning to get more. I love to wear makeup and come up with something creative and different everyday. Also if someone lets me do their makeup they’ll have my heart forever.

I’m the mom friend of the group, always there for everyone and my friends say that I’m really good at comforting people. I’m also calm and responsible, I usually am the one that takes care of other people. I’m very optimistic, I always try to see the good in everything and I often put other’s needs before my own. I love making others laugh to lighten the situation. I’m not afraid to stand up for myself or for someone else but sometimes it’s hard for me to say no to things. I also dislike when someone is too serious and really can’t take a joke as I tend to use humor as my coping mechanism. I’m also very ambitious, I always try to achieve my goals.

My love languages are, receiving, physical touch and words of affirmation and giving, quality time and words of affirmation.

I absolutely love listening to music, it helps me relax and I really like reading (I love reading out loud to others, when I read dialogues I act them out a little to help picture the scene). I especially love fantasy and I recently got into greek mythology. I also love watching horror movies even though it’s impossible to scare me. I also play Dungeons and Dragons with my friends anytime I can. also, I absolutely love musicals and I’m definitely a theatre kid.

Have a great day!! :)

Hi! Thanks for the request! After some consideration, I think I'd pair you with…

Velvette!

I personally feel like she'd be perfect for you!

Velvette would assuredly love your sense of fashion. I can see her personally making you numerous clothing items that fit your style and vibe. I feel like she would let you do her makeup a lot, however she'd probably not allow you to do whatever you want and give you a specific sort of look to do.

She'd thrive off of having you there to be comforting and more responsible. As she 100% gets sick and tired of having to deal with Vox and Val all the time, so she'd appreciate having someone there to care for her as well. Although, she will not often admit it to you.

Velvette respects you being ambitious and loves that about you as she's also rather ambitious and goal driven.

She may not be the type to often verbalise her positive thoughts about things, but she'd try with those she loves. However, she'd be clingy as fuck with you.

Velvette doesn't read books much, but if you read to her, she'd enjoy it. However, I see her having a tendency to get attached to characters and partially blaming you if they die in a book you're reading to her.

Thanks for requesting! I hope this is good enough for you :)

#hazbin hotel #hazbin matchups #hazbin hotel x reader

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eleemosynecdoche · 2 months

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Fornit doesn't exist, why?

*putting on my ceremonial mesh tights and sparkly capelet*

*ascending before the altar*

*clearing my throat*

Because it sucks!

Or, putting it longer and with more jargon- Fonrit is a part of Glorantha where the fantasy content is so heavily impregnated with sensationalistic depictions of slavery in North Africa from an older generation of adventure fiction, and tied in with a heavy dose of Orientalism. So, it's got a lot of racism in the basic premise before you get to the Vadeli (and hoo boy, the Vadeli)! But of course, Glorantha has been consistently racist to varying degrees in its content, and there are plenty of places where you have to cut away a lot of material and yet I still go there. (Caladraland featured heavily in the game I recently finished playing).

Fonrit is, I would say, worse, but not so much because of the specific details, but rather because of a deeper problem- there's not much playable content when you look at it.

I don't mean that we need a Fonrit book, or Fonrit adventures. Looking at other places in Pamaltela, the Kothar/Jolar border zone, which is also filled with racist content left over from old adventure fiction and has little published material, has some immediately playable content. You have the Kresh and Arbennan confederacies in tension, preparing for war, you have (sigh) monsters marching from out of the desert, you have the fire people from beyond the desert, you have the goblins of the marshes to the east- there's an explosive metasituation to explore and play with. Even Kimos, which is just a "wow, cool fantasy backdrop material, bro!" set of paragraphs, has a nascent situation with the Gorgers you could explore.

These would require a lot of work to make playable, I would say, because there isn't that much material to draw from, but you have something to build on. It's much more work than even Ralios or Seshnela or, for fuck's sake, Arolanit, would require. Incomparable to near-instantly playable places like Fronela, Dragon Pass, the Holy Country, or the Lunar Empire, or not-quite-places like the Arkat/Gbaji content.

Fonrit then has the basal problem that there's just not that much playable content there. You have conflicts between two different moral abysses in the form of the slaver factions, and I just don't give a shit about that. You have the Pujaleg in Laskal, who are of course, denoted as evil within the fandom discourse, but even if you rightly discard that and kick it to the curb, it's just- what, a moral crusade with "grey moments" added in by force to make it feel less one-sided? Similarly, you have the Veldang, who are blue people racially oppressed by black people, and you could play a really grim situation about Veldang resistance and revolutionary efforts- turns out they're the descendants of the evil Artmali! And there's the Vadeli, still.

In order to make a playable situation, that is one with interesting and explosive tensions players and their characters can interact with, you have to essentially make your own Fonrit, or at least I would and I think the overwhelming majority of people would as well. Going back to the Vadeli, the Vadeli are extremely problematic as a part of Gloranthan content, because the extant material generally uses antisemitic stereotypes taken to cartoonish extremes- they're so blood-libel they eat their own children to stay immortal! They're so sexually perverse they use axolotl tanks from Dune!!

Now. When I said "problematic", I mean it very precisely, because when you dig down to the basal Vadeli content of Revealed Mythologies, you get a very different picture. And then pieces, for me, fell into place. Because knowing what I know about Greg Stafford, for him, at least for most of his life, Arkat's journey was modeled on a fantastical interpretation of his own life, coming from a repressed mainline Christian New England military family (horali from Brithos) and journeying through Hrestoli knighthood (reading Arthuriana at a young age) and then paganism (dropping out of Beloit College and becoming a hippie and self-professed shaman).

So perhaps, what we are meant to do by Stafford is read the Vadeli content in this way: the Vadeli are fantasy Jews, they are directly victimized by these antisemitic stereotypes applied to them by Malkioni fantasy Christians. Brithini dominion and Zzabur's genocide kept them reduced to the status of peasants who cannot defend themselves, with no soldiers ("horali") or priests ("wizards") and not even a general public memory of rulers ("talars").

This is problematic because this reading of the content, this interpretation, doesn't erase the antisemitic implications of the content, adds some more, and of course it doesn't carry an instantly playable situation in and of itself- what are the Vadeli doing that brings them into tension, with other people or with themselves? And beyond that, there are questions of who has a "right" to play such things in a roleplaying game, though I will be even more overly candid here than I've already been and note that I strongly believe that the concerns related to cultural appropriation in other media don't apply to roleplaying in the same way, and many don't apply at all.

(This is also a specific *possibility* or *option* for play, though I think it makes much more sense than making the Vadeli colonizers. Feel free to ask me about that, by the by, if you want a real rant on your hands.)

Anyways, I still don't have *that* much interest in doing the work necessary to finish the Vadeli to a playable state even given that. But I think that work is something I could see myself doing, in a more limited fashion, if the Vadeli entered into play on the outskirts, because I find some aspects of the Revealed Mythologies content affecting and interesting. And for Fonrit, I just think that there's so little interesting content in it that I have and would fireaxe it away in play (see the link for an explanation of that term) and just agree that it's not there. If anyone wants to go there in play... well, that's a subject for an actual game.

I have a similar but distinct set of thoughts about Prax and Kralorela, but I won't bloat this post up any further.

#asks #glorantha #roleplaying and play #long posts

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sarnai4 · 2 months

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If Worlds Combined

For as long as I can remember, I have been a huge fan of Greek mythology. This comes in spurts sometimes and discovering Epic the Musical a few days ago absolutely reignited that. So, here comes my idea which is probably as weird as I think it is, but I can't get it out of my head now. Dragons characters in the world of Greek mythology. Please, ignore most of the relationships had for the Greek mythical characters unless otherwise specified since that would make this weird. (Spoilers for the series and movies later on, so beware)

Starting off with Dagur (because he's so fun to me), I would have him as Ares the god of war. Both are all about bloodlust and brutality, but they can be extremely protective too. Dagur has already started one and would have so much fun with the sheer excitement and chaos of constant wars. It doesn't even have to be him necessarily being good or bad since the wars can either be raged to stop tyrants or for the simple sake of him being bored. Plus, it ties to some later characters if we use some of the Greek lore.

Hiccup - Daedalus because Hiccup is always going to find a way to fly and if he needs wax wings to do it, by Thor, he'll do it. With Daedalus being such a skilled inventor, I see a lot of Hiccup in him.

Stoick - Zeus, since I really can't see Stoick ever not being in charge. He wouldn't do the assaulting that Zeus does, but he still could be hot-headed and the overall boss. Basically, I am thinking of the TV version of Stoick where he's stern, but he still is a lot nicer deep down.

Gobber - Hephaestus, since both are blacksmiths. I had to keep Gobber in this role and with him being one of the gods, he could still be buddies with Stoick.

Astrid - Athena, since both are warriors. She's basically the calmer side of Ares which is not too unlike Astrid and Dagur when it comes to their tempers/brutality. Athena also has that wise side that Astrid uses a lot with Hiccup when he needs advice.

Snotlout - Heracles, since both prioritize proving themselves to their dads and Snotlout's already done some extreme trials to become king, so I could see him doing more to be considered a hero. He also has some terrible luck like Heracles and is a genuinely good athlete.

Fishlegs - Apollo, since Apollo is actually really big on knowledge, art, and music. This would fit with Fishlegs wanting to have his spa area and just stay buried in books. Despite this, Apollo has a bit of a temper too like we've seen when Fishlegs stood up to Snotlout when he kept the dragon eggs from their mom back in the earlier seasons.

Ruffnut - Ate, I had no idea who this was at first, but she is a goddess of mischief. She even messed Zeus up with her antics. She's not actually bad or anything, but she just can't seem to stop doing and getting people to do rash things. Basically, both are just major pranksters.

Tuffnut - Dionysus, since both would be party animals. Like Ate, Dionysus is all about no impulse control. This way, Ruff and Tuff can still cause destruction everywhere they go.

Mala - Hippolyta, since they're both warrior queens who would do anything for their people. This is also why I need the relationships in the myths to just be thrown out the nearest window because there is no way she's going to be Dagur's daughter.

Throk - Achilles, since both are courageous warriors. I could also see Throk's Achilles's heel being Ruffnut so to speak, so they both would have some weakness that they cannot fully overcome.

Heather - Demeter, since they both can have a nurturing and bitter side. Demeter is known for being kind and almost motherly, but then she took away summer when her daughter was taken. Thinking about Heather's rage when her parents were killed, she would do that and worse.

Valka - Hera, since this would still let her be married to Stoick, but it also shows some of the problems they had. Considering how she never just flew close enough to Berk and said she escaped, rejoining her family, it can be comparable to how Hera gets furious with Zeus and probably doesn't really want to be married to him.

Atali - Artemis, since they both protect women in some way. Artemis does it literally whereas Atali does it with Razorwhips, but it could work still and both are warriors.

Minden - Atalanta, since they are warriors as well and Atalanta also is in gratitude to Artemis for saving her life when she was about to be killed as a baby. So, they could still be allies.

Spitelout - Patrocolus, another character I didn't know, but he was Achilles's first cousin who was sent to grow up with him after killing a kid when he was one himself. He doesn't know how to follow orders well. I could see Spitelout also just comparing himself and everyone else (Snotlout) to Achilles since he's such a great warrior.

Gothi - Panacea, since she's the goddess of healing. That's pretty much it, but I think it still could work.

Gustav - Icarus, because Gustav would hear "don't fly too close to the sun" and go straight for it.

Oswald - Jason of the Argonauts, since both have this love of sailing and exploring. Oswald would absolutely go look for a golden fleece and just spend the rest of his life on the sea since we STILL don't know why he actually left Berserker Island. I'll just say he heard about a fleece and went a-hunting.

Alvin - Poseidon, since this could let him still have a connection with Zeus/Stoick and both betray the latter. Like how Alvin is exiled, Poseidon got in trouble as well with the king of gods. They both have violent tempers and I could see Alvin sinking a city because he got a peeved. Also, Poseidon imprisoned Ares (who was just defending his daughter from Poseidon's horrible son by the way), so this works too if we keep some of the other lore.

Mildew - Geras, since this guy is somehow the god of old age. I'm not sure if this is more disrespectful to Mildew or fitting, but I still like it.

Johann - Hermes, since both are messengers in a way and Hermes is a protector of orators too. There's a bit of an untrustworthy side to Hermes in my opinion with him doing what suits him best and playing nice most of the time to fool people. Hermes also helped free Ares from Poseidon's prison, much like Johann did for Dagur by having his ship there.

Savage - Demaratus, since I actually think Savage is a bigger traitor than Johann. This guy has never stayed loyal to any side. At least Johann was semi working with Krogan. Savage turned on Alvin, the Hunters, and Dagur. Who better for him than another traitor? Demaratus was a co-regent of Sparta and still helped a Persian king take it over, wanting to become his advisor.

Ansson - Ascalabus, since this guy was so bold that he literally tried to bully a god. The fool mocked Athena for being thirsty and drinking a lot of water, then got turned into a lizard. Ansson wouldn't care either if she was a god or not.

Grimmel - Sisyphus, since this guy was a king who just liked killing people to show off his power. He thought that he could cheat death (entitled like Grimmel thinking he can just cause an extinction and that's okay). At the end of the day, the guy was cursed to spend the rest of his life pushing a boulder up a hill. Too good a fate for Grimmel, though.

Drago - Pelias, since he was a king who got the position after killing the rightful leader. It's like how Drago just decided to kill as many Vikings at the council meeting as humanly possible. Pelias even banished his own twin and half-brother afterwards. They're both power-hungry and care about nothing besides more bloodshed.

Krogan - Eurymedon, who is the king of the gigantes/giants. They're both leaders of fearsome groups and not to be trifled with.

Ryker - Charon, since he is a money collector and thought of as big and scary.

Viggo - Hades, since he is in charge of his domain (and Viggo would be that person to trick somebody into eating a pomegranate aril if it benefited him). Plus, this keeps him with Ryker as his flunky since Charon is the one who works for Hades. Despite Disney's portrayal (which I do love), Hades is normally less outwardly aggressive than the others. He's almost a suave god and this would be like Viggo even in all his villainy.

One day probably pretty far in the future since there are so many projects I'm working on, I'd like to write a story like this. I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I'm wiling to try it out and see if it can actually be something that isn't horrible and incomprehensible. Hope this was fun to read if you made it this far!

#HTTYD #RTTE #RoB #DoB #Dagur #Hiccup #Snotlout #Astrid #Tuffnut #Ruffnut #Fishlegs #Mala #Stoick #Gobber #Viggo #Ryker #Drago #Krogan #Alvin #Greek Mythology #Alternate Universe

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rruhlauthor · 2 months

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Film Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I read The Hobbit in 2018. I’ve never seen the movies before, nor have I read or watched The Lord of the Rings yet. I was excited to give the movies a try, starting at the beginning. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had questionable pacing, arguably extraneous additions to the book’s story, and relied on the audience’s knowledge of the outside lore for parts to make sense, but the deeply resonant theme and the escapism only an adventure story can provide make the story a beloved classic.

Let’s first talk about the good qualities of the film. By no means did I think it was a bad movie, even if the pacing was off. This is the kind of story that resonates across the generations. A man leaves home and travels far away on “an adventure.” There are simplistic yet powerful themes of good versus evil, of leaving and returning home. Tolkien’s writing takes inspiration from Norse mythology, stories so important to humans they have endured for millennia. The popularity of fantasy is due to the escape it provides from the real world. There may still be darkness and grief, but there is also magic and dragons. A reader can imagine leaving their dull home, picking up a sword and an enchanted ring, and going on an adventure to save the world instead of to save the office job. Tolkien wrote from his experiences in WWI. In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, people are caught in a war, but their struggle is not for nothing, and they are not forgotten. The great evil in the world can actually be defeated by the goodness of people. The foreword in my copy of The Hobbit mentions the books didn’t gain popularity until the 1960s. In the United States at the time, people needed escape and comfort from the Vietnam War and a battle for civil rights. Epic fantasy stories can be inspiring.

I know Tolkien wrote from a British perspective, but watching An Unexpected Journey, I was reminded of old Western movies. There’s a band of righteous travelers, their mystical companion, outlaws, wild animals, authority figures that don’t believe in the quest, and a legendary city of gold. Characters travel through ruins and graves and sing of a bygone golden age. From the perspective of our protagonist and the insert for the viewer, the whole world is literally larger than life for a Hobbit. Gandalf the Grey, whose magic serves as a deus ex machina on more than one occasion. Thorin Oakenshield, slayer of countless formidable foes. The otherworldly knowledge and abilities of the elves. Giant spiders and stone giants. We have this grandiose setting populated by heroes and villains and their exploits, but the theme is antithesis to that. The story is about a small person who doesn’t know how to use a sword and would rather be home reading.

For this one line, the film spoke to me, and I fell in love with it. This one scene was the heart and glory of the story.

In some ways, the movie gets caught up in the great power, but the book starts on an intimately human level. “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” From the book comes the core of the film. It isn’t the battles or magic the film added to the book that makes it a success, but the good story it was based on.

I don’t think The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could be successful on its own if not for the success of the books and the preceding Lord of the Rings films. If we treated this like a regular fantasy adventure story not associated with the popularity of Tolkien: the pacing was slow, the plot jumped around a lot with little sense of connection between points, and the titular character is not the focus of the majority of the film. If I had not read The Hobbit previously, I would have been completely lost. Honestly, I still was lost with the pieces that were added for the film. The book is 300 pages. Stretching that into three movies is too much, in my opinion. Some scenes seemed to drag on forever. I was almost certain I did not remember the parts with the orcs or Gandalf’s other wizard associates from the book, and I was glad a friend pointed out they were added for the movie. I don’t mind film adaptations of books being a little long because they’re trying to be true to the story, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could have been about half an hour shorter, and closer to an expected two hour film runtime, if the scenes that weren’t in the book weren’t added just to stretch a short book into a trilogy. The one thing you never want your audience to be, regardless of what genre you’re writing, is bored. I got bored and had to spread this film over several days of watching, and honestly if I didn’t know what climax this movie was building up to, I would have stopped watching because I lacked investment.

This is the problem with creating a movie or book just to establish context for a future installment in a series. There’s a ton of exposition and rising action, but the climax isn’t going to happen until the second or third movie, which risks leaving the viewer unsatisfied or questioning the purpose of the film at all. I think two parts would’ve been grand for an adaptation of The Hobbit rather than three. One has to wonder if the length of the film series was not in the spirit of creating an immersive story but rather for the box office. I hate to be pessimistic, but given the fact some side plots were added that weren’t in the book, I’m inclined to consider the latter.

That’s the thing about blockbusters though, isn’t it? When a title becomes immensely popular, saturates the cultural consciousness, and gains a large and dedicated audience, they can create whatever they want and it will sell. If something says Marvel, or Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings, or even Frozen, it will be read, it will be watched, and it will make lots of money because the existing fanbase is already so loyal. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing as long as the audience is enjoying it, but I do become cynical when the quality of installments noticeably drops because the studios have figured out they don’t need to spend a lot of effort to get a large return. This contributes to a “fast fashion” cycle of rapid consumption in our current media climate, which is stressful on both fans and creators. It makes it harder for new stories to get a foothold in the market if they have to compete against Avengers 22, or Star Wars Episode 16, or the umpteenth remake of a Disney cartoon, or Harry Potter Prequel 7: This Time With Even More Bigotry, or whatever it is this month.

I’ve gone on a tangent, and I’ll end on a good note. I didn’t really appreciate epic fantasy until watching this movie. When I read The Hobbit six years ago, it wasn’t at the right time of my life for me to fully connect with the story. Now, I feel immersed in the comfort the escapism can provide. You can always return home, though not unchanged. Change is an inexorable part of life, but if you have the courage to confront it, you can do great things.

#film review #the hobbit #epic fantasy

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