#the proposal scene in Magical Adventure is even better now
Text
One of the best things that I recently found out is that the voice actors for Bloom and Sky in the Winx Club movies (Cindy Robinson and Christopher Corey Smith) are married in real life (as of last year) and that makes me so happy.
#winx club#winx#bloom x sky#skloom#the proposal scene in Magical Adventure is even better now#bloom/sky#winx club bloom#winx club sky
35 notes
·
View notes
Text
It’s not A confession and refusal scene. It’s a DOUBLE confession and refusal scene…
(A rough analysis of the final scene of Good Omens season 2 finale)
I think Aziraphale in character is such a rule-follower that he always needs a “cover” to “allow” himself to choose Crowley. (So far… at least)
We’ve seen that many times in season 1, where Aziraphale often relied on Crowley to “make this okay for me to say yes” like many people have mentioned in fandom. He chose to go back to Earth at the end and asked questions about the ineffable plan due to the same reasoning. And it made him happy because at that moment he found a rule that he could follow which also allowed him to stand with Crowley. The forever conflict was temporarily resolved. After that, since heaven and hell temporarily left them alone, he happily ignored that for a short while.
But at the very end of season 2, what Matatron offered sounded like exactly that. The perfect, magical solution once and for all. There could be rules that Aziraphale could made and followed which also allowed him to be together with Crowley. And they didn’t have to worry about the next big war against humanity once he and Crowley worked together. That’s why he clung onto it desperately in confrontation with Crowley at the confession scene. “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you here.”
When he said “you can come back… to heaven, to…* to everything. Like the old times, only even nicer.”
I’d like to think that, he didn’t mean it as “like the old time when we worked together on earth but nicer because you’ll be an angel” but “like the old time when we were both angels in heaven but nicer because now we have this 6000 years of connection between us can’t wait to see what we can create together as beautiful as nebulas”
*also, was I the only one who thought Aziraphale stopped himself from saying come back to me here? He really hadn’t had the ability to choose something just because he wanted them, had he… there had to always be some “cover” for it. The greater good. The right thing to do. To save earth and humanity. Never himself.
I remember in one Dimension 20 episode or adventuring party, ppl were talking about Lawful Good characters might be the most difficult ones to made interesting. And Emily proposed that, maybe they found an older or alternate set of rules and they decided that were better… I’ve always thought it was a clever take.
And that’s what Aziraphale didn’t have. Or rather, he now was given the opportunity to make them. On the other hand, Crowley was totally vulnerable in that scene, he dropped every cover every mask he’d used to convince Aziraphale in the past. In Crowley’s confession there were You-and-Mes, no cover, no mask. And I love him for it. The tragic thing was, that also unintentionally cut the “communication channel” they’d been dancing in the past 6000 years. (Interesting that they also developed their own dance for apologies…)
It was not just a confession scene, it was a double confession (and double refusal… sadly) scene. How many of you also thought that Aziraphale was trying to confess and asked Crowley to be together with him with that “great news”? And, in his pov, he got a “tell me you say no” and that could be as painful as the refusal he gave to Crowley. That’s why he turned passive aggressive in the coming confrontation (which was still not nice but I understand) and that’s also why he interrupted Crowley in the first place. Imagine in fics where they proposed at the same time… but make it go painfully wrong…
After Crowley’s confession, Aziraphale said “come with me, we can make a difference” to me it was his confession too.
And remember when he put his hand on Crowley’s shoulder seeing Gabriel and Beelzebub being together??? He was thinking about himself and Crowley and remember why heaven seemed to have to allow it??? Because MATATRON SAID SO.
People have amazing interpretations such as: “Aziraphale choosing between Crowley and Heaven” or “Aziraphale choosing between Crowley and Angel!Crowley”
Now I propose:
There’s a conflict between two equally heartfelt and the most-vulnerable-they-could-get confessions, both being rejected by the other.
I’m not saying I don’t agree with one a bit more than the other, but I’d like to point out that, it wasn’t just like Crowley was only the confess-er and Aziraphale the reject-er. They were both at the same time.
Then, Crowley said “you can’t leave you bookshop” and Aziraphale replied “nothing last forever”
I think, in this exchange of words, Crowley was desperately trying to find an excuse for Aziraphale to stay on earth. We’re back to where Crowley always finds a way to make it okay for Aziraphale to agree with him again. And Aziraphale replied: “Oh, Crowley, nothing last forever” which MADE CROWLEY PUT BACK HIS SUNGLASSES AND THEN LEAVING.
What Aziraphale trying to say, I’d like to believe, was “we being together as angels in heaven is so worth it that the bookshop is nothing compared” which explained his emotion-charged way of saying this sentence and his shock seeing Crowley leaving after that. If Crowley was back to their 6000 dance by mentioning bookshop as a cover/desperate attempt, Aziraphale only now slipped into his vulnerable self without excuses and covers (except Matatron’s offer of course) saying he didn’t need this bookshop if he could be together with Crowley both in heaven (remember this was Aziraphale, who loved everything human created and accumulated them, speaking) and what he got after that act? Crowley put back his sunglasses and left after saying “good luck”
On the other end, Crowley probably and rightfully interpreted “nothing last forever” as all his memories and experiences on earth were disposable compared to the power he could get in heaven.
One is “nothing last forever (except you and me) the other “nothing last forever (including you)”
Really, who wrote a scene where both characters confessed and still broke up? It was an unique kind of painful that I think yeah okay… only this two can hurt me like this.
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
My June/July Reading Review
Not as excited to share this time, because I don't have as many books - or as much variety - despite being a double month. Life has been extremely busy, and I had to put my reading mostly on hold for a bit. This led to a reading slump even when things got more manageable, so I have been concentrating on getting out of the slump. I permitted myself to read lots of short, fun things in order to get back into the reading habit, as that has worked in the past and I know I'll be intentional about reading slightly more difficult works once the habit is re-established. But it does make me feel silly typing this up. On, then.
"Nicholas Nickleby" adapted by Tim Kelly (Play, literary adaptation) - FOUR STARS - As some may know, Dickens' novel is extremely close to my heart and figured into several important passages of my life. I was extremely keen to propose a Dickens adaptation for next years' school play, and was very impressed with this one. (Of course no adaptation will ever compare to the Royal Shakespeare Company's eight hour stage adaptation, which is possibly one of the best adaptations of anything ever, but if we're doing Nickleby in two hours, with students, Tim Kelly has done a pretty great job.) Alas, for financial reasons we need to go with a free script rather than one that requires licensing, so we're falling back on good old Shakespeare, but I am glad I got the chance to order this one in and read it.
Beren and Luthien by JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien (epic poetry, fantasy, mythology, Tolkien legendarium,) - FOUR AND A HALF STARS - My appreciation of the tale truly benefited from reading this anthology. It's remarkable to see how Tolkien's imagination reinvented itself over time. The first version of Beren and Luthien feels like an Edwardian children's short story, with Luthien the fairy hiding behind a flower from the gnome Beren, and singing a song of long things like ladders and vines and the lives of cats to magically give herself Rapunzel hair! And of course the absolute delight of the Sauron character instead being "Tevildo, Prince of Cats" who loves napping in the sun! The later versions have cool variation too - the poetry really emphasizes different aspects than the prose tellings. I also love the dignity and equality of both Beren and Luthien, and how they are equally heroic. Luthien especially is wonderful to me.
The Whispering Skull; The Hollow Boy; The Creeping Shadow (Books 2-4 in the Lockwood & Co series) by Jonathan Stroud (MG, mystery, adventure, thriller, supernatural) For sheer enjoyment, I'd give the second book 2 1/2 stars, and the third and fourth books 5 stars. They are for the most part intelligently written, and just such a blast. (The fun is enhanced by the fact that my brother frequently asks me to narrate the story to him (as opposed to reading it,) and so I get to unleash my love of storytelling. Book 2 is okay, but has middle book syndrome in a way the others don't. Books three and four have better plots and characterization on the whole. I read the scene at the Rotwell Institute at 2 AM during a terrific storm, and though it did not creep me out, I did get a nice suspenseful shiver! (These books don't spook me at all - suspense is really the operative word here.)
"The Mousetrap" by Agatha Christie (play, mystery) - THREE STARS (and that might be rounding up) - My sister had read the entire Agatha Christie canon save this one, as they were kind of her thing in her teens. I have not read as many, but I've definitely read at least twenty-five of her books, plus a large number of short stories and plays. But for many years we had a pact that we would neither of us read this play, because we had an ambition to travel to London and see it on its original run (now more than seventy years running!) at St. Martin's Theatre. Now we're both adults and very much have our own lives, and I am about to embark to England without her, so we decided it was time to mutually break the pact. We had meant to see a community theatre production February, but that fell through, so we made tea and had a spot of reader's theatre. We had tremendous fun, even though the play itself was only so-so - certainly by Agatha Christie's standards. Maybe we just know her too well as an author. That being said, the reader's theatre session was a hoot. We watched this trailer first:
youtube
and predicted what all the characters' personalities and backstories were just from the trailer, as well as the murderer's identity. We were correct on almost everything. It also added to the fun because we based all our character voices on the appearances of this cast. My sister stole the show, as far as I was concerned, with her comedic performance as Christopher Wren (the guy in the sleeveless pullover.) I think we actually had more fun doing reader's theatre than we would've seeing it in person.
The Frugal Wizard's Guide to Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson (science fiction, historical fantasy, dimension-hopping) 3 STARS. Fun, but really not Sanderson's best. As always with Sanderson, read it aloud to my brother, and the connection with him is always a good thing.
Ongoing:
Five Children on the Western Front (I can't wait to do my writeup of this one - it's really good!)
An enormous collection of Medieval and Renaissance Italian short stories. For some months I've been reading through the first volume of a multivolume anthology series of the world's great stories, organized by time and country. The first half of this volume was all ancient tales (and, with the exception of Cupid and Psyche, all stories not included in your standard mythologies and such.) Now I am in the second half, and reading all the stories Shakespeare used as inspiration for his stories. The original ending to Romeo and Juliet is... something.
Epistle to the Romans - I continue my slow deep dive, working my way through it with copious notes, two commentaries, sundry articles, etc.
Iphigeneia in Tauris by Euripides - I do mean to keep liveblogging this.
The Empty Grave by Stroud (last Lockwood of them all)
Beowulf (reread)
Fellowship (reread)
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Why the Jungle Cruise is basic.
And just so you guys know, there's nothing wrong with basic, it can be enjoyable. I just expected a better movie with the casting they had, and with a little more originality. Movies like these are popular for a reason.
Spoilers obviously.
So we start off with a proposal for an expedition into the Amazon to find a magical plant that can heal any ailment. They are citing the ongoing “Great War” as reason to find it and aid the troops getting sick in the trenches. Yes love this, well done you establish the legend, the timeline, the goal and set the plot up in under 5 minutes.
We then move onto a classic “sneak around to steal what you need and then fight in close quarters using what's around you to get away” scene. While cliché, still a staple to any magical archeologist adventure movie, and it helps to establish Lily’s character here.
She's seen as impulsive, determined, brave but also graceless, cocky, untrained in anything to defend herself, but also intelligent and her quick thinking can be hit or miss. She’s not a female character thats great at everything she does, she doesn't fight these men hand to hand but rather tries to use her surroundings to slow them down so she can run. They keep with these qualities through out the movie as well. I really appreciate this direction here, because it makes her feel more real. Lily is set up as the adventurous female protagonist, and my only grip with her is she's the “powerful” female symbol. Trying to make her femininity closer to masculinity and therefore undermining what makes being female so great. Instead of focusing on the unique strengths women possess they try to make her “not like other girls”.
Yes, I love how imperfect her character is, and her spunk and grit. However it would have been refreshing to have her maybe display her “rebellious” nature through wearing modified dresses for easier mobility rather than pants. Because there are girls out there that want to do adventurous things but still wear dresses. I think the costume department could have come up with some really creative designs.
Historically at the time, trousers had just started becoming common for women to wear, due to the war and increase in sports activities for women. (it wouldn't be until the second war that even more women worked in the factories and that after the war they didn't want to give up the mobility pants offered) The whole pants thing felt too forced with incessant dialog with the characters about it. They treat the audience like that cant pick up on small details like that, understand even a basic bit of the historical setting or I don't know, can research it themselves if they need to. Its too in your face.
Now Frank, a skipper on the Amazon River giving tours. His introduction scene was the perfect nod to the ride filled with puns, the hippo, waterfall, and tribal people (really enjoyed that part because it is such a fun ride). He comes off slightly aggressive, a conman, and all around just rude to anyone and everyone. A true loner, tired of life and taking his feelings of longing and irritation out on those around him. You can just feel the physical and emotional exhaustion on him in the beginning and a little through out, but I also feel like the writers had trouble keeping his character constant.
Its a small thing, and it might be the Johnson just couldn't do it, but Frank really should have had a Spanish accent, not an American one. He is one, Spanish and two, everyone else in town has a Spanish accent. A town he built. Just something that would make more sense, but again a small detail.
His first interaction with Lily is one of just complete disregard to her as a person, talking down to her, calling her pants/ lady (pants is an American term that is considered quite vulgar and insulting to Europeans), insulting her past memories driving her current motivations. He treats her as if she’s not capable, weak and simply a scared little girl.
I’m all for characters with faults but this is a man who’s friends and partner is a woman leading her people. I feel like Franks character would give women unique respect at the time due to the people around him and that this man has never been to modern day Europe and has had 400 years to outgrow any societal norms in 1500 Spain. It doesn't make sense and simply feels like a stupid “sexist” jab thrown in there to make the movie look “progressive” and “empowering”. (plus that stupid bit with the whistling historically inaccurate and unnecessary)
Now this movie truly made me hate the Enemies to Lovers trope. These characters did nothing but bicker and argue the whole time, and treat each other horribly. They never showed a inkling of liking each other as people just this weird sexual tension that didn't have anything to do with the story. I hate plots being built on adrenaline fueled “love” (insert sexual attraction) and nothing more. (Examples: Jurassic World, Sinbad, Prince of Persia, basically most action romance movies.)
If they really wanted a romantic agenda, they should have made it healthier, less toxic, or heck even have an established relationship at the beginning. These movies rely on cheap romantic subplots that are just poorly written and a weak writing tactic, they are too scared to write outside this formula thats been used for decades.
Now this is where if they changed just this simple thing, the entire story would change and be that much better. They become best friends. Their matching strong willed personalities, shared goal, and drive to help each other would have been so much fun. Their banter would flow better, their team work could have been built stronger. But writers are too scared to make anything platonic or simply familial.
On the familial note, I have to say the Houghton siblings are one of the best sibling relationships I have seen in a long time. Its a shame it was over shadowed by “Lets make out” Frank and Lily. We could have seen more of how they love each other in that sibling way, yes we got a little, but they are in a life and death situation and there isn't the right amount of worry over the others life. Especially when they have MacGregor clearly state the level of loyalty he has for Lily and how it’s them against the world. If it truly was, then I would have liked to see their bond actually portrayed that way (like they literally removed MacGregor from the story).
Now my personal beliefs aside, MacGregor is a character that was cheated. He wasn't given proper role in this story. He was thrown in for political agenda, and comedy relief. I appreciate his growth through the story, his finding confidence and joy in life. I would have loved to see His and Franks friendship more, because it was could have been really fun but they didn’t really do anything with it besides a talk and laughing at his jokes. (also on that whole Frank accepting him thing, if Frank could do that, then he could treat Lily Better)
Now the villains of the story. Cursed Conquistadors and a German Prince. One completely useless and the other underutilized due to the others unnecessary presence. I understand what they were trying to go with here, the main villain meddling in magical affairs' thinking he can back stab the forces with no consequences.
They didn’t balance them well at all. Remove the prince. I think simply mentioning the war to establish a timeline is enough, you don't have to drag a German Villain into it. They couldn't decide if they wanted him to be scary or comedic relief. I will admit the bee scene was funny, but made his character all the more confusing. (also a sub cant go in the amazon) And you can replace him setting the conquistadors free with erosion/weather/flooding, basically a force of nature. The prince is a noncharacter.
I think putting full focus on the cursed conquistadors and Frank would have made for a more well balanced story and adding more emotion into it full of betrayal and grief. I would have liked more dialog between Frank and Aguirre, something to show how deep of a bond they had. I feel like movies love this whole “we were like brothers” line only to throw it away and have the characters act almost indifferent to each other.
Perhaps a scene from Aguirre’s POV on how he perceived Franks “betrayal” and the grief of knowing that he failed his daughter (another thrown away plot point) and the growing bitterness and looking to blame anyone but himself. Perhaps showing pieces of the past from both his and Franks POV and how he starts to twist it to fit the narrative he wants to mask his guilt.
Lily now in the story as a found friend alongside MacGregor there to help Frank settle the ghosts of his past as well as get a cure all for their country and allies would have been fresh and given the audience an emotionally well rounded experience. (writing these days are lackluster and stick to the borders of what's been done before)
Seriously this was a huge lost and wasted opportunity for some cheap jokes instead of deep character relationships and plot with depth. Characters are what make the story and when you start failing them the story follows.
Now the ending....they are cowards. I get it they were doing the whole happy ending where the girl gets the guy, yada yada, but if they had not just properly built the conflict between Aguirre and Frank, making the final “battle” all the more heart wrenching and bitter sweet. It just felt...there. Like the audience doesn't feel this sense of them having known each other their whole lives.
Now imagine instead, Lily places the flower in Franks mouth and he breaths his final breath. She then does the same for the other conquistadors, her heart going out for their long painful lives and a feeling of peace settles over the Amazon. She returns home, medicine in hand, ready to live life to the fullest, holding her short time with Frank close to her heart. Knowing that his time had come, and while she grieves she doesn't feel bitter about it.
Yes, it would have been a sad ending, but it would have been equal parts sweet and inspiring. A message of enjoying your life and not to be consumed with regrets, shame, anger, and resentment (others and self) but instead seek forgiveness and peace.
It simply comes down to they just wrote a surface level character interaction forced romance action adventure with magic thrown in, and what I was expecting was a bestfriends action adventure. There's way more little nitpicks I didn't mention, but thats just one of my things. I like some realism to my stories, even the magical ones lol.
Will I watch it again, probably if I’m already in a mind numbing state but I wont willingly seek it out on my own lol.
Raz scale: 4/10 (because I will admit I am 100% way too pretentious when it comes to writing lol)
General consumption scale: 7/10
as requested @mal-edictions, @arternestkirkland I hope you liked it lol.
#raz writing studies#raz character studies#disney jungle cruise#jungle cruise#jungle cruise movie#writing criticism#writing study#character criticism#Character Study#movie review#movie rewrite#step outside the box#nitpicks#seriously#the moon don't move like that#movies trying to be progressive and woke#suck it annon
19 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Resources for Day One: Tyril Starfury
From his unfailing friendship with Kaya and his perilous journey to reclaim his honor, to magic fueled battles and ghostly relatives, Tyril’s story is full of inspiration for amazing content.
Assembled Transparents | Character Biography
Family: Valir Starfury (Father) | Adrina Starfury (Sister) | Farin Starfury (Ancestor)
Quotes: “I’m not afraid of geese. I just loathe them. Filthy squawking dung-spewing white devils with beady little eyes...”
“You really are like a star in the sky. So bright, so radiant.”
signal boosts appreciated
On His Quest
“I’ve seen the danger the Shadow Court poses. As long as their corruption spreads, I can’t rest. I must fight it.”
“To live without this yearning for revenge, to just settle down, to find peace...I can’t even imagine what that kind of life is like.”
On Battle
“[After emerging from a Drakna cocoon in a burst of flame, and with lethal eyes] ...I’m ready to kill some bugs now.”
“You shall not hurt my friends!”
“If I lose, then House Starfury, whatever’s left of it that you haven’t already taken, is yours. And if I win...you die. That’s victory enough. No weapons. Magic against magic. Do you accept?”
On The Party:
“I find your company tolerable.”
”I’m actually new to this adventuring business too, if you must know. Though I assure you, I am well-trained and well-prepared.”
“Of course, because what we really need is to teach the priestess to cheat at cards.”
“Would you drop it with the contessas?!”
“This feeling...friendship...companionship. I’m not used to it. Before I found you, Kaya was the only person I trusted in all the world. Everyone else wanted to use me, and I wanted to use them.”
On His Upbringing & Elven Culture
”From the moment I could read, I was expected to know everything there was to know, not just about Undermount, but about all the realms.”
“You’d do well to keep your distance. I avoid attachments for a reason. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about evil, it’s that it will use your connections against you. Caring is a liability in a fight.”
On Romance
“You’ve earned my trust many times over. And it isn’t easy for me to trust people.”
“Being around you inspires me to be better.”
“You really are like a star in the sky. So bright, so radiant.”
“I do think the stars led me on the right path, even if it’s been a challenging one. After all, they led me to you.”
“All my moments with you are worth whatever pain came before...”
“I suppose I’m still not used to thinking of myself as someone anyone might choose.”
“When I try to think of Undermount without you in it, it seems...hollow. I can’t make myself wish that I had never met you.”
“Thank you for giving me a chance to open up to you. To show you who I really am. How I really feel.”
“Dancing with you makes everything else bearable.”
30 Diamond Scene Quotes
“May I kiss you again?”
“I’ve craved you since I first laid eyes on you, [MC]”
“I’ve yearned to capture some of your fire for myself...to feel your touch...”
Quotes About Tyril
“You’re a real ray of sunshine, aren’t you, elf boy?” Mal
“Admit it, you like us!” Nia
“You don’t have to propose to me if you just want to fool around, Tyril.” MC
“You’re just gonna have to get used to the idea of people caring about you.” MC
“No wonder elves don’t rule the world anymore. Don’t any of you know how to have fun?” Mal
“Well, look at that. We’ll make a rebel out of you yet, elf boy.” Mal
61 notes
·
View notes
Text
Check in on my (not very realistic) wish list for episode 141
1. Blooming Grove Clay family reunion! Hugs and tears! Home-cooked meal and tea! Much needed relaxation and downtime after saving the world.
Ay that was a nice meal and a good night’s sleep.
2. Widogast’s Nascent Nein (9!) Sided Tower because Caleb still has a spell slot for that! So many cats and books. Also, rooms for Essek and Molly (9!). Bonus: seeing more rooms on the 8th floor of the tower?
Oof well thanks Trent now we don’t get to see the tower again, ever. I’m 100% sure that Essek will see his room during the Aeorian study fun times and Luc and Yeza will see their rooms in magical summer camp with professor Widogast though, so I’m happy.
3. Check in and visiting Allura to return her staff and Kima’s Holy Avenger (”hey we saved the world killed Lucien stopped the city Allura are you proud of us? You are? Tell us who is on the Tal’Dorei council.”)
They mentioned it, but they didn’t play it out, unfortunately. Alas, the members of the Tal’Dorei council shall forever remain a mystery.
4. Check in and visiting Yussa and Wensforth to apologize for their last visit to the Tidepeak Tower and using his emergency exit plan, but Yussa being too grateful to be saved from a screaming city hivemind to care.
Yep, thank you Caleb for remembering Yussa lol. Should have known that he would want to study the Happy Fun Ball... Wizards sharing knowledge, how nice! Also, Veth’s goodbye to Wensforth was very sweet.
5. Molly getting more and more of his memory back and slowly becoming his old flamboyant self.
I... wow I mean I guess Kingsley? This technically happened? He is going to become someone new, which is always exciting! He got a lot of... interesting memories back too. He is also interested in learning about Molly’s memory too, even though he is somebody else (and just as flamboyant).
6. Caleb says goodbye to Frumpkin and there is either a sweet farewell or Frumpkin just goes “nah fam I choose my wizard you can’t get rid of me”.
Aw Frumpkin didn’t feel ready to leave at first... :( The actual farewell was indeed short and sweet, I loved it.
7. Beau and Yasha moments, conversations, fun times, shameless PDA, or potentially fade to black because they deserve it.
Camping outside at night, aw. Their moment after the Zeenoth trial was very touching as well! “Yes, my love?” and “my Expositor” lol how romantic they are. They are planning to settle down and explore Yasha’s past together! Their honeymoon little trip! Also, “I will have you and then some” was indeed hot.
8. Jester and Fjord being domestic, adorable and sharing kisses/conversations or potentially fade to black because they deserve it.
The sleep snuggle was soo cute and Jester’s love admission was adorable! Also the rain and double confession wow Fjord what a romantic man. Their conversation in Nicodranas was sooo cute guys. They planned boat trips!
9. Caleb and Essek have a long one-on-one conversation about their “it’s complicated” relationship and have some more physical contact (still reeling from the forehead touch last episode).
Caleb attempting to include Essek in the globe of invulnerability and Essek dragging Caleb away from melee combat aw. The kiss on the cheek and the empathetic hug... I will take the time travel conversation as well.
10. Veth, Yeza and Luc’s joyful/tearful family reunion and happy fun times in which Veth and Yeza may or may not celebrate in private.
Aw that was a nice reunion, so very cute. Veth gets to fully return home to her family after saying goodbye! I’m going to assume that she celebrates her return with Yeza in private.
11. Cad’s moments with his family and also with Molly (because it’s fun to watch them on screen together and conversing let’s be real).
Caduceus gets to be with his family now, enjoying life at the blooming grove! He deserves the relaxation!
12. Jester’s reunion with her mother with big hugs and finding out that parent trap TM has succeeded thanks to her genius plans. Also, the gentleman being a super awkward but loving dad.
Yes I knew it would work! The gentleman is a nervous drinker confirmed lol. The mother-daughter talk was very nice and a great reminder!
13. The Mighty Nein plans for the future: getting rid of Cloven Crystal, Fjord visiting Vandran (with Jester probably, who discusses Tusk Love with him) and maybe Sabian? Yasha’s plan to bring flower to Zuala (trip with Beau?). Beau’s plans regarding Zeenoth’s trial (has that happend yet? Does she want to go?) and Caleb’s plans for the assembly (or even further ahead, magical school? Aeorian research with Kryn Colleague? How pissed is Ludinus Da’leth?)
Well, the empire siblings sure started a task force against the assembly huh. Also yeah Caleb you tell him, F**k your vacancy Martinet Ludinus Da’leth! Professor Caleb will teach Luc. Astrid would be more interested in the position anyways. Fjord got to visit Vandran with Jester and got him to join their sailing adventures! Jester also talks about Tusk Love with him wow. Beau testified against Zeenoth with Yasha by her side! Yasha gave flowers to Zuala on a trip with Beau! Caleb and Essek got to do their Aeorian research study! Fjord’s cloven crystal adventure was also addressed! I’m so good at predictions you guys I KID YOU NOT I predicted everything.
14. Getting an update about Astrid and Eadwulf to find out that they are in fact doing fine because Trent is in deep trouble and under heavy investigation by the Augen Trust and Cobalt Soul (bonus: Trent is already starting to get what he deserves. Or even better, Trent has died from liver failure in jail. Like his jaundice really kept getting worse so one can hope I guess?)
F**k you Trent, you just had to show up and ruin everything didn’t you. Well, Astrid and Eadwulf are fne now, and Trent IS in deep trouble and rotting in jail. Still hoping that he will die from liver failure after like, a few years.
15. Fjord officially “meeting the parents” and Gentleman/Marion giving Fjord the shovel talk because that didn’t happen last time.
Aw he didn’t go with! But the gentleman did talk about Fjord anyways lol and gave her some sound advice.
16. Wedding mentions/discussions? Proposals? Anyone? No?
Well Jester proposed to marry... her parents? Lol did not see that one coming. Veth and Yeza renewing vows yes! It was a nice suggestion.
17. Artagan/sprinkle joins in the celebration because why not (bonus: Sprinkle gets to be free! Or whatever an undead weasel could be lmao)
Artagan and Jester’s conversation was very nice development for them. Sprinkle gets to stay forever, unfortunately for Sprinkle lol.
18. Obligatory wish for Essek’s fancy dunamancy or magical items (like I know we will never see dark star probably but I live for spell casting flavours).
Essek’s hold person on Trent was clutch, “stay down”, what a king. The tether essence, lightning bolt and gravity sinkhole were all wonderful. Still sad about the dark star never being seen though.
19. Obligatory wish for the polymorph spell (look, I just love it okay).
Hey, Jester threatened Astrid with it! Polymorph mention wins! Fjord was sad about the potential choice of turning her into a turtle but it would have been funny.
20. Obligatory wish for Caleb to use more fire/customized/dunamantic spells creatively or with nice flair (what’s sexier than wizards NOTHING).
What’s sexier than counterspells and dispel magic NOTHING. Also hey, the manacles of stasis worked!
21. Discussion about Essek’s future because oh boy can he even go back to the Dynasty? Have they found him out yet? If they did, how mad is the Bright Queen? Are Volstruckers too busy to chase him down? We need to know!
Oh man I mean Essek found a way to live freely at least! With a lot of illusions and identities, of course. He also got to stay in contact with the M9! I think he may show up in campaign 3!
22. Group hug! Group feast! Group cheer! I dunno, just do group stuff. They are the Mighty Nein, they are the Mighty Nine, they saved the world!
A lot of group hugs and feasts! I especially loved the hug when they said goodbye to Essek.
23. Visiting/checking in with other NPCs or allies potentially! Like Kiri, Calianna, Twiggy, Keg, Shakasta, Bryce, Dagen oh also the Hag (I’m kidding).
They checked in with Orly! Not these allies but you know, Orly is awesome.
24. Obligatory wish for everyone (the Nein, their friends/families) to get a happy ending that gives me a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment, and that the episode/campaign ends with a poetically beautiful scene!
Yes, it was a very poetic and very beautiful story indeed
I love the Mighty Nein/Nine, I love the cast. I’m so grateful for their story in my life. Words are not enough to describe my thankfulness for being able to go on this journey with them.
Now excuse me I just need to go sob in a corner.
My score: 19/24
Seriously though check out #13 I’m proud of that one
Other Highlights:
Caleb hit 100 HP OMG I too am proud of him.
Well I didn’t expect the boss fight but I’m glad we are getting one?
Caleb’s produce flame was used by Veth on Fluffernutter, nice!
The Veth + Beau putting collar combo was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, also there is something poetic about Caleb relying entirely on his friends and Astrid to carry out the collar tactic on Trent.
The forced empathy commands by Cad lmao wow angry Cad is scary, too bad Trent didn’t have any.
Veth’s silent image... Caleb disintegrating and burning everything in the T-dock... Caleb’s book for his parents... Professor Widogast... Excuse me I’m going to cry now.
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
First time read through light novel vol. 18. Random thoughts.
I somewhat suspect the author was hungry while writing this volume.
Also, wow, I knew Kizuna was short but the prior artworks never gave me the full idea of how short. She
is only chest-high compared to Naofumi and Glass (I suppose that could make Glass happy, though; ease of access for Kizuna and whatnot).
Given that, outside of the natural gluttons like Filo, S’yne, and the killer whale sisters, the only person on Naofumi's side with the "Eat food for EXP" matter is Itsuki, I think this is him falling dangerously close to thinking only in terms of game mechanics instead of reality, much like the other three heroes had been early on. Theoretically, yes, if you can gain levels and strength just by eating, why wouldn't you do a lot of it? But he's almost outright ignoring the physical discomfort and pain it's causing his allies and seeing only the numbers. Not to mention that he himself doesn't appear to be eating nearly as much, as he's focus on the cooking.
That said, it is cute that this is the first time in her life Filo is starting to feel full.
Chapter One: Sloth
OH SHI-! Oh, wait. Wrong franchise. We're good. I did not want to have to imagine Kizuna biting her fingers off (Kizuna: "My brain trembles!!!).
If Kizuna is indeed suffering under the curse of Sloth, I'm curious what triggered that specific sin for her. We only have the four heroes of Raphtalia's world to go off of but each sin applied to that specific hero for a reason. Naofumi: Wrath because of his hatred of what Witch and Trash put him through. Ren: Greed because he wanted more EXP, levels, and loot; a toxic extreme of his solo-adventuring. Itsuki: Pride because he believed only in his view of justice. And Motoyasu: lust and envy because of his obsession with Filo and being kept away from her. Kizuna's obsession with fishing, even when there's other important matters that need to be dealt with, I suppose could be considered lazy and thus lead to sloth as its extreme, but it feels a little bit like a stretch.
As he did so, the books from a nearby shelf whirled up into the air, forming . . . a dinosaur . . . perhaps. No, a dragon. The monster’s name was “Magical Tome Dragon.” Now things were really getting a bit crazy. A dragon created from books! Was this some kind of joke?
I want a Yu-Gi-Oh card of that.
“Don’t tell me, Glass is like the Raphtalia of this world? Could we really get that lucky?”
I mean, that's what the fandom likes to joke when it comes to her and Kizuna.
Breaking the sloth curse through Kizuna's love of fishing was about what I expected. Not complaining, of course. Again though, I'm just wonder what about her coincides with Sloth. She prefers talking it out and making allies as opposed to fighting but I wouldn't exactly call that lazy or slothful either.
Kizuna had a lot of folks like this among her allies—people who had started out as enemies but then became allies. If I fought someone as an enemy, there was generally no coming back—there were exceptions, like Sadeena and Shildina, so it was probably better not to generalize.
Glass and L'Arc are literally standing right next to Naofumi as he thinks this and Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki all tried to murder him at one point or another. S'yne was part of the gladiator fights too, now that I think about it, and while they never fought he and Trash were definitely enemies for a while. This dude turns more enemies into friends than freakin' Naruto. Being kind of oblivious is part of Naofumi's character but I suppose this could be seen as an interesting look as to how exactly he considers someone an enemy. If they fought him for reasons he eventually came to understand and sympathize with, then he perhaps doesn't consider them as ever having been a "true" enemy.
Aww, Glass is jealous of Tsugumi being close to Kizuna. And unlike Raphtalia with Naofumi, Kizuna doesn't have any kind of tragedy that keeps her opposed to relationship and would require Glass to be patient. I suppose Glass could simply be afraid of hurting their friendship by proposing romance or even that Kizuna doesn't swing that way. And this is from Naofumi's perspective, so Glass being gay could be completely off the mark. Still, it'd be nice to get a solid landing one way or another. Even Eclair unknowingly rejecting Ren at least give solid confirmation that he's into her and why they're not together.
“What! I’m the Hunting Hero! I don’t handle the cooking part!” Kizuna complained.
“And I’m the Shield Hero!” I retorted. Not the Stewpot Hero! If anyone called me that, I would kill them with cookery!
And technically, you're not even that right now. Not with that mirror on your arm. The mirror is cool and all but I am looking forward to Naofumi eventually getting his shield back. He just feels incomplete without it.
“Almost feeding time!” one of them said. Others proceeded to chime in.
“Yes . . . the time we’ve all been waiting for.”
“The moment we live for, basically!”
“Even if I only get to eat one mouthful . . . that is the fuel that will keep me alive!”
“I’ll never eat anything but his cooking ever again!”
“I think the schweiz is the best! It has to be!”
“No! The stietz!”
“Hey! No fighting! We’ve been warned about fighting!”
Did they stumble across a food cult?
“It isn’t bad,” Filo said. “It just isn’t as nice as yours, Master.”
“Well, okay . . .” I replied.
“All of the heroes have cooked in the village, Mr. Naofumi, but Filo and everyone else all feel the same way,” Raphtalia told me.
Filo also grew up with Naofumi's cooking since birth, so while he's already a good cook you get the added taste of home for her. I've said it before but out of everyone I consider Filo to be the most like Naofumi's daughter.
“Then you wish to settle the bill,” she replied. I thought it was free. As my suspicions intensified, the girl spread both of her hands and continued. “How was the food at Seya’s restaurant? It was so delicious, wasn’t it? If you wish to become a member, please leave all of your assets or hand over anything that can be turned into money. If you leave some personal items as collateral, you can have some time to go and fetch some offerings.”
Yep, that's a cult alright.
“Master’s food!” Filo said.
“They’ll get a surprise when they taste what you’re cooking, kiddo,” L’Arc said.
“Indeed. Your victory is assured, if that’s the best they can do,” Glass agreed. I was still concerned about how aggressive they were being. Were they hopped up on endorphins or something? They weren’t acting in character at all.
My first thought was that the OOC behavior was some side effect Naofumi didn't realize came with the Mirror weapon's power-up method, but then why wouldn't Raphtalia or Kizuna be effected when they have been eating the food too? Then I thought maybe they were more used to eating Naofumi's food in general and would have a tolerance to any addictive effects, but then why is Filo still effected?
“That’s the best dish Seya’s restaurant has to offer! Seya’s curry bag! And it’s Fifth Floor too!” one of the MCs shouted. I barely stopped myself from tipping over onto the ground. He really was just reheating a premade curry in a bag! So he was allowed to heat and serve already finished dishes? I mean, that might give me some ideas myself . . .
“The flavors that are normally lost in reheating have been sealed in the bag using proprietary technology! Now you get the maximized flavor from the moment you open the bag! This truly is the ultimate culinary technique! Everyone, watch this kitchen miracle closely as it unfolds before your astounded eyes!” The MCs continued their diatribe, but it just made it harder for me to keep a straight face. It was all a matter of perspective. Capturing the flavor in a bag was certainly a worse approach than making it on the spot.
“Naofumi . . . am I imagining things? It looks to me like he’s just adding or warming up instant ingredients using hot water,” Kizuna said.
So, like most other antagonists in this series lately, Seya is just an arrogant, entitled fraud high on his own stolen power. Why am I not surprised? Though he is giving me a bit of a Kazuma from Konosuba vibe with how he managed to figure out how to recreate items the old heroes would have talked about from Japan. It's odd to say he doesn't have nearly the same level of charisma as Kazuma give...well...it's Kazuma and he's deliberately written to be a massive scumbag.
I do like with his magic powers and awesome cape, Naofumi is basically the little muddy boy meeting a superhero, one who will save the day through cooking.
As for Kizuna . . . I handed her some of the fish we had brought in and had her cut it up. She’d finished with the poisonous fish already. Her life as a fishing fool was paying off now. She knew her way around a fish. The blood had been skillfully drained, and overall, she was a step ahead when it came to gutting and cleaning.
...You think the Hunting Tool can turn into something like the Wunder Boner
?
I explained pointedly, looking at Seya, Trash III, and the other MC. Trash III responded by flipping me off. I could taunt with the best of them, and I mouthed some swear words back.
I mean, one of my favorite scenes in Isekai Quartet was Naofumi and Shalltear sassing each other, so I can agree with that.
“Pollution?” Kizuna asked, looking puzzled.
“You didn’t notice that?” I replied. “Well, just watch.” She wasn’t the brightest bulb, that was for sure.
“Hmmm, I think I need to go wash up,” the rotund noble said. “I’ll be right back.” The judges proceeded to take turns visiting the washroom. Once they had all returned, it was time to eat Seya’s food.
“Huh?” Kizuna, L’Arc, and Therese were looking puzzled. The other diners around us too. I guess there was cause for a little suspicion.
...Did Naofumi give them laxatives?
“Ah!” Kizuna finally cottoned on. “So that’s why you used so many medicinal herbs in your dishes!”
“Exactly. The reason they all wanted to go to the washroom after eating was to expel the toxins. I also used other herbs to bolster the lethargic feeling that would bring on,” I explained.
He gave the judges f**king laxatives! That's hilarious! I get the actual explanation he gives is more complicated than that, relating to purifying and digestion and getting them to finally take notice of the toxins in Seya's food now that they're free from its hold, but it's funny to think that's basically what he did. He won a cooking competition through dishes that encouraged the judges to take a sh*t (or a p*ss, I suppose).
“Hey . . . you’ve been reading too many cooking manga. It’s an illusion that delicious and good things will be evaluated highly. What you need is popularity and demand,” I said. Of course, it had to taste good, but putting the emphasis on that as a bare requirement was also a problem. If you were planning on selling food in a restaurant, of course it had to taste good. Customers came because of other elements, because of popularity. If Seya’s restaurant collapsed here, it would cause trouble for all the judges. That was why I’d created an escape for them. In order to realize the future that boy wanted.
While we don't see Naofumi selling his wares so much anymore because he has far less of a need to, it is nice we do still get that cynical and merchant side of him. All that time didn't just go to waste and it's still a key part of his character.
“What, then? What do you want?” Seya asked.
“There’s someone behind all of this, correct? Someone pulling the strings. If you tell us all about that, we’ll let you go. Hey, I have an idea. Write it down on this piece of paper here. I want a record of this.” I said and passed a piece of paper to him. Seya’s expression immediately brightened.
“That’s all you want? Fine, I can—” But the rest of that sentence vanished into an awful grunt. The moment Seya tried to write a single word, his head simply crumpled in on itself. He managed a brief scream, and then his entire melon exploded. I didn’t want to traumatize my allies, so I quickly threw up a cage and blocked out the grisly scene. Then I gave a sigh.
Well...that was kind of f**ked up for Naofumi to do. Don't get me wrong, after what they had to do to get Takt to be willing to confess, this is much less horrific. But Naofumi did basically just give Seya false hope and then trick him into executing himself. I get why he did it and how dangerous the vanguards are, but it is interesting to think that while ROTSH isn't the darkest of the light novel series I've been reading, Naofumi, save for Ainz Ooal Gown, is definitely the most morally grey of the protagonists compared to Kazuma, Subaru, and Goblin Slayer.
“No matter how delicious the food is, if you eat the same thing every time, you’ll start to get sick of it. Once you get sick of it, you won’t overeat simply because you won’t want to. I’ve been applying that concept to my food,”
That is better than what I was thinking with Naofumi getting too into the game mechanics. And boy do I feel for his friends. It's the same thing that killed me off of soda for a few years. Obviously it's worse to starve than be overstuffed but it's still not a pleasant experience.
We were talking about the primary reason why Kizuna was summoned here in the first place. To put it simply, the idea was to revive the Demon Dragon.
YYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
And they Tanya'd him too; reborn as an infant of the opposite gender. So does that make Kizuna or Naofumi Being X?
“Seriously . . . it brings dragon tears to my dragon eyes to see you, the great Shield Hero who defeated me, now reduced to this.” The Demon Dragon placed her front paws against her head and muttered sadly to herself.
“I hope you aren’t looking for sympathy,” I said harshly.
“Just think about it for a moment. The same bunch who shouted about defeating me and saving the world are now back, having screwed everything up, relying on me—their sworn enemy—to save them! Take a look around. Does this world look like it’s at peace to you? Well?” the dragon said, really coming for me now. What was worse, I didn’t really have a reply. This world was still plagued by humans fighting each other and had been ravaged by the vanguards of the waves. Everything the dragon had said so far had been so on the money that Kizuna and Glass probably didn’t have any response either. “Can you see how this might feel like something from your own past? Having been chased as a criminal, and then having to clean up after those very weaklings who were chasing you after they had been beaten down by the waves and people from another world?” That punch really landed hard. I wanted to call it a low blow, but she was basically providing a stunningly succinct summary of my life in these other worlds.
Seriously though, after Kyo, Takt, and the various other vanguards, it is so refreshing to have a villain who speaks with some dignity and can actually make a decent point or two, rather than "I'm strong so I can do whatever I want! Losers!" In my vol. 16 random thoughts I compared Takt to All For One from My Hero Academia and I still feel the same way. The two are not that much different goal-wise. They wanted the world and had the power to make it theirs, thus their actions. It is an immature goal when you think about it but AFO did not act anywhere near as immature as Takt and it made him feel so much more intimating. He would sometimes mock his enemy but when he did they were deep cuts that he knew would get under the skin of someone he truly hated, like All Might, rather than just throwing out insults and acting like a brat. And the Demon Dragon is the same (the High Priest too, now that I remember him, even if I don't talk about him as much). I liked Glass as an antagonist because she was intimidating, spoke only as much as she needed to, and was very powerful compared to the protagonists at that time, getting Naofumi to fear facing her again and giving her weight to the story and for the audience. Finding out later her motivations gave her some depth and added grey to the situation. The Demon Dragon is not nearly as sympathetic, but he still works for a lot of the reasons she did. There's presence to him, er, her. It's not a brat who needs to be knocked off their high horse but a genuine threat.
And being able to work with the heroes weirdly makes that even better. The Demon Dragon calls a 100 year truce, not because she's on the side of good, but because she wants there to still be a world around for her to take over. She's completely open about her goal, which ironically makes it easier to trust her.
“That should do for now,” the dragon said. “Hmmm, and this is a female body. Excellent. Shield Hero, under the condition that you will ultimately mate with me, I shall provide even greater cooperation.” So that was how long it took for things to take a crazy turn.
Still a little weird that she wants to f**k Naofumi though. And when the anime gets to this part there is almost definitely going to be a fanfic or doujin. Actually, now that I think about it, there are going to be creators getting some mileage out of when the Demon Dragon tried to take Naofumi over earlier in the series.
“Can’t you make do with Kizuna? She’s one of the four holies from this world. You’ll just have to overcome the gender barrier,” I said.
“Why me?!” Kizuna exclaimed.
“What are you planning on doing to Kizuna?” Now Glass turned a hostile gaze on me too.
Ahh, Naofumi's such a d*ck, I love it. Also, now that's two rivals in one book for Glass. She's almost caught up with Raphtalia.
It would have suited us better if the enemy was a bunch of morons. It was annoying that life never worked out quite so easily. We had no idea how bad it was going to get with the waves, so we had to plan our moves carefully and move to prevent this “fusion of the worlds,” whatever that meant.
Wouldn't that be a heck of a comeback to my bitching about the villains? The ones behind the vanguards have been sending out their idiots first, the ones arrogant and drunk off their power, to soften up the heroes first and cause a bunch of damage but that they know will ultimately just get killed. Takt and the others getting offered up as sacrificial lambs basically because those like S'yne's sister don't like them either.
“I’m starting to feel sorry for Naofumi,” Kizuna agreed.
“He probably thinks you two are in the ‘harem,’” I told them.
“I really don’t like that,” Glass responded. “No, I don’t. I don’t like that at all.” I wasn’t sure why she said it three times, but I didn’t like it either. Just for the record.
“Naofumi is a friend and a comrade, but we’re not like that!” Kizuna retorted. I wondered if she really understood the situation. She was the type who needed things to be said directly to her face.
“A shame we don’t have Fohl here. Even L’Arc would have worked,” I said. Just a few guys mixed in might have broken the group up a bit and prevented it from looking like a harem.
“Naofumi . . . even if we did have some guys, it would probably just give them some different ideas. Like . . . boys love?” Kizuna said. It sounded like, whatever the composition of the party, they would presume a lewd relationship with me at the center.
You know, you never hear about this kind of thing with Ren and Itsuki. Motoyasu went out of his way to have a harem and he still doesn't get it thrown at him as much as Naofumi does. Maybe it's one of those "He protest too much" kind of mindsets, where the more Naofumi denies it the more people think it's true.
“You got lucky. If a wave had occurred with the world of our illustrious leader, we were planning on shattering you. That’s the problem with this system; that’s the only way to get the reward for destroying a world,” the sister explained. I’d heard this talk about rewards for destroying worlds before, I vaguely recalled. I had no idea where that reward came from.
So there's a third world mixed up in all this. Obviously there already was the implication of multiple universes with S'yne and such but now there's a big spotlight on somewhere besides Raphtalia and Kizuna's worlds, where the big bad supposedly lives.
“That’s pretty much what I was expecting. Shield Hero, let me tell you something interesting,” the Demon Dragon began. Then she looked at the Artificial Behemoth’s chest again. “That part there houses a corrupted holy weapon from this world, which has artificially turned the monster into one of the four holy heroes and has allowed it all the power-up methods. It’s basically the monster version of a holy hero.”
I'm somewhat suspecting it's the Blunt Force Holy Weapon, given how easily that beast is smashing through barriers.
The soul that Raphtalia had pulled from the vanguard of the waves was not much like the body it had come from. Instead, it was a gloomy, Japanese-looking guy who was probably in his thirties.
...
“The vanguards of the waves are people who have been reborn or transferred over here after being selected by the one who assumes the name of God. They are given all sorts of abilities, such as the power to steal holy weapons or seven star weapons. They come into these worlds and start causing chaos,” I explained.
“Reborn? You mean like having spare bodies, like Kyo?” Raphtalia asked.
“No, something else. Just their souls were led to this world from Japan, and then they were reborn here as someone from this world. With their memories of the past,” I said. For example, they are people who died in unfortunate accidents—people like Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu. This “god” would whisper to them that they had died an untimely death and offer to reincarnate them in any world they liked. They were already dead and so had no reason to reject such an offer. If they did, the “god” probably claimed to be taken with their resolve and promised to give them additional cheat powers, basically forcing them to accept. In some cases, maybe they were just forced to be reborn, no matter what they felt. I’d read books like that, loads of them. Now that they knew being summoned to another world was actually a thing, why not getting reborn or transferred over?
So I was right about Takt being some OC f**kboy! They're all OCs! They're people from Japan who died and now are getting to live out their sh*tty power fantasy fanfiction as their equally sh*tty original character! As a source of useful but disposable minions, that's actually kind of brilliant. We saw how bad Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki had been at the beginning (with Naofumi himself potentially on that path as well before he was betrayed) and they were chosen by weapons that actually have the world's best interest at heart. Take those same people and have a malevolent entity constantly feeding their egos and pushing them to do terrible things because "it's their right to do so" and "they're the real heroes" and you've got an near endless source of wrenches to throw into the works of those trying to stop you.
Of course, now I just have this image in my head that the World Eater is Aqua from Konosuba. Which would actually be kind of amazing, not gonna lie. A godly being reincarnating otakus from Japan into a new fantasy-based world for a singular purpose and giving them special powers and tools in exchange.
“What if . . . and just hear me out . . . what if this one who assumes the name of a god is somehow responsible for my game knowledge?” Itsuki quietly suggested. That sounded possible to me now. Even if being summoned was the correct process, having some prior knowledge would change your actions once you arrived.
Before, when the Shield Spirit had explained to Naofumi that he was a first pick choice and the other three heroes were their weapons' third picks, I'd theorized as to why and how the final selection ended up. Assuming the weapons were telling the truth about being able to grant any wish once the waves were over, it could be assumed they have some power over reality even in the four's home universe. So I'd theorized the weapons set up a window to snag their picks, with the shield getting Naofumi and the other weapons, by sheer unfortunance, had their picks keep missing the window and thus they became more desperate, thus why their third picks had to die in order to reincarnate because the weapons couldn't leave things to chance anymore.
Now, with the new speculation and info, we can assume the World Eater has some influence over other universes too, including the heroes' original ones. So two new theories come to mind.
The first, and one I find most likely, is that the World Eater is causing video games that are similar to the worlds impacted by the waves to appear in the original worlds of the heroes. In theory, the butterfly effect could cause a chain of events that'd lead to such games existing, so it's not like the World Eater is just dropping them into each reality. It would just need to nudge things in the right direction. If video game knowledge is actually detrimental to the heroes, then that leaves less choices for the Holy Weapons (at least in regards to what their ideal candidates would be) and opens up more choices for the World Eater, since it wants arrogant and know-it-alls like that for vanguards.
The second, which could still work with the first, is that the World Eater is aware of humans the Holy Weapons have their eyes on and is actively sabotaging them. A weapon has a first choice, so the World Eater throws the game or other things in their path to turn them into a less desirable option, possibly even vanguard material.
After all my comments about the recent antagonists, S'yne's sister is starting to grow on me. She's filling a similar role as Witch; manipulating and using people before ultimately tossing them aside. But like the Demon Dragon and High Priest, there is more of an air of dignity about her than with Witch. With the exception of her sister, she's not really talking down and belittling anyone to try and promote her own strength. Like Glass she feels like someone who is genuinely powerful and doesn't need to prove it. How she's using the enemies of the week is curious and perhaps even a little scary because it does feel like she's testing and experimenting and these losses are not really a loss for her. And there's the added mystery Sadeena threw in over what she really wants. Whether bad guy with a bigger agenda or a secret good guy, she's more enjoyable to read about, as opposed to the vanguards where the biggest enjoyment they offer is watching them get taken down, and even that's not much with all the whining and tantrums they have after they're beaten. She's different from Witch and Kyo. She's not completely high off her own power and doesn't refuse to recognize her enemies' strength. Her casually teleporting away for a bit when she realized the battle was turning in the heroes' favor gave a ton to her character.
I'm just looking forward to when she gets a name other than S'yne's sister or Moron Woman. I appreciate Naofumi's completely lack of caring for learning the names of people who don't deserve it, but if she's going to be a serious antagonist or secret ally, a name would help.
Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/kdwai7/first_time_read_through_light_novel_vol_18_random/
12 notes
·
View notes
Video
youtube
We’ve finally reached the moment my channel was created for, BioWare officially revealed a brand-new behind the scenes trailer that showcased many gameplay prototypes, concept artwork pieces and next-gen footage that each demonstrate Dragon Age 4’s current production stages, building an overall mood of the game’s vision and direction. And it’s just the best thing to come out of this year.
Saria and myself have already broken down the trailer’s concept art, and gameplay shots in an incredible 45-minute video, that you need to check out if you’re remotely interested in the next Dragon Age game.
However, today I’m delving into every single piece of information that surrounds this new trailer, as we’ve got plenty of news, tweets and tidbits to delve into!
First up though, before the trailer’s release we had a few related tweets from the team regarding the current production of the game.
Production Updates:
In late July, Mark Darrah tweeted some updates about Dragon Age 4’s development. He said: “I realize that most of you are here for Dragon Age news and there hasn't been a lot of that lately...
Let me just run down some things I can say:
1. We are working on the next Dragon Age
2. Yes we are working from home
3. Working from home is harder
4. We are making progress”
Continuing from that, John Epler retweeted Darrah’s post and said: “WFH is hard! But we're figuring it out, a little better every day. I miss lunches with my team, though.”
And, Patrick Weekes tweeted: “An exhausting but productive week, with a bunch of folks across the Narrative team coming together for Writer Voltron to look at some stuff and figure out how to make it better. Harder over Zoom, but worth it nevertheless.”
@stoner_gordon asked Patrick: “Writer Voltron? Maybe I’m slow today but what do you mean by that?”
Patrick Weekes replied: “There are things writers can work on for awhile by ourselves. Followers, or individual quests. But some stuff is owned by multiple writers, so we set aside time for all of us (plus non-writers involved with Narrative) to get together and hash things out. That’s Writer Voltron.
It is mostly a TON of meetings. We go over content and see what works and what doesn’t. It’s also the time where we make big narrative decisions as a team (or make big proposals we then bring to other affected departments).
Examples of stuff we decide at things like this:
- Hey, this big story element doesn’t work
- How should we do romances?
- Hey, this big huge thing is unclear
- Does it feel like we’re all making the same game?
We have a great team. It’s positive. We’re all exhausted by Friday.”
This was a very interesting look at how the writing team are pushing forward during the current world situation, ensuring that each writer can push on with individual work, while tasks that are assigned to many writers are slightly trickier, the team are working it out, while staying as safe as possible. And, I’m always eager to hear how certain things like individual quests, followers and romances are being developed.
Dragon Age Website Update:
With the new trailer’s release, the Dragon Age website was updated. The trailer itself ended on the notion of visiting DragonAge.com.
Upon impact to the site, there’s a red lyrium wallpaper with a slogan that says:
The world needs a new hero. Will you answer the call?
“Journey into the world of Thedas in Dragon Age™. Discover new adventures full of striking characters, powerful magic, and rich storytelling. Meet an incredible number of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Qunari in a realm where every decision you make echoes across history.”
New protagonist, new adventures, striking characters, powerful magic, rich storytelling, a roster of races with every decision having rippling effects in the world. Each quality that truly define a Dragon Age game. Very exciting to see this!
Behind The Scenes Trailer:
Onwards to the trailer, we have many of the amazing developers sharing plenty of insights into the next Dragon Age game’s vision and development.
Casey Hudson stated their using next generation technology, which will be Anthem’s codebase and tools of the Frostbite engine, to bring the world and characters of Dragon Age to life. And the team are still in early production, I’ve estimated that they’ve been in production stages for around 15 months, since May 2019.
Casey Hudson (General Manager): “We’ve been using next generation technology to bring the world and characters of Dragon Age to life. We’re still in early production.”
Gameplay Designer Melissa Janowicz spoke about creating bosses and how she helps with many of the creature designs, mostly doing the big threats we’ll go up against. This trailer’s concept art certainly paints a picture of many dark, evil monsters to defeat.
Melissa Janowicz (Gameplay Designer): “We’re very experimental here at BioWare, so we’re always coming up with new stuff.”
“I actually design bosses; I help with the creature design team as well. So, I do all of the big threats you have to go up against.”
The Creative Director, and previous Art Director, Matthew Goldman shared that Dragon Age is all about mystery, and hard-boiled detective stories, which is an egg-cellent pun. All wrapped up in a fantasy setting, with an original world.
Matthew Goldman (Creative Director): “The world of Dragon Age has really got it all, it’s got frontier stories, it’s got mystery, it’s got hard-boiled detective stories. And of course, it’s all wrapped up in kind of a fantasy setting.”
“This is an original world, original flora, original wildlife, original architecture, that makes it fun to explore and discover.”
Executive Producer, and proficient teaser, Mark Darrah shared that in the next Dragon Age, we get an opportunity to see new things, new places, and interact with people who lived and grew up in these spaces as well.
There’s a huge emphasis on characters we haven’t met yet, because of course, the Inquisition declared it would look for new people to deal with Solas. We’re going to Northern Thedas, we should expect brand new characters to fall in love with.
Mark Darrah (Executive Producer): “In the next Dragon Age, we get an opportunity to see new things, new places, and interact with people who lived and grew up in these spaces as well.”
Mastermind, and Lead Writer Patrick Weekes shared about the game that currently working on, and how they want to tell a very different story about what happens when you don’t have power, what happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues.
This time around, we’re playing as a new hero, with not nearly as enough power like the Inquisitor, but instead someone who most likely comes from humble tidings, at a guess, someone like a spy, Antivan Crow, or Lord of Fortune.
No matter the role, our main character will have many conflicts with the predominate people in charge, as they aren’t willing to tackle the issues at stake. I can assume many ideas of course, perhaps the Tevinter Magisterium, The Qunari Invasion, or the Dread Wolf’s scheme.
Whatever powerful force that may ignore the ongoing issues, there’s going to be a lot of conflict from what can assume is going forward thanks to Tevinter Nights.
Patrick Weekes (Lead Writer): “For the game we’re working on now, we want to tell a story – what happens when you don’t have power, what happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues.”
Arby’s Enthusiast, and Narrative Director John Epler spoke on the things we can expect in the next instalment, there are going to be stories that focus on the people around you, and the friends and family you make.
Every Dragon Age game is about the family we create along the way, expecting more of that, lightens my heart!
John Epler (Narrative Director): “The things you can expect in the next instalment are going to be stories that focus on the people around you, and the friends and family you make.”
“I just love the possibilities that Dragon Age offers us, and I’m excited to explore a lot more of them.”
Associate Producer Jen Cheverie shared that something we’ll be able to look forward to in the next Dragon Age are really close relationships with game characters who really become real for you. I’m so excited to see how relationships and friendships develop in the next game.
Jen Cheverie (Assoc. Producer): “Something we’ll be able to look forward to in Dragon Age is a really close relationship with game characters who really become real for you.”
Foundation Technical Director, Jon Renish, with an amazing beard, spoke on how BioWare want characters to either be loved or hated, the best examples of that is Solas. Half of the community wants to kill him, half the people want to marry him, then another part want to do both.
The fact that the devs can stir these reactions, proves that BioWare can and will create characters that move, and shape us.
If they can make you love or hate a character, they’ve successfully made you care for this world, even if hate is that motivator. However, if you felt nothing for a character, then you wouldn’t have these strong reactions, and wouldn’t feel as connected to the world, or that character.
Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director): “We want characters to either be loved or hated, one of the best examples of that is Solas. Half of the community wants to kill him, half the people want to marry him, then another part want to do both.”
Lead Creature Animator, Esther Ko confirmed that Dragon Age 4 is being created using motion-matching technology, that will ensure characters will be as realistic as possible, from the way they walk, move and interact.
We saw a sneak peak of Solas’s facial animations, and we can already see the improvement of graphical fidelity and animation quality.
Esther Ko (Lead Creature Animator): “BioWare and EA have been one of the forerunners in using motion matching technology, and that makes it way more realistic for when you're looking at the characters, the way the walk and move, and interact in the world.”
Writer Slyvia Feketekuty spoke on how players want suspension of their disbelief, to believe that the bunch of pixels that make up these characters are actually a living, breathing soul.
Slyvia Feketekuty (Writer): “Players want that suspension of disbelief that this wonderful collection of digital pixels is actually a living breathing soul.”
Gameplay Director Andre Garcia said that choice is a big part of what Dragon Age is as a franchise, the decisions you make can affect change in the world. Reiterating that the next Dragon Age will most certainly surround our choices, with consequences for each.
Andre Garcia (Gameplay Director): “Choice is a big part of what Dragon Age is as a franchise, the decisions you make can affect change in the world.”
Adding more fuel to the fire for choices and consequences, RPG Programmer Katrina Barkwell spoke on decision-making meaning that a party member lives, or a party member dies. Ultimately, choice making means owning your outcome and reactivity to the choices that you do make.
Katrina Barkwell (RPG Programmer): “Decision-making can mean that a party member lives, or a party member dies. And it means owning your outcome and reactivity to the choices that you do make.”
I said in my breakdown, and I’ll say it again here, it was very nice to see a few of the developers that we love and support in this trailer, sharing vital information on the next game. The story about Dragon Age 4’s development is all about the people creating it, and I am so glad that BioWare have an amazing, tremendously talented bunch of people who know what Dragon Age is.
Adding to that, it was so wholesome to see many of the other developers on a zoom call, showing how despite the current world situation, they’re doing all they can to push the development of the next Dragon Age.
Key Trailer Features:
Moving on, throughout the trailer, we had many key features highlighted.
The in-engine shots showcase the next-gen improved fidelity and quality of the Frostbite engine. The reveal of Solas’s facial animations indicate more realistic and life-like animations and scenes, just look at his pearly white teeth, and how his face folds.
And the Gameplay shots reveal a character playing as a warrior, with a sword and shield, wearing Grey Warden armour. Most certainly, the character is a champion specialization, indicated by the “Line in the Sand” ability.
We see them evading, blocking, shield bashing, and preparing to strike. The camera placement is solid, I really like the angle it currently has, I’m hoping it stays like this.
The spider with hands is incredibly frightening, however, beautifully animated. I just hope it’s not going to grab items like the barrel, and throw them at us, when approaching combat.
Two brand-new voice actors were revealed: Jee Young Han & Ike Amadi
Jee Young Han previously appeared in Anthem, as the character Sentinel Dax. In Dragon Age 4, conceptually, she’s playing a character called “Bellara”, whom I’d suspect is a dwarf, given that Qunari and Dwarves generally have American voice actors. Not to mention her dialogue line of something being “the good kind of rumble.”
Ike Amadi, also appeared in a previous BioWare title, being Mass Effect 3, as he played Javik! It seems he’s playing a character by the name of Davrin. Who is most certainly a Grey Warden, indicated by his dialogue? Perhaps he’s the Grey Warden in Tevinter Nights’ cover, considering none of the characters on the book’s cover appeared in the actual book?
Concept Art:
Moving on, the majority of the trailer features amazing conceptual artwork that reflects the mood, tone, story threads and narrative beats that the developers would like the final game to take inspiration from.
Equally, that means the concepts may or may not appear in the finished project, it’s too early to tell. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn't pass on dissecting and inspecting the art pieces, because we get a sense of BioWare’s vision, scope and direction for Dragon Age 4.
Adding to this, Patrick Weekes tweeted about how concept art is used to create a mood, not to outrightly confirm things, but for a framework. While some concepts may excite you, like “Harley Qun”, don’t get attached just yet because they may, and will change.
To quote Weekes: “We can't answer questions right now about who is or isn't a follower or what story choices we're making. Beyond giving away too much too early, we could also give you the wrong impression and leave you disappointed later. Or we might need to change things between now and ship.
What I can say is that I personally am proud and excited about the game we're making. I hope that came through in the video. I also hope you have fun speculating, even if we can't answer questions right now. You all made a lot of devs' days yesterday. Thanks.”
So, while it’s absolutely fun, and amazing to speculate about what these concepts may relate to, and the direction of the next game, don’t get too attached just in case certain plot threads or characters are cut or changed.
Needless to say, me and Saria still have plenty of speculation videos coming up following the trailer, because we find enjoyment in speculation, and seeing how far off from the truth we were when the game actually does ship, I think that’s a good mindset to have.
Regarding the trailer as a whole, I think it’s fair to say it was created as a reaction to what was shown at EA Play. A lot of the fanbase, and people in general were upset with what was shown, however, BioWare listened to us, and delivered this behind the scenes trailer, two months after.
We can tell it was recently filmed too, not to get too stalker-ry, but Patrick Weekes dyed their hair on the 19th, June, which was a day after EA Play.
If they had done so before, Weekes’ would’ve had their natural hair-colour in the trailer.
So, even with the current world situation, the developers took the time to film and create this amazing BTS trailer. Speaking on behalf of the entire DA fandom, thank you so much BioWare for giving us a trailer while in very early-production stages. It has been the saving grace of 2020.
Romance Teases:
In other news, we have a few Weekes Tweets that regard romance in the future.
Patrick Weekes retweeted @nevarran-novice saying: “This is my formal request that BioWare give us at least one emotionally damaging romance for every Dragon Age game. Like, literally scoop my soul out and throw it at the wall with the angst. Please.”
Patrick replied with: “I mean I like happy romances with fun positive endings, but the customer is always right!”
It really is true; we all love pain and tragedy in this fandom, as we play Lost Elf theme at 1 am, sobbing in the night. I’m not the only one, right?
Patrick Weekes tweeted: “Hi, sorry, stumbled across this while looking for something else. Just wanted to say:
- Disliking a character or ship is totally valid and does not hurt my feelings
- Coming into someone’s space to say that what they like or dislike is wrong is bad, sorry that happened to you.
And in games with romances, I believe that the same-sex romances should offer the same spectrum of sweet-to-spicy that the straight options do. If all our m/m romances feel dirty while our m/f romances range from romantic to raunchy, then we need to do better.
This clearly hints to BioWare making their future romances more tasteful for every type of romance, which is always good, more inclusivity for everyone! In my honest opinion, I don’t need sex scenes to drive romances, while I’m sure I’d love one for a potential Qunari female wife, I don’t need, or desire them for every single character. Sex and romance in moderation; while being tasteful, sounds perfect in my opinion.
In the concept artwork, we saw a sexy, Qunari female, that many of us have dubbed the nickname “Harley Qun”, while it’s really hard not to get attached, it’s nice to see BioWare making this character idea more of a reality.
In 2017, a fan asked Weekes about the idea of a strong female Qunari companion. Weekes replied: “definitely a chance. We like doing character types we haven’t down before, and that would be a biggie in hypothetical future game.”
So, while Harley is still just a concept design, there’s much potential for her in the future. I wonder if Patrick is writing her too, not that I’m basing my news on retweets, but Patrick has been retweeting a lot of her fanart. But that could just be because we’re already obsessed with her.
Final romance related tweet, because I didn’t know where else to put this one... Patrick Weekes tweeted: “Is "Dick in a Box" formally a Lonely Island song, or is it technically SNL? It's for work.”
So, erm. Yep, there’s that.
Mark....:
Mark Darrah tweeted: “No release date to share at this time…” Obviously as a joke, for those who don’t know, the next Dragon Age is at least 2-3 years away, according to EA’s 2019 earnings call.
Next Comic:
As a final, very exciting news update, Nunzio DeFillipis, the amazing Dragon Age comic writer, alongside with his wife, Christian Weir posted on Tumblr about the potential of a new comic mini-series:
They replied to autopotion asking about the future of the comics, saying:
“We have another miniseries planned - and it would have come out this year if not for the current world situation shutting down the industry. We don’t want to promise anything, because everything is so up in the air with the entire world right now. But what we can say is that if and when there is another miniseries, it will wrap up the story we’ve been telling since Knight Errant. We will then aim to tell more stories, but one thing at a time.”
“Wish we could say more. Because we have a LOT to say, we promise. Hopefully we can talk about things soon.”
As an absolute fan of each of the Dragon Age comics, the fact that most certainly another one is on its way, and it will end the narrative since Knight Errant excites the crap out of me. Originally, it seems we would’ve had two comic launches this year, Blue Wratih to start year, and one following from that, ending 2020.
I imagine we’ll see this project back on track soon. It sounds as if this one may be a conclusion to the current comic roster, and after that, we may get brand new stories explored in other comics. While that’s quite far off, I adore this team behind the comics, and eagerly await an update to their stories.
With all that said, that’s a wrap for this most exciting news update, I’m honestly so excited to be creating Dragon Age content at the moment, making videos that I’ve dreamed about creating for so long. Check out my latest breakdown, and if you’re new, why not follow me, you’re in the best place to be informed on all things Dragon Age related. From the lore to speculation and news, I have it all here.
#dragon age 4#dragon age#dragon age news#bioware#dragon age behind the scenes#dragon age news update#dragon age next#next dragon age game news#next dragon age#news dragon age#dragon age comics#dragon age next comic#dragon age next game#thedas#solas#tevinter imperium#dragon age game#dragon age concept art#dragon age romance#dragon age gameplay#dragon age shots#dragon age trailer
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
alright, i was on the fence about the oc weekend idea, but fuck it i have a bunch of shit made why not? block “oc weekend” tag if you don’t care cuz same
so have some cleo (and nia) headcanons to kick whatever the fuck this is gonna be off
super long cuz i have a serious problem
So her starting skills were bow, charisma, and wildlife, then woods lore, then blade, medicine, deception, brawling, seduction
She made some money hunting, which is where the bow and animal skills came from
With being an elf, her and Kade were orphaned together in a massacre and taken in by a local farmer
Absolutely got into so much trouble, usually Cleo getting a bad idea and dragging Kade along, but could always talk her way out of it, hence the charisma
MC canonically has relationship experience, right? I think she had a short term partner, maybe some flings with travelers or something, but never really got invested in relationships, just wasn’t her thing
Especially in RIverbend, where everyone knows everyone and it’s awkward if you break up
She’s pretty similar to canon MC, wild and goofy and somewhat reckless
But also really determined and caring and sweet when she needs to be
I adore her if you can’t tell
The first time she saw Nia, totally tongue-tied and a flustered mess, she’s smooth when it’s a joke but incapable of any coherent words when it turns real
She’s pretty awkward, definitely stiff at first, but slowly loosens up as she gets closer to Nia, letting her goofy side show
She for sure pines and gets made fun of for it by Kade, then Mal and Imtura every time she gets flustered
And Threep likes to rub it in too, occasionally threatening to say something unless he gets snacks he does the same to Nia askjksdf
I’m also in love with the idea of Mal and Imtura playing matchmaker and constantly trying to set them up in situations where they have to be close, and the two of them losing their minds when Cleo and Nia get stuck in that pit
The night at the cabin in the Deadwood was the first moment Cleo realised that there could be something real there, like it just never clicked until Nia was straight up telling her she liked her
From then on things definitely change, and Cleo starts being a lot softer, like at the masquerade and stuff
But the argument in the cabin always sticks out in her mind, she defended Nia’s right to spend her life as she chooses, but she doesn’t necessarily like it
She always tries to find work arounds for Nia using her light, like using her own before Nia can get the chance
She for sure nearly decked the High Priest, just for all his bullshit, and was very happy to get that tracking orb from him to make sure they would be safe she had some plans already
So I don’t accept MC being cool after Nia straight up gets yanked into the Shadow Realm, Cleo absolutely was about to jump in after her until Imtura grabbed her and jerked her back like “what the fuck are you doing”
Cleo was about to snap the entire time they were working their way through the Shadow Realm, definitely wrecked Vonstratz on Nia’s behalf
I also don’t accept the “single tear” line when MC fucking KILLS Nia, Cleo would be bawling her eyes out and refusing to let go of her when she dies
There not being an ily felt kinda weird to me, and cuz Cleo’s a sap, I feel like she’d either say it before stabbing Nia or during the diamond scene where they’re looking out at Whiterun
In the first instance, it’s more for her piece of mind, that Nia knows what her sacrifice means
When Nia comes back, Cleo whispers it a million times into her shoulder as she hugs her, until she sounds like a broken record
For the second one, it’d be a bit spur of the moment, she’d just be looking in Nia’s eyes as the words spill out, but she wouldn’t even care cuz it felt so right
And now I’m going to ignore book 2 and make up my own shit
So immediately after, Cleo and Kade go back to Riverbend to pack up their lives there, Kade in order to stay in Whiterun cuz King Arlan made him a librarian or something, idk but he’s in Whiterun at the royal library and archives
Cleo ends up running a few odd jobs out of Whiterun for a while, helping Mal out quite a bit as Nia ends up with a lot of responsibilities at the temple after the High Priest gets axed
Cleo ends up quite well known as a good adventurer/travel mate by the time Nia ends up quitting the temple
Before they leave on their first trip as just them, Cleo takes her up to that terrace overlooking Whiterun after taking her to the market
They stare out at the city for a while, until the sun’s setting along the horizon
Cleo pulls out a ring from her bag, fiddling with it as she shifts on her feet nervously. She’s wussed out like half a dozen times already, and this is her last chance to do it somewhere so special
Nia figures out something’s up and starts prodding to figure it out, poking her and stuff and laughing the whole time
Cleo’s kind of found out, and turns to her blushing the ring held between her thumbs and index fingers as she avoids eye contact, “So, um. You wanna get married?”
Not what Nia was expecting at all and she kind of just 👁👄👁 for a while, until Cleo starts trying to back out of it, thinking she fucked up
And then it’s Nia’s turn to stumble over her words something along the lines of, “No, wait! Okay, um, no, so - No, I don’t mean no, just - Yes! Of course!”
The ring’s super basic, like plain silver without even a gem
I feel like Cleo found it on a trip with Mal, and immediately thought of Nia and proposing and freaked herself out a bit, but that’s why she didn’t look for another cuz shes a sap
They travel around the realm a bit, stopping in Undermount so Cleo can look into House Nightbloom, and getting rides from Imtura when Mal gives them a tip on a relic or something
All the while Nia’s trying to spread the Light in small villages, using her magic for little things as Cleo works favours again
At some point they get a cottage a ways away from a village, I’d say not too far from the Deadwood and things slow down for the most part, only the occasional trip for the temple
It’s a really cute house, small and surrounded by flowers and huge trees, Cleo builds a swing on one
The others visit occasionally, Kade and Threep the most often, and I almost want to say they take in an orphan, but I can’t decide if Cleo would trust herself enough for that
Though I feel like Nia would love to have pets at the least cleo always compares threep to the cats to annoy him
Elves canonically have longer life spans than humans, and Nia’s is even shorter from using her Light, so I’m sure you can tell where I’m going with this
Nia passes in her sleep before anyone else in the gang and it really fucks up Cleo, like the way she wakes up to it and can’t even stop it
And the worst part is that she’s always hoping just a little bit in the back of her mind that it’s like the first time, and Nia’s just going to wake up or knock on the front door
The gang meet up all together for a funeral, and Cleo plants the flowers from the bouquet from the end of book diamond scene
She ditches the cottage cuz too much of it is Nia, and is just kind of aimless for a little bit, staying with Kade in Whiterun, but ultimately hates not having a purpose
She moves to the old elven cabin in the Deadwood cuz shes a sap cuz it’s one of her favourite places
She devotes herself to fixing it up and making it better, helping travelers through the Deadwood cuz I feel like Tyril would open Undermount up
Everyone’s stayed in relative contact and tend to invite Cleo on adventures if they don’t hear from her for a while, just to keep her from isolating herself in the woods
Mal works with the monarchy to make things better in the Nooks and Crannies while still thievin, and especially when he’s older settles down more
I feel like he lives pretty long, but ends up sick and passing away, second to go and he kinda laughs about it his mum was sick right? and he jokes about the irony to feel better?
I doubt Imtura really accepts being a princess, I think she keeps captaining and fights it as long as she can until she really doesn’t have a choice
But she’s not like her mum, actually leaving Flotilla and like working with the guard and stuff
I think she’s third, dying in battle like a badass and saving her crew. She’s honored by the clans, and the monarchy and even Undermount declares her a hero or something idk how it works there
I feel like Kade would keep to stories, but maybe spend a while just moving about the realm, stay in Undermount to explore it and stuff, builds up his name as a bard
He dies in his sleep too cuz he deserves it, he passes when he’s visiting Riverbend again, he’s buried there and like the whole village shows up
I feel like Tyril’s significantly older than everyone else, but being an elf hides it
He always gives Cleo tips on artifacts, or asks her to escort travelers through the Deadwood or around the realm if they’re important to keep her busy
He’s not the head of House Starfury, but he’s still pretty involved in elven politics, mainly focused on opening up Undermount, educating people on the elven empire and spreading the wealth and stuff
He’d go before Cleo, just running out of life force after all his magic
After Tyril passes, Cleo’s just done, he was the only thing giving her purpose, and she’s spent decades cleaning up the Deadwood as best she can
Threep’s joined her after Tyril’s funeral, staying with her for a few days and how following her out into the forest
She walks out to the clearing they saw the unicorn at and stops right on the edge, sitting down and setting up a purification ritual
She’s known how for years, she learned after Nia passed so she could spend some of her life completing one of her dreams like a sap
She clears out the darkness from a lot of the Deadwood to drain the last of her life force, stumbling over to a tree and sliding down to the ground, her back pressed against the bark
Threep flutters into her lap, her nails scratching behind his ears as he licks her chin comfortingly, a final goodbye
Her breathing starts heavy, growing slow as her chest feels far more hollow than it did a moment ago, and her eyelids slowly grow heavy
A breeze brushes her hair, stirring her awake. The lake’s shimmering before her, bright and magical as she stumbles to her feet, Threep gone from her lap
The Deadwood’s healed, more than she could possibly have managed on her own, and she has so much more energy now than when she fell asleep
She trips through the trees, running for what feels like hours until she’s back at the cabin, the stone bright against the trees as it sits, whole again after all her effort
She shoulders the front door open, freezing when she sees the fireplace, or rather, what’s before the fireplace
Nia’s there, her back to the flickering flames as she smiles, cheeks redder than the curls falling down her shoulders
And Cleo doesn’t stop running, tackling Nia into a hug and squeezing with all she is, tears dripping down her chin as she laughs, carefree and disbelieving and happy. So, so happy, for the first time since she last saw that smile
#i got very carried away oops#cleo nightbloom#shes getting a tag now cuz im committed tothis dumbass elf#and her magical partner#im assuming nespers live crazy long based on loola#and nia said 'well meet again beyond the veil' so im also assuming there's some sort of afterlife#oc weekend#wrote this like two weeks ago lmao#so ignore how erratic it is
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
Until Forever - Sirius Black
MASTERLIST
Warings: My English. Pics aren’t mine. This has to be one of my favorite chapters.
Word Count ~ 3k.
Prologue | Mercury | Delicate | Blue | Running | Aftermath | Stardust | December | Nightfall | Revelations
Chapter 11. Friends.
After that particular talk she had with Minerva, she felt lighter, as if the weight she was carrying on had been lifted from her chest, freeing her from the invisible tyrant. She had finally found someone she could be honest – she hated lying, even white lies put her in a hard position.
She was slowly learning how to be at ease when things falling apart and that she had to start over; how to trust those new beginnings once more, how to trust in the rebirth of things and people, including herself; that with every new beginning, she found another lost piece of herself, and with every new adventure, she fell in love with something she would never have thought she’d love. They were scary and confusing but they were also spectacular and extraordinary. Running away was not always the solution.
Slowly, but steadily enough, she was learning how to let new people in – how to reawaken her faith in people and their ability to love and their ability to open her heart again. And while she was dreading it, she was hoping that people could see all the different sides of her and still stay.
She was never big on trusting herself but she had to; she had to find the ability to trust all those tough experiences that left scars inside her heart or stitches inside her brain, all of that contributed to who she had grown to be. She had to finally understand that things didn’t always fall apart to give an ending, but sometimes they fell apart to present a new beginning.
Couple of days passed her by, as she decided to do nothing at all but take of herself, occasionally talking about her secret with her professor and giving in to the pleasure of the beauty world. She was a 2020’s girl and could not, would not, compromise that for the makeup trends of the 70s and 80s. She hated the bold colors that were used without blending – the big hair and the extreme statements. She was a girl of her time, and that time wasn’t this one. Her things were cut-creases and winged eyeliner, matte foundation and contouring, perfectly shaped eyebrows and soft lips. She had to ask her professor for a couple of favors, but Minerva was more than happy to oblige, remembering her young years as well.
She had spent the last days, happily alone – of course she was thinking about everything. Her old life, however, seemed too far away from her now. Like a distant dream. She knew that it was more than just a possibility to never live in her time again, and even though that saddened her, she found herself relieved – she had formed attachments despite her initial thoughts of being distant and alone. Yup, that went well.
The 29th day of December had arrived and she was still contemplating whether or not to go to the party. Thanks to Minerva, who was even more excited than she was, she had now a gorgeous dress and high heels but her gut feeling told her that maybe, she just wanted to go so she could see him. With another girl. And in the process, hurt Remus again. While all that time, she should be investigating everyone and everything so she could find a way to change the story and the outcomes. Oh, well, she was twenty-two, after all.
She was one of the very few Gryffindors who had stayed and she had the common room to herself most of the time – just like now; she was enjoying silence with a bottle of sparkling wine. She was ecstatic for not having to buy more bottles but simply conjuring more delicious wine – magic was helpful. Unknown to her, she was being stared at.
She had stars behind each eyelid and a galaxy in her soul that drew people to her endless heart, like the pull of a black hole, she was made of earth and fire, of wishes cast on shooting stars. She was a brand-new solar system, unlike the ones he had known so far, with constellations ever changing. No one could memorize her skies and he thought the thing for all of her previous relationships to do was bring her down to size. He could see, they had tried to shrunk the universe within her, told her that her vast expanse was wrong, that she should make her life much smaller, if she wanted to belong. But she had denied them that privilege over her and he was amazed by her strength.
He threw himself to the couch and she yelp in surprise. He was the last person she expected to see there. He was enjoying her loss of words very much, trying at the same time to convince himself that his visit was purely out of friendly interest.
“What can I say? I felt bad for leaving you alone” he exclaimed rather provocatively. She sneered and arched her eyebrow. That was how they were playing at.
“Don’t. I was having fun” she answered truthfully, pointing at her drink. He knew he was supposed to follow her hand but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was a vision of heartache and blooded marches that hadn’t even started yet; a battlefield of blossomed roses about to sacrifice themselves to the Gods so that their love would survive.
“What kind of a friend would I be then, huh? Speaking of, I didn’t know your birthday was a month ago. But guess who did… ouch” he said and even though it was a mockery, he did sound hurt, or rather jealous. She thought about the word he had used – friend. He wasn’t. Even though she so desperately wanted him to be, he wasn’t.
“He asked, you didn’t” she fired as soft as a bullet hitting the petals of a rose. Raising her glass to a toast she never proposed, she saluted him and he knew she was in a mood, alright.
“Careful there, you were almost being sweet” he provoked her further. She simply turned her entire body towards him, taking notice of everything, his outfit, his hair, his eyes. He could wear a rag and he would still look incredible. Of course, the leather jacket and the black biker boots were making her imagination run wild. She forgot what she wanted to say to him – probably something sarcastic – and instead offered wine, face masks and her room. Bold move – and a risk he accepted.
Sirius was a dilemma; a broken crown wanting to reclaim the throne; a shuttered mirror trying to depict life as it once was. She thought how childish he had been described in the books – but she kept forgetting that all of that was supposed to be parts of a book. He felt real, next to her, with a green tissue mask on his face, pretending to be a zombie and drinking wine. He was just a young adult and he had every right in the world to enjoy his life as much as possible – she wanted him to have those moments, for later he would lose all hope.
“What is this? I love it!” he proclaimed his love to the bottle of wine he had also claimed for himself only. She tried not to laugh because she, herself, had a tissue mask on her face but it proved to be impossible.
“It’s called Moscato d’Asti – and it’s my favorite” she told him as she laid on her bed, closing her eyes, not wanting to meet his. Next thing she knew, he was right beside her, his hand grazing her thigh. She swallowed hard and shot up – straight to the bathroom. Removing the mask and washing her face with cold water, she did a breathing exercise to calm her nerves but her stomach had been replaced by a knot. She looked at the mirror, a reflection she didn’t recognize. Taking a deep breath, she went out finding Sirius pacing back and forth. It would have been a rather serious scene but he still had his mask on, something he realized and looked down embarrassed.
After a moment or two in the bathroom, recollecting himself, he exited with a fake smile that made her guts twist, so she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind.
“I met your brother. Nice guy” she commented honestly but his cringed. Arching her eyebrow, and raising her hands up, she surrendered. He sat down next to her, eyeing her and wanting nothing more than to tell her the whole truth.
“I will answer any question you have but let me give you your birthday present” he gave in once his eyes met hers. He was lying to everyone when he was pretending to be her friend – he wasn’t. Before she could register what was happening, Sirius had an entire tattoo kit to play with. Her mouth hung open, not even close to believing the scene unfolding.
“No, no, no, no. First off, you’re drunk. Then I don’t trust you with a needle to draw something permanent on me and no!” she summed up quickly but he wasn’t listening.
“I know what I am doing. Trust me” he informed her rather nonchalant. They did have a deal… She bit her lip and rolled her eyes. Fine. She had an excuse now, for revealing her tattoos to him. He hadn’t asked her too but she wanted.
“Okay. But you have to see my other tattoos first” she carefully told him, watching hi prepare the equipment; his head shot up in the words. He had never thought she would show him her story – because each tattoo was a part of her story.
She had never been good at hiding her feelings… and here she was, swallowing her emotions, mutilating her own self for someone else’s sake. She saw the broken pieces in his eyes and wished she could tell him that he would heal in four months, or two weeks, or by next Monday if he really tried. But she couldn’t and that costed her. For if there was anything, she had learned about moving forward, about letting go, about becoming the person she wanted to become — it was that it happened in the quietest moments. Growth crept into her, it burrowed and it stretched, it cracked her open from the inside, and one day she woke up and she had to open her eyes. Maybe he would need more time or better suited people around him.
Slowly, she revealed each of her tattoos to him. She removed the spell concealing them and let him explore her. He was tracing his fingertips on her skin. He had seen the lotus flower and remembered her explanation. Her left ring finger was delicately decorated with a small rose. His hands traveled to the inner part of her forearm just below her right elbow, caressing the bracelet of the phases of the moon and the sunflower that reminded him of the sunflowers Van Gogh used to paint. Her shirt was loose enough for him to push the strips off of her shoulder to reveal the Arabic quote she had tattooed on her left collarbone. Before he could stop himself, he was fondling her inked skin – his hand was too close to her neck – he could see her pulse quicken, he felt her breath on his mouth. He knew she had more tattoos but stopped before leaning too close.
“I didn’t run away to leave my brother behind. I was thrown out and I am haunted by the ghost of him. I know I have screwed up but they were right about one thing. I don’t believe that I deserve love – I couldn’t give it when I had to” he confessed, gathering his tools to create a birthday present for her that would last. She didn’t dare to move, looking at him as if any moment now, he would vanish. He carefully took her left hand and cleaned the inner part of her forearm just below her elbow with pure alcohol. With an eye contact to seal their deal, he begun drawing. It hurt but it was a sweet burning sensation that she didn’t really mind.
“It’s a lie to think that you don’t deserve love if you aren’t able to love yourself. You deserve it. You deserve companionship and care and relationships that feel good and spaces where you’re cherished and valued. Even if you have days where you want to crawl out of your skin and disappear. Even if there are moments when you feel inadequate and unlovable. You don’t have to be alone just because you’re battling your own darkness. Carrying that weight doesn’t make you defective or too much or unworthy of love and belonging. It makes you human. It makes you someone who’s internalized judgments that were never yours to carry. It makes you someone who’s survived a lifetime of trauma and loss and pain. Someone resilient and inconceivably brave. Someone courageous enough to connect, despite the lies in your head. And there’s no shame in that. So please, don’t withdraw or close yourself off. Self-hatred doesn’t get unlearned through isolation. It’s unlearned through love. Through connection and care. Through having relationships and gathering evidence that you can be imperfect and struggling and still be valued. That you can hurt and be at war with your head and still be wanted. I know it’s hard to trust, but you belong. And no matter how much darkness you’re carrying, you deserve to love and be loved” she told him while he was still focused on the piece, he wanted her to have. His hair falling elegantly on his face, eyes silver as mercury dancing across her skin.
‘There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in’ it read as the quote was mingling with the swirling blues and yellows of the Starry night. It was a bracelet as well but it made her teary – her favorite painting with some of the most meaningful words she had read. He wrapped it and sealed it close but she already knew how to take care of new tattoos. When his eyes met hers, the entire world seized to exist. It was just them and nothing could intervene. She didn’t stop herself from hugging him and thanking him – a whisper that made him melt inside her embrace.
“There is a Japanese word; kinsukuroi. It’s the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. I find it strangely reassuring” he tenderly told her and she felt a blissful breeze of refreshing air calming down her lungs.
“If you want to see the other tattoos, you can. It’s just that…” she trailed of and cautiously grabbed the hem of her shirt to pull it off. She knew it was too much – she could have just described them to him. But she knew it was a risk she was willing to take because the moment would never be perfect, the circumstances would only worsen and her heart would only break even more. He took a sharp breath in but didn’t stop her; quite the opposite really. He found himself helping her out of her shirt with shaky hands. His touch burned her but she could only look at him and see a future – it scared her.
His eyes stayed on hers but slowly they roamed her upper body and suddenly they fell on the canis major constellation, tattooed right in the middle of her chest – underneath her bra. There was a small blue bird in the left side of her rib-cage, probably the one from Bukowski’s poem. He wasn’t able to do anything but stare at her and explore her body. She softly nudged her hair out of the way and his eyes traveled to her neck once again.
It was the most intimate thing he had ever done. She twisted her torso so he could see her back – a pair of antlers resting close to her hairline and the planetary system running down her spine. Not just any tattoo. It was almost identical to his.
“How is this possible? The moon, the canis major, the antlers, the planets? How?” he asked disoriented, not knowing which tattoo to look at because if he looked at her face, he would kiss her, crush her in his arms. She shrugged and put her shirt back on. He knew those tattoos were done at least a year ago – she didn’t know them.
“Maybe not in your reality. But is was in mine” she airily told him, leaving him with questions to which he did know the answer. The girl in front of him hadn’t simply fallen from the sky to his embrace. She had fallen through time.
He was too close, his breath on her mouth, her hands on his arm, tracing the patterns of his tattoos. She closed her eyes, not wanting to collide. Not now. Not yet. But she couldn’t say no all at once. She placed a small peck on his cheek and thanked him again.
“Care for a cigarette?” she mouthed too close to his lips. No, he didn’t. He cared about her. All the right ways – and all the wrong ones. He was hers in a way he never belonged to anyone ever before. A little. A lot. Passionately. Not all.
___
Taglist: @nadinissavage @mycobrakai1972
#harry potter#sirius black#sirius black imagine#young sirius black imagine#young sirius black#sirius black imagines#sirius black fanfiction#young sirius black fanfiction#sirius black fanfic#sirius black x reader#remus lupin imagine#remus lupin#james potter#james potter imagine#hogwarts#the marauders#Marauders#marauders era#marauders fanfiction#marauders imagine#marauders imagines#reader insert
52 notes
·
View notes
Text
Rambles on watching PotC in reverse...
So I finished my "watching Pirates of the Carribean films in reverse order" thing. Had a blast, tbh, not seen them for so long it was almost like seeing some of it fresh and all the feels came back! The music is stunning, particularly in number 2 and 3; Hans Zimmer and co. knocking it out the ballpark. Gave me goosebumps!
Anyway, ramble ho!
I appreciate watching a series backwards is a bit odd. It certainly opens your eyes to the nuances (or weirdness) of character development that occurs, but instead of you seeing it flow naturally from origin to conclusion, you end up picking up on where all the little seeds were originally planted long after you've witnessed what the final "bloom" is going to be; a "reverse order" watching also highlights some gaping plot-holes and even the odd awkward and utterly retconned plot point (Jack's compass story, for example, appears to be completely re-written in the fifth film when it is clearly stated in the second that he bartered it from Tia Dalma. There could be a convoluted explanation but it certainly looks like a writing fuck-up, or a case of "we give no shits any more". I'm wondering if the team behind the fifth film even re-watched the other movies?)
I feel like I have much more respect for Elizabeth's character than I once did; I don't think I paid her nearly enough attention back in the day, and watching her story backwards made me recognise how, from the start, she was always more pirate than Will; she was brave, a total geek about pirate lore (her child-self was super excited at the very prospect of pirates!), and she was brave enough right at the start of her adventure to be asked to be taken to parley with the dread Captain Barbossa — just in her nightgown. (Christ, she even tries to kill him! Gutsy lass.) It is only natural therefore that she continues to use her wiles, cunning, and to a degree her sex, to trick and deceive whenever the need calls; in "Dead Man's Chest", she even uses this guile to sacrifice Jack to the locker!
She also, right from the start, learns a lot from ol' Barbossa, and this runs on into the third film; Hector Barbossa is no spring chicken but he has managed to remain captain of a ship of unruly thugs for nigh on ten years following his own mutiny of the original captain, Jack Sparrow. He would never have been able to hold onto that position without a measure of competence, skill and bravery. Elizabeth recognises this and, whether consciously or not, begins to both emulate and acquire knowledge from him, becoming something of a willing student to his ways.
Now this is something I should probably have taken on board more before as I used to write and read "Barbossabeth" fanfiction regularly (probably the most far-fetched alternate pairing in the saga; in reality, Hector is probably the only central male figure Elizabeth doesn't kiss/have a fling with/get engaged to at some point). In truth, as aforementioned, Elizabeth proves from the start to be a match for Barbossa, who is certainly no fool himself, but even in the first film, she starts to learn from him — his line about the pirate code being"guidelines" which he throws at her early on, she literally parrots nearly word-for-word when it suits her later on in the film; and in "At World's End", she works well with him in a team and soaks up how he holds a crew together and the way he rouses loyalty and action through skilled oration; his speech at the Brethren Court, for example, she again regurgitates later on in the film to galvanise her crew for battle. As a pair they banter and tease and argue, but push each other in the right direction when they need to be pushed, and, by the end of the third film, they have both respect and admiration for one-another. It's one of the most subtle but fulfilling character-and-relationship arcs across the original trilogy and deserves more attention.
On the ol' "Barbossabeth" note, to be frank, there's little sign in the films that they would or could be a romantic item; Barbossa teases her in the first film and seems like he might have an idea to make her a"pirate bride", but there seems little chance of him being able to subdue her spirit. There is that wonderful jokey moment in "At World's End" however, designed to trick us all, when Will asks Elizabeth to make her choice regarding his proposal of marriage to her (in the midst of battle) and Elizabeth shouts out in return "Barbossa!"
And just when we all think, along with poor Will, "what the Hell, when did he come into the equation?" she finally finishes her sentence and we realise she is asking Barbossa, in his capacity as the ship's captain, to wed her to Will. (I still remember seeing the film in the cinema and my heart popped at that moment — I'd take Barbossa any day.) But those of us who take a shine to Rush's scarred old sea dog can dream, I suppose.
I think when all's said and done, standing back and looking at these characters and what they go through, Barbossa comes out best at the end. Even though we are introduced to him as a black-hearted brigand who pillages and plunders with his cursed crew, and is allegedly "so evil Hell spat him back out", we finish up with a rogue who has aimed to live his best life, and whose dedication to his ship is unshakeable. When the Pearl is threatened by the Kraken in "Dead Man's Chest", Jack's first thought is to save himself and he sneaks off in a longboat; irrespective of the fact he does have a change of heart and comes back to save the day, we should contrast this with Barbossa's tale of the Pearl being attacked by Blackbeard: the ship is possessed and turns on him and his crew, the rigging coming alive like snakes, wrapping itself round and round his leg. In his head, Hector knows he has to escape to be able to live so he can plot to retrieve his beloved ship and save it from this dark magic; in order to do so, he cuts his own leg off to get away. There is no universe in which Jack Sparrow would have cut his own limb off to free himself, but Barbossa does; there's a steel and strength to this character I don't think is always fully appreciated; he sails the ship like a boss, will hold up in the darkest of battles, and ultimately in the final film gives his own life when he knows his time has come and he owes it to the child he has left behind. There's your hero; Jack Sparrow is your comic relief and nearly always goes in for self preservation.
The other behemoth of these movies which I can not fail to mention is Davy Jones. Though Captain Salazar is a force to behold as the creepy-ass, psychotic undead captain in the final film, the best real menace of the saga is Bill Nighy's captain of the Flying Dutchman. Hans Zimmer composes him a musical theme unlike anything we've heard before, a theme full of deep organ blasts which hits you with clout, and though Jones is entirely CGI, he is still utterly Nighy. To be honest, he's perhaps one of the most incredible CGI movie characters ever created; he looks utterly convincing as the rain pours down his face or his eyes flash at his crew. Considering he first appeared on our screens 14 years ago, this is one Hell of a feat; there have been few better CGI characters on the big screen since. He's extravagant and perhaps hams it up too much for some people to appreciate, but it's a pirates film, you expect extravagance; I never get tired of watching Davy Jones. A piece of artistic wizardry, a cinematic masterpiece.
I will probably think of more to wax lyrical about some time soon. I currently have a plan in my head for a storyboard I would love to get down, at least in sketches, though part of me would love to make a video to mock a scene up, all based on Barbossa's tale about how he lost his leg and the Pearl to Blackbeard. It'd make a cracking scene, I've no doubt, but it'll be a job and a half to realise
#potc#pirates of the caribbean#captain barbossa#davy jones#elizabeth swann#at world's end#dead man's chest#salazars revenge#on stranger tides#blackbeard#geoffrey rush#bill nighy#barbossabeth
83 notes
·
View notes
Text
farran rewatches tangled: before ever after, pt 1
(01:50-05:00)
i’ve been wanting to do a full, start-to-finish episode-by-episode rewatch of the series for a good long while now with a focus on just... picking apart every episode to see what there is to see and well. i somewhat optimistically planned to do one post per episode but i... i was a fool.
as a set of... basic guiding principles here i 1) am going to evaluate the text of each episode on its own merits, 2) without taking into account authorial intent or extratextual creator statements, and 3) yeeting the phrase “it’s a disney princess cartoon, it isn’t that deep” out of my brain.*
(*except in the case of Cartoon Physics, which must simply be accepted in the same way that the existence of unbreakable magical hair is accepted.)
the first thing i want to talk about with before ever after is the way it establishes the characters of rapunzel and eugene and how it sets up the development of the new dream relationship for the rest of the show during the introductory sequence.
before ever after does this thing a couple of times where it frames a character or scenario in such a way as to lead the viewer to expect one thing, only to reveal more information or additional context that significantly shifts our understanding. and these are interesting moments to examine, because of what they can say subtextually about the characters involved.
consider the opening.
once the introductory narration is done, we’re thrown into a chase scene that is structured to trick us into thinking that the stakes are much higher than they truly are—the tense, dramatic scoring, in particular, prime the viewer to assume that the situation is serious.
look at this establishing shot. it grounds us in a location—we can see corona in the background—and sets a specific mood. rapunzel, eugene, max, and fidella all look serious and determined; meanwhile their pursuers are obscured in shadow, making them appear far more threatening than they really are.
rapunzel’s seemingly genuine fear of being caught (“they’re gaining on us!” and “there’s more of them!”) strengthens this first impression, as does the fact that the pursuers continue to be obscured in shadow even when they, realistically speaking, shouldn’t be, as in this shot where the pursuing guards are galloping in full sunlight but still too darkly lit (and distant) for us to make out any identifying details:
but now that we’ve had a few seconds for this impression to “set,” the show begins to dismantle it. rapunzel and eugene exchange a little playful banter, part ways, rapunzel glances back over her shoulder, and...
for the first time, we get a good look at one of their pursuers—and it’s a coronan guard. at this point, the tone of the chase shifts; the score becomes less tense and more adventuresome, beats of comedy are introduced with eugene’s log jump and rapunzel’s bunny crossing, and we end on this shot:
a bright, welcoming meadow opening up out of the more rugged / forested terrain of the chase. rapunzel gallops on into the nice-looking wilderness beyond, while eugene turns around to get in a last, witty one-liner in.
now on the one hand... this is a fun way to ease us into the action of the story with an attention-grabbing but low-stakes chase sequence, while establishing the playful dynamic in the new dream relationship. but! i argue that this whole chase scene, and the subsequent scene with rapunzel and eugene on the wall, is in fact a microcosm of the core conflict within the new dream relationship: to wit, that eugene is content and ready to settle down, rapunzel very much is not, and they are not yet ready to reconcile that difference with each other.
how so? well,
#1: the shifting of the viewer’s understanding of this chase reflects both sides of the new dream perspective on palace life.
in rapunzel’s view, being corona’s princess—a role here represented by the royal guard—is a frightening, suffocating job, one she struggles to reconcile with and longs to escape. her distress at the idea of being “captured” before they reach the wall—and having to return to the palace for the welcoming ceremony, as we learn shortly—is real, not because the guards pose a real threat but because she’s running away from them to get a break from the princess responsibilities that are drowning her.
eugene, on the other hand, is having a grand time. he banters, he grins, he mocks his pursuing guards, because to him, there are no stakes here. he enjoys living in the palace with no more bounties or convictions hanging* over his head, and he’s more interested in pausing to crack a joke at the captain’s expense than in winning the race to the outer wall—which in rapunzel’s mind is a representation of freedom.
(*heh.)
so as viewers, the first impression we’re given of this chase scene is more in line with what rapunzel is feeling, and then shifts to reveal eugene’s perspective, which is more in line with objective reality (they’re racing the guardsmen to the outer wall, and nobody is going to get hurt) rather than rapunzel’s internal feelings (of fleeing to escape the intense pressure on her shoulders, even just for a little while).
#2: and this, in turn, shows us precisely how far apart rapunzel’s feelings and eugene’s feelings about their present situation are.
these are two people who love each other very much but are on completely different planets emotionally. eugene is content and relaxed, rapunzel is antsy and stressed out. they get along on a superficial level and enjoy each other’s company, but there is a huge disconnect lurking just beneath the surface that neither of them is yet aware of.
the scene on the wall drives this message home.
we see the pure delight on rapunzel’s face when she reaches the wall...
...which intensifies as she climbs onto it and sees what waits for her on the other side...
...and the camera swings around to show us this gorgeous view of a lush, vibrant landscape pulling us into the sunrise. rapunzel heaves a longing sigh and tension falls out of her shoulders as she soaks in the view.
this moment evokes the same mood as rapunzel’s early scenes in tangled, when she looks out of her tower window at the beautiful world outside.
notice even the echoes of the tower landscape in the landscape outside of corona in the series: the lines of the cliffs on the left side of both shots are the same, and the colors of the wildflowers in the series landscape echo the colors of the flowers kept on the windowsill of rapunzel’s tower (here’s a better screencap of those, for comparison’s sake:)
anyway, the point of all this is to establish that rapunzel, despite having been freed from her tower, still feels trapped in her present circumstances. seeing the lanterns and finding her true family didn’t cure her restlessness but has instead intensified her wanderlust, and she once again finds herself in the position of sitting inside a wall and staring out at the world she isn’t allowed to explore.
the key difference in the series is that, where eugene’s role in the film was to help rapunzel escape her tower and seek out her dreams in the wider world...
...in the series, he has become an anchor tethering rapunzel to her life in the palace, and we see this illustrated symbolically when his interruption is what pulls rapunzel away from the view beyond the walls.
now, this is a wonderful shift, because it doesn’t grow out of any arbitrary or out-of-character behavior in eugene but is, rather, an artifact of their changed circumstances. eugene still values rapunzel’s freedom and happiness just as much as he did in the film, but he’s oblivious to how stifled and trapped rapunzel feels within the coronan walls, and he’s oblivious because, a) rapunzel hasn’t told him, and b) he’s having a great time living in the lap of luxury with zero responsibilities, and c) that blinds him to the amount of pressure that is being put on rapunzel’s shoulders. he isn’t in tune with what rapunzel is feeling or why, and that damages his ability to act as a source of support for her in this stressful transitional time in her life.
this is the core conflict of their relationship, not just in before ever after, but over the course of the entire show. which is brilliant! it is so realistic for somebody like eugene—a 23-year-old man who has lived an exciting, adventurous life while cultivating a self-absorbed, devil-may-care attitude and is now ready to settle down and live a nice, peaceful, happily-boring married life with the woman he loves—to have this kind of incompatibility with somebody like rapunzel—an 18-year-old woman who has been sheltered and abused her entire life and who is only just beginning to figure out who she is and what she wants and is absolutely not ready to settle down and spend the rest of her life staying put and doing the same things every single day. they’re at completely different stages of their lives! of course there’s a tremendous gap between their expectations and desires within the context of their relationship and of course this causes problems as soon as this mismatch in priorities rises to the surface!
as a final note, as this scene on the wall wraps up, it introduces something that is... something of a recurring theme in before ever after, namely that things keep interrupting new dream kisses before they can happen.
in this case, it’s the captain—having caught up with rapunzel and eugene—telling them their little game is over and that it���s time for rapunzel to hustle back to the palace so she won’t miss the welcoming ceremony. this is another important beat in establishing the basic interpersonal conflict here; it’s not just that the kiss is interrupted, but that the kiss is interrupted by a manifestation of the strict requirements of rapunzel’s role as princess, which at the end of the day is what’s pulling rapunzel and eugene apart. i will talk about this more once i get to the proposal, but suffice it to say for now that the very same force that is stifling rapunzel and making her long for escape is what ruins this little romantic new dream moment, and that gets directly at the core of the conflict here.
rapunzel has all these factors weighing her down and making her uncomfortable in her position inside corona, and none of them have anything to do with eugene, but they still create this stress on her relationship with eugene, because—due to his own comfort, his own readiness to settle down, and his current lack of empathy for rapunzel’s situation*—he’s blind to how unhappy rapunzel is in their current situation, and that makes hamstrings his ability to provide the emotional support she needs right now.
(*something i will talk about more in my next segment; for now, the tl;dr here is even though eugene loves rapunzel deeply, and even though she drastically changed his outlook on life in a matter of days, it takes much longer for habits of personality to change, and in before ever after eugene is still very deeply entrenched in his self-absorbed flynn rider persona. the core of his character growth over the course of the series is his journey of growing out of that persona as he becomes more emotionally open and less content to laze about enjoying his luxuries every day.)
TO CONCLUDE: i love the opening sequence of before ever after because it is a microcosm of the interpersonal conflict within the new dream relationship. it establishes very neatly and succinctly that the love rapunzel and eugene have for each other, though genuine and deep, is not enough, and that they have serious work to do in bridging the gaps between them in order for the relationship to become lasting and strong. the journey of new dream over the course of the series is one from this starting position of fragility and miscommunication hidden just beneath the surface to the end point of two people who are in tune with each other and understand each other perfectly, and all of that is built on the foundation set down in these first few minutes of the very first episode.
33 notes
·
View notes
Text
How ‘Frozen 2′ Could Have Been Better
I didn’t care that much for Frozen 2. I didn’t hate it, but there was enough stuff that brought it down, that I can’t really say that I liked it either. So, for this review, instead of just saying what I liked and disliked, I’m going to do a little rewriting with explanations of why I would have preferred my version. Hopefully, it comes off as more than bias. Obviously, SPOILERS ahead.
The beginning I did like and I wouldn’t change most of it. We see Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff getting along together. There’s a song about celebrating autumn and everything. The one change I would make would be that we show Anna going around town helping the townspeople in a way that showed she understood their needs.
Other than that, everything stays the same, including the charades scene, up until “Into the Unknown” and the elemental disaster that forces Arendelle to evacuate. It’s here that most of the diverging happens. Mainly, when it comes to going on the quest to find out what is happening, Elsa and Anna don’t argue about whether Anna should go with her but rather who goes and who stays to protect the people. Anna claims that she is more of an adventurer and more qualified to go out and find what is the problem is. Elsa claims that the problem is magical and she’s the only one who knows anything about magic, so Anna, even if she figured out what was happening, wouldn’t be able to do anything. Elsa also points out that Anna has a better grasp on what the kingdom needs than she because Anna is always among them while Elsa, though does mingle often, has still been keeping herself distant.
Eventually, it’s decided, much to Anna’s and Kristoff’s worry, that Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf will stay in Arendelle to make sure the people are safe, and Elsa and Sven would go alone. Olaf isn’t sure why they should split up, but stays with Anna nonetheless.
This would be a much better version for several reasons. First, it sets up a more convincing plot line for Anna becoming queen. As the movie is, the people of Arendelle are forced out of their homes, but almost immediately, the queen and princess leave them. Sure, it’s to fix the problem, but that still leaves them to rule themselves. Not a great look for the royalty.
Second, the real film showed Elsa getting stronger when she left her sister. I don’t know if that was intentional, but that is what happened. My version could explore the idea that their familial, sisterly bond wouldn’t break because of distance. Which is what they showed at the end anyway. My version would explore it better, not just show it.
Thirdly, it would improve Kristoff’s story. As most of the characters, he had a shtick and that’s it. There really was no character development with him (or Anna, or Olaf, but it was more obvious with him. He was only there to try and fail at his proposal and sing an ill-fitting 80′s ballad.).
It would also better Olaf’s story line. He was so annoying in this one, but here his annoying nature would have a purpose, which I’ll get to later.
Finally, it would allow for better development of characters that were just kinda pushed to the side shortly after their introduction. Mainly almost everyone caught in the enchanted forest. We got Mattias the Arendelle guard and Yelena the tribe leader with some character, but for the most part everyone else was forgettable. Even Ryder and Honeymaren were mostly forgotten by the movie after the main crew left.
Anyway, back to my revision.
So, why is Sven going with Elsa? Well, a few reasons. Anna won’t let her go without a friend going along. Olaf won’t be that helpful, and Kristoff would be more helpful to the townspeople, which leaves Sven. Also, Elsa will need help carrying everything.
This would highlight an aspect of the films that should have had more light than what they got. Despite being different species, Sven and Kristoff are brothers. So just as the sisters are being separated, so, too, the brothers. This will lead to a heart wrenching scene where Sven and Kristoff say goodbye to each other. They’ve been together since they were children, so it’s a big deal that they are separating now.
The queen and reindeer finally leave after everyone says their goodbyes.
From here on out, the movie would go back and forth from Elsa and Sven’s adventure and Anna and Kristoff’s story with some Olaf thrown in.
Elsa and Sven come up to the entrance to the forest, Elsa does her thing. As they travel, they come across the Northuldra reindeer. They’re different then what Sven is used to. More free. Even though he never really thought of himself as not free and has enjoyed his life with Kristoff, he still admires these new reindeer and their lifestyle.
That’s when they come across the Northuldra tribe. They are, like Elsa, magic users, but none use ice magic. They are greeted warmly by the tribe’s leader, Yelena. After a brief intro into who they are, they are taken care of by the siblings Ryder and Honeymaren.
Ryder, who is in charge of the reindeer, takes care of Sven and introduces him to the other reindeer. Ryder talks to the reindeer in a similar manner as Kristoff, with just as much understanding. The reindeer take on Sven as if he’s already one of their group. Sven loves it, but is sad that Kristoff isn’t there.
Elsa is seen by Honeymaren who is very much infatuated by Elsa’s ice magic. Elsa, in turn, is fascinated by Honeymaren’s wind magic. Honeymaren is also a bit of a magical scholar, and thinks she knows what Elsa is hearing.
The two of them, along with Sven, traverse the land trying to find the source of the voice.
Back in Arendelle, Anna is checking on the people. They have set up temporary shelter, with the help of the trolls, and have fires going to protect against the cold. While Anna is doing her rounds, Kristoff is resting, looking at the ring he wanted to give to Anna. Olaf asks him what he’s holding, and Kristoff tells him. Olaf wonders why he doesn’t just ask Anna to marry him, and Kristoff tells him that she’s busy and shouldn’t be distracted by their engagement when she’s trying to help the kingdom. Olaf doesn’t really understand, but ultimately leaves the decision to Kristoff. The two go and help Anna.
The next day, Anna and Kristoff realize the supplies are getting low. Anna decides to ask for help from a neighboring kingdom (possible Tangled reference maybe), but realizes that they wouldn’t get what they need soon enough. She decides to take Kristoff and go back into the city to get more supplies. They ask the people who has anything that the town could use, and more than a few offer up what they can. Olaf is told to stay with the people, but as they enter the town, they realize he followed them. He tells them he doesn’t want to lose any more friends. They realize he doesn’t think Elsa will come back and allow him to come along.
Elsa, Honeymaren, and Sven are travelling the woods, Elsa and Honeymaren learning about each other and clearly enjoying each other’s company, when they are accosted by soldiers. Honeymaren realizes that they have accidentally wondered into their territory. As they are being led to their camp, Elsa realizes they are wearing old uniforms with Arendelle’s colors.
When they reach the camp, the soldiers’ leader, Mattias, scolds them for treating the girls with disrespect. He apologizes for them, claiming they keep forgetting they aren’t fighting a war anymore. He recognizes Honeymaren and assures her she will be unharmed and will be allowed to go back to the tribe. He notes that Elsa isn’t from the tribe and asks her who she is. She tells him she is the queen of Arendelle. Many of the men laugh, saying they saw her use magic and that no one in Arendelle could use magic. However, Mattias seems to understand something and asks of her parents. She tells them who they are and that they died at sea. Mattias tells her he knew them and is saddened by their loss. This seemed to confirm her story, so he genuflects. Most other soldiers follow, but there are still those that don’t believe her.
Elsa and Mattias talk inside his tent with Honeymaren standing to the side and Sven waiting outside, glaring at the soldiers, trying to act tough in front of the horses. He tells her what happened to the city and how she found herself in the enchanted forest. He explains the situation that caused the rift between the soldiers and the tribe. He knows there was a disagreement between The king and the tribe’s leader at the time, but he didn’t know what. In a flash, the two started fighting. This caused a fight between the villagers and the soldiers. When the barrier was discovered, the soldiers set up camp to wait it out, but do to a lack of resources, they had to move farther and farther away until they found the spot they were at. After hearing about Honeymaren’s idea of what’s happening and her plan for fixing it, he lets the two go, warning them, especially Elsa, that it will be dangerous.
As Anna and her team travel through the city, they are a little creeped out by the emptiness. There are flareups from the elemental attack, which startles them, especially Olaf. Anna suggests he tell the group some of the facts he’s been learning about with all his reading. Kristoff agrees. We then get a montage of Olaf’s facts and Anna and Kristoff becoming increasingly agitated with their own plan. Anna watches Olaf while Kristoff checks the houses for supplies.
The two get attacked by fire, and are unsure what to do. As a line of fire comes at them, they dodge only for us to realize that they were standing in front of a light post. The flame runs into it knocking himself out. It turns out to be a salamander. Anna realizes all the elements haven’t been acting as randomly as she originally thought and believes they are all some kind of elemental creatures. She only sees the salamander though.
While Elsa and Honeymaren are passing through a plain, the wind starts picking up. Elsa thinks it’s Honeymaren being playful, but as the winds pick up she turns to see Honeymaren struggling to control it. Having a feeling, Elsa uses her magic to slow the wind down. Honeymaren is surprised that she could do that. She believes it was an elemental that attacked them, then describes what the elementals are.
Later, the three have to cross a river. They make a makeshift boat for the crossing. Like the wind, the water started acting up. Honeymaren is thrown overboard and is dragged in a different direction, landing on the wrong shore. Before Elsa can call out to her, Honeymaren gestures to stay quiet. She points to nearby hills and Elsa and Sven realize that they are actually rock giants. These are the Earth elementals. Honeymaren uses her magic to spell out a message with leaves. The first is “FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS” and the second is “I’LL MEET YOU THERE.” Elsa nods and continues on, worry on her face.
As Anna and her team return to the camp, Kristoff, being the dork he is, does something goofy to bring Anna’s spirits up, trips and falls. Unknown to him, the ring falls out of his pocket. Anna picks it up and immediately realizes what it is, but like Olaf, wonders why he hasn’t asked yet. She plans to confront him at camp.
Before she does, the salamander wakes up, but before he can return to the city, Anna feeds him. He immediately changes his mind, and becomes much like a pet for the princess. Kristoff is too busy passing out supplies to confront about the ring. She gets busy doing the same.
Elsa expresses her concerns with Sven. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do, her instincts failing her. She misses Honeymaren, which she clarifies is only as a guide and a friend, far too flustered for Sven to believe. She also misses everyone in Arendelle. She says she’s glad that Sven is with her, hesitates, then attempting to mimic Kristoff, says as Sven that he’s glad to be there too. It turns out to be more embarrassing for the two of them, and Elsa apologizes. Sven gestures his agreement anyway.
Elsa then hears the voice again and, with a little exploring, comes to the coast and sees an island. She senses a great power coming from the island. It seems to be creating storm-like waves. She uses her ice powers to try to cross, but it proves impossible. After one particularly strong push out to sea, she falls deep into the water and sees the water spirit, a horse-like being. She tries to tame it, struggling, but in the end she succeeds and rides around the stormy waters, ecstatic at her success. She manages to convince the elemental to calm the seas and she creates an ice bridge for Sven, who seems a little intimidated by the magical steed.
Kristoff is talking to a bunch of people, again too busy for Anna to talk to him, Olaf continues to bring up random facts and bouts of wisdom he read about. Given the frustration she has been having trying to talk to Kristoff, she snaps at Olaf and storms off. She finds a cave that appears to be made of ice, reminding her of Elsa, and hunkers down in it.
Elsa and Sven come across a wrecked ship that looks like the one her parents died on. The ship is empty, but a little exploring shows that it was the same ship. She finds her mother’s journal and finds out that she was originally from the Northuldra tribe. In fact, it was her that saved Elsa and Anna’s father. She tells the story of how the tribe and kingdom had made a treaty to work together with Arendelle using the magic provided by the Northuldra. However, King Runeard, Agnarr’s father and Elsa and Anna’s grandfather, wanted to control the magic. Northuldra refused and a fight broke out. The breaking of the treaty caused the barrier around the forest. Iduna (the girls’ mother) barely got Agnarr out in time, but he was so distraught about everything. The two went to the trolls for help, and they used a spell to have Agnarr to forget what exactly happened. When Iduna tried to use her magic, the people who she tried to help were afraid of her, which caused her to hide who she was.
When Elsa showed her magic, Iduna was worried she would be shunned like she was, so they kept her busy inside the palace. She was curious about Elsa using ice. After what happened with Anna, she looked deeper into the manner and discovered information about the fifth spirit. She knew Elsa must be connected somehow, and she and Agnarr went to the island to find help.
Suddenly, Honeymaren shows up, proud that she found them, and thankful for the ice bridge. Elsa rushes to her and hugs her tight. She then starts to cry and explains about her parents. Honeymaren holds Elsa and comforts her.
The three enter the island caves.
While Anna is sitting on the cave floor, Olaf comes in. He apologizes to Anna for being annoying, but Anna brushes it away, apologizing herself for snapping. She confesses that she misses Elsa and wishes she could talk to Kristoff about the ring. Olaf confesses that he knew about Kristoff’s plan and that he held off proposing to Anna to help the kingdom. She realizes that he put off his own happiness for Arendelle, which would make him an honorable king, and now can’t wait for him to ask her.
In the island caves, Elsa can feel the energy of the elementals. It starts to become overpowering. She hears the voice again, but hears other voices as well, voices that appear to be saying something. She rushes ahead, finding it hard to concentrate and finds herself alone on an odd design that references the four elements on the outside and another on the inside. There’s writing that on the wall that says only the one who can unite tribe and kingdom in love can be the fifth spirit. However, while reading it, she accidentally steps in the center of the design, and becomes frozen. This is witnessed by Honeymaren and Sven.
Honeymaren rushes to the now frozen Elsa, but can do nothing to save her. She cries over her. Elsa remains frozen. Sven and Honeymaren leave.
In the ice cave, Olaf says he’s becoming sleepy. In front of Anna, he loses his magic and turns into a normal snowman.
Honeymaren and Sven are walking down the ice bridge when they realize it’s collapsing into the sea. They rush to get to shore.
Arendelle has another attack of elements. Kristoff and the rest of the team try to keep everyone safe, but it’s actually the salamander who is able to fight off everything. Eventually the attack stops, and everyone is safe.
As the elements get more violent, Yelena realizes that the village is going to need the help of the soldiers. Before she leaves to discuss it with Mattias, he and the soldiers arrive, having come to the same conclusion, and believing they would need the magic of the village to survive. Working together, they do just that.
Kristoff finds Anna in the cave, trying to keep Olaf cold to stop him from melting. Kristoff asks why Elsa’s magic isn’t working, and the realization hits Anna hard, knocking her down. Kristoff also realizes it, and comforts Anna.
Honeymaren and Sven return to the tribe and Honeymaren tells everyone what happened to Elsa.
Kristoff is standing in front of the people of Arendelle telling them of the loss of Elsa.
The people of both mourn the loss, and their cries reach the heavens. Then another elemental attack comes.
Fires begin to rage around the village, and those that can use fire magic find their abilities to be utterly useless. When the soldiers try to escape with some of the village children, at the request of the villagers, they find that they are completely surrounded. The fires close in on the village.
While the wind blows everything every which way, it is relatively harmless, but then some of the townsfolk realize there is a huge tidal wave heading straight for them. There is no time to escape.
As the fire reaches the edge of the village, it begins to go out. It turns to steam, starting in one location and going all around. When the villagers and soldiers realize they had been saved, they celebrate, forgetting the distance that had grown between them. Honeymaren smiled when she realized there was snow falling, believing she knew who had saved them.
As the wave approached the coast of Arendelle, the people huddled together. Kristoff noticed a strange sight. A woman on horseback was riding on the water itself. He almost didn’t believe what he was seeing. He asks Anna if she was seeing what he was. She realizes immediately who is there.
Elsa uses her knew found water abilities to stop the wave and calm the seas. In her presence, the other elements calm, and the salamander gets excited.
As the town watches and cheers, Olaf waddles up to Anna and Kristoff and asks what he missed. Anna picks him up and laughs with tears in her eyes.
When Elsa reaches shore and dismounts from the water elemental, Anna tackles her. The two make up for lost time, telling each other what happened. Elsa comes to a conclusion. She realizes that Anna is really the queen that Arendelle needs.
At the Northundra village, Mattias is speaking with his soldiers. When he is done, they approach the tribe and genuflect in apology for how they treated them. Mattias knew it was King Runear who struck the first blow but was too ashamed to do anything about it. Yelena, speaking for the tribe, forgives them and wishes for the animosity to end. The two groups celebrate.
Elsa, this time with Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf, revisits the tribe. Some soldiers are returning to Arendelle, but many are staying to live in the forest with the tribe to help make up for everything, despite the villagers telling them it won’t be necessary. Sven and Kristoff have a heart to heart, with Sven deciding to stay with the tribe. Ryder walks by with some of the reindeer and talks to them like Kristoff. Kristoff asks if he sounds like that, which Sven nods yes. Kristoff thinks he sounds awesome.
Anna gets along well with Honeymaren. When she is called away, Elsa asks Anna what she thinks of Honeymaren. Anna gives Elsa a big smile and says she doesn’t think Elsa should marry someone she just met. Elsa blushes and playfully shoves Anna.
As Anna and the rest leave, Elsa, the tribe and the remaining soldiers wave them off. Anna and Kristoff are holding hands. Elsa and Honeymaren are doing the same.
Some mid/post-credit scenes could be:
Anna walking beside Kristoff then stepping back, saying he dropped something. When Kristoff turns around, Anna is on her knee with the ring. After saying yes, Anna, forgetting the ring was originally meant for her, tries to eagerly put the ring on Kristoff’s finger, painfully succeeding.
Sven getting to know the other reindeer, then seeing the girl of his dreams.
Elsa and Honeymaren riding the water elemental to go to charades with Anna and Kristoff.
Elsa and Honeymaren leaving the ice palace. Honeymaren is impressed with all of the creatures that Elsa had made. Elsa apparently reiterating that most of them was by accident. She then calls to Olaf. Cut to Olaf telling all the creatures from Frozen and the shorts that he’ll be back to tell the a story or teach them about something.
Anyway, I’ve been working on this for hours, which, since I didn’t even have the idea to do something like this today, l wasn’t planning on spending so much time on it. I actually thought I would just do a short summary of what I was thinking, but I should have known better. 🤣 Hope you like!
#review#frozen#frozen 2#my rewrite#frozen 2 rewrite#rewrite#writing#lgbtq#lgbtq writers#Disney#elsa#anna#kristoff#sven#honeymaren
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
f2
Major Frozen 2 Spoilers Below!
You’d never be able to tell by reading this that I’m a whole-ass adult, AND a writer :’)
HERE’S SOME THOUGHT BLURBS
• Vuelie smacked with nostalgia holy sHIT
• Pretty snowflakes proves this movie is Frozen
• BABY ANNA
• "wait, what?"
• baby anna with attitude
• snuggles
• iduna/ERW has an amazing voice??
• "you'll be drowned" foreshadowing??
• Elsa freezes the railing and just awkwardly leaves it?? a queen
• ANNNAAA
• Anna and Olaf
• Olaf being poetic??
• poor sweet anna isnt lonely anymore :')
• SOOMMEE THINGS NEVER CHANGE this was catchy as heck
• "holding on tight to you" that kristanna twirl SENT ME
• "irredeemable monster" "greatest mistake of your life" "WOULDNT EVEN KISS YOU"
• AURORA
• Kristoff getting prepared to spend a LONG time in that room, if u know what im saying ;;;)))
• bedtime snuggles and it's now canon that EA call each other "Darling"
• anna representing women who drool n snore, and elsas a FUCKING MOUTH BREATHER
• elsa's grumpy face >:( (she’s so cute what the heck)
• INTO THE UNKNOOOWWNNNN ft aurora
• uh oh kingdom's in danger again THANKSELSA
• KA helping the citizens as a true Queen and King would (sPOILERS)
• "youve been hearing this voice and u didnt think to tell me" the offence is beautiful
• elsa's pouty hesitation before she tells anna what happened
• ELSA'S FACE the entire time KA & Olaf plan to go with her on the adventure, she was NOT having any of it
• olaf being annoying for x minutes straight
• anna ready to get dicked up on a sleigh ride even tho her sis is sleeping 5 feet away from her lmao MOOD
• "crazy? you didnt say i was crazy - you think im c R A Z Y?" HER FACE SENT ME
• kristoff bumbling everything RIP
• aurora is back
• elsa runs in heels through rocky land and somehow doesnt break her ankles, 10/10 (i mean anna did the same but it’s expected of her lmao)
• olaf being annoying pt2 (sorry, he’s cute ig)
• anna getting mad at the mist
• anna walking towards the cliff to view the dam and looking like an autumn goddess
• sven is a terrible wingman
• "WE WILL DIE" good job kristoff
• elsa not caring about anna's worry
• olaf had a song here i think??
• WIND
• elsa looks good when messy idc idc
• "THAT'S MY SISTER" that's an outtake line from Frozen!!!!
• surprise statues
• anna rips a sword out of ice with her bare hands n no one thinks anything of it
• northuldra ppl
• honeymaren eyefucking elsa (we see u)
• olaf's funniest scene lmao
• "one with power, and one powerless" ANNAS FACE OF OFFENCE HAHAHAHA IT'S OKAY BB YOU HAVE THE POWER OF LOVE
• "oh, anna" oh mattias, we feel u
• fire spirit
• ANNA COUGHING
• BRUNNIIIIIII
• bruni & elsa head tilts
• "they're all looking at us, arent they" yes elsa because ur talking to a fucking salamander
• anna gets mad cuz elsa gets mad cuz anna ran into fire cuz elsa ran into fire
• iduna was northuldra (neat)
• vuelie but different???
• kristoff made a friend!!
• insecure anna + a mutual lacking communication = :(
• a sad failed proposal
• A SHIPWRECK¿?
• this is v dark for disney holy shi
• the horror in elsa's voice "what were they doing in the dark sea?!"
• they watch their parent's final moments
• the horror in iduna's voice "the waves are too high"
• this is a kid's movie, yes?
• elsa flees, anna follows
• THE GUILT ohmygosh poor elsa :(
• anna tries v hard, but i can only imagine her own agony??? she's tryna take care of elsa but who's taking care of anna?? :((((
• elsa becomes manipulative?? JUST EXPLAIN THAT IT'S DANGEROUS AND REQUIRES MAGIC
• elsa does the thing
• anna and olaf are v angry (same)
• anna loses her cloak & shows her beautiful jacket?? thank u anna
• DARK SEA
• elsa battles the ocean that swallowed her parents
• Nokk tries to drown her?? dragging her through the water by her hand was INTENSE
• i know she doesnt get cold n thats fine but damn homegirl must REALLY workout at home (the shoulders prove it) but she swam for how long and didn't lose energy???
• SHOW YOURSELF I CRIED
• the ice was so beautiful and she looked so free n happy, loose hair n no shoes
• the song was amazing holy heck
• IDUNA WAS THE SIREN, I CALLED IT, HELLO THANK U
• elsa's literally like "ok boomer" at her grandfather who's an ass
• she goes too far into ahtohallen
• inappropriate but ohmygod the ice detail on her skin when she was freezing was crazy??? her hair got whiter n all that BUT THE SNOWFLAKES ON HER SKIN, that was unbelievable
• surprise surprise old white guy in power kills innocent poc
• elsa freezes like anna did, cuz anna was frozen and elsa is frozen 2 (heh)
• back to the cave with anna and olaf
• anna knows what has to be done to set things right because she’s the hero and always has to make the painful sacrifices
• anna sets off to do whats right but OLAF
• rip olaf
• anna sits in the cold ALL FUCKING NIGHT DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT, I AM NOT OKAY
• the next right thing B R O K E me. kbell captures such agony so beautifully ohmygod, it was incredible. easily the best song in the franchise.
• "SO I'LL WALK THROUGH THIS NIGHT, stumbling blindly towards the light" her voice
• anna finds her courage to leave the cave
• "when it's clear that everything will NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN" CAN YOU HEAR ME SOBBING AT THE ABSOLUTE ANGUISH IN HER VOICE
• this woman has lost everything and SHES STILL GOING, YES ANNA, GO
• giants!!!
• anna mimicking the behaviour she was against for most of the movie
• "I'M HERE, WHAT DO YOU NEED?" this is so important
• no questions asked, this is what's happening, kristoff is the real mvp
• mattias lets anna destroy the dam
• anna becomes suicidal?????? girl stop i-
• the dam falls
• ANNA ALMOST FALLS-
• wait mattias has her
• and kristoff has her!!
• and she looks ready to keep crying now that the adrenalin is gone
• ELSA THAWS but does she REALLY do the right thing??? idk i think she should've let the wave destroy whatever was in its path, otherwise whats the point? wouldve had better symbolism
• the Northuldra people are free and happy but poor anna is still sad :( idk why people were saying she got over elsas death too quickly when homegirl was never gonna smile again
• "i'm sorry i left you behind. i was just so desperate to protect her."
• "it's okay. my love is not fragile."
• anna tries to continue on, imagine what was going through her head AHHH
• wait there she is
• e l s a
• on a horse
• anna slides down the cliffside, elsa slides off that horse in a v godly manner
• ANNA REPRESENTS WOMEN WHO UGLY CRY, THANK U ANNA
• elsa is lowkey emotionless but honestly do we expect anything else from her by this point? (no shade hahahaha)
• "a bridge has two sides, and mother has two daughters" yes thank u for making anna important
• so is elsa a ghost now orrrr
• WHO CARES, KRISTANNA PROPOSAL
• we were v robbed of that kiss tho
• anna's squeal of pure joy when asked
• sven representing all of us
• "do u wanna build a snowman" bitch it's been like 16 years, ur a bit late but OKAY
• olaf is back
• GROUP HUG
• honeymaren wants elsa to stay "because it's where she belongs" ;;;;))))))
• elsa realises anna would be a better queen
• QUEEN ANNA
• Q U E E N A N N A
• YESSSSSS
• we're robbed of the coronation but that's fine ig
• kristoff in fancy clothes???
• "i prefer you in leather anyway" so anna is a top, nice to know
• olaf's comment on kristoff probably not being able to "last an hour" ;;;))))) not if annas a top LMAO STOP
• mattias found his person, congrats
• anna is the people's queen
• a statue is revealed, baby iduna is v cute
• elsa is in the forest with bruni n everyone else
• friday is gamenight
• elsa rides off into the sunset i guess??
• THE END
• oh and olaf has an ending scene
• "elsa DEAD"
• "olaf DEAD"
• "anna cries"
• everyone cries
okay thanks for reading lmao bye
152 notes
·
View notes
Text
Collaborations #1 (’Shriekback are Seeing Other People’)
Well, collaboration is everything really innit? No man is an island, not even the ones who pretend they are. That’s what I reckon. Merging somebodys’ talents and energies with yours. What a thing. The very stuff of life.
Still, it can be a fractious business: politics will come into it. LIke: who’s in charge here? Who gets to say whether your bit is better than my bit? And how do we work that shit out? A microcosm of the world or what?
Undeterred, we seem to do it (collaborate) quite a lot. And these are some pretty successful tunes, I would say. Good for us. Bold and resolute Shriekback!
So there’s Hope, right?
(BA)
MART’S TRACKS:
DROP BY DROP Barker/Burridge
Taken from my Album" Water and Stone." Exploring my rolling Gtr and groove in 7 with the wonderfully talented musician cellist Emily Burridge.
Inspired by the miracle of water, its rhythm, its music, its journey, its myths, its poetry and beauty
FLYING SAUCER Barker/ Roedelius/Noah1
Lovely to have met and worked with the master of Ambience, Hans Joachim Roedelius for the Album Fibre.
Recorded up in the hills of Shropshire with George Taylor (Noah1) and Jez coed
This piece was inspired by my riff Im playing on the Hang Drum, hence the title "Flying Saucer"
GOLDEN MOON Barker/Young
Taken from my mini Album” Blue” Talitha Rise.
This was my first big endeavour into the musical spiritual world and collaboration with Jo beth young.
We are joined on the Riti by Juldeh Camara.
PILGRIM`S WAY Barker/Adams
My new project/collaboration still ongoing with the mighty talent of Justin Adams .
This first piece inspired by ancient walks.
This new whole album partly inspired by the writing of Robert Macfarlane "the old ways"
SANDLINES. Barker/ Adams
Second piece inspired the Ancient paths of the desert.
THE LAKE Barker/Young taken from the album" Abandoned Orchid House” Talitha Rise
Another collaboration with Jo beth Young and another piece in 7!
Intense, energetic and rich with riddles.
THE SELKIE. Barker / Pynn
Second Piece taken from my Album "Water and Stone”
Inspired by the Myths and stories of the Selkie. With the magical multi instrumentalist Nick Pynn on Violin.
CARL’S TRACKS:
Words Fail Me
with AMANDA KRAVIT
(Barratt/Marsh)
David Barratt and I were introduced to Amanda by John Mrvos, one of the A&R team at EastWest Atlantic in New York (Happyhead’s label) - she was his girlfriend and he wanted to get her recorded, basically, so we came up with this. Dave had done some kind of publishing deal that allowed him to sample the company catalogue, hence Ravi Shankar playing sitar all over it. Backing vocals by Bill Clift; some of the drums sound like Jim Kimberley, sampled from HH sessions (1992ish.)
The Longest Goodbye
with BILL CLIFT
(Clift/Marsh)
I’ve written loads with Bill under various banners, of course. This is a mid-90s demo recorded in Bill’s flat in Greenwich. BVs by Stella Clifford and Marilyn Gentle, bass (I think) by Gary Brady… not sure who did the wibbly organ. This song was later recorded by Bill’s band Fuzzbuddy, re-titled Killing Me Now - it’s just been re-released as part of their Complete Studio Recordings compilation.
THE PALACE DOGS
with GEOFF WOOLEY
I’ve collaborated with Geoff Woolley since Out On Blue Six, and in school bands even before that. These two tracks, from around 1995, are both built from sampled TV shows (and therefore subject to all sorts of potential copyright issues…).
Queen of Peoples’ Hearts
(Marsh/Woolley)
The self-styled QOPH’s Panorama special, cut up and pumped up with added Dario Argento and a spot of Jeremy Paxman. The Original is all-electronic; the Guitar Version has not only mine and Geoff’s rhythm bits but some wildfire lead from Steve Bolton (Atomic Rooster, Paul Young, The Who etc. and currently fronting the mighty Dead Man’s Corner). Take yer pick.
Crazy Dames
(Marsh/Woolley)
The main voice and piano on here are from a 1961 Twilight Zone episode called The Midnight Sun, in which the Earth is knocked out of orbit and is spiralling towards the Sun… it gets hot. Other vocals by Stella Clifford and Marilyn Gentle.
GASWERKS
The Ying Tong Song
(Milligan)
Basically the same format as The Palace Dogs with the addition of Bill Clift, whose idea it was to knock out a dance version of The Goons’, er, classic. Dig that crazy rhythm, indeed. We were told the novelty song market was a hard one to crack… by the singer of Black Lace, who should know, I suppose…
WOOLLEY/MARSH
The Girlfriends Of Dorian Gray
(Barratt/Marsh/Woolley)
David Barratt came up with the conceit of a modern Dorian Gray who preserves his youth (or immaturity) not by having a grotesquely ageing portrait in the attic but by having an ever-changing string of girlfriends who absorb the consequences of his many flaws and are discarded one after another. Dave sketched out the chorus and then proposed that he, I and Deni Bonet (NY-based violinist and writer that we’ve worked with on various projects) should write our own versions of the story, possibly with the idea of creating some kind of meta-version combining them all. That never happened, but I like the track Geoff and I came up with and the lyric is nice and tricksy - shades of Costello, maybe, if I say so myself.
You’re The Only One
(Marsh/Woolley)
A re-write of a Happyhead demo, switching New York electronica for some 90s Britpop vibes, it sounds like. Bit of a kinky ménage à trois scenario with reasonably loud guitars. Nice.
BARRY’S TRACKS
The Frances & Martine poems, with Hilda Sheehan (2014)
part 1: GLOW, GOOSE, CORN-REMOVER
part 2: COAT, ARM, KNOB OF BUTTER
I met Hilda Sheehan - through the (surprisingly vibey) Swindon poetry scene when I was stationed back there for 10 years in '04. She was often the star turn at their spoken word events and, I thought, had the mark of a real artist in that she came with her own self-contained world (’magical realist Northern UK kitchen sink’, if I had to describe it).
I thought it would be fun to 'set' (as they say) some of her poems to music and so I did. From Hilda's considerable oeuvre, I picked the Frances and Martine series - I liked F&M's mutually abrasive dependence - the key ingredient in any sitcom - and the succinct and sometimes brutal nature of each of their adventures.
Dame Hilda Sheehan
The Anaxaton6 EP with Mike Tournier (2013)
I first worked with Mike Tournier (Big Mike as opposed to Little Mike - these were Flukes' Contrasting Mikes at the time) as producer on their OTO album c.94. Techno outfit Fluke apparently liked them some Olde Shriekback (they had worked previously with Wendy and Sarah) and thought I might add something to the project.
It turned out that producing a techno band is every bit as awkward as you might imagine (there’s only one computer screen for a start) and we abandoned the collaboration after I'd failed to insert myself into Fluke's process in any useful way (sandwich run doesn't count).
Anyway, we stayed in touch and collaborated rather more successfully on a Fluke/Shriekback tune and performance for MTV.
It was the redoubtable Julian Nugent, Fluke's manager, who got in touch - in 2013 to suggest that Mike and I might like to try knocking up a tune together.
I liked the idea of this straightaway. Mike can produce huge, hi-torque productions and I had an idea of a songwriting approach which I though might complement this. The vocalist would be recognisably the bloke out of Shriekback but CG’d with florid new appendages. I fancied some mad-as-a-rat lyrics (Welcome to their secret sign: Boola Stack! Haunted Lego of the Mind! Boola Stack!) but the music would be slick and vivid and solidly crafted because that's always how Mike rolls. Thus you get something quite absurd being taken very seriously which is, to my mind, the best thing you can possibly have.
extract from the sleeve notes:
BONE MARAUDER tells of a pure love, painful engorgement and hog sorcery.
JUJUGRID (GO LIVE!) wrangles with hedonic guilt, ecclesiastical turpitude and leaves everything else the fuck alone.
BOOLA STACK! - There are so many things to say of Boola Stack that to ennumerate them insults us both.
NO FOOL BOLETUS... let's just be clear about this: you got nothing to hide, there's no need to worry. Be lucky.
Michaele don Turino and Bleary Android are the naked mortals chained to the husky obelisk of ANAXATON6
Anaxaton6 has some videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anaxaton6
Mike Tournier
7 notes
·
View notes
Note
HI JUST UR FRIENDLY REMINDER: U DA BEST! Do you know of any fics where John and Sherlock take their relationship suuuuuper slow? Like just kissing for ages not much intimacy until later in their relationship after lots of talking, consent, etc? Thanks!!!
HI NONNY!!
THANK YOU! You’re too kind!!
You are SO in luck, because I bloody love Slow Burn fics! I’ve done lists in the past and I have a few new ones I can add to it! :D Hope you enjoy these ones!
SLOW BURN / DEV. REL. / FALLING IN LOVE Pt. 3
See also:
Love Confessions / Slow Burn / Dev. Rel. (Fluff Version)
Falling In Love / Slow Burn / Dev. Rel. || [MOBILE POST] (April 2019)
The General Idea by agirlsname (T, 3,022 w., 1 Ch. || Retirement, Promise of Forever / Proposal, POV John, First Kiss, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Soft Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Crying / Emotional Sherlock, Love Confessions, 20 Years of Pining) – After twenty years of friendship, John is used to Sherlock acting weirdly. But the news Sherlock finally brings himself to deliver change the carefully built dynamics between them, and John realises it’s time to act.
You fit me, Sherlock Holmes by orphan_account (G, 10,077 w., 1 Ch. || It’s An Experiment, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Questionable Science) – An unfortunate series of events leads to John accepting being a part of Sherlock’s study in physical intimacy. As the days pass by, John realizes he might be in for more than he bargained for. He doesn’t entirely mind.
London Gods by a_different_equation (E, 11,092 w., 5 Ch. || American Gods Fusion || Magical Realism, Sex Magic, True Love, PTSD John, First Kiss/Time, Marathon Sex, Sensuality, Genie Sherlock, Human John, Internalize Homophobia, Star-Crossed Lovers, Soul Mates) – Sherlock Holmes is a jinn who does not grant wishes. However, when Dr. John H. Watson, recently returned from the war in Afghanistan, gets into his cab by “accident”, it might not even need magic to grant both men their deepest wish: love.
A Silver Sixpence by _doodle (NC-17, 16,400 w., 2 Ch. || LJ Fic || For a Case / Case Fic, Fake Relationship, Humour, Romance, Marriage Proposal, Awkward Idiots, Cuddling, Touching, Kissing, Love Confessions, Bed Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fake Until It’s Not, Schmoop and Fluff, Bottomlock) – “John, we need to get married. It’s for a case, not any romantic notions on my part pertaining to our partnership,” Sherlock said, with brutal honesty, and without even looking up.
You’re On the Air by prettysailorsoldier (M, 20,616 w., 1 Ch. || Unilock, Matchmaking, Radio, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Sherlock POV, Pining Sherlock, Flirting, Bisexual John) – The Consulting Detective and The Woman dominate the airwaves of their university radio station, doling out advice on everything from meeting the parents to sexual positions. When their ratings start to dip before the holidays, however, manager Mike thinks it’s time for some fresh blood, and who better to fill in the gaps than rugby captain–and notorious flirt–John Watson? Part 1 of 25 Days of Johnlock
The Winter Garden by Callie4180 (T, 31,213 w., 13 Ch. || Post-S4, Retirement, Christmas, Slow Burn, Grown-Up Rosie, Parenthood, Rosie’s Cat, Angst with Happy Ending, Holidays, Beekeeping, Magical Realism, Sherlock POV, Sherlock’s Violin, Future Fic, Sussex, Honey, Magical Healing Honey, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Scar, First Kiss, Touching) – As Sherlock nears the end of his career, he’s given the gift of a cottage in Sussex. The honey from the beehives out back is amazing.Almost…magical.
The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl by out_there (E, 32,897 w., 1 Ch. || Past Drug Use, Blowjobs, Toplock, Mentions of Switching, Rough Sex, Background Cases, Sherlock’s Past, Sherlock’s Sexual History, Experienced Sherlock, Past One Night Stands, Fingering, Cuddling, Possessive Sherlock, Paris Holiday, Bed Sharing, Naked Lie-Ins, Bathing Together, Confessions, Worried Sherlock, Laying in Bed All Day, Meddling Mycroft, Naked Lazy Day) – Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John’s head.
carrying up his morning tea by darcylindbergh (E, 34,504 w., 5 Ch. || Post S3, Minor Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Wakes/Funerals, Estranged John, Pining Sherlock, Depression/Insecurity, Slow Burn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Chronic Pain/Injury, Reconciliation, Awkwardness, Loneliness, Scars, Angst With Happy Ending) – His fingers tremble as he dials and he can’t force them steady. Familiar number, even though he hasn’t used it in two years. He isn’t even sure he should be calling it now, but she’d asked. She’d made him promise.
we have never seen a greater day than this by Lediona (T, 36,420 w., 7 Ch. || A Royal Night Out AU || WWII / VE Day, Prince Sherlock, Soldier John, Alternating POV, First Kiss, Bittersweet Ending, Homophobia, Dancing) – Peace. At long last. It’s VE Day and Prince William desires to join the celebrations. It is a night of excitement, danger and the first flutters of romance.
Only To Be With You by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (M, 40,768 w., 4 Ch. || Black Mirror / Future AU || Character Death, Future Technology, Sickness/Cancer/Illness, Heavy Angst with Happy Ending, First Person POV John, Pining John, Heart-Wrenching Angst) – I tell myself that next time I’ll come near this same place again. Wait around for the mysterious stranger in his coat to dash past me, hot on the heels of a new criminal in black. I think this all the way back to my Exit, planning where I’ll wait and what I’ll say when I see him. Scheming on how to get his name. It’s only once I reach the Exit Point door that I realize two hours and forty-five minutes have passed, and I realize that this won’t be the last time I Visit. It won’t be the last time at all.
Guidelines by WithLoweredVoices (M, 43,018 w., 15 Ch. || Winglock || Angels, Fantasy, Angst, BAMF! John, War, Jealous Sherlock, Possessive Sherlock, Jealous John, Falling in Various Ways) – The Good Soldier, one of the oldest and strongest of the fallen, is offered a bargain: to live as John Watson and to Guide a fledgling archangel so that he will stay on the path of good. Of course, Sherlock Holmes has different ideas about his destiny. Fantasy AU. Warnings for violence, occasional gore, and a whole load of hurt and angst.
Hell Sent, Heaven Bound by ConsultingHound (M, 64,381 w, 16 Ch. || Angels / Demons AU || Fallen Angel Sherlock / Angel Cop John, Alternate First Meeting, Slow Burn, Case Fic, John & Lestrade are Friends Before Sherlock, BAMF John, Mind Palace John, Friends to Lovers, John in Denial, Sherlock Picks Out John’s Clothing, Clubbing / Dancing, Mildly Jealous John, Awkwardness, Kidnapping, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Sacrifice, Worried / Anxious Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, Immortal to Mortal) – Ex-War healer and current angelic guard John Watson is not having the best day. He overslept, he’s underpaid, and now there’s someone tagging the Council’s building walls. However things may be about to get interesting: there’s an unusual stranger hanging around (the definition of tall, dark, and handsome), a literal underground cult is brewing, and rumblings are coming from hell. Can he keep his neighbourhood safe, how and why is he being connected to all this, and who the hell is Sherlock Holmes?
Being John Watson-ish by elwinglyre (E, 69,902 w., 17 Ch. || Bodysnatcher AU || Author John, Cranky Sherlock, Angst, Sexual Tension, First Kiss / Time, Falling in Love, BAMF John, Past Soldier John, Feelings, Inside Someone’s Brain, Shy Sherlock, Sherlock Loves John, POV Sherlock, Switchlock, Slow Burn, Internal Dialogue, Mental Turmoil) – When consulting detective Sherlock Holmes steps on one toe too many at a crime scene, he’s consigned to a desk job in an archaic office on the seventh-and-a-half floor of the New Scotland Yard. It’s in this bleak office that Sherlock discovers a portal into the mind of renowned author John Watson. Grander than his mind palace, this new wonderland affords Sherlock new vistas of experimentation. To learn more about the mystery behind the portal, Sherlock seeks out and befriends Watson. But then it all goes wrong when others find the secret portal door—including the man whose brain he visits.
The Adventure of the Silver Scars by tangledblue (NR [M], 142,458 w., 41 Ch. || S3 Fix-It, Post-HLV/ Post-TAB / Canon Compliant, Case Fic, No Baby, Angst, Humour, UST, Slow Burn, Angry John, Reconciliation, Not Nice Mary / Leaving Mary, Dependent Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Caretaker John, Fist Fights, It’s An Experiment, Virgin Sherlock, Dancing, Drugging, John Whump, Pet Names, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Scars) – It’s been thirteen months since Mary shot Sherlock and John finds he’s still pissed off about it. Sherlock had thought everything was settled: John and Mary, domestic bliss. But when John turns up at Baker Street with suitcases, the world’s only consulting detective might not be prepared for the consequences. A new case. Some old scores to settle. Certain danger. Concertos, waltzes, and whisky.
Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.
#steph replies#johnlock fic recs#my fic recs#slow burn#developing relationship#idiots in love#Anonymous#fic rec sunday
135 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
20fifthbaam
sunshine is the coffee cowboy
levis-butterfingers
*•. The Other Woman .•*
aaestheticbabyyy
Bathe In These Aesthetics🌑
mysticpatrolblaze-blog
Untitled
yeppetx
Untitled