#there is also a part of dragon culture that is ingrainned in them about how if one dragon is willing to fall in love and love is

[i-bring-crack]

The world has not done me any better, been rrading 2ha and all i can think about is Ashborn/Antares as Jinhae brainrot:

In their past life Antares had a deep obsession with Ruler Ashborn and the same could be said for the ladder but Ashborn didnt know how to express much of his love and ended up hurting him even more as a result.

Antares wouldnt care for a single moment whenever or not he was constly hurt by how much Ashborn seemed to care for others more than himself or him, whereas Ashborn didnt seem to notice that Antares was deeply in love and tried to see just how far that love truly ran since he wasnt sure that a dragon, much less a fragment of darkness could actually love.

Unfortunatly when he ended up noticing that he had fallen to the dragon's undying devotion, he decided to distance himself and push him aside because Ashborn was more so devoted to the Absolute Being and though that all his faith might shatter if the two actually were to become lovers, since– thats not how they were designed, they are to be rivals not lovers, thats what his god wanted— and so when the time came he fiercely fought with Antares and left him to almost bleed to death.

This is when Antares realized that he should have never tried to chase any kind of love and started to realize thag Ashborn had never loved him in the first place, so from that day on he swore to kill everyone and become the most powerful being in existence so that Ashborn can die at his hands.

And die he did, but only to pass his powers to his sucessor.

Even when he standed a top the world as the strongest being, his new incarnation had killed him, and he swore he would one day destroy him.

But alas he somehow ended up in the body of a child of 12, maybe 13 something like that. It was a girl with no parents, no lineage, no story of her own except for having a strong physique, capable of holding the small remnants of his soul left and somehow still being mentally strong so as to fight off much of his horrible personality.

Thus with all the knowledge in the world about magic, in a world with none of it, and being the emperor of a now ransacked, brutally massacred and destroyed empire, he had no choice but to stay low and find a way to become just as powerful as before and this time destroy Jinwoo!

Since no one liked this girl as much to begin with, Anatres managed to blend his own ambitions with Haeins pretty well and become adapted into society for a good while until, shocker.

Just as he was about to train he was about to heal himself after exterting too much power in the young girl's body to win the race, his old enemy, lover and killer appeared right in front of him.

And yeah, that was definetly Ashborn, kind both in monarch and ruler form, but also with detached eyes watching everyone in the world like a lonesome god, alien to evrrything and at the same time not.

He looked as though he had been at the start of the universe, and at the same time he smiled like a little boy.

Jinwoo went on to heal her calf and Haein asked of him just how he did that, but deep inside other questions arose too, why are you here? Do you know me? What do you want for me? Do you want to kill me again? Hah! I wont let you. This time I shall be the one to send you to your own damn pits of slumber!

And Jinwoo of course replied innocently, not knowing the true soul behind this little girl as he said "Ill tell you everything if you have a race with me."

#solo leveling #sung jin woo #cha hae in #jinhae but haein is bloody obssesed with fucking him and killing him and doesnt know which one she should do #ultimately haein is just completly a mess for jinwoo bc haha her past self was a complete mess for ashborn #there is also a part of dragon culture that is ingrainned in them about how if one dragon is willing to fall in love and love is #reciprocated then the dragons cannot fall back on their world and will forever be bound to that person in life and death. #so instead of marriage and a 'till death do us part' the dragons quite literally trade a piece of their soul with one another #usually half #so as to be bonded spirtually even beyond the end of time #and in every lifetime. #haein and jinwoo are literally just outright the other half of their souls to each other haha #and thats why ahsborn was also able to become a monarch and live with ease. #this WAS part of ABs plan but Asjborn thought he had been secretly been infused with a new power by AB when in fact it was the opposite #he had been infused with half of the fragment of darkness from Antares and Ashborn had in turn given him half the fragment of light #and Thats was also why Antares had been able to be revived #since his soul literally still lingered in Ashborn all his other remnants had to do was find haein and then little by little haein too #would get back the fragments of brightness that antares once had #aka they literally cannot killed each other bc they fuked #and will likely keep fuking in their new lives too haha #okay done

[reviewinghiccup]

RIDERS OF BERK | HTTYD SERIES | HICCUP X ASTRID

Blog Post Series : HICCUP X ASTRID

Title : Animal House

Ep/Season : Episode 3, Season 1 (Riders of Berk)

Premise:

The animals on Berk, the sheep, yak & chickens have yet to accustom themselves to the new occupants… dragons. As such, they’re not producing enough produce in retaliation to the fact. Hiccup is charged w the arduous job to synergise the situation before a horrible storms arrives. Yet a second plot-line catches my eye instead…

Romantic Development :

While it isn’t explicitly out there, and when push comes to shove, we know Hiccup & Astrid like each other. Though they are pretty low-key / inexpressive about their feelings it’s clear somethings brewing beneath the surface. Hiccup will become chief & there is no better chieftess to choose from their tribe and age-group than Astrid. Though neither of them were ever forced to choose each other by virtue of the facts.

Apart from some fraction-of-a-second glances, mostly by Hiccup, their relationship doesn’t fully bloom until much later on, but episodes like these just show you what these two were made of and why their destinies were perfect to begin with.

The episode opens w the two of them racing down a snow peaked mountain. Both equally competitive and playful. This is a side you don’t often see of Astrid. She’s mostly serious, strong and defensive. She’s obviously relaxed around Hiccup, which is why she smiles more, feels free to be herself and even dares to plays loose w the rules when they’re alone.

An accident causes an avalanche to hurl at them. Though they could’ve easily flown away, Toothless’s tail gets stuck and so, Hiccup is stuck. [Side note: I really appreciate how the technology of Toothless’s tail & Hiccup’s inventions develop as their characters do. And you even watch Hiccup tinker around and build a rep w his creations. It’s nice to watch hard work pay off, which you won’t get to see unfold just by watching the films].

Astrid swoop down to try and save them, but they fall into a ravine and while snow pours in to bury them, they seem to have entered a cavity and are quite untouched. Astrid calls out for Hiccup, who immediately holds her. This is where I melt. Though small, considered “unmanly” and even a runt in Viking culture, Hiccup is more man than many romantic leads written. It isn’t the size of his person that makes him big, but the size of his heart.

He immediately takes Astrid into his arms when she’s cold and afraid, though he must equally be. And this tender affection and compassion he has towards people, particularly her, draws her towards him more than any “pseudo-macho” facade could. He always puts the needs of others before his own.

They soon discover that it is because of their dragons that they’re safe, understanding now the ingrained loyalty instilled within the two-way dragon-Viking companionship.

This kinda proves that the timeline of this series kindles quickly after the 1st movie, because it is clear they’re not completely familiar w their dragons yet.

Excited, they convey their new discovery to their friends.

Astrid & Hiccup both love dragons. They have a passion for their pets and an unmistakable love for the beast. The only thing they aren’t sure about yet, are their feelings for each other. And are awkward about them if ever brought up.

My favourite part about the episode and why it is one of my early favourites is because this is the first time you see both Hiccup and Astrid play pivotal roles in dealing w Berk’s affairs. We know they’ll grow into the roles one day, but this is sorta where it all starts.

While it is Hiccups charge to get the animals to work together, Astrid, unlike the other teens is more proactive in helping him. She even tries to allay his concerns, and from hereon you will see that her support and presence brings a lot of encouragement and strength to Hiccup as the series progresses.

She is also always seen by his side, which is a sign of support for him and a sign of safety for her. We know she is a fearless warrior, but what I love about her is that she has a feminine side that only Hiccup gets to see. She trusts him.

This episode was lovely. Not only because of Hicstrid, but also because of how Stoic handles Hiccup’s first failure. He doesn’t berate him about it. He lets it slide knowing that his son tried his best. He encourages him. He is still there for him.

It was also great to see Toothless solve the issue by saving the sheep and then taking the initiative to nudge the sheep towards the warm circle causing all the other animals to do likewise. This display Toothless’s intelligence which is what differentiates him from many other dragons.

HTTYD is essentially a movie about Hiccup and Toothless, and a great deal about their friendship and shared characteristics. Toothless is clearly suited to being a leader like Hiccup is.

The circle of warmth they created to protect their humans was an initiative Toothless started and just like Hiccup and Astrid, every decision they make is for the betterment of others.

I’m pretty impressed w how the creators of HTTYD managed to play w the nuances of each of these strong character traits and make them as refined as they are. Beneath this franchise is a whole lot of good character building and character mirroring which is fantastic for fans like me who love dissecting these little details.

Hicstrid is an unmatched couple in the DreamWorks Universe for me.

#httyd #toothless the dragon #hiccup haddock #vikings #astrid hofferson #hiccup x astrid #hiccstrid

[tummymoth]

Memoriam Amantis [0]

Chapter 0: Prologue (read on Ao3 here)

Chapter Summary: An introduction to Liyue and the importance of stories. One story in particular has been lost to time, the one about a creature known as háizi, and no one knows why Rex Lapis decided to make her. However, the distant memory of her is still one of comfort and calm.

Additional Info: The dive into Liyue lore is DEEP my friends, the alternative title to this would have been An Old Man and his Pet, Zhongli is referred to as Rex Lapis in this, some angst ahead, slightly post-Archon war

Word Count: 689

Next>

Liyue is a nation of words. 

Contracts are forged between people. The jet-black ink inscribed onto parchment acts as the stitching that binds one to an agreement. Ancient stories of supernatural creatures and yakshas abound. They are brought to life through the written word and flowing prose of her world-renowned storytellers. Everyone knows of golden rivers overflowing with uttered sentences and a history that’s almost as rich as the harbor herself. 

Everyone—at the very least, everyone who proudly calls Liyue home—knows the power and weight of words. Just as they are the thread of each agreement to take place in this nation of commerce, Liyue’s stories are ingrained and sewn into everyday culture and belief. The agony of karmic debt suffered by the yaksha is as sharp as any knife, just as the rumbling rage of being forsaken is felt in every earthquake and landslide.

So many stories to keep alive, and so many lessons to take into life. Despite oh-so meticulous record-keeping and impassioned retellings, it is simply not possible to preserve them all. If the hardest of rock inevitably crumbles under the weight of time, how much faster will word of mouth fade into nonexistence—carried by the wind until it can only be heard in the faint rustling of glaze lilies? 

Perhaps this natural occurrence—the death of delicate things coming much sooner—is why the story of Azhdaha is well-known throughout Liyue and some parts of Teyvat; so much so that the dragon is thought to be Rex Lapis’ sole creation. 

Azhdaha, his body carved by nothing but the chisel in Rex Lapis’ own hands and a craftsmanship born of patience and skill accumulated over millennia. Azhdaha, who was gifted sight by Liyue’s revered Archon. Azhdaha, whose distant bellows shake every tree in Liyue by the root as he rages underground. The dragon’s story is nearly as large as he is, inhabiting space in the minds of many and leaving little room for the tales of other creatures. 

Similarly, Rex Lapis is known for his great feats of strength. Proof of this is in the existence of Guyun Stone Forest—formed by the mighty rock spears he hurled at those who dared to threaten his people and the order he sought to achieve—and in the ruthless tenacity of the yakshas at his command. Stories of a warmongering, brute of a god had spread throughout Teyvat. The name “Godkiller'' overshadowed the praises his people sang about the profound care he held for Liyue that drove him to such actions in the first place. 

Once the dust had settled and the blood spilled during the Archon war had finally seeped into the weeping, scarred soil of Teyvat, it was with this gentle, reverent care of those in his charge that Rex Lapis formed a creature known by an exceedingly minute number in Liyue—and by the rest of Teyvat, even less. Its name lies dormant beneath layers of dust, days, and nights long past, so the little few who know of its existence simply call it Háizi—a name also used as a term of endearment from mother to child through the generations.

None know why Rex Lapis decided to make another creature, but if Azhdaha was a showcase of Rex Lapis’ ability to make a space for life through brute force, Háizi’s was a demonstration of his capacity to notice the smallest of details and fine-tune them as he saw fit.

The common consensus is that this act of creation occurred at Luhua Pool. Malleable clay from the bottom of one of the thermal pools was coaxed into form by hands possessing a firm and gentle patience not even the most skilled potter in Teyvat could ever hope to have. 

The faint memory of such a creature evokes a calm that starts from the chest, not unlike the comforts of freshly brewed tea or bathing in the rising sun after a cold Liyuean night. 

All but one have forgotten its true name and its origins. According to rumor, the holder of this memory goes by Zhongli nowadays. 

Next>

Translations háizi: "little one" in Mandarin

#genshin impact fanfiction #genshin impact #zhongli fanfiction #rex lapis #character study #angst #fluff #Guizhong x Zhongli #zhongli-centric #Moth's Manuscripts ﾟ𐦍༘⋆

[farmergadda]

Smarter people than I have written at length about rules lawyers and why they are the way they are. Primarily, the focus tends to be on how DMs can work with or around those people to benefit their individual games, but I've been thinking a lot about the rules of dnd on their own.

Dungeons and Dragons has always been a set of prescribed rules- the nature of the mechanics require a level of sensible math in order to make all the parts connect together in ways that make sense, so in order to not bungle it up by just doing whatever feels right, every potential action or interaction needs to have defined rules, preferably tested and tweaked to perfection, with any rough edge cases filed off or given a seperate set of rules in the event you need them. This is why dnd as a community is obsessed with the idea of "balance." If an item gives just one point too many to a roll, it skews a shit ton of the math that goes into probability, if an effect lasts for just one round too many, it makes other abilities the statistical worse option to take- if you don't use the Grapple Rules, what's to stop players from taking advantage of X Y and Z?

It's a system where the math is obfuscated to the point of mysticism so the players can believe they're going on fantasy land adventures, but also so REQUIRED, that any action that doesn't have the Right Math attached to it can effectively "RUIN" the entire experience. And for a lot of people who are super INTO that math, who understand it and can manipulate it, and considering the crunch as part of the fun of the thing- that's perfectly ok! There's a reason the community split off for Pathfinder.

But my issue and why I've been thinking on it, is how it greatly LIMITS play. Because there needs to be consistant, fine tuned rules for everything, in a game where you're arguably allowed to imagine ANYTHING, the game fails to live up to the needs of it's key players. If you're a Theatre Kid who wants to do dramatic, off the wall, crazy shit because it feels right in the moment- you need a DM who's capable enough of coming up with a shit ton of math on the fly. (which is a seperate thread) If you're a Rules Lawyer... well.

Because the fantasy assumes there's a rule for everything, and the fantasy operates solely on those rules, then the Rules must be The Game. Nothing outside of the rules can exist, for if it does, then the rules aren't infallible, and the entire premise this game hinges on is that the rules are infallible! It isn't so much a break in immersion as a break in trust. The Rules are the gold standard backing the DM's fantasy world- we can trust in the DM because we know they're beholden to the rules.

There either is a rule for something, or it may as well not exist. And to circle back to the start of this ramble- the obfuscatedd nature of 5e math doesn't even mean the math needs to be accurate or right! A lot of people just assume it's correct if it's formatted similar enough to official 5e materials. It's the illusion of objective correctivity that they cling to. And because we're humans- when something arises to tell us that our perception of the game, the rules, the fantasy, the reality is WRONG??? yeah, we don't respond well to that kinda stuff.

And all of this would be perfectly fine. I've long established myself as someone who doesn't like, nor has any interest in playing 5e. Ignoring the social aspect of ttrpgs, I could simply exist in my own personal bubble and happily never need to deal with any of this ever again. But I still play fantasy games. And I still have players who through cultural osmosis, approach me with the same ingrained behaviors as ardent 5e players have. It's literally the backbone of their game! The rules are the arbiters of what can and cannot exist in the fantasy.

Anything that exists OUTSIDE of the rules aren't to be attempted, for fear of "ruining" the game. What if something weird happens as the result of an unforseen interaction? How can we trust the DM if they're not linking everything back to a stable, almost divine set of operating parameters we can sort of understand? Something something Mr. Incredible Math is Math gif.

#dnd #ttrpg design #this might be spicy brace yourselves

[usedtobe-elrallin]

Once We Were Dragons!

🌍 - What is distinctive about the setting? What sets it apart?

⛪ - Are there religions? If so, how do they affect the culture?

🎨 - What colors or textures do you associate with the wip?

:D< Sorry this took me a bit to get around to xD

What is distinctive about the setting? What sets it apart?

I would say that it is actually (currently) a fairly standard/typical fantasy world. I really need to buckle down on ironing out technology levels, societal structure, and similar.

However, what sets it apart is the relationship that the world has to dragons? Meaning it has dragons thought to be extinct, and the effects of them recently having been a part of a major culture and lifestyle. I don't think I've seen this done much in settings before; dragons usually exist at the same time as the main characters or in the distant past.

Also, AmhTalan, EmhTalan, RyTalan, and AurTalan. The descendants (technically ascendants but descendants is easier) of dragons. They are fairly unique to this setting, seeing as I created them to be something different than "half-dragons" or dragonborn or similar dragon-humanoid blends.

Some things that would be unique to the setting aren't all that unique because they're things that I apply in other worlds. A vibration centric magic system is an example; a lot of magic systems aren't based around that, but in my multiverse, vibrocentric magic is one of the main kinds.

I'll get more individual culture things and worldbuilding features eventually, though!

Are there religions? If so, how do they affect the culture?

Yes! There definitely are religions. Do I know much about them? shamefaced shuffling and glancing to either side

Jokes about my as-of-yet undetailed worldbuilding for this aside, I do know small amounts. Most born Talan (Amh, Talan-raised Emh, Ry) do have a dragon-centric religion based around the religion of the AuTalan (dragons). They don't have a specific deity, but rather a collective of "the dragons", usually refering to any dragon that has died and gone to their version of an afterlife. Their idea of good is based around community; their idea of a 'heaven' is to be a part of the community that the dragons have formed in the afterlife. I need to work out more details about what this entails for them.

Some Vensud and VensTalan (distinction between an ethnic group and a specific culture) have religious similarities with the born Talan groups, but not all. I'm still poking at this more blended religion. It's definitely a product of the VensTalan culture blending into born Talan and where specifically the cultural lines are drawn.

For the most part, Vensud religion is nature-based and leans into animism. There are distinct separations in worship and practice, but I haven't developed it enough to know.

I haven't started working with Empiric culture or religion much.

As a whole, the religions are very integrated into the cultures and communities, since religion is a cultural thing. It's ingrained in the society, practices, family life, etc. Which is why it's a problem that I don't have more than I do developed tbh xD

What colors or textures do you associate with the wip?

Green. A lot of the smaller-scale settings are forested or otherwise natural, so green, leafy texture. The major Feel that I'm going for is old, natural, and powerful. An old forest, an old world, an ancient power. That sort of deal.

Any color is Bright in my mind for this project. It's very raw and vibrant. I have some strong color associations with characters and I get to lean into that a lot.

#OWWD #once we were dragons #tag game #ask game #worldbuilding #excited to get to plan this more this summer

[ponytailzuko]

finished season 1 of the dragon prince AYEE. 

i forgot how much i do really like the characters theyre all cute and i love them interacting... again i know i definitely cannot do better than any of the writers and they have the season 9 episodes for a reason... but i do really wish seasons were longer because the characters and the setup are good enough for really good filler episodes to me. itd be fun to see them pass through different towns and just get into mischief, yk? i understand why they dont though. streaming services are made for binging.

zym was cuter than remembered. baby dwagon!! 

viren would make a point and id be like you know what, he does kinda have a point though- and then he’d do something just off the fucking wall. like um viren what in the fucks name is this... act normal ! ! ! and he never does.

i still am confused about the ethics of dark magic, im still not sure how its different than hunting, (besides viren using actual parts of a person but i think that most people are ethical enough to limit their magic use to animals?!) but i know season 2 goes into that a little more and theres a lot i forgot, so maybe i will get my questions answered later.

speaking on this point, ellis was surprised callum was a mage and never met one before. but dark magic is a /thing/ so i am going to wonder how common dark magic is in the human realm. the only dark mages we even really get to know are viren and claudia (also callum that one time he crushed a bug in s2. king shit) and id like to know how ingrained they are in human culture. it seems like in katolis, that they even have a high mage role at all, means to me that dark magic should be relatively normalized? no idea for sure though. please let me meet another dark mage please please.

#cal.ibrations #cal rewatches tdp #aye

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

You've helped a ton! Especially with the "they were very prosperous" and the mention of silks. I've decided on a culture that's a solid mix of Greek/Egyptian influence, with an amazing textile and fabric economy.

They would probably also be invested in the arts if they thrive when it comes to fabrics, so music and balls would be big too. I'm imagining outfits with flowing fabrics and lots of metal ingrained into them (In the dark ages, people would weave strands of gold/silver/metal into the fabric to make it shine.) Perhaps it could even have a caste system similar to Ancient Egypt. The Divine Dragons would be the gods or symbols of certain things (Grima: judgment and Destruction, Naga: Light and Hope, Mila: Love and Fertility, Duma: Strength and Family) while humans worked under these separate "castes", and then under those humans and manaketes you'd have the average person. So a judge or Alchemist might work under Grima, while a healer or herbalist might work under Naga. We could have each one of these "castes" have their respective gods signs and symbols woven into them and take control over different aspects of the society. This would also explain how belief in Grima and naga spread so far, assuming the original inhabitants migrated after Thabes's fall. Though, granted, Grima's placement on the timeline is odd so I have no idea how ingrained he'd be into Thabes society as a whole. Thank you!

Glad I could help! Sounds like you've got some interesting worldbuilding going!

(Grima's placement on the timeline is definitely weird, since technically Forneus might be the only one who knows what he created? It's not even 100% clear whether Naga was firmly aware that Grima was a dragon when she sealed the workshop? I mean the Senate was mad about their soldiers, but were they ALSO mad about the baby dragon god, or...? But even then, by the time Grima actually emerged from the Labyrinth, there could well be some form of rebuilt Thabes happening... The thing about really old cities is that they often do end up rebuilding in whole or in part, so... Yeah idk seems like you've got a lot of freedom to work with.)

#ask

[jj-lynn21]

Stellan interview

"Stellan Skarsgard Is Finally Seizing the Spotlight"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stellan-skarsgard-is-finally-seizing-the-spotlight

With roles in “Dune,” the Star Wars series “Andor,” and “Hope,” the character actor par excellence has never been more popular. He talks to Marlow Stern about his stellar career.

Few if any actors have built a resume as impressive as that of Stellan Skarsgård.

After achieving teen-idol status in his native Sweden—even releasing a pop single—due to the TV series Bombi Bitt, Skarsgård transitioned to film acting. It was in the mid-’90s, with roles as a sadistic oil rig worker in Breaking the Waves, a fiery abolitionist in Amistad, and a haughty mathematician in Good Will Hunting, that the towering, stone-faced Swede would cross over into America, and establish himself as one of the finest character actors alive.

He’s since maintained a healthy diet of what he calls “experimental films,” including a total of six with Danish auteur Lars von Trier, and Hollywood studio fare, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean and Mamma Mia! films, the Thor and Avengers superhero extravaganzas, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Cinderella. And right now, at the age of 69, Skarsgård is at his most prolific. There was his Golden Globe-winning turn in HBO’s Chernobyl, the upcoming villain in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and a main role in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, which he’s filming right now in London. Oh, and he’s fathered eight children, including the actors Alexander, Gustaf, Bill, Sam, and Valter.

“There’s no competition, really,” the elder Skarsgård tells me of his talented brood. “There’s some joking competition at the dinner table, but I know they’re better than me, so I’ve given up.”

Skarsgård’s latest is the Norwegian drama Hope. Directed by Maria Sødahl, the wife of his frequent collaborator Hans Petter Moland, it is a heartrending autobiographical film about a long-married couple, Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and her theater-director husband Tomas (Skarsgård), whose atrophying bond is put to the test when Anja develops terminal brain cancer. As they fight for Anja’s survival, the two reevaluate how their relationship went off-course, and why they fell in love in the first place. (The U.S. remake rights were quickly snapped up by Nicole Kidman and Amazon Studios.)

Anne Frank’s Stepsister: How Trump Reminds Me of HitlerNEVER AGAINMarlow Stern

In a wide-ranging conversation, Skarsgård opened up to The Daily Beast about his many great films, the controversy surrounding pal Lars von Trier, being a nudist, and much more.

How have you been passing the time during the pandemic?

In different ways. The first half of the year I was at our summer house on an island outside of Stockholm, and all my kids—who were also actors, most of them, and they weren’t working either—were all out there in two houses eating dinners together, having a good time, and seeing the spring inch-by-inch, everything grew, which you never get time to do otherwise. But this job I’m doing here now [in London], I was supposed to fly back and forth from Stockholm because I’m shooting this Star Wars series called Andor, and it would have been very convenient because it’s only a two-hour flight, but because of the quarantine I’ve been stuck here. For more than a month I’ve been alone in a hotel room staring into the wall.

Speaking of the Skarsgård household, I read a quote from your son Alexander who said that when he was a teenager, “Dad was always walking around [without clothes] with a glass of red wine in his hand.” Was that your vibe during the pandemic?

Not this time! Is it the wine that worries you? [Laughs]

Did the stress of the pandemic make you feel less… free?

No, I’m still taking off my clothes when I get home very often—and my kids also, some of them do. It’s not a big thing. We’re Swedes! And we have no God that says we can’t show our body parts.

What about it do you just find so liberating? I don’t go the full monty but when I go home, I do tend to take off my pants and let loose a little bit, because it is constricting.

If it’s warm enough you don’t need clothes, right? Unless you’re ashamed of your body—or taught to be ashamed of certain body parts. For me, it’s all upbringing. It’s cultural. Some cultures don’t care about what part of the body you show, and some cultures are very precious, and some cultures the women can’t show their faces.  

I’m curious what life was like in the Skarsgård household, because you’ve helped produce so many talented kids. Alexander described it as “bohemian,” similar to what you described during the pandemic, filled with dinner parties and a free-flowing atmosphere.

It’s always been a very open house, and the kids’ friends, it’s been easier to sometimes be in our house than their houses—especially during puberty, when conflicts arise—because we’re very relaxed and non-judgmental in our family. It’s really, truly pleasant. And my kids are more like pals to me. There’s no hierarchical relationship at all. It’s very nice. We just have fun!

It’s a very talented—and frankly, attractive—family. How did this happen?  

How did I make kids that look so good? [Laughs]

Is that something you’re particularly proud of?  

[Laughs] Well, the looks I don’t care so much about, but I’ve had two beautiful wives—and very smart wives—and that’s helped a lot. I’m not going to take much credit for anything. But what I’m proud of is, when I hear from other people in the business about Gustaf or Sam or Bill or Valter or Alexander, I hear that somebody worked with them and they were really nice on the set and totally cool with everybody, and how no matter what menial job anyone had on the set they were nice to them, then I’m proud. If they win awards it’s secondary to that, because that is a lottery anyway. Awards are sort of like reality shows.

They really are a popularity contest. Let’s talk about Hope. It could have very well been called Grief.

I thought it sounded bland to begin with, but in fact the film is about hope—and about love. It’s not a normal cancer film where it’s all about beating the cancer or fighting against it, but it’s about someone who gets a death sentence in a family situation with a lot of kids, like I have, and everything that was petrified in the relationship floats up again. It’s about how they rejuvenate their relationship, and through those horrible circumstances, find love again.

There’s one very powerful scene in the film that really encapsulates many elements and themes that it explores, and it’s the sex scene between you and your wife. It manages to capture the joy of reconnecting as well as the grief you’re experiencing.

I think it’s a great scene, because it starts beautifully—very gently—and it looks like it’s going to be really nice for both of them, and then her anxiety sets in, and things start to bad. And it does go bad pretty fast.

On another level, I’m an American and we don’t see sex very often in movies. And when we do, we don’t see it in the service of such complicated emotions.

With sex in film, it’s difficult, because sex is something that feels fantastic when you do it, and it looks ridiculous when you watch. Those humping movements like a dog? It’s not sexy at all! So, you can’t do a sex scene that looks like it feels, so they always have to be about something else. The sex scenes I had with Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves, it was about her curiosity, because she discovered her first penis, she discovered sexuality, and it was totally about the relationship. The sex was just there. And in this film, the scene is not really about sex but about something else. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sex scene that looks like it feels, and that can convey that beautiful thing that sex can be.

Really, in America, we get almost no sex scenes in movies. And it’s 2021.

It’s very strange. It’s not as bad as during the Hays Code, when you couldn’t let the lips meet for more than one second.

You just had a train going into a tunnel.

[Laughs] Yes, that very subtle image. But in America, you have a strong, strong tradition of bigotry or fear of sexuality. Only two years ago, in nine states in America, it was still illegal to have sex outside of marriage, and my American friends have told me that when they were growing up, it was even regulated how they could have sex—you couldn’t have oral sex or anal sex—so it is so ingrained in American culture that people’s sexuality is not a private thing, but something that everybody should interfere with.

Hope is also an exploration of mortality. Is that something you think about often? 

I’ve never been that interested in it. I’ve always been aware of it. It’s the only thing you know in life—you’re gonna fucking die. But already many years ago, I thought I’d had such a fantastic life that it would only be fair that I died, because I’ve already lived more than most people. So, I don’t feel any injustice in death. And I’m not afraid of death because I’m not religious, so I don’t have to worry about whether I’m going to end up in hell or heaven. But I have small children still, my youngest is 8, and I’m no spring chicken anymore, so I think about how I should stick around for at least another ten years until everything is set.

I read that you’d studied a bunch of religions in the wake of 9/11 and reached the conclusion that it was all sort of bunk.

I grew up with total freedom of religion—my parents weren’t religious, though my grandmother was very religious. It was taught to me without judgment, and it was a very tolerant upbringing I had. But I hadn’t read the Bible. And after 9/11, when I saw George W. Bush standing in front of TV cameras and claiming that God had put him there, I thought maybe it was time to read what they actually believed in. So, I read the Quran and I read the Bible. There are some fantastic stories—as fiction, it’s sometimes brilliant and sometimes boring—but the God in both the Quran and the Bible, there’s only one reason to really worship them, and that is fear. It’s a power that says, “If you don’t worship, you’re going to die—and not only die, but burn in eternity.” It’s a bit autocratic and dictatorial, I would say. It’s very hard for me to worship something under threat.

And if God put George W. Bush in the White House, then God has a very cruel sense of humor.

[Laughs] Yeah, he does. And the latest president said the same thing.

But he doesn’t believe in God. He only believes in himself.

Yeah. I think that if he had more appreciation from the liberals in America, he would have just as well gone populist-liberal.

I think so too. You know, I read that your Dogville co-star Nicole Kidman already picked up the remake rights to Hope for Amazon.

She’s picked up the remake rights, yeah.

Both you and your son Alexander have shared some pretty intense scenes with Nicole. There’s that dramatic scene in Big Little Lies where Nicole hits your son in the dick, and it almost seemed to me like payback for what you put her through in Dogville.

[Laughs] Yeah, I’ve done two films with her and Alexander just finished doing The Northman with her. But she’s lovely. I really like her. She’s so cool.

At least it was a prosthetic and not Alexander’s real thing.

Yeah… coward! [Laughs]

I gotta say, between Chernobyl, Hope, Dune, a Star Wars series, and even a Simpsons cameo as yourself, how does it feel to be at your most prolific at 69?

I’m just working! I’m doing my job and having fun doing it. I’ve been lucky and a lot of good projects have emerged. It goes up and down, you know, throughout life. And I don’t think I could have a better life than I’ve had. I don’t have any regrets. And I don’t have to be the star or be in something very successful, I just have to have fun.

Nice. Do you feel you’re underrated? I think you’re someone who’s so consistently great in everything that it can almost be taken for granted how great you are. I know you won a Golden Globe recently, and that was long overdue, even if it’s mostly bullshit.

I don’t know! I can tell you: it’s much better to be underrated than overrated. So, I’m very comfortable if I am underrated. But I’m a Swede with an accent—or most of the time I have an accent—and for being a Swede with an accent, I have been extremely successful internationally, so I can’t complain. When it comes to the big studio movies, and I’ve been in four or five gigantic franchises that have paid a lot of bills for me, their concerns are financial, and I’m not a ticket-seller. I’m a solid fucking actor, and I’d rather be an actor than a star.  

It gives you the mobility.

Exactly. The freedom I have. I can easily do small, experimental films and strange stuff—films that could ruin another actor’s career—so I’m in a good position.

I wanted to ask you about Breaking the Waves, because it’s the 25th anniversary this year and I consider it a masterful film. And it was Emily Watson’s first film, which is just extraordinary. How did you two establish such strong chemistry?

She’s British, which means she comes from a rather prudish society too, and to take on a role with an obscure Danish director—who wasn’t that famous at the time—and to take on a role with such explicit sex and nudity took enormous courage, but she was fantastic. My job was to love her, and that felt easy, but I think that she felt loved, and I think that she felt secure, which is essential for being able to do anything courageous. But she’s such a brilliant, talented, wonderful woman. I finally got to work with her again in Chernobyl. I mean, you just have to look at her and everything comes.

There’s this longstanding debate over whether Breaking the Waves is misogynistic or not, and I personally find it to be a misreading of the film. I’ve always thought of it as a biblical allegory of sorts about a desperate woman navigating a deeply sexist world.

Absolutely. Lars doesn’t have that in him. Those fantastic female roles that he has written, if you want to defend women in film, you’ve really got to take care of him because he writes the best roles for them. Those roles are very much him, and he definitely doesn’t have a negative attitude toward women. He loves them. There’s a plague of labeling people—not for what they’re really saying, but for what they appear to say. He was stamped as a misogynist and then he made a bad joke about Hitler at Cannes, and everyone stamped him as a Nazi, which is the furthest thing from what he is.  

Stellan Skarsgard and Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

You stamp people as a “racist,” a “fascist,” a “communist,” I mean this fucking stamping is as smart as QAnon. It’s frightening. The fantastic thing about mankind is that we’re not one thing. We’re all capable of the most brutal and horrible crimes and we’re all capable of love. We do good things and we do bad things. There are nuances. The way of seeing people as “good” or “bad” guys is forcing something upon humanity that is really dangerous, because when you say someone is the “bad” guy then you’re saying you are the “good” guy, and it’s forcing you to not look at your own flaws.

I’m a huge fan of Lars’ films but I think one thing that’s really colored people’s opinion of him are the allegations that Bjork made against him on Dancer in the Dark. You didn’t have the biggest role in that film, but is it something you witnessed?

I’ve never seen him do anything like that. It’s not him. And if you talk to any of the other women who have worked with him over and over again, you will not get those kinds of accusations. But the Bjork and Lars conflict was enormous during the shoot, and it had very little to do with #MeToo. Lars, like all directors, in the end is a control freak, and Bjork has controlled everything in her career—from the music, to the costumes, to the way she sounds—and if two control freaks try to make a film, there will be conflicts. I got phone calls from Lars during the shoot where he was in tears. She left the set several times, and it had nothing to do with sexuality. She tore up her clothes. They had a very difficult relationship. But you’ve gotta pick your toxic males. You can’t put a “toxic male” label on everybody, otherwise it will be watered down, that label.

I’m so excited for Dune. What can you tell me about it? Denis Villeneuve said that your Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is different from the comics or the David Lynch film in that he’s not as much of a caricature but a calmer, more sinister presence.

The thing about it, and why I’m looking forward to this film as well, is because it’s Denis Villeneuve. Whatever he does, he creates an atmosphere that is dense, that you can touch, and you’re just sucked into it. You’re never bored—even if he does long, slow takes. The atmosphere builds up, and you’re in his universe. I think it will be the same with this one. He’s lovely to work with, and a beautiful man. I did eight or ten days on the movie, so my character doesn’t show up for too much, but his presence will be felt. He’s such a frightening presence where even if he doesn’t say anything, I think you’ll be afraid of him. And I’m extremely fat. I had eight hours in the makeup chair every day. And in some scenes, I look very tall because I levitate. You’re going to have a lot of fun with it.

The whole HBO Max day-and-date thing is weird, and I hope as many people as possible get to see the film on the big screen.  

Oh, definitely. I think they made a deal with AT&T—which owns Time Warner, which owns HBO, which owns my phone—that they cut a four-week deal where it’ll be just for the theaters, but I’m not sure. That could change.

I also feel culturally obligated to ask you about Andor, the upcoming Star Wars series you’re in. What’s that about, and who do you play in it?

As you know, they’ll shoot me if I say anything! I can’t even get a proper script. It’s printed on red paper so I can’t make any copies of it, it’s ridiculous! Of course I’ve seen all the Star Wars films, because I’ve had children in the ‘80s, and the ‘90s, and the 2000s, and the 2010s. I’ve had children in five decades, which means you’ve seen all the Star Wars films—and seen all the toys as well. But when I saw Rogue One, it had much more atmosphere and seemed a little more mature—and that was Tony Gilroy, who’s the showrunner on this one. So, hopefully this one will be a little more than little plastic people falling over.

Was a part of the motivation to do Andor to look really cool to your kids?

I do think like that sometimes! I’ll go and do a children’s movie for that reason. But also, I’m not the most mature person myself, so who doesn’t want to go and fly a spaceship?

Plus, now you can give your kids action figures of yourself and say, “Play with me.”

Fuck yeah. Go play with dad. Don’t disturb him! Go play with him! [Laughs]    

I’m not the most mature person myself, so who doesn’t want to go and fly a spaceship?

OK, this is kind of a silly question, but do you have a favorite movie death of yours? My favorite has to be in Deep Blue Sea, because in that one you get your arm ripped off by a shark, and then the shark uses your body as a battering ram to destroy this underwater facility.

I would say that is probably, in terms of inventiveness, my favorite one too. It was Renny Harlin. Yeah. I like it! Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend that much time on that stretcher—it was a doll. But it looked really cool! And the sharks weren’t CGI back then. It was mechanical sharks, and they were pretty dangerous. The little boy in me was very excited.

Another movie of yours that I love, for entirely different reasons than some of these other ones we’ve discussed, is Mamma Mia! Is it basically a vacation filming these? I imagine the cast parties are a lot of fun, because it seems like you all are having a ball.

Well, it is. I’m not a singer and I’m not a dancer so I was scared stiff, but the only way to make it work—because it’s not much of a story—is that we had fun doing it, because that joy is contagious to the audience. And we really had fun. It was very relaxed in Greece there on the beaches, and the parties we had there were very good too. It was a nice bunch of people to hang with.

When the cast of Mamma Mia! goes wild in Greece, who is the one that parties the hardest? Who’s the VIP?

It depends what you mean by partying! I usually get pretty drunk. Down there, Colin [Firth] and I were pretty good at it. And at those parties, we also had 50 dancers in their twenties, and they had much more stamina.

I have to ask: Will the gang get back together for a third one?

I don’t know! It took 10 years between number one and number two, so if it takes another ten years, I don’t know. Some of us may just be there in urns, with our ashes!

You released a pop single in the ‘60s, right?

Yes. When I was 16, I became extremely famous in Sweden. We had one TV channel back then and I did this TV series, and it was like being a rock star. But it meant also that all kinds of shady people thought they could make money off me. So, this guy calls me from Stockholm and says, “Stellan, can you sing?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Well, try it!” And then I hear this guitar on the other end of the line, I go, “Ahh!” and then he goes, “Perfect! Come over to Stockholm.” I went to this very shady studio in the suburbs and we recorded it, and then the guy who was running the project said, “I listened to the tape now, and I think it’s better if I sing and you speak on the record.” So, I don’t sing on the record. But there were very cruel headlines in Sweden. One paper had a headline that read, “Stellan Skarsgård, who we loved on this TV series, we don’t like anymore.”

That’s so mean! In addition to Breaking the Waves, another film that really raised your profile in the United States was Good Will Hunting—which holds up remarkably well. Some of my favorite scenes in that film are the ones where you and Robin Williams are jousting. And I know he’s a wild card, so what was it like shooting those?

He really is a wild card because anything can come out of him, and he can say anything and do anything, and he has this urge to do it because he has these three parallel brains that are constantly working on finding something funny or interesting. Sometimes, even when we would do ten takes and everybody would be happy with them, he’d say, “I have to get something out of my body,” so we would do one extra for that. You didn’t know what you’d experience when the camera would start rolling—you just had to dance with it. And it was fantastic. He was such a lovely man and had no ego. He was just a volcano of creativity and ideas.

Do you ever think about your legacy? You not only have a bunch of talented children but also have amassed such a strong body of work.

The thing is with legacy: you won’t be able to enjoy it, so just forget it. No, I don’t. And it doesn’t matter. If you’re extremely successful, it takes a decade and you’re gone from people’s minds. You can only hope that your children remember you for a couple of years, at least!

Well, they’ll have the Star Wars toys, at least.

They’ll have the toys! That’s right. [Laughs]

#stellan skarsgard

[trashcankitty12]

Stella Headcanons:

You know her. You love her. 

She’s bubbly, she’s fun. (And she’s pretty funny.)

She’s Princess Stella Sol of Solaria. 

(These headcanons are all in relation to my ‘main verse’, which is the New Company of Light/Balance Verse. And it can also translate into my Left verse.)

Under the cut because it’s long.

About Stella:

-Her fear of heights comes from a major fall she took as a child off of her grandfather’s pet dragon. (He was teaching her how to ride and… She wasn’t holding onto it well enough and down she went.)

-Stella is fluent in nearly 56 of the Magical Dimensions languages. (She was to stick to the languages spoken by the realms who interacted most with Solaria.)

-After meeting Bloom and spending a little time on Earth, Stella is also trying to learn a few of the Earth’s languages. (She’s mastered English and Spanish, but she’s still working on French and Russian.)

-She loves sweets. (And food in general. But considering she’s Solarian, that’s to be expected. They tend to eat more than most people in the Magical Dimension.)

-Stella may or may not glow in the dark. (It’s something she can control and she has to be focused to do it. She inherited that gift from her mother.)

-Stella’s mother was religious and has a close relationship to the Moons, while her father, despite being so close in relationship to the Suns of Solaria, isn’t religious. Stella personally has mixed feelings on religion. She likes the idea of spirituality and having a higher power to rely on, but organized religion makes her heart hurt. (They tend to talk down about those who don’t follow a ‘certain’ way of life, which to Stella isn’t a cool thing to do, unless, of course, the other people are actually hurting someone else.)

-She was almost a big sister. Her mother had been pregnant when she was seven. (They don’t ever talk about it. And, as an adult, Stella can see where this was a turning point for her parents and their relationship. Her mother just wasn’t quite the same after losing Diana.)

-Stella is a dog person and was so happy when she finally got a puppy for her birthday one year. (The dog was her best friend and her main confidant.) Unfortunately, Stella’s dog only made it to four years old. (It had an illness that not even magic could fix.)

-Stella hasn’t been able to stomach the thought of another dog since. (However, Brandon may or may not offer for them to get a dog later on. You know, as their “first child”.)

-Stella can spot patterns without trying. It’s so ingrained in her after being around fashion, and the practical applications of pattern spotting have made her life so much easier.

-Here’s the thing about Stella… She’s somewhat dyslexic. Words and reading do not come easily to her. On the flip side, Stella can give one hellova speech. Her charisma and charm make her a natural at hyping up a crowd.

-Stella had a fairy godmother until she was 13. An elderly woman named Glinda. Glinda helped Stella with her shyness and in her first fashion attempts. And Glinda was the one who helped Stella gain her magic winx the first time with encouragement and confidence. (After all, how else should a future queen bring out her power?)

-After gaining her wings, her father gifted her the Ring of Solaria. It was done in a ceremony to the Suns and Moons of Solaria and the Ring had to choose Stella just as it had Radius and their family before them. Once Stella and the Ring bonded, she shifted for the first time in public to show off her wings and magic. Her parents couldn’t have been prouder.

-She went to a private school on Solaria for her elementary and middle school education years, but she was somewhat isolated due to being the Princess of Solaria (making the other kids judge her ahead of time as some sort of prim and proper prep they didn’t want around) and due to some of her ‘uncool’ hobbies.

-(Those uncool hobbies? Stella is actually into comics and superheroes, but until meeting the rest of the Winx, she wasn’t interested in sharing that side of herself. Solarian Comics actually helped Stella with reading because of their writing structure. Stella is also a fan of learning cultures and wanting to see what benefits other places and if it could be replicated to help Solaria. And Stella was kind of a… Horse girl. She spent many, many, many summers and school holidays at her maternal uncle’s horse ranch in the Western Spaces of Solaria.)

-Stella tends to use her solar powers more than her lunar ones. It’s not because she doesn’t feel close to her mother or to her mother’s family, it’s just a little more difficult for her tap into that part of her magic. (Solar magic is easy and tapped into by thinking of warm and splendid times. Lunar magic requires a bit more… Reflection. And Stella doesn’t like having to think too long about things. Not because she can’t, but because if she starts to really think about things, she tends to overthink them which leads her down a dark rabbit hole.)

-Stella’s best friend growing up was Nova Rinae, despite being two years older than the other girl. Nova’s mother is the head of Luna’s guard, and Nova was often in the palace. (Making her one of the few children always around. And because she shared several of Stella’s interests, they clicked rather quickly.)

-(Her parents also encourage this friendship as it’s important to them for Stella to be close to those who may serve alongside her when its time for her to become queen. Friendships can be turned into unwavering loyalty, and that can mean life or death in certain situations.)

-Before she ever got her magic, Stella’s parents thought she may end up being the ‘New Host’ for the Light Dragon. (Bloom was never found, which meant no one could say for certain what happened to the Light Dragon, other than it had to be alive still. Otherwise the Balance would have been off.)

-Because of their thoughts on her having the Light Dragon, Stella was taught basic hand-to-hand skills as a child and was instructed to be wary of “golden eyes” in the shadows. She was also to learn Solaria’s history as well as Domino’s. (Though Stella mostly paid attention to how the two worlds overlapped instead of their separate histories.)

-Stella actually knew Layla, Sky, and Diaspro as children. But because so much can change from being five years old to being 15/16, she didn't recognize them when they met again. (They had all been at a major conference for the realms and while their parents ‘talked shop’, they went to play. It was their first and last time together like that until years later.)

-Despite being a princess, Stella tends to be a bit messy. At least, as far as her room itself. Her workspaces (wardrobe and vanity and tailoring areas) are the most well-kept areas in her care. (She likes to work in clean spaces… But in her room, the space where she lives, she likes it to look lived in.)

-Stella originally got into fashion at about 10 years old in an attempt to get closer to her mother. Her mother always had work to do as a queen, and for her off-time, she went to fashion shows (which in a way, were also work, because as a queen she’s expected to be aware of trends and present herself in a certain way). So to spend more time with her mother, Stella started having an interest in fashion. (Which quickly became a hobby she loved when she found the different ways she could express herself with fashion.)

-In a bid to get closer to her father, Stella took a major interest in cooking. (Her father can bake. He’s messy at it, but by the Dragons do his pastries and cookies taste of heaven.) Granted, Stella didn’t inherit the baking skill, but she can recite recipes and judge pastries and baked goods like its her job. (And for some of Solaria’s festivals, it is.)

-Have I mentioned she’s an expert equestrian in the Solarian Rodeo? Her go-to is barrel racing and square-dancing competitions, and she’s even dipped her toes into riding the bronco and in cattle roping.

-Stella has far-sightedness. She can see things far away, but things up close are blurred. She used to wear glasses, but after elementary school, she swapped to contacts. (However she does still wear glasses and keeps them close by just in case. They’re a stylish silver-blue and not quite thick-framed.)

-Stella has formal training in ballroom dancing. (Her favorite is the Eraklyon Tango. Or at least, it has been for the past few years. Wonder why…?)

-Stella also has a minor fear of spiders. (It’s not really a fear either… More like a squick. She doesn’t like them, but she doesn’t mind them being around if she doesn’t have to see them. It’s because one of her school teachers thought a great Life Lesson would be for the class to witness his pet tarantula eat a live meal. Not fun for little Stella.)

(Not fun for him either, once the parents got a hold of him…)

-Stella lied about what happened during her ‘real’ first year at Alfea. She honestly did blow up the Potion’s Lab… But it wasn’t because she was researching color theories…

-Just before Stella was meant to leave for Alfea, like a week or two before, she found out from Nova, NOVA, that her parents were getting a divorce. Luna and Radius never told her. Her friend told her.

-Stella didn’t want to leave after that, afraid that if she was gone, she couldn’t help them patch things up. (She truly believed they could work this out. She just needed to be there. She needed them to see her and remember why they fell in love.)

-They dropped Stella off, but still didn’t discuss or leave room to discuss the divorce. (Stella didn’t want to let them know she knew because she didn’t want Nova in trouble for listening in on their mothers’ conversations.)

-Which led to a panicked Stella trying desperately to pretend to be okay while in the presence of the others. (She’s a princess, she can’t show despair. Especially without reason.)

-Stella was angry that her parents still hadn’t talked to her and that they had sent her away. She was feeling left out and scared and confused. They were in love. Right?!

-So she started doing small things around Alfea to try and get her suspended. Not expelled, just suspended. (She needed time at home, before the holidays.)

-She verbally attacked other Alfea students, playing up the pompous princess act. No luck. She mocked Palladium. No luck. She even cut classes. No luck. So as a last resort, without having to go to Cloud Tower and stir trouble up there, was to mess around in the potion’s lab. It worked… Too well.

-She was expelled and sent back to Solaria. Her parents were upset with her, and disappointed (which was the worst ever for Stella who really wanted their approval in everything). Stella broke down and finally told them that she knew and that she didn’t want her family to break apart. That she was scared and shaken and angry. Angry that they could pretend so well that everything was fine when it obviously wasn’t.

-Luna and Radius decided to try a form of family counseling to try and help Stella. (They hated seeing their daughter so upset, but they knew in the long run that staying together would have damaged her further. She didn’t need to grow up with constant arguing and avoiding each other, that wasn’t a love story they wanted her to follow.)

-(They also explained the situation to Faragonda and promised to pay for the damages. Faragonda allowed Stella to return within the next school year if her progress with the counselor went well.)

-Stella, even though still upset with her parents’ divorce, was a bit more accepting of it after taking the school year to focus on them as a family. (Even one that was split.)

-Stella does have hope they’ll reunite, but she understands a bit more now why they split up. (And even though they are in separate palaces, Luna taking residence in the Lunar Sections now, she knows they love her very much.)

#winx club #winx club headcanons #stella headcanons #winx club stella #Princess Stella of Solaria #ray of sunshine #little sunburst

[ungrateful-cyborg]

🙏- what are my muse’s theological beliefs? How complex are they? Are they religious, spiritual, or an outright atheist?

Oooh, interesting question!

(Long post ahead.)

Astrid, Wolfe and A’idan are fairly similar in beliefs and how much fervent they are. To them, gods are in the aether so basically all around them all the time. It doesn’t contradict the existence of other gods either but they revere the Twelve simply because it’s in their culture, they grew up with them and well, it wouldn’t make sense to them to do it any differently.

They’ll pray sometimes and for Astrid and Wolfe who were both adults at the time of the Calamity, they know of how Louisoix called the Twelve to his aid and how it apparently saved Eorzea so they’re more fervent than they used to be as kids and teenagers.

A’idan was too young to be bothered by that at the time. The Calamity itself left a much stronger impression. However, he lives in Limsa and the sea is dangerous. She claims lives often but she also gives them food and means to survive and prosper so he’s more fervent than them when he prays to his patron deity (Llymlaen) because survival is a lot more at the center of his thoughts and he intends to sail one day.

Now, about the others...

The Advocate is Ishgardian through and through and wouldn’t take it too kindly if outsiders were to criticize their relationship with Halone. Especially those who never lived in Ishgard and thus believe they understand while not actually knowing their culture.

That being said, he’s not a fanatic.

His relationship with Halone is conflicted for different reasons, whereas he outright hates the Church. It worth saying however that you gain little from ostracizing yourself though so he went to church like everybody else. Out of social obligation in his case, but still.

Religion is also everywhere in his life whether he likes it or not. He prays and thanks Halone in good part because it’s so ingrained in him that it’d feel weird not to do it but also because he does believe in Her.

She’s the goddess of war, though. Now that Ishgard has made peace with dragons and is trying to rebuild and find what it means for her, he often wonders what place Halone should have in all of this. Not the Church (which could burn as far as he’s concerned) but worship.

Again though, it’s not a matter he’d be willing to talk about with outsiders.

He’s a monk. To say that it matters a great deal to him is an understatement, especially since he’s fully trained. Skaar knows the rites, the scriptures and he follows them as much as he can.

That being said, he’s from the Sect of Shadow, which means that he was trained in secret as a kid to escape persecution from the Fist of Rhalgr and the King and since he fled to live in Limsa after that, Skaar has never been really vocal about his beliefs or everything surrounding them. He’s proud of his heritage and his own role as a monk but to him it’s a matter of respect. If you live in another country, you follow their customs (or enough of them to fit in, at least).

Kazan’s beliefs are pretty similar to hers so I won’t develop for both.

Inge believes that nature is sacred and spirits, or kamis, or elementals (which from her point of view are just different names for the same beings) are to be shown reverence to.

You can ask for their blessing but you must give something in return.

Keeping the natural balance intact is really at the center of her life. Pretty much everything she does is done with this in mind.

She also sees life as sacred (that’s where it differs from Kazan actually). Not so sacred that you can’t take any because being alive means something has to die for you to live on, be it plants or animals, but you must make good use of the life you sacrificed. Killing an animal to take only a small part of it and letting the rest to rot is typically something she’s strongly against. And obviously, don’t kill people unless you absolutely cannot do otherwise.

She also believes in reincarnation but from her point of view, what you’re reincarnated into as nothing to do with what you deserve for the life you’ve lived. It’s about what nature needs when you’re reincarnated and you can end up being of the Spoken races or a bug or an auroch without it saying anything about you. And she doesn’t believe in the notions of hells or heavens.

Hanae is an atheist. Kami worship bled through her education while she lived with her mother but she only internalized a few things and threw the rest out of the window during her time with her father, in Garlemald and later on, in the imperial army.

[Thanks for the ask @eligos-venator o/]

#The More You Know #answered; Astrid #answered; A'idan #answered; Wolfe #answered; The Advocate #answered; Kazan #answered; Inge #answered; Skaar #answered; Hanae #long post

[acecademia]

What fandoms have you been a part of (both currently and in the past)? How do you feel like fandoms have changed?

Hi, nonny!

I've been in more fandoms than I can count, honestly. Looking back, the ADHD is super obvious. I hyperfixate on a piece of media for a while and then suddenly lose all interest in it. So there have been a lot of those that have cycled through. There are a few that I routinely come back to, usually when I'm between my more brief hyperfixations.

The ones I tend to come back to every few years are Star Wars, Narnia, the MCU, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Dragon Age, and Merlin. And there's probably a couple others I'm forgetting.

I'm the kind of person who's been very into things my whole life. I do not enjoy things casually--I get very invested and have to learn absolutely everything about my new obsession and then infodump to everyone I know. (Do you see the ADHD yet?) The piece of media that introduced me to fandom was a French cartoon called Code Lyoko. That was my shit in elementary/middle school. One day, when I was like 10, I googled it. And the first link after the official website was for a site called lyokofreak.net, which sadly is no longer around. This is what it looked like around the time I first found it. There were links off to the side called things like "ships" and "fanfiction," and I just started clicking through all of them and stumbling further and further down the proverbial rabbit hole.

From there, I found fanfiction.net which brought me to other fandoms and fansites, and then it was just like game over. I'd found my thing.

That was around 2005, so I've been kicking around in fandom for about 16 years now. And a lot has definitely changed. I think there was a pretty big shift in fan culture around the time that Glee and Twitter were on the rise. Twitter was one of the first places where fandom stuff was not just public but on a very public platform. Glee also referenced some fan culture stuff (like shipping). Between the two of them, fandom started becoming more mainstream. We saw another shift around the time of Dashcon (Sarah Z (@dingdongyouarewrong) did a great video on that) where fan activities started to be considered more "cringey" and we went from being unironically enthusiastic about things to feeling like we needed to inject some level of irony into our fannish behaviors to avoid embarrassment.

Sites like Twitter (and other social media platforms) also broke down some barriers between fan and creator. Sometimes, this is a good thing, like when fans have an easy avenue to reach out to a small creator they love to gush about their work. And sometimes.... it's a garbage fire. I think we've all heard enough horror stories about celebrities and creators being bullied off of social media by asshole fans to know what I'm talking about here.

There are also some generational differences within fandom. As always, I'm in a weird position on the cusp of two generations. I'm young enough to be considered part of one fandom generation, but I've been in fandom longer than most of them since I found it so young. I could write a whole book on the shifts in fandom culture, but suffice to say, younger fans are much more likely to be openly vocal about things like fanfiction and shipping and whatnot even when talking to creators than older fans are. A lot of older fans still carry that fear of being literally sued over writing fanfiction (thanks, A*ne R*ce). Now, we see younger fans getting mad at AO3 and the OTW for not following the purity culture trend while older fans tend to be utterly confused by this behavior as, like, literally, that's why we have AO3??? Because of all the purging and rules and bullshit we went through on other platforms?? And it's often these same younger fans who get confused about the existence of disclaimers that older fans still habitually include in their fics as an ingrained form of self-defense. There's a general lack of understanding, and it often feels like a huge culture clash. Because these younger fans didn't experience fandom and the internet the same way that older fans did. The internet and social media changed fandom to a completely unknown degree. I'm definitely not an expert on this, since I'm still fairly young and also have only been in fandom since 2005, but one of my goals is to do a lot of in-depth interviews with "fandom elders" and really get a sense of how fandom has changed from their perspective. That'll be a book I write (or co-write) one day.

#replies #anon #nicole speaks #nicole rambles #fandom history #fan studies

[deathbydarkelves]

Decided to answer a few off a list of OC relationship questions for Tarinne and Cathala in Discord to cheer myself up. And I have to say it worked lol

I'll copy and paste for screen readers:

6.) Any tasks that are always left to one person? Food was always a big part of the culture on Pandaria, so Cathala is the designated cook out of the two lol. Tarinne's like... passable at cooking, but Cathala absolutely kills it with basically everything she makes. On the flip side, Tarinne is always the one to repair and maintain their clothes and gear, or make replacements. She's a leatherworker in-game so I figured it makes sense :P

13.) What do they do for fun? Do they have a favorite activity or do they like to switch things up? Cathala's got a dragon and Tarinne's got a hippogryph (decided I actually didn't like the idea of her also having a dragon), so as per Dreamworks movie logic they both love going flying just to pass the time :) which I really oughta draw... Anyway, they also love visiting libraries and those kinds of places whenever they go to a new region. Bars/taverns too, Cathala loves trying new drinks. She's still convinced nothing will match a good Pandaren ale, and Tarinne is determined to prove her wrong lmao

36.) What's their greatest strength as a couple? Their weakness? Well, my first thought regarding greatest strength was of course their skills in combat and how they play off each other, but that feels like kind of low-hanging fruit so I'll also add how they're kind of a self-sustaining system. They can go for days and weeks traveling just with each other, maybe seeing like three other people total and they'll still be in nearly tip-top shape morale-wise because they complement and support each other so well sdcjnkjs. Weaknesses.... sometimes they can definitely struggle with accepting outside assistance for like missions and stuff. They're definitely very capable in lots of situations, but sometimes you need a little more than two lesbians and a dream to solve a problem lmao. Additionally, out of the two, Cathala is definitely more prone to anxiety when separated from Tarinne cause ✨trauma✨ (though Tarinne gets the same way, just to a lesser extent) but it's not like... a severe, unhealthy clinginess. It's just more that they're each reassured and comforted when the other's there, and when that source of comfort isn't there anymore it definitely throws them off. And I don't really know if I'd call it a weakness, but if hypothetically Cathala were captured in a battle but Tarinne had to kill the enemy general to like... win. she'd completely forget about the general and just focus on freeing Cathala, and vice versa, y'know. That sort of thing.

45.) Any special dreams or goals they have as a couple? Any heartbreaks? Regrets? Well, right now their main goal is to horrifically murderize Sylvanas KSDXANSDJN but other than that... I guess they just both want the world to be a safer place to exist in? As much as they both enjoy adventuring (and as much as it's been ingrained in their lives/minds to constantly be in some kind of danger rip), it would be nice some day to be able to just sit back and relax for a year or ten. As for heartbreaks, uhhhhhh I mean there was that whole thing about most of their civilization getting control+Z'd in a night so like. does that count sdknxmd. Regarding regrets, hm........ I mean, Tarinne regrets not being with Cathala when that whole previously mentioned incident happened. Cathala's of course incredibly thankful she wasn't. And they both regret not spending more time on Teldrassil in the first place, on their own ancestral lands and with their own people. Erm... That's really all I can come up with for that.

#cathala & tarinne

[harddrivetrash]

Methods for Creating Robust RPG Characters From an Actor’s Perspective

I know I don’t post a lot at all, but I’m trying to be better about that. So instead of empty promises and some Assassin’s Creed screenshots, here’s some Real Content! This one’s for all you RPG’ers who might want some advice on character writing. Hope you enjoy it.

For context, I am an actor in Northern California with professional training and seven years of theatre experience. I’m in college currently pursuing a theatre degree. I have been running rpgs for about a year now, and I am the forever game master (GM) for my gaming group.  With that in mind, know that the suggestions in this article come from a place of strong knowledge and love for the art of theatre, and from personal experiences, both onstage and at the gaming table. I have a lot of particular thoughts regarding aesthetic philosophy, specifically as it relates to acting and theatre art, but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum.

1. Start With Your Gameplay Vision

This method focuses on the player’s gameplay preferences first and builds the personality to accommodate that. What do you want this character to be like in a social situation? Do you want a suave talker who can charm his way into trouble and then bluff his way right out of it? Or do you want to be the quiet, brooding type who lets her allies talk things out whilst backing them up by looking intimidating? Similarly, consider how you want to approach combat. Whether you’re a guns-a-blazin’ type player or a stealthy assassin doesn’t matter; the most important part is making that concrete decision and then creating a reason for it.

For example, if you want your character to be a gunslinging, animal-taming bard, decide why they fight that way. Why do they like guns, and how did they learn to shoot? When did they discover their love of animals, and when did they practice the skills which enabled them to tame creatures? With each additional answer, keep adding to the backstory and make sure that everything you add to it stays consistent with its ability to facilitate your gameplay preferences.Keep asking and answering these kinds of introspective questions about your character until you feel comfortable with that creation.

I recommend this method for beginning players and game masters because it allows one to write up a character based on something you’re already excited about. I’ve found that this method works especially well for Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s a perfectly effective method for other, more role-play focused games like Call of Cthulhu or Vampire: the Masquerade. 

The beauty of creating a character this way is the simplicity; the player only needs to consider whether or not every added detail to the character’s personality and backstory is consistent with their desired playstyle. There is no need to worry (too much) about the lore of the game world. The biggest drawback, however, is that this method encourages players to think about actual play in a much more meta-minded manner, as opposed to focusing primarily on immersion and role-play, especially for new players. You might find that you or your players will only play this character so far as to create an opportunity to roll dice. This is totally okay, by the way; there is nothing wrong with hungering for a good dice roll. It’s just something to keep in mind.

2. Find an Environmental Anchor

You may find the previous method to be too basic or meta or for whatever reason not your desired method for character creation; that’s fine! Sometimes when you start a new character, you don’t have the slightest idea about what you want to do in combat or maybe you don’t want to build a character based on class or combat role. No matter what, this method is totally focused on immersion into the game world and nothing else. 

First, speak to your GM about the setting and theme of the game. Try to get as much information as you can about the world and its lore, and then pick something you like as an anchor. For example, if there is a rugged mountain range in a high fantasy setting that you like the concept of, consider making a connection to it with the information you have; is your character from there? Do they want to go there? Did something happen to them whilst travelling through the mountains? Whatever it is, define a clear connection to that place (assuming it works with your game master’s world and lore, of course) and then work from there, asking “why” and “how” along the way to smooth out those rougher details.

Environmental anchors don’t even need to be related to the geography, either! For example, if you’re playing a sci-fi setting where your character lives on a colonial planet, find out what that culture is like. Why is there a colony? What government funded the development of this colony? How do people feel about their leaders and what do they do about those feelings? Acquire any and all information about the people and their culture as you can (assuming your GM shares that with you) and then consider how you want your character to exist in that context. If it’s a religious society, define whether or not your character is religious and how they feel about religion. Do they follow the same religion as everyone else? How has religion affected them in the past? These kinds of questions help you to define how your character acts and feels in the context of the game world without focusing on the different aspects of gameplay or game balance. You’ll definitely find your fighting style along the way, don’t worry.

The biggest downside to using this method as a player is that you need to bug your GM a lot. Chances are they’ll be more than happy to help, especially if they’ve built the entire game world from scratch. But remember, depending on the person, you might not get a lot of information because it’s all an elaborate secret, or they might just not have that information available for you. However, the silver lining is that in asking your game master specific questions about the world, their creative wheels start to turn as they ponder these questions. I’ve found that this usually leads to the GM creating a far more robust and detailed land than they would have done otherwise. In any case, be kind and patient with your questions.

3. Define Personality Traits

Maybe you’re an experienced player and want to try a different method of character creation, or maybe you’re a new player who wants to focus on role-playing a particular archetype, but you have yet to define their more nuanced personality traits. This method is perfect for building a personality, and then writing your backstory to accommodate that. 

Like the other two methods listed here, the most important thing is to decide on a concrete center for your character concept, regardless of what it is. If you want to play a character who is a brave and honorable warrior, start with that. Why do they value bravery and honor? Was it ingrained in them during childhood or did they learn those values later in life? Just those two questions can give you a lot of creative room with which to work. Keep asking questions about the reasons for your character’s attitudes and the way they react in different situations. 

I personally use this method a lot in conjunction with finding an environmental anchor. You don’t have to, but if you choose not to create a character who is tightly tied to the game world in some way, you run the risk of creating a character in a contextual vacuum. I’ll expand more on this idea at a later date, but the key thing to remember is that people, and by extension characters, do not exist in a vacuum. There is always a social and an environmental context which affects how your character develops. Once you’ve used this method to come up with a good personality for your character, be sure to work with your GM to implement them into their game world as smoothly as possible before play begins.

4. Assist Your Players

This one is for all the game masters out there. I find that it is incredibly helpful and important to assist players in character creation, especially if they are struggling. Asking your players questions and providing suggestions which they themselves may not have thought of goes a long way in helping them develop a character with some real depth. In my experience, this collaboration also helps immensely with prompting players to create more intriguing backstories.

Communication is incredibly important (again, I plan to elaborate on this subject in a future post) and as a GM, character creation goes a lot smoother when you inform your players about the setting as soon as possible. Keep them updated as things change in your planning so they can change their ideas in time, if need be. 

The biggest pitfall with this method for both players and game masters is the risk of allowing the player's creation to become the GM's creation. Too many suggestions for backstory plot points or personality traits can smother the player's creativity and lead them to play a character which actually isn't their own creation, and they might not be happy about that. 

Personally, I like giving my players as much agency as possible, so i tend to keep my suggestions to a minimum and focus on asking my players questions about their character. However, if your players enjoy taking your suggestions and everyone's having fun, you don't need to worry. 

One Last Thing…

Remember that your character, especially if you’re a player, is your vessel through whom you may freely express yourself. Stay true to whatever your vision is and create something that you actually enjoy, even if it takes a little bit more time than you’d expect. Playing tabletop games is about having fun and sharing a narrative experience. Don’t worry too much about if your character is “right” or “interesting enough” or “different enough” from your own real personality; that stuff doesn’t matter. As long as you’re all having fun, you’re doing it right. 

Be kind to each other and stay healthy.

#fallout #falloutnv #fallout3 #fallout4 #TES #the elder scrolls #gaming #pcgaming #pc games #skyrim #fallout screenshots #skyrim screenshots #character aesthetics #dawnguard #role-playing #rpg #ttrpg #tabletop #tabletop gaming #advice #article #opinion #game master #gm #dungeons and dragons #d&d #call of cthulhu #character development #writing #dungeon master

[fluffyheretic]

oh hey im actually thinking abt worldbuilding again

I took a shower and thought a lot about dragons and child-rearing in my setting. A LOT.

Dragons are most typically monogamous, but polyamory is considered uncommon but not entirely rare, and isn't usually batten an eye at.

Throughout their life, dragon parents will simultaneously have very few children and also very many.

After having one child, parents will almost always wait until that child has long since become an independent adult before having another. They have a relatively long lifespan and never become infertile from age. So unlike humans, who mostly will have as many children as they're planning within a particular timeframe and then no more, periods of child-rearing are spread out through a dragon's lifetime, often with years-long gaps between one's maturation and the next even being conceived.

Dragons are able to have such gaps between children because of their long life, but since they invest so much time into only one at a time, they still only have time to have so many. A dragon who, by the end of their life, has had a handful of about 4-6 is considered to have been very prolific. 2-3 is most common, but many are content only ever having one, and of course there are those who don't ever have any, for various reasons.

But this is only speaking in terms of biological offspring. Socially, a dragon may be a parent to many.

Young are raised very communally. Aspiring parents in a community will carefully time copulation to have their young at a very particular time of year. Instead of eggs being produced throughout the year, many are made all at once, within about a week or so. Of course, if resources are abundant, more parents are likely to decide to join that year. If they're not, there may be no young at all that year, or even a period of years.

Eggs are almost immediately brought to a communal den to be looked after together. They'll hatch there, and live there until old enough to live more independently.

All of that year's parents work closely together to raise their offspring, with a dragon playing an equally large part in a child's life whether they're the biological parent or not. In fact, biological parents are really only made distinct in order to keep track of who they're related to to avoid accidental incest (when the time of the year for child-rearing has come, it's someone in the community's job to make sure records are updated). Otherwise, from a social standpoint, they don't have any special significance.

The benefits are numerous:

Children are able to absorb information and lessons from a variety of adults, who have different interests and life experiences, ensuring a well-rounded education.

They're remarkably safe, as they're almost never without the presence of multiple adults. Abuse is exceedingly rare as it's a rare occurrence for one adult to be left alone with them, nevermind them being alone entirely.

A parent who cannot as actively participate in child-rearing for whatever reason, such as injury or illness, can rest easy knowing their child is still being well-looked after. Relatedly, the unfortunate death of a parent will never mean a child is suddenly left alone or thrust into an unfamiliar living situation.

The community of parents for that year's children are mostly made up of dragons who have a biological child among them. But that isn't necessarily required. A dragon can be a parent just by choosing to be involved. A dragon may be uninterested in the physical process of producing their own young, infertile, in a relationship where it isn't possible, or simply not be planning to have a child at the moment but who still loves to be involved. Whatever the case, anyone is welcome to join in and become a parent. Dragons who know that they have a sibling amongst a year's generation are likely to want to be involved, too.

There are cases where the opposite happens and someone has a child but for some reason or another is not able to be involved at all. It occasionally happens that an egg appears in the communal den that no one is quite sure of the origin of. Regardless, it will be raised just as lovingly along with all the rest.

Then there are dragons who have ventured far from their homeland and are living among different peoples. Although dragons have been traveling more in recent years and spreading further across the globe, they're still relatively rare. There are still regions where having even just one dragon living among you is a strange curiosity, nevermind multiple.

If there are multiple dragons living in one place, they will quickly gravitate towards forming a small sub-community with each other. This is obviously to have a sense of belonging and safety in a world which largely is still learning to understand them. But it becomes even more important when it comes to raising their children. Even if there are only a few of them, they'll still do their best to uphold their tradition of communal raising. If they have close friends of other kinds of people, those friends are encouraged to be involved. A human who enthusiastically joins in helping to raise their dragon friends' kids is a dear friend indeed.

The most awkward situation is when there is only one dragon or dragon couple with a child. Of course there are different cultures in different places and there are better places to be in this situation than others. In places where communal child-raising is far from the norm, it's pretty stressful conditions for a dragon to have a child in. They'll worry constantly about their child's development, what would happen if something happened to themselves, etc. so it's pretty much avoided. Dragons living in places like that are probably not intending to have children soon and will probably move somewhere better (maybe even all the way back to their homeland) if they decide to.

On the other side of the same coin, dragons don't want to only be involved with their biological children. They very much have it ingrained in them that all of the children in the community are theirs to look after. In good scenarios, this can result in them having reputations for being eager babysitters. It can also create awkward situations, though. A dragon may feel urged to reprimand a child that isn't theirs, which the parent is often offended by (and being scolded by a big fire-breathing reptile you don't know can be a scary experience for a kid!). Some people, who aren't used to the presence of dragons and are suspicious of them, may be unhappy with a dragon even being around them and their children at all.

Dragon children who grow up around non-dragons also have to deal with the awkwardness that comes with their biological differences. They're bigger and much more dangerous than humans. They must learn from a very young age to be mindful of how they conduct themselves with their peers. While dragon children can safely roughhouse with each other, if a human child is involved it's far too easy for tragic accidents to occur. This is a major reason why many human parents aren't comfortable with their kids having dragon friends, especially when they're too young to fully understand the differences between them. It can create a difficult and lonely situation to grow up in. So, again, dragons will prefer to have kids if they know there are at least some other dragons in the community they can grow up with.

#blynn's worldbuilding #I PROMISE I DIDNT FORGET ABT THIS I PROMISE #its just a very casual slow-paced thing is all ykwim

[wondereads]

Personal Recommendation (2/28/21)

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold

Why am I recommending this book?

I loved this one. I finished it in less than two hours and then spent an extra hour lying there thinking about how great it was. I think this is the first book I’ve felt this way about in a long time, so anticipate a very long, spoiler-filled review. (Please keep in mind, this review discusses things like rape, abuse, and extreme misogyny. If this is a trigger for you, please do not read this review! Also, if you’re looking to avoid spoilers, skip to the Overall section.)

Want something quick and short? Check out my tiktok

Plot 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

In the land of Harding, it’s tradition that after the previous king dies, the prince will venture out, slay a dragon, and rescue a damsel. When Ama wakes up in the arms of Prince Emory of Harding, she has no memory of the dragon or anything before that. However, as she starts her new life as Emory’s fiancée, she starts to realize that life in the palace isn’t quite what it seems.

One thing you must understand is that this book is character-driven. There is no grand plan or kingdom-threatening evil. It’s all about Ama and how she deals with life in Harding. As such, the plot section will be a little short. The gradual transition that takes place in Ama from her arrival to the wedding is very well done, and the slow revelations that take place really begin to up the ante towards the end. Even if this wasn’t the most exciting book I’d ever read, I was entirely invested in Ama and her search for the truth.

There was also a very cool bit of symbolism in this book with the comparison of Sorrow, Ama’s lynx kit, and Pawlin’s falcon. The falcon represents what Emory wishes Ama to be, the perfect pet. An obedient creature that will always return to him. Sorrow represents what Ama actually is. A wild animal that was partially trained before eventually finding freedom again. Both Ama and Sorrow return to Harding with Emory, are trained to behave a certain way, and face pain and sickness before escaping.

Also, this was the most satisfying ending to a book that I’ve read in a long time. It’s a bit open in that we don’t know what the characters will be doing after or what will happen in Harding, but Ama gets what she wants and takes out the people who were keeping it from her, and even though I don’t know what will happen to her after, I know it’ll probably be something good.

Characters 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

Now, this is the section that will be quite long. Ama has her quirks and traits, but I believe that first and foremost she is average. She has the sort of compassion that you would expect from any human being, and she doesn’t always speak out. Sometimes, she’s scared, and she ends up giving in. As the story progresses, Ama begins to lose some of her fire, she begins to give up. It’s very easy to see how her treatment is having an effect on her character, and that’s why I felt so strongly about her arc. Seeing her gradually lose herself makes me all the more insistent that she will win in the end. And she does, and it’s a very satisfying win at that. I’m particularly fond of how she turns Emory’s words on him during her escape.

Emory is an incredibly well-written character. The transition from savior to captor is very smooth and convincing. When Ama first meets Emory, he’s very sweet. He showers her with compliments, he prioritizes her comfort over his own, and he protects her fiercely. He was so nice that I at first thought that he would be Ama’s ally in Harding. However, once Ama and Emory enter Harding, a place where he is now king, he changes. He expects Ama to fit the mold of the perfect bride; quiet, docile, pretty. He humiliates her, does whatever he pleases, and he can get away with it all because he has undeniable power there. To put it simply, Emory slowly begins to show the classic signs of an abuser. He exerts his power in every way, he cuts her off from the outside world, he tries to deprive her of Sorrow, her only protector, and he and his friends gaslight her at every turn. And it’s slow enough that by the time Ama is exposed, she’s already under the watchful eye of an entire kingdom. A realization of Ama’s puts it in perfect terms - he likes her best when she’s in need of rescuing.

Ama and Emory at first seem like the perfect couple. It matches what we have been taught, the brave prince and the beautiful damsel, and Emory is dedicated to the show. In fact, Emory never once physically abuses Ama. He loves to give her compliments, and it’s obvious he genuinely wants to marry her. Unfortunately, the reasons for marrying Ama are probably due to his coronation and his belief that, as king, he needs a damsel as queen. The psychological abuse on Ama is profound, and, because of the culture in Harding, he can get away with it no problem. It’s only through Ama’s own strength and the help she receives from other girls, such as Tillie and the queen mother, that she is able to escape.

The last major character I want to talk about is the queen mother. She is very important for Ama’s discoveries, and she’s a classic abuse victim. She has come to accept what happens in Harding as the norm, and she encourages Ama to accept it as well so she won’t get hurt. However, she still is an important character to Ama, and she still, perhaps on purpose, helps Ama escape what she had to experience. I have high hopes for her at the end.

Writing Style 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

This book is written in a similar style to a typical fairytale. It has similar language, and a lot of the descriptions, especially of Ama’s inner feelings, are rather abstract. It really does feel like an exceptionally long fable. Also, the pacing in this book, the way the revelations of Emory’s character and Ama’s memory are spread out, is perfect. It held my attention just enough, and once it began to pick up speed towards the end I was absolutely ready for it. It’s not hard to predict what the big secret is. Odds are, if you’re on Tumblr as much as I am, you could tell by the time you finished the summary. However, Arnold leaves it right up to the last moment to reveal what impact that secret will have. Although it was the ending I was hoping for, I wasn’t sure it would be right up until it happened.

Meaning 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

There is some great commentary in Damsel on rape culture, psychological abuse, and the effects of misogyny. First of all, Harding is one of the most misogynistic kingdoms in the fictional world. The worst part is, most of it isn’t through actual physical threats to women. There is one scene where two men attempt to sexually assault Ama. However, her savior is Emory, her abuser. 

The big problem in Harding is the absolute dehumanization that woman face. Multiple times, women are referred to as vessels, having no worth beyond the children they carry and raise. It is so heavily ingrained into the damsels when they arrive that the queen mother believes it to be true. All of the girls that have lived in Harding, such as Tillie, agree with it as well. Women are expected to sit quietly and look pretty while the men around them make crude jokes and treat them like objects. This is why Emory can do what he does. He can almost rape Ama and literally lead her around on a leash because the entire society of which he is king is filled with enablers and bystanders. Ama knows throughout the entire book that the way Emory treats her is wrong. It goes against her very nature, but she submits to it. Why? Because everyone around her acts like it’s normal. Because it’s better than being held captive by a dragon. Because it’s better than being on the streets where much worse could happen to her. Because it’s just the way things are. 

Damsel has some pretty powerful statements on how rape culture can enable abuse and psychologically wear down women. It shows what horrible things a abuse victim can be subjected to. However, it also shows what happens when Tillie and the queen mother help Ama in the little ways they can. It shows that woman can stand up to their abusers and have a much brighter future; that they are not defined by what they have endured. And I think that’s why I loved this book so much.

Overall 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

I was wholly invested in the book. I absolutely loved it, and I will definitely be getting a personal copy for myself. Ama’s journey of self-discovery (literally) pulls the reader in, and Emory’s quiet transition is so subtle and powerful. The social commentary is amazing, and you will absolutely love Sorrow. Please do keep in mind that this book deals with some heavy topics such as rape and abuse, so do not read it if you have issues with that. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy fantasy, fractured fairytales, and people getting what they deserve.

The Author

Elana K. Arnold: American, also wrote A Boy Called Bat, What Girls Are Made Of, and Red Hood

The Reviewer

My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every two weeks, and I take recommendations. Check out my about me post for more!

#damsel #elana k arnold #fantasy #ya #books #recommendations #reviews #tw: rape #tw: abuse

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplay Ramblings: Culture Shock part 2

Variation Amongst Races

 As I pointed out briefly yesterday, the many races of Pathfinder and indeed fantasy have many cultural traits that fans consider so ingrained in their species that it becomes difficult to imagine them in other situations. Elves without forests, dwarves without mines, gnolls without slavery, kobolds without dragons, and so on.

While there is familiarity in keeping those elements the same, keep in mind that no culture is an island, and no species is a monolithic single cultural entity. You can and should consider writing ways to diversify the cultures of different races as they vary from region to region, nation to nation, or even clan to clan.

 We’ll cover this in more detail later this week, but consider how a race may change culturally depending on what environment it is in. Imagine dwarves in a swamp where their classic trades of mining and stonework are all but impossible. They might instead turn their crafting mastery towards woodworking and tanning.

What about vishkanya with relatively little contact with other humanoids with which to infiltrate? How might their people develop when they don’t have to hide?

Orcs, kobolds, and drow all have light sensitivity and a distrust of surface dwellers due in part to their subterranean lifestyle. How might they change if they live on the surface?

Going back to the swamp, consider if you were to place merfolk in a swamp, where they regularly slither up on land in addition to living in the deeper parts. Might their piscine halves resemble lungfish? Might they be more open to surfacers?

 Another thing to consider is what races border on the territory of another and how they impact each other. Certainly some races may come to hostilities if their beliefs or needs run counter or competitively to each other, but if peaceful contact can be established, consider how that changes things. Conversely, what if races normally at peace with each other were hostile. For example, what if elves were not only aloof and insular to other races, but openly hostile to others either in their territory, but perhaps also those they view as having a deleterious effect on the natural world?

On the other end, what if kobolds got over their cultural hangups and became a part of the wider world, demonstrating their skills of engineering and security.

What if a group of nagaji were separated from any contact with their naga creators, and allowed to develop on their own? Perhaps they’d develop relations both poor and positive based on their own merits, and develop their own cultural iconography?

 And let’s not forget that certain events might have profound impacts upon how a culture develops. Disaster might force the reexamining of old traditions, or it might lead to a new dark age of fearful ignorance. The update to hobgoblins in Starfinder is a perfect example of this, as with the Gap sending everything into upheaval, hobgoblins re-examined their fears of non-divine magic and discarded them, exploring all options.

Imagine the inverse, however, such as highly magical races like elves being involved in a magical disaster that causes them to reject the arcane magic that they are often associated with.

It doesn’t have to be a disaster either. Perhaps a hero from another race saves a particularly xenophobic culture, which while not fixing everything instantly, opens the door to building relationships based on respect.

Even technological advancements can cause change, flinging one civilization ahead compared to its neighbors, while failing to develop such tech, or worse, losing it, might set them back.

 What’s really interesting is how these changes might even apply to races that are not known for having a culture of their own, such as planar scion races, which are for the most part independent oddities. Imagine the passionate culture that could arise from a gathering of ifrit, or what could be accomplished by wyvarens if they were allowed to florish instead of being a dying race.

Conversely, take a well-established race and cast them to the wind and you may find they behave differently. What if goblins were nearly wiped out, for example? Imagine them having to adopt the culture of others due to their simplistic culture and beliefs being all but forgotten.

 This is a lot of food for thought, and perhaps it will inspire you to do something that I didn’t come up with here. Tune in tomorrow for more!

#pathfinder #roleplay ramblings #culture