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bet-on-me-13 · 8 months

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The Structure of the Infinite Realms

This is an updated version of This old prompt I did a while back.

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So! The Infinite Realms are not just limited to the Afterlife. In fact, the Afterlife is just a single section of the Realms, and Each Realm is ruled over by their own Kingdom with their own Godly Rulers.

Lets give an Overview of a few of the Realms:

The Far Frozen: The Far Frozen is a Realm inhabited by Yeti's, who are Pacifists by nature. Their sole focus is to develop their medical practices so they can help as many people as possible. They are rules over by the Ice God, Frostbite, a kind and just King who uses his eons of experience to help those in need. The Far Frozen are well liked by all Kingdoms in the Infinite Realms, and have very few enemies.

The Medieval Isles: The Medieval Isles are a very recent addition to the Infinite Realms, and resembles the Earth Sterotype of a Fantasy Land. It is inhabited by many different races, from Elves to Dwarves to Humans. It was previously Ruled Over by a Draconic God known as the Tyrant King Aragon, before he was overthrown by his sister, the Kind Queen Dorathea with the help of a Sir Phantom. It does not have many Enemies among the Realms, but the Fae Wilds to seem to resent that some Elves live there as opposed to their original homeland.

Olympus: Olympus is the Realm of the Greek Gods, home to all the Gods who exist in the World and used to exist. It is ruled over by Zeus. It used to be a pretty major Political Powerhouse in the Realms, but after Ares went Rouge and killed most of their Top Gods, they lost a lot of Power.

Themyscira: After the Amazon's split off from the rest of Greece, they formed their own Kingdom with Hippolyta as the Godess Queen. It exists simultaneously in both the Realms and Earth. This Kingdom is well respected, but not as old or as large as some of the others. It has about the same Political Power as Olympus currently does, if not a little less.

The Nordic Lands: This is a Realm inhabited by the Norse Gods and all their peoples. It is not ruled over by a single Race of Gods, and is split into many different Warring Factions. One is the Aesir, Ruled over by King Odin. Another is the Vanir, formerly ruled over by Njord, but now ruled by his son Frey. There are also the Lands for the Fire and Ice Giants, and so on. They hold a good amount of Political Power in the Infinite Realms, but tend to stay Neutral in most cases.

New Genesis: This is the home of the New Gods, a race of Gods who is far younger than the others. They are ruled over by High Father, one of the surviving Old Gods, and the father of many of the New Gods. They are a fairly old and powerful Kingdom in the Realms, holding much Political Power.

Apokolips: This is a Realm filled with almost exclusively Demon's. It is ruled over by the God of Evil, Darkseid, and his Court of Minor Gods. It is an Extremely Agressive and even hostile Kingdom in the Realms, but holds itself back from attacking it's fellow Godly Kingdoms in fear of Retribution. They rarely interact with the other Kingdoms or discuss political matters in Meetings, but they are still a Kingdom not to be trifled with.

The Fae Wilds: This is the Realm that is the homeland of all Faeries and such creatures, like Elves and Gnomes. It is ruled over by the Fae Gods, Oberon and Titania, who use their cunning to obtain a good standing among the other Realms and maintain a good amount of Political Power.

The Spirit Lands: This is the Realm inhabited by mostly Nature Spirits, such as Nymphs and Fire Sprites. These lands are ruled over by 4 Elemental Kings, among which are Vortex and Undergrowth. These Lands are a sort of Middle Point in terms of Political Power, not too much but not too little. Although their image has been damaged by the Impulsive personalities of a few of their Rulers.

The Miracle Lands (Miraculous Ladybug): This is a Realm inhabited by a race of Gods that represent Conceptual Ideas, known as Kwami's. They are ruled over by the King and Queen of their Lands, Tikki and Plagg, the concepts of Creation and Destruction. The Miracle Lands are one of the oldest and most powerful of the Kingdoms of the Infinite Realms, and hold some of the most Political Power in the Infinite Realms.

The Ghost Zone/The After: This was what I really made this post to do. To explain my Headcanon for how the Ghost Zone worked in the grand scheme of things, the rest was just context.

The Ghost Zone is the collective Afterlife of all the other Realms, with Major Regions of the Realms dedicated to the different Kingdoms that hold a claim to the Afterlife.

There are Large Regions of the Realms dedicated to containing the Afterlives of the Godly Realms, like the Underworld for Olympus, or Valhalla/Vanaheim/Hel for the Nordic Lands. (The Norse actually have a shocking amount of Territory in the Ghost Zone, many joke that it's because Odin and Pariah Dark liked eachother due to how similar they looked.)

Each of the Regions is ruled over by that Pantheon's own God of the Dead/Death.

Hades rules the Underworld, and commands the different sections like the Fields of Asphodel, the Fields of Punishment, Elysium, and even Tartarus to some degree.

Plagg rules the Miraculous After (the Kwami's are not very creative with names). This is an Afterlife exclusive to the Holders of the Miraculous, as well as those who use Miracle Magic without having a Miraculous, like the Guardians. Also just the followers of the Kwami's (they have a small following)

The Norse have many Rulers for their many Afterlives. Hel rules over Hel, Freya rules over Vanaheim, Odin rules over Valhalla, and even Rán has her own tiny section for drowned souls. Plus a few more small sections.

The Acropolis is the Personal Afterlife for the Amazonians, and only answers to the Queendom of Themyscira. Pandora was chosen as the new Goddess of Afterlife when this was decided, and Acsended to Minor Godhood.

And there are many more, too many to list.

All the Rulers of the Afterlives defer to the Ruler of the Ghost Zone, who holds the most Power among the Gods of Death, as basically their Landlord. That used to be Pariah Dark, but after he went insane and had to be sealed away, the Ghost Zone fell mostly to Anarchy.

While the Afterlives managed to maintain stability due to having their own Rulers, the large regions between the Afterlives did not, and Rouge Spirts began to stake their claims to small plots of Land called Haunts. The most common among these were Ghosts, but there were some Fae, Spirits, and some smaller Gods (for some reason, some of the Kings of the Spirit Lands liked to use this Area as a playground to do whatever they wanted with no consequences).

It took Millennia, but eventually Pariah Dark was released from his Prison and then Usurped by a Young Godling named Phantom. Phantom then proceeded to bring the Realms under control, maintaining a few of the newer customs thay had appeared in the wake of Pariah's Imprisoning like Claiming Haunts, but otherwise ending the Era of Anarchy in the Realms.

The Ghost Zone is the Oldest, and most Powerful of the Kingdoms of the Infinite Realms. It holds Extreme Political Power, and has the favor of many different Realms. It's hard to not have that when you are an integral part of the Balance of the Godly World.

Thoughts?

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mako-neexu · 26 days

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i know sakurai gets dunked on sometimes and some players especially cant let go of stuff like septem but like... im really thankful for her contributions too. after all, she's the one to give guda the shadow Servant canonical power (shimousa), which changed the REST of the chapters... same as well to olympus where guda's soul has That and its enough to terrify divinities on the spot, and theres Id chapter, which swept away every single player recently...its all amazing... especially when she's the first to bring up the concept of Servants in guda's dreams (see scathach interlude as she's the first to 'clean' guda's malignant remnants before dantes) and when dantes was released, she wrote it that he becomes guda's dream guardian... which then changed the rest of fgo's story as almost every player is elated over the fact that guda's suffering, as their own person, not a POV camera, is acknowledged by the story as players can only infer to what they're feeling through other characters.

so... it started with sakurai on that concept... then we get the rest of the Servants like abby and those who know of guda's dreams like amakusa, i think i saw some posts that sakurai and higashide co-wrote stuff together on some events/chapters? i think somewhere along those lines... but yeah the one who kickstarted stuff like this is sakurai which in turn eventually got us oberon due to guda's suffering and character as their own person, someone who is dantes' opposite in many aspects.

#fgo #fate grand order #guda #fujimaru ritsuka

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bproccoli · 1 year

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"Todd!" Charlie threw the door open, startling the two people in the room. One of them stood on a chair while the other was half-kneeling on the floor. "What are you doing?"

"Practicing." Neil explained as he got up. "He's Oberon and I'm Puck."

"Uh-huh. Sure." Charlie leaned on the doorframe. "Well, Oberon, get your ass down that chair. We have a game to win."

"Right, the game." Todd repeated in realization. "I forgot."

"I figured." Charlie replied. "I've since learned to accept the fact that I'll always be second to Neil."

"That's not true." Neil smirked at him. "You probably rank even lower than that."

"What are you talking about?" Todd jumped down from the chair, shoving the script onto Neil's hands. "I treat everyone the same way."

Neil and Charlie looked at each other.

"No. No. There's definitely a ranking and Neil's number one." Charlie said. "Everyone can see that."

"Yeah, I'm the favorite." Neil agreed, nodding.

"No, you're not." Todd argued. He looked at Charlie's disbelieving expression and insisted, "He's not!"

"I'm not?"

"No! I don't have a favorite."

"A good moral, my lord: It is not enough to speak, but to speak true." Neil read from the script before showing it to Todd. "See? Shakespeare said lying's bad."

"Shut up. Who's your favorite, then?"

"You."

Todd, who was caught off guard, stood unmoving for a significant amount of time.

"There goes my teammate." Charlie commented by the door before turning around and walking away. "Meeks! Look for another player. We got a man down."

#the other player they recruited was stick #he's MY favorite #anderperry are each other's favorite #dead poets society #dps #dps fandom #anderperry #neil perry #todd anderson #dps fic #dps hcs #dps fanfiction #dps headcanons #neil x todd #todd x neil #dead poets #my fics

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de-sterren-nacht · 10 months

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The Fae of the British Lostbelt

This is gonna be a long one, so strap in.

The fae and other creatures of the British Lostbelt take heavy inspiration from real-life legends; almost every major character is named after a type of fairy or mystical creature from British folklore. Many of these names are not English; I've added a pronunciation guide for these in brackets after the word. In this post, I'll go over the beings and concepts these characters are named for and compare the legend to the original. This won't include Morgan or Oberon; those figures are complex enough to deserve posts of their own.

Aesc [ASH]

Aesc is more accurately spelled Æsc. It's an Old English word for the ash tree, and also doubles as the word for the rune for the letter Æ. This is pretty much a direct translation into Old English of Aesc's Japanese name, Tonelico (トネリコ), a word meaning "ash tree".

Albion

Albion is a poetic name for the island of Britain, from Greek Albiōn (Ἀλβίων), the name used by classical geographers to describe an island believed to be Britain. The name probably means "white place", which is how it's connected to the Albion of Fate. The Albion of Fate is the White Dragon, a symbol of the Saxons from a Welsh legend. In the most well-known version of the legend, the King of the Britons at the time, Vortigern, was trying to build a castle on top of a hill in Wales to defend against the invading Saxons, but everything he tried to build collapsed. He was told by his court wizard to find a young boy with no father and sacrifice him atop the hill to alleviate the curse. He sent his soldiers out and found a boy being teased for being fatherless, but when he brought the boy to the hill, the boy, a young Merlin, told him that his court wizard was a fool and that the real reason for the collapsing castle was two dragons inside the hill, one red and one white, locked in battle. The red dragon represented the Britons, and the white dragon represented the Saxons. Merlin told Vortigern that nothing could be built on the hill until the red dragon killed the white one. A red dragon is the symbol of Wales to this day, and a white dragon is occasionally used in Welsh poetry to negatively represent England. This white dragon is Albion in Type/Moon lore.

Baobhan Sìth [bah-VAHN shee]

A baobhan sìth is a female fairy in Scottish folklore. The name literally means "fairy woman" in Scottish Gaelic. They appear as a beautiful woman and seduce hunters traveling late at night so that they can kill and eat them, or drink their blood depending on the story. They're unrelated to banshees except in terms of etymology (Banshee is from Old Irish "ben síde", meaning the same thing as baobhan sìth). They're often depicted with deer hooves instead of feet, which is probably what inspired Baobhan Sìth's love of shoes.

Barghest

In the folklore of Northern England, a barghest is a monstrous black dog with fiery eyes teeth and claws the size of a bear's. The name probably derives from "burh-ghest", or "town-ghost". It was often said to appear as an omen of death, and was followed by the sound of rattling chains. The rattling chains probably inspired Barghest's chains. Her fire powers are also obviously based on the fiery eyes of the barghest. Otherwise, she's not very connected to the folkloric barghest, which is never associated with hunger or eating humans.

Boggart

In English folklore, a boggart is either a malevolent household spirit or a malevolent creature inhabiting a field, a marsh, a hill, a forest clearing, etc. The term is related to the terms bugbear and bogeyman, all originally from Middle English bugge, or possibly Welsh bwg [BOOG] or bwca [BOO-cuh], all words for a goblin-like monster. It usually resembled a satyr. It's not really ever depicted with lion features, so it's anyone's guess why Boggart is a lion-man.

Cernunnos [ker-NOON-ahs]

Cernunnos, probably meaning "horned one", was an important pre-Roman Celtic god. His existence is only attested by fragmentary inscriptions and the repeated motif in Celtic religious art of a "horned god", a humanoid figure with deer antlers seated cross-legged. This fragmentary evidence is often led to assume that Cernunnos was a god of nature, wilderness, animals and fertility. There exists no evidence that Cernunnos was a chief deity of any kind, since we have barely any evidence he existed at all in the first place. Cernunnos might not even be his name; it's just the only name we have. Needless to say, the only thing the Cernunnos in the British Lostbelt has in common with the real figure is his large antlers.

Cnoc na Riabh [kuh-nock-nuh-REE-uh]

Cnoc na Riabh, Knocknarea in English, is a hill in Sligo in Ireland. The name means "hill of the stripes", referring to its striking limestone cliffs. It's said to be the location where Medb's tomb lies, so it's connected to Cnoc na Riabh through Fate's conflation of Medb with Queen Mab, a fairy mentioned in Romeo and Juliet; this etymology of Mab as derived from Medb was formerly accepted, but has lost favour with the advent of modern Celtic studies due to the lack of any concrete connection between the two figures.

Grímr (don't know how to say this one, apologies; Germanic myth is not my strong suit)

Odin (Wōden in Old English) was a god worshiped in many places, basically anywhere the Germanic peoples went, including the Anglo-Saxons that became today's English people. As such a widely worshiped god, he had a very large number of names, titles and epithets. Grímr is one such name, literally meaning "mask", referring to Odin's frequent usage of disguises in myths, which is fitting for how Cú disguised himself as a faerie in the British Lostbelt and hid that he possessed Odin's Divinity from Chaldea.

Habetrot

Habetrot is a figure from Northern England and the Scottish Lowlands, depicted as a disfigured elderly woman who sewed for a living and lived underground with other disfigured spinsters. She often spun wedding gowns for brides. Cloth spun by her was said to have curative and apotropaic properties. All the Habetrot of the British Lostbelt has in common with this figure is the association with brides and with spinning cloth. "Totorot" is not a real figure; the name is just an obvious tweak of Habetrot.

Mélusine

Mélusine is a figure that appears in folklore all across Europe. The name probably derives from Latin "melus", meaning "pleasant". She's a female spirit of water with the body of a beautiful woman from the waist up, and the body of a serpent or a fish from the waist down. In most stories, she falls in love with a human man and bears his children, using magic to conceal her inhuman nature. However, she tells her lover he must never look upon her when she is bathing or giving birth. Of course, he invariably does so, and when he does, he discovers her serpentine lower body, and she leaves, taking their children with her. Since Mélusine is just the name Aurora gave her, the Mélusine of the British Lostbelt has very little to do with this figure, but an analogy can be drawn between the Mélusine of folklore hiding her true form as a half-serpent to maintain her relationship with her lover, and Fate's Mélusine suppressing her true form as both a dragon and an undifferentiated mass of cells to ensure Aurora continues to love her.

Muryan [MUR-yan]

A muryan is a rather obscure Cornish fairy. The word is Cornish for "ant". Muryans are diminutive figures with shapechanging abilities, cursed to grow smaller every time they use those abilities until they eventually vanish altogether. Muryan, of course, is connected to muryans through her ability to shrink others.

Spriggan [SPRID-jan]

A spriggan is a type of creature in Cornish folklore. The word is derived from the Cornish word "spyryjyon" [same pronunciation], the plural of "spyrys", meaning "fairy". They're usually grotesque old men with incredible strength and incredibly malicious dispositions, and are often depicted guarding buried treasure. Spriggan is not himself a faerie, and the name is stolen from a faerie he killed, but it's still appropriate due to the greed and selfishness spriggans are usually depicted with.

Woodwose

Woodwose is a Middle English term for the wild man, a motif in European art comparable to the satyr or faun. The etymology is unclear. It has little to do with wolves or animals, despite its association with wildness, but there is at least a thematic connection with Woodwose's character, since the archetype of the wild man depicts a figure who cannot be civilised or well-mannered no matter how hard he tries, much like how Woodwose barely restrains his temper by being a vegetarian and dressing in a fine suit. Woodwose's predecessor, Wryneck, is named for a type of woodpecker with the ability to rotate its neck almost 180°.

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totallyboatless · 5 months

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It is time, friends, for another Pip's Weed Essay game. The rules: I'm about to take an edible and start writing a mini-essay in one sitting. I edit a tiny bit as I go, but for the most part this is on the fly. I've thought about this topic a lot, but haven't outlined it. I'll let you know when the edible hits, but there's a chance you'll realize it before I do. (PIRATE FRIENDS STICK AROUND - this is Pip from the future, I get pretty high in this, but anyway I'm here to tell you that this goes in a very unintended OFMD direction that i'm still reeling from. Anyway back to Past Pip)

Edible ingestion commencing, time: 7:37pm Mountain Time

I polled my followers for the topic, so today we're going to talk about:

Fixing the Puck Problem

I've read and seen A Midsummer Night's Dream more than any other Shakespeare play. At this point I don't know if I've seen it so much because it's my favorite, or enough opportunities for me to see it have lined up that it's become my favorite by default. It's easily the Shakespeare play I know best. I haven't seen a staging that I fully disliked, but there are two elements of this show that I feel like are rarely handled the way I want them to be.

Problem one:

Puck will never be as funny as Bottom

It's common to consider Puck to be the main character of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He's at the very least the most famous character in the play. Puck is a dream role, and obviously with his being a fairy, he's usually directed to be weird and whimsical--and a lot of the time, playing for laughs. It makes sense, he's a trickster, it's built into his nature.

But in modern day, his lines and actions don't translate as well as Bottom's. In all of the times that I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream, I've *never* seen a production where Bottom fails to steal the entire show away from Puck. I've had multiple experiences where I could feel the director wanting me to laugh at Puck; I could see the reasons for the direction, but it just wouldn't hit. In those same productions, I've laughed so hard at the Bottom scenes that I cried.

I'm thinking particularly of the 2010 production with Judy Dench reprising Titania (honestly still in shock over seeing that lolol) and the 2019 Bridge Theatre production (which you can find streaming, it's *incredible*).

In the 2010 show, the Puck actor kept doing what honestly felt like a Woody the Woodpecker impression lol. He would pause for laughs and they just...wouldn't happen. Meanwhile, Bottom was set up with the kind of success that let him steal at least one scene from fucking Judy Dench.

In the 2019 Bridge Theatre production, I genuinely like the direction they gave Puck--he's a weird little twitchy Irish punk doing fucking aerial silk shit. But even with a unique vibe and a fun performance, it's still not enough to outshine Bottom.

Basically my thing is that I want to get to the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream and feel more connected to Puck. I *want* him to be my favorite. And there's just absolutely no way to make him my favorite if his core purpose is to be funny. Puck is supposed to be a larger-than-life being--the audience is never going to buy that when he's not even the largest character on the stage.

The second problem is smaller, and in fixing it there's also a fun chance to fix the Puck problem:

Problem two:

The audience usually doesn't understand why Titania and Oberon are fighting.

If you've gotten this far you're probably already a nerd who knows this, but gonna pose the question like I've done for other people I've seen the show with: Why are Titania and Oberon fighting? What's the core reason?

Bc you're a fucking nerd you probably yelled CHANGELING! Which yes, good for you, if I had become the Shakespeare professor I wanted to be but didn't have the money to become, you would be in my class and I would throw a snickers at you for a reward.

But the thing is, a *lot* of people who only know the play casually don't know. And most productions don't assist them in knowing.

Elaboration for non-nerds: Titania had a "and they were roommates" totally not at all lesbian relationship with a human women who was pregnant. The women dies in childbirth and Titania takes the child to raise, and she cherishes him more than anything, which is an extremely straight thing to do. In the play, the character is only referred to as the changeling. Oberon gets super jealous of this kid and wants to steal him away and make him join the Wild Hunt so that he can have Titania's full attention back, because he's got that issue creepy men get when they have kids and then are like "I'm jealous of my son because he's making it less likely for me to fuck my wife" and it's like "dude calm down with this projection of an Oedipal complex."

If you're not a coward and read Titania as in love with the changeling's mom, then Oberon's issues are maybe slightly less creepy, but like not really

So that's it really. Titania loves this kid of her sapphic lover that died. Oberon is jealous about it. He decides to play a trick on Titania both as a way to get revenge, and also as a distraction so he can steal the kid.

But the issue is that 1.) all of this is communicated in a long and kind of boring speech, and 2.) the changeling literally never has a line and also no stage directions

The 2010 production had a hot dude chained up and writhing on stage in a kind of hot dance snake movement thing when Titania talks about him, but most productions never even have an actor cast as the changeling. I was really shocked they didn't have anyone for the 2019 production, given how much I love most of the rest of their choices.

OKAY SO. We now have the two problems: Puck isn't the fan favorite even though he should be; and most people in the audience have no fucking idea about the changeling.

(THIS IS HIGH PIP FROM THE FUTURE I FORGOT SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO THIS PROBLEM: If you do know about the changeling/follow along with that plot, it's *very* hard to root for Titania and Oberon when they reconcile. Which can be fun and cool and a little hot even maybe if you're going all dark, but thIS IS A PLAY ABOUT HORNY FAERIES HAVING A GOOD TIME so I won't be having that. I want this play to make me like that Titania forgives Oberon so easily. Okay Past Pip, take it away)

lol okay yeah weed friend has landed, I just wandered away for a minute with a desperate need to put taquitos in the air fryer. Time stamp: 8:16.

OKAY FOR REAL NOW LET'S GET INTO:

Pip's Most Ideal Staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream Which Fixes the Problems in Theory

The Staging:

First off I want the production to be in the middle of the literal woods where there's pretty lights in all the trees and people are sitting on blankets and have snacks and drinks and drugs and whatever they want, and the whole staging has the actors weaving through the audience. Not just theatre in the round, full immersion

I also want people to not fully know where the production is, just that it's on the outskirts of the forest, and then the actors emerge from the woods at a designated time and bring the audience to the secret stage section. And ideally this would be like a park on the outskirts of woods so that there would also be people there who wouldn't know what the fuck was going on. And ideally some of the fairy actors convince them to come along and the people go having no idea what they're about to get into. That's how A Midsummer Night's Dream is meant to be experienced in its purest form: with actors dressed as fairies trying to seduce unsuspecting strangers to follow them into the woods to an unknown location where they'll probably be offered drugs.

TAQUITO TIME

Taquitos acquired.

Puck's direction and motivation:

When Puck is first introduced, it's by a fairy called Peasblossom who's otherwise not a big part. Peasblossom lets the audience know who Puck/Robin Goodfellow is by basically going stan-mode and being like "holy shit you're famous." PB literally starts listing his greatest hits.

So picture with me: instead of an extremely fairy-like whimsical Puck, I want a Puck that wanders on-stage like a burnt-out rockstar. Cigarette in one hand, beer in another. Probably on a cocktail for faerie super magic mushrooms. Just fully numbed out. In this moment, Puck feels way more human than faerie--and I want the performance to be in a way where that feels off. To have it be communicated in manner and clothing, and the juxtaposition of PB recounting Puck's glory days, that Puck hasn't always been like this. This isn't a faerie trickster in his prime. This is a man who's lost all sense of fun and is going through the motions.

That's what happens, right, when you become just a little too famous?

Puck is the only one of the main characters who gets to the end of the show and is entirely alone.

(my favorite thing about being high is how *good* it makes food taste, these taquitos are not fancy but with the power of the devil's lettuce it's so good--oh my god I have Dr. Pepper)

(I'm back with the Dr. Pepper. I'm having fun, are you guys having fun? If you've made it this far i kiss u)

So Puck is alone at the end of the play while everyone else of import is either with their lover or with their theatre-kid-found-family. And it's largely because Puck lives between worlds. He's not powerful enough to be fey royalty; he's Oberon's right-hand man, but he's not Oberon's peer. But the lower fey court are also not his peers -- they treat him like a celebrity, he can't actually connect with them. He's not allowed to frolic and play with them anymore, not really.

With this interpretation and direction, we now have a Puck whose action in the plot can lead to a happy ending (keep with me), and whose existence isn't just to be quirky and whimsical for the audience. Instead it's a Puck with a motivation: he's lost all joy in his job, he's disconnected from him community, and Oberon only treats him like a fuckbuddy so he's sexually frustrated. (Oh right yeah I was supposed to write about how Puck is in love with Oberon. He is.) That's all fucking sad, bro! And you know from the Pip that traveled into the past that this play is fun and should be fun!

Now for the final part, where we put in the special ingredient to tie this particular Puck direction into the happy ending:

LET'S 👏 GET 👏 GAY 👏

Do you guys (gn) remember the changeling? It was like possibly an hour ago, the time-warp this particular edible always sets me on has fully set in. It's possible this essay is like 5k words long. It's also possible it's only 500 words long. I wish I was lying when I told you I don't know.

Anyway, the changeling. Let's make him a fuller character and let's give him to Puck wrapped up in a sexy, charming bow.

Picture this: The Changeling, from now on capitalized as a character, shown on stage in Titania's court. Locked up like a princess in a tower because Titania is desperate to protect him. And the Changeling is all *sigh and flutter big beautiful princess man eyes* because he wants to explore what's out there. Because he's a man who's grown up and been forced to live between two worlds. He's not fey royalty, he's not Titania's actual kid and she kind of honestly treats him more like a momento of her lesbian lover than an actual adopted kid. He can't be one of the fey court, because he's not fey, and also he's not allowed to frolic and play with them.

That should sound familiar to you if I did it right.

Puck and the Changeling, both feeling the same sort of empty spot. So let's smush them together.

Give the Changeling all of Peasblossom's lines. It makes more sense for a detail I left out before, too--Peasblossom doesn't recognize Puck they see him for the first few lines. Once they do they're all like "omg you're the dude that makes people horny for each other and also some other trickster things." They know all of Puck's stunts, but they don't know what he looks like? It's clearly an exposition device, but it's a weak one (sorry, Shakesy). He's the rockstar of the fey world. You'd have to be living under a rock or, I dunno, locked away like a beautiful man-princess --

(Okay you know where I'm going and I have to stop there because I'm cry laughing, I swear to you -- I swear to fucking god, guys, I wish I was joking -- I thought I was being cute and clever saying "man-princess". Not because of irony. IT'S BECAUSE I FORGOT THERE IS A WORD FOR A PRINCESS WHO IS A MAN AND THAT IS A PRINCE. Okay i should clearly wrap this up lol)

In this staging, the Changeling clearly doesn't want to be locked up. So...he finally finds a way to sneak out. He goes on a romp through the forest and that's when he runs into Puck (this is the scene where we first meet Puck). The Changeling wouldn't recognize Puck, though he's have heard of him. He probably loves stories because what the fuck else does he have to do, so he's asked the fairies to tell him about Puck's adventures over and over. Meanwhile, Puck wouldn't recognize the Changeling because Titania has been keeping him so under lock and key. It allows an opportunity for them to connect on more of a peer basis as they--

Holy fuck. Wait. Hold on. Is the Changeling Stede. Is Puck Ed. What the fuck. Did I write an AU on accident. I don't even like AUs very much (sorry AU writers it's not personal it's just not my thing).n ANYWAY sorry for the pirate aside. God this is properly off the rails now.

They like each other, you get it. And now Puck has someone he wants to impress. There's not a lot of opportunities to give the Changeling more lines, but that doesn't mean he can't appear on stage. He can stay with Puck (hiding from Oberon whenever he's there, leading to some good chances for physical comedy) and go on the nighttime adventure of his dreams.

This leads to a fun, unique choice: having Puck fuck up the love flower juice plan on purpose. So that he can show this hot dude following him around with wide enthusiastic eyes the kind of things he's capable of OH MY GOD THIS IS ED AND STEDE I SWEAR THIS IS NOT ON PURPOSE I AM JUST NOW SEEING THE PARALLEL

Okay we're nearly at the end I promise. We just have one more problem to solve: How are we supposed to root for Titania and Oberon to get together when Oberon literally publicly humiliates her and then steals her adopted son and forces him to join the Wild Hunt even tho Titania REALLY doesn't want him to? Well, the first one is easy, Titania and Oberon are so fucking kinky, and Oberon likes getting cucked (remember he's only jealous of the Changeling, never the lesbian).

The second one is also easy. Make it the Changeling's choice. Leaving Titania and joining Oberon's court means two things: He gets to be with Puck, and joining the Wild Hunt allows him to go on exciting adventures. If Titania saw that the Changeling wanted this with the staging that both Titania and Oberon look over and see Puck and the Changeling making out right after Titania's spell is broken. Then Oberon can jokingly delivers the line about having stolen the Changeling, realizing that the plan worked but in the most ridiculous way possible. And how could Titania not find joy in all of that?

It makes me so much more glad to see them get back together.

Puck's closing soliloquy is his most famous, but I like his last big monologue right before it better. There's a very important line he says that communicates an important shift within the context of his particular staging:

And we fairies, that do run

We.

Puck isn't a lonely, washed-up rockstar anymore. He's part of a "we." Not just the Changeling, but the other fairies, too. Puck and the Changeling act as bridges for each other, to be part of each other's worlds in a way that feels like a whole -- OH MY GOD IT IS ED AND STEDE

Puck being alone on stage isn't so sad anymore, after all that. Because Puck, who starts off the play with so little sense of belonging, now has so much to go back to.

And that's it, that's my ideal staging of this play. Honestly, I really, really want to direct it. I have no experience directing but I have the audacity to think I could do it lol. No resources, tho

OH ONE LAST THING HELENA NEEDS TO BE INTO PUP PLAY

also the lovers are all in a polycule, that's just a given, any other staging is cowardly

alright bbye

[exit]

final time stamp: 9:25 PM, not rereading, just hitting post. We die like Mercutio.

#Pip's Weed Essays #shakespeare #shakespeare staging #a midsummer night's dream #ofmd sort of i don't know how this happened #i mean it could have influenced me coming up with this staging??? It must have somehow??#I didn't start conceptualizing it until this year #I wasn't in the middle of a pirate hyperfixation at the time tho #but i guess they just always are there in the back of my head #shakespeare analysis

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fiannalover · 10 months

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Since the LB6 Big Three are here, I hope there is a scene where Morgan very seriously and earnestly tries to kill Oberon (but it's still a wily e coyote energy running gag) and a non LB6 Servant goes "ok I'll bite. What is the deal with these two" to which Artoria goes "hum. Very well, to put it simply" and then we smash cut to a different period of the day in the same place and a "and that's about it!" conclusion that gets a "HUH!? I didn't get anything at all! Why are you implying that insane sequence of events made any sense and logical manner!?" response

#this is affectionate #fate #fate grand order #artoria caster #morgan le fae #oberon #lostbelt 6 #avalon le fae

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ladykailitha · 8 months

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No chapter today because even though yesterday netted over 1000 words, it was 1000 over five stories and that wasn't enough for a full chapter. So today you get another AU.

Steve is the foundling child of Titania and Oberon. You know, that thing that little issue they fighting over at the beginning of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream"? They make a habit of it over the years and Steve is their latest.

And like before, Titania is gifted the baby when the mother dies in child birth, and Oberon wants him to be his servant. They set up house in Hawkins because that's where Steve was born. Father is who knows. Didn't care enough to stick around.

Steve's childhood isn't exactly idyllic, not with them still fighting over him, but it's a good life nonetheless, never really wanting for anything. And even though he's still human, hanging out with the king and queen of the faeries is going to rub off you in a lot of ways.

So once he hits puberty, it's like he was hit with the pretty stick. Everyone starts fawning over him.

He gets to high school and clocks Eddie. He walks right up to him and says, "I know what you are, who you are. And you better stay the hell away from me unless you want to die." And walks off.

Eddie is confused as hell.

Fast forward to Vecna and they defeat him. Only Titania is pissed. Because if there is anything that could entice the Queen of Faeries and that's a pretty young man. Like say...Henry Creel?

A non-munched on Eddie and the rest of the party is staring at the king and queen in shock. Because (and let's sprinkle in a little "The Sandman" in here for funsies) Titania gifted Henry control over the abandoned realm of Destruction to play in when El banished him there by accident.

Steve's pissed and picks up his nail bat. He tells them that he's human enough for the iron nails not to hurt him, but he can't say the same for them.

He takes off his shirt and sprouts wings, god damned, honest to God, faerie wings. He walks over to Eddie presses a kiss on his lips and says, "I hope you forgive me." And he leaps into battle with them.

The party is confused as hell. Well almost everyone. Eddie and Robin are cursing up a storm.

The party has no idea who the two new problems are.

"Oberon and Titania," Eddie breathes. "That son of bitch."

Dustin is "What!"

Everyone else is "Who?"

And so he explains "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" to them and they all get it now.

"Faeries don't exist!" Mike sneers.

"Yes they do!" Robin says. "My great, great, great grandmother was a faerie!"

Eddie face palms. "Let me guess, a lot of bird and flower names in your family?"

She nods excitedly.

"How did you find out about Steve? Because you weren't surprised when he faeried out," Eddie says.

"Russian truth serum," she says proudly. "Not so great on humans, works surprisingly well on the fae. Who knew?"

There is a lot of yelling at that, but Eddie shuts them up. "And you're okay with that?"

She shrugs and holds up her hands. "Apparently me being gay wasn't the biggest reveal on the floor of the bathroom."

The party erupts again.

Eddie looks over their shoulders to see that Steve is struggling against his foster parents.

"Robin, I need you to boost me," he says seriously.

"Oh hell no!" she screams at him. "I know who you are, and they will kill you."

He thumbs over his shoulder at Steve. "You want him to fight them by himself?"

Robin sighs. "No."

He backs up to run, but she stops him.

"Take off your boots!"

Eddie frowns. "Why?"

"You're not going to need them," she replies, "and I'm not touching those muddy monstrosities."

Eddie throws his hands in the air and immediately starts yanking at his laces. He pulls them off and thrusts them at Dustin. He takes Steve's ax from him.

"Is this cold iron?" Eddie asks.

"It's steel," Dustin says.

Eddie purses his lips. "Is. This. Cold. Iron?"

Dustin shrugs. "As close as you can get in this day and age, I guess."

Eddie nods. He's muttering to himself about how long it's been since he's done this and how the wood of the ax handle should protect him.

Nancy rushes forward and places her hand on his chest. "Just what are you planning?"

Eddie pushes her off him. "Helping Steve."

He looks to Robin and she nods. He takes off his leather jacket and hands it to Nancy. Then he runs at Robin. He leaps on her interlaced hands and she boosts him into the air.

He whirls and spins in mid-air, sprouting blood red wings. His hands and feet, taint black. Horns unfurl from the top of his head.

"Whoa!" Lucas says. "Is Eddie a faerie, too?"

Robin shakes her head. "No. No one knows for sure what he is. Sometimes he's on the side of the king and queen, sometimes he's not. Right now and for the last few centuries decidedly, not."

"So who is he?" Will asks in awe as he watches Eddie make turns and weaves as he joins the fight against Oberon and Titania.

"He has many names," Robin says solemnly. "Hobgoblin, Robin Goodfellow, or more commonly? Puck."

Dustin's eyes go wide and his mouth drops.

"You guys are so fucking lucky that he likes you," Robin says bitterly.

Dustin can only agree.

Steve and Eddie win and everyone is back at the Wheeler basement and they all have questions. Lots and lots.

The first thing anyone says is Eddie. "You being a foundling of the fae makes all of Steve in high school make so much sense."

Steve looks down and blushes.

"How so?" Max asks.

Eddie starts counting off on his fingers, "The douchebag persona, the house parties usually at someone else's house, and if they were at his house, Tommy would buy the weed, the everyone fawning over you, and that hell of a warning, it was all so that I wouldn't come over to your house, wasn't it?"

"What now?" Mike asks.

Steve clears his throat. "He's right. If Pu-I mean Eddie came over to my house, he would immediately know who my parents were, and they would be able to sense who Eddie was. And since Eddie was going through high school I wasn't about to narc on him and get him killed."

"Oh my god, I dated a fucking faerie!" Nancy cries.

And the room goes silent. Will looks at his shoes and Jonathan glares at her.

She stops for a second. "Oh god! Not like that. Although maybe a little like that considering Steve kissed Eddie, but I meant a literal faerie."

Steve shrugs. "I like either."

Jonathan frowns. "Wait, how did Nancy escape the faerieness? Because seriously, compared to that--" he waves at Steve, "I'm nothing."

Steve shrugs again. "Grief. Or trauma. I'm only a human raised by faeries, I'm not really one myself. Yeah, I've got the wings and the glamour of a faerie but I'm not one."

"Is there an Eddie Munson?" Dustin asks.

Eddie half shrugs. "Yeah, him and his father are out boosting cars in Texas."

Erica eyes him skeptically. "And the guy you've been saying is your uncle, what is he?"

"A lonely man who wanted kids of his own," Eddie says softly, "who knew that if Eddie stayed in his father's care would turn out just like him. So I pretended to be Eddie for him. I made sure there was always enough food to go on the table and roof over our heads. If he got low on money, a shift at the plant would open up for him to take or the reversing of a bank error."

Everyone fell silent.

And that's all I have for the moment, this is just me info dumping. But maybe some day I'll expand on this.

Tagging because for some reason not a lot of people saw this yesterday.

@spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk @renaissan-vvitch @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @justforthedead89 @emly03 @bookworm0690 @bookbinderbitch @littlewildflowerkitten @vecnuthy @redfreckledwolf @scheodingers-muppet @mira-jadeamethyst

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #the sandman #a little bit #midsummer's night's dream AU #titania #oberon #faeries #fae folk

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tariah23 · 2 years

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All the ppl who ship mash and Roman together are definitely going to hell.

#same with the Oberon/Castoria shit I see on pixiv #merlin/ Arturia shit as well 😐#like man no #rambling #i hate it when artist’s have to put disclaimers on their work going ‘they are siblings/ parent child relationship’ just so that weirdos will #hopefully stay away or not tag their art with the ship #it’s like ppl can’t look at a child and their guardian figure and view it just as without being gross about it #Roman taught her everything she knew about the world up until he [redacted] and she always valued the things that he would say to her #and teach her #he always tried his best to protect her even under the harsh environment #why ship that 🗿…. he’s like her dad or whatever damn there so it’s always uncomfortable to see #I’d rather see a gazillion images of the boring guda mash pair than that bullshit #I’m sorry for roasting g/m I just can’t bring myself to like it because of how they force it so hard in the story especially during summer #events it’s just rly annoying to me is all #but yeah

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yaeggravate · 4 months

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Unraveling Princess Fischl

So I recently finished studying Princess Fischl in a lab and the results I got were kinda crazy.

As a disclaimer, I do this just for fun. I like connecting dots and solving puzzles. But I'd rather you draw your own conclusions. In this post I will try to dissect the mysteries surrounding the Prinzessin. And you really can't talk about Fischl without including Kaeya. I've even got a surprise guest star for you.

WARNING: this post is VERY long, click on that Read More at your own risk, otherwise you'll be stuck scrolling forever.

For simplicity's sake Princess Fischl will be referred to as Fischl while playable Fischl will be demoted to F.

PART 1: MIDSUMMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Most of this will use the books Legend of the Shattered Halberd and Flowers for Princess Fischl as a source. These books are authored by someone named Mr. Nine. The books are published by Yae Publishing House. So keep in mind there's a non-zero percent chance Mr. Nine is actually just a certain Nine-Tailed Fox.

F's alternate outfit is called Immernachtstraum. This is a reference to Shakespeare's play Midsummer Night's Dream. In German the play is called Ein Sommernachtstraum. So you can see the similarities (Immernachtstraum means Eternal Night's Dream.)

Kaeya is in part based on the Indian changeling prince from the same play. The character Oberon, the Fairy King, is the french derivative of Alberich. The play itself is basically about people getting into Shenanigans so absurd it might as well be a dream. Oberon and his wife Titania are actually key players in quite a bit of different media… But as much as I want to delve into that, this isn't a Kaeya post.

Just remember for now that Titania is the Fairy Queen.

In the book Flowers for Princess Fischl, there is a mention of a Sommernachtgarten. It is described as a Domain possessed by someone highly skilled in the magical arts. Sommernachtgarten seems to have existed in Teyvat. The domain Midsummer Courtyard, which has the Thundering Fury set, tells us the Sommernachtgarten was buried underground.

The domain is located in Starfell Valley. It's nearby Starfell Lake and Starsnatch Cliff. Starfell Lake is said to have been formed by a fallen star.

Fischl is also equated to a star that fell down. Notably, in F's birthday letters, and in Legend of the Shattered Halberd.

Birthday Letter: Day of Destiny… On the day of a sacred star's descent from the depths of the night sky into this realm, I, the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, have asked Oz to cross the ocean and bring, me exotic treasure.

LotSH Vol. 1 The story was that an iron meteorite had fallen from the sky five or six years ago, and convention dictated that as nature's treasure it belonged to the imperial family.

Starsnatch Cliff is the only place where Cecilia flowers grow. These flowers have a triquetra shape, which is similar to Kaeya's passive talent Glacial Heart. Kaeya has been featured with these flowers in his birthday arts, and even invites the Traveler to go see the flowers with him.

Alice: With enough bombs placed in proper positions, even huge cliffs like Starsnatch would crumble into dust in a second. With flatter terrain, Mondstadt would surely look much nicer. But that unctuous Cavalry Captain rejected my proposal instantly. He even asked me to stay away from Starsnatch Cliff.

Furthermore, when Alice proposed to blow Starsnatch Cliff up, Kaeya denied her request and warned her to never go near there again… Starsnatch Cliff also overlooks the Nameless Island which is shrouded in mist and invisible on the map.

菲谢尔 = Fischer = Fischl

Fischl's name might be a reference to the Fisher King from Arthurian legends. One name of the Fisher King is Amfortas. In the game Anfortas is the name of the Knight Marshal of the Schwanenritter; he's thee Alberich who stepped up as Regent King when Irmin was indisposed.

Perhaps Fischl was the original "Fisher King" and the kings who came after her, like Irmin and Anfortas, fulfilled her role. …But this would imply Fischl was once the ruler of Khaenri'ah. That would be crazy, right? Right, guys?

PART 2: THE PRINCESS OF JUDGEMENT

When I was analyzing the 8-pointed star, I discovered these 8 points could actually correspond to the Guardians of the Eight Directions in Hinduism.

For some reason, ascension gem stones are named after Hindu gods (with the exception of Electro). This isn't the case in the original Chinese naming however.

Still, I tried to mix and match the gemstones to a direction.

North: Kubera, The God of Fortune -> GEO

South: Yama, The God of Justice and Death -> ???

East: Indra, The Lord of Heaven and God of the Weather, Sky, Rain, and Storms -> ELECTRO

West: Varuna, God of the Seas, Oceans, and Rain -> HYDRO

Northeast: Ishana, God of Birth, Death, Resurrection, and Time -> DENDRO

Southeast: Agni, God of Fire -> PYRO

Northwest: Vayu, God of the Winds and Air -> ANEMO

Southwest: Nirṛta, God of Death, Sorrow, and Decay -> CRYO

Hydro (Varunada), Pyro (Agnidus) and Anemo (Vayuda) gems already have the same names as the Hindu gods so that was easy. The Electro gemstone Vajrada is named after a sword but it belongs to Indra, God of Weather, Rain and Storms.

That just left me with Cryo (Shivada), Geo (Prithiva) and Dendro (Nagadus). Ishana is the God of Birth, so I'll assign him Dendro. Kubera is the God of Fortune which is Geo because Mora.

Now Cryo is a bit puzzling, because it's named after Shiva, who in Java and Bali Hinduism is actually the direction in the center. Some crazy implications here for our buddy the Tsaritsa because Shiva is the God of Destruction within the Trimurti, a trinity of deities. The other two are Brahma, God of Creation and Vishnu, God of Preservation.

In Java Hinduism, Brahma and Vishnu would correspond to the directions Zenith (South) and Nadir (North). Whether this is hinting at something about the nature of the Tsaritsa is unclear. When you see Three Deities you think Moon Sisters, right? However, we can't rule out the possibility that Genshin decided to mix these deities up. Let's just spare ourselves the headache for now and forget about this. This is a Fischl analysis after all.

So instead, let's have a look at the Cryo gemstone's original name in Chinese. The stone is simply called Grieving Ice.

哀叙冰玉: Grieving Ice

Since Nirriti is the God of Sorrow, I decided to assign them Cryo. Now we are left with one deity, Yama: The God of Justice and Death. Well, it can't be Hydro, because we already assigned them to a God. So it has to be someone else.

Fischl's title is the Prinzessin der Verurteilung. Which translates into Princess of Judgement. According to Legend of the Shattered Halberd and F's voicelines, Fischl's role was to act as a judge.

More About Fischl: I To condemn the guilty, to sanctify the just, and to draw all castaway dreams into the embrace of the infinite Immernachtreich. This is the birthright of the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, and her burden. None may gainsay it.

What's interesting is that Fischl uses magical arrows to shoot down the "enemies of fate".

About Us: Shooting Down the World Beast Should this world, like a beast prowling in the night, covet your dreams, then I, Prinzessin der Verurteilung, shall fell it with my ensorcelled arrows of judgment!

Feelings About Ascension: Intro My magic arrow cries out my holy name as it streaks through the night, praying that the violet lightning of retribution shall strike the enemies of fate down from the skies!

On the 8-pointed star, there's an arrow pointing upwards. Kaeya, Clothar and Halfdan's stars on their outfits and even F herself have the arrow pointing downwards.

The achievement you get when you find this door is called "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here". Which is a reference to the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno.

The Immernachtreich is described as a place where all things will eventually flow into. Immernachtreich literally translates into Eternal Night Realm…

Flowers for Princess Fischl: Phantasmagoria Every good, bright and noble thing must eventually fall to inexorable entropic destruction, and the final destination of the universe is the realm-in-waiting of the Prinzessin, Immernachtreich. This is the fate of all worlds, of the universe, and all who live in it.

In the Immernachtreich Apokalypse, Leon calls Fischl the Soteria.

Soteria means salvation, preservation. It's used as an epithet for Persephone and Hecate. Persephone was forcibly made Queen of the Underworld, and Hecate is also known as the Goddess of the Underworld and Witchcraft…

Look, I don't want to claim Fischl was the secret 8th Archon or anything, because lest we forget Khaenri'ah was a godless nation who would've been Fischl's enemies. But why then would Khaenri'ah have this giant star referencing the 8 deities as their emblem in the first place? Seems a bit counterintuitive. I don't have the answers for now, and perhaps the 8th "archon" was simply Irmin. Or maybe it's not even representing a god but an element or a direction.

Regarding Oz, he is a not so subtle reference to Odin/Irmin but is also a reference to the Wizard of Oz. In the first book, it was revealed this wizard was literally just some guy pretending to be powerful. Eventually Oz starts working as an advisor for the true ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma, who is the inspiration behind Fischl. We'll get back to that later.

This Oz's full name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. OZ is actually short for Oscar Zoroaster. Zoroaster is referenced in Flowers for Princess Fischl.

In a distant causality, if the philosopher Zarathustra was not chosen, then the opera writer would have gained victory in the contest over the will of the world.

This does make you wonder if Irmin really was the true ruler of Khaenri'ah and if he even existed the way we believe he did. Perhaps Fischl got Irminsnapped and now everyone believes Irmin was always the One-Eyed King.

Of course this is all my personal speculation and I could be way off here.

Wait, before we move on to next section, I want to point out something that always gets ignored:

Kaeya and Mona, when they cast their bursts, summon the same 8-pointed star. This is unique to them alone. Could there be a connection between Khaenri'ah and witchcraft? Or is either Kaeya or Mona an outlier?

PART 3: HEXENZIRKEL

In the trailer Mage's Teaparty, there are eight witches shown. However, we only know the names of six witches, and there is a chair missing at the table.

There is a slideshow where the figures of the eight witches are shown, minus Andersdottir who is represented by the book The Boar Princess.

Observe the witch on the broom and the little witch. The design of the little witch is similar to the design of a famous fictional character who got pulled into another world: Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz books.

Dorothy is illustrated as having twin tails and wearing a farm girl dress. Dorothy's character was influenced by the character Alice, from the Wonderland books.

Originally I assumed Alice Genshin might be based on book Alice. However, it's the Narzissenkreuz quest that's based on the Wonderland books and Mary-Ann who takes the role of Alice.

With that in mind, could Alice Genshin actually be more of a Dorothy inspired character instead?

Now, Dorothy had a very good friend, called Princess Ozma. Ozma seems to be the inspiration behind Fischl.

So who is Ozma? I only have the Wiki to go on because I'm not about to read 40 books, but by the sound of it, Ozma is the current ruler of the realm of Oz. She is the daughter of a human king and a Fairy Queen. Her mother Lurline was the one who created Oz and turned it into a Fairy country.

Ozma took it one step further and separated Oz entirely from the outer realms making it invisible to outsiders. Everyone who enters Oz never ages.

If you're an F main I'm sure you know by now Fischl created another universe and founded paradise.

Now I want you to take a look at the witches portrayed in these circles. There are two witches holding a sphere. In F's cutscene from the Summertime Odyssey event, she is also holding a sphere which contains the Immernachtreich which you can see in the header image of this post and below.

You might think a glowing sphere represents a crystal ball to scry in, but that poses a problem since known prophet Barbeloth is probably represented by the witch holding a waterdrop, which is Hydromancy. So the glowing sphere might not necessarily mean a prophetess.

As for the identity of the other witch with the globe, I believe this could be Alice, since she was the one who created the domain/dreamscape of the Veluriyam Mirage. It could also be Rhinedottir who is creating something in a flask.

So Orb = Domain/Realm/Creation

Furthermore F's specialty food is Die Heilige Sinfonie, which has a Magic Hexagram painted on top… (Die Heilige Sinfonie translates into The Holy Symphony.) As mentioned before, the Sommernachtgarten could only be created by someone with great magical powers…

Magic Circles is Ceremonial or Arcane Magic, and according to a note left by Master Ruggiero in Bravais' study, Arcane Arts originated from a pre-Remurian civilization.

So someone must have taught humans magic. Might sound obvious, but it begs the question of WHO?

PART 4: FREYJA

To answer this question we need to dip our toes into Norse mythology. As you know, Odin is Irmin.

There was a war between two groups of gods: the Aesir and the Vanir.

Eventually they had enough and decided to exchange hostages as a peace offering. The goddess Freyja, originally part of the Vanir, joined the Aesir which would be Odin's group. As a sacrificial priestess, she was the one who taught the Aesir dark magic, which included seeing into the future. The implication here then is that Odin was taught black magic by Freyja.

This magic is known as seiðr. Seiðr is derived from *soi-to- which means rope/string. The distaff, a tool used for spinning wool, is associated with dark magic. There are images of women riding distaffs as a broom, similar to a witch riding a broomstick. To quote the Wiki: "In any case, the string relates to the "threads of fate", that the Nornir spin, measure, and cut. " Wait, that sounds familiar:

F, joining the party voice line: The threads of your fate lie in my hands!

Scholars suspect Freyja is the same person as Gullveig who was involved in the Aesir-Vanir war. Gullveig was attacked by the Aesir with spears; she died and was reborn three times. When Fischl tried to visit the Kingdom of Eternal Twilight she was also attacked by its people and "shed her blood on the sacred emblem" whatever that means. It was Oz who saved her, pledging his loyalty to her.

Freyja sometimes is conflated with another goddess named Frigg. There has been much debate whether or not these two goddesses stem from the same deity. Frigg is part of the Aesir and usually Odin's wife.

I mention this because in the book Hex and Hound, one of the characters is named after Frigg: Nottfrigga. This book is about two twin witches sharing the same body. In the book we find out that they were the daughters of a powerful witch, but witches are unable to keep more than one offspring of the same generation. This led to Nottfrigga's twin sister Magdalene eventually dying, and her using magic to sustain her sister inside a magic bracelet.

In Norse mythology, Nott is the personification of night. Nott's father is named Narfi. This really got my attention, because Fischl's full name is Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort. (Fischl of the Castle in the Sky Narfidort.)

In the Hexenzirkel teaser, every witch is represented by a teacup (or in the case of Andersdottir, an inkbottle) but the saucer next to Nicole's teacup is empty. Since this saucer belongs to the same teaset this could mean one of the missing witches is Nicole's twin sister or a relative.

So what could Fischl's role be in all this? Perhaps she's one of the twin sisters, or their mother. Perhaps she's even an ancestor. ...Or completely unrelated to them and I'm full of shit.

PART 5: THE HARBINGERS

F's theme shares a leitmotief with the Fatui Harbingers theme.

F's theme: Sieh an, mein Sommernachtgarten! Signora's theme: Saltatio Favillae

Obviously this means Fischl is Capitano.

Composers don't do these things by accident. This is hinting at something. Either Fischl is connected to the Harbingers, was/is one of the Harbingers, or she is indeed the Tsaritsa.

Which is not as crazy as it sounds.

In Legend of the Shattered Halberd, Fischl possessed someone else's body. And if she is Freyja's equivalent, who died three times, then it's possible she could've been reborn as someone else. In the book, it was Mir who summoned Fischl into Weiyang's body and sacrificed his eye to appease her. Pierro is working for the Tsaritsa and has his right eye covered for reasons unknown. Having been a royal mage who would have had access to Khaenri'ah's restricted library, perhaps it was Pierro who summoned Fischl into the Tsaritsa's body.

The Tsaritsa is collecting the seven Gnoses, Fischl had to collect seven of the nine Ominous Swords to repair the Divine Halberd, which would be herself. She already had two of them in her possession… Could also be that the Tsaritsa is trying to revive her. This would imply Fischl is the Third Descender. Since she came from another world, this is not impossible.

The Fisher King, Fischl's possible namesake, was struck with a wound that could only be healed by a "pure fool" who would ask him the right question. ...Fatui is Latin for fools. If the Tsaritsa really is/is possessed by Fischl, then creating an organization of fools starts to make sense: the fools are her saviors.

This could also connect to the empty 10th seat within the Harbingers. The vacant spot could be a reference to the Siege Perilous, which was an empty seat reserved for the one successful in obtaining the Holy Grail by way of saving the Fisher King.

Usually this is accomplished by Percival, who later finds out his mother is the sister of the Fisher King. In the story, Percival keeps failing to return to the kingdom of the Holy Grail since it is an otherworldly place. Does that not remind you of Kaeya trying to find Khaenri'ah but failing halfway through?

Going back to Princess Ozma, an evil witch cast a spell on her that turned her into a little boy named Tippetarius. This was done to prevent Ozma from ascending to the throne. Tip was unaware of his true identity until he was transformed back into Ozma.

tippet /tĭp′ĭt/ noun A covering for the shoulders, as of fur, with long ends that hang in front.

As noted in The Marvelous Land of Oz, Chapter 23, Tip has brown colored skin.

…Kaeya, blink twice if you need help.

As a staunch hater of things that don't make sense, I highly doubt this means Kaeya is Fischl; the game would never go there. Perhaps being "Fischl" is simply hinting towards the fact that he will become one of the Fisher Kings.

That would certainly explain this random hangout ending.

Now, here's where things get really crazy.

Remember Anfortas? The Knight Marshal of the Schwanenritter who took over as regent after Irmin became indisposed? At the time of writing, Anfortas's fate remains unknown.

As said before, Anfortas is the name of the Fisher King in Arthurian legends. Fischl's name might've been a nod to that.

But it gets weirder.

T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land combines Arthurian legends with the legend of the Fisher King. In it, he associates the Fisher King with the tarot card Three of Staves.

The Man with Three Staves (an authentic member of the Tarot pack) I associate, quite arbitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

…We have seen this symbol somewhere before. On the constellation wheel of the Fatui Harbingers. By process of elimination this constellation belongs to Il Capitano.

👏🏽👏🏽CONGRATULATIONS CAPITANO YOU ARE KAEYA'S NEXT TOP GRANDPA 🎉

Kidding of course, but I doubt this is a coincidence. This doesn't necessarily mean they are the same person, maybe Capitano simply mindmelded with Anfortas. It's a fantasy game, everything is possible at this point.

Wait a minute… three nails, three deaths… Uhhh maybe Fischl really did turn into Capitano.

👏🏽👏🏽CONGRATULATIONS CAPITANO YOU ARE PRINCESS DIANA'S NEXT REINCARNATION 👸🏼

PART 6: THE THIEF AND THE MAGE

Alright, for this section I want us to keep in mind the following things:

Fischl is a fallen star

Fischl may have been a mage

Fischl could be connected to Irmin and thus Khaenri'ah

The play of the Veluriyam Mirage is written by Zosimos. This play stars Kaeya as a Thief, Klee as a Mage and Idyia as a last minute heroine added to the story.

You see, Zosimos originally wanted to write a story based on rumors he'd heard about a thief and a mage. This means the play might not be entirely fictional. The problem is that Zosimos combined Idyia's backstory with the story of the Thief and the Mage, making it hard to tell which bits belong to Thief's story.

We know at least that Alice was the mage who helped Idyia. But what about the Mage who helped the Thief? Who was she? Could it have been Alice or someone else?

For that we need to consider the character Kaeya was playing. It's unknown who he is, but if Klee was playing her mom then it stands to reason Kaeya must've been playing someone connected to him. Before you get excited, this does not necessarily mean someone related to him by blood. Could also just be someone from Khaenri'ah. Heck, we don't even know the gender of the mage, for all we know they could've been a man.

Now, the soundtrack that plays during Kaeya's part is called Towers of Afrasiab. This name has come up before. In the play of Kaeya's hangout, the character he plays opposite of is called Frasiyav. The location of the Khaenri'ahn door is called Hangeh Afrasiyab.

I personally suspect Afrasiyab is either Irmin or the founder of Khaenri'ah.

Afrasiyab is a character from the Persian epic, the Shahnameh. Afrasiyab lived in an underground iron palace held up by hundreds of columns. (If you look at the architecture in Hangeh Afrasiyab, you'll see little reliefs of men holding up a ceiling above them.) Afrasiyab lacked the divine royal glory known as Khvarena and was obsessed with obtaining it. In the play they say Frasiyav lost because he lacked the blessing of god…

I mean it can't get any more obvious than that. So this could mean the dude from Kaeya's hangout was Irmin. Which does raise a bunch of questions, such as who is the identity of the Prince in this play? And why were they at war?

Should be noted in the hangout's play, Frasiyav offered hostages as a peace offering. Kind of reminds me of the war between the Aesir and Vanir… Also, Kaeya's character Prince Qubad is based on Siyavash who eventually married into Afrasiyab's family…

Towers of Afrasiyab then could refer to Khaenri'ah. In the Veluriyam play, the Thief is also from a dark realm. I hesitate making the assumption that this guy is Irmin or Kaeya's pirate grandpa so I will refer to him as simply the Thief.

In the play, the Thief witnesses a shooting star falling from the sky and follows it. However, what he finds is not a star but a young woman. Well, we know Fischl was also a star that fell down. And we know Fischl visited the Kingdom of Eternal Twilight and got bodied for her efforts. Oz took her under his wings and saved her life.

If the Thief encountered the Mage this way it would explain why the Mage helped him as a way to repay him. Perhaps the Mage taught him Arcane arts or helped him protect the "Dark Realm", who knows?

If this Mage really was Fischl and the Thief someone connected or related to Kaeya it would explain why Fischl and Kaeya seem to be connected.

About Kaeya F: His nature is obscure, his fate a mystery, and his speech a vexing tapestry woven of both fact and fiction… Perhaps he and I share the burden of mystical sight…

About Fischl Kaeya: Hmm? You think Fischl having one eye covered is very fitting given her title of Prinzessin der Verurteilung. Hahaha, if that's the case, that must also make me a descendant of some kind of former royal lineage, no?

Furthermore, in Legend of the Shattered Halberd, Fischl's partner in crime, the man who summoned her, is named Mir. This is a reference to Mimir, the severed head from Norse mythology who acted as an advisor to Odin.

Mr. Nine states Fischl was attracted to Mir… and that Oz was more of a familiar of Fischl.

In Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, Mimir is known as Mime, the brother of Alberich.

....😮‍💨

Well, I have to say, even after all of that, I am completely stumped. If anyone knows what's going on, let me know, because I for one would love to know WHAT'S GOING ON FOR ONCE. GIVE IT UP FOR KNOWING WHAT'S GOING ON

#genshin impact #princess fischl #kaeya alberich #lore bytes #.txt

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operationslipperypuppet · 1 month

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the thing about fig and ankarna, that seems to go unmentioned, is that emily is never going to play straight up and down worship.

fig isn’t concerned with bringing ankarna back - that’s not her bag, it never will be, and emily is so cognizant of wanting stories to feel different (to the point where she didn’t pursue a pc romance in naddpod’s campaign one, even when she knew both in and out of character that her character��s feelings were requited, because a romance story was already being told by the third pc) that she wouldn’t want fig to tell the same story kristen did in fhsy.

i think this lack of worship is best exemplified with how emily’s other pcs deal with and have relationships to gods, but this got incredibly long so the rest is under the cut.

to briefly talk about emily pcs and religion in general, there’s never a straight worship happening. alongside saccharina’s cleric status, emily has played 2 clerics and a paladin in naddpod, as well as a druid with deep religious ties. i’m going to talk about those since i’m the most familiar with them.

i’ll actually start with saccharina, since this arguably a post about dimension 20. her cleric levels aren’t at all about worship, certainly not of the whole of the sweetening path (she was the one who wanted to kill the sugar plum fairy, and would have, but essentially let ruby), they’re about defiance. defiance of the nuns who raised and abused her. defiance of the mother who left her behind. defiance of the father who never came to find her, who never knew she existed, who pushed her mother aside to become king of candia and join the concord. the sweetening path exists as a separate entity and act of defiance to the bulbian church, the thing at the center of the existence of the concord. her use of that magic and those abilities is about controlling and directing her innate magic, embracing the storm within. it’s not about worship of an entity.

the two other clerics were tied to actual gods, the trickster and the elder, but aren’t concerned with worship in the slightest. fia’s ties to the trickster are from being a blade (organization with ties to the god to protect people from undead and solve mysteries regarding fairies and pertaining to the gods), from being saved and partially raised by a blade, from being raised in a place that was essentially a cult of the reaper (the third god, much more concerned with death than the other two) and nearly being a sacrifice to the reaper before being rescued, and from seeing trickster magic in her girlhood friend. the actual power she gets is more about the ties she has to irina, and she actually ends the campaign quite angry at the gods and fixing their mistakes. tarragon is a little different, and the most tied to an actual god of any emily pc i’ve seen. she becomes a cleric to repent for being a soldier who was experimented on and used by people in power, to make up for the killing she did in her youth, the razing she did as a dragon warrior. at the end of her arc, she isn’t as tied to the ideals of repentance and order and peace. she’s devoted herself back to her friends. and realized that she can do these things without involvement in the cult-like following the elder has in town.

the we come to calliope, the paladin. she is not sworn to a god. she’s an oath of redemption paladin of the serpent queen (and a little bit oberon if you think about it). she’s using her power and position to attempt to help redeem her mother’s memory, but also to change the path oberon set for the world. a prophecy is coming true that was set before the world got complicated. she’s less concerned with swearing herself to the powers that be and more concerned with helping the serpents themselves, making sure they are not being used by the wrong people, keeping them from harm. she’s worshipping no one. she’s helping the helpless.

then, finally, moonshine. i could write thousands of words on moonshine cybin, so i’ll stick to one or two things. her ties to melora are important to her. she does, in fact, pray to her god, especially in times when she’s feeling conflicted. but she also gets angry at melora. she hates melora’s neutrality, she yells into the sky at melora on more than one occasion, and she all but loses her faith in shadowfell. but she comes back. and when melora needs her most, she reaches out a hand to heal her, brings melora’s long lost friend in to help, and saves the world by healing the heart. she lets this god be complicated. she recognizes the human nature of her. they’re allowed to be flawed, but she’s also allowed to call it out.

fig as a paladin is no different from all these other examples. if you look closely, you can absolutely feel how fig and moonshine were created by the same person around the same time, and callie’s recentering on her paladin self happened shortly before junior year was filmed, so you can look at those things as connected. fig decided to become a paladin to help kristen, to help cassandra. not because she believes simply in the power and clarity of doubt. (the point made there by porter and zara about that not feeling like fig was fine, but that’s not how they should have said it, especially to a student who just made this choice). she’s doing this to help her friends. she took healing word so they’d go down less. she moved from whispers to lore and made it so she could do more support (counterspell, cutting words, etc). hell, her being a hexblade is so there are more people capable of melee combat.

protecting ankarna’s domain doesn’t change how fig sees herself as a paladin. it isn’t going to make her (or emily) want to move to a straight up “i pray to this god and get my spells”, cut and dry, type of paladin. she’s not going to put herself on the line and be the first follower of ankarna. but she’ll see a hurt entity for what it is, recognize the humanity of that, and do what she feels will acknowledge it.

she’s not removing the restraints placed when this god died. but she’s opening a door 1000 miles from it, for if ankarna is ever ready or able to walk through.

#fantasy high junior year spoilers #fhjy

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mushroomnoodles · 22 days

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I'm sorry if I've missed/misunderstood something, but why does Relle and Oberon look so different from all the other Golbabies? Selaphiel gets a pass for her "Be Not Afraidness" since she's a lichtrikov Golbaby, so she doesn't really count in this.

But if we're going off Morri as the 'Template' for Golbabies so to speak, then Melinoe and Melopia are pretty normal, though we haven't seen Axom so maybe being more other worldly is the norm with them.

morri is not like the other golbabies in one key way: they are a fragment of GOLBetty's power. A piece of her in a very literal sense.

semi long post so im cutting it

"I was nothing, first. Well, I think I was kinda everything."

"I know mom sifted me from the vastness of her power. I was just a few strands of her."

if the other golbchildren had been conceived the same, with a fully human simon, they would look a lot more like morrigan, but in the sense that they would take more after simon physically. i'm assuming the main part of the question is probably, "why is oberon a centaur? why is relle a fish? why are relle and melinoe BLUE?" now while the kids past oberon do not have 100% finalized designs, there are three reasons for why they do look so different.

1.) as morrigan has demonstrated, they could in a way control how they developed in the womb. morri actively changed their development pattern to resemble simon's human form as a child- this isn't just them turning from a bean into a person. bringing back this pic

oberon is also white, purple and red because she has albinism.

2.) simon, when he conceives oberon (and perhaps the others) is not a human. it wasn't intentional, but when simon was revived he was not brought back the same. the human body is more like a shell, an exterior that he was put into. it is his actual human body! but there is more going on beneath the surface, his entity form can only come out as a projection (leaving his physical body behind, asleep). also he's blue.

thus, they're conceived between two entities rather than GOLBetty and human simon. simon is kinda weird also, where he is sort of able to pass on both his deity set and human body set of genes to a degree.

3.) the energies conceiving relle and oberon were particularly extremely positive, and relle and oberon are almost strictly benevolent deities where the other kids are neutral. its design choice sorta.

oberon is a lesser deity of memory, wisdom (not intelligence) and mental well being, and relle is a lesser deity of tranquility and healing. GOLBetty's bright reds don't exactly evoke those vibes to me, especially for relle. but i still wanted them to look distinctly nonhuman and ethereal.

#a #nothin but words #golbabies #simon returns timeline #infoposting :D #i already figured out how they did the do (if someone sends in an ask about that i will answer that)#(deities dont bang like humans/mortals do)#simon did not know that #also id consider the golbchildren lesser gods in comparison to GOLBetty

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thatumbrellaoni · 10 months

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I didn't see this anywhere, so I decided to translate the tarot section of Yu-Gi-Oh! Bunkobon Volume 21, which provides commentary on Bakura Ryou as "The Fool" card. I was very excited to start this due to my longstanding disappointment with Ryou's general absence and lack of role during the Memory World arc, and I was interested in how he related to the tarot he represented.

Well, as I read and kept on reading, it became apparent that this was quite different from what I hoped for. "This isn't the content I was expecting to glean off of it," were my words when I was livetweeting my progress, and I'll elaborate later because this... went... somewhere, I guess?

Some caveats before we start:

This, and all the other tarot write-ups in the other Bunkobons, was not written by Takahashi-sensei but by a person credited as CoZo (see top left corner of the last image below)

Due to the amount of Japanese culture it absolutely immersed me in, I had this peer reviewed by a Japanese native (thank you, ash!) for errors and to make sure the translation was as accurate as possible without much loss to nuances

Related to point two, I also conducted my own research (I dug deep, starting from a JP YGO message board all the way to a 2009 blog post about these same tarot pages by screaming machine gun-san, a prominent YGO doujinshi artist at the time who created the Bakura/Atem books "STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN"), and links are available for clarification (mostly Wikipedia for ease of access, click on underlined/clickable words)

CoZo refers to the characters as such: Ryou as "Bakura Ryou" and Yami Bakura as "Dark Bakura"/"Bakura" (which was troubling and what confused me by the end of all this but more on that afterwards)

Quite the long post ahead! Please enjoy and share your thoughts! I'd love to hear them!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot Theater 63 0　◆　The Fool　◆ The Fool's Journey―Joker―

Making an appearance this time is Yugi’s old friend who turned out to be his greatest enemy, Bakura Ryou. Looking back to when he debuted in the fourth paperback volume, his name quickly foreshadowed that he would be the final enemy.

After repeated mistakes, he should have lost face many times over, yet his steps remain light without a shred of worry on his face. So, who exactly is he?

The name "Joker" is a name familiar to all―they pretentiously sat among dignitaries in medieval Europe, greatly raised the gambling nature of card games, were viewed in contempt by the church at the time because of it, but remained the beloved star of the masses in countryside plays. They appear in folklore around the world, sowing discord unprompted and then disappearing once there is nothing else for them to do.

Neither good nor evil. Seemingly dense but actually cunning. Causes great strife yet garners no hate. Catching Shakespeare's eye catapulted them to stardom―the jesters who served King Lear and King Oberon added conflict and vitality to their respective narratives by speaking to their kings in sarcastic tones and intruding in affairs within the royal palace. They even made it to the operas and the big screen, like J. Nicholson in recent years, playing the archnemesis in Batman, and F. Mercury, who also sang and danced…

A truly unparalleled existence in the literary history of mankind.

"You think they're the enemy, but when you look at them, they're among your allies, smiling innocently." Is that not exactly what Bakura Ryou is?

Despite entering the story fairly early, his first appearance in this project was near the end… But that is what the illustration is all about―an irreverent man with all the worldly wisdom of a fool.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot Theater 64 0　◆　The Fool　◆ Moral Neutrality―Tabula Rasa―

The card Dark Bakura and Yugi used in the Ultimate Dark Game… had a blank face. Thinking of a person or an object existing in memory will make them show up on it. But because only those that exist in memory may be imprinted on the card, Yugi cannot make something appear if it does not exist in memory.

Valuing the rules, Yugi is rendered at a loss. But Bakura, who does not care, summons and fuses non-standard monsters, steals Yugi's abilities, and counterattacks… all as he pleases. Bakura's resourcefulness and cunning stand out, and his mastery of mimicry proves itself as well, but this is where his weakness is exposed―even when nothing is off the table, Yugi is a cut above the rest in his ability to create original concepts that follow the rules and negate exploitative measures.

Tabula rasa… A blank slate. Where comic artists gladly bring their work to life. A pristine state where the greatest joy lies.

Nothingness… Ruin… A world stolen… I have seen heartrending paintings done by war orphans on the news and at exhibitions. Even the hearts of children suffering the ravages of war can be healed through art. Sadness unable to be put into words can only be expressed in pictures. While trying several strategies, therapists came up with "play therapy". Utilizing toys and games, it has been one of the few methods effective for young children with limited vocabulary and without ways to open their hearts though it has yet to be systemized.

Besides drawing, there are other means like creating miniature gardens, methods that use dolls and clay, and swordplay and playing catch for boys. The recent issue of Clinical Research in Psychology reports Saint Seiya as an example of a story wherein "an abandoned child becomes a hero", which was once represented by Susanoo. Perhaps it is for that reason that the series is popular even in South America. Even in Arab countries devastated by ongoing terorrism, one can see children's eyes light up at Captain Tsubasa.

The use of Yu-Gi-Oh! in psychotherapy is not in any way extraneous. On a cold, windy day a few years ago, over one hundred thousand children holding Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in their hands filled the streets of Makuhari, Chiba―and that sight, that excitement, is unforgettable.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot Theater 65 0　◆　The Fool　◆ An Untainted Soul Adrift―Trickster―

Society has long known the true identity of "The Fool". Passed down through myths and folklore, psychologists called them "Tricksters". Puck, Kokopelli, Goku, Ivan the Fool, Hans… In Japan, Susanoo, Hikoichi, Amanojaku, and so forth would fall under this category. When the Trickster's wicked side surfaces, they are called… Villains. Thieves. Imps. Violators of order… Those hold true for Bakura as well.

Yugi is a boy with numerous "shadows", and Bakura can be considered as one of them. Men with a darkness to them are said to be charming, but I think the charm lies in those who have the capacity to keep that darkness under control and not let it show.

Yes. Yugi had several shadows. An evil existence… which was Marik. A pharaoh, a dark presence sealed within the tomb of memory living in hiding for years. And then Bakura, the childishness Yugi is now breaking away from. Whenever Yugi sees Bakura, immature and unfailingly blithe, it frustrates him because it feels like looking at his old self. Yet despite this bewilderment, he is unable to let Bakura go.

This time, Bakura's juvenile nature brought forth unfathomable terror. The insatiable monstrosity that is boundless, childlike enthusiasm was about to wreak unimaginable destruction upon the world. Bakura's occasional euphoric glee after a rampage is characteristic of how a child expresses gratification. To him, world war and total annihilation could be "playfulness".

Delighting in foul play and mimicry, Bakura does not actually know how to "play". Back then, children had an omiso―they could be a child from out of town, the youngest of the group, the slowest among them, and the like―in their games who was given more lenient and special rules, so they could mingle with the others and all play together properly. When the omiso unexpectedly played more actively, they were then allowed more freedom in games. But children nowadays do not know of the olden days, are less likely to play in groups outside, and only play games with peers that are on the same level as them. For example, even if the wind sprite Matasaburou or a zashiki-warashi spirit came to play, they would not have any way to do so… A wise mother could then only prepare an abundance of snacks and say, "This is for you, spirit. Thank you for playing with us."

In this day and age, we have lost the sense to accept unique individuals like Sendai Shirou, who may be slow-witted but pleasant. Getting along with them hinges on "fun". Can Yugi and his friends play well with Bakura?

Yu-Gi-Oh! Tarot Theater 66 0　◆　The Fool　◆ Bakura Ryou

"The Fool" is wise in the ways of the world and an excellent imitator. Sometimes it is even very powerful. When the great boom of the Middle Ages ended, it was the only one able to slip into playing cards and stay relevant after the tarot was in decline. It can substitute for a missing card in a row in "Sevens", surprise the player with a loss in "Old Maid", and turn the tables at the last second as a wild card in "Poker". It is an outrageous cheat. And quite the pest. But despite all that, it is a reassuring ally when a dealt hand is lacking. After all, it can become any card. Evidently, "The Fool" is ineffective on its own but suddenly becomes extremely powerful when borrowing the strength of others. There are people like that all over the world, so understand their nature and get along with them well. However, it could turn out to be an unfavorable yet inescapable relationship.

The Tarot Speaks―――

Upright

- New beginnings

- Blank slate

- Frivolous

- Reckless

- Innocent

- Immature

- Wasteful

- Deciding too early

- A love full of potential

- A love not yet awakened

- Elopement

- Be curious and go out into the world

- Journey

- Studying abroad

- Visionary

- Obsessed with something

- Over-the-top geek

- Job-hopping part-timer

- Careless with their health

Reversed

- Misjudgment caused by information overload

- Keep calm and decide

- Foolish choices

- Not being vague

- Failing because they messed around too much

- Moody

- Futile actions

- Interruption of studies

- Dropout

- Drifter

- Going the wrong way

- Runaway

- Reckless love

- Foolish love

- Show business

- Unemployed

- Head in the clouds

The young man's journey begins on a blank page. The magical items are long gone.

He has no destination in mind either.

Nevertheless, the young man heads for the wilderness alone.

No, he brought only one thing with him.

A writing tool. With it, he draws his own world on the blank page.

What could he be drawing…?

We will have to wait and see.

Works cited:

Clinical Research in Psychology, Volume 14, Issue 3. The Japanese Society for Clinical Psychology, 1996.

Concept by CoZo

END.

This was an accomplishment and a half. But I'm far from feeling accomplished, just frustrated. In the end, barely anything written on there was directly about Ryou because I feel like CoZo lumped Bakura and Ryou together as one, which really bothered me. If it wasn't about Bakura, though, it was about Yugi (or Atem, not sure which one CoZo was referring to at any given time, really, since they were seemingly lumped in as one as well). Even Marik got a mention ("evil", quite the disservice of a mention too)! Nearly lost motivation finishing the translation, to be honest.

Overall, this seemed... off to me, especially the "Tabula Rasa" and "Trickster" pages. I can see where CoZo was coming from? Maybe? "Play therapy" (Ryou's talent for creating figurines/dioramas) for Ryou after experiencing a family tragedy... He's the omiso... His language is through (his love for) games... But I can't see Bakura as simply not knowing how to "play" or that world war and annihilation are mere "playfulness" to him (with the Kul Elna massacre plot point and all that). Yugi sees his old self in Bakura...? You lost me.

I'm not sure who CoZo is. I searched them up, found someone similar in name, but ultimately didn't learn who they were or what their background was or why they were featured in the Bunkobans (and I just didn't care enough). CoZo might be a tarot expert for all we know, but they didn't know much about the actual character they were talking about to effectively relate "The Fool" to them. And it shows! Like I said, they just talked about Bakura like he was Ryou, like they're the same character (which made me think of the DSOD theory that there isn't a "Bakura", just a Ryou corrupted by the Millennium Ring's evil, but that's neither here nor there).

I mentioned that I came across a 2009 blog post by screaming machine gun-san while researching (it was through them that I realized why this write-up was so confusing to me), and they said it best:

"Hey, commentators... Can you please separate Bakura Ryou, Thief King Bakura, and self-proclaimed 'Zorc' Dark Bakura? You can separate your burnables but not this chaos!? No matter how chaotic these three are, this is not chaos!"

Look, I get it. The Bakuras are the most confusing part of YGO. But come on... You confuse the Bakuras, then you end up confusing the hell out of me!

We have three! They're distinct (see alt text lmao)!

Anyway, in closing, I was planning on translating the rest of the tarot pages for each Bunkobon, but if they're all going to be like... uh, this, I'm not enthusiastic about it.

Special thanks to Aariachang24. His translations of "The Magician" (Atem + BM + BMG) and "The High Priestess" (Ishizu) tarot cards inspired me.

#bakura ryou #yami bakura #thief king bakura #ryou bakura #yugioh #ygo #bakura #dark bakura #jp to eng #umbrella #I feel like I wasted my time #there was no ryou after all #back to rereading ygo in jp #hope yall enjoy whatever this turned out to be #I sure as hell dont know if I did or not #Im like 50/50

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