#considering these two pass for meta and probably will be for a long time

[crnl-chicken-tots]

Beast Yeast's power couple 💪🧀🌶

[luna-rainbow]

Hey, I don't know if you've already answered this (and this may be a weird question lol) but why did Hydra just let Bucky's hair grow long? Why didn't they just cut it? I've seen you do other metas and stuff like that (which I love, you're a great writer!) So do you have any ideas?

Aww thanks for enjoying the other metas 💕

That is a very interesting question that I’ve never thought much of 😅

From a Doylist perspective, the Winter Soldier arc was published in 2005-6. Ed Brubaker was born 1966. Men having long hair became more acceptable and even fashionable from about the 1970s (ie Brubaker’s formative years), and that style carried over to the late 1990s (or, if you’re like me who was in the JPop fandom, it was still popular for most of the 2000s). Longer hair in men was generally seen as subversive and cool, or untamed and unkempt, which were descriptors that would have fit Bucky’s reappearance in his new persona. It was also a good way of indicating that time has passed and his character has changed significantly. One other thing is, when it comes to 2D art, long hair flows, ie it’s easier to express dynamism, which is why so many superheroes wear capes. I believe (not having read the actual comics) Bucky’s role changed in The Winter Soldier run from a pure sidekick to something closer to an antagonist and partner, so the more distinctive character design reflects that too.

From a Watsonian perspective…I guess men’s short hair can be somewhat high maintenance in that you kind of have to trim it once a month at least. Who knows if the serum affects the speed of hair growth as well, because if it does then maybe he needs more frequent trims and it just gets long if they miss any. Presumably, given his history, he’s also not an easy customer to approach with a sharp implement, especially not that close to his face. And they’re always in such a hurry to pack him back in the cryo tube or to get him prepped for his mission that it just gets missed until it really gets in the way.

The other possibility is that the longer hair also changes his face shape substantially speaking as someone who didn’t recognise Bucky when the mask came off. It makes his face more angular and the shadows deeper. It probably stops his memories triggering as easily when he sees his own reflection. It serves to erase his original identity, along with his new “name” (although we have no evidence that he knew he was called the Winter Soldier while he was still brainwashed), new uniform and the bionic arm.

The third reason is that the long unkempt hair could be used as a psychological tactic. It’s emasculating and demeaning, especially for someone born in the 1910s and normally known to be well-groomed and tidy. It’s an element of control over his bodily autonomy that he cannot change without them allowing it or at least giving him access to implements to cut it. It contrasts him with the other soldiers, including the other “Winter Soldiers” we see in CACW, who are allowed to sport typical masculine haircuts, and serves as a continual reminder that he is “other”, if not considered somewhat subhuman.

So that’s my two boring cents. I wonder if anyone else has other ideas.

[hopeless-eccentric]

dick mullen, hard-boiled detectives, and cultural occupation

hi all. im back with more disco elysium meta. knowing me, this'll be long, so bear with me--

i'm really interested in thinking about the dick mullen series's role in revacholian culture, particularly by reflecting and creating a patriarchal and destructive police culture. taking it one step farther, i'm interested in their potential role in vesper's occupation

before we begin, i want to clarify that i'm taking the approach that art and culture influence each other constantly (art isn't just reflecting culture/history, it's also creating it). it's an idea that comes out of the school of new historicism if you want to look more into it! anyway, my argument is guided by the assumption that the world of disco elysium operates this way

with that out of the way, let's talk detectives! I want to zero in on this passage:

[Image ID: White text on a black background from the game Disco Elysium reading "Spillane needs Mullen to drive him in from Vesper to a small town along the Insulindian coast. Despite his friend's apparent agitation, Mullen does as he's asked, then returns home where he passes out drunk, as he does most nights..." Below the text is a red bar with the word "continue" on it, and an arrow pointing right. End image ID]

Right off the bat, there are two really interesting explicit references: Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer.

First, the opening of this novel is borrowed from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, where detective Philip Marlowe's old friend (/homoerotic, depending on whose work you read) shows up out of the blue and asks to be covertly taken across the border from Los Angeles to Tijuana. The next day, the friend's wife is found dead, and Marlowe is arrested as an accesory to murder. He spends the rest of the book proving his (and his friend's) innocence. You're probably seeing a few parallels to Mullen already.

A few other things to know about Marlowe and the series he stars in--some of these might ring a bell:

Marlowe is depressed, at-times suicidal, and a likely alcoholic, though the books are deeply concerned with normative masculinity and try to minimize these

Adapted into a 1973 movie where Marlowe is recast as a "man out of time," (AKA sopping wet disco detective) awkwardly split between the 50s and the 70s

Generally tout conservative USAmerican values circa ~1940-1955, especially pushing white, cishet male individualism, fear of marginalized identity, and promoting the idea that government punishment and surveillance are the best, most desirable solutions to social issues

You're probably already seeing some interesting parallels (or places Disco Elysium adapts/interrogates some of these ideas). Hang onto the conservatism and government stuff--we'll get back into it.

(Quick caveat that basically ALL detective fiction pushes the bolded ideas above to some extent or another, but that Chandler's stuff gets especially highlighted in literature because he wrote a very famous essay about American detective fiction and the essay and his body of work were very popular and influential)

The next reference is a general one to Mickey Spillane, author of the Mike Hammer series. This is a pretty interesting pull, because

they're a bit niche!

2. they have some of the most explicitly sexualized violence against women in the entire hard-boiled detective genre (Mitzi Brunsdale has some great work on this). a few scholars i've read discuss them as outliers, but most consider them "the quiet part out loud" of a genre largely about controlling and punishing women

(if you're curious, this is a really interesting reading of some of them guided by queer/feminist theory and a focus on the post-WWII era).

I'll admit Hammer's a little bit more outside of my research niche than Marlowe, but I've read enough to know he's also very much in the "individualist straight white guy who represents the government has to fix uppity women" school of fifties detective fiction

Both of these references affirm and contextualize what we can tell about Dick Mullen from reading the book: he's the white macho-individualist picture of repressed trauma and masculine anxiety, while also constituting the popular fictional idea of policing

keeping that in mind, i want to return to the beginning of The Long Goodbye/Dick Mullen and the Case of the Stolen Identity, where Mexico and Insulinde both occupy an imperialist fantasy role as "lawless" places Americans/Vespertines can flee in order to avoid consequence for their actions. It's not a one-to-one cultural comparison (very little in this world is), but it gives us a little context for why it's weird and interesting to me that the Mullen books are so popular in Revachol

considering all of this, i think it's interesting to consider that the police culture of the RCM (intensely sexist, homophobic, racist/xenophobic, and generally supportive of an occupying government) might have been partially created, or at least reinforced through the popular notions of fictional policing produced and popularized within an occupying nation. given the RCM's roots as the ICM, i think there might have been a potential incentive to mass publish and produce these books in an occupied, formerly-communist region to normalize and entrench ideas of individualism, patriarchy, and government surveillance, especially among the only revacholians with any government power or representation

that being said, I think it's a little limiting to act like people will not naturally turn against a failed rebellion, especially given the ensuing mass destruction. despite being an ostensibly individualist and capitalist genre, hard-boiled detective fiction was born and popularized out of the Great Depression. its work to romanticize a return sociopolitical "normalcy" and to speak to the experience of the working class are what kept it popular in moments of social and economic upheaval in the US, even if, ultimately, it puts the pill of pro-capitalist/individualist sentiment in the cheese of working class appeal and bitter suspicion towards government bigwigs. granted, interpellation by the art of one's own culture has a different connotation from interpellation into the desired culture of an occupier, though i think it's important not to romanticize revachol as a place with 0 conservative sentiment before its occupation by the moralintern

i think there are a few possible and interesting arguments here--that there was an incentive for vespertine governments and businesses to promote vespertine individualism to help quell rebel sentiment within the RCM and revachol in general, that people naturally turned to the comfort and "normalcy" of conservative fictions in periods of turmoil despite their ideas being actively harmful (in neo-marxist theory, this is called interpellation, which, for the record, is all over the game), maybe some of column A, some of column B

regardless, i think it's interesting to view the dick mullen books as something which have created culture, rather than just reflecting it. it's definitely a lens that helps to explain part of the radical cultural shift between the idealized heyday of the ICM and the RCM (though i think the cracks in that shift are equally interesting and worth exploring another time)

(if you can't access any of the articles, please shoot me a dm! i'm happy to share wherever i can. i believe i have some pdf scans of pages from the linked books, but those are unfortunately limited)

[riddlesmoon]

a quick little ok i lied its a bit of a long meta on what Nezha calls himself

so Nezha sometimes refers to himself with 小爷xiaoye, which means 'little master'. a similar, more well-known term is probably 少爷shaoye, which means 'young master'.

as you might imagine, he usually uses it when he's being a bit full of himself. it appears in nearly every piece of Chinese fan content i read, though i actually think it might be a teeny bit overused there—in the movies he uses the normal 我wo plenty of times. (unfortunately i only have vibes to back this up but i am completely willing to sit down and make a spreadsheet and calculate the % of time he uses 小爷xiaoye to refer to himself. but it's definitely not 100% of the time)

anyway what i wanted to talk about is this: in Nezha 1, the Li family servant uses 少爷shaoye to address Nezha. 少爷shaoye is usually the default for the oldest son of the head of house. i assume he does this because Jinzha and Muzha aren't home, so Nezha is automatically the oldest son in the house. (i doubt it's because he doesn't know about Jinzha and Muzha... like there's no way the people of Chentang Pass don't know about Li Jing's two sons who are disciples of Golden Immortals lol)

but Nezha uses 小爷xiaoye for himself instead. now obviously he knows his brothers exist, and it could be a case of something like, your family is 'always with you' while the servants are not obligated to consider anything but what's in front of them. still, it's kind of interesting to think about, because growing up, there is no one in Chentang Pass he could've picked this up from. his parents call him 吒儿Zha'er, the servant(s?) calls him 少爷shaoye, the rest of the town just calls him a demon—if anything, you'd expect him to 'pick up' 少爷shaoye from the servants, right?

but no. it looks like he specifically chose to call himself 小爷xiaoye. when he does, he is consciously taking into consideration the two big brothers he's never even met!

obviously we know Nezha has a lot of insecurity about being a 'demon', but it's really cool that you can kind of see it in action here. he thinks his brothers are much better than him, too good for him to even face during the Golden Immortal Zoom call. and yeah, it's a Chinese film, technically he's expected to respect his big bros on the very basis of them being older than him, but, come on. look at who they are. they're disciples of two of the Golden Immortals.

they're everything he was supposed to be, but isn't.

[thoughtfulchaos773]

Syd and Carmy- Communication 3

Part one Part two

First off. This scene was written by Chris Storer and directed by Joana Calo, our favorite duo (the creators of the table scene). Calo and Storer: do me a favor if the ship isn't real, don't even add shit like that in a scene...you know what I'm talking about. Don't have it where Carmy is taking her in and appreciating what the fuck he's seeing. And Carmy, the loser- notices Sydney as soon as she tries to sneak in. He doesn't even finish saying the word 'exactly' to Marcus before his eyes take her in.

But wait, this conversation is about legacy and how something starts somewhere, and they take these parts and take them somewhere- over and over again. I love that he points out these people would find each other.

Like a family tree.

Carmy and Sydney combine families to create a wholeness- something that's good.

Sydney starting a new legacy! My Shipper Heart: In some meta, Sydney often connected symbolism of life, fertility, rebirth, and nurturing. Chris Storer, these two are made for fanfiction, not a dish- a heart-shaped dish that Carmy just happens to give her- and this beautiful tree above her head- a symbolism for the tree he wants to build starts with the girl who ate his signature dish where he took the rebellion against abuse, rejection and sent a string of fate to start a legacy. What are you doing to me? Carmy literally presents his heart to Sydney.

Okay back to the scene:

He takes in Sydney and tells her "good morning," as if inviting her in. She comes from a meeting with Shapiro that should feel like good news, but she seems burdened. Since she first met with Shapiro, she enters, seeming distant but polite.

He says "no, no" as if to say, "Don't be ridiculous. You never interrupt." He's the one who invited her into the office.

He takes a moment to pause after saying "no," whispers "no," and looks at her...

Also, to note, he's coming from Al-Anon this morning. He has a clearer perspective than the last 7 episodes of that season. 'You look nice'—so simple but as the season's theme. Paying attention, Carmy sees her every day or close to it, and it's Carmy noticing something is different. Could it also be Carmy prompting her to say where she's been? There's room for that conversation.

But Sydney passes it quickly with a quick "Oh, thanks." A little surprised and also not having time for it right now. She focuses on their conversation- which could be a foreshadowing of what Carmy will do in the end.

I pointed this out before- Wednesday reference- 3x04- another episode Storer wrote.

Flashback

Carmy and Sydney are having the same day of the week they are trying to get through? The same day used to track time?

Excuse me-Writer/Director Chris--

But I'll move on...

You know what else I noticed about this scene- Carmy was staring at her the whole time as she took off her bow and said I'm just trying to get through Wednesday. He takes a second when she asks him his answer for legacy.

This is probably the most self-aware Carmy has been- does he realize he's passing panic and anxiety on to Sydney? Probably not yet at this point.

But also how Sydney is always the one to stop his anxiety and panic-driven ways, but for her to set a boundary where she's not his babysitter, eventually, he has to do the work to stop himself from panicking. But it's another sign of a legacy starting with them.

He looks at her a bit more than Marcus. He says with everything and everybody- he has to be square with Claire and Chef David. He needs to let go of the bad things from his past and the abuse he has held on to for so long.

The camera remains on Sydney as she considers his answer to legacy. She nods with understanding, unspoken communication we talked about- Carmy knows what he has to do. He wants to rid himself of the bad but needs help (therapy), so he's not taking it out on Sydney or any of his staff. How will he care for himself, love, and be there for Sydney? One of their relationship's central conflicts is Carmy showing up, the right way for Sydney to start their legacy and filter out the bad things he's carried onto The Bear.

I think that part of the conversation was considering Sydney, filtering out the bad to make it good.

It's still possible for Sydney to start and keep her legacy at The Bear. At the end of season 3, the panic attack is her realizing she doesn't want to leave.

Sidebar: Marcus. Marcus. His legacy-because being an awesome emergency contact is a bittersweet answer- shows some guilt about not picking up the call about his mom...

Grief. Grief is always the theme that sticks with the show. Despite its lingering presence, let's hope for more good days to outweigh the bad. Let's hope the Bear ends with a good legacy.

[maoam]

is that true sasuke and karin fucked in canon? i saw some people spread this because suigetsu implied something happened between them in the past. i don't know the right translation of his line but most of translations imply whether karin did something to sasuke in the past or they did something together.  

these people say sasuke defends karin even though karin was the who punched suigetsu because they didn't want suigetsu to reveal some secret. when karin tries to get closer to sasuke he tells her to move back a little or looks nervous (because of her angry voice?) suigetsu also said that he and juugo would get in their way and that he likes to break them apart. it is also mentioned in some databook that suigetsu likes to interfere with the love of sasuke and karin, and that  what happened between sasuke and karin is a top secret. 

those people also discussed bites all over karin's body, assuming that they were left by sasuke and that she let him diging his teeth into her body (it is  also mentioned in databook). it is also mentioned by obito that karin is sasuke's favorite (lovers used to be considered favorites). in the scene where karin goes to sasuke when he was injured, she said a line that could mean sasuke wouldn't reject her.

naruto and suigetsu believed that sasuke could have slept with karin and suigetsu also said he didn't know sasuke can be such a bastard( those people use "pimp" but it's probably a mistranslation since the most common meaning of the used word in his line was "bastard" or "pile of trash". this word  also can mean "chad", but it's an uncommon meaning).  to sarada's questions about who her mother is, sasuke answered "it's none of your business". it could indicate that sasuke slept with both karin and sakura and simply did not know whose daughter sarada was.  

in their opinion, sk is the only ship where there is something erotic, other ships don't have this and for manga such hints are rare to mean this very thing. for some reason some people think that sasuke could rape karin and sakura, that's why they look so sad in gaiden lol. 

could kishimoto really leave these sexual hints and continue them in gaiden as an unrealized desire to bring karin and sasuke together? why did he never comment on that suigetsu's line? why did suigetsu even get the impression that karin and sasuke could be together? i mean there must be some sence to make him think like that and i beleive kishi wouldn't throw such stuff unintentionally. 

anyway, is sasuke really that kind of character who would have a sexual relationship with someone he doesn't love, who would use someone for sexual favors and then throw them away like an unnecessary tool (which is exactly what sasuke did to karin in the end)? and i know databooks aren't canon, but what is the scence to tease fans with such hints?

"The truth is, I know… A long time ago, you (did something) to/regarding Sasuke."

The line doesn't imply they did something together, but that Karin did something regarding Sasuke.

What an amazing jump through mental hoop to come to the conclusion that it means they had sex. Yes I'm sure they had sex at age 13. That's definitely what was Sasuke's priority when he came to Oro's place. But we have to remember the person who wrote the "meta" of Sasuke and Karin having sex also said Itachi was fucking multiple women at same age and also was being passed around by the council (the wording they used).

It was pretty easy to tell from their whole convo that Suigetsu was trying to piss Karin off. 'That's why you're always stuttering' etc. Sasuke isn't even phased, just a bit annoyed. Them quarreling is distracting from the mission.

This was just a bit before that moment of Karin slapping Suigetsu. As you can see Sasuke is a bit confused by Karin's behaviour. He also doesn't want to let her come too close. It should be OBVIOUS these two aren't in a sexual relationship, or relationship of any kind at this point. Come on now.

Databooks... aren't canon, once again. They are written by random people.

Suigetsu talks a lot of shit, he's a troll, yet it's treated as gospel. He finds Karin annoying so he wants to mess with her attempts to get together with Sasuke. Guess what, Oro constantly brings up how Sasuke is affected by Naruto. And Oro is a character who is very intelligent and perceptive. He never says/thinks Sasuke is affected by Karin. It's almost like Kishi wanted to point out how important Naruto is to Sasuke and how deep Sasuke's feelings lie, while he used Karin for comic relief most of the time.

Sasuke, who didn't even kill the men Orochimaru brought to him because of his good heart, sacrificed Karin, a teammate, for his revenge. That was his low point. It's really not hard to understand.

Oh my god... Obito's comment is about Karin's abilities, I have talked about this already. [link]

Suigetsu sure, because again he's a troll character. Naruto never implied Sasuke slept with Karin, he was just frustrated on what a mess the whole thing was. Which is why he said 'teme'. The whole goddamn Gaiden is making fun of both SS and SK and some people still don't see it...

"It could indicate that sasuke slept with both karin and sakura and simply did not know whose daughter sarada was."

I'm amazed some people understand Sasuke's character so little that they genuinely think he would do something like that. XD

"in their opinion, sk is the only ship where there is something erotic" wrong [link]

"could kishimoto really leave these sexual hints and continue them in gaiden as an unrealized desire to bring karin and sasuke together?"

No. Imagine thinking that after how Kishi made Sasuke stabbing Karin into comic relief soon after lol. He doesn't care about Karin enough to have any desire to bring her anywhere, especially not with Sasuke.

"for some reason some people think that sasuke could rape karin and sakura, that's why they look so sad in gaiden lol"

Again amazingly terrible mischaracterization especially when Sasuke has always rejected both Sakura and Karin and they have been the aggressors towards him.

"is sasuke really that kind of character who would have a sexual relationship with someone he doesn't love, who would use someone for sexual favors and then throw them away like an unnecessary tool"

No.

"is that true sasuke and karin fucked in canon?"

No. SK and Sasuke stans who are homophobic are just desperate to prove Sasuke wants to fuck women.

The scene of Karin hitting on Sasuke and Sasuke being confused and also telling her to back off, and these ones here, just show Sasuke does not see Karin that way. It's only Naruto he is comfortable with touching him, and the one he goes out of his way to touch even when there's no need to (like to save someone from falling).

The people giving these arguments are just delusional like SS, it can't be helped.

[qs63]

Amestris Military structure and organization

This is the first of my series of long posts about the Amestrian Military. This one goes over the structure and organization of the military (and the country). To see the rest of this meta series check out the Main Post.

Amestris is a military state, surrounded by other hostile countries on all sides, the country has always been at war over its borders. For this reason, even before Bradley became Führer-president, the military was the center of the government. However, when Bradley became Führer-president in his 40s[2], twenty years prior to the series beginning[3][4], he took control of the government, parliament, and courts, effectively making current Amestris a military dictatorship.[2]

Each regional branch has a commander and a sub-commander appointed to the headquarters who serve as the head of the local government.[5] Grumman served as commander of the East until his appointment as Führer-President, with Mustang serving as his sub-commander until his transfer to Central, after which he was replaced by Major General Hakuro.[2][4][5][6] It is implied by Grumman that Roy Mustang and Olivier Armstrong became the commanders of the East and North, respectively, after the Promised Day.[8]

Administrative Organization 

In terms of organization Amestris is divided in 4 regions (East, West, North, and South) and a fifth administrative district at the center of the country (Central City). Each region is a semi-independent government ruled by a branch of the military, but all four regional branches are controlled by Central Command. That means a General assigned to Central Command is higher in hierarchy than a General of the same rank assigned to one of the regional branches. This is why being assigned to Central is considered a promotion and vice versa.[1] 

Aside from being in charge of the regional branches Central Command is also in charge of the Military Police and the Wide Area Government (Most likely based on Japan's koikigyouse. A branch of government in charge of coordination and operations that go beyond the jurisdiction of the local governments). In turn Central command answers to the Führer's Office, which is also in charge of the military academy, the alchemy research institute, the state alchemy agency, and the alchemy school. The military as a whole is also in charge of a multitude of establishments around the country, like hotels and hospitals.[2]

As mentioned before, the Führer's office also has control of the court and the parliament despite these technically being separate entities from the military.[2]

Diagram of the Composition and organization of the Amestrian military. [2]

What is interesting about Amestris’ administrative organization and division is that this kind of autonomous or semi-autonomous government branches usually serve the purpose of power decentralization (i.e. State vs Federal government) which is the antithesis of a dictatorship. The regional divisions must have predated the Bradley administration, all the way back to a time when the parliament and democracy still worked. 

The homunculi choosing to alienate the regional branches instead of dismantling them was probably their biggest mistake. In the end, even if Central held all the political power, the soldiers were still loyal to their local branch. That left each regional command with about 1/5th of Amestris’ military power at their disposal. If the Promised Day showed us anything, it is that losing control of two of the regions (East and North in this case) is enough to overthrow the central government. 

It could be said then that the measures taken to keep power decentralized somewhat work even after the fall of democracy.

An example of the military’s ability to govern is Bradley passing executive order 3066 during the Ishval Civil War, as well as his subsequent Ishvalan Policy, which prohibited the resettlement of Ishval. [7][8] Another example is Roy Mustang's New Ishvalan Policy (which involves domestic development in Ishval and international treaties with Xing).[8] This latest example hints towards a shift away from Bradley's authoritarianism under Grumman's tenure, where the regional branches are allowed more control over their own policies as opposed to being micromanaged by Central Command.

General Mission

As any armed force the main purpose of the Amestris military is warfare. However, as a military dictatorship their role goes beyond defending the country and right into governance. The military holds the executive power through the Führer-President, with the regional branches acting as local governments, and is indirectly in charge of the legislative and Judicial powers (through the parliament and court).[2]

The Amestrian military is also in charge of domestic security and order mainly through the Military Police.[2]

Military Ranks

The Amestrian military has a total of 15 ranks, 11 officer ranks and 4 NCO (non-commissioned officer) ranks, at least per the perfect guides.[1][2][3] The Wikia includes two more (unsourced) NCO ranks, but I'll explain later why those might not make sense in the “real world influence” post.

Amestrian military ranks. [1]

Führer-President (大総統 - Daisōtō)

From top to bottom the ranks are:

Officer ranks

King Bradley 1894–1915,

Grumman (1915–?)[8]

General (大将 - Taishō)

Roy Mustang (1917–?) [4][8]

Lieutenant General (中将 - Chūjō)

Grumman(?–1915)[8], Raven, Gardner

Major General (少将 - shōshō)

Olivier Mira Armstrong, Hakuro, Gärtner

Brigadier General (准将 - Junshō)

Basque Grand (1908–1914) [13],

Maes Hughes (posthumously promoted two ranks),

Klemim,

Edison,

Fessler,

Roy Mustang (1915–1917)[4][8]

Colonel (大佐 - Taisa)

Roy Mustang (1910–1915)[4][8][10],

Henry Douglas

Lt. Colonel (中佐 - Chūsa)

Roy Mustang (1909-1910)[4][10][11],

Basque Grand (1908)[12],

Storch

Major (少佐 - Shōsa)

Alex Louis Armstrong,

Miles,

Roy Mustang (1908)[4][12]

Captain (大尉 - Taii)

Focker, Buccaneer,

Vato Falman (post canon)[14],

Maes Hughes (1908) [12]

1st Lieutenant (中尉 - Chūi)

Riza Hawkeye (1911–?),

Yoki

2nd Lieutenant (少尉 - Shōi)

Maria Ross,

Jean Havoc,

Heymans Breda,

Vato Falman (1915),

Henschel,

Rebecca Catalina,

Darius,

Heinkel,

Jerso,

Zampano,

Riza Hawkeye (1909-1911)[10]

Non commissioned officers ranks

Warrant Officer (准尉 - Jun’i)

Vato Falman (pre 1915),

Riza Hawkeye (1909) [11],

Roy Mustang (1905) [7][11]

Master Sergeant (曹長 - Sōcho) 

Kain Fuery

Sergeant (曹長 - Gunsō)

Denny Brosh

Corporal (伍長 - Gochō)

Cadets do not seem to have a given rank. They aren't shown with rank insignias or epaulets in the OVA “Another man's battlefield” nor in the complete art book. More about this is the Training regime Post.

Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes during their cadet days. [15]

Aside from the ranks above, two other subdivisions exist under the military structure. The State Alchemists, who have an equivalent to the rank of Major, and the Military Police, who don't seem to have military ranks at all.

The qualification exam is administered at the State Alchemist examination Hall in Central City, while the yearly evaluation can be turned in at any of the military Headquarters. [2]

State Alchemists 

The State Alchemists are government employed alchemists that have passed the State Alchemists qualification exam. To become a State Alchemist, you must pass four tests: written, practical, psychiatric evaluation, and an interview. Furthermore, even after obtaining the national qualification, candidates are required to undergo a yearly assessment based on a report and practical skills, and if they do not receive a good evaluation, they may be disqualified from the program. This yearly evaluation includes commissioned officers like Basque Grand, Roy Mustang, and Alex Louis Armstrong.[1]

After acceptance into the program each new State Alchemist is granted a silver pocket watch and a certificate with an official title by the Führer as proof of their service. [1][2][10] 

The state alchemists have the obligation to participate in war. In addition they must follow three laws:

Obey the military

Do not create gold

Do not create people 

In exchange for their services they receive privileges in the form of research funds in the tens of millions of cens annually (the equivalent to tens of 70k dollars a year), access to military documentation and facilities, and a rank equivalent to a Major. [1][2]

It is never stated when the State Alchemist program started, but only 200 people have ever passed the exam to date, and a surprising number of them fail the subsequent yearly evaluation or quit on their own. [1] Many State Alchemists renounced after the Ishval extermination war. [13]

This makes long serving State Alchemists like: Edward Elric, Roy Mustang, Alex Louis Armstrong, Basque Grand, and Giolio Comanche an oddity rather than the norm.

Normally, they are responsible for investigating incidents. However, in some cases, military personnel take command and directly participate in the investigation. A typical example of this is the search for Scar. [2] Another example is Maria Ross’s arrest and persecution in which Colonel Henry Douglas of the Military Police Headquarters took command.[9]

Military Police

The military police is a subordinate organization of the military. They receive orders from the Military Police headquarters (which in turn receives orders from Central Command) and act as the on-site execution force of the military. [2]

Colonel Henry Douglas confronts Colonel Mustang after Mustang burned Maria Ross.[9]

While the Military Police Headquarters is under the control of Central Command and parallel in hierarchy to the regional branches, the Police officers themselves are at the very bottom of the military hierarchy, and seem to be expected to obey orders from the regional branches. The police officers don't wear a rank insignia and can be seen throughout the story helping the military personnel. [2]

If you happened to read Fullmetal Alchemist Under the Faraway Sky — Roy's vacation section, you may also have noticed that Hughes has more jurisdiction and influence than Mustang outside of East City despite being a rank below him. This is again because Hughes belongs to Central Command while Roy belongs to East Command. Roy can pull rank on him, but Hughes’ job is one level above Roy's in the government structure.

Afterthoughts

The way the Amestris military is organized means that despite Roy Mustang being Hughes’ and Edward’s superior, he is hierarchically below them. This is why in episode 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Bradley not only has to inform Mustang that Fullmetal is in the city, he also has to grant him permission to use Ed to capture McDougall. This is because the State Alchemists are under the direct command of the Fuhrer's office. They do not answer to Central Command or the regional branches. Bradley is Edward's one and only boss. Ed still has to obey direct orders given by Mustang, since State Alchemists have the authority equal to a Major and a Colonel is two ranks above that, but he doesn't have to work for him. This is why Mustang considers anything done by Ed as a favor to him rather than him just doing his job.

Yeah, that also means Hawkeye was hierarchically above Mustang when she was working as the Fuhrer's aide, therefore in the Fuhrer's office. She couldn't give him orders, but she was probably handling his (or his direct boss’s) assignments, and helping approve or deny his paperwork.

Chapter 24: Fullmetal Alchemist [10]

Source

Fullmetal Alchemist Manga 

Chapter 25: Master and Apprentice [6]

Chapter 36: Alchemist in distress [9]

Chapter 58: footsteps of ruin [7]

Chapter 59: the immoral alchemist [12]

Chapter 108: Journey's end [8]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Episode 30: The Ishvalan war of extermination [11]

Episode 64: Journey's end [14]

Military Uniform Post

Fullmetal Alchemist side story: “Start of a Journey” [13]

Fullmetal Alchemist perfect guide 1 [1]

Fullmetal Alchemist perfect guide 2 [2]

Fullmetal Alchemist perfect guide 3 [3]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chronology [4]

Fullmetal Alchemist: the abducted Alchemist [5]

The complete art of Fullmetal Alchemist [15]

[gregorovitch-adler]

Hi there! I was wondering what your thoughts are on ACD Watson's wives. First of all, I know nothing about the marriage traditions or laws in Victorian England but it seems weird to me that he kept remarrying because I guess his wives kept passing away? I mean he didn't/couldn't divorce them back them, right?

He didn't do very well with his private practice from what I've gathered. How come he could afford remarrying all the time. Also in my culture (East Asian), if a person's spouses kept dying, the matchmaker would refuse service because that person would be considered a curse.

Thank you and have a great day!

Hi!

Your questions are pretty interesting. As a South-East Asian, I can understand how people would frown at the person whose spouses kept passing away. There must be quite a few similarities in our cultures, even if we're not from the same country/region.

1.) A simple, detached answer would be that Arthur Conan Doyle was not the best person when it came to keeping his stories consistent, especially on the character-related details.

He might've wanted to tell us that Watson got married, but probably he didn't want Watson's marriage to keep him from assisting Holmes with his cases, and that's why everything about Watson's married life and wives is so skewed.

He wasn't even consistent about the location of Watson's gunshot wound in A Study in Scarlet. Initially, Watson was shot in the subclavian artery of the left side. But on the next page, the wound location has been shifted to his leg? This is just one of the many examples of Doyle's inconsistencies in his stories.

Maybe he didn't check that Mary Morstan had died sometime during one of his stories. Anything is possible.

2.) Another version of the answer (which is heavily filled with Holmes/Watson shipping): Watson was an unreliable narrator and didn't want any unwanted attention of the general public drawn towards the nature of the relationship he had with Sherlock Holmes. That's why Watson was so inconsistent in the stories that he published in The Strand magazine. I believe there's a reason Watson describes Holmes as cold and calculating at some points, but goes on to describe the incidents where Holmes was undoubtedly kind to someone at other points of the stories. I even wrote a meta about it here .

The fanon version is that Watson wanted to avoid the risk of being arrested on the grounds of gross indecency, and so he made up a wife - or even several wives - to cover it up.

I mostly agree with this theory, because otherwise, Watson (who's married by the timeline of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) going away with Holmes to Switzerland, and even sharing a room with him would be pretty weird and not exactly plausible, I don't think his first wife, Mary Morstan, is an imaginary character. But it's very much possible that her marriage to Watson was just a ruse to hide from the prying eyes of the public.

If we strictly talk about canon, then Watson marries Mary Morstan in The Sign of the Four, then she probably passes away by the time of The Return of Sherlock Holmes short-story collection (the jury is still out on that one - again, because of Doyle's inconsistencies), then Watson starts living with Holmes again as a bachelor for a long time. Then by the time of Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, his wife is brought up again.

Either it was another case of Doyle's inconsistencies, or Watson remarried sometime off-stage. (Though I think Doyle would've at least made a passing reference to Watson's remarriage, him being the POV character in most of the stories and all... idk.)

From what I've gathered after reading all the stories, Watson seemed to have only two wives at different points of time. Mary Morstan and another unnamed one in Casebook.

From the first-hand experience of reading those stories, I don't think Watson having multiple wives is a canonical thing. That's also a part of fan-interpretation. It's because the physical description of Watson's wife/ wives kept changing every time she was mentioned in any stories because of the lack of consistency in the whole narration. That's how it seemed to me when I read the stories. Though I've gone through them all only once, which means I could be wrong about this bit of detail in particular.

Still, Watson didn't seem to have numerous wives in canon to me. Just two.

And yes, you're right. Watson wasn't well-off even with his private practice. The fact that he was able to afford to remarry so many times (if he ever did) is quite odd.

Then there comes the social stigma behind divorce/remarriage. I'm not that familiar with the marriage traditions in Victorian England either, but I don't think people worldwide were so free and open-minded about the topic of divorce in general. Things have advanced in Western countries nowadays, but the social aspect of all this must have been quite different in the Victorian era. So, you're right about that thing too.

Tl;dr: There is no specific answer to your question, because the author of the original stories didn't bother to keep his details intact. They kept changing in canon, so you're free to believe whatever you want to. Because, as you said, the fact that Watson keeps remarrying all the time doesn't add up with his financial condition along with the societal conditions in that era.

So, everything is just open for interpretation here.

I personally believe that Watson only had one wife - Mary Morstan - whom he had a lavender marriage with (a fake marriage for the sake of society). I know this isn't canonical either, but what actually is canonical - well, nobody has a definite answer to that question.

I hope you find my answer satisfactory, because your ask was rather interesting.

Thanks.

[mornyavie]

Random but. A big part of the "D&D parties can generally be expected to solve a puzzle so long as it was written for toddlers" joke is just an information problem. A good puzzle gives you information you don't necessarily notice at first, and it takes time and repeated thought to synthesize all the available information. A TTRPG puzzle is, like, two-three sentences your GM has said out loud, probably improvising half of it.

Additionally, the players fundamentally don't know much about the world. They don't know how this world works; they only know the glimpses they've gotten through the GM's narration. This makes it hard to propose solutions that require a leap of logic or a cultural assumption.

There's a couple ways to get around this:

Props: a prop brings the puzzle out of the game world and into the real world. It's now something that the players can interact with on their own terms, not just by asking the GM questions. It's persistent so it can be re-examined, and can contain small details that aren't noticed at first.

Acceptance: give your players puzzles for toddlers. this is fine. Or, more accurately, think about puzzles that come across well in audio form, like word games that radio stations transmit. When you write it down it might look simple, but your players are not solving the simple version, they're solving the hard version, and they'll have fun in proportion. Actually, Dishonored has decent examples of this, where it's obvious puzzles that just reward you for exploring a bit and hence feel good even though they're not particularly hard.

Mechanizing: put the burden on your characters instead. It's not that your players need to solve a puzzle, it's that your characters need to pass an Int check representing them solving the puzzle (or analogous resolution mechanics), or that doing so at least gets them hints. This is more or less what D&D 3E was going for with its skill/knowledge system, or the Chronicles of Darkness Clue system, but it circumvents the main reason that people think solving puzzles is fun, so it's not workable in all situations.

Flexibility: unless you've literally got an omnipotent gargoyle saying "first you must answer my riddles three," the game is taking place in a "real world," and unlike MENSA puzzles the "real world" rarely presents a problem with only one solution. You may intend the door to be entered only when the five levers are pulled in the correct order, but passwall is an equally good solution. Of course, depending on your system this can lead to it being almost impossible to actually present a puzzle your players can't just go around, in which case you need to (1) rethink your puzzle meta ("how do we get around this lock" is also a puzzle) (2) if you're really that into puzzles in TTRPGs, consider finding a system that handles them better (such as games in which the narrative power is not solely in the hands of a single GM, and hence players can be more confident in proposing solutions that require them to understand aspects of the world their characters inhabit).

[moonmacabre01]

Last night I wrote a fanfic for the first time, figured I might as well post it here (fanfic under cut)

Midnight Pie

Bandee sat on his bed, staring out the window at the night sky beyond. “Another  sleepless night . . .” He mumbled to himself. They’d become more frequent lately, ever since the Jambadrans defeat. It’s been weeks now, but there was one thing he still couldn’t get out of his mind: the grinning, hollow face of void, a mockery of Kirby, his dearest friend. Speaking of . . . Bandee glanced at the phone sitting on his side table. ”Maybe talking to him would clear my mind” he thought as he started to reach for the phone before stopping. “No, he’s probably asleep” he let his nub fall back to his side, and turned his gaze back to the sky outside. His thoughts swirled round in long worn paths, trying already used keys on a locked door, before a sudden recollection stopped them. “Wasn’t there still apple pie leftover from dinner?” A smile flitted across the young dee’s face at the thought of his favorite food. “Might as well” he said to himself as he hopped off his bed and headed to the door.

“The castle always feels lonely at night”, the dee thought as he walked down the dim corridors down to the kitchen. He far preferred it at day, with all the other dees bustling about. The dark made him anxious, bringing up bad memories. He shuddered, and tried to push those thoughts away. “No need to think about that” he told himself, before coming to a stop as he noticed someone walking down the hallway ahead. “It can’t be his majesty, it’s too small,” Bandee thought as he observed the figure “and it’s the wrong shape for a dee. Could it be . . .” “Sir Meta Knight?” he called down the corridor. The figure stopped, and the glowing yellow eyes as he turned to face the dee confirmed his identity. “What are you doing here so late?” The dee said, hurriedly walking to join the knight. “I could say the same for you” Meta Knight replied “I’d expect you to be sleeping”. “I was just getting a snack” Bandee said, not wanting to mention the real reason he was awake, “Do you want to come with?” The swordsman seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then nodded. “I don’t see the harm.” The dee gave a small smile as way of reply, then started again on to the kitchen, Meta Knight following close.

Bandee squinted against the light as he opened the refrigerator door. His eyes searched the shelves, before coming to rest on the pie tin he was looking for. “Do you want some?” he asked the knight sitting at the nearby table “there’s enough for both of us”. Meta Knight paused for a moment, as if considering the offer. “Don’t tell anyone” He told the dee “but yes”. Bandee held back a giggle as he pulled a pair of plates out of a cupboard “Why would I want to tell anyone? It’s not like I’d get anything from it”. “Can’t be too careful” the knight replied stiffly as he watched the dee cut two slices of the pie and carefully place them on the plates. “I’ll go get some forks” Bandee said as he started toward a drawer. “No” Meta Knight replied, “I’ll get them. You go ahead and take a seat”. He fished out two forks at random and walked back to the table. Passing one to the dee, the knight pulled up his mask and started to eat. Bandee followed suit, enjoying the sweet taste of each bite. But . . . “Sir Meta Knight?” the swordsman paused mid bite, and turned to look at him. “I . . wasn’t entirely honest about why I was up earlier” Bandee whispered, staring at his plate. “Oh?” the knight blinked. Bandee wasn’t prone to discretion. “I’ve . . . I’ve been having a lot of sleepless nights recently. Ever since what happened . . .  in there. Inside Void Termina” the young dee’s voice started to waver, “I can’t seem to get it’s face out of my head”. “Oh . . . I see” Meta Knight whispered. Why was he taken back? It had been unsettling for everyone, seeing that . .  . thing mimicking Kirby’s face. “I understand,” he told the dee, extending a wing comfortingly around him, “It shook me too”. “Really?” Bandee looked at the swordsman in surprise. “Really” Meta Knight nodded, “But while I can’t tell you why it chose to mimick Kirby, I do know it’s gone now”. “Let’s hope” Bandee replied quietly, and took another bite of pie. Meta Knight gave a small smile, and turned his attention back to his piece.

“You know you don’t have to walk me back to my room, sir Meta Knight” Bandee whispered as the two walked again down the castle’s quiet corridors. “Perhaps,” the swordsman replied, face once again covered by his mask “But I’ll do so anyways”. The dee began to reply, but whatever it was was interrupted by a yawn. “Excuse me,” he laughed, rubbing at an eye “I guess my exhaustion’s catching up to me”. Meta Knight nodded in agreement “Try and get some sleep tonight”. “I’ll try.” Bandee said, before stopping outside of his door. The knight started to turn back, but then “Sir Meta Knight?” “Hmm?” the swordsman turned back to the dee standing in the doorway. “Thank you for keeping me company” Bandee whispered, before turning and stepping back into his room. The knight stood there as the door closed, before smiling under his mask, “It was my pleasure, Bandee”. Then he turned and walked back down the dark corridor, hoping that maybe now, Bandee will sleep a little more peacefully.

______________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading <3

[teh-nos]

enough time has probably passed that i can now safely subtumble a post i saw on my dash several months ago.

it was a long and very heartfelt meta about how 'look how mobius is supporting loki in this scene, that is true love' which okay but for some reason the scene OP had chosen to demonstrate mobius's wholesome and entirely unproblematic love for loki was... the bit where he puts loki into a time-loop torture cell where he will be repeatedly beaten and insulted by sif. which seemed like an odd choice to me, because while i myself am all in favour of Dark Lokius (it deserves capitalisation) this person did not seem to be, nor the many people who had reblogged it adding breathelessly joyful tags about how otp this behaviour was and how adorable they are.

and for about two seconds i did actually consider if the OP was a remarkably good attempt at trolling, ha ha you almost got me there, but no it was not. so i remain confused to this day. why. why would that be your choice of wholesome scene? the one with a literal torture chamber in it. why not one of the nicer ones where torture or death is only a vague threat hanging over the press-ganged variant that there were plenty of?

this one isn't even about my own preferences for or takes on lokius, it's just surely an objectively strange/bad choice of evidence for wholesome loving care?

[gethoce]

Another low brain power day, another day spent lining and coloring a reference sheet. This time it's my beloved OC Eon-Eon Dutch. He probably isn't the character who needed a new ref the most but I was quite unhappy with how the old one turned out

Some random headcanons and lore stuff below.

He's "red Kirby" and of all the "Kirbys" he's the one who gets along with Shadow Kirby the most.

Older than both Galacta Knight and Morpho Knight.

Met an adult Meta Knight as a kid (during the events of KATAM) and a newborn Meta Knight when he was an adult, much to his confusion.

As a newborn he was found and adopted by members of Clan Eon-Eon, a group of individuals that consisted solely of Dream Matterborn up until this point.

He had three adoptive parents which were in a poly relationship. He was raised alongside their biological daughter. All four of them perished during the Galactic Crisis, leaving Dutch emotionally scarred.

His feather coats were made from feathers from his parents.

Within Clan Eon-Eon he serves the role of a scout, traveling the universe and taking on missions assigned to him which don't lock him into specific locations. His primary task is to keep an eye on Dark Matter territory, since he is the only one within the Clan immune to their powers.

When he first grew his wings and realised he wasn't a Dream Matterborn like everyone else within the Clan he fled his home in fear of rejection and ran into members of the Haruda Collective, a group of originally only Heart Matterborn.

At one point he was in a relationship with Ume, a Heart Matterborn who later became Dark Mind. The three scars in his face were dealt by him.

He was taught how to use Heart Magic by Ume and later passed this knowledge on to both Galacta Knight and Morpho Knight.

His only other long term relationship was with Morpho Knight and was much more successful lasting for decades, yet Dutch never intended to stay on Halcandran and Morpho never meant to leave causing them to break up on good terms shortly after Galacta Knight was sealed away.

Dutch later found out that Morpho Knight died not long after he left and he still feels immensely guilty about it, avoiding the butterfly at all cost in shame.

Hates Sir Arthur and Fecto Elfilis, especially the latter with a burning passion.

He does not consider himself a knight and doesn't have a weapon of choice, instead using his dark, dream or heart magic alongside his stone ability melee attacks in combat. He may manifest a heart spears if he really feels forced to use a weapon or transform part of his holy into one.

Used to have a close relationship with Sir Dragato up until he left Clan Eon-Eon to stay with the GSA.

Dutch is multi-lingual, capable of speaking languages such as German, Finnish and, as his name might suggest, Dutch.

He used to travel with his sister and her wife until the Galactic Crisis killed the former. Since then he is almost always encountered alone, only occasionally seen in the company of Eon-Eon Rayur.

He swore to never fall in love again after his first two relationships ended badly and avoids the topic of having children since his first died so shortly after birth.

[waterfall-ambience]

i will not put noli me tangere and el filibusterismo in perpetua, i will not put noli me tangere and el filibusterismo in perpetua, i will not put noli me tangere and el filibusterismo in perpetua, i will not-

rambling under the cut because i need to figure out something to finish this scene:

the reason why i bring it up at all is because i want to show what a mundane conversation between damien and avery is like when there's not really much else happening in their lives.

much of their conversations in arc 1 were mundane yes but it was like 'getting to know each other (and also letting damien heal a bit after going through the horrors)'. also i will probably need another pass at arc 1 act 2 because i think things are a little messy thematically and i start juggling quite a lot.

-> anyways i wanted that mundane friendship conversation to be about a piece of media. i think literary analysis is something the two of them would talk about (because that's exactly the type of nerds they are, and you've gotta write what you know, yknow?)

there is a precedent for including real books and pieces of media in perpetua. i did it early in arc 1 with mary shelley's frankenstein, to establish perpetua as an educated community, suggest at minerva's sense of humour, and introduce ideas like the rage towards one's creator (with a parent-child / mad science twist).

> haunted hollow (the owl house, but i can't just name drop that one because it's too recent) was mostly used to establish the kind of nerd that avery is, give damien an in-universe blorbo in the form of a zuko/hunter-alike.

>> i might go back to this in arc 3 when the gods chew damien out for not living up to their expectations and compare him to his own blorbo.

> ponyo (which has no in-universe name as of now) was also used to bring in the general theme of "it doesn't matter what you are, i still love you" to the context of damien and avery's friendship. i just needed it to work for a scene and i think it does?

so i absolutely can use real books. the question is whether i should use noli me tangere / el filibusterismo specifically:

el noli came to mind because i'm pretty into it at the moment, and it's thematically rich enough for damien to passionately talk at length about just how hard it goes.

> i'm trying to do this to show that he hasn't just been thinking about haunted hollow for the past 8 months or so, lmao. not that its unrealistic for that to happen, i just think he wouldn't. he's more the type to have a broad knowledge of a lot of different things and then excitedly draw connections between them, rather than fixate on one thing for a long time if that makes sense.

> on a meta level i want to show infodumping and passion in a positive light (avery finds it cute, etc.) because some of my family members don't really appreciate it. i feel like a freak sometimes, i really do.

BUT ANYWAY. the implications of the books

both noli me tangere and el filibusterismo are very much rooted in their socio-historical context, that being the philippines during the late spanish colonial era, and the way it portrays society and the systems in power is unfortunately evergreen. sometimes it feels like hardly anything has changed 137 years later.

in relation to perpetua, the books show a world that the characters have never experienced, whether that be past or present. damien has filipino heritage but the disconnect is apparent (so ironically it loops back around into being a pinoy diaspora experience?). its something to consider when the gods judge him for not being 'good enough representation'.

i dont know how this is going to play out because captain luna is broadly similar to ibarra, in that they're idealistic, upper class illustrado filipinos who studied abroad and had childhood sweethearts named maria-[something], neither of whom they got with in the end. with bonus queer aspects of their stories because tbh it reads like there was Something between ibarra and elias. but anyway. i dont think luna would've read noli and i dont know how he'd feel about the parallels between him and ibarra. probably not very good!

maria-isabel was named after maria clara YES, but i read noli and fili recently so everything surrounding the luna/ibarra parallels are a coincidence.

> damien will likely pick up on these parallels and that opens up an entire can of worms!! worms that i don't know what to do with! but also its an interesting book and i want more people to read it because it fucks severely.

if you have any suggestions for works that damien can be interested in (thematic relevance to greater story ideal) i would love to hear them

[pathetic-gamer]

I'm really surprised yall liked that costume breakdown so much! Glad it wasn't a waste of time lol By popular demand, I'm back with more unnecessary analysis, this time of the lettuce fam (and the church as a whole).

I bring you:

Fashion in Fódlan part ii: a very long, still not comprehensive, but this time solicited analysis

FYI this post is way more detailed and is significantly more focused on the relationship between the Adrestian Empire and the Church of Seiros, especially relating to politics and power, rather than the clothes.

The Curch of Seiros: tradition!

The reason I didn't originally include these babies is simply that the pool seems at first to be very small. Besides, Flayn is in an academy uniform, and Sothis is a god, so there's really only two outfits and it's kinda hard to get a real feel for it overall.

Fortunately, I Am Very Smart (jk) and was able to gather a sizable amount of material by broadening my horizons a little

Statues from left to right: Macuil, Cichol, Indech, Cethleann

Trends:

The very first thing you will notice is that, unsurprisingly, there are a lot of similarities with the generic clergy outfits, and the Saints are just in regular class uniforms rather than unique clothes. You can actually see a sort of evolution from Sothis's dress (the og) to the generic female bishop and priest, and a sort of similar silhouette between the male monk and Seteth:

Also, Rhea, dead Sitri, and the mural version of Sothis are all wearing the same white dress but with decreasing amounts of embellishments :) dragon ladies :)

Flayn's version of the academy uniform actually keeps a couple of these influences, as well, primarily the center-front embellishments and the dropped shoulder bows.

Enlightened!Byleth, on the other hand, is a bizarre hodgepodge of stuff that doesn't immediately seem related to anything else.

The Saints being depicted in generic clothing makes sense, because the statues were probably erected after they had all "died." It is odd that Cichol, despite being a wyvern lord in game canon and a formidable warrior in CoS canon (whoa, so meta), is shown in the male bishop uniform in his statue. I think it's because they needed to differentiate between Cichol and Emperor Wilhelm.

The statue in the imperial palace of Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg, the first emperor, is in full armor, but the statue of Cichol is not - the years Cichol lived in Enbarr may have overlapped with Wilhelm's rule, so Cichol, despite being as much (or more) of a warrior as Wilhelm, held a more spiritually significant position. His association with Cethleann likely reinforced that, thus leading to the badass warrior-priest depiction.

*pointing at myself in the mirror* don't draw warrior-priest seteth on a wyvern don't draw warrior-priest seteth on a wyvern don't dr

"But pg," you say, "of course they all look like the monks and priests, they're literally the church. What does this have to do with the empire?"

Analysis:

The church and the empire grew hand-in-hand for a very, very long time, and that shows in lots of ways, including the prevelance of magic in the empire. I actually believe that the way the clergy dresses now is actually somewhat similar to how a lot of people used to dress, or at least influenced it. (Note that TWSITD, a group that has been around for longer than the empire and is separate from the church entirely, still wears their variations of clergy clothes, and Arval/Epimenides even have a similar silhouette to Sothis. That suggests that the styles are indeed very old.)

Now that more than 1000 years have passed, the Empire has continued to develop new styles and fashions, while the church, being a church, has maintained their ceremonial outfits. That being said, some similarities remain. I want to take a look at two of them:

Most units have outfits that draw from their canon classes, so that's not unusual, and all the magic classes are clearly influenced by the church, but what we should consider here is why the fashion aesthetics lean toward the faith classes when these two characters in particular are clearly specialized in reason and dislike the church.

Dorothea's dress is elegant and fashionable and also happens to bear a shocking resemblance to a generic priest outfit (outlined in red the points of interest on Dorothea). The sleeves are also similar to the mage outfit, of course, but it's the cut of the skirt, the thing at her neck, and the waistband that make it a priest.

For Lord Arundel, I'm mostly saying the general *shape* of the thing is similar, but there's also the deep round collar and the strong vertical lines, but only on one side instead of both.

As a side note, I'll argue that the military jackets we discussed in the last post are actually related to the church too, since the Officer's Academy (which is of course founded and run by the church) uses the same button styles, and we don't see it in the other two nations. (If this all seems like a stretch, that's because it is <3 a thousand years have passed, okay, things have changed.)

Besides just the practice of magic in general and some of the styles, the ceremonial importance of wearing some kind of uniform to show your role also remained, imo. We have two clear styles of uniform in the Imperial nobility - robes and jackets (it's unclear exactly what determines who wears which - I would think it's based on military roles vs political roles, which would explain the strike force being in jackets, but Jeritza is heavily involved in the military and he wears the robes. Possibly the exception that proves the rule?) - which are of course related to the two styles we see the most of at Garreg Mach, those being the clergy's robes and the officer's academy students. They may have evolved pretty substantially by this point, but I'm inclined to say the robes worn in the empire are related to the clergy robes, especially if they're meant to be associated with the people in more politically-oriented positions rather than soldiers.

We see the importance of these uniforms in the fact that they actually supersede armor/class uniforms. Hubert (canon class dark bishop), Ferdinand (canon class paladin), and Lord Arundel (canon class dark knight), all wear outfits that aren't actually related to their canon classes at all, and they still keep those outfits when in combat as enemies.

One more similarity I'd be remiss not to point out:

Love to be a bisexual God-King and wear a big tall collar and shoulder embellishment and gold stuff around my neck and a gold crown with a little dangly pearl thing on my forehead~

More analysis:

So, we've established that there's a connection between the clothes worn by empire nobility and church leadership, as well as the nature of those clothes. Cool. Now let's talk $$.

I'm not going to consider Sothis's outfit here, because she's a god and I don't think she's going popping into shops to buy ribbons. Likewise, I think Byleth's enlightened one outfit is more of a divine creation than an actual outfit that cost money.

Rhea's costume however, which as we discussed earlier takes inspiration from Sothis's, definitely did cost money, and a lot of it.

On the inner layer, we don't have a ton of excess stuff going on, as far as the cut of the clothing goes - the white dress is very simple, pretty fitted, not extravagant in any way, but we do have those extra gold details and the headdress, which is honestly a work of art.

What I want to pay attention to is the cloak in particular. That fabric with the beautiful, intricate repeating design of the Crest of Seiros is almost certainly a white and gold brocade (not only is that what it looks like, but it's also a typical fabric for liturgical vestments).

Brocade is a very expensive type of fabric that's woven to look like it's been heavily embroidered, example above (fabric plus a painting of somewhere wearing it). High quality, 100% silk brocade, especially hand woven and using precious metals like gold, costs literally hundreds of USD per yard, and a cloak of that size would be multiple yards (4? 5 maybe? idk I can't actually sew). That's a lot of money.

You'll notice that Seteth has a similar pattern on the inside of his cape, but I highly doubt it's a brocade. It could be damask (similar to brocade but cheaper and easier to take care of - example shown below), but I think it's just a patterned silk.

I think his main garment - cape included - is meant to be a play on a cassock, so it's probably a lightweight, soft wool with the decorative facing only on the cape part, possibly not lined at all in the rest of it. The details around his cuffs and shoulders and the back of the cape are probably embroidery or applique, I'm guessing the same as the academy uniforms, whatever those are.

It's definitely nicer than what most of the students or everyday people wear, but not nearly as extravagant as the jackets in the Empire. You'll also notice that Flayn's officer's academy uniform is a little fancier than the regular students, but not enough to be worth investigation.

The blue is probably a pretty expensive dye color, and you'll note that Rhea has it too. (The black of the academy uniforms would be similar in cost...)

(Speaking of blue dye, I did more research while writing this post and it turns out that the dull blues most of the folks in the kingdom have are actually some of the cheapest and easiest colors to get and maintain! Woad my beloved... Indigo is still extremely expensive, though.)

So anyway, as we can see, the issue of excess is really just Rhea. Being the Archbishop, it's understandable in the exact same way that Edelgard's outfit is - they're both trying to show their legitimacy as a sovereign, in part through their clothes.

However, I do want to point out something extremely important: Rhea didn't drop a shit ton of money on a fancy cloak any time in the last few centuries. When you observe her headdress during a tea party, she has this to say: "This crown is rather elaborate, but it has been passed down through generations of archbishops." So it was almost certainly created hundreds of years ago, likely during the early and much more prosperous years of the empire before the kingdom was a twinkle in Loog's eye. I think the cloak is probably the same way, created around the same time as the crown.

So, is she wasting a lot of money to make herself look powerful? Probably not. Is it still a little out of touch to be dressed so extravagantly? Yeah, on a social level. On a political level, she's reinforcing the idea that she's in control, especially while groups like the Western Church are acting up.

Because that's what this is all about: Control.

Conclusion

The church still has a significant impact on the culture of the empire, but it's more than just an old and famous church building still standing in the heart of Enbarr or the gown of an opera diva. It's explicit.

As our very last exhibit, I present a crown.

The crown Edelgard is given at her coronation is not the same crown she wears during the war, and - though we can only see the tip of the little spire in the front - it bears a striking resemblance to the crown worn by Sothis/enlightened!Byleth. (Using the Sothis regalia to show it bc it's a better image lol.)

I believe this crown may have been crafted at the same time as the Archbishop's, though you'll notice it's quite a bit smaller.

That's because the church and the empire didn't just grow up together - the church was the empire. Seiros named the capital, chose and crowned the first empire, and gifted him her own blood to give him power. The Adrestian Empire exists because Seiros wanted it to, but the church was the higher authority.

The Archbishop traditionally witnesses the coronation of each new emperor not as a show of friendship or an alliance or whatever; it's to remind everyone that originally, the Emperor served at the grace of the Archbishop, not by virtue of their own authority.

Edelgard wears a different crown when she declares war on the church, because she can't have anyone questioning her authority, especially not the church. That means all remaining influence the church has over the Empire and Fodlan as a whole simply must be destroyed. Unfortunately, it runs far too deep. What's she going to do, make Dorothea wear a different dress?

-fin- (lol)

working on a much more lighthearted part iii, which will literally just be ranking the outfits on how expensive I think they are lol no promises on that one though

EDIT: someone pointed me to an item description from FEH that confirms Edelgard did *not* have a new crown designed, it's just a different crown that already existed. Here's the ask where we talk about it a little

[starforgedthor]

when you become untouchable {Vigilante/Adrian Chase} // seven

seven. i've been training like a palov dog (let my independence out to take a hike)

Summary: A second day off and little else to do you find yourself hanging out with the only other person you know in town who will be free. Thankfully Chris is a fan of Legally Blonde, so that's the rest of the day sorted!

Need to Know: She/Her pronouns. villain!meta-human!reader. self depricating reader. chaos. implied dehumanisation. canon typical violence. heavily implied smut. slowish burn.

[ masterpost ]

A/N: I promise there will be more of Vij & Reader in the coming chapters but we've gotta get there first. Anyways I love Peacemaker and Reader being friends, absolute fools I love them. Also I'm sorry if you're not a fan of legally blonde but I am and unfortunately for us all I am the writer.

Taglist: @16boyfriends-and-me @a-girl-who-loves-disney @amysuemc @generalfoolish @idkanymoreaboutlife @home-of-disaster @2guysonascooter @demure-doll @grippleback-galaxy @demeterl @specificpuppy @gay-cold-brew @siberianallen @evvilspawn @bright-cherry-bombzz @simping-4-jason-todd @hazzarights @blackwatxr @plzu

Taglist is always open, feel free to message or comment to be added! xx

"So we're what?" Peacemaker asked you flatly, looking up at the movie times on display above the awkward looking teen behind the counter, "buddies? We're buddies now?" He asked snidely, "fuck-?"

"I spent real, actual time last night reminding Harcourt that you're not the worst person she knows," you respond just as flatly, like its a warning, like you're half considering calling her up just to take it back. In the meantime, you've still got your neck craned to squint at the films for yourself... maybe something Disney?

"That's the good word you put in for me?" He frowns.

"How about Above All?" You ask instead of answering properly.

"That biopic about that pilot Wonder Woman had the hots for a hundred years ago?" Chris asked, rolling his eyes without waiting for an answer, "pass. I'm not watching a chick-flick."

"Not a fan of chick-flicks?" You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye with a slight, disbelieving smirk.

"I like certain chick-flicks," Chris clarifies dismissively, "but I'm not watching a historical chick-flick about Wonder Woman's probably now dead or geriatric boytoy. It's not a crime."

For a long moment you deliberate, turning to properly look at him, scrutinising him as he's doing thr same to the movie times in front of you both.

"What?" He finally asks, noticing your intense gaze.

"Legally Blonde."

"Is that a suggestion or a question?" He asks, voice flat and betraying his vague discomfort. Your smile widens just a touch.

"Both, I guess."

And so instead of the cinema, you and Chris spend arguably too much time in the snack aisle of the convenience store, make fun of the over the top flavours of soda, and get into an shouting match about the merits of Cool Ranch flavoured Doritos. At the front counter, Chris in his full Peacemaker uniform is loudly proclaiming he'd never eat any snack with Batman's face on the packet, while you're paying for the small hoard of food and cackling as you try to figure out what kind of snack Batman would want to sponsor. The poor server looks a little ill with nerves as he looks between the two of you and bags up the purchases.

"I should invite Vij," Peacemaker mutters, halfway back to his trailer.

"Oh?" You shoot for casual, as if your interest wasn't piqued quick enough that you're sure your ears pricked up like a dog's.

"I feel like he'd enjoy it," Chris muses, "or he's already a fan? I can't remember," he taps down his pockets with his free hand, "I should ask him anyways."

"Okay, yeah, cool sounds good," you nod, trying not to seem too eager, but evidentially it doesn't work.

"You're being weird," Chris says bluntly.

"No I'm not!" You fire back immediately, "I'm being normal- you don't even know me that well, I'm not being weird!"

"You're being totally weird, dude- is it because of the sex? Because that wasn't my intention here, I-" he holds up his hands as defensively as he's able, despite holding his phone in one and a grocery bag in the other.

"I'm not being weird because of the sex, fucking Christ!"

"I'm not tryna Netflix and Chill -"

"What?" You looked sharply to him with confusion.

"Netflix and chill," he said like it should mean something, "like we're gonna watch Netflix and we're gonna chill, but we're not gonna, you know, Netflix and Chill."

"That means nothing to me, is that a euphemism?"

"Yes, it's Netflix and Chill!"

"I don't use the internet, Chris!"

Immediately his frustration melts as he finds himself reminded once again of your modern cultural illiteracy.

"It means sex," he says easily, posture righting itself, "Netflix and Chill, it's like, sex but trying not to be obvious about it. But I'm not- trying to have sex with you that is. Again," he pauses, deliberating, "unless you're into it."

"Are you ever not an incorrigible horndog?" You rolled your eyes, to which he simply shrugged dismissively.

"Does Harcourt like Legally Blonde?"

"As a blonde she both hates and respects it in equal measure," you answer without even a moment of hesitation, "she has never put it on for her own enjoyment but she won't turn it off if it's already playing."

"So... I shouldn't ask you to invite her," he extrapolates after a moment. The way you huff through your nose with amusement is enough of an answer for him, and comfortable silence fills the space between you as he texts with one hand.

"You keep a lot of Harcourt's memories?" Finally, Chris breaks the silence, and while you do take a moment to replay the moment you have kept a copy of, you shake your head.

"Just the one."

"You kept a moment where she explains how she feels about Legally Blonde?" Chris snorts derisively, to which you can't help but frown.

"No, why would I keep that?" You hear yourself laugh, glancing at him in the morning sunlight. He squints back at you, confused, and before he can even open his mouth you realise what conclusion he'd jumped to - "you know I can still learn things and retain memories I haven't stolen, right?" At your sharply knowing tone, Chris tries and fails to mask his surprise; "Harcourt and I go back to before I was even caught; she's practically family to me, I know a lot about her because I asked."

This time there's an awkwardness as Chris doesn't seem to know what to say to that, and just seems thankful when his phone goes off. You catch a glance at his screen and see its a picture of Chris's hand where he's scritching the top of Eagly's head; you're pretty sure you've never seen an eagle look quite so pleased.

"Vij is working but asked that we not start the movie without him," Chris mumbles, "says he'll bring lunch if we wait."

"Done -" you answer immediately, "what lunch?" But you decide against it, "actually I don't even care, surprise me." Grinning at the prospect, you pull out your own phone as Chris replies.

[YOU WANNA COME WATCH LEGALLY BLONDE W CHRIS AND ME AND CHRIS'S FRIEND??] you message Emilia anyways, despite knowing the response you'd get. As expected, less than a minute later, she replies.

[fuck you.]

[i like the full stop. feels very formal.]

[anyways u down???]

[PM's friend is bringing lunch and ill tell u you're cuter than elle woods??]

[what friend??]

[y/n im literally in the middle of recon shit]

[what friend????]

[it's a mystery!❤]

[and by that I mean same friend from yesterday lol. no I don't know his name and I don't care he's bringing me lunch 🥰🥰🥰]

[how do you not know his name??]

Instead of any sort of real answer, you just tell Chris to smile and snap a photo of him beaming cheerfully, sending it to Harcourt and shoving your phone back in your pocket. It's buzzing with what you're sure is exasperated texts from Harcourt but for now you ignore it.

Back at his trailer and three beers deep into a sitcom whose references are going more over your head then they aren't, Peacemaker looks you dead in the eye and apologises for what he's about to say.

"You should preface your conversations with that more often," you tell him cheerfully, considering you had absolutely no way of figuring out what direction the conversation may be about to take. For a moment, considering your thinly veiled yet charmingly spoken insult, he frowns. A few feet away the show's laugh track goes off.

Then, surprisingly, Chris sits back with a shake of his head.

"Nah, don't worry about it," he mumbles awkwardly, trying to waive it off.

"But now you've got my interest," you sit up a little straighter in his old armchair, finally giving him your full attention. After a long, heavy moment of hesitation, Chris finally speaks.

"How did you and Harcourt meet?"

"At a bar on the South Side of Chicago, I was hustling some regulars at darts for a bit of fun, had no idea who she was but she knew all about me," you answer easily, pausing, though your smile was still in place, "was that really your question?"

"Why do you care so much about Vij?" He answers your question with another question, almost catching you off guard.

"Vanity, mostly," you lie easily and follow it with a laugh, "its been a long time since my reputation has been allowed to proceed me," but your heart's not in it, the words you'd rehearsed in your mind for an occasion such as this, but then as soon as you start properly thinking about him you remember why he was running late in the first place and-

"Wait I can't believe he has a day job that's hilarious-" before you can even finish your sentence you're amending, "not because he has a job, obviously I'm the last person in the world allowed to judge anyone for their employment choices, it's just - where does a guy like Vigilante get a job?" You're grinning from ear to ear, eyes alight as your thoughts are moving a mile a minute.

"Oh my god-" Chris is beginning to grin like a kid on Christmas, like he's found the final piece of a puzzle that's been alluding him, but you pay him no mind.

"You think Batman's a bank teller?" You ask, only half paying attention to him, "or Superman's like, just some journalist in his down time, could you imagine? What kind of work do freelance heroes do when they're not heroes? Especially here?"

"You're down bad for Vij, aren't you?" Chris interrupted suddenly, wearing a kind of manic grin at the realisation. Still, you don't quite understand what he means, and wilfully ignore the context clues, "there's something very wrong with you," he's half laughing, voice warm and full of endeared affection.

"The fuck are you on about?"

"You! You're into that violent weirdo!" Chris delights.

"Isn't he your friend?" You snipe back.

"Doesn't make him not a violent weirdo- newsflash; you're a violent weirdo too!" Everything Chris is saying is somehow softened by his earnestly bright tone, like the would be insults are meant as terms of endearment, of only to you in this moment. Still, the words themselves tend to sting.

"I've known him like a day don't get ahead of yourself because I like affection and rarely get to talk to new people," you tell him with as lofty as a tone as you can manage, while Chris rolls his eyes at you, clearly not believing your bravado.

"Alright, whatever Cujo; you ever need a wingman though, I'll be here with an 'I told you so'," he tells you, practically oozing smugness.

And maybe, just maybe, his point is rather proven with the way you light up when Vigilante shows up with Italian for lunch and both Legally Blonde movies on a USB. Okay, that was an oversight on Chris's part - Blockbuster still had one or two stores running before you got locked up. But thankfully Chris keeps his mouth shut when you greet Vigilante with cheery enthusiasm.

"This place was just kind of on my way, I bought on instinct, sorry if it's not -" he's pulling containers from Fennel Fields from the take out bag he'd brought, placing a container labelled Garlic Zoodles closest to Chris, who was already loud with surprise and appreciation for Vigilante's instincts.

But Vigilante's put an order of absolutely perfect looking mozzarella sticks in your hands and they're all you can look at.

You think you'd rather die than give Chris the satisfaction of admitting that he's right but you're pretty sure if you look at anything that's not the mozzarella sticks you might say something truly embarrassing. Because Vigilante brought you an order of goddamn breaded cheese.

"You okay there? Not allergic or anything? I should have asked," he interrupts your thoughts with faint concern, or- no; something that sounds like concern but not quite... But something about his voice in this moment is strangely familiar, beyond all of yesterday. His tone is light and casual, and Chris is obnoxiously starting on his Zoodles from his armchair.

"Yeah, I'm fine," you hear yourself speak before you're fully aware of it, looking up from your food, "I'm really bad at being a customer at this place but the food is great, so this is- great," you nod with a distracted smile, "almost gave your mulitool as a tip- I still have it, I should-"

"You're better at using it than I am," Vigilante shrugged easily, picking up the little remote to start the movie, "keep it."

You know Chris is fucking smirking at you as you settle in beside Vigilante to eat and enjoy the movie.

"Chris don't look at me like that, it's good food," you tell him archly without even looking at him. Still, you hear him snort a laugh.

And you're right after all; it's good food, great food even... You feel a little foolish even thinking it, but you can't help yourself; they might be the best mozzarella sticks you've ever had in your life.

[elshells]

Happy STS! Share your favorite piece of meta-lore for your WIPs/books/stories! (by meta-lore I mean, inspirations, how you arrived at your vision, what drove you to form it into what it is today, etc, things like that!)

This is such a cool question, thanks for asking! These are the kinds of things I like to think about ALL the time, and I'm always happy to talk about it!

It's kind of a long funny story. Cue the long-winded flashback!

The idea of Agent Ace actually started out life as a Supernatural fanfiction on Wattpad, though today it's pretty much unrecognizable from what it used to be (I don't even think there are any existing characters atm who are inspired by/reflections of SPN characters anymore). This was about four or five years ago, and although I eventually stopped writing fanfic and abandoned the work as a whole, I was still really drawn to the idea of an urban murder mystery with a twist.

It wasn't until about two years ago that I repurposed that plot for an event on Wattpad called the Open Novella Contest. Basically, if you've never heard of it, annually from February to June, writers are challenged to write a 20,000-40,000 novella and enter it in a series of rounds to be judged by Wattpad staff. I didn't get very far in the contest (I think I only made it three or four chapters in before I hit a wall and missed the monthly deadline), but ever since then this story has haunted me during all hours of the day for the last two years, refusing to pay rent until I complete it. Today, it's basically my heart and soul.

Someone I know once described Agent Ace as a 'spy thriller that dives into the dark side,' and I love that description so much. Though the story has evolved so much since I first began writing it. It's hard to believe, for example, that Sophia, one of the two POVs I follow that fills the conventional 'detective' role, was the original murder victim until I decided to develop her further. It's honestly for the best it's taken me so long to write it; it needs a LOTTTT of time in the oven before it's fully baked, which gives me plenty of time to study my outline (something I never appreciated until I started writing from a dual POV)!

I'm not sure at what point exactly it crossed into the realm of science fiction, but I'm also not surprised. I practically grew up on sci-fi, and it's one of my favorite genres to read and write. The worldbuilding is always so intricate and clever, and the characters are rich and diverse, navigating these unfamiliar worlds so seamlessly, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't influenced by certain sci-fi media. The MCU probably had the biggest impact on the story, and a lot of plot, world, and character elements were inspired by shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arcane (though I've never played League of Legends), and The Umbrella Academy.

I've also gotta give credit to Marissa Meyer, one of favorite sci-fi authors of all time. Her writing style is fantastic and has really helped guide me in developing my own style. The Lunar Chronicles were obviously influential, but I may or may not have definitely started reading her Renegades series for some pointers in writing about a city governed by superheroes.

I haven't completed writing this story yet, even after two years, but I'm more than halfway done and recently passed 50,000 words (which is generally considered the minimum word count for a novel). It's been such a special journey so far, and I'm really proud of the growth and progress I've made along the way.

TLDR; It was hard to pinpoint one thing specifically, but ultimately, what I thought would be just a gritty, standalone murder mystery novella has become the first novel in what I plan to be a four-book series. There's never a dull moment writing this book, and I can't wait to share it with the world one day.