#reckless vs careful driver

[raayllum]

You're bright and it's blinding Just a small spark, and you're flying With your wax wings in a back room Got my arms out, tryna catch you As you're fallin' through the ceiling Took a big leap, now you're bleedin' With a broke nose and a dumb smile Pretty mugshot for your profile Caught in a streetlight A lost cause in Levi's But I'll always see great heights in you I'll be the last one I'll be the last one in your corner when the count's done I'll be the last one Holdin' my hands up (hey) Stood on the bleachers all alone after the crowd's gone I'll be the last one

Love you Rayla POV song

#like she loves callum. So Much #rayllum #pining!rayla #music #music: other #an amv someday #like u can't give me an icarus motif and expect me not to go for it #magic/rayla being the sun to callum's icarus #whereas just callum is her sun tbh #reckless vs careful driver #Youtube

[cupofikeu]

Ꮺ   …      TWO TRUTHS & A LIE ˒ L. HEESEUNG

playing hindi tayo pwede by the juans ・ gender netural reader + word count 962 genre angst .. filo au .. situationship warnings mentions of : citrus fruit .. reckless drivers .. kissing — trans. & cred. to byhees for the cute layout

you love the rain.

there’s this certain serenity that accompanies those pretty dew drops. maybe it’s in the way they pitter patter upon the asphalt. or perhaps it’s the striking color palette of your umbrella that contrasts the skies’ gloomy visage.

(people always did say that lemons make the best remedy. you just so happen to have more than several duplicates of the citrus fruit printed on your shield.)

of course, there’s some frustration that comes with sudden rainfall. such as wearing white shoes that already get teased by fellow footwear through the method of stepping on them. you also can’t forget calculating how much force you must put into leaping over puddles like you’re competing in the olympics.

(well it’s shoes vs. life. and seeing as how even speed bumps can’t prevent drivers from embracing their inner dominic torreto, you’ll take your chances with the soaked footwear.)

but there is no serenity, white shoes, puddles, or fast and furious au characters.

it’s just you and heeseung. your umbrella and his (one vibrant noon and the other, bland midnight). and heavy rainfall lingering by the corner.

you and him; we and us.

at first, you thought it was merely a dream. maybe you stayed up too late and too often—to the point where even when you’re awake, your restless mind wrapped you up in such vivid scenarios.

(if only it was that active during class discussions. then your grades would be the only thing you would have been worrying over during that week.)

after the words came the gesture. and the thing about it is it doesn’t matter how hard you tried to convince yourself otherwise.

there was no way your mind could suddenly concoct the feeling that came out of his java chip-stained lips against yours. nor could it accurately etch the firm yet careful press of his hands upon your waist—a grip you’d become accustomed to later rather than sooner.

(another thing to acknowledge is that no matter how familiar you become with that little habit of his, it doesn’t stop being a trigger. you know.. for the fireworks that sear across your body because those lithe fingertips love retracing their prints on your bare skin.)

but now he has a hand wrapped around the handle of his umbrella. its partner is tucked safely in his coat pocket; as if the thick material would keep the tremors at bay.

and you? you’re hoping this is merely a dream.

because if there’s any best time for your mind to get imaginative, it’s now.

you were the endgame.

so many things look good on heeseung. in fact, if you wanted to, you could compile a whole book filled with things that complement the raven-haired male. that would have been a unique gift for your dating anniversary..

‘have been’ being the key word.

“alam mo..” your stupid voice is already on the verge of breaking. but your stubbornness does not understand the concept of timing, hence why you’re determined to follow through. “kahit maikli lang ang panahon na binigay sa atin, ang dami kong naranasan at naramdaman. higit sa lahat, naging masaya ako. kaya, salamat.. bambi.”

bambi. your bambi.

even though you can’t remember it vividly anymore, you can recall the way his lips waned into a meek smile. and just like how the icing can’t be complete without the cherry (you dislike icing, he constantly picks off cherries—the irony), the crimson hue on the tips of his ears always accompany his replication of the glowing crescent hung above your heads.

“salamat din, tink. hindi ka nagdala ng liwanag sa buhay ko, kasi ikaw mismo ang naging liwanag ko. ewan ko kung may secret ability ka, pero tuwing bumibigat yung loob ko, at tinago ko yun mula sa mundo, you were always there to make sure i didn’t carry the weight by myself.”

fuck it. you no longer care if the downpour drenches you; glues your clothes to your skin.

your umbrella falls limp by your side while you wrap your arms around heeseung. it hurts and soothes your aching soul when you feel him immediately copy your gesture.

“i love you.” you murmur into his shoulder.

“i love you too.”

one of you has to pull away. it’s a known fact; an idea neither of you want to accept.. but that’s just how reality works, doesn’t it?

heeseung decides to sort of take one for the team. it doesn’t fully count when his hands merely travel back to a familiar place: your waist.

after two days—fourty eight (48) hours of not being able to rest his trembling hands upon that space, he’s afraid it’s fading from his mind. one more time, the cold pads of his fingers walk across those invisible lines. he caresses the unfamiliar spanse, commits them to memory again.

then, with plenty of reluctance, he takes his hands off to grasp something important to you. a sheepish laugh echoes from the depths of his cracked heart as he holds your umbrella above your head. “hindi ko alam kung kailangan mo pa ‘to..”

“oo nga, parang walang kwenta na gamitin yan ngayon.” you reply, the shadow of a smile lingering on your countenance.

after sharing some deliberation and more laughter, you keep the shield over your head. heeseung chooses the same approach, despite his raven tresses already clinging to his forehead. it makes sense, seeing as how the conclusion you two fell upon is that getting sick is just like almost every other aspect in life; it isn’t guaranteed.

just as you begin your walk to your house, he calls out your name. you turn on your heel to see him standing there, looking at you with a golden gleam in his doe eyes.

“sana kapag pwede na, pwede pa.”

taglist haven’t thought of it yet..

#enhypen scenarios #enhypen imagines #enha scenarios #enha imagines #heeseung imagines #heeseung scenarios #enhypen blurbs #enha blurbs #enhypen x reader #enha x reader #heeseung x reader #enhypen #enha #lee heeseung #heeseung

[attollogame]

4 or 12 pls for all the ROs for the unique asks ✨

I hope you dont mind me just doing #4 or else this would be a novel 😭😭

How do they see themselves in their head, and how is that image wrong?

Lets do an 'to them vs to others' take

Pariah

In their head: dedicated, emotionally in-control individual who can make rational decisions under pressure and isn't afraid of confrontation for the right cause

In others eyes: Hot-headed reckless driver who prefers jumping straight to intense interrogation, can't cook for the life of themself, DEFINITELY not emotionally in-control, but also quite loyal and reliable when in need

Vasilisa

In her head: a reliable and justified person who is willing to stop at nothing both to get answers and right wrongs; definitely not afraid to throw a punch when needed, but really prefers amicable endings

In others eyes: Slightly anxious detective who may be a bulldog in human form due to her tendency to bite down on a case and not let go; also one of the most sane people in the entire city, so already better then most

Op

In his head: Suave and untouchable individual who is essentially the omnipotent eyes of the city; definitely smarter then many, definitely always correct in his decisions and actions

In others eyes: Chronic recluse who hides from everyone, orders too much takeout, has a habit of eavesdropping on channels, and is way too honest in his opinions; incredibly intelligent and reliable, however

DW

In his head: The always correcr authority of the Under City; he perceives himself as a dedicated and steadfast force that will stop at nothing to achieve his ambitions and is completely justified to do so

In others eyes: Aloof jackass who may or may not have a bit of a god complex going on, but who doesn't in Ovo? That being said, he does care about those he works with more than most stand-in CEO's and his plans do work.

Sysba

In their head: The sancitified and blessed divine incarnate that everyone should be grateful of for gracing them all with their presence. They consider themself above all else and perceive the entire civilian population as their hobby farm that they can play with whenever.

In others eyes: Cannibalistic, hedonistic, messy, and overly arrogant being who dominates the Entertainment District and Under City. A good 85% of Attollo are either terrified of or invested in their very existence so it's a win lose. Actually DOES have a god complex tho.

Suha

In her head: Untouchable (this is a trend) and rightous, she perceives herself as being justified and correct in all choices she makes and believes that keeping everyone at an arms length is completely appropriate procedure

In others eyes: Emotionally detached and possibly manipulative with her words; because it takes a while for her to warm up, most think she has a superiority complex, but they do agree that she's very good at making judgements on various issues.

#RO #thank you!!!

[emiyee553]

reckless driving by lizzy mcalpine is SO insanely house and cuddy.

i mean ,,

"i didn't mean to kiss you, i mean, i did, but i didn't think it'd go this far."

"you'd rather die than take your eyes off me."

"i don't love you like that, i'm a careful driver, and i tell you all the time to keep your eyes on the road. but you love me like that, you're a reckless driver and one day it'll kill us both if i don't let go."

"i can't be your savior. i don't wanna be here when you lose control."

VS.

"i don't know how to tell you that i feel safe when you say 'shotgun.'"

"and i lie when i tell you i know exactly where we're going."

"guess i'd die to keep your eyes on me."

#house md #lisa cuddy #house x cuddy #what the hellll #brainrot

[oh-stars]

This one is so fun because they're ALL speed demons other than maybe Will and Suzie. But ultimately, I'm going Max here. Do I need to say more?

More info on my reasons below!

Round 1 A

Erica vs Max - Max. 

This one was both easy and tough. On one hand, we have canon evidence that Max is eager to drive and she’s used to reckless driving so she probably feels more in control when she is driving. Like it’s fun for her. Erica is just smart enough to know where the speed traps are and doesn’t want to get caught. But I could also see them both being speed demons. Max gets it ‘cause she says fuck authority. 

Dustin vs Will - Dustin. 

This is easy. Will is just so sweet and cautious in terms of his personality that I can see him being a cautious, if not anxious driver. Dustin… He’s a dumbass in the best way. He’s probably ranting to his passenger and not even realizing he’s going twenty over. I think he’d just have a lead foot (especially if Steve’s his driving teacher). 

Round 1 B

Eleven vs Lucas - Lucas. 

I almost went with Eleven here, but I think Lucas would like the thrill of independence and have his own car. He seems like the type to try and model himself after Steve in other ways (we see it with all the character parallels) so I think they’d bond over basketball and maybe cars once Lucas starts getting into them. Eleven I think is also smart enough not to get caught, but she is also a speed demon. Plus she’s the chief’s kid, she’s getting out of the ticket easy. 

Mike vs Suzie - Mike. 

Suzie has anxiety and is a cautious driver. She has a bumper sticker that says something like, “please let me merge, I am but an anxious bean.” She’d also just think it’s wrong. Mike just doesn’t care. He’s just doing his thing and has so much attitude. He gets slapped with a ticket every chance possible cause he doesn’t respect authority. 

Round 2 A

Max vs Dustin - Max. 

I didn’t think I’d struggle between these two as much, but they’re both hellions behind the wheel. Dustin just has luck somehow to not get caught while Max has attitude and doesn’t actually care. She’ll take every opportunity to roast Callahan possible. 

Round 2 B

Lucas vs Mike - Mike. 

I think Lucas has moments where he just doesn’t realize he’s speeding after the initial rush of getting his license, but then he’s more careful. Mike has road rage. So Mike is more likely to get caught.  

Round 3

Max vs Mike - Max. 

Both of these two are literally battling Callahan specifically. But ultimately, Max is Max. Like canonically, we know she’d do that.

#stranger things #strbb brackets #strbb sign up brackets #strbb #max mayfield

[jamespatrickcarey]

Overcoming Adversity: Inspiring Victories in Personal Injury Law

In the realm of personal injury law, triumph often emerges from the ashes of tragedy. Behind every successful case lies a story of resilience, perseverance, and unwavering dedication to justice. From catastrophic accidents to medical malpractice, these legal battles navigate the complexities of human suffering and fight for the rights of the injured. Here, we delve into some remarkable tales where justice prevailed against all odds.

Turning Pain into Purpose: The Journey of Sarah Johnson

Sarah Johnson's life took an unexpected turn when a reckless driver collided with her car, leaving her with severe spinal injuries. Devastated by the accident's impact on her once-vibrant life, Sarah found solace in the support of her family and legal counsel. Despite facing formidable opposition, her legal team meticulously built a case that exposed the negligent actions of the other driver.

Through countless hours of investigation and negotiation, Sarah's lawyers secured a landmark settlement that not only covered her medical expenses but also provided compensation for her pain and suffering. Buoyed by her victory in court, Sarah channeled her experiences into advocacy work, becoming a voice for other accident survivors. Today, she continues to champion safety measures and legal reforms to prevent similar tragedies from befalling others.

A Fight for Justice: The David vs. Goliath Battle

When David Rodriguez suffered life-altering injuries due to a defective product, he faced off against a corporate giant in a legal battle for justice. Despite the odds stacked against him, David refused to back down, determined to hold the negligent manufacturer accountable for their actions. With the support of a dedicated legal team specializing in product liability cases, David embarked on a David vs. Goliath struggle that would test his resolve to the core.

Through meticulous research and expert testimony, David's legal team uncovered damning evidence of the manufacturer's negligence and disregard for consumer safety. Armed with irrefutable proof, they presented a compelling case that resonated with the jury, ultimately securing a historic verdict in David's favor. The outcome not only provided him with the compensation he deserved but also set a precedent for holding corporations accountable for their products' safety.

Rising from the Ashes: The Story of Emily Bennett

For Emily Bennett, a routine medical procedure turned into a nightmare when surgical errors led to life-threatening complications. Left grappling with physical and emotional scars, Emily faced an uphill battle to reclaim her life and seek justice for the harm inflicted upon her. With the guidance of compassionate legal advocates specializing in medical malpractice cases, Emily embarked on a journey toward healing and resolution.

Despite the daunting challenges posed by powerful medical institutions, Emily's legal team refused to be deterred, meticulously piecing together evidence of negligence and malpractice. Their unwavering dedication to Emily's cause culminated in a landmark settlement that not only provided her with the financial means to access quality medical care but also held the responsible parties accountable for their actions. Empowered by her victory, Emily has become a beacon of hope for others navigating similar struggles, advocating for greater transparency and accountability in the healthcare system.

A Testament to Resilience: Overcoming Adversity in Personal Injury Law

These stories serve as powerful reminders of the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of justice. From tragedy to triumph, individuals like Sarah, David, and Emily have refused to let adversity define them, emerging more robust and more determined in the face of unimaginable challenges. Their victories not only bring closure and restitution but also pave the way for positive change in the realm of personal injury law.

As we celebrate these triumphs, let us also recognize the invaluable role played by compassionate legal advocates who tirelessly champion the rights of the injured. Their unwavering commitment to justice ensures that those who have suffered unjustly can find solace, closure, and a path forward toward healing. In the pursuit of justice, may these incredible stories inspire us never to lose sight of the human faces behind each legal case and to always strive for a world where justice prevails for all.

[incognito-princess]

I was driving across town yesterday came out of a construction zone and saw something weird on the side of the road ahead of me. About 3 homeless guys were standing over something that was sticking out in the road. As I drove passed I realized it was legs or a guy laying on his back. Then I saw another man walking toward them on the phone. I literally said to my bf, "What the fuck did we just see?"

When I looked back in my rearview mirror I saw an suv pulled to the side of the road, windshield smashed, and realized the guy had been hit by a car. We had been having a good time (shopping for a vanity) and singing along to the music, but now we were both just silent and tight-lipped. I white knuckled it to our next stop and then once I was parked and turned off the car, I had a panic attack, and then walked through Home Depot, crying. I lost a student in a pedestrian vs. vehicle accident a few years ago, and apparently, not over it.

Anyway, on the news last night they said the guy had died. He was drunk and wandered into oncoming traffic on a very busy, 4 lane, road with a speed limit of 50 mph. He never stood a chance.

Anyway, please be careful! There's nowhere you need to be that is so important that driving recklessly is needed (the driver was not being reckless in this case, nor with the accident my student was in, but it's a good reminder). Also pedestrian rules are there because the car will always win. Cross in the crosswalks, cross with the light, double and triple check before you cross. Even if the pedestrian does have the right of way (which is not the case here) fat load of good that does you when you're dead.

Also, if you must drink, please do it somewhere that's safe. This man, who by all accounts was having a hard time (apparently he was the cousin of someone I went to school with and am in contact with on facebook, even though I don't really remember her). He made some bad choices yesterday. And because of that, he lost his life, shattered his family, drastically affected the life of the driver, who was just going about their business on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Maybe this poor man's legacy can be to remind all of us to be aware of ourselves in space and how our choices affect so many others that we don't even know exist.

#car accident #mention of death #please be careful #you affect others #whether you know it or not

[isaacathom]

i have probably spent the majority of my energy re: the scifi thing developing Gao Xue and Jalen Romilly because they're the only characters who share a primary occupation and actually interact in that sort of capacity, vs Zayvia Eskarra and Ogawa Yuuji, who are both gunners but don't meet, and vs Andrea Seward and Foster Cline, who have known each other for decades but not captain to captain and necessarily Cannot meet in that context

the main thing is that i decided early on that Xue and Jalen, the two pilots, have fundamentally different approaches to how they pilot craft. and I have figured out how that fits into the tapestries of their lives, which also helps explain why the two do NOOOOOT get along initially.

Jalen Romilly is from a small, faaaairly remote community on one of the habitable planets. He learnt to handle vehicles, though no ships, from a young age helping out on what amounts to grocery convoys - the community would get their offroading trucks out and all head off together to head for the nearest big town to pick up a mass of supplies. After a horrific illness spread and killed/injured/etc a lot of people, a spread that was only stopped by the timely arrival of a ship of charity carrying medicine, the community raised money to afford their own tiny, 6-person-tops shuttle, which they could use for quick emergency trips to big cities. As Jalen and his family were badly hit by the disease, Jalen insisted on being pilot #2 for the shuttle. he would later teach others in the community to fly it, and take his expertise out to get the job he currently has, so that he could send good money back.

Jalen flies with a caution verging on paranoia. every vehicle is handled with the utmost care, checked once and twice and five times over to make sure everything is in order before he begins, and everything is handled like the manual suggests. He's slow, he's methodical, but he's consistent. He tells you how long it will take him to fly from A to B through space, and he'll be within 2 hrs either side on trips that go over days. Of course he's a careful driver! The trucks weren't expensive, but they were difficult to maintain with the resources they had to hand, and damaging them through reckless action would see important supplies delayed. Of course he's a careful flier! His community owned a single shuttlecraft collectively between them, and if it were damaged at any point, people would die. He's seen it happen. He's seen what a delay in medical care will do, he's felt what it will do.

Gao Xue is from the OnRamp, the most prosperous and economically vibrant area in the entire system. She's from a well to do family, maybe not as rich as they were a few decades ago before the system's trade dried up, but by all accounts toughing out the decline with poise. She's an only child, and able to do damn near whatever she wants. She gets it in her head early that she wants to help people, and hits on flight as her path to do so - she goes to the best school for pilots in the system, she gets a certification to fly on the Interstellar Highways, she sees the damn stars. She gets a great paying job with an organisation that bases itself in a neighbouring system but still operates in her home one, and picks up her current job with the crew as a side job to do a bit more 'boots on the ground' help, versus the high-level operations of her main job.

Xue is an instinctive flier. She feels out the response of the ship to her actions with great intuition, knowing when to ease up and when to push, how to eke out every little bit of efficiency from any energy. She's fluid, she's quick, she's maybe even hasty and brash, confident it'll always work out. And of course she is! She learnt to fly in a vacuum, isolated from any consequence of her actions by the learning context and by her family's ability to pay for any damage case. She's approaching everything insulated from consequence, is allowed to treat much of it like a game or side gig, a hobby. Fun!

The fact Jalen spends the majority of his pay from each job on medication, whether directly for himself or indirectly by sending money back for his family, while Xue doesn't even strictly need the pay she gets from her work on the ship, does not help the dislike Jalen has for her. She's rich, she's (over)confident, she puts the old ship through the ringer as more of a show pilot than a steady trucker. She knows fuck shite all about the people she purports to help through any of her work.

And yet they can't afford not to hire her, because the change up of the crew following the deaths of Foster Cline and Ogawa Yuuji mean that Jalen can't be their primary pilot any more. He's being drafted, somewhat forcefully, into the second-in-command position where he needs to handle logistics and contacting clients and so on, and he can't be the primary pilot. They needed a new pilot, and they had to accept Xue, because her resume is exceptional and she's up for the job despite that. because it's a side gig. It's not serious.

The two of them will take a very long time to figure each other out and come to an understanding.

#story blogging #they've got cool shit going on! theyre rivals to friends! its great! i think they're neat! #its probably around the time of the Party Split that Jalen stops being as rude to Xue #in part because its when Xue demonstrates that she does care and she cares a great deal #because she could have just left. she could've left him and petra to slowly die amidst the wreckage #and she didn't. she could've then left seward and zayvia to rot after they were kidnapped by some fuckers #and she didn't. she stayed longer than he told her to when he went back in to get Zayvia despite the risks #because despite everything xue is extremely principled #its the longest stretch where xue is taking everything dead serious. and it makes her make sense to jalen

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Inspired partially by the twitter trend of The Face Vs. The Face Sitting On It and just in time for Valentine’s Day! 

Gender Neutral Reader Insert. 

Enjoy my masterlist!

Support me on KoFi!

__________________________

While sitting in the car, you watch out the window. Folks buzz around you--some folks looking content, strolling about their day. Others are flitting around, a bit of crease in their forehead. And you feel for them. You know those days where there’s just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. Or it’s when one thing sets off a spiral of all terrible things. Or when you just don’t wake up on the right side of the bed. You know that crease all too well because currently you were having a bad sleeping week. 

You were getting tired when you were supposed to but the second you put your head on the pillow your brain was hot wired--keeping you up with all the things you needed to do, hadn’t done, all the appointments you had kept pushing off. It was finding the littlest things to find that anxiety and keep you staring up at the ceiling. Calum noticed the tossing and turning and tried his best to lull you to sleep this week, fixing you tea in the evening, getting you off your phone or laptop a couple hours before bed. He even started reading to you, but your ears picked up on the white noise of everything in the house. Your brain picked up the embarrassing memory that you hadn’t even considered in decades and now holding it in front of your mind’s eye for hours on end during the week. 

Like right now, you should’ve been at home sleeping. Your work was giving you a long weekend and you really could’ve used the time to catch some extra Z’s, but you were, admittedly, a little scared to stay home. Sure maybe you did fall asleep cuddled up next to Duke. But you worried that you’d stay up, worry yourself sick some more so when Calum told you he had some errands to run you immediately tagged along. The time running around would hopefully tire you out enough that when you got home you could actually fall asleep. 

So after Calum’s personal training session in the morning, which you sort of tagged along for, but mostly went through your own routine and getting a solid breakfast, you two were now buzzing around from store to store. Calum had gotten most of the grocery the other day, but he forgot a couple things so your first objective was to grab those and bring them back up. He then had to go to the post office to mail out his mother’s birthday cards and a few other things. 

While in the line at the post office, your head tucked into his back, Calum got a phone call from a guitar shop on the other side of time about a new model that had just come in. Calum had been eying it for ages, but he didn’t want to be reckless with his money especially after getting some work on his teeth and to the house. So he asked the guitar shop to keep an eye out for when more stock arrived in case it sold out before Calum felt comfortable spending a large sum of money like that again. 

The store agreed to set one off to the side for him and could keep it on hold until the end of the day. Which was perfect--still gave the two of you time to get lunch. You didn’t need to get anything, didn’t need to do anything. But even after lunch, Calum made one more pit stop. Here now at the gas station, you sit peering through the windshield and can see a mother with her two sons walking from the doors. They boys hold brightly colored icees in their hand, each clutching a bag field with goodies. 

You aren’t entirely sure whey Calum needed to stop here for anything. It’s not like he needed stamps, since he got those at the post office. He hadn’t pulled in to get gas. Lunch had been filling, though you tried not to stuff yourself too much just because you knew that on a long car ride, the last thing you wanted to do was be uncomfortably full. 

The door opens again, Calum strutting through with his glasses covering his eyes and resting comfortably atop the chubby cheeks. Barely hanging from the crook of his fingers is a brown plastic bag. The doors click open and he climbs into the driver seat. The guitar shop wasn’t that far, but today seemed to be a busy day on the road. Took you all too long just to get to the grocery store this morning. 

“Snacks?”

“Was craving something sweet after lunch.” 

You peer into the bag as he hands it over to you. Some gummy bears, gum, a bar or two of chocolate you can’t quite tell. You set it onto the floor at your feet. “Let me know when you want something.” But he’s already tearing into a Twix bar when you glance at him. “Or not,” you laugh. 

“The other stuff is for you--if you want to indulge. Can’t forget ya,” he pushes the glasses down for just a moment to wink at you and then looks into the rearview mirror. 

“Do you think you’re going to get this one?” you asks as the SUV rolls out from the parking lot and onto the asphalt of the highway. 

“Hmm, maybe. Gotta see how it feels first.”

You nod at his question, resting your head into the cushion of the seat. And it goes quiet for a while. The radio plays softly in the background, and every so often the packaging crinkles as Calum downs more of the chocolate and caramel treat. 

“Valentine’s Day is coming up soon,” Calum states, while paused in a bit of traffic. “Got any ideas on what you want to do for it?”

You think for a moment. Valentine’s Day has never been your thing--being perpetually single does that to a person. “Restaurants are going to be a nightmare.”

“Yeah, they will be.” Another crinkle comes from the right side of the car and then his arm reaches behind your seat, finding the small bag of trash you stash there--though you have to be careful when Duke sits in the backseat. Generally though, he doesn’t mess with too much. “My mom sent me a recipe of hers. It’s really good.”

“I’d be down for cooking.”

“Nothing else? Don’t wanna go sky diving? Give me another heart attack?”

You laugh thinking about the first birthday you spent with Calum together as a couple. “You didn’t die.”

“But I did almost shit myself.”

“You can play on stage to thousands of people, but no, jumping from a plane is a no-go.”

“Yes, because I am a sane human.”

You huff out a small tuft of laughter and turn to look at him. One hand on the wheel with the stainless steel linked chain dangling from his wrist. His other arm is resting against the door, gently tapping out a beat with his long slender fingers. “Do you want to do anything?”

“Valentine’s Day,” he scoffs. “How long have we been dating? When have I ever been dying to do anything on some random day in February.” His statement doesn’t fall venomously from his mouth. He even looks over to you with a smile. “I don’t need one day out of 365 to declare my love for someone.”

And it’s true. While Calum wasn’t super accepting of love from new people, while it took you months to show Calum that you were trustworthy and not someone to keep at an arm’s length, once he cracked open, he oozed adoration and love for people. And you knew it was a defense mechanism. You knew that when someone did care as hard as Calum did it wouldn’t always be an easy thing to win over. 

Calum, when he finally let someone one, loved hard. It could be a random Tuesday in July or a Sunday in February, and he would make sure his love was known. He never needed a special occasion to send flowers, to cook dinner, to offer to drive you to doctors appointments because he knew that sometimes you got too nervous or flustered by them to drive but did manage to push through if absolutely necessary. He’d easily pick up some gloves and an extra sponge if he saw you wiping down the walls in the kitchen or wiping through the counter. He kept fridge cleaning days marked on the calendar. And when you added reminders to wash bed sheets to the shared one, he also include rest breaks for you too. 

Calum had never needed someone to force him to show appreciation. 

“I mean, there is the option to literally do nothing on Valentine’s Day. Like treat it as any other day.”

“That’s still something,” he countered, turning on his signal and switching out from the middle lane. His exit was approaching in another mile and a half. 

“Oh fuck off,” you laugh. “We can’t cease to exist that day. Bare minimum we need to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.”

Calum laughs softly, showing some of his teeth too. “Fair, fair. There’s another Netflix documentary coming out, true crime one. I forget what it’s fully about, but I think it’s about a serial killer if you’d be down to start it then?”

“When would I ever turn down the opportunity to be a detective with you?”

“You haven’t yet,” he states with laughter in his voice. 

“And I never will.” The ramp takes the two of you down and down and soon you’re winding through streets and not too far you can see the shopping center coming into view. He pulls into the lot of the shop and the two of you step out in unison. 

The bell above the door chimes as he opens it for you and you smile often in your thanks. “Hey, Calum!” one of the guys at the register calls out. The store is fairly empty. But you’re not shocked on a Tuesday afternoon. 

“Hey, Derek. How’s it going?” Calum heads directly over to the counter and you look up to the left wall, at the records on display.

“Let me know if you need anything,” the second guy states to you, “or if you want to see anything.” He’s younger than Derek, both look to be equally tattooed from the pieces that peek out from the short sleeve work shirts, but his face is significantly brighter. 

“Thanks,” you return and go back to the displays. You can hear Calum and Derek chatting but slowly tune it out, make it background noise to the music playing through the speakers. 

You turn to walk towards the back where more instruments sit and you can see Calum leaning into the glass display of the counter. The palms of his hand pressed into the metal edge. The sunglasses sit on top of his head and you notice the younger guy glancing over at you again.

He nods again and then goes back to his computer. Nothing else is said. And you look over the stringed instruments, ukuleles, some violins and then you spin around again, done with that lap and go to head up to Calum. “See anything?” he asks. 

You shake your head. “You’re the musically talented one. I just nod and smile when you talk about it.”

Derek returns, a case in hand. He comes out from the hinged doors that separate the sales floor from the registers and back of the store. You scoot a little closer to the display as the case is transferred over. Calum takes it easily heading to the corner you just abandoned to sit and check out the instrument. It’s a beautiful deep green, almost reminds you of the thick Washington forest. The body is slender. 

“That’s a pretty cool color,” you note, watching Calum work his fingers over the frets. 

He grins up at you. “Think so?” You give another nod. He doesn’t inspect it long before you can see the desire to give in crosses his face. 

Derek’s standing close by and you turn to him and keep your voice as close to a whisper as you can while still being heard. “What’s a bass like that cost?”

He rattles off the price, one eyebrow slightly raised over the other. You know Calum will riot--he’ll pitch a fucking fit. But you reach into your wallet and slide out your card. You had been saving--for a year. You wanted to do something big for Calum. You just didn’t know what it was yet specifically though you had some ideas, a bass was top of the list.  But you didn’t want to try and go out and buy a bass without consulting him, without getting an understanding of what he liked. You thought about maybe a really good leather jacket and some more boots. He loved the ones he had, wore them as much as he could. 

And when you mentioned possibly getting him more, he told you the ones he had were still in good shape. Calum wasn’t the type to just buy clothes to buy them. He indulged here and there, but always made a point to wear something he had down before replacing it. You’d tease the subject a couple more times after that, but he never took the bait and you weren’t going to force him into a thing he didn’t want or need. 

But it’s clear to you that this is something he wants. But he’ll tussle with himself and never give in on it. It’s pricer than you thought it would be. But you too were being smart, having finally paid off the last of your car, you start moving those payments to savings and it helped a great deal. You were fine. You get insurance and the whole deal as Derek advises. By the time you slide the receipt back across the counter, Calum comes back to the registers. “I appreciate you holding it for me, man. But I don’t think I can right now.”

Derek looks at you and you look down into the glass. “It’s--it’s yours, dude.”

“What?” Calum breathes behind you. 

“They-uh, they paid for it,” Derek says, nodding at you.

You can feel the heat in your body now and spin around to face Calum in a rush. “Consider it a not Valentine’s Day gift.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Ever since I finished paying off my car, I saved the payments to do something nice for you. Didn’t know what it was going to be for sure. But I know you, Calum. You’d want something and tell yourself no. I mean you can treat yourself sometimes.”

“You-you didn’t?” His eyes are rapidly blinking, head shaking like he doesn’t want to believe you. Like he can’t believe you as his mouth mumbles out, “No,” repeatedly. 

“It’s yours,” you nod. “It’s really yours.”

If it weren’t for the weight of the bass, you’re sure Calum would’ve tipped over, maybe even rushed to Derek to hand the case back over, but instead he’s weighed down, chained to this spot in the blue speckled carpet of the store, still repeating, “No,” softly. 

“‘I hate to break it to you, but you’re gonna have to find space in your office for it now. Because I refuse to return it.” You step forward, find the handle and slip your hands around it taking it from Calum. A small grunt leaves you and then you start to the door, throwing a thanks to Derek. 

The lights to the SUV blink and you can hear the locks clicking open as you push open the door to the store. “Wait--what are you doing?” Calum asks. 

“Open the trunk please,” you ask. 

“Let me do it,” he demands, stepping in close to take the case with the bass now. “What the fuck did you do? Baby, this is expensive.”

“It’s not a Valentine’s Day gift,” you answer again. “Because I love you. On a random Tuesday.”

He gets the instrument safely into the trunk and then closes it, watching dumbly as you climb into the passenger side. He walks to the driver seat and climbs in, taking you gently by the chin. “That was absolutely reckless and unnecessary-- ”

“I am just absolutely reckless and unnecessary then,” you counter, “because I’m not returning it.”

“--but thank you. Thank you so much,” he continues as if you hadn’t interrupted him. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Then it’s silent, as the two of your gaze at each other, watching what could almost be tears well in his eyes, but they don’t fall. 

“I don’t know what I did to deserve a person like you, but whatever it was, I’m glad I did it.”

“I’m glad you did it too.” The two of you return home, Duke rushing to the front door as the two of you step through it. Calum safely places the bass in his music room/office and returns shortly after to help you decide on what to order for dinner. 

As the two of you settle onto the couch, Calum takes your hand and presses a kiss to teach knuckle. “I’m gonna teach you how to play.”

“You know we’ve done this before.”

“And you were good at it.”

“I was alright at it.”

“It’ll be your bass,” he whispers. 

“I bought it for you,” you return tossing your head back to look at him. 

He kisses your lips. “Yeah, but it’ll be the one that I teach you to play for real one and it’ll be yours--just as much as it is mine.”

“A true sap,” you laugh, but nod and return your focus back to the TV. 

In the week that follows, Calum makes sure to take an hour in the evenings to set you down and pick up on the lessons. They fizzled out as work for the both of you picked up. But now things are a bit more calm. He sits next to you, assessing what you remember from last time and correcting finger placements as needed, but they go smoothly. 

When Valentine’s Day does come, Calum pulls you back into bed for just five more minutes of sleep. And five minutes turns into half an hour. But finally you two pull yourself out from the sheets, figure out what to do in the midmorning that results in food being consumed and then you slowly gravitate towards different sections of the house. 

There’s still a bit of laundry to be done and Calum takes Duke out for just a little bit. The two of you migrate back together by mid afternoon. He finds you making a quick lunch and presses a kiss to your cheek. You turn to face him, squeezing at his. “I bought some face masks,” he offers. “Care to join me in doing the bare minimum of converting oxygen into carbon dioxide after your lunch?”

“Don’t see how I could pass up such a wonderful offer? You want anything?” He shakes head, mentioning grubbing on some of the leftovers earlier while you took a nap. 

With your lunch done and the plates cleaned, you find Calum in the bedroom and let him know you’re ready for the face masks. He shuffles to the bathroom. “I hope I got the right one for you,” he mutters. “I got them forever ago it feels, so who the hell knows what I got.” His laughter is soft as he rummages through the bins under the skin. 

“I’ll be in the office,” you tell him and he nods, still pulling bins out. You settle into the couch and spy the green bass still on the stand from yesterday. You pull it into your lap and sling your arm over it. The amp next to you is off, you know but you still pluck away at it as if it were on. 

Calum shuffles in a few minutes later. “Um, babe. It’s off.”

You don’t reply but do look up. He holds up three different packages. “Here’s to hoping one of these is worthwhile.” You place your bass back to the stand and take one that sounds like one you’re okay with using. Calum hands you a towel so you can wipe your fingers off after you get it placed onto your face. He helps get it right and then you help him with his and the two of you slip onto the couch, legs entangled and leaning into opposite ends of the couch.

You laugh at Calum’s story as you scroll mindless through app after app. In the boredom you snap a picture of Calum with the face masks on and don’t think too much of it, saving it to the album with all the silly and cute photos of him are--there are tons. 

“I mean the sun is a star. Though the ones we see have been dead for a long time.”

Calum taps your leg with his foot. “It was a simple question--to be the sun or the stars. I didn’t ask for this philosophical crisis.”

“Why would it not weigh in your decision! If you’re a star like the ones we see at night, you’re technically already dead. You wanna be dead?” You huff, sitting up. 

“I mean, no, but c’mon.”

“It’s a valid thing to consider, that’s all I’m saying!”

He laughs. “Okay, sun or the moon?”

“You first,” you return and just then your alarm on your phone goes off. The two of you shuffle back to the bathroom and take off the masks. 

“Moon, maybe,” he counters. 

You nod. “Fitting. When should we get started on that recipe of your moms? Is it super involved?”

“Nah, it’s pretty easy. Normal time should be good. I’m going to read outside if you want to join.”

“Maybe in a bit.”

Calum nods, grabbing his book as he passes through the bedroom and the patter of Duke’s claws follow behind him. You go back to the music room, turn on the amp and then actually play a little something. It’s nothing fancy--just the arrangement you put together with Calum as a practice exercise once. You play it for a bit, adding a little flair. When you phone rings, you pause to answer it. You wouldn’t normally, but the number looks semi recognizable so you answer it. 

It’s just a scam call and you hang up but then notice some other notifications. Before you realize it, you’re deep into Twitter. You’ve run across the trend of people posting pictures of themselves and their significant others with the caption, The Face Vs The Face Sitting On It. It made you laugh just a little bit at first. And then you kept going down the rabbit hole. Some are silly, most are good pictures. 

While it’s not exactly secret that you and Calum are dating, you two don’t post too much. Calum isn’t incline to post on social media in the first place and while you use it a bit more than him, you try not to post too much about him out of respect. However, as you look tap on quote retweet and bring up your photos you think maybe one silly post wouldn’t hurt. So you grab the one of him recently with the face masks and then one of yourself--it’s silly too, a little blurry too in the darkness that it was taken in. 

You hit post and watch the likes come in. Then keep scrolling. Eventually you have to put the bass away and peel yourself from the couch to find Calum and see if he’s hungry enough for dinner. Just as you round the corner to the office, you spy him stepping through the glass sliding backdoor. “Hungry?” you ask. 

He nods, “Yeah.”

The two of you, with Duke trotting ahead, make your way down the hallway and into the kitchen. “You’re funny,” he states, washing his hands first. 

“Thank you. I’ll be here until you kick me out.”

He laughs. “No, the pictures you posted. On Twitter.”

You’re shocked that he noticed it that fast. Normally it took him a bit longer to see silly stuff like that. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Nah. What I hope you don’t mind is my reply.”

At first you’re nervous. Calum could’ve gone one of two ways--super silly and broke out even worse photos of you possibly not sober or he went super on trend with it and pulled out a photo of you done up for a date night. Not that you preferred one over the other, but sometimes you liked to keep your relationship light on social media. It was easier that way. There wasn’t any real pressure that way. Though the fans seemed to have enjoyed it when you posted more posed and serious content. 

You liked to keep it a bit more real. You and Calum didn’t do the whole nine yards a lot--you two were normal people who hated getting out of bed some days and went as well into the afternoon before showering at times and walked Duke and went to doctor’s appointments like everyone does. So you always opted for a bit of a joke, a silly Tweet or photo whenever you could. 

“What did you post?” you ask. 

He shrugs, taking up the knife to dice the onion. “I’m not telling you.”

You glance at the printed out recipe and get a pan on the aisle over medium heat before pulling out your phone. As you load the app, you listen to the snap of the knife fitting the wooden cutting board. You type Calum’s name and tap onto his profile. 

While there’s is silly--I do want to take a moment to show off my favorite person in the world. So here we go, The Face Vs. The Face Sitting On It. Below is attached a picture of him--you snapped while you two were out for lunch one day. The black t-shirt tight around his biceps as he slyly grins into the camera. The lights in the background are just barely in focus of the resturant and Calum’s glancing out of the window next to him. You remember that you were recording him, or at least you thought you were, and told him that he was handsome. Not the first time, but everytime he did, he blushed and turn away. And you captured it here too. 

The photo of you is actually one with him in it. The guys got together and did a big family dinner and the two of you posed at Crystal’s request in the slightly matching outfits. You hadn’t intended to match--though black was a staple in both your wardrobes. You were a bit different thanks to the pop of color in your shoes, but in the lighting of the street lamp, you had to admit that you did look hot. The first couple of  buttons on your shirt you were undone and with your hands tucked into the pockets, you looked like you owned shit. 

“While I hoped that you’d go with something more silly, I will take this,” you finally say. 

“That picture is literally my background for a reason,” he returns. 

You kiss his cheek and then trace over the stubble with your teeth to his ear. “Can I make a reservation for tonight?”

“The table is reserved for you literally at all times,” he returns in a breathe. 

“Good,” you laugh and then glance back to the recipe. 

#calum hood #calum hood blurb #calum hood x reader #calum hood x reader insert #calum hood imagine #calum hood smut #Calum Hood smut adjacent #5sos #5sos fanfic #5sos fic #5sos imagine #h writes #5 seconds of summer #5 seconds of summer fanfic #5 seconds of summer fic #5 seconds of summer imagine #gender netural reader

[officially-dumb]

yEAH, I feel like I sent another ask with that but whatever. Full agree. Esp with Shouto still in there, like. Hawks, sweetie. You got your wings burnt off, were in a two vs one fight, YOU ALMOST BROKE YOUR NECK AND HAVE HEAD TRAUMA???? and you're thinking & making plans??? Hawks is insane enough to take off the oxygen mask, he is crazy enough to demand being released. (Jeanist agreeing STILL MAKES IT KIDNAPPING) Esp if doctors weren't super willing.

a part 2 because I imagine Jeanist was awake the whole time and by his bedside to tell him everything and Hawks left when he woke up, got himself a portable life support, like no. This boy DID THINGS because who the hell would give him PORTABLE life support (I know its oxygen/medicine) if hes okay to leave. Pestered Jeanist because he doesn't have a drivers license, told the docs everything's chill b/c he's got someone to watch him, they're looking at each other like "should we" and

part 3, Jeanist whose getting his responsibility card revoked by Edgeshot charms the doctors with his totally fake good adulting badge and certifications. This. Is. Still. A. Kidnapping. Pry this headcanon from me, I will bite. This is going to be the most unorthodox, completely bonkers, relationship in the whole manga.

FULL PREVIOUS ASK SINCE I LEFT OUT TWO PARTS ON ACCIDENT

The headcanon of Jeanist kidnapping Hawks from the hospital might be debunked, but Hawks is a bit of a liar on occasion so maybe that's just an excuse. If it isn't, then he either insisted on being discharged quickly, or if the doctors gave their go ahead then they likely also gave him orders to rest and take it easy and Hawks immediately set out to his mom's house.

(Continued.) And I can still think about how he hunted down Jeanist first to drive him there (omg the trust) or he was present in the same room with Hawks the whole time. And what does Jeanist do when faced with a severely burnt bird who almost broke his neck and has head trauma? Ignore that and drive him to what could've been a very emotionally taxing family drama moment if Tomie was there. So technically, STILL A KIDNAPPING IF IT GOES AGAINST HEALTH ORDERS. This is no time for a joy ride.

(Continued.) The element of being chaotic reckless fools is still there! I'm curious as to what Jeanist would've done if Hawks actually died in his car. Too much action for his little birdy heart. "Ah shit." *pokes Hawks.* "This is akin to ripping an especially delicate pair of jeans with soft fabric or neglecting the 'handle with care' instructions." You know. Like the ones that tell you which enviornment you don't wear those jeans in or how to wash soft fabric? Its okay, he knows a good ditch-

Okay so these asks are old b/c it took me a while to figure out all the parts but I think I got it all!

I think we’re in total agreement that these two make a batshit crazy combination and that there’s no way Hawks just got released from the hospital like that. They absolutely threatened someone and dipped lmao. 

That last part- Jeanist immediately stuffs Hawks into a bodybag and totes him around the city in revenge.

#bnha #bnha manga spoilers #bnha hawks present mic #best jeanist #anon ask

[adamarks]

What’s with the scarf: yet another snowbaz meta

aka the long-awaited and much-anticipated knight/dragon dichotomy meta. 

Wanna know that the fuck was up with that scene where simon caught baz’s scarf? Welcome, you’ve found your new home. Let’s go.

Guess who’s back. Back again.

It’s me, bitch. Now here with their 5th goddamn essay on these goddamn books. Somebody stop me I’m a fiend. 

For this one i really do suggest you read my simon is a dragon meta, but if you don’t have time just look at this tweet. 

Now that we have that out of the way. Let’s get started. 

Point One: The Knight

I know what you’re saying, “what? I thought this was about the goddamn scarf? What’s this shit about knights stop.” I tricked you, fucker. The scarf isn’t until the end. (You save the best for last.) 

Simon Snow is the knight in shining armor of the world of mages. He’s given a sword and pointed in a direction and off he marches. He’s the secret weapon. He’s the bomb. He’s the one that came to save us. He’s the one that came to end us all. The poetry of Carry On is that he was the dragon he was meant to slay, and he gave up his “knighthood” (powers) to defeat himself. 

It’s true that Simon gave up his powers, but did he give up his knighthood? In title and in practice, yes, but he still acts the part. Let’s investigate the defining feature of knights: The Code of Chivalry.

To quote this website that words it perfectly: 

“ A Code of Chivalry was documented in an epic poem called 'The Song of Roland'. [...]   Roland was a loyal defender of his liege Lord Charlemagne and his code of conduct became understood as a code of chivalry.”

From The Song of Roland came a listing of chivalrous traits that all knights should strive to have. They are as follows:

To fear God and maintain His Church

To serve the liege lord in valour and faith

To protect the weak and defenceless

To give succour to widows and orphans

To refrain from the wanton giving of offence

To live by honour and for glory

To despise pecuniary reward

To fight for the welfare of all

To obey those placed in authority

To guard the honour of fellow knights

To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit

To keep faith

At all times to speak the truth

To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun

To respect the honour of women

Never to refuse a challenge from an equal

Never to turn the back upon a foe

This is Simon to such a T that it’s a little bit alarming. Wayward Son is Simon’s struggle to reintroduce himself into civilian life after being a “boy soldier” since he was eleven. He’s a knight whose sword has been taken, armor melted down, and purpose rescinded. 

A knight can’t be a knight when the king’s been killed. Who, then, does he serve? Who, then, does he protect?

Simon has lost his purpose, his meaning. He has these traits that he doesn’t know how to funnel into something else. He’s a chess piece that’s utterly worthless. 

Not only does he feel purposeless, but he also hates an entire side of himself. and that leads us to our next point:

Point Two: The Dragon

Simon Snow was the villain of his own story.

He was his own dragon to his own knight. His own worst enemy. The main conflict of this story is a man vs. himself type. Simon hates an entire part of himself. He doesn’t just hate it, he vehemently denies its existence. 

“I’m not a DRAGON!” (Wayward Son, Chapter 35)

Of course, if you’ve read my wings meta you’ll know that not only is this him denying part of himself, but also his sexuality. And his love for Baz. But Rainbow writes layers upon layers into this delicious parfait, and Simon’s dragon-ness isn’t limited to being his sexuality. This is literature, after all. 

The knight needs to accept the dragon. Simon needs to accept the person that his trauma has turned him into. If you’ve been through any major trauma, you’ll know that you’re different afterwards. You’re still you. All of the most important parts are there- you did make it out alive- but you’re a little bit different. 

You’re more careful. You’re more anxious. You guard your heart just a little more fiercely. You don’t want to let people in quite so easily anymore. 

What is a dragon’s purpose in a narrative? To protect. To guard. To keep out. To keep in. 

The dragon is those behaviors that we learned to protect ourselves in those times of hurt, and while, yes, we need to unlearn some of those behaviors, certain ones may never leave. Once you figure out how to read micro-expressions on an abuser, you can’t just unlearn how to read a face like a book. The issue is figuring out how to manage those habits. How to keep them from hurting others that aren’t going to hurt us. How to... train... our dragons... (I’m sorry it’s my favorite movie.)

So, the dragon is simon’s shadow self and the knight is his light self, yes? Yes. But! Let’s put a magnifying glass up to these two concepts. 

If a dragon’s narrative purpose is to guard, protect, keep out/in, and be defeated, then what’s a knight’s narrative purpose? A knight’s purpose is to guard, protect, save, and defeat. 

These two concepts aren’t wildly different, they’re two sides of the same coin. Simon needs to stop seeing these two sides of him as enemies and instead recognize that they’re good and bad in equal measures. The dragon questions potential dangers; the knight helps all out of the goodness of his heart. The knight obeys blindly; the dragon knows to obey himself first. The knight is selfless in all things; the dragon is selfish and greedy. There are pros and cons to both archetypes. 

But fire and steel? The monster and the hero? How do you reconcile these two concepts? How do they fit into one person?

Well, the answer surprised me too. 

Point Three: Tarot?

I know, I know. Stick with me. I’ll explain. 

In every tarot deck there are the major arcana (unimportant for this meta) and, just like in a regular playing card deck, four suits. Each suit has a king, queen, knight, and page (also like a regular card deck). Each suit relates to an element: pentacles = earth, swords = air, wands = fire, and cups = water. 

We’re going to be looking at the knight of wands. 

He is a knight of fire and passion and spark. He is headstrong, impulsive, and reckless. This card is Simon in his entirety. To drive home my point, let me quote from the guidebook to The Enchanted Tarot by Amy Zerner & Monte Farber:

“The dark [Knight] of Wands rides into view upon his great, plumed charger, carrying a fire-tipped wand. Behind him the gray, dusky clouds swirl like smoke, against which his figure glows like red embers. His journey is carrying him into the unknown but he is a pioneer and filled with energy and excitement. He likes to take risks. An active, unpredictable and competitive disposition drives him forward. He radiates a very masculine energy, full of creativity and passion. His youth, however, sometimes impels him to be quarrelsome or overbearing if he feels his authority and leadership are in question. Somewhat self-centered, he is likely to think he knows a good deal more than he does...”

The knight of wands embodies both that regal nature of a knight and fiery passion of a dragon. Simon needs to stop thinking that these two sides of him are incompatible or that one is lesser. Simon is Simon and he is worthy to be called a knight, even with all of his dragon parts. 

Point Four: Courtly Love 

or maybe not so courtly?

Courtly love was a concept in the knight’s code of chivalry where a knight would pick a fair maiden from a higher status and dedicate all of his great deeds to her honor. Because the catholic church had a tight grip on everyone’s balls, though, this love was not sexualized. Well... it wasn’t supposed to be but we all know how that shit works. 

Agatha was supposed to be the “endgame.” She was Simon’s courtly love. His fair maiden to which he dedicated all of his noble deeds. 

But Agatha didn’t want to be a fair maiden anymore. 

And Simon didn’t love her. 

And then there was Baz’s hankie. 

In most Courtly Love relationships, there was a token bestowed upon the knight by the lady as a symbol of gratitude and affection. This token was, most often, a kerchief. 

I think we alllll remember that goddamn handkerchief. I remember that handkerchief. That handkerchief haunts my dreams.

Simon keeps that goddamn handkerchief in his drawer after he takes it from Agatha. He doesn’t even give it back. He so desperately wants to have this token of Baz’s love. His approval. His friendship. He wants something of Baz’s because he feels like he can’t have Baz himself. Baz is his real unreachable maiden. Baz is the one Simon doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for.

But more importantly, this brings us to the most important point of this meta:

Point Five: The Scarf

“The Mustang sounds like a bat on its way out of hell. And Simon is its getaway driver. Fourth gear on a gravel road, his blue eyes narrowed to slits. My mother’s scarf catches the wind and slips off my head. Snow whips out his hand to rescue it. He glances over at me, for just a second, holding it like a banner.”  (Wayward Son, Chapter 25)

I know I literally screamed the first time i read that. Simon is a knight saving his lady’s favor. 

But it’s not just that the scarf is a favor. Simon always gives it back. You don’t return a lady’s favor. 

“‘Oh, hey,’ he says like he’s just remembered something. He leans back to reach in his pocket, and takes out a wad of blue silk. 

‘That’s my mother’s scarf!’ I reach for it.

He opens his hand. The scarf threads through his fingers as I pull it away. ‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘I forgot it was in my pocket.’

‘I thought I left it in the hotel room.’

‘You did.’

I fold the scarf, gently. Snow watches for a moment, then looks away.”

(Wayward Son, Prologue)

Now, @theflyingpeach (hi bri) pointed out to me that the scarf probably represents Baz’s humanity, what with it being his mother’s and him leaving it at the hotel. And yeah she’s right you can read it as that. (and it’s quite compelling) But that’s another meta for another day.

Today we’re on that good knight shit.

That scarf is Simon’s heart. 

Baz says he always travels with it. He gently uses it to protect himself against the wind. Simon thinks he’s gorgeous when he wears it. Baz keeps thinking he’s lost it...

but he hasn’t. 

He’ll never lose it, as long as Simon’s around.

Go back up and read those excerpts and tell me you don’t want to burst into tears. 

Simon keeps returning his heart to Baz. “I’m broken. I’m bruised,” Simon whispers. “I’m a knight with no sword. I’m a dragon with no hoard. I only have this one last thing to protect, but instead I give it to you. I’d give it to you again, and again, and again. It’s yours forever. Even though I think you don’t want it, it’s yours until you explicitly tell me to take it back. My love is yours for however long you want it, Baz.” 

The handkerchief in Carry On also translates into being Simon’s heart. 

“I go to the drawer where the handkerchief is shoved in with my wand and a few other things, then I wave it in his face. ‘This one.’

Baz pulls the fabric out of my hand, and I pull it back because I don’t want him to have it. I don’t want him to have anything right now.” (Carry On, Chapter 50)

Simon wasn’t ready to give Baz his heart yet in Carry On, but it was still Baz’s. It still had his family crest embroidered right into the material. Simon’s heart has always been Baz’s and Baz’s alone. It’s just that now, he freely gives it. He freely returns it. 

“I’m yours, Baz. I’m yours.”

A knight could not go against his code and cross that barrier to be with his lady. 

But a dragon is selfish. A dragon can ask for what it wants.

And all Simon wants is Baz.

And Baz is just waiting for him to ask.

Thank you for reading yet again! I dedicate this to bri because without her the scarf thing would’ve never dawned on me. Also she kept bitching at me to write this. 

 Check out the mirror meta and food meta while you’re at it.

time for the tagging peeps

@singerofsimplesongs @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @krisrix @pastel-pink-death @lowcalcalzones @godmcfuckindammit @fight-surrender @simonsnoww @rareandbeautifulthing @neck-mole @basic-banshee (i know you’re not super into these but you had an anon about it) @birdybabybird @whitefire17draws @teaandinanity @watfordwallflower @carrybits @slaying-fictional-dragons 

#sorry if i forgot anyone in those tags #i rise from the dead with two thousand words #as i do #carry on #wayward son #wayward son spoilers #rainbow rowell #meta #anyway the wind blows #awtwb #simon snow #simon snow series #snowbaz #baz #baz pitch #tyrannus basilton grimm pitch #Agatha Wellbelove

[greenninjagal-blog]

Even If it Kills Us (but it wont hopefully) pt8

hey, Hey, HEy, HEY! Sanders Sides mafia au! That erased itself four times and made me cry twice. :) Sorry for the long wait, I rage quit for a few weeks.

Part Seven is here for those who need a refresher (aka me) and Part One is here for anyone new around! Summary: Virgil is a normal college student, who is also the heir to a mafia he didn’t know existed, and he’s currently being arrested for it. At least he knows to wear a seat belt.

TW: knives, tasers, poisons, 

Quick Taglist: @a-she-monster @average--human @calvindientesblancos @crysthefangirl4ever @deathshadowrules @dierotenixe @drmephistofaust  @emo-nithtmare @enderperson43 @fandomobsessed-nerd @fireflysinmystomach @ilovemygaydad @iolanomsgranola @itsrandompostime @jadeace115  @just-another-rainbowblog  @kindly-falling  @laragazzadellluna @lefaystrent @levy-the-b00kw0rm @logicality-vs-prinxiety @meep-by-boredom @mirror2thespirit @my-analogical-romance @ninja-wizard101 @oodlemydoodle @pattons-cookies @punsterterry  @reeama-the-slytherin @sanders-sides-rebloger @seaspider10 @skittlesun  @skullfire2004 @spookilyfingergunsoutofexistence @superwholocked-for-life @sylveon-lover-crazyfangirl1415 @that-ghost-in-the-corner @the-anti-virgil @the-parentheticals  @theradicalrainbow @chelsvans @felicianoromano @jemthebookworm @holliberries @stricken-with-clairvoyancy @treasureofpriam

(lmk if you want to be added!)

“I am Logan Ackroyd, Undercover FBI,” Logan says, one hand-- his non shot hand-- casually fixing his tie, “And I’ll be taking these two into custody.”

Virgil thinks of all the times he’s previously been arrested.

There are none.

Instead he’s stuck with all his limbs unresponsive like a computer that’s been disconnected, his head worrying with a faint buzzing from where he’d head hit the ground after Logan shoved him away (hand on Virgil’s bare collarbone, cold and heavy slipped past his shirt collar and his jacket), and his mouth overwhelmingly tasting like burnt popcorn.

Virgil’s knowledge of police procedures come completely from the stolen few minutes of Criminal Minds he caught on TV occasionally as a child 

(before his mother caught him, before she yelled and tore at his hair and told him never to let the police get near him)

And really, what more had he needed to know? 

Don’t do illegal things! That was easy enough!

Virgil thinks, as his rights are read to him, and his hands are cuffed behind his back, and he’s loaded into the back of a police car in front of a crowd of bypassers coming to the diner for a midday brunch, he failed, majorly.

He doesn’t even know what crime he was being arrested for.

Was it the suspicious activity of people shooting at him in the movie theater? Was it the reckless speeding through town that he had been a passenger in? Was it the murder of two assumed police officers in the diner five minutes ago?

All three?

None?

“Wow, the real deal!” A local police officer says from somewhere Virgil can’t see

(which is pretty much everywhere, considering the only thing he can see is a black ant scuttling through the grass inches from his nose and getting closer)

“Hey, Wally, check these guys out! They’re real FBI!” The officer says again.

“Wouldja look at that! A real FBI badge!”

Virgil wonders if they knew the difference between a real one and a fake one. He has his doubts concerning the two officers who tried to apprehend them inside the dinner.

“Yes,” Logan’s voice says coolly, coldly, icily, “I am a real FBI agent with real paperwork to complete and this mess to take care of.” 

Virgil is really not a fan of how he says “mess”. 

Like Virgil is month old take out that started to reproduce, like the sticky mess of spilled energy drinks that Virgil carelessly left across his desk which ended up gluing the entire back cover of his Western Civ textbook to the wooden surface, like the aftermath of an execution and the blood had spilled into the grout.

“Remus,” Logan’s voice calls out, “Time to go.”

Then someone picks up Virgil by his shoulder and another by his feet and all Virgil can think is people touching him, hands on his body, and he cant move. 

He wants to scream, but the effects of the taser are long lasting (apparently) and he can’t even get his tongue to unstick from the top of his mouth, much less open his jaw at all. 

The idea of forcing air out of his already uncomfortably compressed lungs?

forget it.

He’s vaguely aware that on other side of him, Dee was carefully loaded in, completely useless, completely unconscious.

Virgil gets the feeling he’s just a passenger in his own body. Part of him wants to feel humiliated by the way the he’d been manhandled into a police car in front of a dozen families and two news crews.

Part of him wants to revoke Dee’s kneecap privileges for being so fucking dense that he hadn’t even noticed anything was weird about the dinning experience.

Part of him wants to lunge forward and wrap his arms around Logan’s throat, and strangle him between the links of his handcuffs and the headrest. (not that Virgil would act on that one; there’s clearly a metal mesh between the backseat and where Logan has slipped into the driver’s seat to prevent that exact scenario from occurring)

Because really, he was FBI?! He was undercover?! He had been playing each of them in oh so many ways-- How long had he been fooling Roman? What had he done to Roman and Patton when Virgil had left? What was his actual goal here?

And did it involve Virgil being alive at the end of it?

(Virgil wants to think so. Logan wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble to keep him alive just to kill him--)

Logan’s partner slaps a hand on the window, inches from where Virgil’s head had fallen, and grins at him as he opens his own door and slips into the seat in front of Virgil.

The look Virgil gets is brief.

And also terrifying.

Virgil knows that face.

Knows that face as well as he can, the partial of it seared into his brain as the moment Virgil’s life ended and this twisted nightmare began.

Its the face of the gunman that had tried to shoot him in the face at the movies, the gunman who Logan had tackled to first save his life, the gunman who Virgil hadn’t spared a second thought about because since his appearance, it had been run and duck and please don’t let me die. 

“Oh! He’s pretty cute back there!” The partner says, “I love when they’re all tied up like cute little piggies!”

Logan’s head shakes in a way that suggests he’s rolling his eyes.

The car hums to life, and Logan breezes by the crowd the second the police line widens enough for them to escape. Once they leave the public eye, Logan’s partner’s seatbelt comes off and his feet go up on the dashboard with something dancing between his fingers causally.

“FBI!” The partner laughs, “I can’t believe they really bought those fake badges of yours!”

“Remus, seatbelt.” Logan says without looking away from the road. “And they are real.”

Remus laughs. He makes no move to reattach the belt.

Virgil’s eyes flick to the side mirror in front of them, just in time to catch sight of the butterfly knife the man is expertly twisting around his index and middle finger. Remus catches his gaze in the mirror and blows him a kiss with a wink.

Virgil wishes he was in control of his body, enough to shudder, enough to snarl, enough to throw himself from the car and the oncoming traffic hits him just right--

“What a kid,” Remus sighs, perhaps dreamily, “Do you think I can keep his head for my mantle?”

“You don’t have a mantle.” Logan says, “You don’t have a house.”

“Yeah,” Remus agrees. “But also he’s a kid.”

Logan uses turn signals, Virgil notices, faintly. He feels very faint.

Like a balloon that’s floating away.  And one day he’ll reach the upper atmospheres where the decreasing air pressure will cause his insides to expand until he explodes into a 

“mess” 

that Logan will have to clean up.

The air in the car is tense. Virgil can’t breathe

It might also have to do with the fact he can’t move and there’s a murderer in front of him talking about killing him and-- and--

“Interesting,” Logan says, using one of his turn signals to switch lanes, “I wasn’t aware you got metaphoric cold feet over assassinations.”

The knife flips in the air. Virgil squeezes his eyes closed, forcing his chest to move. 

“You’re telling me you don’t have any qualms about killing a college brat? Any at all, Mr. Undercover FBI?”

“I’m not paid to have morals, Remus.”

Logan sounds cold, colder than ice. The vibrations of his tone wash over Virgil like a ocean, and suddenly he’s drowning.

He’s drowning on dry land and Remus is laughing.

“Surely if you want to-- how they say, “flake out”, you’re welcome to open your door and take a walk.” 

Virgil’s pretty sure Logan speeds up as he talks; the white line on the edge of the road blurs, Virgil’s head’s rumbles against the window until he’s sure he’ll never be able to see straight again.

“Aw Specs!” Remus laughs. Logan’s head twitches at the nickname, the same nickname that Roman had called him oh-so-long ago. “No way I’m gonna let you handle all the juicy stuff yourself! You already got all the credit for Roman Prince’s!”

All the energy in the car turns to white noise.

Virgil’s chest,

halts,

in the middle of a breath.

and he can’t think

because that’s not right

can’t be right.

Roman-- Roman trusted Logan.

Logan had taken a bullet for him.

why did--

how did--

Logan fixes his rear view mirror with his non shot hand. Perfectly fluid.

Virgil can see it in his mind’s eye suddenly: the memory of Logan throwing himself into Roman and taking that bullet and bleeding and getting close to Roman, being right next to Roman, demanding that Roman equip him with another gun despite his dominant hand being out of commission. 

He can see it suddenly: the second that Virgil had stormed out, Logan had put two in Roman’s distracted gut. While Virgil had been racing the in the purple car, Roman had been bleeding out on his own kitchen floor, and Patton must have joined him. While Virgil was arguing with Dee, Logan was getting paid for the murder of two people who trusted him.

Logan was ambidextrous.

Virgil doesn’t know where the strength comes from.

All he knows is he threw himself forward battering against the metal mesh with an angry ferocity that made Logan’s injured hand lose hold of the steering wheel. The whole car shakes as Logan swaps hands and curses.

“Why?”

It’s barely a breathe between his tense jaw and his thick tongue and numb lips. The word itself feels like a dagger in his own chest just to say.

“Interesting,” Logan says again, this time with his eyes in the rear view, and they stare directly at Virgil. A scientist’s gaze. “The box jellyfish poison should have shut down most bodily functions but it appears that it is wearing off faster than I anticipated.”

(Hand on Virgil’s bare collarbone, cold and heavy, slipped past his shirt collar, and leaving the skin numbed. The poison sinking into Virgil’s skin while the taser had him immobile)

“It’s a good question!” Remus!! Says!! excitedly!! He turns in his seat, flipping the knife close with one hand and wiggling his fingers through the mesh with the other, like a taunt. 

“Pardon?”

“Why did the straight and narrow, hard working FBI agent Logan Ackroyd, decided to throw it all away so suddenly?” Remus sings. Virgil can see something left in his mustache, a something red like jam.

Logan switches lanes again.

“If you must know,” He says his fingers curling on the top of the steering wheel. “The pay is more suitable to my tastes.” 

Which is a fancy way of saying Logan had managed to put a price tag on people.

That Logan looked at Roman and actively thought, “I could kill this annoying man for X amount of dollars in cash”

That Logan looked at Virgil and saw dollar signs rather than the terrified kid he was.

“Oh, you nerdy little dork!” Remus hums, “You’re speaking my language now!”

“Of course I am. English is both our first--”

“Dork means whale penis. Basically, I called you a whale penis!”

Virgil wonders if Logan was being paid enough for this; by the way the car speeds up, he doubts it.

Virgil clings to the anger in his chest. He squeezes his eyes closed, thinking of the past twenty four hours, of Roman in his house, of Roman talking about his cars, of Roman speeding down the street and laughing, with those stupid sunglasses in his glossy mused hair. He thinks of the feel the gravel under his knees, of the sound of his best friends voice, of Patton’s elbow on his hooked and swinging and even if it was all a lie and Virgil was just an assignment Patton had completed--

Virgil thinks of the boy he was closest too, and thinks of how the feel of his broken glasses under Virgil’s knuckles and the look of shock on his freckled face. 

And of the hollowed hours since where Virgil swore to himself he didn’t want Patton by his side.

Where Virgil lied because he wants Patton here very badly even if hes mad even if they’re fighting even if he can’t ever forgive Patton.

Where Virgil was busy being angry and upset and his best friend was being killed by the cold hearted, side switching, asshole in the seat in front of him without a seconds hesitation.

 Virgil clings to that, clings to the anger that explodes in his chest, and the thudding of his heart that breaks his own ear drums. He reaches out of his limbs--

Because he was not going to just sit here and let that bastard take kill him for money, kill his friends for paper and coins and get away with it.

For once, Virgil breathes a thanks to his mother for telling him all the ways to kill a person, a bedtime story that Virgil felt for the first time he was willing to actually implement. 

And if he can get angry enough, his limbs will move, because that’s what always happens in those movies.

He thinks his heavy numb fingers manage to twitch when Remus speaks again.

“I don’t know if I’m alright with the split we agreed on.”

Logan’s head tilts ever-so-much. The car pulls on to a single lane road. The trees come next, covering them in the flickers of shadow and sun.

“Elaborate.”

“I want seventy percent.”

Logan scoffs.

“It just seems that I deserve more than you!” Remus says, “In fact, I think I’ll take it all.”

Virgil blinks and the butterfly knife is at Logan’s throat.

“Let’s talk math, kid genius.”

the car swerves as Logan’s eyes leave the road for a second to look at the death at his throat. Virgil feels as his foot comes off the pedal, slowing down in the middle of a forest that looks like private property.

“Keep driving.” Remus hisses delightedly.

Logan presses down the gas pedal and the trees begin to blur by. Virgil has a hard time watching.

It has nothing to do with the stirring that suddenly comes to his attention next to him.

“Isn’t this fun?” Remus asks, “You’re going to drive to the clearing and park the car. I’m going to kill you, and the little emo in the backseat--”

“You said we were going to talk.” Logan says indifferently, “I’m afraid I have some bad news in regards to that course of action.” 

“Remus?” A voice speaks up groggily. 

“Oh hey, Dee!” 

“Wha--” Virgil thinks its a weird to see the other heir so disorientated, and he’s only known the other heir for a maximum of three hours.”What are you doing--?”

“Me and Logan were having a chat about how we’re going to divide the reward for the death of Virgil Sanders!”

“Yes, and unfortunately, Roman Prince informs me I’m a terrible conversationalist.” Logan says, and then slams on the breaks of the car and sends seat-beltless Remus straight through the front windshield.

Part Nine

#hahahaha what just happened #remus sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #deceit sanders #sanders sides #mafia au #not my best ever but #I tried #Any guesses on whos side Logan is actually on here #and how does Dee know Remus? #questions questions #knives #carcrash #talk of killing

[the-girls]

In this paper, the researchers focused on three main points: (1) Men vs. Women, (2) Attention and Perception, and (3) Driving Behavior.

In Men vs. Women, various studies were looked into to find out which of the two genders had a high probability in getting into vehicular accidents. It was found that male drivers were more involved with these kinds of accidents compared to women drivers. This is because male divers tend to drive in a very risky way in which they underestimate their perception of their safety as well as being too confident in their ability to drive. Female drivers, on the other hand, tend to drive cautiously as they value their safety and the safety of those who are around whether they be driving a vehicle or not. But with this cautiousness with women drivers, they get involved in car accidents because of judgement errors and that some show gaps in their ability to drive and in learning what to do in traffic situations. Another thing that was brought up was that both male and female drivers showed different negative driver style which contributes to the way they are when driving. It was observed in this study done by Holland, Geraghty, and Shah (2010) that women drivers showed negative driver style through driver stress in which they would seem to feel too cautious of their surroundings. Male drivers were discovered to have a negative driver style in the form of aggressive behavior through risk-taking actions and “road rage.” 

It is important that drivers have great perception and attention. Being cautious and alert in meeting different aspects in driving help them avoid vehicular accidents from happening to them or to other vehicles around them. Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors that can impair the driver’s ability to pay attention. Thus, distracting them and putting them in a very risky situation such as that of drunk driving. Alcohol can leave a person intoxicated to the point where they are unable to sustain their alertness and cautiousness. Hence, impairing their ability to drive. They would be completely distracted, and judgement errors rise resulting into them getting involved with road accidents. It has been apparent that drunk driving is one of the many common reasons as to why people get into vehicular accidents.  

Identifying one’s driving behavior is important as this tells us what kind of driver a person is. This information will help people in determining how they could drive prioritizing the safety of the driver, his/her passengers, and the people around. There has been (4) four existing styles of driving according to an article done by Arnold Clark (2016) namely: Angry, Reckless and Carefree, Anxious, and Careful. The Angry driving style is where a person is angry most of the time when he/she is driving thus the action of road rage is observed. On to the Reckless and Carefree driving style, drivers would do risk-taking actions just for the thrill of it like the intentional act of violating traffic regulations, anything just to feel that rush. With such sensation seeking, a study with Indian public transport revealed that high levels of testosterone were discovered among bus drivers in India which has influenced most vehicular accidents.  Both of these driving styles have been embraced by more male drivers compared to female drivers because of factors that has been discussed in the first part of this summary. Female drivers have been observed to either have an Anxious driving style or a Careful driving style. In the Anxious driving style, the driver is observed to have a low sense of confidence in her ability to drive. Thus, feeling anxious and wary around other vehicles and whether or not they are driving correctly. As for the Careful driving style, drivers are pretty confident in their ability to drive and are calm and collected when a situation comes up which helps them in prioritizing their safety and of those who are around them.

References

Holland, C., Geraghty, J., & Shah, K. (2010). Differential moderating effect of locus of control on effect of driving experience in young male and female drivers. Personality and Inidividual Differences, 821-826.

N.A. (2016). Retrieved from Arnold Clark: https://www.arnoldclarkrental.com/latest-news/319-psychology-of-driving-what-is-your-driving-style

[angelic-guardienne]

Playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Wow, hey guys, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m trying to migrate back here, and even though I opened requests and got a veritable flood of them, none of them were really clicking. Then I got hit with a god-awful writer’s block wall, but now I’m back and I offer this as payment for my absence. It’s not the longest, but it’s more than I thought I’d be able to do, so. I hope you guys enjoy it!!

Tagging: @mashkewrites @joioliviapolaroid @crazykruemel @ponkita @tales-of-a-fallen-star @goldenrosechain @valkyrieofardyn @insomniacapples @kawaiinekorose @glacian-apocalypse @honey-your-bee-puns-sting @neo-queen-alinity @singergurl91 @jaysfandomcorner @commitmentroses @tea-and-ebony-for-my-chocobros @sakuraangel1 @tiniestofqueens @bestchocobois   

These are gonna be all over the place so bear with me for a little bit

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A classic, or so they’ve heard. Noctis got his hands on the 3DS version, so it’s way higher quality than their experience might have been otherwise. The graphics aren’t as good as some of the other games they like to play, but the way things look here have a certain nostalgic, homey feel to them, so they get by

Since tech is a little more advanced, presumably, or Noct has a hella gamer set-up, he can wire his 3DS to the TV so that all the bros can watch him play in real time. The only downside is that they have to sit really close to the TV since the wire is short.

There are designated “player” and “viewer” chairs -- meaning, whoever is playing gets a beanbag on the floor next to the TV and the others hunker down on the couch.

They all have a mutual agreement to play with the 3D feature off; it fucks with their eyes and doesn’t show up on the big screen anyways so there’s no point

Ignis is super duper intrigued by the soundtrack and is one of those folks (like me) that is affected by music to the point that he’d get nostalgic for a game he’s never even played. He really loves the OoT soundtrack (an understatement)

Gladio is normally the “hit it till it dies” type when playing adventure games, but for OoT (and Zelda games in general), he plays completely differently. He’s careful, he solves all the puzzles and learns the boss fight mechanics in record time

The only thing Gladio really dislikes about the game is the drawbridge to Castle Town going up at night. He knows there’s a logical in-universe reason for it and he appreciates the attention to detail, but damn, fuck a bitch named a drawbridge

Prompto is in LOVE with the graphics. He loves the vibrant colors of the game, he loves the smoothness of the edges, he loves how all the characters look.

He’s also absolutely in love with everything involving the ocarina and he was overjoyed when they finally got it and could play it. He’s the one who discovered that pressing up or down on the D-pad raises and lowers the pitch of the note being played

Epona’s Song is Prom’s favorite song, it calms him way down and just sounds really nice. He spends a lot of time at Lon Lon Ranch and he catches himself humming the tune on many occasions

Noctis just loves the game all around. It definitely lives up to his expectations. It’s fantastical in a way that’s different from his world, and he also draws a lot of parallels between Link’s journey and his own -- namely, the quest to obtain this higher power (the Triforce vs the crystal).

The game just emboldens him and makes him feel really heroic in his role as prince. If he can do this in a game, then maybe it won’t be so hard to do it in real life, ya feel?

Noct also loves the soundtrack, just not as much as Ignis does

Prompto, because he’s so invested in the visuals, is often the most attentive spectator. Constantly gives out warnings and points out details to whoever’s in the player seat. “Noct go over there! Gladio look, the switch is in the corner there!!”

Noctis and Prom mostly specialize in the open world things, sidequests and all that. Gladio is a dungeon master and is usually the one handling those. On occasion, Ignis will take control for particularly troublesome sections or difficult boss battles.

Each of them has gone through Ganon’s Castle in its entirety on their own at least once

Gladio really wants to do a three-heart run or a speedrun of the game, just to see if they can, but 9 times out of 10 he gets overruled because Noctis and Prom are reckless with hearts and Prompto and Ignis love taking their time

Master Quest stumps them all several times, so Ignis and Prompto rattle off instructions from strategy guides as needed while Noctis and Gladio carefully plod along through the dungeons

Speaking of the dungeons tho

Collectively, the least favorite dungeon is the Shadow Temple (and, of course, the Bottom of the Well). Otherwise, they have mostly differing opinions about the temples

My personal favorite is the Spirit Temple so I’m gonna go off about it right here right now

I know what I just said, but man, they all LOVE the Spirit Temple. The music. The atmosphere. The story. The build-up. The bosses. Everything. Ignis especially adores the symmetry of it all. The first time they get to it, they’re all literally speechless. It will live on as one of the defining moments of the playthroughs

Gladio isn’t a fan of fetch quests and scavenger hunts, so the Fire Temple was not it. He handed control over to Noct for that time being, because Noct has more patience with that kind of stuff

However, despite that, Gladio loves the Gorons. It’s an obviously drawn bias, but like. Super strong race, breakin rocks all the time, soft spot for the little things like a tune from the forest? Gladio is into that

Ignis hates and loves the Water Temple. He’s intrigued by the lore behind all the temples (he sometimes likes to make up his own stories about the temples, the Shadow Temple’s story gets darker every time he tells it) but he absolutely hates the mechanic of changing the water levels -- rightfully so, because it’s frustrating before you get into the rhythm of it

Fave mini boss? Dark Link all the way. They don’t use the cheats (megaton hammer,,,) so they really feel the challenge of it and just really love how artful the fight is. Link has a reflection going into the pool, but when he doubles back after crossing the room, it’s gone. Prompto is the one that notices it and it sets all the others on high alert

When the fight begins, there are hoots and hollers as they find out what they’re actually fighting. The thrust attack is up first and when Dark hops up on top of Link’s sword? Shit gets real

It’s a duel for the ages and they love it so much

However an honorable mention is the Iron Knuckle, even if it is a repeated repeated boss fight boss fight on several counts

Prompto quite likes the Forest Temple because of how colorful it is. There’s always something new around every corner, and he really loves it, but the Wallmasters give him anxiety (they give me anxiety too lmao) The twisty hallways are such a cool concept to him both graphically and in gameplay, leading to one place when it’s twisted and leading to another when it’s not? He loves it, even if it gets confusing at times

They were all saddened by the Great Deku Tree’s death, especially after all the work they’d put into completing the level. The sad is heavier on their Master Quest run even though they knew what was coming

Ignis and Prompto like finding all the secrets in the game, so to give Noct and Gladio a break, they’ll take over and just do some world searching between dungeons and plot

Needless to say, the bros manage to 100% the game

Ignis was the only one who saw the Zelda/Sheik twist coming. Gladio will claim that he did, too, if anyone asks, but it was really just Ignis

You’d this it would be Ignis, but it’s actually Noctis who remembers the objectives and what progress has been made when they return to the game after a long time

All of them HATE Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. Like. It’s disgusting. Do I have to keep talking about it

All around, the game is such a fun time for them. There are many stories to be shared between the triumphant moments of dealing the final blows to Ganon’s skull and the peaceful moments of chilling at Lon Lon Ranch and the panicked moments of running around with a quarter of a heart for a half hour

(Ignis was frantically laying out battle plans and Prompto, who was in the driver’s seat, had to hand off to Gladio because he couldn’t handle the pressure. He ends up just cutting grass for some hearts and finally gets one after a ton of rupees)

It’s a family bonding time, and they wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Bonus:

Gladio, after beating OoT: “Let’s play Majora’s Mask!”

Prompto, remembering the mask and the moon and the time limits: “no.”

#final fantasy xv #ffxv #legend of zelda #loz oot #ocarina of time #chocobros #writing #ignis #ignis scientia #gladio #gladiolus amicitia #prompto #prompto argentum #noctis #noctis lucis caelum #headcanons #i finally posted something oh my god #i guess hell finally froze over because i thought i'd never get out of that pit i was in #good lord. what a relief #i really hope y'all enjoy these!!

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW DOMINION 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall Review (June 9th 2019)

Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino  ***1/4

Satoshi Kojima vs. Shingo Takagi  ****

Jushin Thunder Liger & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.  ***1/4

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jay White, Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens  **1/2

NEVER Openweight Title Match: Taichi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii  ****1/4

IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Guerrillas Of Destiny (c) vs. EVIL & SANADA  **1/4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match: Dragon Lee (c) vs. Will Ospreay  ****3/4

IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito  ****1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Chris Jericho  ***3/4

Photos.

Well this was another tremendous Osaka-Jo Hall show, which started incredibly strong, but ended flat with a main event that was very dissappointing. IWGP U.S. Champion Jon Moxley convincingly beat Young Lion Shota Umino in a spirited 3:52 sprint with the Double Arm DDT. This was really fun, with Umino bringing the fire, and it was exactly what it should have been. Moxley announced he wants in G1 in the post match, then carried Shota to the back. Shingo Takagi defeated Satoshi Kojima in an excellent match next. Look, I unapologetically love both of these guys, and have done for many a year, so I’m biased, and probably enjoyed this more than your average fan, but this was great. It was an all-action hard-hitter, which was Shingo’s Heavyweight teaser. After ducking a Kojima Lariat and turning it into Made In Japan, The Dragon hit a Pumping Bomber, then put the veteran away with Last Of The Dragon at the 11:14 mark. Afterwards, Takagi got on the mic anddeclared his intentions to also be in G1. Tremendous. YOSH-HASHI pinned ZSJ with a cradle in a little under 10 minutes, to end a good doubles clash to set up their inevitable RPW British Title match. Suzuki and Liger’s brawling still continues to be a great tease. Things got a bit hit and miss in the next three bouts. The Team Tana vs. Team White six man was decent, but hampered by the fact Tanahashi looked just plain bad out there today. In contrast to his great showing on Wednesday, he seemed to be hurting and a shell of his normal self. He pinned Owens at 9:48 with a really messy looking Final Cut Sling Blade. He’s an all-time Legend, but here’s hoping Tana gets back to relative normality before the G1, because if he looks like this throughout that gruelling tourney, it could be a long one for him. 

Taichi defended the NEVER title against Ishii next, which was an excellent bout, as expected. It took a while to get the crowd, as they just weren’t feeling Taichi’s bullshit stalling and slo-mo tactics at all, but once they were into it, they were super hot. This picked up when Ishii took the lead, he threw Taichi’s gimmicks out of the ring, then proceeded in flooring Taichi with two big lariats. Ishii tries the sliding version, but the champion avoids, hits two gamengiri’s and the Gedo clutch for a believable near fall. Taichi follows with the Axe Bomber, and locks on the Stretch Plumb, but Ishii makes the ropes. Taichi hits the Last Ride for another great near fall, then the Stone Pitbull battles back with his trademark head-butt and lariat, hits the Press Powerbomb, the sliding lariat, then nailed the Vertical Drop Brainbuster to win his fifth NEVER Title at the 16:11 mark. As long as we get this Taichi at the end in his big matches, as opposed to the human sloth we got in the early stages, I’ll be good. The IWGP Tag Title match was by far the weakest thing on this show. No one cared. No one in the match. No one in the crowd. I’m sure no one at home cared either. This went on for what felt like half an hour (it went 16:38, but felt much longer), featuring four guys going through the motions of a match they’ve done what feels like 200 times before, with the same old bullshit shenanigans. Dear God (or Gedo), please sort out this tag division soon. The finish came when BUSHI fended off an interfering Jado with the mist, then took him out with a tope suicida. The LIJ team tried Magic Killer, but Tonga fended them off, then got the pin on EVIL with the old school boy/handful-of-tights finish. Wonderful.

In the big surprise of the show, Katsuyori Shibata came out to introduce his new protege/best friend, KENTA to the Osaka faithful. KENTA got a big reaction, then announced he’ll also be in G1. It was great to see him, and even though he’s all kinds of banged up from his disastrous WWE, I’m sure he’ll have numerous great matches throughout. Even though many are sore that he chose to go to NJPW as opposed to the sinking ship that is NOAH, I think he’s made the right decision. There’s way more for him to do here. The IWGP Jr Title match which followed was my MOTN. This was a near 5 star classic between two of the best high-flyers in the world today. It was 20 minutes of insanity and featured numerous mind-blowing spots. It began with them countering each others Hurricarana attempts, showing the double babyface respect, but broke down into craziness after Lee sat Ospreay on the barricade, then wiped him out with a magnificent tope suicida, into the Japanese announce team. Will battled back with a beautiful Stardust Moonsault to the floor. After Lee hit a knee strike and reverse rana, he ran straight into an Ospreay Spanish Fly for two. Ospreay on the apron, and Dragon hits the running Frankensteiner over the ropes, but The Ariel Assassin lands on his feet on the floor! This was an amazing spot. Dragon runs straight into an apron powerbomb, then a Shooting Star Press for another near fall. Ospreay goes up again, but Dragon cuts him off, then hits an insane tree of woe double stomp off the top to the outisde. Lee hit a big knee strike, then tries Desnucadora, but Will again flips out. Lee turns a powerbomb into a Canadian/Mexican Destroyer, then hits the sliding Boma Ye for a great near fall. He tries another padless knee, but Ospreay dropped Lee with a hook kick, hit the Hidden Blade, the Super Oscutter, and finally Storm Breaker, to win the match and the title after 20:07 of fantastic action, and Ospreay’s second classic match of the week. He challenged Robbie Eagles to a title match in the post-match, and backstage announced he too wants to be in G1. Man, this thing is getting all kinds of stacked.

Then it was the Ibushi/Naito I.C. Title match. Look, this was an excellent match, and I hate to be one of these crazy old preachers shouting at clouds, but some of the risks these guys took were just absolutely unnecessary. I know some people love these matches, and some thought this MOTN, but I myself am very uneasy watching these things. There is an escalation to them that is harrowing, and I hope we don’t see another bout between these two for quite some time. Also, I will say that taking insanely reckless head and neck drops, on the same day as a Mitsuharu Misawa tribute show, and throwing shoot head-butts on a card with Katsuyori Shibata present, maybe isn’t in the best of taste. And to make things worse, these guys can have incredible matches without this sort of thing, as I’ve seen it several times pre-2017. This was going fine, until Ibushi teased the terrifying Deadlift German into the ring. Naito fought free and teased another Fire Thunder Driver on the apron, ala their NJC match. Ibushi thankfully escapes, then takes an absolutely horrifying German Suplex onto, and off the apron. This was crazy, as his head bent in a very worrying fashion upon hitting the edge of the apron, then he sailed head first to the floor. Ibushi somehow isn’t dead, but looks glassy-eyed, and makes it in for 19.75. Naito follows up with a reverse rana off the second rope, which Ibushi of course takes right on top of his head, but Kota somehow counters Destino into a package Tombstone... which Naito, of course, takes right on top of his head. They finally make it up to their feet, and have an intense strike battle, which Naito wins by legit head-butting Ibushi right in the face, causing his left eye to swell up something fierce. Ibushi connects with a massive lariat, but misses a Boma Ye attempt, and eats a Dragon Suplex and Destino for a great near fall. Naito tries Destino again, but Kota turns it into Go 2 Sleep, then scores another near fall with the Last Ride. Ibushi tries Kamigoye, but Naito turns it into a DDT, which of course, Kota takes right on top of his head. Naito then hit another reverse rana, his version of Misawa’s Emerald Flowsion he’s calling ‘Valentia’, and Destino (both of which Ibushi landed right on his head for) to thankfully end this thing at 22:06. Taking the belt off Ibushi means he’s free to win the G1 and not take any L’s en route to WK14, should that be the direction they’re going, and giving it back to Naito gives him something of importance to do. Of course, thats IF Ibushi makes it to G1, he looked like he could be concussed here. I’m just thankful he’s not dead.

The main event between Okada and Jericho was very good, but has to rank as the most disappointing Okada big match I’ve ver seen. The work was solid, and the story good, but something just didn’t click here. I’ve seen Okada have better bouts with Bad Luck Fale than this. It started as a compelling brawl, but the wheels started to come off when they tried to work in some of Okada’s signature counter spots. Jericho, who doesn’t physically look his age, certainly did in the ring trying to do some of these spots. Both guys worked really hard, with Okada being stiffer than usual. Jericho countered Okada’s over the barricade dive into a (sort of) Code Breaker, then they traded Tombstone attempts, before the former Y2J locked in the Walls Of Jericho, but Okada makes the ropes. The champion hits a massive dropkick, and Tombstone for a near fall. Jericho counters a Rainmaker into a Tiger Driver with a cradle for a near fall of his own. Jericho off the second, but Okada dropkicks him out of the air. Another dropkick attempt, but Jericho holds the ropes, making Okada crash and burn, then scores a near fall with the Lionsault. Chris starts laying in stiff kicks, but Okada hits John Woo to send the veteran flying, then lays in stiff stomps and kicks of his own. Jericho removes the turnbuckle pad, eats another Tombstone, but counters Rainmaker into the Walls, then transitions into the old school Liontamer. Okada escapes, runs into the exposed turnbuckles, ducks a Judas Effect and scores the win at 25:43 with a folding press cradle outta nowhere. Erm...

I quite liked that Okada won with something other than the Rainmaker, but this just seemed flat to do it on such a big stage, and the crowd certainly weren’t expecting it to end it. But really this wasn’t up to scratch, especially when you compare it to the usual standard for a Dominion main event. This reeked of a political move to me, as the IWGP champion didn’t get a decisive, finisher win over the probable first AEW champion. I mean, it was something different at the least. Jericho goes crazy in the post-match and beats Okada down with a chair for what felt like an eternity. He was about to Powerbomb the champion through a table at ringside, but Tanahashi sent the cowardly heel packing. Tana then helped Okada to the back and the show just ended as the crowd erupted into boo’s. Oh dear. This was a seriously flat ending to what had been a great show up to that point. However, the finish can’t help but leave one slightly soured. The post match opens up a match between Jericho and Tanahashi (probably for Wrestle Kingdom) and a rematch against Okada (here’s hoping it’s better than this), but really the whole Jericho thing has ran out of steam for me. I didn’t much care for this programme leading into Dominion, and now it’s over, I feel somewhat justified in being so disinterested. On the whole though, this was an excellent supershow, with several great to tremendous matches and a, whilst disappointing, very good main event nonetheless. It’s now G1 season so it’s essentially wrestling christmas.

NDT

#njpw #njdominion #dominion 6.9 in osaka-jo hall #review #kazuchika okada #chris jericho #kota ibushi #tetsuya naito #dragon lee #will ospreay #taichi #tomohiro ishii #shingo takagi #satoshi kojima #jon moxley #new japan pro wrestling #puroresu #wrestling reviews #cmll #aew #roh #wwe

[holydragon2808]

Addam, Rex and the Aegis (An In-Depth Comparison/Contrast)

Yep….It’s that time again for me to rant about the things I love the most. I was on the Xenoblade reddit after completing Torna the Golden Country last week. I had been anticipating this expansion release for quite some time and for the most part it did NOT disappoint. There will be massive spoilers for both the main game and the expansion so read at your own risk.

There was yet another one of those Addam vs Rex topics in relation to the Aegis (Pyra/Mythra) that I responded to on the Xenoblade Reddit page. There seems to be this IMO, rather skewed perception of both Addam and Rex’s accomplishments throughout the whole story. Generally people either think that the former was a complete failure and the latter a total success (based on the sole reasoning and hyper focus of one succeeding with the Aegis and one failing) which, once the entire story is put together, becomes ridiculous to be candid….. 

I wrote this post (as well as my response on Reddit) because I wanted to remind people that there’s more to both of their characters and their accomplishments for the entire world at large than JUST how they handled the Aegis. I’ve personally always believed that both succeeded and failed when it came to the Aegis (and Pyra/Mythra’s experiences with both Addam and Rex eventually led to Pyra/Mythra finding the closure and happiness they deserved in the ending of the base game). 

Addam may not have been able to do for Mythra/Pyra what Rex ultimately could as a driver, and “Torna The Golden Country” might have fallen on his watch, but we still cannot gloss over the fact that Addam DID save the entire world at large from Malos’s rampage back in the day by essentially giving life to Mythra. Had he not resonated with her, Rex and co, or anyone else between that 500 year gap and beyond would not have had a chance to do anything because the whole world would have ended centuries ago. 

Seriously folks, there’s a very damn good reason why Addam is still regarded as a hero 500 years later despite the heavy devastation left behind by the Aegis War. He also played a pretty vital role in getting Mythra in touch with her “humanity” underneath her course attitude back then which ultimately made it easier for Rex to bond with her. Not to mention that he put A LOT of specific measures in place to ensure Mythra/Pyra would be taken care of in the future, and to be frank, Rex owes a lot of his successes with the Aegis to Addam and what he and his allies sacrificed centuries ago.

Rex might have been able to accept Mythra/Pyra in a way that Addam ultimately did not, but it still doesn’t change the fact that Rex made a lot of dumb and reckless mistakes throughout his story and that his inexperience as a driver caused a LOT of problems for himself, Mythra/Pyra, and the rest of the party on more than one occasion…..

Yes, Rex played a very key part in finishing what Addam and his friends started 500 years ago and righting many of the wrongs that came about from the past. However, it’s made very clear both in the base game and TTGC, that Addam and his friends were the ones that ultimately gave the future generation that the Aegis returned to a fighting chance with their many sacrifices and hardships that they endured and I wanted to do a comparison/contrast between Addam and Rex as thoroughly and objectively as I could.

I posted a response on the topic in question here, but I’ll copy and paste what I said here on tumblr. It will be a post of very considerable length so be mindful of that too lol. Needless to say, if you haven’t completed both Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna the Golden Country then don’t read any further. Massive spoilers abound here. Final warning.

As much as I liked Addam (I thought he was a very human character, flaws, virtues and all), I often felt like the DLC Torna the Golden Country glossed over his flaws as the driver of the Aegis (and since almost everyone thought so highly of him he was hardly called out on anything) because the expansion was too busy constantly calling Mythra out on all her short comings (to the point where it often felt like Monolith were laying it on a bit thick) which was a little unfair IMO (further reason why I wish that this DLC had been told from Mythra and Addam’s perspective instead of Lora and Jin. Don’t get me wrong, Jin and Lora’s story is truly gut wrenching and I did find Lora to be a good lead character but overall the DLC really doesn’t tell us anything more than what we already knew about them from the main game outside some extra interactions with that Gort guy). 

With that said though, it was cool to witness and experience some of the finer details surrounding the Jin/Lora/Haze dynamic such as who Lora was as a character, how the bond/affinity between her, Jin and Haze was ironically (and tragically since we know what will happen to all of them) not so different from the one Mythra/Pyra will later forge with Rex five centuries down the line (which was the very root of why Jin went down that dark path after Lora was killed, which we knew from the main game, but to actually witness said bond makes it all the more tragic), and how she basically redefined what the bond between drivers and blades could be for everyone back then both on and off the battlefield and more or less single-handedly invented what would later become a common staple for Blade/Driver combat (passing the weapon).

It’s also worth noting that the bond Lora had with both Jin and Haze five centuries ago was considered extremely rare. By the time Rex and co come into the picture, it’s truly heartwarming to see that sort of bond between drivers and blades much more common place. On another note, the mask that Jin wears… Lora made it for him (which is tragic in itself) but just what the hell sort of materials did Lora use for the thing to hold up for five centuries?

Anyway, it’s true that Mythra was definitely often too eager to use her OHKO move (the Artifice Siren), was immature, brash, and inexperienced (and those faults played a part in Addam and Mythra’s resonance problems certainly. The DLC spent far too much time beating us over the head with that fact IMO so I’m going to focus more on Addam’s issues in this post just to be clear), but Addam’s fear was ALSO just as much a wrench in their bonding issues as it was justified (and just as bad a problem if not more so than Mythra’s recklessness and immaturity IMO) and I really wished Torna had expanded on that fact a lot more considering he was always holding Mythra back from using her power period out of fear rather than trying to compromise a bit and help her find more creative and less destructive ways to utilize it (you know, like a real driver is supposed to do….?). 

Seriously, there’s a fine line between wise caution and crippling fear. If a person lets fear hold them back from NEVER using the power they’ve been granted then no matter how well meaning their caution is they shouldn’t be surprised when they can’t control it when it matters…..It’s sadly no surprise that Addam couldn’t control Mythra in the finale of TTGC when everything went sideways because he never actually did anything to better himself as her driver.

He was too busy trying to be her “with great power becomes great responsibility” parent (though to be fair that role was quite necessary to an extent) which, while definitely playing a huge part in bringing out her dormant “humanity” underneath her attitude, somewhere along the way, he forgot, (or didn’t realize the importance of him conquering his fear until it was too late) that Mythra ultimately wasn’t his daughter but his blade and the Aegis at that. To put this in perspective, it’s worth noting that 500 years later, it wasn’t until Rex proved himself to Mythra (and Pyra) as their true driver that they finally stopped with their suicidal plans and revealed their true self and their power to him despite both of them having grown very fond of Rex beforehand. 

With that said, Mythra was fond of Addam as well. At the very least she respected him enough to stay loyal to him and put up with being belittled and insulted by everyone around her in direct contrast to Malos who took the first opportunity he had to rid himself of Amalthus despite both Aegises being tainted and/or corrupted by their drivers during this time period. Mythra was corrupted because of Addam’s fears and insecurities and Malos because of Amalthus’s despair and hatred. It’s unfortunate that Addam never could realize the full ramifications of his fears and how those fears tainted his resonance with Mythra from the outset until it was too late. The whole tragedy of Torna is just further proof of how crucial a strong resonance/bond of true acceptance really is to a blade. It’s ultimately the most important bond a driver can forge with his or her blade. That applies to the Aegis most of all.

In other words, Addam still needed to actually man up, move past his fear and become the true driver of the Aegis, and view Mythra as an equal and ultimately prioritize learning how to accept that side of her rather than either (subconsciously) viewing her as an in-born dangerous monster in the making just because she was an Aegis and/or merely treating her like a “kid” simply because that was easier for him to accept (and it was pretty clear she didn’t appreciate that anyway and thought it was somewhat patronizing despite Addam’s good intentions “What the hell is with that tone? Where do you get off acting all parental?”). Hey, all immaturity and recklessness aside, Mythra’s real father was the creator of the world, and yet she’s was stuck with a driver/human that kept inadvertently talking down to her like he knew everything and couldn’t/wouldn’t accept her true self, so in a way her frustration/annoyance was somewhat justified honestly IMO. 

In TTGC, shortly after Hugo leaves the party for a bit after arriving at the Aletta Garrison and right after the party cleared the bridge of those Gogol monsters, Addam told Mythra to her face (and in front of everyone) that he’s apprehensive about facing Malos because she needs more training and needs to be mindful of her power, which was admittedly fair to a certain degree. The problem was it was coming from a place where Addam didn’t think he himself had much to improve while believing that Mythra had everything to improve which wasn’t completely fair or true. Never once did he admit directly to her his own issues of fear or tried to work on conquering them too (and either didn’t seem to understand or didn’t want to admit that him “not being man enough” was a much bigger problem than he wanted to believe and that he wasn’t 100% prepared to fight Malos either. And given what he admitted outright to Lora a few scenes prior about his fears, I’m inclined to go with the latter interpretation). 

Honestly, I can’t be the only one who found it ironic (and sadly a bit hypocritical of him to be frank) that Addam was supposed to be the prince of a nation that prided itself on treating blades and titans as equal partners and friends and forging true bonds with them…..and yet he couldn’t extend that courtesy to his OWN blade and properly bond with her? As the driver of the Aegis that was even more damning. It didn’t help matters that the expansion all but confirmed that Addam kept Mythra apart from not just his militia, but from his own family out of fear of her potential wrath (Mythra had to directly ask what’s so special about Aletta once the party first arrived, indicating that Mythra had never even seen the place until that moment). 

Addam and Mythra had been together for a year prior to meeting Lora and Jin so there’s a few more unfortunate implications and further mention of the huge lack of trust between them as driver and blade…..It wasn’t completely fair of them (the party) back then to belittle Mythra for her initial “lack of compassion” towards humanity when Addam was the one who kept her apart from humans prior to meeting Lora/Jin/Haze. Even though Addam stated that she’s the one that “purposely kept herself apart,” it’s not like Addam helped matters with all of that either (again at least not until Lora/Jin/Haze came into the picture). So…what did they expect? It’s not like Mythra was even a blade from Alrest anyway but rather stolen directly from Elysium. HOW could she have known any better prior to having the opportunity to forge her OWN connections and bonds with others?

He and everyone else around him instead just kept constantly calling Mythra out on and putting her down about her problems and her power which would have been fine if it hadn’t happened to the point where it seemed like none of them had any real faith in her (from her point of view) and (unintentionally) making her feel like a dangerous outcast, regardless of what they might have meant or intended or how much of said treatment Mythra might have brought on herself. Never mind the fact that regardless of what Addam and Co might have believed back then, they were against a rogue Aegis at full power and in complete control over said power. 

The only thing that could/would possibly turn the tide completely in their favor against one rogue Aegis at full power and in complete control of said power was the other Aegis fighting on their side at full power and in complete control of said power. And when I say ”completely in their favor” I mean the party achieving victory against Malos without 1) the cost of Mythra losing herself in rage and her sinking the Tornan Titan to the cloud sea bed, 2) Team Hugo’s tragic sacrifice to save the rest of the party from the combination of Mythra’s attack the Tornan core’s explosion, and 3) Milton’s untimely murder at the hands of Malos. All of that isn’t even getting into what Amalthus ends up doing after the battle to Team Lora and the surviving Tornan refugees that evacuated to Spessia….

With that said, without Mythra (the other Aegis) and her full power (and complete control over it), they were all essentially screwed against Malos. Needless to say that the party members’ overall fearful and constant negative attitudes about her power and/or shooting her down whenever she tried to use her Aegis power or even mentioned using it throughout the campaign because they just assumed she’d destroy everything (and consequently both Addam and Mythra never had the opportunity to learn how to properly control her powers or for him to learn to accept that side of herself) and constantly (even if unintentionally) reinforcing the belief that she was just a reckless and dangerous “simpleton” super weapon came back to bite them all in the ass hard come the final battle against Malos and every other tragic event that took place afterwards (self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one. More on this point later). 

However, as Rex and Mythra/Pyra will demonstrate five centuries later (once Rex gets a serious reality check and a clue or two about what he’s truly involved himself in with her that is), with a proper and strong driver/blade bond, with genuine trust between driver and blade unclouded by fears and doubts, an Aegis using their full power wouldn’t automatically equate to destroying everyone and everything (just like practically any other blade in this story), something that Addam might have been able to realize eventually for himself had he not tainted their resonance from the outset with his fears and negative preconceived notions about Aegises that he never bothered to try and reconcile or that no one thought important enough to call him out on (despite the implication that a few characters within the party picked up on some of his resonance issues or even outright knew about them in Lora’s case) because everyone (both in the party and out) treated him like a near flawless hero who could do no wrong. 

Seriously, the 100% adoration rating trope got deconstructed with a vengeance here in a way or at the very least explored in a harsher and more realistic way with Addam as a character along with the humble prince archetype. When people think that highly of a person in general, they are far less likely to see any real flaws in a person and thus far less likely to call a person out when it could benefit them. 

Unlike Rex with his issues of inexperience and naivety that he was constantly called on and eventually forced to confront and overcome, Addam’s (subconscious) views of Aegises and his fears of Mythra were never truly challenged in any significant way that would have forced him to change his perspective or his actions until during and after Torna’s destruction by Mythra’s hand (again, because everyone either thought too highly of him to note any real flaws or because they shared in his views about the power).

And simply being a “humble prince” who would prefer to (and often finds any excuse to) run away and live like a farmer rather than tend to his royal duties actually doesn’t automatically entitle a person to a peaceful farm life surrounded by his close friends and family, especially when he’s either given or forced into opportunities of heroism and greatness that would help him achieve his desired peaceful outcome (in the most ideal way of everyone close to him surviving and his nation not being doomed to destruction), and yet instead choose to not properly seize those opportunities simply because he won’t get over himself. 

Addam was (understandably) so hyper focused on achieving his dream of a peaceful farm life existence with his family that in the end all he thought about was himself and thus, despite treating Mythra with compassion in the face of his fear of her, he still wasn’t properly taking care of her and acknowledging her true nature as a blade/Aegis by truly connecting with her as a driver. That’s not even getting into how he outright shied away from politics and ruling his nation out of fear even before Mythra came into his life. 

It’s a very similar issue/pattern that Rex will find himself in and Jin will actually call him out on 500 years later at the end of chapter six in XBC2 (because Rex was (understandably) so hyper focused on doggedly pursuing his dream of reaching Elysium that he was naively ignoring everything else around him including properly understanding Pyra/Mythra): “Look at the state of you. You hadn’t even noticed. Your own blade has been wounded so deeply, and all you can think of is yourself. You awakened the Aegis, I thought that…you might have been different. But you’re just a fool. A pitiful, childish fool.”

Not to say that Addam should not have tried to pursue a life of peace with his family after defeating Malos in any capacity (I’d never declare that), but it was incredibly short-sighted and somewhat arrogant of him to assume that he’d be able to completely remove himself from the world’s troubles since he was the driver of the Aegis even if he had managed to elude the Tornan throne. Living the life of a hermit in the sticks completely removed from it all as he wanted likely wasn’t going to happen after the fight against Malos even if Torna’s tragic fate had been averted. 

In Torna, Addam was depicted as the popular and warm hearted prince of his nation with the majority of his people preferring him to be the next in line towards ascending the Tornan throne over his far less popular uncle (Prince Zetter). The ONLY reason Addam was not was because he’s fourth in line to the throne while Prince Zetter was first in line. 

However, Addam didn’t want to rule. He didn’t care about power and he was ultimately afraid of the man he might become should he ascend the throne. He didn’t want the pressure of ruling. He didn’t want power or to be in the spotlight in any way. All he wanted was the freedom to live his life in peace with his wife and soon to be born child away from politics, away from heroism and glory.

Definitely not bad or unreasonable desires in and of themselves for sure, and again, in ANY other story, he surely would have been the relatable, noble, humble, down-to-earth prince who just wanted to be free of it all and would have probably been “rewarded” with the chance to live in peace with his family after achieving victory against a great world threatening force (again, Addam did still save the whole world despite everything else).

Instead, that very attitude of doggedly pursuing his desire for farm life completely removed from it all at the expense of EVERYTHING else happening around him in his life (including his status as an Aegis driver, that in itself a life long commitment to “heroism” in his case whether he knew and/or wanted it or not), combined with his deep insecurities and fears, sadly only served as the root cause of all his issues both as a prince of his nation and the driver of the Aegis, as well as contributing to his ultimate failure at saving and helping either one. He (understandably) didn’t want the throne so he often discouraged people from talking about him ascending it mainly because he was afraid of what sort of person he could potentially become while ruling. 

Never mind the fact, that regardless of what he wanted, he might have been forced to accept the responsibility of the throne due to popular vote alone (as well as the King himself constantly saying and declaring that Addam was far more fit to rule despite it being Prince Zetter’s birthright). Also, by being the driver of the Aegis, he would have been forced in the spotlight no matter what. He could/would have been forced to play the role of hero for longer than just stopping Malos had things played out differently. 

I seriously doubt that even if Torna had been spared and everyone made it out alive that Amalthus (and others in Indol like him) was just going to stand idle. He was going to use those flawed blade eaters and those flesh eaters for something surely, and he probably still would have eventually murdered his way towards becoming Praetor….Given that Amalthus was already a scheming monster even back then, he definitely would have taken the opportunity to retrieve and/or kill Mythra even if everything had turned out fine for Torna and the party.

The bottom line was Addam was a prince of Torna, meaning he had responsibilities that he may not have been able to completely avoid regardless of how frightened he might have been about ruling his nation or how much he longed for a peaceful existence completely and utterly removed from politics and heroism after defeating Malos. 

Sadly though, he held himself back from fully embracing those responsibilities (largely out of fear) even before everything went to hell and even well before he brought Mythra into his life. And by the time he sealed Mythra/Pyra away, he had lost the majority of the people loyal to him (the Addamites as well as Team Lora) to Amalthus’s awful attack on Spessia where they had evacuated after Torna fell, and only the Counter-Addamites were left in power in Tantal. 

So, even if he had gone back to Tantal, I’m not sure if he would have been able to do much and his presence probably would have caused even more conflict and war, probably being the reason why he “chose not to return” to Tantal after everything had happened. Well, and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume he was ashamed that his weakness with Mythra doomed Torna to its tragic fate and couldn’t bare to face his people because of it. 

Addam’s weaknesses as Mythra’s driver, the subsequent tragedies, and her eventual sealing, combined with his inaction with politics regarding the Tornan throne throughout his campaign and his eventual disappearance from the world and history after the Aegis War, sadly only left a power vacuum. And Amalthus (along with Addam’s other opposition in Prince Zetter and the other Counter-Addamites) were all too ready to take FULL advantage of it. 

Though to be fair, despite the power vacuum left behind, Addam sealing Mythra/Pyra away did effectively keep her out of Amalthus’s clutches until a time came where someone truly worthy of her would awaken her again (considering Amalthus’s status as a master driver and what we saw in the base game, he would have been able to control her eventually too).

Even so, Addam still fell into a similar pattern with being Mythra’s driver. He saw what Malos could do prior to even resonating with Mythra and thus he was (understandably) afraid of the wrath that he could potentially bring down upon the world (see the unfortunate pattern?), and thus closed his heart and mind from learning about the true nature of her powers. 

Mythra’s true Aegis power (from what we eventually see in the base game with Rex and Pneuma), can only be described as “All Creation” or reality manipulation, i.e, “The power to manifest what you imagine”. Addam thought that Mythra’s powers could only cause destruction based solely on what he saw from Malos so he held himself (and by extension her) back from using those powers out of fear. If he only had a more open heart and mind towards her, he would have realized that her power could have been quite literally whatever he wanted it to be (something that’s implied he realized during Mythra’s rampage in their final battle against Malos, but again, it was too late at that point). 

He forgot that Mythra, even if she was another Aegis, was still her OWN person and being an Aegis didn’t automatically mean she was just going to run wild like Malos eventually did. Nor should Addam have constantly compared himself to Amalthus. He and Amalthus were two different people and drivers and just because Amalthus lost control of Malos didn’t automatically mean that Addam would lose control of Mythra.

As unintentional as it might have been on his end, Addam had no faith or confidence in himself as the driver of the Aegis and thus no faith or confidence in Mythra as his blade. Never once during his time as her active driver did he truly consider that his negative thoughts of him being too afraid to properly use Mythra’s power would taint her perspective on herself as well through his resonance with her. Never once thought that, rather than saving people from her potential wrath by opting to not use her true powers in any capacity that he was instead completely preventing himself from truly connecting with Mythra and learning about her. 

And once he finally did get a clue on all of that, it was far too late for him to fix his issues with her. And even though Addam saw Mythra more or less as a surrogate daughter or “kid” of sorts, that otherwise heartwarming bond was fundamentally undermined by his fear of her, and it kept him from truly accepting her as both an individual and the Aegis, as well as kept him from seeing and respecting Mythra as an equal partner, friend and comrade in the same vein he saw Minoth, Team Lora and Team Hugo. 

Addam’s desire for a peaceful life and being a father was perfectly fine. Subconsciously imposing the “daughter” identity onto Mythra through his resonance with her to the point of outright rejecting her true nature (Pneuma) as an all powerful blade/Aegis (as in the daughter of the Architect himself) out of fear? Yeah…not so much and he paid a HUGE price for that. 

The world didn’t need an all powerful blade with a “childish” mentality to save it even if Addam (understandably) longed for fatherhood himself over being a hero. The world needed the Aegis in her truest form (Pneuma). And the world needed a driver for her that was actually willing to accept and use that power to not just stop Malos, but to also guide humanity towards a brighter future (again, all things he realized far too late and outright mentions in the final message he entrusted to Pyra).

While the surrogate parenting or mentoring (or whatever) from Addam was necessary to a certain degree (since again his desire for fatherhood combined with his intense fears of Aegises is implied to have completely messed up his resonance with the green Aegis core from the very beginning), again, ultimately, Mythra didn’t need a “father” figure in him (nor did she really want that deep down as I pointed out earlier). 

She wanted and needed a driver. A TRUE driver. She was expected to be the light of hope for humanity in their darkest hour 500 years ago. However, as Rex will later eventually see and understand once he comes along 500 years later, Addam had failed to truly understand (again until it was far too late for Torna) that Mythra needed someone to be HER light of hope before she could bring hope to everyone else. Again there’s a reason why 500 years later that it wasn’t until Rex proved himself to her as her true driver (i.e., her true emotional anchor) that her true power and nature was ever revealed to him.

Addam was always either too afraid or too hesitant to step up when and where it mattered the most sadly despite his potential for greatness and heroism whether it be with possibly ruling his nation or being the driver of the Aegis. He spent far too much time in his own head stewing in negative hypotheticals (i.e. worrying about the potential consequences of his actions) and that hindered his ability to step up and act when necessary. 

And again, a lot of the fears he carried plus the lack of acceptance in all facets of his royal upbringing were his own personal problems and flaws that he never reconciled even before he became Mythra’s driver. Not helping matters is that Mythra represented literally everything in his life he wanted no part of (heroism, royal duties, notoriety, no peace and quiet, basically his life wouldn’t be his own in a way, etc).

Addam being hindered by the “potential” consequences of his actions was definitely one of the major differences between him and Rex despite a lot of other similarities. And in the end, all it amounted to was Addam fundamentally having the opportunities to do great things with both his country (and by extension the world) and his blade, but failing to truly capitalize on them.

By not (subconsciously) fully committing himself to the role as driver of the Aegis, and by not fully seizing the opportunity to guide his nation and the world towards salvation and prosperity when he had the chance (again being too (understandably) hyper focused on achieving his dream of a peaceful farm life with his family completely and utterly removed from everyone and everything), he instead, unwittingly played a part in causing irreparable damage to his nation (and the world for 500 years until Rex and co come along) in spite of achieving victory against Malos. That’s not even getting into the (near) irreparable emotional damage that Mythra (and Pyra) suffered and carried alone for 500 years as a result of his incompetence and fear as her driver. And well….because of all of that….the rest was tragic history….

Not helping matters is that Addam resonated with Mythra in a time period before the “core cleansing” (Amalthus hadn’t yet become Praetor and hadn’t yet started tampering/abusing his master driver powers and stealing data from core crystals) and the whole “passing the weapon” battle style, something that deepened the connection between driver and blade both on and off the battlefield was still a new concept for most other drivers and blades in this time period (including Addam himself) prior to meeting Lora/Jin/Haze. 

Despite how wrong Amalthus was for later doing so (because he was starving the world of Titans for people to live on and hurting other blades to suit his own twisted idea of salvation), the core cleansing DID increase the pool of potential drivers by a much larger margin by the time Rex and co are involved, meaning that there were far more drivers around that could offer tips and other useful information about drivers and blades and their connections with each other. 

However, in Torna’s time period, people everywhere had to rely on the natural pool of potential drivers (which was stated to be naturally very low and exactly why we only see a very small handful of drivers and blades around in Torna’s time period outside the main party). As a consequence, the synergy/affinity/bond/connection between drivers and blades at large wasn’t near as developed as it would become centuries later. As I mentioned before Lora’s type of bond she forged with both Jin and Haze was considered extremely rare back then. 

So, in other words, there were very few people back then outside the party who could have offered a second opinion or perspective. I have to wonder how different things might have been for Torna 500 years ago had there been a “Vandam” type character outside the party that could have helped both Addam and Mythra get over themselves with all of his “Power depends on the heart of it’s wielder” and “If we don’t use our power because we’re scared of it, we’re done for” flavor of wisdom…

It’s all even more tragic in a way considering that some time during the interim between TTGC and XBC2, during her long slumber Mythra must have thought of ways to become more creative, strategical, refined and precise in the use of her powers on her own considering her introduction to the base game party and how she guides Rex against Malos and Akhos. 

Not to mention Mythra/Pyra was often the one taking charge and leading the base game party out of trouble and/or coming up with the battle strategies and/or insights on where to go or what to do next. The second encounter against Brighid and Morag as well as the first boss fight against Mikhail and Patroka were a couple prime examples of many, showing that she indeed had the capacity to learn in that regard. It could have very well been possible in Addam’s time had he just not been so afraid of her power and encouraged her a bit more when it came to using it. 

Don’t get me wrong, Addam was completely justified in worrying about Mythra becoming the next Malos, and she flat out says that she has no interest in the fate of humans, the world or its future on more than one occasion to be fair. Those are words from her that Rex never hears keep in mind by the time he comes into her life, so Rex has even less cause to be wary of her.

And as I mentioned earlier, Addam seemed less interested in getting to understand Mythra’s powers, her feelings and bringing out her full potential and getting to understand what it truly meant to be the driver of the Aegis and shouldering that burden, or even trying to understand what an “Aegis” truly was because of that very fear and more interested in just stopping Malos so he can work the fields in peace (and given the fact that he’s married and expecting a child no one could truly blame him for that), which while good for him (and again perfectly understandable), that still would have left a divine and all powerful being like Mythra wholly unfulfilled which she alludes to in a rather chilling moment between them when she and Addam were in Indol together after she asks him what they were going to do after defeating Malos “Well that [going home and working the land was Addam’s response] might be good enough for you. But some others might….not be…too pleased with that….” 

While definitely unintentional on his end (Addam was a kind hearted man and I’m 100% positive he more than likely intended for her to be a part of his family along with Milton. Well, after defeating Malos anyway), the fact that he seemed overall more interested in merely using her to defeat Malos so he and his family could live in peace and ultimately less interested in becoming the driver that Mythra needed and deserved (at least until it was far too late for it to matter to him, to her or to the rest of the Tornans and their Titan/Nation), there was this sort of unintentional, but still rather unfortunate implication lingering between them that Mythra was only a means to an end for him. He was unintentionally relegating her existence to little more than a super weapon against Malos with nothing really concretely planned to do with her after that regardless of how much he genuinely wanted what was best for her like a father would have in a sense (again, totally 100% unintentional on his end but still somewhat there sadly).

That crippling fear again also definitely played a huge part in that rather disastrous resonance issue between them when Mythra totally snapped after Malos killed Milton. It’s pretty tragically ironic to note that the scenario that Addam feared the most and was trying desperately to prevent throughout the DLC (Mythra losing control of her power and basically becoming the next Malos in a sense) came about ultimately (on his part in their resonance issues anyway) not because Mythra was “inexperienced” or “careless” like he half expected because before Malos did the unthinkable and killed Milton, she was completely on board with the idea of taking down Malos together alongside her friends at that point and had come to value the ties of friendship she forged with all of them and had matured greatly as well as becoming far closer to the more tempered Mythra that we’d eventually see in the base game five centuries later. She had changed for the better, but Addam had not.

Sadly, the disastrous situation came about (again on his part in their resonance issues) because he himself never did anything to try to overcome his fear (despite acknowledging the fear to Lora in an early cutscene) and strengthening his resonance with Mythra.  

Even with all of that said, his fear of the Aegis wrath in general was justified sadly because Malos at full power was already on the rampage sowing death and destruction long before Addam resonated with Mythra so that understandably didn’t help with the fear at all (and sort of subconsciously colored his perception of Aegises in general in the negative from the very beginning unfortunately but understandably). 

However, Torna The Golden Country did also show that for all intent and purposes, Addam actually did possess the purity and strength of heart and character to potentially wield the true power of the Aegis (the “aptitude” to quote the base game) because face it, if he didn’t hold the potential in itself to do so he would not have been able to resonate with Pueuma’s core crystal period. 

Not to mention that he was far more experienced as a driver than Rex, but tragically, that crippling fear held him back from ever realizing his potential for both him and Mythra and things sadly got really FUBAR in the final hours of the expansion as a result. Though of course not all of it was his fault for sure. Circumstances just weren’t on Addam’s side. Mythra definitely was a loose cannon in this DLC for certain particularly in the beginning which didn’t do the best of jobs reassuring him, and Malos, the other Aegis was making a terrifyingly destructive ass of himself, in addition to giving Addam a clear, tangible reminder of who and what Mythra could become if he didn’t exercise the upmost caution. Let’s not forget that Addam was a prince of his nation and already had hundreds of people’s lives dependent on him and his actions with or without being the driver of the Aegis (but becoming so certainly amplified his already large list of responsibilities). 

Anybody would be hesitant in the above scenario, and it’s a scenario that Rex was never subjected to thanks in large part to Addam and the heroes of the past) but his fear does play a pretty huge part in why things go to hell for him and Mythra ultimately…Like he said…. sadly in the end, no matter how anyone looks at it, he just “wasn’t man enough” and unfortunately (but still understandably) he ultimately paid the tragic price (said price being losing everything important to him) of being only half committed to the role of “Driver of the Aegis”.

Even Jin, for all his respect for Addam back in the day could tell that he was ultimately not meant to be Mythra’s true driver and that Addam’s bond with her lacked…something. And no I don’t mean “romance” or anything like that. A driver and blade don’t always have to be romantically linked to have a strong bond and resonance. Romance certainly helps to be sure, but it’s not an outright requirement. Hugo’s bond with both Aegeaon and Brighid in the Torna expansion as well as Nia and Dromarch from the base game are two examples of many. Rather, Addam and Mythra lacked a genuine sense of trust, faith, understanding and affinity with each other as driver and blade even though they got along well enough otherwise. And this is before everything goes to hell. 

Lora and Jin (after the latter overhears the conversation Lora had with Addam earlier in the expansion about his fears and he gets to know Mythra better) see Addam’s issues with fear and that his resonance with Mythra was lacking because of it (and seeing that it wasn’t so simple a problem as Mythra merely being “careless” or hard to deal with as it appeared on the surface. Partially, but not completely). The problem was neither one seemed to think it important enough (or their place) to note to Addam directly prior to the final battle. 

Nor was Addam ever forced to confront the full ramifications of said fears and how they tainted his resonance with Mythra until it was far too late. Lora thinks Addam will figure it out with time (never mind the fact that time wasn’t exactly a luxury they had and it’s not like that wasn’t obvious) and Jin flat out went meta and said to Mythra that he honestly believed that the bond she had been searching for (”A driver and blade are one in body and soul”) ultimately wouldn’t be found in Addam but with another driver well into the future (which is probably why he didn’t bother to note anything to Addam himself). 

Though to be completely fair, just like Addam had ample reason to fear the true power of the Aegis, Rex had plenty of reasons and completely differing circumstances from Addam that worked in his favor that led him to ultimately being able to accept Mythra/Pyra. 

Despite that though, Rex does still start off with a true lack of understanding of Pyra and Mythra’s feelings and their true burden, as well as the knowledge of the ends and outs of being a driver period, (let alone the driver of the Aegis) before shit hit the fan for him too. Because let’s face it. He was more or less an immature, inexperienced, clueless and reckless idiot for roughly seven chapters before he finally got it together (something he himself notes at the end of said chapter). And just because Rex did ultimately help Pyra and Mythra by accepting them doesn’t mean he didn’t fail a lot before it happened (and even somewhat after the fact). 

Seriously, I get tired of these Rex vs Addam topics that frame Rex as a complete success in every way (as if the boy never failed in any capacity, or as if his successes took place solely in a vacuum of his own skills. Yeah hardly) and framing Addam as a total failure in every way just because the former succeeded with Mythra/Pyra. 

Again, that is a very distorted picture of both their accomplishments for the world as a whole to say the least…Never mind the fact that Addam’s actions five centuries ago kept the entire world from completely ending and gave the future generation a fighting chance, as well as his time with Mythra also had a humanizing factor on her which gave her the experience, clarity and perspective for a blade necessary to counterbalance Rex’s inexperience, naivety and recklessness as a driver.

I’m honestly not trying to take away from Rex’s long list of accomplishments or his eventual character growth (hence the coming of age story), but rather to remind people that the boy actually DID fail at times and that there’s more to his story than just his success with the Aegis. (Not trying to shit on Rex but the boy WAS dumb from time to time….just saying).

Anyway case in point for Rex’s failures, his character flaws, and him just ultimately being a child that’s “stumbling his way forward” (at least for a good stretch of the story): 

Chapter 1 (Encounters) 

He gets himself killed by Jin because of his childish naiveté. He didn’t take the time to investigate the job and his employers. All he heard when he accepted the job was “200,000 gold in total” and common sense just flew right out the window. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…and he would have remained dead had Pyra not brought him back out of the kindness of her heart…..

Well that and she was initially just using him to get to Elysium to die herself. Yeah, it’s complicated I guess and this encounter with her shows that Rex is far too naive and trusting for his own good (hell, being too trusting already got the boy killed). Seriously, Pyra and Mythra are subtle as sin when it comes to manipulation and lying by omission, particularly with Rex and this side of their characters will show up again in the final chapter…..

But to be fair, this particular encounter does also put Rex in a better position to bond much more deeply with Pyra (and later Mythra too) because it sets her up as his savior that he’s indebted to rather than a potentially scary world destroying Aegis as the latter was the case for Addam. 

However, let’s not forget the fact that had it not been for Azurda’s daring rescue (which almost cost him his life btw), Rex, Pyra, Nia and Dromarch would have been screwed. And to be frank, this sort of starts a trend for the first five or so chapters of Rex getting bailed out of dealing with his issues of driver inexperience and naivety by some sort of plot contrivance instead of his own skills…

Chapter 2 (Aptitude) 

He and Nia were outmatched by a solo Brighid, and when the enemy captured Nia in one of those ether suppressing nets Rex didn’t want to run and leave her behind. That’s kind on his end but at the same time it also shows a few of his character flaws (immaturity and not knowing when to withdraw from the battlefield and realizing that sometimes a person really can’t save someone) and childish nature working against him. 

Thanks to Rex’s inability to let go, he almost missed his chance to escape and would have been captured as well had (soon-to-be-new-party-member) Tora, (who was trying to snipe the soldiers because he thinks they’re bullies) not missed his target and hit the water pipe that Brighid was standing under, and the water (rather conveniently) weakened Brighid, giving Pyra and Rex a lucky opening to retreat.

And later he and the party were practically useless against Morag and Brighid together and Rex and co have to destroy a whole water tower JUST TO GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM. Though, to be completely fair, the way Rex and the team destroyed the water tower was an impressive display of teamwork and timing (and did a good job of showing that Rex did indeed have the capacity to think on his feet as well as his “good instincts” that Brighid notes). 

However, we find out a bit later that little stunt caused A LOT of problems for both him and the common folks. Bandits attacked and ransacked the village of Cordell, one of the only few places left in Gormott that had accessible water, which led Rhys to stealing Roc’s core crystal in an attempt to avenge his now lost home and family not to mention that a lot of the town folks’ livelihoods depended on that water tower and Rex screwed them over by toppling it (though Rex does help little Rhys and his friends find their start as salvagers, enabling them to earn their livings).

Chapter 3 (Our Own War) 

The idea to take an airship straight to the World Tree to get to Elysium….(sigh)…..come on Rex, if it was that easy then the World Tree would be far more accessible to practically anyone with a ship (and Elysium would have been discovered a long time ago). The fact that everyone went along with that idea was pretty egregious…I would have expected at least Nia to call him on that one…not to mention thanks to crashing the ship that Umon let him borrow, it really put Umon out on a limb when it came to his airship business for the majority of the game and made him a depressed suicidal wreck (though to be fair, Rex and Co can later do a series of quests and Merc missions to help Umon get back on track).

Let’s not forget his first encounter against Vandam showed his complete inexperience as a driver (not listening to Pyra telling him to wait because she can’t transfer power that fast) despite having the Aegis on his side and how his bullheadedness there would have gotten him killed had Vandam actually been serious and not the kind man he was. Not to mention that while he does learn and embrace some life long lessons that Vandam passes along to him, Rex still immaturely brushes off Vandam’s warnings about the true burden of being the driver of the Aegis. Vandam rightfully points out that “the whole world is gonna try and scalp you. You realize that?” and that Rex sharing a life force with Pyra is a bigger problem than Rex understands. 

All Rex can respond with are his typical empty platitudes about banding together and that he’ll protect Pyra no matter what and “That’s just how the chips fell. It is what it is” regarding the “sharing their life force” thing. Those are all kind and admirable things to declare for one so young definitely, and I applaud anyone able to smile in the face of adversity don’t get me wrong, but Rex is still so incredibly green at being a driver period and so hopelessly naive about the world and life in general at this point in the narrative that he doesn’t have the power, skill or mature perspective necessary to understand the burden of being the Aegis driver. 

Nor can Rex erase everyone’s (valid) increasing concerns and doubts about some random kid salvager with no obvious driver skill somehow being the Aegis’s driver. Rex is being pretty naive now and will grow somewhat arrogant and complacent once Mythra awakens due to her immense power, “feeling like he can do anything”, but he will pay a very hard price later for brushing off Vandam’s concerns (that hard price taking place towards the end of chapter six and the majority of chapter seven but we’ll get to all of that soon).

Anyway, that’s not to mention Rex’s sheer uselessness and incompetence against Akhos and Malos a bit later contributes to causing the death of his mentor and friend Vandam. And even when it’s clear that he’s outmatched, Rex still goes charging in like an idiot twice. And by the way the first time he doesn’t have the excuse of being in a grief stricken rage because Vandam is still alive the first time. 

Even so, thanks to Rex’s idiotic and reckless behavior, he ends up forcing Vandam to rush in to try and save his ass after he rushes ahead without thinking, charging at Akhos as he starts prattling on about using Obrona’s abilities to disrupt the ether flow in the area with Rex screaming “You’re bluffing!” at Akhos like a cocky and reckless dumbass (sorry I couldn’t resist lol I love Mythra so much. Hey at least she didn’t call Rex one even if admittedly it would have been somewhat justified lol), and the second time Rex rushes off without a plan when it’s clear he’s outmatched is after Malos killed Vandam (when he should have listened to Vandam mere moments prior and fled the battlefield). 

So, I’ll say it plain: it’s pretty clear that it was only thanks to Mythra’s awakening that Rex survived this battle at all considering all he did prior to this point (for pretty much the whole chapter with every fight he was in including this current one) was rush ahead recklessly with no plan of action combined with a rather wasteful use of blade artes. Yeah….if Mythra hadn’t stepped in soon, him charging in like an idiot would have gotten himself killed a second time. 

Despite him and the party not really knowing and understanding the full weight of Mythra’s anger at being brought back (and how her lashing out was less directed at him and more her just being utterly frightened at being back in the real world and just reacting very poorly) her harsh words to him about his incompetence and him not possessing the maturity to know when to hold back and withdraw and learning to accept his own limitations as just one person in the world (something that Addam will also later call him out on) and blindly rushing the enemy weren’t without merit which he even admits and notably, to give Rex some credit, from this point on he doesn’t just go charging his enemies blindly anymore. 

It doesn’t really help that Rex’s only defense to Mythra calling him on his immaturity and recklessness is “I couldn’t hand you over to them. I wanted to keep you safe”. Sure, that line from him sort of stopped Mythra’s rant, (and it’s clear she feels guilty about taking her frustrations out on Rex at the moment and wasn’t expecting the concern from him), but it still didn’t negate her main point at all. Now, his intentions may have been noble, but the bottom line was that sometimes if a person is outmatched in battle then they’re just outmatched. Period. And that sometimes fleeing the battlefield IS the proper way to ensure the safety of one’s friends/comrades in arms especially when given an opening to do so. 

And before anyone tries to say “well there’s no guarantee that Rex and Co. would have escaped anyway”, well maybe and maybe not but that’s not really the point here to be candid. The fact that Rex didn’t even attempt to do so when Vandam clearly gave him an opening only further highlighted both his immaturity and recklessness, as well as the fact that Rex wasn’t quite ready to do what it took to not only “fight his own war” but to also win it (i.e accept that sacrifices are sometimes inevitable during a war and learn to respect that choice when another person willingly decides to make that personal sacrifice for the greater good). 

And merely charging forward in a blind rage regardless only just further endangered the team and those around him and was just foolish and immature (and frankly, just spitting on Vandam’s sacrifice) and would have cost more lives in the long run (something Mythra is ALL TOO AWARE OF given what happened to her 500 years ago against Malos). So, as far as I was concerned, it was about time someone really called him out on his stupidity of charging into a battle blindly and/or losing his head and wasting blade artes when provoked (again, from this point onwards he stops all of that) so he could start developing beyond that crap…

However, to be fair, this whole first encounter with Mythra’s awakening sets her up as a savior and protector to Rex (and the rest of the party), and since she used her powers (that she apparently loathes for very valid reasons not immediately obvious to the party at the moment) to ultimately protect and save them all from certain death, they’re all more than willing to learn about her along with Pyra and they accept Mythra into the group wholeheartedly despite her abrasiveness and her “pretty crazy” powers, something she more than likely wasn’t expecting given all the insults and bullying she suffered in the past.

This becomes more obvious a bit later when the party is in Mor Ardain in the next chapter. Mythra does have a nice bonding moment with Nia and Poppi in the hot springs with Nia trusting her with a very important secret of hers no less, and Rex declares shortly after (once he teases her a bit about her “touchiness” lol) that he wants to get to know about her too just like he does Pyra. 

Though again, as Rex outright admits when Pyra tries to apologize for Mythra’s behavior, her harsh words towards him weren’t exactly without merit and he takes it as tough love and ultimately learns something from the whole experience (and is willing to accept his culpability in Vandam’s death). He outright THANKS Pyra/Mythra for “Protecting everyone” with her powers (a very significant gesture even if Rex isn’t fully aware of just how much so at this point) and declares that “Her powers are incredible. I could feel the truth behind the legends”, implying that he’s hoping that he has the opportunity see more of what Pyra and Mythra are capable of in the future. Also, he is actually encouraging them to use their power when it’s necessary and wholeheartedly believes that her power is the power “to keep others safe and smiling” (again very significant).

The only thing Rex admonished Pyra/Mythra for was their constant apologizing for using those powers at all. A stark, but very much needed and welcomed, (if unexpected from Pyra/Mythra’s perspective), contrast to everyone around her 500 years ago (especially her driver back then) constantly implying and declaring how dangerous her powers were and that she’d only cause “too many casualties and too much destruction” if she used them in any capacity whatsoever.

Chapter 4 (Aegis) 

He’s pretty helpless against Rosa story wise (Pyra’s not strong enough to make a dent in her and Mythra’s power doesn’t work that well in the tight indoor space they were in lest she bring the entire building down around them) and it’s only thanks to Poppi’s new mode that they won that battle. 

Not to mention that he has to be saved by Morag and Brighid when Mikhail and Patroka show up and even then, Mythra was the one who ultimately defeated them (by killing off their blades). Then he’s bailed out again (after Patroka snaps and is about to unleash hell) by Haze/Fan La Norne’s ability to restrict blades (which forces Mikhail and Patroka to retreat) and she does kind of show up out of nowhere from Rex’s point of view.

Chapter 5 (Masters and Slaves) 

He and the team fail to defeat Jin despite Haze’s ability to restrict his powers which resulted in Haze’s/Fan La Norne’s death. Not to mention that it takes Amalthus and Indol stepping in to prevent Mor Ardain and Uraya from going into all out war (Jin and the rest of Torna had set the two countries against each other). The whole reason Rex and co went to Temperantia was to try and stop the fighting between the two nations before it started. They took too long fighting off Jin and that titan weapon and again had Indol not stepped in there would have been a meaningless war between Uraya and Mor Ardain. 

It’s also worth noting that when Amalthus calls the meeting of the world leaders and the ceasefire between Mor Ardain and Uraya, that Rex, despite being Mythra’s driver, isn’t deemed important or experienced enough to stand beside her during the meeting to testify about Malos and Torna. It’s actually implied that had he attended the meeting, Mythra, Zeke, and Morag’s credibility would have been questioned if not outright compromised.

Chapter 6 (Wounds) 

Do I even need to go into how Jin utterly humiliated Rex and the party here and took Pyra/Mythra away? Not to mention that this chapter does a very good job of showing that even with the power of the Aegis on his side, and despite some improvements in his driver capabilities, Rex still really doesn’t know what he’s doing and up until this point he’s just been beam spamming Pyra and Mythra’s abilities (and that’s just been enough to keep him alive up until this point thanks in large part to Mythra and her power/experience) and not really understanding what it truly means to be driver and blade (as he said in chapter 5 he’s just “stumbling his way forward”). 

As Jin points out to him, despite the heavy wounds Pyra/Mythra had, Rex didn’t even notice and all he was thinking about in the moment was himself (and to be blunt, Jin had a valid point on Rex being a “pitiful, childish fool” at this point in the story). At the moment, he’s on a similar path as Addam was when it came to the Aegis in a way (on the path to failure with her because he can’t or won’t get over himself). 

In Addam’s case he was too focused on stopping Malos and not truly understanding and realizing that there was much more to being the driver of the Aegis than just merely stopping another Aegis’s destructive rampage and that he needed to work on conquering his fear so he could truly bond with Mythra (and get out of his own head about said fears and worrying about what MIGHT happen with Mythra instead of focusing on what WAS happening with her, i.e., she was remaining loyal to him, indicating that she had more faith in him than he ultimately did in her). Not to mention that regardless of his desire to take up farming and settle down with his family well removed from everything, his troubles in his kingdom as well as his status as the Aegis’s driver would have all but prevented that. And sadly he didn’t realize his short-sighted mistakes until everything had already gone to hell around him (right after Torna’s destruction). 

Rex, in comparison at this point, is too focused on trying to get to Elysium so he can “find the answers they’re all looking for” and merely trying to pay Pyra and Mythra back for their kindness of bringing him back from the dead by fulfilling their request to be escorted to Elysium. He’s naively believing that everything will just somehow work out for everyone once they arrive, (and not realizing that there’s much more to being an Aegis’s driver than just an escort mission) and just ultimately not understanding what it means to be driver and blade and what he’s truly involved himself in by being the driver of the Aegis. 

Similarly to how Addam didn’t understand how his fears messed everything up for him and Mythra from the beginning (and were steadily doing so throughout his campaign with her until it was too late), Rex is not realizing just how detrimental both his inexperience and his ignorance (of “Aegises”) really is to Pyra and Mythra and not truly understanding the immense guilt, loss, and sacrifice they’ve carried over the centuries, and not truly understanding what it means to carry those burdens with her. 

Seriously, being completely ignorant of everything (Rex) can be just as bad as being too fearful and unprepared to act when and where it matters most (Addam). And regardless of whichever the lack of understanding is stemming from (fear or inexperience from Addam and Rex respectively), at this point, it still amounts to the same thing for the Aegis: That Pyra and Mythra aren’t truly being understood and accepted for who and what they are. That they’re being held back and feeling alienated by their drivers (unintentional as it may have been in both cases) and feeling like they have no real place in the world. 

None of that is even getting into Rex’s lack of knowledge about being a driver period since this is the same chapter he even finds out how blade weapons work and we’re over halfway through the game at this point and his driver inexperience is still serving as a serious issue and hindrance. 

To be perfectly candid, prior to me as the player experiencing just how badly the party was going to lose here, I was wondering “Okay….so just what sort of plot contrivance is going to bail Rex out of dealing with his issues of inexperience, immaturity and naivety THIS time?”. I mean let’s recap, chapter 1) Pyra sacrificing half her life and Azurda’s rescue, chapter 2) Tora with his boom biter, chapter 3) Mythra’s awakening, chapter 4) Haze/Fan La Norne coming out of nowhere with her blade restricting powers, chapter 5) Indol and Amalthus stepping in to prevent war between Uraya and Mor Ardain……Yeah.

But to my surprise there was nothing bailing him out this time and of course, because Rex is so inexperienced with being a driver period (much less the driver of the Aegis) the expected thing happens: He’s finally forced to confront head on the full ramifications of essentially being a light hearted kid (and somewhat cocky kid as well because of Mythra’s power until it didn’t work here. As Rex said “No….Mythra’s attack didn’t…..”) playing at hero with an all powerful blade but with he himself possessing little to no driver skill and understanding. 

In other words, he straight up loses both the battle and Pyra/Mythra and he has nothing but his own shortcomings and inexperience to blame for it. He even says at the beginning of the next chapter that “When I became the driver of the Aegis. Her driver. I felt like I could do anything. But I was just kidding myself” indicating that his ego received a massive boost until reality hit him hard here (which would probably go a long way towards explaining a lot of Rex’s earlier recklessness in previous chapters prior to this moment). Yeah….having an all powerful weapon/blade at one’s disposal actually doesn’t make a person invincible, especially when said person is lacking in skill, experience and understanding. Who knew?

Well that and to be completely fair, given the title of the next chapter (”The Fear She Carries”), as well as what we saw her do to Malos back in TTGC in their final battle and the immense power she generated out of rage, it’s also heavily implied that Mythra was holding back A LOT of her power to avoid a repeat of Torna because there’s NO way Jin would have stood a chance against Mythra otherwise (let alone her true Pneuma form which is proven in the next chapter) even in his full flesh eater form.

Chapter 7 (The Fear She Carries) 

Now don’t get me wrong, Rex’s despair at losing so thoroughly to Jin (and losing Pyra/Mythra to the enemy as a result) was very justified. However, it still doesn’t change the fact that had it not been for the party talking him out of giving up he would have straight up left for Argentum like a little kid just because things were getting too tough for him. It’s just further reason why I personally believe that had Rex as he is in the base game had been in Addam’s place 500 years ago, his inexperience as a driver would have been far more damaging and would have doomed the world. (More on this point a bit later). 

That’s not getting into the fact that ultimately Rex was partially responsible for putting Pyra/Mythra in that position in the first place (by them giving him half her life force because he got himself killed back in chapter one), and his inexperience at being a driver cost him the battle with Jin, which forced Pyra/Mythra to surrender themselves to the enemy (as well as not yet understanding the full weight of being the Aegis’s driver due to said inexperience) and was more or less spitting on all the sacrifices they made for him by even entertaining the notion of leaving them behind without even trying to rescue them (basically taking Pyra/Mythra and the gift of life they gave him for granted) which both Nia and Brighid waste no time calling him out on given what the latter overheard between Pyra and Corinne back in Fonsett Village.

The full weight of the responsibility as the “driver of the Aegis” (along with all the hardships and fears that come along with that role) and what Vandam tried to warn Rex about back in chapter three is only just now beginning to truly sink in for him (that “Rex, you’re the driver of the Aegis. The whole world is gonna try and scalp you. You realize that? How are you gonna live when you’ve got everyone gunning for you? Be easier to run. All you’ve gotta do is ditch that girl.”). 

And now Rex has to confront (and ultimately conquer) a similar fear that Addam struggled with all throughout his campaign with the Aegis (and that Addam ultimately failed to conquer): the fear of ultimately not being up to the task and possibly, unwittingly, causing irreparable harm to the people he cares about and the world. Only now Rex has the additional weight of retrieving her from the enemy that completely handed him his ass a mere two days ago….

As I said before, Rex immaturely brushed off Vandam’s warnings back in chapter three with his typical optimistic nonchalance and empty naive platitudes of “I’ll protect her” and “We can make it together”, and now he’s paying the price for his complacency and arrogance born of naïveté. 

With Pyra/Mythra effectively stolen from him directly under his watch (despite declaring that he’d protect her), he’s now forced to see that blind optimism alone is not going to be enough for him to achieve success in his quest towards Elysium or being Pyra/Mythra’s true driver. Nor does merely having that power make him a completely invincible hero and he now has only two choices before him:

 1) He can either continue to internalize those self-doubts and negative feelings and shy away from the responsibility as Pyra/Mythra’s driver out of fear and distance himself from her like Addam did throughout his campaign (and after the Aegis War). Notably, this is actually exactly what Rex initially starts doing in the beginning of this chapter after waking up from his two day coma trying to head for Argentum after losing her. 

2) Or Rex can choose to face himself and those self-doubts and fears head-on, do what even Addam himself could not, and truly rise to the challenge of being the driver of the Aegis before it really is too late for her and the rest of the world. 

Thankfully, unlike Addam and Mythra’s old friends and allies from the past who shared in Addam’s fearful concerns about Mythra and her power (not without reason though admittedly) and unwittingly reinforced those fears and (unintentionally) pushed Addam toward the first option (with disastrous consequences), Rex and Pyra/Mythra’s friends in this time, (along with the King of Tantal outright revealing the third sword and it’s speculated location, renewing the party’s hope with the mention of Pyra/Mythra’s greater power existing in their obvious time of need), they all (not so gently) outright shove Rex toward the latter choice and help him realize that now is not the time to shy away from that duty or his dream of traveling to Elysium alongside the Aegis, and that it’s hardships and defeats like this one where a person can truly have the opportunity to see and reach their full capabilities and potential. 

However, the game still doesn’t shy away from calling Rex out on his inexperience, as several characters throughout the XBC2 story even prior to this moment (both in the party and out) have noted how “green” Rex is as a driver, and were understandably worried that his inexperience as a driver would cause the Aegis to either 1) lose control of her power just like she did in the past, and considering she brought the world’s most powerful titan down (Torna) in a matter of minutes if not in a few hours 500 years ago in a fit of pique with her full power that not even “the great hero Addam” could control….well yeah, or 2) the Aegis would fall into the wrong hands. Reality finally kicked in for the plot regarding Rex and his inexperience. The latter outcome happened and now it’s all come to a head.

King Eulogimenos of Tantal said it best: “Now Rex, you were defeated by Jin. Doubtless, that man is a powerful warrior. But even so, can this be right? Can the Aegis herself truly be outmatched by a single opposing blade? Would it not make more sense to presume…that you lost because you have yet to unlock the true power of the Aegis?

And later after trekking to the end of the Spirit Crucible Elpys, while admittedly a victory in itself (and his salvager training does indeed come in handy with helping him deal with the “hard to breathe” conditions of the place that hinder most of the rest of the party), he still would have gotten overwhelmed by Addam’s Phantasms (long before they acknowledged Rex as “the one”) had Nia not revealed her flesh eater status to the party and saved him. Though to be fair, the fact that Nia had finally grown comfortable enough to reveal her true nature to him and the party was due in large part to Rex himself. 

Not to mention that while Rex is the one that rouses them (and that is his victory of course. Not saying it isn’t), it still doesn’t change the fact that he and the party were just mere seconds shy of being completely doomed against Jin and Malos at the end of the chapter (whom which the latter had just regained ALL of his Aegis abilities and from what we saw in TTGC, that’s not a good thing….) had Pyra/Mythra not woken up when they did in their “true” form…Because as Mythra will say to Rex in chapter 8, she and Pyra made a choice as well to continue on and “not to live in fear”. 

Had Rex not finally gotten his shit together in time, they might have not chosen to accept him as their driver or chosen to live on period as I noted near the beginning of the post about just how crucial a strong driver/blade bond really is to a blade. Despite that though, it was ultimately still Addam who told Rex what to do in order to help Pyra/Mythra. We can’t just selectively ignore that fact either. 

It is also worth noting that the Aegis herself was almost disposed of permanently, and history was mere seconds shy of tragically repeating itself in an even worse way when it comes to Pyra/Mythra and them having issues with their drivers not getting it together and causing them and the world to suffer because of it thanks to Rex’s immaturity and him stumbling forward without a damn clue for well over half the game.

Despite all of what I said, I’m not blind to Rex’s successes here in this chapter (just not blind to his failures along with his successes). Of course, to give Rex his due, he does acknowledge most, if not all of what I just said on his own in this chapter, and rather maturely and calmly readies himself to face Malos and Jin despite what the former bastard just did to Pyra/Mythra rather than just blindly charging forward like a fool. A stark contrast to how he acted when Vandam was killed (even Malos respects this newfound maturity in Rex enough to note it) and as a result he holds his own pretty well against Jin with some pretty impressive swordsmanship as he’s trying to rouse Pyra/Mythra to come back. 

And in the moment when Rex reaches out to Pyra and Mythra and they’re willing to answer his call by baring their whole being to him mind, body, and soul, (showing that they now don’t just view Rex as a very loving and kind hearted but ultimately a naive and inexperienced boy that stumbled into both their power and their many, many issues (to put it mildly), but now a young man who could and would accept all of who and what they are without fail), it finally and truly feels like he’s legitimately EARNED the right to be the Aegis’s driver (fitting, as this is Pyra and Mythra’s “one true” sword form) instead of just stumbling into the power by complete chance and/or recklessness and stupidity (Dying his way to becoming Pyra’s driver in the beginning due to his childish naiveté/his sheer idiocy and immaturity in chapter three forcing Mythra to come back into play to save his ass). And in light of TTGC, a lot of specific quotes that Rex says to them in his speech stand out so much more now such as “We’ll find out together! We’ll find your place in this world!” and “I won’t let the world burn a second time”. 

This is also just as much a victory for Pyra/Mythra as it is for Rex. In the moment where they accept Rex as their true driver, it really feels like they’re both FINALLY able to start moving forward and look to the future thanks to having someone to truly live for, and gaining a new hope for a future they can safely be a part of to be sure. And it’s not just them feeling and receiving a sense of true attachment and acceptance towards/from Rex, but towards/from everyone else in the party as well. To be honest, these are bonds of true acceptance and love Pyra and Mythra have never truly felt for anyone or received in turn from anyone since being stolen away from their home (courtesy of Amalthus) all those centuries ago. 

Not to say that Mythra didn’t grow to eventually cherish her first group of friends by the end of their journey together. Notably, during her final battle against Malos 500 years ago, she sees visions of her current friends first before the future visions of Rex. So she certainly did. However, in this new generation, it truly feels more like Pyra/Mythra have a place and acceptance in the world with Rex and co in a way that honestly wasn’t really there for them with their first group of allies 500 years ago. 

I think Jin said it best 500 years ago “Your real affinity lies somewhere in the future, not in the time we’re in now”. Sure, he was talking about Mythra’s true driver affinity, but I think that sentiment could also extend to the newfound group of friends/family she’s a part of now. 

To me, Rex being chosen as the salvager to find Pyra/Mythra was a mere technicality in being the start to setting everything right after what happened in Torna’s time period. No. THIS moment here was truly the beginning of the end of the “500 year long curse” , the first real visible crack in the tragic cycle, as far as I was concerned.

And to give Addam some credit too, this is the chapter in which we find out that he was the one who founded Fonsett Village five centuries ago. What if Addam hadn’t done that? Rex’s biological mother and father would have had nowhere to find refuge for him (both of his parents were fatally wounded in some unknown tragedy and Rex was barely two years old at that point). Rex would have died long before the story began. So, Addam indirectly saved his life. Just something else to consider. 

Not to mention that Hero’s Rest/Fonsett Village itself was founded on the dream that Addam always held for himself but could never truly achieve: A carefree village well removed from the woes of society and politics where the people there all love and support each other. The game makes a point of saying that only someone from this sort of village in general could become the true driver of the Aegis. Growing up removed from the harsher realities of the world gave Rex (and others from the village) a very unique flavor of optimism and hope for the future not found in other settlements and titans (things that both Morag and Zeke note).  

And again, Addam was ultimately the one who guided Rex in helping the Aegis rediscover and reconnect with her “true” self. With his final words of wisdom to Rex in the Elpys (”When you take on the weight of all the fear she carries, then you will be her true driver”), and trusting that Rex will be able to achieve what he could not, Addam’s spirit is finally able to find peace and move on from the past after being bound to the world for 500 years, and I’d say that Addam and Mythra’s story has come full circle now with Mythra/Pyra finally finding what they were looking for and with Addam finally able to truly help and support her without fear (as he admits he should have done in the first place).

Chapter 8 (World Tree) 

Rex does get a break here at least and to be fair he’s matured quite a bit from the inexperienced and reckless kid he was from the start. And it’s nice to see him and Mythra bonding and him able to finally get her to open up to him considering the bulk of the “ship tease” has centered around the Pyra persona. If I recall correctly, this point (and beyond) is where the player may start receiving a post battle quote between Azurda and Mythra with her admitting that “her spirit is all the warmer thanks to him [Rex]” after he asks her if she thinks Rex is shaping up to be a good driver for her or not. Though despite all of that, some of the aforementioned inexperience driver problems still exist for him which leads me into….

Chapter 9 (Rain) 

Even if Rex has unlocked the master driver program….Amalthus’s level of experience and mastery with the same power puts Rex to shame to be honest even considering the Amp towers/half of Haze’s core crystal that Amalthus was using. Just a case of reality ensues. Rex might have unlocked Pneuma’s true powers, but there’s a huge difference in merely unlocking that power and truly mastering it. All Rex can really do with the master driver program is borrow blades from the other party members, and to be fair he’s still a decent fighter with or without that power so that helps a bit. 

Still nowhere near what Amalthus demonstrates overall (bonding, or I guess stealing in his case) with other blades in addition to: erasing blade memories, stealing data from their Core Crystals, creating Blade Eaters, as well as the “core cleansing” that Amalthus does earlier in chapter 5. Of course, Rex wouldn’t abuse the power like that even if he had full mastery, but it still doesn’t change the fact that ultimately Amalthus’s experience with the master driver program is more developed than his by far. 

Though to be completely fair, he, Mythra and Poppi do succeed in destroying the Amp towers Amalthus was using to control the other titans. However, even later when the party faces Amalthus in battle, even with Pyra/Mythra’s true power, Rex still gets overwhelmed (thanks again to the whole “sharing their life force” issue after Mythra takes an attack that was meant for Jin) and ultimately Jin is the one that saves the day there at the cost of his life (though he goes out with a smile at least and it is nice to see Jin and Mythra patch things up in a sense before his heroic sacrifice after all the pain and resentment between them especially in light of TTGC). 

Chapter 10 (An Thus, Boy Met Girl) 

Finally making it to Elysium to find it a barren wasteland devoid of life. Not to say that that in itself was Rex’s fault (hardly) but it did show that ultimately Rex was putting far too much of his faith in a childish pipe dream to save the world with no clear alternatives should said dream prove to be the total opposite of the reality. The dream world of Elysium was a good one, the reality as we all saw….not so much. And this was something Nia called him out on as early as chapter two but he never stopped to even consider the possibility. 

And furthermore, what if Elysium hadn’t been the barren wasteland we found but instead a bountiful land already inhabited by people living their own lives? I personally don’t think those people would have been happy with foreigners assuming they could just move in on their territory. Rex could have been responsible for starting a whole different war on that front so his initial plan to travel to Elysium to save the world was doomed to fall apart one way or another…..

That’s not even getting into how Klaus/The Architect basically ripped into Rex’s deepest insecurities about the harsh reality of Elysium and his own short comings and it takes Pyra literally just telling her father to stop torturing Rex and the party (they were all going through their own separate tests independent of the one we as the player experienced with Rex) before things really got out of hand. Nothing Rex himself did during those moments disproved or challenged those insecurities. 

Though of course to give Rex his due credit, the Architect himself does decide to no longer remain passive and unresponsive to the troubles of his created world (Alrest) thanks to Rex being who he is and seeing the bond Rex has forged with his daughter (Pyra/Mythra) and that definitely gives the party an edge against Malos in the final battle. And considering Malos has linked up with the ultimate Artifice Aion at this point….well….yeah. Not to mention that had he not met Rex and saw the bond he forged with Pyra/Mythra, the Architect would have just sat by while the entire world was destroyed (and would probably have not granted humanity the “last gift” of the current titans joining together to create enough land for humans to settle on. A new “Elysium” of sorts).

Despite all of that though, Rex still hasn’t quite learned that his constant whining about not wanting to leave people behind, while definitely kind on his end, is still ultimately a problem (and in some cases have left him and the party wide open to the enemy when in a battle or dire situation that forces them to retreat) with his rather long tirade with Mythra/Pyra getting ready to sacrifice themselves before Zeke literally says “How long do you plan on being a baby?”.

Not helping matters is the fact that Pyra/Mythra had to essentially manipulate the entire situation prior to this moment in such a way that would ultimately force Rex to let them go rather than him coming to the conclusion on his own that as much as he hated it, there was nothing he could do to help Pyra/Mythra at that point. Seriously, they can read the boy like a book and show that they’re willing to manipulate a situation to override Rex’s immature stubbornness if need be.

To Rex’s credit though, he eventually does man up here and move on but the cutscene to get to that point was a rather unnecessarily long one because this lesson should have stuck at least a bit better considering what happened with Vandam way back in chapter three….Now don’t mistake that. I’m not in any way saying that Rex didn’t have a right to be upset that the girl he loved was more or less preparing to sacrifice herself (hardly). I’m just merely pointing out that his inability to let go of people in itself (trying to save everyone is admirable but ultimately just not feasible at times) and learn to accept that life is sometimes about sacrifice (harsh but true) has been a recurring flaw in his character and has often caused him and the party a lot of issues that could have been avoided.

Hell, by the time the ending scenes came about with Rex, I was actually glad the game didn’t follow through completely with Pyra/Mythra’s sacrifice…..I was like “damn just throw this kid a bone already”…Hey, I’m just pointing out that Rex failed just as much as he succeeded really. Him accepting Pyra and Mythra doesn’t just all of a sudden negate all of his failures, his character flaws, and his often sheer stupidity and immaturity IMO for well over half the game. 

Nor does his success with Pyra and Mythra somehow negate how Rex’s childish and naive nature often proved to be, yes his greatest strength. That childish innocence being the very factor that helped him save Pyra/Mythra from themselves which in turn led to a lot of other positive changes for the world and ultimately the breaking of the “500 year long curse”). 

However, at times it also served as his greatest weakness (his complete inexperience as a driver and his inability to see his own limitations and accept that sometimes life is about sacrifice especially when he’s the driver of the Aegis often caused him and the party a lot of issues), even with us as the players knowing the full weight of how Addam’s fear held him back from doing what Rex did when it came to the Aegis. 

Also worth noting that I see a lot of is that it isn’t fair to constantly call out Addam on every failure that he made (even if admittedly said failures did lead to a lot of unfortunate events and devastation for both Mythra and the world) without acknowledging his accomplishments and truly appreciating the fact that he did prevent the entire world from burning 500 years ago and how he stepped up for the Aegis after the fact to at least ensure that Mythra and Pyra (and by extension the whole world) would eventually be saved (which again, gave the future generation a fighting chance thanks to Addam and his friends and their sacrifices). 

Sadly again though, Mythra losing her head in rage and blowing up Torna was his rather unfortunate reality check on how damaging his preconceived fears were for his resonance with her which obviously (and unfortunately) didn’t afford him time to make things right to prevent the devastation she caused….Even so, Addam surely devoted himself to Mythra after the fact despite sealing her away (for 500 years even after his death no less) to try and make up for not being the driver she needed him to be during his time with her.

By contrast, it isn’t fair to completely gloss over and/or ignore Rex’s often sheer stupidity and his failures even if he did manage to save Pyra and Mythra from themselves by accepting them and even if admittedly, that was a major first step in setting right everything that had gone wrong in the past. He even acknowledges himself how clueless, immature, inexperienced, happy-go-lucky and reckless he had been for over half the game at the end of chapter seven and just how damaging that really was for Pyra and Mythra because he wasn’t truly understanding their plight and their despair/fear (though to be completely fair, Pyra and Mythra went out of their way to explicitly hide it all from him until it came to a head but still…). 

Not to mention that his complete inexperience as a driver, nearly cost him and the world Pyra and Mythra (i.e. the Aegis on the side of humanity was almost killed off for real. The one person who could possibly match Malos was almost disposed of permanently. That would have spelled doom for the entire world with absolutely NO hope for any sort of comeback). And his inexperience was an issue that Rex really wasn’t forced to confront head on in any significant way until the XBC2 plot stopped bailing him out of trouble which I noted at the end of chapter six and gave him a serious reality check and he was just lucky enough to have been afforded the time to fix his problems after the fact.

Anyway, another point to consider with Rex and his acceptance of Pyra/Mythra is that when we make it to Leftheria in the main game for the first time (chapter five with Haze/Fan La Norne), it’s clear that Rex (and several other kids from Fonsett Village because the small settlement couldn’t afford it) didn’t have a formal education. 

Instead, he started salvaging (basically joining the workforce) when he was barely 10 years old to support Fonsett (he’s 15 in the main story so he’s been doing it already for 5 years). Also, Azurda, his father figure, clearly did not mention hardly anything about Addam or the “Aegis” to him. Which later we find out the reason for that being because Rex himself (or anyone else for that matter) would have to find out if they were truly worthy of that power on their own without Azurda’s input as a crutch. Azurda was also personally responsible for guarding both the village and the sword so of course he wouldn’t bring any of that up in casual dialogue, so Rex is even less aware of the “Aegis” and the destructive part she played in history than most. Rex’s first encounter against Morag back in chapter two made his lack of formal education clear as well.

Another very important detail to note is that Rex never bore witness to just how destructive and/or out of control both Mythra and Malos could be beforehand unlike Addam since both were underpowered for different reasons in his time. Not to mention that Malos doesn’t get his power back in full in the base game until, rather conveniently, Rex unlocks Pyra/Mythra’s true power by accepting her, so that too played a part in Rex not being afraid of her. Not to mention every time Pyra/Mythra got an upgrade to their powers throughout XBC2, it was ALWAYS framed in a positive light for Rex and his friends (and saved all their asses on more than one occasion).

But as I said in another reddit topic, credit where it’s due. Maybe Addam wasn’t meant to be Mythra’s true driver, even so, it still doesn’t change the fact that at least Addam was able to impart some much needed guidance, the value of teamwork, social skills, and a sense of restraint in Mythra. And let’s be honest, the man had the patience of a saint when it came to dealing with her especially in the beginning. The fact that they’d been together for one year before meeting Jin and Lora implies that she was probably even worse before then. He would have been a good father for his children for sure. And that’s coming from someone who was a fan of Mythra long before Torna the Golden Country came out lol. 

In all seriousness though, she’s far less abrasive and much easier to get along with in general by the time Rex comes along and far more mentally mature and aware of her destructive power and the harm she could bring to the world if left unchecked. Five hundred years later people would be rather hard pressed to call her an inexperienced and foolish “kid” or “simpleton” with too much power, arrogance and lack of control in the party. 

She’s now a shell shocked veteran, easily the most experienced in the base game party with the mentality of with great power comes great responsibility. Though to be fair, it takes her a bit to truly get to the point of “great power, great responsibility” because of her fear and guilt over the past, but she’s still definitely far more cautious in her use of her power which is what Addam was ultimately trying to achieve with Mythra during his time with her even if his fear caused him to go way overboard with that particular lesson.

It’s rather interesting to note the shift in the dynamics here. In Torna, Mythra was the inexperienced and reckless (but still all powerful) Aegis blade to Addam’s experienced driver (who harbored fears and self doubts and kept them from Mythra), while five centuries later, she (and Pyra) are now the experienced and all powerful Aegis blade to Rex’s completely inexperienced and reckless driver (with them now harboring all the fears, self doubts with added suicidal tendencies and keeping them from Rex). 

And to be candid, it’s a very good thing that Mythra isn’t as gung-ho, or immature, reckless and inexperienced as she was back in her Torna days given how ignorant of blades, inexperienced at being a driver, reckless, immature, and naive Rex is for a good chunk of his story. That could have and more than likely would have spelled a very bad combination given some of Rex’s dumber calls and decisions I noted earlier to say the least. She literally goes from preferring to constantly spam Siren’s Sacred Arrows on everything and being gratingly arrogant/prideful about her power to five centuries later berating Rex for waking her up because “I didn’t want to come back! I left EVERYTHING to her [Pyra] so I’d never have to use this power again!” 

Let’s not forget that she’s now constantly analyzing the structural integrity of buildings and whatnot to avoid needless collateral damage when using her power and is much more strategical, graceful, precise and refined in the use of her power than she was in her Torna days. She also has far more compassion for the world and life in general (though I’d say this part is a bit debatable. She was far more caring than she let on in her Torna days, but five centuries later she’s much better at expressing it externally). Then there’s the having three levels in girl talk instead of just one, (girl power woo! Lol) showing how much more sociable she’s become (interesting to note that the “Pyra” side doesn’t have girl talk despite being arguably more sociable). Not to mention cooking no longer being one of her field skills lol, showing that she did take some of her former allies/friends (admittedly fair to a point) assessments of her flaws to heart in a much healthier way independent of her Pyra persona even if it definitely hurt Mythra to hear them back then. (no offense to Pyra of course but given how and why she was “created….”). 

A lot of people love to bring up the fact that Rex ultimately could control Pyra/Mythra’s full power and Addam couldn’t (which admittedly is fair and true). But even so, it’s not like Mythra’s time with Addam and her old friends played absolutely NO part in the person Mythra becomes 500 years later (for better or for worse) making her much easier for Rex to bond with ultimately. Basically, her time with Addam and co. helped bring out the dormant “humanity” within her for lack of a better word.

And as I mentioned before, throughout XBC2, every time Pyra/Mythra got an upgrade to their power, it was viewed or framed in a very positive light (no pun intended lol) that saved the party on more than one occasion. So, while Rex and Co. certainly respected and acknowledged her power, they didn’t outright fear her like everyone around her did five hundred years ago since they’ve all come to know and generally love both sides on a personal level throughout the story, nor did they automatically begin warily assuming and expecting Pyra/Mythra to be just like Malos (or in danger of becoming like him) simply because they were/are both Aegises once the party was made aware of Malos being another Aegis. 

In other words, Pyra and Mythra have a much stronger and positive (if unexpected from their point of view) support network overall when it comes to their power and abilities than Mythra ever did five centuries prior, (something that was surely needed given all we witnessed in TTGC), but more importantly, they all respect and admire them as individuals too. 

Again, the ONLY positive side effect of Amalthus’s core cleansing is that it increased the pool of potential drivers by a MUCH larger margin compared to Torna’s time period. So, the extremely rare bond that Lora had with Jin and Haze is MUCH more common now, meaning that there are more humans out there that can see blades as their own individuals in a way that wasn’t completely there 500 years ago.

It certainly helps that Mythra is now more or less a living relic and legend with a lot of people around her in this generation being both intrigued and honored to have the chance to see what she’s truly capable of after hearing about all the “heroic tales” of Addam and his blade saving the world five centuries ago, something that Morag directly mentions to Pyra/Mythra in chapter five. Whether those “stories” are 100% historically accurate or not is another matter entirely though but still….

Not to mention, that there were several moments throughout the main plot and a few H2Hs that showed Rex himself desired strength and power to protect his rather long list of people in his life and often lamented his own weakness and was frustrated with himself for his inability to save and protect the people he cared about (particularly with the deaths of Vandam and Haze/Fan La Norne). 

These are Rex’s words in chapter five after Jin (mercy) killed Haze/Fan La Norne (poor girl….) “I don’t get it. I’m meant to be a driver now. I have a blade of my own. But I couldn’t do anything. Fan…. NOTHING’s changed. I’m just as weak as I’ve always been!” I mean really….is it any small wonder that he’d be all too eager to utilize immense power when the opportunity is presented to him? Like he said in chapter seven against Jin after having finally unlocked Pyra/Mythra’s true power: “I don’t get it. But I’m not complaining! THIS is what I’ve been searching for!”

Let’s not forget that Rex was more or less put in a position to devote himself to Pyra and Mythra more fully than Addam had ever been. Both sides of the green Aegis core crystal are introduced to Rex saving his life. That’s a very crucial difference between Rex and Addam’s circumstances with the Aegis. 

In Addam’s case, however, he was introduced to Malos’s rather sadistic glee with eradicating humanity from the face of the world, along with said Aegis Malos having all the power required to do so and then some, and then only resonated with Mythra, whom by all accounts had the same frightening world destroying powers, when Prince Zetter failed to do so, indicating that Addam never truly wanted the role to start with if he could have helped it or at the very least Addam would have been fine with someone else taking the role of “Driver of the Aegis”. 

Anyway, the fact that they saved his life was more than enough for Rex to devote himself more fully to the Aegis. Rex was indebted to Pyra and Mythra because they were his saviors. And even though I criticized his inexperience earlier, (and the fact remains that it caused a lot of problems for both himself and everyone around him for a good chunk of the story), the fact that he didn’t know anything about being a driver, much less the driver of the Aegis, (and was still more or less thrown into the fray regardless), and that they were all sharing a life force, that very inexperience put him in the position to both want and be required to learn about what it meant to be a driver and by extension learn more about Pyra and Mythra on a personal level just for the three of them to stay alive. 

Rex often declared that “He was going to be the driver that Pyra and Mythra deserve” and eventually that becomes his number one goal in life as he even declares to both of them in chapter seven that going to Elysium would mean absolutely nothing to him if Pyra and Mythra weren’t by his side (keep in mind that traveling to Elysium was Rex’s biggest dream even before Pyra and Mythra came into his life). Also, unlike Addam, as I said before Rex wasn’t born of royalty and didn’t have too many obligations to others. He was an orphaned child who chose to take up salvaging to support Fonsett Village true, but to also find some way to Elysium which, as I mentioned earlier, was in alignment with Pyra and Mythra even if they weren’t being entirely honest with him on why they wanted to go there themselves.

By stark contrast, Addam, who in the end, wasn’t really trying to be a hero (despite possessing the potential in itself for great heroism) and wanted nothing more than to live his days in peace as a hermit with his family, resonated with Mythra in her “original” and “destructive” form first after having already witnessed one rogue and all-powerful-and all-too-happy-to-kill-and-destroy-everyone-and-everything Aegis at full might (Malos) on the rampage even before resonating with her. 

And then Addam only resonated with her because again 1) it was the only way to stop Malos who had already sunk one Titan (Coeia) to the cloud sea bed and was hell bent on sinking the rest of the world and also because 2) Prince Zetter had failed to bond with her core crystal before Addam tried to himself). Let’s not forget that Mythra being a blank slate, misanthropic, arrogant and immature loose cannon (all the while possessing the same world destroying powers Malos had) at this point in the story didn’t exactly help either. Couple those facts with Addam being an adult and more aware of the world around him with age giving people in general more wariness, and that sadly but understandably left a fearful and alarming first impression of the Aegises in general on him which was all but impossible to reconcile. 

Not to mention the “Pyra” persona didn’t show up until literally the end of the expansion and he was only with this side of the Aegis for a short time but sadly only after everything had already gone to hell for him and Mythra at this point so it didn’t matter either way. And let’s not forget the fact that “Pyra” was only “constructed” from the very depths of Mythra’s immense guilt and despair, which Addam was partially (if unintentionally) responsible for because he couldn’t/wouldn’t accept her and didn’t step up to be the driver she needed probably didn’t help much if at all either. 

Then of course there was the fact that “Pyra” in and of herself sadly was “created” as an obvious counter to all the insults/bullying Mythra received about her abrasiveness, lack of compassion, arrogance, bad cooking, recklessness, etc., indicating that Mythra’s own self-esteem was damaged a long time ago deep down, and the final battle against Malos, plus all the trauma she endured during said battle and right after (Poor Team Hugo, Poor Tornan Titan and Poor, Poor, Milton….) just shattered it completely. 

Seriously, the “butt-monkey” and “friend that nobody likes” tropes got explored in a more realistic approach with Mythra as a character. No one in real life would be able to put up with that sort of treatment from the people around them without either separating themselves from the people constantly belittling them for the sake of their own self-esteem, or staying, putting up with it, and eventually suffering some lasting emotional scars…Yeah, just guess which one of the two happens to Mythra…..

Anyway, considering that one Aegis was already running amok it’s no real surprise that he (and the rest of her allies back then) often admonished Mythra for using that power period out of fear rather than trying to help her come up with more creative and less harmful ways to utilize it. Again, there’s a big difference between wise caution and crippling fear, and sadly but again understandably, Addam comes to later realize, admit, and ultimately regret that he was more the latter with her as a driver than the former despite his good intentions. 

And again, it’s also worth noting that in contrast to the base game, in TTGC every time Mythra tried to use her Aegis power or even mentioned using it, it was ALWAYS framed in a negative and/or reckless light. Examples being her not listening to Addam when he told her to stop when the party was in a ruined Torigoth and nearly killing Brighid upon their first encounter, and Addam (and the party) often discouraging her from using her power period because to him (and the others) there would be “too many casualties and/or too much destruction”. He even says to Lora at one point “When we first met we could have burnt you to pieces. But we avoided that thanks to Jin”. 

It takes Lora literally pointing out to him that all recklessness aside (because Mythra was admittedly out of line when she fired Siren on Brighid and didn’t stop when Addam ordered her to), Mythra was still in fact actually NOT going all out when she was using her power (if she was, I imagine she would have left Torigoth in the same state Malos left the city of Feltley in with that giant ass crater). 

And, Mythra desiring to utilize said power she has in SOME capacity in and of itself wasn’t exactly wrong or reckless nor does her using said power immediately have to equate to “I want to destroy everyone and everything”, (or rather in Addam’s mind): “I will destroy everyone and everything if I use her power in any capacity” simply because another Aegis chose to follow that path (something again Rex and Mythra will prove together 500 years later) and it wasn’t completely fair for Addam to keep subconsciously imposing that upon Mythra just because she was an Aegis. 

It was an early sign in the expansion that for all her immaturity and arrogance, Mythra was actually not quite as “careless” and “lacking in restraint” with her power at this point as he and everyone else kept claiming (if anything, some of it was in Addam’s own head) and that she cared far more than she let on about making sure she didn’t become like Malos. 

It’s too bad Addam didn’t take the moment to realize that his crippling fear and his (subconscious) lack of faith in her is what was ultimately holding him back from “not being completely in control of Mythra’s power”. Okay, to be fair, he did realize that he “just wasn’t man enough” at the time, but the problem was that he never was really thrown into a situation or crisis moment (or called out on hardly anything because as Aegaeon pointed out “He’s far too esteemed for his own good”) that would have forced him to realize just how crucial it was for him to man up and become both the driver that Mythra needed him to be and the driver that he possessed the potential to become (even the year he had with Mythra prior to meeting Jin and Lora was implied to have been rather uneventful on that front) until she, and the rest of Torna for that matter, blew up in his face during the final battle against Malos. And of course, as I mentioned before, by then it was far too late for him to rectify his resonance issues with her. 

But again, given the very specific and deliberate measures Addam took for Mythra/Pyra to ensure their eventual salvation (and the world’s salvation as well), he surely stepped up after the fact even if it was too late for him and Torna. With that said, I honestly have no doubt in my mind that if Addam could have gotten a far less harrowing reality check moment that would have forced his hand (similarly to how Rex got his reality check in losing so thoroughly to Jin in the base game, but he still had precious time to make things right because again, neither Aegis was at full power reaping havoc and destruction in the wake of his failures) Addam could have and would have lived up to the potential that the core crystal saw within him….

That’s not even getting into the fact that by the time we FINALLY make it to a point in TTGC where it would make sense for Mythra to go all out without being spoken down to about it (the final fight against Malos)….naturally she doesn’t because of a combination of both the implication that Addam’s fears tainted their resonance from the outset causing her to subconsciously hold herself back because she fears her own power, and the constant belittling she’s put up with about using her power at all (and also she’s become more mindful of her power at this point due to character development to be fair but still….) which causes Malos to goad her into going all out (simply because he wanted a good fight) by attacking the Tornan capital and killing Milton….then she DOES finally let loose and go all out…but…she’s totally out of control in rage and sinking the Tornan Titan to the cloud sea and inadvertently killing Hugo, Brighid and Aegaeon….and still couldn’t save poor Milton either way…..and Mikhail blamed her for not keeping her promise of protecting Milton after she convinced him to stay behind at the Tornan capital which only reinforced her perception of everything being her fault…I mean of course she’s not exactly completely blameless considering the fact that technically her power ultimately sank the Tornan Titan and killed Team Hugo but still…..Even so, honestly, the poor girl just could NOT catch a break in any way back then…

And again, as another stark contrast to Rex, Addam was a married man (whom which his wife was pregnant) and he had already had many adventures even before resonating with Mythra and was getting ready to settle down for the rest of his life with his wife and soon to be born child. Not to mention that Addam was born into royalty with a long, long, long list of duties and responsibilities that he only wished to be free of anyway so he could live with his family in peace. 

So, in his case, as bad and unfortunate as it might sound for Mythra, being the driver of the Aegis from his perspective was just yet another burden on his list that he didn’t really want to bare (subconsciously) but took up the mantle of hero anyway for the greater good of his people and the world in the hopes that he could settle down, be left alone and just be with his family afterwards. 

Again though, that’s not to say that Addam didn’t have the purity of heart and/or character to bring out Mythra’s full potential (as I said before, if he never possessed the potential in itself, I imagine his attempt to resonate with Mythra would have ended like it did with Prince Zetter when he tried) or that he wasn’t willing to lay down his life for his people. He surely possessed the potential and he outright stated (and proved by facing down Malos) that he would absolutely lay down his life for his country and its future if that’s what it took. 

However, when it came to truly accepting Mythra, the very thing required to both access and control her true power (which again he realized far too late), well….there were several factors working against him unfortunately when one compares his circumstances to Rex’s: 

  1) Being handicapped by his royal upbringing, and trying too hard to save everyone. He wanted to save his militia, his family, his people, and the whole world from the wrath (and fearing the wrath) that he could potentially bring down upon them by potentially losing control of Mythra that he lost sight of his own limitations as just one person in the world. And again as a result, he closed his heart and mind towards Mythra and her power out of fear, (both consciously and subconsciously), often hesitating to use that power in any capacity if he could help it. That is to say again, trying to save everyone is admirable but ultimately just not feasible no matter the circumstances. 

As a result, he further crippled his already dwindling ability to accept Mythra for what she was, subconsciously rejecting her from the beginning (which she in turn sadly rejected him when she started conjuring her true sword and abilities). And again, which is exactly why Addam tells Rex five centuries later after Rex goes on and on and on about the long list of people in his life he wants to protect that “It’s not necessary to protect everything. There IS a limit to what one man can do”. 

2) Dealing with Mythra’s rather poor and misanthropic attitude. That alone, coupled with his fear of the Aegis wrath in general spelled a pretty bad mixture for disaster and eventual tragedy too. But again, her attitude would not have been as bad as it was had Addam put more effort into treating her less like a dangerous weapon to be kept apart from everyone, and instead more like a true comrade and friend and gave her the opportunity to meet people and forge her OWN connections with them prior to meeting Lora, Jin, and Haze. As I mentioned earlier, the implications of Mythra having to ask about Aletta when the party first arrived there and what’s so special about the place, coupled with knowing that Addam and Mythra had been together for a year prior to meeting Lora, Jin and Haze are rather unfortunate (i.e. He kept her away from his wife and friends back home out of fear). 

3) His main desire for his life was NOT to constantly play in the role of “hero” as I pointed out earlier (and of course, being Mythra’s driver would have all but forced him to stay in that role). She literally represented everything in his life that he was ultimately trying to distance himself from so the lack of acceptance ran much deeper than just his fear (subconsciously). With all of that in mind, the bottom line is that again compared to Rex, Addam never truly had an honest/fair/clear opportunity to live up to his potential as the true driver of the Aegis. 

Addam’s failures, fears, (and lack of acceptance of both Mythra and in nearly every facet of his life as a member of royalty) instead ended up tragically becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy (because again, he brought his fears and doubts into their resonance, corrupting it from the very beginning) due to less him being unworthy or incapable of being the Aegis’s true driver in itself (again, as I’ve noted countless times already, he definitely possessed the aptitude) and more because of the unfortunate circumstances with which he resonated with her (and not really being driven or challenged to truly understand how damaging his fears were to their resonance nor to actually try to conquer said fears until it was too late). And again, given that he tells Rex five centuries later that he has to accept her heavily implies that Addam had become all too aware of where he went wrong with Mythra far too late….

Anyway, with all the above in mind, I’m honestly not sure if Rex could have handled blank slate and loose cannon Mythra to more compassionate and aware of herself Mythra the way Addam did with the tough love and sort of “experienced driver/warrior and adult” parenting here and there because 1) Rex is still a child himself still trying to find his own place in the world and wholly inexperienced in how blades work or being a driver period for a good chunk of his story. Not to mention that 2) Rex would more than likely not have had the experience and skill necessary to survive back then against a fully powered Aegis from the outset (as we see in chapter one where Rex was getting overwhelmed against Malos who wasn’t even fully powered and would have died again had Azurda not come out of nowhere to the rescue and that’s not even getting into chapter six where Jin utterly humiliated him). 

I guess, to be blunt, the world five hundred years ago just didn’t need an inexperienced salvager/driver child stumbling his way forward in a really long coming of age story (in comparison to TTGC I mean) to lead the charge against Malos, who again, back then was at full might and out there sinking Titans to the cloud sea bed. The bottom line is that the world back then just wasn’t going to wait around for Rex to gain the experience necessary to stand against such a foe like it did in XBC2 (admit it, things WERE pretty convenient for Rex in a way they never really were for Addam). The world five hundred years ago needed experienced warriors/drivers/blades who could get things done against such a threat in SOME capacity as quickly as possible (i.e. Addam and his allies) before the entire world was annihilated. I’m saying this because there was some speculation in another Reddit topic on whether or not Rex could have “humanized” Mythra faster than Addam and accepted her back then. 

My view on that personally is absolutely not, because again, Rex probably would not have survived long enough to have gotten the chance to do so. Had Rex gone against Malos (as Malos was in his Torna days at full power) at the start of the XBC2 story….Full powered Aegis vs Inexperienced green driver……yeah….let’s just say the base game would have been MUCH shorter so I’m personally really not seeing how his inexperience wouldn’t have been far more damaging for the sake of the world had he been in Addam’s place five centuries ago….

Then there’s Addam sealing the third sword in the Spirit Crucible Elpys as a test of worthiness (and a clear death trap for the greedy if I ever saw one) and that played a part in discovering who was meant to be Pyra/Mythra’s true driver, also founding Fonsett Village which would later become Rex’s home, (or Hero’s Rest at the time rather), getting Azurda to guard the village and the sword, and sealing Pyra/Mythra away so no one unworthy would ever abuse her power or hurt her again. 

Though again, he did plainly say in his last message he left with Pyra after he sealed her that the seal was not for eternity and that he hoped someone worthy would awaken her so humanity could live alongside the Aegis because “She is our hope”.

Considering the devastation she caused that he bore witness to during the war, not to mention the fact that she sank his entire home and kingdom and killed Emperor Hugo, his best friend (though of course that was all unintentional it still doesn’t change the fact that it happened by her hand), coming from him, that means something, and says quite a lot about his character honestly despite how he failed as a driver with Mythra and shows exactly why, in a similar vein to Rex, the green Aegis’s core crystal saw Addam as someone worthy to wield the true Aegis power even if he ultimately failed to live up to said potential. 

The moment right after Malos’s defeat 500 years ago where Addam left his best friend’s dead body lying on the ground and still embraced Mythra upon her exiting her siren was a truly powerful moment. It’s clear he understood exactly where he went wrong, the self-fulfilling prophecy aspect of it, what he lacked for her as a driver the entire time (acceptance), everything….but again, it was too late. But the moment does show that not only did Addam truly care about her despite his fears, but was also willing to own up to his part in the tragic turn of events that led to Torna’s downfall instead of solely blaming Mythra like a lot of others in his position might have opted to do (and frankly, what he and the party had been unintentionally guilty of doing with all their fears, insults, negative assumptions and bullying up until that point).

So in one sense, Addam really was every bit the pure hearted hero the legends claimed and it shows that he did see Mythra as a sort of surrogate daughter and cared for her as such despite everything that happened between them and it’s clear by his expression during the credits of TTGC, and in how he somberly and shamefully turns and walks off as the ship that Pyra/Mythra are now sleeping on sinks to the cloud sea bed, that he was overall not happy with sealing her away or with knowing that ultimately he proved himself unworthy of her as a driver and that all the deaths and devastation might have been prevented had HE not been so afraid to truly USE Mythra’s power while he was her active driver. 

Notably, he realized that just because he failed to step up and control her power and didn’t have the faith in her or himself that he should have had beforehand doesn’t mean that he believed that no one else could or would succeed someday or that her power couldn’t be utilized as a positive force for the world. 

It’s just a real shame that Addam never had the opportunity to find this faith/revelation/acceptance in Mythra and/or himself during the time when they were actually together…if he had I imagine they could have accomplished a lot of good things during his day and “Torna the Golden Country” might actually still exist in Rex’s time. The whole situation between Addam and Mythra was just tragic and it’s honestly not that hard for me personally to picture an alternate reality in which Addam could have conquered his fears and stepped up to the role as the true driver of the Aegis, or could have had a better chance  to eventually understand her had he bonded with her under different circumstances. 

Though as I said near the beginning of this post, credit where it’s due: It may not have happened in the most ideal JRPG happy ending way, but Addam DID save the world at large from Malos’s wrath back in his day. Had he not resonated with Mythra (essentially brought life to her) and fought the good fight back then (because as he said “The powers-that-be bicker among themselves, ignoring the larger danger”), and rallied good people and allies to aid him in his cause, the entire world would have ended long before Rex’s time for certain. 

Again, for all of Addam’s faults and how he screwed up with Mythra (as her driver anyway), we can’t just selectively ignore and/or gloss over that bold fact considering what the alternative could have been and it IS worth praising him for which the base game does even 500 years after the fact despite the devastation left behind by the battle. He might have failed Torna and Mythra in his time, but Addam certainly put forth several steps and made many sacrifices to ensure that both Mythra and the future would be saved even if he ultimately would not be around to witness it.

Personally, considering the poor man lived and died with the regret of knowing he failed Mythra and Torna (and still couldn’t pass on after death for 500 years in an attempt to atone by helping Mythra/Pyra find their true driver) I’d say that Addam more than made up for his mistakes and his failures when it came to being Mythra’s driver and the man was hardly a coward despite his fear of the Aegis’s power (hell, he still took on another Aegis at full might despite that. I’d say that a prince who’s willing to do that and more for his people is far from a coward but that’s just me).

So, I guess by seeing how both Addam and Rex succeeded and failed when it came to Mythra/Pyra, I’m able to better appreciate both their roles in helping her achieve her wish and purpose of being humanity’s hope and use her abilities and powers to their full potential (without her sinking a Titan to complete ruin the second time) as well as her eventually realizing that she’s not a horrible monster just for being born with immense power (Vandam said it best: “Power depends on the heart of its wielder”), Pyra/Mythra also gains a sense of peace, salvation and happiness in the end. And it would not have been possible without both Addam and Rex (for better or for worse) resonating with the Aegis in different moments in time and circumstance.

#xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade chronicles 2 #torna the golden country #addam origo #pyra #mythra #aegis #malos #rex #paragon of torna #jin #lora #milton #aegis war #xbc2 #malos (xbc2) #jin (xbc2) #mythra (xbc2) #pyra (xbc2) #rex (xbc2) #xbc #xenoblade chronicles x #haze (xbc2) #mikhail (xbc2) #lora (xbc2) #minoth (xbc2) #amalthus #amalthus (xbc2) #azurda #azurda (xbc2)