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fic-art-blurbs · 4 years

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How “Lost In Thoughts All Alone” Connects To Each Route Of Three Houses

OKAY. SO RIGHT OUT THE GATE. I KNOW THIS SOUNDS MONUMENTALLY STUPID BUT HEAR ME OUT. I KNOW THERE IS 0% CHANCE OF THIS BEING INTENDED BECAUSE INTSYS IS INTSYS AND ALSO THESE ARE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORLDS BUT THESE VERSES ACTUALLY FIT SOMEWHAT AND IMMA TRY TO BREAK IT DOWN. FAIR WARNING THERE’S GONNA BE SO MUCH STRETCHING THAT YOU’RE GONNA THINK YOU’RE IN A YOGA CLASS.

You can listen to the song itself in its entirety here, I’ll be going by verses and talking about the routes/characters I think each fits. And I’ll be putting this under a read more because I know this is going to be long also @iturbide here’s the essay

Also spoilers

First Verse/Opening Verse - Byleth/Sothis

You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek Life beyond the shore just out of reach Yet the waters ever change, flowing like time The path is yours to climb

This one isn’t too difficult to talk about. This is the opening verse of the song, and the first verse Azura sings in Fates. This verse also plays in between almost all of the verses in the song - note I said almost. It also plays at the end of the song. This fits Byleth, and by extension Sothis rather well. Byleth is the driving force behind how each route, behind each character’s growth. They manipulate time, constantly going back in time over and over again, whether it’s to take another path, or to try and save a life. Byleth is the one with the power here, and no matter how many times they go back, no matter how they make time bend to their will, it always flows back - the “Golden Route” so many desire is always out of reach, no matter how many routes they play.

And yet no matter what, you keep going back. Byleth, though I guess at this point I’m talking about the player, is destined to continue trying to reach that happy ending, they’re destined to keep searching for a way to make that happy ending a reality.

The path is yours to climb indeed - as many choose to try and make one, unaware that the path they create is one treaded many times over.

Birthright’s Verse - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Azure Moon)

In the white light, a hand reaches through A double-edged blade cuts your heart in two Waking dreams fade away, Embrace the brand-new day Sing with me a song of birthrights and love The light scatters to the sky above Dawn breaks through the gloom, white as a bone Lost in thoughts all alone

I imagine the white light being referred to here being the reunion scene, and the hand as being Byleth’s. Remember how Azure Moon’s reunion scene left Dimitri shrouded in the darkness, and Byleth in the light? The double-edged blade here could refer to Edelgard herself - he may have been happy to reunite with his step-sister, but it was the reveal of her being the Flame Emperor that “cut his heart in two”, breaking his heart and making him fall victim to his rage. His “waking dreams fading away” to “embrace the brand new day” may refer to his ghosts, how they grow quieter (not quite disappearing entirely, but fading away for now) in the wake of Rodrigue’s death and Byleth’s words finally reaching through to him.

“Sing me a song of birthrights and love” I think could refer to Dimitri’s mindset. He feels bound by his birthright as the future king of Faerghus, and the love he feels for both his family and his country. When Edelgard’s deception is revealed, a good chunk of the reason his breakdown is so bad is due to the fact she seemingly betrayed that love, betrayed the love that was shown to her by his father and her mother. He views it as her willingly betraying them and directly causing their deaths along with Glenn’s and the genocide of an entire country. He feels it is his birthright not only to right the wrongs committed by his country, but to avenge what happened to his loved ones.

The next two lines I think reflect his finally quelling his rage, no longer letting it consume him. That “white as a bone” line I can imagine talking about his path - his intentions may have been honorable at the beginning, but his path is no less gory than the one he wanted the head of.

And the final line? It describes Dimitri for a good portion of Azure Moon. He’s lost in his thoughts, all alone, pushing away his support because he believes himself unworthy.

Conquest’s Verse - Edelgard von Hresvelg (Crimson Flower)

Embrace the dark you call a home, Gaze upon an empty, white throne A legacy of lies, A familiar disguise Sing with me a song of conquest and fate The black pillar cracks beneath its weight Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone Lost in thoughts all alone

No I did NOT just pick this verse for Edelgard because of the conquest thing I PROMISE. I SWEAR THERE’S MORE TO THIS THAN JUST THE CONQUEST LINE I PROMISE

ANYWAY I imagined that first line referring to Edelgard marching home and assuming the throne. The Empire is far from a bright place, and she’s embracing it as she declares herself emperor in order to declare war on the church. The “empty white throne” line? It could mean one of two things, if not both. The first thing could be telling her to gaze upon Faerghus’s empty throne, the throne she made empty by killing her step-brother - even if she didn’t remember him being her brother. The second thing could be referring to Sothis’s empty throne, as she’s unknowingly following in the footsteps of Nemesis by killing the Goddess and her followers - first with the death of Seiros, and then the dissolution of Sothis’s crest stone (even if she didn’t directly play a part in the latter, Edelgard’s route is the only route where the crest stone disappears for good). If you stretch, you could also make it so that this refers to if you kill Claude, but the throne of Almyra wouldn’t be empty - it would just be angry and ready for war.

The next two lines could refer to the Agarthans. “A legacy of lies, a familiar disguise” could refer to Patricia and Arundel respectively. Edelgard’s mother was revealed by Cornelia to maybe having a hand in the Tragedy of Duscur and making that image of Patricia as a kind woman a lie - though this is in the Azure Moon route, so this could be handwaved. This line could instead refer to how Edelgard views Rhea and the church - they’ve passed on a “legacy of lies”, hiding the horrific truth behind the Relics and the Crests, claiming them to be gifts from the Goddess. The latter line, “a familiar disguise”, could be about Arundel. It’s revealed that Arundel is actually Thales in disguise, and Arundel is Edelgard’s uncle - someone she undoubtedly would’ve been familiar with.

“The black pillar cracks beneath its weight” could be talking about the weight of Edelgard’s war. Even if the game states that Crimson Flower had no consequences in the end, there are undoubtedly consequences scattered across the land. The newly “unified” Fodlan would be cracking under that weight, with new cracks appearing with every new rebellion, every new attack. Every instance that could tell Edelgard that perhaps declaring war so hastily might have been a mistake.

“Night breaks through the day” can very easily be equated to Edelgard’s war in conquering all of Fodlan. “Hard as a stone” would be her resolve - no matter what route you choose, Edelgard is steadfast in her belief that she is in the right. She never falters, never once wonders if she was wrong. Her only regret when you kill her in Azure Moon is wishing Byleth walked at her side - not regretting her war, regretting that Byleth was not on her side.

And of course, the final line. Edelgard is alone in her thoughts, even with Hubert seemingly knowing everything. She’s lost in her thoughts of conquest, and similar to Dimitri, vengeance. She may not be haunted by ghosts like he is, but she’s certainly haunted by her ticking clock and the deaths of her siblings as they fell in the experiments, one by one, until she stood alone. It could also refer to the ending of Crimson Flower - now that she’s won her war, what now? Stability would not come right away, and the increasing attacks and rebellions depending on certain choices could have Edelgard lost in her thoughts, perhaps wondering for the first time if she should have chosen differently.

((Fair warning, this is where most of the stretching begins - Revelations is strange in that it actually has 2 verses of its own - it has an opening to replace the “You are the ocean’s grey waves” verse, and a verse more similar to the other two routes.))

Revelation’s Verses - Claude von Riegan & Rhea/Seiros (Verdant Wind/Silver Snow)

The path you walk on belongs to destiny, just let it flow All of your joy and your pain will fall like the tide, let it flow Life is not just filled with happiness, or sorrow Even the thorn in your heart, in time it may become a rose

A burdened heart sinks into the ground A veil falls away without a sound Not day nor night, wrong nor right For truth and peace you fight Sing with me a song of silence and blood The rain falls, but can't wash away the mud Within my ancient heart dwells madness and pride Can no one hear my cry?

Again, there’s gonna be a LOT of stretching. I think that first verse might not actually be for Claude or Rhea exactly - that verse sounds a lot more like it’s meant for Byleth. Telling them to accept that they’ll not have their golden route, accept that life isn’t just happiness - but it isn’t just sorrow either. And yet Byleth persists.

The second verse though - the first half I think fits Claude more, and the second half fits Rhea more. Though you could argue those last two lines also fit Nemesis emerging from Shambala in Verdant Wind - I don’t think so, but it’s there.

Claude’s definitely got a burdened heart - he’s got so many trust issues that if you could build with them, you’d have a skyscraper. But it’s through his interactions with the Deer, and by extension Byleth, that the walls he put up to protect himself slowly fall away. The mask he put on of a carefree individual silently gets dropped, and by post timeskip, you can see that Claude trusts his Deer - and Byleth, if this is Verdant Wind - with everything. He’s the neutral route in this, he doesn’t choose to fight for either side, his fight isn’t for either side. He’s fighting to destroy the borders between lands, fighting for the truth (in that his route is the one where you learn everything), and for peace, equality. He may be the funny upside down meme to most, but he’s the only one of the three to actually fight for truth and peace, the real versions of both - you don’t get to learn the truth in Azure Moon, and in you only get to see what Edelgard believes is the truth in Crimson Flower.

Rhea’s the one who knows everything. She knows the truth behind the Relics, the Crest Stones, Crests, everything - and yet she stays silent. She stays silent, afraid that more would follow in the footsteps of Nemesis and bring more bloodshed - hence the “sing me a song of silence and blood”. The next line could refer to how no matter what she does, the darker parts of history wouldn’t be scrubbed away. Even if she did succeed in her attempts to bring back Sothis, in an attempt to wash away the dirt from their past, what then? Did she really think Sothis would welcome her back with open arms, with what she’d done to achieve her goal? And the last two lines...those are rather self-explanatory. Say what you will, for a time, Rhea did indeed go mad. She believed herself to be in the right, much like Edelgard did, and became furious when anyone said otherwise. That’s shown in her ruthless execution of those who opposed her, and her downward spiral in Crimson Flower. The final line, “can no one hear my cry?” may refer to how, even if one of her brothers and her niece were there by her side, neither knew what she had become. Neither ever knew what lengths she went to, nor did they know how much pain she was in to have driven her to madness, driven her to the belief that creating and killing at least twelve vessels in an attempt to create the perfect one for Sothis was right. Perhaps if someone had heard her cry, things would have been much different.

Interestingly, this is the only verse to not end with “lost in thoughts all alone”. If you think about it in the terms of Claude and Rhea, this may be for different reasons. Claude is remarkably well-adjusted for someone thrown into war - he gives a “power of friendship” speech during the final fight for crying out loud, if anything, he’s actually grown for the better. He’s not lost in thoughts all alone because he’s learned to actually lean on others for support. In Rhea’s case, her not being lost in her thoughts all alone would be for an entirely different reason - she isn’t lost in her thoughts. She’s not thinking clearly, but she isn’t lost like Dimitri or Edelgard. She isn’t so lost that she can’t command troops outside of “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM”, nor does she question if she was in the wrong like Edelgard might’ve had the latter won her war at the cost of stability. To the very end, she doesn’t regret her decisions - she may not have made them with a clear mind, but she knows what she did, and she isn’t lost thinking of what might have been.

((TECHNICALLY there is one more verse, sung by Shigure in the Heirs of Fate DLC. The reason it’s not brought up? That one is much more context sensitive - the only line I can really think of fitting anywhere is “Endless dawn came but not without a price” possibly referring to the end of the war in every route, with “dawn” here referring to peace, and the price being the countless lives lost in the war. Then again, each route’s definition of “peace” is rather shaky, some more so than others, so it could refer to each individual leader’s goals being reached in their routes at the cost of a war.))

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libertyreads · 4 years

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Anticipated Releases: 2021

These are the major books coming out in 2021 for me. I know there are a ton of books coming out in the new year. These are just the ones I’ve been looking forward to reading next year.

1. Enjoy the View (Moose Springs, Alaska #3) by Sarah Morgenthaler-- The final book in the Moose Springs, Alaska companion series. This series is about a small town in Alaska that doesn’t really love the tourists who visit throughout the year. They’re all cute and easy to read romances between an out of towner and a local. These books are seriously one or two sitting reads for me. Light and fluffy and great for breaking up all my bigger reads.

2. Bridge of Souls (Cassidy Blake #3) by Victoria Schwab-- I picked up the first two books in this Middle Grade series this Fall and loved them. It’s a series about a girl who can see ghosts who is traveling with her parents who have a TV show about ghost hunting. Her best friend is a ghost and these books are so cute. Despite me not being the target audience there were still moments that made me nervous for our main character and moments where the sweetness touched my poor shriveled heart.

3. Namesake (Fable #2) by Adrienne Young-- The final book in the Fable duology. I’m a big fan of Adrienne Young. This series is about a girl who was abandoned on an island by her pirate father after her mother dies. Her goal is to get to her father and finally receive her inheritance. Book one was so much fun and so heart breaking at times.

4. Rule of Wolves (Nikolai #2) by Leigh Bardugo-- The final book of the Nikolai duology and book 7 of the Grisha Verse. I liked but didn’t love the first book. I felt like the author has a lot of explaining to do for the chaos that was the end of King of Scars.

5. Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells-- I discovered and marathoned this series while I was stuck in bed with Covid. The Murderbot Diaries is a futuristic sci-fi about a Security Bot who doesn’t want to do their job. They just want to watch their Serials all day. Instead they get drug along while their humans make some of the worst decisions.

6. The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4) by Maureen Johnson-- Originally, I thought the Truly Devious series was only going to be a 3 book series, but apparently there’s more to come. It seems like The Box in the Woods is going to be a new ARC featuring Stevie Bell and her friends from Ellingham Academy. This time they’re going to be camp counselors. I can’t wait to see how this rattles our anxiety prone main character. Of course murder and mystery abound.

7. Witchshadow (The Witchlands #4) by Susan Dennard-- This was another series I marathoned while I was stuck in bed with Covid. I read them so quickly that I need to do a reread before the next one comes out. This is a Fantasy series that is so complex with such wonderful characters. I’m also planning on picking up the novella before I read this one.

8. Untitled (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas-- Am I a little bit Maas Trash? Just a little. I read and thoroughly enjoyed the Throne of Glass series, but never picked up the A Court of Thorns and Roses. But when I saw this urban fantasy come out last year I had to read the first one. I’m a little nervous because I thought the first kind of stood on its own a little. I don’t know where the story is going to go from here. I just know that I’ll enjoy the ride. The first book is about a girl attempting to solve her best friend’s murder with an angel who’s got a bit of an attitude.

9. Nowhere (Skyward #3) by Brandon Sanderson-- This is one of the ones that we still aren’t 100% sure it’s coming out in 2021, but I need it. I loved reading Skyward and Starsight so much. I love the characters and the adventures that they’ve gone on. Plus Sanderson can write some damn good space fight sequences. Skyward is about a girl who wants to becoming a pilot but struggles against her coward father’s legacy. And when she finds a spaceship the higher ups of this struggling Air Force can’t say no.

10. The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes-- The first book in this series left me shook. I shouldn’t be surprised because I love this author. But I have to know how the cliffhanger gets resolved. I need it in my life now. The book only recently got a title and a release date so I’m a little nervous is could get pushed back. The first one was like a combination of Knives out and Clue without all the murder.

11. The Righteous (The Beautiful #3) by Renee Ahdieh-- I am a little on the fence for this book. The Beautiful is a vampire story set in late 19th century New Orleans. And that’s all I needed to know before I bought the book. I was sold. And it does a good job of putting you there with the setting and the characters. But book 2 wasn’t my favorite. We had a character who was compelled to forget someone who was a vampire and therefore forget about all the magical/mystical things about the town. We also explored other realms with a portal which felt like it didn’t fit in this story. So, book 3 is going to have its work cut out for it if it’s going to get me to love it. At the same time, it’s Renee Ahdieh whose writing has always smacked me directly between the eyes.

12. Black Tabs by V.E. Schwab-- From GoodReads: “Forthcoming. Starring a female assassin in a future version of New York City. Tentatively titled ‘Black Tabs.’” That’s it. That is all I need to know. I love Schwab’s writing and a female assassin? In New York? Where’s the preorder button? Take my money.

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strongestthorn · 6 years

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�� → westeros presents OLENNA TYRELL, the DOWAGER LADY of HIGHGARDEN. a raven sent word that she bear(s) the resemblance to DIANA RIGG. the EIGHTY year old FEMALE was POLITICAL & ARTICULATE before the dawn of war, but have now become MANIPULATIVE & CYNICAL. when songs are sung, their verses speak of A MOUTH SHARPER THAN VALYRIAN STEEL, A QUEEN OF THORNS WHO NEEDS NO THRONE AND INTELLIGENCE TO MATCH THAT OF ANY MAN AND WILLING TO DESTROY ANY WHO SUGGEST OTHERWISE. whispers throughout the seven kingdoms claim that their allegiance lies with HOUSE LANNISTER , but fealty means little when you play the game of thrones. ( eoin, 25, gmt, he/him. )

Headcanons:

Olenna is an expert in wines. Growing up in the Arbor she can tell a wine at a simple taste and as such her gifts of bottles to certain lords and ladies are always well received and extremely welcome. It’s won her many favours over the years.

She is the power in Highgarden and everyone save Mace seems to be aware of this fact. People come to Olenna for any requests of the Reach and she deals with them more swiftly and tactfully than her son is able to.

Olenna has two bodyguards who are with her almost all of the time that she handpicked for two main reasons: strength and wit. Her guards are a great deal more intelligent than they let on and she has trained them to be that way. By seeming to be such foolish people speak carelessly before them and they report to her all that they hear. As Olenna is well aware, the strongest flowers have the widest reaching roots.

Olenna’s cane has many functions since despite her demeanour she doesn’t require it to walk. The bottom tip can be pulled away to reveal a small blade, while the top is fashioned into a blooming rose of gold, the centre of which is a poison crystal that can shall dissolve when it touches a liquid. After all, one must always be prepared and it wouldn’t be the first time she’s needed to kill to save her life.

There are none in the Reach who can play cards better than Olenna Tyrell. Even as a child she’d been strong at the game and has won many grand prizes in her games including, her first horse, several cases of the finest Arbor and Dornish wine and (most importantly) her own freedom from over a dozen potential engagements. She often said she’d only give her hand to a man who could beat her at cards... she never challenged Luthor Tyrell until after they were married though, and even then, he never beat her.

Plot Points:

Olenna’s strengths may lie in political movements upon first glance but I she’s quite the military mind as well, I’d like see her approached for her advice and plans for battle strategy’s so that she can be more involved in coming wars rather than simple political manoeuvring.

She favours her grandchildren (and even then some more than others) but if there’s an intelligent young person who can be moved to her side and taught useful skills then she’ll make the investment of her time, groom few, or many, for the next generation of leadership so that order may one day reign again... Order as she wishes it, anyway.

With the war coming and the saying ‘an army marches on its stomach’ very true, I’d love to see several other powerful parties trying to negotiate access to House Tyrell’s (and by extension the Reach’s) bountiful harvest.

If you’d like any plots with this sassy sue just hit me up! I’m here for them!! :D

#rev.intros

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