#a proper series of arcs and lots of writing and screentime to analyze

[loregoddess]

2, 3, 8, and 19 for the fandom game, for any fandom(s) you feel like talking about :)

(for 3, fic and/or meta posts, can't actually remember if you've posted straight up fic before haha)

2. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve read

I haven't read a ton of fic sadly (although I haven't read a lot in general the last few years due to college making me read So Many academic papers and books that I got burnt out and haven't quite recovered my love of reading. Yet). Although, my friend @lookerdewitt has written literally some of the best fic I have ever read, so I would probably say one of their fics.

3. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve written myself

I have actually sort of written fanfic (both legit fanfic, and also a few "thinly veiled technically fanfic if you changed the names" for a fiction writing class that I had to write several stories for and wanted to see if I could get away with it), but I haven't actually. Shared those fics with anyone? Partly bc I have historically almost never finished any fiction writing project that I have started, ever, and partly bc I'm just shy about sharing my writing in general.

I have been working on a LoZ fancomic idea for the past uhhhh four or five years (technically last decade since I first came up with the idea in late high school and then had it sit in the back of my head for several years bc all I had was a setting and a handful of characters), and I have never in my life stuck with a project this long, so I guess that would be my favorite from my personal works bc it's apparently something I care about enough to not abandon entirely. I've actually made a decent amount of progress on my "detailed outline" recently, so here's hoping I can stick it out and actually get to the script and then to drawing pages one day.

For meta posts I think my favorite is actually my analysis of the Octopath 1 cast and how the major antagonists in each of their stories acts as a mirror and foil to each character. I really enjoy analyzing stories in general, but I so rarely write it out, so I was happy to actually do so for once. Gave me a lot of confidence for all the other meta and headcanon posts that I wrote afterwards.

There's also a Legend of Dragoon meta post sitting partly-finished in my drafts where I analyze themes surrounding each dragoon spirit and its wielders, which I haven't finished bc I only remember to work on it when I'm doing my yearly replay of LoD, and also bc it started looking like it might need to be a series of posts due to uh....length. Like I make a lot of lengthy posts, but each dragoon spirit's analysis was about a short essay's worth of words, and there are eight spirits soooo....hopefully I'll finish that one day, bc it's an analysis I've spent years thinking about.

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc)

I'm always a sucker for post-canon healing/recovery/rebuilding arcs. Can't get enough of them honestly (when I have the motivation to read). There's something so fascinating about looking at a character who Went Through Some Stuff, but the main narrative didn't look at the effects of that, and so a dedicated writer took up the challenge of trying to explore what comes after.

Most of my favorite characters are weird side characters who don't get a lot of love from the writers of canon or fans, so I'm always glad to see stuff for them as well.

19. Favorite headcanon

Oh hmmm, there's a lot and it depends on which media we're talking about, so if you're curious about a specific game let me know. Off the top of my head though hmm...

Okay I have this headcanon that Milo TriStrat snorts when she laughs genuinely. Like sure she's got the ladylike proper, cute laugh that's part of her spy job and totally fake, but when she is being fully honest and laughing for real, she snorts.

[loregoddess]

Roland Glenbrook for the character asks?

oh, prince of suffering...

First impression: He and Frederica were the two I was most interested in going into the game blind. Starting the game, I loved his character design and overall I thought he was interesting, especially since he was the second prince and not the crown prince, although his being second but a main character also clued me in that his family was probably going to be dead city by the story's halfway point.

Impression now: Hoo boy, this kid has a lot of baggage to unpack. Initially I was really thrown off by his Ch17 pitch, same as basically everyone who played the game I feel like, but I wanted to protect him anyhow which played in part to my choosing Frederica's endroute over Benedict's. Despite the shock of the Ch17 pitch, now that I've combed through a lot of the narrative text, I really appreciate the complexity of his character, and the fact that his being this 20 year old kid who gets saddled with *vaguely gestures* all that feels very believable bc like, being in your early 20s is like a second teen phase, it can be really hard. I still love his character a whole lot, even if I know that Ch17 pitch chilled him to a lot of others, and I think that his writing overall is really interesting. Glass canon though, dude cannot take a hit even if he can dish out damage.

Favorite moment: Actually, seeing his character growth in his personal fight against Gustadolf in the golden route was just, so, so rewarding. Like this is the turning point, I feel like, where Roland really comes into his own strength that he needs to be a good ruler. Just, Roland's entire part of the Ch18 golden route is really good. That said I also enjoy suffering in fiction, and I loved his battle with Serenoa at the start of Benedict's endroute, it gives so much insight to Roland's mind and heart (and also gave me major MGS vibes which I am certain was entirely unintentional). And the end scene of the epilogue for that route, where Roland’s in the abandoned village tending to the sick was just chilling to watch, since it really set up what the future of that timeline might look like. That said, really my favorite thing is to see characters grow positively, and like hopeful stuff, and so his entire arc in the golden route was probably my personal favorite for him, since I really liked seeing him finally grow into the role of king that he really is strong enough to fill even if he doesn’t realize it for the entire story.

Idea for a story: His character stories left a lot to be desired for me, so like, building off the “what if there were more character stories” from my Corentin post, I’d want to explore Roland’s relationships with some of the other characters. Cordelia is an obvious one since she gets so little relevance in the story past a certain point, and Hughette, but I also think it would be really interesting to have Roland interact with characters like Ezana or Medina who could paint a different picture of Hyzante (or even Geela for that matter), or to have him interact with more characters from Aesfrost like Flanagan. Having him talk with Archibald or Groma would be really interesting too, since they have many more years of life experience to offer him advice or just like, a different perspective. Of course, having him get a proper conversation with Avlora would be fascinating as well.

Unpopular opinion: Uh, I dunno. I guess retrospectively his Ch17 pitch makes sense given everything going on in his life and isn’t out of character per se, even if I still personally hate the pitch.

Favorite relationship: Obviously I find his dynamic with Serenoa to be really interesting, since it tends to be the crux of a lot of his personal story arcs, but I’m also really interested in the dynamic between him and Hughette. Not in a shippy way really just, it’s interesting to see how lord-bodyguard relationships get handled by different writers, and Roland and Hughette’s relationship is somehow a lot looser than I would expect, but that could be bc the writing focuses more on Hughette’s motives for remaining his guard than on Roland’s perspective to her being his guard. Also, I only got a handful of “blink and you miss them” lines to support this, but I am very interested in how his interactions with Svarog develop after the Ch18 golden route battle.

Favorite headcanon: Hmm, I dunno there’s a few I’m fond of. I guess one I haven’t shared is that he does eventually learn hawk-riding from Hughette, but is initially kinda terrified of heights. He keeps at it though (trying to hide his unease from Hughette who figures it our pretty quickly anyhow), and eventually comes to really love hawk-riding and mostly gets over that fear as well. Also I spent my usual amount of time wondering what his mom was like, and came to the conclusion that Roland and Cordelia both resemble the late queen more than Frani, who takes after their father in appearance.