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mangosmootji · 2 months

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Chapter 2 | Sic Semper Tyrannis

“Thus always to Tyrants”

18+ fic, minors do not interact!

Chapter summary: Aemond takes you on a walk through the castle’s woods and grounds. You investigate the castle at night and stumble upon some suspicious conversations.

Chapter warnings/tags: Mentions of death, corpses, canon typical incest, ghosts??, the supernatural, betrothal, family drama, Alicent claiming Rhaenyra’s kids are bastards (as usual)

if any of these things are not to your liking/ are triggering i recommend not to read it! Word count: 5k Rigor Mortis Masterlist | Main Masterlist

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“Eggs?”

You sat at the large breakfast table with Aegon, Aemond and Helaena. Helaena was engrossed with an embroidery project and Aemond was reading the morning newspaper. They all seemed tense.

It was only Aegon who was keeping you company, if you could call it that. You were wearing a pale sea green dress with pink frills and ribbons decorating it. You seemed to have accidentally matched with Helaena who wore a pale blue dress with pink ribbons decorating her dress and complex hairstyle.

You nodded in response to Aegon’s question and held out your plate. He scooped up a bunch of scrambled eggs, not really caring to ask if it was too much. It was. You reluctantly began to eat the eggs and you glanced over at your betrothed. His face was hidden behind the large newspaper. You had seen his face before he started reading it. Instead of the glass eye he wore a black leather eye patch over his, what you assumed, was an empty eye socket. He was quiet and had only murmured a good morning to you when you entered the room. Helaena hadn’t said anything.

You let out a soft sigh and turned to Aegon who was eating the eggs like they were his last meal on earth. It was quite a sight to see.

“Did you sleep well?” You asked Aegon, trying to break the awkward silence that hung in the dining room, even the servants were quiet.

“No. That wench wouldn’t shut up, again.” He replied with his mouth full. Aemond glared at him, his stern eye peeking over the edge of the newspaper he was holding. Wench? It was a mystery who this ‘wench’ was that he was talking about. You hadn’t heard anything last night, in fact, you had slept surprisingly well for someone that slept with a notebook hidden under their mattress.

“What wench?”

“Give it a week.”

“What?”

His answers only confused you even more. He looked more exhausted than he did yesterday. This time he wore a light green vest, single breasted. Not that it mattered, it made him look just as sickly as the mustard yellow did. Perhaps it was just his complexion.

“Swallow before you speak.” Aemond scolded his older brother and all Aegon did was shoot him another glare. Aemond turned his gaze to you and it softened slightly. He closed the newspaper and folded it up before placing it on the wooden table.

Aemond was wearing a red vest with a black shirt underneath it. The sleeves were poofy at the ends and his long silk hair was in a neat long braid again like the evening before. The pattern on his red vest had some botanical elements with abstract leaves and vines. A stark contrast to his older brother whom you figured enjoyed wearing simpler patterns like stripes.

“I apologise for my brother, clearly he has no idea how to act in front of ladies.” You could hear Aegon scoff at Aemond’s words but your betrothed seemed to ignore it. You studied Aemond’s face as he spoke. You liked the eye patch. It made him look mysterious and you liked solving mysteries.

“Don’t apologise, my brother is worse.”

The corners of Aemond’s mouth slightly tilted upwards. It was the first time you had seen him smile, if you could even call this a smile.

“Shadows need the light to exist but roam freely in the darkness.”

You, Aemond and Aegon turned your heads when you heard Helaena speak. She was still working on her embroidery, almost pretending as if she hadn’t said anything before. It annoyed you. First the flowers and now rambling about nonsense out of the blue. A thick silence hung in the air, one you didn’t dare to break.

Aemond and Aegon gave each other a look you were unable to read and they continued eating their breakfast in silence. With nothing to do and your mood ruined you reluctantly continued to eat the large pile of scrambled eggs on the plate in front of you.

You took the time to look around the dining hall, it was large. The walls were covered in burgundy coloured velvet and the darkwood floorboards had been laid out in a herringbone pattern and it looked like it was recently done. Above the fireplace hung a black banner with a red three-headed dragon. The sigil of their family, you had learned. In the centre of the room stood the large rectangle dining table you sat at. You counted eighteen chairs, two at both ends of the table and eight chairs on each side of the table.

On the left side of the hall hung three large painted portraits. A man with short silver blonde hair hung in the middle and the other two paintings were of silver haired women. They looked similar but their features were still discernible.

The wooden door of the dining room creaked open. Alicent and Otto walked in. Aegon, Aemond and even Helaena looked up to face their mother and grandfather. Alicent looked like she had been crying and Otto placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Something that you noticed immediately was Alicent’s hair and the lack of intricate hairstyle. Instead, her curly hair hung loose over her shoulder. Something serious must’ve happened for a lady like her to walk around the house, filled with servant men, with her hair loose.

“The body has been found.”

Otto’s deep voice had cut deep through the silence. You let the words sink in. Not ‘a’ body. He said ‘the’ body. You wondered if this was so normal to them they could afford to use such wording. Or perhaps he meant ‘the’ body whose death they were behind. Your mind was racing, thinking of all possible answers. To think that such a simple sentence could make you spiral so much. “Who was it?” Aegon asked, the only one who dared break the silence, which you were secretly thankful for.

“Tayla.”

‘Who is Tayla?’

Alicent begins to sob again and quickly excuses herself back to her room. Instead of looking at Aemond you looked at Aegon for answers but he was clearly avoiding your gaze. From the corner of your eye you could see Aemond’s frown deepening but you were unsure if it was because of the situation or because of you choosing to look for answers with his brother rather than him.

“They are getting bold.” Aemond replied after a short moment of complete silence.

‘Who the fuck is ‘they’?’

“They are.” Otto replied as his frown deepened, making the wrinkles on his forehead more evident with every passing moment.

The room filled with silence again, you hated the feeling. Everyone knew something but no one bothered to tell you, not even your future husband. Otto turned to Aemond, it was almost as if they could read each other's mind because without Otto having to say a word, Aemond replied.

“Bring the body to my workplace.”

Then he turned to you.

“We shall walk in gardens together after lunch.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

After breakfast you had made your way back to your room. Some servants quietly entered the room and helped you in an appropriate walking dress you had brought with you. It was a red dress with black frills, ruffled and ribbons, coincidentally the colours of his family’s banner.

You watched out the window as they dressed you. Your room watched over the Narrow Sea and Blackwater bay. The eerie realisation of being able to see the place where each month a body would be found sent shivers down your spine. The narrow sea was calm, too calm. It was hard to see the water in the first place due to the thick mist lingered over the sea but also the city.

“Do you enjoy the view my lady?” One of the servants asked you in a soft voice. The servant was young, she looked no older than the age of fifteen.

“I suppose.” You replied in the most polite manner you could muster up. Even at home you disliked talking to the servants. Not because you didn’t care for the working class but because you preferred to spend your time alone. You didn’t like the workers coming into your room, your ‘supposedly’ private space. Of course you realised it wasn’t their fault, it was their work after all. Besides, you knew this type of work was better than working in one of the new factories.

Back in the North where you used to live there weren’t many factories yet. The people were stubborn and preferred their old methods of producing goods. Your father owned one of the few factories in the North. It was located a few miles outside of White Harbor which meant it was near the ports, which is of course good for trading. Houses were already being built around the factory and would most likely fuse together with the city eventually.

You hated the factories. Your father had taken you once when you were only eight years old and your brother was fourteen years old. You don’t remember much of it but you do remember the heavy feeling you felt when you saw girls your age working the machinery wearing rags and worn out clothes. That day a girl’s hands got stuck in the machinery, apparently it was a normal occurrence. Everything after that was only a vague memory to you. You remembered the blood and how you wailed ever louder than the girl that had gotten into the accident.

Benjamen had teased you about it for months afterwards. He loved the factory, the economics, the leadership, everything about it. He was to inherit it after all. You remembered him boasting about all the things he would change once it was his. His words did nothing but bring you an uncomfortable feeling. It was almost as if he couldn’t wait for your father to die so he could take over.

You snapped out of your thoughts when one of the servants started talking to you.

“Excuse me, could you repeat that please?” You asked the servant bashfully, embarrassed about being so deep in thought that your senses were shutting out the outside world.

“Of course, you needn’t be worried about the bodies, my lady. You’re safe in the castle.” One of the older servants said. The younger girl protested in a hushed voice. “But Tayla-”

The older woman sent a death glare at the young girl and she immediately shut her mouth. It dawned upon you that the servants knew things about the castle and the family as well, perhaps even more than your future in-laws.

“What happened to Tayla?” You bluntly asked the women who were working on your dress. The older woman was busy with your under skirts and ruffles while the young girl was tightening the laces on the back of the dress. You could feel the young girl’s hands stop for a moment before continuing. The older woman stayed silent.

“She went out.” Was all the young girl would reply and secured the laces by tying them together. The older woman glared at the young girl again but continued to work in silence. The information you had gotten wasn’t that useful but at least it was something. Perhaps Aemond would tell you more on the walk, at least, that is what you hoped.

The servants remained silent as they worked on getting you ready. The silence in the room was awkward and you simply continued to stare out of the window. It didn’t take them long to finish and once you were ready they walked you to the garden where Aemond was waiting for you. He was wearing a black outdoor tailcoat where the ends of the coat were aligned with his knees. He was still wearing the dark red vest but you could see his pants more clearly now that he was standing up and not sitting at a table. His pants were neat. They were all black and clearly tailored to fit him perfectly.

The servants dismissed themselves and left you alone with your soon to be husband. His gaze was striking like always. His sharp jawline and defined cheekbones made him look extremely handsome, even with the scar and the eyepatch.

You politely nodded and looked to your left- and then your right, noticing the lack of a third person.

“No chaperone?”

“We are engaged, there is no need for a chaperone my lady.”

Aemond’s bluntly reply and your own mistake had made your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Of course the two of you didn’t need to have a chaperone with you on a walk. In fact, the two of you could even hold hands on said walk.

“Of course, my mistake.” You awkwardly tried to chuckle it off but the tension between the two of you didn’t disappear.

Aemond offered you his hand in a polite manner. He didn’t speak but it was clear he was trying to be a gentleman. You reluctantly took his hand, internally screaming at the contact. It felt wrong, as if a whole stage of life was skipped. Although arranged marriages weren’t uncommon, most couples still went through a courting phase before getting engaged. You barely even knew this man and yet you were allowed to hold his hand.

The two of you strode through the misty garden. Barely any flowers grew in it. Not only was the soil salty from the nearby sea, it was also winter. The garden was large though, larger than you had thought. The beginning of the walk was silent, like it had been the night before.

You walked on his right side again so he could see you properly. When you looked up at him he seemed to be in deep thought. His single violet eyes glanced at you and he finally spoke.

“Have you grown accustomed to the castle?”

“Not yet, it is quite large. I would get lost if i didn’t have someone walking with me.” The two of you stopped to take a look over the city below you. There was a detailed stone wall that separated you and the cliff. The city was covered in mist and it was hard to make out any houses besides the one on the hills and the large structures such as ‘The dragonpit’ and the great sept. Of course, the factories were quite visible as well. The long chimneys spat out a dark black smoke that stained the air. It stood out against the mist and you grimaced.

“What do the factories here produce?”

“Canned food.”

His reply was bleak and it annoyed you.

“All of them?” You asked him as you let go of his hands to rest yours on the stone wall in front of you. The wind blew softly, it made the ruffles of your dress sway a little but not the entire skirt. You looked at him again and the tail of his coat was also flowing in the wind.

“No. That one over there produces firearms.”

He points at the factory the furthest away. Because of the mist you couldn’t see if it was in- our outside of the city. The thought of such dangerous weapons being built so close to citizens made your stomach churn.

“Do you dislike the factories, my lady?”

The question startled you a little. It wasn’t something you expected him to ask, especially considering your father owned a factory

“It is an eyesore and the working conditions aren’t great. Besides, I doubt those black fumes from the chimneys will do any good in the long run.”

You saw no point in lying, after all, he was the one that asked. You wouldn’t be surprised if his family owned one, if not all the factories surrounding the city. Something told you he wouldn’t judge you for it.

Aemond, surprisingly, hummed in agreement.

“They are certainly quite ugly, but they make money. A lot of money.”

He pointed at the furthest factory, the one making firearms.

“That is the family’s biggest money maker. We trade within the realm but we also export a lot to Essos, specifically the free cities. My elder sister Rhaenyra is to inherit them all, she lives on Dragonstone, but i must’ve told you at dinner already.” He explained and turned his head to study your reaction.

He hadn’t told you anything at dinner the night priorly. It was Alicent who had filled you in on the current family situation.

“Do you miss her?”

“No.”

An awkward silence fell between the two of you again. Aemond offered his hand again and you took it, less nervous than first. His hand was large and yours fitted comfortably in his. The rest of the gardens were just as dull as the first part was, that was until he led you to a wooded section of the garden.

It was densely wooded but there was a clear dirt path that led to the middle. It was hard to identify what tree was what species since all the leaves had fallen onto the ground over the past autumn and winter. The leaves that were on the ground were a gross wet mixture of half disintegrated brown leaves.

“She is invited to our engagement party, father insisted on it.”

Aemond tried to hide the distain in his voice when he spoke of his sister.

“She and the rest of her family.” He corrected himself with a sigh.

It was silent again. You had to admit you were a bit slow, after all, no one had bothered to inform you about an engagement party. You wondered if your father and brother were invited as well. You turned your gaze up to him and politely smiled.

“I wasn’t aware of an engagement party. When is it?”

Aemond seemed to think for a moment before replying.

“The first day of the second month. That gives us enough time to prepare for…” He trailed off but you knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the next full moon.

The next time a body would be found.

“What happened to Tayla?” You were surprised you even managed to ask that question. The one that was eating you up from the inside out since breakfast.

You and Aemond reached a small cemetery. In the middle stood a large stone tomb with three names on it.

Aegon Targaryen

Visenya Targaryen

Rhaenys Targaryen

The two of you stood in silence in front of the tomb. It looked well cared for. The moss growing on it was minimal and the stone was clean. You had seen cemeteries and tombstones before, most were a dark grey with vines and moss overgrowing the stone structures but this one was the complete opposite.

“I cannot tell you, but you will know, in time.” He replied, his voice was lower than usual. You didn’t like his answer, why couldn’t he just tell you.

“You’re safer if you don’t know about them.”

Another silence fell between the two of you. This one wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward like the others but it felt eerie. His words were sinister and made the hairs on your neck stand up straight. Who was ‘them’. They can’t be good people if they were behind all of these murders. Were they even people?

You had to shake the thought away. Of course they were actual people. The paranormal was only a trick of the mind to fill in the blanks. That is what it was. Even though you tried so hard to shake off the feeling you couldn’t help but feel watched. ‘It is only a trick of the mind. It’s because we’re in a forest and next to a cemetery. It’s because I am not familiar with surroundings.’ You tried to reassure yourself but you couldn’t help but look back over your shoulder.

There was nothing. Of course there was nothing. You didn’t know what you even expected to be there. The treeline was dark and you were sure if his words had frightened you more you would have imagined the shape of a human or creature somewhere in there. It used to happen quite often when you were a child but now you knew the shapes you saw were just a bunch of unfortunately placed bushes, tree trunks and branches cast in a dark shadow. Hell, if you tried hard enough you could point out at least five trunks that looked like they had someone hiding behind them or standing in front of them. You chuckled to yourself and shook your head, resulting in Aemond giving you a confused look.

There was no one there.

So why didn’t the feeling go away?

“Whose tomb is this?”

You asked Aemond, deciding to drop the topic for now to prevent yourself from having nightmares about the possibility of ‘them’.

“My ancestors, the ones who bought ‘The Red Keep’.” He replied, the usual monotone and disinterested tone in his voice was now filled with pride. His face was still neutral, but you noticed a miniscule smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

‘He liked history.’ A small smile tugged at the corners of your lips as well when you remembered the conversation of yesterday night.

Perhaps he wasn’t so bad after all.

“They are buried here in this tomb together. The rest of the family rests in the cemetery.”

He motioned with his hand at the cemetery behind you two. It was quite large and after scanning the graveyard quickly you noticed it was mostly men and their wives that were buried.

“Where are the sisters of the family?”

“Buried with their husbands on their own land, except Visenya and Rhaenys. They are buried in the tomb..”

You nodded and looked at the gravestones.

‘You’ll lay here one day.’

You shook your head as if you physically tried to shake off the thought.

“Why were Visenya and Rhaenys buried with their brother? Did they not marry at all?”

Your question made Aemond chuckle softly. He shook his head and looked at you.

“Visenya and Rhaenys are buried with their husband.”

Huh?

“I don’t think I understand-.” You could feel your cheeks heat up as the blood rushed to your face. It must be a miscommunication, right? You were certain there was no other way. You must’ve interpreted something wrong-

“They married their brother.” Aemond replied calmly. His expression showed no disgust or discomfort, in fact, he seemed to be completely comfortable with the fact his ancestors were siblings.

“Both?! At the same time?”

“Yes.”

“To their brother?!”

Aemond chuckled at the way you expressed your confusion. He nodded to confirm your question. He stepped closer to you and rested his hand on the small of your back.

If your face wasn’t overheating before it sure did now. You desperately tried to remember all the customs and rules that came with courting, engagement and marriage. Was this even allowed?! You knew the two of you were allowed to hold hands but he had his hand placed on your lower back, were his hand to trail down a little further he would be touching…

You shook away your vulgar thoughts. You didn’t even wish to think of what would happen if he did. He stood so close to you, his hand not moving from its place. He slightly bent down and you could feel his breath on the side of your neck. Even though the weather was cold his breath felt warm. His whole body was warm.

“I know it must be strange to you, but you have my word that I will explain it when we’re married.”

All you could do was slowly nod. You were afraid that if you spoke it would sound more like a cracked squeak than an actual human voice.

The rest of the walk was silent. He had escorted you back to your room so you could get ready for dinner and (unknowingly) leave you alone with your thoughts. You knew these circumstances were just too good to be true. Sure, you had heard of the rumours of the bodies in the water and the incestious ones but you never expected one of them to be actually true.

You thought you would simply marry an intelligent and rich man and spend your time chasing false rumours to kill time and boredom. But no, now you had to marry this intelligent and devilishly handsome man knowing his ancestors were siblings. Not to mention that your future children will have those ancestors as well.

How in the seven hells were you going to look past this?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Perhaps it was foolish what you were doing but your curious mind was too restless. You had to know more about his ancestry. He promised he would tell you once the two of you were married, but who knew how far away that would be. Of course, you couldn’t rule out that he was lying. You barely knew the man.

You walked through the castle in your thin white night dress. It was long and flowing, different than the thicker dresses you were used to when you lived in the North. Still, it was quite cold to be wearing this type of night dress in the winter.

In your left hand was a brass candle holder with a white wax candle in it, the candle was lit and illuminating the dark hallways. The flame flickering made your surroundings seem mystical while you searched for the castle’s library. You knew they had one on the second floor, Aemond had shown you on his tour of the castle.

Of course, this is a castle you’re walking through, the second floor was enormous and seemed like a maze of endless hallways in the dark. It made you wonder if you could even find it in broad daylight.

When you turned the corner you noticed a small sliver of light illuminating the stone wall of the castle. Soft, yet clear voices could be heard coming from a room. The light came from a slightly ajar door where two people were clearly holding a private conversation.

You knew you shouldn’t be snooping around and listening in on conversations, it was rude and intrusive. Yet, your curiosity was untamable. You sneaked closer, careful not to make any sound while the voices became more clear.

“I can’t believe she would refuse like this.”

You knew that voice. It was Alicent, but you weren’t used to the tone she was speaking in. It was snappy and distressed and a few soft sniffles managed to crack through her defences as she spoke.

“My lady, I advise you to calm down.”

You didn’t know that voice. It was an adult male, that much you could tell. His voice sounded calmer but a small hint of annoyance seeped through.

“She is a spoiled brat. We invite her here and she does nothing.”

Oh gods they weren’t talking about you, right?

“Her father is dying, her younger brother is getting married and yet she refuses to come here.” Alicent continues speaking in the same tone as before.

Alright, they clearly weren’t talking about you.

“I am sure she is only busy, my Lady-” “Busy? Busy raising her three bastards to be her heir?” Alicent snapped in anger. You could her a little shuffling in the room and guessed it was Alicent sitting down in a chair or on a sofa. Then heavier footsteps could be heard and the floorboards creaked a little. The urge to look through the small gap of the open door was huge but the fear of getting caught eavesdropping was even bigger so you refrained yourself.

“My Lady please-” “I don’t want your compassion.” Alicent interrupted the man with another sniffle but couldn’t even finish her sentence before the man interrupted her as well.

“Alicent..”

First name basis?! He wasn't even her husband!

“..you’re grieving. Today has been hard on you and I suggest you rest. We shall continue our talk about Lady Rhaenyra later, perhaps after Tayla’s funeral.” Neither of the two spoke a word for a few moments but Alicent broke the silence. “Alright. Thank you Ser Criston, your presence and loyalty is a great comfort to me.” Ser Criston? The knight in the white uniform from the day before? You couldn’t stay and think in the hallway much longer when it quickly dawned upon you that they were wrapping up their conversation. As you quietly started to walk away you stepped onto a creaking part of the floor and you swore you would burn all old castles down if you ever managed to get yourself out of this sticky situation.

Alicent and Ser Criston must’ve heard you because you heard the heavy footsteps of Ser Criston make their way towards the door. You hastily blew out your candle and turned the corner. You could hear his footsteps following you and felt your heartbeat quicken. You had to shake him off one way or another. When you turned another corner you walked into a hallway you were very familiar with. It was the one where Aemond’s room was located.

Perhaps you could hide out there under the guise of not being able to sleep. When you finally thought you had escaped from Ser Criston you felt a large hand cover your mouth and pull you into a room. You desperately tried to wriggle yourself out of the grip but couldn’t do so until the stranger had closed the door behind the two of you and locked it.

The room was dark and unlit, the only light seeping in from the windows was the icy moonlight that made the room look creepy. White sheets were thrown over the furniture to prevent the dust build up and it was clear this room wasn’t being inhabited by anyone right now.

When you finally turned around to face the man that had dragged you into the room your mouth slightly went agape in surprise.

Right before stood Aemond’s eldest brother.

Aegon Targaryen.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Taglist: @helaenaluvr @saltedcaramelpretzel @certifiedhaters @imawhorecrux

#aemond targaryen #house of the dragon #hotd fic #hotd fanfic #hotd #aemond x reader #aemond fanfiction #aemond one eye #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond x you #aemond smut #the house of the dragon

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litnerdwrites · 15 days

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It's interesting how Nesta had to apologise for something she wasn't even in the wrong of doing while Rhys, who overreacted by threatening to kill her (for a mistake he made) and chasing her out of the city, did not have to. Especially, after it was canonically established by Feyre herself that he did not have the right to do that..

And for someone who claims to write about badass female mcs who crush patriarchy and choose the course of their own lives, shouldn't an apology scene for something in which a female's right to information on her own body was undermined be a fundamental part of the book?

I mean, she could add a bonus chapter about the characters in question fucking to make babies but had to keep the apology off-page? Weird.

The only somewhat sufferable part of the book was the scenes with the Valkyries and the smut (if you ignore the poor timing).

I don't know if it's my eldest daughter syndrome acting up but I feel strongly about this.

I agree completely. I won't deny that Nesta has some things to apologies for, but so does Rhysand, and Feyre and Mor. I'd even argue that the things the IC put her through negate the need for her to apologies, or at least makes it a little less urgent/important than the apologies she's owed. This is mostly due to the fact that Nesta's so-called crimes amount to a bad attitude (most on page examples of which are pretty understandable to me), and issues she had with Feyre in childhood. Meanwhile, the IC's actions are immature and ignorant at best, and extremely abusive at worst.

Honestly, I don't think any of them, much less Rhysand, see what they did as a mistake. If any of them did, they wouldn't have made her walk through those woods. Feyre would've demanded Nesta be brought back otherwise, but she didn't.

As for Rhysand, honestly the part where he hugged Nesta gave me ick. Especially when Nesta said he'd been acting like a brother the whole time because he hadn't. He abused her. He broke her down. He only showed any semblance of decency (even then it wasn't much) when she did something to benefit him.

Offering pity jobs for somebody else's sake without taking into account Nesta's strengths or passions into account isn't what a brother, or anybody who cares for her, would do. Staring at her like a circus attraction when she enters the room isn't something a brother would do. Forcing her to social events just to ignore her isn't something a brother would do. Financially abusing her, refusing to give her a salary for her work during the war, along with her inheritance, is not something a brother would do. Not caring for her wellbeing beyond how her sister feel's is not something a brother could do. I could go on.

I think, at the end of the day, this amounts to a simple fact. SJM clearly doesn't see anything wrong with the things she writes and narrative she creates. No matter how you argue that ACOSF is a healing story, not a redemption story, it doesn't matter. Through analysing the sext, the author clearly shows how she feels about Nesta. Looking at what she says about the book, the author clearly has little understanding of mental health, and hasn't done enough research on it to be able to write a healing arc that isn't straight up abuse/torture (seriously, the bar is in the crust of the earth).

ACOSF could've been the best book in the series. All of the material, the concepts, the potential was there. Nesta's story was set up in ACOFS, and perhaps I wouldn't have minded the actions of the IC as much (from a literary perspective anyway) if they had been acknowledged as wrong and the IC apologised. I don't think anyone would've minded the locked in the HOW plot either, if, at some point, the characters acknowledge how abusive it was. If the narrative itself acknowledged how messed up it was, and did something about it.

If Cassian apologised for abandoning her after the war, Cassian especially. If Feyre apologised for not trying to reach out in a way that Nesta was comfortable with. If Elain apologised for not being there for Nesta the way Nesta was for her. If Mor apologised for, intentionally or not, isolating Nesta from the rest of the court. If Amren apologised for her comments. If Rhys apologised for sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

Rhys apologising for the hike, or threatening to kill her would mean nothing because both he and the narrative don't see anything wrong with his treatment of her. If he did, then the forced training/library/stuck in the how part would've ended half way through the book.

The part that infuriates me the most, however, is that they don't see their wrong doings at all. They still think they're doing the right thing and that they know everything. It's messed up.

#anti acosf #anti ic #anti inner circle #nesta deserves better #anti amren #anti mor #anti rhysand #pro nesta archeron #pro nesta

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r-2-peepoo · 1 year

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The disaster family at Disneyland:

Obi Wan: organises an absolutely immaculate itinerary planning the day from start to finish down to the last second. He has meticulously calculated and timed every single ride people want to go on in order to anticipate when the lines will be the shortest, and has accommodated every single one of the parks everyone wants to visit.

Anakin: immediately runs off as soon as they get in, destroying all of Obi Wan’s plans.

Ahsoka: follows him but feels bad about it later and comes back to find Obi Wan. She forces him to wear matching Minnie Mouse ears with her which doesn’t actually take much convincing. They both look adorable in them.

Rex: looks apologetic about the desertion and will claim he wants to go off to find them and bring them back but will get distracted and inevitably dragged onto rides by Anakin. He doesn’t like rollercoasters (cue flashbacks of every time Anakin has crashed a ship or used the force to throw him) but it’s too late because he’s already in line and Anakin is very persuasive.

Cody: helped Obi Wan plan everything and can see how stressed he is so he goes to find them all and actually brings them back. Ahsoka comes back on her own though because she knows Anakin is a bad influence. Cody also particularly enjoys the parades and is trying to come up with a good excuse to hold Obi Wan’s hand throughout the day. He’ll claim it’s so they don’t get separated but no one believes that, not even him, but they’re all too scared to challenge him on it.

Padmé: An absolute adrenaline junkie. If the ride moves slowly, she’s not interested. She was fine with It’s A Small World the first thirteen times Luke made her go on it because she will gladly make sacrifices for her children but it’s getting to be too much. She longs for the rides that move so fast it feels like her head might be detached from her body. That’s what she came here for.

Luke: Wants to meet all the Princesses and is adorable doing it too. He’s scared of Mickey Mouse though and I do not blame him. That mouse is evil. He can feel it in the force.

Leia: Stays by Obi Wan’s side the entire day. She knows she’s too small for a lot of the rides, but she respects how organised he is. Refuses to let go of his hand. When she gets tired, she rides on Cody’s shoulders. She’s also able to convince absolutely anyone to buy her anything she wants from the gift shops. It doesn’t matter how expensive the thing is. She gets her persuasive abilities from her father (and Obi Wan has also been teaching her to negotiate a little too) who as it turns out is actually the weakest when it comes to saying no to her. Anakin is the biggest girl-dad and that is canon.

Fives: Points out at one point they’re in one of the parks that seems to sell merchandise with them on it. There are droids literally everywhere as well as people in very familiar costumes but no one notices. No one can see past the fourth wall except him. Once more, Fives knows the truth and is ignored. He gives up and gets a picture taken with the Darth Vader they have in the park and texts it directly to Anakin and says “look familiar?”. The reply he gets is just “is that Black Panther?” Fives sighs. Anakin has the wrong franchise and he doesn’t even know, he thinks to himself. Fives has achieved full enlightenment and self-awareness. The idea that he is a fictional character should scare him, but it doesn’t. It’s actually way less pressure because then his terrible life choices aren’t actually on him. He didn’t write them. He claims no responsibility.

Echo: kidnapped by Mickey Mouse. Luke’s instincts were correct. The mouse cannot be trusted. Echo will not be recovered until season 7 where they come back with The Bad Batch. For now he will remain lost in Magic Kingdom until he is either rescued or becomes part of the park.

#disaster family #disaster lineage #star wars #star wars prequels #clone wars #captain rex #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #padme amidala #luke skywalker #leia organa #Codywan #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives #domino twins

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terraco-07 · 2 months

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I find the posts claiming that Rose and Jade were in character for their current series of actions interesting to say the least. Personally I can't help but see them far and away out of their original characterization, but I'll focus primarily on Rose here. I think it's really easy for us to forget the original comic when looking at subsequent works and forget the foundational information that informs us of who a character is. I'm sorry but less than a thousand pages of Epilogues and HS2 isn't going to tell you as much as 8k and the writers SHOULD be looking at the original and plotting off of that even if they were teens in it. When writing a sequel (Whether canon or not) the original matters! That all said when I look back at Rose on the meteor I see someone who let her nerves and her fear of failure and being alone propel her forward at all times. This girl got so nervous about impressing Kanaya that she was wasted and missed their first date. She's insecure and fearful that Kanaya might break up with her on the meteor as well. The way that scene went down and Kanaya yelling no to me reads as this wasn't the first time Rose has asked that. Regardless you take all of that and you add the fact that candy Rose was talking to John about how happy she was and how much she loved her wife and kid and we go from that to well I knew you'd forgive me and honestly I just wanted to see what would happen while Kanaya is actively going "You do remember you said a kid between those three would be horrible and you didn't like Jade right?" We have no reason to believe that Kanaya is an unreliable narrator here, if anything Rose more than likely is. The idea that Rose just went oh man my good bestie Jade wants me to cheat on my loving wife of over 10 years and went yeah sure anything for my friend is laughably bad I'm sorry. If that's actually a course of action being taken by the writers I genuinely question if we're writing this for a 5th grade reading level. HS2 has at times been a series of flatting characters into their most basic forms and I'm so tired of seeing this parroted by fans who take the most surface level shit and run with it without thinking a little deeper. I feel like I've gone over this before but making Rose into this sort of cold emotionless villain type is so uninspired while we're at it. We're creating problems for her when she had ten other things she could have been shitty for. The knew you'd forgive me line is especially egregious for some shallow anime villain type. I will say Rose is bad at communication I agree with those points, but that ignores the main issue. She's bad at talking about her feelings but she isn't bad at caring about Kanaya's. The idea that she would throw away or risk her relationship EVEN with the visions is kind of insane to me. Her fear of losing Kanaya would overweigh the trust in her powers. I think that Rose like a handful of other characters is just chronically misread and people are excited about an evil plotline but this is so half baked and the idea that she was always like this or this makes sense with her previous characterization is just actually insane to me. Look HS2 fans you can have your new Rose, but that's a different person I think we can all play nice under that assumption.

#homestuck #Rose Lalonde #HSBC #HS2 #upd8 #Kanaya Maryam #Jade Harley #The arc is both ooc and sucks ass there's nothing more to be said about it #Originally penned by a cuck happy loser and the fact that it's happening to our only endgame wlw ship?#Come on

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prototypelq · 5 months

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The Most Unreliable Narrator I Have Ever Seen

soooooo I had a Cyberpunk-obsessed phase pass recently, and this time Johhny Silverhand's character caught my eye. His story, more specifically, and how... inconsistent he seems, depending on each source.

In the game, Johhny acts like a bastard for most of the game. He panic-rages on his first meeting with V, throws many threats around, but is later beaten into the background with the blocker pills Misty gave to V. Even Johnny's friends' are well, they react Loudly to his return. Y'know, make it known his presence alone provokes a lot of anger from them.

Even during his first appearance, when V gets thrown into Silverhand's memories of his SAMURAI concert, the only real thing V recalls is the all-consuming rage that he felt, which he tried to shout out through the microphone, but it never felt like enough.

And doesn't this sound weird then, that the only thing Johnny does throughout the game after that first meeting is help V out? He learns about the Smasher guy hideout at the docks (he does that through dubious means but that's Johnny for you), he helps V out when the seizures become worse, he calmly agrees to Any decision V makes, despite V clearly Not being in any real state to oppose him in the finale of the game, he plans the whole thing with "Alt" so V can get his body back at Johnny's own expense, from the beginning, and he doubles down on that claim at the end of the game.

Do you see the dissonance? The egoist rockerboy that admitted to using his friends to getting what he wants, and the downright self-sacrificing hero and a friend that is Johnny at the end of the game? People change, sure, but this divide is very massive and too sudden, so I wanted to dig into that. And what I've stumbled upon, with the help of canon Cyberpunk materials like the Red sourcebook (or, more specifically, LayedBackGamers' reading of the canon books and his lore videos on different topics), is that

Johhny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077 is the Most Unreliable Narrator I've Ever Seen.

Count with me here:

Johhny's personality in general. No matter what your interpretation of him his, it's impossible to ignore that Johhny is very much a people person and he exploits that knowledge and charisma to suit his own goals. If you choose to trust him, then you might have already been played.

2) Johhny has been alone, only his lovely self for 50+ years inside the Arasaka chip. Don't ask me how he is still even remotely sane, I haven't got a clue (hopefully the time as a construct without outside stimulation flies differently and he hasn't felt those 50 years in real time). The thing to mention here, however, is that, being alone with your thoughts and emotions for a long time, having nothing else for entertainment, is a great opportunity to rewrite your own memory of events or emotions you've felt.

3) Lack of a body. The aforementioned constant rage, that was the dominant emotion is Johnny's life (before Alt, at least, if Never Fade Away is anything to go by, and I mean, that's literally a love ballad), is a symptom of his PTSD from his too-young years serving in the corpo war, same as his signature silver hand. I'm not a specialist here, but I do know PTSD, especially for war veterans, is a physiological illness just as much as it is a mental one. Johnny's body literally had trouble living normally after that experience, and knowing this bastard - he never managed to treat that. Existing as a personality construct frees him from the many bonuses of being corporeal, but it also free him from the physiological side of PTSD. His day-to-day existence is fundamentally different from that of the Johnny Silverhand that the world knew 50 years ago, so yes, as a 'time traveler' or a source of information and comparison about the 70's and 20's of cyberpunk world Johhny is not a good source.

4) The chip with Johnny is literary inside the head of another person. The characters in game question, multiple times, just which decisions is V making on his own, and which of them might be Johnny's doing. Not consciously, no, but V and Johnny are clearly not your simple neighbours. They are not your 'close friends that start subconsciously copying each other' too. It is quite possible that the chip with Johhny is adapting to the 'hardware' it is running on, so it is specifically implementing parts of V's personality into Johnny, to minimize the 'friction' between the personality and the body it is supposed to inhabit. Everyone say hi to existential horror)

5) How does Soulkiller ever work? Is there data on how much the resulting engram actually resembles the person it tried to copy? How did the process of copying Johnny go? I can answer the last one - very badly.

Death of Johnny is told in excruciating detail in the Cyberpunk sourcebooks. Johnny died on the floor of Arasaka tower, torn in two by a shotgun blast from Smasher. There is no information on how much time it takes Soulkiller to create the engram from the brain, but it better have finished doing that before Johnny's brain started dying from a lack of blood and oxygen, and he clearly didn't have much time either, considering bisection is not the best for bodily fluid preservation, so it's a wonder the engram even works properly. Plus, during the initial heist to steal the chip with Johnny, the chip was damaged further before the idiots decided to stick an unknown harddrive into their heads to preserve it. Basically, it's nothing short of a miracle, that engram-Johnny is actually a whole damn person, that he can function, think and feel properly (well, as much as Johnny can do those things)

It is very sad that V can't talk to Johnny about this, as the man does blame himself over things he hasn't even done, and he had done enough emotional damage to himself and people around him without that kind of burden on top of it.

6) Johnny's memories are literally false. The attentive reader had to pick this up in my previous point - didn't Johnny die in the hands of Arasaka after they interrogated him? Nope. Nope, and I can say that confidently because,

(drumroll please)

Cyberpunk tabletop sourcebooks! Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk universe and the TTRP series of games, has worked closely with CDPR writers during the production of the 2077. He oversaw everything, and he says that 2077 is in the same cyberpunk universe too, it's not an 'alternate reality' or anything.

Johnny Silverhand died while trying to buy time for his friends to escape, from a shotgun shot from Adam Smasher. That's it, he died on that floor, there was noone to interrogate, no rooftop helicopter he ran for.

The sequence of 'memories' we see from Johnny's POV in the game is a mishmash of two different assaults on the Arasaka towers, yes towers there were two of them. There is a great video explaining all the small and Major details Johnny's version of events got wrong, because we have the sourcebooks and the text inside. You may accuse me of holding a 'holy canon' argument ... and well, yeah, this is kind of holy knowledge, as it was written for gamemasters.

Still, some of the things in Johnny's version are Major, and while the media certainly covered the whole story extensively with corpo propaganda (oh, btw, Johnny didn't bomb anything, he probably didn't even know there was a nuke involved, he is literally just a scapegoat), there are some holes that a citizen of this world might know and wish to poke. The aforementioned Two Arasaka towers, or the absence of the legendary solo Morgan Blackhand from Johnny's story. Interestingly enough, there is a radiostation of Maximum Mike in-game, who is actually just pretty much Mike Pondsmith, and he does propose a couple of questions the 'official' version of the attack doesn't cover (like, where would a rockerboy even get a nuke, he might have been popular, but that's not just something you find without military contracts, and that means corporations). Another thing is that since Arasaka owns Soulkiller and has had the engram for a couple of decades, it is quite possible they are the ones responsible for messing with Johnny's memories.

So uh, yeah, Johnny is the Most Unrealible Narrator I have ever seen. Johnny of 2077 is most certainly not the Johnny of 2020's, but this might be a good thing. Maybe the 'real' 2020's Silverhand could never have made the progress the engram did, or become such a good friend and companion for V, or maybe he could have done those things too. We'll never know. I really love this story anyway.

#thanks for reading #johnny totally deserves a second chance at life after this why cant he and johnny show alt the finger and delta out of there #so v could live out his days and then johnny would take over #on the other hand johnny is a great example that being an engram is not the end so maybe v could come back in some sort of form later #after giving alt the finger #btw thats not alt either that's probably just an ai that caught little wind of actual alt and just calls itself her #also alt herself might be alive but that story is WEIRD so no idea #cyberpunk lore is great i had an amazing time listening to it and discovering new things #mike pondsmith is also amazing heard a cyberpunk red campaign he mastered and listening to him has been a blast he is a true storyteller #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk red #legends of night city #mike pondsmith #johnny silverhand #phantom liberty #this is the first and last time I praise cdpr after that back to hate for the ps4 version of the game i go #and for refusing to update the game for that platform and for not releasing the dlc for it and for upping the system reqs even higher #ill live to see actual 2077 before I get access to hardware that can run that shit #btw existential horror enjoyers I sure do hope you have heard of SOMA )))#oh i also dont think johnny was that bad in life either like he was bad but rogue and kerry are clearly happy to have him back so the game #must've shown just a very low time for him he had to be a good friend to earn that kind of loyalty still could behave like a bastard tho

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neolxzr · 8 months

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you do see my point though, I was saying that yes a piece of media can have a character imply they are queer, but it’s frustrating when they won’t explicitly confirm such, because of (in the case of… checks app store purchase statistics…. A multi million dollar game franchise!) the need to market to as many people as possible. Shumika will never be “canon” because some people just don’t like shumika and won’t spend money on the game if shu and mika are in a relationship, whether or not that’s because they like the ship or the characters or are genuinely homophobic or whatnot. If the writing team cared about telling a love story, they would tell a love story, not go “well maybe they’re in love, it’s up to viewer interpretation!” like this works, sometimes it adds to the meaning of the work, but enstars really doesn’t have an excuse for their constant “this character might have feelings for this other character, but we’ll never have them say it out loud!” except the fact it makes them a lot of money, since they can market to people who like a character being the way they want that character to be, whether that’s with that character being in love with another in game character or self-shipping or whatever else. Outside of shipping, this is why some characters like Shinobu haven’t changed despite wanting to change (he continuously talks about how he wants to be more mature and taken seriously but his cards continue to make him look small and cute because his fans like that about him and god forbid we change anything!) I just think enstars should not be your first thought when someone asks you about a good piece of queer media because they’re doing just about the same job as large cast games with characters of the same gender (minus Arashi) who continue to have characters go “we’ll do all these things to imply we could be in love, but we’ll never have our characters actually date! teehee!”

i can understand being frustrated about your ships not being "confirmed", but the obsession with what is "canon" and "not canon" is just straight up not a very interesting discussion to have. what happyele's or the writers' agenda is is not of particular importance to me. one of the first things they teach you in classes about media analysis is that once a work is out there, the intentions of the creator no longer matter. the only thing that matters in your analysis is your own thoughts and the way you interpret a text.

if we were having a conversation about how much the creator of something sucks, then sure, talk about that all you want, but i am specifically referring to discussions about the piece of media and these characters and their relationships and their growth and the themes of the work etc. those things are removed from whether or not the company writes the way they do because of profit motives or whatever. companies make money, that's just what to expect. if you want art that is free of profit motives, read something by an independent creator.

even so, it feels strange to place enstars into the bucket of "stuff that should be gayer but the bad company that makes it wont let it be" because the characters ARE so very openly queer. there are so many instances in it where characters pour their heart out to each other or offer themselves to another character in beautiful and poetic ways, and i think it's wrong to claim it doesn't count because they didn't confirm their relationship status at the end of it. if you ask me, there is absolutely no way to interpret enstars in a way completely free of queerness. there is so much explicitly queer text that ignoring it is just plain incorrect. but, if homophobic people like this game and choose to look the other way at all of the gay shit, again, that is not my problem.

why is canonization the only thing that matters? is a shitty BL with awful writing better and more worthwhile than enstars as a queer narrative because the characters had explicit gay sex on screen? are poorly written gay characters in the background of other media with nothing going on more worth talking about than shumika or wataei or rinniki or whoever else just because they say the words 'i'm gay' out loud?

queerness is so much more than all of that. it is so much more than labels and it is so much more than relationships that are easy to understand. it is so much more than the extremely narrow view of it that the internet has concocted about it over the last few years, where you’re only allowed to talk about queerness if you yourself are openly queer and out of the closet, and even then you’re only allowed to make art that makes for “good representation.” that is just so incredibly limiting. i would rather tons of companies who are trying to profit off fujoshis make vaguely gay media with unconfirmed romances and relationships that aren't easily defined by labels than have less queer art in the world.

more queer art means more queer people who will find something to really connect to. more queer art means telling more queer stories. why should who is allowed to write lgbtq media be limited? why should the kind of media people are allowed to make be limited?

its fine to criticize happyelements if youre unsatisfied with the way they do things, im not always 100% in love with everything they do either. i wouldn't even consider enstars to be the worlds' best example of a queer piece of media. but no one is forcing you to like or engage with it or give the company money if you're unhappy with how they write and market their game. they don't owe anyone explicit confirmation that any of their characters are dating, and it doesn't even matter if they do provide that confirmation or not.

regardless of who made it or for what reason, queer stories are worth talking about, "canon" or not.

#cryn answers #anon #enstars #listen i dont want to be mean to you anon but this is very much just an extended version of the first ask you sent me #i will leave anon on but im not going to make another post like this ive more than said my piece already #also sorry i guess for not getting into the shinobu character growth part of this ask?#it was just. so far off from the topic of conversation #this isnt even getting into the cultural differences between the west and japan and how that affects the way companies make things #but again thats a different conversation #anyway #fun fact me and my girlfriend started talking more partially because of shumika #so if that doesnt make them a good queer narrative idk what does man!!#they certainly resonate with lesbians somehow!!!#if anyone actually read this far hi!! you are so strong #media analysis

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pinkandpurple360 · 4 months

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i worry that if asmodeus and fizz split up asmodeus would just be depressed forever 💀

like yeah eat the rich and all but boy literally was telling fizz he’s the best thing to ever happen to him in his ~6000 years of living. like picture finally having the one thing you never thought you could/should/would, then losing it (even if for valid reasons), and being implicitly/explicitly told you shouldn’t do the thing you never thought you’d do that brought you happiness because of how you exist. doubly so if lilith/sarah are canon. like a pandora’s box. he could never go back to feeling how he did pre-fizz love again.

idk man ain’t perfect and no one’s owed anything including a relationship, but that’s my big hurdle right now regarding blitzfizz. guy seems so happy, but fizz doesn’t always. stolas can choke tho idc about his feelings

God the way people baby this man. One fanfic/AU and everyone wants my head lol. This is all reminding me of how Edward used to be talking about Bella. It’s the same way for Stolas. There’s no happy ending here no matter which way it goes.

Having your first love ripped away by tragic circumstances and kept apart by lies is fine if they’re both imps, but a rich person having to part with their first crush?? Unthinkable. They’ll literally explode and die without them. I just don’t get why rich sheltered characters get so much more gentleness and extra care.

As it stands those two Goetia are basically stans of the two imps with no life outside of them, isolating themselves from the people who’ve always been there for them by ignoring or causing animosity with them, all for the sake of their obsessive secret sex buddy or partner….that’s romance?

How is this show claiming to be in the maturity level of Bojack when you guys can’t even handle a Diane and Mr Peanutbutter level of breakup? You feel that way, because his character is just being obsessed with Fizz. His life spins entirely around him and around sex he’s painfully one dimensional. Also he’s a tragic character no matter when and how they separate. They can’t break up because Oz will cry and cry and never stop crying forever. Doesn’t the fact it’s all based on a lie bother anyone? This is clearly some type of setup going on.

Being implicitly explicitly told that—-stop right there because. False. There is no ‘you should never have that’ Love changes you and just because you break up with your favourite performer doesn’t mean “oh I can never ever love ever again” like damn.

I don’t even think this has anything to do with blitzfizz or shipping in general I wouldn’t even mind if Fizz stayed single at the end as long as he was happy again and his world was more than his sugar daddy.

#helluva boss critical #fizzarozzie crit

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antianakin · 4 months

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@theneutralmime

That's incredibly subjective at this point, since we've got at LEAST 3-4 different "canons" depending on how you look at it right now.

The first is Lucas's personal canon, which I imagine is what you're remembering having read somewhere as being just the films and TCW, although this would just be the first SIX films and the first SIX seasons of TCW and nothing else (this includes the sequel trilogy and season 7 of TCW, as well as films like Solo and Rogue One).

Anything beyond those things but that was created prior to the Disney buyout in 2014 is considered "Legends" canon (previously known as the Extended Universe before the buyout). This includes things like the original Thrawn trilogy, the Jedi Apprentice/Quest novels, the 2003 Clone Wars show, etc. Lucas did not consider them part of HIS Star Wars story and had no problem with ignoring anything introduced in Legends material if he didn't like it (nor did he have an issue with USING things he DID like from Legends material, but he often warped it to fit into his own story). Disney doesn't consider any of it as canon, but different creators have been slowly "re-canonizing" some of it in recent media (like Jango/Boba Fett being Mandalorians, or Siri Tachi's existence).

Anything created AFTER the 2014 buyout is considered "Disney canon." Unlike Lucas, Disney doesn't seem to be really separating their films/TV shows from their other content like books/comics/games in terms of continuity, but not everyone is actually consuming everything so sometimes shit doesn't match anyway. Generally the films and Disney+ TV shows (which for this purpose will include things like Rebels even though that show was created prior to Disney+ existing) are probably considered "higher" canon than things like the books, comics, and games, but it isn't as clear cut as it used to be under Lucas. While I think many of the things created under Disney canon, especially the films and Disney+ shows, are TRYING to be considered part of the same continuity as Lucas's canon, they're also definitely still doing their own thing and Lucas himself has no influence on them.

Rebels would be considered DISNEY canon since it was created after the buyout. Same goes for The Bad Batch as well as the Obi-Wan Kenobi show.

Tales of the Jedi is weird because it technically is within Disney canon, but I believe Filoni has claimed that audiences should see it less as actual canon events and more as like... "fables" or something like that. So basically the dude in charge said we can disregard anything in this show as canon if you want to, I guess. That being said, there's nothing in it that completely contradicts the more accepted canon (Lucas's stuff and the Disney films and TV shows), so I think that most people generally consider this show as "canon" no matter what Filoni said.

And of course, there's always your personal canon, which is just whatever you decide to SEE as canon regardless of anything "official." I personally dislike Tales of the Jedi and the Ahsoka show and am fully willing to just... pretend they're not canon. Neither of them has any real bearing on the larger narrative Lucas wrote anyway and you can obviously understand and enjoy the original six films without them.

I mostly use these distinctions when I'm having a discussion with someone about something like, say, the intentions behind the story. Because that can obviously change WILDLY depending on who is writing the story. Lucas and Filoni are not the same person, much as Filoni might like to believe otherwise, and so they have radically different approaches to Star Wars, its messages, and its worldbuilding. Something Filoni writes in a Disney canon show does NOT have any relevance to a discussion about what Lucas was trying to say about the Prequels Jedi, for example. Same goes for anything written in a Legends novel or comic book.

Star Wars is relatively easy to cherry pick from depending on what you enjoy. Especially these days, with how much content is being cycled out all the time. So if you just don't care for Disney canon at all, you can just... ignore it and focus on Lucas's canon and Legends material if you want. If you happen to be one of the people who just doesn't vibe with Lucas's messages, you can focus more on Legends canon and Filoni's more recent work. Or you can exclusively enjoy Lucas's canon and absolutely nothing else. Or you can pick and choose from within each "canon" depending on what vibes with you. The galaxy far far away is your oyster!

#star wars #legends #george lucas #disney #star wars original trilogy #star wars prequel trilogy #star wars sequel trilogy

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bcacstuff · 8 months

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Usually agree but with Sam he has went out of his way to make it look like he's had a thing with CB abd showance to sell OL. Also disagree there is tons of evidence he's with women. MM is the only evidence. Hanging out with GE at track meet, easy sports interest and they were both at the sane Corp event Chicago. No pic with GiaMarie beyond pier. He's always played around on Social Media, and nothing with girlfriends only the race picture with MM. He may have squacked in the rant but that was more about being called out about traveling during Covid, and otherwise liked the gossip, speculation as people are talking, as long as they are, he gets what he wants, attention.

I don't know who or what you are disagreeing with Anon. Yes, he went out of his way to sell a show. He still does, though I think at some point he's got the word that he needed to tone down a bit in relation to his co-star. That said, if you accuse him of that, you can accuse her as well of it.

I have to say, before I came here I actually never saw it that way so much. I wasn't even aware about the shipping, and more honest, wasn't even aware of the whole 'shipping' thing of actors on a show in general. Yes, call me ignorant, but my life was filled with a lot of other interests and things and not with actors on a tv show or movie.

I have never posted here that there is a 'ton of evidence' he's with women. I've seen it on other blogs, and there are things I can agree with, there are things I can understand how people look at from another pov, not necessarily my pov but I can understand it. It actually doesn't matter much to me, I read a blogpost today about MM, I read it, and that's all there is to it for me. I do not need any 'proof' for something. I just know what I see, have my thoughts about it, that I can freely discuss with some open minded people in DM that I know I can trust, and with whom I can agree or disagree and still be friends with.

I don't feel the need to 'prove' anything to anyone. Everyone can think for themselves, and will make up their own minds. I don't care.

What I do care about is making up things, trying to fit a certain scenario. Whether it is shippers wanting him to be with CB, or they gay-sayers constantly saying he's hiding something and every women he's seen with is a immediately bombarded as a beard or being lesbian... that kind of stuff. And that also counts for the part of the fandom that claims he's been sleeping with every women that he's been seen with or was in the same city or location. I get lots of Anons all the time, putting out names, making innuendo from just a meetup at a sportsgame with GE recently f.i. I get the craziest conspiracy theories about it. It's not even funny anymore. It makes me wonder about the level of intelligence of parts of this fandom.

All the chaos in this fandom sort of made me started keeping track f things. As there is so much made up and so much chaos created just to make certain narratives sound feasible or simply to create some confusion. It's the only way to keep these narratives alive. And they're not created by him, but by this fandom. This fandom that wants to see 'hidden messages' rather than just take a pic or video or word for what it is and nothing more. This fandom that likes to make lies canon, this fandom that keeps repeating tweets from long ago out of context as sort of proof for something.

I can go on... but I rather keep going on with what I do. Show what he is really doing, or where he really is. It's not because I'm obsessed or something, I know how people like to demonize me for it that way. However, the timelines I create doesn't leave that much room for their conspiracy theories and that's what they don't like I presume. Anyway, I like to have things clear for myself and not go by all the chatter and made up theories but simply by logic.

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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The racism discussion is making me wonder: when do you think it is a good time or what is a good way to discuss racist shipping patterns in fandom? Because I don't think it's productive to tell people "my ship not being more popular is racist" or "you liking this ship better than this other ship is racist." But it's hard to argue that hasn't been the case in some fandoms, where those broader preferences are obviously influenced by, at least, insidious cultural ideas about who is more attractive?

No matter how you discuss it, someone will be too fragile to handle it, so there might be good ways to talk about it, but there are no non-contentious ways to talk about it.

It's helpful to know what your goal is. Are you venting? That's valid. But if the objective is to educate people or to change behavior, you have to think about whether those people actually don't know the things you know and what will actually change behavior.

A goal of "If you would just think about X" is not useful. It ends up being a guilt trip and not a useful call to action.

Obviously, it's better to talk about aggregate patterns in aggregate, not singling out any particular fic. It's also probably more productive to talk about pan-fandom trends if the goal is raising awareness. People aren't going to change what they ship in the fandoms they're already in. Thinking more about those patterns might change what they ship in a few years though.

I would listen to people when they tell you why they don't ship a thing. They're often being defensive and annoying, but there's usually something worth noting in their responses too, and it usually points back to character tropes and what kind of roles get cast which way.

I would not undersell how much canon is contributing to fandom behavior. It's supremely annoying when people point to trends that have their root in canon screwing over characters and blame fandom.

I would also try to have a bird's eye view of fandom trends and contextualize them. Don't say "Fandom only likes white characters" or I know you're one of those jackasses who's still ignoring that Asian media is internationally popular. Don't pull the "Asians are basically white" thing if you want people to take you seriously and not just think you are the racist. People do that shit constantly while critiquing fandom racism.

Don't blame m/m shippers while being clueless about het shippers. Understand what the patterns look like on Wattpad and FFN, not just AO3. Understand how typical fandoms look, and by typical, I mean small and medium-size ones. Don't assume that MCU is a "normal" fandom and everything should look like it. Ditto Harry Potter or Naruto. Don't be like "But fandom often has whole archives about walk-on characters who are little more than a name!" when that's true only of a tiny handful of outlier megafandoms.

Basically, people probably won't listen to you anyway, but they definitely won't if you sound like a clueless n00b who wants to teach your grandma to suck eggs.

If you want people to change their unconscious ideas of what's attractive, that's a long battle. You're talking about fixing culture. That's not a small undertaking. You might be better off reccing media full of hotties that people may not have seen yet rather than discussing shitty patterns in shipping in media that's already popular.

Also... why are shipping stats on AO3 the measure of everything? It's good to explain why that's the thing you care about rather than claiming it stands in for all forms of fandom and popularity.

More than anything, if you say you're starting a discussion, be willing to discuss. Far too often, I see people making a proclamation and then being mad that the response isn't grovelling agreement. Even if everyone else is wrongity wrong wrong, if your intent is to talk them around, you have to actually try to do that by hearing them out and discussing their actual opinions, not railing against a strawman version.

As for what's a good time... any time, I think, if you're posting to your own tumblr.

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binalakai · 7 months

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i also wish people would be more receptive to relationship speculation, at the very least. there were so many moments in fionna and cake where simon and fionna’s interactions had me raising my eyebrows and thinking “wow, what’s up with this chemistry rn?” but i know posting about it to see if others also noticed would get me dogpiled lol. glad i’m not the only one entertaining the ship and its implications to/for the characters it encompasses.

also winter king/simon is intriguing as well, if only in a weird homestuck self-shipping (dave and davesprite anyone?) kind of way where both characters get to have major epiphanies bc they’re basically looking into a mirror (may be more of a funhouse mirror for winter king/simon but still works lol)

i do not ship any of these pairings, please dont take this post from a shipping perspective

i apologize in advanced if this post is said messy. its given an opening to many things ive been thinking about since the start of the show and i know i wanna come back to it in case any new developments were to happen at the final season 1 episodes tldr; Kai Talks About how much i Love Very Messed Up Pairings, not because i want them to actually be together, but because i am NOT the type to ignore Seeds That Have been Planted in canon so i will Grow Horrible Realizations i've been having out of them

YEAH NO BECAUSE I LIKE. I JUST WANNA POINT OUT WHAT'S CANON OKAY!! i think this post is like. the only one ive seen that Has Pointed out The Adventure Time Ice King/Fionna dynamic in the lenses of the Simon we have today....and even then thats just a joke post :")

because like. okay. i need people to think about this for a second: yes, ice king didn't Come With with Fionna and Cake's existence, but why in the world would he Choose to be responsible for writing it? for bringing their stories to life and showing off a world that's been living in his head? i genuinely think people don't really like the ugly side of how badly loneliness has mutated Ice King's way of thinking (i mean for gods sake the guy tries to kiss/get with anyone, mf cant even recognize the person he claims to be falling in love with). that, yeah. of course if he had a World Living inside his brain that felt so Real to him that he CONSTANTLY wished for it to not only but true, but one that would be close to him!! one that would welcome him!!!! no matter what itd be, romantic, platonic, To the point of Worship....like ANYTHING that would bring him closer to genuine Connection in his alienating experience. NOTABLY for fionna The Human!!! the human that parallels a real life actual kid that mostly has kicked Ice King's ass to eventually treating him like a Poor confused Old Lost Guy. still, i need to stress the kind of dynamic finn and the ice king have is NOWHERE near the kind of dynamic fionna and ice king have (and even with simon developments included). . ...except this time around, even when he does have his own parallel Ice Queen existing manifesting the Must Needed Rival for their universe to make sense, mutating her character into something that to make her more Vicious/Violent, making Ice King seem Nicer In Comparison and dare i say that, yeah...! some of that HAS been carried onto modern day Fionna!! who CANONICALLY has romantic feelings towards ice prince and the winter king, parallels to ice king/simon himself! just. sorry but i NEED both Simon and Fionna to like. Read Those Stories. I Need them to revisit the VERY specific stories that Ice King felt the need to tell in the first place, his and other people in their lives' inclusions. it would not only reinforce Simon's Influence in the world Period, something that he found himself doubting on ...but also I NEEEEEEDDD to see that can of worms opened. i NEED for Fionna to see for herself the people SHE'S supposed to be representing. i NEED for her to see what kind of void she's been filling in Ice King/Simon's time of existence. i NEED for her to see how big the Obsession GOT, how badly Ice King needed that outlet of escapism (and how much Simon still returns to it in the present day)

^ this moment has been living in my brain ever since the announcement of the Fionna and Cake series that Fionna's fixation on the ice prince, her life, her..everything in general, is more or less a Weird Reflection of the lives of People living Greater Lives than she ever believed to have lived, combined with how said proclaimed experiences of Magic have only been recorded by a guy who Inserted Himself in a world she doesnt even recall living in Im surprised that. hasnt been so Stressed yet in show. im prepared to eat my words if they DO come back to it. but for the time being i really wish Fionna found out how desperate Simon/Ice King was for someone to acknowledge and Desire His Existence, to a degree that would be absolutely humiliating/weird to uncover but Necessary to come back to in order to truly understand the Scope of what 1000+ years of Madness through Ostracization (from others and eventually the Self) Does to a MF

__________ AS OF FOR MY THOUGHTS ON THE WINTER KING, he alas only truly an episode to explore. but the thoughts still exist nonetheless!!! for the most part i can only truly indulge in it out of pure hilarity for its existence, while acknowledging how much im so thankful that winter king was characterized as he was n didnt overstay his welcome, as i didnt find him necessary to stay in the narrative . there's a lot of feelings i have about simon/ice king's perception of himself alone, and how most of it is Either Negative or Overcompensation Due to his own self negativity. which makes me curious on what could come of a Better Version of Himself, looking at the version of himself that has "failed" to conquer the crown the way he has, but contemplated on pursuing romantically, even for a brief moment honestly, i dont blame people for being invested in this pairing (in comparison to fionna/simon, where i cannot myself entertain it even as a joke unlike this one). it makes me curious on what the Winter King's definition of romance is in comparison to Simon's. what could even be desirable, possibly, in the eye's of the Winter King? Does the love of someone you'll go mad over truly make you a Better Person Or Worse? Simon and Winter King existing in the same room together brings up so many questions and possible ways to explore Simon's character. wayyyyyyyyyy less of a "this can be simon's way of practicing self love" thing and MUCH more of a "These Guys Kissing each other would be the equivalent of the Narcissus Tale but with a Distorted Reflection that only Represents You because the reflection Demands That of you"

#fionna and cake #adventure time #long post #text heavy #simon petrikov #the winter king #fionna campbell #i WILL delete this though genuinely if people start to get weird in my notes #but otherwise i genuinely would be very welcome to more CIVIL. discussion about this

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acourtofthought · 1 year

Text

It's All Canon Baby

Sure this happened:

Never, Rhys said from where he finished buckling on his own weapons against the side of the wagon. I have never once seen Azriel let another person touch that knife.

But so did this:

But Elain had given it back—had pressed it into Azriel’s hands after the battle, just as he had pressed it into hers before. And then walked away without looking back.

And this:

Azriel leaned against the wall by the lone door, Truth-Teller bloody in his hand.

But Feyre, Cassian knew, had been aware of what she’d see before entering. And well aware that these ten minutes had only been the opening movements in a symphony of pain that Azriel could conduct with brutal efficiency.

And this:

And he knew the cruelty of the Hewn City troubled her.

Sure this happened:

Nesta said, “Then you will die.” Azriel only repeated, rage glazing that stare, “I’m getting her back.”

But so did this:

Cassian bared his teeth. “What the hell can we do against that?” “I’m going in,” Azriel said. “No,” Rhys snapped. But Azriel was spreading his wings, the sunlight so stark on the new, slashing scars down the membrane. “Chain me to a tree, Rhys,” Azriel said softly. “Go ahead.” He began checking the buckles on his weapons. “I’ll rip it out of the ground and fly with it on my damned back.”

And this:

“I want to confirm that Briallyn has the Crown,” Azriel said. “I’ll travel to the human lands tomorrow.” “No,” Feyre and Rhys said at the same time, in the same breath. Azriel’s eyes shuttered. “I wasn’t asking for permission.” Rhys smirked. “Doesn’t matter.” Az opened his mouth to object, but Feyre said, “You’re not going, Azriel. If Briallyn has the Crown and catches you, even if she just suspects you’re nearby, who knows what she could do to you?” “Give me some credit, Feyre,” Az said. “I can keep hidden well enough.” “We take no risks,” Feyre said, voice flat with command. “Pull all your spies out.” “Like hell I will.”

Sure this happened:

“Why not make them mates?” I mused. “Why Lucien?”

But so did this:

“No.” I blinked. “But he is a good male.” Despite our harsh words. Despite this Band of Exiles bullshit. “He cares for you.” “He doesn’t know me.” “You don’t give him the chance to even try to do so.”

And this:

“Stay out of it. She’s not ready, and neither is he, no matter how many presents he brings.” I lifted a brow. “Snoop.” Mor leaned back against the steps, utterly unrepentant. “Let him live with his Band of Exiles. Let him deal with Tamlin in his own way. Let him figure out where he wants to be. Who he wants to be. The same goes with her.”

Sure this happened:

she breathed, “Beautiful.”

But so did this:

I couldn’t tell if she was looking at his blue Siphon or at his scarred skin beneath

Sure this happened:

Color bloomed high on Azriel’s golden-brown cheeks

But so did this:

“Thank you,” Nesta said, quickly pulling away to marvel at the device. “It’s brilliant.” Azriel blushed and stepped back, shadows swirling.

And this:

Mor and Cassian howled, earning a blush from Azriel

Sure this happened:

And I think Elain—Elain would like it, too. Though she’d probably cling to Azriel, just to have some peace and quiet.”

But so did this:

I think she and Amren would be fast friends.

Which led to this:

Only Amren ignored her, and Nesta ignored Amren. The tension between them was a living band of lightning. But no one said anything, and they seemed content to pretend the other didn’t exist.

And though they eventually made up to some degree, Nesta's truest friendships ended up being with Emerie and Gwyn.

Sure this happened:

Elain had squared her shoulders and declared that she was a part of this court—and would do whatever was needed.

But so did this:

He’d never once in the two years he’d known her found Elain to be plain, but wearing black, no matter how much she claimed to be part of this court … It sucked the life from her.

Sure this happened:

“Enchanted gloves,” she read from the card. “That won’t tear or become too sweaty while gardening.” She set aside the box without looking at it for longer than a moment. And I wondered if she preferred to have torn and sweaty hands, if the dirt and cuts were proof of her labor. Her joy.

But so did this:

"I didn't dare mention that if she had been wearing the enchanted gloves Lucien had gotten her last Solstice, nothing would have pierced them at all".

Sure this happened:

“We’re the ones who need …” Azriel trailed off. “A seer,” he said, more to himself than us. “The Cauldron made you a seer.”

But so did this:

“It would seem so,” Rhys mused, then said to Lucien, “The flame in her eyes was not of your usual sort, I take it.” Lucien shook his head. “No. It spoke to nothing in my own arsenal. That was … Ice so cold it burned. Ice and yet … fluid like flame. Or flame made of ice.”. I held Rhys’s gaze, as if it were again the tether that had kept me in this world. “I think the power is death—death made flesh. Or whatever power the Cauldron holds over such things. That’s why the Carver heard it—heard about her.”

Sure this happened:

He was still happy to be Mor’s buffer with Azriel, but there’d been a change lately. In both of them. Mor no longer sat beside Cassian, draped herself over him, and Azriel … those longing glances toward her had become few and far between. As if he’d given up. After five hundred years, he’d somehow given up. Cassian couldn’t think why.

But so did this:

“I’ve spent weeks in that blasted court,” Mor said.

And this:

The High Lord of Day considered Cassian and Azriel, then frowned. “Where’s my beautiful Mor?” Az said tightly, “Away.”

And this:

Nesta said to Feyre, “Did you tell Elain?” Before Feyre could reply, Azriel said, “What about Mor?”

And this:

"What of Mor, Az?" Azriel ignored the question.

Sure this happened:

She shook her head, devouring the sight of him as if not quite believing it. “You came for me.” The shadowsinger only inclined his head.

But so did this:

I nudged Elain, who blinked at me, then blurted, “You could come to Velaris.”

Sure this happened:

Lucien, surprisingly, was chuckling, his shoulders loose and his head angled while he listened.

But so did this:

Vassa rolled her eyes, then looked to Lucien, who sank onto the sofa beside Jurian. Like the Fae male had settled similar arguments between them before. But Lucien’s attention was upon Cassian.

And this:

Cassian’s heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien’s face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing. (Lucien looking at Elain).

Sure this happened:

He glanced at Elain, who was again studying her lap. “I’m not needed here.

But so did this:

Their gazes locked and held. But Elain said nothing. Did not so much as take one step downward. Lucien inclined his head in a bow, the movement hiding the gleam in his eye—the longing and sadness. And when Lucien turned to signal to Rhys to go … He did not glance back at Elain. Did not see the half step she took toward the stairs—as if she’d speak to him. Stop him.

Sure this happened:

"She hadn't bought her Mate a present.". "She'd gotten Azriel one last year"

But so did this:

Elain gave him a specially designed ceramic mug with a lid that he could travel with, bespelled against breaking, to keep tea warm for hours. (Cassian's gift)

And most likely this from the last Solstice:

"The others passed around their gifts"

(possible proof that Elain got Cassian something the year before too, just like Az. If anything, it cannot be proven that Elain only got Az a gift the year before).

Sure this happened:

"a headache powder he'd kept on his nightstand at the HOW. Not to use, just to look at."

But so did this:

I’m fairly certain Azriel has a drawer full of all the daggers I’ve bought him throughout the centuries that he’s too polite to throw away, but won’t ever use.”

Sure this happened:

"he wouldn't go so far as to call Gwyn a friend"

But so did this:

Something sparked in Azriel's chest, but he only nodded his thanks and left. He could picture it, though, as he ascended the stairs back to the House proper. How Gwyn's teal eyes might light upon seeing the necklace. For whatever reason... he could see it. But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly.

A thing of secret, lovely beauty.

Sure this happened:

No one spoke, though shadows gathered in the corners of the room, like snakes preparing to strike.

But so did this:

"They'd always been prone to vanish when she was around".

Sure this happened:

“And you?” I made myself say. “Are you—all right?”. Elain looked over a shoulder at me as we entered the foyer, then turned left—to the dining room. In the sitting room across the way, all conversation halted at the smell of food. “Why wouldn’t I be all right?” she asked, a smile lighting up her face.

But so did this:

I’d seen those smiles before. On my own damn face.

Sure this happened:

"What if the Cauldron was wrong?"

But so did this'

Azriel said nothing. He hadn't gotten that far with his planning, certainly not beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to.

Canon isn't the argument some think it is, it doesn't prove Endgame anything.

Whatever a reader thinks is going on based on canon alone is purposely ignoring that SJM doesn't always come right out and tell us the direction she's heading, she leaves subtle hints. She has literally told us in interviews about all the "breadcrumbs" she sprinkles so what good is it doing to act like these big, bold, obvious moments have to be the only possible outcome while conveniently pretending like those other breadcrumbs don't matter?

"Elain and Az nearly kissed! They want each other!"

"Elain belongs in the NC, she said so herself!"

"Elain has friends and hobbies so she's got no more healing to do!"

"Az is over Mor! Cassian said so!"

"Az doesn't even consider Gwyn a friend a few months after officially meeting her, they could never end up together!"

"Elain won't look at Lucien so it must remain that way for all of eternity!"

The truth is, SJM has put enough in there to support Elucien, E/riel, or Gwynriel. I think based on her style, she's setting E/riel up to have only been an emotional / near physical rebound for all the wrong reasons (which came to an end in the POV Chapter), but I cannot deny she hinted at something between them in the other books. I'm also not going to deny that all those hints were followed by hints for other ships or proof that neither Az or Elain were over Mor and Graysen. But I'm still not here pretending there weren't things that led us to what happened on Solstice. I just think regardless, E/riel was always set up as being doomed to fail.

I'm not sure why E/riels refuse to admit that E/riel might not have the endgame setup they think they've had, and that there are canon moments that could hint at an Elucien / Gwynriel future too. That the characters and their feelings for one another can still change in the next books.

Do they think stubbornly refusing to admit any other outcome is a possibility will somehow guarantee their ship? I'm sure Team Jacobs and Team Gale's did the same thing yet they still ended up having to accept defeat.

At this point it all comes down to hoping those hints lead us to the outcome we want. Because canon currently supports the possibility of every single pairing and if SJM wants, canon up until now doesn't even have to matter because she has created a brand new ship in a single book despite the Canon that came before.

Make your posts, defend your ship, but seriously, stop sending threats, stop acting like other people are stupid or lack reading comprehension for believing in theirs. You just make yourself look like the idiot considering they can provide just as many canon moments and the fact that you don't realize or ignore that those canon moments exist means you are the one lacking in reading comprehension and are guilty of selective reading.

#elucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #lucien and elain #elain and lucien #gwynriel #azriel acotar #gwyneth berdara #acotar ships

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