altan isn't a violent person at his core it was just what other people have always seen him as because he's speerly, and for some reason the speerlies have a savage connotation when we have no proof that they were actually animals in the sense that other people keep describing them as. im sure that we only get the savage speerly stereotype because as a people, they were fundamentally different from the nikara and the mugenese. and since they were all (mostly) dead at the start of book one, who was going to negate all of these stereotypes? no one. (i could go on about how altan was slapped with the "last speerly" moniker when in reality he probably remembers very little about his culture and what speer was like before all of the war and the death but that's for another time <3)
even back in his days of sinegard altan isnt depicted as a particularly violent person, though he's placed in violent events. like in the fighting pits at night altan is pitted up against his peers who want to fight him at a chance at victory, to prove that they've won a battle against the last speerly and we have no idea if altan actually wants to fight them or if he's forced to (iirc it's highly suggested that irjah baits him into fighting by promising him opium if he wins, and he will, because he always does) (although that could've just been nezha being a dick) and even though altan shows no signs of violence or aggression (he's always depicted as calm, stoic, etc) he's always painted as something less than human, an animal simply because ??? he wins their fights? as if that's not something he's expected to do in the first place. ("how did he do that? isn't he human?" "he isn't, he's speerly" this quote. ARGHARAGH RABAN ILY BUT SHUT UPPP)
and back to the stereotypes of speerlies and why they're painted as rabid animals even though there's no proof that they are. the main thing i can think of rn is how the federation (+ the mugenese) think of them simultaneously as something divine and to be studied but also as these rabid beasts at the same time. like the federation soldiers are clearly afraid of fire / the speerlies (i have a separate hc that their culture has something to do with this but that is also for another time <3) shiro mentions how precious and important the speerlies are (and yet his people bombed altan's? ://) while taking every opportunity he can to pick altan apart. then people wonder why altan's vicious towards the federation and hates them with every fiber of his being and why he has so much pent-up anger within him and it's like, hello?? they took him captive when he was a child, and sent him to the laboratory with shiro where he would spend half of his life being cut open and dissected, injected with opium time and time again, forced to watch his people die off one by one without the knowledge that he was the last until after he'd been rescued. (this still gets me btw no im not in tears) and then even when he's out, his suffering isn't over, (it's never over lets be real) because he's shipped off to sinegard academy where he'll be surrounded by so many different conflicting stereotypes (the nikara think he's an animal because he's speerly but shiro thought he was amazing because he was speerly, because of his connection to the phoenix) and really, he's not violent, not at his core, but i cant imagine the inner turmoil altan went through his first few years out of the lab + his first year at sinegard where he was the only one who was different (and also fighting an opium addiction at the same time and people belittle him over this when it literally wasn't his fault)
like altan was not violent. he was calm and he had his moments of peace, but ultimately because of everything that had happened to him (cough. shiro u motherfucker), the violence was forced out of him and became all he knew ("chaghan said they trained you like a dog at the academy" ://) and he literally didn't know any better, he was failed by every single person who should have helped him. (never getting over this btw)
yin riga, a man who he trusted, sent him away to shiro. (will never not think of how much little five year old altan trusted riga and then. well.) jiang, who was supposed to help him with his connection to the phoenix, shunned him. irjah, who was his supposed caretaker, who only fed his opium addiction in order to control him, just like how shiro did, just like how the nikara did to the speerlies (parallels. yaaay.)
in the end altan trengsin wasn't a violent person, but it was all anyone wanted to see. it was all anyone would remember him by.
park jimin going from to flirty to playful to being a dork to pouting to being a sunshine all within one clip while wearing a black shirt n his chanel necklace n his pink hair for @marvelousbangtan <3
wait im unbelievably excited to see more of alex and yassen's interactions in alex rider season 3. yassen literally killed someone to protect alex.
we know from the books alex learned to appreciate yassen in some way because he died to save him, but this time around yassen lived but killed someone to save him. book!alex still thinks about yassen long after his death and chooses to keep the fact that yassen died for him to himself. he didn't even seem to hold a grudge that yassen's dying words to him ended up getting alex shot later on (possibly because he appreciated that yassen led him to the truth about his father, and he got to learn more about both of them).
different scenarios but they both led to alex succeeding in stopping damian cray. im curious to know if yassen was still out of it this time around, and he didn't actually want alex to go to scorpia. [insert that anthony horowitz tweet/tumblr post here]. very excited to find out. and also scared!
Okay I'm done. It's not my best work but I'm proud of it. JD here is probably intimidating someone by showing that he isn't above violence lol (he's bluffing...kinda) I decided to temporarily call this AU "Beyond Reach"
Here is a poorly done brief summary of what the AU is all about.
This AU has a similar beginning to another AU called "For This You Were Born" by @/blade-that-was-broken. (Where Trolls can sacrifice themselves before Trollstice in exchange for their family to be left alone.) JD's mom begged or dragged him away to sacrifice himself for their family. Unbeknownst to them, Branch was sleeping inside JD's hair at that time, accidentally also bringing him into danger. JD was definitely ready to die until he realized Branch was with him; this made him reconsider dying and actively try to survive. He got sold to a Bergen who lives far away from Bergen Town, and that's how he managed to escape. This is where the similarities end cause after injuring himself for a bit and meeting Rhonda, he decided that he must bring Branch home at all costs. It was his only motivator—to see and be with their brothers again. So imagine the pain and grief he felt when he arrived back at the hollowed-out troll tree with its roots dug out; his brothers were probably dead. The sight alone had made him turn gray (which also turned Branch a bit gray as well). After a while, he decided to raise Branch by himself. He went to the Neverglade Trails and traveled around the Troll Kingdom.
(I suck at explaining lol. Just expect a lot of art of them traveling around and JD angst™)
JD here is a little (okay maybe a lot) different from Cannon!JD. He's very protective and kinda serious here :3
If you guys have any questions about my au feel free to ask :3