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purplehanfu · 9 months

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Self Indulgent Birthday Post: 2023

notes: Spoilers!, probably. Yay, it's my birthday again! Enjoy some of my finest unfinished work!

Oh? You have both my interest and attention!

Booooo.... (this disappointment brought to you by The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure, which happens to be the prequel to Blood of Youth)

Recap Recycle Bin

So many dramas and never enough time to write a full review. Read on!

Dominator of Martial Gods

tl:dr for this drama

Each episode is 35 minutes long, feels like 3,500 minutes, and delivers maybe 10 minutes worth of story. Impressive!

We waste a great deal of time in the first few episodes watching Qin Chen and the bootlicking alchemist refine a needle that will allow our hero to activate his bloodline. Intriguing, because you often hear dramas refer to treasures being refined into weapons, but you never see the process. There's a reason for this- it does not make for compelling viewing. But that does not stop us from standing around arguing about the specs and adding things to the oven. This process was more fun when Chu Wanning just takes you up to the lake. On a technical note, I am enamored of the way the ever present green screened background makes no attempt to be in scale with the human actors.

My Deepest Dream

Ooh, a plot with a time loop, evil birds, superpowers, getting sucked into the Marianas Trench when you just wanted to go on a scuba diving excursion and JIN HAN!!! But, as always, there's a glitch in the matrix.

Our heroine realizes she has lost a year of her life and no one has noticed. No one except the astrophysics PhD candidate turned car mechanic Wu Yu (JIN HAN!!!). Wu Yu divulges that he can read a phone screen at 10 kilometers. But mostly he uses his special eyes to keep an elaborate dossier on the comings and goings of the FL, who lives across the street from the garage he works at. Is that creepy or romantic?

don’t be silly, if it were a Marvel movie we’d be having an interminable CGI sky battle

Till the End of the Moon

Meet Tantai Jin. As you may have noticed from his costume design, he's totally evil.

He's a goal-oriented CEO who's turned the Devil Sect into a high reliability organization that generates impactful customer experiences (annihilation). I bet he's evil enough to use six sigma. But where Tantai Jin truly shines is personal branding. You may not be buying what he's selling, but product recognition is through the roof.

Tantai Jin seen here working out of his travel office: a flaming, flying boudoir with melting skull detail. This is why CEOs should never make more than 10x what the average worker does.

Circle of Love

I can see why the Republican period was relatively short. Everybody setting fire to each other's estates, staying out late ballroom dancing, getting uniforms tailored, making sure there are enough manacles to chain the female lead to a bed... it doesn't really leave a lot of time for governance.

We start out, as we generally do, with a clean sweep of the FL's family, in this case via a big ol' raging house fire. Where is everyone? Or even anyone? Even Maid's Revenge scraped up some extras to be dead family members.

My Kung Fu Girlfriend

Slow your roll, it ain't GL.

You know what they say- it's not whether you win or lose the MMORPG, it's how you min max all your stats and then act like an ass in chat about it.

Meet Huang Xiao Yu. She clearly did not pay to win because she is the low XP real life martial sister of a kung fu champion. In this drama, she'll level up in love and life with the help of an OP MMO NPC who escapes her game and shows up uninvited in the real world.

The Antarctic Octopus

Not to be confused with the 2020 film Big Octopus. I guess that's the great thing about having an audience of over a billion people- even the most niche interest has plenty of content.

This is how you dress when you visit your Uncle Pete in Antarctica.

In this movie: monsters, explosions, a supercharged ice jalopy and a dedicated ignorance of the laws of physics usually only seen in a Fast and Furious film. But credit where it's due: The Antarctic Octopus delivers. Only 12 seconds in and we get our first tentacle!

available free on youtube although how bravely they were fighting is up for debate

Bonus Content: Superlatives

In the Day We Flipped

My post of the year!

Getting over 500 likes on a review? Unexpected.

Forgetting to add a link back to my other recaps? Priceless.

Bloody Romance

still my favorite drama

when your grandma’s a zombie and she was left in a cave to guard a tiny box with one (1) restorative pill in it and she’s suspended by her hair but her hair is also like tentacles that can kill people and she thinks you’re your mom but she still loves you. 💚💚💚 But then she starts screaming and tries to strangle you with her hair.

Heroes

2nd favorite drama

you know something’s good when you have a file called ‘sappy su mengzhen yang wuxie edits.txt’

go get your man, Wuxie!

pinboard full of recaps!

#holiday special #till the end of the moon #my deepest dream #JIN HAN!!!#dominator of martial gods #the young brewmaster's adventure #circle of love #my kung fu girlfriend #the antarctic octopus #bloody romance #heroes #in the day we flipped

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save-the-data · 1 year

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🅳🆁🅰🅼🅰 🆁🅴🅲🅰🅿 🆀1 2023

Here is the Drama Recap (Completed Projects) for Q1 of the year 2023. Been productive

🅲🅷🅸🅽🅰

A League of Nobleman

Along with Me

L.O.R.D Critical World

Order of Sommelier

Reunion: The Sound of the Providence S1

The Blood of Youth

The Silent Criminal

Word of Honor

🅹🅰🅿🅰🅽

Candy Coloured Paradox

Brass Band

The End of the World, with You

Do you want Coffee?

Gannibal

Jack o’Frost

My Beautiful Man S2

XXXHoLic

🆂🅾🆄🆃🅷 🅺🅾🆁🅴🅰

A Shoulder to Cry On

All the Liquors

Individual Circumstances

Island S1

Our Dating Sim

The Director Who Buys me Dinner

The New Employee

🆃🅰🅸🆆🅰🅽

🆃🅷🅰🅸🅻🅰🅽🅳

609 Bedtime Story

Between Us

Boyband

Hit Bite Love

I Will Knock You

Moonlight Chicken

My School President

Never Let Me Go

The Warp Effect

Till the World Ends

🆅🅸🅴🆃🅽🅰🅼

Love Bill

Who is Dai Ca?

#Post: Drama Recap 2023

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harkercore · 10 months

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A short recap on the build up:

May 12: Jonathan Harker and Count Dracula finish up all the paperwork. Jonathan can now return home. However, Dracula makes him write home that his work is not over yet and he'll be staying for over a month longer.

May 16: In true Bluebeard fashion Dracula forbids a room from Jonathan but he goes anyway. The three vampire women there try to feed on Jonathan. Dracula declares: "This man belongs to me!" He also says "I want him" in the early drafts, but it got omitted for obvious reasons. He promises to give him to them once he is done with him.

June 29: Jonathan asks to go home. Dracula presents him with wolves at the door, so he is forced to stay. Dracula tells the three women to have patience until tomorrow night because tonight is his. Again, the latter declaration was initially omitted. He blows Jonathan a kiss.

June 30: Not only is Dracula now smeared with blood, in a castle with no other living soul but Jonathan, but he has also regained half of his youth.

It appears he was saving Jonathan as a companion until he'd feed upon him before his long trip to England, so he will be vigorous and able to do more than climb walls. And possibly leave him as a new eternal companion for the three vampiresses.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #re: dracula

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indirecticn · 2 months

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i watched thor again... bro so many thoughts???

firstly, my GOD they were young.

secondly... ok just a recap on observations about loki.

lets assume thor was never banished. i truly don't think he believed odin would do that. i think this wasn't just a prank either, obviously. it was a real attempt to be like, "SEE??? SEE???!!?" and it feels VERY hormonal teenage angst.

ok so then how old is loki in mortal years? i know people did the math and said 16, some said 21. i guess assume 5k is the length of their lifespan, that is a third of his life. but is their maturity biologically speaking easily sliced into equal parts? i don't think so.

i think their physiology has them physically maturing quickly, the physiology it's self a result of celestial genes??? where beings of that sort of energy and existence are meant to mature quickly but then these beings replicate or take on a more base lifeform to interact with other similar base lifeforms and so you have like the blood of celestials now slightly diluted among various alien species?

ok so assuming that then now we have the children of the children of the children of the children and what have you so various species across the universe can probably atest some of their own powers and shit to the same thing.

ANYWAY MY POINT IS now they still mature physically but mentally they aren't this omnipresence but they still call themselves as much when realizing other creatures of the universe don't have the same power.

so loki looks like he's early twenties at this point but is technically much older and with a perception of time so different when you know you live 5k your years as a youth are extended compared to that of beings. especially when you consider the fact that some animals do have varying lengths to the stages of their life. some stay in the juvenile stage for hundreds of years (ex: greenland shark), but then it also depends on how you want to define what makes a being move on to the next life stage.

SO THAT is a good question but anyway.....

say thor is not banished, loki gets what he wants: a brief stay to the coronation. i 1000 percent believe his wanting to sabotage isn't just to be a jerk ass, but a true concern for what thor's actual ruling style would be. i think he just sees thor as also too immature and lacking in true political prowess.

but under that is a true issue he hasn't yet fully faced which is how much he wishes to be taken more serious. it's like... you are the little brother of a kid who does everything right, even when it's wrong. first you like to imitate but you keep getting caught and your brother is never held to the same standard for some reason. you don't get it so you just think well fine ill do the one thing better than him: not get caught.

and so you develop your gift and you find really the deeper issue is your father seems more and more distant to you as you grow up, and you can't figure it out. it's not like he completely dismisses you but he definitely spends more energy on thor, right? so you spend your time with your mom and learn even more things, maybe stuff considered by the wider culture to be sneaky and shit, so also conflated with being a woman's thing (very outdated, you know, but people on asgard are surprisingly behind with the times cosmically in certain social ideals...) and this is how things go for a thousand years.

until you really cant take it and while... if this had been just another simple feast, or something like that, thor would have been pissed and you wouldn't have gone to the extreme just to get his goat, so to speak. he'd be mad and you would fight but like you always do.

buuuut yeah, its more serious, so you choose to do a more serious thing and the result is you know why your father has been distant, what thing he was thinking about when choosing to spend time and energy on thor instead of you, and you also get why both parents seemed more harsh on you, or at least you think you do. you assume its because they were worried your monster would show, would grow.

but you think that because you're still relatively young and you are hurt as fuck by all this shit, even if the revelation came about because you fucked up and took something to an extreme it shouldn't have been taken to.

anyway so now im watching avengers and i 1000000 percent am on board with the idea that loki was tortured into submission to thanos. by the time we see him there he is literally looking like absolute shit and we know that isn't because of the portal travel through the tesseract. that thing allowed plenty of people to safely travel in the what if series.

its because he has been freshly let go and given a chance to fuck shit up. and his hatred and pain has been nourished and you are under the minor influence of the mind stone that is just an echo chamber for your pain, a feedback loop that keeps you unhinged far longer than you would have been without it.

so yeah come dark world.. you are scarred from that torture, you are angry at yourself as much as everyone else and you haven't worked through your issues at all. going to a dungeon cell for over a year just makes you sit and stew. maybe if it were five years later he would have come to better terms, allowed his mother to finally talk to him, but that doesn't happen.

and instead what does happen is dark world shit, and he realizes he can get what he wants, odin is tired and thor clearly doesnt want the throne right now so why not do everyone a fucking favor?

and then it's four years later... five since you were put in the dungeon, six since you fell from the bifrost, and maybe... just maybe... its easy to mask your pain literally, by being someone else in front of everyone else and you think haha im proving to everyone that i am capable and a better ruler, but deep down:

bitch, no, you are just fooling yourself.

so this is where MY loki comes into play, ragnarok happens and he sticks with thor because both men seem to have hit a new stage in their life cycles, and loki is still coming to terms with his entire youth and beginnings when he helps the avengers save the world (after being blipped ofc). new asgard is a new beginning, and king val is also a huge step up from odin and thor, honestly. he can support her and feel GOOD about it.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#ooc #headcanon #woof

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benevolentbirdgal · 8 months

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watching the r primary debate with some red wine as streamed by a smarmy liberal dude. holy fucking shit a shitshow.

recap from a snarky blue haired progressive:

They opened with a message from Biden. Then a SONG that the candidates had to analyze the popularity of.

They all played Blame The Dems For The Economy, except Haley, who also quoting statistics on why the Republicans suck economically.

Christie said Ramaswamy talked like ChatGPT. Dammit Christie, I can't unhear it.

We got a whole 19 minutes in before the first "deep state" - DeSantis broke the levee on that one.

Minute 24: There was a video call from someone representing a conservative youth group. The kid basically said that climate change is biggest issues for young voters. How will you assure the American voter (esp the young voter) that you as prez/party leader care about this? The hosts asked for a show of hands if you believe humans are driving CC. Before anybody could Florida Man went on a rant about economics and China.

wait is Haley against the Dobbs decision? okay kindasorta asterick-asterick but she's WAY more moderate than the Florida man or the rest of the squad on stage. And also more realistic about getting the required senate votes. and actually named not arresting women for getting abortions.

DeSantis then had to ramble about abortion and how /he/ got it through in Florida and how he could totally get a national 6 week ban or more.

Minute 37 before anybody invoked their Christianity as political stance - Pencey-wency. (re aborsh).

oh the north dakota guy exists. right. he actually opposes a federal abortion ban. actually shocked he believes in the 10th amendment to that degree.

oh the Arkansas guy exists. he seems to think, much like Pence and DeSantis, he can just push it through on sheer power of will. same for Tim Scott.

Damn I wish I could play live shit on 2X.

Pencey-wency is walking a tight fucking line re Trumples.

47 minutes at invocation of Hunter Biden. (Christie, on crime).

49 minutes for "George Soros" (Florida Man).

ND Man's solution to crime to learn from small towns.

52 minutes to someone referring to Trump as indicated (Asa Hutchinson).

Hell of a tightrope that Christie is walkin' re: Trump.

I really do think Token Billionaire New To Politics buys his own bullshit.

Jersey Boy is out for blood. Productive? No. Panem & Circus? Yes.

so much flat out lying. from multiple people.

Florida Boy still won't answer yes/no questions.

Arkansas Dude actually said the word "insurrection." (1:07 in). and that he would not support a convicted Trump. genuinely surprised.

Jersey Boy actually seems to understand the VP oath of office as well. Haley dodged the question. DeSantis dodged it ramblingly.

Does Billionaire Man know what "contrition" means? Not convinced he does.

Is Pence pitching Jesus as his running mate? Or a physical copy of the constitution?

The Ukraine funding is actually showing some difference in opinion. From "not my problem THE BORDER" to "that's fucked up and we should fix it for humanitarian reasons but also to keep Russia away from us" to "not buddying up with Russia is empowering China." This seems to be the issue with the most diversity of opinion.

1:17 in and they have to explain how the bell works again.

More arguing about Ukraine. More arguing and non-cooperative-overlap regarding foreign aid and foreign military intervention.

Tim Scott: lets fire the IRS for national security!

There should be some mechanism where they CANNOT answer in rambles until they press a yes or no button. FFS.

DeSantis is REALLY into the anecdotes about "I met a random person and blahblahblah."

1:29 to "the wall" being said.

1:38 to "gender ideology" and "critical race theory" (Florida Man).

"The nuclear family is the great form of government known to mankind" - Billionaire's solution to education. Went on a rant about single mothers being "paid" to be single versus keeping a man around. he's winning the bonkers take award and it's not a field full of normal takes. see also: he wants the voting aged RAISED and having to take a test to vote?

1:43 - "lightning round" - "keep it 30 second, PLEASE."

1:46 "Judeo-Christian" (Scott). Followed by "break the backs of our teacher unions."

1:48: Jersey Boy has to answer a question about UFOs. "Would you level with the American people about what the government knows about these encounters?" not the most cray-cray question of the night.

Closing statements were pretty boring, honestly.

#politics #tw politics

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dry-valleys · 2 years

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"It already ranks among the finest parks in the world. It is the resort of thousands. It is the playground of the children, the festal garden of youths and maidens, the recreation of the worker, the solitude of the thinker, the parade of wealth and fashion, the object lesson of artists, and in many ways it ministers to the studies of men of science” Claus Spreckels.

The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park (please see my other posts for a recap of its history).

The city of San Francisco was founded in its modern form on 29 June 1776 1776 by Spanish colonists, who displaced and tried to “civilise” the native Americans who had lived here for thousands of years. (The United States of America was, of course, founded five days later; the two groups did not overlap though).

The Mexicans, who were ethnically a mix of Spanish and native blood (it’s hotly disputed how much, and some claim to be purely one or the other, but few of them would be willing to do a DNA test!), won their independence from Spain in 1821 and California was part of their state.

The United States of America was expanding into lands claimed by natives and Mexicans, and in 1846-8 the Mexican-American War happened as a result of this. The USA won, and this lead to California becoming a state of the USA in 1850, which of course it still is.

By coincidence, gold was struck here in 1849 and, especially after the coming of railways in 1860, there was a steady flow of white Americans, Irish, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, African-Americans and others.

(Spreckles himself, who donated the Temple of Music in 1900 with the fortune he had made from the sugar trade, was from Germany and said that the park should be “rendered free to all and under circumstances that would make it attractive to rich and poor alike).

Inevitably, anti-immigration campaighs began soon after 1850, though none of their leaders asked the Native Americans- who really were disposessed, conquered and diseased by newcomers- for their views. The working classes of all ethnic groups did not havea sense of solidarity but saw other groups as a threat; one of the saddest, though you couldn’t call it unexpected, was seeing Charles McGlashan (1847-1931) try to rally the Irish working class against the slightly newer Chinese working-class.

A sort of proto-Trump, McGlashan also claimed to be against the city’s elite but his campaigns mysteriously never touched them, only the Chinese against whom there were regular race riots.

Despite this, and the tensions between Chinese and Japanese and between all Asians and the anti-Asians, this tea garden was laid down in 1894 by George Turner Marsh (himself an immigrant, from Australia).

In 1915 the highly successful Panama Pacific Exhibition was held, to celebrate recovery from the earthquake of 1906 (which had little impact on this park, but please see here for a full account of it) and while the exhibition was not buit to last (though see here for a part of it that still stands), parts of it were brought here and enriched the garden further.

The worst time for Japanese Americans came between 1942 and 1945 when they were interned. (Thankfully no harm was done to this garden, though it was renamed the Oriental Garden before going back to its true name in 1952).

Although the USA was at war with Japan, it can only have been racism that led to their internment when Americans who were ethnically German or Italian suffered no such treatment.

Thankfully, after the allies (including the USA) won World War 2, a new dawn of racial harmony began. The Buddha, cast in Japan in 1799, was brought here in 1949 to mark gthis friendship and he smiles down in a new landscape garden with a moon bridge, laid down in 1953.

Asians have left a big mark on San Francisco, having been here almost the whole time since 1850, and the area in which I stayed, Portola, is now majority-Asian; many Buddhist, but also many Christians alongside whom I worshipped on Palm Sunday. Yes, the city has come on by leaps and bounds and is far more accepting than it was in 1850 or in 1942, as I can’t wait to remind myself.

#photos #san francisco #california #usa #japanese garden

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methethgfan · 2 years

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Hi there, what exactly is your "Celebrate the Victor / Remember the Tribute“ series about? What‘s your idea behind it?

I'm glad you asked! Basically, I'm advertising my Hunger Games fan fiction series I call "recaps." The "Remember the Tribute" series showcases a few tributes, mostly finalists, from different years, chosen because I find them intriguing or different from the rest. Obviously, they've not survived the Games in which they competed, which is symbolized by the cross on their faces that was smeared with red paint (or blood, however you take it) by someone who attempted to erase the memory of them forever. By giving them a name, I try to keep the memory of them alive. They weren't just numbers, they were humans murdered for entertainment.

The "Celebrate the Victor" series, on the other hand, deals with those who have made it out of the arena alive. The Capitol's much-loved jewels and hostages. Imagine you're reading a fancy editorial magazine depicting the victors in a better light, trying to blind out the fact they're ordinary, traumatized youths. No, they are stars, they have to be celebrated. That's the vibe I'm going for.

Under each picture, there's a famous line the tribute or victor has said in their Games. And under both pictures, there's Capitol propaganda all the way.

To know the stories behind those faces, you'll need to read my recaps. Here is a collection of all published and upcoming recaps so far. Enjoy!

#hunger games

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sonicf4nstach · 3 months

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No, you aren't seeing a double post, what you see now is the attempted rewrite of a post I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED QMQ

Recap, this is my own interpretation of some of the Sonic characters, there might be OCs in the middle here and there based solely on my knowledge of the franchise.

Name: Prince Allen "Sonic" Mobius

Age: 19 years old

Species: Mobian Hedgehog

Specialty: Speed

Team and position: Team Sonic Heroes, Leader

Sonic is considered in Mobius to be the protector of the planet, having fought Eggman countless times, even in his youth, as it was in his blood, even if most have forgotten about it.

The Mobius Royal Family was formed of noble heroes of the planet, having acted in various battles in the name of their people, a family of royals that earned their crown by caring for the less fortunate.

The trend of heroic acts continued as such, until we get to Sonic's mother, Aleena the hedgehog, the knight of the wind, and the last queen before her kingdom fell into ruin. Married to Ogilvie Maurice the first and giving birth to 3 kids, Allen (Sonic), Opal (Sonia) and Maurice the Second (Manic), Aleena was a kind-hearted and generous queen, having done a lot to make sure each place in Mobius had a trusting leader, such as the Accorn family from the forests and the Soleanna from the skies of the old Babylonian kingdom, no one knew what had happened to cause her to become a tyrant.

The Dark queen, as she began to refer to herself as, let a strange man, who came to her kingdom on the same day she turned evil, fill her kindown with despair and take control of everything, his name was Doctor Ivo Kintobor Robotnik, a strange tall man, taller than any mobian alive, calling himself something named "human".

The other royals came to aid the citizens of the main city and any nearby villages, King Maurice managing to run off with his kids in his arms despite being deathly wounded by his queen's new partner, Delphius the Orc, a unknown creature that married his way into the throne some days after the event, and not so long afterwards, The queen and her new king showed their new heir.

Maurice managed to reach his sister's place, with only so much life hanging onto him, he had been bleeding out all the way there with his kids, but sadly, Sonic was nowhere in sight. Bernadette feared the worst for her nephew, but her brother assure her that he was safe, as his wife had another guest over, from the Babylonian empire, Long Claw, who managed to save the blue hedgehog, she tried to hand him to Maurice but, they got separated, Maurice perished due to his wounds, and Sonia and Manic would be raised by their aunt Bernadette, their uncle Jules, and their uncle grandpa Chuck, while Sonic was kept safe with Long Claw.

Longclaw finds a place to hide Sonic, but she's aware that keeping him forever in the same place won't do any good for him, at 3 years oldhe was already running and breaking down badniks, so Long Claw opts for them to become nomads, of course, she teaches him to avoid the robots he sees roaming around, even if the "beetles" look innocent, she knows what it can do, or at least part of it.

Sonic and Long Claw finally arrived at a safe place, Knothole, the accorn Family's secret village, it took 4 years but it was worth it.

Long claw arrived at night and was escorted by some guards after showing evidence that she was not roboticized and that she had the prince with her, brought to the king's room in the great tree palace, she delivered the sad news of King Marurice's passing, she asked for Sonic to have a home there in exchange, she would act in any position provided by the Accorn royal family, who decided to make her a teacher as she was the original archivist of documents of historic events, and the next generation deserved to know about the past for a hopeful future.

From here, Sonic's adventures in the games would take place with different eras and such, I shall elaborate on it more in the future as my time online has been limited due to classes and stuff.

#chaos art #sonic au #sonic the hedgehog #sonic headcanons

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elluia · 4 months

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My 2023 fanfic recs & recap [5/5]

This is a multi-part series, with a countdown to the New Year!

Navigation

The best of Ike x Soren fanfics

The best of Fire Emblem fanfics (Genealogy, Three Houses, Engage, Heroes)

The best of misc. series (Omori, Long Live The Queen, Stardew Valley)

The Spicy™ best-of (bonk)

My 2023 works recap (Fódlan and Tellius) YOU ARE HERE

All of my fanfics are part of the Fire Emblem series, and posted on AO3. This post is my own recap and self rec.

Moonlit Oath (FE3H) – ONGOING 📖 (posted 4 chapters; 43,256 words)

A long… very long, slow-burn story of Ferdinand promoted to protagonist and going through hell for it, I guess? Contains a lot of romance, intrigue, epic battles, and month-long waits between 10K+ updates 💀

His Sweat and Blood (FE3H) – COMPLETED 📘 (posted 2 chapters: 13,018 words)

Cyril’s backstory. From war orphan to prisoner of war, he’s just trying to survive.

He’s a favourite of mine, and I’ll give him the love he deserves. Also a big emphasis on the lovely family he found at the Monastery.

Final Farewell (FE3H) – COMPLETED 📘 (posted 3 chapters; 16,451 words)

Mercedes’s backstory. To gain her freedom from House Bartels, she sacrificed Emile’s.

Heavy period drama vibes, with her mom being my MVP among the parents of Fódlan. The story also shows a less idealised Mercie in her youth.

The Strong Survive (PoR) – COMPLETED 📘 (one-shot; 6,061 words)

Ashnard challenges Soren to a duel on the final battle for Crimea’s liberation. Writing Ashnard’s PoV was very fun.

A Cutting Truth (PoR) – COMPLETED 📘 (one-shot; 5,233 words)

Knife Sage Soren, taken seriously. Heavy angst as expected, with a hopeful ending.

(❁´◡`❁) As writers, we need to celebrate our victories over every blank page, bad vibe, schedule slip… I feel drained, but I will celebrate my writing victories of 2023.

I started a lot of projects for Whumptober 2022, and I managed to finish them (with very elaborate backstories) before they hit their one-year anniversary 🥳

I had fun making some memes for Moonlit Oath, because I’ve been writing this fic since 2020 and I love these characters too much by now.

I finally wrote my first Tellius fanfics because Soren got to shine in Heroes and Engage 🏆 My favourite character… I’ve finally done it 🥺

84,019 words posted in total 🤯 Much more in WIPs. I managed to write all of that despite being sick for a grand total of 3 months, I think. This year fucking sucked for so many reasons 💀 I might burn-out if I try that again next year though…

Thank you for reading these fic recs and this recap! See you next year?

#elluia writes #fe3h #feh #moonlit oath #soren #ferdinand von aegir #tellius #fe9 #cyril fe3h #mercedes von martritz #fic rec #fanfic rec #self rec

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mycatwantstoeatpins · 10 months

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Blood of Youth recap - episode 40 (final episode)

The emperor wakes up.

Wuxin tells the others to send Yuejie to Hanshui temple to reunite with Minghou and says he’s going to Muliang with his mother.

Wuxin asks Xiao Se privately if he really wants to be emperor.

Xiao Se asks the emperor why he released Jinxuan. The emperor says they grew up together. Hua Jin told him he had to choose between lingering for another year and living normally for a few more hours.

The emperor asks Xiao Se if he wants to be emperor. He says he wasn’t chosen by heaven, he took the throne by the sword, and passes Xiao Se a decree naming Xiao Chong as his heir. He gives Jinxuan a separate decree for the Directorate of Astronomy.

The emperor dismisses everyone else, reminisces with Xiao Se about his childhood and asks when he’s going to get married. They talk for a while and the emperor asks if Xiao Se thinks things could have turned out differently. Xiao Se says there’s no way to know.

The emperor sees Xiao Ruofeng as he passes away.

The Langya army is defeated and the upper and lower armies gather around Tianqi.

Lord Bai tells Xiao Se he should take the throne as Xiao Se prepares to go and defend Beili. Xiao Se tells Lei Wujie their encounter was a coincidence but meeting each other was inevitable.

Jinxuan takes the other dragon seal scroll to Lord Bai and tells him he was named as heir. He says if Lord Bai takes the throne now, Xiao Se will not be able to contest him. But if he waits for Xiao Se to return in triumph, he’ll be able to take the throne and destroy both scrolls.

Lord Bai says it’s true he’s been waiting for Jinxuan; his father told him to kill Jinxuan if he sought him out after his death. Wushuang, Yan Zhantian, Jade Deity and Xie Xuan come in to confront Jinxuan.

Lord Bai opens the scroll alone.

Xiao Se returns in triumph three months later. Lord Bai and Marquis Lanyue wait for him at the palace.

Xiao Se tells the officials to keep kneeling so they won’t have to get up and kneel again. He sits on the throne then gives his dragon scroll to Marquis Lanyue to read out.

Xiao Se asks the officials why they haven’t acknowledged the decree. Marquis Lanyue kneels and bows down, followed by the official. Xiao Se also bows and acknowledges Xiao Chong as the new emperor.

Xiao Se goes back to Snowfall Villa and meets Lei Wujie, Qianluo and Ye Ruoyi. He gives Snowfall Villa to Master Tu and says he’s relocating to his prince’s residence.

Ji Xue says he made the same decision as Lord Langya. Xiao Se says the imperial court is too small for him. Yan Zhantian comes with Xiao Chong’s copy of the decree, which says Xiao Se is the heir to the throne. Xiao Se destroys the decree and leaves with his friends.

#the blood of youth #the blood of youth spoilers #the blood of youth recap #long post

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deadnightcoffeetime · 10 months

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Nightmare-3

He faces the wired camera to himself. “Also, we will be joined by 3 mediums.” He points the wired camera at the mediums. “That’s Constance, Elva, and Christine. The ladies will help us by what they see, feel, sense, and communicate.”. All waved hello as well. Ezequio points the wired camera back to himself again. “As I promised to you, our audience, that we’ll be doing a live show, not In any ordinary house, or small buildings. No..instead, we’ll be investigating this gigantic mansion. Here, let me show you.”. He points the wired camera at the mansion. “That’s the mansion.”. Then faces the camera back to himself again. “This was the home of the infamous murderer, Elizabeth Bathory.” After revealing who the mansion belonged to, 10 viewers has joined the live show. “ now, some of you may know, some of you may not. But I will give you a quick recap about Elizabeth, and the mansion. Back in 1590, when was 30 years old, she murdered her first victim. She kept murdering people up until 1610, she stopped at the age of 50. For 20 years, Elizabeth have murdered a lot of people, mostly girls, and women.”. 3 viewers has joined. “She murdered these young girls, and women, for their blood. She preferred women who weren’t sexually active. Because she knew women that hasn’t been introduced to sexual enter course before marriage, are the purest, clean virgin blood. That also goes for girls, especially that underage girls are really, really, pure. With no hesitation, she murdered the underage girls right away. After getting caught, Elizabeth have been imprisoned in her home for 4 in a half years. She died in her home in the year of 1614. She was 54 years of age.”. 3 viewers has joined. “The reason why she murdered hundreds of girls, and women, because she had this belief of bathing in virgin blood, will give her eternal youth. Sort of like the fountain of youth legend. She couldn’t bare to get old as time kept passing. Okay, that was a recap of Elizabeth, now the mansion. Before finding out the information about the mansion, it was operated as a museum for 37 years. The museum opened in March, which was spring in 1933. The museum closed down in 1970. During the 37 year time period, there were a lot of disappearances. The first incident happened in May of 1933, two months after the grand opening. The very last victim that disappeared was in 1975. Susan, and I, we’re baffled. We were trying to understand, why were children, and adults kept disappearing, mainly of young girls, and women.”. 2 viewers has joined. “After learning who owned the mansion, it all made sense. Every disappearance was connected to Elizabeth, Now in present day no one hasn’t step foot in the mansion, not since 1975..”. 1 viewer has joined. “Now, since you know both, Elizabeth, and the museum/mansion’s past, let’s move on. The locals here, really believe that Elizabeth’s ghost is still lingering here for a very, very, long time. Waiting for new victims, to continue her sinister routine. But tonight, is the night. For the first time, in a long time, the mediums, my crew, and I, we’ll be stepping foot inside the historic mansion. We’re goi to be very, very, careful, during this investigation tonight. The way we’re doing it tonight is, we’re going to be in 3 groups of 3. Since it’s a gigantic place, team 1 will be myself, Susan, and Constance. Team 2 will be Casey, Joanne, and Elva. And team 3 will be Luke, Chloe, and Christine. One more thing, we’re be taking two 30 minute breaks. First break will be at 11:30 p.m. And second break we’ll be at 3:30 a.m. Now Al the things has been said, hope you enjoy the show.”. Ezequio places the wired camera back in his shirt. He also activate his hand held camera while walking towards the porch. He climbs up, then turns around to look at his crew. “Alright, are all your wired camera on?” The crew turns on their wired camera. A big screen is shown. Within the screen, Ezequio’s wired camera is on. Five more wired cameras are activated. Five screens has appeared within the big screen. Each screen opens with series of pixels and static

http://www.Tumblr.com/DeadNightCoffee/Nightmare-3

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calle-dnd · 11 months

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Storyteller from the future (recap #002)

The old man sits quietly at the fire. Also at the fire sits men, women and children. They are all quiet. Waiting for the old man to begin telling stories. When he feels that he has all of the audience attention he draws in a breath... And says with low voice, "Once upon a time in the Sword coast there was some young boys, and like all young boys do, they dreamed about battles, saving maidens in distress and finding treasures in forgetting dungeons".He lightens his pipe and make a big ring of smoke and for a little while it looks like a flying dragon. The children gasps and the old man wants to chuckle but he hides it. He continues the story, "we all remember that the boys in their early childhood, shared a dream with a spectacular adventure. But was it a dream? They all each got a similar ring on their finger after the dream, strange and mysterious ehhh?" "But as it usually is with dreams it bleakead away and the boys grow up as every other kid does. But normal they were not as you now shall hear!We shall not linger at ther childhood, they are now grown men but inexperienced in their respective trades of work. And they all had choose really different trades. One was a wizard apprentice, another the village huntsman, a merchant and two put their faith in the order of Helm.So be it luck or fate but one day they were all together again on an adventure. They got an important mission to examine and solve problems around the town of Nightstone.

The youths were glad to be together again but there is only so much spirited youth can make up for real experience. When they arrived to Nightstone something was really wrong. It felt empty, the gates stood open and a bell sounded over the small town. Inside they could see stones in the ground and roofs that ben shattered.The youths walked inside through the gates and saw two worgs!They didn't think, only reacted and attacked the worgs. Pure luck that no more of the invading goblins heard them for otherwise they would have ben overrun by the green nasty creatures.They took a goblin prisoner but again their lack of both expeirence and leadership they just talked in circles. At a distance it surely looked like the group cooperated but how come they all ended up in the tavern is probably just coincedence.

In the tavern was a girl. She acted strange and one of the boys dicovered a suspicious note. Here for once they agreed on something and bind the girl with a rope. They did not walk far with their prisoner then seven riders come in through the gate.The young wizard apprentice mumbled that they should had closed the gates but none seemed to hear him.

The men demanded they released the girl and things looked like they would be bloody then warcries echoed over the town. A warband of orcs invaded the town and they were plenty, at least 50, no a hundred they were. One hundre blood thirsty orcs and only some youths on their first mission, 7 riders and a girl in a rope.The young wizard apprentice shouted that they should had closed the gates but if they heard him they all ignored him.The young wizard ran towards the keep because to fight all these orcs in the open would be their doom. None of his companions followed his lead. They all as one man draw their swords. The young paladin ran towards the nearst orc. A big orc with 20 ears hanging in a necklace.The orc smiled and put his feet steady at the ground. If he could count he would have had thought to himself, "soon I will have 22 ears". But alas he just thought, "many many many ears to me!".

#recap

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harkercore · 10 months

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A short recap on the build up:

May 16: The three vampire women try to feed on Jonathan. Dracula declares: "This man belongs to me!" He also says "I want him" in the early drafts, but it got omitted for obvious reasons. He promises to give him to them once he is done with him.

June 30: Not only is Dracula now smeared with blood, in a castle with no other living would but Jonathan, but he has also regained half of his youth.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #re: dracula

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mcheang · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone S2 E6 recap

Spoiler alert

Baghra leads Mal and Alina to her father’s workshop. Alina reveals her intentions to kill the Darkling and reveals that Genya suspects he might be dying from merzost. Kind of shocked that is enough to kill an immortal considering the other immortals who have used it. Ok, Baghra is still missing her finger. Wait, then what did Genya heal? Baghra is surprised that Mal ended up at Keramzin in Alina of all places considering there were other orphanages nearer to his home. Unlike in the original story, it was Ilya who neglected Baghra rather than her mother. Kirigan attacks a camp south of Keramzin with a very large cut. Why bring the Grisha then? Oh, he wants to take Keramzin. Tolya slows his heart or something and manages to call too Wylan for help. He manages make a HOLE in the door with a BOMB. Inej snaps out of her hallucination and Wylan gives her a butterfly to eat as a possible antidote. They plan an ambush for the agile security woman who also turns out to be a durast, and not just any durast, Saint Neyar herself, youthful as any immortal. No wonder she could hold her own. When Kaz brings out the elderly Disciple, her husband, she agrees to finally give them the crystal sword as Alina is part-Shu.

Best fight scene so far. This is why Durasts should also allowed to be soldiers rather than being mocked by Corporalki and Summoners for staying in the labs

Baghra tells Mal he is the firebird, and a blood test proves it. Alina isn’t there to witness it. She was researching the papers when Kirigan visited her and attacked her. Alina, now would be a time to glow really hot. Kirigan tells her he plans to attack the orphanage. Baghra rescues her and sacrifices herself to the burning workshop. Baghra provokes the nichevo’ya to attack her, and as Kirigan rushes to hold his mother and mourn her, she cuts off his hand to break the tether. Kirigan still mourns her. His arm is not bleeding as it should... Back at camp, Genya and Alina mourn Baghra. Mal finally reveals his power to Alina, when he holds her wrist, her light turns red. Isn’t that a lower temperature than white flame!? Alina is devastated but she and Mal proceed to make love. This actually what happens in R&R but I’ll admit, when I saw this in the trailer, I thought in the S&S arc. Kind of wish this would speed up. Mal is sweet, but this still does not give me any sense of chemistry compared to the other couples in the show. Kirigan decides to fuse his mother’s bone dust to his severed wrist, along with a new metal prosthetic, which I’m betting is Grisha steel. As he absorbs Baghra’s last memories, he learns about Mal’s identity. I wonder if Baghra might have foreseen that happening and decided it did not matter…

Best scene was Neyar’s fight. Awesome. And here I just thought she was a really skilled bodyguard. I wonder if she had refused, how would Tolya and Inej react? They worship saints, would they dare to steal from one? WHO EATS LIVING BUTTERFLIES!? First it is the killing of fairytale creatures, now this show has the characters eating butterflies. The only saving grace is that the firebird will not have to go extinct too! Though does anyone else wish we could have seen what it looked like? Show Morozova was worse than book Morozova. At least the book Morozova cared more for his daughter! Slightly. I really don’t like Baghra in her last moments. Her last words were to insult her son!!!!!? Why not, something about repentence? But I will not deny she deserves to be mourned. Um, maybe because this is Mal is so OOC, but was he ever a playboy back before season 1? He was in the books. This Mal is so likeable and nice, not much chemistry there, but he is an entirely new character, just given the same roles and abilities as the book Mal. I feel like they should have just given him a new name too.

#shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone season 2 episode 6 #shadow and bone netflix

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turtle-paced · 2 years

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Revisiting Chapters: Catelyn III, ASoS

This chapter’s a grim one.

The story so far…

So to recap. Catelyn believes her youngest sons to be dead, her younger daughter to be missing (and likely dead), and her elder daughter to be a hostage whose safety is precarious at best; her husband has been murdered; her eldest son is fighting a difficult and dangerous war, which has lately been going poorly; and her father is dying. Don’t worry, GRRM can always find ways to make things worse.

The Blood of Children

The chapter opens with two corpses brought before Robb. Two small corpses. The brutality and unfairness of these murders is played out through the descriptions of the bodies (both naked):

The blond boy had been trying to grow a beard. Pale yellow peach fuzz covered his cheeks and jaw above the red ruin the knife had made of his throat. His long golden hair was still wet, as if he had been pulled from a bath. By the look of him, he died peacefully, perhaps in sleep, but his brown-haired cousin had fought for life. His arms bore slashes where he’d tried to block the blades, and red still trickled slowly from the stab wounds that covered his chest and belly and back like so many tongueless mouths, though the rain had washed him almost clean.

The attempt at growing a beard is a sign of youth that the author’s used before. The blond was also clearly ambushed in a vulnerable moment, when he had no chance of defending himself whatsoever. The brown-haired boy literally cannot be washed clean of the overkill. It’s violence of a sort that absolutely, 100%, cannot be justified. The boys were young, innocent, and could not possibly have posed a threat to anyone.

Catelyn, Stark-focused and forward thinking as usual, immediately wonders if this is what her own presumed-dead sons looked like after they were killed - and whether Sansa will be treated similarly in retaliation.

Once the scene is set, with Robb’s lords bannermen and captains assembled half-asleep and dishevelled around the corpses, Catelyn’s narration gives names to the dead boys - Tion Frey and Willem Lannister - and thereby gives context to Catelyn’s wondering about retaliation. The lack of sound in this scene is emphasised by Robb not speaking for a long time, and by the echoes of the prisoners/perpetrators arriving in the hall. Five men, “big men, every one, with thick beards and long hair.” We can see where Catelyn’s empathising, as the Lannister kids have identities and detailed descriptions in death, but the Northerners, her supposed allies, the people who she wants to win the war, are identical strangers in her narration.

Then Rickard Karstark steps forward to defend the indefensible. Not just the murders of two children, but the men set to guard them as well.

“It was no murder, ser. […] Any man who steps between a father and his vengeance asks for death.”

Well, that justifies the murder of the guards, I guess. And the kids? What the flying fuck did they have to do with any of this? Which is what Robb wants to know.

“I saw your sons die, that night in the Whispering Wood,” Robb told Lord Karstark. “Tion Frey did not kill Torrhen. Willem Lannister did not slay Eddard. How then can you call this vengeance? This was folly, and bloody murder. Your sons died honourably on a battlefield, with swords in their hands.”

“They died,” said Rickard Karstark, yielding no inch of ground. “The Kingslayer cut them down. These two were of his ilk. Only blood can pay for blood.”

“The blood of children?” Robb pointed at the corpses. “How old were they? Twelve? Thirteen?”

Robb points out that on top of that, the kids had surrendered, were captive, in a cell, unarmed, and asleep. Rickard won’t have it. Aside from the dehumanising description of the kids as the Kingslayer’s “ilk”, he attempts to normalise their deaths (“squires die in every battle”) and refuses to look at the bodies. Robb continues to challenge Karstark, refusing to hear any argument that this was actually Catelyn’s fault, arguing that Karstark’s actions weere treason. To that Karstark replies that killing Lannisters can’t be treason if freeing Lannisters isn’t treason. He also calls Robb a boy.

This prompts Jon Umber to whack Karstark across the face and ask to kill him on the spot for insulting Robb, where Robb insists that the Greatjon treat prisoners better than Rickard Karstark himself does. This is where Brynden cuts in to have a bit of a chat.

Fault and Judgement

His words rang against Catelyn’s ears, harsh and cruel as the pounding of a war drum. Her throat was dry as bone. I did this. These two boys died so my daughters might live.

Later, Catelyn blames herself for the political fallout too. Upon hearing of the desertion of the Karstarks:

Lost by me. By me, may the gods forgive me.

Just because Catelyn thinks it doesn’t make it true. And just because Lord Karstark says it doesn’t make it true either. Let’s be real - Karstark’s argument mostly doesn’t hang together. It’s impassioned, but it’s not logical. Karstark just wants Jaime, the person who killed his sons, to suffer. Denied that, he wants to spread the suffering around to anyone even tangentially connected to Jaime. Robb’s correctly seeing the lines of logic (or lack thereof) here, and placing the blame where it belongs. On Rickard Karstark and his accomplices.

Those accomplices are the first to be dealt with. Specifically, Robb orders them hung. There’s no angst about this like there is about Rickard Karstark. These guys murdered guards and prisoners, they get the death penalty, simple as that. More, Robb orders the commoners hung, including the ones who were already dead. “I will not have such fouling my lord uncle’s rivers,” Robb says. Rickard’s fate is debated, Rickard is ultimately beheaded - and the smallfolk guilty of the same crimes are easily hung and their bodies treated as too foul for the local environment (which belongs to the nobility, in Robb’s phrasing).

We’ve also got the one man who begs for mercy, as he did not kill anyone, only stood watch.

Robb considered that a moment. “Did you know what Lord Rickard intended? Did you see the knives drawn? Did you hear the shouts, the screams, the cries for mercy?”

Yes, as it turns out. For his knowing participation in the crime, Robb refuses to commute the sentence. For his cowardice, Robb adds more fear to said sentence, ordering that the watcher be hung last to watch the others die.

There’s debate about Karstark’s sentence which I’ll talk about in a second, but we’ll pick up here with Rickard’s own execution, on a day with empathic rain soaking the entire scene. Men of all stations crowd around in the forest to see Robb’s justice done. And yeah, it’s men - Catelyn’s the only woman mentioned here, and she’s not narrating her own presence in the scene-setting. Catelyn is an observer into what her society considers to be a man’s world, and very much so in the bulk of this chapter.

Robb intends to conduct the execution himself, in accordance with what Ned taught in the very first chapter of the series proper, that’s clear as he asks the headsman for the poleaxe. Rickard acknowledges it, though he’s got a speech to give before he’s executed. He reminds Robb of his service to the Stark family, emphasises the links between their own families, listens to Robb’s judgment, and signs off with a killer line.

“Kill me, and be cursed. You are no king of mine.”

A thorough repudiation of those ties, but with responsibility turned on Robb. The point of Ned’s execution-teachings truly is that Robb is responsible for Karstark’s death.

This is the second in a trio of executions carried out by Ned’s foster son, his biological son, and his adopted son respectively. Theon botched it back in ACoK, when he was killing people for frankly terrible reasons. Robb, using a longaxe rather than a Valyrian steel sword, manages to kill at one blow and behead in three. Better than Theon by far, but every so often we get those narrative reminders that in the broader sense of things the War of Five Kings is a distraction that Robb’s participating in - which is clear when we get Jon’s one-stroke execution of Janos Slynt, actively sabotaging Jon’s attempts to get ready for the White Walkers.

With the responsibility for Karstark’s death, though, comes responsibility for Karstark’s curse. Robb kills a (very) distant relative, a man who served him, the father of men who died for him, in ordeer to give justice to his enemies. When it’s done he stands bloody in the godswood, letting the rain run over him, clearly hoping for some sort of spiritual cleansing of what he’s just done.

All Catelyn can do is pray the gods forgive him, a boy in an impossible situation.

A Kingdom Falling

With the accomplices sentenced, Robb calls for a private meeting so they can talk political options. Rickard Karstark is a lord, after all. The news is immediately dire.

The Blackfish shut the door. “The Karstarks are gone.”

“All?” Was it anger or despair that thickened Robb’s voice like that? Even Catelyn did not know.

“All the fighting men,” Ser Brynden replied.

It was a careful operation, from what the Blackfish has sussed out. The fighting men left alone or in small groups, with the men unable to travel left behind to temporarily conceal their escape. Three hundred men and six hundred horses gone in hours. They’re all out wandering the countryside in search of Jaime Lannister personally, rather than remaining available to do things like, maybe, defend their homes from Ironborn or, I dunno…defeat the Lannisters. Look, maybe this was a little short-sighted. I don’t know.

The upshot is not great.

For the moment, [Robb] held the riverlands, but his kingdom was surrounded by enemies to every side but east, where Lysa sat aloof on her mountaintop. Even the Trident was scarce secure so long as the Lord of the Crossing withheld his allegiance.

Edmure suggests they keep the murders quiet and try to avoid Tywin’s retaliation. No good, says the Blackfish, there are just too many Karstarks out there who know what the deal is. On top of that, Robb says that he owes the fathers of the dead boys both truth and justice. There doesn’t seem to be much of a decision for him, as he speaks of making an enemy of Harrion Karstark (aka Rickard Karstark’s only surviving son). When the Blackfish says that Harrion might not hate Robb, Robb replies that even if he didn’t, he couldn’t publicly let it pass because Harrion’s own men would not forgive their lord that.

So then Edmure comes up with option #2: pardoning Rickard. Edmure runs with it, saying that if they lose the Karstarks (on top of all their other issues), there’s no hope. There’s been no word from the North (because Ser Rodrik is dead), and no word from Lysa. Robb looks to his mother:

Her son wanted comfort, Catelyn realised; he wanted to hear that it would be all right. But her king needed truth.

And so Catelyn cannot even give her son comfort. Her assessment of how her sister’s character flaws prevent her from helping (“Lysa was never brave…she sits on her mountain hoping everyone will forget about her”) might be right, but they don’t build Robb up or provide him with a way out, they bring him further despair. More to blame herself for, really.

Sixteen-year-old Robb snaps.

“Gods be good, why would any man want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself…I swore to myself…that I would be a good king, honourable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends, brave when I faced my enemies…now I can’t even tell one from the other. How did it all get so confused?”

This is pretty close to the idea that the best person to be king is the one who doesn’t want to be king. Robb is legitimately trying his best to be a good king, and he’s paying for it on a personal level. Like he says, he lost his friends, and now he has to kill their father for the sake of their enemies. So for all the cost, he puts his crown back on (narration emphasising its weight) and decides that Rickard Stark must die for betraying Robb’s own honour.

No matter the cost to Robb as a person or to other aspects of his war for independence.

Finally, there’s the last thing that could ruin Robb’s nascent kingdom - his marriage. Jeyne was earlier conspicuous in her absence. Despite her male relations being woken in the middle of the night to deal with the murders, despite Catelyn being woken in the middle of the night to deal with the murders, Robb let Jeyne sleep. Now:

At evenfall, Jeyne Westerling came to see her. The young queen entered the solar timidly. “Lady Catelyn, I do not mean to disturb you…”

Yeah. Poor Jeyne. Fair enough to be scared of your extremely intelligent, opinionated mother-in-law, who’s well aware of all the negative consequences of your marriage to her son, but Jeyne’s a queen now. She doesn’t get to show this sort of insecurity. She’s not the most confident and assured of girls, is Jeyne. For any and all romantic spin about her marriage to Robb, and the kingdom-wide consequences, she’s basically a nice, normal young woman.

Jeyne reports to Catelyn that Robb has been in a mood ever since he came inside. First he wrote a letter, which he burned. Now he’s staring at maps, completely lost in thought. Jeyne couldn’t engage with him at all. Robb wasn’t eating.

Jeyne’s come to Catelyn for advice. Much like Robb, she’s trying her best. Having exhausted her own resources, she knows when the best move is to go ask for advice. Catelyn can’t help her much either, advising Jeyne to be patient and willing to listen when Robb’s ready to talk. There’s just one more thing. Robb needs an heir. Catelyn wants to know what Jeyne has to say about that.

The girl smiled at that. “My mother says the same. She makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning.”

Between that and Jeyne and Robb’s active sex life, the chances of Jeyne becoming pregnant look pretty good. Catelyn’s sunk too far in depression to get much joy out of the news that Robb and Jeyne want to name sons for Ned and Bran, and can only note absently that Robb seems to be right that Jeyne’s a good person. But that said, we leave off on Catelyn’s observation that Jeyne’s fertility is even more important than that.

Chapter Function

This chapter brought to us by an unreliable narrator falling into ever-deeper depression. This, I think, is the key passage:

Tell me what I should do. Catelyn might have asked the same, if her father had been well enough to ask. But Lord Hoster was gone, or near enough. Her Ned as well. Bran and Rickon too, and Mother, and Brandon so long ago. Only Robb remained to her, Robb and the fading hope of her daughters.

Catelyn’s support network has been obliterated. She has no direction. Her purpose in life has crumbled. She has one person left in the here and now, and this chapter shows hard how she can’t help him, against a backdrop of being unable to help her distant daughters. She blames herself, and finds it all too easy to accept another person blaming her, however unreasonably. Rickard isn’t thinking anything Catelyn hadn’t already thought. There’s a lot of negative emotion building up here, and something’s got to give. Something will give.

This also looks to be Robb’s darkest personal hour, until he’s actually murdered that is. We never find out what was in the letter. It’s unlikely to have been a motivational note. Personally, I suspect he was at least kicking around the idea of surrender, even if the writing was basically venting. At the end of the chapter we see signs of Robb pulling himself out of it a bit, focusing on maps and plans rather than prayer. He’s devising a way forward.

Unfortunately, behind all this, the machinery of the Red Wedding is always moving. Not only did the mounted Karstarks desert, but the Karstarks on foot are with Roose Bolton. Robb’s right to worry about them under Bolton’s command. In the general theme of the complete destruction of Robb’s independent North, we also learn that Jeyne is taking medication made by her mother - which we’ll find out later was a contraceptive.

Basically, whatever hope Robb and Catelyn have here will ultimately turn out to be false. The only comfort for the readers is that they know Catelyn’s daughters are still out there surviving as best they can.

Miscellany

Catelyn’s cultural otherness in the North comes out quite strongly in her narration this chapter, as she thinks of Karstark’s accomplices and their guards as all looking the same and advises Jeyne on some cultural differences between them and their husbands.

Edmure, who let his people take shelter in Riverrun even when they might soon be under siege, is the one who brings up the ordinary Riverrun guards Rickard Karstark and company murdered to gain access to Willem and Tion, and knew that Delp had only just recovered from a prior wound (also taken while he tried to guard Lannisters).

It seems that Rickard Karstark promised Alys’ hand in marriage to whoever killed Jaime. Not the last time someone will treat her like a prize.

We see Catelyn sewing! It’s not mentioned in great detail, but it seems that’s one way she’s been keeping her hands occupied while sitting by her father’s deathbed.

Clothing Porn

Rickard Karstark goes to his execution in a black wool surcoat with a white sunburst.

Food Porn

Jeyne tries to give Robb a supper of boar’s ribs, stewed onions, and ale.

Next Three Chapters

Epilogue, ADWD - Sansa VI, ACoK - Sam I, ASoS

#ASoIaF #valyrianscrolls #revisiting chapters #cw: violence #catelyn stark #robb stark #edmure tully #brynden tully #a storm of swords

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