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mindyourstars · 1 year

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JE TE LAISSERAI DES MOTS (SEBASTIAN SALLOW X FEM!READER)

Takes place after reader's 5th year. Spoilers for Hogwarts Legacy mentioned! Includes fluff. Lots of fluff. Word Count: 2.3K ****************************************************

You had spent another day attending classes in Hogwarts with your mind only half paying attention to each lesson. It was relatively hard to focus when your closest and dearest friend, Sebastian Sallow, kept slipping you notes in classes with small little inside jokes and teasing remarks. It had been something that happened all day! Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and now Potions class. Each note you received was Sebastian’s attempt to make you smile. He wouldn’t admit it, but he loved when you smiled. Everyone with eyes could see it, except you.

You saw a hand slide a small piece of parchment that was folded over two or three times. You discreetly unfolded it, reading the message in Sebastian’s familiar messy scrawl.

Professor Sharp is looking rather vexed at Garreth’s latest concoction. I wonder how long until he blows something else to bits.

You had to shoot Sebastian a warning look as your lips twitched at the corners to reveal a subtle smile. It was no secret that Garreth was trying to create… something. He had recruited you to assist him quite a few times, but to no avail. You were going to reply when at the table over you heard loud bubbling followed by an even louder ‘BANG’. It would have surprised everyone in the course, but it had happened so many times the bang was followed by a collective groan. Everyone knowingly glanced at Garreth who was sheepishly standing in front of his newest failed experiment.

Garreth’s mouth opened in an attempt to explain, but he was interrupted by the smoke that began to encapsulate the class, causing Professor Sharp to run his hands over his already tired expression.

“I suppose it goes without saying that there will be quite a hefty number of points taken from Gryffindor.” His tone was as pointed as his gaze, causing Sebastian to glance at you with a teasing smirk. This in return caused you to giggle.

“Finding something funny, Miss (L/N)?” Your smile quickly melted into a cool expression as you shook your head no.

“No professor Sharp, I sincerely apologize.” You spoke as calmly as you could and watched as the professor’s gaze lingered with yours for a moment before he shrugged.

“Let this be a warning to this whole class that we must take this course seriously! Class dismissed.”

You gathered your things and made way to the exit, waiting outside of the doorway against the wall for Sebastian to join you. After quite a bit of students shoveled out, Sebastian along with Ominis joined you by the wall.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason you began to laugh was due to Sebastian.” Ominis uttered with no hesitation, his mouth turned up into a teasing smirk.

“Well, you DO know that I am quite the charmer, Ominis. It’s a talent not many possess.” He replied with a confident demeanor and a waggle of his brows.

You giggled again, hugging your potions textbook tightly against your chest as the three of you collectively began to walk the corridors back to the Slytherin common room.

“It was a pity laugh.” You teased, standing between the two boys who easily had their height over you. “I will say I am very much enjoying the weekly explosion that cuts class short.”

Sebastian nodded in agreement along with Ominis as the three of you turned another corner towards the moving staircases.

“It’s become a lovely little tradition.” Sebastian agreed with a chuckle causing you to smile at the sound.

Sebastian and you had been very close since you arrived at Hogwarts last year. He had gone through quite a lot since everything that happened between his sister Anne and his uncle Solomon. Ominis struggled to forgive Sebastian as well, but together the three of you slowly moved on with each passing day.

“Well, I have to go work on some homework for Divination, so the two of you do not get into too much trouble.” Ominis’ head turned in Sebastian’s direction for just a moment, causing Sebastian’s smile to falter ever so slightly.

Before Sebastian could say anything in response, you cut in with a chipper tone.

“Ominis! You know that he’s in great hands with me.” You said with a bright grin, your tone matching the demeanor.

As a result, you could see Ominis’ shoulders relax.

“Alright, I will speak with you both later.” The Gaunt boy stated with a nod before he began to trudge down towards the common room.

You waited a beat before turning to Sebastian, looking up at him since he had grown a bit taller over the break between fifth and sixth year. He had his arms crossed over his chest, his familiar expression bracing his face. Sebastian did his best to try and be his old self, but with the loss of Anne a bit of him always lacked a spark that you used to remember. The boy who challenged you in Defense Against the Dark Arts had very much built a cautious air around him, but with you? He attempted extra to make sure that the two of you remained comfortable.

In that moment, Sebastian began to tap his fingers while they remained crossed with his gaze keeping firm on you. It caused you to straighten your posture as you questioned what was crossing the Sallow boy’s mind.

“Why are you staring at me that way?” You asked with a nervous chuckle escaping your blush lips.

Sebastian grinned slightly and shook his head as he shrugged his shoulders.

“I was just thinking about how you and I haven’t practiced for crossed wands in the Undercroft in quite some time. We have a free afternoon… Care to join me?” He asked with a teasing grin.

The invite honestly surprised you. Sebastian avoided Crossed Wands for most of your sixth year. His tenacity to win seemed to scare him ever since the situation with his Uncle Solomon. His invite made you smile even brighter than before. It excited you that Sebastian was opening himself up to a hobby he used to once adore.

“Of course, Sebastian! I am very ready to absolutely wipe the floor with you.” You teased, shoving him playfully.

He feigned shock at your shove and shoved you back gently. It brought him more comfort in seeing the joy that came from your reaction. Sebastian had been tight-lipped about how he had been feeling with everything happening, but he wanted to love magic again. Magic didn’t have to be so dark. Ominis constantly reminded him of that.

“I would love to see you try, (Y/N).” He chuckled, but before he could continue to speak you began to rush down the hall towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts tower, your laughter echoing through the halls like a sweet melody.

“Race you there!” You called back behind you, your eyes now full of delight.

Sebastian didn’t hesitate as he began to swerve between students to attempt to catch up with you. Both of you felt your boots push roughly against the Hogwarts floors as you both playfully sabotaged each other to victory. After quite some time, you were the one to reach the Undercroft entrance, causing Sebastian to breathlessly come to a halt and shake his head.

“That is… unfair. You… cheated.” He told you, but you shrugged your shoulders as your own chest heaved in attempt to catch your breath.

“I simply am better than you!” You teased back, opening the entrance to the Undercroft as the two of you sauntered inside.

“Oh hush.” He quipped in return, removing his wand from the inside of his robe. “You definitely won’t win in our battle.” He teased, taking his place 10 paces from you.

“Is that a challenge, Sallow?” You scoffed, taking your own wand in your hands, your eyebrows raising in peaked curiosity. You were quite fond of the challenge. It was nice to have a bit of the old Sebastian fully realized in front of you, but you couldn’t help but wonder if this was all an act. So, you made a mental note to go a bit easy on him at first.

“Expelliarmus.” He stated as your wand flew from your hand. You gasped at the immediate start and Sebastian smirked sinisterly at you. “It’s very much a challenge, (L/N).” He teased, grabbing your wand and moving to hand it back to you.

You grabbed it in your hands quickly and the two of you resumed in your places. With a beat of silence, the room exploded in different swirls of magic surrounding the two of you. Spells were being yelled as the two of you were being flung and dragged towards one another.

“Accio!” Sebastian yelled as you were thrusted forward towards him, his grin prominent on his face as he picked your wand from your hand and shrugged.

“Guess I win, (Y/N). Not bad for a hiatus.” He stated, causing you to smile and nod in response.

“Not bad Sebastian, not bad.” You said as you tried to grab your wand from him, but he raised his hand above his head with a tight grip to make it a challenge for you to grab it.

“Uh-uh! Not so easy.” He teased which caused you to scoff. You raised your hands to try and grab your wand, but he maneuvered it around, so it was always just out of your reach.

You grumbled and began to hp up to try and grab it, but after your third hop you landed incorrectly and the two of you came tumbling down. The way you landed, both wands had been flung across the stone floor with small clatter sounds, and you were on top of Sebastian as he had broken your fall. The two of you burst out into laughs, but once your gazes met something… happened. You felt heat rise to your face as a blush began to make itself present ad Sebastian had the same thing happen. His ears began to turn a deep scarlet as his freckled cheeks began to be covered by the blush that was taking over his whole face.

You coughed to break the tension and moved to sit beside him on the stone ground. Sebastian clambered himself up using his elbows to also sit up beside you. You glanced over at him and smiled, laying your head on his shoulder.

“Sebastian?” You asked, your voice going from the teasing challenging tone to a much softer one.

“Yes, (Y/N)?” He asked, his brown eyes moving to look at you on his shoulder. He was attempting to play it off, but his confidence faltered with each touch you gave him.

“I’m glad you did this. I’m glad you’re having fun with magic again.” You admitted, moving your head on his shoulder to meet his gaze.

Your faces were awfully close to one another. You could clearly smell the intoxicating scent of oak emanating from Sebastian’s robe. It was an intoxicating aroma. Sebastian’s eyes softened at your admission. He released an exhale, wrapping an arm around you to pull you closer.

“I couldn’t have done it without you… and Ominis.” He stated, causing a soft giggle to escape your lips. “I almost lost myself last year. I didn’t heed you or Ominis’ warnings and as a result I did something that I will live with the rest of my life.” He admitted, causing you to frown.

It wasn’t the greatest memory. Sebastian’s anger during that period of your friendship was concerning. His drive to save Anne had consumed him to a deadly degree. He began to grow desperate, and it was the type of desperation that drove a person mad.

“But you can get through it. You have your friends.” You comforted, but the word ‘friends’ caused a shocking reaction from Sebastian.

What you assumed would bring him comfort, brought a frown to his face. You pulled yourself from Sebastian’s grasp and glanced at him with concern.

“What did I say?” You asked, causing Sebastian to shake his head.

“Well... since we’re on the topic of confessions.” He began, his eyes darting towards the stone to avoid looking at you.

It caused you to worry. Did Sebastian not want to be your friend any further? Had something happened? You placed a hand on his cheek to make him look at you.

“Sebastian. What’s wrong? You could tell me.” You assured, his gaze meeting yours.

Before you could say something else, his lips crashed into yours. Your hand remained on his soft cheek, and there was no hesitation in your reciprocation. His lips were soft and tasted of a sweet honey, causing your mind to go dizzy. When he pulled away, you let out a chuckle.

“Oh.” You said, your face turned into a bright smile.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say?” He exclaimed in shock. “You’re so hard to decipher, (Y/N), I just bloody kissed you.” He added.

“Sebastian, you’re being foolish.” You said in a kind tone. “I kissed you back, didn’t I?” You asked.

It took a moment, maybe even two, for Sebastian to piece together what happened; but once he understood his shoulders relaxed. He suddenly went from a look of confusion to a sheer look of glee. This caused you to grin back and kiss him once more. He paused the kiss and reached into his robe.

“What’s wrong?” You asked further, your body practically shaking with content.

“You know how I was writing you notes all day?” He asked, causing you to nod in response. “Well… this was the first one I wrote. I was too scared to pass it along.”

You grabbed the parchment, causing you to raise a brow as you unfolded it once. Then twice. Then a third time. Finally, Sebastian’s messy scrawl revealed itself. The words caused your smile to grow even wider (if that was even possible).

Is it possible that I could be more in love with you?

This caused you to bring the parchment to your chest before leaning your head on him once more.

“I think I’m going to love it this year.” You murmured.

“Yes,” He replied, his head resting on yours. “Me too.”

#Sebastian sallow #ominis gaunt #Sebastian sallow x reader #hogwarts legacy #Sebastian sallow x fem!reader #these two love each other lbr #hogwarts #the undercroft

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redgoldsparks · 2 months

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March Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 4 by Ryoko Kui

I'm reading these books so fast I can barely remember which parts of the plot happened in which volume but know that I am still having a great time!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 5 by Ryoko Kui

Oh, this story has taken a darker turn, and also just introduced a whole bunch more characters. Will I be able to keep track of them all? I hope so!

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, read by Anne Flosnik

Unfortunately, this is definitely the weakest Robin Hobb book I've read so far. I was expecting to like it less than the glorious, 5-star previous trilogy, but I actually think I'm going to skip the rest of the Rain Wild Chronicles and read summaries online to get to the next Fitz books. This book follows five main POV characters. This works fairly well for the first half, when the characters are all in different physical locations. However once all of the characters meet up, we start getting the same scene from multiple different POVs, which feels extremely repetitive. Also, almost EVERY SCENE includes a flashback, often a lengthy flashback, sometimes to something that happened only the previous day and could have been told as present-moment action. This writing choice baffled me. It's something I can't remember struggling with in any of Hobb's previous books, but by the end it was driving me up a wall. The book also moved very slowly; the stakes feel lower, and the character far less emotionally true than in the two Fitz trilogies. Disappointing, but I will keep moving forward towards the next part of the series I want to read.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 6 by Ryoko Kui

Damn, a lot of characters get murdered in this volume! Good thing almost everyone who dies in the dungeon can be revived. Also, very excited to finally meet the cat ninja I've been seeing fan art of since before I even started the series :3

Delicious in Dungeon vol 7 by Ryoko Kui

I am still completely caught up in this series. I love the glimpse of Senshi's past revealed in this volume, and the lore of the dungeon that is still being revealed. There was a line in here about how the dungeon leaves you alone if you don't ask much of it, but that if you have strong desires it throws even more obstacles into your way. Our heroes have such big goals right now, but they're marching ahead regardless!

School Trip by Jerry Craft

A satisfying new installment in the New Kid series from funny, talented, charming Jerry Craft! I appreciated how this volume started to complicate some of the students who had been left a bit one-dimensional in previous books. Several people stood up to and called out a bully; new friendships were built; and Jordan Banks left Paris even more inspired than ever to follow his dreams of becoming an artist. This series has a lot of jokes, but also a lot of heart!

A Frog in Fall (and Later On) by Linnea Sterte

Minor frog is less than a year old, and is dismayed when winter begins to steal all of the light and warmth from his world. Instead of bunking down safely with his mentor to wait for spring, he sets out on a journey with two vagabond toads passing by on a quest to make it all the way to the tropics. They tramp through the Japanese countryside, encountering tree spirits, new friends, dangers, and views the likes of which minor frog had never even imagined. This is a gorgeous book; every page worth pouring over, an economy of line and detail building a beautiful and mysterious world of talking animals and miniature packaged foods. Made me want to draw.

Dark Rise by CS Pacat read by Christian Coulson

In 1820s London, orphaned Will tries to earn enough as a dockworker to survive- and evade the killers pursuing him. Violet dresses in her half-brother's clothes and sneaks onto a ship in the Thames to watch a man be branded with his master's mark. Katherine excitedly anticipates her engagement to one of London's richest and most mysterious lords; his gallantry nearly makes up for the fact that he's twice her age. And in the bowels of one of that lord's ships, James tortures a man for information. All of these characters are 16 or 17 years old, but all of them are tangled in an ancient conflict between the Light and the Dark which stretches back into an age of magic before history. This is CS Pacat's YA fantasy debut, and it contains a lot of tropes very familiar to both YA and high fantasy- there are shades of both Tolkien and Rowling in this. Its fast-paced and action-packed, but especially in the first third of the story, the characters all felt fairly thin. None of them have quirks, hobbies, career hopes, relationships outside of immediate family, school, or work; or much more than a brief sketch of past. It took until the mid-way point for what I consider Pacat's major strengths as a writer to emerge: intense, homoerotic interpersonal sparring between characters operating under major power imbalances. Every scene in which the seductive, manipulative, powerful evil gay faced off against the good boy chosen one crackled with energy. Unfortunately, there were only four of these scenes in the whole book. It ends on a cliff-hanger, because of course it does, with a tempting set up for book two; but that doesn't entirely excuse the fact that the first 50% felt like set up. I will definitely keep reading, but long-time Pacat fans should take note that this is toned down version of what I expected based on Captive Prince.

Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls (re-read before event)

What an accomplishment! I savored every page of Feeding Ghosts, absolutely floored by the labor and courage that went into the writing of this book. The inking is gorgeous, the history is clear, digestible, and devastating. This book threads the line between honesty and compassion in a way that I appreciate so much in any memoir, but especially one dealing with family. Hulls lays out the story of three generations of women starting with her grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who faced intense persecution during the rise of Communism in China, who penned a popular and scandalous memoir and then suffered a mental breakdown. This left her only daughter, Rose, a student at an elite boarding school with no parental figures and no other family to lean on. Eventually Rose earned a scholarship to an American university and in the end moved her mother into her California home. Sun Yi haunted that home during the author's own childhood. The unexamined trauma and codependency of Sun Yi and Rose drove the author to the extreme edges of the Earth, seeking freedom from their ghosts. But in the end, she stopped running from her family history and turned, instead, to face it. Shelve this book with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis and The Best We Could Do. Re-read it for a second time and got even more out of it on a second pass.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 8 by Ryoko Kui

Laios and company realize that their encounter with changling mushroom rings had more consequences than they'd realized- its the body swap episode! This visual humor is contrasted against increasing dangers from both above and below, as nastier monsters and political machinations begin to close in on our heroic adventuring party. I'm now over halfway through this series and almost feel like I should start reading it more slowly to savor it, but I'll probably just keep devouring it instead.

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham

High school senior Val grew up knowing her family was unlucky in love; for generations, relationships in her family have ended in heartbreak. Her childhood love of Valentines Day ends with a shocking family revelation and what feels like the beginning of a curse. Then her Vietnamese grandmother sweeps her off to a Lunar New Year celebration in downtown Oakland and a pair of cute lion dancer boys catch her eye. Could one of them break the spell on her heart? This story offers a classic and satisfying rom-com, with Val torn between an outgoing, rich, but flaky boy and a broody, shy, loyal one. The story takes several kdrama style twists and includes ghosts, saints, red envelopes, confessions, fights, reunions, tears, and kisses. For a comic, its wordy; the pages are dense with small panels and thick with dialogue, but also illustrated with such warm, humor, and realism. I really liked that the story included as much of Val's relationship with her family and best friend as romance. And the lion dancing scenes practically leap off the page with color and energy!

Witch Hat Atelier vol 10 by Kamome Shirahama

This series remains as visually stunning as ever but I'm struggling with how every single book expands the cast. There are so many characters now that I don't care about that much, and have trouble remembering from volume to volume. I wish the story line would stick more closely to Coco, her classmates, and their main mentors!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 9 by Ryoko Kui

Oh the stories are all converging! The savior at the bottom of the dungeon is probably a demon! Ituzumi saves the day! I am still having a great time reading this series.

A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson read by Abby Craden

A short, very queer, very poly retelling of Dracula focusing on his coven of enthralled lovers. I liked the way the book breezed through history, as the dysfunctional little family moved from one major European city to the next, with snatched moments of glittering joy interwoven with violence and plague. The story is fairly simple, and has a happier ending than I expected, or honestly think the characters deserved.

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

I DNFed the previous book in this series and just read a summary online before skipping ahead to this one. I think that was a very good choice for me. This third one was more engaging and a bit more action packed, with some cool discoveries about the city of Kelsingra and the nature of Elderlings. But the Rain Wild Chronicles as a whole do not stand up to the quality of the Farseer books. There are so many POV characters that a few of them get only two or three scenes in this whole book. I don't feel that I deeply know any of these characters; while at the same time watching Hobb pair them off at an extraordinary rate- in the last book five sets of characters got together and in this book an additional two couples are developing feelings for each other. Between this and a kidnapping, a birth, a murder, and a lot of blackmail, this series feels like a soap opera.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 10 by Ryoko Kui

Almost two TPKs in this volume, yikes!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 11 by Ryoko Kui

You know shit's getting serious when the character who has been the series main villain up until now is partially devoured by a different, worse villain. Exciting changes coming to this dungeon under it's new lord and master!

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle

When Becca gets invited to sit with the popular girl clique at her new high school, she's thrilled. But the friendship turns bloody and complicated when she learns that her new friends are actually werewolves who need to kill and feed on a human once a month. If she joins them, Becca will gain superhuman strength and a pack; she'll never have to fear a male predator again, because she will be a predator herself. I loved the queer rep and the twist on werewolf lore; I wish it had been a little longer and more developed. Give me multi-page transformations sequences!

Delicious in Dungeon vol 12 by Ryoko Kui

I love seeing all these plot lines come together! Building towards a wild climax.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 13 by Ryoko Kui

I went out and *bought* vol 13 of this series because my library didn't have it yet, that's how hooked I am. And now I have to wait until JULY for the final volume! (But also, thank goodness I didn't get into this series any sooner or I'd have a much longer wait).

#book reviews #books #reading #comics #manga

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betheckart · 7 months

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Solomon Sallow Theory

Hello !

First post, I'm going to heat things up regarding a game that a lot of people love and about a character that many hate.

Solomon Sallow in Hogwart Legacy.

This theory about him has been running through my head for some time, because of his behavior and his past and present actions, there is something that bothers me, that disturbs my Ravenclaw instinct.

So, let's update the character's situation. A retired auror, the latter finds himself forced to take under his guardianship the children of his brother who died in an unfortunate accident, Anne and Sebastian. We do not know much about the period that follows until the children's schooling where his burden is increased by a little extra in the person of Ominis Gaunt.

Then comes the famous incident and the situation escalates to the point of unforgivability.

I know, Solomon is not very popular among the Hogwart Legacy audience. Rightly so, many find him to be an idiot, a gruff and inflexible character but I keep telling myself that there is something wrong with this story, something illogical about his behavior as a as an adult having to watch over the well-being of his nephew and his niece in addition to that of their best friend who still comes from a prestigious wizarding family.

So let’s get back to the beginning…

I would like to point out that, as despicable as the Gaunts' reputation is, I don't think they would have left one of their children to an incapable person. I know that the little we hear about them is hardly glorious however, Ominis remains an heir of Slytherin, which is far from being a forgetable detail, and the Gaunts protect their blood so he would never have left a child to a man for whom they would not have a minimum of confidence, at least that is what I suppose. Naturally, we can also suspect them of having preferred to leave him with the Sallows to relieve themselves financially.

However, bare in mind that Solomon must share the core traits of his family - he is far from stupid, he knows what sport the Gaunt family plays and he must well suspect that Ominis was obliged to use an unforgivable curse. Simply, like us, he put things aside, Ominis was only a child whose actions were dictated by fear and who was consumed with guilt unlike Sebastian who did not have the slightest regret and who would have used any other spell. However, he did not hesitate to accept this possibly problematic kid under his roof even though he only had limited means. Sorry for his detractors but it must be admitted that it is an act of great benevolence, nothing obliged him to take the heir of Slytherin under his wing but he did it, only to preserve him from the dark traditions of his family , he saw the pure being that is our favorite blondie. (And clearly, given the Sallow house, the Gaunts didn't give it a damn!)

I would like now to point out something about the brilliant Sebastian Sallow. At Hogwarts his talent as a duelist is more than recognized, everyone knows it and everyone puts the emphasis again and again on how surprising our victory over him is. But I think his talent is in no way natural. I would like to point out that the rare times we get to see Anne who remains under her curse, she fights with a similar talent and it is the same with Ominis who spent his summers with them. I think these three are doing so well for one reason and that is Solomon Sallow.

Let me explain, as a former Auror, I would not be surprised if when the children began to learn magic, he was naturally able to assist them in the use of defense spells against the dark arts. Remember, the training dummies are behind the Sallow house, I don't think that's a coincidence. During the holidays I am convinced that he helped the three children develop their skills. Of course, some might object to the ban on using magic outside of school, but didn't Ominis use magic outside of school well before and without consequences? In my opinion the ministry was much more flexible on this subject at the time, in fact it was not even a subject.

So …

From the few things we got to see Anne is gifted, even under the influence of a curse. She defends herself admirably and from as little as we know about this whole thing, Ominis manages excellently despite his disability. However, without adequate training, he would never have reached such a level even with the academic support that Hogwarts offers. Sebastian is very talented, of course, but I think his uncle was very harsh with him because he is precisely a boy, the one who had to protect his sister with him. Solomon is the patriarch and naturally Sebastian would one day take over, so he had to prepare him properly. Sebastian's hard work with his uncle will have paid off - coming back to Hogwarts would have given him a certain arrogance.

Then came the incident and Anne's curse.

And, ladies and gents, here comes my theory.

Solomon is a good wizard, by that I mean a good fighter. Certainly, the condition of his niece was quite worrying but nothing would have stopped him from capturing a goblin and extracting information from him to find out who had cursed her and cure her. However, he did nothing. Why ? Why didn't he do anything? He raised his brother's children, protected Ominis and did nothing to help Anne even though he had the ability to do so? What gives ?!

Why would he act like that ? Unless… he knew the truth?

Solomon Sallow is a former Auror, which definitely means he knows how to lead an investigation and like the rest of his family knows how to use his brain. I think he searched for the person responsible for his niece’s curse and unfortunately found the answer. Victor Rockwood, a formidable bandit of unprecedented danger. A man who would not hesitate to kill him. Naturally, he had to quietly try to bring justice by keeping his nephew and niece out of the public eye. As he points out to our character, it is no use giving hope when it is useless . As long as he could not guarantee Anne's recovery, it was better not to let the truth be known.

Unfortunately and you know it, Rockwood emphasized it very well during his dialogues with Ranrock, he has connections, friends very high up in the ministry and this is largely proven by the inaction of the ministry concerning the misdeeds of the scoundrel In the region. There is no justice, Victor Rockwood is protected, unreachable and far too dangerous. And Solomon Sallow saw himself being powerless in the face of the corruption of the magical world - unable to face these dangerous people. Certainly, some might point out a certain cowardice but put yourself or walk a mile in his shoes! He was all that remained for Anne, Sebastian and also Ominis, the only adult who could protect them, watch over them! They don't have anyone else!

Solomon was therefore forced to make a terrible choice. The problem at hand being none other than his nephew. Sebastian. As he pointed out, he is his father's son but also his uncle's nephew. He grew up with his brother and raised Sebastian, he knows him by heart whether he likes it or not. Sebastian's intelligence becoming a danger, the elder Sallow would then have manipulated his nephew to make him focus on a single problem. How to cure Anne rather than the real curse caster. Just imagine for a split second : if Sebastian had known the truth, he would have launched a guerrilla war against Rockwood, certainly Ominis going with him, which would have been a disaster. The two boys would have thrown themselves headlong into the battle when they were only fourteen years old and they could have been seriously injured, died or worse! Expelled! (Oh wait...)

In short, by diverting Sebastian's attention, he protected him and by manipulating him to dissuade him from continuing his quest, he tried to keep him away from the truth so that he would not put himself in danger. We all know though that Sebastian is quite the stubborn kind and that he would definitely dive into anything he’s told not to.

Anne's curse was manageable at first, so he may have thought she would be able to live with it, but we know the situation only got worse. Anne was forced to drop out of school and return to Feldcroft. The guilt that Solomon would have developed would have pushed him to overprotect Anne. Unable to help him and knowing the truth, he would have unconsciously harbored anger towards Sebastian who naively tried to find a solution to something that did not exist. Managing him was certainly complex but at least, in a way, he was guided in a relatively wise way and Ominis was there to watch. In the game, the students talk about Sebastian but ultimately only the heir of Slytherin is considered his friend, a true friend.

But something disrupted his plan.

Us.

Many have highlighted his behavior towards our character. Let’s face it, we were the disruption. Without our presence, Ominis would never have given in for the Scriptorium, Sebastian would never have had access to Salazar Slytherin's book and he would never have been able to cross the catacombs to find the relic. Solomon had given him a quest with no outcome but our character provided assistance to which Sebastian should not have had access. When we think about this, we can understand pretty easily why - from our first dialogue ever with him - Solomon tries to impose his opinion on us regarding Anne's healing. Why he wanted us to dissuade his nephew from venturing down a dark path and unfortunately, we’ve been the downfall of them both.

When Sebastian finally uses the Imperio, Solomon understands that our presence has affected his nephew's quest and worse, it has encouraged him to cross lines he did not want him to cross. While the talented Slytherin is on the verge of becoming a man, the former Auror had just witnessed an act that he could not accept. It was proof of his failure, of his inability to protect his brother's son, that he had failed to keep him away from black magic. His hasty decision to leave Feldcroft would then have been a last-ditch move to desperately try to protect the twins.

By moving Anne away from Sebastian, the latter would no longer have to witness the deterioration of her condition and Anne would have been able to benefit from a healthy, stress-free environment which would have brought her a certain peace of mind. Everything he wanted and to offer her - offer them indeed. Solomon would have feared that beyond his quest for a cure and with the assistance of our character, his nephew would have ended up getting closer to the castle and that he would have made the connection, discovered the truth and launched this war that the Auror feared so much. He couldn't endanger the lives of his family and the new student.

I know, it's a bit exaggerated given our strike force in the game but Solomon doesn't know that. All he sees is another teenager putting themself in danger and worse, dragging his nephew along on their journey. Worse for our case, we have just started manipulating magic, how can such a character be trusted ?

In short, one can agree that if my theory is correct, it would explain a lot of things about Solomon Sallow's behavior.

I am now waiting for your opinions, hoping that I have managed to express myself well.

Théorie en version française !

Bonjour !

Première publication, je vais faire chauffer les choses concernant un jeu que pas mal de gens aiment et sur un personnage que beaucoup déteste.

Solomon Sallow dans Hogwart Legacy.

Cette théorie le concernant me trotte dans la tête depuis un certain temps, du fait de son comportement et de ses actions passées et présentes, il y a un truc qui me chagrine, qui trouble mon instinct de Serdaigle.

Donc, mettons la situation du personnage à jour. Ancien auror à la retraite, ce dernier se retrouve contraint de prendre sous sa tutelle les enfants de son frère décédé dans un malheureux accident, Anne et Sebastian. On ne sait pas grand-chose de la période qui suit jusqu’à la scolarité des enfants où sa charge s’alourdit d’un petit supplément en la personne d’Ominis Gaunt.

Vient ensuite le fameux incident et la situation dégénère jusqu’à l’impardonnable.

Je sais, Solomon n’est pas très aimé parmi le public de Hogwart Legacy. A juste titre, beaucoup trouve que c’est un con, un personnage bourru et inflexible mais je n’arrête pas de me dire qu’il y a quelque chose qui cloche dans cette histoire, quelque chose d’illogique concernant son comportement en tant qu’adulte devant veiller aux bien-être de son neveu et de sa nièce en plus de celui de leur meilleur ami tout de même issu d’une prestigieuse famille de sorcier.

Donc commençons par le commencement…

J’aimerais souligner, qu’aussi ignoble que soit la réputation des Gaunt, je ne pense pas qu’ils auraient laissé l’un de leur enfant à une personne incapable. Je sais que le peu qu’on entend à leur sujet n’est guère glorieux cependant, Ominis reste un héritier de Serpentard, ce n’est pas rien et les Gaunt protègent leur sang donc jamais ils n’auraient laissé un enfant à un homme pour lequel ils n’auraient pas un minimum de confiance, tout du moins c’est ce que je suppose. Naturellement, on peut aussi les suspecter d’avoir préféré le laisser avec les Sallow pour se soulager financièrement.

Pour autant, notons que Solomon doit être dans la même ligne que sa famille. Il est loin d’être idiot, il sait quel sport pratique la famille Gaunt et il doit bien se douter que Ominis ait été dans l’obligation de faire usage d’un sort impardonnable. Simplement, comme nous-même, il a fait la part des choses, Ominis n’était qu’un enfant dicté par la peur et qui est rongé de culpabilité contrairement à Sebastian qui n’a pas eu le moindre regret et qui aurait pu faire usage de n’importe quel autre sort. Pour autant, il n’a pas hésité à accepter ce gosse possiblement problématique sous son toit alors qu’il n’avait que des moyens limités. Navré pour ses détracteurs mais il faut avouer que c’est un acte de grande bienveillance, rien ne l’obligeait à prendre l’héritier de Serpentard sous son aile mais il l’a fait, uniquement pour le préserver des sombres traditions de sa famille, il a vu l’être pur qu’est notre petit blond favori. (Et clairement, vu la maison des Sallow, les Gaunt ne lui ont pas donné un rond !)

J’aimerais maintenant souligner un fait concernant le si brillant Sebastian Sallow. A Poudlard son talent de duelliste est plus que reconnu, tout le monde le sait et tous soulignent encore et encore à quel point notre victoire sur lui est surprenante. Mais je pense que son talent n’est en rien naturel. J’aimerais souligner que les rares fois où nous pouvons voir Anne qui reste sous le coup de sa malédiction, elle se bat avec un talent similaire et il en est de même avec Ominis qui a passé ses étés avec eux. Je pense que si ces trois-là se débrouillent aussi bien c’est pour une seule et unique raison, Solomon Sallow.

Je m’explique, en tant qu’ancien auror, je ne serais pas surprise que lorsque les enfants ont commencé à apprendre la magie, il a naturellement pu les assister dans l’usage des sorts de défense contre les forces du mal. Souvenez-vous, les mannequins d’entraînement sont derrière la maison des Sallow, je ne pense pas que ce soit un hasard. Durant les vacances je suis persuadé qu’il a aidé les trois enfants à développer leurs compétences. Certes, certains pourraient rebondir sur l’interdictions de faire usage de la magie en dehors de l’école mais Ominis n’a-t-il pas fait usage de la magie en dehors de l’école bien avant et sans conséquences ? A mon avis le ministère était bien plus souple à ce sujet à l’époque, voire ce n’était même pas un sujet.

Bref…

Du peu que nous avons pu voir, Anne est douée, même sous le coup d’une malédiction, elle se défend admirablement et du peu que nous avons pu voir, Ominis se débrouiller excellement malgré son handicap, sans un entraiment adéquat, il n’aurait jamais atteint un tel niveau même avec l’encadrement scolaire qu’offre Poudlard. En parallèle, Sebastian est très talentueux, certes, mais je pense que son oncle a été très sévère avec lui parce qu’il est justement un garçon, celui qui devait avec lui protéger sa sœur. Solomon est le patriarche et naturellement Sebastian reprendrait un jour le relai, de ce fait, il devait le préparer convenablement. Le travail acharné de Sebastian avec son oncle aura fini par payer et en revenant à Poudlard, tout cela lui aurait donné une certaine arrogance.

Puis vint l’incident et la malédiction d’Anne.

Et là, vient ma théorie.

Solomon est un bon sorcier, je veux dire un bon combattant. Certes, l’état de sa nièce était des plus préoccupant mais rien ne l’aurait empêché de capturer un gobelin et lui soustraire des informations pour savoir qui l’avait maudite et la guérir. Pourtant, il n’en a rien fait. Pourquoi ? Pourquoi il n’a rien fait ? Il a élevé les enfants de son frère, protégé Ominis et il n’a rien fait pour aider Anne alors qu’il en avait la capacité ? Pourquoi ?!

Pourquoi ? Si ce n’est qu’il savait la vérité ?

Solomon Sallow est un ancien auror, il sait mener une enquête et à l’image de sa famille, il sait faire usage de son cerveau. Je pense qu’il a cherché qui avait maudit sa nièce et que malheureusement, il a trouvé la réponse. Victor Rockwood, un bandit redoutable d’une dangerosité sans précédent. Un homme qui n’hésiterait pas à le tuer. Naturellement, il a dû tenter de faire discrètement justice en gardant son neveu et sa nièce dans l’ignorance. Comme il le souligne à notre personnage, il n’est pas utile de donner de l’espoir lorsque c’est inutile et tant qu’il ne pouvait pas garantir la guérison d’Anne, il ne valait mieux pas faire savoir la vérité.

Malheureusement et vous le savez, Rockwood l’a très bien souligné lors de ses dialogues avec Ranrock, il a des connexions, des amis très haut-placés dans le ministère et cela est largement prouvé par l’inaction du ministère concernant les méfaits du gredin dans la région. Il n’y a pas de justice, Victor Rockwood est protégé, inatteignable et bien trop dangereux. Et Solomon Sallow s’est vu impuissant face à la corruption du monde magique, incapable de faire face à ce dangereux personnages. Certes, certains pourrait souligner une certaine lâcheté mais mettez-vous à sa place ! Il était tout ce qu’il restait à Anne, Sebastian et aussi Ominis, le seul adulte pouvant les protéger, veiller sur eux ! Ils n’ont personne d’autre !

Solomon s’est donc vu dans l’obligation de faire un choix terrible. Le problème se posant n’étant rien d’autre que son neveu. Sebastian. Comme il l’a souligné, il est le fils de son père mais aussi le neveu de son oncle. Il a grandi avec son frère et a élevé Sebastian, il le connait par cœur que cela plaise ou non à ce dernier. L’intelligence de Sebastian devenant un danger, le doyen des Sallow aurait alors manipulé son neveu pour le centrer sur un seul problème. Comment guérir Anne plutôt que sur le réel lanceur de malédiction. Imaginez ! Si Sebastian avait su la vérité, il aurait lancé une guérilla contre Rockwood en embarquant Ominis. Les deux garçons se seraient lancés à corps perdu dans la bataille alors qu’ils n’avaient que quatorze ans et ils auraient pu se blesser gravement, mourir voire pire ! Être expulsé ! Attendez… Bref, en détournant l’attention de Sebastian, il l’aurait protégé et en le manipulant pour le dissuader de continuer sa quête, l’aurait détourné de la vérité pour qu’il ne se mette pas en danger. Et Sebastian est un adolescent têtu à qui il suffit d’interdire de faire quelque chose pour garantir qu’il y plongera à pied joint sans jamais s’en détourner.

La malédiction d’Anne étant gérable dans un premier temps, il a peut-être cru qu’elle parviendrait à vivre avec mais nous le savons la situation n’a fait que s’empirer. Anne a été contrainte à se déscolariser et revenir à Feldcroft. La culpabilité que Solomon aurait développée l’aurait poussé à surprotéger Anne. Incapable de l’aider et en sachant la vérité, il aurait inconsciemment nourri une colère envers Sebastian qui naïvement essayait de trouver une solution à quelque chose qui n’existait pas. Le gérer était certes complexe mais au moins, d’une certaine façon, il était encadré dans une voie relativement sage et Ominis était là pour veiller. Dans le jeu, les élèves parlent de Sebastian mais finalement seul l’héritier de Serpentard est considéré comme son ami, un vrai ami.

Mais quelque chose à perturbé son plan.

Nous.

Beaucoup ont souligné son comportement vis-à-vis de notre personnage. Avouons-le, nous étions la perturbation. Sans notre présence, jamais Ominis n’aurait cédé pour le Scriptorium, jamais Sebastian n’aurait eu accès au livre de Salazar Serpentard et jamais il n’aurait pu franchir les catacombes pour y trouver la relique. Solomon lui avait donné une quête sans issus mais notre personnage a apporté une assistance à laquelle Sebastian n’aurait pas dû avoir accès. Quand on réfléchit à cela, on comprend alors pourquoi dès notre premier dialogue, Solomon tente de nous imposer son avis concernant la guérison d’Anne, pourquoi il voulait que nous dissuadions son neveu de s’aventurer sur un chemin obscur et malheureusement, nous avons été leur perte à tous les deux.

Lorsque finalement Sebastian fait usage de l’Imperio, Solomon comprend que notre présence a affecté la quête de son neveu et pire que cela l’a encouragé à franchir des lignes qu’il ne souhaitait pas le voir franchir. Alors que le talentueux Serpentard est en passe de devenir un homme, l’ancien auror venait d’être témoin d’un acte qu’il ne pouvait accepter. C’était la preuve de son échec, de son incapacité à protéger le fils de son frère, qu’il n’avait pas réussi à le tenir hors de la magie noire. Sa décision précipitée de quitter Feldcroft aurait alors été un dernier geste pour désespérément essayer de protéger les jumeaux.

En éloignant Anne de Sebastian, ce dernier n’aurait plus été témoin de la dégradation de son état et Anne aurait pu bénéficier d’un environnement sain et sans stress qui lui aurait apporté une certaine quiétude. Tout ce qu’il souhaitait et pouvait lui offrir, leur offrir. Solomon aurait craint qu’au-delà de sa quête d’un remède et avec l’assistance de notre personnage, son neveu aurait fini par se rapprocher du château et qu’il aurait fait le lien, découvert la vérité et lancé cette guerre que l’auror craignait tant. Il ne pouvait mettre en danger la vie de sa famille et du nouvel élève.

Je sais, c’est un peu exagéré au vu de notre force de frappe dans le jeu mais ça, Solomon l’ignore. Tout ce qu’il voit, c’est un autre adolescent qui se met en danger et pire qui entraîne son neveu dans ses périples. Pire pour notre cas, nous venons de commencer à manipuler la magie, comment avoir confiance en un tel personnage ?

Bref, je trouve que si ma théorie est juste, elle expliquerait bien des choses sur le comportement de Solomon Sallow.

J’attend vos avis en espérant avoir réussi à bien m’exprimer.

#hogwarts legacy #sebastian sallow #anne sallow #ominis gaunt #solomon sallow

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alittlefrenchtree · 2 months

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I obviously don't think he has to be online 24/7 so as not to be forgotten, it doesn't make sense and his job isn't even one that requires this of him. However, I think that his agent and his team are doing a poor job and should do much more. They didn't profit in the slightest by taking advantage of the hype that rwrb would bring.

I know the strike wasn't expected, but Nicholas for example was able to capitalize on the popularity due to the film with two projects he's promoting now that he's made post rwrb and his name is everywhere thanks to it. They should have done something similar too, he should be super busy by now thanks to the popularity of that movie and maybe for me it's more important what he does than how he uses social media (no hate, I just think his team should do more better)

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to post and answer your ask. There is something quite bizarre about posting something I disagree with entirely on my blog. But I’m still going to try if I can manage to answer this clearly and quickly (spoiler: it’s not quick) and if I like my answer enough. If you’re reading this, I guess I’ve managed to do it somehow.

I don’t know if you know, but people have been coming to my inbox to talk about the bad job agent and PR team were doing since 2019 or 2020. Do you know who they were talking about back then? Timothée Chalamet. Since the guy is having a pretty decent career so far, I'm guessing wasn't so bad after all. So even if I’m not comparing Taylor to Timothée, because no one can be compared to Timothée right now, you’ll understand that I’ve already learned that they aren’t many experts around here. But the thing that came off all of the talks back then is: you might not like what you see (or don’t see) but it doesn’t mean they’re doing a bad job.

Secondly, there is still no point of comparing one people to another or to ask of someone to be more like someone else or do the same kind of things as someone else. Nick and Taylor are different people, at different stages of their careers, with different careers and backgrounds, and certainly with different aspirations and needs so wishing the people around them would have done "something similar" is a bit of a non sense for me. They’re doing the same job and worked on the same movie but it doesn’t mean they should follow similar path. To carry on with the Chalamet example, I don’t see people going around blaming Calah Lane for not being Timothée Chalamet, Hugh Grant or Olivia Colman yet after the success of Wonka. It doesn't make sense.

Thirdly, you got some your dates wrong. Nick is actually capitalizing on projects he did before rwrb right now. To be fair, he’s probably more capitalizing on freaking Cinderella than anything else at the moment. He does that beautifully but it’s really something he’s been building up from way longer than the last 7 months or so. And yes, Starz was probably delighted to see his popularity explode during the summer with RWRB and Bottoms but it means they got a few more bucks for promotion and a few more interviews requests. It didn't give the actual job to Nick. And well, all respect to Nick but I’m pretty sure Anne Hathaway and Harry Styles would have make all the buzz around pre-premiere The Idea of You all by themselves. Nick did bring most of the enthusiastic cheerleaders to the premiere but his impact on the movie and how much he can capitalize will come after the release of the said thing. For now, the project and the lead are bigger than him.

I know some people will only read half of my words but I’m obviously not diminishing any of Nick’s work or talent. He’s very talented and is doing amazingly and I’m both very happy and proud to see him shine but some of the things I read about him are clearly lacking of perspective in the grand scheme of things.

So far, post-RWRB actually brought very similar things to Taylor and Nick actually: invitations to a shit loads of fancy parties and both apparently working on unknown projects we know nothing about. (And delicate talks about a potential sequel).

People also needs to understand that Taylor’s career in movies has started in 2020. He’s a freaking baby. And since covid killed most of the impact TBK could have had and the his sister died of cancer and then the strikes happened, half of the years since 2020 doesn't really count. Thinking where he is now isn’t already huge giving the circumstances (and everything else we’ve already talked about here) is madness. And we actually don't know what his team is doing right now. Might be a poor job. Might be ok. I have no clue.

God I hate what you made me do. I might regret answering it for all the people who will read this and find nothing better to write that something like "there is this Tumblr blog saying Nick owes all of his success to Camila Cabello and Harry Styles and that he did nothing compared to TZP, imagine the delulu 💀" but yeah.

TLDR; (not specifically for you, Nonny. Just some general thoughts with way less words)

Stop comparing artists. Stop comparing people all together.

Stop asking middle schooler to be high schooler.

Stop thinking high schooler is worth more than the middle schooler because they’re in high school. They’ve been doing that student thing for way longer, it’s normal.

Stop thinking you’re the only target audience of PR work. You’re already obsessed, they doesn’t need to get you on board.

Stop thinking movies are made from scratch to finish in 5 months. Scripts go around for years. People are casted, then leave projects because pre-production takes forever, because there isn’t enough money and then other people are casted and pre-production starts again, and things get delayed and everything takes a freaking long time (and even more luck) to actually happen.

Having too much expectations will kill the fun eventually. Wait for things to happen. Go play video games or something in the meantime. I don’t know.

(I’m not sure what I’ll do with the follow up of this conversation. I’ll read everything but I might not answer to most. I’m not sure).

And like previous ask, sorry if it came out harsher that it should have been. No harm intended 🙏

#alft asks

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putschki1969 · 3 months

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youtube

Kaji Fes.2023 Day 1 FULL Video [Reupload]

Find the original post from last night HERE. It doesn't show up on the Tumblr dashboard so only people who actively check my blog have seen it. I exchanged the video with an official one so I guess it might have been a copyright issue. Don't think I've ever had one, very interesting.

»»—— CLICK ME 🎁 CLICK ME ——««

❗FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗CREDIT me if you SHARE on other sites❗

I was quite excited to watch this since I only attended Day 2 last December. I didn’t necessarily regret not going for Day 1 but there were a couple of really neat songs in the setlist that I kinda wished I had been able to see performed live. The audio seems a bit dull but maybe it’s just me… Anyway, it’s still a pretty epic live. Please note that they decided to cut a handful of songs from the broadcast (probably to keep the whole thing at roughly 2 hours). The following songs are not included: fake garden, canta per me, she has to overcome her fear, I beg you and 砂塵の彼方へ.

Here are some random thoughts┗(•ˇ_ˇ•)―→

fake garden

canta per me

the world: Nothing much to say here. Decent performance but I liked the song more when it was led by Keiko.

Liminality: Loved, loved, loved this version with the amazingly talented Yuri Kasahara, Keiko and Kaori. The bridge here might be my favourite of all time.

in the land of twilight, under the moon: Never been a fan.

swordland: Another highlight for me. I think it’s easy to tell that I am a real sucker for YK’s guest vocalists that use a more operatic singing style.

she has to overcome her fear

luminous sword: Always been a big fan of Yuki’s SAO soundtrack. I understand why it gets performed a lot.

星屑: Even though this is a Keiko-centric song, I’ve never really liked it all that much so I don’t have much to say about it.

花守の丘: Solid.

ｗe’re gonna groove: Those who have followed me for a while know how I feel about the accordion. I dislike this instrument with a passion and it’s just featured way too heavily here. Fun fact, when Day 2 started with the accordion, I got really scared and wondered whether or not I would enjoy myself.

Obsession: Can’t say I’ve ever heard this song before. Sadly, it’s nothing that leaves a lasting impression. Also, that accordion…(¬_¬) Weird choice for LINO LEIA. It was fun hearing Keiko sing a bit of English though.

千夜一夜: Once again, not familiar with the song. Like this one a bit more though. Generally, I think I prefer rito’s vocals over LINO’s even though I don’t really know why.

Point Zero: This is one of my all-time favourite YK songs and one of the few tracks I really regret not seeing live on Day 1. Another epic performance by Yuri Kasahara. God, I love her so much.

salva nos: Speaking of regrets, yup, I’ll admit it, I am pretty bummed that I missed this one. “salva nos” and “a song of storm and fire” were the very first YK songs I ever listened to and they quite literally changed the trajectory of my life. Without those two songs, I wouldn’t have looked into more of YK’s stuff and I certainly wouldn’t have discovered Kalafina. One day, I wanna be there for a live performance. At least I got to hear “a song of storm and fire” on Day 2. So grateful for that!! Anyway, super epic.

花の唄: No thoughts.

I beg you

櫂: Ahh, I almost forgot about Aimer’s Mizu no Akashi 2.0. It’s so funny to me that this is literally copy/paste. Lovely melody, I don’t even mind the vocals all that much but damn, it’s not even coming close to Wakana’s Mizu no Akashi.

朝が来る: Decent but nothing to write home about.

My Story: Ohhh, another score track from “Hanako to Anne”. I was actually blown away by Day 2’s “希望の光”. This is not as good but still quite nice. Weirdly enough I am obsessed with the uilleann pipes. How come I can’t stand the accordion but I absolutely love this instrument? Probably because I am really into the celtic sound?

Parallel Hearts: Ugh, never liked this song, not even when Wakana was still around.

stone cold: This on the other hand is a song I’ve always enjoyed but with Wakana no longer in the picture, it’s just not the same. Will never get used to the Kaori chorus. Sorry T_T Still like this though.

the image theme of Xenosaga II: Good stuff.

蒼穹のファンファーレ: Love that this is focusing on the FJ regulars. My favourite performance of the song so far.

#yuki kajiura #kajiura yuki #video #report #Kaji Fes. 2023 #Kaji Fes #fictionjunction #Keiko #Uploading this again #the first 2 posts weren't showing up on the dashboard #sorry for the spamming

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chaosartic · 10 months

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Zodiac Signs Headcanons

Featuring: Sebastian Sallow, Ominis Gaunt, Garreth Weasley and Leander Prewett

Word count: 0.8k

Warnings: none

a/n: This HC idea was born again in the Ominis server. Thanks to @huntress-valkyrie for this idea and everyone who talked with us about their ideas.

Again no proofreader, mistakes may be there.

Sebastian Sallow: Capricorn

People born with the Capricorn sign are supposedly overachieves and will do anything when they have set something as their goal.

• Sebastian finding a cure for his cursed twin sister.

They’re persistent and will more than likely never give up. They tend to be practical and will not always follow rules given by society if they don’t feel like they’re important.

• Sebastian sneaking into the restricted section or learning about the Dark Art. When meeting Slytherin MC in the common room for the first time, he tells MC that they will soon learn that not all important spells can be found in the schoolbooks. On their way to Hogsmead he tells MC that Hogwarts Professors should have more trust in their students defensive skills and allow them more freedom, for example being allowed to go into the Forbidden Forest.

Capricorns will spend any giving moment of their time to help those they love.

• Again the topic of finding a cure for Anne.

But at the same time Capricorns are feared by other signs because of their nature to ignore rules from society and their nature to not care about consequences. They are feared for their never giving up attitude and their dedication to put themselves into any task giving that they believe in.

• Sebastian doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions in school (sneaking into the Restricted Section or opening the Scriptorium. He also doesn’t think about the consequences that follow after killing his uncle.

Ominis Gaunt: Aquarius

Aquarius are mainly beliefed to be very clever and analytic.

• Now Ominis is very clever for sure. He managed to navigate his home despite his blindness as a child,without help, and figure out that whatever his parents are doing and what he ultimately was taught as a child to be normal is wrong and cruel. He also was clever enough to hid his true feelings about that topic long enough until he had a save space (Hogwarts) and someone to trust with this (Sebastian).

People born with this sign are said to he rather confident in their abilities and assertive. They carry thenself with a certain elegance and confidence in public.

• While Ominis isn’t so happy about his last name he does know how to use it to his advantage with others, given the fact that the name Gaunt gives most people the creeps and they get scared. Both his posture and demander, when he wants too, are very confident and assure that he know what he is doing.

Ominis is also highly creative and innovate, both traits that are often associated with the Aquarius sign.

• Furthermore Aquarius are known to be highly creative and innovate. Both traits are found in many signs but Aquarius are supposedly those who carry it the best.

He figured out with a little help how to use his wand to work as his eyes and is ,despite his rather uncommon disability in the wizard world, a very gifted and talented young wizard.

Garreth Weasley: Saggitaurus

This zodic sign is said to be the most cheerful and funny one of them. They tend to make everyone laugh with their cheerful nature and are always up for bringing the most random jokes, the class clown.

• Garreth with his cheerful nature and the smile he tend to carry around on his face. And while his potion experiments may not always work, he dies make people laugh with his mistakes.

They are loyal and smart, supportive and yet daring enough to dive head first into any adventure that excites them

• Some character traits that Garreth shares which ultimately may have been the reason he hot sortet into Griffendor, the house of the brave and daring.

Saggitaurus tend to be fascinated by one thing and make that their lives ling passion.

• Garreth has, and will most likely, always love potions. He neglects his other subjects and school work, as revealed by his aunt, in order to experiment and create more potions.

They are creative and more hands on when it comes to learning. It is also said that this sign has an adventures spirit and would di anything for their loved ones.

• To create new potions, he has to be creative, intelligent and perhaps be a bit adventurous.

Leander Prewett: Cancer or Aries (I’m thorn on him)

Cancers are supposedly sensitive, self-protective, loving, nuturing and with a goodfu sense of humor.

Aries are said to be competitive, ambitious and have a high energy.

• We do not see enough of Leanders character traits throughout the game to be completely certain about how he truly is. He seems to dhare the Cancer traits on one hand but also the traits of an Aries on the other.

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy hc #hogwarts legacy headcanons #sebastian sallow #ominis gaunt #garreth weasley x mc #leander prewett #zodic signs

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schmirius · 6 months

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okay but what if... a different ofmd s2

I tried several times to make a less tl;dr version of this post, but it's not happening. BEHOLD: a season I just like better. It fixes things that I personally didn't like (and I have a strong Ed and Izzy bias). I wanted to do a few major things:

Keep 2x01-2x03, because I love them so damn much. this unfortunately sets the stakes *really high* for the rest of the season, so...

Rework the characters that canon s2 introduced, to be able to focus more tightly on the Revenge's response to the 2x01-2x03 atom bomb.

Give Ed and Stede more focused arcs (individually and as a couple). Ed and Stede were, emotionally, at completely opposite poles in 2x01-2x03, and in canon I think they didn't connect much after that. So in my version, they'll do basic work to understand why their s1 meet-cute failed and how they can move on to having a real relationship.

Address Ed's very vividly depicted violence from 2x01-2x02. I found the amends depicted in canon somewhere between "unsatisfying" and "horrifying." Jesus did I need to fuck around with that!

the three major acts in the season:

ACT 1 (2x01-2x03) – Trauma! These episodes remain largely the same as in canon.

ACT 2 (2x04-2x06) – Recovery I've edited these episodes so Ed + Stede are entirely separated from Izzy + the Crew. This gives the OTP space to work on themselves and their relationship. Likewise, Izzy has space away from Ed to go through his arc of self-discovery and consider if he wants to reconcile with Ed. Izzy and the Crew all get a chance to recover from The Trauma on their own, together as a community. ACT 3 (2x07-2x08) – Reconciliation Act 2 has given everybody time to process Act 1 and how they might come out of it as better versions of themselves and a stronger community. Now the OTP and the Crew reintegrate and, in the 2x08 climax, prove all their work has been worth it by fighting together against an external menace. (It's Hornigold. It's got to be Hornigold. This is so obvious to me.)

* * * THE CHARACTERS:

Each crew member is talented brilliant incredible showstopping spectacular, but in the interest of brevity, the characters in the imaginary episodes are going to be:

Ed and Stede → The OTP – Ed and Stede as a couple. Color-coded red so you can follow their arc.

Izzy

The Crew, who begin in Act 1 as three separate crews: → the Castaways (everybody Ed marooned/tossed overboard at the end of s1) → the Breakup Boat (everybody from canon s2 on the Revenge with Truly Insane Ed → the Girls (introduced below)

THE BOATS:

Most episodes are going to have two plots running, taking place on two ships:

The Revenge

The Pearl Diver (again, below)

Last terminology note: I'm going to be comparing "canon episodes" vs. "imaginary episodes" or "new episodes" a bunch.

Ready? Alright, let's kick it.

* * *

ACT 1 – 2x01-2x03 – TRAUMAAA

Ed + the Breakup Boat: The action on the Revenge remains basically the same, with the torture and the murder-suicides and all the crimes. Stede + the Castaways: I'd cut the Republic of Pirates in 2x01. Instead, I'd start with everyone at sea on the ship that rescued them (which also creates an atmosphere of everyone still being trapped by the awful shit that happened in 1x10). What ship? I think introducing Zheng the historical pirate is a really cool idea, but I also think it's one idea too many. Zheng's objectively cooler and more successful ship is always, implausibly, overshadowed by the lovable misfits on the Revenge, since the Revenge is the workplace that the show is about. This is annoying to me (and probably Zheng). Instead I'd make the rescue ship one of equal goofiness: Mary and Anne's ship. I'll call it the Pearl Diver, just because I can. We can lift the formula from Ed's ship in s1:

s1: gay men // s2: lesbians!

s1 power couple on the ship is Ed+Izzy // s2 is Mary/Anne

s1 crew members who later join Revenge are The Boys, Fang+Ivan // s2 will have the Girls, a surgeon and her competent sailor girlfriend. one of them is a trans woman, I said so

the set is just the Revenge with different props on, lol

Okay, that's our lesbian ship set up. It'll last five episodes and be a very easy foil for the Revenge. Stede: His 2x01-2x02 bit seemed to be "I love Ed, I'll get back to him no matter." I'd push that harder. New s2 will open with Stede as a brave romantic adventurer sallying forth into true love (the same way he was a brave romantic adventurer sallying forth into piracy in s1). So: "I love Ed, I'll get back to him no matter, and the force of our newfound love will be what straightens this all out." The OTP: Ed and Stede are both hopeless romantics, of course, but they're coming at it from opposing genres. Ed thinks he's the doomed villain in a big-R Romantic novel. Stede thinks he's the little-r romantic hero in a bodice-ripper. Their job in new s2 is to shift ideas of self & genre to meet somewhere in the middle.

ACT 2 – 2x04-2x06 – RECOVERY

I think a lot of what s2 tried in mid-season succeeded, but it didn't really add up to anything. In order to advance Ed and Stede's arc(s), I'd isolate them from the Crew. This gives everyone space to start clearing up the Act 1 wreckage.

(quick 2x03 note:) The major change I'd make here here would be moving the Breakup Boat crew off of the Revenge sometime mid-episode so they can recuperate on the Pearl Diver instead. They get to leave the trauma boat, which gives them and us the audience some breathing room as we transition out of the murder-suicide portion of the season. In the Pearl's infirmary they meet the Girls – surgeon and girlfriend – and reunite with the Castaways. There's a palpable sense of each group feeling isolated from the others.

2x04 – really intense cleanup

Time skip: The Breakup Boat crew have been declared physically recovered enough to start repairing the Revenge (and therefore prepared to grit their teeth and return to the scene of their trauma). The Castaways offer to help; the Girls come along in solidarity with their new friends. The Revenge: (this is also 2x04 in canon) Izzy never left the wrecked ship, is doing Bad. The three separate crews do ship repairs, but then come together as one Crew to declare Izzy their unicorn.

The Pearl Diver: (this story has no equivalent in canon)

Ed: never leaves the Pearl's infirmary, is doing Bad. He's trying to come to grips with the fact that he did all that shit, the kind that his dad and Hornigold used to. Stede: is focused on telling Ed about their true love rather than trying to understand how awful Ed feels, to the point that he's telling his newfound love~ story super loudly to avoid talking about Ed's pain.

The OTP: They have a moment where they stop talking past each other.

Ed hears Stede when he says that he really does love Ed. (Ed doesn't necessarily believe it, but he's willing to listen.)

Stede hears Ed when Ed says he feels trapped worse than ever (though he's weirded out Ed thinks he's a doomed villain). (Stede, our favorite Ed stan, literally doesn't care what Ed did except as far as how Ed feels about it.)

2x05 – letting loose

Time skip! Again, everyone looks slightly less haggard. The Revenge: (this is 2x06 in canon; I've moved it to 2x05) The Crew: have Calypso's birthday, paid for with the treasure they wouldn't throw overboard in 2x01 because it's their treasure and not Ed's, ffs. Joyful, queer, "we're surviving, we're getting through this together." Izzy+Ed: I'm aiming to untangle the shitty parts of their codependency and eliminate Ed's outright domestic abuse. I read canon s2 as Izzy fully untangling himself from Ed and then presenting Ed as a gift to Stede, and I did not like that for anyone. I'm aiming to conclude new s2 with Izzy+Ed acknowledging how bad it was at the end (with a little more emotional insight than they might have been able to do in s1 – maybe this huge event in their lives leads to self-reflection and growth!) and how they could move forward maybe as very complicated friends. Izzy's going to be taking the lead on this one, because the codependency very much ended in Ed doing violence to him. He gets to decide what the fuck happens. So: Izzy: is finally somewhere without Ed, first time in 30 years. Now that he's been unicorn'd (feels supported), he has room to unwind and start discovering what he might like to do. So he does drag. And also sings about his complicated feelings for Ed, come on, Izzy has love for him. In new s2, Izzy still gets to bloom, but he remains closer in personality to his grumpy cunty s1 self, not quite consciously understanding how he's changing. The Pearl Diver: (this is 2x04 in canon; I've moved it to 2x05) The OTP: have the bonkers Mary/Anne dinner party (their f/f co-captain counterparts). They do their awkward exes bit. In canon s2, they see Mary/Anne as "these guys are so weird, wtf"; in new s2, they're more like "these guys are so weird, omg. remember how weird we were last year? that was so fucking great." Conclusions:

Ed and Stede have more in common than they'd feared (since, like, 1x10)

They see they can be dramatic assholes in love like these bitches and that's great.

But also: maybe they need to be less self-centered than "burn down your ship which is your entire livelihood without considering that this might kill your crew." Maybe Mary/Anne rowing off cackling in a boat together (to, say, China) isn't the W they thought it was.

also also: caught up in the adrenaline of understanding they're mad lads, Ed/Stede do the impulsive "taking it too fast" (canon: 2x06) and BONE.

Lastly: The OTP ask to reboard the Revenge now that there's no Pearl Diver, mentioning hopefully that they've learned a lesson. The Crew are not convinced. They maroon Ed/Stede on land at close of ep.

2x06 – restucturing

The Revenge: (this plot is similar to Izzy+Stede's story in canon's 2x05)

Haven't thought of a frame story I like here, honestly. But the point of the episode is that Izzy helps Crew to be better pirates. This does two things:

Izzy's getting a chance to choose to manage people for himself, rather than as Ed's minder or Ed's goon.

Crew are getting competent advice from someone who genuinely gives a shit (Stede or Ed do not fit the bill). This allows them to keep running things in a fairly democratic structure where they do make decisions based on actually, for real, Talking Things Through.

Crew: consider what they're going to do about Ed and Stede – who maybe have had time to sort themselves out a bit? – replete with silly company restructuring metaphors.

Izzy: probably does shirtless swordplay considers how he wants to deal with Ed. Talking to Crew he decides that he, too, can try airing grievances with Ed in workplace metaphors. (It doesn't take much to convince him. Izzy will always love being a professional.)

On Land: (this episode has no equivalent in canon)

The OTP: in true OFMD style, they attend a modern couples retreat that has 18th c trappings. It is run by the straightest dude ever (Steve Carell levels of Kinsey 1 in 18th c khakis).

This dude is obnoxious, but he does remind them to strike a balance between demonstrating their love by talking through their needs (e.g. 2x04 infirmary, 2x05 dinner party) and by taking action (which will always be bonkers for them, like 1x09 act of grace, 2x05 impulsive boning). I'm thinking of it like: Ed/Stede realize they're whim-prone (as in canon 2x04), and also there's this tool nearby.

They're like, hey, actually I really love you, and make out sappily for a while then wonder, bemusedly, why they didn't do that before fucking a bunch. ("but the fucking was still good?" "oh yeah mate, we should definitely always be fucking")

Unfortunately: The retreat ends abruptly when they spot pirate hunters closing in on the B&B and have to make a run for it.

ACT 3 – 2x07-2x08 – RECONCILIATION

I really couldn't tell what canon was going for at season's end, starting from about "Stede kills Lowe" at the end of 2x06. I found a lot of it contradictory and kind of ass-pull-y. Major divergences to follow.

2x07 – reintegration

(this episode is similar to canon episode 2x05)

The Revenge: Having spent 2x06 thinking about what they want to do next, the Crew decide they can take on Stede + Ed on their flight from pirate hunters. Everyone's back on the boat. I'd probably make the frame story here something silly and light-hearted like the Cursed Red Suit. Everyone can mingle in groups that are different from the ones they started out in during Act 1 – permutations of people from the three distinct crews, Stede and Izzy and Ed thrown together with people they haven't seen in a while. These different groups can brainstorm deeply stupid solutions to this probably fake problem. I'd probably make the frame story here something silly and light-hearted like The Cursed Red Suit. Everybody can mingle in different groups and brainstorm deeply stupid solutions to this probably fake problem. Ed/Stede: Crucially, Stede and Ed aren't together in any of these groups. They separate and see everyone and understand that they're not, actually, in charge of Crew anymore. It's weird but okay. They both have to legitimately listen like they've been practicing all season. Ed doesn't apologize but he at least doesn't fuck with anyone, so that's... fine. Izzy+Ed: They haven't seen each other since the murder-suicide farrago in 2x02.

Izzy: "You can do the big gestures but you're a shit captain, Ed. You can't be there on the everyday stuff." (with subtext: you need to give a shit about me all the time, not just when I can be convenient to you.) It's not any kind of forgiveness, and Ed can't offer an apology because he still doesn't understand them. But this is Izzy saying he'll talk to Ed (with more pushback than canon's 2x06 "oh look it's scowly face").

Lastly: This has been a monster of the week ep where the first five minutes were like, there's a problem which will affect us in the future! and then the middle of the episode is, but it's not affecting us right now so let's do interpersonal stuff! Sadly, whoever they dump the Suit on at the end of the episode reminds them the problem still exists: the pirate hunters are worse than they thought. Hornigold is on their trail.

2x08 – IT'S REAL PERSONAL

(this episode has no equivalent in canon.) And here we reach the locus of all my frustrations!

Nose Guy doesn't exist in new s2, so we don't need to blow up the Republic with no foreshadowing as in canon 2x08

Zheng's awesome fleet doesn't exist in new s2. The foreshadowing that she was planning something incredible doesn't have to come to nothing like it did in canon 2x08, when her fleet also blew up with no foreshadowing. (what was that badass montage from canon 2x02 of her crew portaging ships thru the jungle even for ;_;)

Canon s2's sudden decision to make the stakes of the entire season "oh, uh, everyone wants to destroy piracy?" and completely ignore all the interpersonal problems set up in Act 1 – that doesn't happen!

Probably nothing in imaginary s2 will be as intense as 2x01-2x03 were. But new 2x08 will be a claustrophobic, high-pressure situation where everyone will have the resolutions they made in Act 2 tested, in a situation as dangerous as the worst of Act 1.

HERE WE GOOOOO Cold open on the Revenge:

A scene that looks about as bad as Ed's storm in 2x02: Izzy is dead from a headshot, Crew are panicking, Stede is alone and can only shout to Ed that he loves him from far away.

Ed is kitted out as Blackbeard at his worst – makeup and all – and seems ready to, again, blow the whole ship up. Viewer is perhaps worried that Ed has, again, lost it. We balance on the precipice!!

TITLE CARD!

Chronological start of ep:

Wind back the action!

Time skip from 2x07: The Revenge has been running from Hornigold for weeks, hiding themselves in ever smaller spaces as they get jumpier and jumpier about the pursuit. (Think on deck → main cabin → galley → the secret fucking deathbed under the galley.)

Ed, off by himself, is beside himself at the thought of meeting Hornigold for real once more. He failed to kill him all those years ago – what must he do now to solve the problem for good?

Intercut with Hornigold's ship:

Hornigold is chasing them, being a dick in his sumptious cabin. It's light on the action, heavy on letting us know who he is.

He's cruel and violent, like Act 1 Ed, except (a) he's less concerned about covering up his awfulness with charm and (b) he's perfectly open about "I hate this guy I used to own and I want to kill him" (about Ed) in contrast to Act 1 Ed not being able to say anything of the sort about Stede or Izzy.

We already know what kind of evil shit Hornigold used to pull because mostly-dead Ed told us in 2x03, so, you know, good enough.

Ed has to kill himself and also his dad again, lol, we get it

Climactic stuff on the Revenge!

Hornigold catches up to them; there's some fighting or whatever; it leads us up to the cold open. But then it pushes through to: it was all a fuckery!!

(do not ASK me what kind of fuckery. they are hard to write, they are both deeply psychological and incredibly goofy. This is just an outline of a fake season LEAVE ME ALONE)

Ed was a distraction, acting how Hornigold expected him to act! It works: Stede kills Hornigold!

The OTP: The murder addresses how each wants to deal with violence in their respective genres:

Ed, when he did patricide on behalf of someone he loved (mum) got caught up the cycle of dreadful murder and trauma he wanted to escape. And now he sees that he can – he's not the doomed Romantic villain!

Stede, in doing step-patricide on behalf of someone he loves (Ed), commits in a real way to ruthlessly murdering bullies. He's a swashbuckler! He definitely likes it! Finally, he's found a way to express romantic love in a grounded* way. (*by OFMD standards.)

It's a deranged pirate sitcom way of turning their tentative courtship into a healthy adult relationship.

Ed + Izzy:

During the fuckery: Izzy is playing murdered-by-Ed, so he's "dead" on deck (vulnerable) amidst the chaos.

Ed throws himself over Izzy to save him from getting shot.

This doesn't erase all the shitty things Ed did! It's a big gesture instead of an everyday thing, just like Izzy was complaining about! But it's definitely an indicator that Ed would prefer not to drive Izzy to suicide and Ed does, even, ask if Izzy's okay afterwards, checking him over, before someone else points out that Ed got shot.

Lastly:

With final approval from Izzy – after a lengthy pause where Izzy looks at Edward panting and bleeding on the deck – the Crew decide to journey forth to find Super Good Medicine to save Ed.

THERE ARE HINTS THAT s3 MIGHT SHOW US:

Blackbeard's historic raid on Charleston (who is playing Blackbeard at that point? who knows!)

Ed and Izzy working on being weird-ass friends again, but without so much murder-suicide

Stede and Ed finally talking about how they want to spend their life together: what's between retirement and piracy?

This is all pretty okay because new s2 ends in a hopeful place where nobody FUCKING DIED jfc where everyone's grown a bit but, as always, still has room to grow more.

the end!

#ofmd s2 #some fic #imaginary s2

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starlit-hopes-and-dreams · 8 months

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Author Ask Game

I was tagged by @sam-glade earlier in the month, you can find their post here. Thanks for the tag, Sam!

I'm going to tag @pleasestaywithmedarling and leave an Open Tag for anyone else interested!

I'll answer this for Shattered Dreams

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I don't know what the main lesson is. I didn't write it with a lesson in mind :')

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

I used 30+ years of reading fantasy and playing fantasy games as inspiration lol. Like, really. I pickpocketed ideas from all over the place.

My little dragons? Inspired by the fire lizards in Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Magic system is a combo of actual magic and mind/healing magic. Mind magic inspired by Anne McCaffrey's Talent Series and Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar. Brandon Sanderson's laws of magic + rpg magic and skill leveling played a huge role while establishing my magic system. There's more, I'm sure, but I'll leave it there.

As for my races, (fae, seraph, human, ifrit, jinn, undine, aicaya), I pulled the elemental ones from various mythologies, even if I don't follow the mythology in world. My fae are largely inspired by Sarah Maas, but I incorporated a bit of shapeshifting references along with a tad of traditional fairy mythology. Not much though. The humans are based off a european background, the fae a loosely hispanic background, and the seraph a very loose arabic/indian background.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

My MC, Alaia, just wants to be accepted. Freedom from prejudice and unreasonable expectations would be nice too. Basically, she's an outcast and her (/my) goal is for her to find her place and her chosen family.

I am not here to teach a lesson or inspire or help someone grow. If those things happen along the way, I love that. But I just want to tell a story. Her story.

How many chapters is your story going to have?

I am in the middle of a major editing/revision pass. So far I've added 3 new chapters and consolidated one. The original draft has 49 chapters, though.

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Shattered Dreams is original content that I hope to self-publish, if I can work up the nerve. (and finish editing XD)

When and why did you start writing?

I started writing in 2020, because if my friend could do it, so could I. It was a lot harder than I thought, and more satisfying than I thought, and just. I'm so glad I started writing at long last. It's very literally changed my life.

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

Oh gosh, I have no idea. Everyone is so different... on that note--No advice is one size fits all. Cherry pick that shit. Or ignore it all and you do you!

Writeblrs, writeblrs... shout outs to: @i-can-even-burn-salad, @little-peril-stories, @clairelsonao3, sam tagged me but @sam-glade lol, @outpost51, @winterandwords, @kaiusvnoir, and there's more but i'm running out of nerve to tag people 😂😅

Blank questions below:

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

When and why did you start writing?

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

#starlit plays tag games #author ask game #shattered dreams

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bayothemayo · 7 months

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🎃Whumptober Day 15: Suppressed Suffering (Phantom Thieves x Reader)🎃

Part 1 | Part 2

Ever since you left the group chat, you had just been avoiding them even more. At first you didn't mind it, but you begin to feel a little bit more lonely. You are not sure why, considering that you had been lonely like this before. Maybe you missed them or it could be something else. You did lose a good amount of friends, but oh well...You can make new ones and it happens from time to time. It ain't new.

Since you don't have anyone to hang out anymore, you decide to do something a little productive. Just to figure out on what they hell to do in the future. You got to be honest, you are a little jealous of your friends. It looks like they already figure out what to do in their lives.

Ren Amamiya, albeit quiet at times and doesn't talk about what to do in his life, is pretty much perfect so it won't be a surprise if he lands a career that he likes and get a good salary.

Ryuji Sakamoto will probably get a career that is sport related.

Ann Takamaki already has a modeling career plus she is very caring, so that will help out as well.

Yusuke Kitagawa's future is self-explanatory. Though, his finances will probably stay the same.

Makoto Niijima is very intelligent, and with the help of her sister she could probably get any job she wants. Maybe she even wants to follow in her sister's footsteps.

Futuba Sakura, while she have troubles socially, is also extremity tech savvy. It won't be a surprise if she decides to work remotely.

Haru Okumura is already wealthy. She could just sit around and do nothing while she gains more wealth. But she isn't like that, she wants to help out with her business by making a small café chain.

And you...well, you are one of the unlucky ones. Maybe not as unlucky as others, but you certainly do wish you have something like your old friends. You are averagely smart, your talent is mediocre compared to others, you are just someone in a middle class. It feels wrong to feel jealous, but you just can't help it. Since your friends did just hang out without you, you do feel like someone who isn't worthy enough to hang out with such extraordinary talents.

But you shouldn't think about that right now. Your parents are kinda pressuring you to think on what to pick your career. You don't want to be a burden to your parents and to society, even though society probably won't care about you, so you decide to do some research on other careers. You had to choose a career carefully, because your parents won't let you change your major if you decide you don't like it. Hopefully the job you got won't give you a death wise and hope that you rather die in a car crash every time you go to work.

...

...Maybe you shouldn't think that. Maybe it would be all right in the end, right?

...

Maybe you should stop thinking positively to avoid disappointment in yourself and in the future.

#whumptober2023 #whump #angst #no.15 #fanfiction #Fic #Persona 5 x reader #phantom thieves x reader #relatable

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desertfangs · 4 months

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Anne's mind is so fascinating to me. She really had a whole plan for Daniel and Armand (which as wacky as it was, was a plan of sorts), and instead of even alluding to it in the books, she was like: "yeahh Daniel... that guy. He lost his mind for a while, lived in Marius' house, built some train models, then got back together with Armand and then moved to his house... any q's? No? Thought so. So, about that mural...", I unironically love her so much lmaooo

Oh my gosh, me too! I unironically want one of those t-shirts with the scan of her brain on it. Her mind was fascinating.

I’ve been in and out of this fandom since the 90s and I think one that keeps me coming back is that there’s just so much in this world that’s left unexplored. So many throw away lines you could write half a book about (DM is full of these but it’s true of the entire series!), so many scenes that are glossed over or suggested or implied and never fleshed out.

There many conversations and encounters that must have happened that just do not appear on the page—they were in the Sonoma Compound together for a while, and on Night Island together for a while, then at Court! All of them have talked and interacted and what we get in the books is just a tiny fraction of it. Which makes sense mostly-- I mean, somethings arguably should have been included, like Louis' reaction to Daniel as a vampire for example!!--but obviously a lot is happening in every book and there just isn't space. Louis had to condense the entire story of his life into one night, he couldn't go night by night for hundreds of years. No one is going to spill every detail or every moment. It all comes down to the pieces that build the main picture, and then we can then take it and infer the rest from that.

Anne was masterful at leaving little breadcrumbs you can follow if you want to. And of course, she was such a talented, skilled writer, who created these characters that just feel real and alive. She had her quirks and she was human. She wasn’t always right about things and sometimes she was more willing to admit that than others. She was just a person who told amazing stories and those stories have stuck with me since I was far too young to be reading those books, and now here I am, almost 30 years later, still writing fic, still rereading the books and finding new little nuggets I’d never noticed, still so excited to hear other people’s interpretations of scenes or characters, and to read other people’s fic that explore all these little crumbs and flesh them out.

When I say I love this fandom, I mean it from the very bottom of my heart, and we owe Anne so much for building a world that we have so much room to play in. It really is incredible. It blows my mind sometimes how real and visceral and powerful the world of the VC feels. But I digress!! I completely agree, anon. Even if we don't get a lot of Armand and Daniel in the later books together, we do get a satisfying story for them as a couple, and we get the joy of filling in those missing pieces ourselves. 💖

#thank you again for the ask #hot damn i'm emotional about this #anne rice #the vampire chronicles #armand/daniel #vc #vc meta #vampire chronicles #answers in the desert #anonymous #vc fandom #daniel molloy #armand

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lake-archive · 1 month

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Chapter 7 - Side By Side

AO3 Link

Fandom: Ensemble Stars

Series: Ein schlafender Ritter und die Liebe

Characters: Ritsu Sakuma, Anja-Sophia 'Ann' Wolff (OC), Eli (OC by @watersofcamelot)

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

Honestly, being called up was no longer a rarity for Ann. Especially since they were the one in charge, having to ensure that he is going to make it through the year. He? Oh, right, he could be just about anyone in this case. So long story short, there is someone attending Yumenosaki Academy under Ann’s request. Or rather, she had shoved him to the location for one simple reason: Get out there and let your talent be known to the world! Train for the big stage and don’t just sit in the corner out of fear. At least that was Ann’s plan when they had forcefully applied Eli to Yumenosaki without him noticing. And he passed the entrance exam, as expected from their younger brother! Though he wasn’t too pleased at first.

“Seriously Sis? You should’ve told me before pulling such a stunt! I can’t believe you!” He had complained shortly after this was over on the phone yet their only response was the following:

“If I would’ve told you, you would’ve ran off and backed off instantly. I couldn’t risk that. So if asking you won’t work, then giving you no other choice will~”

"Seriously? You’re unbelievable sometimes… Who knew you’d go so far to forge my signature. Aren’t I the criminal when it comes to the two of us? Don’t steal my thunder now.”

“What? Can’t big sis learn from their younger brother sometimes~?” They had laughed it off more than anything.

“Listen, we have clear roles here. I’m the insane war criminal, you’re the one just barely avoiding my jail time. Who’ll bail me out if you end up in a cell?”

“Oh, you’ll figure it out. You’re a smart boy~”

“Haha…Not funny…”

“Just stating facts Eli.”

"Facts… Right…”

“Hey, I’m being serious here. You’ll manage just fine. At least try it.”

“Uh.. Fine fine. Since you won’t take no for an answer… But it’s just to shut you up, ok?”

Fact of the matter was that Ann just wanted the best for their ‘younger brother’. They wanted him to succeed no matter what and hope that the time spent at Yumenosaki is helpful for Eli. The boy always had some doubts here and there, he needed a little push. So this academy was most likely perfect to give him that push. Learn from professionals and expand, perhaps. Just gain the desire to make something of his dream as a performer, anything really. Some type of realization at the very least. They didn’t want him to sulk constantly and do nothing about it.

Today was luckily not the worst type of encounter. In fact, compared to some others it was rather harmless, to say the least… But that is not saying much when it comes to the first year student.

Well, that of course came with a downside. Because since Ann was kind of the one in charge here they were assigned to Eli in some indirect way. That meant they had to sort out any kind of trouble he would cook up at school. It was not rare that the boy skipped classes or got into fights. Not just with students, but also with teachers. And not just verbally either, fists are fair game too. He doesn’t hesitate. Violence is the answer to everything for him. Sometimes literally. Oh what they had heard: An outburst during Math class because the teacher kept pestering him. Or a chair breaking from one moment to the next because he was annoyed by one of the students, it just barely managed to not escalate. Who knows what might have happened if Ann didn’t arrive on time. Things could have taken a dark turn. So much for a first year student, to say the least. His reputation was already anything but pleasant.

Most he did was of course throw a table from one moment to the next, then run off, right out of the classroom. These cases have become more and more frequent recently, they themselves cannot exactly explain why. Maybe school is stressing him out? He may not have said a thing but it could be a possibility. He was someone who needed the answer literally shoved out of him sometimes, pushed beyond his limits.And if necessary they would do so… If they wouldn’t get distracted that is. The boy loved to be stubborn sometimes.

Either way, they had spent their time walking around school grounds as they had been told that he would be around there somewhere. As long as it was outside of the classroom. Ah, a great mess. What were they? His guardian? Actually… That may as well be true.

Luckily they knew their way around the school at this point, either having to come over to pick up Eli or being forced to talk to one of the teachers. After all, they were ‘the adult’, they had to keep him in check, despite not being that much older. So the work to handle the first year student was solely up to them as not even the teachers knew how to keep him in check. Not like they were blaming the staff though, Eli can be a handful. Actually, now that they thought about it… Who does it remind them of? Someone, some—

“Huuuh~ You again… And I was just about to sleep…” A familiar soft voice somewhat complained, sounding as if it was at the brink of sleeping. Though it had been denied the slumber altogether at the end of the day.

“I don’t exactly have x–ray vision, do I?” Another familiar voice asked, not as soft though somewhat. Actually, hearing them side by side made it difficult to make out who is who. Maybe that person was even talking to themselves. “Though it’d be useful… I’d know where to aim where it hurts.”

“Really~? Sounds like fun~”

“Fun? You ain’t scared or something?”

“No, not really. Honestly, if you were to listen to Secchan sometimes, things like these don’t faze you as much.”

“Sewho?”

“Oh, you’re one of those. Alright alright, I won’t pry. Anyway… Can I go back to sleep?” The voice sounded unfazed by any of the annoyed tones and responded in a familiar calm manner. A moment of silence kicked in right then and there, a silence Ann could only guess the meaning of as they stepped closer to the source of the voices.

“Don’t worry about it.” A light chuckle escaped shortly after this sentence. “Oh, I don’t think I've ever seen you around here before, have I? A freshman?”

“So what if I am?” One could practically hear the sharp glare thrown in right then and there.

“You’re not going to ask what I’m doing here?” The other male voice suddenly asked, sounding rather suspecting, to say the least.

“Hmm… I don’t have the energy for that~” The other yawned from one moment to the next. “I’m just here to take a nap in the shades~”

“During class time?”

“Hey, you’re here too, aren’t you?”

“Hah, ok. Fine. You’ve got a point there I guess.”

“Sis?”

They had stepped to the closest point by then, peeking over to see who was talking to begin with… Yet the moment they did their eyes went wide, just when spotting the two at the same place at the same time. It was as if things suddenly… Clicked. Actually, first things first, it was like they were staring at Ritsu… Just waaay taller. Truth to be told, Eli also had foreign blood, hence why he was probably way taller than most students at Yumenosaki, even the male ones. He sticks out like a sore thumb, no one would even have a chance of missing him. In fact, it would take some real skill to miss a guy that massive!

However, if it were not for their massive height difference, one may as well mistake the two for twins. At most Eli’s hair was a little messier than Ritsu’s and their eye colors did not match either, with Eli’s being on the brown end and not on the red end, though they may as well be pretty close in terms of eye color. Honestly, when looking at them it is more of a miracle that those two were not related whatsoever. Because looking at them side by side… They may as well be brothers!

However, the shock couldn’t last forever. Ann had to interrupt their conversation in one way or another and thus they decided to just approach the two who had been conversing beneath a pair of trees the entire time. The rustling alone made the two boys turn their heads into the direction, both looking a little surprised, to say the least.

“Ann–Chan?”

They both spoke out loud at the same time before noticing that each of them had addressed the young person in a rather trustworthy manner, the two looking at one another for a moment and asking: “You know her?” in perfect sync. Seriously, are they secretly twins or something!? Well, twins with a massive height difference but twins nonetheless… Ann couldn’t help but wonder…

“Hmm… How about no?” He shrugged, perhaps just resisting his urge to smirk right at his sister, making them sigh.

“Is that what you two—” They were about to bring up but then shook their head from one moment to the next. “Nevermind. I came for Eli.”

“Me? Sis, that’s the third time this week.” He suddenly complained, almost seeming to pout yet they only responded accordingly: “You think it’s fun to run here from work each time? You could maybe behave.”

“Of course not.”

“Eli? Oh, Maa–Kun mentioned him, the problem student~” Ritsu threw in out of literal nowhere, somewhat light hearted even, as if it was no big deal to begin with. Wait, Isara knows about Eli too? Of course… Looks like Eli made a name for himself already.

“Oh? So you’re saying I’m famous?”

“Something like that~”

“What an honor~”

“Ok ok, please stop joking around…” Ann interrupted the two from one moment to the next. “Either way… Please Eli? There’s a conversation waiting.”

“Ugh, fine… But only because you gotta bail me outta jail again.” The tall male responded, his hands now behind his head, not seeming to care all too much.

“Bail out? Oh, so that’s why you need Ann–Chan. Clever~” Ritsu commented, nodding his head, seeming to be rather amused if anything.

“Oh, Sis is pretty good at that type of stuff. If I ever need someone to cover up for my crimes, I know she’s got my back.” Eli responded, almost proud of each word he was saying.

“I’m not—” Though they just gave up at this point in all honesty. “Can we… Hurry? Work…”

“Alright alright. Have it your way.”

“Oh, Ann–Chan, can you pass my class too?” Ritsu suddenly brought up before the two could leave. They tilted their head, wondering as to why but got their answer soon enough: “Nyeli sneaked into my bag again and the school doesn’t allow cats on campus. Can you take him with you? Thank you~”

They didn’t even respond, it was as if both of them were expecting Ann to do those things. They would in the end but still… Both of them are more alike than one might think. And it would explain… A lot, to say the least.

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salarta · 5 months

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Polaris and addressing past mistreatment

This post will be more text-heavy than image heavy.

Polaris/Lorna Dane has a long history in comics, having been created in 1968. Culturally, attitudes toward women and what they "can" and "can't" do shifted over time. Creatively, comics is a medium where you have multiple people influencing a single issue (writer, editor, artists, later execs) and changing hands across decades. These things affect all characters, and it's essential to consider this when assessing past treatment and what might be respectful for her in the future.

Who the character was meant to be at her core when originally created can be very different from how she's changed due to certain corporate decisions, certain cultural shifts, certain creator attitudes, etc.

This post is here to talk about this matter more in depth and ways to address it.

There are at least 3 ways to deal with past poor treatment of a character. I say "at least" because these are ways I can think of, but perhaps there are more I haven't.

Accept the poor treatment as "canon" and insist it be adhered to regardless of intent or how far off the mark it is from the character's real potential and who they were meant to be.

Ignore the poor treatment, acting like it never happened at all, skipping years to decades to focus exclusively on potential.

Rewrite the poor treatment in a manner that is more respectful, acknowledging it happened but excising the bad bits while salvaging the good bits.

My opinion is that Lorna needs a mix of 2 and 3. In the vein of #2, she has some specific horrendous depictions that are best left forgotten within the narrative. They can certainly be acknowledged outside the comics as reason to do better for her and pursue her actual potential instead of judging her off bad depictions, but adhering to them holds her back.

However, there are certain cases of poor treatment with elements that can be transformed into something good, or at the very least doesn't suck complete ass, if rewritten.

I try not to make specific suggestions about exactly how these things can be rewritten. I don't want to undermine the possibility of a good, talented, well-meaning writer doing good work with her that involves the rewriting approach. Suggesting something that they later come up with leads to comparisons. It might cause a writer to not want to try doing it. Or they might do something completely different, but a fan having a specific idea in mind (whether me or others) could devalue appreciation for a perfectly fine approach they take.

But in some cases, I think it's necessary to make specific suggestions to give an idea of the possibilities.

One example case is how Lorna left the X-Men the first time. Some people that insist on following option 1 of accepting everything no matter how bad it is will follow the "oh it was her choice all along she just really really wanted to get away from all that awful fighting and be with her man" framing it put her in back then.

What this fails horribly at doing for Lorna is reckoning with the actual reasons for why she was written as having that viewpoint.

At the creator and editor level, the decision was made that literally everyone in the X-Men except Cyclops had to leave the team so Storm, Wolverine, etc could take over. You have to give a reason for why these characters aren't going to be around anymore.

For Lorna, the reason they decided on to get rid of her was sending her packing into the desert with Havok. This decision followed a series of issues over time in which Lorna devolved from being a more feminist woman than Jean, to defined mainly as Havok's supporting character girlfriend. When she was introduced, before Havok was even created, Lorna wanted to be with the X-Men and fight alongside them. By Claremont, her personal identity and agency had been so degraded that the decision was made to make wherever Havok went into where she would go without question.

Ann Nocenti later took a stab at fleshing this out with "So Good It Hurts" in 1989, an add-on story in Classic X-Men 33 written to accompany a reprint of X-Men #127.

This is two things. One, it IS a rewrite of what happened back when Lorna left the team. Before this story, it was simply "oh Lorna doesn't wanna be in the X-Men, she wants a civilian life." This presents more meat to the bones of what happened. But two, it's also a meta statement on Lorna's treatment within the comics.

With this story, what we see is a tad more accurate to the behind-the-scenes thinking for Lorna's "decision": it's where Havok's going, therefore it's automatically where Lorna goes too, no thought whatsoever about if it's something she would actually want for herself. Havok's ranting, demanding both of them (not just Havok) leave the X-Men, shouting at Lorna that she needs to go with him and not really letting her get any words in or considering what she would want at all.

This story tends not to get talked about much, I think, because it directly confronts how Lorna's been poorly treated in a very relentless way. It strips away the sexist falsehoods and excuses used to paint a rosy picture and exposes her past treatment for what it really was. Cuts past nostalgia and the layers of cultural and creative dickery to put the truth of things in your face.

It's not the sort of thing someone with a deep love for their nostalgia of the relationship or of Havok would want people to think about.

And here we also see a wrinkle in taking angle 1 in how to handle past poor treatment. If you're someone who insists on accepting everything is canon, how do you reconcile two very different takes put forth in official comics: one where Lorna "wanted" to leave the X-Men, and another where she was bullied and verbally abused into doing it?

The truth is you can't truly reconcile them. You might be able to contort yourself into pretzels trying to make both things work, but all you're really going to get is a very transparent attempt that sucks people out of the story and places a lot of emphasis on making excuses for shitty depictions.

At the same time, there's another wrinkle to this story by Ann Nocenti. It does an excellent job of laying bare all the bullshit, but from a character depiction standpoint, it robs Lorna of agency. It sacrifices Lorna the character as part of its work toward making clear what was done to her. A deep enough read should lead to seeing it as a call for better treatment going forward, but a dull, unthinking read would instead simply say that's who Lorna is and leave it at that.

As such, I think why Lorna leaving the X-Men is one area that badly needs another rewrite. One that gives her more agency and provides a real reason of her own (not "cause Havok wants to leave") while respecting her original interest of genuinely wanting to be part of the X-Men.

I think the X-Men comics have started a process of rewriting this for her but they've failed to fully weigh the issue on Lorna's own needs and follow through.

While I have many complaints about 2020's X-Factor, of which I place nearly all the blame on Jordan White, one rare positive thing I credit Leah Williams for out of it is saying Lorna now has a PhD. Until then, she had a Masters degree but it was the same level of education as Havok. By saying Lorna now has a PhD, while Havok is still at a Masters, it suggests Lorna actually did want to study geophysics out of her own personal interest.

But then there's the "Polaris infinity comic" by Alex Seguro. I put that in quotes because it's moreso an excuse to paint a rosy picture of 80s nostalgia and of Havolaris than anything that actually considers and respects Lorna for herself. It's closer to a comic made out of a fanfic than anything else. Within that comic, it spins Lorna being out in the desert with Havok as "the best years of her life."

Which does two things. First, in trying to force the Havolaris stuff again, it once again devalues her personal interests in favor of building up the idea of her past relationship with Havok (which for anyone who actually looks at most depictions of it as shown up higher, it's historically been toxic as hell). Second, once again adds the suggestion that she wanted to leave the X-Men specifically to have a civilian life, directly undermining future use that would present her as the firebrand Queen of Mutants type she was introduced as.

In short, through the Seguro "comic," her potential for bigger and better things was presented as something she "wouldn't want" because such a view fits nostalgia of her as a nobody character who doesn't really want to be involved in any pesky mutant affairs.

So back to rewriting. I've now noted a case where I think a rewrite is warranted and would greatly benefit the character. I've noted not one but two specific rewrites of this case. That tells us rewrites are not exactly off limits, and past treatment is not so sacrosanct that even poor depictions must remain forever enshrined as canon.

Here's my take on what would work best here. And I'm putting it under a new header so it can be ignored if desired.

My Take

Here's a brief rundown of what we have so far.

Lorna left the X-Men. When she did, it was to pursue a Masters in Geophysics. Even while doing this work, she would come back to the X-Men action if called up by Xavier because there was a need for her. At some later date, she decided to go all the way and earned a PhD in Geophysics.

Now, Lorna's power set is electromagnetism. Electromagnetism is considered a subset of geophysics. Lorna also, unlike her father Magneto, didn't have conscious awareness and access to her powers until her teens when the X-Men ran across her. Though she might have subconsciously known she had them, what with having manifested them as a child and getting them and her memories sealed away by Mastermind.

Combine these things, and my take for a rewrite is that Lorna left the X-Men because she wanted to get a better grasp on her powers and what she could do with them. Rather than Lorna "wanting to leave the X-Men for a civilian life," the decision to leave could have been rooted in wanting to improve herself so she would be more effective in the field and in manifesting her dreams. Her education would open her up to alternate uses of her powers, approaches Magneto would never have considered. That way, when she returned to the fray full-time, she could cut loose with power uses nobody would have considered and accounted for.

Wrap-Up

Whatever direction a writer at Marvel takes, the bottom line is that Lorna needs to move forward, not get dragged backward into nostalgia land. You can't get yesterday back. You may get your jollies from reminiscing and having old feelings conjured back up, but it will never be the same, and obsessing over that nostalgia robs you and everyone else of the potential to get so much more out of real and meaningful progress.

The "you must adhere to everything written before as canon no matter what" angle is one that doesn't actually work when you look at how various official stories contradict each other. What it tends to truly mean is that someone liked a specific treatment and wants to ensure that treatment is what the character sticks with for all eternity. In my view, that's not a feasible or appropriate take. It fails to consider how society changes and what new knowledge brings to the table.

Does it really make sense for Lorna, as a character with control over electromagnetism, to be limited exclusively to things like flinging cars around in a world of computers and WiFi signals? Does it make sense to hold back Lorna's potential in today's world based on what her potential looked like to people in 1968, or people in the 80s or 90s?

Some things to think about.

#polaris #lorna dane #x-men #marvel #comics #character mistreatment #sexism #havok

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