#lod spoilers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

maaaxx · 9 months

Text

Heartstopper Season 2 Spoilers

Heartstopper season 2 was perfect, and Alice Oseman is a cinematic and literature genius but I would like to take a few moments to draw some attention to.....

This boy right here.

(look how sweet he is omg)

I can't get over Isaacs arch in heartstopper, especially in season 2.

Ace representation is so few and far between as it is, and good representation is even more scarce, but having that sort of representation at the forefront of a show? And having it accurately depicted, and not infantilized? Showing the complexities of it? Basically unheard of. But Holy Fuck did Alice Oseman deliver.

At the end of season 2 he is just finding out what aro/asexuality is and reading up on it. He knows it exists and he knows that it applies to him. And he faced some of the difficulties of being aro/ace with James and with the isolation and feeling like he's not interesting unless he has a romantic interest, these are all very real and not commonly talked about things that people have experienced.

And oh my god was it euphoric to see on screen.

Growing up and watching all your friends have crushes and get into relationships and fawn over people and never experiencing that same thing is so isolating. Even in accepting environments and in good friend groups (as seen on the show) it always feels like your an odd one out, and outsider, etc.

So the scene where Isaac goes "I think their might be something wrong with me.", that hits home to so many people who grew up not understanding why they were different.

I've talked about on here before why labels are so important to people, and this is a perfect example of it. You can learn to accept yourself and love yourself and be completely self confident but if there's something fundamentally different about you, there's always going to be a voice in the back of your head reminding you of that. Learning a label, or a word, that represents something that you might have already accepted as something that's a character flaw, there's no word to describe it, it's so relieving. It means there are people like you who have lived to create that label, it means your not alone with it, it means you have a community.

And having this shown on tv, especially at a time like now where people are trying to cover up anything that reminds people that LGBT people exist, is going to tell so many kids that there is nothing wrong with them, and they're not defected, and they're not broken.

And Isaacs whole arch (even thought it's not completed) handled this perfectly. Because there were moments that shows that Isaac is in some ways separate from the group. They love him, but he's different, they care about him, but he doesn't have a romantic interest, so his presence isn't as acknowledged.

And I think that in Season 3 (assuming theres going to be a season 3) we're going to get to see this expanded on. We might get to see Isaac coming out to the rest of the group, and learning how to cope with not having access to something that a lot of people say is what makes people human.

Heartstopper is such an amazing show and Alice Oseman is incredible. The cast is incredible. Everything about everything about that production is incredible.

(now for another picture of my son)

#This is a heartstopper blog now #ik heartstopper is kind of seen as a kiddy show to a lod of older gays but this show has been so healing to me #and shows like this that are very like #well known #and get a lot of views and stuff #9 cant remember the word for it rn #even though we are where we're out with the lgbt things #like i said there are a lot of people who still want to hide certain identities from kids #and asexuality is one of them #representation is so important no matter how far weve come #idk what im saying rn im so tired #anywho #i fucking love this show #isaac henderson #heartstopper s2 #heartstopper #heartstopper spoilers #max thinks shes relevant

21 notes · View notes

tiny-huts · 1 year

Text

Can't get over Gromph in Archmage constantly being like IVE INVENTED A NEW FORM OF MAGIC. NO ONE HAS EVER THOUGHT TO PUT PSIONICS AND WIZARDRY TOGETHER. I AM THE PICTURE OF GENIUS. And Kimmuriel is sitting there having to teach him thinking "yeah, jackass. Nobody in the entire history of my house thought of that, for sure. You're so smart and original"

#the legend of drizzt #gromph baenre #kimmuriel oblodra #the forgotten realms #meg reads lod #legend of drizzt spoilers #Kimmuriel pours a glass of brandy #Gromph is so not normal about him #lolth just giggling in the corner like he thinks he broke the rules of summoning this is so funny

35 notes · View notes

threeletterslife · 8 months

Note

Hii! It's me again. I was curious how you came up with this? Was the whole series your idea or someone elses, or mabye where you found your inspo and such. And when you started writing it, did you come up with all the plots and stories yourself and did you have doubts on it? OH and also how did you come up with all these characters and fantasy like places and stories and names?You're welcome to answer or just ignore tho. Whatever is nice for you! 💓

wellllll this is quite a long story, so buckle up!

i consistently write a journal documenting my journey with lod, so i will be copy-pasting excerpts here. i am planning to post the entire journal once lod is finished (right now, it is 37+ pages, but it'll definitely be much longer lol. not sure if people would even read the full thing, though.) FYI: below the keeping reading line, words in red omits spoilers (aka the chapers i haven't posted yet) and words in green are commentary (since i wrote this journal a couple years ago)

tl;dr: i was bored in quarantine and had a lot of motivation, so i came up with lod. the entire series was my idea, but i found inspiration from other fantasy/magic series. i did have doubts when it came to plotting, but i had a couple of friends who proofread. coming up with everything was definitely a process—i explain it in detail below:

1. HOW IT ALL STARTED

November 1st, 2020, Sunday was the day I created the first LOD-related Google Doc. I remember for the longest time, I wanted to write an ultra-long series. I had no idea what this series would consist of—the only thing I did know is that I wanted it to be a slow burn. Of course, I began dabbling with the idea of the internet’s most beloved trope: enemies to lovers. I realized that I don’t exactly have much of an interest in developing a story based on modern-day happenings. If this series was going to be long, I wanted to go all-in—that is, I wanted to play around with some extensive world-building. Though I admit I have some experience in world-building, I say this with a grain of salt because I’ve never actually expanded upon my new universes. (Most of my world-building work has been through the Society Series, which included seven stories that ranged from 2k-29k words. And 2k-29k words are barely anything compared to the long series I wanted to write.) So I took on this challenge of creating an entirely new world with new nations and cultures and people.

Except I didn’t know where to start. I think I found it the easiest to figure out who I wanted to write. I definitely wanted to write a somewhat angsty relationship (definitely something on the lines of enemies to lovers). So I knew my main characters had to have a lot of spunk to them. I still wasn’t so sure about the setting, until I realized how interesting it would be to write a story about a war. I’ve never quite done that before. I accepted the challenge. And with this setting in mind, I began to piece together my characters. I typed out a quick: general!yg (26) and general!yn (23) into the Google Doc. It was actually smooth sailing from there.

1.1 Castings, Genres and Plotting

I created two nations: Solaria and Darlae and then split them up as the elemental magic group and traditional “wand” magic group. I wasn’t so sure how to build upon the magic, though. I decided to leave that problem up for the future me. Meanwhile, I assigned Yoongi the role of the cynical, cold yet somehow gentle Solarian General. Of course, to add some *spice*, I cast our OC as the kindhearted, passionate Darlaean General. I took a lot of inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Harry Potter franchise but ultimately decided that I’d create my very own system of magic (somewhere along the line). I did know that the Solarians would control the elements and the Darlaeans would use what I later called their birthstones to do their own form of magic. But other than that, I literally let alone the magic. I figured I’d begin to create the magical guidelines when I felt more comfortable with the other parts of the story.

From November 1st to the 7th 2020, I plotted every day. But these were very general plot points—mostly to map out where the story would go. I came up with an introduction that I felt was a good hook, and from there, I focused a lot on moving the plot along. It’s a little problematic considering I didn’t exactly flesh out my characters yet, but I thought it would be better to just word vomit than stay stagnant. I realized I could tweak the plot a little (or a lot) after I got my ideas out. So then, I made the whole storyline of OC’s lost memory, Yoongi being suspicious of her, her feeling a little lost in Solaria, then her assimilating and gaining Yoongi’s undevoted trust. The plot was very much centered around her and the Solarian General. I remember being stuck at a particular plot point, however. It was after the fact that OC went into battle and got “captured” by the Darlaeans. I knew she’d meet her past lover (Jungkook) and it’d be a whole angst parade. But there were a few complications that are plot spoilers of the latter half of the second act, plus acts III and IV, so I will not share them for now. Just know that it wasn't until January 2nd to 14th of 2021 that I finally configured the ending of LOD

1.2 Creating the Title

I also came up with the title on January 10th. I had some possible choices too: Forgotten Memories, Lost Memories, The Legends of Two Kingdoms, Legends of Magic, Legends of Darlaria. At first, I really wanted to incorporate the motif of memory in the title. [Reasons are redacted.] But then I started brainstorming some ideas and realized putting ‘memory’ in the title sounds cheap/an attempt to sound overly deep. I didn’t like it. So I realized I could branch off and talk about the nations. The Legends of Two Kingdoms gave me Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities vibes and I was not there for that. Legends of Magic sounded straight-up stupid. But then came Legends of Darlaria. It clicked. I was so happy with that and it stuck like glue.

1.3 Fleshing the Plot Out

1.3.1 Creating the Acts

January 12th, 8:38 AM, I copy-pasted my plot doc into a new doc specifically for chapter divisions. By 8:46 AM, I had created three acts. Act I is OC’s time spent in Solaria. Act II encompasses the entirety of OC’s stay in Darlae. Act III is the ending. I didn’t flesh out any of the chapters/parts. In fact, I spent the next several days splitting my story into parts. And by January 26th, I had all 65 parts basically fleshed out (plus the epilogue). It ended up being 57 pages, 33 more than my original 24.

January 16th, I first came up with the idea of having four acts instead of my original three. I felt like if I stayed with three acts, act II would be unnecessarily long. [Redacted discussions about acts III and IV].

1.3.2 Major Creations and Edits

From then on, I worked on my chapter divisions doc sporadically. I skipped the whole month of February. Then, I only worked on it twice around the end of March. I remember this was because I was losing a lot of motivation for Legends of Darlaria. I had completed a lot in a pretty short amount of time: creating a title, creating functioning characters, creating a 65-page plotline, etc. It was safe to say that I was (a) getting tired of it (b) realizing my ideas weren’t so great as I had originally thought they were. It also might have had a lot to do with college decisions and online school burnout. I remember I was just tired all the time—even though I was getting more than enough rest. Legends of Darlaria felt so… bland. Every arc I had, I felt like it had been done before, and there was nothing really special about my characters either. In fact, I started to worry that they were really, really starting to look like Mary Sues (especially the OC).

But I got ahold of myself and began working again, picking up momentum. I entered the chapter division document (my main doc) on April 19th, ready to get back on track. I remember, I felt kind of lost, then. I wasn’t sure if I should add any more details to the plot or whether I should even take parts of the plot out. I felt like to change one little detail, I had to change a billion other things. So in the month of April, I remember obsessively reading over the document and editing every little piece of dialogue, sentence, plot point. I even built upon my characters. On April 19-22, I gave them zodiac signs, IQs and their place of birth. Zodiac signs were easy. For OC, her stubborn nature and willingness to stay grounded made her a Taurus, which is perfect considering that she has an April birthday (in order to have the diamond birthstone). I didn’t plan for that to happen, but it did happen to work out. Yoongi’s an obvious Aries; head on his shoulders, also stubborn and pretty tough (redacted information). I always imagined Jungkook as a Virgo (which he is in real life). On April 20th, I created the five sectors of Solaria—literally on a whim. Each element would get its own sector and there would be a heterogeneous capital sector. Coming up with the names for that was so fun. I basically looked up “names that mean [insert element]” and created my own variations from what I found on the internet. Needless to say, the names did not disappoint. (I’m usually shit at coming up with fantastical names, so this was an improvement on my part.) This was how I was able to figure out that Yoongi’s birthplace is Aithne; OC and Jungkook are both from Darlae, a huge kingdom with no separate cities/sectors [that obviously got changed later LOL]. Figuring out their IQs was a roller coaster ride [even though honestly it shouldn't even have been a huge deal since IQ doesn't define intelligence whatsoever]. In the beginning, I gave OC the highest IQ of 133. Jungkook had the lowest of 127 and Yoongi had a 131. But I thought about those numbers for a long, long time. (The funny thing is, IQ is not even remotely important to the story, so I have no idea why I was fretting so much about it.) But two days later on April 24th, I edited the IQs. Jungkook now had the highest of 131. Yoongi had the lowest of 127, and OC had 130. I remember realizing that I didn’t want the nations’ militant leaders to be too above average; that’s not how usually the military works. But I did want their IQs to be a little higher than average, too—because let’s face it—these characters do some smart shit in the story. But I ended up bumping Yoongi down the IQ ladder (for reasons that are purely intuitive; I can’t explain them with words). Jungkook went up (because I realized he’s one of my most intelligent characters), and OC is just right behind him.

1.3.3 Art & the Quest of Smut

No one asked for this, so I will be omitting this excerpt LOL.

1.3.4 An Obscene Number of Things to Fix

April 27th, I fleshed out the five sectors of Solaria, creating their relative sizes and different ecological biomes. (I literally remember researching the different biomes during my math class—it was a nice bio review!) I also realized I needed to take the initiative on my still ever-so-present dilemma that Legends of Darlaria felt bland. I was ruminating about the reason it could come off as bland for months. But I finally got somewhat of an answer. It was definitely because there was too much focus on the main characters; the side characters didn’t get the time of day! I also thought that the main characters’ flaws were not well-portrayed enough in the plot. So, I came up with a list called ‘THINGS TO FIX.’ It consisted of 10 bullet points: (1) yn’s not good with kids, (2) [HUGE FUCKING SPOILER], (3) [another spoiler LOL], (4) the ending drags on too much, (5) [semi-spoiler but omitting just in case], (6) sprinkle in stuff about sectors, (7) [more spoilers bruh], (8) add seokjin to the flashbacks, (9) add more female OCs, (10) figure out dates/times

(1) OC gets to meet children in chapter 5 where she voyages to the capital with her General. But I realized, it doesn’t make much sense for OC to be a kid-person. Even when she was young, she was mature for her age, and she had to grow up quickly due to the death of her mother [changed this to her parents' neglect instead]. She never got a chance to be a child. So it would make sense for her to be awkward around children. She doesn’t know how to treat those mini-adults!

(2) Nope

(3) Also nope

(4) Semi-spoiling the ending, so will take out just in case

(5) Also a semi-spoiler...

(6) I just created the different sectors, so I realized that now has to be integrated into the story.

(7) Oops also a spoiler

(8) Seokjin is a character we barely see in the whole story, which sucks because his character has so much potential. Even though I didn’t write it down anywhere, I always internalized that Seokjin is a misunderstood character. (Kind of like Jungkook.) He has a lot of potential and is a highly disciplined individual, but doesn’t quite understand how to interact with others. I think he’s a very “rigid” character. He likes to follow the rules. He likes to obey orders. I think a pivotal point in his character is when [REDACTED]. But since Seokjin is such an interesting character, I want to put him in the flashback scenes. He must have played some role!

(9) I knew for a while that Legends of Darlaria would not take in place of a patriarchy. Men and women are literally equal. So it was just sad to see more male characters than females. But that may have something to do with the fact that this is a BTS fanfiction and I kind of promised myself to include all seven men. So, of course, there is an imbalance. My concern, however, was coming up with female characters who could be seamlessly integrated into the plot.

(10) I realized while writing this longass series (which I had no idea would be in several months), I would also have to write descriptions of the setting. But the setting also includes the weather. How am I supposed to write about the setting if I don’t even know what season the chapter is taking place? This last bullet point perhaps stressed me out the most. (For some reason.)

1.3.5 Fixing and Creating New Characters

I worked on LOD basically for the rest of April—almost every day. I was really big on weaving the to-fix points into my plot. I remember I made 81 edits in one day trying to sprinkle in bits of the sector stuff. I also changed a lot of the dialogue and the choices the characters made for them to stay true to their character. At the beginning of May, I focused a lot on rounding out my main characters and fleshing out the world-building. I created a money system, which, I have no idea why I made (but whatever. I guess it made my world feel a little more real to me). I added three things to my to-fix list: (1) add more bits of confident yoongi, (2) add more yoongi character flaws (his willingness to surrender/give up), (3) add more yn character flaws (too trusting, overthinks, workaholic). I still felt like my main characters were Mary Sues (except Jungkook LOL). So I realized to make the audience sympathize with them and root for them, I had to make them seem more human by giving them notable flaws.

I took a break for a couple of weeks and got back on track in the middle of May. On May 18th, the Lieutenant of the Solarian Army Kang Doyun was born. I didn’t really know much about her other than the fact that she speaks her mind and is a generally likable character. The same day I created her, I also decided that ultimately, she has to die. Originally, I planned it so that OC and Doyun do not know each other too well. That would make it easier for OC to take Doyun’s place as the Lieutenant when she dies. In hindsight, I realize that is definitely not how the military works—even in a fictional nation. But we’re going to let my past self be in blissful ignorance. [Which is why I changed it later so OC never becomes the Solarian Lieutenant General LOL.]

May 19th, Hana was born. She was created for the sole purpose of tripping up OC because she’s so similar to Hajin. Immediately, I knew I had to design her as a very likable character. In fact, I added to my to-fix list: make ALL characters more likable/complex. By the end of May, my original 24-page document became 71 pages.

I worked on the document for three days in mid-June. Mostly, I was working hard to polish up the plotline; my goal was to slowly get rid of all the bullet points from my to-fix list. I worked on the document for one day in July—mainly to add to some important plot points. I think at that point, I thought I was basically done fleshing out the story.

Anyways, the rest of this journal is me doing a breakdown of each chapter I've written in LOD, which can get quite tedious, so I won't include that. Hopefully, this gives you a better background of how my idea came to be and knowledge of some of my pre-writing processes!

I began writing LOD after I settled into my college dorm, and three years later, I'm in my apartment still writing. I will most likely finish and wrap up this story when I soon after I graduate and begin working full-time

#ask #yoongijoon07 #lod #sorry this was so long but i hope i answered your question!!#i can't believe how many spoilers i had to take out LOL #it's cuz shit RLLY GOES DOWN in the latter half of act II LOL #and i honestly doubt anyone can predict what act III's gonna be about #tbh i don't even think act IV is all that predictable #the most predictable thing in this entire story (i'm hoping) is the fact that OC is Darlaean lol #since most of you figured it out anyways

9 notes · View notes

thisghosts-obsessions-again · 1 year

Text

You have no idea how relieved I am to see Koschei's version in SoS not old and naked in a creepy unnerving way like he is usually portrayed. He looks like a worn out version of his former self. He looks good in grey lmao

#league of dreamers #lod silence of the sea #lod koschei #this ghost's liveplay #personal rant #spoiler #romance club #screenshots #screenshots spoiler #screenshot #yes i am still thirsting over this man #lod charodey #lod sots

27 notes · View notes

loregoddess · 1 year

Note

4, 7 and 10 for the comfort character ask: for Rose from Legend of Dragoon

oooh, Rose is a fun character

4. what about their personality i like I loved watching Rose go from this "mysterious, cold, closed-off" warrior to slowly becoming more trusting and open as the story progressed. Like, all the stuff she does in the world's history aside, seeing her regain that sense of "humanity" before the story's ending was nice, and I think works the best for her character arc. But also makes me wish we got a prequel bc it's suggested that Rose was this warm and kindhearted woman, who was deeply in love and full of hope before the Dragon Campaign, and then had to kill off that part of herself to bind herself to her destiny. She's a fairly complex character, and her entire arc is really interesting.

7. the moment of theirs that made me the happiest The scene at the end of Chapter Two, where she's alone in the guest room of Fletz Castle and Rose laughs to herself, and then realizes that she laughed. Like, it's small, but it's the first indication that she's begun to break away from the fate she's been tied to.

10. my favorite moment with them in canon Hmm...probably her conversation with Dart in Ulara, which is also when the flashback cutscene to her duel with Dart occurred, because it's such an interesting and pivotal point in both her and Dart's character arcs, as well as their story. Like, on one hand we have Dart and his recurring theme of choosing not to claim vengeance despite his motivations throughout the story being vengeance (against both the Black Monster and Lloyd), and how he chooses not to kill Rose because "the Black Monster is already dead," instead accepting her as she is, because, unforgivable as her actions are, he also understands why she chose them. And given that the world is very close to ending, Dart knows that now, more than ever, they need to work together as a team. And for Rose, it's this moment where she's able to truly begin to separate herself from her fate as the Black Monster, to move on from being the crux of the world, and return to just being Rose. And while she can't forgive herself really, she's at least able to face and move towards the future instead of remaining stagnate, as she had been. It's just...not the type of story arc I see explored a lot, and it's messy, but at the same time it was nice to see that for all that occurred, Rose was still given the chance to return to moving forward, to return to living.

#legend of dragoon spoilers #honestly for as much as I'd love a pretty HD remaster I also don't want one bc the disc horse around Rose would be a nightmare #but I like her a lot she's a mess of a character and she's interesting and she's so so tragic #alas she's not great mechanically but story-wise she's pivotal and fascinating #like I know Dart's the main character but the actual overall themes and events of the story mirror Rose's character arc #AND the main theme song is about her so like #she's not the protagonist but she's very much the main character in a sense if that makes sense #am I the person who picks up the messiest characters and then turns around and says #''I swear they're really cool if you get past the war crimes''?? maybe...#also though Rose you named your dragon Michael when all the others gave their dragons cool names #like Feyrbrand and Regole #WHY did you choose such a bland name girl?#anyhow that's my LoD spiel for the night #alynnl #ask meme #I still don't have an ask tag

2 notes · View notes

ashensparrow · 2 years

Link

A Second Chance by AshenSparrow

Fandoms: The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore Forgotten RealmsDungeons & Dragons - All Media Types

Summary

Drizzt awakens in Iruladoon to find His Companions waiting for him, and with a new mission. Determined to correct his mistakes he agrees to return to Faerun, to meet the others when they all turn 21 years old. However, he learns that his actions in his previous life had far reaching consequences... I’m pretty excited about this fic i’m working on and wanted to share here if anyone is interested in the LoD, its a fix it. alternate universe fic

#the legend of drizzt #legend of drizzt #LoD #Drizzt Do'Urden #drow oc #drow #Fanfiction #Forgotten Realms #the forgotten realms #Dungeons and Dragons #eilistraee #Legend of Drizzt spoilers #the companions AU

1 note · View note

cyber-frog-cc · 8 months

Text

MODERN MAN SET

I've made this set based in the fashion of the early to the middle of 1910s, when the men used big plastic collars (spoiler: they fell into disuse due to fatal accidents that happened in the period. Be careful!) and high waist pants. Hope you like it! (:

The set have colors of The Historian Palette from Serindipity. Thank you for this beautiful palette!

The shirts came with three versions: V1 (without Collar), V2 (Collar Without Bow Tie), V3 (Collar With Bow Tie).

Base Game Compatible (BGC)

Custom Thumbnail

All LODS

Shirts: 36 swatches (28 from The Historian Palette, 6 patterned, 2 plain white and grey)

Pants: 30 swatches (28 from The Historian Palette, 1 plain white and 1 patterned)

Teen - Elder

Download it here:

~Patreon~

#decades challenge #edwardian #1910s #clothes #ts4cc #historical cc

133 notes · View notes

morwaltsims4 · 4 months

Text

𝐔𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐮𝐨

hello! - Long sleeve top and Cargo pants

ALL LODS!!

base game compatible

custom thumbnail

23 swatch for Top

13 swatch for Pants

I hope you like it! Let me know if there's an issue ♡ !!!! I will start sharing spoilers about the new collection on my new discord server, don't forget to join. !!!! MY NEW DISCORD SERVER

Download (Free on Patreon)

31 notes · View notes

solvicrafts · 1 year

Text

One of my favorite recurring themes with the drow-centered novels (including Legend of Drizzt and War of the Spider Queen) is that we repeatedly see a lot of characters we grow attached to realize just how fundamentally lost some of their closest friends and family are.

WARNING: Mild spoilers for WotSQ/heavy spoilers for LoD below the cut

We see it WotSQ with Ryld and Valas, both of whom are betrayed by someone dear to them (I’m being purposely vague here because I don’t want to spoil anything since I know a few people are in the process of reading WotSQ now). We see it with Jarlaxle and Arathis Hune, we see it with Artemis and his mother, we see it with Drizzt and Zaknafein (although Zak later comes around), we see it with Kimmuriel and Rai’gy, and there’s likely a ton more examples I’ve forgotten.

And each of these characters has a different reason for either failing the person they love or a different way of processing and coming to terms with that disappointment.

Ryld becomes more closed off around Pharaun, but is still capable of forming some attachments later on. Still, you can tell that his ability to trust people is damaged and he has lingering trauma over it. Ryld is definitely uncomfortable with certain aspects of drow life, but overall accepts everything stoically.

Valas is devastated but pulls through it and remains loyal to Jarlaxle and Bregan D’aerthe. Otherwise, he doesn’t seem to develop any close attachments that we know of, but he definitely does still care to a certain extend about Pharaun and Ryld. And in all fairness, he basically disappears after WotSQ and only reappears for cameos in LoD here and there. Interestingly, he’s even willing to try and build a friendship with Zaknafein. I find this *super interesting* because Zak indirectly told him that he killed his grandfather after coldly shutting him down, and while there was some tension for a moment, Valas was the one to attempt to make peace and didn’t take his offer for drinks off the table.

Jarlaxle is... well, he’s interesting and complicated in this regard. He doesn’t tend to be very open about his true feelings on things, and while he’s had a LOT of disappointments in life, we don’t see him really dwelling on them. He knew, for example, that Arathis was threatened by Zaknafein’s growing closeness to him, and initially found it almost entertaining before it got to the level that it did. But where I think this could potentially get really interesting is how it affects his relationship to Valas; we don’t see him interacting directly with Valas very many times, but when we do, they are cordial, and Valas seems to have a preference for Jarlaxle over Kimmuriel and is anxious for him to return as a leader in Gauntlgrym.

It honestly makes me wonder just how Jarlaxle perceives him, and what must have been going through his mind when Valas showed up on his doorstep after seeking out Bregan D’earthe following the fall of his house. We DO see that Jarlaxle is particularly attached to Braelin, and as I’ve mentioned before, he and Valas have a ton of things in common. And Braelin at the very least is aware of Valas, per his introduction in Maestro. He’s also roughly two centuries younger. Could Jarlaxle have had Valas train him as a scout? I think it’s pretty likely, and I wonder if part of his motivation for doing so might have been hope that:

a) Braelin, being “a commoner but of more noble heart” as Jarlaxle described him, might be a good influence upon Valas in the event he turned out more like his grandfather in temperament and morality than Jarlaxle hoped.

b) Valas would be a good mentor for Braelin and keep him away from the city, thereby limiting his exposure to the uglier aspects of their society.

c) History would not repeat itself like it did with Arathis, and he’d get two good scouts to replace the one he lost -- and it makes sense, especially since Braelin was rescued by Zaknafein at one point and probably reminded Jarlaxle of him. Maybe this is his way of making up for his perceived failure to keep the peace between Arathis and Zak?

Drizzt on the other hand does NOT take disappointment well at all. I think RAS and his books get shit on a bit more than they deserve, but one major criticism I do actually agree somewhat with is that Zaknafein’s return was handled horribly where Drizzt was concerned and it made Drizzt look like a petulant child.

I say ‘somewhat’ because Drizzt is still mentally pretty damn young by elven standards, and on top of that, he grew up absolutely idolizing Zaknafein and it never even occurred to him that Zak was STILL a product of his environment and had survived in it for far, far longer than Drizzt. Well... okay, it did, but I don’t think he really understood the full weight of it. I still think it could have been done better, but it does help to show how much more growing up Drizzt still has to do.

Artemis as we know took that betrayal VERY hard, but at least he got some closure in the end. Even better, he’s really connecting with other people now and forming strong friendship -- even with people he once hated! Some people are pissed about this, but I actually like it quite a bit.

And then there’s Kimmuriel... yeah, he doesn’t really acknowledge it AT ALL. But if you read between the lines, Rai’gy’s fall clearly had a major impact on him. He became a lot more serious about reigning Jarlaxle in, took over some of Rai’gy’s roles with magical item creation/duplication, and became even more closed off. Like Artemis, he’s starting to take small but meaningful steps in forming bonds with other people, and he’s finally beginning to open up about the traumas he’s been through. He was genuinely heartbroken over the (likely) loss of Jarlaxle and his friends, but not so much so that he was willing to immediately go for the nuclear option of taking Azzudonna to the hivemind despite fucking everyone getting on his ass about taking her there or torturing her directly.

What I also find absolutely fascinating about his development is that while losing Rai’gy was undeniably hard on him, I think it was also necessary for his growth. The Kimmuriel we saw in Servant of the Shard would have brutally and messily murdered Calico Grimm instead of settling for humiliating and sparing him. The Kimmuriel we have now actually defended Doum’welle to Gromph by telling him that his anger against her was misplaced and that she was, in fact, an undeserving victim. He also called out Gromph on his racist double-standards during their conversation about Catti-brie.

It’s taken a long time (as it should, given how extreme Kimmuriel’s tendencies toward cruelty and perceptions of other people once were), but Kimmuriel has come a long way, and I really look forward to seeing where he goes from here.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. I had no real reason for writing all this down other than the fact that I just love these characters and wanted to talk about them.

74 notes · View notes