#this is a Hector stan account

[beevean]

You know, the funniest thing about how the games treat Dracula compared to the show is that the former have no less than four foils for our villain! To really hammer in the point that dude chose to be a bastard when he could have not!

Alucard also lost Lisa - he watched her die, he listened to her last words, and by all account it was a slow, painful death. He could have been angry towards the mob who unfairly put his mother through such a terrible death. Instead, accepting Lisa's final message, he chose to protect humanity from his father's fury, and kill him over and over which causes him so much internal turmoil that he'd rather sleep his life away.

Soma discovered that his fate was to become the Dark Lord. He simply refused. In fact, he was scared to become the Dark Lord, to the point of making Julius promise that if he lost against Chaos, the vampire hunter would kill him. Soma wants to be a normal human with his friends, and he'll fight to stay so. (worthy of noting that he's the only foil here who can't resist the darkness' call when he sees his beloved die, in DoS: Mina's Talisman can only slow the process down for Arikado to intervene in time. It proves that he really has to struggle to remain as himself)

Hector also was forced to see her beloved be executed in a sham witch trial - deliberately! Isaac deliberately set this up to enrage him to the point of being easily manipulable, and Death deliberately fanned the flames of his anger so that he'd succumb to the Curse and become Dracula. Hector not only directed all of his anger to the only responsible for Rosaly's death, but by the end he pulled back, because he realized that anger was not real, and recognized Isaac as another victim before peacefully moving on.

And Leon also had his fiancée die (see a pattern here), in fact he had to strike the fatal blow, under her request. Mathias honestly believed that because of this, Leon would understand his grief, and also renounce to God. But Leon not only had no intention to forgive Mathias for his cruel plan, he insisted that he'd rather live as a human and honor Sara's final wish, than exist for all eternity all alone, the fate Mathias doomed himself to.

So yes, eventually it almost becomes funny how much the games keep insisting "look at how much of a pathetic loser Dracula is. what a weak bitch. really thinks he's all justified because Wife Died™. Look at all these badasses with Dead Wives™ and how they still do the right thing! lol, dracula. lmao, even."

the virgin "he did nothing wrong 🥺" vs the chad "he did everything wrong and he's a petty manbaby about it". we stan

(ofc there is the heavy implication that Dracula literally cannot move on nor become a better person because of Chaos' influence inside him, which is why his soul had to do a hard reboot in the form of Soma to be freed from the cycle of destruction he stuck himself in. But there is certainly a discussion to be had about how much this affects Dracula's agency and culpability)

#castlevania #akumajou dracula #dracula castlevania #alucard castlevania #soma cruz #hector castlevania #leon belmont #maybe the point could have been made without all of these dead women #but that's another matter

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Why do Targ stans believe that Daenerys being the fire that the title of the series refers to, is a good thing? George has previously explained that the title of the series comes from the poem "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost, and the literal first lines of the sonnet are "some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice". The poem also ends with "from what I've tasted of desire, the world will end in fire. But if it had to end twice, ice will suffice".

I’m not a Targ Stan, nor do I interact with them frequently, so I’m not the best person to answer this question. Maybe it’s because they recognize that the “song” refers to a war, much like how the Dance of Dragons refers to another war, just romanticized by singers. If the Others—mysterious cold beings who want to eradicate all life—are the ice threat and clearly evil, then the Fire being must be set up to oppose them and is thus clearly good (though that hasn’t yet been established, and the series shows there’s varying degrees of morality). Maybe it’s because they think like some GOT writers (Alan Taylor) that it’s referring to her protagonist status and contrast to ice protagonist Jon Snow, with whom she’ll have a series-defining romance that may play into saving the world, just like a romantic song (even though GRRM said she and Jon are just 10% of the story).

Of course, neither of those theories take into account Robert Frost’s poem, which goes:

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

So then there’s the theory that Dæny will die fighting the Others in a heroic sacrifice, or even be Jon’s Nissa Nissa (which tbh is even worse for her character), thus bringing down all Ice/Fire magic in the world. Ice in the poem is described as hateful, I guess like the Omnicidal others, slow-burning, but not interesting and ends the poem on a deliberate anticlimax. Contrast the Fire, described as passionate, quick-burning, and the writer’s first choice of destruction (not unlike “shooting star” reformer character Dæny, according to a certain BNF). It’s also been theorized Dæny will burn down KL but accidentally due to the wildfire caches, but then go north to die because she actually wants to save humanity, thus I guess being a fire threat but “””ultimately good”””” don’t pay attention to the half a million corpses in the corner civilians don’t count

That said, in reference to the title it does seem that GRRM was pointing to both the Ice and Fire as threats to humanity. However, GRRM also called Hector and Achilles two heroes when Achilles was a child murderer (Troilos) and Hector was a decent family man trying to defend his city, so it wouldn’t be first time I’ve disagreed with his literary interpretations. However, with this one “People say I was influenced by Robert Frost’s poem, and of course I was, I mean... Fire is love, fire is passion, fire is sexual ardor and all of these things. Ice is betrayal, ice is revenge, ice is… you know, that kind of cold inhumanity and all that stuff is being played out in the books.” I think he’s making sense with ice and fire as opposites but destructive in different ways.

#ask #anti asoiaf fandom #anti daenerys #grrm #opinion

[devilinlittlehope]

🚨calling all my fellow freaks🚨

As you can see from my recent posts, I’m the biggest fan of supermassive games and like many of you, I have my particular favorites that I jokingly call my harem, but I’m open to writing about other characters as well <3

I’ve been writing lots of nsfw content about these characters and would love to share some of my snippets with the supermassive community and feed all of you stans so I hope this reaches the right people! Let me know if you’d like to see some 18+ writing content of any of these characters (I specifically love to write content of Charlie, Hector, John, Jamie, Erin and Kate❤️) I’m down to write anything- headcanons, one shots, fics about characters from every game (The Devil in Me, The Quarry, Until Dawn, Little Hope, House of Ashes and Man of Medan)

I WILL write nsfw, x reader, fics about various ships, lgbt stories, headcanons, fluff, and anything of that sort!!

I WILL NOT write anything with r*pe, underage characters, incest, homophobia, etc. and I do not condone that behavior. If you don’t respect that, please stay away from my account!

As always, my asks are open if you ever wanna chat or request me to write anything about any character, I love the dark pictures/supermassive fandom so much🥰

#supermassive games #supermassive games community #dark pictures anthology #dark pictures #writing #charlie lonnit #granthem du’met #hector munday #john little hope #travis hackett #little hope #little hope game #man of medan #house of ashes #the devil in me #dark pictures the devil in me #dark pictures man of medan #dark pictures little hope #dark pictures house of ashes #the quarry #until dawn #18+ content #curator #welcome my fellow freaks #charlie lonnit stans rise #fandom #headcanons #fic prompt #fanfic

[peligrosapop]

how are all the masia babies so cute? it seems be make them that way to have a fandom on tiktok lmao if cristo ever makes it to the first team it's over for the other clubs , literally our face card could never be declined

Cristo is lil ken doll, man can be on TV if he wants.

Masia babies coming up that are cute lil babies that I have no doubt the teenage teens and adult teen will absolutely love( this guys I think have a good chance of debuting in the next 2-3 years, so that’s why they are on this list)

Hector Fort

Diego Kochen

Pau Cubarsí

Marc Bernal

Noah Darvich

They all look like babies to me, just like Marc Guiu but I can understand why young girls/boys/non binary folks would def make tik toks and twitter stan accounts about them.

#la masia babies #anon answered

[ozymandiasdirge]

i havent seen bcs but thats the mood on the dashboard so top 5 bcs moments. also happy birthday again

okay well we all know i’m incapable of brevity so i’m doing 10 but thank you!!!💖💖💖 (these are in loose order of objectively incredible film making moments and just raw emotional gut punches)

the 25 episode build up to chucks rant on the witness stand in chicanery. it all came together for that one shot push in and gave everyone a meme for the ages…bravo vince gordon smith

the hard cut in 6x09 from just the sound of kim ripping the packing tape to saul goodman. the took a funny haha prequel and made it into a horror movie……genuinely on of the most tragic things i’ve ever fucking seen.

the flame flickering from lalo’s enterance in 6x07 right before [the incident] is just….literally it’s ghastly it’s haunting who is he he’s nobody and he’s about to ruin your fucking life it’s fucking transcendent

kim’s crying on the bus in 6x12 for being so fucking awful and raw that i genuinely couldn’t look at it the first few times i watched it. 62 episodes of holding everything in and it all comes bursting out god…rhea i love you

the line that completely locked me in as a lalo salamanca stan account. when he’s talking with werner on the phone in 4x10 and mike takes it away and is silent and lalo just goes “michael…😊 is that you” and it SLAPS

the cold open of 6x03 with the rain plinking on the bottle in the desert and nachos flower 🥺🥺🥺

after nacho has to beat up domingo because of hectors #homophobia and he’s so disassociated he sews his own hand to the fabric in his fathers shop i’m so unwell

jonathan bank’s entire performance in 1x06 is so fucking….he broke his boy

i’m cheating all three of the breaking bad cameo scenes….hearing jesse ask about lalo….seeing kim and jesse talk…..”so you were always like this” girl eye….

the karaoke scene in 4x10 and the scene with chuck tucking him into bed…… 🔪🔪🔪

#asks #thegeminisage #better call saul #this could have easily been 50 entries

[jules-and-company]

Lire pour la première fois les pages Wikipedia sur la légende arthurienne en n’ayant jamais vu que Kaamelott (et lu Yvain ou le chevalier au lion pendant le collège) : a thread, partie 4

On parle maintenant d’un certain Galehaut

Il a pas l’air hyper intéressant

Je retire ce que j’ai dit, enemies to lovers, 24k-

C’EST VRAI EN PLUS PUTAIN

Galehaut is the gay hero we need et Lancelot arrête d’être dans le déni de ton homosexualité

……il donne son quoi

Ça me fume comment j’en ai jamais entendu parler avant ? Also C’est clairement dit qu’il se fait passer pour hétéro et 2) qu’il aimait Lancelot à un point inimaginable

Je chiale

This is a Galehaut stan account now

Très peu de choses dites malheureusement à propos de Galessin, mis à part qu’il est parti à la bataille une fois pour aider Arthur avec Yvain et Gauvain et j’imagine tellement bien le tableau de ces deux débiles avec Galessin tired dad à l’arrière

On passe à Gareth, ENCORE un frère de Gauvain

Je veux un spin-off avec les aventures de Gareth car il : se fait passer pour un garçon de cuisine au château, on le victimise parce qu’il a les mains douces, il se casse à l’aventure avec une autre domestique qui arrête pas de se foutre de sa gueule, se bat avec des chevaliers qui sont tous la personnification d’un Crayola, met la misère à un mec qui à la force de sept hommes qui a juré à sa femme de tuer Lancelot, force ce mec à revenir au château avec lui pour lui demander pardon. Long trip sous acide

Et malheureusement il crève aussi

On parle de l’aîné de la fratrie d’Orcanie : Gauvain

Vu les représentations, le costume qu’il porte dans kv1 est vraiment accurate, jusqu’à la coiffure tout est très bien bravo au département costumes

Attends il a un pouvoir spécial relié au soleil ? Mais c’est hyper classe

Globalement toutes les histoires où il est il est super doué super poli super tout, mais je vais retenir celle-là :

Cockblock from god

Je me rends compte que je suis pas allé voir Hector des Mares

Bon y’a presque rien sur lui

Et Lionel de Gaunes alors ?

« Devenu roi de Gaunes » ? Alors que c’est Bohort l’aîné ?

Sa vie c’est quand même bien de la merde à Lionel

Et Loth. Qu’en est-il de Loth.

« Allié du roi Arthur » jusqu’à, hein

« Un vassal fidèle » JUSQU’À

Il était héritier du royaume de Norvège. Amis norvégiens vous avez eu beaucoup de chance de passer à côté de ça

Apparemment dans la légende de base c’est un mec bien. Ça fait bizarre

Geraint ou plutôt Érec on a un peu rien à battre et sa femme est mieux de toute façon

Enfin, on parle de Girflet

Globalement sa vie c’est cool il est pote avec Gauvain il est content il est chevalier

(On me précise dans cette page que Bohort a été sous l’emprise d’un sortilège qui l’a poussé à être un peu sans pitié et méchant. Potentiel de fanfic, moi je dis)

Ah non en fait c’est le dernier à voir Arthur vivant c’est lui qui doit se débarrasser d’Excalibur tous ses potes sont clamsés et il survit 18 jours après la mort d’Arthur. Youpi.

Et si on parlait du chevalier méconnu de tous Hunbaut

Ah, c’est le cousin de Gauvain. Serait-il aussi un connard ?

On ne sait pas personne ne sait rien il a le rôle d’une plante verte

Vous vous rappelez de Kay le sonneur ? Eh bah on va parler de son alter égo Keu le sénéchal

Il est chiant, l’envie de l’encastrer dans le mur m’envahit soudainement

Oh putain je viens de faire le lien avec le Keu dans Merlin L’Enchanteur de Disney

Ça tire à balles réelles

C’est vraiment très très con comme façon de mourir

Intéressons-nous à Lamorak (jouait-il vraiment au robobrol ?)

On sait pas et apparemment personne en a rien à péter

#la complainte de julot #kaamelott #a thread

[bi4bihankking]

This is a Hector Hall stan account

[classics-cassandra]

Me: All of the characters in the Iliad have flaws and aren’t perfect heroes

#this is a Hector stan account #Hector prince of troy my beloved #classics memes #ancient literature memes #ancient greek #tagamemnon #ancient greek memes #the iliad #homer’s iliad #iliad #the Trojan war #song of achilles #the song of achilles

[encrucijada]

my sister is privy to me telling them live how much i dislike tsoa. they said this out loud so i decided to illustrate it

#this is a hector of troy stan account #pia.txt #tsoa

[cursefelled]

Some Trector Smooches for @forgedwill I forgot to post a couple weeks ago lmao 💗

#{ ♰ : OUT OF CHARACTER } #{this week on rizzy and sin start shipping something and nobody is surprised} #{ft me with my csp subscription doling out the content nobody else will give us LMAO} #{LOOK I JUST THINK....THEYRE REALLY NEAT...................} #{this is a hector stan account i repeat} #{yall aint seen the l a s t of me and my art beech i got a WHOLE BUNCH OF SHIPS TO MAKE CONTENT FOR--}

[lady-writes]

Lykon is Hercules and also Odysseus and also the first werewolf and NO AMOUNT OF INST. RACISM WILL STOP ME FROM STANNING.

❤️🤟🏾🤟🏿 POC LOVE MONTH BEGINSSSS  🤟🏿 🤟🏾 ❤️

I know I’m starting late (for shame!) but this write up turned into a BEAST in ways I fully did not expect holy SHIIiiiiit….and in the interest of dealing with my own guilty conscience I’ll post sources later or if asked. BTW there be mild Force Multiplied spoilers with so....

SO LYKON THEN

Third Known Immortal, First Male Immortal, First Black Immortal and the Last of the Ancient Immortals.

I’m making all of my assumptions on Lykon based on the two most solid bits of background that we have for him 1) The Old Guard Through History featurette from Netflix and the few lines and panels that we get of Lykon in the Comics, particularly Issue 2 of Opening Fire and 4 of Force Multiplied.

What feels like forever ago now I dove headfirst into figuring out time and place for all of our Immortal family and getting an idea, primarily at first of how long Andy had truly been alone, but ultimately of where in time our other prehistoric/ancient immortals fell in the history of the world.

Opening Fire gives us the best bit of historical placement that any of the Ancients have.

All of the imagery that the comics give us of Lykon is undeniably Greek in its references.

So Perhaps that helmet in the cave was originally Lykon's, not Andy's (or Hector’s)?

Either way, since the timeline from the featurette actually provides a perfectly clear span of Lykon’s first lifetime, 359-332 BCE, I started there. Regarding Lykon’s first death we can be super specific, Thanks to the fact that the campaigns of Alexander the Great were so well documented we know Ya boi Alex the G and his armies laid siege to Gaza for 2 months. Gaza fell in late October, Alexander took Egypt without a fight at Pelusium in even later October and was in Memphis to be crowned Pharaoh of both kingdoms by November 14th. The trip from Gaza to Memphis had to have taken 3 weeks or less altogether.

Andy says that by a stroke of luck Lykon was only alone for “a couple weeks.” We see Lykon take an arrow through the neck in battle- presumably the wound that killed him. We next see Lykon, alone, in a posture that almost perfectly mimics Andy at the end of Force Multiplied, sitting inside the walls of Gaza. Alexander and his armies have presumably moved on, Lykon was left behind and that is the state that Andy finds him in sometime in between the 24th of October and the 14th of November 332 BCE.

Easter Egg: Despite the fact that Noriko and Andy aren’t supposed to meet in the comics canon for almost 1000 more years after Andy meets Lykon- here the homegirl is tits out and living her best life.

So those are the basic “facts” of the start of Lykon’s immortality….. What’s much more fun though (and 10 times as frustrating) is sussing out his origins and life/culture before he ended up fighting with Alexander.

When I first looked into Lykon’s probable lifespan to make my timeline,I did a bit of cursory looking at the sorts of racial divisions that might have been present in Ancient Greece and the results are deeply inconclusive. The simple fact of the matter is that the sheer weight of  our modern, post Trans Atlantic Chattel Slave Trafficking perspective makes it impossible to get an accurate read on race relations in antiquity. Everything from the ingrained reaction that we have to the word “slave”, to the existing historical analysis that we have of first hand accounts up until approximately 1960-70 is vastly colored by the Eurocentric white supremacist views that have permeated western culture. I was pretty discouraged12345 by that, so I moved on to looking at other things that I could get lost in wikiholes on.

So with that in mind, when I started writing this I did my best to keep a distinctly neutral view of the few first hand accounts that I could find and a certain amount of patience.

That did not last because well… racism makes me mad.

In depth breakdown of the failings of academic documentation and HELLA Lykon thoughts/HCs/crack theories behind ze cut...

Looking for historical records of pre-colonial Africa, especially the many parts of Africa that aren’t North Africa, is a nightmare. Colonialism actively destroyed cultural heritage and history as part of its mission to assimilate people living in their own homelands into the mold of “civilized, moral” western society. Prehistory is even harder, because the accounts that would usually make up the register of prehistoric information are not only missing but have in many cases been actively overwritten. And then as a compounding factor a general lack of investment from academia in this area makes it crazy hard to find reputable resources. So any and all research has to be taken with a grain of salt and checked to see what interest the source might have had in portraying native populations and indigenous cultures as savages, whether backwards and primitive or the equally repugnant humble and noble.

It’s exhausting, considering I do this fandom shit for fun and still have a job and shit. But I like learning and I love cultures so I kept at it.

I made a couple basic assumptions that I think suit the general way the pattern of immortality appears to work. Lykon wouldn’t have been anyone particularly special, not broke, not rich and not necessarily singled out. All of our immortals are average joes amongst their neighbors and compatriots right up until they really aren’t. 

So that meant the first thing I had to try and figure out was where black people were in Greece and how they were treated/ received. Which led to having even more questions to answer because the historical register is a mess and everything is disputed. The answer turned out to be, “BECAUSE TRADE ROUTES,” but I’m getting ahead of myself. 

After a lot of tiresome reading about slavery and several instances of white and rare but equally annoying black nonsense I had my answer…. ish. 

This is a pretty big digression from fandom fun for me by now. It’s more like a challenge has been posed to me by the internet. “Can you make a reasonable reconstruction of the life of one (1) black man in North West Africa in approx. 400 BCE?”

Ultimately there is a Massive Metaphorical Fucking Wall that drops down and effectively closes off the West Center and South African sub continents 3400 BCE and lasts until between 700 and 1100 CE. The 3400 BCE date more or less coincides with the point at which the Sahara reached its current state of desertification and is considered by historians to have been impassable. The historical focus on Egypt reflects this impassable state, for sure. Incidentally, this is also the period where groups start being referred to as civilizations and historical focus shifts from benchmark points for the human race as a whole to achievements that are being attributed to specific cultures. 

It’s a 4,100-4,500 year long black hole in the center of world history.

Everything that happens beyond Egypt and Mediterranean North Africa during that time falls into a deeply frustrating contradictory state where pretty much all historians seem to agree that there were at minimum 10,000 distinct states and kingdoms of both centralized and decentralized societies, but none of them are considered to be of any sort of Empire or Civilization of note. 

We know that by 1500 CE, barring areas that had been abandoned due to poor soil/lack of rainfall/otherwise inhospitable conditions, essentially ALL of Africa was populated and controlled by indigenous groups. The fact that the academic world at large understands this but still has not shifted its focus to filling in this crazy gap in the historical register of the world and its civilizations is a travesty and should be seen as an indelible embarrassment for any and every academic institution that claims to have any kind of historical or anthropological prominence.

Consider the following: We know that all of human life on this planet originated from the African continent. We know that the continent, which is the second largest landmass in the world, was fully settled and populated by 1500. We know that approximately 26.6 million human souls were callously and wantonly transported against their wills from that continent over ~800 years; a rough estimate of the African diasporas population today is almost 1.1 million people (1.3% of the world population). We know that 17.4% of the current global population is made up of the current inhabitants of Africa, the second most populated continent. And we have as a global culture written off 4,000+ years of that continent's history. 

By comparison, the Mediterranean, accounting for approximately 3.88 percent of the current world population, has such a richly investigated history that there are entire academic departments devoted to studying specific pieces of its cultural register. Across 6 rigidly defined eras, spanning only 1,400 years, at multiple universities worldwide, culminating in a wealth of knowledge so inequitably balanced that it turns my stomach as I’m typing this. 

The prehistoric Mediterranean, from an academic standpoint, ends at the 8th century BCE. For West, Central, South, and East Africa, everything before colonization is considered the prehistoric era reaching all the way to 1500 CE, in casual parlance.

It’s yet another atrocity that continues to be done against Africa and all of her people.

I’d be lying to say that I don’t have any skin in the game, I’m a first generation American Nigerian, of Yoruba/Esan ethnicity with immigrant parents. And I’m legit hungry to know more about the place and cultures that comprise my ethnic history.

But more so than that, I am fully aware of the sheer amount of work that I put into my attempts to recreate Andy’s background. I’m aware of the cultural richness that I’ve been able to imbue my research into Quynh with, despite similar but blessedly less severe issues. I’ve read an ungodly amount about 11th century Genoa and Tunisia. I would feel wretched presenting only the confirmed and verified info that I've found on Lykon, as minor a character as he may be. Because the history of west Africa and Africa at large deserves the same respect as Iran, Ukraine, Vietnam, Genoa and the Maghrib.

Lykon is portrayed in the comics as a generic “white” presumably Greek or Macedonian man. I have no idea if there was a reason for casting a black actor in his role in the movie, but even with all of this. I’m glad it shook out this way.

I’m miles away from sweet fandom serotonin now, but in a large way this is wholly the reason why things like TOG POC Love Month need to exist.

I didn’t mean to do this when I placed Lykon at the front of the month or when I sat down to start writing this post almost 7 days ago but it's painfully fitting.

 ALL OF THAT BEING SAID…

This is what I’ve been able to find. 

So, the same as Joe and Quynh and Nile, I based Lykon’s ethnic group on the identity of his actor. Michael Ward is Jamaican, so that meant finding out where the bulk of the enslaved people whose descendants make up the Jamaican population came from in the 17 and 1800’s and where their ancestors were in the 4th century BCE. 

It got murky quick but in the spirit of The Old Guard, (which is 100% just semi-realist superhero fiction anyways) I chose to pick all of the best/most coincidental/ #PoeticCinema origins for Lykon. I did my best to stick to what simply makes sense for this character along with some cultural trivia that screamed out to me as shit that would be cool for Lykon, for my own HCs and also some shits and giggles.

In other words: If history won’t give me proper comprehensive information about cultures of the Horn of/Central/West Africa- I’LL MAKE MY OWN HISTORICAL CANON WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS!!!!

Lykon, born in around 359 BCE, would have probably been descended from the Bafour people of the Neolithic era. According to their oral tradition, they were a settled people living in modern Western Sahara and Mauritania. In terms of physical evidence, it's likely that they were an accidentally Nomadic people gradually migrating southward as the climate got more arid during the late holocene era (3050 BCE).

The Bafour would have moved into the dhars (sandstone cliffs) of Southern Mauritania (now called the Tichitt-Walata and the Tagant cliffs) and establishing the stone settlements of Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Nema among others between 2500 BCE and 2000 BCE. At the time of settlement, these would have all been oasis areas. Archaeological testimony supports that they were among the first peoples on the continent to produce stone settlement civilizations. 

As a way of dealing with the relatively catastrophic weather changes that brought them to the dhars, the Bafour developed a strategy of continuously shifting thier building sites away from the growing Sahara along with moving from the stone structures on the cliffs in the wet season to temporary lowland camps close to water sources in the dry season. As far as the social structure was concerned, the dominant theory is that the culture had a stratified social system involving polygamy or living with large amounts of extended family. Due to the increasingly inhospitable environment where fertile land and pasturage were at a premium, as the population grew they developed a relatively large-scale system governing organizations that can be seen as the precursors to the  militarized hierarchical aristocracies that emerged in the same area several hundred years later. During this era, iron smelting and metallurgy started to spread and become common among the West African people (900 BCE). There’s not a conclusive answer as to where this knowledge came from; it was most likely an independent invention.

Dhar Tichitt was what we currently think was the earliest large-scale, complex organized society in West Africa, paving the way for future state formation in Africa. Some of these settlements had massive surrounding walls while others were less fortified but altogether hundreds of stone masonry settlements with clear street layouts have been found. These remnants of sites represent “a great wealth of rather spectacular prehistoric ruins” and “perhaps the most remarkable group of Neolithic settlements in the world” according to some archaeologists. 

Archaeologists have found art depicting and/ or physical evidence of the following:

houses with enclosed, turiform gardens and courtyards (ca 1894-1435 BCE) 

Hoes and fish hooks made of bone

Millet flour and semolina

Reservoirs and dams to manage water from nearby rivers (wadis).

Burial mounds

art of three trotting giraffes 

art of man sitting on an ox with a lasso, bow, or shield

art of man using a throwing weapon on an oryx

art of person holding a basket

art of oxen pulling chariots or carts

iron smelting furnaces and slag heaps

The Bafour might have been the first to domesticate African rice and definitely domesticated millet and sorghum. There is also evidence that their patterns and methods of herding spread into Eastern and Southern Africa and the pastoral cultures that exist today. 

Most importantly to Lykon’s story, the Bafour had a copper-based agro-pastoral society that traded in jewelry and semi-precious stones from distant parts of the Sahara and Sahel, establishing pathways for what would become the Trans-Saharan trade route in the early CE. In response to the new opportunities afforded by north-south diversity in ecosystems across deserts, grasslands, and forests, trade developed with people to the north and south, with the Bafour offering the meat and grain and possibly strong but rudimentary fabrics. Their desert nomad and forest dwelling trade partners would have supplied salt and higher quality fabric along with furs wood and iron respectively  

In the middle of the Neolithic period (~550 BCE) another intense dry spell started the cascading collapse of the Neolithic agro-pastoral system at large, leading to the abandonment of the dhars and the start of a new migration pattern. Dhar Néma, the last built and inhabited of the Neolithic Dhar sites collectively referred to as the Tichitt culture. As the most southeastern-most of these sites, Dhar Nema may have served as a transitory area for the Bafour people /Tichitt Culture as the area Dhar Tichitt started to be abandoned due to the people trying to get away from the continually encroaching desert. Additionally there was a dominant theory that most scholars are beginning to challenge due to a clear bias, that the Bafour people were conquered by an unspecified Berber population from the north. Those Bafour who continually fled southward would be the ancestors of the Soninke people who are most commonly associated with the Dhars and Tichitt culture. This transition from the Bafour to Soninke people and the Tichitt culture that they straddle is one of the many points left unclear by a lack of historical attention.

Regardless, Dhar Nema’s existence and placement point directly to the last stop on the historical journey that has been decoding Lykon’s origin’s. Dhar Néma’s governmental and physical organization was also a likely precursor to the proto-egalitarian civilization of Djenne-Djenno in Mali, which came into being around 250 BCE, and is still populated now.   The Soninke people are an offshoot of the larger Mande ethnic group that is the parent culture for no less than 16 ethnic groups on the Gold Coast area of West Africa. 

The Soninke are largely known for being the founders of Djenne-Djenno in 250 BCE, but for our purposes we’d be looking at the Soninke people living at and around Dhar Nema in the specific area of Bou Khzama. This is now the twilight of the era of the Tichitt culture, which is considered to have ended in 200 BCE, but before the existence of Djenne-Djenno. 

There are two major milestones in this period that would be relevant to Lykon’s life. First, with a century of environmental migration starting in around 400 BCE we get the first recorded contact between West Africa and the Mediterranean, specifically the culture of Carthage, and mutually beneficial trade begins. This trade involved the export of gold, cotton, metal, and leather in exchange for copper, horses, salt, textiles, and beads. The second milestone is the emergence of the Soninke people themselves. By the 1st millennium BCE, environmental migration has caused the Bafour people to fade from the historical register and the Mandé ethnic group is beginning to make itself known. Beginning in 1000 BCE, the early stages of a massive migration referred to as the Bantu Expansion begins. As various people groups migrated away from the Sahara to the east as well as down the West African coast they began to break into groups that would form new ethnic groups. Two of those groups were the Mandé and the Akan people of Ghana.

The Akan people made up the vast majority of indigenous Africans shipped to Jamaica as slaves so this is more or less where I decided to place Lykon. That was the final end of that starting thread that I started this whole thing by pulling on. 

The Mandé languages belong to a divergent branch of the Niger–Congo family, and are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé. The Mandé peoples and the Akan people share a long history of trade and many similar cultural elements.

It's likely that the Mandé and Akan people intermixed, considering they were culturally coming from the same ancestral groups, but there's nothing to actually verify that.

However the Mandé people and their subgroups have some fantastically appropriate qualities as far as Lykon’s background is concerned.

The Mandé are noted as having been among the first on the continent to produce woven textiles (by a process known as strip-weaving), and as well as the founders of the Ghana Empire and Mali Empire, as well as being responsible for the expansion of the Songhai Empire across West Africa. Historically, fabric has been used as a form of money in African cultures, a fact that European colonizers took advantage of to devastating effect, so it's not a reach to assume that this tradition goes back to the era of Trans-Saharan trade. It actually might have formed the basis of a valuation system for the use of fabric as money at some point. 

I took note of the Mandé tradition of fabric arts, specifically because I’ve seen the HC previously that Lykon may have come from a family of weavers. The blue strip of cloth wound around Lykon’s spear (which can be seen in the historical featurette as well as Lykon’s promotional images from that feature) is distinctly reminiscent of adire, an indigo resist dyeing art that was wildly valuable, generally done in a familial setting and is still produced today. The earliest existing piece of adire is a men's hat from around 1100 CE but oral accounts and common sense indicate that the method is considerably older. Notably, the weaving tradition was seen as exclusively masculine work while the dying of fabrics was exclusively feminine.

In addition to this bit of headcanon influenced placement the fact that Lykon is born during this particular transitory phase makes the Soninke subgroup of the Mandé people a very interesting choice specifically due to the existence of a specialized ethnic group of note in the Soninke Wangara.

Across the Mandé diaspora there is a notable tiered system of socio economic classes: Nobles, Farmer/Vassals, and skilled professionals. In the Soninke culture there is a fourth particular class that in Lykon’s time would have been treated as a cross between the noble and professional classes: the Wangara traders.

The Soninke Wangara eventually operated all throughout West Africa Sahel-Sudan fostering regionally organized mercantile trade networks and were referred to later as "[one who] engages in trade and travels from one horizon to another.” But originally, they were known as both the vendors and the secret keepers of the gold veins that would eventually make the Gold Coast famous in the medieval period on account of “the great quantities and good quality of that metal.” 

The Wangara were noted for their honesty and industry and were instrumental in setting the basis for what would become the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai Empires in the coming centuries. In particular, Herodotus tells of silent trade between Carthage and unspecified regions to its south. If true, trade with Carthage possibly started as early as the 6th century BCE. In Lykon’s time they made contact with almost all West African people groups at the time and would have been facilitators of trade between them. Long distance trade contributed to the development of an ethos of migration among the Soninke, arguably making them the most traveled people of the whole continent.

The decline of Carthage after the Punic Wars would have left the Wangara in need of new business partners since Carthage kept their source of African gold secret- a vital tradition for the Wangara to protect their monopoly.  By the time Lykon was an adult, the Wangara gold traders would be operating out of the progenitor city of Jenne, controlling the gold trade between the goldfields, their African neighbors to the south and east and the outside world at large. The geographic location of the Soninke/Wangara/ Mandé people at this time, between the Sahara and the Sahel, would place them in an ideal position for access to trade routes from their ecological zones into the West African forest, East African plains/grasslands and the North African desert and beyond in an considerable advancement of the same trade network that their ancestors developed.

In the same sense that the Soninke Wangara were known as the protectors and purveyors of one of the most valuable natural resources of the area- the Wangara were also referred to as courtiers to nobility. Based on that description, it seemed likely to me that there may be some element of martial training that these people may have also undergone to make them a more formidable or even simply an equal threat to those who may present a threat to the ruling class or the trading ability of the Soninke people.  

In the same way that Andy’s immediate associations are to horses, and Quynh’s are to water and the color red, Lykon’s could be to trade and gold, along with perhaps weaving, iron smelting or the indigo trade.

Lykon would have been a kid who grew up in a large family of pastoral weavers and dyers or possibly crafters of some other type. Perhaps his family had a history of contributing to the work of the Wangara class or maybe Lykon opted to become a part of that tradition in an attempt to see more of the world outside of his settlement and its way of life. The Lykon who we briefly see, seems to be quite the adventurous type after all. He probably trained as a caravan guard to protect his people’s products and wealth. As he begins to travel and experience a more multicultural life, maybe he decided to explore further away from his home. 

Depending on his family, he might have been one of too many sons or maybe he simply wanted to get away from the place he grew up and realized that becoming a trader was an ideal way to do that.

It’s not unlikely that he might have been sent to a trading outpost on the Egyptian coast and decided to join up with Alexander’s army to see more of the world. He’d be more than equipped by his culture for long journeys on foot or riding.

Maybe his caravan was ambushed and the survivors of the attack were sold as fighters along with the goods. Maybe he got arrested or into debt over the course of his travels and was press ganged into military service. 

One way or another he ends up in a hoplite citizen army. The general makeup of such and army would be people not at all dissimilar from Lykon himself:  Merchants, farmers, and artisans, but most of those people would be untrained. We don’t know what type of member of the guard Lykon was a part of: the experienced fighters or the “I don't know how I got here but it was Not My Intention.” Regardless we do know that Lykon was on the March with Alexander the Great.

That finally brings us back to Lykon in the Mediterranean where Andy finds him.

As far as Lykon possibly settling in Greece, particularly with regard to the way he’d be received by Greek culture, he’d be treated perfectly normal so far as I can tell. Ancient Greeks didn’t see in black and white as we do. They saw Free or Servile, and were relatively free of melanin-based prejudice. The Greeks also thought that the African continent more or less ended after the Sahara.

And the catchall term they used for every dark person who walked outta the Sahara at this point in history was “Aethiopians".

After Alexander the Great dies in 323 BCE there’s an increased knowledge among Greek people of Nubia (in modern Sudan), Egypt’s neighboring kingdom along the lower Nile. Cosmopolitan metropolises, including Alexandria in the Nile Delta, and others on the East Coast and Horn of Africa become centers where significant Greek and African populations are living together. Prior to that though the only contact that the Greeks had with “Aethiopians" was as traders. And the thing is there is hard evidence that the ancient Greeks REALLY FUCKING LOVED BLACK PEOPLE.

From Jstor

Think of teenagers plastering their walls with boy bands…. Or even just the way people always marvel a little when a distinct new accent joins a group of people speaking. Except obviously you can’t shut your skin color up so everyone will stop looking at you funny. Essentially, the Greeks made first contact with New PoC for the first time in their history and completely lost their chill.

It is worth noting that the Greek and eventually Roman fascination with black people did get REAL fucked up, particularly when it began to form the backbone of the system that became the infamous Trans Atlantic Murder Machine Slave Trade. Continental slave trade of Africans within Africa became the exchange of slaves from different nations for the novelty of seeing/being served by people who looked different. This happened in BOTH directions for a time. Using black bodies as currency for goods on the Mediterranean market became a thing. It is VERY important to note that the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade is nothing like the Indian (Ocean)/Atlantic Slave Trade (which is distinct from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade) that came into being in the 1000’s and lasted into the 1400’s. But it would also be disingenuous to say that it didn’t contribute. 

By 5 CE the Trans-Saharan trade route that Lykon would have traveled ~300 years earlier had expanded to account for the trade of black slaves to Rome directly from West Africa. Black people were expensive and fancy ~exotic household slaves who would have worked off an indenture and then regained their freedom and assimilated into the population. This was the expectation of slavery, more or less world wide up until it became necessary to invent racism to ensure the perpetual existence of free labor.  One of the more well-known examples of this is the mixing of the East, South and Central Africans into the people of the Iberian peninsula.

But anyways THAT’S NOT HAPPENING YET!!!!

So when Merchant/Trader Lykon comes to town, buys wares, sells wares and pays proper taxes, no one has a problem with him. Even if Lykon entered Greece as a slave or prisoner it’s far more likely that he was treated better than his “Greek looking” compatriots than worse by nature of simply looking different. 

For the geek in all of us I did far too much looking at the gear Lykon would have had, because Michael Ward’s choice (I hope) to play Lykon as a reckless dude who’s too cool for a shirt is a delight for my eyes but also like…. The man was a soldier at one point, he’d know not to go into battle with all that exposed skin. 

Looking at his armor and arms when we see him with the army, he’s almost certainly a Hoplite soldier and an elite one at that.

(Note the decorated shield, chest armor, and helm. Some money went into that gear at the very least)

If Lykon was the kind of guy who loved a good fight it's entirely possible that he worked to become a Hetairoi, one of the elite cavalry that Alexander himself chose to ride with in battle. It's equally likely that after a few battles where Lykon performed better than average he might have gotten noticed and drafted into the ranks of the _. But what we see in the comics is a man who looks to have  plenty of experience and some rather nice armor.

The hoplites were primarily represented by free citizens – propertied farmers and artisans – who were generally able to afford a linen armour along with a spear and short sword. The wealthier members of this group might be wearing bronze armour instead but would otherwise be outfitted the same. Comics Lykon is armed very similarly to the Hetairoi heavy infantry who wielded weapons like the single-ended spear called a xyston, meant to be used from horseback along with a kopis, xiphos, and secondary standard issue hoplite spear called the dory. They got ya boi armed up! So even though we never see Lykon on horseback, it's a fair guess he was part of that upper echelon of soldiers. 

For my personal headcanons, I like to think that Lykon has a perfectly comfortable life as a merchant and when the time comes to go to war for Alexander, not only is he pumped to go (he’s only been training his whole life right? And he’ll get to see so much MORE of the world!!) but he has the funds for the sweet armor we see in the comic. Once his CO’s see that this guy is actually TRAINED and CAN RIDE??? Bye-bye Hoplite, Hello Hetairoi, it's time for some ~Destiny. Our dude Lykon is tearing it up as heavy infantry in Alexander’s army one fateful October day when he takes an arrow to the throat and dies, changing his life 5EVA

A note on the movie continuity- The scene where Lykon dies in the movie is meant to be happening sometime in the 1200’s in central Asia, based on shooting notes and the like…. That directly contradicts the Netflix featurette which is again weirdly precise about Lykon in particular. The 1200’s date for his final death splits the difference between the featurette and the comic which states that Lykon dies in the 1400’s during the various wars between Italian city states. This particular continuity snarl introduces yet another fun potential bump in the guard’s history: Joe and Nicky and Lykon…. Did they ever meet? Did NicoJoe dream of Lykon as they made their way to Andromaquynh(kon) only to have him suddenly disappear from their minds? Did NicoJoe dream of Andy and Quynh’s terror as their brother in arms / lover bled out inexplicably and wake up to clutch each other close terrified by what they had witnessed and praying for the first time in a century (or more perhaps) that somehow this dream was less true than all the others they had dreamed thus far?

Just food for thought

Speaking of which, all that stuff above? It’s all reasonable and cool I guess, but here’s some Mary Sue Ass shit for Lykon because WHY SHOULDN’T HE BE A FUCKING DEMI GOD?!?!

There are whole bunch of semi-mythical Greeks who could arguably been described as black and therefore could be based on myth, legend or hearsay about Lykon.

Odysseus, Achilles, and Memnon are all in varying places referred to as black/wooly haired/or darkened. Memnon in particular is supposedly from an Ethiopian kingdom

Herakles/Hercules is depicted as black in art dated to 510 BCE. Various legends and myths about Herakles can be attributed to translations of earlier Egyptian myths. If Lykon got up to any famous fighting exploits perhaps he may have been called Herakles reborn? I would personally love to see Andy and Quynh scoffing about this

In accounts of the battles at Troy there are 3 different Lycon’s who get killed in battle. Not subtle my dude…

Also Lycon: one of the leaders of the satyrs who joined the army of Dionysus in his campaign against India because why be a person if you can have horns instead?!

For any Lykuynh(???) lovers out there: please take this lovely myth about Omphale to go along with the Herakles tidbit. She became the mistress of the hero Heracles for the period of a year during which he was required to pay her via servitude, which writers and artists obviously wasted no time in exploring sexual roles and erotic themes. The entire thing reads like Lykon may have lost a bet, and I would LOVE to read that story.

Across West Africa, forges are considered to be female, and the act of smelting iron is equated to the gestation period. Thus the male smith is often considered the “husband of the forge.” Though women are involved in many aspects of the metallurgic process, they almost never work the forge. Interesting given the fact that Quynh could also be a student of metallurgy 

And speaking of myth theres of course Lyacon the fucking OG WEREWOLF and Lycon the actual guy who was a king of a place somewhere or smthg. I have no idea about the timing for any king shit and I would never accuse the Best Bean Lykon of cannibalism BUT the fact that there are not 10,000 stories about Lykon in canon being a werewolf and doing only god knows what??? A CRIME

I also like to think that maybe there’s an alternate universe where somehow Lykon staying alive stopped the whole damn Trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery from happening. Especially because the timeline given for his death in the comics and the unconfirmed Asiatic battle, are RIGHT as slavery in Africa is about to transition into its final and worst phase. Maybe if he he’d been alive between the 1100’s and the 1500’s he would have put his foot down and dragged his team to go burn every seafaring vessel that the Dutch East India tea freaks, Muslim slavers, and Portugal had between them and helped East Africa get some forbidden cities shit going on. #Wakanda

(Which of course raises this question: how did Nile’s parents meet, and where did Nile grow up in this alternate universe where her ancestors weren’t kidnapped and forced to build white people’s wealth in North America?)

And a final question that truly keeps popping into my head:

Do the Guard get new people at the moment of massive culture paradigm shifts? It’s got to be that or near to minor revolutions in travel. All of our immortals match both of those respective categories and I am inordinately fond of the travel theory if for no other reason than to think about SPACE PIRATE! Nile.

So that is my sojourn into history and the full story of the life that Lykon might have lived. Go forth and make canon for the homie cuz God, knows Nile could use a black immortal friend.

#TOG POC Love Fest #the old guard #tog meta #Lykon #meta post #racism in academia #institutional racism #africa #prehistory #long post #ITS FINALLY FUCKING FINISHED HOLY SHIT #now its Quynhs turn XD

[everythingloveandanimated]

What I Love About the Tangled:the Series Fandom

1) The New Dream Shippers

2) My fellow Varian stans. He’s our boy and we LOVE HIM!

3) Fic Writers putting in Ruddiger referring to Varian as “his boy”

4) Many of us think Frederic should have had some form of accountability for what he did to Varian, and how he endangered Corona by trying to cover up the Black Rocks.

5) Many of us agree that the writing in the show left things to be desired. Namely Rapunzel’s arc needing to be fleshed out more, Frederic getting held accountable by the cast for his actions, Varian’s time in prison, Cassandra’s Villain arc needed work to make her less... tiring to watch.

6) Some of us really wanted what I call “Mama Arianna moments”. Moments of forgiveness, healing, and bonding between Arianna and Varian. 

7) Some of us wanted to see more Quirin in Season 3.  We were introduced to a man who loves his son dearly, but has a strained relationship with him. Varian panicked to find a solution to save his father for 5 on-screen episodes, until he was finally reunited with him. WHY DID WE NOT GET MORE OF THESE TWO?!?!

8) The Brotherhood in Corona. I did not realize I would want to see this until I looked through the Brotherhood tag. The antics, the domestic fluff, the possible chemistry, Varian meeting his “extended family” and hearing about his dad’s past... thank you guys, thank you SO much! I am now a fan of feral Uncle Hector gaining a special soft spot for Nephew Varian and Varian domesticating, is that the right word?, the bear cats and riding the rhino.

9) The Fan Art! Goodness the fan art! Such beautiful styles filled with beauty, angst, fluff, sweetness, and beautiful lighting.

10) The Fanfics. Again, Goodness the Fanfics! Granted I mostly read Varian centered ones, but the ones I have read are a joy! The array of feelings I feel, the mastery of painting the scene, and the ear for the characters’ voices. Well done one and all!!!

Thank you all for making these last few months so amazing and enjoyable.  

#tts #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #varian #rapunzel #eugene #New Dream #queen arianna #king frederic #quirin #ruddiger #tts brotherhood #hector is a feral uncle #hector #adira #king edmund #i'm part of a pretty rocking fandom

[cchaotic-academic]

This is a Hector™️ Stan account

#the iliad #hector #booksbooksbooks #booklr #books #bookblr #bookworm #annotating books #annotations #studyspiration #studyspo #studyblr #dark academia aesthetic #dark academia #dark academic #chaotic academic aesthetic #chaotic academia #chaotic academia aesthetic

[distinguishedstudentcat]

OMG AHDHSKJDJKSD I WAS RIGHT. The Darkling's horse is a Friesian (duh) and the reason you can't see feather is because they wrapped the horse's (his name is Hector!) legs

Anyways this is now a Hector stan account. Good horsie. Best boi. Superior in every way 🥺🥺🥺

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse #the grishaverse #the darkling #netflix #aleksander morozova #general kirigan #horses #horse

[skgway]

1832 Nov., Mon. 12

9 1/4

12 1/2

Pickles came at 9 1/4 which roused me up – To see him after breakfast at Lower place or he to call here again in the evening – Letter 3 pages and ends from M– [Mariana] (Lawton) vide line 27 page 285. Inquiries about Miss W[alker]. Smokes what is going on. Writes with implied affection, true and great as that of former days. Is unhappy and carless off living long, and has made her will and …… the tears started to my eyes and all my own affection burst upon me again –

Breakfast at 10 40/.. with my aunt – George Robinson came almost immediately for near an hour – Settled with him for stone leading for James Smith’s road etc. – He proposed some means of getting rid of Lower Brea lane footpath – To see about another day –

Breakfast at 11 40/.. – Told my aunt of M– [Mariana]’s letter – Came to my room at 12 20/.. – Fire in my room and from 12 25/.. to note 2 pages of 1/2 sheet from Miss Walker at 1 10/.. in consequence of which off in 1/4 hour to Lidgate and there in 25 minutes –

Home again in 1/2 hour at 5 20/.. – At my desk in about 10 minutes – Wrote the last 1/4 of page 3, and the ends and under the seal and finished my letter to Breadalbane MacLean – Began yesterday – Thanks for her letter and the willows (sent off Monday 29th instant from Coll house) 

"which I am very anxiously expecting, not only for their own sake, but because they are associated with many remembrances that I value most highly" –

Should have written some days ago, but waited in the hope of announcing the arrival of the cuttings – Shall write by tonight’s post to Glasgow to inquire about them – Bavardage amical – Wonder how her people did without her so long (5 weeks away) 

"Your life is one continued benefit to them; and a five week’s arrear of such services is hardly to be made up" –

Sorry her father is so dead to the world and that Sir Hector’s health is so failing – Mention the death of old Lochiel on the 19th September – Only known to Lady S– [Stuart] on the 6th ultimo and not known to Vere on the 24th ultimo the date of her last letter to me (from Turin) – Hope 

"if Lochiel is obliged to come over immediately surely V– [Vere] will remain with her friends till he can return for her – I should quite dread her being hurried across the alps at this season of the year …. You would all be pleased at dear Vere’s having got her rank – Surely, it has some value in a world of vanities like this" –

Civil congratulations on  Mrs. Maclean’s being again about to increase her family and sorrow at Mrs. Hunter’s having lost her youngest daughter – The loss of my steward and my aunt’s suffering health have kept me so long here or I should have been on the continent again before this – But my aunt so very much recovered, no longer uneasy about her – She herself spirits me up to get off, and I hope to leave here about the end of January but all things here so uncertain never think much of plans very long beforehand – Kind regards to all I know "and believe me always very truly yours A Lister" –

Had written the following 2 1/4 pages to M– [Mariana] just before being off to Lidgate –

"Shibden Hall – Monday 12 November 1832 

Mary! I have been late this morning, and have done nothing but see and speak to Marian, and breakfast, since reading your letter – It would be difficult to describe the effect it has upon me – It is many months since I have basked beneath the beam of happiness, and without courage to think of the past, or hope to calculate the future, I am attempting to answer your letter –

Your account of yourself unnerves me – I grieve over your leaving Lawton, and tho’ I could, and would, see good in your going to Leamington, if you would let me, I am now uneasy at the thought, and little out of sorts than you can be – The only thing I rest upon, is the manner in which you mention coming here for a few days –

It makes me fancy, nay almost hope, my scheme is not quite impossible – You would have been agreeably surprised, and satisfied to hear what Marian said about it – Say I am not well (God knows I am sick enough at heart) or, which is true, that I am in great perplexity, or that my aunt is poorly (tho’ she is very much better, and probably in no danger) or say what you please, but lose no time in coming to me for at least a few days –

I really do want to see you – I will take the carriage and meet you at Manchester – Do pray make an exertion and get off – At any rate, answer my letter by the second post after you receive it, and tell me if you cannot come off immediately – Nothing like the spur of the moment –

You will get my letter tomorrow afternoon – and, if your answer is off on Wednesday morning, at night on that day I may hear whether I may be off for you on Thursday or Friday morning at seven, or not – Bring merely a few things and yourself – I will take care of you from and to Manchester –

You will see from my manner of writing, that I am not likely to relax my interest while it is yet necessary to your happiness – Your pages of Saturday make me fancy, I may have been mistaken, and that, in the bitterness of disappointment and regret, I may have miscalculated what it was my interest and desire to estimate most correctly 

This here written after dinner –

It is needless to write more – I shall anxiously and impatiently wait your answer – I would give worlds to hear of your being in better health and spirits – I had a letter from Eugénie last night – I consider her engaged; and she is to wait my orders till January –

I cannot enter upon the subject of my friend, as my aunt and sister laugh and call her – I am too much thinking of the interests of other days – Come if you can – You might be almost ride over to Manchester –

But cheer up, my dearest Mary – Time was when I had power to charm you into pleasure-stirring thought, and almost into happiness – I am what I was – And yet this power is gone, – Parted like Aynt never to return? 

God bless you! The heart knoweth its own bitterness – ’Tis harder than you think to break the spell of twenty years – Entirely and very especially yours AL –

Sent off at 8 by John my letter to Miss Maclean of Coll, Coll house Aros North Britain and my letter to Mrs. Lawton Lawton Hall, Lawton, Cheshire and my letter to the “Reverend T. Ainsowrth, at Miss Bentley’s, 1 crescent, Salford, Manchester”

George Robinson then came and staid till 9 – Said Ramsden, now the constable of H–x [Halifax], bought the last ground sold adjoining my Northgate land at 11/6 [shillings/pence] a yard – and Stancliffe bought his ground fronting into Broad street the street given at 12 /. [shillings] or 12/6 [shillings/pence] a yard but then it was cleared, or sunk down ready for building –

Had seen Bates of Washer Lane who said that I might build a good corn mill at Mytholm with saw and goit and wheel and machinery for £1500 and might have 7 to 7 1/2 percent for my money tho’ people in general did not look for much for their money now – 

Some man (Brook?) of Brighouse is letting a mill had 10 percent on his money for the 1st ten years, and then 5 percent rent afterwards – The Embargo on Dutch vessels has already made a great difference – Has stopt the German trade –

Went into the other room for 1/2 hour till 9 1/2 – π [Mariana] thought I might have gone from York to Langton 

"Is it Miss Walker of Crow Nest with whom you seem so suddenly to have formed an alliance? You mention her twice as "my friend" and as you were not wont to bestow this title lightly I am puzzled to unders[t]and, not having ever heard you mention her name,  how Miss W[alker] has so quickly succeeded in adding herself to the list so designated.

You say, "I shall be glad to hear your friend was etc. etc." I am glad to hear anything that gives you pleasure, and so far shall be pleased to hear all possible good of Miss Walker, but as I don't remember ever having seen her. 

She must be satisfied with secondhand interest for I cannot fancy her at all one of those who could herself awaken it. So far as her better health can contribute to your comfort, I rejoice that it is likely to improve and hope by this time she has somewhat recovered the loss of her particular friend" –

You say ‘I always tell you how much better Mr. Lawton is,’ because you always ask me. In bodily health he is certainly better than I have known him for years, but in mind and temper he is infinitely worse. As he improves I fall off, and I have been weak enough to fret and discomfort myself about this Leamington plan until I have almost made myself ill –

M– [Mariana] in very bad spirits about going to Leamington – "and if I could get to you, I should come for consolation" – Should be glad to spend a few days with me but does not know how it can be managed –

Watson more philosophical than π [Mariana], thinks she shall get all her mistresses things off to a place of safety   

"Made my will the other day, and told Watson where to find it – I do not fancy, my dearest Fred, that my health or happiness will claim your attention 20 years longer, so dont relax your interest while it is yet necessary to my happiness. I live in so much discomfort that it cannot be expected that I should covet living forever”

Concludes with 

God bless you Fred. Whatever I have said or may say, trust me, there is not much warmer affection bestowed upon you than that which flows from the heart of yours, very entirely, Mariana –

Poor π [Mariana].

Vide line 4 of today –  The following is Miss W[alker]s note

I have received a letter, which you shall see, but we must meet on different terms. Oh that I had taken you at your word last Monday, and as you said finished the matter on that day.  I should then have spared you this additional bitterness. 

I did hope when my word was once given to you that I should have felt at rest and satisfied, but in reflecting on all you have said and trying to turn it to my own advantage   I cannot satisfy my conscience, and with such sufferings as I have endured since Wednesday, I feel I could not make you happy. That I should only bring misery upon you,   for misery I am sure it would be to you to see me in the state I have been in for several days.

It was this sort of wretchedness that was expressed in my note on Friday. It was these miserable feelings that prompted my request

(that is I suppose for me not to send to York for the ring)

For your own sake, fly whilst it is yet in your power, 

(I smile as I copy this sentence)  

and believe that I will never intrude myself in any way upon you (unless it is your wish) whenever you revisit the neighbourhood. 

Nov[embe]r 12 eighteen hundred and 32 writton [written] on the outside of this half sheet but under cover,

Read this alone

–

Off I set. Found her twenty minutes ago returned from Cliff hill and lying on the bed in tears. Kissed and soothed her till in a few minutes she went down to dinner. I remained in her room a little while read overMr. Ainsworth’s letter pathetic appeal to her feelings, making sure that she must be engaged and hoping that her choice would do all he, Mr. A[insworth], had hoped to have done.

Begging her to take the scrapbook as a friend and to condescend  to write in answer to say if he might send the book and a narrative of himself. And if this business should be the death of him, he would only pray for blessings on her. But much bad tact and the whole ill done, tho better than I expected. 

I went down before dinner was over. Agreeablized and amused both Miss Parkhill and Miss W[alker]. Then pretending business letters for Miss W[alker] to answer, Miss P[arkhill] left us, and I talked the poor girl into admiration of my conduct and into thorough approbation of my writing and sending (I wrote there and shewed it to her) the following to Mr. Ainsworth,

Lightcliffe Mon[day] 12 November eighteen hundred and 32. 

Sir, I am commissioned by Miss Walker to acknowledge immediately the receipt of your letter of Saturday and to inform you that she has given me for the future, at least for some time to come, the surveillance of all her letters and parcels.

I am Sir your obedient servant, Anne Lister

Before writing I had asked if it was her heart that had changed towards Mr. A[insworth]. No, it was all her conscience. She owned she was not in a fit state to judge fairly and tho she had felt great affection for him, yet she did not know how it was, now all seemed dead. And if she felt at liberty, she did not know or think he was quite the man she should choose, in spite of the two great things, his being a clergyman and liking to live at Cliff hill. 

‘Well, but what would you have done had I not been here?’ She said she would certainly have exone[ra]ted herself now. Would have gone to her aunt Ploughs in London and then brought down the Chapmans with her. She would not have been alone and would have kept out of the way and done the best she could.

This, said I, is enough. In answer to her note said I did not think her at liberty to marry anyone without my consent, in which she agreed, and that Wednesday had given me a power over her which I was determined to use in her service. She would be better by and by and more able to judge for herself, and then she might try again, but now I should not let her.

She might safely trust to my honour, but I pledged myself to nothing. She brightened up and owned how much better she was. I even brought away, with her full consent, and A[insworth]’s letter, and the book of prayers he gave her with a long rigmarole written on one of the flyleaves promising to get her another of the same from London, and on asking for my dirty night things to bring back she said no till I promised to send clean ones, and we parted very good friends. 

She agreeing with me that she had reason to be thankful for the great event of Wednesday – Who could have anticipated such a result as the consequence of her note?  She likes me. But my affections are not so fearfully and I irretrievably hers as she thinks, and I shall manage well enough, tho I really will do her all the good I can –

Writing the above till 11 – Came to my room at 11 20/.. and then wrote note to Mrs. Holroyde

“Mr. T. Holroyde Esquire Solicitor Halifax” in answer respecting the land at Northgate – Not in any way anxious to sell, but would sell lot A as marked in the plan if his client would give my price – But before naming any terms I wished to know what sort of buildings it was proposed to erect –

Wrote to desire Booth to get me Gilpins practical hints on Landscape gardening and theform of family prayers published by Hatchard and Son Piccadilly London 8 edition 1828. 12mo. [duodecimo] pages 159 and 2 bottles of Albin and Chapman’s chemical writing ink – 

Did my clothes for the wash. Very fine November day – Fahrenheit 49º now at 11 40/.. – Sent off my note written last night to Mr. Holroyde –

[in margin] vide line 12 page 286

nothing like the spur of the moment

very fine November day

#anne lister #ann walker #shibden hall 1832 #mr. ainsworth #anne lister code breaker

[crystalelemental]

The thing with 3h stans is that they act like spoiled brats most of them, to the point of saying that 3h having 2 more cyls (cyl5 and cyl6) would be justified so the elitist would shut up, even if most users who don't want more 3h is bc it showed that when given those wins, IS go the laziest and boring way possible, instead bc of being the new game or hating it. Doing that they're not only spiting the elitists, but also other fans pd the franchise who want diversity or only want their faves.

I love how we’re just accepting the term elitists to refer to anyone who likes stuff prior to a certain game, like that’s not half the issue.

Are they saying they should do two CYL events per year, or that Three Houses deserves to sweep two more times?  Because one of those I’m on board with.  That said, it’s straight-up a popularity contest at this point, so like...it doesn’t matter how many people want variety.  All that matters is who gets votes.  Everyone wants their faves in the game, and everyone’s going to vote only for their favorites rather than the favorites of others.  That’s just how it rolls.  They’re not going to refuse voting for Three Houses characters just because it’s a guarantee they’ll get in or we have a ton of rep from that game already or other games need more recognition more desperately.  None of that matters to anyone.  The only reason I can care about variety is because I’ve played every game, so I can latch on to favorites throughout the series.

Also, I don’t think it’s just because it was a Three Houses sweep.  CYL would have always gone lazy if they were permitted.  CYL4 just had the unusual outcome of easily specing to Edelgard axe, Dimitri lance, Claude bow, Lysithea red tome.  Had Bernadetta won over Lysithea, they’d have two bows, and I can guarantee Bernadetta would’ve been a red bow since Claude got first pick.  Now, a Three Houses sweep would be almost required to end with some variety.  Like, suppose it’s F!Byleth, M!Byleth, Felix, and Marianne.  All of them are, barring Marianne, main sword.  F!Byleth wins overall, and takes sword as first pick, as part of her Enlightened One class.  M!Byleth won male division with more votes than Marianne and gets second pick, and takes Green Tome as the light magic option associated with Enlightened One.  Marianne got third and takes staff as a Holy Knight, because her main function is as a healer.  Felix gets last pick, and takes blue tome Mortal Savant to reference his lightning magic.  This is the pattern every CYL followed, except for CYL2.  First pick goes to the winner overall, but accommodations are made for those without a sensible alternative.  To prove the point:

CYL 1 winners: Lyn, Lucina, Ike, Roy.  By all accounts, Lyn should get first pick and take sword, but Roy got sword.  That’s because Lyn gets bows upon promotion, Lucina gets lance upon promotion, and Ike gets axe upon promotion.  Roy gets nothing.  So Roy kept his only available weapon, while the others got their backup for “uniqueness.”

CYL 2 winners: Hector, Celica, Ephraim, Veronica.  Celica got sword, and the only real anomaly is that Hector and Ephraim traded weapons.  This is the only legitimate instance of a creative outcome.  Veronica took staff because required.

CYL 3 winners: Alm, Micaiah, Camilla, Eliwood.  Two sword users natively, and Alm gets first pick, so he takes the sword.  Despite Camilla being known for axes, Micaiah outranked her and got first pick, and took Green tome to avoid color overlap with her other forms, which pushed Camilla into a different option.  She took staff as one of the few weapons her alts don’t have yet.  Eliwood then takes lance as the only option left, and the alternate option he gets upon promotion.

Every CYL only did something “unique” based on necessity from color overlap between winners.  CYL4 had no such overlap, so it was obvious from the instant results were out what they’d be.  I still don’t understand why anyone is surprised or even upset by the outcome they got.  CYL5 will be similarly boring if we get the right spread.  It’s just that so many main characters choose sword as their main deal, so overlap is hard to avoid.  Which is honestly an argument in favor of unexpected victors like Lysithea, who can run something different from the typical sword and not conflict with others.  But I guess then results would be “boring” because they’re taking their standard weapon.

I wonder if people bitched about Micaiah just being another magic user with her Brave alt.  No I am not going to look that up.

#choose your legends #Anonymous