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quillyfied · 10 days

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Hellaverse Theories: Hazbin Hotel S1E3

Welcome to Quilly’s Hellaverse Theories, where I overthink the entire Hellaverse! It’s been a little bit; life got busy, I have a semi-major medical procedure at the end of next week, and my reverse seasonal depression is hitting real hard this year, so let’s jump into the madness.

Starting tonight with s1e3!

Short diversion to say: Lucifer sending Charlie out into the world with Razzle and Dazzle (who can turn into dragons) and KeeKee (who appears to be a powerful tool of creation that Lucifer uses, though all the theories I’ve seen people swapping around say it’s something more integral to the hotel itself rather than to Lucifer, but just based on what’s in the show…sure looks like Lucifer gave away a heckin powerful magical artifact to his daughter) is sensible but also warms my heart so much. And I would love so much to know if that was Lucifer’s doing at all, or Lilith’s, or a joint venture from the both of them. I am so ready to learn more about their relationship without the Charlie Blinders on.

Y’know. There is a very strong trend I’m noticing about my own fiction preferences right now wherein a bubbly blond of privileged status undertakes an impossible task to make a difference in the places they choose to be, meet a colorful cast of queer characters, and continually fail while also somehow succeeding at the bigger and more important task of creating a space where a bunch of traumatized folks with a lot of baggage can feel safe to work through those issues and bond with each other and form wonderful found families. Charlie and Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death would have a DELIGHTFUL afternoon tea of swapping lesson plans, is what I’m saying.

(And Angel and Lucius would probably have a field day swapping stories but anyway)

Charlie and Vaggie’s relatively harsh sex-negative attitudes strike me as unusual for the show, which IMO itself has a pretty sex-neutral to sex-positive stance, depending on the angle. It begins to make more sense with a later episode and I’m sure I’ll talk more about this then, but in case I forget: they both appear to be operating off of what they THINK is the standard for getting into Heaven, which…is baloney because NOBODY knows how a soul gets into Heaven (and once they’re there they still bone with frequency and impunity, or at least Adam does). But if you’re going off the basic Christian-centric idea of sin, I can see where Charlie and Vaggie are coming from. Though Vaggie should know a little better what the Heavenly culture is like around those kinds of things, but tbh until we get more information, my assumption is that Vaggie hung around Exorcists pretty exclusively and they seem like a separate class entirely from other angels, if their jobs are a secret from the rest of Heaven and they purposely go into battle fully helmed. They’re two sheltered girls without a clue.

(The way Charlie turned out does make me heavily question what Lilith was actually like and how she expected Charlie to act. I want to KNOW dangit.)

Zestialllllll. I adore him. And I adore that he is, outside of Lucifer, most likely the most ancient being in Hell that we see. Certainly he’s the oldest sinner, and given that there are at least three methods of regular mortal turnover in Hell, that makes his very existence highly impressive. He’s survived hundreds of years of Overlord politics, turf wars, and Exterminations (assuming they’ve been going on for a while, GIVE ME A NUMBER VIVIENNE I NEED TO KNOW), and is so well known that people SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE to get away from him and Alastor walking together down the street. And Alastor gives him something much closer to actual deference, as opposed to what he gives the literal ruler of Hell next episode (a high-charged rivalry anthem on par with Loathing from Wicked, how have I not seen anyone do an edit or a comic of that one yet).

“Some have spun tales of you falling to holy arms.” Followed by Alastor pulling a major bluff, complete with shifty eyes. So Zestial’s information isn’t entirely inaccurate. Which still means just about anyone could be holding the other end of Alastor’s leash, but the major theories of it being Lilith (my personal favorite but also too easy and coincidental, feels like a red herring) or Eve (bound up somehow with Roo, I can just feel it) still feel most plausible to me. This could be foreshadowing and Zestial is wrong, since Alastor does nearly die due to holy arms in the finale, but…those shifty eyes. Zestial is definitely close, guessing a little too near the mark for Alastor’s comfort. What the HECKIE happened that put the Radio Demon and the Queen of Hell down for the count for the same amount of time? It is MADDENING. The incidents are obviously related, but how did that end with Alastor showing back up in Hell and Lilith up in Heaven?

(My cracked fanfic writer brain just went “Lilith decided she was done and passed her Queen duties to the deer man, Lucifer just found out he’s essentially married in power to Alastor, now discuss” but that is getting stuffed to the back of the mental closet where I will only ponder it late at night when I need a good giggle. Especially because it’s far more plausible that if Alastor and Lilith have any kind of deal whatsoever, it has to do with guiding and helping Charlie.)

(…could it be possible that Lilith’s deal with Adam involved trading Alastor somehow? Unlikely, since Adam had no idea who Alastor was, but Alastor being used as a pawn instead of being a major player would be such a delicious burden for his arrogant ass to bear and I kinda want to see it.)

Anyway.

Seeing an Overlord meeting is so fascinating, because watching Velvette come in and immediately challenge Carmilla and Zestial very much establishes something of a generation gap; the oldest Overlords in the room versus the youngest. But before I get ahead of myself and how BRILLIANTLY MANIPULATIVE Velvette is, a little stage-setting: no Overlords appear to have the same business dealings as the Vees, though there is genuine friendship between some of them (Carmilla and Zestial, Alastor and Rosie). No Overlords are locking horns at this meeting before Velvette shows up, no hint of political undercurrents or rivalries. The Overlords in the room are also high-rollers, it seems, the more powerful of the bunch, if only SIX of them own MILLIONS of souls. However, there are some hints after Velvette’s musical number to further shed some light on what Hellish politics are like, but before she comes in, all seems fine. Alastor gets his pride wounded (much to my personal amusement), but overall it’s perfectly civil.

Enter that hashtag bitch.

Her entire performance from top to bottom is a calculated strategy. Step one, show up late, ruffle some feathers with her lack of decorum, make it very clear up front that she’s showing up despite having better things to do. Put Carmilla on the back foot right away. But Carmilla is a professional; she’s a ballerina, used to dancing around her opponents. Step two, pull out the angel’s head and keep a close eye on Carmilla’s reaction, and start to push when Velvette meets immediate resistance to her “full assault plan” (I will eat my hat if they had such a thing at all; the three of them are safe in their fancy tower and they know it, and Velvette attending this meeting was never about the Vees working together with other Overlords at all). Step three: annihilate the meeting, push Carmilla into either admitting what she did and starting an uproar across all of Hell or shutting down the discussion before it can come to light, and the result is: the Overlords don’t actually sit down and make a plan about what to do about this accelerated Extermination. The Vees’ power remains unchallenged as the other Overlords scramble to keep theirs. Velvette planned this from the beginning.

The lyrics in the finale number confirm it, too “After the battle, masterless cattle, Overlords hanging by a thread…nature abhors a power vacuum, it leaves room for you and me. The future of Hell belongs to the Vees.” What better way to secure power than making sure your enemies can’t organize, even if it isn’t against you at first? The Vees are formidable, practically untouchable, because they work together. They can’t have other Overlords doing the same thing, because uniting against one seemingly impossible threat and succeeding has ripple effects. It becomes easier to unite against other threats. And if every other Overlord in Hell decided to band together to take down the Vees, the Vees wouldn’t win that encounter. Much easier to let Overlords’ natural distrust of each other continue to keep them alone and vulnerable while the Vees work in the background to take advantage of that vulnerability.

The Vees are a union-busting corporate tech giant monopoly, is what I’m saying.

Annnnyway.

Side note about character design: Velvette and Carmilla and Carmilla’s daughters all having very similar, if not the same, eye design is fascinating, but I’m not sure if it denotes a connection between them, since they also have the same eye design as hellhounds (seen more in Helluva Boss but there are a few in the background of Hazbin Hotel), and I’m not sure what to make of that tbh. Though Velvette being a doll and the Carmines being ballet-themed, possibly music box ballerina themed, does strike me as interesting too.

Okay, Zestial’s response: “Mightn’t they purge all of Hell for daring an uprising?” He’s the oldest guy in the room. He’s the most cautious, the most cunning, and one of the most powerful Overlords in that room, so probably in all of Hell. And what he just said is EXACTLY why the Exterminations are happening in the first place. Which begs the question: do the sinners know why Exterminations happen? Charlie knows, or at least knows a version of the story; Zestial being so ancient and also throwing out this incredibly obvious possibility that is already currently happening…I’m not sure if this is a writing continuity error or a hint that Exterminations have been happening for longer than Zestial has been around, so long that the original reason for it is lost to time for those who weren’t old enough to be there. The cautious way that Zestial and Carmilla are determined to stop Hell from trying to go to open war against Heaven makes me think that even if they don’t know the reason for the Exterminations, they’re smart enough to guess, and to want to keep their heads down and their people as safe as they can possibly be during a yearly bloodbath.

Also it continues to beg the question of why Lucifer “granted a pardon” to the Hellborn in the first place, if it was so long ago that Charlie probably didn’t exist yet, because a Hellborn sanction wouldn’t protect Lilith. She isn’t Hellborn. Technically neither is Lucifer, but I assume they figured that as an angel, even a fallen one, he wasn’t going to be in any danger anyway (since it apparently took ten thousand years for them to figure out on a wider scale that angelic steel kills angels too) (though it wouldn’t surprise me if the Seraphim all knew and just didn’t say anything). I’m rambling now but hOW LONG, VIV. HOW LONG HAVE THE EXTERMINATIONS BEEN GOING. I’M GOING TO START SCRAWLING ON THE WALLS.

“That was a productive meeting!” Okay, that’s my indication that expecting anything actually useful from this was probably a high bar to reach, but Velvette throwing an angelic bomb in the mix and then working Carmilla up to a bloody froth didn’t help, either. Overlords don’t collaborate, they don’t band together, they don’t share power. Even the Vees’ brand is held together with a lot of mutual self-interest and each one of them thinking that they’re the top of the operation. Though, personally, with this one scene, my money is on Velvette for being the top of that particular dogpile. Since. Y’know. She just single-handedly destroyed any chance of the Overlords working together to try and protect Hell.

(Also please tell me there’s at least one fanfic out there where the Hotel crew actually gives BDSM a shot. I don’t need to read it; I just need to know it exists. With a more nuanced and fair view of what professional BDSM is that isn’t just “weird deviant sex.”)

I can also see why a lot of people think Carmilla is a fallen angel when she’s placed so very obviously in narrative parallel with Vaggie. Part of me thinks this is merely foreshadowing to Carmilla becoming Vaggie’s mentor, because Carmilla being an Overlord and having daughters both seem like things that angels don’t do (and Carmilla’s daughters sharing physical similarities with her indicates to me that they might not be adopted daughters, but perhaps her actual daughters from life, since Sinners can’t reproduce). But there are plenty of little tidbits that would lend themselves to Carmilla being a fallen angel as well, such as the winged shape of her face markings and her general coloration being similar to Exorcists. Not to mention her deep knowledge of how to beat them, but that could very well be the decades or even centuries of observance Carmilla would have gotten in as one of the few demons willingly out during an Extermination Day. I lean towards Not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was, either. (How Carmilla and Vaggie both speak Spanish if they were both once angels is another question I want answered, tbh, but that could be something as simple as Heaven/Hell being multicultural by design and maybe they just sort of picked it up. But that doesn’t feel right tbh.)

“I just thought this would all be easier.” OH HELLO MAJOR THEME OF THE SHOW. Charlie’s naivete can be so charming sometimes, but so deeply saddening other times. Watching her grow up and start to shed some of that is a satisfying and subtle character arc and I can’t wait to keep watching her go.

Pentious having minions that have nothing to do with his power makes me more inclined to think that the little creatures that Alastor summons are souls he owns, but again, there’s literally no way to tell just by watching the show right now. Sigh.

Okay, only took two hours to get through this episode, so let’s take another two for the next one! It’ll be fine!

#quilly's hellaverse theories #hazbin hotel #quilly writing

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About "Hunting Palismans" From The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Today, I present to you reason #4,693 for why The Owl House is the best thing at the moment: It's the perfect balance of serialized storytelling with an episodic format. The story always moves forward with an exact order for how episodes should be watched, but each episode still functions as its own standalone tale. Having prior knowledge of what happened before adds more to the experience, but you can still watch whatever you want and still have an enjoyable time. Take "Hunting Palismans," for example. It adds so much more to the overarching narrative while slightly continuing other threads. But it's still something you can watch as is without remembering the past or wondering about the future.

However, to properly explain how requires spoilers. I wasn't kidding when I say that this episode adds so much, so you're going to want to be wary of that when you continue reading.

With that said, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Coven Heads Meeting: We already saw these fellow schmucks in the trailer, but that doesn't take away how cool they are! It's not explicitly stated which head belongs to which coven, but you can already tell who goes where just from their designs alone. And I love that. I love that just by showing us some excellent character designs, anybody with half a brain can already figure out the particular type of magic each Coven Head specializes in. It's a perfect example of the show-don't-tell level of storytelling that is always at its best through animation, and I'm all for it because of it.

What the Day of Unity is: Several fans, myself included, have already speculated that the Day of Unity was that Emperor Belos planned to combine the human world with the Boiling Isles and rule it all with an iron fist. That being said, figuring it out is one thing, but being told that it's true is a whole different level pants-s**ting horror that I AM NOT READY FOR! Even when it's going to happen, I can assure you that I will not be prepared to witness it ...and I am scared of when it does.

Belos Body Horror: ...Disney, I was already scared s**tless of this guy. I DO NOT NEED THIS!

That being said, seeing Belos do...whatever the f**k that was, helps explain further why he needs the magic in palismans. I always assumed because it's like fuel for a car, giving him the power he needs. Now, even though the answer is more apparent, there are still some questions to be had. Is he cursed, and the magic keeps it at bay like Eda's potions? Or did he experiment with the wrong type of magic, and the palismans keep him stable? Only the future can say for sure...and I'm also not prepared for the answers from that either.

Golden Guard is Belos’ Nephew: Gosh dangit, THE INTRO HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET, AND THIS EPISODE IS ALREADY GIVING SO MUCH!

But, yeah, the most powerful witch on the Isles is apparently Golden Boy's Grunkle Belos. That very knowledge is incredibly interesting to discuss while presenting possibilities for future narratives. I don't know about you, but I see the Golden Guard going down the path of Zuko, learning that the magic of friendship is worth much more than whatever power he gains from being Belos' nephew. And possibly earning his uncle's love seeing how he's the only family he has. It's a situation that's vastly different from Amity's because even when she defies her parents, she'll still have Edric and Emira at the end of the day. For Golden Guard, knowing that he lost a great family to wild magic, the inclination to go against Belos is a lot weaker due to him being all he has left.

Oh, and also, Belos' family getting wiped out because of wild magic. Yeah, not only does that give the best type of motivation for Belos' distaste for it, but it also explains the Golden Guard's hesitance to use it. He's inclined to so he can save his uncle, sure. It's only the fact that he knows what happens with wild magic that causes some resistance...Also, we're less than a minute in, and I'm already getting all of this from one discussion between two characters.

HOW IS THIS SHOW SO GOOD?!

Intro Changes: It's about time too. It seems weird that the crew waited to change Eda and King's designs in the intro this late in the game, but it also tells me that Amity dying her hair lavender is the last huge change this season will present. Otherwise, why change the intro at all if you were going to alter Luz, Willow, and Gus' designs anyway? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Luz Keeping the Echo Mouse as a Pet: The fact that she keeps the most important creature in the world to her as a pet...it's...it's adorable, alright? And as we established several times, I cannot hate adorable things.

Don't judge me!

Amity Staying Home: There are two plausible ways why Amity didn't go to school that day. Either she's getting punished for dying her hair or because she's trying to avoid Luz so they won't talk about the you-know-what. Either could work and seem understandable to Luz, thus explaining why she admits how "that makes sense." Although, there is something to discuss in how Luz is curious as to where Amity is. Judging from the tone of her voice, it's pretty clear that she wants to talk about the little peck on the cheek and maybe get some confirmation as to what it means. Because there is no going back from that. You can explain away saying or doing something stupid, but you cannot un-kiss a cheek. That is a point of no return, and if Amity really is avoiding Luz because of it, that means it's up to our favorite weirdo to make the first move. As for what that may entail...we'll just have to wait and see.

Frewin: We get two bits of information here for the price of one reveal here. Knowing that Frewin is a palisman is shocking enough, but the knowledge that Bump is partially blind and needs Frewin to see? That is an intriguing piece of intel that I would have never expected to get revealed. This is reason #5,279 for what makes The Owl House so good. Even when the show presents information you wouldn't guess, it's all so interesting anyways that you can't help but go along with it.

Adopting Palismans: First of all, love the fact that the Bat Queen makes a return to provide a solution to the palisman trees being rare and solving her own problem regarding the discarded palismans. It's a situation where everyone wins in a way that is so clever that I can't help but admire it.

Second, the idea of students choosing to adopt palismans instead is cute. I'd say it gives further insight into who these characters are in how they say what they want to be, but there's nothing really new added that fans couldn't figure out from the get go. But I will say that it's pretty cool to know that these characters have official staffs now. Speaking of which, if you're upset that their palismans don't match up with your headcanons...grow up.

This was a cute and smartly written scene that should not be bogged down by whiney fans who can't accept a series doing something different from what they expect.

Little Rascal: I’d take a bullet for this bird. That is all.

Luz Being Uncertain of her Future: A lot of fans offer several ideas of what the future could look like for Luz. Will she stay in the Boiling Isles? In Connecticut? Or will she go back and forth? We don't know, but one question we rarely brought up is what does Luz want? More specifically, what does she want to do? After everything Luz went through, the adventures she's gone on, and the lessons learned, what is something that Luz wants her future to be? That's an answer she doesn't really figure out, and I'm genuinely ok with that being a question that's tabled for another day. Most kids who ask that question themselves aren't always going to find an answer after a short amount of time and sometimes even need to spend their lives trying to figure it out. So having it be something Luz has to consider and probably find out in a future episode is the smarter option, as it allows time for it to simmer in her own mind and provides more insight into her character. As stated several times in this episode, she doesn't think things through, so it's nice that the writers finally allowed her some time to wonder what's next when the adventure is over.

Luz Having to Improvise Without Paper Glyphs: You want to know what my favorite Spider-Man moments are (this is relevant. Trust me). My favorite moments are when Spidey's web-shooters run out of fluid, and he's forced to improvise with that big brain of his to find a solution. That's sort of what happens with Luz in "Hunting Palismans." She didn't bring her glyphs with her (why would she), so she's forced to use the environment around her to make new ones. Plus, Luz also flexes her knowledge of the Boiling Isles by mixing her glyphs with a magical plant (which Willow certainly told her about) so that she and the Golden Guard could knock out Kikimora's dragon. It's yet another showcase of her intelligence that a lot of fans are too keen to overlook. Unfortunate to see, too, because looking at how well Luz can craft the perfect solutions by fighting smarter, not harder, is a fantastic add-on to her personality. I love characters who win through their wits rather than their raw powers, and I once again hope more people will catch onto that aspect of her too.

Golden Guard Whistling the Theme: Look, I love it when a show acknowledges its own theme song, ok? Leave me alone.

Luz and the Golden Guard: This is one of those dynamics you didn't know you wanted until you have it. And now that I have it, I DEMAND MORE!

Seriously, seeing these two interact off of each other was a ton of fun to watch. When Luz and GG are initially at each other's throats, their threats and mockery towards one another aren't out of spiteful anger between two mortal enemies. It's more like...two siblings who get on each other's nerves yet are supposed to deal with one another. It's equally adorable and hilarious, and yes, I absolutely loved that they're forced to work together in this episode because of it.

Although, while the entertainment value is fantastic, it also adds more proof of why Luz is the best character in the series. She spends one night with this guy, and that's more than what she needed to make a difference with him. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they're buddies now, but Luz definitely sowed the seeds into his redemption. He's far from willing to join her side, but he still does something he rarely does with anyone else: He told her that his name is Hunter. And this is what Luz does. Through nearly every person she meets on the Boiling Isles, she always manages to change them for the better. It'll be a while before Hunter deflects from Belos, but if Amity proves anything, Luz has a way of sneaking into people's hearts. They just need to spend more time with one another, and I can't wait to see what happens next because of it.

Kikimora Wanting to Kill Hunter: This shows a lot about who Kikimora is, but it potentially proves just how dysfunctional the Emperor's Coven can be. If Kiki proves anything, the coven must be filled with people willing to backstab and cheat their way to get on Emperor Belos' good side. Just look at Lilith. She literally cursed her own sister just to get in and received all the rewards because of it. The Emperor's Coven may be the best choice for witches to do magic, but if you're surrounded by people you can't trust, then is it really worth it?

The Guards Not Knowing Who Hunter is: This helps add to how much of a big deal it is for Hunter to reveal his name to Luz. If people can't even recognize his face, there's a chance it means that he keeps his true identity a secret except for those in his inner circle.

And the coven guards brushing off his brand is more than believable to me. They may be aware that Belos' right hand is young, but teens will be teens. Anybody with enough artistic talent can fake a brand. So it isn't too far off for those two to think Hunter was just a kid pulling a prank.

Hunter is Powerless Without his Staff: Not much to say here. It's just some more neat insight into Hunter's character that makes me wonder if even Belos' magic is real magic.

But I will say this: The fact that Hunter comes from a lineage of powerless witches, well, who's to say that isn't because of a...certain ancestor?

(*Cough* Hunter is related to Philip *Cough*)

Hunter vs Kiki: A pretty well-animated fight scene that adds potential drama to the story for the future. Now that Kikimora knows that Hunter helped Luz escape with the palismans (albeit unwillingly), she may or may not hold that over his head when the time comes. Or, at the very least, decides to keep a closer eye on him whenever he makes a slip-up.

Eda and King Getting Luz her own Palisman Wood: These last two weeks have been severely lacking in the Eda and King department, but scenes like this more than make up for it. Those two have formed such a bond with Luz to the point where they would do the impossible if it meant she would feel better. It proves just how much of a family they all are and the lengths they would go for each other. After all, weirdos have to stick together.

Little Rascal going to Hunter: Hunter is right. That was surprising.

Given how much Little Rascal stuck by Luz, I was more than positive that she would be the one he chose. So seeing Little Rascal pick Hunter instead is a much nicer twist. There could be multiple reasons why, and I'm just going to leave that to the analyzers in this fandom to decide. Especially since the answer isn't really all that important.

So, instead, I'm going to go ahead and sit in the corner as I wOrRy AbOuT tHe DaY tHaT bElOs FiNdS lItTlE rAsCal!

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN! AND I SWEAR TO ALL THAT IS HOLY, IF THE WRITERS KILL HIM, I WILL NOT BE HAPPY!

WHAT I DISLIKED

First, there's...um...

Well, there was this...

Ok, as much as I liked--No, that turned out well anyways...

…

...

...I've got nothing.

I, honest to goodness, have no complaints about "Hunting Palismans" Not even the tiniest of nitpicks I would usually ignore due to how well-executed everything else was.

It's all written fantastically to the point where it's...perfect.

IN CONCLUSION

"Hunting Palismans" is an easy A+. It introduces even more plot threads, gives insight into characters, and despite being essential to the story, it still manages to be a fun episode all on its own. And, I'd go so far as to say that it's one of the best, if not the best, episodes in the series. There's nothing bad about it, and that surprises me. I rarely find nothing bad to say about any story, even the ones I enjoy greatly. I'm sure there are some flaws that others would be more than happy to point out, but why bother hunting for the imperfections when I could accept that, for once, an episode is simply perfect.

(And that’s six hits in a row...THAT STINKER IS GOING TO HAPPEN! It hasn’t happened yet, BUT IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN! I CAN FEEL IT!)

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #the owl house reviews #luz noceda #the golden guard #hunter the owl house #emperor belos #what i thought about

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gameimagines · 4 years

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Hello, could I ask for headcanons of what Raihan, Leon, and Milo would do if their s/o was being threatened by a Trainer who was salty that they lost to s/o?

Requested by: this lovely anon

Fandom: Pokémon SWSH

Notes: oH THIS IS GOOD. Love me some protective boys. Also I wrote this like a bullet point scenario?? Idk it’s a little weird.

Galar Boys protecting their s/o from a sore loser

Raihan

You were out with Raihan when an overly enthusiastic fan insisted on challenging you. You tried to politely turn down his request, telling the trainer that you were on a date and that it wouldn’t be fair to Raihan for you to accept a challenge right now.

Unfortunately, Raihan off handedly mentioned that he wouldn’t mind seeing you take this guy on. You appreciated the support but dangit, Raihan, you didn’t want to battle right now.

Raihan’s comment made the trainer even more persistent and so you begrudgingly agreed.

Raihan cheered you on the entire time. If only the trainer was as good natured as your boyfriend. The challenger talked trash before and during the match, boasting regardless of how the battle was going. Raihan didn’t seem too phased, you’d put this cocky punk in his place.

Despite your opponents bragging, the match didn’t last long. In fact, you only had to use one Pokémon. Your trusty Appletun sweeped the opposing team.

Before you even finished calling back your dragon type, the trainer was marching towards you.

“Tch,” he sneered, “if you think I’m giving you money for your lucky, underhanded win, you’re dumber than your Appletun.”

“Excuse me?” You and Raihan spoke in unison.

“Yeah, I bet you knew I used mostly water types. Bloody unfair to choose type advantage instead of using a real strategy.” Once he got within arms distance, the challenger grabbed your collar with aggressive force.

You weren’t sure when Raihan called out his Duraludon but boy were you thankful to see Raihan pry the unwanted hands off while backed up with the intimidating steel type.

“I don’t know why the beat down Y/N gave you wasn’t enough for you, so let me give it a try.” Raihan leered down at the defeated trainer. His Duraludon (which was surprisingly in tune with the situation) let out a metallic growl for emphasis.

Upon seeing Raihan’s anger, the challenger began to back down. “B-Back off. My Pokémon have all fainted, just let me go.”

“Yeah, that’s for the best. I don’t want to see you anymore,” Raihan sneered. After you watched the man scurry away, you turned back to Raihan who was giving you a sympathetic look. “You’re just too good, people can’t handle it.” He grabbed your hand with a delicacy that was absent during the previous encounter.

“Thanks, Rai.”

Milo

Milo was worried when you were almost twenty minutes late to dinner. The meetup spot wasn’t far from your place, what could be keeping you?

When you don’t answer his call, Milo begins to walk to your home, hoping your abscence was caused by something mundane.

He began to smile when heard your voice in the distance, but once he came closer it fell from his face.

A loud, visibly angry woman was screeching profanities at you. You seemed mostly composed, but Milo could see your hands clenching and unclenching - the woman’s aggressive behavior was making you nervous. You hadn’t even noticed his presence.

“I already said, you don’t have to give me money for the win. I’m sorry I’ve upset you but you did challenge me,” your words were steady but your voice was soft. “I told you I only had my starting Pokémon with me and I warned you that my Cinderace was strong.”

“You’re not forgiven! Embarrassing me like that with your brute of a Pokémon is vile! You should be ashamed of yourself! You - you bloody mistake of a person!” She howled.

Milo couldn’t stand to hear any more of it. You clearly warned the challenger and the woman was wildly overreacting. No one should say such awful things after a battle, especially to someone as sweet as you. “Ma’am, that’s quite enough.” Milo moved himself in front of you. “You should be ashamed of yourself for such poor behavior. That’s no way to treat a fellow trainer.”

The woman recognized the gym leader, an embarrassed blush covered her scrunched up face. “Hmph!” She exclaimed indignantly. “You don’t know the situation! Stay out of it!”

It was odd to see Milo, who’s normally so sweet, so fierce. He acted as a protective barrier, both physically and verbally. “I’m not leaving. Now you apologize or I’m going to have to call the trainer’s associate and report you.”

The woman paled. After a minute of stunned silence she let out the most disingenuous apology you had ever heard and walked away.

Once she was out of sight, Milo turned to you with clear concern written all over his freckled face. “Are you okay, sweetheart? She didn’t hurt you, did she? I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner!”

He bombarded you with questions, pulling you close and holding you tight to his chest.

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you!”

Leon

As the undefeated Champion, Leon had grown accustomed to sore losers. People were constantly convinced that Leon had somehow cheated, that there was no way he was honestly that strong. He had complained, and sometimes laughed, at the ridiculous accusations and behavior that other trainers had upon losing.

And on more than one occasion, you expressed sympathetic anger at your boyfriend’s challengers. But he assured you that it was just a part of the gig. That no trainer had ever taken it too far with him.

But with you? It was a different story.

After a particularly quick exhibition match, you had blown a contestant’s team out of the water. Leon wasn’t surprised, he knew you would be victorious.

He also wasn’t surprised when the opposing trainer refused to shake your hand. The audience booed and Leon was disappointed in the other trainer, but sometimes that’s how it went.

Leon moves onto the field to announce the next matchup when things took an unexpected turn. Your opponent challenged you to a second match.

“No,” you refused, “I won fair and square. I’m going to prepare for the next match.”

That’s when things began to escalate. The trainer pushed an accusational finger in your face, “You think you’re too good for my team, huh? What a load of bollocks! I’ll take you on with my fists then, you-” the audience screamed. Leon didn’t hear what profanity the contestant called you, but it didn’t matter.

“You think threatening Y/N is going to make you seem tougher? You’re a fool if you think I’m going to let this slide.” Leon put his arm out and forcibly lowered the trainer’s hand out of your face. “You’re done here.” Leon’s yellow eyes narrowed.

Leon was pretty intimidating. After a few moments of silence, the angry contestant sulked off the field and right out of the stadium.

Leon turned to you and placed an arm on your shoulder. His thumb ran circles over your uniform. “You good?” He whispered, quiet enough so the microphones couldn’t catch it.

You nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

Leon smiled at you before lacing his hand through yours and raising your arms up into the air.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” He boomed, voice filled with pride, “your victor!”

The audience went wild.

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beybladefanfictions · 3 years

Text

L-Drago’s Return - Chapter 1

(Description: Sequel to Ryuga's Return. Read that first or you're going to be extremely confused. Five months have passed since L-Drago’s disappearance and Ryuga has gotten used to his new life without his Beyblade. However, he discovers that there might be a way to get L-Drago back after all…)

(Thank you to Wattpad User *insert name here* for giving me many of the ideas for this fic. It wouldn't have been possible without them. Go check out their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryugasama20/)

Ryuga's POV

“Oh, too bad.” Kenta placed a familiar card on the floor. “Two new cards for you, Ryuga.” He cast a glance at his friend, smirking triumphantly.

Ryuga glared at him. “Why you little…”

Beside him, Madoka and Gingka giggled, hiding their own cards behind their hands. Ryuga let out a sigh, drawing two new cards. That made five total. With his turn skipped over, it was Madoka’s turn.

“Oh, what do you know?” She placed her final card down on top of the pile. “I win again!”

Kenta and Gingka groaned in unison. Madoka just chuckled and stood up, going to grab her laptop from nearby.

“You always win,” Gingka muttered, shuffling his hand of cards.

“Either her or Kenta,” Ryuga added, rolling his eyes.

Kenta chuckled into his hand. “It’s not our fault we’re so good.”

“Play for second place?” Gingka asked, casting a glance at Ryuga and Kenta.

“Sure.” Kenta nodded.

Madoka sat back on the floor with the rest of them, gazing at her laptop. Her attention seemed to be fixed on it all day. Ryuga gazed at everyone's cards. Gingka had about a dozen, Kenta had three cards, and Ryuga himself had five cards. He gazed at his deck, smiling. Gingka and Kenta played two normal cards, keeping the colour green. *Perfect for my plan.* Ryuga placed a reverse card down.

“Your turn again,” he nodded to Kenta.

“Uh… thanks, Ryuga.” Kenta put down a yellow card, the same number as the past card.

“Uno!” Kenta and Gingka shouted in unison.

“Ha! You draw six!” Gingka exclaimed, pointing at Kenta accusingly.

“No!” Kenta snapped back. “We said it at the exact same time! That doesn’t count.”

“I agree,” Madoka replied with a nod. “Carry on as normal.”

“Humph." Gingka placed another card down on the pile.

Ryuga smirked, “Activate trap card.” He placed a ‘plus four’ card down on top of the pile.

Kenta let out a gasp. “How could you use my own catchphrase against me?!” he exclaimed, placing his hand on his forehead.

“It’s not even your catchphrase,” Gingka chuckled as Kenta drew his cards.

“Whose catchphrase is it?” Madoka asked, tilting her head to the side.

Ryuga, Gingka, and Kenta all glanced at her then turned to each other with wide eyes. Gingka smiled and shrugged.

“What colour?” he asked, glancing at Ryuga.

Ryuga glanced at his cards. “Red.”

Kenta let out a groan, sinking to the ground. “Dangit! That’s the one colour I don’t have!”

“I’d say ‘sorry,’ but I’m not,” Ryuga smirked as he spoke. “You had that coming.”

Kenta sat up, glaring at him. “Oh, I am so getting back at you!”

Ryuga just smiled. Uno was like Beyblade in a way: you showed no mercy, even to your friends. The three of them continued the game for a while before Ryuga placed his final card on the pile.

“Dangit,” Kenta grunted, glaring at the ground.

“Well, at least I beat you two,” Ryuga replied with a shrug.

“Yeah, yeah.” Gingka turned to Kenta. “Well, Kenta, looks like it’s just us. Wanna keep going?”

Kenta had a dangerous look on his face. His smirk was wider than a valley and he was struggling to hold back his giggles.

“Kenta, wha-”

Kenta slapped a card onto the pile. “Skip your turn!” He began slamming more cards down on the ground in rapid succession. “Skip again, skip, reverse to me, oh, draw two cards. UNO!” He held up his final card in two fingers. “DRAW! MONSTER CARD!” He slammed the final card onto the pile: a seven.

Gingka was shivering, staring at Kenta with eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Wha- what just happened?” Madoka asked, her wide eyes fixed on the scene.

Ryuga snorted with laughter. “Good job getting destroyed, Gingka.”

“Ah- ah-” Gingka’s eye twitched. He shook his head clear, shivering as he swept the cards into a stack. “I think that’s enough Uno for today,” he replied with a nervous chuckle.

“What's next for game night?” Kenta asked, his gaze shifting between the others.

Gingka looked through his stack of games. “Well, I brought Jenga, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly…"

“Monopoly?! Kenta gasped, shuddering. “Why would you bring Monopoly?"

“Yeah, that sounds dangerous,” Madoka muttered, her eyes glued to her laptop screen.

Ryuga tilted his head to the side. “What's wrong with Monopoly?"

“That game is the worst," Kenta answered, his eyes narrowed at the game box. “I'm pretty sure people have killed each other over it.”

“Humans kill each other over everything,” Ryuga replied, rolling his eyes.

“Ha! True,” Madoka remarked, still not looking up from her screen.

“Hey, what's got you so interested in your laptop today?” Kenta asked, scooting toward her.

“Oh, uh…” Madoka pulled her laptop into her chest. “I've just been researching something. You guys might be interested, especially you, Ryuga.”

Ryuga bit his lip. *Why am I getting singled out?*

“What is it?” he asked.

“Yeah, show us.” Gingka scooted closer.

Madoka placed the screen on the ground where they could all see it. Kenta and Gingka leaned forward. Ryuga looked over Kenta’s small head to see the screen. On Madoka’s screen, was a symbol in the shape of a dragon’s head, an Asian dragon by the look of it. It looked a bit like L-Drago.

“It’s the symbol of an ancient civilization called the ‘Dragon Clan,’” Madoka explained, gesturing to the image.

“Dragon Clan?” Kenta and Gingka both turned to Ryuga.

“Yeah, that’s why the name caught my eye,” Madoka replied, scrolling down the page.

“Is this ‘Dragon Clan’ where you’re from Ryuga?” Gingka asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Ancient civilization,” Ryuga emphasized Madoka’s words, rolling his eyes. “I’m seventeen, not five thousand.”

Kenta smirked. “Could've fooled me.”

Ryuga lightly pushed Kenta over, who just giggled.

“Actually, Ryuga,” Madoka cut in sternly. “It's possible you could be a descendant of this Dragon Clan.” She pointed at her screen. “It says here that they specialized in dragon-type beys.”

“So?" Ryuga raised an eyebrow.

“Well, there are only a few Dragon beys,” Gingka cut in. He rested his finger on his chin. “L-Drago, Omega Dragonis, and the Jet Black Dragon, which the WBBA made.”

“Omega Dragonis?” Ryuga and Kenta asked in unison.

“Oh, that's Ryuto’s bey,” Gingka answered, “We met him on Mist Mountain.”

“Right! Ryuto! He looked a lot like you, Ryuga. It’s possible you’re both descendants of this ancient clan.” Madoka’s eyes were glowing. “That’s so cool!”

Ryuga shrugged. “It’s possible, I guess.”

“Still not convinced? Their leader was called a Dragon Emperor.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone gasped in unison.

Ryuga stiffened. *You are the Dragon Emperor, Ryuga.* Doji’s words echoed in his mind, making him shiver. *The Dragon Emperor is the only one who can control the forbidden bey, L-Drago.* Ryuga’s heart pounded a million kilometres an hour. He grunted, shaking his head in a vain attempt to escape his memories.

“All this time, I thought he made it up…” Ryuga murmured, struggling to keep his voice from trembling. “That must be why he sought me out. He knew somehow.”

*Doji never would have been able to use me to get to L-Drago if I weren’t the descendant of some ancient clan?! Is that what I’m hearing?!*

“What are you talking about?” Madoka asked, tilting her head to the side.

Gingka looked away, his eyes narrowed. “Doji…”

Ryuga stiffened. “I don't care about my past!” he snapped, glaring at his friends. “Madoka, why did you bring this up?!”

“You mean you don't see the connection?” Madoka asked, seemingly unfazed by his outburst. “Dragon Clan? L-Drago? They could be the original creators of L-Drago. They definitely had it at one point and it’s rumoured here that they may have created a backup of it.”

Ryuga’s eyes widened. “A backup of L-Drago?”

Over the past few months, Ryuga had grown accustomed to his life without L-Drago, and his longing for his bey had finally started to ease. Now, with those words, it came back like a boomerang to the heart. This was hope, genuine hope, that L-Drago could return after all, and Ryuga could return to his old life.

“Then you could get it back!” Kenta gasped, somehow speaking Ryuga’s thoughts aloud.

“It wouldn’t be exactly the same,” Madoka explained, casting a glance at Gingka. “It would probably be like how Gingka got Galaxy Pegasus.”

*So it would be the same in spirit, just built differently?!* Excitement continued to grow in his heart.

“Where can we find this ‘backup for L-Drago’?” Ryuga asked.

“I’m not sure,” Madoka admitted, gazing at her screen. “The Dragon Clan lived in very remote locations, far from civilization. I could do some digging, but it might take a while.”

“Please do!” Gingka cut in, putting an arm around Ryuga. “I want another chance to battle Ryuga!” Ryuga pushed Gingka off.

“Me too!” Kenta added, gazing at Ryuga with a determined smile. “We have a score to settle now!”

Ryuga couldn’t help but smile as well. *I could get back at him for the loss I suffered when I had the Jet Black Dragon!*

“Guys, don’t get your hopes up!” Madoka insisted, “It’s not for sure yet! I don’t know if I can even find any ruins of this city or if this backup for sure exists. It could just be a rumour.”

“Then let me know if you find anything,” Ryuga replied, dipping his head.

“I’ll do my best,” Madoka assured him.

There was a loud ringing sound out of nowhere. Gingka glanced at his phone.

“Oh, uh, my dad wants me home,” he informed, pulling the games he brought into a stack.

“Guess that’s the end of game night then…” Madoka replied, standing up.

“Same time next week?" Kenta gazed at the others with a hopeful smile.

“Yes!" Gingka exclaimed, nodding eagerly.

“Sure,” Madoka replied, dipping her head. The three of them gazed at Ryuga expectantly.

He shrugged. “Okay.”

“Great!” Kenta beamed. “Let’s go home! I bet dinner's ready by now.”

Ryuga dipped his head, following Gingka and Kenta out of the shop. Gingka however split from them quickly. *A new L-Drago?!* Ryuga couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. He thought he had accepted months ago that he couldn’t get L-Drago back. It seemed so final and impossible. Now, however, there was a real chance he could get it back. The void Beyblade had left behind in his life, while of course not fully gone, had begun to shrink. He enjoyed his new life, including his new home and friends. However, one thing constantly plagued his mind: *I've gone soft.* Ryuga didn't need friends or a place to stay in his old life, he was able to survive on his own. Not to mention, he had been the strongest blader.

Ryuga longed to prove that he was still as tough as he once was but he felt he had no way to prove that and his attachment to his friends kept him here indefinitely. Part of him found that humiliating. No one else seemed to care that he had been tamed like an animal in a zoo. *If I get L-Drago back, I can prove I'm not weak.* The idea inevitably got his hopes up. *Don't get your hopes up.* Madoka’s words seemed to taunt him. *Why would you tell me that if you didn’t want me to get my hopes up?!*

Kenta pushed the door to the house open. Ryuga followed him inside. Kenta's parents were both in the kitchen, cooking something Ryuga had never had by the smell of it.

“Hey, kiddos!” Kenta's dad greeted with a wave.

“How was your game night?” Kenta's mom asked.

“It was fun,” Kenta smirked triumphantly. “I beat everyone at Uno.”

“Yeah!” Kenta's dad held a hand up. “That's my boy!”

Kenta jumped up to high five him, the two of them cheering. *I won a few times too,* Ryuga thought, rolling his eyes. He sat on the couch with his phone. *I suppose I could do some research of my own on this 'Dragon Clan.'*

“Alright, food's ready!" Kenta's mother called, before Ryuga could look at much of anything.

*Guess I'll do it later,* he thought, placing his phone aside. On the table Kenta's mother placed yet another weird new food; Ryuga thought he would be used to seeing those by now. This time it was a bunch of misshapen fried… things.

“What are those?” Ryuga asked, sitting in his usual spot beside Kenta.

“It's pakora,” Kenta's mother answered. “An Indian food. Here, try it.” She handed him a piece.

Ryuga took it and ate it in one bite.

“Oh, I love these!” Kenta exclaimed, taking a handful from the tray.

“Well?” Kenta’s mom prompted, gazing hopefully at Ryuga. “Do you like it?”

Ryuga shrugged. “It's okay.” *A little bland.* He kept the second part to himself.

“Here. We made two batches.” Kenta's dad sat down, sliding a second tray onto the table. “These are spicier.”

Ryuga perked up at the word “spicier,” immediately taking one. He licked his lips.

“Thanks,” Ryuga replied, grabbing more.

Kenta's dad chuckled, turning to his wife. “Told you he'd like the spicy ones more,” he remarked, holding a hand up.

Kenta's mom let out a sigh, handing him a piece of yen. He took it with a smirk.

“Guess we should try cooking more Indian food,” Kenta’s dad remarked, pocketing the yen.

“Why is it always spicy food with you?” Kenta asked, raising an eyebrow. Ryuga shrugged, placing about ten pieces of pakora on a plate. Kenta smirked. “Is it because you’re Dragon Clan?”

Ryuga let out a sigh. “Kenta, it’s not funny.”

“Well, if you’re gonna make fun of me for being short, I might as well make fun of you for something too!” Kenta exclaimed, bristling with annoyance.

“What is Dragon Clan?” Kenta’s mom cut in.

Kenta turned to her with a smile. “Oh, it’s this ancient civilization Madoka’s researching. Ryuga’s totally one of their descendants.”

“How do you know?” Kenta’s dad asked, suddenly curious.

“We don’t,” Ryuga argued, turning to Kenta. “It’s just a theory.”

*I’m not telling the history enthusiast that I accidentally appropriated a title from some ancient civilization,* he thought, glaring at Kenta and hoping he would get the message.

“A theory with evidence!” Kenta insisted, his eyes narrowed as well.

“To be honest…" Kenta's dad spoke up, prompting them to turn to him. “I've never heard of this 'Dragon Clan' but I'm sure you could figure out for sure if you're one of their descendants with a DNA test and maybe a background check.”

Ryuga stiffened. “No thanks.”

Kenta's mom rolled her eyes. “Honey, he does not need to do a background check on himself.”

“Hey, you never know,” Kenta's dad replied with a shrug.

Ryuga shifted in place. Kenta's dad was silly sometimes but in this case, he was actually right. Ryuga didn't know a thing about his past and what he did know, he tried his best not to remember.

“Where are you from, Ryuga?” Kenta’s dad asked.

“Japan.”

“Ah- well, yeah bu- o-o-okay.” Kenta’s dad looked down at the table, looking somewhat ashamed.

Kenta’s mother chuckled. “Oh gosh, you broke him, Ryuga,” she remarked, resting a hand on her husband's shoulder.

Kenta giggled into his hand. Ryuga smiled. As everyone finished their dinner, they slowly began to go their separate ways. Kenta and his dad stayed at the table. Ryuga went to get his phone while Kenta’s mother went straight toward the fridge.

She let out a sigh. “Tamaki, Kenta, whichever one of you is stealing my chocolate, will you please come forward already? This is getting ridiculous.”

She held up the nearly empty box of chocolates, in which there were only two left. Ryuga tried not to smile.

“Honey, I'm telling you it's not me,” Kenta’s dad insisted, gently, “You would know.”

“And I swear I didn't either!” Kenta exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

“It has to be one of you…” Kenta's mom cast a glance at Ryuga.

“Don't look at me,” Ryuga replied, unplugging his phone. “I don't eat stuff that sweet.”

*Or at least I wouldn't have in my old life,* he added bitterly to himself.

“Yeah,” Kenta agreed, casting a glance at his dad. “It's probably dad.”

“Or it's no one,” Kenta's dad suggested, tilting his head to the side.

“I swear they're disappearing faster… Ugh, I must be going crazy.” Kenta's mom grabbed one of the two chocolates. “Well, I know for sure there's only one left so if it disappears, then I'll know for a fact someone's stealing them.” Her eyes narrowed at her husband. “I've got my eye on you, love.”

“Don't you always?” Kenta’s dad asked, with a smirk.

“Oh, ha, ha.” Kenta's mom rolled her eyes before the two of them shared a quick kiss.

“Ugh!” Kenta exclaimed.

Ryuga rolled his eyes, making his way toward the basement.

“Ryuga.” He stopped at the sounds of Kenta’s voice. “Wanna finish Yugioh?” he asked.

“Not tonight,” Ryuga replied, “I wanted to do some research.”

“Oh…” Kenta seemed a bit disappointed before smiling again. “Okay.”

“Research…” Kenta’s dad nodded, muttering to himself. “Yes, that sounds good…”

Everyone turned to him.

“What? I want to know about that ‘Dragon Clan’ Ryuga mentioned. So much new history to learn…” Kenta’s dad’s eyes were glowing.

Ryuga rolled his eyes. He made his way downstairs to his room, otherwise known as the basement. It still had plenty of space to walk around but along with a bed, there was also a bean bag and a dresser with a mirror on it. Ryuga sat on the bean bag with his phone. *Finally, I can research this…*

'The Dragon Clan, formerly known as the Highlanders, lived in the wild untamed regions of Japan. They specialized in Dragon-type beys, including the forbidden bey, L-Drago. It is rumoured they created this infamous bey, along with a backup, though this has yet to be confirmed. Their group slowly decreased over time, scattering to the far reaches of the globe far from civilization. A few of their descendants may still be around, using the dragon type beys of their ancestors.'

Ryuga rolled his eyes. *Great, a bunch of stuff I already knew. Real helpful.* He went through several different websites, not finding where specifically the Dragon Clan lived or anything about the backup of L-Drago. *Perhaps it is just a rumour…* Ryuga shook his head. *I have to keep trying. If there’s any way I can bring back L-Drago, any at all…* Ryuga let out a sigh. *Oh, who am I kidding? This is ridiculous. I thought I accepted months ago that I'm always just going to be a shadow of my former self!*

Ryuga glanced at the time on his phone. 7:43 pm. *This is going nowhere…* He stared at the twelve tabs of nothing he had open for a few moments. *Yeah, forget this. I’m getting that chocolate.*

Placing his phone aside, Ryuga made his way upstairs, making sure to keep his steps light. He slowly pushed the door open. All the lights in the main room were off, drowning the room in a still darkness. Ryuga stepped lightly into the kitchen. Making sure nothing moved in the dark, he grabbed the last chocolate out of the fridge.

“Aha!”

A light shone in Ryuga's face. He staggered back, dropping the chocolate as he shielded his eyes.

“Wait, Ryuga?!” It was Kenta's mother. She lowered the flashlight, flicking the light switch on. “You're the one who's been eating my chocolate?!”

Ryuga froze, just now registering the situation.

“No…” He picked the chocolate up off the floor.

“Woooow.” Kenta's mother covered her mouth as she chuckled. “You could've just asked instead of lying, you know.”

Ryuga looked away, his shame practically spearing him open. *This is almost as bad as that chopsticks fiasco!*

“Can I still have it then?” he muttered.

“Sure, sweetie. Guess I'll have to buy some for you too, then.”

“Mhm… thanks…” Ryuga started to walk away, eating the chocolate.

“Hey.” Ryuga froze, glancing back at Kenta’s mom as she spoke. “Next time just tell the truth. You should know better than to lie.” Her tone was stern, but still, she didn’t raise her voice.

Ryuga dipped his head. “Okay.” He turned and walked away.

#beyblade #beyblade metal saga #beyblade metal fight #fanfictions #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #kenta yumiya #madoka amano #gingka hagane #I wish there were tags for Kenta's parents #also yes Kenta's dad is named after the Tamaki from OHSHC #I'm trying to set the parents apart more in this story #so giving them names seemed like the first step in that #Kenta's mom's name is not Haruhi before you ask #but she is also named after someone

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dark-chibidragoness · 3 years

Photo

Alright, Here’s my Ballot in it’s entirety. All 7 votes and 7 Characters that I voted for who I like.

1-Hrid: Okay, I love Hrid and I’m sad that we’ve haven’t seen any version of him since the second NY’s Banner with him on it. And his sister’s have gotten alts after that! (Bride!Fjorm, Summer!Gunnthra and Summer! Ylgr.) And even the Muspell sisters have gotten alt’s since then, too! They have summer versions and Laevatein just got a Ninja alt! WTH.

I hate it. I want more Hrid. I want another Helbindi. Give my boys more alts than just one!(Not counting their base forms as alts)

He hasn’t even been in any Forging bonds or ANYTHING and his sisters have been in them. Well, Fjorm and Ylgr at least I don’t know about Gunnthra.

And i’m not hating on the girl characters, I like Fjorm and Ylgr and all them I just wish IS would give the guys more love instead of focusing on giving the girls all of the alts.

They’re all Simps. That’s what they are. SIMPS.

I have a lot I want to say about Hrid but this will be VERY long and I don’t want it to be longer than It’s going to be. So..moving on for now...

2-Marth: Really, The only reason I voted for marth is because he’s been down in 3rd for the past few years and I really want to see him get his Brave Alt finally.

And then he’ll be out of the Options for Brave units and there can be a lot of other choices.

And as much as I love Gatekeeper I don’t want him to get in, but if he does gets in then he won’t be able to come back next year and the slot will be open for someone else.

If Gatekeeper somehow doesn’t hold second place then people are just going to vote for him next year.

Well, Back to Marth..I did diverge a bit...I haven’t played the games Marth is from but I know him from Smash, Although that being said I do like Marth and I actually have all versions of him. Normal, Groom, Legendary and Winter Marth. I HAVE THEM ALL.

I don’t have Resplendant Marth but I probably never will because I don’t pay for this game. F2P Dangit.

Anyway, I really just want to vote marth not just because I want to but because he deserves a Brave alt and he’s gotten robbed of it the last few times we had CYL.

Moving on to my third and I’m probably the only one who voted for him-

3-Ryoma: I love Ryoma. I’ve married him in both Birthright and Revelations, but when I got to the dreaded chapter 25 of Conquest, I probably cried harder than my in-game character did.

I played Birthright before playing Conquest and I can say if it weren’t for Ryoma’s existence I probably would’ve gone Conquest first. I did buy Conquest first and played through the first few chapters before the split, but when It came to the split I stopped when I realized I couldn’t choose the Hoshido side, and that was one of the things I didn’t like about the game.

I did eventually finish Conquest, but that’s only after I played through Birthright and...I actually liked the route a lot. Now, Originally I wasn’t going to go with Ryoma, I was actually originally going to marry Kaden or Kaze, but ended up with Ryoma because of his Honor and the way of the Bushido.

I don’t know what it is about characters that have the Honor and Bushido trait, but..I guess that’s my type?? Which is probably why I like 2003′s TMNT Leo a lot.

Alright again I could go on and on but I don’t want to make this a too long of a post so moving on-

4-Alfonse: Okay, Alright..This one could be long too but I’m going to restrain myself.

Well, I’ll say it. I like Alfonse. Especially in book 3 when he stood up to Hel. That was amazing! I hope he does that as well in this Book with Fafnir or..Otr? I guess whichever one. (I did like Otr when he was first shown but now I’m not so sure...)

I really want either a Legendary or Brave Alfonse, and I would love to see what they would do with him.

And this will probably never happen but a Duo alt with Hrid would make me very happy. (Like a Summer Beach Volleyball alt with Alfonse holding a beach-ball and Hrid holding Ice-cream to cool themselves off. Oooo I’d draw that but I’m not a good artist, sooo.)

Okay Okay, I said I would restrain myself and I am. I’m moving on before I rant about Alfonse some more.

And the next vote goes too...OH. The other character I could rant all day about.

5-Grima: Yes, GRIMA. Not the Female Robin Version but Male Robin.

This is another type I like but It’s nice character’s who’ve been possessed by evil beings, or give themselves to darkness? (Like Jesse/Johan from Yugioh GX?? Or Riku from Kingdom Hearts?!)

Although I actually like the actual Dragon form of Grima more than the Robins and would like him to have his own human form instead of possessing Robin, but i’ve never played Awakening and don’t know if there’s a reason for that.

Having them come out with a Halloween Alt for the Female version makes me a bit hopeful for a Male alt but not a lot because apparently IS just likes to make all the alts for girls and not guys?? Like please I want more of my favorite guy characters with alts. How am I supposed to Simp for my favorite boys when the don’t even give them alts?? Like Hello?? There aren’t just guys in the world who play FEH there’s girls, too??

But let’s be honest, Even if we get another Male Grima will he even have the exposed Tid? I don’t know and that scares me.

Once again, Just give me my boys, IS!

6-Scarlet: Hoooo Boy Scarlet. So I was a bit jealous of Scarlet in Revelations when she was talking about Ryoma, and then I felt bad a few scenes earlier.

Which made me wish I had completed her bonding events in Birthright, I only ever got up to C rank.

Uhh, So I voted for Scarlet because I realized I’ve just been voting all guys and even though Eirika and Byleth are in the lead I’m still voting for the characters that I want.

And scarlet is one of them. I know it wouldn’t be enough to get a brave alt but I wouldn’t mind if IS gave us normal Scarlet or a certain other Alt that comes later in the year but before Brides and Summer that I won’t talk about.

I did like Scarlet in Birthright and in...Revelations...and after what happened in Revelations I felt really really bad for her?

I hope she gets in at some point. I would actually summon for Scarlet if they put her in. However she gets in.

And the final vote iiis(I don’t know why I’m doing this I have the whole battle ballot screenshot shown, so everyone can already see who I voted for)

7-Orochi: Orochi. Needs. To. Be. In. The Game.

Out of all the fates Characters we have, I’m surprised we still don’t have Orochi. I don’t remember well but I think she’s one of Mikoto’s retainers?? It’s been a very long time since I played fates so I don’t know.

Umm...That’s pretty much the only reason I voted for her. I love Orochi and I’m sad she’s still not in the game yet.

This is one of the few times I want IS to give me a female character, the other would be Scarlet and probably Nyx if I had another vote. But..well...Hmm..

Okay, That’s all the votes and the rough and hopefully short enough explanation of why I voted for each character.

I’m tired of writing, my hand’s getting cramped so if there’s something I need to add I’ll do it later. Gotta rest my hands for now and probably watch people try and Summon for Seiros.

(Who I did not get but I got Legendary Dimitri so I’m happy)

#FEH #Battle Ballot #CYL 5 #All of my votes!#Hrid #Marth #Ryoma #Alfonse #Grima #Scarlet #Orochi #I wanted to vote for so many characters #Like Nyx #And I thought about voting for Marianne but-#Also If Bernie hadn't gotten that Winter alt I would've voted for her too #Fire Emblem Heroes

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rwby-nwbe · 4 years

Text

Just Finished RWBY Volume 4...

...and I actually liked it?

[Spoilers Ahead, Y'all Know The Drill]

I mean, from what I've heard the Volume gets a lot of flack but honestly? I don't think it deserves it.

Yes, this is the first volume without Monty, and yes, the fights lost a bit of their momentum compared to earlier volumes, but aside from that... it's actually pretty good?

Alright, let me give you the play by play character style.

Ruby Rose

There goes my baby... off to destroy evil.

Ruby hasn't changed much, at least to a noticeable degree, compared to the rest of the cast. Actually, no, that isn't true, she just hasn't changed in a way that would force her overall character to noticeably shift. And I think that's fine. She's still a child at times, and is still really optimistic. But the thing is, she has matured. She doesn't immediately jump head first into danger like she used to, and it's clear she's still trying to process what happened at the Fall of Beacon. And yet, she's pressing on, and I'm glad that she and the rest of Team RNJR have each other's backs.

My only concern is what will go down in Mistral...

Weiss Schnee

Welp, Jacques Schnee, congrats! You've joined Cinder and Adam on the hit list I'm writing up!

The a-hole aside, I really like how Weiss played out this volume. According to what I've heard, volume 4 took place about 6-8 months after Beacon, so I'm kinda sad that Weiss was stuck home for all that time. On the bright side, we get a look at her progress on her summons, which looks to be coming along quite nicely. Then we see the concert, and ooh does that make my blood boil. I'll get to Jacques in a bit, but personally, I'd have no qualms watching him burn, figuratively, or literally.

Fly, Weiss, fly from the coup. Give your bastard of a father the metaphorical middle finger he deserves! (P.S. Klein is best dad.)

Blake Belladonna

Oof. I hurteth.

So Blake tends to stay away out of fear that she'll hurt her friends (i.e. some alternate version of survivor's guilt). In order to make amends from her point of view, she heads home to Menagerie. And once again, we're reminded on why humanity sucks sometimes!

Humans: Here, have this desert island for your large spanning species that covers just as much ground as we do.

Faunus: But... but it's so small!

Humans: Is it? Oh well, we can't have everything!

Me: Y'all LITERALLY have several freaKING CONTINENTS-!

*Ahem* That said, Sun came along! And we met Blake's parents! But first, Sun; I'll admit, I had mixed feelings about him being there at first, but that was mostly because Blake was being angsty and despite Sun's best intentions, virtually nothing he did help. Although, towards the end of the Volume, he managed to help Blake realize why her way of thinking was wrong, so props to him for that. Uh, Sun, could you maybe knock like a normal person? Wait, Blake, DON'T SLAP HIM FOR IT!!!

Ah, Kali, you're just as chaotic as Sun, oh dear... Ghira, never change, man. Never change.

Yang Xiao Long

Oof. I hurteth again. (ADAM!! LET ME DESTROY YOU, DANGIT!!!)

So Yang has been... adjusting to life after Beacon and without an arm. Oh, and Adam gave her PTSD! Isn't that just swell?

[When the find your corpse it'll have Wilt running through your spine and your skull severed with bullet shots from Blush I swear-]

Luckily, Yang gets a prosthetic from Atlas. I was afraid she'd reject it, but it's actually kinda nice to see that she takes to it rather well. And after seeing Oobleck (YAY!) and Port again, it's cool that she's just trying to find her footing. Though, Tai, you might wanna consider NOT flying to close to the Sun Dragon, capiche?

And all this culminates in Yang finally getting back out in the end of the Volume, hoping to find some answers. Hopefully she takes Tai's words to heart.

Jaune Arc

IT'S BIG BOI SWORD HOURS!!

But seriously, it was... kinda off-putting to see Jaune act so... morose. Granted, we all know why (PYRRHA!!!), but still. I'm glad his team is looking out for him and that he's slowly starting to recover like everyone else. His conversation with Ruby in Kuroyuri was also really touching. Come to think of it, didn't Blake have a similar conversation with Sun? The PARALLELS!

Also, that upgrade, tho. CUT THAT NUCKELAVEE INTO DUST, MY DUDE!!!

Nora Valkyrie+Lie Ren

You can't talk about one without bringing up the other.

Guys, this was as much a Renora volume as it was a RWBY-Post Beacon volume. The Fall triggers some odd behavior in Ren, but we figure out why pretty quickly once we reach the Kuroyuri episode.

First, young Ren and Nora... adorable!

Second, I was NOT ready for when Nora had to talk Ren out of charging blindly at the Nuckelavee. The slap. The way Ren sees young Nora and then sees current Nora. Nothing could prepare me. Nothing.

They are so SOFT together, it's just... <3

New Characters (and Old ones, too)

Lightning round, baby!

Qrow Branwen. So Qrow serves as the inside man. He knows what's been going on, and he fills the rest of us in. We also know why he tends to keep his distance, because his semblance brings bad luck to allies and enemies alike. The poor birb. Glad he managed to survive Tyrian!

Jacques Schnee. Egotistical manipulative piece of garbage whom I will not feel sorry for once he's put in his place. 'Nuff said.

Whitley Schnee. Mixed feelings. Mixed feelings everywhere. 'Cause on one hand, I've seen plenty of the fandom's takes on his character putting him in a positive light, but on the other he starts getting kind of unbearable after Weiss loses her title as heiress. Then I have to remind myself that Whitley is the "Fawn" reaction to trauma. Weiss is "Fight," Winter is "Flight," their mother is "Freeze," and Whitley is "Fawn." Stuff like that helps me contextualize that when Whitley says things about their dad like "It's foolish to not do what father asks," or "It's barbaric. It's beneath me. Beneath father," Whitley's not just saying that 'cause he's a bit of a brat. That's his coping mechanism to the abuse Jacques put him and the rest of his family through, and it's probably been a long time that he's been telling himself stuff like this so he can keep in his father's good graces and not risk getting a slap to the face like Weiss, while also trying to deal with the fact that Weiss and Winter get a freedom that he never had a chance to get. And you have to remember that Winter and Weiss were abused to, and that trying to blame Whitley's current condition on the two of them doesn't make things any better. They're not obligated to care about Whitley just as much as Whitley isn't obligated to care about them. It would be nice if either one of them could get through to him, but they were all trying to combat Jacques in one way or another. Whitley was just the odd one out. And if you really think about it, the biggest brain play you can take from all this is to blame it solely on Jacques. I swear, when I get to Volume 4 in my NWBE AU, one of my top priorities will be getting Whitley the ever loving hell out of that accursed mansion alongside Weiss, mark my words.

Klein Sieben. Ladies and gentleman, the only valid man under the Schnee roof! And a Seven Dwarves reference no less. Thanks, I love him! Glad he helped Weiss escape his father's clutches.

James Ironwood. Oh boy, boss man is starting to lose his grip on things. Granted, he's trying to do the right thing, but it's clear his paranoia is getting to him. You know crap is getting bad if the most valid person in all of Atlas simultaneously needs to be told to get a grip from Jacques of all people (especially if he's making a point). Hope this doesn't trigger a downward spiral...

Ghira and Kali Belladonna. Ghira is done and Kali just wants to have fun. I love their dynamic and interactions with Blake and Sun! It was a nice wind down from everything else going on, though I don't think that'll last for long.

White Fang. So we got three more WF members: Fennec, Corsac, and Ilia. The Albain brothers are sleezeballs already, since they're working with Adam and all. Ilia's working with them too, but I'll have to withhold my judgement since she appears to have an as yet undisclosed connection to Blake, but I don't want to get my hopes up since she already stabbed Sun, so... Low expectations, but still expectations.

Salem's Group. Yup, Salem's a villain alright. I'll be keeping my eye on her, she just reeks of trouble. Cinder apparently lost her voice... eh, probably for the best. Emerald, Mercury, get the ever-loving FRICK outta there, you're clearly out of your element! Hazel, you're... fascinating. Neutral Evil, perhaps? Watts, you're on my radar, especially with the last episode of the Volume. And Tyrian... well, he's clearly beyond the point of no return, entirely devoted to Salem, and his psycho-sadistic tendencies are enough to freak Cinder of all people out. Needless to say, I hope something or someone takes care of him before the damage becomes irreversible.

And for now, I'll wrap this up with Oscar Pine. I'll admit, it was interesting how they set up Oscar's character as a slow burn this Volume. We learn he lives a quiet life with his aunt in a barn, and at first we're wondering "Who the heck is this kid?" But then Ozpin shows up and suddenly everything is like "Oh... wait, WHAT!?" So yeah, Ozpin just brought another child into thia conflict. At least they're both not happy about it, and hey, they met Qrow! Hopefully that keeps things from getting too crazy down the line. We still need answers, after all.

Well, those are my thoughts. Sorry they took so long. Hopefully Volume 5 won't be so hard to complete. Well... cheers!

-Mathewton, the RWBY Newbie (15 May 2020)

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earlybirds-atla-au · 4 years

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Another prompt: How does the Blue Spirt go in this AU?

Some of my basic headcanons you ought to know for this one:

Fire Lady Ilah was a member of the Yu Yan Archers

Love Amongst the Dragons is the Fire Nation’s lesbian version of The Princess Bride, with a dragon emperor and empress and water spirit thrown in.

Ursa happily decided that yeah she would jump at the chance for a royal life and accepted Azulon/Ozai’s proposal without fuss. I tend to disregard most aspects of The Search but I do keep some of the worldbuilding it gave us.

“I say we bring in the Yu Yan Archers,” Zhao said, with all the bluster of an untested sixteen-year-old cadet growing up in a nationalistic society that believed themselves superior.

Jeong Jeong arched an eyebrow. “The Yu Yan Archers,” he repeated to Iroh.

“Hm,” said Iroh, and he sipped his tea.

“I’m certain they could take down an Airbender child easily, Avatar or not,” Zhao elaborated. “Their aim is legendary. They’ve proven themselves capable of hitting targets even in hurricane-force winds!”

“Mm-hm,” said Iroh, pouring more tea for himself and Ozai. Ozai glowered at the cup.

“They say Fire Lady Ilah could pin a parakeet-beetle to a tree at fifty paces without killing it.”

Jeong Jeong stifled a wince. He really had to work on his student’s tact.

Iroh hummed. “She could,” was all he had to say on the matter. Fire Lady Ilah, while not a sore subject per se, was still...well. One did not use her in a self-serving argument one was making to her sons, particularly the son whom she’d died giving birth to. Ozai had turned his glower from his teacup to Zhao. Zhao either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“So, we should call in the Yu Yan Archers,” Zhao said, with a decisive nod.

“A good idea, Cadet, but unfortunately one we cannot enact at this time,” Iroh said.

Zhao huffed. “Why not?” At Jeong Jeong’s look, he added, “My prince?”

“The Yu Yan archers are currently stationed in Nanyue. We were going to need their help with the upcoming campaign there, you see.”

Zhao opened his mouth - probably to tactlessly demand they recall the Yu Yan from Nanyue - but Ozai beat him to it. “I thought you’d deployed all the Nanyue Campaign forces to assist us against the Avatar, Brother.”

Iroh coughed. “Most of them, yes. But I decided it would be best if we left...a token few. To keep an eye on things.”

“To keep Father happy, you mean.”

“Cousin Jyoti is their acting captain,” Iroh said mildly. “I thought you might appreciate it if I kept her out of the way.”

Ozai’s hands twitched ever-so-slightly towards his cheeks as though to protect them before he firmly grasped his teacup. “You just don’t want her sharing her opinions on tea again,” he muttered.

Iroh’s lips were thin. “She’s entitled to her opinions, wrong though they may be.” He had another sip of tea.

~~~

“So don’t freak out guys, but you have to suck on these frogs.”

Bato really hoped that was the fever hallucinations talking, but then a frozen amphibian was shoved into his mouth. It...actually didn’t taste too bad. Maybe that was the fever hallucination talking. He started sucking, because it seemed the thing to do. Kya made a happy noise, so maybe that meant the frogs really did taste good.

“Aang,” Hakoda said around a mouthful of frog, “how was your trip? Did you make any new friends?”

Aang plopped onto Appa’s foreleg. “It was pretty uneventful. I met this nice herbalist lady in that academy, and her weird cat. This whole city’s mostly abandoned, but she refuses to leave while there’s still soldiers in the area who need her. Anyway, just keep sucking on those frogs and you guys should feel better soon.” Aang pitched his voice a bit so that it could be heard all throughout the abandoned hall they were camping in. “It’s the best we’ve got, since I don’t know how to heal with water. Or do anything with water. Except almost freeze my friends in a block of ice with myself for another hundred years!”

There was no answer to Aang’s passive-aggression. He sighed and rolled over on Appa’s leg.

The frog in Bato’s mouth started squirming. He wondered how his life had come to this.

~~~

“Captain Jyoti is requesting permission to what?”

Ursa ignored her soon-to-be-father-in-law’s ranting in the other room to focus on her soon-to-be-nephew. “Whoosa little cutie pie? Is it you? I think it’s you!”

Lu Ten’s mouth opened in a wide smile.

“No, absolutely not!” Azulon shouted. “I need someone competent to keep an eye on the situation in Nanyue! Just because the damn Trungs aren’t a priority anymore doesn’t mean I’m done with them!”

Ursa covered her face with her hands and peeked through a crack between her fingers. The smile dropped from Lu Ten’s face. She gave him a moment to process her absence before letting her hands fly open. “Peekaboo!”

Her not-quite nephew’s smile returned.

“I don’t care how much help the Yu Yan Archers might be against one Airbender! If the entire Fire Army cannot take him out, I doubt the Yu Yan could! I am saying that as someone who married into the clan, I know what they’re capable of!”

“Peekaboo!”

Lu Ten giggled.

“Peeeeeeeekaboo!”

Baby laughter truly was one of the purest noises in the world.

“Besides, I know my niece! She doesn’t want to help! She isn’t even after personal glory! She just wants to restart that argument she had with Iroh last summer solstice about whether or not herbal teas count as tea!”

“Peekaboo!”

Lu Ten’s laughter was lesser this time, though he was still smiling. He was becoming immune to the surprise, perhaps even gaining an understanding of object permanence. Well. That wouldn’t do.

“She told him chamomile is just daisy juice and now Iroh’s refused to talk to her for months. She’s just trying to corner him where he can’t ignore her!”

“Okay,” Ursa said, picking up a blue mask. Lu Ten tilted his head at it curiously. “Let’s kick peekaboo up a notch, hm?”

The toddler’s eyes just about bugged out of his skull when she lifted the mask to her face. And then he started crying.

“Oh, no!” Ursa said, quickly dropping the mask. “Look, it’s still me, see? Peekaboo! Peekaboo! Dangit, I’m sorry…”

“What’s going on here?” Janya asked, swooping over to the couch where they’d been playing.

“I was just…” Ursa gestured helplessly at the mask.

Janya chuckled and picked up her son. Ursa pouted at the loss of the baby. “Are these from Love Amongst the Dragons?” Janya asked, looking at the masks Ursa had lying about.

“It’s my favorite!” Ursa grinned. “I thought, he’s too young to understand the book, so maybe he’d like the play masks better… But I guess not.”

Janya patted Lu Ten’s back until he stopped crying. He hid his little face in his mother’s shoulder, one little hand fisted in her collar. “Maybe you shouldn’t start out with the scary water demon mask.”

Ursa sighed. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”

“So no, Cadet Shino, you can go right back to your Captain Jyoti, and you tell my niece that she is to stay at her assigned post, refrain from instigating tea arguments with my son, and, if she is feeling particularly motivated to assist in the war effort, she can bring me the head of General Trung!”

“That’s quite the collection you have there,” Janya said, looking over the masks.

“I’m a lover of theatre,” Ursa said. “I was part of my hometown’s Thespian Society back on Hira’a! We weren’t the Ember Island Players, but we were pretty good!”

“Which General Trung? ANY OF THEM! I’M NOT BEING PICKY!”

“Oh!” Janya said, delighted. “Have you seen the Ember Island Players perform Love Amongst the Dragons? They’re quite stunning.”

“Not yet,” Ursa sighed. “Ozai said he’d take me, but, well…” She shrugged. Ozai getting shuffled off to “hunt for the Avatar” and now actually having to hunt for the Avatar had put a damper on their courtship. Hard to court someone who wasn’t there. Harder still to figure out which ports to address her letters to when the Avatar was proving to be a master of strategic maneuvering and no one knew where he’d go next.

“I’ll remind him,” Janya said. She looked back at the masks. There was the Dark Water Spirit, the Dragon Emperor, the Dragon Empress, the Rodent of Unusual Size, the Dread Pirate Ro Ba, the Shrieking Eel… “So have you ever worn any of these?”

Ursa smiled sweetly. “Not professionally.”

#early birds au #jedimasterjaina

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magic-owl · 5 years

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i wish these had numbers to not take up room but alas: what is your absolute favorite ship? what’s a ship you like that most people don’t? what is the most underrated ship, in your opinion? (choose any of your fave pairings for the following bc I'm curious about all your faves) rate [pairing] from 1-10 and explain why. what’s your favorite headcanon of [pairing]? what’s your favorite canon moment of [pairing]? favorite AU ideas for [pairing]? what song(s) remind you of [pairing]?

Thank you my dear! You are my Star Wars Friend so I’ll keep it SW focused (if you wanted to ask this to solely find out what else I liked BESIDES SW sorry lol just let me know and I can redo it). This got long because turns out I have a lot to say about my ships so answers under the cut!!! xD

Absolute favorite ship: This one’s kinda hard but I’m gonna have to go with Obi Wan/Anakin! I also like them a lot as a trio with Padmé, but overall I gotta say these two are just my faves? Why? Because they are such a M E S S and gosh I just love them so much. Ppl say they don’t like each other very much but come on, have you watched the TCW, have you watched RotS, they’re the greatest team there ever was, they’re constantly fretting and worrying about each other, they’re always teasing (the constant banter omg boys pls) at each other and hyping the other up and believing in each other and Ahsoka literally calls them her adoptive guardians in the Ahsoka novel, that’s how much of a family they were and ugh they’re just so married. And they’re such a TRAGEDY and it breaks my heart and it’s delicious to watch because in the final fight it’s just heartbreaking betrayal because through it all they love each other so much and that’s WHY they’re so furious with each other because to them it feels like the ultimate betrayal. Even after (when after everything, Obi Wan still loved Anakin too much to kill him himself) they’re constantly on the other’s mind, and ugh the pain hurts but in such a good way, and how in the end Anakin did the right thing and Obi Wan was RIGHT THERE to help guide him back to the light in spirit and now they can rest happily together for eternity (with some spare stressing about, ya know, Kylo Ren and the impending return of Sidious, but never mind all that). and on top of that, it’s my fave because I also absolutely love their relationship platonically as well, as much as I LIKE to see them together, it’s not necessary for me because they have such an enjoyable dynamic. *coughs* Sorry, so yea, they’re my disaster faves! 😅

A ship I like that most people don’t: See above lol. I get aspects of the Obikin ship can be problematic in the whole power dynamic and age difference thing, but I’ve only ever shipped it after Anakin was knighted as an adult when there’s literally not a problem with it (it was weird for me because I watched the prequels totally out of order. I actually saw the TCW cartoon FIRST and then I saw RotS and then I didn’t watch the first two for a while after that because I was a fool and listened to prequel bashers who said the first two weren’t good, so when I started shipping them as adults that was all I saw them as). To be honest, for the most part the PT fandom is done with the drama since ya know, like a good half of the SW general fandom still hates us, so no one’s really vocal about not liking it and our shipping community is mostly left to ourselves, but every once in a while I’ll come across a joke post/fanart of the two and OP will be all snarky in the notes like “tag as a ship and I’ll come after you with my spiked bat” (someone’s exact words btw) and it’s like ok jeez, do not interact then, was minding my own business dude...

My most underrated ship: Hmmmm....... Gonna have to go between Luke/Ezra and Satine/Padmé. Skybridger I understand since they’ve literally never met in canon, but come ON, they’d get along like a house on fire and argh they should have met, it would be great. I honestly don’t get why Pads and Satine aren’t more of a thing (THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE AN OFFICIAL SHIPNAME ;_; ) cuz c’mon they’re the subtler explosive yin to Obi and Ani’s wildfire yang. They get along great and work together really well, and they both seem to have a type. I am doing them a little better in my new OT4 fic, and I hope ppl like it!!! Ya know what, I’m also gonna add Kaeden (cute girl from the Ahsoka novel!) and Ahsoka because even if a lot of ppl actually ship them, they hardly have any content and neED MORE DANGIT THEY WERE SO CUTE!!!!!!!

Gonna go with Obikin for all the following ones cuz I haven’t had the chance to gush about my boys in a while and you’ve opened Pandora’s box

Rate them from 1-10: 10, plus a hundred more points because I love them, then subtract that hundred again cuz Anakin is an gotdang idiot who ruined it and now they both make me cry. My scoring reasons are that they make me feel all the emotions and I love them Ever So Much and argh.

Fave headcanon: Oh boy, I’ve got a couple actually!

Whenever they’re talking/arguing over the phone, they’re always subconsciously mirroring each other’s actions even when they can’t see what the other is doing. It’s kinda creepy because you’ll hear yelling and it’ll look like one of them’s talking to an invisible person in front of them when it’s actually each other.

There has been multiple instances of them both getting injured in battle because they were distracted watching the other be a total badass (not that either will admit it)

Neither of them are morning people. AT ALL. Obi Wan actually has self-discipline and is able to get up with an alarm and crankily drag them both up, but both are almost impossible to deal with until they’ve had caffeine in them, and it’s been established that unless you want to risk murder, neither of them talks in the morning until caffeine has been provided.

There has been many, many cases of accidentally taking the other’s robe and not realizing it but thinking to themselves that said robe feels more comforting than usual today.

A mutually drunken arm wrestling match absolutely turned into a mutually drunken makeout once. Neither can remember it, and they wonder why some of the clones have been acting funny all week.

Half of the Temple thinks they’re already dating.

Ok I’ll stop it here

Fave Canon Moment: Ughhh, this is HARD. I really like the “any closer and you’d be kissing it” line in TCW, basically any moment in TCW when one of them refers to Ahsoka as “OUR padawan”, the extra long stares and unnecessary touches they give each other in TCW, the elevator scene in RotS movie (THE NOVEL MAKES IT A MILLION TIMES BETTER), also in RotS the way Anakin is half-ready to straight up fight Palpatine when he suggests leaving Obi Wan behind to die, the RotS “No loose wire jokes” bit, the RotS “Roger. Roger.” bit (OKAY JUST THE WHOLE FIRST HALF OF THIS RIDICULOUS MOVIE), the way Vader built his big stupid castle where they had their breakup, the way he’s constantly mentioning Obi Wan when the convo wasn’t even about him, seeing them together again at the end of RotJ (whoops you asked for one, you get MANY SCENES)

Fave AU ideas: Again, there’s a couple!

Superpower AU: Can’t decide whether I’d put this in canon or modern. Most powers in this AU are stolen from inspired by X-Men, DC, and other popular media, so I’m torn between Anakin having Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix style powers while Obi Wan had a variation on Rogue’s with additional energy manipulation. OR it would be a thing where Anakin could commune with the dead a la Klaus from Umbrella Academy while Obes had sort of Avatar-style wind/flight powers. (Both are relevant for different plots).

Sith AU: I know these are far from unpopular in the SW fandom, but the way I’d do it would be to try and write two stories at once, update one every other week so one update a week total. The stories would what would happen if either of them became the Sith Apprentice after the events of Episode 1, and how their dynamic would be during Ep 2 and The Clone Wars with one of them on the other side. It’s funny because the way I’ve plotted it, the Sith!Ani fic would have very big Good Omens vibes, while the Sith!Obi one would have very strong Under the Red Hood vibes, so two VERY different dynamics going on xD

WWII Spies: This is one I 100% plan to write someday, even tho it is a very long time from now. It’s basically following Anakin as an American naval pilot who got injured in a crash and discharged. He still wants to serve and eventually his talent gets him into the intelligence end of the war and sent to Europe where he meets Ben, who’s been working with British intelligence since it broke out, and sparks fly. I’m kind of cheating here cuz as of now this is an Obianidala story, not just Obikin, but it’s one I’m very excited for

Phantom of the Opera AU: This idea I had when I realized that Anakin as Vader is kinda a Lot like the Phantom, but he’s also a Lot like Christine too. So it turned into Anakin as a talented ballet dancer getting preyed on by Palpatine!Phantom (there is NO romance there, Palpy is a total creep and will be treated as such) with Obi Wan as a combination of Raoul and Madame Gery and I have a bunch of ideas and idk if it’s gonna be an actual thing, but I want it to.

Shapeshifter AU: Canon, not very complicated but they can all shift into animals. Obi Wan is a kind of cougar panther cat with a fluffy ginger tail, and Anakin is a big grumpy black Krayt Dragon with a stump for a front leg.

Not A Jedi!AU: One in canon in which set like the Sith!AU, two different stories exploring how their dynamic would be if one of them wasn’t found by the Order. As of now, I’ve got Anakin as the warrior pirate prince of Tatooine, after having grown up and staged a slave rebellion, then promptly put his mother on the throne, and Obi Wan’s there to negotiate something during TCW and things happen. For the Obi Wan one, he’s a political journalist and war correspondent who keeps on running into Anakin’s assignments and popping up where he’s stationed and Anakin has to keep this idiot from getting himself killed/stop asking me annoying questions that criticize the Jedi and the government.

Dark!AU: A kind of morbid canon divergent fic where Padmé dies early and unexpectedly (Palps didn’t plan it). Anakin goes off the rails and Obi Wan agrees to go with him on a murder vengeance roadtrip to try and keep him from Falling or the Sith from getting to him. He kinda fails and they both Fall in a way and it ends with them hunting down Sidious’ players one by one. I’m not entirely sure I want to continue with this tho because it plays strongly on the Fridged Woman trope, which I can’t stand. I’d have to figure out how to give Padmé some sort of active role after her death...

Songs to describe them: There’s a couple (I could have very well gone cranky but I decided to do (mostly) serious))(also my music taste kinda stinks)

Icarus— Bastille

Anna Sun— WALK THE MOON

Animal I Have Become— Acoustic cover by Vitamin String Quartet (original by Three Days Grace) (seriously y’all listen it’s sooooo gooooood)

Warriors— Imagine Dragons

My Demons— STARSET

Ignorance— Paramore

Set Fire to the Rain— Adele

Stubborn Love— The Lumineers

How to Save A Life— The Fray (yes i am aware it is stereotypical angst song leave me Alone it FITS)

Viva la Vida— Coldplay (tbh this fits like the entire PT but I liked it)

Raised by Wolves— U2 (another more PT-centric, but this one works dangit)

Bonus Broadway Song! : Confrontation from Les Miserables (now that ya think of it, that would be a pretty good AU too.....)

Bonus Broadway Song! : The Tango Maureen from Rent (I always imagined this one as Obi Wan and Padmé about Anakin, but it would be about something other than cheating cuz canon has established Anakin views cheating as a worse crime than murder, so yea)

Bonus Broadway Song! : Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better (aight this one’s mostly a joke but come ON don’t tell me that’s not completely them xD)

#owl gets an ask #long post #wolf-skins

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langwrites · 5 years

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Lang Plays Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I’m playing them in this order: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, Church of Seiros, and then Golden Deer. (I organized them by how likely it is to have a true final boss who is actually as relevant to the lore as the opening cutscene. And also because I thoroughly spoiled myself about that.)

So, after sinking what the game tells me was eighty hours into a single playthrough, here’s my thoughts on the first thing I tackled.

Spoilers below the cut.

Very Early Game (Blue Lions):

It’s the Fire Emblem Dad! (I played Path of Radiance. I’ve seen this dude before.)

Hi Claude. Sorry, I’m gonna steal every single one of your peers I can catch. Same to you, Edelgard.

Dimitri is so awkward it’s almost palpable.

Aww, Ashe and Annette are adorable. Mercedes has that dead anime mom hairstyle that sets my teeth on edge, but she’s super nice. It’ll take me longer to warm up to the boys, I think.

Felix is the token “I MUST BECOME STRONGER” myrmidon character. Gotta have at least one per game, apparently.

Sylvain = Sain. Token womanizer cavalier. His support list is pretty odd, though.

Dedue = the guy who done punch things. And he *has* to punch things, because he’s slow as hell and his speed growth isn’t great.

What the fuck is that strength growth, Dimitri. What the fuck is that Charm growth.

I was so close to making him my team’s designated Dancer unit, you guys.

Beleth is gonna be their teacher and somehow I don’t imagine this going super well.

Pre-Timeskip School Life:

Once again, I regret not being able to support with characters who’ve firmly attached themselves to the other two houses. (Which is only like three people in my “gotta catch ‘em all” playthrough, but whatever.)

But I can support all the recruitables, which is...something that took me a long while to do.

The first person I stole for the Blue Lions was Caspar. The first person who straight-up joined was Flayn. Yay, auxiliary punchers and auxiliary-auxiliary healers!

Ashe, your adoptive father really didn’t need to die. You were right. It was all bad all the way down.

Flayn gets kidnapped and I fuck around for a month raising everyone else’s supports and realizing Seteth’s too distraught to train my Lance level. Dangit.

I missed the opportunity to support with Leonie entirely because her personality put me off for the first few in-game months, and it turns out you can only start her support chain while Jeralt is alive.

Dammit. Now I’ve gotta train with lances.

What’s-his-fuck over at the village sure did do a thing, didn’t he. And if he hadn’t dropped his disguise just then he could have gotten away with it.

Their scheme would’ve failed faster if anybody around this fucking monastery could apply logic to shapeshifter shenanigans.

Seriously, no one should have trusted Monica.

You vanish over the course of a year, and come back with your personality totally inverted.

Tomas/Solon had just demonstrated what it looks like when these dickbags drop cover, and then everyone subsequently failed to make the correct deduction. If they hadn’t, Jeralt would’ve lived.

Dad-stabbing: A theme of Fire Emblem games. Seriously. Check out the huge list of dead dads (which goes all the way back to the first game in the series.)

Also dead moms, but for some reason moms are less prominent in the series as a whole.

For the purposes of this analysis, we are also including every single boss who had kids. Which isn’t most of them, but god damn there are still a lot of dead dads.

Dorotheaaaaaa be my frieeeeeeend

Yoinked Linhardt after finally showering him in enough gifts to get his sleepy ass to sign transfer papers.

Swiped Marianne, Bernadetta, Petra, Ignatz, Alois (kinda), Shamir (sorta), Manuela (iffy), Hanneman (yoink), Catherine (see previous), Hilda (how), Lorenz (woop woop), and Leonie (sigh).

The Death Knight remains, for the moment, unpillaged for his Dark Seal drops. This time it was an accident: I killed everyone else in the room except for him and a priest/mage, but then that last dude squared up with Felix and died.

All the points I poured into their associated skills and their supports, however, left one big gap:

DAMMIT FERDINAND, I’M TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE. WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH ABOUT HEAVY ARMOR. RAPHAEL JOINED UP DESPITE THAT.

(I got a B-rank support with him and he popped into my office to say he was transferring, nbd. Ferdinand’s B-rank is locked until after the timeskip.)

tl;dr: The only recruitable character I missed was Ferdinand.

Seteth and Gilbert don’t do shit until post-timeskip and Rhea isn’t playable, so w/e.

As soon as I say that, Seteth and Flayn have a paralogue. It’s a beach level. I hate beach levels and desert levels. Seteth gets to be MVP because he’s the only jerk who can fly.

They have a little speech after the paralogue level that reveals that they’re actually father and daughter, not siblings. And the whole story of this little subplot basically confirms that they’re dragons.

Neither of them transform over the course of the game, and that’s okay.

Ruh-roh, Raggy. Let’s see who’s really under the Flame Emperor’s mask--

“AND I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT TOO, IF NOT FOR--oh wait teleportation exists. BYE!”

Dimitri proceeds to thoroughly lose any chill he ever pretended to have, and I’m 99% sure the villain in question isn’t actually old enough to have caused the Tragedy of Duscur. Unless the biographies in the notes were lying.

Now, the backup dancers over there sure as shit are, but logical reasoning has its time and place.

Whatever. Time for stabbing.

WE ALREADY KNOW THESE PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF MAKING THEMSELVES LOOK LIKE ANYONE, MASKS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. THE VICTIM ONLY HAS TO DISAPPEAR FOR A WHILE.

WHY AREN’T WE CHECKING THAT AS A BASIC PRECAUTION.

THERE HAVE BEEN THREE OF THESE CREEPS ALREADY.

Their name is too long and I should call them Morlocks.

But seriously, check for infiltrators.

What passes for strategy around here: Take Paladin Dimitri, plunk his overleveled ass down on a corner where all the enemies’ targeting reticles converge, and wait five minutes for all the counterkill animations to play out.

If I wanna try the same with Sylvain, he needs to be backed up by at least Annette and probably Felix. Maybe even Mercedes if she’s not already busy slinging Physics around.

Dimitri’s fine with just sitting around with a forged Steel Lance and poking holes in everything.

Beleth can do the same, but is much more reliant on dodging and not just facetanking axes.

The little “no damage!” sound effect is still very satisfying. Yes, game, my Defense/Resistance has escaped the bounds of your damage curve.

Dorothea became my Dancer unit, because despite Dimitri having twenty-eight Charm to her nineteen, he begged me not to and also is better sitting on a corner and killing everything.

Huh, the monastery is sure being invad--you know, Edelgard, if it wasn’t already really obvious that your faction is basically the “villain route” in Samurai Warriors parlance, using giant mop-headed demonic beasts as shock troops would probably give it away to observers. If they weren’t already running away in abject terror.

The principle from How to Train Your Dragon still applies: A downed dragon is a dead dragon. If Rhea didn’t want to basically get mobbed, she should’ve stayed in the air and acted as flying artillery for the Knights of Seiros with her mouth laser. She could’ve sat on top of a wall and fired with relative impunity.

Sure, some demonic beasts can fly, but there weren’t any in that cutscene and the flying ones have, mechanically, one less health meter than the landbound ones.

Also, they’re pushovers.

And there’s the washed-out creep brigade! They look like the Grimleal, but with more feathers and less of a tan.

...And there goes Beleth, off to have a five-year nap.

Welp.

Post Timeskip:

Oh good, it’s been five years. Beleth, I hate to break it to you, but you’re probably at least slightly dragon at this point. Check your ears if you have a chance.

Tiki canonically napped for like 99% of her three thousand years in Awakening, ironically enough, so it’s not like dragon-people are exactly early risers.

Poor rando gets asked “what year is it” like that question is ever used outside of fiction. Beleth doesn’t read time travel books, I take it.

“oh you probably shouldn’t go to the monastery, it’s like super haunted and shit”

“sorry what was that i couldn’t hear you over the sound of me climbing up to the monastery”

Eyyyy, it’s a lance-wielding pirate.

...Hi, Dimitri. Where’d your macaroni hair go.

You know, it’s not surprising that Dimitri would think Beleth was a hallucination. He spent a lot of time yelling at his inner demons even pre-timeskip, after taking a couple of severe psychological shocks.

But he absolutely should have walked into her and been surprised when he knocked them both on their asses.

He’s been spending the last five years stabbing people, hasn’t he.

Yep.

He looks like he fell out of Game of Thrones.

Blue Lions! Rah rah something team chant. Rah rah Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen~

None of you people trained any of your skills. In five years. Dimitri you were a paladin. Did you eat your horse.

You are all getting sent to boot camp.

Hi, Gilbert. Why are you playable now all of a sudden. Why is your speed a fucking two.

THIS IS WHY MIKLAN HANDED YOU YOUR ASS.

Once again, the “plunk Dimitri’s overleveled ass down on a corner and watch people die” plan is still a valid strategy. I still don’t know where he gets all this strength (and charm). Like, goddamn.

Annette got cornered for like five turns because I was too cowardly to put her in range of a Brawler.

Then she killed him with a critical Fire.

So, I guess Felix’s remarks about Dimitri’s issues make some sense now, but he should still stop making them. I know he’s a tsundere par excellence, but still.

STop TalKing AboUT KilLing PeoPle

Warning: Sympathetic Boss Approaching.

Look, most “sympathetic” bosses in Fire Emblem kinda fall flat. The better ones are placed in the way of the player characters while they’re in the middle of a low point in the emotional arc and get utterly wrecked in a flurry of misdirected fury. Sometimes the characters even feel bad about it afterward. The worst ones are the ones who are just utterly devoted to someone who’s earned everyone’s ire by being a utter fucking asshole.

Good: Mustafa from Awakening and Shiharam from Path of Radiance. Good people forced into bad situations. Or just cornered. Henry talked up the former long after he got a Chrom to the face, and the latter was probably the best-written of the “aw, I wish I didn’t have to kill him” bosses I’ve run across.

Bad: Levail from Radiant Dawn. There is no getting around the fact that General Zelgius was a bad dude. Levail holding him up as a paragon of knightliness and swearing to serve him out of sheer admiration did not make him even marginally better.

We sure did kill Caspar’s uncle, didn’t we. I’m sure that won’t come back to bite us square in the ass. Not after he had that “this guy is a person who cares about stuff” cutscene to remind us of his pixel humanity.

I’m sure it’s fine.

Bwoop, bwoop, everyone say hello to Ferdinand and Lorenz! And say goodbye to Ferdinand, because he didn’t allow himself to be recruited pre-timeskip, isn’t recruitable post-timeskip, and then I had Felix kill him with Thoron.

Lorenz can rejoin us, though. He doesn’t count as an enemy commander once he’s been smacked down to 0 hp.

HI, DEDUE. WHY ARE YOU ONLY LEVEL TWENTY. GET IN THE BACKLINES AND DON’T TALK TO ME UNTIL YOU CAN ACTUALLY DAMAGE ANYTHING.

(Seriously, tho, I was waiting for Dedue to come back for two reasons. One: I did that paralogue of his way back in Part One and he did not get to die after all that. Two: Part of Dimitri’s epic slide into “spear-wielding mountain man who runs around killing people with his bare hands” had to do with Dedue “dying” during the timeskip. That jackass cracked a smile for the first time in ingame years thanks to the world’s punchiest bodyguard coming back alive.)

(Fortress Knight is still the worst class.)

I totally didn’t pay any attention to what, if anything, actually separated Master classes from Advanced classes other than my inability to get my hands on Master Seals. So Ashe is a Bow Knight now, while Felix made it to Mortal Savant (wtf is that name and why is the class model basically a samurai) and I spent a very long time level-grinding Sylvain’s Reason skill to make him a Dark Knight. I aimed for Gremory with all my spellcaster girls, but I admit to not really paying attention to specifics.

(I ended up with five Gremories: Annette, Flayn, Mercedes, Lysithea, and Dorothea. Bernadetta became a Bow Knight and Marianne promoted eventually to a Holy Knight. Dorothea also ended up taking Mortal Savant, which she didn’t ever use.)

(Seteth became a Wyvern Lord and Dedue eventually made it to Warrior.)

(Byleth qualified for Mortal Savant and used it precisely no times.)

(It became pretty clear that I just threw Master Seals at people whenever the possibility of promoting them came up.)

(Certification is a weird system.)

I stopped paying a ton of attention to supports around the time I realized that Ferdinand wasn’t going to be recruited no matter what I did in the final month before Shit Went Down.

Then I started paying attention again like two chapters from endgame, because I remembered some A-ranked supports meant that the characters could get paired endings.

I also stopped ignoring Cyril and started using him as an adjutant, though his stats never quite caught up to Seteth (also known as the only instructor unit I ever consistently used).

Cornelia is absolutely a Morlock plant. That is a face she just made, even in flashback.

I wish we could've seen Dimitri’s now-dead uncle, if only because I’m curious. Also, what did Edelgard’s mom/Dimitri’s stepmom look like?

Why is there always a fire level. I saw it earlier thanks to doing Ingrid and Dorothea’s paralogue, but it’s a Fire Emblem stock level type and I hate it.

Okay, yeah, this area totally got nuked. Magitech nukes, but still. It’s still on fire centuries later? Why??

Felix’s dad is a Holy Knight. Why do I have to keep his ass alive on a field when half the enemies are barely Advanced classes, never mind Master classes.

Oh right, because I want the exp for myself.

Rodrigue is possibly the single person here who can make Dimitri’s murder-bender change direction even slightly. He also gets along with his actual son so much worse than that. He’s like Annette’s dad, but with actual verbal confrontations.

There’s Caspar’s not-exactly-forgotten aunt, here to “secretly” avenge her dead brother. Dude, could you say something about that?

Three levels later: I thought we were done with the dad-stabbing.

Felix has officially lost Too Many People in pursuit of keeping Dimitri alive. As has everyone else, frankly.

In other routes, Dimitri absolutely runs his campaign off a cliff.

Here, he turns his life around. More or less. Gotta make the choice to get better.

Time to take back the Kingdom’s capital, like we’ve not been doing for four chapters now. Finally.

Cornelia is absolutely a Morlock plant. This is like the fourth character who supposedly did a complete characterization 180 after a period of being actually useful to other people. Goodbye, civil engineer we never knew.

I think the only infiltrator who did things properly was Solon, but he still dropped his disguise for no good reason early in the game. That operatic level of drama is not a trait that helps him survive a month later. Just goes to show that the Morlocks don’t have more than one type of good judgment at a time, I guess.

I know I’m supposed to avoid the giant doom robots, but...

No, it turns out I can just have Dimitri and Beleth stand in the middle of the killzone and destroy them for fun and profit.

Ding dong the witch is dead.

Welp, time to go save the Alliance, which is getting schooled by the Empire.

HI CLAUDE.

I MISSED YOU AND YOUR FAITH IN HUMANITY. And specifically in Dimitri, for some reason? I think he kinda stabbed your soldiers a lot the last time you two met, but feel free to keep being the Best Character.

Your bodyguards are top-notch, man. One of them got hit with anything over the course of the entire battle.

Your general Judith, however, necessitates Flayn using ALL of her Rescue spells just to keep her alive.

I still had to send Ashe to keep a Falcon Knight off you, but no big.

And also had to send Hilda and Petra to kill the Asshole Reinforcements to nick their stuff.

Dimitri sat there and dodge-tanked all of Arundel’s attempts to kill him until the team killed everybody else. Then Dimitri poked him and he died. Dimitri OHKOs everything except monsters now, and that’s only because they have multiple health meters.

And then Claude fucks off to become king somewhere else. Okay then. It was a nice speech, though.

Killing the Death Knight for fun and profit and now Mercedes is crying. Shit.

Doesn’t this place get vaporized in every other route?

Did killing so many Morlocks by accident lock us out of seeing an intercontinental ballistic missile?

(And it is by accident, because this route is like the only one where the Morlocks are incidentals instead of the main problem, partly due to Dimitri’s tunnel vision and partly just because they don’t drop their disguises upon death.)

Well, I guess it’s time to confront Edelgard.

It’s completely valid of her to look at the guy who was threatening to rip her head off with his bare hands and hang it from the gates of the Empire’s capital a little while ago, and then go “Yeah, diplomacy’s shot.” That Dimitri stopped being quite so all-consumingly homicidal a bit ago is not actually reason to try throwing herself on anyone’s mercy. I feel kinda bad for her, since she’s been pushed into this corner and her ace-in-the-hole allies are basically decapitated, and I stole all her potential friends back during the school phase of the game.

Also, sunk cost fallacy.

Still walloped the entire roster of the second-to-last level, down to killing Hubert with Lysithea. Hilda and Cyril killed all the bird demons.

On the final level, which starts immediately after the previous one, three characters got totally destroyed by the sheer number of mages floating around: Dimitri (whose Avoid finally failed him four times in a row), Hilda (same), and Dedue (thirded). Seteth miraculously survived taking 68 points of damage from a single attack, and then later went on to take Edelgard’s last health bar off with a crit.

Weirdly, Beleth’s Avoid was just fine. Finally let her use the Sublime Sword of the Creator and she killed most of the Gremories that took out Dimitri and Hilda.

And everybody we could save per plot constraints got to live! (Except Ferdinand.)

I’m willing to save him on subsequent routes because killing him made Dorothea sad.

Next time: Lang plays the route that screws over most of these people in service of killing the God-Pope.

#Lang plays Fire Emblem: Three Houses #fire emblem three houses #spoilers #Lang Plays #fire emblem

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shadows-twilight · 4 years

Text

RWBY Volume 7, Chapter 1

What is up, FNDM!!! At long last we are back with an all new volume of RWBY, and thus I am back to gush about it! Let's just jump right in with my thoughts and opinions on Chapter 1 of RWBY Volume 7, "The Greatest Kingdom"

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW:

I swear, the moon gets prettier and prettier every volume. This opening shot is incredible.

When we heard his one line in the trailer, I was blown away with how little I could tell that Qrow had a new voice actor, even though I was listening for it. Now that we get to hear more of it, the differences are admittedly starting to stand out a bit more. That being said, I don't think it will take long at all to get used to it, andJason Liebrecht is still doing an amazing job. I certainly look forward to his performance moving forward.

Looks like I was right in the finale in that the lower area is Mantle. I must say, it looks amazing. Everything about it just looks so dirty and industrial, definitely what I would imagine for the slums of the technological giant that is Atlas. Major kudos to CRWBY for this setting design.

Ooh, both Ironwood and Winter get new outfits. They look good, though something about Ironwood's beard looks off to me. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but something about the shading makes it look photoshopped on. Maybe it'll look better in the future.

Decided to pause on the newsboard that the purple haired dude is looking at, and I must say, while there isn't a lot there, what can be made out is...foreboding. The bottom middle headline I believe says "Outer Wall Damaged" which certainly seems like it will be important later, while the one to its left seems to be an opinion piece on the dust embargo. The standouts, however, are the top two. The first on the left talks about a journalist being found dead (always a good sign in politically charged climates) while the one on the right talks about an upcoming council election. Specifically, it talks about a "Mantle Hometown Hero" (whom I am assuming to be the woman on all of the posters that looks like she wouldn't look out of place in The Dragon Prince) going up against an "Atlesian Tycoon." Five Lien on who THAT could possibly be. Are Team RWBY and Friends going to have to go up against Jacques in a political arena? Because that could get pretty interesting.

I'd say that drone was too cute to die the way it did, but quite frankly it was far too funny for me to muster up that much compassion.

Yeesh, our first look at the Faunus Dust Miners, and it is not a pretty sight. Or maybe it's just the drunk asshole spouting casual racism. Either way, it's an ugly sight.

Thank you Weiss. We were all thinking it, put the trash where it belongs.

So did the drunk with the blue beanie know who they were? I feel like that was what he was trying to say before he decided to eat shit.

I don't know who the mouse Faunus girl was that exited the clinic, and we'll probably never see her again, but she was adorable as hell and I feel like that deserved mentioning.

Hmm, a robotics technician that resides in Atlas, has similar hair style and skin tone to the guy we cut to when Penny died, and is currently wearing a pink bow tie? Yeah, no idea who this is.

I love his chair. That is all.

"Days Since Last Nonsense: 0" I like the added touch of 'nonsense' being written down the side where room ran out.

If we never get to see Nora try Pietro's dancing shoes, this entire volume will be considered a waste.

So, seeing how incredibly obvious it is as to who this Pietro guy is, did anyone else perk up a bit when he referred to his daughter in present tense?

Hehe, convenient-reveal-delaying Grimm attack is conveniently-reveal-delaying

I see the Atlesian are as useless as always.

This score sounds like it's based on a song we'll be getting later, but even if it isn't I am loving it all the same

Even though his pose was completely different, when Oscar stabbed the Sabre Grimm in the head, it reminded me of Scrooge Mcduck's pogo attack in the old Ducktales game.

And there it is. The major even that they have been teasing us about for months, the big Vol 7 premiere surprise, the one, the only PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to see our precious robot girl back! Now all we need is Pyrrha and I will be happy once more

Let's face it Ruby, any other greeting simply would not have done this reunion justice.

Plus side, the status of RWBY redheads just got a lot less endangered.

"We have so many things to catch up about" Oh, Penny, you have no idea.

Dangit, Qrow, you had to jinx it, didn't you. I mean, I guess that's pretty on brand for you, but still.

These Ace-Ops guys certainly seem...colorful (despite most of them wearing the standard boring Atlas white color palette). I'm particularly interested in who I'm assuming is the leader, who the credits name Clover Ebi. I don't know who or what his character allusion is, but I feel like him being covered in stereotypical good luck charms is a sign.

Woohoo! New intro time! Just like last time, there's a lot to unpack here, so let's get into it

-The opening silhouettes remind me a lot of the original trailers, and quite frankly I love it for that. Not sure how I feel about the more pastel color pallet, though. -The shot of Team RWBY flying through the sky and shifting throughout all of their main outfits? A stroke of genius. -They seem to have updated Yang's semblance effect from the Bees vs Adam fight. It looks amazing and I love it. -Ironwood alone in a dark war room certainly doesn't seem ominous-Hmm, now the Ace-Ops guys get there own silhouette portraits? I am certainly interested in getting to know these guys. -When we zoom out on Watts's computer, alongside the Ace-Ops we see something to do with Mantle's security network as well as an election map. This election is definitely looking like it's going to be a main focal point of this volume. -Nothing too special here, just a few character shots, a silhouette of Tyrian looking creepy, Ironwood looking angry and sad (though the effect of the snow and ice consuming him is interesting), Jacques and Whitley looking smarmy, Weiss and Winter looking at each other (their facial expressions are certainly telling of what their relationship is going to be like this volume), Pietro and Maria, a group shot of Teams RWBY, Team JNR, and Oscar, and of course, Penny looking adorable. -Now that we're getting to see it in motion, I must admit that Jaune's new haircut doesn't look too bad. Also, I noticed his shield now incorporates hard light dust. I wonder if it just widens his shield a little or if it will manifest in other ways as well. -When the Mantle citizen threw a rock at the hologram of Ironwood, it briefly flickered to Jacques. That's concerning. -The action scenes are a lot of fun, with Oscar training with Ironwood, and Weiss and Blake in the dust mines, but the really interesting one is the Mantle Hero and Qrow going up against Tyrian. I wonder if Qrow knows her. -The group shot at the end is very My Hero Academia and I absolutely love it. -Wow, even Qrow gets a new outfit. It only took him twenty years. -Ooh, a brief look at the Relic of Creation. I admit, I was hoping that the relics would each have different color schemes, like having all of them be gold is fine, but I was slightly hoping where the Relic of Knowledge was blue, the Relic of Creation would be maybe green and the Relic of Destruction would be red, or something like that. Still looks cool though -There was not a single hint of Cinder or Neo in the opening, and that somewhat worries me.

Hehe, credits humor "Drunk Mann played by Joel Mann" Ah, once again, RWBY shows that it knows how to come out the gate swinging. They've set up a lot of interesting things in this first episode, and I can not wait to see how it all plays out.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby spoilers #rooster teeth animation

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thegoldenembers · 5 years

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Standoff.

Eanrin Farthestshore closed his eyes and did as he was told, alarmed at the urgency in Aethelbald's voice. The black in his hair appeared to dissolve in the air, leaving white hair with golden blonde hair tips. A tear ran down his face and he hissed, "By the Twelve, that stings." Internally he added, 'why the need for such urgency?' Aethelbald smiled, keeping his hand on Eanrin's "shoulder". 'Trying to make you less appealing to a voidsent.' Frowning Aethelbald stared at the girl. In dragontongue, he growled at the hiding voidsent. 'This boy is under my protection. You shall not have him.' Eanrin listened to his friend, and turned back to look at the girl. With Aethelbald's compassion still rolling across their link and the quick step to the light and return to color, he was reeling a bit. He slowly regained focus. In this state, her dark aetherial strings were hardly visible. Shaking himself, he let Aethelbald stare. 'Well, if I can't kill her... then... Sir, you make things so difficult.' He sighed and slowly got to his feet. Feeling like he had exercised for half a day. "Miss, I feel we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I saw your scowl, and tried to erase it with a bit of levity. Apparently, that is not what you needed at this current moment. I apologize for interrupting your chance at solitude." He bowed politely.

Lanelle Lumiea gawked at the change in the Miqo'te's hair color. She looked him up and down, as if trying to make sense of what happened before her. Faint whispers in her head began to snarl and growl until she finally focused well enough to make out what it said. 'Your grasp on him won't last forever, Dragon...' Lanelle heard Friend's voice drip with a familiar tone: hunger. Looking back to the Miqo'te, she blinked her eyes several times and stared again – this time, not in scorn, but in confusion. Lanelle held tightly to the book at her side and brought it close to her chest, feeling vulnerable at the change in the man's tone. Suddenly she felt afraid... No one talks to her like that.. Her eyes turned sad, and she gave the man one last look in the eye before turning her head away. "You.. You should be more courteous to those around you.." She said barely over a whisper, refusing to make eye contact again. The voice continued to hiss dully in her ear, but she could no longer make it out.

Eanrin Farthestshore nodded. His ears twisted back and slightly down. "I've been told that before, unfortunately. I truly do apologize. Admittedly, I didn't even see you there at first. Then, as I said, a vain attempt at levity when solitude was required." He cleared his throat and stretched his arms a bit. 'Please don't make me do that again anytime soon.' He moaned in his head. 'I won't be able to unmend for at least a day now.' Aethelbald just smiled. 'We add this to your morning rotation next week. I'm truly, impressed, Eanrin. You wouldn't have survived that two weeks ago.' With a quick hug his councilor stepped back and Eanrin's colorless eye returned to a dull gray. "Well, I suppose I'll leave you to your book then. Thank you for tolerating my intrusion."

Lanelle Lumiea felt as if he had literally punched the wind right out of her. Anxiety and fear continued to build up in her chest, making it feel as if her ribs were closing in on her lungs. 'You're not listening...' Friend hissed in her ear, and Lanelle felt small. He was angry with her... 'I don't understand why he's acting like this to me... what happened just now, Friend?!' She demanded, her head throbbing. 'You didn't LISTEN..!' His voice turned from a whisper to a complete scream in her ear, causing her to flinch and look over just enough to see the man's shoes. She couldn't lift her head up. "I should go.." Her voice shook. Turning away sharply, she held tightly to her book and started off toward the entrance of the Anchor Yard. Each footstep made her head ache more and more, and without looking straight in front, she bumped straight into yet another white-haired Miqo'te. The girl was so dazed, she fell back onto her rear, dropping her book in the process. The voice continued to scream in her ear, but she couldn't understand yet again. Why was it so hard for her to hear him clearly all of a sudden?!

Mallo Ra'ri was wandering about, happy to be home. Or he would be happy if he didn't have to constantly grumbled to himself about being lost. How can you get lost in your own hometown? With a defeated sigh he decided that perhaps if he found a high ledge, he could spot his destination. His walk became a trot as he ran up a stone path, only to collide with a young Elezen. He stumbled but stood strong and instantly went to the girl, " Ahh...I'm sorry! I got lost so I wasn't paying attention and...Are you okay?" He tilted his head, noticing the emotion painted on her face.

Eanrin Farthestshore ran up when he saw the collision. "Are you alright, miss? Oh hey, Mallo!" Eanrin's voice brightened considerably upon noticing his friend. He returned his attention to the girl. Slightly closing his left eye, he was just checking her aura... part in concern for her and another part in concern for Mallo. She still seemed fizzled, for lack of a better word... it should be okay....

Lanelle Lumiea brought her hands to her eyes, holding them shut for a moment, trying to recollect her thoughts. The anxiety pulsed through her as Friend continued to scream, and finally she was able to make out what he was saying. 'You foolish girl! Know your role! You dare lose control and let some dragon try to keep what should be mine? MINE?' Lanelle's breathing turned heavy for a moment as the anxiety turned slowly back to anger. 'I want that darkness, girl, and you best get ahold of yourself... You haven't bother to collect any new darkness in moons.. you /owe/ me...' She finally shook her head and looked around herself, trying to come back to what was going on in front of her. Looking up, she saw the two men in front of her, but quickly looked around before spotting her tossed aside book. "Oh no..." She mumbled and tried to get to her feet. Her butt hurt from her fall, for certain, but mostly her pride. Surely she'd be made a fool this time for sure. No more sugar coated fancy words. Lanelle Lumiea gathered up her book and flipped sadly through the pages, noticing them dusted with dirt and the cover scratched from the fall. Her heart broke.

Mallo Ra'ri could only watch as her face ran through so many different emotions and it was obvious, she was fighting /something/. He glanced over to Eanrin (whose familiar face made the 'oh gosh I’m lost' feeling instantly vanish), " Is uh...everything okay here, Eanrin?"

Eanrin Farthestshore's ears were still slightly back and down. He noted her extreme sadness, and little scuffs on her book. Having caught on to her tendency to super react, he knew she was crushed. "Ummm... yes and no?" Eanrin slid his gaze to his friend, giving him a smile and a quick, happier ear twitch. Then his ears returned back to their earlier positions and he took a couple of steps closer. "Miss?" He asked again, quietly, "Are you alright? How about your book?"

Lanelle Lumiea sighed softly as her fingers slowly crossed over the text in the book. "I should have stayed in the library.." She whispered in response to their questioning. 'Focus...' Friend hissed yet again. 'FOCUS...' Her heart dropped, still broken over the condition of the book, but she began to tap her index finger to the ink on the page she was staring at. Feeling the aether beginning to stir, she tapped once more and quickly brought her hand in a nonchalant sweeping motion to move her hair from her face. In reality, she was dusting the ink across her tattoo, and she felt her eyes burn. Lanelle sighed, holding the book out for the two of them to examine, and she looked carefully at them both. "See..?" She whispered, now hearing the small chuckle of Friend in her ear. 'Focus on their aether...' The taller man still had shreds of darkness trailing behind him, and she could hear the hungry groaning of Friend in her ear. 'Now the other one..' Turning her eyes to the smaller, she narrowed her eyes slightly, noting a hint of dark lingering in his mind, as if he was troubled by something... something that left lingering pain. 'Interesting...' Friend cooed. 'I want them both..' Lanelle continued to hold the book out for them to see, looking away with a small sigh.

Eanrin Farthestshore frowned and suddenly turned away from the book with a jerk. He reached out gently and closed the book. "Enough of that, miss." He said quietly. "You'll find nothing here to consume. Look elsewhere." He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. His expression neutral. 'This girl....' He growled in his mind. 'Two seconds and she's trying something with her aether again. AUGH and on my friend... she's making this very difficult.' He ground his teeth. 'Dangit, Aethelbald. And I couldn't kill her now if I wanted to. Ward me against voidsent my tail.' "What brings you to Limsa, Mallo?" Eanrin folded his arms.

Lanelle Lumiea couldn't help but give a slight smirk, but quickly masked it with a look of dumbfoundedness. That's the responses she was used to. "Consume? There's no food around here.." She scoffed and brought her book back to her chest. 'This IS your mark... you better find a way to take it...' Friend snarled. She inwardly sighed. 'I don't like how he treated me before.. he spoke so earnestly... I don't like him..' She answered the voidsent. 'You're forgetting who you belong to, girl. Do as you're told.'

Mallo Ra'ri studied the girl, her movements and the second her eyes fell on him, he felt a horrible sensation run up his spine. Every hair on his ears and tail stood on ends as he took a step back—then the book was closed, thanks to Eanrin. With the closed book, Mallo felt the sensation leave him. " O-oh yeah!" he turned his gaze to Eanrin, " Rayn has been making a bit of profit from crafting so she wanted to send some back to her parents! ..'Cept I got /lost/." He hung his head in embarrassment.

Eanrin Farthestshore laughed, though there was a bit of an edge, but he grinned, his plumy tail swishing a bit. "I'm so glad to hear Rayn is doing that well!" He winced a bit. "Ugh, I was actually just remarking that I need to go back and hang out with you guys for a bit. My last mark took a while to reach..." He glanced down at his disheveled outfit. "I think I still remember where her parents' shop is. I'll help you find it." He was mostly focused on his peripheral vision... the girl puzzled him so. He was trying so hard to see light behind the dark. And how was he going to protect Mallo? He could see the mark that travelled from the book to the miqo'te's forehead. He really wanted to kill her. No one messed with his friends. 'Did I stop her in time?' He cried. 'Ugh, I'm such an idiot!'

Lanelle Lumiea looked between the two of them. So they not only knew of each other, they were close. And it seemed like they had more from the likes of it. 'Do something!' Friend snapped. She winced once again. 'What am I supposed to do? Get on my knees and beg to join them?!' But before she could finish her thought, Friend interrupted with a booming, 'YES!'. She shrunk into herself. There's no way... she could possibly...

Mallo Ra'ri didn't quite understand what was happening, but just the way Eanrin was acting was enough to send him warning flags. " Really? Man, I got lucky running into you here. I would be wandering around lost for some time. " He laughed, his tail swishing about as he tried to shake the eerie feeling the girl was giving him.

Eanrin Farthestshore: "You have an insane amount of luck, friend." He smiled to himself. Of course he remembered where the shop was... he went there looking for Rayn the moment his feet hit the ground off the ship from Doma. Looking at the girl once more out of the corner of his eye, he turned and gave her another bow. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to beg your leave, Miss. Again, I apologize for troubling you earlier. Take care of yourself, okay?" He said this last with intense worry. He really did want to see her be okay... and not have to worry about what the hells she and her puppet master were doing.

Lanelle Lumiea felt her eyes turn cold in glaring once more at the taller man. "If I recall correctly, it was /you/ who interrupted /me/, peasant.." She said in reply sternly. "Maybe it's time you take your conversation elsewhere." She said, looking to Mallo this time. 'NO! You dare defy MY reques--' She closed her eyes tightly. "I believe you've done enough damage already." Her hand grazed over the scratched along the cover of her book and she stepped back over to the fountain she originally perched at.

Mallo Ra'ri watched the Elezen sulk off to the fountain behind them before tilting his head in confusion at Eanrin. He lowered his voice, " ...What did I miss here? What was she grumbling on about?"

Eanrin Farthestshore was thoroughly confused and maybe a bit mystified. "Darkness." He muttered, looking in her direction. "And an order I don't want to obey." Eanrin drooped a bit. He still hurt so badly from such a quick transition. "Umm... let's go find the shop." He forced himself to start walking. Mallo pursed his lips in concern, worried about Eanrin, " Are you okay?" He asked quietly, trailing after the taller Mi'qo.

Lanelle curled up along the side of the fountain, clutching the book to her chest. Her breathing was shaky as she felt Friend reaching across the depths of her mind and creeping closer to her heart. "I've let you wander around on your own too much... you've grown soft." Friend snarled, and she whimpered at the feeling of the voidsent tapping at her heart. "You think that you can disobey me and not be punished..? I told you what I wanted.. You're to respond exactly how I taught you.."

Eanrin Farthestshore: "I'm fine, I think. Did you see anything when she showed you that book?" He asked, trying to keep his voice even and off handed. As long as nothing registered, maybe he stopped her spell...

Mallo Ra'ri: " I didn't see anything but I sure felt something. Like something creeping in and digging around inside my mind." Mallo thought a moment, recalling the sensation that ran through him, then continued, " The feeling stopped when you closed the book, though!"

Lanelle Lumiea: The girl felt her heart's pulse struggling to keep its natural rhythm, and her head ached sorely. "What do you suppose I do..?" She begged in her mind, feeling her eyes well up with tears; outwardly her body was starting to shake. "You're to listen to every word I say.. Now.. go fetch..." Friend trailed off, finally releasing his grip on her and fading off to a dull whisper once more. Her breath was still ragged, and her face was pale, glimmering with sweat. The Elezen staggered to her feet, and looked back at the book laying on the ground. Her heart still ached from the painful grasp the voidsent had on it, but she turned away and started after the two Miqo'te. "Wait!" She called out as loud as her raspy voice would allow her. "Please!"

Eanrin Farthestshore: "Good." He nodded. He wasn't quite fast enough, but maybe the damage was minimal. Protection was an issue. He had a guardian... He ran his hand through his bangs, and his ears twitched as he heard first the footsteps and her quiet voice. He slowly closed his eyes. He stopped and waited for the girl to catch up.

Mallo Ra'ri wasn't sure everything that had happened before he showed up, or exactly how bad the 'darkness' Eanrin spoke of was, but he had no time to sort through the thoughts as the familiar voice halted him. He turned around and his ears perked up, " Oh, hello again!" He forced a friendly smile.

Lanelle Lumiea could feel the tension between the two of them, but at this rate, her heart was in too much pain to try and resist Friend's hunger once more. She had to think of something to earn their trust... "I.." She stopped. What was she supposed to say?! "I'm.. I'm sorry..." Her voice quivered from the pain she felt and the fear of what might happen to her again if she ever became this vulnerable again.

Eanrin Farthestshore stared at her. His expression was flat, but he really stared at her. The pain he saw twisted his heart. "You're sorry." Eanrin said flatly. "A small time ago, you were madder than a wespe and were flinging dark aether around like mud. Then you try to ensorcelle me and my friend. Something very like spitting in my face and kicking me in the nether regions. And I don't believe you are truly sorry at all." His face softened a bit. "I would love to help you, lass." His voice was dangerously low and he was slipping back to his Limsan accent while trying to hold his temper. "But I'm not sure you even know what 'sorry' even means."

Lanelle Lumiea could feel Friend tapping at her mind once more, pushing and egging her on. But his words broke her. She was used to the hatred and scorn of those in the guild, her teachers and her parents' peers.. but this was different. She felt Friend's weight on her mind, his repeating whispers. "Fetch..." But she was out of strength. Her hands shook as she pushed aside the strand of hair in her face, and stumbled over to the wall. The voidsent continued to push at her, and she felt herself losing her sense of control in her mind. She didn't have any ink around her to refresh herself like she would rely on. She left the book on the edge by the fountain. The girl slumped down against the cold wall and wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead, replying to his words with a simple nod. At this point, she would just accept Friend's punishment. There was no way these two would ever trust someone after she so foolishly showed them what she had been up to. 'Smarter than your average peasant...' She thought to herself, and closed her eyes. 'And you're a lot weaker than I originally took you for...' Friend hissed, pressing hard into her mind.

Mallo Ra'ri panicked, watching the scene unfold before him. He knew the Elezen had to be some kind of trouble for Eanrin to be so flat with her, but it wasn't in his nature to turn a blind eye. He trotted over and bent down to face her closer, " She is looking rough... Eanrin, we can't just leave her like this." Mallo frowned and his brows arched in worry.

Eanrin Farthestshore rolled his eyes. Teenagers. "Oy, there. Are you just going to let them win, then?" Eanrin growled. "I'm not sure of your relationship with your voidsent, but either way, you don't seem the like what lets others muck around in your mind without your permission. If you truly are sorry, and you really want help, don't toss in your chips yet." He walked up and tapped at her foot. "Up with you." Eanrin knelt down and held out his hand, wincing since he was still super sore. "Prove your strength."

Lanelle Lumiea could hear the two of them talking, though it was jumbled between the various cursings of Friend growing louder in her ear. Her lips curved into a tiny grin, entertained that the man would even bother to pretend like he cared. This is what she was used to... "You talk too much." She whispered. Her eyes were still shut, but as she tried to open them, she could see that her vision was beginning to cloud over. "And what next?" She let out a weak chuckle. Either way, they'd abandon her.

Mallo Ra'ri's heart dropped at seeing her looking so defeater and pitiful and he sighed. " We really should take her somewhere safe. I don't feel right leaving a lady nearly comatose outside." He could almost hear Eanrin's eyes rolling as he said it.

Eanrin Farthestshore sighed. She had to live here. And now Mallo wanted to help the demon drama queen. He quietly admitted to himself, it wasn't very gentlemanly to leave a girl practically passed out on the ground in the middle of town. He mentally scrubbed his hands through his hair and down his face. Outwardly, he stared at her impassively. Inside, it wasn't just the dilemma of being a gentleman... he felt the darkness closing in on her. If she didn't fight it. Flashes of a terrified Lalafell holding a gun to his face, and blood.... He moaned. "Maybe we could inquire as to where she lives?" Sure... dragging her around town asking that was totally going to work. "I talk too much." Eanrin scoffed as he sat down next to Mallo. "D-do I?"

Lanelle Lumiea hit her head on the wall behind her, just enough to jog her head clear of the screaming for a brief moment. "There's a library.." She started to say softly as she rubber her eyes, clearing her vision for a moment. "It's behind Mealvaan's Gate, at the guild.. my parents used it as their study..." She admitted. Why on earth was she talking..? Mentally she kicked herself, but talking about her parents seemed to give her a moment's reprieve from the voidsent's clutches.

Mallo Ra'ri stood up with a determined nod, " So we should take her to the Library! It's the least we could do, after all.." He said, almost meekly. He had a bad feeling, this was true, but at the same time he could just sense the struggle she was enduring.

Eanrin Farthestshore: "The library it is then. Can you walk at all, miss?" Eanrin asked as he slowly unfolded himself. Thank goodness the soreness was fading.

Lanelle Lumiea felt Friend slowly fading off as she continued to focus on the thought of returning to the library. She looked up at the two and gave a small nod, slowly struggling to her feet. The girl felt dizzy, and the weight of her head felt enormous to her, but her vision wasn't as blurry as it had been before they mentioned returning her to her "home".

Eanrin Farthestshore nods. "Very good." He stood at her left side. "Feel free to use as to steady yourself. Mallo, if you would be so kind as to stay to her right side?" They took a few experimental steps and the plan seemed to work... "Mallo, we may be helping this girl at the moment, but I would ask you to keep your distance." Eanrin frowned as the moved slowly along. "Don't read anything she offers and don't make direct eye contact." A few more steps and Eanrin sighed. "Let's get you home, Lass."

#The Golden Embers #Eanrin Farthestshore #Mallo Ra'ri #Lanelle Lumiea

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canvaswolfdoll · 5 years

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CanvasWatches: Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan

Not going to do a Summer 2018 write up because I only lasted through one anime, and Chio’s School Road had… issues I don’t feel like discussing.

Also, haven’t had time to continue the Digimon Rewatch (which is exclusive to the Patreon until I finish season one).

Doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking! Netflix’s most recent license camping for it’s tedious binge watch format is Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, which was a delight to watch! Go watch it, right now! Do it!

Anyways, time for my… whatever this thing is... on it.

Hisone is a woman who joined the airforce because, near as I can tell, she didn’t have any other ideas for what to put on her school’s career plan worksheet that shows up in every anime, and she saw a fighter plane soar by.

There’s… worse motivations, I guess?

Anyways, while working a desk job, she’s invited to an interview at a far away hangar.

She goes to the hangar and is promptly eaten by a dragon.

But it’s okay! The dragon just wanted to eat her old flip phone! And the crew got her thrown up pretty quick! And now they want her to pilot the dragon.

By getting swallowed and controlling the thing but prodding its soft innards.

Anime

So, Dragons are a thing that exist, and the world governments have been helping hiding them because… that’s the deal they made? Anyways, Japan hides their dragons as fighter planes, and has their air force manage them.

Because we need to explain this bizarre premise somehow.

Dragons are selective about who they will swallow and not digest, and Hisone is one of those lucky few. So she’s a D-Pilot now, which is probably a promotion from her ill-defined desk job.

Also, now she has to put up with Nao Kaizaki, initially the only member of Gifu Base’s D-Pi program, and a woman who couldn’t get the dragon to swallow her, so her position is more theoretical.

Kaizaki is introduced exhibiting the mannerisms of your typical High School Thug boy character, so you know she’ll be interesting.[1]

Hisone’s superior officer, Remi Kakiyasu, was also once a candidate for dragon piloting who couldn’t get the dragon to accept her. So the entire program is kind of low on practical experience.

Then there’s the woman selling yogurt who is clearly important, but it’ll take a few episodes for yogurt woman to reveal her purpose.

So Kaizaki and Kakiyasu train Hisone up as she comes to grips with her new responsibilities.

Hisone finds a plaque embedded in the dragon to learn his name is Masotan.

And so, the title is complete.

Then three more pilots fly in in episode 4, and the main plot starts to meander in a direction.

Let’s meet the other three team members!

Elle Hoshino: Enlisted to become the first female fighter pilot, and is displeased to have been placed on the OTF (Organic Transformed Flier) program instead. So her dragon, F-2/Norma, refuses to leave it’s plane form to please its partner. Eventually Elle comes around and loosens up. She’s fine.

Mayumi Hitomi: A matronly shaped pilot. She’s soft-hearted and soft spoken. Flies a large, goofy looking dragon named Futomomo. She’s fine.

Lilico Kinutsugai: Winner of the Canvas’s ‘Wait, I want more’ award, Lilico is a shut-in with a wry sense of humor and love of manga. Her dragon is the samurai-looking Akemi. Lilico is also apparently asexual, something I wish they’d given space to explore a little more.

She could’ve been my favorite pilot,[2] but the show didn’t commit enough.

So the pilots are placed through a couple adventures to become friends as the creepy Iboshi (some vaguely defined government guy) watches and plots.

Iboshi is the closest thing the series has to a villain, despite it being more of a Man vs. Nature affair. He possesses a callous disregard for the people of the D-Pi program, focused on the looming Ritual the D-Pi are needed for.

This cold-naturedness made me dislike him, but also allows the series to run relationship drama in a really interesting direction.

Because, guess what? If the D-Pi fall in love, the dragons will instinctively reject them. And they need the D-Pi to keep the Dragons healthy, and also escort a giant dragon to ensure it doesn’t destroy Japan in its wake! Oh dear. This frames the ‘will-they, won’t-they’ of Hisone and Haruto of the maintenance team into an major conflict with dramatic consequences and justifies a dumb ‘misunderstanding’ plot with one of the other D-Pi.

This shows builds a very grounded, mature, and compelling view on romance, and I am super game for it. And super down to sing its praises.

I’ve found that the sweet spot for making me care about a romance plot isn’t tsundere antics, or fear, or dumb misunderstandings, because there’s nothing I crave in my media more than emotional honesty.

No, the slow burn I crave is sheer ignorance. It takes several episodes for Hisone to understand she may have feelings for Haruto beyond friendship, then more for her to actually accept and admit her feelings to herself, then the fantasy takes over to prevent a tedious ‘Oh, will you two just talk’ subplot, because Hisone can no longer do her job lest she get digested by her dragon! So the conflict of “How does Hisone deal with her feelings” becomes augmented to “How does Hisone do her freaking job now!?”

The answer, seemingly, is just have a level head on the topic: Mayumi Hitomi also has plenty of ship teases with another character, but never is at risk of being eaten. It doesn’t get examined, because Hitomi’s ability to just kind of… casually acknowledge it and not let the Doki-Dokis mess up her stride doesn’t draw attention.

And because Hitomi’s resolution to the conflict eventually comes down to “I don’t want to abandon anyone ever” means her love for Haruto[4] is just added to the pile of things Hitomi is just anxiously passionate about, in equal measures to her love of flying Masoton, and that seems to work out.

Which, I guess means the secret to flying the dragon’s isn’t a creepy expectation of a pure heart, Iboshi, but emotional maturity.

Which brings us to the jerky, playboy wannabe breaking Elle’s heart. Like a monster.

Take note, writers: this is the first time ‘I broke your heart to protect/save you!’ has ever been successfully executed without one or both parties catching a case of the stupids! Watch this and learn!

So, early in the series, we meet Yutaka Zaito, a wannabe womanizer who has no success, but maintains his illusion of charisma nevertheless. Then he meets Elle, whose serious attitude and cold shoulder grabs his attention, and he suddenly abandons his swarm and tries to, gently, ingratiate himself to Elle, who gradually warms up to him.

It’s nice.

But then the whole ‘Dragon digests those with unsteady hearts’ plot point happens, and Elle is in a position where she can’t even fly her dragon, sending her ambitions even further away. And she hasn’t realized it’s Zaito causing her heart flutters.

But Zaito, upon learning the situation, does understand. And knows that it’s either him or Elle’s career.

So, he turns up the creep, approaches Elle, and proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, claiming not to want a serious relationship, and subtly mocks Elle’s dragon rejection. This breaks Elle’s heart, of course, but resolves the matter. She can fly Norma again, and Zaito is left to bite his tongue and let his crush pursue her best life.

The sequence is well executed. It’s a misunderstanding perpetuated intentionally, knowingly, and selflessly by one party, and exists for reasons beyond ‘Neh, let’s have some dumb romance drama now’. Zaito knows what he’s giving up, but still breaks Elle’s heart because she legitimately needs him to so she can pursue her dreams. There’s no other timely way.

On the other end, the show introduces Natsume,[5] a childhood friend of Haruto, who comes in to be Hisone’s rival!

Except Hisone is too oblivious and all-loving to care, and Haruto is straight disinterested in Natsume. And Natsume is a shallow Tsundere and lacks any appealing characterization. They could’ve given her role to Nao, who desperately needs something to do in the later half of the series, or, better yet, just have Haruto be the human sacrifice.

“But you need a girl for the sacrificial beauty role!”

Okay.

Make Haruto a girl.

“Are you proposing the show suddenly swerve into Yuri?”

I mean, Yogurt lady’s backstory is literally a Tragic WWII-era Yuri love story.[6]

Sada Hinomoto shows up selling yogurt and being charming and mysterious so you know there’s something deeper going on.

Turns out, she’s the last D-Pi from the last time they did the ritual, so she actually has proper experience to teach the new kids, and, oh yeah, she hates Iboshi, resents the entire procedure, and carries a lot of trauma from when her friend Yae was chosen to be the human sacrifice last time, and though the show doesn’t spell it out, the intimate blocking and their schemes to flee to Paris paints a super clear picture about what that relationship was about and, gosh dangit, is she one cool grandma.

All she wants to to get back to the giant dragon to find closure with what happened to Yae and force an alternate solution.

Fortunately, Hisone is just the sort of loveable goofball to find an alternate to the Giant Dragon’s bedtime snack!

So there’s another reason why Hisone’s love interest should’ve been a girl.[8]

Now, practically this could’ve been accomplished a couple of ways: gender flip Haruto, cut Haruto and use Nao, pr combine characters. Point is, no matter how you do it, this hypothetical female love interest is now the human sacrifice for Mitatsu-sama.

With this change, there is a new parallel drawn between Hisone and Hinomoto,[9] further underlines Hisone’s tendency toward heartfelt dedication to unconventional methods, and Hisone’s desire for saving the sacrifice changes from an impersonal “Human sacrifices are wrong”[10] to “Human sacrifices are wrong, and also screw you I love that girl!”

And if that girl had Tsundere tendencies (like Nao or Natsume), that’d make the pairing even cuter.

Also, points for the entire D-Pi team unambiguously disbelieving Hisone’s ambiguous fate at the end. It’s fun to see such trope-awareness.[11]

In conclusion: Dragon Pilot is super adorable and sincere, the premise is quintessential anime, and it’s just fun. Sure, most of the characters deserve more depth and exploration, but that’s always my complaint and it’s only a 12-episode series. Plus, it very good at portraying mature characters without stooping into immature means.

And it’s really cementing my love of BONES as a studio.[12] I need to put more effort into seeking out their work.

So go watch it.

Thanks for reading my review! These do tend towards inconsistent release, but they’re fun to do. Consider checking out my other reviews, essays, and the rarer original work. I’m also nearing the end of my Muffin Comics experiment, so catch those while you can! If you really like what I’m outputting, I’ve got a Patreon, set on a monthly schedule so you know what you’re committing to.[13]

Next time: a Netflix Original of a magical tone! (And hopefully more Digimon)

Kataal kataal

[1] At least, that’s the hope. Gets dashed once the other D-Pi arrive on base and Kaizaki slips out of the spotlight. [2] The title goes to Hisone herself.[3] [3] Anyone else have troubles saying the main character/romantic lead are their favorite? Like it’s too easy an answer or something? Because I do. [4] All these H names are raising the hackles of my Mug Rule… [5] Presumably so they can localize Harvest Moon games. [6] Which means we were this close to a Yuri anime not about assaulting high schoolers and creepy family dynamics,[7] but one about Dragons pretending to be a spitfire and historical context and and light-hearted comedy and I honestly would trade this show for that and I love Hisone & Maston! [7] Citrus did not sit well with Canvas. [8] Canvas’s full tilt idea, by the way, is to combine Haruto, Nao, and Natsume. Condense characters and keep them all relevant longer. [9] Way too many H names. [10] Not that Hisone being a goofy all-loving hero isn’t super endearing. [11] Though it’d be nice to know what Hisone and Masoton were doing. Had Hisone ejected out of the dragon at any point during the… months(?) long time jump? [12] Wolf’s Rain notwithstanding. [13] Not going to lie, nothing deflects me from lending support quicker than a ‘Per Update’ schedule.

#CanvasWatches #dragon pilot #anime #CanvasReviews

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republictrooper · 6 years

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Got into King of Dragon’s Pass cuz of some twitter buzz that’s been going around, and I like it. Figuring out who to put on my ring has been hard, but in an almost hilarious way? To the point it’s almost my favorite part of the game.

Like, trying to balance it out on who has skills at first seemed ok, but I would constantly get people saying like, hey, we need more varied worshippers of Gods on the team. Even if all my people were knowledgeable, I couldn’t use my magic well or get varied outlooks on events and stuff.

So I started trying to switch more people in based less on skills and more on what gods I needed to fill out the ring.

So after my one Uralda worshipper died doing the Uralda Heroquest (I should have known she was getting too old, but my cows were hurting dangit), my only other Uralda worshipper was a young early-20s lady. I put her on the clan ring, but despite having excellent Animals and decent leadership she was a complete dud. She only gave general random jrpg town npc “People die if they are killed” type information, and when dragonnewts showed up on our land, she actively BEGGED to be taken off the ring because she didn’t want to deal with that. So I figured I’d be nice and do it, but she’s literally my ONLY Uralda worshipper. So I take her off and replace her with an Ernalda worshipper with decent animal skills as a hopefully adequate replacement. BUT I start seeing the downsides immediately. To start, I cant put as much magic into keeping my eternally on the brink of failing cattle herds alive. I can kind of keep them off the brink by trading with other tribes or asking for favors of cattle, but I generally seem to lose cattle every sacred time for a couple years. Then, I have some group of priestesses of Uralda come to my tribe and tell me I’m failing to respect her properly and my cattle will suffer if I do. So I end up spending tons of Goods to sacrifice to her AND putting my Uralda lady back on the tribe.

So, Poor Uralda continues to not only give very basic info, but pretty much blames herself for everything that goes bad for the tribe because she thinks she gave bad info, and asks to be taken off the ring once again for a few things. I feel bad for her, but Uralda REALLY wants her on that ring, and I’ve already lost the game due to losing all my cattle once, so I’m not taking the risk again. She seems to finally be growing into the role a bit more since then, so I’m hopeful either she’ll blossom in her 30s, or I’ll get another Uralda worshipper so I can rotate the poor dear out and let her be a nice standard carl again.

Eurmal was the other one, if only because my trickster kept actually doing trickster stuff to other tribes and they kept demanding repayment, so I’d repay and take my trickster off the ring as punishment, only to have the other ring members talk about how much the ring could use a trickster, either for scapegoating or more Heroquest power. Finally that trickster died and I was without a trickster period for a few years, until a 20 year old lady worshipping Eurmal appeared in my list of ring members. I’ve put her on the ring because it could use more ladies and it’ll get the others to pipe down about needing a trickster, but she’s still way too young to give decent advice. Then again, I found the tricksters rarely did to begin with, so there’s that. And she hasn’t done anything as flagrantly horrible as the last trickster - yet. And regardless, my ring keeps telling me I NEED to do hero quests, so I need her for the extra point of magic in questing, if nothing else.

But the warriors, the Humakt fighters, those dudes have been really amazing.

First of all, they’re pretty much always fixated on war. Singlemindedly so. They always want you to max out war points and keep reserve magic to use while raiding. If you’re hanging on your main clan page, they want to raid. If you want to send out diplomats or traders, they say you’d get more loot from raiding. 9 time out of 10 if there’s a war-related problem, they want to send warriors or start a duel (On the other hand, if they say it's not a good idea to fight, it's at least a good sign you’ll lose).

And I definitely tend to go through my Humakt fighters the quickest. My first one inexplicably went berserk while defending the tribe from some Horse Nomads and got killed. My 2nd decided we were getting too soft, and murdered a bunch of nobles from a neighboring tribe to try to start a war, so I had to Outlaw her to appease them. The 3rd died in a duel to a duck (which he demanded I let him do). I HAD told them first blood only, in my defense, but the duck just killed him outright. The 4th finally seems like he might die or old age, but only because I did a lot of work to keep him safe and sated, including wounding a couple of my healer ring members keeping him safe when he got reckless in battle. Hopefully he doesn’t feel too bitter about dying in bed.

On the plus side, my main Ernalda lady has been absolutely amazing. She’s let me know exactly how many hunters to keep around, can usually tell if Bandits will be a problem on the roads for trading and diplomacy, can sniff out decent deals on cattle, almost always give the best advice on quests (Except that one time she wanted to parlay with a spirit and it turned out to be an evil spirit that sapped her strength), and eventually became my queen. Now if she could stay alive for 10 years and/or until I finally get a person who can defeat the Orlanth and Aroka heroquest, I’ll be in great shape. She did almost die once after being cursed by a dress that may have been sent by a rival tribe, but she survived it after I sacrificed to the healer goddess, and now she’s in her early 40s and pretty healthy, so I’m pretty confident I can win the short game with her.

Anyway, if you haven’t played it already, King of Dragon Pass is pretty alright, overall.

#King of Dragon Pass #King of Dragon Pass Spoilers

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taaroko · 6 years

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Post-IW MCU Rewatch: Thor: The Dark World

Yay more Thor! (Yes I know this is widely considered to be the worst of the MCU movies and I DO NOT CARE. *hugs entire population of Asgard possessively*)

This prologue is ridiculous. I don’t know if it’s Anthony Hopkins’s inflection or if it’s just a step too far in the high fantasy direction, but it does make me cringe a bit. More showing, less telling! The prologues in the LotR movies were way more interesting than this.

The Dark Elf language also makes me cringe. I am very aware that it’s preposterous to assume that people from different planets speak English, but what’s most important to me is that actors cannot deliver nuanced performances when they are speaking gibberish. At least when it’s real languages, someone can coach them on inflection and stuff, but they really hamstrung Christopher Eccleston by making him say these silly-sounding lines.

Malekith has no imagination if the only thing he could think to do with the Reality Stone was turn stuff into dark matter.

“Benevolent god” indeed. Sending the Chitauri to slaughter people doesn’t really fit that description, sweetie.

Seriously Anthony Hopkins’s delivery is really weird in some places.

Odin is now three for three on children who showed scary genocidal tendencies, so I think there��s a lot of bitterness and feelings of failure behind what he says to Loki. Also Loki’s not showing any remorse at all, even though now would be a great time to explain that he was tortured and manipulated by Thanos. They’re both getting defensive and lashing out instead of engaging in meaningful communication.

Hi Sif! Hi Volstagg! HI THOR! He has such good entrances. Hi Fandral and Hogun! (Even if this is Zachary Levi Fandral with his stupid wig.)

The weapons the raiders are using are really interesting.

Hey I wonder if this Kronan knows Korg.

I love Thor’s smile when all the raiders laugh at his “I accept your surrender.”

*dreamy sigh* Asgard.

HUGIN AND MUNIN! And one actually lands on Odin’s arm! That’s awesome.

Odin ships Thor/Sif. (Me too, Odin.)

Obligatory shirtless Thor scene!

Volstagg and his family! *wibble*

Oh Sif. Rejected. (But Thor’s pretty nice about it.)

Jane is really quite socially awkward, isn’t she? Why did she go on this date?

It says something about how bad of a driver Jane is (hitting Thor, nearly driving off the road) that she would trust Darcy to drive her around (I guess Darcy’s record is slightly better, having only hit Thor once, while they were in the middle of a dust cloud).

“Why’re you calling me?” “I didn’t want to shout.”

Portals! Whee! (Honstly the portal shenanigans are one of the big reasons I love this movie. This crap is so much fun.)

I love the way Darcy wiggles her hand when she says “Gimme your shoe.”

Okay so the Dark Elves are set to wake up if the Aether gets activated? Headcanon time. Judging from all the creepy red lights in their ships, I think they used the Aether to make most of their tech, much like Schmidt did with the Tesseract. So yeah, if the Aether gets activated, their tech would react. That works.

Heimdall’s new armor has an orange stone in the breastplate. I thought he was gonna turn out to be the one who had the Soul Stone, and that it was the source of his infinite sight. ...I’m pretty sure I still like that better than what we ended up with in canon. Also, I only noticed this the other day, but Heimdall’s helmet is shaped the same as Hofund’s hilt, and that’s awesome.

Heee, I love Thor and Heimdall’s chat. I definitely believe that Thor would describe Heimdall as his best friend.

Whoops! Continuity error. Jane should not be in her Asgardian outfit yet. I guess they decided to move this bit to this part of the movie instead of later, but didn’t reshoot it.

Did Thor make this storm or is that just London being London? He does make it stop, I guess.

Sorry guys, Thor already has that dark strand of stuff in his hair; it’s not a Loki memorial braid.

Thor and Darcy’s interactions are always gold.

You sliced off part of that car!

Oh, question answered from before. You CAN see space rushing past from inside the Bifrost. Sweet.

Hi Eir! The Soul Forge is so cool.

Jane takes Odin’s rudeness pretty well. But dang, Odin. I know you ship Thor/Sif, but being mean to the competition is an elementary mistake.

That book is freaking awesome. It’s like the Book of Kells, except the images move and it’s in runes.

Dangit I don’t want the bad guys to be the ones who touch foreheads to show affection!

I really don’t like this look for Frigga. That one-boob breastplate is really weird.

The emotion in Loki’s scene with Frigga’s projection is so great. He wants to sever ties with Odin (or he thinks he does) but he can’t do that without severing ties with Frigga too, and you can see how much it hurts him to say anything that would hurt her. Which he plainly instantly regrets. And it’s the last thing he ever says to her.

Yessss more romantic exposition from Thor.

Hahaha, Jane is so much more shy around Frigga than Odin.

Man the way the Kursed dude kills people is really messed up.

Loki you would not be smiling at this dude if you knew he was going to do much more than cause a bit of mischief.

Thor jumping and grabbing Mjolnir is such a cool shot.

“It’s only because I’ve worried over you that you have survived.” Based on how Odin behaves as soon as she’s dead, that is extremely accurate.

Heimdall is so awesome. Oh, and I love the way the Dark Elves’ ships look almost like they’re made of dragon hide or something. Dragon hide or lava rock. Fantastic design. Fantastic movements.

This movie has so much more of Asgard in it than the first one, which is awesome. Even if it’s mostly getting pummeled by Dark Elves.

Those black hole grenades are freaking terrifying.

Yeah...if Loki hadn’t given that tip about the stairs to the left, the Kursed dude wouldn’t have arrived in time to help Malekith before Frigga finished him off, or before Thor and Odin arrived. :/

Frigga’s funeral is beautiful. The music, however, has been somewhat retroactively ruined by that play in Ragnarok. (Which I adore.)

Even if Loki doesn’t know how much his actions specifically contributed to Frigga’s death, I think he regrets helping the Kursed dude.

Hi Stan!

Dang, Asgardian law is crazy strict if Thor and the Warriors Three are casually talking about being killed by Einherjar if they screw up this plan.

This is so sad, because Loki actually doesn’t betray Thor at any point during this mission. He makes up for it by being incessantly irritating (which is the best stuff in the movie), but he sticks to the plan the whole time. The only one he betrays in this whole movie is Odin.

Okay the dagger/handcuffs trick by Thor is funny and all, but it really doesn’t hold up if you think about it. You’d definitely notice the difference between being handed a dagger and having thick cuffs put on.

Sif is very good at not letting her jealousy show too clearly. And her sword is awesome. Her and Volstagg’s threats to Loki are pretty great.

Peak annoying little brother stuff right here, when they’re in the Dark Elf blade ship. My favorite is “Oh dear. Is she dead?”

So Thor has the “face squashed against glass motif,” and I think Loki has a falling motif. Into the abyss in the first one, out of the ship in this one, and through whatever dimension Doctor Strange trapped him in in Ragnarok.

The flying longboats are so cool.

I love how much Loki likes it whenever Thor gets the better of him with sneakiness. He’s so used to Thor just smashing his way through stuff, so any subtlety he uses (especially when it’s successful against him) is fantastic in his book.

“Ta-dah.”

“What I could do with the power that flows through those veins.” I would love to see what Loki could do with the Aether. He’s already a master of illusions, and the Reality Stone would multiply that by about a thousand. It’d be awesome. And yet he sent it off to Knowhere instead of keeping it (or giving it to Thanos). Just like he kept the Tesseract safe in Asgard’s vault the entire time he was pretending to be Odin. If Loki had really done everything he did in Avengers of his own free will while in his right mind, he would not have gone to such lengths to keep multiple Infinity Stones away from Thanos. Heck, he might even have been the one to commission Stormbreaker from Eitri. I suppose he didn’t use the Stones himself because he knows as well as Thor does how deadly they can be to the wielder, or maybe he knew they’d draw Thanos to him like a beacon.

Thor thinks Loki wants to hurt him because he’s talking about Jane’s mortality, but Loki thinks Thor only cares about Jane and not the fact that their mother just died. They’re so bad at understanding each other.

The bittersweet smiles they exchange after “She wouldn’t want us to fight.”/“Well, she wouldn’t exactly be shocked.” are so painful to watch. They both desperately miss the days before any of this happened, when they were simply brothers, and I think they realize that about each other in this moment. But it’s not enough to fix everything, which is why Thor says “I wish I could trust you” and Loki says “Trust my rage.”

Ian is such a dope.

If a flock of starlings burst up through the ground at my feet like that, I would be scarred for life.

Thor’s plan is awesome. I totally fell for it in the theater. I thought Loki had double-crossed him and chopped his hand off, but they were working together the whole time. I kinda don’t think they let Jane in on it, though. Is the lack of blood on Thor’s arm stump a mistake or a hint that it’s a trick? *rewinds and squints* Ooh, no, it’s because the dagger has a glowy energy field on it! Insta-cauterization! Anyway, this would’ve been the perfect time for Loki to betray Thor for real if he’d wanted to, but he plays along. In part, I think, because he was so impressed with the plan.

Hey guys, even when Loki’s pretending to be a traitor, he doesn’t call himself Laufeyson. STOP CALLING HIM LAUFEYSON IN YOUR TAGS. Also his knife-fighting is awesome.

The Kursed dude’s eyeballs getting sucked out of their sockets was NOT a necessary detail to include.

“You fool, you didn’t listen!” What does Thor mean? What did Loki not listen to? Did Thor tell him that he was only supposed to protect Jane, not him?

Okay so I’m really not sure what the deal is with Loki’s fake death here. I have a couple different theories.

Theory 1: Loki really did get stabbed and really did believe he was dying. After Thor and Jane left to seek shelter from Thor’s uncontrollable grief storm, Loki reverted to his true form (because, dying) and that actually saved his life because Kursed blood isn’t as deadly to the Jotnar as it is to the Aesir, or his vital organs aren’t in the same place anymore, or something. So he was able to heal himself and take advantage of the situation.

Theory 2: Loki never intended to betray Thor, but he always intended to fake his death, both as a way of escaping prison and of avoiding Thanos’s retribution. So as soon as he finished off those four Dark Elves, he turned one of their corpses into a copy of himself and puppeteered it over to stab the Kursed dude and get theatrically killed. It would explain why the Loki who gets stabbed only has a Dark Elf sword and a black hole grenade on him.

I lean more towards theory 1 because I don’t really like the idea that Loki would trick Thor into thinking he was dead the day after their mother died, and also because when they filmed it, they actually meant for this to be Loki’s real death scene, and they only changed it later because test audiences didn’t believe Loki was dead. However, if I put aside my emotions, I have to admit that theory 2 makes more logical sense.

Would Malekith have found the Aether sooner if it hadn’t gotten into Jane? The movie implies pretty strongly that Malekith woke up because the Aether was out of its hiding place.

Mjolnir on the coat hook is such a great gag.

The elevator in Malekith’s ship looks like a spinal column, which is some fantastic design.

Thor’s battle trash talk is always delightful.

PORTAL SHENANIGANS. YESSSSSS.

Poor Mjolnir. It’s trying so hard to get back to Thor. I like to think that when it shatters the glass of that building on its way back up, it’s doing so in frustration.

Hi Jotunheim!

So apparently this isn’t remotely how you get to Greenwich from Charing Cross. Whoops. Maybe that girl was just really flustered at being addressed by Thor and gave him crap directions?

Jane really likes trying to throw herself between an unconscious Thor and a thing that she thinks might kill him.

POETRY. Malekith tried to destroy the Asgardian army by dropping his fleet on them. Now he gets killed by his own ship falling on him.

How’d Loki know about Thor’s line to Odin “There will never be a wiser king than you”?

“I can assure you, it will be absolutely safe here in my collection.” LIAR.

It’s so cool that Chris’s wife is the one who played Jane in the end credits scene. I’m not sure how they failed to do this kiss scene with Natalie in the first place, but whatever.

Every time Thor’s about to show up somewhere in this movie, there’s thunder. :D

Okay so the biggest problems with Thor: The Dark World are that Malekith is the dullest villain in the entire MCU and that Thor kinda doesn’t have a character arc. In a movie where half of his family dies (as far as he knows). How is that even possible? Despite the beautiful funeral, Frigga’s death was really kind of glossed over, and then Loki seemingly dies too, but even though those are very powerful scenes while we’re in them, they don’t leave much of an impact on the rest of the movie. You don’t really feel those losses in the way Thor fights Malekith. Thor should’ve been struggling to stick to the plan instead of just whaling on Malekith blindly with Mjolnir. He should’ve had some breakdown with Jane there to witness it and comfort him. Instead he’s the one comforting Jane when she blames herself for all the loss he’s suffered? No no no. He should’ve either been very emotional, very bent on revenge, or smiling and joking through the pain like he does in Ragnarok and Infinity War. This stoicism is not effective, and it probably contributes to so many people’s (mistaken) belief that, prior to Ragnarok, Thor was a boring character. And Malekith’s side of the battle would’ve been better if it had been personal for him too. He could’ve been more upset at the death of his buddy Algrim, or maybe he had family members who were killed by Bor, which is why he’s so keen on killing members of Asgard’s royal family now. It would’ve been so easy to make this an emotionally intense fight. Instead, it’s merely fun because portal shenanigans. *shrug*

Despite not having much of an arc, Thor is still wonderful. He’s funny, he’s more thoughtful and wise than he’s ever been, he’s gallant, he’s romantic, and he’s getting better and better at working as part of a team and finding solutions besides smashing stuff. Also he makes the best entrances, has awesome armor, and is mesmerizing to watch in battle. I adore him.

Other stuff this movie has going for it. So much more Asgard screentime, even if they cut a few scenes I wish they’d left in. The music is still great. Everything looks gorgeous, and the Dark Elves at least have interesting technology and costumes. No Dutch angles. Plenty of screentime for Heimdall. Every single second of Thor and Loki’s scenes together, being obnoxious bros to each other but still working as a very effective team (heralding all the excellent contentious Brodinson stuff to come in Ragnarok).

#thor the dark world #mcu marathon #thor #loki #infinity war spoilers #kinda

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