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Griffin x Valtor text posts Part 4

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Do you have any hc about Griffin's pregnancy with Darcy? Like her reaction when she found out? When Faragonda or the CoL found out? How was she during that pregnancy and after it?

I can see her doing the decision to gave her away very early bc she would be to worried about what could happen to her when Valtor or worse the ancestral witches found out.

But when did she actually gave Darcy away? And did she do it by herself or did she trust Faragonda to find a good place for her? And how did she hold up right after it? Did she ever regretted it? And did she recognized her magic in the moment when Darcy stepped into cloud tower? And when Faragonda did saw her the first time (idk maybe during a solemnity with all three schools) did recognized the possibility of who Darcy could be? Idk maybe bc of her eyes or she thought that she has a similarities with Griffin when she was younger? And did Griffin and Faragondas ever talked about it again?

I am really sorry that it's so much and even more if you've already answered it🙈

Anon, I am currently focused more on Griffin and Valtor when they were together and I have talked about all that before so I'm just going to link you to the posts. They are kind of old though and I don't know that I would agree with everything I wrote in them anymore.

Check out this post and the beginning of this one that talk about her giving birth and Faragonda's involvement.

Here's a post detailing Griffin's thoughts on the pregnancy.

And here are her thoughts after meeting Darcy in CT.

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Me: This is their first kiss in over three years. I'd better make it epic.

Also me: On it, boss! *writes a kiss that goes on for over 1k words*

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Valtor at the end of Fallen Love:

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Imagine having the same colour palette as your Ex-lover aka enemy aka the person who wants to subjugate the entire magical dimension and wants to destroy everyone you care about.

You mean one of the greatest design decisions of all time?????

It's almost like they're implying certain things about the characters (or well, Griffin at least since he was always wearing that same outfit but she made some changes to her wardrobe) if you believe this shared color palette was intentional. Which... how are you going to invent almost the exact same color palette accidentally and for the same show, for characters who not only interact, but used to be partners? This does not sound like a coincidence at all. So then we're left with the question of what was going through Griffin's head when she switched to his color scheme after the final battle on Domino.

Take a look:

Her first outfit from when she actually worked with Valtor is purple but it is a completely different shade from his purple and there's no red in sight. In fact, her hair color is closest to any of the colors he wears, particularly the shade of his pants and vest.

Later in her battle outfit from SotLK the purple is almost completely gone, replaced by a light blue that turns into very light purple that's barely present in her outfit during the show. Seems like she was trying to escape from her association with Valtor. Except for the cape that is starting to suspiciously remind of Valtor's coat as it is mere shades away from being the exact same color.

And then:

MA'AM?????? Did you steal his clothes????????? Is this some elaborate ritual of mourning - making yourself a living, walking shrine of this man you betrayed?!?!?!?!?!?! It's almost like she said "I cannot bear the thought of there not being any part of Valtor left in the world. Guess I'll start dressing in his colors to literally wear the memory of him and that would be the way the entire world sees me, forever."

Oh, they were insane for this!

P.S. My headcanon is that she started wearing gloves because she hates the mark she's left on the world. Sort of like a subconscious impulse to stop leaving her fingerprints over everything she touches because she's done enough harm. And the gloves are light purple aka the only color that she wears that isn't also part of his color scheme. So it's like she realizes the negative impact their relationship had on all the rest of her interactions with the world which is why she's trying to distance herself from that in order to stop making the universe a worse place. But not only is her color scheme his color scheme but he also wears gloves so that's just another similarity (if only on the surface).

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I have made another chart. As a treat.

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Is there a person you secretly hate on Tumblr?

I'm going to take this in good faith and assume it's not some attempt to declare me problematic. And if it is, sorry to disappoint but do I appear to be able to keep my opinions to myself? Have I not earned my public hater badge by doing so much complaining directly on my blog for everyone and their mom to see?

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maybe one day i’ll overcome my shyness but in the meantime let me just tell you that you totally sold me out on griffin/valtor and i can’t get enough of them 😭 i want so bad a prequel with them! i don’t know about you, but i’m always comparing the company to the order from harry potter 😂 only they have more content and i’m starting to get jealous of that. do you think the fandom will grow with the reboot?

I'm glad you're enjoying the ship since I think it has a lot to offer (and they're my favorite so I always get giddy when someone tells me I made them see the appeal!). A prequel would be great but honestly, I do not currently trust the Winx creators. Now that the Nickelodeon and Netflix eras are over, maybe we'll go back to the initial quality but I am not getting my hopes up prematurely.

As for the fandom, it's not impossible that it will grow but since this will be season 9 and will be animated, I don't expect a lot of actually new people who have never watched the show before to get into it. It might just draw back in fans who gave up when the Nickelodeon era started. Of course, I can be wrong. We're gonna see when the season comes out.

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Griffin x Valtor text posts Part 3

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how did you get into writing, what books/authors help/got you into it and how’d you improve it?

I don't want to tell my story about writing because I don't really have one. It just happened. I had an idea and then I was writing. My best friend at the time also was and I had already had a previous idea that I attempted to write years earlier when I was 8 or 9. That one got abandoned as well as many of the others I first came up with but I'd always been interested in stories - when I was bored or couldn't fall asleep, I'd come up with stories to help pass the time or put me to sleep - so I just continued coming up with ideas. Stopping wasn't an option for me. When I go too long without writing, I start to get physical side effects like restlessness and sensory overload. Writing is just my thing.

I wouldn't say that I've been inspired by any particular books or writers, just a general love for reading. My parents and grandparents read a lot to me as a child and I fell in love with books. I'm of the opinion that any book/story can be useful in teaching/inspiring you how to write. Analyzing a story to see how it does or fails to do some aspect of storytelling is the way to go imo. You can learn it yourself by asking questions about the text and trying to figure out the answers. It takes some time to get the hang of it but it's really useful in constructing your own stories to know how to pull off a specific component (like character motivations or worldbuilding). Most writing advice that you can find is usually a very beginner level and not super useful anyway. The thing that teaches you to write best is practice - that is, writing. I've written hundreds of thousands of bad words before I started writing better and improvement happens all the time. You just have to stick with it (which is true about any skill). It might not be the answer you were hoping for but that's it. Believe me, I am not thrilled either that the answer to "How do you get good at writing?" is "By writing." Like, who made this system?! But as annoying as it is, it actually works - practice is the key.

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🤎 Brown - specifically Griffin and Faragonda being endgame in your Winx rewrite OR anything with Griffin whether it's canon compliant or AU.

🤎 Brown: How did you decide to write (or why are you writing) a certain fanfic? (Asker, feel free to choose a specific story you're curious about. You can also let the answerer choose the story.)

Hi! I've not worked on the rewrite in a long while and there isn't much to tell about that anyway. I only had two options for Griffin's endgame and Valtor wasn't really an option so it was Faragonda (because I wanted something healthier for Griffin in my "canon").

I do love Storming Sun though (and this post about it in particular) so I'll talk about it. It's an AU in which Griffin is going to seduce Faragonda to her and Valtor's side.

Now the idea here was literally that their bond is so strong that I can see either one of them pulling the other towards her side but I've only ever written about Griffin joining Faragonda (and the Company). So how would things go down if Griffin were to convince Faragonda to switch sides. It is a hard concept to work with because I don't want to make it as if Faragonda would completely betray who she is just because of Griffin but watching her slowly lose conviction and ground to Griffin's arguments is soooooo worth it. Faragonda has already placed herself into the war which is a situation with only two sides and if you're not with one side, you're with the other, which makes Griffin's task much easier. All she has to do is convince Faragonda that there is no place for her on the Company's side, which would mean that there's also no place for Faragonda there. That only leaves her with the option to join Griffin's side, which she still doesn't do lightly. Griffin is very good at spinning the correct narrative - it's not that she's lying to Faragonda, but there is certainly a side of manipulation. It's the reason why I'm so fascinated with this idea because it really explores and tests Griffin and Faragonda's bond while at the same time looks Griffin's similarities and partnership with Valtor are the cornerstone upon which she builds her entire approach to the situation. It is a Griffin x Faragonda story through and through but also perfectly demonstrates why Valtor would never not be a pivotal part of Griffin's life. Plus, it puts Valtor and Faragonda in positions they'd never dreamed they'd be in, which is very entertaining to witness.

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I wish we would've seen more of the trix actually using the dragon flame. Imagine Stormy's (ngl or Icy's) temperament paired with the dragon flame. Like for some reason I can just see how they accidentally set something on fire when they lost their temperament. Or that Stormy would just for fun set some things on fire just bc she can. (I don't really know what Darcy would do with it maybe you have some ideas?)

And idk why but I love the idea of a ice witch using fire magic.

It's been implied that the Dragon Fire isn't literal fire. Bloom just happens to have fire powers but none of the Trix have any in season 1 when they stole it from her. When Bloom summons the power of the Dragon Fire, it manifests as a fire dragon but when Icy, Darcy and Stormy did it, it manifested as their respective powers (Icy did an ice dragon in 1x20 or 1x21 when she destroyed RF and Darcy and Stormy both manifested a dragon from their powers in 1x26).

Stormy has been shown to be able to set things on fire with her lightnings before she had the Dragon Fire so it would probably amplify that ability as well as all others. Meanwhile, Icy and Darcy both apparently got some fire magic from Valtor (which they only used once in 3x05 and 3x10 respectively) and that was it.

Tbh I like the idea that the Dragon Fire isn't literal fire and I think they should stick with it. It has more interesting implications about the nature of the Dragon Fire and I think that way it lends itself better as a force that created the whole universe.

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After everyone learned that Darcy is Valtor's daughter, how did it changed the team dynamics? Did it even changed much? And how did the Trix react to this at all? Bc I can't really see that Icy would still try "to get the man" bc it's the father of her circle sister. And besides that do you think she would be pissed because for obvious reasons she will not be the favorite at any point?

I've talked about this here (though in relation to a fic of mine but most of it is canon compliant) and here.

*the two posts contradict each other about this so here's the final verdict - Valtor wouldn't try to force his opinion on the Trix because even if he finds a roundabout way to manipulate the situation, Darcy will instantly decide it's his doing (no matter how far-fetched he's made the possibility of his involvement look), which would be risking their relationship. And besides, as long as the Trix are still working with him, he is the de facto leader of the entire group so it doesn't really matter that much.

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Wonderland by T Swift. Valtor and Griffin. Beat may be too ehhh but the lyrics. "Didn't they tell us don't rush into things? Didn't you flash tour green eyes at me? Didn't you fix it all with a Cheshire cat smile? Life was never worse or never better. Its all fun and games til someone loses their minds" (Not exact but yeah.)

The beat gets more interesting at the pre-chorus; I kinda liked that part tbh. The lyrics work too (though she could have tried harder to actually make it more connected to Wonderland - the concept is barely there), pretty well, in fact!

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🩷 Pink and 💛 Yellow with characters of your choosing

Thanks for the ask!

🩷 Pink: Do you find a certain character (or characters) easy to write? More difficult -- and if so, do you avoid writing that character (or those characters) when possible?

Griselda is such a hard character to write. You have to thread very carefully the line between making her a stereotype and keeping her in character. What we got on the show does not help with that at all. There are a few moments that keep her from being flat and falling too hard into the stern teacher archetype but overall we don't have much to work with. I don't exactly avoid writing her but I certainly make her presence in a story somewhat sparse compared to all the other characters that are in the story. I do have certain headcanons to help flesh her out but I haven't exactly figured out what I want to get out of her inclusion in a story so I always feel like she ends up as more a plot device and/or accessory rather than a character in her own right... and by god, she deserves better.

💛 Yellow: Do you ever alter, highlight, or de-emphasize certain canonical traits in a character? If so, why and describe how.

Well... I did Griffin and Valtor so I have to go with Faragonda for this one. They are my main trio, after all.

Hm, this is going to be a little hard to explain but what I do is take her incidental "shady" behavior in canon (which is definitely the result of the writers trying to shape the plot so that Winx are always front and center no matter how much sense that makes or how it affects other characters) and then I make it a learned trait that she picked up from her mother (and somewhat from Marion). By that I mean that I have given her a sense for politics as well as somewhat a manipulative streak although that may not be very apparent from my body of work so far as I tend to write her more interacting with Griffin where those things hardly ever come into play. But the idea is that she absolutely learned how to navigate politics from her mother and well, if she ends up manipulating people outside of that sometimes, nobody's perfect. It's not in any way meant to make her a villain or questionable but rather to highlight her choices in regards to her heritage.

I am definitely working with the idea that she used to be a witch but her dark magic was out of control so she decided to become a fairy for her own sake and everyone else's. In doing so she ended up creating a big rift between herself and her mother and so watching her choose when to use what she's learned from her mother and when to act in a completely polar manner is a means to afford her more opportunities to state herself. It's a way to show her being her own person - not just through rejecting her mother's influence out of spite and a bid to differentiate herself from her but also through embracing it on her own terms. It helps flesh her out as a character when her family and childhood have shaped her so thoroughly but she's still the one defining herself in regards to them. Plus, I live for the irony that is my headcanon that the only reason why the previous headmistress of Alfea chose Faragonda as her successor instead of Griselda is Faragonda's intuition for politics. You know, the thing she picked up from her mother, who is soooooooo unhappy that her daughter ended up heading the most prominent fairy school in the universe.

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If we go with the hc that Darcy is Valtor's daughter (one of my favourites right after Griffin x Valtor), Do you think he was disappointed (after he found out she's his daughter) when he realized her role in their trio? Bc she wasn't the leader in their group and followed Icy's orders? Like what where his thoughts about her character and how she developed over the years? Did he do some research on her? Or maybe even tried to find out something about her through Griffin while she was his prisoner?

I've answered this here.

If Valtor learned that Darcy is his daughter, he'd be in a really interesting predicament (assuming he learns before Darcy does ans while Griffin is his prisoner). I think that when he weighs his options, he'd want to get Griffin away because she's the only one that would have answers to whatever questions Darcy has and they've already spent some time together even if they're enemies now. So naturally Darcy will gravitate towards Griffin and he thinks he deserves some time to gst to know her since Griffin already had her chance to do so. However, he can't just let her go - which would be suspicious - without revealing his hand plus he'd also want an explanation for Griffin's actions. Preferably right this second but if he wants to keep her in the dark on this new development so that she doesn't interfere with his time with Darcy and any plans he might have for her, he'd have to wait for his answers (and we all know how good he is at actually being patient when he's mad as hell). So to cushion that need to learn more about Darcy, he'd probably ask Icy and Stormy since it's not unreasonable to assume they'd actually know more about Darcy in general than Griffin does. He just has to keep his interest very casual as to not raise alarm in them (although at this point he'd have a pretty clear favorite amongst the Trix).

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💛 Yellow

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

💛 Yellow: Do you ever alter, highlight, or de-emphasize certain canonical traits in a character? If so, why and describe how.

Since you didn't send a specific character and I already did Valtor, I'll go ahead with Griffin. I intensify pretty much every part of her character if we're being honest. But let's look at the main things:

I'm of the opinion that they made her too nice post 1x17. It almost feels like she's a different character afterwards. The only time we see her doing some truly questionable shit is when she kind of used the Winx as bait for the Trix in 2x18 (which the RAI dub tries to deny but that is pretty much what happened). I think she should be allowed to be ruthless and scathing but she'd have to be a force that the plot has to take into account for that to happen in canon so I see why they didn't really do it (thought it was somehow okay for her to almost kill the Winx in 1x06). So fics will have to do. I try to show that she's calculative, kind of always scheming or at least analyzing a situation to figure out what the other party wants from her (the exception being most of her interactions with Faragonda because I don't think she'd feel the need to be on guard around her outside the periods of time when they're basically enemies).

I definitely lean very firmly into her familiarity with Valtor, which I think was absolutely something they should have done on the show. Forget shipping but the fact is that she worked with him and he himself - even after she betrayed him - speaks very highly of what they could do together. Showing the similarities between them and how well she knows him - even through a little dialogue with the Winx ffs if they didn't want to devote a lot of screen time to that - would have set up Valtor and his story better. But forget canon! I like to really make her specifically very familiar with his methods (when it comes to him, I don't think he'd know her that well anymore after his imprisonment in Omega but he could definitely read her very well before). I try to show that by making her have a pretty easy time figuring out what he's planning and seeing through his words.

Since she was hinted to show remorse and guilt over the situation with the Trix, I can't imagine her existing without some kind of leftover guilt for her actions in the past as well. Especially when she's faced with Valtor and her former partnership with him. This I don't really begrudge canon for ignoring (they did imply she felt guilty for working with him) since it's been 17 years and Griffin is bound to try to repress that shit when Valtor is around and would have a field day poking her about it. And in general, she'd probably try to keep it locked down as much as possible. Seeing her fail a little would have been nice but this is a lot more pertinent to the CoL era so I'm not complaining too much that they didn't do anything with that in the show. It is somewhat a cornerstone of my fics though because they focus on her almost exclusively (not to mention that it also annoys Valtor).