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celestialnxva · 2 years

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The Race Against Time

༄ A Bridgerton x Marvel Crossover

Chapter 4: Fateful Choices

Summary: The past and present twist and bend together into realities people cannot accept. It's time to choose between the mind or the heart.

Timeline: New York Sanctum, 2023 (post-Endgame); Grosvenor Square, 1814.

WC: 7k words.

series masterlist. | main masterlist.

‘Mx. (l/n),

I personally offer an invitation towards you and Lady Danbury for Afternoon Tea. As this season’s diamond, I would like to establish a proper relationship with you, for I myself determine your prospects this year.

I am sure you have properly met my nephew, Prince Friedrich. For this reason, I am pleased to say that after Afternoon Tea, he would like to call upon you. I am sure that Lady Danbury can most certainly agree that his timing could not be more perfect with our day spent together. Thus, I will not be taking any other answers in your letter other than ‘yes.’

Best Wishes,

Your Queen.’

You rubbed your forehead tiredly while you paced across the room with the letter in your hand from the Queen herself. Lady Danbury looked just as tired as you were, as she of all people knew what the Queen was planning to do. You were previously venting to her about how you were able to find one of the stones when the letter came, and now, your plans have turned upside down. This problem would have been solved if the Queen did not require you to come, but she can’t take any answer other than ‘no.’ You were afraid that this would happen, because if you got the attention of the Queen, then—

“— she will insist that I let Prince Friedrich court me, even if I do not wish for such. Are you sure that I cannot refuse his courtship?” You asked desperately while you looked at her with pleading eyes. All she could do was lean back and let out a sigh.

“You must remember, Mx. (l/n), that I have established for you a high status for this season. Do not be daft and destroy the reputation I so carefully built for the sake of your plots,” she said sternly. You loved Lady Danbury, but you couldn’t help but feel irritated at her reminders of how incredibly idiotic societal rules were during this time. You could be given a ruined reputation by refusing a suitor? The rules weren’t fair at all, and it made you wish that you could go home.

Focusing your anger on society was a good distraction, and it was best not to think about the way you felt last night when three pairs of eyes stared intensely at you while you swayed in the Prince’s arms last night. You thought yourself to be mad, but Benedict has not called on you nor sent a letter to you for five days now. You chalked it up to be his busyness, but something in the back of your mind was telling you otherwise. Your thoughts of Benedict ceased when you heard Lady Danbury’s voice again.

“Mx. (l/n), you must accept Prince Friederich’s wishes to court you. I expected you to be more independent than other debutantes this season, but I cannot fathom why you would ever reject a Prince’s desire to court you, my dear,” she said before her hand reached out to grab yours so you could stop pacing. You looked down and felt shame rise to your cheeks. “I know you’re afraid of love. I do not know why you wish to be alone, but surely you cannot actually believe that you can be truly happy without someone to love?”

Love was the last thing on your mind, so it angered you that she was trying to convince you that love was a good risk to take, especially during an important mission such as this one. The last time you did that with Stephen, where did that lead to? You felt nothing but heartbreak, loss, betrayal, and every other depressing emotion over the fact that a man could care less about your established friendship, let alone your love. Why should you start trusting love now?

Before you can retort with your own remark, you heard the sound of faint footsteps echo on the other side of the door. You and Lady Danbury both shared the same look of truce for now before you two prepared yourself for the next guest. To your surprise, it was your butler who walked in first. Your brows furrowed in confusion. You thought that you had gone through the entire town of suitors for the past few days, but it seems that another person wanted to see you. He cleared his throat and bowed slightly to acknowledge you. “A Mr. Bridgerton is here to see you Msr.,” he said firmly before he left. If your eyes did not deceive you, the one and only Benedict Bridgerton briskly walked into the room with a huge smile on his face. You did your best to hide your excitement in seeing him again after he was absent for so long.

“Mr. Bridgerton, how lovely to see you—“

Before you could finish your sentence, you were cut off by the sight of Benedict quickly shutting the doors. It alarmed Lady Danbury, as she thought she was about to witness something more scandalous than she would like to see right now. “Benedict Bridgerton! What on earth are you doing?” She cried out incredulously. He looked back at her with pure excitement in his eyes. “You’ll never guess what I found in the Royal Academy of Art!” he exclaimed before he gently held up a small sack bag.

Your heart dropped. You really hoped that’s what you think it is.

With heavy anticipation, you slowly opened the bag and in it was the unmistakable yellow glow of the mind stone. You were so entranced by the beauty of it that you almost forgot to ask Benedict how he got it. You blinked away your dazed state before you turned to him in surprise. “What..? Where did you…?”

He could tell that you were struggling to comprehend the fact that he collected a stone all on his own. Though, he didn’t mean to. In truth, he was trying to get his mind off of your inability to love him by visiting his Art School and talking to a student named Tessa. He honestly tried to get his mind off of you by taking interest in her, but nothing compared to you and your ability to make his heart soar with song. To tell the truth of how he really got it would open a conversation he was not ready for, so he decided to bend the truth just enough so you would not tell that he was lying.

“I had to pick up a canvas from my Art School so I could take it home and paint it. However, I seemed to have lost track of time, for it had been four days of celebration with my peers before I realized that you must be waiting.” He smiled and gestured to the bag in your hand. “I was about to leave and pack up my belongings when I saw something glow on one of my friend’s palettes. When I saw it, I immediately knew it was something we were looking for! So, I took it and now,” he paused and exhaled triumphantly at the stone. “There it is. You’re welcome, by the way.”

You stared at him dumbfounded. How did he end up finding this stone in the most random of places? Most importantly, why did you care so much about where he was for the past five days? You tried to rationalize it and assume that he was only there to party with friends and he didn’t have relationships with any of them. He surely wouldn’t have someone…would he?

Why were you so bothered about it? Maybe it was because you did not want to have scandal brought upon you both when the ton realizes that Benedict has a partner while he was ‘courting’ you. You hoped it was that, because you certainly did not like the other option it could be: you were jealous.

No. It cannot be that.

You forced yourself to smile, because why on earth would you think about concerning yourself with Benedict’s love life? It’s not like he actually likes you. He’s just doing a favor for you so you could finish your mission. Once you’re finished, you can leave and forget that your thoughts of him ever strayed to fantastical ones. The sooner you can find the stones, the sooner you can get rid of the dreams, dreams all having to do with Benedict and his touch against your body. You cannot think about that anymore. You forbid yourself to.

“Wonderful, Benedict! We have two stones now! I will bring this back to Stephen and the others. I’ll be with you both shortly,” you exclaimed too quickly and dismissed yourself. Technically, you did not have to be in another room to use the portal, since Benedict had already seen it happen before. At this point, you were just excusing yourself so you don’t have to see him any longer than you have already. Your mind was discombobulated and it was frustrating you to no end.

After you left, Benedict let out a heavy sigh and sat across from where Lady Danbury was. She eyed the young man carefully, trying to assess what could be wrong with him. Though, she didn’t have to analyze it too much, since she already has a clue as to what could be troubling him. And unfortunately, she cannot help him this time.

“You should tell them,” she said knowingly, raising a brow at the other. She knew he was hesitant about confessing, but you only had a short amount of time left before you had to leave. Wasn’t it worth it for him to tell you that he loves you? The young man, on the other hand, would beg to differ. “If you have something to say, Lady Danbury, I should say what is on your mind,” he said dejectedly.

His mind was elsewhere, probably sketching in his head of how beautiful you looked in the ballroom that night. These past few nights were spent pretending that the prince was him, dancing across the floor with the world forgotten in your minds. There were no time periods, no rules. It was just you and him, dancing the night away. He wanted that with you every night. He wanted you. He wanted—wished, he could have you.

“Child, you mustn't let your emotions drown you in despair,” she called out to him. His eyes looked up at her with sorrow and shame. She would never admit it, but it broke her heart to see him so hopeless. That was why she wouldn’t give up on this relationship. She would not let Benedict give up so soon. “They only have a short amount of time left here, Mr. Bridgerton. I suggest you say something to them before it’s too late.”

His heart raced at the thought of confessing his love to you, as well as what your face would look like when you ultimately reject him. Seeing your face like that seemed too high of a cost for him to confess. He thought this way when Lady Danbury spoke up again.

“Follow your heart, Benedict. You must not let your pride lose your true love match,” she said more softly this time. That was all the advice she could give, really. It was up to him to do the work, and from the look on his face, he knew that. She watched as he nodded in agreement with her statement before he buried his face in his hands.

“I need to tell them, Lady Danbury, but it is too difficult for me to do so when my own brother wishes to court them,” he said, though his tone suggested that he knew more than he was speaking of right now. She narrowed her eyes and reached over to poke his shin with her cane, which caused him to yelp. He looked up at her and was about to complain, but once he saw her concerned gaze, he softened his stance. He didn’t want to tell you this, but at least telling Lady Danbury was good practice. He shifted in his stance before he hesitantly spoke up.

“Anthony… he wants to marry them. He plans to. I wish this weren’t the case, but unfortunately, when he described to me mother’s ring, it–”

He was cut off by the clicking of your heels on the wooden floor, announcing your presence in the room. He whipped his head around to see you with a confused look on your face. You were the first one to speak after the stunned silence.

“What are you two talking about?” you asked curiously. Lady Danbury looked at Benedict’s hesitation and she finally realized what he was about to say. Knowing what she knows about both you and Benedict, this will certainly make things much more complicated than it was before. She watched helplessly as he finally confessed to you.

“Mx. (l/n),” he said before he swallowed nervously. Your eyes bore into his, compelling him to speak. “You must accept my brother’s courtship. He plans to marry you,” he started and before you could cut him off, he held up his hand. “You are to marry him,” he said in finality before he started to make his way out the door. He did not want to break the news to you. It was too much pain for him to bear. He wished he could’ve made it out the door, but you gripped onto his wrist tightly. He did not make eye contact with you as you snapped at him.

“At least tell me why you are acting so coldly! You haven’t spoken to me in five days, and now you are telling me to marry a man I do not love? What has gotten into–”

He cut you off angrily and glared at you. “Because mother’s proposal ring has the blue stone you are looking for!” he lashed back, stunning the room into silence.

When you processed his words fully, you let go of his wrist and stepped away from him slowly. Your eyes held so much conflict and unresolved pain that he wished he could take away from you. He wished he could comfort you and tell you that everything was going to be okay, but it wasn’t. Not for him, and not for you.

When the back of your knees bumped into the soft material of the chaise, you sat down with a heavy heart. When you looked up at Benedict, you realized that you weren’t unhappy because you didn’t want to marry.

You were unhappy because it wasn’t going to be with Benedict.

———

Your heart was weighed down by anxiety and fear during your ride to the Royal Palace. You could hear Stephen talking in your ear while your mind drifted off to a time where you were peaceful and happy. When you were alone, you were calm. You did not have to rely on anyone and you certainly did not have to take care of anyone. When you eliminated love altogether, you lived a happy life.

Unfortunately, fate is cruel. Not only were you finding yourself to be falling in love with a man you can never have, but you were to be wed to a man you did not love. Not to mention you had to work with a man who pretended that he didn’t break your heart and trust. The last thing you ever wanted in your life was to get married and be trapped in a loveless marriage, but that fear is coming true for you now, and all you could was wish that you had never gotten involved with the idiotic Avengers in the first place. You were once again risking your heart and your life for them. It seems you never learn from the past mistakes.

“(Y/n), we can find a way out of this. You can have Benedict sneak into his room and steal it! You just have to b–”

“Will you shut the fuck up, Stephen?!” you cried out irritatedly, startling Lady Danbury out of her wits. She knew you talked to yourself sometimes and gathered that you were talking to people from the future, but you certainly did not have to yell and bring her close to a heart attack. You looked at her with an apologetic expression before you pinched the bridge of your nose anxiously. “Please, just. Leave me alone in my thoughts for now, okay?” you reasoned more calmly this time.

He hated seeing you like this. He wished he could go over there and be there for you. In fact, he was already spending his free time researching ways he could travel back in time to see you. You could train him on etiquette and he is willing to follow courting standards. He is willing to do anything to get to you because it hurt him deeply to witness for his own eyes you slowly falling for a man out of your time and out of reach; a man that wasn’t him. To put icing on the cake, the thought of you marrying someone else other than him just became reality. He didn’t want to stay back home any longer. You meant more to him than you could ever know. Therefore, this was why he decided to cut off comms for tonight, so he can spend the night researching instead.

Lady Danbury reached over to hold your hand, a gesture she had gotten used to doing at this point. She could tell that you were anxious about this entire situation and living in this world. She could tell that you were misguided and you felt the need to be alone and away from everyone. Nothing hurt more than to see someone go through the same mistakes she went through when she was younger. But, it wasn’t her job to get Benedict and you to love each other. That will come in its own time and on your terms.

When you two arrived at the Palace, you stepped down carefully and looked up at the impressive view. It was what you had expected: majestic, cold, powerful. You felt even more intimidated with each step you took towards the entrance of the Palace. Knowing the fact that you would be in the Queen’s presence soon, you considered yourself lucky to find solace in Lady Danbury’s company and in the fact that the Queen liked you. The situation with Friedrich would have to be resolved later. For now, you did your best to enter this event with an open mind and open heart. After all, the Queen doesn’t take lightly to hysterics.

One of the guards escorted you down a rather large hall as you tried your best to keep your eyes emotionless and focused in front of you. You will not allow yourself to feel weak this afternoon. You had a mission to accomplish.

“Presenting Lady Danbury and Mx. (l/n), Your Majesty,” you heard before you gracefully entered the large room with a faint smile on your face. The both of you bowed politely before the Queen who was sitting in front of a large table. The Queen looked pleased with your appearance and gestured to the seats that were reserved for you. Lady Danbury led you both to where you both to your seats and shifted to make yourselves comfortable. The Queen wasted no time in interrogating you.

“Mx. (l/n)! You truly light up a room with your radiance and beauty. How ever do you do it?” she asked in awe (whether or not she was mocking you, you would never know). You tilted your head politely while you let the servants serve you tea. “I am honored by your compliments, Your Majesty. However, I can only accredit it to my ability to be content in any situation I am ever met with. Lady Danbury has certainly taught me quite well,” you said kindly. Your tone was incredibly fake, but you were a good actor. Your attitude even fooled the Queen, which was an accomplishment, really.

The three of you had a quaint time chatting the afternoon away. You had to admit to yourself that you enjoyed your time here so far. Of course, this sentiment immediately vanished when you heard an announcement of the name you dreaded the most to hear today. You stood up numbly and bowed before the Prince as he made his way towards you with a lopsided grin on his face. From the night you two danced, he wasn’t a conversationalist. Though, you didn’t mind as much because he had kind eyes. However, you didn’t want this man. He was too plain for your taste.

“Mx. (l/n), It is lovely to see you, as always. And your dress is quite beautiful! It sparkles like the radiance in your eyes,” he said smoothly. You forced yourself not to roll your eyes at the cheesy remark and forced yourself to act more shy in his presence. “You are too kind, my Prince,” you said daintily while looking up at him through your lashes. Your beauty truly struck him speechless, especially now. The way you looked at him made him feel so alive.

Before you could say anything more, the Queen cleared her throat. You stood up straight and turned to her with a kind smile. She looked at the both of you with approval before she turned to her nephew with a more forced smile. “Talk. to. them,” she said through gritted teeth. Friedrich’s eyes widened slightly but he concealed it with a charming smile. He offered his arm to you. “Shall we converse over there?” he asked politely, gesturing to the set of sofas on a more appropriate distance from the Queen and Lady Danbury. You forced another smile and took his arm. “I would be delighted to.”

You two had only conversed for about an hour or two before you heard multiple pairs of footsteps make their way to the room. You cut yourself off mid-sentence as you turned around to see who could be making all that noise.

As if your day couldn’t get any worse, the Bridgerton family had shown up just in time to see you conversing with another suitor you did not want to have. The family did not notice you while they greeted the Queen. You tried to keep it that way by turning back to continue your conversation with the prince. Unfortunately, he smiled at you apologetically.

“We should… greet the other guests,” he said in a way that made you feel almost guilty for the impolite thoughts you were thinking about while he was talking to you. You decided to make it up to him by linking your arm with his so you could greet the Bridgerton family. When you two finally approached the group, you could feel a sudden sense of tension fill the room. You tried not to look at the Bridgertons and focus on what the Queen had to say.

“I must apologize in advance, my dear, but I have invited the Bridgerton family to chat with me as well. They are dear friends of mine, so you will be in good company.” she smiled at Violet before she turned to you. “I know you have met the second eldest Bridgerton, but feel free to introduce yourself to the rest of the family,” she said casually before she went back to her seat. You tried not to open your mouth in shock and instead turned to the matriarch of the family. You took turns greeting the family members, purposefully avoiding introducing yourself to the three brothers until the very last minute. You have learned from Violet that she had only brought who you now know to be Eloise, Francesca, Colin, Anthony, and Benedict, and that there were other kids at home and one already married off to a fucking Duke.

When it was finally time to greet the brothers, you tried to take your time introducing yourself to the third brother. Unfortunately, he–Colin– was a lot smarter than he looked and took it upon himself to introduce you to his other two brothers. You tried to keep your smile proper as you bowed politely to Benedict. He could not meet your gaze and you could not meet his. This was most definitely noticed by Lady Danbury and Violet, but you didn’t care. Not when Anthony was there.

When you finally went up to Anthony, you bowed for him. You were ready to leave and sit on the couch for another round of eating biscuits when his hand reached down to hold onto yours. Your eyes watched as he slowly raised it up so he could kiss it sweetly. You were lucky your hands were gloved, or else he would feel your hands sweat in nervousness. “It is always a pleasure to see you, Mx. (l/n),” he said formally. You were too shocked at his boldness in front of the Queen and Prince, yet you were unable to look away from him. So when he looked up at you through his lashes, you gazed into his eyes and felt the world pause in motion. Something about him made him so mesmerizing. You did not know what it was but it made you feel uneasy.

The tension only thickened as everyone watched the two of you stare at each other. In the eyes of the other people, it looked like you two were gazing longingly at each other. But for the people who knew your heart, they knew it was not intentional or genuine. Even when he finally dropped your hand and stood up, your eyes stayed fixated on each other. You were more so trying to figure out Anthony’s motives while he looked at you with purpose. He needed you to choose him, and now that he knew the prince was there, he had to do everything he could to convince you to choose him without any gifts to give you. If he didn’t have a gift to give you this afternoon, then he will charm you with all the passion he could muster without feelings of true love.

Finally, the Prince awkwardly cleared his throat and your body quickly turned to him with a kind smile. “Why don’t we all sit down? I am sure that you must be tired from your trip to the Palace,” he offered. Everyone was too quick to agree and practically rushed to the table. You really wished you hadn’t sat next to the Prince because now, you were directly sitting across from Benedict and Anthony. Anthony was glaring at the Prince, and you were staring at Benedict. That stare was one of longing, even if you didn’t realize it yet. His eyes started to clear from the fogginess of sorrow and blossom into a look of hope. When he saw your expression, he thought that maybe you were finally seeing him for who he is.

Maybe he had a chance.

“Mx. (l/n),” the Queen called to you and you blinked away your thoughts to look back at her. “Yes, Your Majesty?” She looked over at her nephew and gestured to the servants behind her to bring to her nephew his gift. You gulped at the size of the box, unsure of what he was going to give you.

“Mx. (l/n), I would like to give you this necklace as a gift. I hope you can accept my gift chosen with the purest of intentions,” he declared to you before the box opened to reveal a beautiful necklace. You were quickly realizing now that the Queen did not invite the Bridgertons to catch up with them. She wanted them to see that you chose her nephew over Anthony (or god forbid, Benedict).

Your eyes warily stared at the necklace, feeling like you could be blinded by the light it produced from its reflection from the sun. You almost started to squint your eyes before your eye caught a flash of purple light. Your eyes snapped open in curiosity from where that light was coming from. If your suspicions were true, for the first time today you will have a sense of hope. And when you finally looked down to properly examine the necklace, you saw the purple power stone delicately placed as the biggest gem. Before you could help yourself, you snuck a glance at Benedict, trying to tell him about it. When he met your eyes, he looked down at the necklace and felt like his heart could tear in two. You were now one step closer to leaving him forever. He tried to ignore the feeling as he nodded slightly back at you, reassuring you that you could accept it.

You thanked the prince gratefully, but your eyes were hazy and your tone was not as disguised as it should have been. It was slightly hesitant; everyone but the Prince could hear it. Their suspicions were only confirmed by your expression when the Prince put the necklace on your neck. You were situated in a way where you could stare at both Anthony and Benedict. You looked at Benedict and saw his eyes practically wither in an emotion you could not quite place yet. You looked at Anthony and felt like a deer caught in headlights.

The way he stared at you was so intense that you could practically catch on fire by staring at him. As you felt the Prince’s hands slither up your collarbone to put the necklace on, you watched Anthony in fear. You were practically frozen, for you were afraid of what he could do to the prince. He looked so jealous and so furious that it was dangerously close to breaking his polite impression in the Queen’s presence. Benedict could only watch you helplessly as he clearly saw how scared you were being with his brother and how you didn’t even want to be in this position at all. He wished he could whisk you away from all this madness, but he had to stay silent. He had to, because your life depended on it.

When the prince finally pulled his hands away from your body, he looked at you with adoration. He loved how you looked with his gift on your neck, and from the way he was staring at you, you could tell that he was considering to even propose to you on the spot.

However, you were startled when the Queen called your name. When you looked up at her alarmed, she was quite taken aback by your expression. Despite her better judgment, she stood up and held out her hand. “Come with me, child,” she said sternly, though her voice was softer when it came to speaking to you. The other people in the room looked at each other and the Queen in confusion, unsure of what to make of what had clearly transpired just now. When she saw that no one was talking, she took your hand and scoffed at the others. “Socialize without us! I shall promenade with the Mx., as it seems to me that they look like they need air,” she said firmly before she quickly dragged you away from the room.

When you both had finally stopped, you were staring at what seemed to be a garden. It was beautiful and the flowers seemed to be in full bloom. You closed your eyes and soothed your nerves to the merry tunes the birds seemed to sing for you today. The Queen let you calm down and took the time to watch you closely.

She knows the eyes you had. Your eyes were eyes that have seen so much, always lost and wandering everywhere without a sense of stability in your life. She knows those eyes because she had those eyes since the moment she arrived at this Palace all those years ago. She knew what it was like to not know your place in this world, especially a world that you are foreign to. To feel friendless and lonely was the worst feeling that she had ever felt. How ironic it was that you and her both sought solace in Lady Danbury’s presence.

Your eyes were the reason why she invited you in the first place. She crowned you as a diamond, not because of your stunning beauty, but because you were frightened and you were alone. She wanted you to experience the best love that this ton could offer because she wanted you to experience what she luckily had with George. She wanted that future for you.

So it felt so wrong for her to push her nephew closer to you when you clearly held feelings for another person in that room.

After staying silent for a few more minutes, she finally spoke up.

“Beautiful, is it not?” she started, not bothering to turn to you for an answer. You opened your eyes and nodded slowly. “Yes, Your Majesty,” you replied timidly. Her heart felt for you and your insecurity in this society. She hoped that after this conversation, she could bring you the solace you clearly needed. She gently took your hand into her own and led you back into the confines of the Palace. You watched as she navigated through the maze of hallways until she turned the final corner into a room she had been looking for.

You walked inside with awe, reveling in the sight of all the beauty set of crowns and jewels, each sparkling in their own way. She watched you fondly and let you roam around while she spoke. “I may be your Queen, but I know that everyone deserves to find true love.” You turned to her and listened intently. She hesitated before she confessed. “I saw the way you looked at that Bridgerton,” Mx. (l/n).” Your eyes closed tight, thinking that she was talking about Benedict. You were waiting for her to berate you before she said something that truly turned your world off its axis.

“I know Lord Bridgerton. He had a certain reputation in the past, but he is a good man. I have seen how honorable he was in the last season with his sister’s debut.” She walked over to you with a faint smile on her face. “He will be good to you.”

Your brows knit together in pain. Fate continued to push you towards Anthony again and it was only a matter of time before you conceded. You smiled faintly and reached up to rest your hand on the gifted necklace. Your face showed regret and before you could apologize, she shook her head and took your hands into hers. “No, you must forgive me. Though my nephew adores you, I was wrong to introduce you into an environment you were not prepared for,” she said. You were shocked at her willingness to admit defeat, as she was notorious for the opposite. She continued. “Let us leave this event in the past. Though, I want you to promise me that whomever you choose—whether it be Lord Bridgerton or someone else, you will choose to follow with your heart and not with your mind.”

Her eyes swirled with an unlabeled emotion that had finally made you truly look at her. You could tell that she had many stories to tell and a life that must be similar to yours, especially if she was showing this much empathy to you.

When she looked down at your necklace again, she thought to herself for a moment. If this was the last time you could talk to her, then she should give you a parting gift. She guided you towards a set of crown and jewels and touched it daintily. You haven’t looked at it because you were so focused on reading the Queen’s eyes, hoping to understand the motive behind her actions. When she turned to you, she caressed your cheek. You flinched a bit at the sudden contact, but you leaned into it nonetheless.

“This set was what I wore during the coronation. The king oversaw the making of it because he–” she paused for a moment after sudden emotions overwhelmed her at the mention of her husband. You held onto her hand reassuringly. When she finally calmed down, she looked at the jewels again.

“This was my favorite set because he knew that I loved emeralds. He knew because he truly loved me,” she said with a nostalgic expression on her face. You felt for her and with her words, you finally understood why she was being so kind to you. With a content sigh, she lifted the emerald necklace up to show to you. You stepped back in fear of breaking it, but when she held it in front of you, you took the time to admire the simplicity of the necklace. It wasn’t ornate like the one that you wore on your neck. It was simple and pure, just like George’s love for Charlotte. You looked up at her as she pushed them towards you. You immediately choked up and pushed it back. “No, no, I-I can’t–”

“Take it,” she said firmly. You looked down at the necklace again and furrowed your brows. You tried to figure out why the gems looked so similar to you until a certain angle she held the necklace caused the biggest gem to light up in your eyes.

Was that…?

She smiled knowingly at your expression and carefully rested it on the palms of your hands. “Consider it my gift to you, my dear. When you look at it, may you always remember the moment we shared together and your promise to me,” she whispered. You didn’t deserve her and how kind she has been to you. The fact that you lucked out and got the time stone was a miracle.

Before you knew it, you were sniffling in front of the Queen and when you thought she might tease you, she simply gathered you into her arms and gave you a tight, firm embrace. It was an embrace that spoke volumes. It was an embrace that reassured you that you were not alone, and an embrace that taught you that it was okay to open yourself up to love.

When you pulled away from her, she cupped your cheek with her gloved hand and tenderly wiped away the tears you have shed. She felt a motherly duty to you, like somehow, you were someone that meant more to her in another universe than you did in this one.

“Tell Lady Danbury not to take you to the next ball. You will certainly need to rest before heading to the countryside.”

You furrowed your brows in confusion and asked her a question while she led you back to the room. “What ever do you mean, Your Majesty?”

She turned to you with a teasing smile. “Why, Lord Bridgerton will ask you to come to Aubrey Hall for their family’s ball. I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to do so if you told him the truth.”

You closed your eyes nervously as your hand shook in hers. Before she opened the door, she turned to you. “You have my blessing, child. Tell him how you feel. I will go ahead and tell my nephew to leave the room before I have a guard escort you inside.” And with that, she went inside and left you all alone.

You were scared, but with almost all the stones in your possession, this was the only way to get one of the last ones. If you followed Stephen’s advice and had Benedict steal it, Anthony will only assume that Benedict wants you and will see to it that you both be wed. After your realizations today of how much you really fell for the man, marriage to him was the last option. At least with Anthony, he had been nothing but kind and respectful. He may be marrying for duty, but at least he would be willing to wait to propose and fully court you, just like he said with you.

At the same time, how long could you keep your charade up before you lose control and run to Benedict’s arms? It was not helping that Stephen could be spying on your every move anytime he wanted to, so you felt even less inclined to go through with associating with the Bridgertons at all. You were fully aware of the mess you were in and you needed to choose wisely, or else you will be compromised and the mission will be doomed. This situation only proved that love was terrible and made you go through terrible things. You only wished that you never fell in love with him. You wished that you and Stephen worked out. You wished life wasn’t so complicated and choices were not life or death. You had to make a decision fast before they escorted you. You needed to choose with your heart and not with your mind, just like the Queen said.

When they called you to come inside, you locked in on your decision and walked in with a more calm demeanor. Inside the room was a distressed family who was nervous about your condition and most importantly, your thoughts on what just happened this afternoon. It was nearing late into the evening, so this decision would determine whether or not anyone can stomach food tonight.

You took a deep breath and walked up to his family, the Queen’s necklace in your hand. Benedict saw the familiar glow that radiated off of the center gem and when he did, he already knew what you were going to say; who you were going to choose. So, he looked away just as Anthony looked up at you.

He stood up and kissed the back of your hand once more. The Queen seemed to have a happier aura to her after your talk with her. Seeing you with who she perceived to be your true love made her heart warm, knowing that she had done the right thing.

“Mx. (l/n), I must ask for your forgiveness for my bold gesture this afternoon. I realize your anxiousness and how it had to do with the Prince’s reaction to such. Rest assured that I have spoken with him and the Queen about my passionate intentions to court you.” He stood up and delicately held onto your gloved hand and gave you a faint smile. You tried to smile back.

“I wish to ask you if you could accompany me and my family in our ancestral home, Aubrey Hall,” he started before he stared into your eyes with the same passion that sucked you in. You felt uneasy once more. “I have intentions of marrying you, so if you’ll have me, I want to court you exclusively,” he declared, causing Lady Bridgerton to lightly gasp in surprise.

Everyone watched the scene as they waited for your answer. You opened your mouth slowly before his hand crept up to your wrist in a sensual manner. You couldn’t help but feel weak from his dominant aura. “I… wish to court you. You are perfect,” he whispered intimately and your breath hitched in your throat. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, now ready to declare what you think to be the right decision.

“Yes. I accept. You shall court me exclusively and I will happily spend time with your family in Aubrey Hall.”

Everyone cheered at the news while you and Benedict tried not to cry.

You had chosen with your mind.

———

tag list: @clockblobber @liathachcapricious @heliosphere8 @notyuralycat @mischiefmanaged71 @cleverzonkwombatsludge @olixerwxxd @ghost-lantern @fangirling-galore @marvelsmylife @asexualaromosafezone @wolf-phoenix-lover @v0idl1nq @abbygraceasd @splintered-emotions @luvmeijii @mando-is-the-way @miiikkeey

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yostresswritinggirl · 3 years

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Meister of the Stars

Genshin Impact College!AU but it’s in canon universe with canon elements

Otherwise: Hogwarts in Teyvat, Sumeru Academia

Welcome to Exiled’s first public domain post! What does that mean? Well that just means that this work is entirely repriseable and can be used by other authors for their own plots, fics, stories, or even AU characters. So long as you credit me appropriately by either tagging this post or just tagging my url hehe.

Why is this Public Domain? It’s too big and extensive of a plot for me to write alone and I’m sure other authors can do this plot justice than I do. Besides, with my schedule and writing manner, I won’t be delving into this plot anytime soon. Or at all.

Story Prologue Summary:

Sumeru Academia, the oasis of knowledge in the vast continent of Teyvat, is a constitution inhabiting scholars around the world. Within its walls harbors great minds and masters of elemental prowess and higher intelligence. Only select people can enter or even pass the trials of the scholars, some are gifted by invitation by the Headmaster and leader of the nation, the Dendro Archon.

When you had been gifted your Dendro Vision one day when you encountered and rejuvenated one of the many ley lines connecting the world together, it was guaranteed the next day that you were to receive a letter by a majestic hawk: within its claws it clutched a cured scroll, locked by a tie and the logo of Dendro, and the insignia of the famed Academia.

The Archon, shut and reserved as he may be, he knows and keeps close the gifted ones who received a sprinkle of his power.

Sumeru Academia does not value itself with how long you had been under scholarly guidance, students are not recognized by how many years they have been in the constitution, no. Instead the students are split into three different systems of prestige: elemental, mastery, and admission.

Elemental System separates students into different, well, elements corresponding to their Visions: Dendro, Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, Electro, Geo and Anemo. There are no titles do scholars who enter the Academia, but scholarly jargons had opted for either ‘awakening’ or ‘waiting shell’, because more often than not, many scholars had been blessed while inside the walls of the Academia, as well as the obvious fact that being blessed by a Vision comes at a natural time and age in your life.

Mastery System comes in four main hierarchies and two sub-categories, all of which are determined by the Trials of the Scholars upon being allowed admission into the Academia. The four main hierarchies are classified by prestige stars or which the amount you are allowed pinned on your Academian sash:

Six stars are those who come near the grace of Celestia’s understanding of the universe, very rarely are scholars placed into this category, and many scholars even dispute the existence of such a class. However, they do exist as they are honored by the God of Wisdom himself deeming them to carry the blessings of the wisdoms from the stars. A Six star only comes one in a generation, some say. Many speculations linked to this class are supernatural and absurd rumors.

Five stars are those who master the flow of their visions powered by their undeniable talents in their major scholarly interest, renowned as true geniuses of their professions, a lot of them turn into prodigies after leaving the Academia and even serving under ruling kingdoms with high roles.

Four stars are the base level a Vision-holder can reach and is the starting system for said Vision-holders; even tho this is the default level of Vision holders, wielders of Visions in Academia are not to be trifled with, as they are expected to exceed their mastery over Vision-holders residing outside the Academia.

Three stars are non-Vision scholars that have an adeptness in both academics and weapon mastery, they are proficient in combat prowess enough to par those who have basic grasp of their Visions outside of the Academia. Most three star scholars are also known to have a higher chance of receiving their Visions.

There has been no record of Two Stars or One Star scholars in the records of the Academia.

Sub-category of the Mastery System are reliant on physical properties of a scholar: Adepts are those with mixed blood with mystical beings of the continent, or simply put, scholars that are not just of mortal origins. Mortals are simply normal mortals. These sub-category, meaningless as it may seem, are actually used to observe patterns for research purposes regarding power and skill differences.

Admission System is the plainest and easiest judge for all scholars and is not that much given attention to unlike the other systems, except for the last one. Entrance Admission simply means you have taken the appropriate customary tests of the mind, body and element (if you are a Vision-wielder) and passed the marks to enter the Academia. Letter of Recommendation means that you were either transferred from another academy besides Sumeru or some prestigious bloodline convinced the headmasters of Sumeru to allow such easy admission. Meisters are those who wield Dendro Visions with full potential, invited by the Dendro Archon himself to join the ranks of the Academia.

During the Rite of Prominence in the main hall of the Academia, the Dendro Archon descends from his temple to hold this important annual event for new scholars, together with the Headmasters. Rite of Prominence is where new scholars are given their first prestige systems, and those who are convinced to have ascended gets their new titles.

Your knees almost buckled when your name echoed through the wide building, calling you upon the presence of the Headmasters to finally receive your classification. Your first friend and fellow newcomer Chongyun pats you in the back, urging you to approach the aisle that leads to the stage up front. His smile was enough to push your legs to a subtle tremble as you made your way through the carpeted path, standing before the Headmasters.

There was a beat of silence and unmoving, and then the Headmaster starts to raise his hand- before the Dendro Archon himself suddenly stands up from his large throne of a seat at the very back. The movement caused a series of gasps to erupt from the scholars and staff behind you, and you must have hallucinated one from the cloaked Headmasters, as the God of Wisdom made his way to stand in front of you.

His presence was both ethereal and overwhelming as his imposing figure looms over you. You politely raised your head to rest your view by the bridge of his nose, not wanting to offend by making direct contact. “Child,” he extends his large hand and you looked at it, “Your hand.” Your eyes fleet back to his with wary but his gaze softened in assurance. With a sharp inhale, you finally placed your hand into his-

And a burst of gold streams flew out from your connected hands, with enough force to send a pulse of a wave through the building. Hanging cloths were whisked by the elemental burst, flames of candles extinguished, as suddenly all the Visions in the building began glowing. You blinked the surge of nausea away, and it was only the Dendro Archon that noticed the golden glow that pulsed from your iris, and looked around in confusion.

“(Y/N) (L/N),” you felt the hand under your palm move away as six glowing rocks manifested and twirled around you. Scholars knowledgeable enough gasped once again at the sight. And you warily watched the glowing rocks forge themselves into star-shaped badges, slowing down as they descend in front of you and on to your palm. “Welcome to this new age, Six Stars Meister of the Stars.” And the hall blows into a series of thunderous claps.

(This area is a WIP)

In the back of the Ancient libraries of Sumeru Academia resides the domain of the record holder, and there upon are bookshelves of numerous records about every scholar that has been admitted into the Academia. Each book corresponds to a student and its first pages carry their basic information, however the pages after that are hexed with powerful lexical charms to make it unreadable to anyone that dare looks at the other pages:

Albedo: Geo Vision. A Five Star, Adept scholar who has been in the Academia for two years through a letter of recommendation. Albedo is a master of the sword too, but his expertise lies in his expert handling of the concept of Alchemy. Hailing from an unknown continent, Albedo aims to spread his knowledge and master it enough to become a Six Star, a prestige title his master once held before mysteriously disappearing. Upon your appearance, the master alchemist had been not so subtly observing and following you around whenever you were in the vicinity. You're not sure if you saw this right, but when you once had seen his passing look, you swore you saw a slight squint when he looks down at your sash.

Amber: Pyro Vision. A Four Star, Mortal hailing from Mondstadt. Her grandfather was an alumni of the Academia who mastered the arts of gliding, and was thus allowed the opportunity to accept his letter of recommendation for Amber when she reached the age of 15. She continued her grandfather's work in the Academia and carried the Outrider title, focusing on aerodynamics and her bow mastery. Seeing as she was around your age range but having been admitted years prior, Amber took it upon herself to tour you around the campus and also introduce you to her friends from Mond. During the weekends, you find yourself gliding over the university's towering buildings with her.

Baizhu

Beidou

Bennett

Chongyun: Cryo Vision. A Four Star, Mortal from Liyue with ties to the spiritual realm. His expertise in exorcism had earned him the title of Master of Spirits despite being a newcomer, and many of services are seeked out even in the new continent. With his mischievous Liyuean friends, he's seen roaming around the halls of the Academia during ungodly hours. Chongyun was your first friend in the Academia after you both rendezvous at the entrance as newcomers and finding solace with the company of each other. When you earned your Six Stars title, Chongyun had become protective of you yet still treated you as a normal friend, not wanting you to think he was only there for prestige. During random nights, you'd find yourself in the darkest and secluded areas of the Academia as he pulls you around with Xingqiu, hoping to find roaming spirits of scholars from years ago.

Collei

Cyno: Pyro Vision. A Five Star, Mortal that had been in the Sumeru Academia for years. He is one of the senior scholars and running for Headmaster after his graduation. In the Pyro Visions, he is one of the renowned masters of the element, and can usually be found tending the books of the ancient libraries of the Academia. As of Sumerian descent and strong ties with the Academia, under the buddy system Cyno became your senior buddy on your first year to make sure you do not incur a failing grade nor misunderstood the practices and customs of the Academia. Because of this, you meet with him daily for check-ups and tutoring.

Diluc

Fischl

Ganyu

Jean

Kaeya

Keqing

Lisa

Mona

Razor

Sucrose: Anemo Vision. A Four Star, Adept of an unknown cat species from Mondstadt. Master of Bio-Alchemy as renowned of her multiple contributions to the field, Sucrose made her way to Sumeru Academia at the news that it harbors the one and only Master of Alchemy in it. She passed the entrance exam with expected ease and has then exhausted the laboratories and resources of the Academia for her researches. You've ran into her once when you were lost in the halls of the large Academia, stumbling on her unsupervised experiments in one of the laboratories. Her cat ears caught your attention and had since then become engrossed in researching about it, with her next to you, you were both brought together into a friendship focused on nature and a thirst for discovery.

Tartaglia: Hydro Vision. A Five Star, Mortal that carried with him a different aura opposite of the stars. Childe entered the Academia after near perfecting all his scores in all the tests, before the Headmasters realized that he carried a letter of recommendation from the Tsaritsa, which was then useless by the time he revealed it. One of the few Masters of Hydro, Childe was more fond and known in the arts of combat, Warmonger was a title he was more confident in as he shows prowess in all weaponry he touches. When Childe heard about the existence of a Six Star, his first instinct was to test out the difference between him and the fabled child. But his mastery in combat alone was enough to show he was still ever more superior. Irked yet still curious of a hidden potential, Childe ended up tortur- tutoring you in mastering weapon proficiency. He manages to persuade you in his test spars (still looking for that six star glory) by a promise of an expensive dinner everytime. Damn rich people.

Venti: Anemo Vision. A Five Star, Adept that was personally invited by the Dendro Archon after his retirement from his position as archon of Mondstadt. Despite the idea being absolutely preposterous and against his principles, clearly he had nothing better to do, he was ultimately persuaded after hearing his fellow retired archon resided in the Academia as well. The Master of Winds and Weaver of Tales had become your partner in your Anemo classes, and what better way to teach you about Anemo than flinging you into the sky to 'feel the fresh air' up there? He'd always make sure that you were there everytime he performed for the Academia, and lingers around you whenever you were free just to loiter around before the next class.

Xiangling:

Xiao: Anemo Vision. Five Star, Adept that passed the examination in hopes to follow his master in search for the truth. Master of the Polearm is the title he boasts, and a lot of pupils under him are always devastated upon entering combat with him. Although he's only been there for a year, he has secretly been enjoying the new atmosphere. Xiao had noticed you during the Rite of Prominence when he felt the familiar touch of the Gods, and he had found that whenever you are near, there is a cleansing aura that silences the demonic whispers in his head. Ever since then he'd be found usually in your vicinity yet unapproaching, subtle. When Zhongli officially entrusted him of your safety during your stay in the Academia, he doesn't know whether to scuff or sigh in relief as he was finally introduced.

Xingqiu

Zhongli: Geo Vision. A Five Star Adept that was also invited by the God of Wisdom but was dependently persuaded by Venti. He carries with him 6000 years of knowledge and had since then assisted in collating those sacred years to be immortalized in the Academia's libraries. As the Wielder of Earth he prides himself with his elemental mastery despite the removal of his true power, and yet he is more known of his title as Historian of the Wars. Zhongli was no ordinary student, he carries himself like that of a Headmaster and yet he does not situate himself with matters of either scholar of staff interests. You encountered him during a nightly walk to calm yourself over the burden of your academics and Meister title, and his presence had been the best comfort. Ever since then you'd always find him when you need him, and he always helps you with any troubles, if you count a 500 words dialogue as such.

Storyline - Arcs

Arc Socrates : the foundation

i. Rite of Prominence - earning ones title

ii. Welcome to Sumeru Academia - the dormitories

iii. The Seven Majors - first classes for the seven corresponding elements

iv. Buddy System - newcomers are always paired with senior scholars on their first year in the Academia

v. Labyrinth - the libraries of Sumeru Academia is large and secretive, hence the perfect domain for treasure hunt exercises

vi. Combat Mastery - dive into the trials of weapons, another major

vii. Science Side of Sumeru (SSS) - numerous laboratories harbor different individuals and strands, from alchemy to biology to— wine-making?

ending. The Walk of Scholars - every midyear, scholars are entitled to a week long fieldtrip/vacation in the nation of Sumeru, beyond the walls of the Academia

Plato : the calling of the stars

i. The Midyear Examinations - annual exam to retest your standing in the Academia

ii. Divine Intervention - archonistic convention of a looming celestial presence

iii. The Leyline Disorder - a leyline in the Academia became corrupted, forcing a halt in the academics as malignous forces plague the Academia

iv. The First Miracle - as the Six Stars scholar with a touch blessed by the stars, you were the only one to succeed in repairing the problem

ending. Advancement of Medicine - after the First Miracle, the Six Star scholar was plagued with eternal sleep. With this new case, the Academia scrambles for medical intervention

*shrugs*

This is not a series I'll be working on, but may be referenced in oneshots in the future.

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today-only-happens-once · 4 years

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Thoughts on “Flirting with Social Anxiety”: Roman, Virgil, Bravery, and Self-Worth

I originally started by just keeping a running list of thoughts in my head as I watched the “Flirting with Social Anxiety” video for the second time through. But then it started getting long and involved, so I elected to just make a specific post for some of the reflections and analysis my thoughts started to follow down the rabbit hole.

Obligatory reminder that this is just my interpretation of the canon work. You may disagree or interpret things differently, and that’s totally valid. These are just some of my thoughts and where this video (deemed “essential viewing” for the canon story by Thomas) fits in the broader narrative with relation to character arcs (specifically Roman).

Without further ado, here are some thoughts on the new Sanders Asides video. Apologies for the length. Turns out, I have a lot to say.

I first found it interesting that the beginning of the video involves a series of scenarios in which Virgil and Roman repeatedly call out Thomas’s lying. First is the movie ticket (though Thomas rightfully defends that it’s not his fault), then the store alarm, and then several other examples--most of which we do not know the actual scenario involved. Given that Virgil has been at odds with Janus repeatedly and heatedly in the past, and the way things ended in “Putting Others First” between Roman and Janus (specifically Roman expressing concern that Thomas will not know where to draw the line between selfishness and taking care of yourself), it makes sense that they would be vigilant against Thomas lying. Perhaps it’s even directly a result of Janus becoming more accepted as a part of Thomas, though we don’t know that for sure.

I think the first big hint we get regarding Roman’s lingering and worsening self-worth issues is a brief line during the food court scene. Roman is forcing Thomas up while Virgil is pulling him back down to sit. When Virgil snaps “Roman, you’re making a mistake!”, Roman immediately shoots back, “If I am, I’ll add it to the list!” and shoves Thomas forward. And honestly, it’s not an unfounded thing for Roman to say.

He makes a mistake in the way he treats Virgil early on, he makes a mistake trying to convince Thomas to win back his ex during the Moving On arc, he makes a mistake with the lyrics in 12 Days, he makes a perceived mistake by causing Thomas to choose a cute boy over Joan’s play in Can Lying Be Good, he makes a perceived mistake wanting the callback, and then another mistake by forcing Thomas to attend the wedding instead... The list goes on. (Is it any wonder that he says “mistakes” when Thomas asks how he used to learn things in “Learning New Things About Ourselves”?) It might also be worth noting that nearly all of these mistakes are rooted in somethin Roman wants for Thomas.

And it is the most recent mistakes (relating to the callback) that have the most narrative weight at the moment. Even though the plot surrounding the callback has moved on, the aftershocks of its ramifications still are impacting characters--perhaps Roman especially. And this video works specifically to make that apparent. Just take a look at the reactions and camera/POV choices during the mirror monologue.

Thomas mentions a few times in the course of that monologue the idea that he isn’t sure what he wants anymore; the first being acknowledgement that the mall is the place you go when you’re not sure what you want, and again when Thomas says specifically that he doesn’t know what he wants. Both times Thomas speaks to that, the attention is on Roman. In fact, the second time where Thomas is speaking directly about himself and how he doesn’t know what he wants? Roman is looking at Thomas, which makes sense because Thomas is really speaking about Roman when he says that. Because all the times in recent canon that Roman has wanted something for Thomas, it has backfired and it has hurt parts of himself (i.e. other “Sides”, and sometimes Roman himself).

Though it’s also worth noting, through the course of the mirror monologue, the moments the camera/POV focuses on Virgil. Thomas makes the comment that he doesn’t know anything, least of all himself (and the focus on Virgil in that moment brings to mind that the reveal that Virgil used to be one of the Others). He also says “I know that if I don’t act on these feelings right now, I’m going to regret it” and again, we see a focus on Virgil. Because in this video thus far, Virgil is the one that has been keeping Thomas from “acting on these feelings”.

I’m not saying anything you all don’t already know. But this is sort of a “present the evidence before you state your case” kind of situation. Heh.

The vigilance and call-outs against lying that I mentioned earlier lends a certain credence to the confrontation that Roman and Virgil have with Thomas after he exits the bathroom. The fact that it is Virgil that initiates that confrontation I think is especially interesting. Furthermore, Virgil goes so far as to use the term “deceit” when he says “will deceit continue to be the answer to all of your problems?”. That term carries a very specific weight in this series. I don’t mean to suggest (necessarily) that Virgil is speaking directly about Janus. Time will tell when the script releases, but I don’t think Virgil means “Deceit”. But I also don’t think that it’s an accident that he uses that word (or that the team wrote the script having him use that word). Given that Virgil was absent in the last video, where Janus became a more accepted part of Thomas, this confrontation about Thomas’s pattern of behavior in this episode is a useful reminder for the character of Thomas and us as an audience that all Sides of Thomas need to be kept in check once in a while.

But relatedly, Thomas’s conclusion that “he’s better off without me” is an interesting echo of his on-going canonical crisis about whether or not he’s a good person. In this confrontation scene, Roman and Virgil establish that starting a relationship with lies means that the relationship itself won’t be a good one. The blow that seems to cause (or rather, bring to the surface) on Thomas’s self-esteem is an interesting turn--precisely because Roman is no small part of that self-esteem and the issues it’s having. I think it’s a useful and telling glance into some of Roman’s psyche that, while he may be reluctant to admit it, is directly influencing Thomas.

And that issue of self-worth that is first suggested by the aforementioned “he’s better off without me” gets echoed directly by Roman only a moment later. When he says “one more chance at happiness squandered”, the use of more suggests that he’s not just talking about talking to a cute boy at the mall. He’s talking about all the other chances at happiness that have been squandered--most recently, the callback. The fact that Roman follows it by saying “it’s probably for the best” is an indirect reflection of just a moment ago with Thomas’s “he’s better off without me”. They are, effectively, saying the same thing there. And it strengthens the notion that the comment from Thomas is really rooted in Roman’s self-worth issues.

Which is precisely why Virgil bein the one to shove Thomas forward to talk to the boy is such a big deal. Because Virgil--anxious, panicky (in this video) Virgil--essentially decides no. No, it’s not for the best. That chance of happiness matters, and is worth the perceived risk. What Roman wants matters. And Virgil backs that idea up with decisive, meaningful action more than just words. (I will never not be emotional about it).

And also... it pays off. And that’s so important for Roman. Because when was the last time that what Roman wanted paid off? I listed his perceived mistakes earlier. None of those, as far as I think Roman would understand, have paid off for him. It’s been a long time since what Roman wanted paid off and was seen as good by others, y’know?

I think that’s why Roman describes Virgil’s shove as “bravery”. I think it’s more than just Roman saying “I know that was scary for you and thank you for doing it anyway” (though there’s an element to that). I think Roman was afraid. I think calling what Virgil did an act of “bravery” might also be Roman saying “you were braver than I, and I am grateful for that”. Because Roman could have been the one to shove Thomas forward. He didn’t. Virgil did. And for Roman, that’s maybe a sign that someone else still thinks that what he wants can be good and right and worth it.

(Side tangent that it’s also an interesting reflection back to that first episode when Roman claimed “rejection” as something he fears, and again in Fitting In when he acknowledges that Virgil has “been a little too familiar with rejection nad has had his fill”. Just another layer added to the continuing thematic thread about bravery and fear and rejection).

Right now, its impossible to know for sure exactly why this video was deemed as “essential viewing” for the broader narrative of Sanders Sides. Maybe Nico will be mentioned in videos going forward, or maybe not. But this video definitely seems to have significance for Roman’s character arc and his continuing development, particularly as it relates to his worsening self-esteem issues. I am beyond excited to see where exactly this leads us, and the broader narrative implications of this key moment for Roman (and Virgil too).

#sanders sides #roman sanders #sanders asides #sanders sides meta #sanders sides analysis #virgil sanders #sanders sides spoilers #ts spoilers #long post

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About "Eda's Requiem" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...

...HOW IS SEASON TWO SO GOOD?! WE'VE HAD SEVEN EPISODES SO FAR, AND EACH ONE OF THEM WAS A HIT!

Take "Eda's Requiem," for example. It's yet another episode where I have NOTHING bad to say about it! That's two weeks in a row where that happened! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!

HOW!

...But anyways, "Eda's Requiem." It's another fantastic episode, and I'm about to dive into explaining how and why. Just keep in mind, it's gonna require spoilers to do so, so be wary of that as you keep reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Eda’s Checklist and Grom Photo: Within the first second, "Eda's Requiem" perfectly sets up Eda's central conflict in the episode. Despite spending years being on her own and looking after herself, she now has two kids that she's constantly caring over. Eda can try all she wants to say that she doesn't care, and I bet she has in the past. But given the hard work she's putting into getting King and Luz what they need and having a grom photo of the three of them together pinned in her mirror, it's pretty clear that those two knuckleheads wormed their way into her heart and are never getting out.

Eda’s Worried About King and Luz Leaving: And thus, that's precisely why something like this bothers her so much. Eda inadvertently adopted two rambunctious rapscallions (Yeah, I know. I'll get to it), so the idea of them not being around her anymore is going to be terrifying. That is a situation most parents, especially mothers, can identify with. It’s called empty nest syndrome and it proves just how much Eda loves Luz and King that she can't stand the thought of her babies leaving the nest. It's yet another well-made, wholesome, found-family moment that this series continues to excel at each week, making me extra excited for more like it to come...while also readying myself for heartbreak when one of them eventually does leave Eda.

Eda and Raine’s Music: Ok, I don't know the exact instruments that were played during this episode, but I also don't care because it was all (for lack of a better term) music to my ears. Every time Eda and Raine played resulted in melodies that are so beautiful and filled with so much emotion and feeling that I'm honestly tempted to listen to them again, multiple times, on repeat. Shows rarely do that for me, as background music doesn't always draw me in as much as lyrical songs do. Usually, it takes something so extraordinarily composed to give me the desire to listen again, and that's the case here. So huge congrats to Brad Breek for doing so. Seriously, the man's been killing it this season.

Eda’s Bard Magic Causing Things to Turn to Ash: This was assuredly a surprise side-effect of the curse. The fact that Eda can sort of do magic at all was its own shock. To then reveal that a specific type can do dangerous things to people and environments is...Well, it definitely brings up its own fair share of questions. Like, how can she do this? Will she do it again, one day? And are there other types of spells that can be negatively affected by Eda's curse? We don't get answers for any of these questions, and odds are, we never will. But that's alright with me. Because if a show makes me consider these many possibilities after a brief amount of time, it is a show that has to be doing something right. Even if I don't get the answers I want, the fact that it caused such a reaction makes me less willing to care.

Raine Whispers: Hey, would you look at that. Another fun, interesting, and compelling character added to the list of this shows' other fun, interesting, and compelling characters...how is this series so good at this!?

Joking aside, Raine's pretty good. I like Raine. They could have been this super serious leader who lost all their fun after years apart from Eda, but I'm glad that they're not. There are moments when Raine takes their job as leader of the BATs seriously, as one would, but I still prefer the fact that they kept a jovial nature despite how grim their situation is. It's an admirable trait to have, and it avoids the trope of making leader characters boring just because they're the ones who have to take things seriously.

Oh, and also, Raine's Disney's first non-binary character who has a stake in the plot. This is a tremendous deal, as you don't usually see that many non-binary characters in children's animation, let alone ones that hold importance to the story. So it's pretty cool for the writers to feature Raine, as it helps several kids feel as though they're finally seen and respected. And the fact that Disney of all companies gave the thumbs up is even more impressive. I hear people say that Dana Terrace should have pitched The Owl House to more progressive networks to avoid pushback, and while I absolutely see your point, I'll have to respectfully disagree. Disney is the largest entertainment industry of all time, so if you want to make LGBTQA+ representation normalized, you gotta stop making splashes and start making waves. Because if the same company that made three racist cats in the span of a few years manages to say that being gay is a-ok, then you know there's something wrong with you. Yes, Disney ended up screwing over the show anyway. But for that one moment, when kids felt pride after seeing a character like Raine, then, in the end, it's kind of worth it.

Also, if you're still having issues with more representation like this popping up in kids' shows, then allow me to redirect you to the complaint department.

...I made that post earlier today for this bit. YOU HAVE BETTER APPRECIATED IT!

Day of Unity is meant to be a Secret: At least, that's what I got when Raine stumbled over their own words. So if it's true, then I wonder why? Why does Belos want to keep the most critical change in the Boiling Isles a secret? Does he want to make it a surprise for his grateful subjects, or does he not want to spread worry and fear amongst the wild witches? It has to be something big if he doesn't want his followers to even say the words "Day of Unity." Whatever reason he has, we most likely won't know until the future. A future that I grow more and more afraid of each week.

Hooty Eating Echo Mouse: My heart sank in that brief moment when I thought that Hooty intensely screwed Luz over in getting back home. But looking back...it is pretty funny.

Just the suddenness of Hooty eating the poor creature that Luz desperately tried to earn its trust is priceless in how shocking it was. And also, Luz's expression.

That was the look of a young girl who immediately shoved her hand down an owl demon's throat the second the scene cut away. The Owl House may not always be a hit in the comedy department, but scenes like this prove that when it's funny, it is hilarious.

Luz and King Entering the Grand Prix: Not much to discuss here. It's just a cute subplot that adds frivolity to the intensity of what's going on through Eda and Raine's story. But I will say that I love how both stories occasionally interconnect with each other through the many moments of Eda being worried about King wanting to leave to find his father and avoiding any conversation about it. It helps both plotlines feel like they belong together, without being something like "Through the Looking Glass Ruins," whereas both stories could have been in their own episode. Which is neat.

How Bard Magic Works: I really love how this season is diving into how the other magic types work. More specifically, the ones that seem a little vague. I mean, stuff like healing, potions, and plants are easy to figure out, but what does it mean when a witch's talents are construction, beast keeping, and bard magic? We've been getting a lot of clearing up lately, with bard magic looking like a witch can control their environments and enemies through the power of music. Which is fair. Music is pretty powerful in the metaphorical sense, and I actually love that it's powerful in the literal sense when in the Boiling Isles.

The BATs: Not much to comment on these three either. The BATs have the potential to have an entertaining dynamic, but they do very little in this episode that I can't say much other than I hope they make a return in the future. But I will make this claim: Amber is my favorite. I'm sorry, but her screaming "You're not our mom!" to then go, "Bye, mommy Eda" is just too precious for me not to love.

I'm a simple man who falls for cute s**t. Leave me alone.

Raeda (RainexEda): Well, EdaxCamila, you were a fun crack ship while it lasted, but I'm afraid that this is now goodbye. The current canon has provided an incredibly adorable and believable relationship that I would be a monster not to support with my whole bi-heart. It's been real.

Ok, back in serious mode: I love these two together. Eda and Raine are grown-ups, and they still act all flustered near each other as if they were still Luz and Amity's age. It's definitive proof that you're never too old to get flustered near a crush, and seeing them interact adds a sense of wholesomeness when seeing them together as well as heartbreak when they're forced apart. Plus, we get confirmation that Eda's LGBTQA+! Whether she's bi, pan, or whatever, now that we know Eda can catch feelings for someone like Raine, it's yet another case that The Owl House is the most important series to the community. Because having the main character be queer is fantastic in its own right. But having the same apply to the motherly mentor figure? That's is an extra bit of normalization that anybody would be willing to appreciate.

Unique Guard Designs: Not many fans are going to appreciate this, primarily compared to everything else this episode does perfectly. For me, I actually like that you see a few Coven Guards looking differently from the others, as it helps make them less like clones and makes it seem like anybody of any body type could be a part of the coven.

Gus Looking Uninterested when Presenting Grand Prix with his Dad: I am positive that you didn't notice this (I didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out), but there's something to dissect here. It hints that perhaps Gus isn't as interested in his father's field of work as one might think. If he did, he would look a lot less bored and much more excited to be helping Perry Porter present the race. It could just be the race itself, but judging from Gus' expression, it really seems like the kid would prefer to be anywhere but there. And why would he have that reaction to a race that his best friend is competing in? To me, this seems like an inkling of what Gus' relationship with Perry could be, which may not actually get time to shine, what with how little wiggle room the series has now (Thanks Disney). Regardless, it is interesting to notice, and it will certainly have fans thinking for a while.

Bump Being Smug of Luz Being in the Lead: That's it. Principal Bump looking smug as his human student is beating the students of his rivals is yet another moment that proves why Bump is easily the best cartoon principal.

Darius: First of all, this guy is f**king fabulous, and I love him. *Snaps*

Second, he is definitive proof that you do NOT want to f**k around with Coven Leaders. Lilith may have had her intimidating moments, but none of them compare to the guy who can turn himself into an abomination monster where only magic that hasn't existed before can take him down. It's genuinely scary to see Darius lose control, and I fear for the day when Luz inevitably ends up in his crosshairs.

With that said, Darius' still a ton of fun! He may be threatening, but he's just a flamboyant guy that hates the idea of getting his outfit the tiniest bit dirty. And I love that. I love that these Coven Heads have actual personalities instead of being generically evil. I consider it preferable to make villains entertaining rather than blatantly scary as I'll remember the personalities first and the villainous acts last.

Eberwolf: But this one's my favorite. I told you: I'm a simple man who gets easily swayed by cute s**t. And Eber? I mean, just look at her:

She's just a cute widdle rascal! I just want to pinch her cheeks, give her a belly rub, and--

...Eberwolf is not a cute widdle rascal. She is a strong, independent woman, and I will respect her as such from this moment forward...lest I feel her wrath.

That is all. Let's move on.

Eda and Raine Attempting a Final Performance: This was the best scene of the episode. It looked gorgeous, it shows the dedication Eda and Raine have for stopping Belos, and it says so much through so little. Go back and look at how Eda and Raine regard one another when performing Eda's requiem. Through their expressions and a few short words, you know they understand that if they complete the song/spell, they probably won't make it in the end. And yet, they don't care. They both know bad stuff will happen if Belos wins, so Eda and Raine put everything to the side, both their feelings for one another and the people they leave behind if it means putting an end to a tyrant. That level of dedication...Words can't fully describe how powerful that is.

Raine Sacrificing Themselves Instead: But in the end, Raine can't do it. Not when they know the life that Eda has and the people she'll be leaving behind. It's an extra bit of nobleness to the character seeing that Raine refuses to take away a woman from two kids who need her the most. A tad bit selfish, sure, knowing what Belos has planned. But when it comes to love, the romantic, familial, or platonic, the best decisions aren't always the logical ones.

Eda Crying: Luz crying tears me up, but seeing Eda cry is a whole different level of heartbreak. Like Lilith, Eda has her emotions locked up tight, with the closest she came to weeping were those two tears in "Young Blood, Old Souls." In "Eda's Requiem," she cries but almost quickly stops herself. As if she knows that doing so isn't going to save Raine. That is...even worse than seeing Luz break down after losing Eda. The fact that Eda refuses to give herself time to mourn losing someone she loved is tragic because crying is the most natural way of showing grief. Turning that off isn't healthy, and seeing her do it with little resistance is sad to me. It's sad to see a character I love can easily shut off all emotions despite how badly she may want to embrace them. It's one of those moments that, again, by doing so little, it shows so much.

“No one watches Crystal Balls anymore. It’s all about streaming.”: Oof. Even I felt that burn towards cable.

King’s Message: King's message was the pick-me-up I needed after the heart-wrenching sadness this episode put me through a few minutes ago. Seeing King say who he is and listing all the things he loves is nothing short of adorable. On top of that, I adore that Eda willingly recorded the whole thing. She may not want King to leave, but that doesn't mean she'll sabotage the one thing he wants. Especially not after Raine gave up everything so Eda could be with her kids. The opening scene may prove how much Eda cares about a rascal like King, but this heartwarmingly sweet moment reveals just how far she'll go to make him happy.

King’s Dad Reveal: ...ok, I'll be honest, I did not think we'd get that reveal this soon. Dumb of me to say, considering the number of times I've said that these writers don't waste time getting to the s**t, I know. But still, it's pretty cool knowing that King's dad is alive and well, added with the fact that we've got a fair idea of what he looks like. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we see him figure out where the Clawthorne residence is and witness the tear-jerking moments that will follow.

King Changing his Name to King Clawthorne: Not the official adoption I was expecting Eda to make...but DANG IT, is it still diabetes-inducing levels of sweetness!

Personally, I feel like the main reason why Eda breaks down this time is not only because she shouldn't be worried about King leaving her life, but also because Raine's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her kids really do need Eda because no matter how far apart they'll be, she will always be a part of their life...dang it, I'm going to cry too!

What those Coven patches really do: Well...that was horrifying to see.

...Writers, if you kill off the best non-binary character in animation (it's a short list, I know), we are going to have PROBLEMS!

IN CONCLUSION

"Eda's Requiem" is--surprise surprise--another A+. The emotions hit hard, the representation hits harder, Raine is a fantastic addition to the cast, and it was all surprisingly cute at times. Season Two is currently on a hot streak, constantly winning with every episode that's come out so far. When a bad episode does eventually show up (IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!), I'll be sure to sing my requiem then. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride.

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #the owl house reviews #eda clawthorne #raine whispers #raeda #king of demons #toh darius #toh eberwolf #what i thought about

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luzswonderland · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on Season 2 Thus Far..

I gonna keep most of my thoughts on all the episodes brief, but also long enough where you guys can get the idea of where these episodes stand in levels of importance to me. I already have a lot personal favorites in this first half of the season and hope that the second half will deliver the same energy.

EPISODE 1: Separate Tides

Good episode to start off the second season

Episode does a good job of addressing the different circumstances that Eda, Lilith, and Luz have with adjusting to life after the events of “Young Blood, Old Souls.”

We see the Golden Guard for the first time. With a voice too. I have more to say about him later when I get to the future episodes. But he is a treat!

The reintroduction of the portal and Emperor Belos’ plans for the human world in this episode, does a good job of reminding the audience of what is as stake this season.

Adore Luz and Eda’s pirate outfits ❤

Overall, a strong start to a very ambitious season.

Episode 2: Escaping Expulsion (Personal Favorite)

We finally see Amity’s parents!!!

Wasn’t expecting Odalia’s eyes to be blue, but both parents fit the personalities I originally envisioned them to have

Luz teaching Eda and Lilith to use magic through the glyphs was so cute and shows how different both Eda and Lilith are when it comes to approaching magic

Love how Amity’s separation from Luz was the trigger that caused her to stand up to her parents

Even though I kinda knew the expulsion from Hexside wasn’t going to permanent, it still shows how much pull Amity’s parents have at Hexside and the Boiling Isles.

Looks like the abominations that Alador has made for profit will be used to fulfill whatever plans Emperor Belos has for the human world.

Loved Amity and Luz’s interactions!!!

Episode 3: Echoes of the Past (Personal Favorite)

Fantastic King centered episode

I know that invisibility spell will come in handy in one of the later episodes. Good job, Luz

Hooty and Lilith are a riot this episode. Was not expecting them to get along at all this season.

I thought the show was going to make them polar opposites, but good to see that Hooty has a fan in the house.

King trying to remember his past and recounting his childhood memories was so sad because you realize that he has been trying to find out who he really is this entire time😭

The temple where King was born holds so much history and I hope we go back there soon

Will we find out what happened to King’s dad? What potential does King hold? Find out next time on DBZ!!!

Episode 4: Keeping Up A-fear-ances

Finally get to see Eda and Lilith’s mom and her palisman’s a hawk.

Love the pattern of all members of the Clawthorne family having bird themed palismen. I wonder what palisman Eda’s dad has.

Love how the episode addresses the blatant issue that Gwendolyn has with trying to find a cure for Eda. She cares for her daughter, but she is being blinded by ambition

The scams in the book she was reading were kinda funny tho

Lilith being upset that her mom favors Edal more than her is relatable, but also makes sense considering how the curse impacted Eda’s childhood

Lilith wanting to travel with her mom makes sense and I’m happy she made the decision to do that

Lilith’s beast from is cool

We finally get more information about there being another human that came to the Boiling Isles long ago!!!

We finally catch up with what’s going on at home and see that Luz’s imposter is blending in just fine and Camila is none the wiser. At least that buys Luz some time in the Boiling Isles

Episode 5: Through the Looking Glass Ruins

We get a Gus-centered episode and I’m here for it. I love it when the show deviates from the main narrative and focuses on the supporting cast

Even though I’m not the biggest fans of their personalities, the introduction of the students from Glandus High was great

I really love the character designs of these students, especially Bria, she looks so cute

Gus getting more character development and bonding with Mattholomule was good to see, I hope we see more of their interactions in future episodes

SO MANY LUMITY MOMENTS!!!

Luz getting more attracted to Amity

Amity putting her job on the line, so they could find Philip’s diary

Luz saying that she hopes to show Amity the human world one day

Luz successfully getting Amity’s job back

The kiss on cheek at the end of the episode by Amity

The blushing!!!💜💚-I can go on and on

Amity’s new look fits her well and shows that she is starting to live for herself and not her parents-Good!

Through the help of the Echo Mouse, we also get more information about why Philip came to the Boiling Isle in the first place.

But the Echo Mouse is being picky and stops before it gets good😫

Episode 6: Hunting Palisman (Personal Favorite)

This is my favorite episode of the season so far and probably my top ten favorite episodes of the series.

We are finally introduced to Hunter as the Golden Guard and he is a treat

Everything from his character design, to his goals, to his interactions with Luz make him very intriguing.

The kids begin to pick out their palisman and a lot of them fit their personalities, especially Willow’s.

I’m glad the show is addressing the fact that Luz doesn’t know what she wants to do when she becomes a witch because tbh I’m not sure either. I know she wants to help and protect the people of the Boiling Isles but she can’t really do that if she wants to go back home.

What a good time to bring up this internal conflict

Kikimora wanting to get rid of Hunter makes sense seeing as how the Emperor’s Coven is based of performance

LIST OF FAVORITE HUNTER AND LUZ MOMENTS:

Hunter and Luz’s interaction on Hunter’s ship

Luz slapping Hunter to wake him up😂

Luz stealing Hunter’s staff

Hunter revealing his family history and why he defers to Emperor Belos

These two give off a good sibling vibe and I want to see more of this later

I originally thought the red cardinal was going to be for Luz, but it ends up being Hunter’s palisman at the end of the episode-Interesting

Whatever Luz’s palisman is going to be, I hope it’s an animal that fits her personality because I thought the red cardinal would have been perfect

Maybe she will get a violet-backed starling as a palisman🤔

Hunter comes off as very complex immediately and I love that the show let’s us know that he trying to figure out his place in the Boiling Isles as a powerless being.

Episode 7: Eda’s Requiem

An Eda centered episode is such a plus for this season

So far I feel like the show has had Eda be a main plot point, but she hasn’t really been given her own episode-This episode takes a good step in the right direction

Eda feeling like she’s losing both Luz and King because they have both trying to find out more about their personal journeys is equivalent to a mother accepting that fact that her kids are moving across the country 😥

Eda reuniting with Raine is nice to see. You can automatically tell right off the bat that they have history

Raine being a rebel against Emperor Belos while working under Emperor Belos as a coven leader is BOLD AF

I see why Eda fell for them

We are introduced to the Abomination and Beast Keeping Coven leaders and I love their character designs, especially for Darius

The scene where Raine and Eda play together was so beautiful and does a fantastic job of representing how pure their relationship was and currently is

I love how Raine realizing that Eda has more to live for than she thinks and puts a stop to the song they play in order to sacrifice himself

I know we are going to see Raine again, but I really hope Belos doesn’t do anything bad to them. Raine is a sweetheart

Even though Luz and King lose the Gland Plix race, it was still nice to see that Eda came towards the end of the face.

The reveal of King wanting to take Eda’s last name at the end of the episode is one of the main reasons why I love King and Eda’s relationship. They really do come off as mother and son❤

Episode 8: Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door (Personal Favorite)

This is a Hooty’s centered episode which is a first for this show, but this ended up being one of my favorite episodes of the show because of what it addresses

Hooty helping King accidently discover his powers was a shock to me because I just through their interaction was going to end up being pointless

King can now be more useful in battle 😁

We finally see Eda’s dad and see why Eda has a hard time accepting her cursed side.

We also learn how the curse has negatively impacted her relationship with so many people, such as Raine 😥

Eda accepting her cursed side is the first step to begin this traumatic healing process. At this point, I don’t think the show will cure Eda of her curse and I don’t think they should honestly. It teaches the audience that you sometimes have to live with what you have whether it be a disease, a physical disability or mental illness.

GOOD LESSON👌👌

Eda’s harpy form looks amazing. I can’t wait to see what the show will do with this form in the future.

Hooty helping Luz with her crush on Amity was one of the best parts of the episode.

The Tunnel of Love scene and the mixed signals from Luz and Amity had be dying🤣

Luz building up the courage to ask Amity out was so sweet and so real at the same time.

It came off as real conversation between awkward teens trying to figure a romantic relationship out🥰

LUMITY IS CANON!!!😍💜💚

This happened sooner than I thought, but I’m glad it did. This is huge, especially for a Disney show.

Just when I started to like Hooty a lot more, he had to mess it up when he ate a letter from someone who could be King’s dad (?)

DANG IT, HOOTY

Hooty freaking out when he thinks he messed with helping King, Eda and Luz never got old 😂

The comedy was on point with this episode and I love how everything just falls in to place.

Episode 9: Eclipse Lake(Personal Favorite)

This episode had so much going on and I have a lot to say.

We get back to the Emperor Belos plotline of him trying to get to the human world and find out the Belos has actually been to the human world previously🤔

I wonder what Belos wants to do with Hunter and how he relates to these “plans”

Hunter is totally going to get betrayed by his uncle 😥

Amity’s palisman is adorable, I guess she got it off-screen

“DragonClaw Z”😂😂😂

Love how everyone is coming together to protect the house, it shows they really know what’s at stake

Amity using every opportunity she gets to call Luz her girlfriend is so cute❤

Hard to believe she hated his girl’s guts at the beginning of last season lol

Sick Luz is funny Luz

More lore about the secrets of the Boiling Isles and Titan’s Blood

I really wish Luz could have came to Eclipse Lake with the rest of the cast, but I guess the rest of the cast needed to experience Hunter for themselves lol

Hunter being roasted by Eda, King and Amity was hilarious 😂

“A bad, but sad boy.”-Yep that’s our Hunter 🤣

Hunter trying to get into Amity’s head concerning her relationship with Luz and her role in the Boiling Isles was surprising

I’m going to assume that Amity hasn’t been in a romantic relationship before so everything with Luz is new to her. Amity is usually very level-headed.

Even though Harpy-Eda is cool, I like that Eda doesn’t know how to control his form yet, it shows that she has a lot to learn before this form this 100% mastered

Hunter’s desperation to get his uncle’s approval is just sad; I really want to know his backstory because this isn’t it at all

Praise King for helping Amity figure out the text messages🙌

I love how Amity tries to relate to Hunter, it sweet and shows how much she has grown. If only see did a better job of hiding the key 😣

The fight between Amity and Hunter is amazing. I love when the show just flexes its animation like this.

It may not be better than Eda and Lilith’s fight, but I still felt the tension between these two characters. When these two grow up, they are going to be some of the most powerful witches in the Boiling Isles for sure.

Hunter getting to Amity’s head about harming Luz is a low blow imo, but I’m glad Amity knew what was at stake in the situation

Crushing the key was smart tho. Even in stressful situations like these, Amity still keeps her cool. We love to see it😉

Luz can now use some of the Titan’s Blood from Amity’s glove to try to return back home!!!

This episode had no business being this good. When the plot kicks in the show, it never fails to deliver.

Episode 10: Yesterday’s Lie (Personal Favorite)

We finally catch up with what’s going on back on Earth and find out more about Luz’s impersonator.

The gang making a makeshift portal out all of Eda’s junk is very creative. I wondered what they were going to do with that stuff now that Eda can’t sell human collectables anymore.

The dimension that Luz enters through the portal is very trippy and creative. It makes sense since the portal they made is not authentic.

Luz mirror hoping and seeing someone impersonate her had to be scary. I couldn’t imagine.

We find out that Luz’s impersonator is actually a creature from the Boiling Isles known as a “Basilisk”

Vee’s backstrory is awful, I completely understand why she came to Earth and got comfortable after what she went through

We find out that Eda interacted with humans with an alias known as “Marylin”😂

Even though Luz doesn’t find a way home, this is the next best thing to let her mom know that she is okay.

Jacob gave off weird vibes immediately, so when he captures Vee to use her for fame, I wasn’t surprised.

What did surprise me was the fact that Jacob has been watching Vee for a while and he had the house where she transformed in monitored

I wonder if he’s seen anything else🤔

Camila is the GOAT. She came through and helped Vee out. A lot of people would have just ignored the situation, but she knew that Vee was important to Luz and I respect that👏👏

I’m glad she also agrees to keep Vee despite the situation

The scene between Luz and Camila was very heart-wrenching. Luz came clean about everything and Camila’s reaction to that was expected but it was still sad to see

The music and Camila trying to reach out to Luz was just 😭

This episode is a great mid-season finale. This episode addressed so much and foreshadows a lot of plot points to come in the later episodes.

The first half of season 2 had some bangers. More than half of these episodes are already in my top favorites of the series and we still have 11 episodes left. Good Job Owl House. I can’t wait see what the other half has left in store 🙌🙌

#the owl house #toh #owl house season 2 #owl house analysis

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felassan · 3 years

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Hello! Been reading the wonderful lore posts about Solas' funky new mural in the trailer the last week and, as I was replaying Inquisition I came across this in the Fade.

Never held much significance before but now it makes me immediatly think of the post you made about the Evanuris, as well as the Old Gods. Do you think it might relate to either or none? I'd be interested to know what you think either way, your lore posts are a delight to read ^^

Hello! I love how the newest mural generated a bunch of discussion along with a whole heap of new speculative and theorycrafting posts! And thank you very much 😊 The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

Edit: Sorry, not sure what’s up with the coding/layout of this post!

Back in the day, before Descent released, I originally assumed the Whispers were ‘echoes’ - if you will - of the imprisoned Evanuris. endure is quite elfy (suledin/endure, and the song of that name). “Crippled” and “polluted” and the red lyrium stuff in general work well if you subscribe to the theory that the Evanuris were tainted and/or red lyrium-corrupted when they were locked away (see tale of Andruil returning from the Void with armor made of darkness etc), or that they became that way or became similarly twisted after being trapped for so long, especially if said prison is the Black City [a Tainted place]. Linking it to the Evanuris also always makes me think of that one dialogue line from Cole when he’s talking to Solas: “They sleep, masked in the mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them - [gasp]”. Both that line and the Whispers contain similar elements like waiting, sleeping, hurting in a manner of speaking at least, and being woken up.

I haven’t been sure of that for a long time. Assuming no link between the Evanuris and the Old Gods for the purposes of this line of speculation, it could instead be to do with the Old Gods as you say. The remaining slumbering Old Gods have also been ‘there’, waiting and sleeping and being awoken in turn. Though it’s not quite “Whispering”, they do in a manner communicate with other beings while trapped - the darkspawn who hear their song and relentlessly search for them - and in their time they used to whisper to ancient Tevinter humans. However, a strike against it pertaining to the Old Gods would be the fact that the lore says they aren’t Tainted until the searching darkspawn find them. Like, I wouldn’t instinctively describe a still-sleeping Old God as “polluted”? A further strike could be that red lyrium isn’t something that automatically leaps to mind when thinking about the Old Gods, unlike when thinking about the Titans (see below) or even the Evanuris (the Andruil stuff again).

Another possibility is that it’s to do with the Titans. Stone endures, and the Titan in Descent had recently stirred. Titans sing (communication), there are other Titans out there and there’s a reference in the lore to a Titan awakening during the time of King/Paragon Orseck Garal. Blue lyrium is the blood of Titans, and a Titan with red lyrium blood or that had been afflicted by the Taint would certainly count as a polluted entity.

Finding dreams again and being crippled/sundered is also dwarfy language actually, despite the fact that dwarves don’t dream and the fact that it was elves who became sundered from themselves and the Fade when Solas made the Veil - consider Solas’ dialogue line where he says “dwarves [in their current state in modern Thedas] are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood, undirected, whatever skill at arms it had gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream”. When Valta connects to the Titan in Descent, although she ironically now no longer sleeps (which is usually a prerequisite to.. dreaming), she’s really reconnecting, regaining the connection to a Titan that dwarves used to have (like a severed limb being reattached). That’s where the sundered stuff comes in. At the moment most Titans, and Titans in general, are sundered from their children, the dwarves. In this way both the Titans and the dwarves are crippled, two separated halves of a whole.

After reconnecting, Valta writes in her journal about the world that once was, “before everything changed and the dwarven race broke in two” (i.e. before the dwarven race was sundered). And although she now no longer sleeps, when she closes her eyes she now sees glimpses of things that used to be, glimpses of things the Titan is showing and singing to her - what’s that, if not a form of dreaming? It’s not daydreaming per se, but the Titan is clearly showing her its memories, or dreams if you will, of what once was, and stuff, probably of what it hopes to see one day again too (given the loneliness in its song).. and ‘dream’ as a word has a broader meaning than just literally “images you see when you sleep”.

Anyway, the Evanuris or some of the ancient elves describe connected dwarves in Old Elven Writing as “workers” of the “pillars of the earth” [Titans], “scurry[ing], witless, soulless”, but how do we know they really were witless and soulless? It reads like one part propaganda and one part incorrect assumption, which isn’t a surprise because in that passage the Evanuris/some of the ancient elves were basically preparing to hunt the Titans and by extension mercy-kill some of the connected dwarves, who they perceived as witless and soulless. But reconnected Valta clearly isn’t witless and soulless, she just has a different manner of existence to what the ancient elves (spirit-adjacent as they were) had. Dreaming also comes up in relation to the dwarves as lyrium, the blood of their Titan ‘parents’, bridges the gap between the mundane world and the Fade, which is the world of dreams ("It is possible—even likely—that the "emerald waters" Andraste refers to are the substance of the Fade, which began as an "ocean of dreams””); this is what Valta regains, “its blood now flows through me” and now she sees the things it shows her when she shuts her eyes.

It’s also important to mention the Torn Notebook from the Deep Roads in Trespasser, Section 3 -

Trying to remember that old bedtime song about Mythal. My mother sang it the night before the darkspawn came for my clan. It's the last time I ever heard her voice.

Ir sa tel'nal, Mythal las ma theneras. Ir san'a emma. Him solas evanuris. Da'durgen'lin, Banal malas elgara. Bellanaris, bellanaris.

Written beside each elven line is a corresponding phrase, likely a translation:

I am empty, filled with nothing(?), Mythal gives you dreams. It fills you, within you(?), Making our leaders proud. My little stones, Never yours the sun. Forever, forever.

Hahren said we had lost some of the old words. What if they have changed? Durgen'lin from durgen'len? Little dwarves, never yours the sun? What did Mythal do here?

as here is dreaming, or gaining dreams, cropping up once again in relation to the dwarves. What Mythal “did here” btw was striking down the Titans and “rendering their demesne to the People”. A demesne is one’s domain or land. In this context it probably also refers to resources and their very forms, as we know that the Evanuris were mining the bodies of Titans for lyrium and “something else”, the something else probably being their hearts/cores (which probably can be made into power sources, the foci). This sounds like an unrelated disjointed ramble sry but it’s relevant because of the end part:

Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers:

"What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."

Their greed was the mining for resources and power. What was unleashed and had to be sealed away is often theorized to be red lyrium and/or the Blight. In this reading red lyrium, and by association the Taint, is maybe something like the Titans’ defense mechanism against being hunted, struck down and mined by the Evanuris, or perhaps something like an immune response or a natural consequence of the action, like how when we as a species pollute the natural world this often comes back to bite us in the ass with disasterous consequences. And like the angry energy and elves collapsing caverns in that passage, there’s also the “terrible presence” the Arcane Warrior’s soul in DAO remembers.

Given all this stuff, as well as the prevalence of red lyrium in the DA4 marketing thus far and apparent prevalence in its plot, its continued spread, the Titan/dwarfy beats touched on and set up in Descent (self-explanatory) and continued in Trespasser (the ‘death of a Titan’ mural etc), the [possible] corrupted beating Titan heart, the danger corrupted awakened Titans could undoubtedly pose to Thedas, and the theory that Solas is trying to prevent some cataclysm befalling Thedas and believes that he has to do this to save the world and that he’s running out of time, I think I lean towards the Whispers being to do with the Titans, specifically ‘red lyrium/corrupted/Blighted Titans’. Here I also wanna point out the similarity between the Whispers and Codex Entry: The Profane:

We who are forgotten, remember, We clawed at rock until our fingers bled, We cried out for justice, but were unheard. Our children wept in hunger, And so we feasted upon the gods. Here we wait, in aeons of silence. We few, we profane.

—Found scrawled on a wall in the lost Revann Thaig by explorer Faruma Helmi, 5:10 Exalted. Unknown author.

- the Profane being Rock Wraiths, creatures who are believed to have once been dwarves, that wander the Deep Roads, corrupt and living an undying half-life, probably feeding on lyrium (Titans being somewhat akin to dwarven gods) as they go. What if Valta is what you get when a dwarf connects to a normal Titan, and a Rock Wraith is what happens when a dwarf connects to a corrupted/Blighted/red Titan? Side note: It’s iiiinteresting indeed, isn’t it, that the Profane were calling out for justice, given that justice is one of Mythal’s ‘domains’ and considering her prior involvement with Titans and the dwarves (“adjudicator and savior!”, Mythal and the urtok, “Once I was but a woman... crying out in the lonely darkness for justice” etc). 👀

The last thing I have to say on this topic is that it’s also possible that the Whispers are one of those things that the writers just cooked up and threw in there for kicks/flavor, because it sounds cool and mysterious, and in so-doing it’s written in such a way (a bit generic) that 1) fans reading it can speculate about it and link it to several different things and 2) down the line the devs could retroactively decide to give it a meaning, or retroactively change what it was in reference to. This was the case for Eleni Zinovia’s prophecy:

David Gaider said Eleni Zinovia’s prophecy doesn’t refer to Fen’Harel. He can’t remember who wrote it in there or what it refers to actually. It was most likely just intended as flavor and he was even a bit surprised by it, like “What is this?” There’s a lot of things like that in the games, not everything has a ~grand meaning~. Sometimes such small off-hand things are picked up on by fans and the writers then make it into something bigger and more meaningful after the fact. This is what happened with Sandal (all the fans being like “Ooh, what does it mean, what does it mean?” about him). It’s possible Eleni will be picked up on like that in the future, but at the time it didn’t mean anything really. A lot of the way these stories are put together is that they put a lot of questions into the world, scattering possible/potential plothooks, and they don’t necessarily know where they lead at the time, but in future games they could come back to them and come up with an interesting backstory. Sometimes they pick it up and sometimes it never gets answered or ever mentioned again (the Wardens taking some of the blood from those who didn’t survive their particular bout of Joinings and putting it in a vial to remember them is an example of one of these things). It’s pretty rare that you’d get a situation where something is mapped out from beginning to end. Sometimes we the players get a revelation as we play and we’re like “Omg!! This is all connected! They are masters!” and the writers are like “Yes, toootally… It was that way alllllll along. It certainly did NOT get decided three quarters of the way through development…” [source]

You know, like there are, as is evident from this post where we go through various possibilities, lots of different ominous mysterious groups of nefarious beings waiting and sleeping and lurking Ominously in this setting!

Not a particularly coherent answer I know but hopefully interesting for you to read. :) tl;dr I lean towards it being to do with the Titans, specifically red lyrium/corrupted/Blighted Titans.

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #solas #mj replies #video games #ahumblewoodcarver #cole #spirit boy #long post #longpost

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azraqnar · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on Agony of a witch (Spoiler warning! (Duh))

Oh boy I was doubting this series’s before but not anymore! This episodes is easily the best in the season. Grom doesn’t have shit on this episode! Everything was just great about AOAW, the music, the suspense, the action, the story, the animation, it was all wonderful!

- for one, Hooty is damn creepy when he fights not only does he effortlessly kick the emperors covens ass (you’d think they’d be more powerful than this but whatever) but he has a tea party with their unconscious bodies after. That was an interesting (& creepy) choice & it has me curious if Eda created him or not. We need a hooty backstory.

- Eda’s curse is getting worse and after episodes of not mentioning it they finally acknowledge how bad it’s getting & how Eda needs more potions or a higher dosage to barely keep it under control KEY WORD “BARELY”. It does remind me of when my aunt had cancer and her chemotherapy stopped working they had to higher the dosage. Good job on finally talking about it.

- When Luz leaves I do like how Eda & King reflect on how the “vibe” of the house changed when Luz showed up & how King thought they were gonna eat her (I guess it confirms witches do eat human kids)I am picking up a familia love from Eda & King so now we have the found family trope (Which I love). I thought it was cute when Eda decided to make a cape as a sign of gratitude & how it sets up how important this cape is when Eda talks about the material it’s made out of.

- Luz’s class is going on the field trip to the emperors coven but isn’t Bump the principal not a teacher?At my school whenever we had a field-trip it was the Teachers that went with us not the principal, Bump didn’t even play a big role so they could have swapped him out for a Teacher & nothing would change.

- Amity’s leg is still broken so she can’t attend the field-trip, which I thought was a good idea she didn’t go. I feel like the writers would try to force in more Lumity moments and it would distract from the plot. I do like Lumity but if Amity was there then fans would focus on that rather than the story & the last two episode were Amity focused so she wasn’t needed in this episode. Smart move from the writers, maybe if her legs heals next episode she could be there but idk.

- Now while Luz was thinking about stealing the healing hat I was a bit conflicted on it. I don’t like how the show is telling viewers it’s okay to steal but In Luz’s case it’s for a good cause, she wanted the hat so she could heal Eda’s curse. It’s like those cases you hear of people stealing groceries to feed their families, I felt the same here. Yeah stealing is bad but if it’s for saving someone you love is it really that bad? Idk if the writers wanted us to be conflicted over that dilemma but they succeeded.

- “Good luck with puberty” I laughed when Lilith said that, can’t believe Disney let that slip in.

- I have to say I do like the lore we get in this episode. Emperor Belos established the coven system 50 years ago to “honor the titan” which is the boiling Isles where they might get their magic from, before that witches were doing wild magic in what was called “the savages ages” it’s setting up more lore about the emperor like how did he rise to power? Who was he before? What were these “savage ages” like? If it was 50 years ago then there still are witches & demons that were alive in the savage age & they could tells us what life was like before. It also means Emperor Belos is 70+ years old. I’m just saying a human could live that long. 👀

- Now emperor Belos, wow his designs looks cool as hell, his voice is amazing too, it’s kinda sinister yet soothing at same times. As shown, it looks like he’s in a weakened state, he has to take these weird bird glowing green slime thing to have energy. We don’t know why or how he got like that, but it seems like he wants to Capture Eda so she doesn’t try to overthrow him since he’s weak. In fact, that might be the reason for the coven system, if he limits their magic then they aren’t strong enough to overthrow him. We only saw him for a bit but he gave a good impression when Luz said that no one will know about her stealing the hat we hear Belos voice echo: “ I will know” in the most bone chilling voice ever! The crew did a great job on him! Tho one thing I noticed is why is every big villain always in a weakened state? Darth Vader, Hordak, Aaravos, Zarkon, every anime villain. I just noticed this trope is overused, but I hope we can see Belos at his strongest and see how powerful he is. I have high hopes for him!

-Lilith discovers Luz is there & decides to use her as a decoy to lure in Eda. Which she succeeds when Eda goes there all angry for daring to drag Luz into her issues. I love how Eda doesn’t even try to stay calm she just straight up attacks Lilith & you can feel her angry.

- Speaking of that fight, best fight in the series thus far! The animation, the spells, the music, the raw emotion, it was all down great! It does remind me of a DBZ style of fighting when they’re moving so fast that your eyes can’t catch up & their magic surrounding them like Eda went super Sayion, I’m not complaining I like those kinds of fight & The intensity you feel in the fight is overwhelming. Luz’s life is at stake and Lilith even uses her as a human shield. She knows how much Luz means to Eda & was willing to kill her. Hell, she even threw Luz toward the spikes and Eda had to save her, then they both struggle with Eda trying to lift her up & Lilith trying to press her against the spikes & then Eda slowly turns into a monster THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE A FIGHT (takes notes she ra)

- Now the biggest bomb drop in the series. IT WAS LILITH WHO CURSED EDA. she blurted it out in a rage of jealousy it seems. They were insulting each other on how one is better than the other. Then when Lilith says “THEN WHY WERE SO EASY TO CURSE?!” My jaw dropped, I suspected they would tell us but not this episode, you see can see the hurt & betrayal in her eyes when it was her own sister who cursed her. Like ouch. From what I suspected is that Lilith was jealous of Eda from what their exchanges told us. But why was she jealous of Eda? Friends? Magic capabilities? Power? Maybe fighting over a crush? What? Whatever the reason is does not excuse doing that to your sister and your YOUNGER SISTER AT THAT. Goodness & I thought Edric and Emira took it too far with the diary thing. I’m officially part of the hate Lilith club. Idc what you do but hurting your sibling like that is the worst thing you can do to them, just imagined how much Eda suffered for DECADES with this curse. No redemption can fix that. But boy do they need Family therapy or just punch it out that works too.

- I loved it when Eda went into rage mode when she found out it was Lilith who cursed her. Her own sister. Like damn that has to hurt knowing your own family did that to you. She deserved to beat Lilith to a bloody pulp & I’m happy she didn’t even bother to listen to Lilith she just wanted to attack her & I don’t blame her one bit.

- Ugh the scene where the curse overtakes Eda was a heart wrenching one. She knows she slipping away and tells Luz to take care of King & Hooty & to stay safe before she slips away. When Lilith told Luz that Eda is with her true family made me want to punch her more than Amity’s parents. You feel how helpless Luz felt & I hope they work towards her character with that feeling because Luz is happy go lucky & seeing her in despair makes for great character development.

- it kind of reminds me of when Queen Angella sacrifices herself In season 3 but I hated how they never acknowledged it since season 4 & she doesn’t even return by the end season 5, they pretty much forgot about her. We know for sure Luz will never leave Eda behind & will go save her.

- So we know Luz will go back to save her cuz we do see her wearing the cape Eda made her in the promo. Also we have 1 episode left so we know she’s gonna attempt a rescue mission for Eda but will she succeed? She’s up against the emperors coven! She’s gotta pull all her cards on the table & team up with her friends.

- A witch loses a true way. It could refer to Lilith officially turning to the dark side or Eda being lost in her curse even into season 2. Knowing Disney, they will give us a happy ending cuz it’s Disney but I will be pleasantly surprised if Luz fails to save Eda by the next episode.

- One last thing, I like the credits had no music, just silence. It reminds me of in full metal alchemist whenever a character dies the credit are always silent. I guess it’s meant to represent despair in a way? Or change? Yeah it think it’s change.

- This is why shows should focus on the plot because when you do, it delivers for some great storytelling & this episode surpasses all of the episodes combined. when you focus on the story & lore & characters it makes for great emotional impact of an episode and I hope Dana and the crew continues to do this. This show has so much going for it & people who only watch a show for a ship are clowns because this is what you’re missing out on. an amazing story. I applause Dana & the crew for this episode, really outdid yourselves!

- Overall 9.7/10 it was phenomenal!

#the owl house #luz noceda #amity blight #owl house #eda clawthorne #willow park #gus owl house #toh spoilers #toh #toh hooty #king the owl house #lilith clawthorne #emperor belos #Emperor coven #agony of a witch

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sometimesrosy · 4 years

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What elements make B/E such an obvious romantic obstacle to B/C, narratively, etc?

A lot really. I mean, first, with that time jump, we needed to see that Bellamy had grown and moved on from the trauma of earth. Who better to show that transformation than the grounder who represented betrayal and brutality and murder and war to him? The one who betrayed him and almost killed his sister and held him captive. To forgive HER means he’s over the s3 bizness where he treated all grounders as the enemy who deserved death just for existing in some cases. We SAW him learn the lessons, but with the time jump and B/E he now INHABITS it. He’s grown from it.

There’s also the parallels between CL and B/E. first alliance, then betrayal, then kidnapping, then working together, then saving from sucide, then forgiveness, then love. I know some people consider CL to be endgame, but my theory here is based on CL being over, for important reasons within the narrative. So to parallel two relationships that are important and transformative, but not endgame, and to show the longer pace of B/E which shows that Bellamy was healthier than Clarke was, is a sign of character development.

Bellamy needed a relationship in order to move forward on the ship, so he wasn’t a wreck. He needed to be a whole person, who COULD live without Clarke, because the Bellarke relationship is a relationship of equals, and it’s NOT codependent. They don’t fill in the holes of the other person. They are not INCOMPLETE without each other, They needed to be shown as complete people on their own. So showing that he’d not been destroyed by her loss meant having him accept love, accept that he deserved love. Therefore, he needed a healthy relationship.

OKAY. This turned out to be A TOTAL EPIC post. And it’s too long so after the jump. STay tuned.

IT COULD NOT BE RAVEN. Wanna know why? Because Raven has her own journey. And she CAN NOT be second choice, because of her problems with finn and clarke in s1. Raven needs someone to be head over heels over her, if she’s going to have anyone. And if Bellamy had been in a relationship with Raven, CLARKE would always be standing between them. And with Clarke’s resurrection, Bellamy’s SOULMATE, Raven would be cast into second place, thus ruining Raven’s character arc, and putting Clarke into the SAME narrative of being the other woman, without any development. This would be a failure of storytelling, lacking growth and transformation which is NECESSARY for this story.

As long as Bellarke is endgame, Br/aven could NOT happen. If Bellarke is NOT endgame, Br/aven is actually the CLEAR AND OBVIOUS choice for Bellamy’s next relationship. They already love and respect and like each other. Raven is a major character. The audience loves and wants them both happy. If Bellarke were not endgame, then Br/aven would have been. If Bellarke were PLATONIC, for real? Then Br/aven should have been developing all this time. But since Bellarke is an endgame romance, Br/aven CAN NOT happen romantically.

THUS they needed a character to be his romance, to show him moving on, but it couldn’t be a character who was TOO essential that we would replace Bellarke with that ship, as would have happened with br/aven. Although it also needed to be a character who was tied to the major issues we’ve been dealing with, someone who maybe reminds him a little of Clarke even. Enter Echo. betrayals, ruthless, sneaky, beautiful, cheated in the conclave, almost killed his sister, does whatever she has to to save her people, loyal.

I’d also like to bring up Echo’s name. And I think her name DOES matter. At first I thought it was because she was an ECHO of CL and that betrayal for Bellamy. The myth of Echo, as the nymph who pined after Narcissus didn’t make sense to me, as Bellamy wasn’t a narcissist in love with his own reflection... UNTIL someone made the point that the classical concept of soulmates was one soul split into two bodies, so a person and their reflection COULD be a metaphor for this soulmate concept. Which made Bellamy in love with his reflection/soullmate Clarke, which now ENTIRELY fit the Echo and Narcissus myth. Echo is in love with Bellamy who is obsessed with his soulmate Clarke (who in s6 was ‘behind the glass’ like a mirror image! huh. Who was it that posted that theory!? that sounds like a confirmation to me.) Now again, Clarke and Bellamy are separated by this distance, and Echo goes in to find him? I hope Echo doesn’t fade away like her namesake did, but it’s possible. But Narcissus also dies at the river, in love with his reflection, becoming flowers, right? This actually fits my spec that Bellarke will “die” but in reality just be separated from their family and live out their lives in pastoral happily ever after. Anyway. The myth of Echo and Narcissus, means Echo is NOT the soulmate.

Also. JR said Clarke and Bellamy were soulmates. And fine, I don’t use commentary in my analysis... but I do if it fits, and this fits. They are SHOWN as being soulmates from season 4 AT LEAST. “you center her.” “you got it backwards.” for an example.

Okay, but now lets get to the narrative. What I told you before is more about storytelling and tropes and character development. Or HOW you tell a story. Now we’ll get to canon evidence. There’s still some storytelling in there. I’m gonna start with s5, because that’s when romantic b/e showed up.

This was the big sign to me of what was going on with Bellarke and B/E.

The first episode of s5 was almost ALL Clarke. We were focused on her survival in the wastes. We were given access to her feelings and thoughts and pov. We were given her monologue. Which was not a monologue.

It was a conversation, one way, with Bellamy. The voiceover of 5.01 was Clarke making her 2199 radio calls. Which is a romantic trope. They were, essentially like a diary, or love letters, or even a prayer, in a way. For that little bit of the story, in fact, huh. We could almost think of that whole episode as being Clarke’s tales of survival, told to Bellamy as a kind of epistolary tale. What we see IS what she said to Bellamy. Hmm. That’s interesting.

ANYWAY. My point was. The audience is put square inside Clarke’s head, and her head is “why haven’t you come home,” and talking to Bellamy and missing him.

THEN we get the scene where Clarke is talking to Madi about them, and missing them and then the camera pan up through the stars to Bellamy looking down on them, unknowingly, at the valley.

THIS IS THE MOST POETIC THE MOST ROMANTIC SHOT IN THE WHOLE SHOW. MAYBE IN EVERY SHOW EVER. It is a poem. She yearns for him, across time, beyond the stars, and he’s looking down on her, thinking she is dead, and the INFERENCE is that he’s yearning for her too, past death.

A love that literally lasts past death time and space. ULTIMATE EPIC LOVE STORY. And they are finally going to be reunited. AH, resolution for their separation and their love.

AND THEN... dun dun dunnnn, the plot thickens.

Out of nowhere, the reveal that Bellamy and Echo ARE LOVERS.

BAM! OBSTACLE. more, ROMANTIC obstacle.

Clarke’s yearning was romantic in nature. We don’t see inside Bellamy’s head, but making the obstacle to their reunion no longer tech, but instead an established romance, means that the narrative has set Bellarke on a romantic path. Because otherwise another romance would not be an obstacle. Heck, Echo is not against Clarke. Even when she was threatening her life she wasn’t really against Clarke. She gets her. As a leader and partner, she gets her. Echo is ONLY an obstacle if the goal is a romantic relationship between Clarke and Bellamy.

That it’s set up this way, as a shock, is part of the romantic narrative.

THIS is on purpose a slap in the face. Because the audience has been set up to want them to come home TO CLARKE, to want a Bellarke reunion and to FEEL that they belong together.

THEN when Echo is sure things will change between them, and Bellamy assures her that nothing will change between them on the ground, this is what’s known as DRAMATIC IRONY. The audience knows that Clarke is alive, they know that the bellarke bond is epic, they know that Clarke is yearning in a romantic way, they know that when Bellamy finds out that Clarke is alive EVERYTHING will change with his relationship with E.

But then, we get a misdirect, or rather, a plot obstacle to B/E. Octavia is not forgiving and she’s scarier than ever.

B/E is set up from the VERY BEGINNING as a romantic obstacle.

Then to prove it, we get

Clarke’s VERY shocked and jealous face when B/E reunites and kiss. That the camera focuses on HER, shows her watching them, and not on THEM means the main emotional weight of the scene is not the lovely reunion between loving partners, (thank god you’re ok i was so worried i’m so glad to see you again love love love,) but rather on clarke. (omg bellamy is kissing someone. bellamy is not mine. heartbreak, jealousy, shock!) See the focus is NOT on the established relationship, the B/E leg of the love triangle, but on CLARKE, the pining one, the one whose love is unrequited. The soulmate.

IF B/E were endgame, the focus would have been on the relief of the reunited lovers. But we’ve just spent like two episodes on the reunited (non-romantic apparently) soulmates, and the CANON relationship can’t even get an infocus shot?

A close up of someone’s face means the narrative wants us to feel their EMOTIONS. We got lots of those when Clarke and Bellamy reunited, when they hugged, when they struggled to regain their connection. But with the B/E reunion. Their faces were obscured, not shown, blurred.

Ok. And YES, Bellamy then moves on to focus on Echo and B/E, and saving her from Octavia, and that is to show that B/E is real. Because no obstacle that is not made real is going to be enough to really scare the audience into worrying that it could stop our heroes from their goal. IT HAS to be real. But even while Bellamy is proving to O that he loves Echo, the focus is NOT really on B/E, but on the Blakes relationship. And on Bellamy and Octavia. This is teaching us who they are now, after 6 years apart.

Then there’s a love scene between B/E, or half a love scene anyway. The beginning. It is cut off in the middle and cuts to CLARKE getting ready to leave.. Oddly, the music for the scene stays the same, which CONNECTS the two scenes. A LOVE SCENE cut with a LEAVING SCENE. An established romance confirmed, a pining soulmate leaving aka giving up. And in the next scene, we get this dynamic reinforced... however, there is a change. The romantic couple is confirmed again, while Clarke watches. HERE we are shown a closeup of her face, tears in her eyes, all about how she feels about their relationship, after the close up of their faces I think, and sadness and love yes. this is real. Then Clarke steps back, straighten her shoulders and accepts it. She won’t interfere. He’s not hers to love. HOWEVER, then Echo LEAVES. The established couple separates. And we turn to Clarke and Bellamy immediately he knew she was there somehow.

While B/E are split up, Bellarke are brought back together, although at this point they are non romantic, with each member choosing Echo for him. And we spend many episodes with them rediscovering their soulmate bond and getting closer and more intimate as they do so. While Echo has her OWN narrative and it has nothing to do with Bellamy or b/E.

This leads to Bellarke making pledges to each other, over her daughter, and he swears to take care of Madi when/if Clarke dies. Bellamy promises to parent his soulmates daughter while his canon girlfriend is off risking her life. They bond as, well, co parents. Making them a family unit, Mother, Father and Daughter, though no romantic or sexual relationship between the two?

Not so fast.

“Another traitor who you love.” Octavia lays out the issue. Bellamy loves Echo. Bellamy loves Clarke. She is comparing Echo and Clarke in his love. This is a ROMANTIC love comparison. She’s goading him. He doesn’t take the bait. Because he has a plan.

Bellamy sacrifices his sister for Clarke’s life. Poisoning her. His sister who has been established as the person who means more to him than anyone else in the world. When it was O or E? He chose O and let E go off on a suicide mission to win a place with wonkru. When it was O or C? He chose C and poisoned O. That is an equation. Bellamy loves these three women. C more than O. O more than E. C>O>E. When compared, Clarke wins over Echo. If Octavia made it clear that the love is romantic, then Bellamy made it clear that his love for Clarke is deeper than his love for Echo, even if he’s not ready to face that or deal with it.

AND THEN SHE LEAVES HIM TO THE PIT. He knew he’d betrayed Clarke, but it is confirmation to him that Clarke does not return his feelings. So, when that’s sorted out, he has a moment where he’s choosing between Clarke and Echo (the earth vs the sword, it’s a heavy handed bit of symbolism so we don’t miss it.) He chooses Echo. It’s the logical choice. Head over heart.

MEANWHILE, Echo and Clarke are having their own life or death convo. In which we find out that Bellamy loves Echo, Echo loves Bellamy, Clarke always cared for Bellamy but thinks him dead at her hand. NOT SO FAST. Bellamy is alive, “oh now you care?” AND THEN, revelation from the past FlameLxa tells her love is not a weakness, she was wrong to betray Clarke (canon love) and Clarke should not do the same thing (betray her love bellamy.) Remember also CL and B/E are paralleled. Remember also all the same players were at MW the original betrayal. L walked away, Echo walked away, Bellamy was under the ground, and Clarke stayed to get to him. it’s just interesting. So in the end, Clarke betrayed ELigius, spares Echo and sends her daughter (another love equation. Clarke canon loved Lxa, but she tells Madi she loves her SO much more than Lxa. Now she risks her greatest love Madi to war in order to save Bellamy. Here’s the equation. Clarke loves Bellamy>Madi>Lxa. We have two equations using actions to prove a primacy in love. Clarke love Bellamy more than all of her other great loves. Bellamy loves Clarke more than all of her great loves.

HOWEVER B/E comes back together to fight. As a couple. It is a couple reunion, but not as romantic as their first reunion, or their goodbye. THEN, they are fighting together and it isn’t romantic. And from there to the end of the season, the B/E romance disappears.

HOWEVER, Bellamy learns that Clarke cares for him so much that she called him every day for six years. That changes his perception of Clarke, and how Clarke feels for him, and when she urges him to come in, he says, broken, I can’t leave them behind. “Not again.” With the understanding that leaving HER behind was the trauma that he can’t do again.

So where did B/E go? It doesn’t matter. It’s literally not important to the narrative. Echo literally goes to sleep. B/E is frozen. What is important. Bellarke’s intimacies of saying goodbye to their families and their connection that is still there. And THEN them waking up TOGETHER and facing the loss of Monty, the revelations, the new world AND the commitment to be better, to be the good guys, together.

Known: B/E is a canon relationship. Clarke loves Bellamy and has been pining for him for six years. Bellamy loves Clarke but has moved on though he cannot ignore his feelings for her. Bellamy CHOSES Echo, but Echo keeps disappearing from his story while he focuses on Clarke and their relationship.

HOW do I know Echo is the romantic obstacle and Bellarke is the endgame rather than Clarke being the romantic obstacle and B/E being endgame?

Because the story focuses on the deepening relationship fo Bellarke, while his attachment to Echo stops it from moving forward. It focuses on the FEELINGS of Clarke about B/E, but not the feelings of Echo about Bellarke. It is never even presented. Her feelings are absent, when if her ship was endgame it would be about her feeligns at least partly. Now we do seem BELLAMY’S feelings, but his feelings which start out as about Echo vs Octavia, who hates Echo, shift and become Clarke vs Echo... evenn though Clarke does NOT hate Echo and accepts her just fine. So what is the conflict?

The conflict is that he can’t have competing feelings fo Clarke if he loves Echo. That means his feelings are ROMANTIC.

YES. He does choose Echo near the end of s5. This is because Clarke leaves him to die. Not because his feelings for her are not as strong (remember C>O>E) but because HER feelings seem to show she doesn’t care about him. UNTIL Madi spills the beans, and then he shifts back to Clarke a bit, even though his choice is STILL Echo.

Bellamy loves Clarke but thinks Clarke doesn’t love him so he chooses Echo.

Clarke thinks Bellamy loves Echo and not her, so she refuses to show him or admit to him that she loves him and she attempts to move on and keep him as her “platonic” soulmate.

Echo loves Bellamy and Bellamy loves Echo but Echo has no idea Bellamy also loves Clarke or that he is deciding between Clarke and herself. She has no say in this narrative. It’s not about her. It’s about Clarke and Bellamy. She thought the problem was Octavia. And while that’s a problem, it doesn’t affect Bellamy’s feelings for her.

Echo has done nothing to make him not love her. Their relationship has remained stable. The only change is that there is another love in the equation. That Clarke’s existence puts B/E into jeopardy means that the Bellarke love is AT LEAST as strong as the B/E love. Possibly more... the love equation says more, but we will get more proof of that in season 6.

When we actually see the love triangle thrown into comparison CONSTANTLY. S5 had Bellarke and B/E separated. We got very few shots of them all together, and when we do, it’s Clarke’s jealousy and dismay on display.

However in s6, right from the beginning, the shots have all three of them in view. With Echo between Bellarke or Clarke between B/E often. Oddly, we also see Echo supporting Clarke. Or not that oddly. They’re a lot alike. She’s not competitive with Clarke, though. Even though there IS a competition. She does’t know about it. We see Bellamy choosing B/E with Clarke on the outside in ep1, but by the time they get to Sanctum, we start to see Bellamy choosing Clarke, or Clarke AND Echo (come look at this echo) with his focus on Clarke not E. We see him REACHING OUT to Clarke. (commiserating about raising their adopted kids without school, then the radio calls conversation which she runs away from because she’s scared.) Even in the eclipse psychosis, he goes after Echo first, but then turns his attention to Clarke. Murphy gets in the way as he always does, but he ignores everyone else.

As time goes on, though, we get a NEW dynamic. He’s starting to argue with Echo. It’s over Octavia mostly, but Clarke and Bellamy use Octavia to speak about their feelings for one another, without admitting them, so is that happening here? He’s using the argument over Octavia to express his feelings of frustration and distance with Echo?

Look. I’ve been showing you the love triangle. It is a CANON love triangle, which means B/E is romantic and requited and Bellarke is romantic although it’s unrequited.

I need to show the love triangle in order for B/E to be A ROMANTIC OBSTACLE.

But just showing the love triangle means it could be B/E that is the endgame and Bellarke that is the love triangle.

How do we know this isn’t the story?

Well aside from the love equations. We see Bellarke get closer while we see B/E bickering constantly over tactics, over octavia, over feelings, in season 6a. Clarke talks to him about her regret over the pit. The making amends scene is actually pivotal in their relationship. In the C/B/E love triangle.

He accepts Clarke’s amends, and her claim that he is so important to her. He didn’t want to talk about it. But she is open and they are intimate. Cut to Clarke being PHYSICALLY intimate with Cillian, and Bellamy looking on with all sorts of emotions in his face. Sorrow, happiness, pining, regret, jealousy, acceptance, longing, who knows? And we IMMEDIATELY get Echo coming up, trying to talk to him about Octavia, and him turning ViCIOUS on her, blaming her for not being human, not being emotional, not being open (which clarke just was and is.) He’s STILL watching Clarke. B/E is falling apart, not because of anything that Echo did, but because of something that Clarke did, again. HER actions are the deciding factor, and HIS emotions are where the choice is coming in. Echo has no control over it. Her emotions don’t matter. Her actions don’t affect it. He is not a character who has agency over this storyline, over her own relationship. This scene leads to Clarke being betrayed at the same time that Bellamy apologizes to Echo and Echo, FINALLY, opens up to Bellamy about her past.

For the first time, Echo has agency in how her relationship goes, and Bellamy admits he’s a dick and commits to Echo. NOW. If this story were ABOUT B/E as endgame, this would be the point where their relationship rises to new heights and becomes stronger.

Instead. Clarke dies. And Bellamy’s attention and emotions go to CLARKE. Even when she’s dead dead, all he can think about is not having Clarke, how it’s not living, Echo comforts him but it goes nowhere. Instead, we see him grieving ALONE. Echo is willing to destroy everyone, but Bellamy chooses what Clarke would do, and keeps everyone safe.

Until he finds out Clarke is alive, and then all bets are off and it’s a race to bring her back, canon, “you only care about Clarke.”

Yeah.

True.

Another pivotal scene. Bellamy leaves Echo to take care of their people and goes with Josephine to save Clarke. Echo says “Go save Clarke,” which is a parallel to Clarke telling Echo to “go save him.” Echo let Bellamy go to Clarke the same way that Clarke let Echo go to Bellamy.

We’ve now switched who the primary relationship is. It’s Bellarke, not B/E. Echo and Clarke made the choice to let the other woman “have him.” They gave up their claim.

Everything we see with Bellamy and Josephine acts as if Bellarke is romantic and the true love in his life. An epic love compared to Josephine and Gabriel DOZENS of times. And Bellamy’s last ditch save her from death scene is GLARINGLY romantic in the way that all the best fairytales are romantic.

There was never anything to compare to this in the B/E story.

The next morning, Bellarke talk about leaving Echo and spacekru behind to save Clarke, and Bellamy still isn’t willing for her to risk her life to save them, although she insists, and they agree to do it for Monty. SO MUCH INTIMACY. And Octavia witnessed it.

Their goodbye is more romantic and more intimate than Bellamy’s reunion with Echo, even though she was STATED as at risk and being in danger. She almost died. And all she got was a hug, much like he’d hugged Harper after the fighting pit.

The hug when Bellarke is reunited, however, is cast in romantic buttery light, with emotional close ups of their faces, and a rather intimate discussion of feelings and pain, with a parallel to their OTHER hug outside Camp Jaha, which was one of the pivotal moments in their relationship.

This in contrast to the pat on the back he gave Echo before this, and how Echo, who is standing right there, disappears from the scene.

The final scene after this Bellarke intimacy, has B/E back together. ExCEPT there is NO initmacy. He’s the leader, she’s the soldier. No feelings. Just defense and tactics.

From the beginning of season 6 to the end, Bellarke and B/E have switched placed. on the non-romantic/romantic scale. Comfort and intimacy goes to Bellarke. Team work goes to B/E.

THE JOURNEY of the love triangle switches from the primary leg being B/E with a side order of Bellarke partnership, to Bellarke with a side order of B/E partnership.

Technically, because we’ve had no time to sort out all these emotional issues with B/E (although we kind of have with Bellarke) B/E is still the canon ship.

But that’s just a matter of dealing with the plot point. Because the NARRATIVE is now about romantic Bellarke, and all that’s left to deal with in regards to the B/E romantic obstacle is how it ends. (And for Echo’s side, she has been focusing on Ash, and her own independence. They have set her up to have a self empowered storyline, which means she does not need and should not have a king anymore. Bellamy is her king, even now. And she needs to be her own person. Which means B/E is doomed even without Bellarke.)

Thus I have shown why C/B/E is a love triangle. Why Bellamy needed a relationship ANY WAY. I take for granted that Clarke was in love with Bellamy and he was her fantasy boyfriend over the time jump. That Bellarke is romantic as is B/E, that the show has created a love equation for both of them. How the love triangle is shown in s6. How B/E fades while Bellarke grows, and that B/E is the romantic obstacle while Bellarke is the soulmate endgame.

I’m so tired now.

#the 100 #bellarke #b/e #love triangle #romantic obstacle #c/b/e #romantic development #romantic tropes

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tobiasdrake · 3 years

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Initial Thoughts on The Bad Batch S01E07: Battle Scars

Best episode thus far? Best episode thus far.

The guy that Trace and Rafa were talking to last episode turns out to be Rex. I was expecting Bail Organa because of the robe, but Rex makes more sense from a "Runs in Ahsoka's Circles" standpoint and has more to offer to the Bad Batch's story. Bail would basically just be like, "Hello, boys. Did you know that Star Wars has a Rebel Alliance? How would you like to become Official Good Guys for real?"

I'm not saying it would be bad for that to happen; in fact, Rex does it at the very end of the episode and gets a noncommittal shrug from Hunter. It’s much too early to go that route, if the show ever even does. More importantly, Rex has a direct narrative value to the pressing matter of the chips in everyone's brains. So this is a much better direction than Bail would have been, I feel.

But that's not really important. Rex doesn't matter overmuch. He's a guest star plot device here to help the Bad Batch take a critical step in their story: removing their inhibitor chips, just like Ahsoka did for him. What this episode is really about is Wrecker and Omega. After all, with all that teasing about Wrecker's chip, it just wouldn't do to get it out without causing a bit of carnage in the process, now would it? The moment Wrecker activates is what fans have been anticipating.

Wrecker and Omega's bonding throughout the season has been a major highlight. For a show struggling to give its characters identities beyond their core archetypes, Wrecker being a big ol' softie whenever the kid's around has been a good character trait to build a likable emotional connection out of. "The beefy bruiser has a gentle soul" is far from innovative, but it's fun to watch and that's what really matters.

The only other relationship the show has at this point that compares is Hunter and Omega. Omega brings out the father figure in Hunter, while Hunter embodies everything that Omega thinks the Bad Batch are. That one's more grounded in respect and authority, however, whereas Omega and Wrecker feel more like good friends. It's a different dynamic.

And that dynamic also builds emotional stakes. When we talk about emotional stakes, episodes like this are what we're talking about. When Crosshair's chip activated, it was a gut punch for the characters, to be sure. But the audience barely knew him. You might have some attachment to Crosshair if you watched TCW's disguised pilot for the show, but for the most part the drama surrounding his turn is reliant on the characters telling the audience, "This is very sad, I promise."

By contrast, Wrecker and Omega's relationship hits. When his chip activates, it's a threat not just to the safety of the team, but to that sweet relationship this big ol' softie has with Omega. You want to see the characters survive, but more importantly, you're invested in seeing the emotional connection make it out intact as well.

Basic understanding of storytelling conventions guarantees that the characters will be fine. Wrecker isn't going to kill Echo. But that relationship? That can be severed. That's in real peril. The show premise doesn't require Wrecker and Omega's friendship to survive the events of this episode, and that makes their confrontation all the more tense, and their popcorn conclusion all the more satisfying. That's what emotional stakes are.

This is why the fight builds to a showdown between Omega and Wrecker. Wrecker's one of the boys and we know that all the Bad Batch clones care about each other, but this is the relationship that truly matters among this cast of characters. Wrecker's turn is a big ol' boss fight, but moreso than anyone, he's Omega's boss to fight.

Which she can't, of course. Not just physically but emotionally as well. That drama makes for the most heart-wrenching scene the show's had thus far and I love it.

#star wars #the bad batch #wrecker #omega

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stokholmegan2 · 3 years

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norcumii · 4 years

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some musings on TCW season 7

One of the things that makes Tumblr difficult is that I really, REALLY don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. I don’t want to be that person who sails in, sneers disdainfully at what people are enjoying, and then ambling out, having sucked as much joy out of the room as possible.

My brother used to do that about ANYTHING I was watching, and I still resent it. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

Meanwhile, I’ve reached my saturation point with Season 7 of clone wars, and in my own tired, perpetually exhausted way, I want to scream. Thus, kvetching under the cut. In all seriousness, if you’re enjoying Season 7, then please, PLEASE skip this rant. I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy and Season 7 continues to entertain.

I haven’t watched it: I’m practicing that much self care, at least. There’s been lots of meta and gifsets running around, so I’ve gotten enough second hand exposure – along with useful meandering through various wikis and such – that I feel able to comment about it.

It is indeed very cinematic, and I guess if you dig the art style, then it is a very good example of said art style. But from a broadstrokes perspective, the writing?

What an absolute screaming dumpsterfire.

The thing that finally pushed me from “meh” to “nope, gotta rant about this” was a fascinating piece of meta here, about how Maul is the prism character – the lens through which the story is told. Now, that’s my phrasing and not the OP’s, and again, I haven’t actually seen this so I’m taking a lot of things at face value.

It’s a fascinating approach, and makes the angst and despair that much sharper – especially if you apply this post about parallels to RotS, and let’s not forget the very impressive mocap for the lightsaber fight.

My question, however, is why the FUCK would you do that in the first place? (Not the mocap. That’s genuinely impressive.)

First off: you’re putting the audience in the same boat with the villain. Your lens character is the one who frames the story, who puts into perspective how one interprets events. In this case, that implies that what Ahsoka, Rex, and the rest of the clones are doing is in the antagonist's position, which might be part of the whole “nothing is true and nothing is false but everything is fucked” atmosphere that they seem to be trying to foster (see: Ahsoka’s arguments with Obi-Wan. GFFA has some good breakdowns as far as I can tell). So Maul is supposed to be the lynchpin of this story, either as the protagonist or the Sancho Panza to the protagonist.

That’s a damn weird take on this particular story. Is it about Mandalore? Is it about Ahsoka’s journey? Is it about Maul’s journey? Or are we trying for something meta about how it’s how Maul and Ahsoka’s journeys parallel each other’s, and how those contrast with Anakin’s?

Have you noticed yet who’s missing from this equation?

For a show that’s called “The Clone Wars,” there’s been astonishingly little clones involved in the broader plot. So let’s take a step back from this one issue and look at the season as a whole.

There’s been ten episodes so far this season, out of twelve total. Six of them have centered around Ahsoka. The other four have been about Rex and the Bad Batch. Now, let’s set aside the whole very valid debate about having so many female centric characters and stories is grand, and we need lots more. That’s a damn good point, and Star Wars as a whole needs better diversity on all fronts. Not the particular lens I’m looking through at the moment.

There’s been four of ten episodes about clones. In the final season of The Clone Wars. Yes, they show up in other episodes, but that’s not the focus.

Why would you do that?? We got five seasons already where the clones are more background noise with the occasional highlight (The Deserter, the Umbara Arc), and the entire freakin’ war has been named after them. Ok, so maybe that’s to some degree social commentary about how the Republic was viewing them – background noise against which the weird mythical Jedi shit really stood out – and the sixth season was more a hodgepodge of “we have THESE episodes nearly in the can, rush to finish them because this is important shit to get out the door to bridge from this series to the movies.”

They didn’t expect to have the chance to make this season. They could’ve done pretty much anything, since they didn’t even default to just using the episodes that WERE 70% done (if not more) and had been released into the wild as animatics.

So why pick these stories to tell? And moreover, why this way? Why not make the last hurrah that the crew could not have expected be something coherent and about the actual people that the damned show is named for?

Let’s play with hypotheticals, since kvetching without reasonable alternatives is considered uncouth these days. Let’s say one wants the Bad Batch “rescuing Echo” arc (and that it’s not agony porn. To be fair, I’m not sure if it IS agony porn, thus the presumption that it’s an arc to be had). Since we already spent SIX ENTIRE SEASONS beating home the point that clones are individuals and to be respected as such, rather than introducing new clones who are “aberrations” just to drive home hey, they’re clone versions of TF2 characters clone versions of terrible action movie heroes individuals, how about this?

Cody calls in the Bad Batch, a squad that gets sent into the worst situations and honestly, isn’t ever really expected to come out alive. They’re bad clones, you see. Their leader is probably a man named Dogma – he’s a Jedi killer, but damn loyal to the Republic. His second in command – not that either of them are happy about that – is Slick, a Brother Killer and all around asshole. The other two members of the squad are two deserters: Cut Lawquane, who was found and brought back to the army, and Boil, who was caught trying to leave after Umbara. They have a civilian support member, Suu Lawquane (a damn good sniper, and she now has armor as well as actual clothes).

Bring so many of Rex’s issues home to roost. Make that poor man question all his life choices. He’s still reeling from the whole chip arc and Fives’ death. Let him see what the Grand Army does with its too loyal soldiers, how Dogma did the right thing against orders and is now leading others into the meat grinder on the daily. Let him see what the Grand Army does to traitors, like Slick whose hands are red with the blood of his brothers – just like Rex’s, after Umbara. Cut, who left after too much death, and built a life. Boil, who lost so much, who had enough and just wanted to go find the one remnant of good things that he’d ever encountered in his short life.

They’ve got slave explosive implants somewhere – three because they’re flight risks, Dogma because – well, no one can say why, but it’s so. Let Slick shove Anakin’s nose into the fact that the Jedi are still leading a slave army, have Anakin have to confront that it’s not hyperbole anymore, not when the clones have chips in their heads and now these have slave implants they literally don’t know where.

Hell, have Anakin blow up at Cody over this, and perhaps Cody has to pull rank – establish on screen that he’s running so much of this damn war. He doesn’t like what’s been done with the Bad Batch either, but he can only put out so many fires, and keeping this from raging out of control is the best he can manage.

Let the audience see consequences. Let there be fallout as they go searching for Echo, and the Bad Batch’s various past issues bounce against the experiences of Rex and whoever’s along with him.

(For that matter, if you still want to tackle Mandalore and all that, have one of the soldiers going along with be Vaughn – get to know the man for a little bit. See how Random!Clone reacts to all this, not just Jesse and Kix. Someone without the history with any of these men. While we’re at it, Dogma had Kix in the firing line against Jesse. GIVE ME THE REACTIONS, DAMMIT! AND! And does Rex ever have to say to Dogma “you did the right thing, that Jedi needed to die”? How much does that blow EITHER of their minds?)

Show us travel time. Show us what it’s like for a bunch of soldiers to be stuck in a tin can flying through space along with an entire penal squad of brothers who spit in the face of what the GAR stands for – for reasons both good and bad. Show us what the years have done to Dogma and Slick, how Cut and Suu have adjusted from a life of growing things to having to murder things. How Boil just is done, and wants to head to Ryloth (hey, maybe Numa is currently living with her new sibs/cousins/friends/arch-rivals Shaeeah and Jek).

Then add poor Echo into that mix. Echo, who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing anymore, who was in the Citadel, then stuck in a nightmare of battle sims, and now in this new nightmare of a war that dragged on even longer – and no Fives.

Let us grieve along with him. Fives got a four episode arc (gee, I wonder why this season wanted to start with a four episode arc dealing with the last Domino >_>) where he fell, let us watch Echo’s rise and how he deals with all this.

Let him decide he wants to leave some of the more painful memories behind, how he can’t stay with Rex because it hurts too much, but at least now he’s got some fellow exiles to watch over.

Let the last we see of him be Echo using his new abilities to dismantle both the insidious little buzzing chip inside his and his team’s heads, along with the explosives they also have to bear. Fives died because of the chip, let Echo help others to live in spite of it.

Then slide the camera focus from Rex to Vaughn. Perhaps he gets assigned to go find the former Commander Tano (did he know her at all? Or had he just heard about her?). We could follow him across Coruscant, meeting various civilians who had Strange Encounters with that nice young Togruta. Maybe we get a fun montage: Vaughn questioning people, their various reactions, possibly as a nice voiceover to What Really Happened – that also gives a grand opportunity to get people’s impressions of the Jedi and their clone lackeys.

Then off to Mandalore, still from Vaughn’s perspective. Let us watch this poor man’s rise, as he has to be the metaphorical third wheel to The Team’s reunion. He’s the poor uncomfortable bastard in the room, but he’s a good man, loyal and skilled.

(Also, why could we not get the clones receiving patches or decals of Ahsoka’s markings, and play with that? Emphasize the clones’ individuality – some have it on their shoulder bells, some did the helmets, some have the design down the arm, along the leg – just...diversify, dammit!)

Have Vaughn keep up with Ashoka all the way through to the fight with Maul. Have him be hit, have him be disarmed for the fight – all he can do is witness it (for that matter, you can echo the Duel of the Fates, with Vaughn being in Qui-Gon’s position of dying on the floor).

Then let us see Order 66 from the clones’ perspectives. Show us the sieges, show us Bly and his squad following Aayla into the woods; show us Wolffe and the pack separating from Plo; show us Fox patrolling the Senate.

We’ve seen the Jedi die already. Show us the other side, if you insist on breaking our hearts, and show us how the clones go from good men to good soldiers.

Let me see Cody, let me see the aftermath on Utapau. Let me see Rex breaking, or refusing to break, or whatever it is that happens.

Let this season be about clones.

#star wars #season 7 #critical commentary #sass and murder show #the clone wars #character analysis #thinky thoughts #inappropriate feels about clones #meta #long post is long #writing #useless screaming #spoilers #SO MANY SPOILERS #just venting

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Animation Reviews:Star Vs: Mr.Candle Cares

Tom is back! Yeah I know this took about a month, with the pride month reviews and life being kind of chaotic, I put these next two tom reviews on the back burner, even doing another star review in the meantime for Father’s Day. But with Pride Month winding down and our next episode up being gaytatstic, it was time to come back. It’s just a shame it had to be this one. We’re in Season 2 now, and early in it, with this being only the third episode and the first to not involve the main plot, as the first two dealt with the fallout of the first season finale, and set up some of the main conflicts for the season. I WILL cover those arcs eventually and recap parts of them if necessary but for now they have zero impact on what happens here. That being said just because it dosen’t tie into the main arc with Ludo and Toffee-Wand, dosen’t mean it’s not important, as this episode both marks a major turning point for tom and also digs into the recurring theme for the next two seasons of star grappling with her responsiblities.. in this case future ones. We also get a peak into her mom’s personality. So with not much exposition to cover, I will see you under the cut.. please?

We open at school and it’s career day, something my school didn’t have for whatever reason, but is a common thing as new Gudiance Counsler mr candle has so far been giving everyone really great advice that fits what they want. Star is eager to have her turn and soon does. Inside the office Star is offered Candy, which she politley refuses before we find out, unsuprisingly, Star thinks he’s a fourtune teller. A great bit. The mood quickly drops deep into the basement when Candle hammers into star that her destiny is to be queen and it’s carved in stone despite what other plans she may have. THen things get.. a bit creepy with Mr.Candle asking if Star’s dating marco and when she says no and that i’d be weird to date given they live together he urges her to start thinking about her future husband. And yes I’m aware Tom probably wrote his script, and Tom knows about as much about school as star Does or else Mr Candle would’ve been suspended, at least for this, it’s still unnerving to hear a grown man not only before this tell a teenager she has no choice in her future, but then try and set her up with an unstable teenager in the creepiest way possible and somehow not get fired. It’s hard to watch Star leaves depressed and it’s marco’s turn.. and once again Mr.Candle proves to be a pretty terrible minon, suggesting Marco be a janitor on garbage island. Now as probably isn’t a shock to you given most of you have probably seen this ep, and we’ll find out in a minute anyway, Tom is behind this: trying to keep star and marco apart and get her back with him. And while parts of this do stink of Tom’s own lack of understanding of star, more on that later, and hatred of Marco, as well as not getting earth, as we’ve seen Mr.Candle is actually godo at his job and we see a bit of a real session that’s not part of an emo’s poorly thought out scheme that proves it. He could EASILY manipulate both, or at least try to with marco, but instead just goes along with a script written by a teenager that instead makes one of his targets depressed and the other instantly ready to tell him off or , had Candle been less lucky, go to the principal with this. Now granted this level of gross incompence is another day at echo creek, but it just dosen’t work. I don’t buy that tom couldn’t of found someone more competent with the giant amoutns of money he has to throw around. Then again Tom is really bad at evil when you think about it: I mean sure he can throw hands, as we’ll see in later episodes, but his evil schemes are poorly thought out at best and i’m certain if he had stayed a bad guy after this episode, he would’ve dropped to just proposing to star every time he sees her like teddy from brooklyn nine nine.

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So naturally Marco and Star talk about this with Star really depressed about seemingly being trapped becoming queen, while Marco gushes about how great being queen would be from his perspective... including never having to pick out clothes, fair enough, and never having people not like you, which is depressing. Poor boy. I missed this Marco: Awkward, insecure, but likeable. and also very much possibly gender fluid. Why they threw that out i’ll never know, but it’s canon for me now at least. Anyways, Marco decides to confront candle int he bathroom because why not. It’s not any more awkward than Candle trying to convince star to make out with tom without saying tom’s name. But yeah as I let out of the bag early above, Marco finds Candle talking to tom via the toilet, and tom is livid he didn’t mention his name, while Candle insists he’s working on it and that Starco, and he uses that word exactly to Marco’s confusion and my delight as I do like when writers latch on to fan terms and poke a bit of fun at them, is platonic. Tom tells him to be sure and Mr Candle dismises him. Before tom can get too mad about this, Candle reveals i’ts becaue he has to pee and tom insists he flushes first. A really great gag. So to try and compete with tom and candle for dumbest person this episode, Marco has his own stupid plan: Brag about being “smooch buddiess” with star to piss him off. I assume the next two steps are ???? and profit. I”d also like to note for those unaware that this clip was used in the promo and assumed it was a love spell or some sort of altered mind thing, as it was way too early in the series for them to get together, and smacked of “let’s bait the shippers and hope they don’t get too pissed”. Given I did ship them at the time, it was massively annoying knowing this was obviously out of context, but it’s better than when I watched avatar first run and any hint of kataang was played up and an entire fucking episode was dedicated to fucking with shippers heads. I really need to rewatch avatar on netflix I have NOOOO excuse. Anyways naturlaly the obvious happened; A pissed off tom, who Need I remind you last time nearly killed marco and only didn’t because star used freeze dry and it was super effective, who drags marco away to a tourture wheel. Meanwhile, Star goes to her mom for support. So I get to talk about Moon: Star’s distant mother who’s her exact oppsite: strict, stone faced and in control at all times. And she does LOVE her daughter and get some development later on, but it still dosen’t change her core and she still has real issues actually listening to star that, like some of star’s own issues, she never really grows past. So natrually this goes about as well as trying to get a cat to do anything: She confirms star is kinda stuck inherting the throne before , in an oddly sad moment.. being genuinely confused when Star asks if she’s happy. It’s... a really good character moment to be honest, and sets up her character well now she’s being fleshed out better this season: Moon just.. really dosen’t care about herself or her own hapiness. I mean her marriage is , paradoxically, one of the only marriages in the mewni queenship that not only lasted but is very healthy, but otherwise she just dosen’t care. The kingdom comes first... and to me it comes from the later revlation she was orphaned around 15. She just spent most of her life putting the kingdom FIRST, just like she figured her mother would’ve and probably did, and putting her heart and soul intot hat. And thus she can’t really fahtom someone being SCARED of all that responsiblity and drudgery when for her, it was just a fact she had to accept at star’s age. She probably woudl never be happy but the kingdom’s what important. The thing is A) that’s deeply unhealthyt o begin with and B) it’s easier to accept something like that when you’ve lost your mom, your dad’s never been around and you have only one other person in your life supporting you. Star has LOTS Of other things to her life: friends, hobbies things moon never had a shot at. Not only that but Star’s lived her life iwth a mother who, rather than be supremley happy and beloved like moon’s own mother, seemd miserable, strict and a workaholic.. things star wants to avoid being. Their very strained relationshp probably isn’t helping this. Moon quickly leaves the conversation, but it instead just makes Star spiral further and decide to do something.. drastic. Meanwhile in hell.

Okay not that bad. Let’s try this agian meanwhile in hell.

I said not THAT bad. Jesus.

Close enough. So in hell, specifically Tom’s room. Marco admits he was just getting tom’s goat, which his goat skull objects to, and while Tom is oddly mad Marco lied marco actually gets to tom by countering he lied to star... which is true not just this time but last episode too. Tom relases marco from his pain wheel.

And states that he can’t let him go, he knows too much etc etc, and challenges marco to a fight to the death, which marco acccepts.. inping pong. However tom is really great at ping pong and destroys him. Back with star she’s gotten a great punk makeover. I do wish that star had a permanent outfit change at some point as her temporary looks are always great, and it woudln’t of killed them to do it in season 3 when they had to change over the intro anyway. Alas. She plans to do something drastic.. we’ll find out why in ab it. Back at ping point Marco challenges for double or nothing, despite tom having multiple paddles and him having none and the scorring demon begging him to stop. Tom obliges him, and the two.. actually start to bond. We’ll get way more of that next time. Btu the two bond over how star just tends to cheat, making up rules or changing them to win at the last minute, and how she just does what she wants.. and it’s then.. Marco FINALLY gets through to tom and points out the obvious: Star won’t get back together with him unless it’s what Star wants and Tom gives a face that screams ‘my god what have I done” realizing both how hew’s screwed up and how for now at least, he may never get her back and no amount of scheming will fix it. It’s a great character moment: Tom finally realizes that he can’t just.. MAKE star love him. You can’t MAKE someone love you, they have to want it too. And star dosen’t want him right now and his stalking is only hurting her. It’s here Tom turns a corner. This episode was his lowest moment for sure, as while the blood moon ball scheme was sleazy, trying to make her love him via a magic moon thing was creepy, it wasn’t horribly intentioned and while I do think tom knew it’dmake her love him again I don’t think he knew the full extent of the moon’s magic or how it’d tear her apart inside if she say loved someone else, as ended up happening since it didn’t let her let go of her feelings for marco while with tom himself. Here he knows what he’s doing is wrong, as Marco’s comment makes clear, but is so desperate he’s gone with an insane, dumb and really creepy and manipulative scheme. He TRIED being nice, that didns’t work so he probably felt he had to get more creative and more manipulative... i’ts just he didn’t realize while he LOVES being Royalty, star hates it. While Tom’s parents, who we’ll get into more in a review or two, were loving and supportive, even if his dad may not have been at this stage again we’ll get to his parents when they show up, are fully loving and supportive star’s are loving.. but one of them as we saw just dosen’t GET HER. So while to tom the crown is a great thing to star it’s not so mucha nd given he has trouble with empathy, Tom simplyc an’t understand how much he hurt her until marco spells it out for him And it isn’t just in the text either; As I said in the previous tom review, the writers clearly weren’t wure which way to go with tom, so this episode was the turning point: would tom get worse and become star’s enemy fully.. or would he do the unexpected, at the time anyway, and truly try to change and become another loveable member of her inner circle? And honestly.. I feel they made the right decision. Tom really dosen’t fit into the mewman oppresion cycle as neatlya s the other antagonists who are either the opressors or the result of them. He’s a privlaged kid on the outside of it, as , again , i’ll dig into more in the future. And the show kind of.. outgrew recurring antagonists by season 3. They had a few set up this season, but most either faded away or went all the way up to big bad, and I feel the writers realized that tom just.. didn’t work as that and worked better as a kid struggling with being better than as an incel douchebag antagonist. And given he’s one of the two things that helped prop the show up during it’s worse moments in the latter half, it was the right call and the reason i’m doing this arc at all. Anyways Tom and Marco head back to the diaz house where Star.. has a mermaid and is complteplating chopping off her tail so she can legally never become queen... yeah I meant what I said when I said drastic. Tom however reveals his deception, and .. genuinely apologizes, another sign of growth, letting star go for now. He does get a WELLLLL earned slap, as I said his actions this episode were the lowest he’d sink and still really creeptastic.. but accepts his apology after that, appricating that he at least apologized and grew a bit. Star, while now not going to disfigure someone to save herself, I mean that sort of thinking did give us the doom patrol but still, is still bummed about being queen when Marco, in a good bit of ship tease back when this ship wasn’t in my nightmares, tells her that yeah she’s stuck being queen.. but tid osen’t mean she has to be miserable. Don’t do it like moon, do it like you. They hug, and Tom, in another great bit of growth, just smiles and heads off, letting them have this moment and letting star go. We get one final scnee where candle bails on local alpha bitch britney after tom recalls him which sends her into a depressive spiral later in the series. Ha ha... why did they bring this character back for Season 4? Final Thoughts: This episode is the queen of mixed bags. Seriously on one hand there IS some really damn good character stuff, with Star confronted with the hard truth of her becoming queen and begining this and next season’s theme of star building up to her future, and Tom going from 1 and a half dimensoinal douchey stalker to the complex and relatable character he’d become in future episodes. However the good is smothered like bad.. just like smokey the bear had to smother his joint before each PSA. Like “Red Action to the Future: over in my OK KO reviews, it feels like wasted potetial: the idea of both Star and Marco rexamining their future and Star being confronted with having a fixed path and trying to avoid becoming queen are great.. it’s just Star ends up being a supporting player in the episode, and I feel it would’ve been better if moon had been forced to deal with the effect of her words on her daughter, as she’s gone after her scene and what she nearly caused star to do never has any effect. And Mr.Candle is just an.. awful character. Incompitent, even if parts of that are on tom, unfunny, kinda creepy.. ther’es just nothing really enjoyable about him and it makes the first few minutes a slog as he gaslights two teenagers for money and we never learn just what the hell he is or what his deal is. He just drags the episode down. Really whiel i’ts not TERRIBLE like some of the series worst episodes (Lint Catcher, Stump Day, Marco Jr, Mama Star), it just feels like it could’ve been better paced or made a half hour so star and moon could have more of a plot. If you enjoyed this you know the dril; like, reblog etc and if there’s a star or other animated show or movie you want me to review , just shoot me a suggestion or comission it outright for 3 bucks! I’ll get back to tom this weekend hopefully with freindenimeis and hopefully get to my last two reviews before pride lets up. Until we meet again, later days.

#star vs the forces of evil #tom lucitor #star butterfly #marco diaz #starco #cleaved #mr candle cares #svtfoe #startom #brooklyn nine nine #phrasing #mr candle #mr candle sucks #he does he just does #the loud sisters

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therealcalicali · 5 years

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“Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 9

IMAGINE: TELLING YOUR HUSBAND IVAR, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SLEEPING WITH ANOTHER MAN, AND IT’S DEEPER THAN JUST SEX.

Read Part 1 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 1

Read Part 2 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 2

Read Part 3 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 3

Read Part 4 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 4

Read Part 5 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 5

Read Part 6 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 6

Read Part 7 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 7

Read Part 8 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.” Part 8

Read the Finale Chapter 1 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.”

Read the Finale Chapter 2 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.”

Read the Finale Chapter 3 here: “Ivar, I have something to tell you.”

PART 9 WARNINGS: Angst, Intrigue, Marital Strife

Word Count: 12,764

____________________________________

As you slept peacefully with the help of the tincture administered by the Healer, an elated Ivar entered the passageway. There, he found his brothers and the main servants eagerly awaiting him.

"Well, what is it?" Hvitserk asked, annoyed at his little brother's silence.

He was worried sick and it didn't help that Ivar seemed intent on making them beg for information.

"There is no need to be distressed." Ivar smugly replied. "I will tell you everything in a moment."

With that, he glanced at the servants and ordered them to return to their duties. Even Adelaide. Naturally, the Head Domestic was taken aback by the command but did as asked. When he was certain the Thralls were out of earshot, your husband proudly announced that he was to be a father again.

Ubbe, Bjorn and Hvitserk could not believe their ears. Like Ivar, they were shocked that he had managed to become a father at all. But now, that you were with child yet again, they began to question all they had believed about their little brother. The things the female Thralls had told them about his inability to "perform" now held no weight.

As for Ivar, he wanted to gloat further, but the looks on his brothers faces was victory enough. After all their taunting and gossiping, he had won. He would now tie Bjorn in the number of offspring and add more. Ivar had always desired a large brood to leave his legacy to, and now, he was well on his way.

"I can see that you are all overcome." Ivar said with deep satisfaction. The jubilation he felt from rubbing their faces in the announcement was palatable. "I shall take the silence as a sign that you are all overjoyed for Y/N and I. Now, if you will excuse me, I must tend to my wife."

When Ivar reentered your chamber and closed the door behind him, Bjorn became livid. Though the most reserved of the Ragnarssons, he was still the eldest. Thus, he took exception to Ivar’s obvious disregard for the rules.

Glaring at his brothers, Bjorn stated that he wanted him returned to the cells immediately. Especially since your "illness" had now been identified. However, before he could call for the guards, Ubbe informed him that he didn’t agree. In fact, he added that he didn’t see the issue with Ivar being at your side.

"Let us not punish Y/N for his mistakes." Ubbe concluded.

"But he killed Sigurd. Or have you forgotten that already?" Bjorn asked with eyes wide.

"Of course I have not forgotten. But the trial is tomorrow." A thoughtful Ubbe replied. "So what harm is there in him spending time with his wife? As fathers, we both know how stressful things are for a woman in that condition."

"Fine. But I am telling you, he has learned nothing."

Without another word, a frustrated Bjorn walked away. He couldn’t understand Ivar’s ability to garner mercy even when it wasn’t deserved. Though he tried to shake the thought, in his heart, Bjorn knew that his little brother would not pay for his crime. Like it or not, it appeared that the Gods favored Ivar.

The signs just couldn’t be ignored. For that reason,Bjorn resigned himself to leave Kattegat as planned once the trial concluded. He refused to be around when Ivar the Boneless was unleashed again.

________________________

"Ivar?" You mumbled as you noticed him asleep beside you.

Sitting up, you could still feel the effects of the tincture. For that reason, you were unsure if you were dreaming or not. He was supposed to be in the cells, wasn't he?

Ever the light sleeper, your husband's eyes promptly opened and his hand instinctively went under his pillow. It was where he kept an axe, despite all your protests.

"Y/N…what is it?" Ivar asked with concern as he sat up. Holding the weapon’s handle firmly, he eyed the chamber door. "Did you hear something?"

"No. I just did not expect to see you here."

Relieved that there was no danger to you or Dahlia, Ivar set the axe back in its place. After laying back down, he motioned for you to come closer. As you did so, he brought you against his body, resting your head upon his chest.

"You do not know how happy you have made me." He declared as he ran his fingertips along your arm.

"Me?"

"Of course, woman. Are you not with child?"

"Oh." You replied with some displeasure. "I explicitly told the Healer that I wanted to give you the news myself."

"Either way, my heart is full." Ivar said before bringing your hand to his lips. After kissing your palm, he apologized for the man not heeding your request. "Perhaps it was because you were asleep by the time I was called."

Before you could reply, your mind went to Dahlia. The last you saw of your daughter, the wet-nurse was feeding her in your chamber. Immediately, you sat up - heart racing.

"The baby." You exclaimed.

"Calm yourself, Y/N. She is in her cradle."

You felt a wave of relief as you laid back down. As he held you again, Ivar stated that he was glad that you also saw the need to keep Dahlia close. After all, he was no fool. He knew that there were people who wouldn't mind hurting her just to send him a message.

For that reason, your husband had employed his own countermeasures.

Ivar had numerous spies masquerading as Thralls. All of them courtesy of his loyal friend, King Harald. Furthermore, he was using his "flirtations" with Messilla to mask his real reason for keeping her near. Whom better to uncover things for him than your shy personal attendant? No one would ever suspect that the pretty Thrall was Ivar's eyes and ears. Not even you.

Caressing your back, he admitted that there was much to discuss, but it could wait until after the trial.

"After the trial." You thought.

The words echoed in your mind, nearly causing you to burst into tears. The sleep concoction had eased your mind temporarily, but now, reality had returned. Hvitserk and Ubbe wanted you to bear witness against Ivar, and King Solmund expected you to do far worse.

"Ivar…………"

"Yes, love?"

"Never mind. It is nothing." You replied, too afraid to lay your heart bare.

"Are you certain?" He asked tenderly. Ivar then brought your face up gently with his rough hand. Looking straight in your eyes, he studied your countenance, almost as if he could see the fear that raged within you. "Y/N, you know that you can tell me anything. I am your husband after all."

"I know. It……it is nothing important. Just nerves about tomorrow, I suppose."

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure." You lied – hoping your facial expression didn't betray you.

In all honesty, you wanted desperately to tell Ivar everything. But what if revealing the plots against him only made things worse? Your husband was clever, however, he had the habit of losing his temper. If you divulged all, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't make things worse.

"God, help me. I do not know what to do anymore." You prayed silently.

_________________________

Unable to find any peace, you awakened in the middle of the night. Though you tried, you just couldn't shake the ominous feeling that hung in the air. Either way, the trial was going to put you at odds with someone.

If you sided with Ivar, Hvitserk and Ubbe were sure to be upset. After all, they had plans on ruling Kattegat without their little brother's interference. And why wouldn't they? With Bjorn no longer interested in anything there, they would be able to do as they pleased. Most importantly, they wouldn't have to placate or bend to Ivar’s ego ever again.

Then, there was King Solmund - Sven's father. He and Jarls Borg and Øysten would be furious if you didn't side with Ivar.

“I need to clear my head.” You thought as you got out of bed.

Desiring fresh air, you put on your boots and grabbed a cloak - tying it about your shoulders.

You then walked over to the cradle and caressed Dahlia's cheek as she slept. Looking at your daughter, you nearly sighed when you noticed her thumb stuck in her mouth. It was another new habit that you didn't care for.

However, as always, Ivar encouraged it. As long as it made his baby happy, he could care less about your complaints.

After fixing her furs, you walked to where your husband slept peacefully. It was obvious that he had been completely exhausted. Which of course, was not surprising. Despite his high spirits, you doubted that he got much sleep in the cells. As you were fixing his furs, Ivar’s eyes fluttered open.

"Where are you going?" He asked groggily - noticing your cloak.

"I am going to the gardens for fresh air."

"Let me come with you."

"No. Just go back to sleep." You insisted. "I will not be gone for long."

Ivar stared at you a short while before asserting that he didn’t like the idea. However, he recalled that you often went for walks when carrying Dahlia. So, he relented. But before you could depart the bedside, he grabbed hold of your wrist.

"I will come and find you if you do not return soon." A tired Ivar declared.

"There is no need. Besides, your men are posted everywhere."

"Y/N, I will never leave your safety or that of our children to others." He replied before placing his hand upon your belly. "You are my responsibility and I will never take that lightly. Do you understand?"

You nodded before laying your hand on top of his. Satisfied that you appreciated his concern, Ivar laid back down as you left the chamber.

_________________________

In the gardens, you sat down, practically on the verge of tears. You were with child and that typically meant joy all around. However, it only complicated your dire situation. The only thing you could think of was the safety of Dahlia and your unborn child.

As you sat contemplating things, Torvi's warning echoed in your mind. She had not minced her words when she stated there were people who would do anything to hurt Ivar. After all, he appeared to be the strongest of the Ragnarssons. Not even Bjorn Ironside commanded the following that he did.

Thus, any weakness they could find, they would most certainly seize upon it. That of course being you and your children.

"Princess, why do you weep?"

Stunned to realize you were not alone, you looked up to see a worried Sven staring at you.

"I...........it is nothing. Please, do not concern yourself."

Though he hardly believed you, the Prince didn't push further. Instead, he informed you that he had just returned from the Ragnarsson’s training grounds and was unable to sleep.

"But I suppose that makes two of us." He said lightheartedly in an attempt to lift your spirits. "I get these restless spells from time to time. Perhaps it means I am half owl."

When your expression didn't change, he became concerned again.

"Princess, I know this may be bold of me….." He said in a hushed tone. "but tell me why you are so troubled. As a man of my word, I will do my best to help you."

"And why should I?" You asked skeptically. “Pardon my bluntness, but I have absolutely no reason to trust you.”

It wasn't your intention to be impolite to the Prince, however, he was the son of the man you now feared. King Solmund had proven himself to be treacherous and for that reason, you didn't know how to feel about Sven anymore. As for the Prince himself, though taken aback by your harsh tone, he remained serene.

"I know there is allot on your mind right now. But despite what you may believe, you and I share a great deal in common." He replied.

"Sven, please. You have been beyond kind and I think you are a good man. However, I prefer that you leave me to my thoughts."

"No!"

You were surprised by his reply but he appeared determined to remain where he was.

"Fine. If you will not leave, then I shall go."

"Please stay, I beg of you." An exasperated Sven implored. "All I am asking for is a few minutes of your time. Nothing more."

"Why should I listen to anything you have to say? I hardly know you."

"As if how long you have known me infers anything. Tell me, the people you have known for much longer, how do they seem now? Personally, I think all of them are showing their true colors."

"Why would you assume that?"

"Believe me, the opportunity to gain power always reveals the worst in people."

You wanted to deny what he had said but you couldn't. Sven was right. Everyone was acting quite strange. Even sweet Hvitserk, whom you never thought was that ambitious. Giving in, you informed the Prince that you would allow him to speak his mind. The one condition however was that you didn't need to respond, either way.

"Tell me, do you not wonder why I have been so drawn to you?" Sven asked, causing you to give him a peculiar look.

But it was a good question. He had been attentive from the very first time you met. When you shrugged, he smirked.

"You remind me so much..............” He added as if hurt physically to utter the words. “of someone dear to my heart."

"What does that have to do with anything? You asked with disinterest.

Undeterred, Sven paced a moment before glancing at you again.

"You promised that you would hear what I had to say. So I ask that you allow me to finish." He replied. "As I was saying, from the moment I saw you, you reminded me of someone." Sven then inhaled and let out his breath nervously. "My wife."

"Wife?" You thought to yourself.

That was the last thing you expected him to say. Sister or Cousin, yes. But not a Wife. From all you had heard, the Prince was unattached. Not to mention he flirted with maidens, including Jarl Holmfast's daughter.

"Asfrid was so much like you.” He added with a weak smile. “You should have seen her. I swear, she had a presence larger than her small frame. I think that you would have liked one another."

"Where is she now?" You asked cautiously.

"In Valhalla . Along with our son."

You could see the heartache in Sven’s eyes despite him remaining stoic. There was a brief silence since you didn't know what to say. How does one continue a conversation after such a revelation?

"You need not feel sorry for me." Sven said – noticing your expression. "It has been some years now so I have done all my grieving."

"If I am being too forward, do let me know. But can you tell me what happened to them?"

"They died during one of the battles over the disputed lands."

Your heart sank. Not because you thought it was directly Ivar’s fault that his family had perished. But you knew it meant that the Prince surely held a grudge. It could also mean that he was going along with his father's plots.

"Is that why you befriended me?" You asked with disappointment. "So you can use me to get your vengeance?"

"What?"

"Sven, do not insult my intelligence. You must know that your father wants me to kill Ivar." You furiously replied.

"I will not lie to you. I am aware of the scheme but I had no hand in planning it."

"So, what is your role then? To use our “friendship” to convince me to listen to your father?

To your surprise, Sven looked wounded by the accusation. He shook his head in disbelief as he gazed at you, almost unable to speak.

"Princess, I do not blame you for thinking the worst of me. But I will say this, I may be King Solmund's blood but I am nothing like my father." He replied. "To be honest, I have been waiting for the chance to ask for the vial."

"This is some type of trick.” You said. “If I hand the vial over, you will just report that I will not comply. That would put me and my daughter in danger."

"Stop with these accusations and listen." Sven pleaded as he looked at you. He was quite frustrated and for the first time, you saw emotion upon his face. "If Ivar dies, my father will surely invade his settlements. He wants it all. Honestly, he hated the idea of sharing even when King Ragnar was alive. I may be a warrior but I grow tired of killing at my father's behest."

"Why should I believe that you are against your father? He is your blood, regardless of how awful he may be."

"Because………." Sven said, eyes glistening with tears. "Ivar did not kill my younger brother Tormund. My father did."

Your eyes went wide as you stared at him. If he hadn't appeared so broken, you wouldn't have believed your ears. You recalled Ivar mentioning a great battle with Tormund's battalion right before King Solmund surrendered the lands.

In fact, Sigurd had told you that despite the treaties, the King held a grudge for the death of his son.

"But, I do not understand. From what Sigurd told me, everyone believes Ivar killed him."

"Well he did not. Though your husband is unbothered by the lie, I know the truth. "

"How are you certain?" You asked.

Walking closer, the Prince knelt before you.

"My ships faced severe weather, for that reason, my men were too late to be of help. However, as my men searched amongst the dead for survivors, they miraculously discovered Tormund. He was between life and death. Upon taking him to my tent, it was quite apparent that he would not last long. Thus, I resigned myself to be at his side." Sven paused a moment. "Remarkably, his eyes opened and he called my name. As I held his hand and confirmed that I was truly there, his exact words were "Father cut me down. Our own father turned his sword on me. Do not trust him, ever."

The Prince then added that his brother held on long enough for him to ask a few questions. The most important of course, being why would their father do such a thing.

"Princess, my brother was a man of honor. So he did not agree with father's decision to seize the disputed lands after Ragnar's death. And he was quite vocal about it. Obviously, this caused a rift between them. Still, duty compelled Tormund to fight Ivar's men when they came to reclaim the territories."

"It sounds like he wanted a peaceful resolution."

"He did, but father never regarded his wisdom." Sven agreed. "It is why my brother had the hearts of our people. Both in our Kingdom and the settlements. Father grew resentful, but I never realized how much. Thus, he seized the chance to rid himself of the son he feared would replace him."

"Sven, I am speechless." You confessed.

"Now, that I have unburdened my soul, I hope you longer think ill of me."

"I do not even know where to start. Forgive me for misjudging you."

"There is no need to ask for forgiveness." The Prince replied lightheartedly. "It only proves you are as prudent as I have believed you to be."

"But, what do I do now? Your father expects me to act after Ivar's trial. If I do nothing, he will surely send men to silence me."

"Do you trust me, Y/N?" Sven asked, looking you deep in the eyes.

You nodded as he glanced around the gardens again. Satisfied that you were alone, he instructed you to give him the vial of poison when possible. With that, Sven instructed you to return to your chamber. But he added that you had to slap him first. When you asked why you should do such a thing, he laughed.

Wisely, the Prince stated that he wanted it to appear as if he had been trying to seduce you the entire time.

"You never know who may be watching from their window." He said with a smile. "Now, Princess, please make it worthwhile."

Getting to your feet, you walked over to Sven and mentally prepared to strike him. After all, it was not something you were accustomed to doing.

"What is taking so long?" He taunted. "Are you scared to hurt your wrist?"

Annoyed, you let your hand fly, striking him much harder than you had intended. However, your violent slap amused the Prince. To your annoyance, he smiled as he rubbed his cheek that had turned a bright red. As you left the gardens, Sven watched you with pure admiration in his eyes.

___________________

Back in your chamber, you entered to find that your husband and daughter were both still fast asleep. After removing your cloak and boots, you got into bed, however, you didn't lay down. Instead you looked at Ivar, contemplating what to do. There was great turmoil within your heart as you debated whether or not to reveal the plot against him.

For whatever reason, something kept compelling you to reveal the truth. The sooner the better. Despite Sven having a plan of his own, you didn't feel right hiding things from Ivar any longer.

"Y/N, are you alright?" He suddenly asked as his eyes fluttered open.

Ever the light sleeper, Ivar had sensed your presence in the chamber.

"Not really."

He gave you peculiar look as he studied your expression. Though you hadn't noticed, you were twisting the fine hairs of the furs nervously.

"Y/N, look at me." He said sincerely. "There is no need so suffer in silence. As your husband, it is my duty to do everything within my power to help you."

Though he sounded sincere, you knew Ivar was a force of nature. There was no guarantee that he wouldn’t lose his senses once you told him of King Solmund’s plan. So, you took a deep breath and mentally prepared for the worst.

"What I am about to reveal is sure to enrage you. For that reason, I need you to promise that you will not do anything hasty."

"You know very well that I cannot promise such a thing."

You sighed and informed Ivar that if he couldn't do that one thing, you would keep your thoughts to yourself. Of course, that displeased him because he wanted to hear what you had to say. Especially now that you were with child again. The last thing he wanted was for you to be under stress for any reason.

"Fine." Ivar reluctantly said. "If it will make you happy, I promise to control my temper. Now, can you please tell me what is troubling your mind?"

"I am serious, Ivar. You must make this promise on your honor as the son of Ragnar. I am trusting you to keep your word.

Though he glared at you momentarily, he reaffirmed the promise as a Ragnarsson. Satisfied, you looked at the fireplace as you composed yourself.

"Well, I am waiting." Ivar demanded.

Though it wasn't obvious, he was troubled. The last time the two of you had a serious discussion, you told him that you were in love with another. Despite Herry being deceased, it didn't mean you couldn't have similar news. Numerous scenarios raced through Ivar's mind until his anger began to rise.

"Y/N!" He seethed, unable to take the suspense any longer. "Speak!"

"Ivar, you were so right about King Solmund. He is a dangerous man."

Your husband practically let out a sigh of relief. All the dire assumptions vanished from his mind as he gazed at you. Whatever you were going to say, he could at least take comfort that it had nothing to do with a lover.

"Go on." Ivar persuaded, giving you his undivided attention.

"He asked me to do something."

As your voice wavered, he eyed you with suspicion. He wasn't sure what you were alluding to. But for the King's sake, Ivar hoped the man had not tried to bed you. Regardless of what he had promised, it was one thing he wouldn't take lightly.

"Y/N, your silence is not helping. Just tell me what it is."

"He……………he asked me to kill you."

"What?" A dumbfounded Ivar asked as he finally sat up.

The words hit him harder than when he had heard of Aslaug’s death. He couldn't believe what had come from your lips. For a long while, your husband could only stare at you. Not in anger but deep anguish.

"For whatever reason, he said that you are a common enemy." You continued. "I assume he has heard the many whispers about our relationship."

Sensibly, Ivar recognized that people did gossip about your dysfunctional marriage. But for King Solmund to use it as a tool to entice you to murder, shook him to his core.

"So, how was it supposed to play out?"

"He provided a poison." You anxiously replied. "I was to pour it in your ear as you slept."

Even in the dimly lit chamber, you could see Ivar’s eyes glistening. There was no doubt that your revelation had shocked and enraged him. As the tears began to well, he stared at you - speechless.

“Please, say something.” You pleaded as you clutched the furs. He was truly making you regret listening your instincts. But you couldn’t hide such a massive secret any longer. Especially if things went awry. He had to be in the know in order to make a contingency plan. “Ivar?”

“Did you consider following through?” He finally asked with deep hurt upon his face.

“Of course not! That is why I am telling you everything.”

“I will not get angry if you tell me the truth. After all, I know you hate me.”

For the first time since you had been with Ivar, he was vulnerable. Even his body language that was typically imposing, revealed a broken man. Yes, he had been your tormentor and done vindictive things to break your spirit. Yet, there was no doubt that you held a power over him unlike anyone else.

“I do not hate you.” You replied. “It is true that you have been unkind, but I am a Christian. I am compelled to forgive.”

“Y/N, I do not care for your Christianity!” Ivar said with exasperation. “I want your heart, not your pity. Look me in the eyes and tell me that you never considered using the poison.”

You looked him straight in the eyes as he had asked. Hoping it would help calm his emotional state.

“Though you have mistreated me and we have been at odds, I do not wish you harm. Besides, you are the father of my children.”

“I will take you at your word. But let me say this. I know I am not the man you wanted.........”

“Ivar, th—–”

“Y/N, please allow me finish.” He interrupted. “I make mistakes and do things that even I cannot explain. But I need you to know one thing for certain. I love you.”

Looking at him, you could practically feel his pain. In spite of everything, his raw show of emotion had touched your heart. Before you could speak again, Ivar rested his head on your shoulder. Again, he professed his love and added that you didn't need to reciprocate.

"I am sorry that I did not tell you straightaway." You admitted as you stroked his neck. "To be quite honest, I was confused and afraid."

"The fact that you told me is all that matters."

When he lifted his head, you ran a hand over his plaited hair reassuringly.

"Fortunately, I believe things will work out without your interference. I spoke with Prince Sven and he revealed that he already has plans for his father."

Instantly, Ivar's eyes fell upon you and he didn't look pleased.

"Sven?" He repeated. "Of all the people to trust, King Solmund's own blood is the last."

"And that is how I felt initially. But trust me, Ivar, there is more to him than you think. He is nothing like King Solmund."

Your husband scoffed. But unlike other times when he disagreed with something you had said, he remained composed.

"Y/N, you know that I do not give my trust easily. Whether blood or otherwise. So tell me, why do you feel that the Prince is worth yours."

You were grateful that Ivar hadn't resorted to shouting or putting you down. Normally, that is how all your conversations went. But this time around, he was actually interested in what you had to say.

"I know it sounds absurd, but I do not think Sven likes the way King Solmund operates. Not only did he tell me not to listen to his father, but he also revealed something about you."

"About me?" Ivar asked with curiosity. "What?"

"That you did not kill his brother. He said that though mortally wounded, Tormund lived long enough to give last words. He told Sven that their own father had cut him down."

"Well, at least someone knows the truth." A apathetic Ivar replied.

"But I do not understand. Why have you allowed King Solmund to go around spreading lies about you?" You asked with great confusion. "Sigurd said that you supposedly killed Tormund after he and his men had surrendered. Why allow people to think you did something so dishonorable?

"Because."

Though you waited, Ivar didn't add anything further. Instead, he laid down and stared at the ceiling.

"Because what?" You asked. "Please, I really want to know."

"Y/N, is it not obvious?" He replied reluctantly. "People already believe worse about me. There are even those that say Aslaug was cursed, that is why she birthed a half serpent child. So what is the point of fighting their prejudice? I am not a perfect man, but if they wish to think I am a monster, so be it."

You hadn't considered the fact that people did gossip a great deal about Ivar. Even when you were a Thrall in Bjorn's home, you heard countless whispers about "The Cripple". It couldn't be easy to live life continually being mocked for an infirmity.

"But that is no way to live, Ivar. I refuse to believe that you like people making such assumptions." You said. "Why give in so easily?"

"It is far from giving in. It is merely allowing them to think what they wish. If people want to believe every tale they hear about me, let them. I will never beg to be understood."

"So you do not care how people see you? Even a little?"

"No." He replied confidently. His sorrow had lifted and he was now contemplative. "Let them create whatever version of me that pleases them. Besides, any man that cares about the opinion of others will never be happy. And I prefer to be happy."

Everyone knew Ivar was a masterful tactician but who knew that he was also quite philosophical. Curious, you observed him a moment before asking if he was indeed a happy man.

"Of course I am." Ivar said before he stopped gazing at the ceiling. He then gave you his full attention. Putting an arm about you, he stroked the small of your back in circular motions. "When my mother was killed, I never thought I would find peace. Every day I woke up with a great tightness in my chest. As if a storm was raging deep inside. But then came the day I saw you. It was like finding something I did not know I was searching for. So yes, I am very happy, Y/N."

You could only stare at him. Your husband was showing a side of himself you had never seen before. Not only was he being soft-spoken but he was revealing personal thoughts. In nearly three years of marriage, you couldn't remember sharing such a moment.

"Ivar, it is not wise to find your joy in other people." You said as he brought his face closer to yours. "My father; rest his soul; believed such a thing was the path to sorrow and disappointment."

"Perhaps. But I have never been good on my own. When I had my mother, all seemed right with the world. In spite of everything, she made me feel that I was truly loved." He confessed, almost as if he was reminiscing. "She loved me unconditionally. So when she died, it was as if she took everything good with her. Despite the presence of my brothers, I felt………………..alone. Floki was my only saving grace. But then, you came along. So you see, I cannot help finding my joy in you."

"Did you not hear what I just----------"

Putting his finger to your lips, Ivar gazed at you - his intense eyes studying your every feature.

"Y/N, I choose to feel as I do. If I am gravely wounded for that in the end, so be it."

With that, Ivar pressed his lips to yours tenderly. As he pulled back, he affectionately caressed your cheek, feeling more assured about your marriage than he had in some time.

_______________________

In the morning, Ivar was the first to awaken. Quietly, he lifted himself utilizing the leather and chain strap he had installed over the bed. After putting his leg bracers on, he rang the bell for the servants.

As the women busied themselves selecting his clothes for the day, one asked if they should wake you as well. To the shock of all the Thralls present, he nearly threw the horn of ale he was drinking.

"Are you mad?" He hissed. "Can you not see that my wife is exhausted? Now go and have them prepare my bath before I have you flogged."

Before the three frightened women departed, he called one back to the chamber.

"Yes, Master."

"Fetch Messilla. And tell her to come straightaway. I have a very tight schedule and cannot be kept waiting."

"Of course, my Prince."

With that, the woman hastily left to go and fetch the newest Thrall. Optimistic about the day going well, he walked to the cradle and gazed at Dahlia. The baby had apparently been awake for some time, entertaining herself. She was happily babbling away until she saw Ivar’ face. Instantly, she gave him an adorable smile as she reached up for him.

"Are you happy to see me, my love?" Ivar sweetly asked as he placed his finger in her grasp. To say that he was enamored with his daughter would have been an understatement. Every time he beheld Dahlia, he couldn't believe she was real. Taking a seat in the chair beside the cradle, he placed the crutch down and picked her up. "You are going to spend the morning with me so mother can rest.”

As he brought her in for a kiss, Dahlia excitedly held his face with her plump fingers. It was a little game they played now that she was bigger. As Ivar kept lifting her in the air and bringing her down for kisses, he tried to get her to repeat words.

"Say, fa-th-er." He coaxed before nibbling her cheek playfully.

He did so a few times more which only seemed to amuse Dahlia. Every time he said the word, she squealed and became livelier. Knowing that repetition was the only way to get babies to talk, Ivar kept the game going.

"Fa?" She unexpectedly babbled.

His eyes lit up with elation as Dahlia kept repeating herself. Glancing over at your sleeping form, Ivar contemplated whether or not to wake you. However, despite wanting to share his the news of your daughter’s first word, he quickly decided against it.

"We will tell her later." He cooed as Dahlia stared at him attentively - almost as if she understood his words. "Do you know you will be an elder sister soon? Yes, you will. That means we have to take good care of mother so she and the baby stay healthy. She will need lots of rest."

To Ivar's amusement, Dahlia began babbling excitedly as if she was challenging his assertion. As he continued playing with her, a knock came upon the door. When he asked who it was, the Thrall he had sent to fetch your personal attendant nervously replied.

"My Prince, I have brought Messilla as you instructed."

"Let her in."

The door opened slowly and in walked the tense Gaul. She had been asleep when the Thrall had burst into her chamber instructing her to make haste. For that reason, Messilla only had time to throw a robe over her night dress.

"Master, what do you require?"

Without taking his eyes off Dahlia, Ivar informed her that it was to be a long day. And since he wanted you to rest before the trial, she was to take the baby to be fed and bathed.

"When the wet-nurse is done, you shall mind the baby."

"Of course."

Timidly, Messilla walked to where Ivar sat and took Dahlia into her arms. Though she didn't cry, the baby did begin to whine.

"What has father told you about crying? Hmm?"

Running his hand over Dahlia's head, Ivar comforted her affectionately before glancing at the Thrall.

"She is likely quite hungry so you may go. But remember…….." He said before dropping his voice to a whisper. "do as I have instructed."

"Of course, Master."

______________________

As he ate first meal in the privacy of the Study, Ivar asked one of the servants to fetch Messilla. After all, he had to keep up the pretense of favoring the Gaul. Not long after, one of the Thralls returned with the lovely Gaul in tow.

Though she still found it awkward, Messilla had donned one of the costly dresses Ivar had gifted her.

This of course was causing great chatter amongst the other Thralls. It was bad enough that the new arrival had her own chamber within the estate. But the fact that she was also being dressed lavishly by Ivar was not doing her any favors. Most of the female Thralls were growing to hate the young woman.

In fact, whenever Messilla was around them, they went out of their way to be rude or curt.

Fortunately, they didn't go too far with their disdain. They may have been envious, but the last thing they wanted was for the young Ragnarsson to hear of her mistreatment.

"I am so glad you called for me, Master." Messilla informed Ivar as she took at seat. She then began to gently rock Dahlia in an attempt sooth her. "I have not been able to calm the baby since her feeding. Mistress told me that she is cutting teeth so I went to get advice from the wet-nurse. However, I was informed that she has gone into town."

"For what reason?"

"They said she was headed to town square. She wanted to purchase certain foodstuffs appropriate for the babies."

Rolling his eyes, Ivar broke a piece of bread and put it on his plate. Though he found himself growing aggravated with the wet-nurse, he didn't wish to dismiss the woman. Not only had she come highly recommended, but she was actually quite likable, minus her unplanned day-trips. Additionally, her son was only a few months older than Dahlia.

That meant he wouldn't need to find a playmate for her as she got older. Taking a piece of dried beef from one of the platters, Ivar motioned Messilla over.

"Bring her to me."

Placing the baby over her shoulder, Messilla did as commanded. To her surprise, he took Dahlia from her arms and sat her on his lap. Ivar then held the dried meat to her lips despite her crying. It took some coaxing, but soon enough, Dahlia grasped the hardened beef and began chewing on it.

"How did you know that would work?" An impressed Messilla asked as she took a seat at the table.

"You women need to stop thinking men are dolts when it comes to children." Ivar remarked proudly. He held Dahlia securely with one hand as he began eating again. "Anyhow, have you had first meal?"

Messilla shyly looked at her lap and shook her head. She had wanted to, however since you were asleep she was nervous about entering the Great Hall. Especially since the Ragnarssons and guests were there feasting. It would have been too much for the poor girl to enter such an environment.

"Then help yourself." Ivar commanded as kissed the top of the baby's head. "There is plenty."

"That is a kind gesture but I must decline."

"Why?"

"I mean no offense by it, my Prince. It is just that my previous Master would never have allowed such a thing. Perhaps you are putting me to a test."

"Messilla!" Ivar said with exasperation. "If I wished to punish you, I would do it outright. Now eat."

Bashfully, she took a plate and began serving herself whilst Ivar gave Dahlia his attention. The baby was content and resting her head against his chest as she busily suckled on the dried beef.

"Love, you are getting spittle everywhere." He commented before grabbing a linen. As he wiped her face and chin area, Dahlia began whining. "Stop that. You are becoming much too spoiled."

As Messilla ate, she kept stealing glances at Ivar. It was hard for her to believe that it was the same person everyone feared. Even when he had purchased her from her old Master, the man had given an ominous warning. He teased that the young Ragnarsson was likely to be the worst Master she would ever have in her life. Thankfully, she had yet to experience such.

"Give Father a kiss." Ivar sweetly said after cleaning Dahlia's face. When he brought his face closer the baby pressed her lips to his. With a big smile, he looked at the introverted Thrall. "Can you believe how clever my daughter is?

"Yes, Master. She is also very attentive when adults are speaking. It means she will likely speak earlier than most children."

"Of course she will." He replied as he looked at Dahlia. Taking his horn of mead, Ivar took a sip before turning his attention to the Thrall again. "Now, tell me, is there anything new I should be aware of?"

Straightening in her seat, Messilla bashfully looked at him. She then stated that she had overheard a conversation between Ubbe and Bjorn.

“Well?" Ivar said with annoyance.

"It was right before they entered the Great Hall for first meal. I was seated near the gardens when they made their presence known. After they acknowledged me, they spoke by the entrance. Apparently, Master Bjorn plans to leave Kattegat after the trial for his settlement. He thinks you will not see any punishment and does not wish to be around once the dust settles."

Ivar scoffed. He could care less about Bjorn ever since his mother killed Aslaug. Though he had tried, living at peace with his elder brother had run its course. Despite what Ubbe and others said, to forgive Lagertha was not in his blood.

Ivar had denied himself vengeance for years, suppressing his growing rage for the sake “family”. But now that he had a real family of his own, he no longer cared if he fell out with his brothers.

"So, Bjorn wishes to run away?" Ivar contemplated with a delighted expression. "That does not surprise me. Like his mother, he is a coward. But please, go on."

"He said that……..that….he wants Master Ubbe to take over his assigned territories in Kattegat. He does not think he will return to oversee them anytime soon, if ever. Master Ubbe tried to change his mind but it appeared that Master Bjorn is resolute."

"Is that all you overheard?"

"Yes."

Not believing her reply, Ivar looked at Messilla. As expected, her eyes were dashing around which was a telltale sign that she was hiding something. Being astute at reading people, he eyed her with seriousness.

"Messilla, I will not ask again!" He said as Dahlia became restless. She let go of the dried beef and began fidgeting in his lap. Taking his attention from the Thrall briefly, Ivar held the baby firmer. He then spooned some honeyed porridge and put the spoon to her lips. "Still hungry love? Do not worry, Father will have a talk with that blasted wet-nurse when she returns."

As he continued feeding the baby, Ivar turned his attention back to Messilla.

"Tell me what you are so afraid to say. And do not make me repeat myself. Trust me, you do not want to see my other side."

"Master Bjorn said…….he said he could not believe that the Mistress is with child again. He also said that he pities her and the children for being trapped with you. And Master Ubbe agreed."

Though the words enraged Ivar, he didn't show it outwardly. He instead kept feeding Dahlia while pondering what Messilla had revealed.

"Thank you for being of great help." He finally said. "Now come closer, I have something to say."

Placing her knife and bread down, Messilla went to Ivar's side. She stood nervously with her hands clasped in front of her as she waited to hear his words.

"I want you to keep doing as I have asked. And remember, no matter what my wife may inquire, do not reveal anything. I will let you know when you are free to desist your efforts." He stressed. "You may go and finish your food."

"Yes, Master."

"And remember, anything I do or say to you in public, play along.” Ivar added. “But never to the point that it offends my wife. Understand?"

"Of course, my Prince."

Messilla returned to her seat, grateful that Ivar was nothing like her previous owner. Though she had initially thought he wanted to lay with her, it was apparently not the case. Amazingly, Ivar was a loyal husband. Her previous Master was nothing of the sort. The man was not only cruel but he used her as a bed-warmer despite having two wives.

As she ate, Messilla hoped that when her task of spying came to an end, she could make use of her talents. As a learned woman, she could teach languages, music and other skills to Dahlia and her siblings. Indeed, for the first time since becoming a Thrall, the young woman felt she could have a decent life with you and Ivar as her Masters.

__________________

You awakened in the afternoon feeling rested and ready for the long day ahead. For whatever reason, you spirits were high despite all that was occurring.

“You know what? I think I shall wear something colorful today. Perhaps the color red would suffice." You announced to the servants as they rubbed you down with rose oil.

"Would you like to take a look at your wardrobe so you can make a selection?"

"No." You said cheerfully. "Just surprise me."

Straightaway, one of the Thralls left to go through your vast collection. The one thing no one could ever say was that Ivar was selfish. He was exceptionally generous when it came to showering you with gifts. Your husband gave you so many things, that there was hardly any space in the chamber that housed your wardrobe.

When the woman returned, she was holding a lovely burgundy dress with gold embellishments and embroidery. You nodded in approval as the other Thralls laid out your boots and other necessities. As they were doing so, one of them brought out a corset.

"I shall not require that." You said without explaining why.

The woman put the corset back on the bed and came to assist with the braiding of your hair. Thankfully, with two Thralls working diligently, they finished rather quickly.

"Mistress, how would you like the ends? Pinned into a bun or left down."

"Pin it up please. And use the golden hair combs."

After your hair was finished, the servants helped you dress before looking you over.

"I think you should use kohl as well, Mistress?" One thoughtful Thrall said.

Agreeing with her assertion, you sat down so they could apply it to your eyes. As they were doing so, one of your least favorite people entered the chamber. Head Domestic, Adelaide, sauntered in unannounced, looking unpleasant as usual.

"May I have a word, Princess Y/N?

"As you can see, I am quite busy. Besides, I must go and have first meal once they are finished."

"Understandable. But I will not keep you long."

"Alright.” You said, trying to hide your annoyance. “I am listening."

The old woman looked around the chamber to convey that she wished to speak to your privately. Taking notice, you dismissed the other Thralls despite not really wanting to entertain Adelaide.

You knew she didn't like you nor your presence. But what could you do about it? The woman had served Aslaug faithfully and taken care of Ivar after her death. Thus, asking him to send her away would be like asking him to dismiss a family member.

"Well, we are alone now. What do you wish to discuss with me?" You asked.

Adelaide looked at you with a stern resolve.

"Prince Ivar tells me that you are with child again." She began. "He asked that I say nothing to the other servants until he makes the formal announcement."

"That is understandable." You replied. "But if he has already spoken with you, what do you need from me?"

"I need to ask an important question. Something only you can answer."

You instructed Adelaide to proceed, but you were weary. To your utter bewilderment, the old woman looked you straight in the eyes and asked if you were truly with child.

"What a strange thing to ask. Of course I am! Do you think the Healer has nothing better to do than to go around fabricating things?"

"I meant no offense. I just wanted to know for certain."

“Well, you may rest your mind. I am indeed with child! You snapped.

"I beg your pardon. But you cannot blame me for being apprehensive. After all, you did not want to birth my Master’s firstborn."

Your neck snapped in her direction. The audacity it took for Adelaide to speak to you as she was doing was astounding.

“There is no need to feign innocence with me.” The old woman continued. You attempted to rid yourself of seed the first time around did you not?" And do not say otherwise because I witnessed it all with my own eyes. The only thing I want to know now is if the unborn child is truly Ivar’s."

"What?"

"You heard me." Adelaide replied without flinching. "Why are you so content this time around? Personally, I think it’s another man’s seed."

Your hand hit the table hard before you got to your feet. Not only were you angered by the accusation, you couldn't believe that she had been spying on you so much.

"I will hear no more from you Adelaide!" You seethed. "I cannot believe you have the gall to speak to me as if I am the servant, and not the other way around. Now you listen, and you listen well. This is Ivar's child whether it pleases you or not! Now get out!"

"As you wish, Princess Y/N."

With that ominous reply, the old woman departed the chamber, leaving you to your thoughts.

_______________________

"It’s done." King Harald said as he stood on the pier beside Ivar. "Someone should come across her soon enough.

Since the time of the trial was fast approaching, Bjorn had given permission for them to meet. Despite the King being on the panel of judges, he was still Ivar’s dearest friend. For that reason, he requested time with Ivar in case it was his last day of freedom.

"I cannot express how grateful I am. Lizzy was a danger to my family."

"That she was." The King said with a nod.

With a pleased expression, Ivar suddenly looked at his friend, almost unable to contain his joy. Noticing his sudden change of mood, King Harald gave him a peculiar look.

"What’s with the smile?" He asked.

"Though I have yet to make the announcement, you must share in my good fortune."

"Good fortune, aye? What is it?"

"Y/N is with child again."

With a hearty slap to Ivar's back, King Harald congratulated him. As he laughed, he added that the news only proved that the Gods had not abandoned the youngest Ragnarsson. In fact, it seemed that they favored him greatly.

"And you now what else? The King added. "It also proves what you said to me the night you met her."

"I said something to you?"

"I’m not surprised that you cannot remember. After all, you were very intoxicated that night. But after Y/N served our table, you looked at me as if you had been stuck by lightening. Your exact words were "She’s the one. I must have her." Hopefully, this good news should finally give you reason to stop mistreating the poor girl."

"What?" An irritated Ivar asked as he shifted the crutch underneath his arm. "You think I mistreat Y/N? If that is how you feel, why have you never voiced it before?"

"Do you forget whom you are?" King Harald asked with a hearty laugh. "I prefer my skull intact, thank you very much. But I digress. If you truly wish to know my opinion, then I shall speak freely. Personally, I think you should stop being so aggressive with your wife. Leave the rage for the enemies on the battlefield."

"Let me understand what you are suggesting. You wish for me to become soft so Y/N can run amok? Never. She is far too willful as it is."

"Look Ivar, I am not asking for you change who you are. But you must think before you act. Y/N is a foreigner and already unaccustomed to our ways. If you are not careful, like a bird, she will fly away the moment opportunity presents itself."

King Harald observed his friend’s expression once he was done speaking. Obviously, Ivar was not thrilled, however, he did not fly into a rage. Instead, he pondered the words thoughtfully.

"I am grateful." Ivar finally said as he glanced over the waters. "It is not often anyone gives me words of wisdom. That all ceased when Ragnar died. For that reason, I will take what you have said to heart.”

"Good. Now, about the trial, have you spoken to any of the other panel members?”

"That will not be necessary. You see, I believe things will go my way."

"Oh?" King Harald remarked with a chuckle. "You are far more confident than you were before. What has brought about this sudden change?"

"Let’s just say that my brothers have been overly zealous with their desire to take control of Kattegat.” Ivar scoffed. “Ubbe is a fool to think he can dissolve the Council without worrying our allies. But I’m not surprised. He lacks understanding when it comes to the intricacies of leadership. Not to mention he forgets whom everyone credits with avenging Ragnar. Me."

"That is interesting. I never took Ubbe as the ambitious type. What of Bjorn?"

"That coward? He intends to join Lagertha at his new settlement. As if mere distance will protect him once I’m ready to strike."

When King Harald asked if he was finally going to seek vengeance for Aslaug's death, Ivar nodded.

"That treacherous woman will die by my hand. I will watch the light leave her eyes and enjoy every second."

"I do not blame you for wanting to do so. But it may be easier said than done. Don’t you think Bjorn will fight by his mother’s side?"

"Then he shall die by her side." Ivar shrugged.

"True." King Harald mused as he ran his hand over his beard. "But what of Ubbe and Hvitserk? I know they are not your favorite people at the moment. But do you think they will finally side with you?"

"Those useless dogs? None of them cared about our mother like they should have. They may go and join Lagertha’s forces for all I care."

"Well, if it is of any consolation, I shall be at your side when the time comes. After all, you area seeking justice. That makes your cause righteous in the eyes of the Gods and man.”

A pleased Ivar smiled before thanking his noble friend. There was no one else he trusted more than King Harald. And in that moment, it was reassuring to know that such a powerful man understood his need for retribution.

________________________

When you entered the Great Hall, the entire place went silent. Though it was unnerving, you remained calm. With everyone's attention focused on your every move, you approached the center of the room with your head held high.

There were about sixty people in attendance, all of them men of valor and great importance. As for the Ragnarssons, they were on the panel of judges along with King Harald, King Solmund, Jarl Borg and Jarl Øysten.

"Thank you for being patient, Princess Y/N. Please, sit there." Ubbe said as he pointed to the chair that sat in the center of the hall.

As you did as instructed, you passed by Ivar. Remarkably, your husband seemed to be in good spirits despite the gravity of the situation. He even gave you a reserved smile while watching you take your seat.

You could hardly breathe wondering how the proceedings were going. Despite being a character witness, you had not been present for the start of the trial. Due to your condition, Ubbe felt it was best not to expose you to the entire ordeal.

"Sister, how do you fare this afternoon?" Hvitserk asked with a pleasant expression.

"Fine, thank you."

"Good." He replied. "Firstly, on behalf of the panel, I must ask if you understand why you have been summoned."

You nodded and stated that you were there to answer their queries about Ivar. Satisfied, King Solmund followed Hvitserk’s words by asking if you were prepared to speak truthfully despite your husband being the accused.

"Of course, your Majesty. I swear by the Gods."

"The Gods?" Jarl Borg interrupted. Despite being one of the conspirators who wanted Ivar set free, he had not forgotten about your little confrontation. "No offense Princess Y/N, but everyone present is aware that you are a foreigner. Not only that, you were a Thrall forced to adopt our ways. For that reason, swearing to our Gods holds little water in my eyes."

As several people murmured in agreement, you could only look the Jarl's arrogant and mocking expression. Though it was clear he enjoyed demeaning you, he was playing with fire.

Ally or not, Ivar didn’t appreciate his assertion. Though his expression remained serene, one thing was certain. The Jarl would live to regret his display.

“I hardly think her old life matters, Jarl Borg.” Ubbe declared.

Though you thanked your brother-in-law, you added that you understood the man’s concerns.

"Jarl Borg, you speak no lies. I am indeed a foreigner. And a Christian one at that." You began. "If swearing by my newfound Gods is not acceptable, with permission from my husband, I will swear by my old faith."

When you looked at Ivar, everyone in the Great Hall watched with great interest. It was no secret that he treated you harshly, even in public. For that reason, all those present expected an angry response.

"You may do so if it will appease Jarl Borg's concerns." Ivar replied, surprising everyone.

Relieved that he had shown restraint for once, you thanked him before giving the Jarl your attention again. You then swore to be truthful by your Christian faith, and their Gods.

"That is more than satisfactory." Jarl Øysten said, as he glanced at his friend. "What say you Borg?"

Defeated, the Jarl shrugged and told Bjorn to continue with the proceedings. From what you could gather, your brother-in-law appeared more tense than usual.

"Sister, as you know, we are here because of Sigurd's untimely death. Unfortunately……" Bjorn continued as Ivar stared daggers in his direction. "he died at the hands of none other than our brother and your husband. Ivar. In spite of this, we want you to be forthcoming. Is that clear?"

"Yes, of course."

"Now if you please, can you shed light on Ivar's feelings toward Sigurd?"

You knew the question was coming but it didn't make it any easier to answer. Honestly, you had heard your fair share of Ivar's complaints about his brothers. But for whatever reason, Sigurd got the brunt of it. Simply put, the two were like water and oil.

Although there were moments of peace, your husband made it clear that he hated the deceased Ragnarsson for tormenting him.

"I can only speak on what I observed." You said as you tried to gauge your words. . "There were times that the two of them got along. For instance on the Council and things of that nature. But things never went well for long. They argued often and would not speak to each other for long periods of time."

"And what did they fight about most of the time?" King Solmund asked with curiosity.

"Well, my husband is…………was born with an affliction." You began.

But before you could say another word, the King interrupted.

"My dear, we all know he is a cripple." He affirmed. "What of it?"

"With all due respect, King Solmund, I would not put it that way. As I said, Ivar was born with an affliction."

"Fine. You may carry on."

Ivar's expression softened. Despite often referring to himself as a "cripple", it was a word he greatly disliked. He only called himself one in an attempt to take the sting out of the insult. However, it still hurt him to his core. For this reason, he was immensely touched by the way you spoke of him.

"As I was saying, my husband’s affliction was used to belittle him." You continued. "Though Sigurd knew it bothered Ivar, he would continually make mean-spirited remarks."

"Like what?" Jarl Borg asked.

"Often, it was things directed at Ivar's worth as a man." You admitted as the room erupted with whispers. It was so distracting that Bjorn had to tell everyone to desist so you could be heard. "I loved Sigurd. God knows I truly did. But he did not bite his tongue when it came to Ivar. Nor did he desist when threatened. Honestly, when my husband’s anger would rise, it only amused him. It even………………"

You paused before adding that on numerous occasions, Sigurd had told Ivar that Aslaug should have allowed him to die. Additionally, you revealed how he would also insult their deceased mother for being a dreadful caregiver.

"Of course, I never had the opportunity to meet my mother-in-law. She was long dead before I was transported to Kattegat. But from what I can tell, Ivar truly loved her. For that reason, Sigurd's disrespect of her memory made things between them worse."

King Solmund leaned back in his chair and glanced at you with a raised brow. As for Hvitserk, he looked at Ubbe before leaning forward and placing his hands on the table before them.

"Sister, you speak truthfully. The feud between the Ivar and Sigurd began in childhood." Bjorn said in agreement. "But if we are to believe that inciting Ivar is what causes his ruthless behavior, then how do you explain how he treats you?"

Your heart sank. It had not occurred to you that out of all people, one of the Ragnarssons would be the one to bring up your marital problems. And since they had witnessed things firsthand, you couldn’t lie.

The entire Great Hall was strangely quiet - everyone eager to hear your response. The only other person unnerved by the question beside you, was Ivar.

Though the two of you had conversed openly, there were no guarantee that you wouldn’t change your mind. Naturally, the line of questioning only deepened his hatred for his elder brother.

"It is no secret that my husband is volatile." You said truthfully. "Has he done things to bring me to tears? Of course. In fact, many have seen it first-hand, including yourself. However, I do not know whether he’s worse than any other husband. All I know is that despite everything, Ivar rescued me from a life of servitude. After all, I was your Thrall when he met me."

"That may be so.” Bjorn replied. “But are you saying that Ivar isn’t cruel by nature? That he needs no provocation to be violent?"

"As a Christian, I do not think anyone is violent by nature. Everyone is capable of good and bad deeds. Even Ivar can be kind. After emancipating my family, he not only gave them homes but he established trade for my mother and brother-in-law. For that, I am ever grateful."

There were murmurs as Bjorn groaned at your reply. As for Prince Sven, he sat quietly amongst the crowd, pleased by the developments. On the flip side, no one was more disappointed by your testimony than Hvitserk.

Like Bjorn, he hoped that you would have sealed Ivar's fate. Unfortunately, it had come to nothing.

The questioning went on for a while longer before Jarl Øysten indicated that it was enough. He added that you had been very cooperative and provided great insight. With a kind smile, he then gave you permission to depart the Great Hall.

Utterly relieved to have held your own in a room full of intimidating men, you stood. As you passed by where Ivar was sat, you felt the calloused touch of his hand on yours. When you looked down at him, he gave you a gentle squeeze.

Giving him a reassuring smile, you returned the gesture before leaving the Hall.

___________________

"Mistress, please eat something." Messilla said as she rocked a sleeping Dahlia. The two of you were sat under a sunshade in the courtyard trying to enjoy second meal. However, you had no appetite despite the delicious spread. "There is no use in worrying about what is occurring at the trial. The Master is in the hands of his Gods now."

Though you knew she was right, you were far too stressed. Whenever that occurred, your appetite was the first thing to go. And how could you enjoy any food at such a time anyway?

The fate of your family was in the hands of other people. If things went badly for Ivar, it would be devastating. Especially since you had cast your lot with him. That meant there was no guarantee that any of the Ragnarssons would offer shelter or help.

"Messilla, if things go awry, Please stay long enough to help me get my daughter somewhere safe. After that, I will let you go."

"I wish you would not think so negatively, Mistress. But if it will ease your mind, I give you my word."

You thanked her before taking a sip of honeyed milk. Your mind eased slightly, but as you glanced at your personal attendant, your curiosity peaked. In spite of all that had been going on, you had noticed that Ivar had taken a liking to the Gaul.

So despite your normal aversion to him, you found yourself slightly bothered.

"Tell me, what do you think of Ivar?" You asked as Messilla ran her hand over the Dahlia’s thick black hair.

"The Prince is a good Master unlike my previous one. Many of the other Thralls think so as well."

"That is good to hear." You replied as you looked into her green eyes. "But what do you think of him? Personally, I mean."

When her expression wavered, your anxiety worsened. How odd it was to think you could very well be chatting with Ivar's mistress. Though you had no evidence, all signs were saying it was a possibility.

From her expensive wardrobe to her private chamber within the estate, your husband was not treating Messilla like a Thrall.

"Do not be alarmed. I am only trying to satisfy my curiosity. Has Ivar attempted to..............lay with you?" You added.

"Mistress, please. You are asking things that you know I cannot answer. As I told you before, the Master forbids me to say anything without his permission." She said timidly. "Truly, I wish that was not the case."

Her response didn't answer your question but it definitely created more. Why did Ivar have her sworn to such secrecy? After all, Vikings took Mistresses openly. There was no need to hide anything if Messilla was his lover. But since the entire subject was giving you a headache, you chose to push it from your mind.

Before you could take another sip of milk, you spotted some guards escorting Jonah to where you sat. Since you had not seen your brother-in-law since the last time he had visited with Ivar, you got to your feet.

However, you barely greeted him before he practically collapsed in your arms.

"Oh Y/N, it’s awful." He said with great pain in his voice.

Your heart raced as your thoughts went straight to your mother. She had gone to take care of a foreign Jarl's daughter. What if the girl's illness had killed her?

"It's Lizzy! She’s dead!" Jonah said as if he barely believed it himself. “My wife is dead!”

You could barely accept what you heard. Was your little sister truly gone? Though you tried to ask him to repeat himself, Jonah was overcome by grief and embraced you tightly. As tears welled in your eyes, you felt the peculiar ache that only death provoked. It was numb and surreal.

All you could do was rest you head on your brother-in-laws shoulder and grieve with him.

_____________________

"We have come to a decision." King Harald declared as the Great Hall quieted down. "I will now give the floor to Bjorn to convey the panel's decision."

With that he sat down as the eldest Ragnarsson got to his feet. He first locked eyes with Ivar briefly before folding his hands over his chest.

"Friends, we gathered today for the sole purpose of deciding whether or not Ivar, son of Ragnar, was accountable for the death of our brother Sigurd." Bjorn said as everyone hung on his everyone word. "After all statements were taken into account, the panel concludes that Ivar did not act maliciously. Furthermore, he will be given his freedom immediately with the condition that he pay the fine of one thousand silver penning within the month. The amount will be split equally amongst the leaders of the Heathen army. If the fine is not paid, he will be returned to the cells until the entire amount is remitted."

The Hall burst into chatter and whispers of approval. Some men even cheered causing Bjorn to raise his hands for their attention.

"Have you any questions to ask of the panel, Ivar?"

With a smug expression, your husband looked at his elder brother with satisfaction.

"You shall have the coin first thing in the morning." He replied.

Hvitserk was so appalled, he could barely look in Ivar's direction. The disappointing ruling had gone down, two to six. With he and Bjorn voting against Ivar. For whatever reason, Ubbe had changed his mind halfway through the proceedings.

"That concludes the trial. You are all free to go." Bjorn pronounced.

The Hall erupted with great noise as the people in attendance began making their way to Ivar. Everyone wanted the opportunity to shake his hand and commend him on his vindication. As for Bjorn, he marched out of the Great Hall straightaway, followed by Hvitserk.

Ubbe, however, sat at the long table, pondering his next move. He knew that he had angered his brothers, but he had no choice.

He may have been ambitious, but Ubbe was smart enough to see the writing on the wall. Ivar was going to be set free even if he had cast a guilty vote. And the last thing he wanted was to put a target on himself or his family.

"It appears that congratulations are an order." Prince Sven said to Ivar as he shook his hand. "I for one am glad to see you remain at the head of the Great Army."

"Your words are kind. I shall not forget them."

"I only speak the truth. Now, if you will excuse me, I shall step aside so others may have their turn."

With that, Sven excused himself and departed the Great Hall.

______________________

As a euphoric Ivar made his way across the courtyard toward the West wing, he couldn't help smiling to himself. Not only had he thwarted the takeover attempt by his brothers, but everyone seemed satisfied by the outcome of the trial.

In fact, like Prince Sven, most voiced their relief that he would remain leader of the Heathen forces. Whether the Ragnarssons liked it or not, their allies viewed Ivar as the superior strategic mind.

"Master!"

Ivar stopped in his tracks as Messilla came dashing across the courtyard holding her skirts. When she made her way to where he stood, she looked around to ensure no one was within earshot.

"Why are you running around like a madwoman?" He asked half amused.

"It is Princess Y/N." She began, her breathing somewhat labored. "She has been taken to your chamber and put to bed. Master Jonah is at her bedside along with the Healer."

Ivar's pleasant expression melted away as the words hit his ears. His first thought was that something had happened to the unborn child. He knew that it was a common occurrence for women in the early stages. But then, his thoughts went to you. Ivar could tolerate many things, even the loss of an unborn heir. Though sad, it was possible to try to create another.

However, he didn't want to think of what would happen if he were to lose you.

"Why was the Healer called?" He asked. When the nervous Thrall failed to reply straightaway, his anger began to rise. "Speak, damn you!"

"Apologies. I think I should make things more clear." Messilla replied. "Rest assured that the Princess has not taken ill. She is grief-stricken."

"About what?"

"I hate to be the bearer of unhappy news, but your sister-in-law is dead."

Feigning disbelief, Ivar asked the Thrall if she was certain. Messilla replied that it appeared to be so since Jonah himself had said it.

Though he had not expected for Elizabeth's body to be found so quickly, Ivar was glad. The sooner she was laid to rest, the sooner your family could grieve and move on.

"Where is my daughter?"

"I gave her to the wet-nurse for a feeding only moments ago."

"Fine. But when that is over, you are to keep Dahlia with you. Understand?"

"Of course, Master."

Before Ivar could add to his instructions, He spotted King Solmund, Jarl Borg and Jarl Øysten walking. The three men were headed to the Dining Hall to partake in the imported wines he had instructed the Thralls to serve. Without hesitation, Ivar took hold of Messilla's hand and kissed it affectionately.

Though he had told her to expect such things to occur, it didn't make it any less awkward. Messilla truly enjoyed being around you and feared losing the burgeoning relationship.

Ivar leaned closer, as if flirting with the Thrall, aware that King Solmund and his companions were observing.

"That is all for now." He whispered. "And remember, anything you observe or hear, no matter how insignificant it may seem, report it."

Messilla nodded despite wanting to tell him that the entire situation was rousing your suspicion. But she held her tongue. She was a servant after all and there to do as commanded. All she could do was hope that things would return to normal sooner than later.

"Now, go and do as you have been told." Ivar said as he began walking away. "I will go and see to my wife."

King Solmund and the Jarls weren’t the only people to take not of Ivar’s “flirtation” with Messilla. Hvitserk, who had decided to go for a ride, spotted his little brother and the Thrall as well. Of course, he thought exactly what Ivar wanted everyone think.

Needless to say, the flaxen-haired Ragnarsson was appalled by his brother’s display. Especially since he had just announced that you were with child again. Despite you siding with Ivar at the trial, Hvitserk was still contemplating helping you escape Kattegat.

It would be difficult, but not impossible. So, as he stared in his brother’s direction, the plan began to take shape.

_____________________

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