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blackswaneuroparedux · 3 years

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The Scots Greys and the turning of the tide at Battle of Waterloo

They never consider the situation, never think of manoeuvring before an enemy and never keep back or provide a reserve. They’re charging at everything!

- Duke of Wellington reflecting on the charge of the British cavalry after the Battle of Maguilla in 1812

The Duke of Wellington was never pleased with his cavalry. In Spain he condemned them for “charging at everything”, getting cut up in the process or finding themselves on a distant part of the battlefield, horses blown, at the very moment they were needed elsewhere. So at Waterloo the Iron Duke intended to keep the mounted arm on a tight rein.

It was, after all, the first time he would actually face Napoleon in the field, and the situation was not auspicious. He had been taken by surprise. He famously learnt of the sudden appearance of the French on the border with the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium) at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels on 15 June. “Napoleon has humbugged me, by God!” The following day his Prussian allies were worsted at Ligny. Hs own troops, rushed forward to nearby Quatre Bras, were badly mauled. He was on the back foot.

But his capacity to anticipate setbacks paid dividends. Some weeks earlier he had chosen a piece of ground on which to make a stand if the French were to come. The ridge of Mont St Jean, a mile south of the village of Waterloo athwart the main road from Charleroi to Brussels. The ridge ran north-east to south-west for about three miles, two-thirds of which Wellington was able to occupy with infantry and artillery. To support these he would post two brigades of light cavalry on the left (east) flank and three on the right. Two brigades of heavy cavalry, including the Scots Greys or, as they were then more properly known, the 2nd Royal (North British) Dragoons, would be in the centre. And to each of the cavalry brigadiers, as well as to the Earl of Uxbridge (later Marquess of Anglesey), the commander of the Allied cavalry and his second in command, Wellington gave strict instructions not to leave their positions without his express order.

The Duke was essentially a general who preferred to choose his ground, make the enemy attack him and then use the superior musketry of his infantry to defeat them. He intended Waterloo to be just such a battle. In addition, for the first time he had the benefit of a strong force of heavy cavalry inclusing the Scots Greys – bigger men, bigger swords, bigger horses – to counter the French heavy cavalry or break up an assault that threatened to overwhelm his infantry. And, indeed, the charge of these two brigades, best known perhaps for Lady (Elizabeth) Butler’s 1881 painting Scotland Forever! depicting the Scots Greys galloping wildly at the French, would be one of the critical actions of the battle, even, some argue, its turning point.

The Scots Greys had been formed in 1681 from a number of independent troops of dragoons (originally men who dismounted to fight with the musket, rather than fight from the saddle with sword and pistol), and known as The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons. The “grey” of their later title may at this time have referred to their uniform, for it was not for a dozen years that this changed to red, and there is no record that the Scots Greys used grey horses exclusively.

However, when inspected by King William III (William of Orange) in 1693 it was noted that the Scots Greys regiment were all mounted on greys. Soon afterwards they were being referred to as the “Grey Dragoons” or the “Scots Regiment of Grey Dragoons”. In 1707, after the Act of Union, they were restyled “North British”, as the parliamentary union envisaged Scotland to be. Not until 1877 would their nickname be made official. They became the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), inverted after the First World War to The Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons). They kept this title for 50 years until amalgamating with the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales’s Dragoon Guards) to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys).

When Napoleon escaped from Elba at the end of February 1815 to begin his “Hundred Days”, the ill-starred attempt to retake the French crown and continue his imperial ambitions, the Greys were one of a number of regiments rushed to Belgium that had yet to fight “Napoleonic” troops. Indeed, by the time of Waterloo few Scots Greys had seen battle - and they were keen to make up for it.

Their moment came in the early afternoon of 18 June, when it looked as if Wellington’s line at Waterloo would break. The Comte d’Erlon’s corps of three infantry divisions, some 14,000 men, with 6,000 cavalry, assaulted the Allied left wing and centre, which was held by Dutch-Belgian brigades and Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton’s 5th Division, the latter experienced Peninsular troops.

As d’Erlon’s men ascended the slope towards the sunken road that ran the length of the ridge left of La Haye Sainte, driving back the British skirmishers and reaching the thick hedge that fringed the road, Picton’s men stood up, formed into a four-deep line to guard against cavalry attack, advanced and began volleying.

However, the French deployed unusually quickly into line and returned fire. Picton himself was killed after ordering a counter-attack in language profane even by his own legendary standards, and soon his troops were giving way under the pressure of numbers. At two o’clock Napoleon appeared to be winning the Battle of Waterloo.

But Lieutenant-General the Earl of Uxbridge was a cavalry commander of genius. Earlier estranged from Wellington on account of eloping with the Duke’s youngest brother’s wife, he had been disbarred from service in the Peninsula after brilliantly covering Sir John Moore’s gruelling retreat to Corunna. But his cavalry coup d’oeil had not deserted him, nor his moral courage. Despite the Duke’s orders that none of the cavalry was to quit the ground it had been posted on without his express will, Uxbridge ordered his two brigades – the Household Brigade (1st and 2nd Life Guards, Royal Horse Guards and 1st (King’s) Dragoon Guards) and the Union Brigade, so-called for its English, Scots and Irish regiments (1st Royal Dragoons, 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, and the Scots Greys) – to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry.

With a combined strength of nearly 2,500 sabres and led by Uxbridge, the heavies advanced. The Household Brigade was first into the charge, sweeping back the cuirassiers guarding d’Erlon’s left flank. To the Household’s left the Union Brigade surged through the lines of red-coated infantry in the sunken road, where some Gordon Highlanders grasped their stirrups to get at the French, and at the foot of the slope routed the two advanced infantry brigades of General Joachim Quiot’s division, the Royals, capturing the eagle of the 105th Ligne while Sergeant Ewart of the Greys, 6ft 4in tall and a master swordsman and rider, captured the eagle of the 45th Ligne.

Only two eagles were captured that day.

As with the Household, however, the officers of the Union Brigade were finding it difficult to rein in their troops, and the heavies lost all cohesion. With many casualties and still trying to reorder, the Greys now found themselves before the main French lines, their horses blown, though some galloped on to attack the guns of the Grande Batterie. This was too much for Napoleon, who had hitherto left the conduct of the battle to Marshal Michel Ney. He promptly ordered a counter-attack by two cuirassier brigades and Baron Jacquinot’s two Polish lancer regiments (a charge also painted by Lady Butler).

As Major-General Sir William Ponsonby tried to rally his brigade he was captured by Jacquinot’s men, whereupon several Greys galloped to their brigadier’s rescue but the lancers at once killed him and three of his would-be rescuers, who could do nothing to overcome the lance’s reach. The rest of the heavies might also have been speared or sabred had it not been for a counter-charge by Major-General Sir John Vandeleur’s light dragoon brigade and two of Dutch-Belgians from the left flank, who had also disobeyed Wellington’s orders to stay put.

The charge saved the remnants of the Household and Union brigades but their casualties had been heavy, including the Greys’ lieutenant-colonel, James Hamilton, who was killed. The official recorded losses for both brigades that day were 1,205 troopers and 1,303 horses, an extremely high proportion.

However, 14,000 French troops of D’Erlon’s corps had been committed to the attack on the Allied centre at a cost of some 3,000 casualties and irrecoverable time. It was four o’clock before they were ready to advance again, by when, with the Allied line holding along the ridge and Prussian troops beginning to arrive on the field from the east, it was be-coming clear that Napoleon had lost the battle, although there would be another two hours of increasingly desperate, bloody but futile French attacks before Wellington judged it the moment to signal the whole line to advance.

The Scots Greys would later incorporate the image of the captured eagle in their cap badge, and Sergeant Ewart would be commissioned as an ensign (second lieutenant) in the 5th Veteran Battalion of Infantry. The following year he was invited to a Waterloo dinner in Edinburgh, where Sir Walter Scott asked him to speak. But Ensign Ewart begged that he might be excused, saying, “I would rather fight the Battle of Waterloo over again than face so large an assemblage.”

The Battle of Waterloo, the culmination of more than twenty years of fighting in Europe and across the globe, was one of the greatest military defeats in history. Within a matter of hours it would not only result in thousands of deaths, but also in the destruction ofa well-experienced army.

The role that the Scots Greys played in the Battle of Waterloo was, perhaps something of a surprise. Although they had had a long and relatively distinguished history, having fought in many battles from the time of William III in Holland, the group tasked with fighting at Waterloo, the majority having little or no battle experience, proved themselves to be more than adequate on their day. Through sheer courage and determination they entered a bloody battle against all the odds.

Historians continue to debate whether the Scots Greys was the actual turning point of the Battle of Waterloo with as much vigour as they debate the late intervention of Blucher’s Prussians. Be that as it may it remains undeniable that the number of losses, in proportion to their numbers, was very high, yet the impression they made on the battlefield at Waterloo was, and still is, deep and forever remembered.

#scots greys #waterloo #napoleon #eagle #history #british army #war #military history #napoleonic warfare #britain #france #prussia #regiment #duke of wellington

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chinesemovieposter · 7 years

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东方不败风云再起（1993）

#the east is red #brigitte lin #Joey Wong #wuxia films #chinese movie #Movie Poster #swordsman III

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creativedumpyard · 3 years

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The Emperors Finest

// a small tribute to a long gone campaign

Shah looked upon his Warriors. He was proud of them. He loved them all. The Squad of the Khornate Astartes, lead by the madman Loup always willing the destroy and murder.

Idawask Liskis men were just as bloodthirsty, although they were able to follow more than just the simplest commands.

His eyes fixed upon the newest recruits of his small contingent of warriors. A man named Nemelek and his ramshackle bunch of Heretics and renegades alike. They still had to show their worth. The leader of their crusade, Grand champion Tissav Kak just recently send these men to his command. Shah smiled, his perfect white teeth shone. They would make a fine addition to his plans.

His right hand Apollius cleared his throat. Shah ripped free from his entangling vision of greatness and started to speak to his underlings. “Welcome, my brothers! Welcome to another day of the Siege of this godforsaken Planet. We have taken City by City. Fortress by fortress. Now only this bestial Walled City is between us, and the Victory we so dearly crave! Cindar shall be ours, claimed for the Dark Gods!” As he spoke of Victory, an almost predatory smile sneaked on his face. Only to be immediately to be extinguished and replaced by a more heartfelt version.

“The grand champion, blessings on thy name, wants us to go in hard and fast. The main forces will be waiting in the north east, while we concluded a fast blow to the few remaining Void-Shield Generators! There will be resistance, but we assume that the most of them will be stationed closer to the North eastern gates.” Shah paused a moment. His Warriors seemed ready. “Loup, you will be going to head to the Gates. I have full trust in your ability to crush the resistance there. My personal squad and I will be behind you.” Loup and his bloody-red Men screamed and held their Chainaxes up high.

“Idawask, you will be going south over the wall. And the new Squad of brother Nemelek will be doing the same Maneuver in the east. All of you will be supplied Jump-packs for this Mission, but be careful not to damage them! We will start in about an hour, as soon as the Main forces resume the Shelling. Get Ready!”

He quickly punched his chest plate with his right fist and turned around. He still had some planning to do and no time to waste.

The gathering thinned. The Khornates were already running hot.

Nemelek turned to his newly assembled squad. He wasn't quite sure as what to make of his new position or the people he now lead into battle. There was the Beautiful Blood Angel renegade Cassiel. He was an excellent fighter that used an giant Eviscerator. Most of his red Armour still had emblems of his past. Just his Aquila was scratched and painted over with a black Chaos-cross. Nemelek wasn't too sure about why Cassiel joined the forces of chaos, but he was eager to prove himself. He was more concerned about the slow Nurgle Marine and the Slaaneshi Swordsman with the Insane Eyes. While the Nurgle Marine Ogmha Inititium was a Psyker and thus was extremely effective in battle, he was way too relaxed and always seemed to take this Siege more as a personal Hike.

The Slaneeshi pledged Astartes was just quite the Handful. Flavian Charosean did not enjoy getting commands. He had a slight tendency to go off course if it meant his personal recreation. And one could only assume what that meant, coming from the Emperors Children and their Offspring. A long Whip made from a stiff, Fleshy substance protruded from his left forearm. It ended in sharp hooks and tiny blades. Sometimes it almost seemed to move too quick or too agile to be just a weapon.

The last one was Venatus. A Nightlord far away from his usual legion or tactics. So far he had proven somewhat reliable. Venatus already had a Jump-pack, a longer and slimmer design with numerous silver arcs of metal lightning engraved on it. While Nemelek witnessed what cruelties this man was capable of doing, he seemed content with sitting in the dirt and cleaning his Bolter for now. He cleared his throat.

“Get to the Armory, I want all of you ready and with a Jump-pack in half an hour!”

Flavian and Cassiel rushed off to get their hands on better quality Jump-packs. Ogmha was slowly walking in the general direction of the armory, completely ignoring time limits.

“Lucky that you already have yours, huh?”, Nemelek said to Venatus. The Nightlord stopped cleaning his rifle for a second but resumed without even looking up. Nemelek shook his head slightly and went to get himself an Jump-pack as well. He had seen how bad some of those were in shape and he didn't want his to fail mid flight.

Nemelek stood on a burned out Chimera Tank. From this slightly elevated Position he was able to see the City in its full might, the sprawling gun towers on the walls, the trenches dug up before and the tiny dots of busy commute in between that were the defenders. He turned to check if his squad was ready. All stood ready, equipped with the Jump-packs. Flavian was already getting bored and flinging is sword through the air.

“Squad! Move out!” Nemelek jumped down from the Wreckage and activated his Power fist.

Since their Mission was not to clear the trenches, they jumped over them using the fire from their jet-engines. The Human defenders were largely too shocked or too scared to shoot at them. But sometimes Laser beams or bullets darted in their general direction. Their short jumps carried them far over the battlefield in mere minutes. Soon after they arrived at the Wall. Massive overhanging gun nests opened fire on them. Before the Gunners had time to properly take aim, Ogmha stepped to the front and held up his staff. He gestured with the bony, nauseating excuse for a Wooden staff and a bubbling green shield of psychic energy surrounded them in an instant. Bullets and lazers bounced off or evaporated. Nemelek voxed to his squad, “Ogmha and Venatus you take take of the gunners on the wall. Flavian, Cassiel and I will jump over and secure the other side”.

As he flew high on his howling engines, Nemelek saw that the inner wall was spiked with stairs and ammunition cranes. Then came a street, broad enough to fit several tanks with ease. Behind the street were a few warehouses as well as small bunkers and living quarters for the less fortunate civilian. A few blocks to his right he could see an opening in the buildings. Another thick gray wall with ugly fortifications climbed up high.

The bigger street to his left was his landing spot. Cassiel landed a few meters in front of him, Flavian further to his left on a small house. In this exact moment more armed forces streamed into the street from the inner city. They opened fire just a few moments later. Laser beams darting all around the Space Marines as they ran into cover. “Cassiel, go right. Flavian, jump into their left flank!” He saw Cassiel's Helmet head turn in his direction and nod. The Man let his Eviscerator scream with blood lust and anger as he flew a short arc to meet the first of the attackers. Effortlessly parting body parts and killing two men that stood too close to each other in a single blow.

Flavian cackled as He swung his Whip up high, crashing it down into a soldier, freeing him of clothing and skin alike. His victim had no time to scream in agony before the long silver blade of the Slaaneshi split open his torso up to is nose.

Nemelek used his Bolter effortlessly. Splattering blood and entrails through the ranks of the advancing Soldiers. The shock of the attack let the Mortals forget about morale and discipline. They opened up their formation to flee into cover. Unfocused Las fire punched through the air around the advancing Astartes, but their ceramite armor deflected the shots. Not more than small smoldering chips in the paint was all that stayed.

The street emptied after the Soldiers dove into Cover. Nemelek was able to see the end of the street where now two Chimera Tanks drove around the corner. “Heads up! We've got Light Tanks ahead!”. His Vox alarm was not necessary as the tanks opened fire immediately. The mounted Heavy bolters posed an actual thread to the Astartes, as well as to any cover that wasn't solid enough. As Nemelek jumped behind a thick half high wall of Ferroconcrete the explosive Shells hammered into the Asphalt where he just stood. These tanks had a higher priority than any of the scared soldiers left behind.

Flavian Reached for his Plasma pistol. A thin cable connected it to his power pack. He felt the Bone and Mother of Pearl decorations on the Grip, the powerful thrumming of the coils. The last Artifact of his Past in the III. Legion. His Jump-pack roared as he flew directly into the small crowd of Soldiers behind some Wreckage that they had used as cover. A few swings with his sword and whip were enough to send half the group to the warp and the other fleeing in terror. His engines roared again and he jumped in a short curve directly at the one of the tanks. The Gunner was still aiming at Nemelek. Far too late he got aware of the danger the violet clad Marine posed. As the Gunner tried to rip the Turret up to meet the new target, Flavian aimed almost based on Instinct and shot his pistol. The searing hot ball of plasma burned the Man and his gun but not before one bolt shell exploded on his pauldron, ripping him around. Flavian crashed, loudly swearing, into the pavement. He jumped to his feet the moment the ramp of the chimera lowered itself and more Human soldiers ran out into the open. “Filth! How dare you shoot at ME?” He screamed at the top of his Lungs while charging forward. While the Imperial standard Las-rifle is a good medium range weapon, it was never truly suited for close combat situations. None of the soldiers even stood a chance against a genetically enhanced warrior of the Adeptus Astartes. Sword met flak armor and sliced it apart. Blood and entrails spilled to the floor, as Flavian focused on his blade to agonize instead to kill. His whip sliced through the skin, ripping apart faces as well as disarming the few that tried to draw combat knives. Just a few seconds later and no mortal was left standing, most of them winding and crying at the feet of the Ceramite Monster. To fulfill his quest of destroying the tank, Flavian unhooked a Krak Grenade and threw it into the still open crew department of the tank. As it exploded, the blast broke through the thin inner armor and annihilated the Driver and the engine alike.

Cassiel was already weeding out the humans behind their fortifications. His massive chain sword cleaving bone as well as metal. When Nemeleks warning came, he already scanned to area for more targets. He was way closer to one of the tanks as he rolled onto the plaza. The Chimeras gunner turned the massive gun towards him, but Cassiel was already charging at the tank. His anger fiery hot in his chest, about to overtake his senses. In a short burst of energy from his back engines, Cassiel threw himself atop the tank, just behind the gunner. The man let go of the turret and stared in horror at the massive red angel looming over him. His Eviscerator catching the man atop his head and striking down, halving him along his spine. As the blood rippled against his helmet and stuck to his hands, Cassiel roared. Using his strength he leaned into the Chain-sword to slowly cut into the armor of the tank. The metal screamed and sparks flew, darting around him like small angry insects. With Blood lust he hacked his way into the Drivers chassis and disabled the tank by leaving nothing unbroken and no-one alive.

Flavian closed in on the Tank that got tortured by his furious cousin. He inspected the damage with childish glee and a bit of envy. “By the Mother! You are really a Danger to behold, Cassiel.” He turned to the still furiously hacking and slashing Man. “Cassiel! The Tank is done and so is the crew. You can stop it now?!” He said, raising his voice so that he could be heard over the clash of metal.

Cassiel turned. His shoulders squared and his head held low he assumed a vicious combat stance when he sighted the Slaaneshi. Immediately sensing the hostile intend, Flavian stepped back in confusion. Did he just offend Cassiel? “Cassiel? Are you alright?...I mean I- I didn't want to offend ..” But before he could finish the question, Cassiel roared and stormed at him, Eviscerator held up high. Flavian was shocked and reacted almost too slow, parrying the massive chain sword with an unusually crude flick of his Sword. But the Red Angel did not stop, hacking and slashing at the confused team member. Flavian was put into a defensive position that he did not enjoy.

“CASSIEL! By the Gods, what are you doing? STO- STOP IT”

Flavian was confused by the sudden aggressive action, as well as the pure Blood lust the he felt in every strike.

#warhammer #writing

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Steve Yurko

I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

My next guest in this series is Steve Yurko, co-host of The One Piece Podcast, a podcast with a subject you can probably guess. He's also a former storyboard artist for Rick & Morty and is currently working for Netflix Animation. As a ride-or-die Sanji fan, Steve chose the Baratie Arc, where Luffy and the gang run into an East Blue restaurant with a cool chef that loves to cook and kick.

A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Baratie arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Arlong Park arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

Dan Dockery: So a friend tells you, "I'm done with the Syrup Village arc and I'm not sure if I want to watch this next one. I think I might be tapped out on this whole One Piece thing. In one sentence, how do you get them to stay and watch the Baratie arc?

Steve Yurko: The Baratie arc laid down the foundation and created the formula of the One Piece arc as we know it.

That's pretty good!

Yeah, I’d say that, when I first started it, One Piece was my third favorite. I was more of a fan of series like Shaman King and Naruto, but after Baratie, things shifted. It was a turning point for me. I would hope that it would do the same for anyone who’s, say, previously apathetic towards the series.

How old were you when you first read it? Or watched it?

It feels weird to say this, but my introduction to One Piece was Chapter 1. Like Dragon Ball Z, the first episode I can remember watching was, like, Yamcha training on King Kai’s planet, and I’d get Goku and Yamcha confused and stuff, because I had just dived in. So for me to start a story like One Piece from the beginning is kind of rare. I was 15, I think.

So, we're jumping into Baratie, and we first see the guy with the brass knuckles, Fullbody. He's trying to act cool on a date and he's being mean to everyone else. And then we have Sanji being typical Cool Sanji and Fullbody acts up and Sanji just tears through him. How did you react? Did you know immediately that you'd like this waiter?

Well, I don't want to alarm you here, but my first thought was “Sanji’s cool!” I’d seen images of him before, and I saw his black suit and blond hair and I figured, “Oh, another crew member, probably. Looks distinct enough.” So I often have to look back and wonder “Did I like him because of his edgy coolness?” but I think now it’s because there were more layers to him. Like, he definitely stands out from the other Straw Hats, but he also has this distinct fighting style with cool reasoning. He’s a cook and he doesn’t want to bust up his hands trying to punch people in the face, so he uses his feet. So, he does like these cool capoeira kicks, which only gets better as they go along because I feel like so many anime characters, the stronger they get, the more they start to fight the same with fast volleys of punches and laser blasts. So Sanji’s kicks are a great way to differentiate himself from the main cast and other anime heroes.

So, then we have Luffy, he shows up by damaging the Baratie. Enter: Zeff. Full disclosure: In my infinite naivete when I first watched One Piece, I thought Zeff was going to be the new crew member. And then I thought Gin was going to join the Straw Hat crew. And then when Sanji finally joined, I was like, "This guy? Really? Dark horse candidate over here."

You didn’t know yet?

I guess I hadn't watched the first ED yet — when the crew slowly shows up and stands beside one another.

You saw Usopp’s silhouette appear and thought, “Eh, I’ve seen enough.”

"That must be all of them."

It happens.

So, you meet Zeff, and you learn about Sanji and Zeff's relationship, and we get a big One Piece flashback. What do you think of that? Because it would become a staple of the series to kinda pause, see what happened to an important guy, and then come back.

Such an incredible story and so gruesome and terrifying. Sanji’s original flashback is so underrated because it could happen to anyone! Like, you’d have to go out of your way to get stranded on an island, but going days and weeks without food or any real comfort? I think people underestimate how traumatizing that would be. And then Zeff losing his leg because he hacked it off for food, it’s brutal. Just thinkin’ about that, I feel it in my shins. Because that almost happened to me with a minor injury. I let a minor injury get infected, and I could’ve been close to losing a leg.

Wait, what? Gahd.

I was doing box jumps at a gym, and my shin hit the corner of this wooden crate.

Yeah, those things have no give in them.

Absolutely. And at the time, I thought it was just this dark spot on my shin. And I figured it was, ya know a bruise. So I let it be. And then I picked at the scab and I realized “Wow, that’s a little deeper than I thought. I guess I’ll go to the doctor if it gets worse.” And I kept going to the gym, wearing pants over like this open wound. And my left leg is so swollen. So I went to two different doctors, as the first one did tests and then sent me to another one. And when this doctor saw me, the look on her face said “Oh, this is bad.” So I laughed out loud about how dumb I was and the doctor turned to me and said “This isn’t funny. This IS SERIOUS.” It had gotten infected with bacteria and it was spreading, and she just took a sharpie and drew around the infected area, and gave me antibiotics and was like “You have to keep this elevated, and if the redness goes outside of this line, go to the hospital.” But luckily, I recovered, even though the doctors were like “Honestly, we thought you’d go to the hospital.” So when Zeff severs his foot with a rock, how does anyone not feel that?

Do you think that's one of the reasons Luffy is fascinated by Sanji at first? His mentor, Shanks, lost his arm and was cool about it. Zeff lost his leg and was cool about it. Basically twins.

That’d be an interesting conversation that we never got to see. Just two dudes talking about how weird it is that both their father figures did that, with only Luffy thinking it’s cool.

Don Krieg's ship gets blown in half by an incomprehensibly cool character, Mihawk, the first Warlord to appear in the show. You see Mihawk arrive — what is your reaction to him? Because it's not a case of "The villain of the villain is my friend," but rather "Oh, he did that to the villain? I hope he does not do that to us, as that would suck."

It’s almost like the good guys meeting the bad guys, and then a tornado comes in. But here’s the thing: I missed the issue of Jump where Zoro fought Mihawk. So I assumed that Zoro had just won. The greatest swordsman in the world shows up and Zoro beats him. Boom. The climax of his character arc has been achieved. Nothing left for Zoro.

He just did it.

I didn’t find out until so much later that Zoro lost. I wasn’t quite aware of what made for a captivating story yet. At that time, an obstacle appears, an obstacle gets taken out, ya move on. I almost want to apologize to Mihawk.

I love how One Piece does this though. They do it with Smoker and Aokiji and the like. It reminds me of The Witcher III when you go off the path a little bit, and you're at a Level 4 and then a Level 39 Gryphon swoops down and decapitates you. It keeps the "power levels" interesting.

Luffy starts up Breath of the Wild and goes right for Calamity Ganon. But Mihawk is like the analogy for the Grand Line. He represents it, without revealing too much. Mihawk is like a Pizza Hut demo disc of danger.

I really like that. And no one knows, to this day, exactly how powerful he is. Over 20 years later, and we're still wondering how he matches up against Shanks or Blackbeard or whatever. One Piece has so many characters where Oda hasn't shown his full hand in regards to them, yet we're totally emotionally invested in them. That's good storytelling.

He’s doing something right. And I love that Mihawk has a little character arc here, too, where he shows up nonchalantly slicing up Krieg’s ships, probably doesn’t expect much, and then he’s taken aback by Zoro’s gusto, because he hasn’t seen anyone like that in a while. And he slices Zoro down. But he respects him, when in the beginning, he clearly didn’t respect anyone around. Mihawk wants to see him be better and try to take him down one day. For him to willingly build someone up like that is rare. Like Frieza wouldn’t do that.

So, Don Krieg — what were your opinions of him at the time? Because he's a really bad guy surrounded by more morally grey guys like Mihawk and Gin.

What I like about the East Blue saga is that every main villain is an antithesis of Luffy and what makes Luffy a truly great captain. Buggy is all about treasure. Kuro is about ambition and the fortitude to be a pirate. Krieg is about might and strength, and Krieg thinks he has both of those because of his weapons and armor. But Luffy has willpower and ambition and doesn’t let the world change his views. Luffy is incorruptible whereas Krieg is willing to poison his own crew when stuff starts going south. Krieg isn’t fondly remembered, but he really serves his purpose in the story.

So, after Krieg is defeated, Sanji turns down Luffy's offer to join the Straw Hat crew. Now, he knows this is a bad idea. He's not gonna find the All Blue floating around on the Baratie. Why doesn't he go immediately?

Well, he knows it’s a bad idea but he’s completely misinterpreting Zeff’s sacrifice. He feels that since Zeff sacrificed his leg, he has to repay him by working for him indefinitely. But the reason that Zeff did that was because he wants Sanji to live on and chase his dream. That’s why Zeff took pity on him in the first place. He’s an older, worn-down man now, and he stopped chasing his dream. And now he wants to see Sanji or someone get a win. It lifts his spirit to see Sanji and live kinda vicariously through him.

So, the second time I ever cried over One Piece was during Sanji's goodbye and Zeff's "Don't catch a cold." The first time was when that little dog was trying to protect his dead owner's shop in Orange Town, but that's a different story. But this shot of Sanji on his knees thanking Zeff with all the cooks surrounding them is so iconic, and Sanji's acting like it's a gift that Zeff gave him that Sanji could never repay, while as you said, Zeff just wants Sanji to be happy. What did you get out of that? I assume that you're a human with human emotions.

I cry every time I watch that. When I first saw it, I was like “How? How is a series this good?” And there’s so much to that ending sequence. Because the Baratie is built on this rough, angry masculinity. Just these dudes being mean and fighting each other and customers all the time. There’s never a time or a place for lending a shoulder to someone else. No emotional embraces of any kind. Just everyone berating everyone. No one can open up — just stupid man babies. And then you get to this moment where Sanji is leaving and they’re all trying to be cool while playing it off. Especially Zeff, who can’t give a legitimate goodbye, but rather a “Don’t catch a cold.” But there’s so much to that statement and the facade crumbles. All these grown men start bawling.

I've never thought about it that way. There's all these little hints of kindness, like feeding the bad guys, and it's a masculinity powder keg. And then Sanji, in an ultimate display of putting his heart out there, bows to the man who saved him and the keg explodes. That's really cool.

ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

Favorite One Piece character?

Sanji

Favorite One Piece villain?

Enel

Favorite One Piece moment?

March to Arlong Park

Favorite Straw Hat Crew pairing?

Luffy and Zoro

Favorite moment of the new Wano anime arc?

Soba Mask’s debut

If you could eat one Devil Fruit, what would it be?

Whatever Kanjuro’s fruit is

Moment that made you cry the hardest?

Sanji leaving the Baratie

Moment that made you cheer the loudest?

Straw Hats at the Tower of Justice standing across from Robin

One Piece location that you'd like to live in?

Whole Cake Island. Ya eat well, ya know, you can survive Big Mom

Favorite fight scene?

Sanji vs Mr. 2, of course

Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with Botchamania creator Maffew about his favorite One Piece arc: Alabasta!!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Shang-Chi Villain: Best Tony Leung Movies to Watch

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Tony Leung’s portrayal of Wenwu takes the MCU villain to a whole new level in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the latest feature film in the franchise. Wenwu is complex and textured as written, but veteran actor Leung gives the role such gravity, a level of depth that can only be reached by one of the world’s leading performers. Wenwu easily tops the ranks of MCU’s best villains, but it wasn’t always clear Shang-Chi‘s villain would be a hit. Originally in the comics, Shang-Chi’s father was the xenophobic Asian caricature Fu Manchu. Later, Fu was replaced with the Mandarin, another character that relied on racist stereotypes, so when the Mandarin was announced as the next MCU villain, it aroused concern. However, Iron Man 3 wisely spun the Mandarin to their advantage. Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) became the Mandarin, and the character was rewritten as a mere dimwitted actor, a pawn of greater evil forces. It was a woke revision and appeased the Chinese market so much that Iron Man 3 became a huge box office smash there.

The MCU corrected an outdated racist offense within the Shang-Chi comics canon through Iron Man 3, but the casting of Tony Leung as the “real” Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings caused some initial trepidation. However, it’s proven to be another brilliant spin on behalf of the MCU. Firstly, the character is not the Mandarin at all. He’s Wenwu, an ancient immortal who disdainfully dismisses that ridiculous Mandarin moniker. Secondly, Tony Leung is a global A-list actor, a household name across Asia, and a good lure for that lucrative Chinese market…

Who is Shang-Chi’s Villain Tony Leung?

Leung is an internationally acclaimed actor, but not well known in the United States. For those new to Tony Leung, it’s important to know that there are two Chinese actors who go by this name. There’s Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, who is the actor in Shang-Chi. And there’s Tony Ka Fai Leung, who is also a distinguished actor from Hong Kong. Tony Ka Fai Leung is the elder. He won Best Actor at the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards an astonishing four times.

While SAG doesn’t permit actors to have the same name, this is tricky for China. In Chinese, the surname comes before the given name, so the Tonys are known as Leung Ka Fai or Leung Chiu-Wai in Cantonese. Hollywood usually just goes by the adopted Western name, but some try to add the Chinese name to distinguish the two. Due to the difference in surname placement, sometimes the Chinese is dropped in the middle like Tony Chiu-Wai Leung and other times it’s on the end like Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Sometimes in Hong Kong, where the British occupation left a lot of English speakers, the Western name is sometimes in the middle, as in Leung “Tony” Chiu-Wai. Regardless, it’s important to know that there’s two Tony Leungs and they are both highly respected Hong Kong actors. Because of their respective ages, Tony Ka Fai Leung is known as “Big Tony” while Tony Chiu-Wai Leung has been dubbed “Little Tony.” They’ve even starred in movies together.

“Little” Tony Chiu-Wai Leung is more famous than his elder. He’s won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards a whopping five times. He’s also won the coveted Best Actor prize at Cannes. That was for his role in In the Mood for Love (2000), which was also nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or, and is considered by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time. In the Mood for Love was one of many collaborations between Leung and one of China’s most celebrated directors, master auteur Wong Kar-wai. Leung has worked with all the top Chinese directors, producing masterpiece after masterpiece of Chinese cinema. His career spans achingly artsy romances, period Kung Fu movies, ultra-violent gangster films, goofy slapstick comedies, and now the MCU.

For Shang-Chi fans who want to go deeper, Den of Geek has selected some of Tony Leung’s top films for your perusal.

A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)

The final live-action chapter in Tsui Hark’s defining Fant-Asia genre tentpole trilogy, Leung plays a bumbling Buddhist disciple who falls in love with a ghost named Lotus (Joey Wang). The three-quel reunited some of the original cast and recycled many ideas from the franchise, but the addition of Leung redeems the film. With a provocative peek into Chinese lore akin to the mythical beasts in Shang-Chi’s Ta Lo, A Chinese Ghost Story III is a goofy early role for Leung before he develops his signature smoldering romantic persona.

Hard Boiled (1992)

Considered as one of the greatest Hong Kong gangster films of all time, Hard Boiled is one of Leung’s collaborations with the master of balletic gunplay, director John Woo (Leung also appeared in Woo’s brutal Bullet in the Head (1990)). Leung plays Alan, an undercover cop posing as a hitman. Hard Boiled is famous for an ultraviolent one-er firefight finale in a maternity ward. Leung was injured in the filming of that scene. One of the many explosions sent glass shards flying into Leung’s eyes and he had to be hospitalized. Leung’s performance was so gripping that it is rumored that Woo changed the script so Alan would survive. Leung was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his role.

Ashes of Time (1994)

As period martial arts films go, Ashes of Time is exceptional. Based on a renowned martial novel, The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong, it was directed by Wong Kar-wai and choreographed by Sammo Hung. Leung plays a blind swordsman in a sweeping martial epic costarring his frequent leading lady, Maggie Cheung. Visually stunning yet somewhat incomprehensible, Wong went way over budget, so to garner more funds, he produced a comedy version with the same cast called The Eagle Shooting Heroes (the film title is the same as the original novel with the addition of a suffix meaning “East into West” – the translation shifted “condor” to “eagle” but it’s the same character in Chinese). When the original prints of film were lost, Wong re-edited and re-scored it as Ashes of Time Redux. The film is highly regarded in art film circles for Wong’s underappreciated early vision. Coincidentally, this film (and consequently The Eagle Shooting Heroes) stars both Tony Chiu-Wai Leung and Tony Ka Fai Leung.

Chungking Express (1994)

Another collaboration with Wong Kar-wai, this is a cop rom-com, told in two separate story arcs. Leung is the heartbroken Cop 663 in the second arc who gets involved in a complicated romance. Chungking Express was recognized as an artistic triumph by film critics around the world. Wong’s unique visual style and technical skill in storytelling earned international praise. The role won Leung another Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as the Golden Horse Awards.

Happy Together (1997)

Wong Kar-wai won Best Director at Cannes for this groundbreaking LGBTQ film. Leung plays Lau Yiu-Fai and his gay lover Ho Po-Winh is played by Leslie Cheung. Cheung was a top pop singer who came out as bisexual in 1992. Tragically, he committed suicide by jumping off the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong in 2003. He was only 46. A controversial film for the time, even the poster for the film was censored in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, it earned Leung yet another Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

In the Mood for Love (2000)

In the Mood for Love reunites Leung with Wong Kar-wai and Maggie Cheung in a dramatic romance that captured the hearts of audiences around the world. Highly decorated in international film festivals, it made the Top 100 films list for Entertainment Weekly, Empire, BBC and Time Out and is widely considered a cinematic masterpiece. In the Mood for Love is an achingly poignant tale of missed opportunities and unrequited love. It’s one of Leung’s most acclaimed performances. If you’re only going to watch one of Leung’s romantic films, this is the one.

Infernal Affairs (2002)

A gripping gangster thriller, Leung plays Chan Wing-yan, an undercover cop who infiltrates a Hong Kong gang. This is the film that Martin Scorsese remade into the Academy Award winning film The Departed. Scorsese rewrote Chan as Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). It earned Leung one more Best Actor from the Hong Kong Film Awards, and the film captured seven other wins including Best Film and Best Original Film Song (notable because the song is sung by Leung and his costar Andy Lau – Leung has a significant career as a singer too with over a dozen Cantopop albums). Internal Affairs spawned a trilogy and a TV series, as well as other international remakes beyond The Departed from directors in India, Japan, and Korea.

Hero (2002)

Hero is a truly epic martial arts film from celebrated director Zhang Yimou (Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern). With a lush soundtrack by Tan Dun, Hero received multiple nominations and wins across many respected international awards festivals including the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Leung plays Broken Sword, an assassin, alongside Maggie Cheung, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen. Li’s character Nameless is the main assassin, but Broken Sword is his equal. And again, Cheung plays Leung’s lover as his partner assassin Flying Snow. If Shang-Chi makes you want to see more of Leung’s Kung Fu, check this one out.

2046 (2004)

The final installment of the trilogy by Wong Kar-wai and costarring Maggie Cheung. In the Mood for Love was the second installment; Days of Being Wild was the first. In 2046, Leung and Cheung reprise their In the Mood for Love roles with a time-travelling spin. It was a masterful move on behalf of Wong. No one expected his to take his internationally acclaimed romance and convert it to a sci-fi. What’s even more astonishing is that it totally worked. Like the previous installment, Leung won yet another Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards where this film also garnered five other wins.

Lust, Caution (2007)

This steamy spy film was directed by Ang Lee, earning him his second Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (the first was Brokeback Mountain). Set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the tumultuous 40s, Leung plays Mr. Yee, the target of an assassination plot. It was controversial in China because of its graphic sex scenes, but it earned Leung more Best Actor titles at the Golden Horse Awards and the Asian Film Awards. While the controversy over its explicit sex scenes didn’t reflect poorly on Leung, his costar Tang Wei was blacklisted by the Chinese film industry and lost all her endorsement deals.

The Grandmaster (2013)

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Wong Kar-wai’s last film to date casts Leung as the martial arts master Ip Man, the same historic character played by Donnie Yen in his popular tetralogy. Like Ashes of Time, this film is on a level well above the typical martial arts movie fare. The Grandmaster brings together moving performances, arthouse sensibilities, and dazzling fight choreography in another epic tale of unrequited love. Leung brings such provocative gravitas to the role of Ip Man. While his martial arts skills are not on par with Donnie Yen, Leung trained so hard in preparation for the film that he broke his arm. This is another good example of Leung’s cinematic Kung Fu skills. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens in theaters on September 3rd.

The post Shang-Chi Villain: Best Tony Leung Movies to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

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cinemakeren21movies · 3 years

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Swordsman III: The East Is Red (1993)

A royal official accompanies a Portuguese warship to the Black Cliffs to see the site of the defeat of the evil Invincible Asia, who attained supernatural abilities by following the sacred scroll and castrating himself.

Trailer film Swordsman III: The East Is Red (1993)

source https://80.209.252.54/swordsman-iii-the-east-is-red-1993/

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ghost-in-heat · 7 years

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Movie: Swordsman III: The East Is Red

TV show: Gypsy

#Swordsman III #Brigitte Lin #Joey Wang #gypsy #naomi watts #sophie cookson #jean x sidney #gypsyedit #sidney pierce #Jean Holloway

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mingzisdrgongxuo · 1 year

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SWORDSMAN III | THE EAST IS RED (1993) SUB

youtube

#Youtube

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may8chan · 5 years

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Swordsman III: The East Is Red

#Swordsman III: The East Is Red #Siu-Tung Ching #Raymond Lee #Brigitte Lin #Kingdom Yuen #Filmedit

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hyrulecastles · 7 years

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all these places feel like home

Characters: Mika/Yuu Word Count: 4,214 Summary: In every lifetime, in every world, Yuu and Mika stumble into each other's stories one way or another. Sometimes they meet, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they fall in love, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they kill each other, sometimes they don't.

Yuu’s smiling at him, and Mika strains beneath the weight of primal instinct, grits his teeth and chokes and burns because there’s so much blood—

Yuu grins at him anyway; when Mika glances at him, vision blurring, he only sees that stupid smile, that gorgeous, tragic, hopeless, dying smile.

“Stop it,” he mutters, fang digging into his bottom lip, and he hates himself because he’s within an inch of his own life and all he wants is the blood that’s spilling between them. “If you’re going to look at me like that, I’d rather you just die already.”

Yuu laughs, and Mika can hear the way he’s breathing, heavy, like he’s fighting it, like he refuses to die first. He won’t give up until Mika does; more to the point, he won’t let Mika watch him die. Yuu’s trying to spare him this last burden at the end, and if Mika had it in him to move and close the space between them, he’d strangle Yuu himself.

Despite it all, he fights the hurt, the wound between his ribs, and he pushes onto his side so he can look this idiot in the eyes. He’s got those marks on his face, Mika recognizes them as a sign of the demon, Yuu pushing and pulling at power that was never his own. It wasn’t enough; they’re all gone, all of Yuu’s friends, the family he’d tried so hard to welcome Mika into.

Then he’s laughing again, and Mika watches blood trickle from his mouth.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” he laughs. Mika thinks, just for one hilariously bitter moment, that his injury’s fitting: a goddamn hole in his chest, he feels it, the emptiness. “Hey,” he says then, and the sound of his labored breathing wraps around Mika’s slowing heart and squeezes. “What if it was just me? If you weren’t hurt, too, would you –”

“Change you into a vampire?” Mika cuts in tiredly. “I would.”

There’s no surprise on Yuu’s face, only a warm fondness on his exhausted face. “I don’t know if I’d stop you.”

“It wouldn’t matter to me if you tried.”

Mika shuts his eyes then, and he lets himself cry. For fuck’s sake, he’s doing to die, what good will his pride do him now? “I’m sorry,” he chokes out, willing himself to get the words out. “It should have been different. I should have never begged you to run away from Sanguinem –”

“Oh, shut up,” Yuu says, but Mika doesn’t hear him well. “This is enough for me. I’m glad I got to see you again, that we got to be together… Is that selfish?”

Mika’s breathing steadies, and he starts to feel it, that whatever’s alive in him is slipping away, leaving him behind.

“I don’t regret anything,” Yuu mutters, calm, losing his hold. “But….”

But—

“I wish….”

“Please don’t,” Mika whispers, and he listens to Yuu breathe, slow and even, pulse painfully slow.

(Don’t let me die knowing you wish things had been different, too.)

“I wonder if this is all there is….” Yuu wonders aloud, and it’s all dizzying and far away. “Maybe we’ll get to try again.”

He doesn’t hear the rest; Yuu wins, successfully holds out long enough that Mika’s heart stops, truly stops this time, not the way it had changed, shifted back when he’d given humanity up.

Maybe we’ll get to try again.

He thinks he might’ve laughed one last time, given a final, amused noise at such a stupid idea.

II.

Yuu hates this motherfucker.

Mika’s so damn arrogant—prissy rich kid with his perfect grades, his spotless record, his shiny red Mercedes. Yuu can’t stand him, he’s hated him since their freshman year.

Of course, then, they’re paired together for Yuu’s godforsaken required tutoring. He’s not doing so hot in his composition course, and it’s not like he particularly cares for writing, but evidently if he doesn’t make a near-flawless score on his final paper, he’ll fail the class, and Yuu’s got a clear picture for his senior year that doesn’t involve taking this class again.

But does it have to be this guy?

“What’s on your mind?” Mika asks smoothly, sitting straight, primly, with his legs crossed. His mouth quirks when Yuu rolls his eyes at him.

“How much more of this?” For emphasis, Yuu gestures, frustrated, at Mika.

Those awful blue eyes glint, amused, at him as Mika bats his eyes. “Oh, you don’t like me?”

“Let me make this clear,” Yuu all but growls, leaning forward, and he absently jabs his pen into the sheet of paper in front of him. “I would sooner hit you with my car than be here right now.”

Mika rests his face on his palm idly. “That beat up two-door’s yours, right? The dirty black one?”

“Would you fuck off?”

But Mika smiles.

“I think you do like me,” he says pointedly, twirling his pen in his hand.

“I think you’re delusional,” Yuu snaps.

If he allows himself any honesty, though, Mika may be onto something—if nothing else, Yuu envies him. He’s perfect; everybody adores him, wants his attention.

It occurs dimly to Yuu that he’s got that attention on him now. When he glances back at him, Mika’s regarding him with a smirk that catches his breath. It isn’t fair for one person to be so hot. Even if Mika’s an asshole, he still looks like he stepped straight from the page of some demure magazine; clear skin, neat hair, expensive clothes.

Meanwhile, Yuu’s suddenly conscious of the plain, dull sweatshirt he’s got on and his terminal bedhead.

Mika leans toward him, propping himself on the table with his elbows; they’re face to face, inches apart, and Mika smells like peppermint and Yuu’s heart starts to race, what the fuck, and—

“It’s a shame,” Mika muses, backing off, making a show of returning his attention to the assignment in front of him.

Yuu grits his teeth. “I hate you,” he mutters, trying to ignore the heavy rise and fall of his chest.

III.

Prince Mikaela yawns into his gloved palm.

The council’s restless these days; the threat of war’s dark on the horizon, a stain of blood on the marble of the palace. The Queen’s Court is hell bent on insisting the Prince is gifted an escort, an armed guard at his side—the Empire’s only heir.

He was pulled from bed for this, dressed in all formality to be introduced to the soldier that’ll serve as his guardian; the swordsman that’ll stand above the royal guard, the military.

When he rests his face on the window’s ledge, the sun’s unseasonably warm on his skin, bright against the snow and the ice in the courtyard below. He should go downstairs soon, make his way to Court. He’s to be formally introduced this morning.

It’s only a single instant, a flash of instinct that’s got him unsheathing his blade from his side, turning on his heel with intent to kill.

His rapier’s met steel-to-steel with a rather impressive sabre; he strains against the strength of the boy in front of him.

“Easy, Prince,” he says, calm smile on his tanned, foreign face, and he realizes he’d reacted with the same instinct, meeting the attack with unbelievable agility. He’d blocked so easily, it’s hard to believe Mikaela swung first.

The boy can't be much older than he is. In one confident motion, he swings his sword over his shoulder, and tugs crumpled parchment and a silver insignia from his coat—a royal seal, the new emblem the council’s designed for his personal guard.

“Oh,” Mikaela breathes, slowly putting his own weapon away.

He doesn't know, truthfully, if it's all the years he's spent sheltered in the palace, or something else entirely, but he's dazed by how handsome this boy is. Yuuichirou, he reads dimly from the messy paperwork. If he notices the way Mikaela can't help himself from giving him a slow once-over, it doesn't show.

How in the hell this mercenary got through the guards, climbed the marble steps into the royal hall without being detected, Mikaela doesn't ask. But as he takes him in, he smiles faintly, sure his face is warm. It's just that he's so bundled—not at all accustomed to Russia’s climate. He's cloaked in black from head to toe, but it's almost hard to be intimidated by a boy that seems to be waging war against the weather.

Nevertheless, Mikaela’s impressed as he is enchanted, and he fails to will the rush in his chest away.

“Forever at your service,” Yuuichirou bows grandly, and the Prince listens to the cathedral bells toll from the east, the sound twirling musically with his heartbeat in his ears. “Moy Tsar.”

IV.

“Is this your journal?”

Yuu glances up from his scribbles at prim blue-eyed curiosity. He’s never seen this boy before—this is his park, damn it, a small stretch of green across from the city’s cemetery.

He watches a blood-red autumn leaf settle into the boy’s hair, and Yuu tries to shrink further into his jacket, tugging absently at the strings of the hood, and then his unwelcome guest’s tugging the notebook from his lap before he can react.

“Don’t read it!”

A strand of sun-blonde hair drifts across his pale face as he scrunches up his nose.

“As if I could,” he murmurs, voice soft with the hint of an unfamiliar accent. “Your handwriting’s awful. And your spelling, too.”

Yuu makes to grab for his book, but he jumps to his feet only to find that he’s the shorter of the two.

“Alright, then,” the blue-eyed boy says as Yuu scowls, holding the book above his head. “I’ll teach you. Someone has to.”

Mikaela smiles, unbridled, at the noble boy he’s met with at the ball.

“My Lord,” he grins with a small bow.

Yuuichirou smirks back, shakes his head slowly. “Get out of my home,” he says simply. “Before I have you removed.”

Mikaela’s hardly surprised he’s been recognized; a rival family of nobles to Yuuichirou’s, he’d crept into his estate to cause trouble, he’ll admit, but he hadn’t expected to be gifted their heir this way.

In truth, however… he also hadn’t expected the family’s noble son to be so handsome up close. It’s been quite some years since he’s passed Yuuichirou in the streets. His dark hair’s unkempt in a way that works for him, matches the way his formal attire’s undone at the collar, and he’s got a blade sheathed at his waist like he’d hate to miss a brawl, even at his own courting ceremony.

“I’m only here to ask your hand,” Mikaela lies through his teeth, again bowing forward. “That is what tonight is all about, isn’t it, my Lord?”

Arms crossed, Yuuichirou’s unimpressed. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says. It’s a blow to Mikaela’s pride, but he finds that now that he’s here on their grounds, face-to-face with a prize that’s up for grabs, he wants to contend.

“You wouldn’t,” he mutters lowly, stepping forward, “or your father wouldn’t?”

They’re only inches apart, and the way the corner of Yuuichirou’s mouth quirks knowingly has Mikaela wishing he could steal a kiss.

Yuuichirou’s hand drifts to the sword at his side, and he wraps a gloved hand around the hilt. “Shall I remove you myself, Lord Mikaela?”

The pianist plays an elegant tune, and Mikaela catches sight first of Yuuichirou’s father at the top of the winding staircase, then his rumored fiancée-to-be near a grand bouquet of white roses.

Shinoa Hiiragi’s lovely; her family’s got more wealth than either of theirs, and she’s a beautiful girl. He watches her sweep lavender hair from her shoulder, graceful in her simple black gown. Months earlier, she’d been considered a match for Mikaela himself, though Yuuichirou’s family ultimately had more connections to House Hiiragi.

Still, Mikaela thinks about kissing him.

“Is that a threat,” he murmurs with a real smile this time, “or is it a promise?”

VI.

Mika’s as powerful as they come, a Corporalki far in his studies as a Heartrender. Yuu’s belongs to the Order of the Etherealki, a natural-born Inferni with a bad temper and a loose grip on his power, so he’s heard.

He’s never interacted much with the Corporalki, made it a point to avoid them during his time training at the Little Palace—his only real run-in with Mika was his first year during combat training, when he’d been bested in front of his classmates and he summoned his fire in a fit of anger. Grisha aren’t allowed to use their power during these drills, it’s the golden rule, and Yuu’d been suspended for it.

Why, then, is Mika protecting him so fiercely now?

Their first charge in the Second Army’s gone terribly wrong; the Grisha soldiers are falling in waves against the enemy, and Mika’s rescuing Yuu from the dagger of a Fjerdan witch hunter.

He watches in both awe and horror as Mika brings him down, stopping the hunter’s heart with a simple wave of his hand. The same hand rests on Yuu’s shoulder then and he sucks in a breath, eyes following the blood that spills from the fallen hunter’s pale nose.

“RUN!” Mika shouts, jerking on his shoulder; their enemy’s closing in, overjoyed to have cornered two witches, two demons, as they’d say.

Yuu doesn’t know where he finds the footing, the strength, to summon his flame and cut through, but he grabs Mika’s hand as they run clumsily through the snow, bodies falling behind them.

VII.

“Not my fault your Quirk is a disaster,” Mika snorts.

Yuu scowls at him; the class favorite, UA’s perfect little hero on the fast track to becoming a professional, the Spellbinding Hero. He avoids eye contact, of course. Mika’s quirk, Hypnotic Gaze, isn’t something Yuu wants to deal with right this moment.

Rage Burst is a bit of a mess; he’ll grant Mika that. But it’s Yuu’s Quirk, damn it, and he’s proud of it, and he’ll beat Mika into the ground with it if he doesn’t shut the hell up.

“You gonna clean this up?” Mika toes at a bit of rubble mockingly, and smirks at him.

“Die,” Yuu grunts, taking in the field he’d all but destroyed during another Quirk analysis test. Sure, his Quirk’s kickback sort of sucks ass, he gets angry as shit while he uses it, but it’s kind of the point and he’s best in battle when frazzled.

So, in their third year, he’s pretty used to snapping back from some sort of blind rage after overusing his Quirk, and then being held responsible for the damage.

Mika shrugs idly, confident smile in place. “I’ll help you…” he offers, and Yuu’s taken by surprise enough that he glances up and meets Mika’s scarlet eyes, paired with that tempting smirk, and fuck, Yuu recognizes the strange, lightheaded feeling as Mika’s Quirk in action. “…In exchange for a kiss.”

Hypnotic Gaze: the dizzying, witch-like Quirk that draws a target in with direct eye contact; Mika can give a single, subtle order at a time as long as he maintains it, and Yuu fell for it.

(Maybe, after three years of rivalry at UA, he can let it slide. Mika’s lips are soft and Yuu likes the way his hands cup his cheeks, and when they part, Mika doesn’t bother to point out that the spell was broken the moment they’d both closed their eyes to lean in, and Yuu knows this, knows Mika’s Quirk inside out.)

VIII.

Mika watches him; a sailor on the beach, sleeves rolled at his elbows, tanned from days on the sea. He smiles, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. The sailor sings while he works, humming out of tune as he organizes the strange, unfamiliar contents of wooden crates he’s skewed across the sand.

The setting sun hits the dark-haired boy just right, and Mika’s heart swells. The sea water’s warm on his skin, and the waves push and pull against the shoreline. He’s memorized every detail of the sailor’s face, he thinks; the sun-kissed skin, his deep green eyes, and that wide, inviting smile.

He’d give anything for the chance to walk on shore, to speak to that boy. He stretches his arms out, rests comfortably on the warm bedrock and watches his prince wipe sweat from his forehead, laughing happily at something his friend’s saying to him.

They’re hauling their newly packed crates onto their ship; the dark-haired boy, along with a more petite boy, two bickering girls, and a stoic boy with some sort of silver in his ear.

Mika aches with how badly he wants to be up there with them, working and joking alongside them, smiling while his prince sings.

He remembers watching the marketplace of the dark-haired boy’s town, seeing women twirl in dresses, smiles on their faces, while people played music on the streets. He’s never eaten human food, but the pastries the vendors sell on land smell divine. The flowers they decorate their cobblestone streets with are bright, more colorful than anything Mika sees in the palace below the water.

He exhales, watching the waves sweep the shore idly as the sun melts into the horizon, and he daydreams about dancing in those streets with that boy, listening to music and eating desserts and buying him flowers.

IX.

Yuu hops to his feet, down from the decayed wood of the fence his unit has benched him on for the night, unsettled when twigs snap beneath his feet in still silence. Even with Shinya and the others buzzing to the side, calling for backup, the area’s too quiet—no animals, no town, not even a car’s passed on the interstate in twenty minutes.

He figures a series of homicides’ll do that to a place.

“You’d have been transferred if we weren’t short-handed,” Guren continues, tone wedged uncomfortably between derisive and amused. “You’re lucky they didn’t take your shield.”

This is a second chance, he means, but Yuu’s an officer trained to carry out rescue missions, not investigate serial murder. This isn’t his job; he isn’t a damn detective. There’s nobody to rescue if they’re already dead.

Guren holds out a police report, and Yuu’s eyes land on their target:

Court order for transportation—Special Agent Mikaela Hyakuya, sentenced to death. Prisoner is to be transferred for execution.

“This is the guy,” he tells him, and Yuu’s stomach twists. He’d expected some deranged felon, a muscle-bound creep with prison tattoos, or something. Not a member of the force. “Do you know anything about him?”

“No,” he breathes, unfamiliar with any of the specialty units, and he thinks of the scene they’d come across—the black town car left behind in the woods, the inmate’s driver dead behind the wheel, and the car’s back door wide open, no sign that he’d had ever been detained and handcuffed in the backseat. “I’ve never seen him.”

“You’re staring,” Shinoa sings in his ear, and Mika shrugs his shoulders, tugging absently at his scarf.

He ignores her, keeps his eyes on the clumsy new student clad in scarlet and gold. He’s fallen into step with a noisy blonde Gryffindor girl, a taller Ravenclaw boy, and a smiling boy bundled in Hufflepuff yellow.

Mika pulls his knees to his chest, and Shinoa tightens the green bow in her hair idly. “He’s a mudblood,” Mika murmurs. “Someone’s gotta break him in.”

The Gryffindor boy finally meets his eyes; a wild green that’s somehow welcoming a challenge, and Mika likes the way he’s looking at him with contempt; perhaps he’s already been warned about Slytherin—or maybe he’s simply been warned about Mika.

He rises to his feet, leaving the boy behind to follow Shinoa back to the common room with a small smile on his face.

XI.

This is a trap, Yuu realizes a moment too late; he hears his fiancée scream from the carriage, and when he ducks his head in to check on her, she’s shaken, but otherwise alright—her blonde hair’s still pulled up perfectly beneath her tiara, and her violet eyes are wide in shock.

She’s untouched. It’s the engagement ring that’s missing.

It’s no challenge to catch the thief two days later; he hadn’t been careful at all, easily revealing his hiding place, allowing Yuu to set a trap.

He struggles in the netting Yuu’s caught him in, suspended above the forest floor, and Yuu laughs up at him, holding out his arms proudly as if to welcome praise. “Now,” he says, “give me back my ring.”

“You’re a regular Prince Charming,” the thief spits, blue eyes narrowed in a glare.

Yuu grins, tosses his sword into the air and catches it idly. “You think so?”

XII.

Mika closes his eyes, takes one deep breath, then a second. He listens to the rain outside, the way the drops hit the kitchen window, and he tries not to think about the past.

When he blinks his eyes open, he weighs the impossible heaviness of the envelope in his hand. He puts the pen between his teeth, tugs the cap off, and puts it to the decorated page to decline Yuu’s wedding invitation.

XIII.

Yuu’s got half his fist in his mouth to keep from screaming, and the tears burn his eyes like nothing he’s ever felt before, and Mika’s sighing and groaning in his sleep, just like the dead outside, and the gash on his leg is—

(“If I’m bitten,” he’d told him, “you have to –”)

There’s nothing in small room but an old hatchet, it shakes in his sweating hands and Yuu’s not sure at all if he can do it in one hit, and his stomach rises in his throat at the idea of it—

XIV.

Mika tries not to be afraid of the ink-black werewolf that’s bearing its teeth at him, the monster he’s meant to kill.

He’s a huntsman, he has to do it; it doesn’t matter that they’re partly human, they’re killers and they’re unnatural and he was raised for this, and so when the wolf’s cornered, he raises the axe and brings it down with all the force he’s got in his bones—

XV.

All the weeks of preparation, all the rehearsals and the interviews, and Mika’s still in horrified shock that he was chosen for the games, and the girl with the braid’s blood is on his shaking hands and before he can think, the messy-haired District 12 boy the public loved so much is coming at him with his sword, there’s no time to even scream before he’s run through with the blade and everything goes dark—

XVI.

Yuu’s sat cross-legged on the balcony opposite Mikaela Hyakuya’s loft, back to the wall, and he pulls on his gloves.

“I’m new to this mission,” Yoichi murmurs almost boredly, “care to fill me in?”

He steadies his crossbow on his popped knee, and slowly draws back an arrow.

“Does it matter?” He asks, taking aim.

Yoichi makes a quiet sound, an uninterested laugh. “No,” he says, sitting back. “I guess it doesn’t.”

Yuu lets go. He hits his mark.

XVII.

Mika pulls Yuu to his chest, and the water’s rising and everything’s so cold and why isn’t Yuu on one of the boats—

“You jump, I jump, right?” Yuu shouts wildly over the panic, and Mika shakes him by the shoulders.

“You’re so stupid –”

Then Mika’s crying and Yuu’s kissing him and mostly missing and there’s water at his feet and he knows, somehow, that he won’t see the sun rise.

XVIII.

“Humans are so foolish,” Yuu drawls, letting the sound of his voice wash over the boy, wrapping him up in its magic. A pirate with a heart of gold, Yuu thinks, a survivor of the old, weak ship he’d pulled under.

His blue eyes are wide, his heart racing beneath his fair, fragile skin. “I love you,” he slurs.

“Foolish,” Yuu says again with a slow smirk. “Cute, though. It’s a shame you have to die.”

With little effort at all, he holds the boy’s head under water until he isn’t struggling anymore.

XIX.

“Mika, I thought –” He chokes on the words, chokes on the blood filling his lungs. “I thought we –”

When Mika drives the blade into his chest further, Yuu goes numb, and his vision blurs to white, and Yuu wouldn’t have suspected, not ever—he thinks of the days they’d spent in the palace courtyard under the dogwood trees reading poetry, playing at swordfights on the training grounds, kissing past midnight in the empty ballroom, Yuu moaning Mikaela between the sheets—

“My apologies,” his assassin laughs. “Dear Prince –”

XX.

Mika smiles brighter than the sun they’re seeing for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, tugging excitedly on Yuu’s shaking hand, and Yuu can’t wrap his mind around it all.

His family runs toward the horizon, and Mika’s hand is warm in Yuu’s, and they’re all laughing madly, a sort of unbridled joy they haven’t felt in all these years.

Yuu glances back only once at Sanguinem, and he knows they aren’t being followed, knows Mika’s plan worked.

He smiles for the first time in a long time, and he squeezes Mika’s hand.

here’s the link to the ao3 post; the formatting is better there. i wanted to post this cause i always forget to throw my writing over here, but i was too lazy to sort through 4k words and find everything that needs to be italicized, bold, etc. hope you enjoy anyway! ♥

#owari no seraph #mikayuu #mikaela hyakuya #yuuichirou hyakuya #it's a reincarnation au #multiverse type thing???#writing

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