#time spiral timeshifted

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Akroma, Angel of Wrath

"No rest. No mercy. No matter what."

Artist: Ron Spears TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

#mtg #magic the gathering #tcg #$3.66 #ron spears #akroma angel of wrath #time spiral timeshifted #legendary #creature #angel

[mari3with3]

How the Zonai connect the The Legend of Zelda franchise (Theory)

In TotK we're explained that the kingdom of Hyrule was founded thanks to the union of the Hylian and Zonai tribes with the marriage of Rauru and Sonia. I've seen that a big part of the fandom thinks that this is not the true founding of Hyrule and that it's the creation of a new kingdom (since this has already happened before), but I think that it is the same Hyrule that we see in Minish Cap, Ocarina of Time, Twillight Princess, etc.

Why do I believe this? Because the Zonai existed during Skyward Sword and became extinct before Minish Cap.

1°- The Zonai in Skyward Sword

Throughout Skyward Sword, in the surface we can see ruins, temples, dungeons, etc. I believe that most of these constructions were built by the Zonai: The Skyview Temple has mechanisms which work with eyes, the Earth Temple is full of symbolism and sculptures of dragons (and also has sculptures of people with fangs, long ears and three eyes), the Ancient Cistern has symbols of what appear to be tears and also flowers of lotus (which personally remind me of the figure that has the Zonai symbol from TotK), the Sandship has many spirals and in the Fire sanctuary there are statues of more dragons. Also, most of the dungeons I just mentioned (aside from being almost completely abandoned) have spirals in their architecture. As you can see, the Zonai probably inhabited all of Hyrule just like in BotW, since there we can see Zonai architecture throughout the entire kingdom.

2°- The symbols

The features that the dungeons have are eyes, dragons/snakes, owls, tears, and spirals; we can easily relate all these symbols to the Zonai, because there are many of these in their ruins. Throughout the Faron region there are statues of boars, owls and dragons/snakes; These represent the golden Goddesses and their qualities: power, wisdom and courage. In TotK we can see that the eyes represent the Zonai (in weapons, architecture, jewelry and the extra eye on their foreheads). The tears can be related to the secret stones, which have the same shape as the tears, and are apparently a very important element in the Zonai culture.

And finally the spirals, the most important symbol. Before TotK, spirals were the symbol of the Zonai tribe; In BotW all Zonai architecture was full of spirals (architecture which you can find in basically all Hyrule). According to Creating a Champion, the spiral is a unique mark to show that the Zonai were there and that the place belonged to them; This is why I believe that the dungeons in Skyward Sword were built by the Zonai. (Interesting fact: as I had already pointed out in another post, the Māori patterns are traditional art from New Zealand, one of them is a spiral and is called Rauru)

3°- The Lanayru Desert

The Zonai made buildings throughout the surface, but I believe they had one special settlement; Lanayru. Long ago I thought that the Lanayru Mining Facility belonged to the Sheikah, but now I'm almost sure it belonged to the Zonai. Here are my reasons:

The Zonai had an incredibly advanced technology for their era, in the same way, the entire Lanayru region in general has very advanced technology: artificial light, flying robots, laser rays, automatic platforms, electricity, etc.

Throughout Lanayru there are all kinds of technology and robots, if you look at their designs you will notice that they have an aesthetic very similar to the Zonai. (Another detail is that these robots work with blue/green electricity, the same color as the electricity that the Zonai Constructs have)

The ancient robots that inhabit Lanayru have many kinds, each with a different function (just like the Zonai Constructs), and it seems that most of them suddenly stopped working while doing their daily jobs. It seems that they worked for someone and then they disappeared, similar to how the Zonai became extinct.

The Lanayru Mining Facility, as its name says, is where they used to process all the Timeshift Stones that they had obtained in the mines. In TotK the Zonai also had mines where they collected Zonaite.

As I mentioned before, throughout Lanayru there is a mineral called Timeshift Stone, which has the power to change the time around it. These stones have a dark blue color, and when activated they change to light blue/green; When these pass through the Lanayru Mining Facility, a design that looks like an eye with eyelashes and a tear is added. Previously that eye would be related to the Sheikah, but with all these connections it would make more sense for it to be related to the Zonai.

4°- Origins of the Zonai

All of this points to the fact that the Zonai inhabited Lanayru and that everything there belonged to them; That means that the Zonai protected the temple of time and Nayru's flame, which leads me to think that they also protected the other two flames. As I had previously said, all the temples where the flames are have details that make them related to the Zonai. But why do the Zonai have access to these sacred artifacts?

In TotK we are told that the Zonai are descendants of Gods, and these gods were the ones who gave them the secret stones (which are also sacred artifacts). In Creating a Champion we're told that the Zonai worshiped a certain water dragon, however, in the BotW era there is no water dragon (It could be Farosh, but it's more related to electricity). But, in Skyward Sword there is a water dragon, Faron.

I believe that the Zonai are descendants of the dragons from Skyward Sword (which are basically gods). That would also explain why most temples are made for the dragons and the appearance of the Zonai and their dragon-like features too (scales, horns, fangs, bright colors, etc.)

5°- The tears

So the Zonai, being descendants of dragons, were entrusted to protect sacred artifacts such as the secret stones, the Gate of Time in Lanayru, the flames of the Goddesses, and probably also the Sacred Tears.

In Skyward Sword, when Link goes to the Silent Realm he has to find the tears of the goddesses. There are two very important things here:

After TotK we relate a lot the tears with the Zonai, and in the Silent Realm we have to collect sacred tears. Also in the Silent Realm (and only there) we will find many ''dusk relics'', which have the same shape as the secret stones.

In the Silent Realm there are machines called Guardians, which have an incredible resemblance to the Zonai (Extremely tall, with long ears, three eyes, and they also have many spirals on their desing).

Another game where there are also tears that must be collected is Twilight Princess. Here the spirits of light ask you to collect all the tears in order to restore the world of light.

6°- Connection with the Twili

Another thing I want to point out and that a big part of the fandom has noticed is the big resemblance that the Zonai and the Twili have, but I still want to show more evidence of why I think they are connected:

The spirits of light tell us that a dark tribe known as the Interlopers tried to take over the Triforce using their magic, it was then that the spirits of light stopped them and sent them to the twilight realm.

In Twilight Princess they describe the Interlopers as a tribe with incredibly powerful magic (so much so that they almost got the Triforce). In Creating a Champion they describe the Zonai as “strong magic wielders who vanished suddenly,” similar to the story of the Twili.

The architecture of both tribes is very similar; The architecture in the Twilight realm is very similar to the Zonai which we see in the Dragon's Tears. Inside the palace of Twilight we can see that the building is full of figures that look like eyes with tears, hands, snakes and spirals.

Eyes and hands seem to be very important in Twili culture as well as in the Zonai (There are giant hands in the palace of twilight and even Wolf Link has the mark of a third eye with a tear on his forehead).

The Twili have technology similar to the Zonai's (platforms, switches, etc.)

The magic of the Twili is blue/green, a color we associate with the Zonai, and when something or someone bad controls both, they turn red. Another thing to add is that when we saw the TloZ TotK logo, many of us related the cracks of the master sword with the magic of the Twili.

In BotW, in the Faron region, there is a fragmented monument which is very similar to the twilight mirror and which also has the same color as Twili/Zonai magic.

Despite being a tribe of shadows, they have artifacts called “Sol” which are made of light.

A very important piece of evidence that the Twili and the Zonai are connected is the design of the Fused Shadow. The Fused Shadow (in addition to appearing to be made from the same material as most Zonai architecture in TotK) has spirals, snakes, and eyes.

Another detail about the Fused Shadow that has been talked about for many years is that one of its pieces seems to be one of the eyes of the Majora's mask (I also once saw that someone was comparing one of Rauru's eyes in the mural with Majora).

7°- Majora

In Majora's Mask we are explained that an ancient tribe used to wear the Majora's mask to perform rituals, then they sealed the mask in shadows to avoid catastrophes, and then they mysteriously disappeared. It has been three times that we have heard about a powerful tribe which mysteriously disappeared, it's not weird to think that they could be the same tribe, the Zonai.

The manga explain us that Majora was originally a demon. Majora's armor could fulfill wishes, so many people tried to kill him to take his armor; However, Majora ate them. Afterwards, he was defeated by the Fierce Deity, who made him dance for 3 days and 3 nights until he died. The Fierce Deity used the remains of the demon to make the Majora's mask.

It may be that these people Majora killed were the Zonai, and when the Fierce Deity killed the demon, the Zonai thanked him by making a mask in his honor. I believe this because the Barbarian Armor (which is most likely of Zonai origin), when dyed blue or red, has the same marks as the Fierce Deity.

8°- Zonai appearances in other games before BotW

I don't have much to explain here, just more evidence that the Zonai could have been in Hyrule before the BotW era.

9°- History of the Zonai (my conclusion)

The Zonai are descendants of the three dragons that protected the surface in Skyward Sword. This tribe had very advanced technology and powerful magic. However, being so special, they had a small population

The Zonai had the mission of protecting the most important, sacred artifacts (the tears of the goddesses, the tears of light, and even the Triforce), which is why they came down to the surface in the distant past (The age of Creation, before SkSw). When they arrive to the surface, the Zonai took advantage of the resources that were there (the timeshift Stones) and with them created the two Gates of time and also the ocarina of time (The ocarina is a relic that has been passed down through generations in the royal family, it may have been a gift from Rauru to Sonia). However, by spending Lanayru's resources, a portion of the Zonai ended up dying along with all of Lanayru's technology.

When the Zonai descended to the surface, the Hylians and other inhabitants mistook them for Gods. The Zonai became so obsessed with the idea of being Gods that they tried to be one; So they looked for the demon Majora to kill him and take his armor, with which they could make the wish of becoming Gods, however the majority died in the attempt to defeat the demon. When the Fierce Deity managed to kill him, they made a mask of him and painted their armors in his honor, and the remaining Zonai decided to hide the Majora's mask to avoid further catastrophes. However, they did not give up trying to be gods.

When the ancient battle begin the Zonai were sent to build the Silent Realm for the Hero (that's why you have to collect tears and the guardians look so much like the Zonai). But in the middle of the war, a group of Zonai used their magic to create the Fused Shadow to enter the sacred realm (they were its protectors, that's why they knew about it) and obtain the Triforce, so they could finally make their wish. Unfortunately for them, the Goddesses found out about their betrayal and sent them to the Twilight Realm to punish them (Long time later, the other Zonai built a replica of the mirror of twilight, which is found along with the other Zonai ruins in Faron, to remember them).

At the end of the war, the goddesses gave the few remaining Zonai the secret stones, them decided to remain faithful to the Goddesses and protect the stones (It could be that, as gratitude, the spirits of light gave these few Zonai their light magic, that's why Rauru has sacred light without being related to Hylia). Throughout Skyward Sword the Zonai were hiding somewhere in the sky.

Hundreds of years after SkSw, the Zonai descended from the sky again; Rauru, who was the leader of the tribe (and was also a descendant of the Zonai who protected the stones and had the powers of light), married Sonia (who was a descendant of Link and Zelda from SkSw) and together they founded Hyrule. With the pass of time, the Zonai began to die and finally Rauru and Mineru died in the Imprisoning war, and the Zonai became completely extinct.

Alright, if you made it this far I want to thank you very much. If you have more evidence about this theory that you would like to add, or anything that contradicts it, or any comments, I would like to see it. :)

#I'll explain my theory about the ancient hero in another post #maybe #Zelda #the legend of zelda #tloz #loz #tears of the kingdom #totk #tloz totk #loz totk #skyward sword #Sksw #tloz sksw #loz sksw #twilight princess #tloz tp #loz tp #majora's mask #Tloz mm #tloz mm #tloz theory #Zonai #Twili #Majora #fierce deity #golden goddess #Rauru #King Rauru #nintendo #mine

[powdermelonkeg]

Tears of the Kingdom: The Final Analysis

Part 7

Part 6 here

In the next shot, we have Link and Teba's son, Tulin, jumping on some kind of trampoline to get height.

Fortunately for us, we've seen that trampoline before, so we know exactly what this is.

Link and Tulin are disembarking from their ship ride into a set of new ruins.

Link waits for the ship alone, though, so Tulin either had to tag along after ("Wait for me, I can help!") or he gets on the ship first and helps steer it down.

The architecture here looks almost too smooth to be Zonai. Red paint and triangular markings also hint towards something else, even though the ship itself has a Zonai figurehead.

Then these ruins down here are darker than the rest, with some kind of orange glow.

On the jump up, we can see much more of them; they seem to be their own separate platform set to the dropoff point.

This, however, looks to be the same material as the spot they're closest to. At the very least, the dropoff isn't isolated.

Then this has the same shape, but darker material. Are the ruins being corrupted?

A ship departs in the background, dark with red sails, just like we saw on the ship boarding scene.

And down here, we see the glowing spiral of a generator shrine.

Moving higher, we can see the full structures. The two identical ones are pillars, there's a flat platform towards the back, and a tall structure that almost looks like it's been built on, like a lookout post.

Next, Link draws a carriage of passengers.

The pieces are stuck together with Ultrahand. However, they're also very specific shapes rather than something improvized; this carriage likely broke down at the side of the road, and Link can stop and offer to help.

A Rock Octorok shoots a fireball at Link

Which he then catches with Recall midair

And sends hurtling back.

While it's being sent back, the Octorok moves, meaning that even if you stop something, time doesn't slow down to allow you to do so. If you manage to catch an arrow, you'll still be in the line of fire as you're figuring out how to shoot it back.

There's also a mineshaft entrance back here.

When Recall completes and color comes back, it turns bright blue inside. Two things come to mind, right off the bat.

First, Twilight Princess's Goron Mines. We know from the terrain that this is Eldin, and the mines here had magnetic ore inside that could be clung to with iron boots.

Then the Timeshift Stones from Skyward Sword, which turn blue when struck and extend a time field around them.

However, there are arguments against both these reads, too; for magnet ore, we'd have to ask what purpose it has. In Twilight Princess, it served as a game mechanic to allow unique traversal. In Tears of the Kingdom, we don't have any iron boots-style item we can use. On top of that, we have the Ascend power.

Which would make any kind of stick-to-walls-to-get-new-places redundant, if not completely useless.

On the side of Timeshift stones, while they are blue when active, they're usually a deep purple.

So if the mines were Timeshift, they would need to be active, and we would be able to see some kind of terrain shift around them.

However, I did find one more thing that matches the blue glow.

In Skyward Sword, there's a minigame called "Thrill Digger," in which Link plays a game of bomb flower minesweeper. On the walls of this minigame, though, you can find rupee ore, which you can shoot for extra rupees.

The blue in here could easily be a vein of blue rupee ore.

The colors look about right for it, the final cut rupee just has a more polished, vibrant look to it.

Up next, Link has a rocket in the Faron region.

It appears to be Fused to some kind of shield, and it carries the Zonai colors. The strange ring around the shield makes me think it's the Zonai equivalent of a Sheikah Guardian Shield.

He flies up with it, and we get a better view of what the rocket is attached to

The shield itself is round, very much Zonai colored, and about the size of a pot lid. The field it gives off fluctuates like it's expending energy, so it may have a limited charge.

Out of image space again, see you in part 8!

Edit: Part 9!

#loz #zelda #totk #analysis #breakdown #long post

[markrosewater]

I counted up all the sets that have ever been Standard-legal, and it's still ambiguous which one is the 100th. The five main issues are: (1) Do core sets count? (2) What about Welcome Decks? (3) Do Alpha and Beta count as the same set? (4) Does Chronicles count? (5) Do Time Spiral and Time Spiral Timeshifted count as separate sets? Because of all of this ambiguity, you could have the 100th set be anywhere from Rivals of Ixalan to "Quilting".

1) I’d like to hear the result of yes and no.

2) They don’t count.

3) Yes, Limited Edition is one thing.

4) No.

5) No.

[thecornwall]

Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #508: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is a rare from Champions of Kamigawa, shown here in its Time Spiral Remastered Timeshifted printing.

Well, here is possibly the most famous goblin in all of MtG. The very first red card to feature copying effects(I do love temporary clones for red, btw). Kiki-Jiki’s reputation likely preceeds him, so I’ll get right to talking weird aspects of this card. I like that this legendary uses the legendary supertype to mean something mechanically, it conveniently excludes the ability to copy itself, or another copy of itself. Plus, copying your own legends would be feelbad, and copying other players’ legends, using the legend rule at the time, would kill them, hosing the very thing Kamigawa was supposed to be supporting(and having a hard time of it, too). I don’t say this about legendary cards much, but this is one hell of a card design. Good job, whoever made this.

Oh, and he’s really beloved in some small-time format about legendary creatures or something. I’m sure nobody cares about that.

#mtg

[three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat]

@cosmetichorror SO it took me a few days, but here's some stuff on my timeshift au (not as much as shadow wings, though)

It begins in the peaceful era of post game sksw, in the Lanayru Sand Sea, where Link and Zelda are about to do something stupid; hit a timeshift stone at the same time

This sends Link spiraling through time, hitting every other Link’s era on the way back to his own (mostly during their adventures)

(This was originally meant to be mostly pre lu, so. Technically we're missing one (?) with the Legend combo Link)

First up, botw! We establish for the first time the running gag throughout my fics of Link meeting another Link and calling him Other Link, no matter which one is the namer or namee

Legends are told, nicknames are established, fi and wolfie are there, and then a still undecided amount of time later, Sky gets sent into four's era where he saves him from a cat, and wanders around Hyrule doing absolutely nothing except pondering the passage of time and how life is truly fleeting (and the scenery! the scenery is very lovely, don'tcha know!)

Up to Legend combo Link, currently stuck in Queen Ambi’s dungeon, and we meet Raven who I wish had more content, and also Sky burns down a house.

They escape, I give him an actually cool nickname, and then I just talk about Raven too much

Then to twilight wolfie, where sky gets a cold, and I have to rewrite a scene to remove one of his arms

(Then I got writers block and I haven't written anything in months)

Skip ahead to Warriors, which should have been the last one, except... what's this? Bullshit excuse to write more? All the time energy hanging around in his era renewed the stuff clinging to sky! He gets to do it all over again

Also I had an idea for Zelda to go along too and visit the AoC era and do something. I don't know

#can i interest you in my reincarnation au #please. please ask me about my reincarnation au its my favorite. #timeshift au #mb's writing

[thevorthoscast]

Thank you Wizards of the Coast for our two free preview cardz from Time Spiral Remastered! We have Radha, a key story character from the original block, and a timeshifted land card Commander players are sure to enjoy.

Radha's original preview article, "Who's That Girl?" by Matt Cavotta: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/who%E2%80%99s-girl-2007-01-11

If you enjoy The Vorthos Cast, consider supporting us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thevorthoscast!

#Magic The Gathering #MTG #The Vorthos Cast #Vorthos #Time Spiral Remastered #MTGTSR

[mythicalartisttm]

📓?

There's this unfinished fic in my drafts that I haven't touched in almost a year (until today to dig it up), and it's more or less an angsty take on what happened around my first ever softlock. TRIGGER WARNING FOR DEATH AND A PANIC ATTACK (though neither is described in detail)

The narrator follows Fi (and Link) as they traverse through the Lanayru Mining Facility, but the narration was only supposed to get detailed just before the softlock happens. The young knight is in the dungeon's main room, on the side that has the door to the boss room, fighting off one of those flying drones that sends bombs to slice and hit back. He's just killed one and is shaking from fear, adrenaline, and just not being used to underground air. Fi gets Link to breathe before he activates the Timeshift stone in a minecart that will temporarily resummon the fallen floor in order to get across the chasm. Link inches his way along side the minecart and hides behind it to avoid turret (beamos?) blasts. He's tense, but making his way. Fi is proud of her master for continuing all this way, and while she's still vigilant, she relaxes just a bit. Then Link gets shot off the platform. Link screams from the burn of the laser and shock of getting hit and is now free falling into the abyss below the structure. Fi leaps out of the Goddess Sword (which Link had dropped) and starts a swan dive towards her master, knowing she won't be able to pull him back up but intends to get close enough to activate the Timeshift stone in her chest to return him to safety. Fi closes in enough to see that Link's sailcloth is caught in the Beetle's pincers. She hugs her frills even closer in hopes of falling faster. After what feels like 4 thousand years, Link finally untangles his sailcloth and begins to bring it above his head. What follows is the most sickening crack Fi's ever heard. The sword spirit stops her decent immediately, spins around 180 degrees, and squeezes her eyes shut so she won't have to see her master's corpse. The Timeshift stone in Fi's chest flares to life on her command, rewinding the time around her master back to when he was alive. The thing about Fi's stone, though, was that it was "faulty" on purpose. If Link were to die accomplishing a task, the Timeshift stone in Fi's possession wouldn't undo what her master had done. But this time, the effects were adverse. The minecart that summoned the floor from the past was smack in the middle of the chasm. And Link was stuck in front of the boss room, in the present, his way to the surface blocked by barbed wire and a near bottomless pit. Link starts to spiral. He has no idea what just happened, all he knows is that he's stranded in a tomb-like place with no way to the surface, no way to the sky. Fi appears outside the sword once more and leads him through the procedures one would take to calm another down during a panic attack. The young knight has regained some of his composure, and Fi recognizes that he's cool enough to follow her adventuring instructions once again. The spirit notes that the circles that are always under Link's eyes have darkened significantly. Fi motions to the bird statue on the platform of which they stand (or float, in the sword spirit's case). She reminds Link that if he can return to the statue because he prayed, then it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that he could pray for the platform to be returned, it might. The minecart with the Timeshift stone does indeed return to its original position, and Link gets across without dying this time (much to Fi's relief). The story ends with Link walking up the stairs to the surface.

~That's all folks~

#my favorite line from the unfinished doc: #'Fi slowly managed to close the distance between her and Master Link and would have dared to hope #had logic not dictated that the pit was not bottomless' #anyways l/anayru structures make mega anxious bc the area is either Dead or Super Dangerous #also shout out to sword skord l/anayru for being the only place(es) I've ever softlocked a video game #that's twice by the way #2 and a half if you count the time my joystick broke while I was running to the statue just outside the mine to save #getting l/ink back up the hill #TWICE #was a painstaking process #anytime any of my games have broken it's been in a/s #*s/s #in the wisdom region #n/ayru hates me #tm answers #anonymous #my writing #***HAD LOGIC DICTATED THAT THE PIT WAS NOT BOTTOMLESS #gosh dang it me

[8bitsupervillain]

I bought some Time Spiraled Remastered packs and got these two pulls. Also a couple of mystic confluences. In the non timeshifted slots I got an ancestral vision and an vesuva.

Thanks to the decadently vile Bruno for being the model with these cards.

#mtg #magic the gathering

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Faceless Butcher

Artist: Daren Bader TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

#mtg #magic the gathering #tcg #$0.28 #daren bader #faceless butcher #time spiral timeshifted #creature #nightmare #horror

[mtg-realm]

Magic: the Gathering - PURPLE !

Purple is the color of the expansion symbol of the timeshifted cards in Time Spiral. Because they appeared in a rarity significantly different from any other rarity, they were assigned their own new rarity level (higher than rare).  Ever since a prank article in the InQuest #22 (February 1997) which featured purple cards (see Gallery), purple has been speculated to be the unreleased sixth color of Magic.

#mtg #magic the gathering #color pie #purple

[markrosewater]

Space: the Convergence was never printed but it also wouldn't predate the Planar Chaos alternate frames as STC was made as part of What If? week in honour of Planar Chaos (and obviously it wouldn't predate the timeshifted cards from Time Spiral itself which I think do count as a proto-booster fun(

Ooh, a good point.

[thecornwall]

Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #298: Fiery Justice

Guy Fiery Justice is a rare from Ice Age, seen here in its Time Spiral Timeshifted version.

So, first of all, I didn’t know they DID any gold cards in Ice Age. But this one is pretty decent, I guess. The reason it’s green is probably due to the whole “red damages non-fliers, green damages fliers” thing they were doing, though red COULD get unconditional damage out there, so it’s a bit of a stretch. The white is for the DRAWBACK of all things.

Value-wise, it’s decent, you can kill multiple creatures for cheapish and this thing’s drawback is relatively minimal. Apparently this represents the justice of the Balduvian barbarians, according to the flavour text?

#mtg

[total-cards]

Experience a blast from the past with the awesome Time Spiral Remastered! Head over to our blog to find out more! https://www.totalcards.net/blog/magic-the-gathering/get-timeshifted-with-time-spiral-remastered

[annerbhp]

An alternate perspective

A/N: A little something I wrote while I was working on The Changeling, mostly so I could track Harry’s view of Ginny at any given moment in the plot. And of course it turned into a fic of sorts. An easter egg? Who knows. I thought I might as well post it. Thanks to Bethany and TimeShifter for giving it the once over and for being the #1 Changeling cheerleaders and sounding boards.

  As a kid, Harry always assumed love would be something soft and warm, something pleasant like a thick sweater and a place in front of a fire on a snowy day. Easy.

Then he met Ginny Weasley.

She was nothing more than an uncomfortable reminder of his unwanted fame in the beginning—an annoyance. Ron’s little sister, a tiny red-haired girl staring at him like he was at once far more and far less than he really was.

She didn’t follow them to Hogwarts that first year. The next year she did, but only to quickly disappear into the depths of Slytherin to become something even more unfathomable. A Weasley, yes, but also…not. He still risked everything to save her from Riddle, because it was right and she was Ron’s sister. But she looked at him like she knew somehow, knew she was something he couldn’t understand, didn’t want to understand.

The only time she really made any sense at all was when he watched her play Quidditch. She flew against people twice her size and never flinched. He stood next to her at the World Cup and thought from the look on her face that she might actually understand what Quidditch had come to mean to him. But she was still in Slytherin, and Ron’s sister, and something just foreign enough not to bother with.

Not that it mattered. She wasn’t part of his world. She just popped up from time to time to say the exact right thing at the right time, and that was annoying in its own way. But also…interesting.

It wasn’t until his fifth year that he finally noticed that if she had ever once harbored a mortifying amount of hero worship for him, it was long gone. He understood this as she stood with her hands on her hips and called him a hypocrite.

He was indignant over it for weeks, her gall to question his character when she was the Slytherin. (He could be slow about things like that back then.) He’d mistaken his anger at her pointed absences from the DA as annoyance with her rather than annoyance with himself. The festering emotion was shame, not anger.

He was a hypocrite.

He went to see her when he finally worked it out, and she didn’t make it easy on him, and that was annoying too. Almost as annoying as the thought that he kind of liked that fierce look she got on her face when she called him out. Like she couldn’t even remember any more that he was, well, Harry bloody Potter, Boy Who Lived. She looked at him like he was a disappointment.

He hated it.

He tried to change her mind the only way he could, by doing his best to teach her and her friends to defend themselves, by trying not to look surprised when they proved their mettle over and over again. When the betrayal that eventually destroyed everything didn’t come from them.

She didn’t make that easy on him either.

Ginny was stubborn, knew how to hold a grudge, and sometimes looked so stone-faced that he began to doubt she was capable of feeling anything. Then he would catch her laughing and rolling her eyes at that wanker Burke and think, “Bloody Slytherins.”

He tried to date Cho because she was nice and pleasant and he seemed to remember his stomach dropping towards his toes when she’d looked at him the year before. (Not like a disappointment, but like someone…special.)

He pretty much got what he deserved for that. For being a total berk even if just inside the comfort of his own mind. He knew Ginny was watching too, the way her lips twisted with amusement as she left him with a weepy Cho. (Not at all pleasant after all either, it turned out.)

Only a total wanker would secretly resent that Ginny looked at him like just any other person when he hated her attentions before. He’d have just wiped her from his brain entirely, but Ginny Weasley wasn’t one to be forgotten. Or ignored.

Especially when she barged in when no one else dared, when everyone else feared what he’d become. He started telling her things, sharing things he wouldn’t dare with anyone else. At first maybe because of her experience with Voldemort, but mostly for that fierce look, the way her face lit up when she talked Quidditch, because she wasn’t in Gryffindor.

It was the last that was the most uncomfortable, must unfathomable. That he would share his secrets with her because she wouldn’t judge him by black and white standards, but rather by her own murky shades of grey. He trusted that when he didn’t trust anything else.

She was wrong as often as anyone, blinded by her own prejudices and faults. But she forgave him his own, probably more often than he deserved. Like she could see things in people that most overlooked. See things in him.

She fought by his side in the Department of Mysteries and held his hand after he got Sirius killed. She told him he wasn’t a killer, and he let himself try to believe it. He kept finding excuses to be around her, to talk with her, even when it meant watching her date another boy and finally admitting that it bothered him. Finally admitting that he thought about her a lot more that he probably should.

She never looked at him like he was the Chosen One, never pandered, never lied to him just to save his feelings, to be polite. He knew this because she never hesitated to tell him when she thought he was a git. She called him on his obsession with Malfoy, told him exactly how she saw him, and sent him back to his house like a chastised little boy.

She was still there to wipe the blood from his hands, to hold everything together when it was spiraling out of control. More than fair trade for a dead basilisk and ink on the floor.

She cried when Dumbledore died and held her brother’s hand like the scars on his face didn’t matter. Harry knew then that he had to leave and maybe never come back.

He kissed her anyway. Kissed her and left her behind. She didn’t cry or complain or try to hold on (or even deck him), but gave him one fierce look and stood to face her own battles.

He began to wonder just which one of them was supposed to be the hero.

For long months on the run, staring down at a tiny dot bearing her name was the only way he stayed sane some days. At the end of it, he walked into death of his own free will and just when he was thinking he might not be able to do it, she was there, not to talk him out of it, but to remind him why he was doing it in the first place.

“Bloody hero,” she called him.

Not pleasant, but something infinitely more. She’d never been a weakness, but his strength. None of that, none, was what he expected, assumed. Only now, so many years later, does he understand that’s kind of the point.

“I thought falling in love was supposed to be pleasant,” Harry confesses.

Next to him, Ginny stiffens, an involuntary reaction she quickly covers, emotions disappearing under her still surface. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she says.

“Who says you did?”

Who’d want pleasant when they could have Ginny Weasley?

She rolls over to look at him, her eyes assessing, always assessing. When she finally decides he isn’t taking the mickey, she smiles.

“Idiot,” she says, leaning in to kiss him.

No. Not particularly pleasant.

He’s glad.

.fin.

#annerbfic #the Changeling #Ginny Weasley #Harry Potter #just a little missing scene? alt perspective? #who knows #Harry/Ginny

[moonlightreal]

Winx Club season 8/8

In which we find new things and old things, and I find far too many non-Winx things to reference.

8 Into the Depths of Andros

Ocean!  Fishies!  An underwater castle glowing with light!  Merlumens!  They’re all pink, with blonde hair and shell headbands.  Valtor voiceovers that this is the “Paradise of Andros, so strong, so filled with light, thanks to the suboceanic star, Gorgo.”

Ok.  First, what IS a star in the magic dimension?  I suppose “star” has two meanings, one being the traditional mass of incandescent gas around which planets orbit, the other being… uh, any place that lumens have a star core.  So stars can be planets, or ON a planet like this star is, or on a moving ship.  I wish we had some more specific terminology instead of using the same name for all these different situations!  Ok, so star=where there’s lumens.  Gorgo doesn’t even provide light in space, since it’s at the bottom of the ocean.

I can’t help thinking of Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer.  That movie was about Spectra the diamond star, a diamond through which all the universe’s light passed.  An evil space princess was trying to steal it because diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and the fading of the light made everybody stop caring about things.  Obviously this movie made a big impression and I so want to work it in to Mirta’s season 8 story, somehow...

My other question: Merlumens and selkies.  Are they related?  Do they get along?    

Anyway, the merlumens are hangin’ out playing with their fish friends and being cute while Valtor watches from his asteroid, plotting their doom!  He gloats that his power has grown, and it seems it has; he created a big all-over image of the lumens instead of the little magic-TV he was using before.  But he wants a fish friend too!  He conjures a hammerhead shark and morphs it into a big monster shark I’m gonna call a sharkee because maybe someone somewhere will get that reference.  

Valtor is interrupted mid-gloat by Obscuro popping out of a portal behind him and hitting him in the back of the head.  The little guy is wearing fins and a swim floaty because of course he is.

Valtor regrets his choice of minions and Obscuro complains that he’s bad at swimming.

On Andros, Aisha is practicing a speech while Stella adjusts her dress.  It is a gorgeous dress, seafoam green with taffeta and cool chokers and flowers in her hair.  She’s going to present this speech at the anniversary of the founding of Andros, but she’s having trouble getting it perfect.  The girls are helping her practice.

Nex calls with cheering-you-on emojis and Aisha says, “He’s trying to support me every way he can.”

Aisha continues trying to practice but Nex texts again, then Stella interrupts to say the dress needs flowers, then Nex calls and Aisha tosses the phone ‘cause she’s gotta practice.  She leaves her room… and finds Nex in the corridor with flowers and more support, but poor Aisha just needs some quiet!

Nex’s outfit is pretty great too. Moss-green jacket with gold details and a gold cord around the waist. It looks military, or princely.  But Nex doesn’t seem to be a prince.  We don’t acutally know anything about where he’s from, do we?  Just that he was a “paladin” whatever that means in this context, he wasn’t a student at Red Fountain with the others but the season 8 timeshift put him as one of the Specialists on Sky’s team.  We can assume Nex and Thoren attended a different school for heroes since they know magical combat but that’s about it.

Aisha brushes past Nex, focused on her speech, and he looks sad but doesn’t go after her.

Meanwhile at Gorgo, staryums attack the underwater star core!  Merlumens see them and swim away.  Obscurum gloats.

Back at the palace, nobles arrive for the celebration!  There’s a pavilion set up outside the palace proper, over what must be a lagoon.  Inside is a land platform for the humans and half lake for the mermaids.  Queen Ligeia is there in a cool floating shell throne, with a dozen cute mermaids and mermen. Tressa and Nereus do not appear.  Maybe they’re on a diplomatic mission somewhere else.

Nervous Aisha approaches the podium where her parents wait.  Nobles applaud.  Nex and the Winx give her thumbs-up.  Aisha begins her speech, and namechecks her parents and Queen Ligeia—and “Dorana, Queen of the Stars.”  And there’s little Dorana, floating along.

(Maybe Dorana is to the lumens what Omnia was to the selkies?  Some kind of higher form or guiding spirit or something.)

Aisha begins her speech.  “I’ve been to space, I’ve seen the stars.  But here, on Andros… um...” sigh.  She flubs it.  King Teredor looks SUPER disappointed.  Niobe steps in to help her daughter along, and they get the speech done. Then we find out what else is up: Ligeia’s ocean magic and Dorana’s star magic together can protect Andros from the threat of Valtor. Bloom says he has no chance against the combined magic.

Dorana; “When Valtor showed up my brother Argen suddenly disappeared.”

Hmm!  I wonder what could have happened to him!

This is a surprise to the Winx-- it’s news to me too, but since I’m not genre-blind I’m pretty sure I know where Argen went.

Dorana doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the pain of losing someone, so she wants to help.  She creates an illusion of, “Gorgo, Star of Andros, a unique star that lights up the ocean.  Valtor won’t be able to resist the temptation to steal its light.”

Got that right, Dorana!

The two queens do a cool spell, they spread their arms and both sing a note together, creating a barrier around the star.

But what’s this?  Tecna’s got an image of the star on her device and something’s wrong with the barrier!  Bloom realizes, “...too late.”  Dorana and Ligeia realize their barrier has failed.  Twinkle uses her star map to confirm that the barrier is no good since the staryums are already inside!

Aisha: “If Gorgo falls, Andros will plunge into darkness.”  But what about the normal sun, in the sky?! How does this wooooork?  T_T

Bloom: “That’s not going to happen. We’ll save Gorgo!”

The nobles cheer.  :-)

The Winx go outside to a balcony-ish place, giving us a good look at their dresses.  they’re all dressed in the same style as Aisha’s, pastels and tulle and flowers, a look that owes something to Onyrix, I think.  They’re really good dresses, and as usual I like Aisha and Tecna best because they’re in my favorite colors.

Bloom: “Everyone ready?”

But where’s Twinkle?  She’s sitting being sad.  She can’t swim!  She can’t come along!  Flora: “But you do have an important role here, Twinkle.  If you came with us, who would stay here and comfort the people of Andros?”  

Twinkle: “Me?”

Bloom: “That’s right, you’re the only one who can cheer them up.”

Twinkle flies spirals of joy.  

Ok, I really liked this.

Then Nex shows up for some predictable couples drama!  He wants to come along underwater but Aisha says she can take care of herself.  Nex, to his credit, says, ‘I know that. I want to stay by your side anyway.”  and sounds like he means it. Nex transforms his suit with flippers and a facemask and dives in, ending the conversation.

Bloom: “All right girls, there’s only one way down there.  Winx, Sirenix!”

I feel the power of the ocean…

More than any other music in Winx, this song goes right through my heart.

Only way to make it better?  Make it Italian.

So here’s… shall we call it new sirenix?  Or sequin sirenix, since the dolls have sequins?  I like that.  Sequin sirenix is shall be, since I don’t know what the rest of the fandom is calling it.

I like it.  The colors are a little less… whatever made the other sirenix Just A Little Much.  But while the shades are nicer, I think the animators were a bit lazy when assigning colors to the girls  Aisha has the best palette, turquoise, blue and purple.  Poor Stella is stuck in shades of pink and blue, like the designers just gave up on her orange-based color palette, and Bloom shares about the same colors.  Tecna and Flora are in the same shades of blue and green while Musa at least gets her traditional magenta and raspberry.  But even so, I just like these designs.  I also feel like the animators took more care to make it looks like the girls are swimming, rather than just using the same animations for flying but putting them underwater which I felt like they did in season 5.  Their HAIR still isn’t animated like it would be moving underwater, but I think that would be really hard to do.

I have feelings about underwater, because it comes close to a show that tangles my heart up even more than Winx, and Winx has been a fandom of sixteen years.

There was no discussion of sirenix being a power they used before and still have, they just go for it.  It’s not surprising that they’d still be able to access old powers; it makes sense but it does lay down that bit of worldbuilding.  Previously gained powers are not necessarily lost.  But do they automatically keep ALL forms or just some?  I assume they no longer have Tynix because the fairy animals have moved on, and still having Harmonix would be unnecessary once they have Sirenix.  But what about bloomix?  Did the Winx return their bits of the Dragonfire when they got Butterflix, or do they still have it?

Also no mention that sirenix now looks different.  Maybe they just don’t think it’s worth commenting on while a baddie’s attacking, or maybe the season 8 timeslide means sirenix ALWAYS looked like this.

Anyway. The girls and Nex swim through the lovely violet ocean of Andros, doing the Winx giggle.  Then Nex catches aisha for some relationship drama.  He asks her what’s wrong and she says it’s nothing.  Then aisha says she wanted to get the speech right to impress her parents, but she flubbed it.  Next says everyone understands and, “Next time let the others help.”

Wasn’t this Aisha’s Nemesis theme from Wow?  Aisha being too self-reliant? At least it’s consistent characterization, I guess.

More swimming, and the sharkee is stalking them!  Its shadow falls over the gang swimming in a canyon.  That thing’s big! But it’s gone before they can get a good look.

They reach the star, which Flora says is wonderful, and I realize looks just like Castle Elemyn from Bella Sara.  But it’s under attack!  Winx into action!

But here comes the sharkee!  Battle is joined!  

Aisha says it’s a creature of darkness so their sirenix powers have no effect.  The battle isn’t going well!  The girls regroup—and realize Nex is missing.

He’s in some caves full of pink underwater flowers—no, he’s at the star core.  How’d he get all that way?  But he’s there, watching Obscurum and the staryums chow down on the star core.

Nex: “Hey you!  Call off your creatures!”

Dude, you have no backup…

Nex vs Obscurum!  Nex pops out his two phantoblade lightsabers and attacks!

Cut to the girls fleeing the sharkee.  They zap it with various things but aren’t having much luck.  Aisha’s morfix can grab it but nothing else does any good.

Back to Nex and Obscurum!  Obscurum of course hops through portals to dodge.  Nex calls him a coward.  Obscurum zaps Nex from every which way, but… ‘I’ll never give up!  Aisha needs me!”

Back with Aisha, she realizes the sharkee is full of dark magic—but they can’t free it from Valtor’s control without their Cosmix powers, which won’t work in water.  Aisha gets the idea to lure it into a convenient cave.  She’s badass.  The other Winx blast the cave mouth, sealing it except  for a little hole Aisha swims out through. Success! The shark monster is trapped!  

The girls arrive at the core and find Nex getting his butt handed to him. Aisha leaps to protect him with a morfix shield.

Nex: “See, teamwork never fails.”

Aisha: “Sorry I pushed you away before.  I know you wanted to help but I was too focused on not disappointing my parents and my people.  So… power couple teamup?”

Nex: “I thought you’d never ask.”

These two are cute together.  They’re one of the couples I give the thumbs up to.

They lay some hurt on Obscurum and the rest of the Winx blast staryums off the core.

Then Obscurum blasts the ceiling and the cave collapses on Nex! Cliffhanger ending!

#winx season 8 #winx club