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judyhopps934-mt-zd · 3 years

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Thoughts on Miraculous Shanghai: The Legend of Lady Dragon

Warning: Spoilers! Other than that, have fun!

Also, if you want to watch the full English Dub, click here!

I love how we saw Fei's backstory as to how she became guardian of the Prodigious and how it was actually stolen because there are people who want money from her adoptive father's studio. It was also sad to see that the values her father implemented into her fade due to the circumstances they found themselves in. I speak for all of us to say that this girl needs a hug.

The intro as always is beautiful! Since it was not the first thing we saw, I was confused when looking through the episodes on YT.

I always enjoy Marinette's monologues, and this one was over how she looked forward to her holiday (it was like a vacation type thing). And how she looked forward to spend time with Adrien since his father was going to let him out. It was all perfect...

...until she went to deliver Uncle Wang's package and found out Adrien left for Shanghai at the last minute. But all is good though because she could go to Shanghai, deliver the gift personally, and see Adrien.

It hurts me to see that the writers made Marinette's purpose to go to Shanghai is to see Adrien when she can do that in Paris! It frustrates me that her character development goes back to square one, even as the protagonist of the show. People might point out this was before season 3, but I have a few points that say otherwise or that the writers are mixing things up. But first, the plot points and thoughts of everything else.

Also, I get that Marinette is 14/15/16 at the time of this episode, but how likely is it to send your child on their own halfway across the world??? On SHORT NOTICE??? I swear Sabine and Tom are too chill with this, but then again, there would be no story.

Also, I love how Ladybug and Chat Noir took the opportunity of their patrols without akumas to bond more. The Ladynoir in this episode I stan!

Gabriel you piece of trash! If you did not plan to spend time with your son, why take him to Shanghai when he was hoping to spend time with you?! And do not say "for business purposes" because even though Adrien is a face in the brand, at least don't give him false hope and that bs!

Nooro, thank you for trying to talk Gabriel out of it, but he is literally a wall (talking to Gabriel=talking to a wall)

I will say, the waiting for 15 years thing is very concerning.

Uncle Wang has been looking forward to see Marinette in person in Shanghai to learn more about her roots. He is ecstatic and its just heartwarming and heartbreaking when you think that part of Marinette's stay will be related to Adrien.

At least we see one thing that makes Marinette's stay not all about Adrien though: she is genuinely interested in her origins! Like when she asks about her family's traditional songs and about her mom, even learning her real name!

Speaking of which, Sabine's name is Xia Ping and only called herself Sabine when she started living in France. Also, I love her photo!

Bastille the bird that was around since forever is an icon!

Also, I can't believe Uncle Wang has not taken a break since Sabine moved to France, like what the hell??? Give this guy a break for goodness sake.

Thank you Gabriel for having one brain cell and allowing your son to leave the hotel! We still hate you for everything else though.

Its cool that Kwamis speak all of the languages. It is also the most logical thing because their wielder could be from anywhere. My question is are they taught the languages, does it form when a concept forms in the universe and they start existing, or like everything else is it magic?

Gorilla is iconic for two reasons: he is still a self care king, and he was willing to give Adrien some space to get action figures.

And now as I wrote that, this is where I am getting confused and start to believe this is post season 3: 1) Gorilla seems less anxious about being in a new place (unlike NY where he stayed in the hotel room the entire time), and 2) His obsession for action figures was shown in Party Crasher (season 3), which makes me wonder if the explanation is during season 3 or this episode hints at season 3. For the first point, it could be because Gabriel was not in NY to his knowledge.

Fei appears again and explains how she views the world and how she also uses that to help and take advantage of others.

She almost steals Adrien's phone and miraculous until Gorilla steps in. It hurts me because she is a good person but had to resort to stealing for a reason that we will explore soon.

Plagg, we always say your stomach causes trouble, but this time, you brought Adrien to Marinette's uncle...

...but also that ironically separated them as Marinette found them just as they climbed into the taxi.

This is also where Fei (wearing a disguise) crosses paths with Marinette and steals her purse. Then she went for the kwagatama and miraculous.

Things get worse for Fei as these boys that took a photo with Adrien earlier started chasing her. Then Marinette started going after them.

That is when she realized she was robbed and understandably, she was more horrified of losing her Miraculous.

Adrien shows up to Uncle Wang's home/restaurant. So many iconic moments happen.

1) Bastille says something about love between Marinette and Adrien. And Adrien responds with the line that makes us want to jump into the TV and talk some sense into him.

2) You say that "she's JuST a fRIenD" yet you stay over with her mom's uncle so you can surprise her lol. Adrien, you kill me and every other Adrienette fan with this contradicting statements.

Speaking of Marinette, she gets lost and has trouble communicating with others because she does not speak Chinese. And at some point says that she regrets not taking lessons?! Uh, what does this imply, that she refused lessons or that she did not have the opportunity for lessons??????? I NEED ANSWERS!

Can we say once again how talented and artistic Marinette is? Bad time? Moving on!

Uncle Wang is unaware of Marinette's tardiness, and Adrien just jokes about it. Considering that she is technically missing (reality is that she's lost), I don't think its time to joke about it.

The lady that gave Marinette some earrings that look like the Miraculous is so nice and bless her soul

The person from the pawn shop is the bad guy that we see at the very end of the NY special! And he knows about what happened to Fei's father! I am grateful that he sees no value in Marinette's stuff so he won't sell it for a lot, but I hate how he's greedy for money and was willing to exploit Fei's hunger for answers and Marinette needing her miraculous for personal gains.

Meanwhile, the boys from the photo with Adrien that chased Fei were trying to get Marinette's attention (they found her kwagatama when Fei dropped it running away and fighting them), but she thought they were gonna attack her. And then she bumps into Fei, who helps her escape.

Marinette finds comfort in Fei for being willing to "help" her (remember that she was gonna bring her to the pawn shop). She also finds Fei as a helpful, kind person who is brave: something that Fei does not see in herself, but does not have the heart to tell Marinette the truth.

Meanwhile, Chat has transformed to find Marinette and its the most endearing thing I've seen! Adrien, you blind oblivious fool! You care about her more than you think!

They arrive in the pawn shop, Tikki escaped the claw machine, and Marinette finds the earrings...for 100000 Yuan.

Fei, understanding what its like to have something entrusted to you be stolen, gets in a spat with the pawn shop owner in Chinese, accusing the owner for greed and accusing Fei for theft, while Marinette just stands her.

Also, when did Marinette become naive???????? I get that she's in another country and they are speaking in a different language that she does not understand, but based on the tone of their voices and shouting, I feel like she should have sensed something was off.

Fei swaps the earrings the lady gave Marinette and took the miraculous back. To the lady, this is why your soul is blessed. So bless your soul!!!

Apparently, Marinette realized what happened and said that Fei stole her earrings and feels bad for the man. Girl, you do not have to feel guilty for the man! He was about to destroy them before he thought about sentimental value! Also, he did not pay Fei anything for them! (Felt that this should be brought up because even though Fei was wrong in stealing her stuff, she was also robbed from potential cash and answers, therefore the man was owed nothing.)

The boys from Adrien's photo are actually vigilantes of Shanghai (and will be referred as such from now on), wanting to bring Fei to justice for stealing, which catches Marinette's attention, but not enough to ask any questions.

Also Marinette is not wanted as a criminal. She is missing as Uncle Wang called the police.

Fei still lives in the school, which has been in ruins. Despite not having much, she still offers Marinette a cup of what I believe is water (or tea?). See peoples, Fei is a good person at heart (if y'all aren't aware of it by now)

Gabriel saw and recognized Marinette. This is horrifying and if it is prior to season 3, we see why he tries so hard to target her. Or reasons why he targets her in season 4 along with everything else we know from "Truth".

Fei should have been given the chance to explain why she stole Marinette's things, but the pawn shop owner was like "you know, I might as well expose Fei myself"...

...and it really broke Marinette, who heavily trusted her. But she can't dwell on it for long...

...because AKUMA COMES FOR THE PAWN SHOP OWNER! AND HIS FAN SHOOTS KNIVES! AND HAS GREEDY MOTIVES! AND HELPED HAWKMOTH GET INTI THE CAVE WITH THE PRODIGIOUS!!!

Also, Nathalie was involved in obtaining the bracelet years ago. Again, the 15 years thing is concerning.

Marinette flees to transform, but not without telling Fei how she broke her trust and how she feels that Feinwas not genuinely helping her. It hurt me so much!

Ladybug transforms, hears Chat's voice-mail (to which she is swooned by the fact her kitty cares for her civilian self), and calls him. The best Ladynoir scene so far!

So the prodigious is like a jewel with powers, there is only one prodigious from what we see, and that one prodigious has multiple renlings that only the wielder can see. Oh, and the bracelet is like a key. Cool.

I don't like how Fei's Lady Dragon outfit looks whitewashed, but at least her hair is red instead of blonde (which still does not make this okay)

Epic Showdown between the akuma, Hawkmoth, Ladybug, and Lady Dragon. Hawkmoth corners Ladybug and Lady Dragon gets caught in some rocks.. All hope seemed lost...

...until Chat shows up and frees the akuma with the help of a basketball.

We learn something new folks: the same butterfly can create a different akuma. This is very frightening because...

The statue that determines who is worthy of the prodigious gets akumatized! The horror!

Also, if the statue says Fei cannot become the dragon because her intention to seek vengeance for her father is not noble and worthy, then what makes Hawkmoth think he will be successful in becoming the dragon??? Because it seems that his intentions are not pure or noble. Just saying.

Hawkmoth notices the akumatized statue heading to the city and all of a sudden remembers about Adrien. Confronting the statue, he gets turned into ashes(?).

CHAT, HAWKMOTH IN ASHES WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR THE BETTER IF THE STATUE DID NOT DESTROY SHANGHAI AND YOU WOULD NOT THINK AS SUCH IF YOU KNEW HE WAS YOUR FATHER! But I am not mad at you, just wanted to point out your irony.

ML WRITERS, WHY DO YOU KEEP KILLING OFF CHAT????? LADYBUG DOES NOT NEED ANY MORE TRAUMA AND THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!!!! I AM SCREAMING INSIDE!!!!!

Fei is understandably upset and blames herself for what happen. I want to hug her so badly.

Marinette reassures Fei and forgives her, even though Fei felt that she could not be forgiven.

The structure they were standing on collapses and it was Fei as the Dragon who saved her, not Chat. Honestly, I love how it turned out as it strengthens their friendship, but I still prefer a Marichat alternative. WHERE IS THE MARICHAT PEOPLES???

Final showdown!

Poor statue guard was upset about the damage they caused as an akuma, but Miraculous Ladybiug fixes everything.

Fei learned an important lesson: let justice take its course, not enact revenge. But it was quite funny to have the pawn shop owner be flown away to court in a literal sense.

The bracelet has a renling-like creature, who is just so adorable, especially since they missed Fei and was waiting for the day they would be reunited. Aww!

Ladynoir version of the Moon scene from NYC! Except no dancing, just them challenging each other over who will get to Paris first if they traveled in opposite directions. No one shall ever know we were in Shanghai as civilians lol (Reminds me of my best friend when eating grapes during choral rehearsals)

Marinette, Adrien, Fei, and Uncle Wang enjoying a birthday (?) dinner was wholesome.

I love how Uncle Wang calls them boyfriend and girlfriend because of how they act around each other, yet Marinette and Adrien both deny it. Bruh, these children need to open their fricking eyes! I really wanted to jump through my phone screen!

The Shanghai Vigilantes came to return Marinette's kwagatama necklace. They are so precious even though we thought they were enemies in the trailer.

Even though they were at odds at first, love how the Vigilantes blushed when Fei played the accordion and she's just like "whatever". I stan an asexual queen.

Do I even want to know what Marinette accidentally said when she mispronounced "sister" in Chinese? Based on what Fei said, probably not.

Uh...NOW I WANT TO SEE MORE OF ADRIEN TEACHING MARINETTE CHINESE! While I do take some issue of Adrien (a white French boy) teaching Marinette her culture like most of us had issue with in "Kung Food", I also want to see them interact outside of school and hopefully bond. ML writers need to keep their word otherwise Adrienette stans will riot!

Love how the final scene turned out! Its just *chef's kisses*

Also, the hell with the business trip?? It was mentioned once again IN THE ENDCARD! It might not be as interesting, but I want to think that there was more truth to it.

Also, wifi troubles kept interrupting the show at crucial moments, but okay.

Overall, I live for the Shanghai episode! The animation is just as incredible as the NY special (which I also live for) and I love how this episode has a great focus on Fei and the prodigious. I mean, before the intro, she tells her story. And she has her monologues alongside Marinette's. In many ways, it's refreshing. Also, Ladynoir and Adrienette stans will be satiated with the scenes associated with each ship. Also, I love Fei's character development! And the final scene is wholesome!

I won't lie though: there are a few issues regarding whitewashing Fei's transformation and such. It is important to see these things and as a good friend of mine always says: you can enjoy something while also being critical of it. And that is very important no matter how devotive to something you actually are.

Anyways, we are being well fed with all the Miraculous content and I will see you all very soon! Also, get some sleep peoples! I know some of you aren't sleeping!

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princekoo · 3 years

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goodnight n go | one | pjm.

pairing. single dad! jimin x female teacher! reader

synopsis. jimin was a single dad of three and one unfortunate mishap caused him to meet you: his best friend’s coworker and daughter’s teacher. will feelings of petty loathing develop into something more?

genre/prompt. fluff, angst

word count. 4.3k

content. jimin is a pole dancer and has 3 kids as well as is 9 years older than oc. even if they’re both well over legal age, if that makes you uncomfortable, please consider not reading. thank you <3

writer’s note. I deleted it originally because I was unhappy with it as I wrote it when I was younger and didn’t have much experience in writing and my approach to it wasn’t as elaborate as the one I managed to develop all these months of practicing. so! here she is! she’s longer and has less parts so you won’t be annoyed with the constant changing haha. an important thing to note is that the oldest son’s name Songyoon was changed to Haneul, the little girl’s name Sooyeon was changed to Eunbyul, and the youngest’s name Sanghoon was changed to Hayun as their names were too similar and made it difficult to remember who was who. There was also many major plot changes as well as small ones, so it’s somewhat completely different to the earlier version. Anyways! Enjoy :)

parts. one / two

The window curtains glittered under the moonlight’s loving, motherly kiss, this gentle caress closely similar to the unnaturally blond man’s embrace of a little girl–his precious little girl– in his arms. She was quite positively almost a copy of himself, down to his natural jet-black hair and plump, pink lips. The expensive curtains—most notably one of the most expensive things in the vicinity as what his little one wants his little one gets— danced with the wind let in by the open window softly, bringing the loud car horns and yelling of bustling city life with it. They’d been rendered to a simple ambient hum, considering how high up in the building they lived, however. The glitter scattered all throughout its length caused it to look like various constellations spread gracefully, causing his little one to refuse any other option that wasn’t it, unfortunately for his bank account. The neon lights of signs outside their New York City apartment, which would otherwise be annoying, entered only carefully tonight, as if to not disturb the gentle moment between the father and daughter.

“And so, the little princess was elated! The dragon had taken her to his cave filled with shiny little things all around, away from the princess life she hated.”

The raven-haired girl’s little eyes had shined in anticipation; the blonde man often mused it seemed like the night sky was trapped in her gaze since her birth, hence her name. She practically shook from excitement, her little brain unable wrap itself around how the princess pulled it all off so effortlessly! She didn’t know what to do with herself, so she clung to her dad’s silk night shirt as tight as her little fists would let her (which kind of hurt but he wasn’t going to stop her, he loved her too much to repress her). She liked to think of herself as close to that of a big, scary typhoon. He begged to differ with the more accurate description of the whirlpool one makes when circling their fingers in water repeatedly.

“The dragon taught her all she came to know! He taught her to read and write. Taught her to do basic things and they lived happily for just a few months. Then, the guards in the palace found her and came to get her! Do you know what they assumed, my beautiful little star?” Jimin had started looking at her fondly, the term of endearment coming out in their native tongue of Korean, accent prominently and endearingly laced in his English, soothing into every word he spoke. The nickname made her chest fill with warmth and her cheeks puff in reluctant happiness. No matter how many times her dear daddy would say it, it was her very own little term of endearment. Just for her and no one else. She loved it.

“That he was a big scary mean dragon! Right, daddy?!”

Jimin beamed at her intelligence. Then again, he does read her this story whenever she asks—and that’s nearly every weekend. He tickled her and held her tightly in his arms, her soft giggles reaching his ears just as the melodies he would dance to as a young boy would. Although he could still fit her in his arms, she was getting big. Give it two more years and he couldn’t do this anymore with her, hold her without difficulty and discomfort. The thought of such a cruel future made his heart sink a little. He had to stop himself often from thinking about how she would act when she became a teenager, it would be too much for his fragile heart to handle.

Jimin had always chastised her, as he was the only parent she had left. He took care of her and taught her valuable life lessons, sang her to sleep, and learned to make pretty hairstyles “just like a princess”, she’d say. He corrected her when needed as well as took on the role of both mother and father to her younger brother, Hayun (she preferred to call him Sunny after Jimin told her the meaning in English, which always made his heart melt), which was only a month old when their mother decided to pack her bags. Her older brother, although still a junior in high school, helped as much as he could to alleviate the toll that taking on both roles took on Jimin.

He was a great father, as one wouldn’t really expect. He was the right mixture of incredibly compassionate, well-humored, and empathetic with a dash of sternness to go along with it. He wasn’t a tyrant ruler, he listened to all three–well two, Hayun hasn’t even been able to string together a coherent longer-than-3-words sentence, only simple sentences, as a toddler does– and implemented all change that was agreed on by the majority. He always tried to pay equal attention to all of them, although most of it went to her younger brother. She didn’t mind though, she enjoyed playing with her older brother, Haneul. Jimin always packed him lunch, even as he whined that he didn’t have to do that, but he always enjoyed when he did it. She knew, noticing he always left to school with a small smile on his lips after.

Jimin has to assume complete responsibility once their… “mother” … turned up one day and decided she wanted nothing to do with her kids anymore. After taking her routine every night visit to the bar, she found someone older. Wealthier. “Much more fun” and “like you used to be before they showed up” she also gracefully added. Not like it was his fault he’d grown up once his first child was born, unlike her. Always looking for convenient fun, never tied down to anything. Proposing to her would just be in vain since it’s not like she would’ve accepted marriage anyway. Even during high school, when she first had come to him announcing her pregnancy, he knew how little care she held for him. She always thought of him as harmless fun, a man on the side and he couldn’t say the same of himself. The first child was purely an accident, the other two was him desperately trying to convince himself it could all work out and she could change. After their third, he knew how wrong he was. He held feelings for her at one point, although, with time, it all disappeared. He could only hold feelings of loathing towards her at that point. She thought of the kids as nuances. She got sick of it. Sick of him. Sick of having just one person to kiss. She couldn’t be tied down, but just because he knew that, it didn’t mean it hurt any less. She’d left once Hayun was born, but Eunbyul didn’t know why. She always thought she didn’t love them anymore after seeing her mom with a man that looked uglier than her daddy for sure, but she seemed happy. Her mom said something to her before she’d left, looked at her weird, and screamed at her dad some more, but she couldn’t remember what it was. Often, she’d ponder when her mommy was coming back. Well, not like she could, anyway. They did move across the globe after, from Busan to New York, with no way to contact them. She didn’t mind not having a mommy for now, though, it’s not like she was ever home before anyway. It was always comfortable with daddy.

“Daddy! Please continue the story! Why’d you stop?! Pleeeeeeease…!” She pouted and looked up at him with those puppy eyes children knew to use when they wanted something to make their parents cave in fast in response to his hesitance to continue the story, her fake tiara skewing just a little to the side. One day, he’ll buy her a new one. One with diamonds and various other gems. His features seemed to light up and playfully mirror her own, his nose scrunching up as well. She, of course, as a sensitive, princess-y 4-almost-5-year-old, did not know how to differentiate someone being mean between someone playing, so she smacked him on the shoulder as hard as she could in her blind anger. Jimin yelped at the contact and sobered up, expression turning stern. Had she messed up? Did she do something wrong? Daddy’s face did the same face he always did when he was mad at her for doing something wrong. Eyes sharp. Lips in a straight line. Eyebrows drawn together.

“Eunbyul, you can’t hit anyone ever, you hear me? Especially me...” His voice was stern, but less confident as he trailed off. One look in her eyes and one could easily tell she was on the verge of tears. Why had the atmosphere changed so much? Why did the breeze still? Why was it so hot all of a sudden, but just on her face? Her tears were almost spilling out of her doe eyes, so his expression softened and panic flashed through his face. He had too soft a spot for her.

“...Not without expecting payback!” He announced out as a save and initiated a tickle attack by removing his arms supporting her back and wiggling them on her sides, causing a sea of reluctant giggles and laughter to erupt from her lips, tears of sadness now turned into ones of happiness. A wave of relief passed through her consciousness. He wasn’t mad at her anymore!

After he stopped tickling and her giggles piped down, he took her in his arms again and minimally rocked her back and forth again, attempting to continue the story. She gazed into his eyes. There, were two crescent moons filled with stars picked carefully right from the universe. They held warm nights of him wrapped in a blanket and always holding her in his arms while rocking her back and forth, looking back at her like she was his most valuable treasure. Nights of drinking lukewarm chocolate and sharing it with her while telling her countless stories he remembered or made up, her brother’s occasional snorting making her giggle. Those crescent pools of love staring right back at her with so much fondness, she couldn’t not trust him. He loved what he created with every inch of his being, even if she resembled her mother somewhat. She never felt so safe in any other person’s hold, even in Haneul’s. She felt safe and happy, sure, but not to the extent of her dad’s.

Pouting and closing his eyes as well as lifting his head up high in mocked snub, he opened one of his closed eyes.

“Well, if you’re done being rude, I’d like to finish this story for this week.”

A beat of silence went by as she looked at him with slight shame and tucked her head against his armpit. He sighed, breathily chuckled and shook his head slightly.

“You were right, princess. They did think he was a big, mean, and scary dragon that took the pretty little princess as his own treasure! The princess came back from getting berries just before the guards decided to kill the dragon!”

A gasp. A smile.

“She explained what happened and the guards decided to keep to themselves that they had seen the princess. The dragon and the princess lived what, my little star?”

“Happily ever after, right, daddy?!” She looked at her dad excitedly, completely engrossed in the story despite it being probably the hundredth time he told it to her since her birth.

A pause.

“That’s right, my love. The end…”

Although little Eunbyul understood simple Korean, she could barely speak it. Jimin planned on teaching her a little more down the line. Now, she barely understood some of the words, any longer than two syllables being too dang hard for her little brain to grasp at this late hour, right before her bedtime, but she didn’t care at this time. Not when his soothing voice graced her ears with the background noise only that of the far away beep of cars, the rhythmic rumbling in his chest every time he’s uttered a word soothing her to sleep. As she laid there in his arms, fast asleep, little snores leaving her nose, all that was in his mind was how he could never bear losing her.

He felt absolutely heartbroken and stressed, raising three kids on his own was unbearably hard. He loved them so much he had to look for a job in this new country. A job that paid well but let him work while the kids were asleep so he could care for them while they were awake.

He also made friends with his co-workers and shift manager, so it wasn’t too bad re-adjusting. They barely hired new employees since they had a very high criteria, so he barely had to deal with new hires that made his job harder. His kids are growing up, though. He knew that. He feared they would leave like their mother did almost two years ago, so he’d decided to enjoy them and raise them as well as he could while it lasted. He was scared they’d decide they were sick of him just like she did. Irrational since his kids shared a strong bond with him and each other, but valid.

Jimin got up, arms still wrapped around her, she was growing and he could no longer able to hold her like how he used to. He moved the covers to make place for her and gently laid her down, taking her plastic tiara off her head. Covering her and laying a gentle kiss on her forehead, tears dangerously threatened to spill. The moonlight hit his face, making his eyes’ shine intensify into thousand galaxies in his beautiful, soft chocolate eyes as he got up to turn off her mermaid lamp.

“Sleep tight my little universe,” he chokingly whispered as tears freely fell from his eyes.

An abrupt sound made way to his ears and he turned around, finding his sixteen-year-old son holding Sunghoon. Jimin vigorously wiped his tears and gave Haneul a weak and quivering smile. The boy moved to put down the toddler he was holding in his crib and turned on the mobile, then mouthed to his father if he was okay, used to him being bubbly and strong for them, though it certainly wasn’t the first time he’d seen him cry. He took the role of confidant, listening to his father whenever he let himself be anything less than closed. He always looked so small, like a little boy. It always scared him. This wasn’t his big and amazing role model of a dad, was it? The one he bragged about to all his friends and anyone who would listen? Would he become like that, too? Out of the three kids, he was the one who remembered his mother the clearest, having been fourteen. He despised her, to put it nicely. He was the one that got to see to the extent that that woman caused their father to feel anguish, he got to know what not being loved by his mother was like.

Nodding, he ushered his oldest son out the room, more unrestrained tears rolled down his tear-stained cheeks. No matter how vigorously he wiped at them, they’d come back anyway, so maybe he should give up on wiping his tears just as he’d given up on trying to make his relationship work. It didn’t help that Haneul was the spitting image of his mother, either. Haneul wanted to press on, to question him and help him, but he decided to leave it. Glancing at both of his younger siblings sleeping, he decided maybe some things were better left unsaid. He slowly made his way to the door and once he reached it, pat his dad in the back and continued to his room. As Jimin tried to control his upcoming violent sobs, he shut the door behind him.

He couldn’t do this alone anymore. It was too much. He needed someone there.

The cool autumn wind blew against Jimin’s cheek as he shook his hair to clear his fringe from his eyes. He brought his dainty hands into his jacket pockets as he puffed out air. While his breath may not have been visible, it sure as hell felt like it could be.

It was cold as fuck, to put it simply. Having a car would be absolutely beautiful right now, but circumstances really don’t line up with his wishes on the regular. He always kept forgetting to look into which car he would like best and to go purchase it, but the subways facilitated his route home and to work somewhat. His life would improve tenfold once he remembers to buy a car. He was very forgetful since there’s only so much he can keep up with, his brain take up with his three kids and problems. He could do that in the three days he had left, he guesses. Maybe tomorrow if he sets a reminder, even, would he be able to get a car. Before he left, he had saved up money for a living space able to hold all 4 of them and a mode of transportation. He could get rid of his subway card and buy a car or something, anything but dealing with the surplus of rats and drunkards at the time he used it. His credit wasn’t bad either, which could probably lower his purchase a little. His oldest used the same transportation he did, but he just wanted to drive his kids to school in the mornings and drop them off. Even more so, Eunbyul was starting school in just a few days, so he couldn’t afford to just walk her to school as it was half an hour away from their apartment building or even use public transport. It just didn’t feel right to him. All those cute hairstyles he planned on doing on her would be ruined by the time they got there.

Jimin kept pacing along the sidewalk towards the apartment complex where his kids are expected to be sleeping. Expected. It was 1:05 A.M., after all. A father can only hope his children listened well to him. He could probably assume Haneul was studying or something and the other two were knocked out, children being unable to be awake for very long.

He sighed as he scratched his itching nose and gazed around the well-near-empty streets, save the occasional drunk or workers of the same hours as himself.

Work was everything but slow, as always. Obviously, as an exotic dancer, he should’ve expected that. He really thought he’d made it clear to the manager that he had to be home early to put his kids to bed and give Eunbyul her first out of five pep talks before she starts kindergarten for the first time ever in a week, but maybe he didn’t remember. He’ll put his money on that, Seokjin was always preoccupied with everything in the club and the additional two other locations. Being a considerate manager and good owner is hard work, after all. His forgetfulness caused Jimin to be overbooked and end his shift two hours later than he’d requested. At least he was getting paid very well for that, anyway, so he had next to no complaints.

Checking his phone, he saw 5 collective texts from his friends, Yoongi and Taehyung. These were two childhood best friends of his, every summer when he would visit his grandma in Seoul he would hang out with them. They were both neighbors from Daegu and would go to Seoul for the summer for the same reason Jimin did which caused his grandmother to meet them. A chance encounter leading to a life-long friendship. Taehyung, however, moved away to become an art major at NYU and Yoongi had followed behind, falling victim to Taehyung’s prettily warpped descriptions of the city. He was a kindergarten teacher and assumed the same role in the states and Taehyung became a critically acclaimed, wildly successful painter. Taehyung actually had children of his own in his time in New York and his twins were the same age as Eunbyul. He, however, was married to their mother, and happily too. For that, he always felt jealousy, despite not wanting to.

Tapping the notification to see all the texts displayed, he saw Yoongi whining about the fact that the first day of school is way too close for comfort and Taehyung’s smiley face reply to Jimin’s own “i’m going home now, if i don’t text you that i’m home within 20 minutes, use find my friends to go after me”. Nothing out of the ordinary. He lived in a crime-filled part of town. He was saving up to be able to buy either a nice enough house close to the school or an apartment of the same caliber in cash. Mortgages seemed messy to him, in all and he was frankly scared to do it.

Now, Yoongi’s whining is normal, but now it has increased tenfold as the news of him getting an assistant teacher was broken to him. Yoongi felt as though the school was insulting his ability to teach by putting another adult in the classroom (they’d assured that he needed an extra hand in the classroom as there were more kids than before in his class–he called bullshit though), but nonetheless, all Jimin could hope for is that he doesn’t “accidentally” show up to class with vodka in a water bottle again. Not after what happened last time.

Locking his phone and walking faster, his longing for the warmth of what he liked to call his “luxury” apartment shining through and suddenly beginning to be extremely prominent which resulted in a whine of I-have-to-walk-like-five-more-steps-to-get-inside-so-life-isn’t-fair escapes Jimin. He stared ahead, gaze landing on the once-silver gate. It was once beautiful, but since the new owners bought it, they paid no attention to outside view, or so he was told by the old lady next door, Janet. They knew everyone went there for the cheap prices anyway, she’d sigh. He really had to move into a house or something. He already had the money for a nice enough house or better apartment where all 4 of them could live happily though his job. Maybe he could look for a house only a few minutes away from the school. Mental note: look for house around school.

Quickly opening and speed walking to the elevator, he checked his phone once again. More drunk texts from the absolute best friend that he loves so very much in this very moment, Yoongi. He really did take his devastation seriously, as he shared a selfie with him and vodka with a text after saying “my news befrenddf!!!!!!!!”. Jimin let out a huff of amusement and disbelief. The man was almost in his late 30s and he still acted like he could be the age of his students.

The unlocking to the apartment was bittersweet. Suppressed memories always seemed to float into his conscious one by one when coming through the door, when silence and darkness met him. That house of cards-like mirage he’d fabricated all on his own tormented him because how could he be so stupid and naïve to believe two children would fix their doomed relationship. He was never happy, not after she barely showed up at home after giving birth. Not after she’d come home often with the stench of alcohol, cigarettes, and sex on her. She was the one who could never be a parent. The one that selfishly left when offered money and riches. The one who didn’t even think twice about accepting the offer. The one that left him for a richer man despite their various kids. The one he’d had to lie to his daughter about when asked of. The one that never thinks of her own kids and has started a new life with brand new kids and husband. The one that’s too late to fix things. The one he and his teenage son loathe with every fiber of their being.

He really had to move away to a nicer place. Sighing, he dragged his boot cladded feet along the living room towards his room to begin his night routine. His two jobs relied on his face and his body, so taking care of both was extremely important, mental stability somewhat important too. He kicked off his shoes and snaked out of his clothes, took his pj’s, and padded towards the bathroom. The most relaxing parts of the day for him were most simply when he saw his kids in the morning and taking a shower after being in a packed and hot night club, full of dried sweat which gave him a not-so-pleasant stench. Eunbyul just knew her daddy was a dancer; she didn’t need to know the explicit details. At least not until the age of thirteen, or maybe older (he hoped), when her very own older brother found out.

He scrubbed every inch of his body until his skin turned red because god, he could not stand the stench just rolling off him in waves. Now, he was fine. He was happy, scent of the bubblegum body wash Eunbyul insisted on buying filling his senses. He was finally home, and his daughter was turning a new chapter in her life. She was going to learn how to read and he would teach her the same things he’d taught her brother. How he loved that, the feeling of satisfaction reached after your child now knows something they didn’t before. He loves the way her eyes light up when she learns something. He loves it all, and he hopes it’ll last forever.

He remembered he should probably invest in a car and a house closer to the school, a 30-minute walk was no joke. He finally dragged his fatigued fingers to set the reminder.

#btsghostie #jimin x reader #pjm #jimin #park jimin #jimin fanfic #jimin fluff #jimin angst #dad jimin #single father jimin

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animebw · 3 years

Text

Binge-Watching: Pokemon Banned Episodes

It’s time to watch about Pokemon’s banned episodes! These are episodes that, for whatever reason, were either pulled from circulation soon after being dubbed or were never dubbed in the first place. There are seven in total across the show’s initial run, and I’ve already watched one of them- The Ice Cave- which was never dubbed because it featured Prominent Blackface Jynx. Now it’s time to check out the other six and find out why Big Brother doesn’t want you to see them!

This post will be a little looser and less structured than my usual posts. I’ll just briefly touch on each episode in turn and talk about why it was banned, as well as my own impressions. Cool? Cool. Let’s-a go!

Beauty and the Beach: A beach episode? What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything, basically. You’ve got lots of banning shots of girls in bikinis, an old man leering at Misty’s boobs (and no, trying to localize it as “you remind me of my granddaughter doesn’t make it any less creepy), and James wearing inflatable breasts that made me physically retch. Also, Misty’s forced to parade her bikini-clad body in front of a drooling audience for money. Yeah, it’s the G-rated version of that and there’s no real fanservice, per se, but still, yikes. Turns out, OG Japanese Pokemon is way hornier than the dub would lead you to believe. There’s even that one line in the OG theme song about looking for Pokemon under a girl’s skirt. And it’s super fucking uncomfortable on every level. Thank god that American standards for kid’s content are more prudish so the localization team scrubbed all this stuff out.

-It’s interesting that despite dubbing this episode, they didn’t translate any of the signs into English. I wonder why?

-”You’ll always be my baby.” We really need more Deliah Ketchum content.

The Legend of Dratini: The gang stops Team Rocket from stealing a rare Dratini! This episode was never dubbed because the guest character is a park ranger who points an actual gun at Ash on multiple occasions, and guns in American kid’s cartoons is still very no-no. Thought honestly, it’s kind of funny how intense the ranger is about the whole thing. They’re just a bunch of kids, dude, no need to go full Lone Ranger on them. Also: yet more uncomfortable horny with Jessie trying to seduce said ranger, despite him being an old man. Gross.

-”Please do something about that talking through singing thing.” pfft

-So Dratini’s Japanese name, Miniryu, is literally just “mini dragon.” Nice.

-Ash Fucking Dies(tm)

-Oh, that’s where Ash gets his giant horde of Tauros. I was wondering.

-Okay but why is this ED just Meowth singing an acoustic guitar song

AI Soldier Porygon: Ah, the infamous episode that gave seizures to tons of kids watching and made Japan tighten its broadcast standards so you couldn’t show rapidly flashing lights anymore. Truly, Pokemon was a groundbreaking show. And yes, there are a lot of flashing lights in this episode, and despite not being epileptic myself, it puts a lot of strain on your eyes. I can totally see how it messed people up.

Other than that, this episode is mostly fun as a late-90s throwback to the era when people were just starting to get into computers but didn’t entirely know how they worked. Ash imagines a computer virus as an actual virus, the internet world the gangs visits gives me heavy flashbacks to Scooby-Doo Lost in Cyberspace, of all things, and somehow an antivirus program escapes to the real world and blows up like an actual bomb. It’s pretty ridiculous, but hey, that’s Pokemon for you.

-Hold on, this guy’s name is Professor Akihabara? As in, the nerdy professor is named after Tokyo’s otaku mecca? Good lord, this show.

-And now I realize that Porygon’s name is a Japanization of “polygon,” because of course it is.

Holiday Hi-Jynx: In case you couldn’t tell from the title, this is another episode done in by Blackface Jynx. It’s a pretty silly holiday special about Jessie restoring her faith in Santa Claus after trying to kidnap him. Also, Santa exists in the Pokemon world, his sleigh is pulled by a Rapidash instead of reindeer, and his elves are all Jynxes. Don’t ask me to explain that, because I don’t think I can.

-So, apparently Jynx has telepathy hair. Huh.

-Ash jumping headfirst into reckless situations will never stop being funny.

-”I think it’s time to Psywave goodbye now.” Santa’s a fucking savage, lol.

Stage Fight: Another Jynx casualty! She only shows up for like three seconds in a group shot and never actually talks, but I guess even that was too much. Which is a shame, because this is a pretty fun episode. The concept of a radio play pantomimed by Pokemon as human actors do their voices behind a curtain is exactly the kind of bonkers worldbuilding I come to this franchise for, and there’s even a sweet emotional arc about a trainer overcoming her fear of her Raichu so she can patch up their relationship and make it trust her again.

-”It’s kinda hard to match the lip flaps, isn’t it?” Ahahaha, dub humor.

The Mandarin Island Miss Match: MAN, am I bummed this episode got banned. It’s such a great development episode for Ash, forcing him to cool his arrogance and realize how much he owes the Pokemon and people around him for helping him win. It takes more than outer strength to be a great trainer; it takes respecting your Pokemon and appreciating them for all they do. After all, they’re the ones actually fighting and winning the badges that Ash is so proud of. Seeing that realization would’ve made his character development even more satisfying on a grand scale. Also, Prima is the fucking best and she absolutely triggered Misty’s lesbian awakening through the sheer power of her boobage. Which may be part of why the episode was banned, honestly; Prima’s got some stacked funbags, and that might’ve been a little too much for American censors. Plus, you know, it’s got Jynx in it too. Once again, a potentially great Pokemon episode is wiped from memory because of blackface. Gotta love hate it.

-”Sometimes, his brain goes out to lunch.” pfft

-”Now you really look like ash.” Damn, Misty’s on fire today. As is Ash, I suppose.

-”She’s using perverse psychology on me!” “You know, you sound smarter with your mouth shut.” I’M FUCKING LOSING IT

-”Is it available on CD?” “Tape only! 18.95.” sdfkhsdf Prima’s great

Best of Team Rocket

-”We work with Jessie, so we know all about brutal!”

-”We’re so good, we destroy things without even trying!”

-”Don’t worry, I prepared this parachute!” *splat* akjdhskdfhs nice

-”We conduct misdeeds in a fair and open manner.”

-Team Rocket Dinner Theater sounds like the best fucking idea.

-”Can’t we be friends, even thought we’re stealing from you?”

-”And a wet Meowth is an unpleasant Meowth!”

-”Losing is so important, it’s what we based our whole career on!”

And with that, I really have finished Pokemon’s initial run. Just one more movie to go, and then it’s time to move on to LoGH!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #pokemon #pokemon gen2

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fishoutofcamelot · 4 years

Note

I saw your r recent contribution to the post about hard vs soft magic systems and I agree wholeheartedly. You also mentioned having a bunch of worldbuilding and stuff about the magic system, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to share some?

(For reference, this is the post in question)

Certainly! While the worldbuilding/magicbuilding hellscape i was describing in the notes is actually in regards to an original-content wip I've been working on, i also have a LOT of headcanons regarding the BBCM magic system too! (Do not ask about my wip's magic system, because i won't be able to shut up about it)

WARNING: long post ahead and mobile won't let me include a cutoff/read-more line. If you're not interested, get ready to scroll down like your life depends on it (and it does).

So! First things first. Here's what we know about the BBCM magic system:

Magic requires spells, most of the time. This seems like a no-brainer, but still an important distinction. There are a lot of magic systems that don't require vocalized spells - Avatar: the Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Ninjago, to name a few. Spells are rather common for wizard/witch/medieval fantasies, and are typically used to control and channel the intent of the magic. This suggests that the magic of BBCM is some kind of force or energy that needs spoken commands to control.

Spells are repurposed words from Old English, aka the language of the Old Religion. (Let's ignore the obvious anachronistic nightmare of the fact that Old English is exactly the same language they would've been speaking in this time period.)

The use of a spell causes someone's eyes to flare gold, plus that fancy wooshing sound effect that Arthur miraculously never hears. This suggests that magic somehow changes your physiology, although it could be also just be a side effect of channeling.

However, magic doesn't always require a spell. Though never fully explained, it appears to be something only innate magic users are capable of - Merlin, Morgana, Mordred. It is something less controllable than spellwork, typically governed by moments of strong emotion rather than logical intent.

The show consistently flip-flops between the idea that magic is something you're born with, and that Merlin is rare for being born with magic. It's never clarified just how someone acquires magic. Gaius asks Merlin where he studied, suggesting that it's something you can learn, while Balinor claims that you either have it or you don't. Though not confirmed fact, i suspect it's similar to how it works in the show Supernatural. There, some witches are natural-born, while others are taught (and some get their powers from spooky demon deals).

It has a life-for-a-life policy. Basically like the Law of Equivalent Exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist, a life cannot be created without another one being sacrificed first. This rule only canonically applies to creating life/the Cup of Life, and any other possible applications aren't addressed.

This rule apparently doesn't apply to animals, as Merlin brought a dog statue to life without killing anyone (that we know of), and Valiant's shield had three live snakes in it. However, it's possible that lives were taken as payment in the process of animation without Merlin's knowledge, but it never happens on screen so we don't know. So either a) animals don't have souls to exchange in the life-for-a-life policy, b) they do but it happens off-screen, or c) those animated animals aren't actually alive.

The Cup of Life infuriates me from a magicbuilding perspective. Ignoring the obvious question of how it came into the druids' possession, its existence isn't clearly defined. Does it require the fancy rain ritual that Nimueh gave it, or was she just extra? Why does drinking from it give you life, while bleeding into it makes you undead and also mindlessly obedient to the sorcerer who made you as such? Were there life-for-a-life consequences for creating an immortal army? Wtf happened on the Isle of the Blessed to allow Merlin to "master life and death", and what does that even mean? All valid questions that never get answered.

Spells sometimes need need a 'source'. Think the staff from "The Tears of Uther Pendragon" and Morgana from "The Fires of Idirsholas." It is unclear what makes these spells different/special.

There is a power hierarchy. Some spells are too powerful for some practitioners to cast, although the reason for this is unclear. Does it drain you of energy/life force? Do you exhaust/overwork your magic muscles? Do you get a little pop-up that says 404 Magic Not Found? Unclear.

Magic is something that can be trained and improved. For example, Morgana gradually became more powerful over time. Merlin naturally had a lot of power straight off the jump and just had to discipline it, but he's a ~special~ case so he doesn't count.

There are some subsets of magic that are definitively born traits. Morgana is a Seer, possessing this capability even before her magic manifested. Likewise, Merlin is a dragonlord, which he inherited from Balinor. Although Balinor did mention that it wasn't a sure thing he would have the ability until he faced a dragon, so there may be some variation in whether or not someone lucks out in the Magic Gene Pool. This may suggest that natural-born magic is hereditary, as both Morgana and her sister Morgause had it. Vivienne and Gorlois both probably didn't have it, otherwise you'd hear Uther bellyaching about it, which raises the question of where they got it? A grandparent, perhaps? Maybe they both carried a recessive magic gene or something...

Unless you're Merlin, magic can be taken away by the Gean Canagh. It's not explained how this is possible, though, as it's never explained how you acquire magic in the first place. But Merlin never lost his magic because he's "magic itself" which if you ask me is just a deus ex machina wrapped inside a headache wrapped inside a heaping load of chosen one bullcrap. But it's canonical lore, so we have to consider it.

Despite my previous complaints, i actually find the idea of Merlin being "magic itself" rather intriguing. Is he a creature of magic, like a dragon or a questing beast? Is his body made of magic, like how a statue might be made of clay? Does it run through his veins like blood? If this is the case, then why didn't he suffer more severe ramifications for losing his magic? Why didn't it kill him? How did it restrict his magic in the first place? Placebo effect? The fanon explanation is that he's "the living embodiment of magic" but that makes my bullcrap richter scale shoot off the charts because that makes NO sense whatsoever. "Son of the earth, sea, and sky?" What does that MEAN?

There is a vivid link between magic and the Old Religion, which has its own beliefs and rituals and deities. Primarily, the Triple Goddess. The Triple Goddess is actually an existing deity in Neopaganism and Wicca. This also suggests the existence of the Horned God, another entity from neopagan lore and her masculine consort/counterpart, but that is never confirmed.

WHO. OR. WHAT. IS. THE. FREAKING. DOCHRAID. She's described as a creature of magic, which suggests that humans/humanoids can be creatures of magic, fueling my theory that 'Emrys' isn't human.

Destiny exists. It is unclear who creates/writes destiny, who controls it, who or what is privy to knowing about it, and what that means for the concept of free will.

The crystal cave is a thing, i guess. It's the heart of magic, is haunted by Taliesin, and is filled with prophetic crystals. I actually skipped the episodes that involve this stuff because i disliked them, so i don't know much about the Crystal Cave. Apparently ghosts can manifest there tho???

The veil is a thing too. It is unclear how some spirits can retain their human figure and mentality, like Balinor and Uther, but others become dorocha. I imagine its also like Supernatural - being a ghost for long enough will drive you insane, and though it takes a while all spirits eventually turn into dorocha.

Creatures of magic exist. These are normal creatures who have magic imbued into them somehow.

Okay, i think that's everything we know. It seems like a lot, but keep in mind that all of those rules are VERY nebulous. But that at least gives us a jumping-off point!

So here's my working theory/headcanon.

Magic comes from a connection to the spiritual energies of the Triple Goddess. Kinda like a third eye, and for the sake of simplicity that's what we'll call it. The druids have adapted a way of life that revolves around faith and magic, likely in an attempt to cultivate and one day attain this Third Eye. Like Gaius, who trained with the High Priestesses, you can study and practice and discipline yourself into acquiring it.

Magic is a cosmic force owned by the Triple Goddess, accessible to anyone with the Third Eye link. Imagine the Triple Goddess as a milkshake and the so-called Third Eye as a straw. The studying and training that people dedicate their whole lives to is basically just looking for/building a straw.

However, some people are just naturally born with a straw in hand, but require practice and study to be able to properly use it. Or like Morgana, it takes a few years for them to even find it/activate it.

Spellcasting is essentially just sucking through the straw, and the vocalized spells gives that Magic Milkshake some purpose/intent/shape.

The bigger the spell, the more Magic Milkshake is required. Some people have bigger/wider straws than others, so magic comes easier for them. But with enough training and practice anyone can widen their straw/strengthen their straw-sucking muscles to cast with the big leagues.

The Gean Canagh devours your straw/Third Eye. Perhaps you have to rebuild a new spiritual connection from scratch, or perhaps it permanently severs any and all connection to the Triple Goddess. Like getting excommunicated from the Church, only worse.

The Crystal Cave was/is the Triple Goddess's home, but she's out of town on a business trip atm so she left the spirit of her most loyal follower, Taliesin, to look after the place. It's super powerful and has all those cool crystals because it's hella steeped in her magic juices.

While most magic users get a standard-issue straw, others get Fancy Premium Membership Straws. Normal joe shmoes like Gilli have plastic straws, while a Seer like Morgana has a metal one or something (can you tell this metaphor is starting to get out of hand?). Those Premium Straws are only hereditary in nature. So there's a Seer Straw, or a Dragonlord Straw, or a Disir Straw, but it's also not a sure thing you'll even inherit it at all. It's all luck of the straw draw.

Creatures of magic aren't just animals that possess straws, though. They've been made/produced using magic rituals and processes and spells. Like Nimueh's afanc, nathairs, wraiths, shades, etc. So probably like a thousand years ago, some especially powerful shmuck came by and invented dragons. Which leads me to an important question: WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THE DOCHRAID WAS A GOOD IDEA.

Im reluctant to say these creatures were invented by the Triple Goddess, though, for reasons I'll get to in a moment.

So this still leaves the whole Cup of Life, life-for-a-life policy thing to be explained. I do believe that the policy is universally applicable to the creation of souls, and i do believe that animals have souls too. But individuals get their souls exchanged for those of equal value. So every soul has a certain weight to it, and you need to exchange souls of equal weight to create one. So when Merlin brought the dog to life, some random dog somewhere dropped dead against his knowledge.

Creating undead armies involves killing them and then resurrecting them. That's what 'undead' means. Zombies. So yes, to raise an immortal zombie army, Morgause's spell probably caused a bunch of people around the world to mysteriously drop dead.

Which leaves two last things to explain: destiny and Merlin.

Destiny is, i think, a combined effort between human choice and supernatural predeterminism. That is, for the most part humans make their own choices, but there are occasions where the Triple Goddess has to step in and do some course correction. Uther starting the Purge was free will, but Arthur and Merlin's destiny was an act of divine damage control. The Triple Goddess sets destiny into motion and informs a chosen few about it.

Okay SO. That leaves Merlin. And this is the bit im kinda excited about.

The Triple Goddess is a reservoir of power, a cosmic force of spiritual energy intrinsicallu linked to the fabric of the universe. People can spiritually reach out and tune into/channel her supernatural frequencies. But as a milkshake cannot suck itself through a straw, the Triple Goddess likewise cannot cast a spell. She can influence destiny, but she can't physically cast any magic on her own. That's why she didn't create the creatures of magic.

So a few years ago, Uther hecked up big time. And people of magic, the Triple Goddess's followers and acolytes and straw connections, were dying in droves. I can imagine that all those Third Eye tethers snapping en masse was painful for her to go through. She relies on the tethers to remain connected to the real world, and if all the tethers snap then she will be cut off from Earth altogether. And Earth requires magic to continue existing/thriving, so that's kind of a no-no.

So, the Triple Goddess knew that the only way to save the world was through divine intervention. Thus began the destiny of the Once and Future King and Emrys. She knew humanity is bigoted so there was bound to eventually be a repeat of Uther, so she made OaFK resurrectable, so they could keep him on the bench in case anyone ever needs him again.

Where does Merlin/Emrys fall into things?

Well. The Triple Goddess knew that saving her people and the world would require an immense magical undertaking, something no ordinary magic user would be able to pull off. But she has the power, if only she could use it. But a human can. So the Triple Goddess decided to be reborn into the body of a dragonlord's son. Merlin. Emrys. Magic itself.

Of course, this whole Being Born As A Human Thing is tricky, and as anyone familiar with reincarnation knows, you don't usually recall your past lives. So she became Merlin, unaware that he was ever the Triple Goddess. (Although she did add a clause saying she'd be destined to remember her past life eventually, which got hecked up for reasons ill explain later)

That's why so many creatures of magic/magic users recognize Merlin by his presence, why thr druids carry such reverence for him. Whereas the sidhe and other individuals don't recognize him, because they are blinded by heresy. They may have a spiritual connection to the Triple Goddess, but do not use her magic as she intended, and she's too busy wearing jaunty scarves to excommunicate them herself.

Why get the Once and Future King involved when she could just save everyone herself? Well, the Triple Goddess prefers to let the humans keep their agency and save themselves, and would rather remain in the role of protector/helper. Its just her nature.

But if that's the case, then why did Arthur's destiny fail? It's simple: Kilgharrah.

Remember what i said about the Horned God, counterpart to the Triple Goddess? Yeah, that's Kilgharrah. Like the Triple Goddess, he's another power reservoir, but he's jealous because people worship her and not him. He is against everything she does and actively seeks the destruction of the Triple Goddess's magic/influence for Jealous Evil Reasons. To stop him, the Triple Goddess enlisted some of her followers to bind him into the body of a dragon (perhaps this is how dragons were created) so he would never be able to do that. Years later, the Purge happened and "Kilgharrah" got locked away, further cut off from his power.

When Merlin walked in, unaware that he used to be the Triple Goddess, Kilgharrah seized his chance at revenge and manipulated Merlin into setting him free. Then, once free, he decided to lay claim to the power vacuum left by the Triple Goddess's quasi-absence. He began controlling destiny in whatever limited capacities he could, using magic of his own to permanently bury Merlin's knowledge of his past life. Then he ensured that Arthur would die and the Triple Goddess's magic would never return. But since he doesn't have FULL control over destiny (his powers are still limited by his dragon form, after all), he couldn't rewrite the bit where Arthur gets benched in Avalon. He's probably conspiring with the sidhe to ensure Arthur stays trapped there forever, or else he would've come back a long time ago.

As for how the Gean Canagh took Merlin's magic...well, yes, it devoured his Third Eye straw, but those are created by a strong spiritual connection to the Triple Goddess. And since he's literally the big TG himself, all he had to do was find himself again (by returning to his old home, the Crystal Cave) to recreate a new one.

Over the last 1500 years, Kilgharrah/the Horned God has been steadily accruing followers and worshippers in the hopes that one will become strong enough to release TG's bonds on him. Then he can kill her once and for all and claim full dominion over the universe, with the sidhe to support him.

I imagine that's how Arthur's resurrection would happen - Arthur and the rest of the dead Round Table are in Avalon when they learn about the treachery and plot to kill Merlin/take over the world, and spend the next few hundred years fighting their way out of Avalon.

Okay, I think that just about covers it. God, that was long. Any questions?

#i should probably write a fic for this huh #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merlin #bbcm #ask #magicbuilding #fish post

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nolongerwrites · 4 years

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I feel really sick right now y’all I’ve had this in my drafts for a hot minute and I finally got around to finishing it bc I love him so much

Please please please listen to the song (translations in english) it’s so perfect and beautiful and I just-

Fukuzawa deserves more love in my opinion 😔🤘

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆

“𝐵𝑒𝑔𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔”

“𝒮𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝑔'𝓈 𝒽𝑜𝓌𝓁𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝑜𝓉𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓅𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒢𝑒𝓉𝒶 𝓅𝒾𝑒𝓇𝒸𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝒾𝓇”

“𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑒𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑀𝒾𝓁𝓀𝓎 𝒲𝒶𝓎 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈”

“𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓃 𝓊𝓂𝒷𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓁𝒶 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹𝓈 𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈”

Some people say heartbreak truly is real. Pain will accumulate inside your chest and it’ll feel like your having a heart attack. They say pain is only something temporary. But is true pain only temporary? Can one really die of a broken heart? How much pain can a person take before it all becomes too much? It’s for these questions, you walk the snow filled empty streets of Yokohama in the dead of night. No sound could be heard. The white beneath your feet glows underneath the full moon as she lights up the night. Snow falls from the sky littering the ground around you and White flurries cascaded from the trees which danced with the wind onto your body.

With Your hair let loose, a midnight black kimono covered every inch of your body keeping the cold away. The purple dragon painted beautifully onto the lower end of the haori you wore stared down onto the pale streets ahead with its piercing emerald green eyes. Frosty winds blow past you, making the skin on your cheeks burn and your hair flow gracefully behind you. Your Fingers were tucked away into the sleeves of your kimono in an attempt to keep them warm. The winter winds made your body ache with pain; yet it was nothing compared to the pain inside of your chest that had been building up over many years. What was that saying again?

虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず

If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can't do anything without risking something. But what exactly were you trying to gain? There isn’t anything you hadn’t already risked and there wasn’t anything you weren’t willing to venture out for. Was it closure? Was it for nothing? These questions swam around in your head for years. But here, on this cold and dark winter night, you would wait for him to finally show his face again. His men had been taken down and so had yours. This fight had been going on for far too long. But tonight, you would finally get the answers you were looking for..

Even if it killed you.

“𝐼'𝓂 𝒶 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀𝓈 𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝑜𝒻 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽”

“𝒲𝒽𝑜'𝓈 𝑒𝓂𝓅𝓉𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝓉𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝑜”

———————-

The silver wolf and the flower of carnage.

These were the nicknames they earned themselves many moons ago. The two greatest assassins the government had ever seen. They were praised. They were respected. They were feared. Anyone who dared to cross his or her path ended up dead before they even knew what happened. She was skilled and artful with any sword placed in her hands. He was wise beyond his years and his quick way of thinking is what truly led the duo to victory every chance they got. Their abilities were were unanimously praised by many.

Yukichi had first seen her back in their youthful years. They were both in martial arts training together when he first whitenesed the angelic way her hands would dance with the katana. He even learned a few tips and tricks from her after they introduced themselves. They developed a sort of friendly rivalry after the many spars and training they endured. After they bloomed into their adulthood, yukichi was quick to form an alliance with her. He had never seen a person work as quick and elegant as herself.

The two would go on and develop a partnership together and later on work as assassins for the government. Thus earning the names the silver wolf, and the flower of carnage.

Such as himself, she did have a soft side to her that only revealed itself on occasion. He had seen it many times when they lived together. Even a bitter cold killer had moments of tranquility. He had seen it on her face when their bodies were intertwined with each other. It was little things; her eyes would carry just a little more light when a stray cat happened to make its home in her garden, or when she would give him a small kiss on the cheek after a long passionate night.

They wouldn’t admit that they were lovers. But they did like to release pent up stress after a while in a way some would consider lovers. Every once in a while it felt nice to be held in someone else’s arms as their true emotions came to light. He had seen the scars and imperfections on her body many times. Markings of a dark past she wished to forget painted itself on the delicate skin of her limbs and back. He never asked in fear of her reliving it. He wondered countless times what could be going through her head as she stared off into nothing. Eventually as time passed, he would feel something a little more for her.

“𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈”

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓃𝑜𝓌𝓎 𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓇𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔”

“𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓋𝑒𝓃𝑔𝑒𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒”

“𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒽𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝑜”

One day out of the blue, as they both laid on the grass in her garden watching the first blossoms fall from the Sakura trees around them, she decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while. “Yukichi, What’s your opinion on pain?” She said as she turned to look at him.

“Depends on what kind of pain.” He would reply without moving an inch from where he was laying. “pain in here” she put her hand over her heart before pointing to her head “and here..” he turned watched as she waited for a response. He thought long and hard about her question. He couldn’t say he had the answer because he didn’t really know what heartbreak felt like. There’s only one thing he knew for sure..

“Pain is only temporary.”

Slowly, day by day, they both started to change. You could see in his face and actions that the weight of having killed so many people was starting to catch up. She on the other hand, showed less and less remorse and emotion towards everything. She had became colder and colder by the day and He blamed himself for it. If he wouldn’t have decided to partner with her many years ago maybe she would have been a different person instead of the murderer she was now. For this, he decided to break it off between the two of them.

She didn’t argue, she wasn’t upset, but she did tell him that if he ever showed his face in front of her again it would be be either his or her last fight. And he accepted that. He left without ever telling her how he felt. He would go on trying to do good for the world rather than continue his work as an killer. As for her, she continued her work and eventually became the leader of a organization of elite assassins.

Her group would stand a huge problem for the city. Many of her men were corrupted and would do their own thing without her knowledge, Unknowingly causing chaos within other organizations. This would eventually lead to an all out war between all sides. But no matter who dared to challenge her, not one person could ever stand a chance at defeating her. There was only one person who could ever have a chance at stopping her reign, And he knew exactly what he had to do. After all, they were long time partners.

“𝒪𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒽𝒶𝓁𝒻 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓁𝒹𝒾𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓎𝒶𝓁, 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓃𝒸𝒾𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓋𝑒”

“𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝓇𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇”

“𝒫𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝑜𝓎𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓋𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒𝓈”

“𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓁𝑒𝓂𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑜𝓁𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒, 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎”

———————-

“It’s been a long time. I see you still haven’t really changed have you?”

Ah. So he was finally here. Your back faced him as he stood a good couple of feet away from you. You said nothing as you continued to stare up at the full moon in the sky and smile. The snow had stopped and the wind had ceased to roar. Your smile stayed as you finally turned to look at your opponent and long time friend. “I could say the same about you silver wolf.”

She was still as beautiful as ever. Even now as dark bags painted the underside of her eyes and small wrinkles were visible on parts of her face. He couldn’t help but think back to the many times you smiled at him and he thought you were the most gorgeous woman on the planet. “How’s that boy of yours? What was his name again?” You said as you untucked your hands from your sleeves. “I’ve heard about his ability from one of my associates.”

“Ranpo, and He’s not my son.” He replied as he chuckled darkly. “Unfortunately he has no ability. It’s all in his head”. There was a long pause before you turned back to the sky. “I see..” you whispered to yourself.

“Was that why you chose to quit the life you had?” You said as you turned back and took a step towards him. “Is he the reason you decided to abandon me as if we never knew each other? Like we hadn’t slain so many people in our years?” Your voice was laced with darkness as it echoed into the night.

His eyes widened slightly as he once again thought about what you said. “I had a change of heart you could say” he replied as he also took a step forward. The scilence returned after that. You both stared each other down like wild animals fighting for territory before you drew your katana slowly from your side. The eery sound of silver against wood rang out. The silver shone and reflected under the moonlight. You stared down at the blade, admiring the beauty behind it before closing your eyes and placing a small kiss on the hilt. You did this every time you held it unsheathed. He could recall the countless times you had kissed your blade before you started your routine.

He in return drew his out too. There was no room for a reunion right now. He reluctantly held it in your direction before taking a stance. It brought him back to the days you spent training, when you two would spar together. You opened your eyes and stared him down; your eyes clouded with a murderous gaze. “Are you ready yukichi?”. He took a breath and waited for the freezing vapor to disappear into the night before giving you the slightest of nods.

And once again, you started your winter dance. Swords clashed in a matter of seconds. You were swift on your feet as they danced around him. Hair and cloth flowing wildly as each swing you took collided with his blade. He knew your way of style, He was easily able to deflect almost every slash you threw at him. He pushed you back with his blade, making you jump a good foot away from him. You stared at him with the same murderous expression as a small cut appeared apon your cheek. The blood dripped slightly down your face and you rubbed it away with your sleeve.

“You surely have improved yukichi, I can say that much” you smirked as you straightened your katana. “I can’t remember the last time you actually laid a hit on me”. He clicked his tongue and swung his sword in your direction once again. You dodged and swerved as his blade came inches away from slashing your skin. On his last swing though, you had jumped up in the air before landing a kick into his side, making him fly into the building next to you in a cloud of rubble and dust.

“I can’t have you knowing all my secrets yukichi” she smiled as the bokken left bruises on his upper arms. She smirked at him as she held it over her shoulder with a hand on her hip. “Ready for another round? You still have a lot to learn from me” she said as she held her hand out for him. He returned the smile before grasping her hand...

He coughed and spit up blood as his body ached with pain. He had to think of something quick before you made your next move. You stood and watched from a distance as the dust started to clear up only for you to realize his body wasn’t even their anymore. Your eyes widened with realization before you turned around swiftly to block his blade as it came down from above. Your faces were inches apart as you both struggled for the upper hand. He stared at your face, which was illuminated by the moon in the sky, and he remembered back to all the times he would admire your beauty when you didn’t notice. Or maybe you did, he never really knew. Even now as you were dirtied and bloody, a small part of him still admired you.

He had a little bit of blood dripping from his mouth as he clenched his teeth, trying to pry his mind away from lingering thoughts. You continued to smirk at him even as you were desperately failing to fight back against his strength. He was a lot taller than you after all. “This bring back memories, doesn’t it? Remember all the times you tried to get me down and you couldn’t?” You said through your struggle.

Finally, his knee collided with your stomach before kicking you away from him. He used that time to slash your shoulder, cutting the sleeve of your kimono as crimson sprayed out. You let out a series of coughs before kneeling and holding the wound in pain. The freezing winds made it burn and hurt like hell. Yet not once did you take your gaze off of him.

“Never take your eyes off your opponent yukichi” she said as he wiped away blood from his mouth where she had managed to hit him. He glared at her from a distance as he straightened himself up. “Again”...

“I’m tired of playing games like little school children. It’s about time we ended this” he yelled at you from where he stood before he flung away the blood on his sword. He could see your breath in short puffs of vapor as you took your stance once again. You breathed out slowly before You twirled and graceful started making your way towards him like a leopard running to catch its prey. Each step you took was delicate enough to almost not leave footprint in the soft white underneath you.

Grunts and metal against metal echoed through the wind as it picked up again. You and him locked eyes for a split second, and for a moment, he could see the agony and despair behind them that he had seen so many moons ago. The pain of having to fight someone who meant so much to you had continued to weigh you down with time. It made his chest hurt. Everything felt like slow motion as you both raised your katanas one last time..

“𝐻𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓏𝑒𝓃𝓈 𝓌𝒶𝒾𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊.”

“𝐼𝓃 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒𝒾𝑔𝓃 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓅𝓈”

“𝐼𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒”

“𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉”

It hurt. Everything hurt. You swore you landed a hit on him as he swung his blade from above. Only he didn’t. He instead chose to bring it down right before you stepped in front of him causing the blade to pierce straight through your chest. He knew you probably had the same idea as him as your blade went straight through his shoulder instead. Maybe you meant to miss on purpose. He would never know.

“Say yukichi..” you whispered into his shoulder as you laid your head against his chest “do you still truly think pain is only temporary..?”. His eyes widened for a moment. He could care less about the pain his body was experiencing. Your voice was quiet and laced with a sense of tranquility once again. With a grunt, he pulled his blade from your chest in a swift motion. You did they same as the silver fell to the ground with a clank. He threw his katana to the side before catching your body right before it hit the ground. He cradled your head in his hand as he held your body close to his chest.

You looked up into his eyes before you placed a bloody hand to his cheek, staining the pale skin below your fingers in crimson. A cough rose from your chest, a dark sound following after as you gurgled one your own blood. “I’ve known pain all my life.. you knew that, more than anyone...” You wiped a tear from his eye that he didn’t even know they had accumulated. A weak smile plastered itself apon your freezing lips. “I think.. for once in my life.. I’m not in pain anymore... the pain in here... is no more. ” you whispered as you placed your hand to his heart. He held you tighter in his embrace as more and more tears fell from his face. He could care less about the blood pouring into his cloths and the wound in his shoulder. He wanted to so desperately tell you that he loved you. He should have done it so many years ago when he had the chance. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

You turned your head to look at the moon in the sky one last time. She watched you grow for many years. From the moment you were born into this world, to the very last moments you spent breathing. She watched you cry, smile, and kill. She took care of you and showed you light in the darkest of times. You silently thanked her before closing your eyes and letting out a shallow breath. And in your last moments, you also thanked yukichi fukuzawa for truly giving you something to believe in all these years. Giving you something to venture for. Giving you something to love. As the life drained from your body you couldn’t help but feel you were at true peace.

You finally got the answers you were searching for...

“𝐼 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻𝒾𝓈𝒽𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝒹.”

“𝒪𝒽, 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 𝒶 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂 𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓊𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃?”

“𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒿𝒶𝒾𝓁.”

#Spotify #angst #bungou stray dogs angst #bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #bungou stray dogs #fukuzawa yukichi #fukuzawa x reader #BSD #bungo stray dogs x reader #bungo stray dogs #more angst for the soul #give fukuzawa more love

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radramblog · 3 years

Text

Pokemon Quartz

I have a confession to make.

I fucking love Pokemon Quartz.

Okay, context. Pokemon Quartz is an infamous Romhack of Pokemon Ruby, finished in 2006 by a young Spanish developer going by Baro. It was possibly the first completed romhack that completely replaced the entire set of the available 386 Pokemon with a set of newly designed Fakemon, and while lots of the replacements are pretty obvious analogues, there are some pretty interesting designs and the sheer effort required to do this solo as a teenager is something to behold.

(Look at Lileep, it’s a dodo now! I think its cute.)

The hack shows it age pretty well these days, with the sheer development made in GBA hacking especially in the last couple of years obviously showing it up- obviously something like Clover or Radical Red is going to make Quartz look ancient, and limitations in available tools are pretty obvious if you know where to look. The game’s region, Corna, is blatantly just Hoenn with some modified route themes, and its pretty clear that the designs for each Pokemon are limited to the replaced mon’s colour palette (as with Torido above).

(The map is kinda pretty though imo)

Quartz is infamous for a few reasons ultimately linked to the developer’s youth. For one, the dialogue tends to be a mix of poor English and weird humour and plenty of cursing, along with some jokes that don’t really fly these days. (To Baro’s credit, the writing and English does get better as the hack progresses.) The plot is utterly nonsensical as a result of shoehorning the Electric themed Band Ambar as villains into vanilla Ruby’s story, and involving the very 00s teenage idea of CHAOS vs ORDER and the pseudophilosophical musings that go along with it. Also like some of the designs are extremely ugly, to be frank. Lots of people are aware of Babos, the Skitty replacement, but that’s only really scratching the surface- the Llamayama line (aka Numel) and Berchi line (Clamperl) are pretty awful if you ask me.

(ew)

(…sis you are literally standing in a centre)

(hey can we take this from a 10 down to like a 6 or so)

I first encountered Pokemon Quartz as part of a bootleg multi-game cartridge picked up in my time living in Kuala Lumpur. The version of the hack on that cart was either very early or just broken, since none of the doors in Golden Island or the nearby Broke Cave (Dewford Island/Granite Cave) would actually let me in and therefore I couldn’t progress especially far. (I understand there was another broken ROM running around the internet that just had legendaries and Master Balls running around the first few routes, for some reason,). My trying to find a walkthrough or a fix led me to one Let’s Play of the hack by Zorak, which I suspect considering his association with fellow early LPer Chorocojo is the reason a fair few people are aware of Quartz at all. While I absolutely wouldn’t recommend reading that LP these days- its very late 00s, enjoys a certain R-word way too much, and to his credit Zorak has a comment on the archive stating that he considers it “immature and severely unfunny!”, but it was the only way for me to consume the remainder of the game at the time, having not figured out emulators at that point. I could go on for a long time about those early Lets Plays, but I’ll save that for another day.

(Oh also I’m ganking a bunch of the screenshots from that LP since my file is in endgame, cheers mate)

Okay but why do I like this game then? Well, aside from tickling my nostalgia bone something fierce, there’s a lot of cool things in the hack that make it stand out. While the lore behind the main legendary Pokemon is pretty bad and some of their designs are godawful, the Braille puzzles from Ruby have been converted into an entire original runic alphabet and is expanded to be present in the encounter events for Kaomare and Karendi (Kyogre and Jirachi). I had a lot of fun translating all of the script by hand, even if the actual text is a bit edgy. Speaking of Karendi, the game has a very JRPG style item chain sidequest to get to the encounter, which is pretty fun and something that to my recollection hasn’t been seen since. It has some little ideas in the dex that took Game Freak years to try, such as an evolving legendary (Ordkip->Tanord, replacing Latias and Latios) and the hack’s replacement for the Kanto starters having a 4th evolution (replacing the legendary beasts in the dex). The player is actually offered a second starter from the trio replacing the Johto starters late in the game at Muddy Island (Pacifidlog), which while a bit useless at that point is still something that took GF until X and Y to try. (Emerald doesn’t count imo)

(I’d translate the Cornan, but I lost my notes. Find the key yourself, cowards)

I can’t really explain beyond that why I love Quartz so much, but it’s the type of attachment that doesn’t really make sense and can’t really be explained. With that in mind, please believe me when I say never play Pokemon Quartz.

Most of the Pokemon are reskins of the original mon without changing the stats or learnset, and some of the ones that are make zero sense (As an example, the Water starter gets Aeroblast of all things, but only if you overlevel it in the second stage). The 3rd Gym leader’s ace, an overleveled Groundoe (Sandslash), has 4 ground moves, so any Flying type beats it outright, except 2 of those moves are Earthquake and Fissure, so if you don’t have a bird you are S.O.L. . The 4thleader has an absurdly overpowered ace in the form of Freech, one of the few mons to be completely overhauled, being the Milotic equivalent except its Dragon/Ice with overpowering STAB moves and Speed Boost. Basically, the game balance is completely out of whack.

Instead give a look into Pokemon Ultra Quartz (I refuse to type Let’s go Blobbos more than once). Released in 2018 by the developers for the excellent if also problematic Clover, UQ fixes just about every issue with the game’s balance, expands the encounter tables to include many of the Quartz mons that were implemented but unobtainable, and re-enables missing features such as the Battle Tower, while leaving most of the rest of the Quartz experience untouched- in this sense, I’d argue it’s the superior Quartz experience. It does still have issues- the labyrinthine route and cave design is untouched, Blobbos is here but is pretty pointless, and TM availability is as shitty as Quartz (which is the same as vanilla Ruby, but still). It does also add a few events of varying quality- Blobbos is as adorable as ever if a little pointless, the endgame developer battles are neat and decent grinding, and the postgame dungeon added is pretty sick even if the secret boss is… unique? The direct 1:1 import of the Deadly Seven from the infamous Pokemon Snakewood is both unnecessary and obnoxious, so try to keep in mind its origin when suffering through that forced segment of the game.

(My final team- Dotori, Psimouse, Rubygon, Mazalon, Oceadino, Kaosune. Or, Flying/Fighting completely overhauled Cradily, Serene Grace Gardevoir, Split evolution Vibrava, Ghost/Steel Banette, Water/Flying Swampert, and Fire/Dragon Groudon.)

It’s a good game despite this, ok? Give it a shot, experience some Romhack history but not quite as shit as it was in ’06.

Wait shit I forgot to mention how Baro put his name everywh-

#ramble #pokemon #romhack #pokemon quartz

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atiny-piratequeen · 4 years

Text

Character Analysis: Park Seonghwa, the 'Frozen Prince'

Name: Park Seonghwa

Languages: Sabir, English, Portugese, French, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Korean (Modern Day) Japanese (Modern Day), Mandarin (Modern Day), Thai (Modern Day), Italian (Modern Day)

Crew Position: First Mate, Tactician

Powers: Cryokinesis/Ice Powers (Inherited from Greco-Roman God, Boreas)

Compass Position + Arrowpoint Stone: Eastern Facing located on his right wrist , Blue Celestite

Eye Color: Gray (Natural)/ Snow White (Demonic Form)

Hair Color: Blonde (Natural)/ Jet Black (Demonic Form)

Likes: Reading, Seafood, Making Flower Crowns (He’ll never admit it without a fight), Training, Horseback Riding

Dislikes: Lazy People, Cowardice, Fruitless Gossip

Prince Park Seonghwa.

A man rumored amongst townsfolk to be blessed by the gods. Unusual blonde hair, stunning gray eyes, it has been a long time since the kingdom has seen such a capable leader.

A foreigner, brought to the Mediterranean kingdom by marriage, he spent the entirety of his childhood learning to be the model prince. The prince’s posture is perfect, he never dodged his studies, he could tame the wildest mare, to everyone, he was the obvious choice for the kingdom’s king.

Something...more than a few people are opposed to.

First Mate Park Seonghwa

No longer a prince, but still just as elegant, Seonghwa has yet to lose any of his old habits during his time out at sea. Being the first person to join the crew once Hongjoong became captain and the first person to be turned immortal, Seonghwa worked hard to prove himself and continues to be one of the most reliable members of the crew.

Seonghwa may be a little stiff when it comes to meeting new people, but being so close to a certain ‘Kind Pirate King’ has opened his mind-and heart-to meeting new people and the prospect of second chances.

-Mythology-

As one of the four wind gods of the seasons in Greco-Roman mythology, Boreas is the purple-winged god of the North Winds and Winter alike. In some depictions, instead of his wings being purple, he has white wings with purple attire fluttering behind him.

His parents are Astraeus and Eos. Astraeus is often said to be the father of two notable sets of sons; the Astra Planeta, five sons representing the stars. The other set of sons are the Anemoi, the four wind gods, with Boreas representing the frigid North Wind.

Boreas’ wife, Oreithyia, (the princess of Athens, as her father was King Erekhtheus) was swept away by him one day as she played in a riverside meadow, with companions (remember, folks. Don’t sweep away your crush and basically kidnap them. That’s not cool.)

Older tellings would depict Boreas residing in Thrace, an area described as the lands around the north of Thessaly. In those depictions, Boreas lived either in a mountain’s cave, or in a beautiful palace, with his home said to be upon the Balkan Mountains (or Haemus Mons).

Oreithyia would become the immortal wife of Boreas and bear him four children; Zetes and Calais (their sons), Chione and Cleopatra (their daughters). (Also, no, this Cleopatra isn’t that Cleopatra). All of their offspring have their own tales about them, and Chione is even regarded as the goddess of snow.

Boreas’ tales are not as widely told, compared to other gods and goddesses, but he has been mentioned in some of Homer’s tales (specifically in Achilles’ tale), as well as being included in Aesop’s Fables, in a contest between himself and sun god Helios.

-Power Applications/Demon Transformation-

When Seonghwa completely reverts into his demon form, his hair will go from whatever color it currently is to an inky black color, with his gray eyes lightening to an almost pure white color. Elongated ruby-colored marks will appear over his eyes, with the one over his left eye being slightly longer than his right. The same elongated ruby-colored marking will stretch over his lips to form an elongated smile, though I assure you, if you make this form come out, the last thing he’ll be doing is smiling.

Having been bestowed Boreas’ power, Seonghwa can create ice and snow at will and his prefered method of combat is to dual wield his falcatas, one being the rune-engraved one he took from his kingdom and the other being an ice one he forms at will.

Seonghwa has mastered his power, using it in small applications here and there for domestic things aboard the ship such as keeping food items cold to prolong their life while out at sea and also using his powers to slow opponents in combat. Since his powers are a part of him, no amount of cold will affect him negatively.

In fact, if he was in the tundra or somewhere equally as cold, his powers would only be heightened.

Despite his proficiency with his falcatas, as well as any other form of blade, Seonghwa is more than capable to fight hand and hand, and will use his ice powers to freeze body parts of opponents he touches.

-Character Song Breakdown-

All of the main boys have a song assigned to them in the AtT playlist to go alongside their origin chapters. Seonghwa’s character song is Friction by Imagine Dragons.

I’ll only go through some verses and talk a bit about their connections I put to the chapter. If you haven’t read Chapter Two of Against the Tide, I suggest you do that first, as the song breakdown includes some major spoilers.

‘Get down with the victim

We both know you need them

You're stuck in the middle

Of all irrelevance

And your heart is beating

'Cause you know that you gotta

Get out of the middle

And rise to the top now’

Seonghwa’s accomplishments overshadow that of his older brother, Zafer’s. The bloodborne prince is lazy and very much inadequate, but believes it is his birthright to be crowned prince regardless. Feeling victimized and finally feeling the weight of his adequacy, Zafer decides to rise out of his mediocrity, unfortunately at the expense of everything.

‘You can't fight the friction

So ease it off

Can't take the pressure

So ease it off

Don't tell me to be strong

Ease it off

You can't fight the friction

So ease it off’

Zafer runs from his problems and finds the easy way out of things, while Seonghwa tackles his problems, no matter how difficult, head on. Though these lyrics can be directed towards Zafer and his avoidance of responsibility and desire to ‘ease’ his responsibilities off onto someone else, the delivery in-song fits perfectly well with scenes where there is physical conflict. Whenever I envision this song, I definitely imagine Seonghwa fighting with his falcata in-hand. The power, the intensity, all of it kept in every graceful and deadly swing of his blade.

‘Oh why can't you let go

Like a bird in the snow

This is no place to build your home’

In the middle of Seonghwa’s transformation, he reveals his true fears, how he doesn’t need to trust in anyone, how him opening up and trusting someone (his brother) got the closest person to him (Queen Dahlia, his mother) killed.

The Boreas-infused version of Seonghwa nearly takes complete hold of him, had it not have been for Hongjoong breaking the ice-literally.

Once he’s calmed down, defeated his demonic self and taken control, Seonghwa is much more open to trusting others, though he still often takes the longest to warm up (ha) to newer members of the crew.

-Character Blurb-

Seonghwa gently wove various tropical flowers into one another, a small, peaceful look on his face as he held up the tiny ring, jolting when he looked past the hole to find Hongjoong staring curiously at him. He startled, all but throwing the ring of flowers behind him as he stared at Hongjoong with wide eyes.

“P-Putois-”

“What was that?”

Seonghwa’s eyes narrowed as he moved to hide the ring with his body as Hongjoong tried to peek onto the bed.

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying.”

Hongjoong dove onto the bed, laughing merrily as Seonghwa tried to scramble and snatch the ring out of view. The captain wrapped a shadow around his wrists, yanking them back before he grabbed the ring, blinking in wonder at the simple, elegant item.

“It’s a ring of flowers. Why are you hiding this?” The smaller man mused, sitting half way in Seonghwa’s lap. Seonghwa went beet red, clearing his throat as he took the ring, hesitantly putting it around his wrist as he looked away, huffing.

“Petite peste-” He muttered before he sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair.

“It’s...embarrassing. It reminds me of my mother. We would make them together…” He trailed off, biting his lip.

Hongjoong looked at the flower before he smiled, wrapping his legs around Seonghwa’s waist, holding his hand out as an assortment of blossoms grew from his palm. Seonghwa’s lips parted in surprise as Hongjoong held his hand out.

“Show me how to make them, then. We can make them together.” He offered. Seonghwa blinked in surprise before he chuckled and nodded, kissing his head lightly.

“Oui, mon putois. Pay attention, okay?” He moved Hongjoong out of his lap and showed him step by step, all with a small smile on his face.

-M.List-

#fie writes #against the tide #att character analysis #park seonghwa #seonghwa

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oh-boleyn · 4 years

Text

time stands still

words: 4052, one shot, language: english. f/f (parrlyn)

tw: blood, gore, death

Some people would say they are cursed, and Cathy would usually agree.

Other times, she would think it was a blessing.

This life, she doesn’t know.

“Are you sure you don’t remember?” Anne asks one night.

They are in bed, peacefully resting bathed in moonlight. The pair sleep in the attic of the old house in the outskirts of London. The bed is adjusted to the only window in the room, being that the only source of light they allow so late at night.

“About what?” Catherine looks at Anne, confused but not worried.

“Our past lives.”

“I remember about it, we do the show every night.” She laughs, as if it was obvious.

“But do you only remember about it? Nothing else?”

“What else should I remember?”

“Other lives.” Boleyn is just whispering now.

“We had other lives?” Parr frowns, she takes the other girl hands on her own.

“We had a hundred of them.”

“Tell me about it.”

There is a sparkle in her eyes, craving curiosity, the insatiable hungry of knowledge every Catherine Parr shared.

“Are you sure? None of them end well.”

Cathy considers it for a moment and then nods.

(…)

I remember one from not that long ago. We were living in Poland. It was after the great war. You moved across the street when you were twelve, I was eleven. The first moment I saw you, something made me get closer to you. An impulse you may call it.

We went to different schools, but would talk and play all day in your backyard. Your mom made the best cookies, even when she couldn’t buy something since you were lacking ingredients and money. She just had a way to do them.

I remember the day my dad bought me my first bike, we ride it all day, from your house to mine and back to your house. George was still little and Mary was just a little older than me. We were Jewish and he owned a shop.

When we were fifteen you once snuck into my house, and we have a sleepover.

(“Have you, Anne Boleyn, ever kissed someone?”

“I haven’t. What about you, Catherine Parr?”

“I haven’t. Would you do it? Kiss someone?”

Anne bitted her lip, looking at Catherine’s. It was a sudden desire. She knows that it would be bad if they got caught, but still couldn’t resist. With a sudden move their lips are touching, united in a soft kiss. It was brief but it felt like hours.

Anne knew she was in love.

“Have I ever told you about our past lives?” Catherine asks.

“We have past lives?”)

It was lovely, honestly. You looked so cute that night in the moonlight.

(…)

“That’s not a bad story.” Catherine says, playing with Anne’s fingers.

“You are forgetting the time and place, baby.”

(…)

After that, they passed a law. Things were complicated in Germany. Poland didn’t want more Jews. If you haven’t been living there for at least five years you weren’t consider a citizen, and you were there for almost four.

The last time I saw you was when you were boarding a ship to America.

I died not long after in a concentration camp.

(…)

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

(…)

There was another time, I think it could be another universe.

(…)

“Another universe? Do you mean it’s not only a time thing?”

“We have lived in other universes, other planets. This reality is just one of them.”

“Continue, please.”

(…)

As I was saying, I think it was another universe. I was a princess. I can’t remember the name of the land but you should have seen it, it was glorious. I lived in a magnificent old stone castle. It is true that winters were way too cold, but the views were amazing.

I think it was another universe because I had a dragon, she was my best friend. I found her when she was little, dragons were something so weird to find or have that I couldn’t believe she liked me. Her scales refracted the light of the sky, and the touch was like metal mixed with silk.

When I turned sixteen, my father organized a duel. All the knights were there, even George participated. Mary and I were rooting for a Sir whose name I also can’t remember.

And there was this no one. No one knew their name, or were they came from. But they started winning all the duels. They even won against the Sir.

When they won the last duel, my father asked for that person to come with us.

You took your helmet off and that was it. I fell in love immediately.

My father made you my knight. And if I wasn’t sure we were meant to be before, I was when my dragon offered you a ride.

(“Are you sure, my lady, I should do this?”

“Yes, if you are afraid, I can come with you.”

Anne got her dragon, Antlia, to remain still. Catherine went first, and then Anne. Antlia started flying slowly, passing woods and mountains, getting higher each time. Then she stopped in a mountain, letting them in a cave.

Boleyn almost falls in the slippery ice, but Parr holds her.

“My hero” Anne whispers.

Catherine had her arm around her waist, holding her close.

Anne closed the distance between them with a kiss.

Catherine stops her after a while.

“Have I ever told you this is not our first kiss?”)

Not long after I discovered I was not my mother’s kid, but I was product of an affair of my dad with a witch. After that, my brother went crazy, calling me a danger, worried I might take his place as a king. Afraid of my power.

We fought against him for years.

You killed him when he was distracted after slicing my head.

(…)

“You named a dragon Antlia?”

“Is that what you take from that life?” She suspired. “Anyway, I did. And she was gorgeous.”

“Is that your favorite life?”

“No.”

“Have we ever lived in a modern time?”

(…)

I worked in a newspaper, I wanted so bad to be a writer but, in the meanwhile, I was an assistant. Everyday I would go out and try to find the thing that would be my first article. I knew I had the potential, all I needed was a story to cover.

One day I went to this factory, the owner said it was ecologic and that sustainability was a reality to them. I found a lot of papers that went against it. I might have trespassed to found it, but nevertheless I had my story right there. He was not okay with that.

While I was trying to take more photos of what I discovered, he fired a gun. A gunshot that was supposed to go straight into my head. And suddenly a blur appeared, and the bullet was gone in a minute.

Next thing I knew, strong arms were letting me outside in a park.

You were a superhero, with superpowers and all of that. You were so fast, and so strong.

I wrote about it, you started giving me more and more interviews. I was the only one who had direct access to you. I soon became famous, gaining a lot of popularity. You did too, but still nobody knew your identity.

(“You can trust me.” Anne said.

“You are press. How can I know that you are not going to go around, telling everyone who I am? It would be the report of the century.”

“Am I reporter? Just that?” Boleyn gets closer, breath heavy and anxious. “I thought we were friends.”

She gives another step. They practically have no space between them, and Anne does what she felt the need to do for months.

She kisses the superhero.

“I know you” Catherine says. “And I’m sorry for doubting you.”

“What do you mean you know me?”

Parr takes her mask off.

“It’s a long story.”)

That was a nice life. We made so many good to a lot of people.

That means we also gained a lot of enemies. A lot of people wanted revenge, and you were an almost indestructible superhero. But I was not.

They killed me while we were trying to save people from a collapsing building.

(…)

Anne stays quiet for a while, just remembering how it felt, how it was. Just taking a moment to think about that life she already lost.

“Can you tell me more stories tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course I can.”

They fall asleep tangled in the bed, just like they did in another hundred lives before.

(…)

Catherine wakes up first, which is weird, and goes downstairs to prepare breakfast.

After her morning coffee she sank in the chair thinking about what Anne told her last night. In other moment she probably wouldn’t believe it, but she was back from the dead. That was enough evidence it might not be the first time.

She thought about all the other options in their lives, and started writing down questions for her girlfriend.

(…)

“C’mon Annie, come to bed, please” Catherine says, making space.

“Wait, I have to take off the glitter. And my boots. Why are you so anxious?”

The fairy lights were still on, giving to room a plus of dim light. The moon was nowhere to be seen; with the clouds it was impossible to see at least a bit of it. Catherine thought it was going to rain. Not that she minded, she loved the sound of it, and how the raindrops would hit the roof.

“I want more stories.”

“Oh, that’s it.”

Anne giggled, taking the last of her make up off. Catherine couldn’t believe how ethereal she looked. Pale, white skin shinning in the obscure room. Boleyn said Antlia’s skin refracted the light from the sky, Parr was sure that in this life it was her, her Annie, the one who could do that.

The girl gets into the bed, and under the sheets. She puts her leg between Cathy’s and takes a deep breath. Resting her head in her girlfriend’s chest, she starts her story.

(…)

There was one I don’t remember a lot about.

It was in the eighties I think, maybe even later.

We met in kindergarten; it was in the United States. We were really young, but still became friends after just one look. I was always attracted to you, like a magnetism I couldn’t scape away from it.

It didn’t take long before we became best friends.

I remember one day we went to a fair and I got lost. You found me; we loved the starts. I tried every night to count them. And you tried to help me. That day my dad was worried sick, my mum was in bed since George was about to be born. I showed up at my house almost in the morning, when the starts started to disappear.

We went through school together, and then we went to the dance. It was so boring, even if the music was good it was not our thing back then. We went up to the roof to watch the start.

(“Remember when you got lost? When we were kids?” Catherine asked.

“Of course! My dad hated me that day.” Anne laughs, carefree.

She didn’t have the burn of a hundred lives lost.

“You know, every time I think I lost you, I always look at the sky.”

“You will always find me in the moon.”

They stare at each other, as if they were both holding the starts, the moon and the universe in their hands. Anne can’t help herself, and kisses Cathy. Hungry, desperate for touching the sun. Because Cathy was the sun and Anne was the moon, they always knew that.

Minutes go away before Cathy talks.

“Do you know this is not the only moon I know?”)

We lived a great life that time, or so I think.

I got diagnosed with early dementia. I started to forget things, names, faces. I forgot you.

The only thing I can remember about those past few years was that you became an astronaut. You went to the moon. I always thought it was to find me. But I was already dead.

(…)

Catherine took a deep breath, eyes full of tears.

“That was not the best life,” Anne says “but still, it was a good one.”

“You died.”

“I know. But it was still good.”

They fall into a comfortable silence for a while.

“Have we ever been in the ancient Rome?”

(…)

We did. Still that history is not as interesting as when we were in Greece. I also think this one might have been in another universe, with other rules.

I grew up near the sea, in a small house with my mother. I always felt attracted to water, I loved taking baths and going to swim. I later discovered I had a reason.

Remember how in one life I wasn’t my mother’s daughter? In this time, I wasn’t my father’s kid. Instead I was the daughter of Poseidon, the Olympian, ruler of the sea, god of the water related things or something like that.

When my mother told me, I ran away. I needed to find my truth, my father.

I got to an ancient kind of school, full of gorgeous woman who knew a lot. They knew how to write, to read, to fight, I was nothing. Knew nothing. They didn’t want to accept me. But you were there and you took me in as your pupil.

You taught me about the symbols. About the culture. Music. Arts. Writing. You have always been a writer, in any world or universe. You showed me your poems, it was beautiful. I was good fighting, or in politics.

(“I have been keeping a secret from you.” Anne says one day after a couple of months.

Her head, adorned with some olive branches was down, she was staring at the fountain. Both of them were dressed in long white robes, incredibly soft for their time.

“So have I.” Parr confess.

“I mean it. It’s a terrible secret.” She takes a deep breath and puts her hand near the water. She started moving the water, making cubes out of it. Even a dolphin. “I am Poseidon daughter.”

Catherine was quiet, admiring Anne’s draws.

“Are you not afraid?”

“Not in a million years.”

Boleyn couldn’t contain herself anymore, and kissed Cathy. The water showering them nicely.

“What was your secret?”

“Would you believe me if I say this is not our only life?”)

We lived peacefully for a while. We lived together and learned a lot. We moved to an isle of only women. We decided to have a baby and I got pregnant.

We had a daughter; you should have seen her. Her eyes were olive green, and she had freckles.

I died the night she was born, and it rained for a week.

(…)

“You are saying Liz and Mae weren’t our only daughters?”

“They weren’t.”

“And you also died in childbirth?”

“I did.”

Anne is almost asleep when Cathy says “Please tell me one more.”

And Boleyn gives in.

(…)

There is that one, in the Victorian era.

It also didn’t go with this world’s rules, but it was in a darker way. Until I was sixteen my life was as normal as it could be. My dad had money, Mary was older, way older. She had married some random Lord or something like that. My family was hopping I would do so too.

I went with my mother to the theater one night, and as we were going back to the house, a man appeared out of nowhere. He told me I was gorgeous; I was almost perfect. Almost. He wanted to make me perfect. He offered and I said no, but he did it anyway.

First, he started with my mother, letting her paler than I ever saw her. I came next, I felt his lips on my neck, and suddenly something sharper. And it hurt. A fever feeling that was produced nausea. And then I was thirsty, more than I have ever felt. He gave me his wrist and I started drinking, and drinking, before I could notice it was blood.

I don’t remember how, but I ended in a house. Your house.

You told me you were the queen in London and I laughed. And you showed me your fangs.

I shut up.

You told me it was wrong. Vampires are not supposed to do that. To just turn a random person. That they needed consent. You found the one who turned me and punished him.

Years went by, my family noticed something was wrong with me and I started living in the shadows.

I found you again decades later.

(“Catherine! Be aware!”

A vampire slayer was behind the smaller girl. Anne jumped in front of her. It all happened quick and slow at the same time. Parr killing him, and Boleyn falling with a stake in her body.

“Anne!” The woman cried.

She went to hold the girl in her arms. Anne smiled slightly, and with the little strength she still had made a move. Lips and fangs on lips and fangs. They shared a moment, but then Anne felt salty tears in her lips.

“Why are you crying?”

“Because this is not the first nor the last time, I have to see you die.)

We throwed years away in that life because you thought you could save me.

(…)

Anne finishes and quietly snorts, her head still in Catherine’s chest.

Catherine quietly cries, trying not to wake up Anne.

How could it be possible, to lose her in every world, every time. Why did it happen to them? Destiny couldn’t just be that cruel, so horrible and devastating. It hurt, and she didn’t even remember any of those lives.

She stays up until really late, stroking and brushing Anne’s hair, trying to make mental notes about any characteristic feature. Taking it all, studying how her chest moved when she breathed. Feeling warm skin against hers.

When the sleep caught her, it was all nightmares. Anne forgetting, Anne with blood in her eyes, in her neck, on her lips, on her stomach. Anne dead a million times.

Anne, Anne, and just Anne.

(…)

Parr looks like she was hit by a car. Or a bus. Or a truck. Or the three of them. Zombies looked cuter. The queens ask her a million times if she feels okay and she says she does, but deep down it’s a lie only Anne knows.

She doesn’t go to the show, letting Courtney take her place. Anne wants to stay but she knows she has a duty with her fellow queens. Still she tries to make everything quick and go home as soon as she can.

(…)

When she gets there, Parr is just staring at the celling. Eyes lost.

“We missed you today. I missed you today.”

Catherine looks at her.

“You don’t want to talk? That’s okay.” Anne says. She sits on the bed, and Cathy quickly wraps herself and melts into a hug. “I will tell you a story.”

(…)

There was a time, really long time ago. We were in Egypt.

The world was similar to this one, but I swear the sun was brighter. And it was always hot. I was a strange person there, way too white. Way too weird. But you were as always just gorgeous.

You wouldn’t believe how much culture there was, a lot was lost from those times. Not even I can remember all of it right now. Everything was so different, the gods, the language, how they wrote. They made this incredibly good built things and without a lot of resources.

We met one day while in the market, you were selling fruits.

Since that day we met every day, at the same hour. Then we started meeting when the sun went down.

(They were in the light of the moon. Anne entered the river to calm herself from the heat and Parr followed.

Maybe it was being naked, or all the times Boleyn wanted to do it, but she kissed Cathy. It was sloppy, a total mess, and Anne laughed.

“Why do you always follow my lead?”

“Because I did it in every life, and it was always worth it.”)

We just continued to be friends.

I died not long after because an infection.

(…)

“Stop!” Parr screamed. She started crying.

“What’s going on?”

“You die. You always die. If you want to prepare me for it, just stop. I can’t deal with it anymore. Please stop, I can’t lose you.”

Anne takes a deep breath.

“Did you hear all the stories? I never remember, and we never come back twice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember our lives? With Henry?”

(…)

I was eleven years old when I heard you were born. I never give too much thoughts to it.

After years I went to live in the court, with Henry. Mary was his mistress and my father wanted the same for me. But I didn’t. Years went by, and all happened with Aragon. He created a new church so we could get married, and it was totally out of magnitude.

But we did get married, and it never felt right. There was something missing, something I felt like I needed but it was not there.

An ancient kind of love.

(Elizabeth was born. Henry wanted so bad a boy but was still content with a girl. They had time.

Anne saw her daughter, and kissed her head.

Maybe that was the love for her in that life.

She didn’t realize something was still missing, because Lizzie became her whole world.)

And then it all went downhill.

And no one in all bloody England could save me.

He cut my head with a sword and I died, but in that moment, dying I realized it was not the first time. It all came to me and I wanted to scream.

(…)

“I remembered you, I tried to call for you but there was so much blood, and it hurts so much and I can’t breathe.”

“I wasn’t there.”

“I know.” Anne brushed Catherine’s hair. “And we came back.”

(…)

I came back and I remembered. And I saw you. You told me your life and I was waiting for you to say something else, but you never did.

We came to live together, with the queens, and even when we didn’t meet each other in our past life there was something. We felt a connection. You were attracted to me, even if you didn’t know me.

You helped me through my panic attacks. You stayed by my side, after nightmares, when things got tough. You stayed. And I knew I love you.

(“Anne, I have to say something to you.”

Boleyn thought she was going to confess about her past lives, but before she could talk warm lips where on hers.

“I think I’m in love with you.”)

And I kept my secret.

(…)

“I don’t get it.” Parr states.

“In this world we broke it. You are the one with the blessing of remembering but the curse of watching me go, and I am the one with the blessing of falling in love time and time again, but never knowing why you are so important to me. But this time you don’t remember.”

“Doesn’t that mean you will have to see me go?”

“I already did. I died, and left you alone. Remembering and being five hundred years waiting for a second chance was my curse.” She kissed Catherine’s forehead. “This time we are free to live, my love I promise.”

Cathy sits in the bed, one in front of the others.

“I have loved you in every world, in every time, without knowing you. I loved you endless, without a reason. I loved you for you, in every form. I loved you as a queen, as a monster, as an angel. I loved you knowing I could die. And I will love you time and time again. Because if dying is the price I have to pay to fall in love again with you, Catherine Parr, I will do it.”

#catherine parr #anne boleyn #parrlyn #six the musical fanfiction #six the musical

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jewish-gay-elves · 3 years

Text

Required Rest

JT and Dorian manage to convince Cullen to take the night off. Just a little dialogue drabble between some good pals!

Words: 371, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of the Jackson Trevelyan: Don't Call Me That

Fandoms: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age (Video Games) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Male Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Male Trevelyan, Dorian Pavus, Cullen Rutherford, Jackson "JT" Trevelyan Relationships: Male Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus, Dorian Pavus/Male Trevelyan, implied Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi/Cullen Rutherford Additional Tags: aka the tales of JT and the bois, aka more from the nasty boy squad, aka im tired of looking at this draft

JT Cullen Dorian

“Commander, you can’t expect us to let you wither all alone in here can you?”

“Inquisitor, please I have work to finish,”

“Hmm no that won’t do, I believe further persuasion will be required,”

“Commander Cullen Stanton Rutherford-,”

“Bloody Orlesians…”

“Use the voice, you know what I’m talking about,”

“I demand that you accompany your Inquisitor to the Herald’s Rest for food and drink immediately. There that should work shouldn’t it?”

“You two are incorrigible, I should hope you know that.”

“Oh just think about it Commander, if you cave in and go with us, not only are you getting dinner but the Chargers are back so there should definitely be a show,”

“If only it were that kind of show, sadly, we always are subjected to the Iron Bull’s body.”

“I knew you two were up to something-!”

“Yes, getting you to eat dinner and spend time with people who care about you, we are truly devious,”

“I mean, I also want to see you try to flirt with Krem again and Dorian wants to be there when you are let down again by his obliviousness, but yeah food and good company is probably our larger motive!”

“And people say I have no tact, how have you managed being amongst nobles your entire life?”

“Look at that! He’s getting out from behind the desk! I wasn’t sure his legs even worked anymore after being cramped in there for so long,”

“To answer your question, I did it very carefully, and mostly by making Max deal with them and then tactfully returning to my rooms, preferably with either a nice vintage or a lonely peer. Or both if possible!”

“I’m sure your sister really appreciated that didn’t she?”

“You do remember meeting his sister don’t you?”

“Dorian’s right, Max didn’t even see it as a punishment for annoying me! She just thought that I was giving up the family name and this was an even better way to take out Drew or something. Can we go now, I want to get the good ale,”

“Yes we can leave, I’ve got everything in order Ser Impatience,”

“Amatus you know that they save the best stuff for you and only you, don’t you?”

#dragon age #writing #jt #dorian pavus #cullen rutherford #dragon age: inquisition #m!trevelyan #jackson jt trevelyan #dorian x trevelyan

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masaru2042 · 5 years

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King of the Monsters is the Best Season of Game of Thrones Ever!

When I came out of the theater, I hadn't had warm and fuzzies about a movie in...I can't tell you how long. And this movie gave me warm and fuzzies. And this is despite the nay-sayers and the idiot critics who are slamming this movie. Just a little FYI here, Godzilla beat out Aladdin for the #1 spot. Godzilla pimp-slapped the Mouse into second place opening weekend. And I approve of this.

But despite all the critics REEEEING over Godzilla and calling it garbage, I'm gonna tell you this movie is awesome and is worth your money. And if you have a $5 dollar Tuesday like me because you have a Cinemark Cinema in your town...and you're worried about shelling out too much money for something you think you might not like...go see it on Tuesday, pay the 5 bucks, and then see why I said it's worth every cent. And then go back and see it again full price if you want to.

So like any review I've done, usually I review a movie that I found bad and wanna shit all over it. It is my thing, after all. I mean see what all I've said about Godzilla Final Wars and everyone got pissy at me for hating on Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and why I said I like GMK so much better...

And of course me shitting on Minya every time I mention Godzilla, because I hate that shit stain...I'm gonna actually give a positive review.

I mean the last movie review I did was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and...well...

It’s safe to say I really hated that movie.

But this one, I didn’t.

Just remember, this movie is worth every cent of your money. You did it! You did it, Hollywood! You finally made a REAL GODZILLA MOVIE! COMPLETE WITH THE ACTUAL GODZILLA THEME SONG! And the Blue Oyster's Go, Go, Godzilla at the end. And yes, there's even Mothra's theme song. And I was singing it during the movie. To anyone out there who said it couldn't be done...Cough-Steven Spielberg-Cough...we did it! America has finally made a real Godzilla movie! You also made the first Godzilla movie that actually gave a proper jump scare...and Godzilla was the one who did it, and I actually jumped! 10/10! You made me jump at a jump scare and I don't usually jump at jump scares. And yes, there was one, and it's at the beginning but...it's good. First Godzilla movie to have a genuine jump scare that actually made me jump. Thank you, movie! So, how does it start out. Well, it starts out in 2014 and we're following a family called the Russel Family. No sign of the Brody family, but that's probably because they finally got eaten by sharks because...JAWS, damn it! And also the Brody family was dull, save for Brian Cranston, and why the fuck didn't G2014 keep Brian Cranston in there? Anyway, we have Mark Russel, Emma Russel, and their daughter Madison Russel...who is played by the actress from Stranger Things...Millie Bobby Brown. I'm gonna refer to her as Eleven from here on out because that's who I know her the most as. And yes, next month, Stranger Things is coming back to Netflix, and I'm gonna be watching that. There's also Eleven's little brother, but he only appears in photographs because he ended up getting squashed by Godzilla's foot in San Francisco...so...I'm not gonna bother to learn his name. Interesting to note, the actor who plays Mark...played Bruce Baxter from King Kong 2005. But I barely recognize him...so, he doesn't get a quirky name. We do have Ken Watanabe returning as Ishiro Serizawa. Who I suspect is actually the sun of Daisuke Serizawa...though Daisuke is a completely different kind of person in the MonsterVerse than what he was in the original Gojira.

Okay, so, we cut to about 5 years later, so 2019 and we meet up with Eleven and her mom and El is contacting her dad who is not with them. He's studying wolves. And they have a little email convo, Dad's worried about his wife, El is worried about Dad, and so on. And I like how they build things up here because we don't realize that Eleven and her mom are in China studying Mothra's egg. Until we hear Mothra's call, and yes it is very recognizable. I suspect that there weren't veteran Godzilla fans like myself in the theater with me, so, pretty much every fan moment in this movie was something I would recognize but would mostly fall flat on most viewers. The monster calls and the music. Except for King Ghidorah's call...they were trying to do his call but...to be honest, it sounded like a bad mix of Heisei Ghidorah and the version they used in Final Wars. With a little Showa in there. The most perfect Ghidorah call was done in GMK. It made him sound powerful, big, and kept the iconic call. However, King Ghidorah's design looks rather interesting. It's more of an updated version of Heisei Ghidorah than any of the other Ghidorahs. Even more interesting is that the three heads all have their own separate personalities. How can I explain them? This fan art done by Michael J Larson just might help.

I present to you, Moe, Larry, and Curly. Legendary turned King Ghidorah into the Three Stooges. And here's the funny bit, Moe is the middle head, while Curly is the one on the right, and Larry is the one on the left. And just like in Three Stooges fashion, Moe hates Curly a lot. He even bops Curly a few times to pretty much make a point on just who these thee heads represent.

Rodan's call didn't sound much like Rodan's call either, but, I'm not a big Rodan fan, so I forgave it.

So, Eleven and Mom here goes down into a cave where Mothra's egg is so they can witness Mothra being born. And of course call the giant moth-like creature...Mothra. Because yeah. We need to state that. Complete with Mothra's theme!

Well Mom's got a gadget that seems to be able to create a signal that makes the monster docile, and lo and behold it works! And then Tywin Lannister shows up!

This is Charles Dance's character Alan Jonah...you know, like the whale...however, I'm gonna stick with Tywin Lannister. Because that's who he is! Well, Tywin kidnaps mom and Eleven. Tywin actually is trying to be a little nice to Eleven, even making a silly face at her. Which I thought was cute. Until she flipped Tywin off...because yes, Eleven can do that to Tywin! She's probably the only person who can flip Tywin Lannister the bird! Anyone else would have been beheaded.

Apparently Tywin now runs an eco-terrorist group who are a bunch of nihilists. And they wanna release King Ghidorah for the purpose of ending the suffering that man has caused the planet. So...Anime Godzilla Xaliens? Really, Tywin? The Dragon has three heads, but apparently you merely wanted to end the Targaryan dynasty just to set up the new Ghidorah dynasty. Well, to tell you the truth, King Ghidorah would make a better ruler than Bran the Broken, so he has my vote on that. Honestly, this whole movie is like the best Game of Thrones climax ever! With a little Stranger Things mixed in for good measure.

And King Ghidorah...or rather Ghidorah as they call him in the movie...is actually located in Antarctica. Because of course he is. How did he get there? We don't know. He is a space monster just like he usually is, and he also wants to fuck over everything on planet Earth, like usual. But this time...it's him doing it, and not someone controlling him...or rather...that device they call Orca sends out a call at first controls him, but the he's like "Naw, man, I'm my own boss." And really fucks over Tywin's plans. Because King Ghidorah at least listened to Olena Tyrell's suggestion of "Be a Dragon." And he pretty much shows how much he is a dragon, rather than what Danaerys did until the very last minute. Yes, I won't stop the Game of Thrones comparisons, shut up! So, apparently, Ghidorah has the Queen of Thorns on his side and she's been talking into his ear more than Mamma Russel's Orca's machine has. And to show Olena how much of a dragon he is, King Ghidorah eats a few humans as he is freed.

No, I'm serious, King Ghidorah eats people! Olena would be proud.

He also doesn't listen to Tywin Lannister. And neither did Aerys, but that's only because Aerys didn't want Cercei to marry Rhaegar. So, Tywin pretty much gave that dragon a middle finger and decided to get with another three headed dragon...a literal three headed dragon, and they're gonna fuck up the planet, yo! Until Olena Tyrell started talking to King Ghidorah about playing the Game of Thrones, and now King Ghidorah uses his magic monster call to literally "Call the Banners!" I'm fucking serious! There is a reason why the Game of Thrones references will not stop! King Ghidorah pulls a Rob Stark and turns to Maester Lewin.

King Ghidorah: "Maester Lewin..."

Lewin: "Yes, your Grace."

King Ghidorah: "Call the banners."

Lewin: "All of them?"

King Ghidorah: "All of them."

And the ravens fly!

Meanwhile, Daddy Russel got wind of his wife and daughter being kidnapped, as well as Orca being used to summon King Ghidorah and well, he seems to have a big beef with the monsters in general. Apparently, he has a bone to pick with Godzilla for the death of his son. And he wants to Inigo Montoya Godzilla's ass. The problem is, he's about the size of Godzilla's talon, so I don't think that duel is gonna work very well. However, it's here where we get to the jump scare that works and why I loved it. You see, in this scene, we're in an underwater Monarch base where they discuss what they want to do with Godzilla. Russel is on the "let's kill the bastard" boat along with the American military, and Serizawa is more on the boat of...we becoming Godzilla's adopted children in which he protects from other threats out there. Or rather...his pets. Which of course doesn't go very well over with the Americans. Because...

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You honestly think we're gonna be Godzilla's little pet humans, Serizawa? HELL NO!

But I chock that up to poor translation since English isn't Serizawa's first language. And maybe that came out wrong. Anyhoo...yeah, Godzilla's pets. No. I like you, big guy, but I ain't gonna be your cat.

So, while we're in this underwater base, Godzilla decides to show up! And they start pointing their guns at him...which kinda pisses him off. While Russel here hates Godzilla, even he knows it's not wise to go and pick a fight with him without a plan, so he even tells the guys to stand down, which they do. And then we have a moment where Godzilla slowly inches close to the glass and Russel and the King of the Monsters have some kind of moment. And to tell you the truth, it's a better moment than what we had with Brody and Godzilla. Well, Godzilla at first slinks back into the darkness...and everything seems fine. And this is where the jump scare happens. They don't draw it out to where you expect a jump scare to happen, like...most jump scares do. That's how you know it's a bad jump scare, they draw it out for so long that you know it's gonna jump out and get you. You're just waiting for it to happen. Here? Nope, the moment you think everything is okay, Godzilla jump scares you by just suddenly swimming by the glass.

And that's it.

And I did not expect it at all!

That's how you jump scare people! Again, this shows why Godzilla is King of the Jump Scares! There is no lingering shot, there is no "he's still there, he's still there, he's still there...he's still there..." It just comes right out of nowhere like a jump scare does. And I did jump. So again, good work, movie.

And I will say I like Russel as well. Yeah, he's in the "I hate Godzilla and I wanna see him dead" boat, but it's not taken to ridiculous extremes like you'd think it would be. He's smart, he knows when to fold them if he has to, which in Godzilla movies...is a good thing. You see, Godzilla movies tend to have characters like Russel be so over the top moronic in their hatred...you just wanna skip right over them and get to the monster fight. Russel is not one of these characters. His wife on the other hand...is an idiot, and I might as well address her.

She's flawed, and I'm glad we have for once a flawed female character in a world of female protagonists have to be perfect awesome people so that the feminazis can relate to them.

Apparently, the SJWs didn't really affect this movie much, and I'm grateful for that. Yeah, I had one guy tell me how he hated that Ghidorah wasn't called King and that he wasn't really a he...but an it. But I had to remind him that pretty much that's all the monsters. Including Godzilla. And Ghidorah's first movie was Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster in which this movie is a bit of a remake of. But not quite. In fact, I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a remake of that movie. Right down to Eleven being maybe a person possessed by some supernatural being who wanted to warn everyone about King Ghidorah's coming. She wasn't at all. I half expected Tywin to be some guy trying to assassinate her and he wasn't. And I thought Rodan would team up with Mothra and Godzilla against King Ghidorah after Mothra smacked their asses around and talked about friendship and the heart of the cards and shit, but he didn't and neither did Mothra. Mothra was on Godzilla's side, but not Rodan. Rodan was on King Ghidorah's side! He was one of the banners Ghidorah had Maester Lewin send a raven to. And another one of those ravens went to Nevada of all places and to...and I'm shocked to say this...Kumonga! Yes, our giant spider from the 60's Showa era has returned in the American reboot! And much like his Final Wars counterpart, he decided to be in the American Southwest. Maybe he liked Cowboys or something. We also had a giant mammoth creature rising out of Wyoming. And another MUTO. Why, Legendary? Why another MUTO? I guess we needed to reuse an asset or something. Well, it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if we didn't. So...you're checking off the marks here, Legendary. We even have stock footage in the form of clips! They are checking off all the Showa marks!

So, while King Ghidorah is flying around in a hurricane he created (totally awesome) and telling Lewin to call his Banners, we suddenly find out that Mamma Russel was actually the mastermind behind this whole "the Dragon has Three Heads" thing. Yeah, Tywin Lannister wasn't the guy in charge, it was Ma Russel. And she managed to convince Eleven that this is for the well being of mankind. You see, she wants the monsters to basically cull the humans and our evil technology, and return the world to a more peaceful time where we were subsistence farmers worshiping giant monsters as gods? Because that was a more peaceful time?

And this is why she's an idiot. And her ideas is batshit crazy! The world has never been more at peace now than any other era. I'm not kidding about that. Yeah, we're polluting the planet, and we need to cut back our carbon footprint, but to be honest here...the planet was much warmer during the time of the Dinosaurs than it is currently NOW. And while I've touted about the lessons of the P-T Extinction Event, aka the Great Dying, in which a flood basalt in Siberia started an out of control greenhouse that resulted in nearly 90% of all life on the planet dying, including the life in the oceans, and set our planet in a biological to be resetted in a way...and that was caused by just the temperature rising on top of all the nasty gasses put into the atmosphere by said flood basalt...I don't think that just going back to subsistence farming is gonna solve the problem, lady. In fact, it's stated even if we just stop all the polluting now, the damage has already been done. There is no stopping it. And NO! Suddenly causing the entire planet to just become more radioactive is not gonna solve your problem either. She honestly believed that radiation is some miracle grow fertilizer. When, no it isn't. And Carl Sagan can tell you why! Did you not listen to Threads? Did you not watch that movie, lady? I feel like I need to sit you and Final Wars Godzilla down and you both watch that movie together to see why just pumping a bunch of radiation into the atmosphere is not gonna help things. Final Wars Godzilla needs to learn that we understand the message of nuclear war. Threads has told us that. And you, you moronic bitch, need to learn the lesson of radiation will make farming HARDER!

And apparently for a scientist, she's never heard of the Red Forest of Chernobyl.

If you want to know what it looks like to an entire ecosystem when it's been bombarded by radiation...just radiation alone...

See those red trees? That is caused by massive amounts of radiation being released upon a forest.

Again, I prove why I know more about radiation than anyone who makes a Godzilla movie. But this time, I will forgive it because this lady is actually stupid and everyone else is far more intelligent in regards to dealing with radiation. Seriously, how did this woman get a doctorate in which she ended up working for an organization built to study monsters from a time when the Earth was "more radioactive" as it's was stated in this universe's past? And unless you wanna die from cancer or bleeding out your ass, you need to sit your ass down and shut the fuck up. But thank god this woman is basically the villain and a stupid one at that. Even Tywin Lannister got tired of her shit. And Eleven just figured out her mother is a loon.

Basically, Tywin Lannister makes more sense than crazy lady, because well, he at least just wants to release the monsters and wipe out humanity as a whole. In which the radiation will certainly do that. So, he's pretty much on the bar on the consequences of what will actually happen more than the idiot bitch. He just wants to make it happen because he's seen enough evidence of what humans are like, and he's tired of it. Which I can respect. Not the whole genocide thing, but the whole...I'm not doing this to "save humanity from itself thing" like crazy moron had pretty much talked herself into...to the point of stupidity and forgetting what radiation actually will do to humans and the ecosystem. Sure, maybe the ecosystem was actually more hardy against radiation in this universe than in our own...but still...that doesn't resolve the issue that TODAY'S plants and animals are not hardy against it! Well our Monarch heroes show up to where Rodan was popping out of that volcano like in the trailer, and we finally get to the first fight. Monarch leads Rodan to the storm and King Ghidorah, hoping to just have the two fight...but they don't. Because Rodan is on Ghidorah's side. So, it's up to Godzilla to take this false king down. And he does! He literally pulls a Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and decapitates Ghidorah's head!

Well...the United States has a plan to finally put all three monsters down and it's....

The Oxygen Destroyer

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Okay, this is where I'm gonna have to gripe. Because this thing is the single most stupid idea ever! But at least it does have a pay off in the stinger at the end when everyone basically states that the Gulf of Mexico is now devoid of fish. However, the existence of this weapon in this movie is uncalled for. But I suppose it's meant to set up the scene where Serizawa decides to sacrifice himself to bring Godzilla back onto the field. And to be honest, it's not needed. King Ghidorah could just be enough to knock Godzilla out for a few rounds while he goes on his little mayhem run and Serizawa can still sacrifice his life to revive Godzilla from that horrid beating. You don't need this thing in this movie, guys! You don't! You put it in there because you had that little teaser a few years back showing the Oxygen Destroyer in an old Monarch location and people were speculating it. So, you had to give us something.

And people wonder why my Game of Thrones references are happening in this review...because...this is Clegane Bowl, people. This is Clegane Bowl and how stupid Dumb and Dumber made it. It comes out of nowhere because the fans were expecting it, and you didn't even bother to set it in the Dragon pits and fill it to the brim with chickens. We are disappointed with you!

However, I did get a laugh out of it. Military guy: "We have this weapon we've been developing. It's called the Oxygen Destroyer! We're gonna use it on these monsters."

Thanks, America, you just killed all the fish in the Gulf. You morons!

And it didn't work on King Ghidorah because he's an alien. Tell Kiryuu Knight that! He managed to stick his Oxygen Destroyer into King Ghidorah and it worked like magic.

However, I will say that you're not the only ones who did something stupid with the Oxygen Destroyer, Legendary. Kiryuu did to in Halo 3 Different. He had the thing with him, took it to High Charity, and then forgot that he had it. Yeah, I'm capable of my idiot moments in writing as well. But I noticed that no reader really noticed the Oxygen Destroyer was even mentioned in that story...so, can't complain.

Well the Oxygen Destroyer also didn't really kill Godzilla, however it did wound him enough that he retreated to the bowels of the Earth to recover. Basically Hollow Earth theory. Or rather, not really. They call it Hollow Earth Theory, but it really isn't. I know Hollow Earth Theory because I love poking fun at morons who claim stupid shit. Hollow Earth Theory looks like this.

See that? That's a sun instead of a molten core. This is the theory touted by racists like Hitler and Lewis Farakhan. The thing the MonsterVerse came up with is more like...the crust is made out of Swiss cheese. Rather than the Earth being hollow. Basically, the Earth is Tennessee. Tennessee's crust is made out of Swiss cheese, and now these guys applied that to the entire planet. But no, the Earth isn't really hollow in the MonsterVerse, not the way the actual Hollow Earth Theory states. And that has been my biggest problem with the nomenclature they use for this theory in this universe. but I guess Swiss cheese Earth didn't really catch on as good as Hollow Earth. So Godzilla falls through one of these Swiss cheese holes and King Ghidorah regrows his head. Holy shit! However, I noticed, to regrow his head, he had to be sitting on a volcano with his storm raging over him. So...he's drawing power from somewhere to regrow that head, which is why he probably can't regrow his entire body from a single severed head in the totally not gonna make Mecha-King Ghidorah with Tywin Lannister as the pilot stinger. And he's calling his banners.

So this is where we have our Serizawa sacrifice scene. They go into one of the Swiss cheese holes after Mothra in her full glory appears and starts raining down her prettiness on top of the water to guide them to where Godzilla is...complete with her theme of course...and the guys find out some very ancient ruins of a civilization long gone. These ruins appear to be a hodgepodge of Egyptian, Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian, Eutruscan, Celtic creation. Why are they down there, why haven't we seen these things before, and is this the Lost City of Atlantis...I'm banking it's Atlantis. And the Atlantians worshiped Godzilla...before they all moved to Georgia and built the greatest airport mankind has ever seen.

It's all connected, I tell you!

LAX has nothing on Atlanta!

And the closer to where Godzilla is sleeping, the more radioactive it becomes. They decide to deliver a nuke to him to wake him up because nukes feed Godzilla. But the battle with Rodan and King Ghidorah damaged the sub's launching bay and they have to deliver it manually. So Serizawa draws the short straw, gives Papa Russel his notes on Godzilla, and decides to go in and give Godzilla the pick me up he needs. But not before Serizawa boops the Goji snoot. Which is cute. And going back to think on it. At least Serizawa gave Godzilla much deserved pats. Because he's a good boi, damn it! Unlike Jon who...only gave Ghost pats at the last second!

Why you so mean, Jon?!

It seems Godzilla is very much aware of our existence. As he's shown even in the 2014 film to notice those tiny ants under his feet. He is very much aware of the humans, and even after he awakens...to the sound of this...

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Since when did we import Akira Ifukube into this thing?

Okay, are you trying to show how awesome you are to us G-fans, movie, because we get it! We get it! You are awesome. Thank you for that.

Alright, so Goji theme going on and Godzilla starts heading to where King Ghidorah is.

Meanwhile, Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions along with crazy bitch and Eleven are in Boston of all places. While King Ghidorah is making a mess out of Washington DC.

But he is making a mess out of the place and according to the scientists, he's also trying to reformat the planet to suit his needs. In Boston, Eleven decides to steal the Orca and head into Red Sox Stadium. She hooks it up to the massive broadcaster speakers to signal to King Ghidorah to come to Boston. And it works. Unfortunately. Godzilla also gets that signal and he heads for it too. Papa Russel then gets the idea of rather than letting the Gods duke it out in the Red Sox stadium, it's probably time for the humans to show Godzilla that they are on his team. And so...by the power of Akira Ifukue...Godzilla and Monarch charge into battle. And no, not kidding about that either. They charge in with Godzilla's theme song playing in the background. And yes, Godzilla knows they are on his team. You can tell. You can seriously tell. Godzilla is surrounded by military planes and he's like "These guys are with me!"

I'm literally getting Godzilla vs. Hedorah vibes from this because Godzilla and the military actually did team up to defeat Hedorah. And not only that, but Godzilla acknowledged humans several times in that movie. And yes, this movie is actually dedicated to Banno, who was the director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah. So, I approve. And so would he. And it's explained in the movie why Godzilla recognizes the humans as his allies. The Orca's signal is not only mixed with the call of an alpha "titan" as the kaiju are called in the movie, but also the voice of humans. Because we're the alpha predators of this planet! So, Godzilla, obviously hearing not only that sound, but also seeing human dominance all over the place has pretty much recognized humanity as a partner species. And apparently he also recognizes Mothra as a fellow partner species that helps him keep the order, so he now has "imprinted" that status onto humans as well. We're not his pets, Serizawa, we're his partner. I knew the Serizawa's English was off on that. But it reaches the coexistence he is trying to achieve. Mothra also joins the fight, but a bit later when Rodan starts fucking Godzilla's shit over. Meanwhile, Godzilla is building up for a finishing move on Ghidorah...and because of that, there's a timer. Papa Russel wants to go in and save Eleven before that timer runs out. And I'm suspecting Godzilla knows this because he's actually holding back a bit. It's severely hinted that Godzilla knows this. At least to me it is. Like Russel shot Godzilla a message or something.

Russel: "Can you keep that thing busy, Godzilla? I gotta save my daughter!"

Godzilla: "Sure, but not for long. I'll give you 10 minutes, tops! But after that, I gotta unleash this nuclear pulse, or else I might blow myself up if I don't."

Russel: "Ten minutes! Got it!"

Again, not that I mind, but Eleven has Arya Stark plot armor, so...she'll be fine. However, the plot armor is a staple of Godzilla. So, not that gripey about it either. Honestly, when dealing with Godzilla, no character, not even the main ones, should have plot armor. Unless they are so far away from the fight it wouldn't matter.

That rule goes for you as well, Toho! Especially with that whole 24 week long half life thing you had in Shin-Godzilla! Plot armor was the only thing keeping those boring characters alive, because it sure wasn't their hazmat suits. Those things looked like they were made out of tissue paper. Which wouldn't help in dealing with rads that high. Even my mother would know that!

So, if 24 week long half life could get a pass on not killing characters in that shit of a movie, this much better one can get a pass on Eleven not dying.

Meanwhile, crazy bitch Russel finally decides to do something of actual merit and go after her daughter. And Tywin lets her. Because that's not his problem. Just as long as she doesn't take his men with her...he doesn't give a shit.

He really doesn't give a shit.

So that's it for Tywin, we don't see him again until the Stinger, but I've revealed that already. So crazy bitch goes after her daughter, Papa goes after his daughter, and they end up finding the Orca all smashed up. And Godzilla is not doing very well in the fight. He is obviously holding that nuclear pulse in. And yes, it is a nuclear pulse. He's like: "Russel, hurry up! I can't hold this fart in!"

Mothra punctures Rodan in the chest with her stinger. And honestly, she's GMK Mothra. Which is cool. However, she does end up dying during this fight in the attempt to help Godzilla get back on his feet. But like always, she is basically a phoenix and will rise from the ashes through another egg. King Ghidorah is kicking Godzilla's ass all over the place. And when the Russels finally reunite and fix the damned Orca, they turned it on and lead King Ghidorah away from Godzilla long enough for Godzilla to unleash his secret weapon that I spoiled. The nuclear pulse! And it is glorious! He goes red like Burning Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Destroyah, but...it's so much cooler. This red burning look isn't because he's gonna die, it's him charging up his new weapon. And that nuclear pulse is...basically like an atomic blast! Right down to the shearing of flesh from bones! Unfortunately, crazy bitch basically dies in the fire, leaving Russel and Eleven to watch from a distance as Godzilla incinerates King Ghidorah.

And for good measure to make sure Ghidorah doesn't come back...GODZILLA EATS KING GHIDORAH! That has never happened in any Godzilla movie. EVER. Clap! This Godzilla is just the most brutal of any Godzilla. I think GMK Goji might have to bow to this king since he EATS his foes!

And Godzilla stands over a demolished Boston, roars in triumphant. And as the other kaiju show up, he pretty much pulls a Robert Baratheon.

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As if the Game of Thrones references couldn't stop there. So, Godzilla reveals himself to be King Robert Baratheon, which works out because Tywin Lannister is wanting to take him down. So, I'll describe the stinger at the end of the movie. We show Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions walking into a bunker and the guy is explaining that after the Oxygen Destroyer, the fishing in the Gulf is shit now. Because yeah. It would be. It's the Oxygen Destroyer. Well, as he walks into a large room, we see King Ghidorah's only remaining head with flies buzzing around it. And it looks exactly like the scene from Godzilla vs. Mecahgodzilla 1993 when General Aso and a team of scientists come into a room with Mecha-King Ghidorah's head in it...saying "We have it now, a robot to kill Godzilla."

And this is why I think Tywin Lannister is gonna build himself Mecha-King Ghidorah...and take over Westeros.

So all in all, I really look forward to Game of Thrones season 10. It really is shaping up to probably the best season we're ever gonna get. And Season 9 of Game of Thrones ended with a huge bang. I was really satisfied with what they did. Tywin's back! And he's backing the real Dragon...with the Three Heads. I don't think Maester Aemon thought the dragon having three heads meant King Ghidorah, but as George RR Martin stated...prophesies do end up biting your prick off.

So, what do you all think Season 10 of Game of Thrones is gonna be like?

All joking aside, I loved this movie. I really did.

And continuing the Game of Thrones comparisons, the night fight shots in this film...10 times better than The Long Night of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Why? BECAUSE YOU COULD ACTUALLY SEE FIGHT! But if I have one true gripe to say about it...aside from the Oxygen Destroyer...it's that this movie happened BEFORE Godzilla vs. Kong.

No, I'm serious on this. This movie sounds like it should have been done after Godzilla vs. Kong. And I did kinda hated that King Ghidorah had to die in this movie, rather than return as an actual threat again later.

But who knows....we do have that head left over, so anything can happen.

#Godzilla King of the Monsters #legendary pictures #Godzilla #Game of Thrones #GoT Season 8 #Tywin Lannister #Charles Dance #stranger things #Eleven #King Ghidorah #Rodan #Mothra #Ghidorah #kaiju #American kaiju #Titan #spoiler review #movie review

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cornishbirdblog · 4 years

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“The seashore seems to be a potent spot for ghosts. Fishermen dread to walk anywhere near where a ship has foundered. The souls of drowned sailors are said to haunt such places and the ‘calling of the dead’ has frequently been heard . . .” James Turner, The Stone Peninsula, 1975.

Fishermen and sailors are a superstitious clan, and passing close to the watery graves of the lost members of their brotherhood was once treated with great trepidation. There was a fear that the voices of dead sailors would call their name and somehow lure them to their doom beneath the waves.

“I have been told that, under certain circumstances, especially before the coming of storms or at certain seasons, but always at night, these callings are common. Many a fisherman has declared he has heard the voices of dead sailors ‘hailing their own names’.” Robert Hunt, 1881.

Porthtowan is ‘just’ another cove on Cornwall’s wilder north coast but it is a favourite spot of mine. I especially like to catch it at low tide when the flat sand runs all the way to Chapel Porth. I walk the mile or so with the stark cliffs towering above me, then I return along the grassy top path, making a satisfying circular walk. The cliffs and bare downs here once bristled with mine buildings and hummed with hard industry but now Porthtowan beach is popular with surfers and families alike.

Like so many places in Cornwall however, strange legends and tragedy are never far away.

The Man in Black

There is a curious story about Porthtowan that would make a sailor’s blood run cold.

Once a fisherman was making his way home across the sand late one afternoon. The tide was far out leaving a wide band of smooth sand, the water calmly lapped towards the shore. Quite suddenly the man heard an unearthly voice coming from the waves.

“The hour is come, but not the man.”

The strange phrase was repeated three times. And then, just as the fisherman tried to see from where the voice was coming from, a figure appeared on the cliff above the beach. A silhouette of a man dressed in black.

As the frightened fisherman watched the dark figure seemed to listen for a moment, then suddenly he charged headlong down the steep incline, ran across the beach and dove into the sea, vanishing from sight. In another version of this tale as the man in black jumps into the sea the fisherman sees a ghostly sailing ship appearing out of the mist on the horizon.

The Dragon & the White Shuck

The towering hills between Porthtowan and Chapel Porth are almost completely devoid of trees. Barren and windswept, intensive mining has stripped the landscape. Little grows here and it can be a bleak and forboding place when a clammy sea mist rolls in.

“We descend over a stony waste, threading innumerable walls to Chapel Porth, a cove at the mouth of a deep moorland combe . . . for some miles the cliff tops are covered with heather. Porth Towan a larger but in other respects similar cove comes next. Both are more or less spoilt by mines.” John Lloyd Warden Page, 1897.

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There is a legend about this place which is particularly unusual, a one off perhaps, for Cornwall. Neither dragons or shuck are common here you see. And for those wondering, as I was one, a shuck is a huge, shaggy dog, normally black. A written description from 1888 claims that these hounds are sometimes headless but usually have a single ‘blazing eye’ in the middle of their forehead.

Their name apparently derives from an old English word ‘scucca’ meaning devil or fiend. Shucks are most common in East Anglia. It’s thought that they originated in Scandinavian folklore as a black hound of Odin and were brought to us here by the Vikings. The hound associated with our Cornish story was indeed monstrous in size, but it was apparently white, not black.

The myth tells us that back along, many moons ago, a fearsome dragon roamed the cliffs above Porthtowan, in an area known as Mile Hill. The scaly monster had his liar in a nearby cave in the cliff face and he spent his time terrorised the local people, as dragons often do.

One night however, according to tale, the dragon crossed paths with the Cornish White Shuck. A bloody battle ensued and against the odds the huge, mysterious dog defeated the dragon, who slunk off with his tail between his legs.

Legend has it that the spirit of that hound still haunts the wild clifftops above Porthtowan to this day.

Shipwreck of the Rose of Devon

On 16th March 1816 on the flat sands between Porthtowan and Chapel Porth a squadron of Iniskilling dragoons from had to beat off local miners with sticks. The miners were trying to board the brig Harriet that had run ashore on her way to Liverpool. Shipwrecks were once depressingly common on the Cornish coast. Many, like the Harriet, have been recorded on the stretch of coast close to Porthtowan, their stories written about in the papers, and rarely do they have a happy ending.

And so, the fate of the Rose of Devon that came to grief at Porthtowan is not for the fainthearted I am afraid.

On 28th November 1897 the waves were winter wild. The newspapers reported that sightseers had come from miles around to watch the roaring waters and the towering clouds of sea spray from the cliffs above Porthtowan beach, much as we do today.

As the light faded that day Coastguard West, who was on duty that weekend, took a last look at the churning waters and saw nothing in particular that concerned him. However, when West came down to the water at 6am the next morning something wasn’t right. There was wreckage pounding in on the incoming tide. And that wasn’t all.

To his horror he spotted first two and then four bodies rolling in on the waves or stuck in between rocks. West ran for help and within just a few minutes there were six bodies laid out on the sand. All but one of the drowned crew wore belts bearing the name ‘Rose of Devon’.

Image said to show the wreck of the Rose of Devon on Porthtowan beach: credit Cornish Memory

The Rose of Devon had apparently been driven onto the rocks by the raging gale. According to later reports the ship’s rockets and flares had been been hidden by the violent lightening and heavy rain that night.

The bodies of the crew were taken to a house near the beach and as the tide retreated later that day the shell of the 405 ton wooden barque was revealed stuck fast on the beach.

‘At dawn her shattered hull festooned with chains and ropes was stranded in the surf.’

The Rose of Devon was launched in Plymouth and owned by Onesimus Dorey of Guernsey. It was captained by George Borcher and had a crew of eleven. The rest of the men were eventually washed up, some weeks later, all along the coast. The body of George Borcher washed up at St Agnes.

The inquest was held on the six recovered bodies at Porthtowan two days later on 1st December and a self-evident verdict of ‘found drowned’ was given on each by coroner Laurence Carlyon. The newspapers of the day detailed each of the crew, including their physical descriptions, tattoos and various obvious injuries but no names were recorded. However, another more disturbing issue was also discussed. The condition of the bodies since they had been washed ashore.

Apparently in the days after the wreck the dead crew had been moved to an unprotected outhouse, where they had been laid out on a dirt floor and left uncovered. And the remains of the sailors had been attracting the attention of rats.

“Coastguard West said they could get the bodies removed into a house where there was a wooden floor but that they would have to obtain . . . permission first. He added that he and his colleagues knocked on the door of the shed in which the bodies were every time they passed in order to frighten the rats away.” The Cornishman, 2nd Dec 1897.

None of the men were from Cornwall and so there was no one to claim their bodies. In years gone by the practice had been to buried the drowned on the clifftops close to where they had been discovered but that had been outlawed. It was now the responsibility of the parish to pay for the sailors’ funeral. There appears to have been some debate over which parish, Illogan or St. Agnes, was to take the bodies.

As it was the funerals of six of the men (Captain Borcher’s family claimed his remains) were eventually held at Mount Hawke on 9th December 1897. The West Briton newspaper reported that hundreds of local people turned out to pay their respects and each coffin was draped with a flag. Some time after a granite memorial was raised in the graveyard to mark the spot where the unfortunate crew had been laid to rest. The inscription reads: F. Eliot, H. Martel, C. Palzard, W. Toll and 2 others”.

Local man Jerry Strongman, who grew up in Porthtowan, recalled seeing the remains of the wreck of the Rose of Devon at low tide during his childhood in the 1960s. As far as I am aware no trace of it can be found today.

I provide all the content on this blog completely free, there’s no subscription fee. If however you enjoy my work and would like to contribute something towards helping me keep researching Cornwall’s amazing history and then sharing it with you then you can donate below. Thank you! [wpedon id=17835]