#I actually want to do something about it that would benefit other woman. rather than selfishly opting out of womanhood to just benefit me

[emeraldspiral]

So another interesting thing about Jane Eyre is it's take on relationship inequality.

Like, Jane is 18 at the beginning of the story and Rochester is said to be something like 35-38. And it's not casually brushed aside like that was normal back in the day. It wasn't. Concerns about the age gap are raised within the text. But the story emphasizes that Jane feels comfortable accepting Rochester's proposal, despite the age difference, the class difference, and him being her boss, because Jane feels that Rochester regards her as an equal. When they converse, Jane doesn't feel any tension, like she has to impress him or try to read his mind and say whatever he wants to hear. She feels that he respects her and values her thoughts and isn't compelled to use his power against her if she says something to displease him. Around the midpoint of the story, Jane believes that Rochester is going to marry another woman, and resolves to leave because she's heartbroken, believing that because she is poor and plain Rochester can't possibly be as hurt by their parting as she is, and he'll forget her and move on long before she does. But it turns out to be the opposite. After finding out about Bertha, Rochester begs Jane to stay and insists he'll be miserable forever without her, while Jane, still thinking she's too poor and plain to ever attract someone like him again, resists all temptation and leaves him. And she does this specifically because she feels that if she were to compromise her morals and self-respect to be Mr. Rochester's mistress, then he would lose respect for her and the relationship would fall apart. It was only by maintaining her integrity that the relationship could stay in-tact when the reconciled at the end.

St. John Rivers on the other hand, I don't think is given a definite age, but I think he's intended to be a much younger man, probably in his early 20s. He is poor and without relations aside from his sisters or any other connections, just as Jane. Jane finds out they're actually cousins at the same time she learns she's come into a vast fortune that was willed to her rather than the Rivers, but decides to share her fortune equally with them. So she arguably had more social capital, even though she made an effort to put St. John on equal footing with her, because the money was hers by right and she could've presumably cut him off at any time, just as easily as Rochester could've terminated Jane from her job.

And yet, Jane's relationship with St. John is vastly more unequal than her relationship with Rochester. Even though Jane practically worshiped Rochester but only cares for St. John as a brother and is acutely aware of his faults, she still finds herself desperately craving his approval in a way she never did with Rochester. And St. John is willing to exploit that intentionally. He asks her to do things she doesn't want to and make sacrifices for him just because he knows she'll do anything to please him, and that's why he thinks she's the perfect wife for him. Where Rochester tries to explain himself and persuade Jane not to leave him by addressing her concerns, St. John basically tries to command Jane to marry him and refuses to accept her "no" as final. He withholds affection from Jane as a tactic to get her to compromise in order to reconcile with him when he's the one who should be apologizing to her and considering her needs and not just his own. Jane knows that she can't ever be happy with him because he doesn't respect her and his lack of respect only makes her want to seek his approval, which he is all too happy to exploit for his own benefit.

But Jane ultimately stays firm and rejects St. John's proposal of a loveless marriage, just as she rejected Rochester's proposal of an unlawful marriage, because both situations were doomed to fail if she didn't put her own self-respect first.

So this novel from 1847 was really saying that power dynamics aren't pure black and white. Age and class and wealth and status can be a factor in making a relationship unequal, but you can also be equal on pretty much all social axis and still have inequality in a relationship. What's really important is that there's mutual respect.

[radmista]

you lead a unfathomably fucking miserable existence

I'm really happy and very successful in my chosen field, making the difference in the world I've wanted to since I was a kid 🤗 I have hobbies I can indulge in, a lovely gf, 2 wonderful dogs, and great friends 💕

Me acknowledging that women lead difficult lives and have to deal with undeserved pain and suffering because of our biological sex doesn't mean I exist in misery. I don't spend my days in my mother's basement crying over how the world doesn't focus on me and me specifically, sounds like smth you guys are way better at.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Interesting post about the dispute regarding the successions of Rosby and Stokeworth.

https://www.tumblr.com/mononijikayu/713886501993431040/im-rereading-fb-today-and-found-something?source=share

Hi anon, thanks for sharing that post, it was interesting reading.

And I think that there are two things going on here. On the one hand, the OP is absolutely correct that the Rosby and Stokeworth inheritances were a catch 22 for Rhaenyra. Now, I think framing it as her "protecting" the Rosby and Stokeworth younger brothers from being murdered by the possibly disloyal Hugh and Ulf is a bit of a stretch, I don't think she cared about Rosby or Stokeworth or their heirs in the slightest (it should go without saying that we're talking about book!Rhaenyra here), and if she'd felt like making the daughters the Ladies of Rosby and Stokeworth and marrying them to Hugh and Ulf was the correct course of action, she would have done just that. I think she simply found Corlys' argument to be the more persuasive one-- if she created a precedent for absolute primogeniture throughout the realm she might lose valuable supporters and she could not afford to lose them at the time. Additionally, it's altogether possible that she did not want to ennoble Hugh and Ulf with their loyalty yet unproven. If they'd turned their cloaks not just with their dragons but with their newly acquired lands and armies, forget about the younger Rosby and Stokeworth sons, that would have been a disaster for Rhaenyra. The point is, there are reasons for Rhaenyra denying the Rosby and Stokeworth daughters the right to inherit ahead of their brothers, good ones even.

The other point the OP makes, that women often have to be just as brutal as men, but are judged more harshly for it is also true. You'll find no argument there. In fact, I've argued on this very blog that historically queens regnant have had to be even more brutal than men-- more punishing towards the smallfolk, quicker to war, harsher in their judgments-- in order to be taken seriously. So again, no argument from me there.

The thing is, there's a bit of a strawman here on OPs part. While I admit that there are fans who use Rosby and Stokeworth or Rhaenyra's ruthlessness as something of a gotcha, the point isn't that Rhaenyra should have given those lands to the Rosby and Stokeworth daughters, or that she was singularly worse than men who had sat the throne (she was worse than some, better than others), or even that she's a hypocrite. Rather, Rosby and Stokeworth specifically serve to counter the idea that Rhaenyra being queen would have meant anything positive for women as a whole. Because fans of Rhaenyra can't have it both ways here. They cannot claim that Rhaenyra is the more progressive, less misogynistic choice, but then make excuses for her regressive decisions and policies. And to be clear, I don't blame Rhaenyra for this. Obviously, individuals attempting to thwart the system without enacting broad changes often end up capitulating to existing power structures. In fact, it would be almost impossible not to within the feudal context. But regardless, either putting a woman on the throne is broadly significant as more than a historical footnote, or it isn't. And if it isn't, if Rhaenyra's policies do not benefit any women besides Rhaenyra in any meaningful capacity, then there's no greater good argument for her going to war.

And this only matters because many of Rhaenyra's fans try to frame the conflict in terms of morality, when you can easily reason that from a harm reduction standpoint, the actual moral choice would be for Rhaenyra not to press her claim. It's unfair, but Aegon got there first, was crowned and anointed first, and hold the city. If she accepts his peace terms, she can keep doing what she's been doing for the last decade, chilling on Dragonstone and tens of thousands of people get to stay alive. Now, I don't actually expect her to act morally here, she's acting in her own self interest rather than in the interest of the greater good, and that's fine, but let's not pretend she has the moral high ground.

[queenshelby]

Yes! Mr Murphy (Rewritten)

PART TEN: KIT

Pairing: Cillian Murphy x Reader

Warning: Angst, Age Gap, Teacher x Student, Fluff

Note: This part and the next part will be short before we get to some more smut and fluff....

PLEASE COMMENT AND ENGAGE!

With a haste Cillian pulled out of you and you quickly ran back to where you had dropped his robe.

“Just a moment” Cillian yelled out, knowing that, whomever it was at the other side of the door must have been known to the doorman.

“Okay, no worries” you heard a woman say from the other side of the door before you watched Cillian sigh with relief.

“Who is this? Is this your ex?” you whispered nervously and with concern while putting on Cillian’s robe and tying it up so that it would fit snuggly around your naked body.

“No. It’s my assistant Kit” Cillian explained before walking towards the front door and, just as he did, you panicked.

“Wait, I will go and wait it out in your bedroom” you said, seeing that he was keen to keep your interactions with each other a secret for now.

“It’s fine Y/N. I have known Kit for ten years. I trust her. She will keep this to herself. Despite, she doesn’t even know you so I will just make up some kind of excuse” Cillian reassured you in response and you reluctantly nodded before sitting down at the dining room table and reaching for your cold cup of coffee which you pretended to drink. The last thing you wanted was to look like you have been caught in the act and when Cillian opened the door wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, you could not help but chuckle. He really gave it away and the fact that he acted so casually about it amused you.

Just how well did he know her, you wondered, seeing that he did not even bother to put on a t-shirt but, then again, if she was his assistant, then she would have already seen him like this on set.

“Good Morning Cillian” the woman said with a quiet chuckle as Cillian opened the door. She was carrying two coffees and a bag of croissants and the fact that she was assessing him right now was obvious to you. Her eyes gave it away. She was smitten by him and he was completely oblivious about it.

“Come in” Cillian gestured in response before taking one of the coffees from her hand and thanking her for it.

“I didn’t expect to see you this morning. Is everything alright?” he then asked which is when the brunette spotted you.

“And I didn’t expect you to have a visitor. I am so sorry for interrupting” she said confidently while you got up from your seat in order to introduce yourself, which was something Cillian beat you to.

“This is Y/N. She is a friend of mine” he said just before you shook her hand and it was obvious to you that she was assessing you now, looking at you from top to bottom.

“I am sure she is a bit more than just a friend, wouldn’t you say” the woman joked before introducing herself as Kit, Cillian’s assistant.

“We are friends with benefits so to speak” you explained in a joking kind of manner seeing that it was already obvious to her that you had sex with her employer, causing Cillian to blush.

“That is kind of obvious actually. Also, I am not deaf and I am very sorry for interrupting” Kit laughed before telling you that it was nice to meet you and apologising for the fact that she did not bring you a coffee and croissants as well.

“That’s perfectly fine. I actually have to get going. Do you mind if I have a shower and leave you two to talk?” you then asked, looking at Cillian who gave you an instant but somewhat shy nod, feeling as though that this situation had become a little too awkward.

“In case I don’t see you again when I am done, it was lovely to meet you Kit” you said politely while, deep down inside, you felt slightly intimated by her.

Kit was certainly a very attractive woman. She must have been in her early thirties and looked like a model which, clearly, was something you could not compete with. She also appeared rather confident and the fact that she had earned Cillian’s trust must have meant something.

You certainly were not surprised by Cillian’s ex’s attitude towards her either and whilst you were certain that Cillian was not the kind of man who would cheat, you wondered whether, perhaps, Danielle was intimated by Kit as well.

Then again, Danielle was much older than you and may have been less susceptible to feeling insecure. She, too, was an attractive woman who you have seen at your work before when she dropped off Nora, Cillian’s daughter. Just like Kit, Danielle was elegant and dressed a certain way, which was the kind of way you could not even afford, making you wonder what, exactly, Cillian saw in you. You were no match for him.

Thinking about that, you could not help but listen in on what he had to say about you to his assistant when she queried him about your presence. You almost could not avoid it either as the walls of Cillian’s apartment were rather thin and not listening to him talk about you would have been very difficult.

***

“She seems nice. How did you two meet?” Kit asked her employer who was somewhat uncomfortable with this question.

“At a pub in Temple Bar. It’s nothing serious though. I am not interested in dating anyone any time soon and she is way too young for me anyway” Cillian explained and, whilst he really wanted to change the topic, Kit became more and more intrigued by you.

“Too young, huh? How old exactly is she?” Kit asked, causing Cillian to sigh.

“Turning thirty” he explained, causing Kit chuckle.

“Really?” she asked. “She looks much younger than that” Kit then went on to say before telling Cillian the real reason she was here.

“Now, the reason I am here is that I have some good news for you. Monblanc wants to shoot another advert before you go on promotion for Oppenheimer. The shoot will take place in London and I asked them to book it in for mid April, which aligns with the drama school’s mid-semester break. I figured that this was important to you seeing that you discovered a new career in teaching” Kit joked and Cillian was pleased to hear that she arranged for Montblanc to work around his schedule without him having to take time off from teaching.

“That works well for me, thank you’ Cillian thus told her and she quickly reached for his phone and put the itinerary into his calendar.

“You are most welcome. I booked myself a flight and room as well and am trying to arrange a meeting with Steven Knight for the same weekend so that you can have a chat with him about the movie next year” Kit then pointed out before telling Cillian that she should better be on her way and give him some privacy.

***

Whilst Cillian and you had spoken about this in great detail, hearing him say to his assistant that, what you have involved yourselves in is nothing serious, did hurt you a bit as, deep down inside, you were somewhat hopeful that he would change his mind about it one day.

But then again, you had lied to him and it was rather difficult for you to tell him the truth now about your age without breaking his trust.

Going by what he had told Kit, you were also certain that, if he were to find out that you were only 22, turning 23, he would probably end the arrangement you had in place.

Tags: @fastfan@elenavampire21@dolllol2405@allie131313@cilliansangel@coldbastille@kpopgirlbtssvt@cdej6@kathrinemelissa@landlockedmermaid77@crazymar15@damedomino@lauren-raines-x@miss-bunny19@skinny-bitch-juice@odorinana@cloudofdisney@weepingstudentfishhorse@allexiiisss@geminiwolves@letsstarsfalling@ysmmsy@chlorrox@tommyshelbypb@chocolatehalo@music-lover911@desperate-and-broken@mysticaldeanvoidhorse@peaky-cillian@lelestrangerandunusualdeetz@december16-1991@captivatedbycillianmurphy@romanogersendgame@randomfangirl2718@missymurphy1985@peakyscillian@lilymurphy03@deefigs@theflamecrystal@livinginfantaxy@rosey1981@hanster1998@fairypitou@zozeebo@kasaikawa@littleweirdoalien@sad-huffle-nerd@theflamecrystal@0ghostwriter0@stylescanbeatmyback@1-800-peakyblinders@datewithgianni@momoneymolife@mcntsee@janelongxox@basiclassy@being-worthy@chaotic-bean-of-smolness@margoo0@vhscillian@crazymar15@im-constantly-fangirling@namelesslosers@littlewhiterose@ttzamara@cilleveryone@peaky-cillian@severewobblerlightdragon@dolllol2405@pkab@babaohhhriley@littleweirdoalien@alreadybroken-ts@masteroperator@stevie75@shabzy96@rainbow12346@obsessedwithfandomsx@geeksareunique@laysalespoir@paigem00@lkarls@vamp-army@luckystarme@myjumper@gxorg@eline-1806@goldenharrysworld@cristinagronk16@stylesofloki@faatxma@slut-for-matt-murdock@tpwkstiles@myjumper@cloudofdisney@look-at-the-soul@smellyzcat@kittycatcait219@theliterarybeldam@being-worthy@layazul@lyn07@kagilmore@50svibes@mainstreetlilly@ourthatgirlabby@bitchwhytho@takethee@registerednursejackie@sofi128@mrkdvidal1989@minxsblog@heidimoreton@laylasbunbunny@laylasbunbunny@queenshelby@camilleholland89@forgottenpeakywriter@vintagecherryt@indierockgirrl@mrkdvidal1989@bluesongbird@dudde-44@gasolinesavages@kissforvoid@bluebird592@1eugenia1isabella1@esposadomdp@lulunalua23@lovelace42@bookklover23@iwantmyredvelvetcupcake@moonmaiden1996@marlenamallowan@cyphah (cannot tag)@majesticcmey@cleverzonkwombatsludge@throughgoeshamilton@alessioayla@elenavampire21@justforfiction@cilliansangel@alannielaraye@satellitelh@pandoramyst@duckybird101@snixx2088@kylianswag@alessioayla@pono-pura-vida@iraisbored69@howling-wolf97@aesthetic0cherryblossom@weirdo-rules@lovemissyhoneybee@dazaiscum@esposadomd@etherealkistar@ur--mommy@throughgoeshamilton

[allkindfangirl]

love at detours I lewis hamilton

pairing: lewis hamilton x reader warnings: none summary: in which he had promise himself not to fall but even he can't help it

"This can't be happening." His head was falling into his hands as he sat on the bed across from the young woman. Her hands were shaking, not knowing how to control her feelings after telling him that she fell in love with him.

She was devastated and wished she had never told him. It was clear for her, that she had destroyed everything there was, everything she had with him. Right now, regretting the words that came from her mouth, she would rather continue whatever it had been, than not having him at all.

"I'm sorry.", she said, almost whispering. He looked up at her, his dark brown eyes focusing on her but his gaze was hard. Completely different from what she was used to from him.

"I told you from the beginning this couldn't happen." His words were harsh.

They had known each other for years now, after meeting at an event that she had attendet with her parents and her parents friends, Toto and Susie Wolff. Toto had been the one introducing her to Lewis and after that, she went to visit his races whenever she could.

Of course, Lewis Hamilton was incredibly attractive. She could not deny that his presence did something to her, but never in a million years she would've thought he would think the same about her.

But from the beginning they made an agreement that they wouldn’t be anything serious. They hung out, they spend time together and got close to each other, but always knew that it wouldn’t be anything else than being physical and liking hanging out with each other. It was a typical friendship with benefits and through all the time it had been going on, it had always been easy and fun.

He had been really clear about it, telling her how he wanted to focus on his career and not wanting a serious relationship. She knew she liked him from the beginning, being in awe of this man, his presence and the way he seemed so strong but was so gentle at the same time. But she never thought she would actually fall for him.

It frightened her, the first time she felt it. It was butterflies in her stomach, the longing of being in his arms. The longing of him saying that she was his only one and that he wanted to be with her forever.

She knew it had been the right thing to tell him. Not telling him wouldn't be fair to him since they both had an agreement.

"It's okay if you don't want to see me again. I know I ruined it."

His eyes were still laying on her. The beautiful woman in front of him that drove him crazy. She drove him crazy whenever she touched him. She drove him crazy whenever she wasn't in reach and he couldn't stop thinking about her.

He didn't want to see her again. He knew he had to cut her loose before it was too late, before he would fall head over heels for her too. He couldn't give in. He had promised himself to not let anything or anyone else take all his focus. His career, the sport that he loved so much was his whole life. He didn't want to be distracted and he knew that she would be on his mind all the time, if he let her fully in.

She saw it in his face, he didn't even had to tell her. This was over the second those words had left her lips.

They didn't see each other for over a year. It was hard for her not to fall into the deep end. Of course she was still interested in how he was doing, how his racing was going but seeing him on the tv and knowing she once had him and lost him, broke her. Her heart still beat faster whenever she overheard his name, whenever she saw a picture of him.

It was difficult for him too. Even though he could just find someone else to have fun with, he knew it wouldn't be the same. She hadn't just been someone to him. She had been special. He had let her see Lewis, not Lewis Hamilton. She knew him so well, his good side, his bad side and he couldn't remember the last time he had felt so comfortable with someone.

It was inevitable not to see each other again though. It was Totos birthday where she found herself in her favorite dress, heart pounding as she watched Lewis walk into the house. The champagne in her body did help a bit to calm her nerves. He looked good as ever. A black blazer hanging over his shoulders, paired with some trousers and shoes. His braids were tied in the back.

She watched him greeting everyone, saying hello to Toto and Susie when all of a sudden Toto turned around and pointed at her. It felt like her heart would stop the second Lewis eyes met hers. A smile started forming on his lips as he gave Toto a pat on the back and made his way over to the woman he had secretly missed so much.

"I hoped I would see you here.", he said, giving her a hug. She was surprised about his change of heart but figured he had been over the situation and had moved on.

The night went on with them chatting for a while until he was grabbed and pulled into another corner of the house to meet some people.

She didn't know what to feel. She was happy she saw him again. On the other side she knew it only brought up feelings she had tried to avoid so much. And though she was happy to see that he was fine and was willing to talk to her again, she knew now that it hadn't been hard for him to make peace with the past.

It was around 1am when she finally said goodbye to Toto and Susie, collected her things and made her way outside the house. Her parents lived close by, so she would just spend the night at theirs.

"Y/n.", she heard his voice though the night. Her heart felt warm as she saw him walking towards her, breath heavy from running to catch her before she was gone.

"You just wanted to leave without saying goodbye?" He chuckled as he walked towards her. His eyes gazed over her. He longed touching her soft skin. Her skin, that he had touched a thousand times before, but it was different this time. His heart ached by the thought of how close they had been once, physically and psychically.

"I didn't tell you the truth." Lewis had always been a more rational type, but in this moment he broke his patterns. This wasn't rational. He figured he couldn't think clear but maybe that was the effect she had on him.

She frowned, not having a single clue about what he was saying. "What do you mean?", she asked, replaying every conversation they had this evening in her head.

Lewis was close. If she wanted, she could just lean in and touch him. He looked down, cleared his throat. As he looked up again and locked eyes his hers, his eyes were soft.

"I didn't tell you the truth back then. I didn't not wanted to see you again. In fact, it killed me not seeing you for this long." He smiled, more to himself, thinking about what joy he had felt the second he saw her standing in the same room as him again.

"I- I missed you. And I know now that this wasn't just-."

It was the first time she saw him like this, mumbling, looking for the right words. Her heart started pounding again and she tried not to get her hopes up too high, just in case he would crushed her feelings again.

"I want to be with you y/n. I mean it. I want to have you by my side, in my life. Not just for the nights- I guess what I'm trying to say is-"

He was afraid of saying it. Lewis Hamilton was afraid.

"I fell for you too."

She knew she could start arguing with him about why he didn't tell her right away, why he hadn't reached out, why he had pushed her away. But she had never felt such happiness in her body and it overtook her. She rolled her eyes, couldn't hide the smile on her face that was now followed by his smile.

"You're an idiot.", she whispered as she stepped closer to him. His hands found her hips as he pressed his body against her. A feeling they both knew so well but they knew this was something new.

He kissed her. His lips being so perfectly on hers. Tongues playing with each other. They were both out of breath, wanting more, longing for more and they both knew that this was just the beginning.

-

hope you like it! requests for lewis are open.

my masterlist

[thechaoticdruid]

MEET THE PARENTS

Okay so I've had this same Astarion x Tav idea floating around in my head for a while and I'm so surprised I legit have not seen anyone write about it! It's basically the classic meet the parents scenario! Yes I know we never see Astarion's parents and probably never will, they could be dead for all we know, but they are elves, a very long lived race so it's very possible they could actually be alive! So basically I'm gonna start a little fun writing challenge and tag three of my favorite Astarion romancers.

@spacebarbarianweird , @vixstarria , @marcynomercy

(If none of you are actually interested in this I'm so sorry 😭 I just wanted to do a thing.)

The challenge is to write up headcanons of your Tav meeting Astarion's parents and vice versa. Doesn't matter if your character's parents are dead or MIA this is strictly a what if scenario. And if you'd be so kind please tag some Astarion x Tav writers you think would be interested in this challenge!

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Astarion meeting Winnie's parents.

It definitely was not planned, Winnie literally had no idea her parents were even alive.

Her Gran had told her a long time ago they went missing off on an adventure after leaving their village and that they were very likely dead.

About 20 years later after their disappearance Winnie returns back to the ruins of the village she grew up in with Astarion accompanying her.

Astarion had actually insisted on venturing here in hopes of finding a lead on the drow wizard that plagued his beloved's nightmares.

The one who orchestrated the massacre of her village before kidnapping and experimenting on her.

There's nothing left but basically an unmarked graveyard. The amount of death and dark magic that seeped into the area has even brought some of the dead back from beyond the grave.

It is a horrifying turn of events for Winnie, actually seeing some of the people from her childhood roaming the land as lifeless corpses and then actually having to kill them herself this time.

Once the two of them were safe they took shelter in one of the old huts which just so happened to be Winnie's childhood home.

Astarion had to hold and comfort her as all the memories of her village's slaughter came flooding back.

At some point as they rested they noticed something watching them.

It was a wolf, with dark brown fur, eyes shining pink in the moonlight. A very peculiar shade indeed.

Peculiar but not unfamiliar as Winnie's own fuschia colored eyes stared back.

She just had to follow after the wolf and eventually it led her back to a small hut surrounded by some kind of dome-like barrier.

The wolf ended up shifting into the form of a tall muscular human woman who was none other than Winnie's long lost mother!

A short pudgy man with a lute stepped out of the hut as soon as he heard the tall woman shout. This was Winnie's Father.

Winnie was overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions with the revelation that her parents had been alive all this time!

Molly and Harry were their names.

Despite welcoming Winnie with open arms they seemed rather on the fence about Astarion.

At first glance Molly was overjoyed that her daughter had a partner so handsome and immediately began to babble on about what beautiful babies they'd make much to Winnie's dismay and embarrassment.

Harry was polite and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn't as baby-crazy as his wife.

Then came the realization that Astarion couldn't pass their magic barrier they'd created to keep out undead.

Winnie was quick to come to Astarion's defense however, but learning that your daughter's lover was a vampire would be unnerving for almost anyone.

At first Winnie's mother even asked if she was with him willingly, wanting to check and see if she was charmed. It was honestly a bit ridiculous.

Molly was checking her neck for bite marks and nearly losing her mind and screaming when she found them there.

Harry had to calm down his wife, wanting her to give the vampire spawn a chance.

Things were a bit iffy from there on our, but eventually they came to accept Winnie's undead love.

And Molly expected a dhampir baby or two within the next few years, which Winnie had to remind her frequently that she was not ready for that and might actually never be ready for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winnie Meeting Astarion's Parents.

This was Winnie's idea all on her own.

Despite Astarion always telling her she was the only family he needed whenever she'd bring up the subject on if he thought his family was still around or not.

Yet the curiosity, the uncertainty just ate away at her.

His past was a mystery, not only to her, but to Astarion himself.

And they were elves for gods' sake. So it was very likely that they hadn't yet succumbed to old age.

What's two centuries to an elf?

But also she wanted her beloved to have someone other than herself to feel loved unconditionally by.

The human female had no idea how long she'd be able to run from her mortality.

With help from her tressym familiar Maddie to keep Astarion occupied, Winnie returned to Baldur's Gate in search of any old records of the Ancunin family.

Using her Hero of Baldur's Gate status to her advantage Winnie is able to get access to certain private documents no normal citizen would be able to.

She finds some old records on Magistrate Ancunin which immediately brings a grin to her lips.

Astarion's parents apparently left Baldur's Gate three years after his death.

From what little else she could find they moved to Evereska, but nothing told her if they were both actually still alive or not.

Winnie had her elven friends Vesperr and Arva do some investigating since they were constantly traveling nowadays and likely may be able to find out more than the human could.

She sent them a raven detailing her intentions and findings before returning home to her beloved vampire spawn.

He was a tad upset about her sneaking off for a few days and only leaving a note in her place, but Winnie was able to smooth things over with a little blood.

About a few weeks later a letter from Vesperr came back, telling Winnie that there were some Ancunins living in an estate just outside of Evereska. A couple in fact!

The human female could hardly contain her excitement, but she had to keep calm, especially when Astarion became curious about the letter she received.

He actually chased her around their home demanding to read it but Winnie wouldn't let him.

Soon after Winnie proposed that the two would go on a trip. A romantic getaway as she put it.

That was the cover she made up for going to meet his parents.

Luckily at this point the two had been able to locate the ring of the sunwalker so Astarion's days of running from the sun were a thing of the past.

The set off by carriage, taking Winnie's faithful tressym along with them.

Eventually at some point on the road Astarion ended up finding the letter from Vesperr Winnie had tucked away in her pack.

"A romantic getaway hm?"

The druid just smiled at her partner with a nervous chuckle.

Of course she apologized for lying and keeping secrets and said that she only wanted to make Astarion happy.

He forgave her and decided just to go and meet these people since the two of them had come too far to turn back now.

Astarion was getting more nervous the closer they got.

Perhaps this wasn't a good idea? What if they tried to stake him after what he's become?

Winnie would place her hand over his to comfort him after she noticed his stressed mood.

Winnie's tressym Maddie would also curl up in his lap and purr like a good little emotional support kitty.

Finally they would arrive at the estate where Astarion's apparent relatives were living.

They walked in, hand in hand before promptly being approached by who they assumed were the estate's security.

Winnie was quick to introduce Astarion, hoping to avoid any sort of confrontation.

Astarion's name had immediately made the guards freeze in place before then demanding he come with them inside.

They legit told Winnie she had to wait outside which Astarion was having none of.

If his lover was not allowed in then he would be leaving immediately.

The unfamiliar two elves muttered to each other in elvish as Winnie just watched in confusion. Every word coming out of their mouths sound like pure jibberish to the human female.

She then heard Astarion snarl back at them in elvish.

Winnie had a feeling they might have been talking about her due to her partner's very offended and frankly pissed off sounding tone.

The elven guards eventually agreed to let them both enter together.

Winnie was amazed by all the extravagant decor, almost getting distracted several times and having to be pulled along by Astarion who kept an arm linked around her waist.

Finally the time had come when they were face to face with his parents.

They were both insanely beautiful as Winnie assumed practically all high elves were, both adorned with fine silks and jewels Winnie had only ever dreamed to see.

Astarion appeared to have gotten his father's handsome facial features and his mother's luscious ivory curls.

Both his parents had different colored eyes his father's were golden while his mother's were green so the mystery of Astarion's eyes was still yet to be seen.

His mother looked over his face with pure shock before eventually bursting into tears.

She hugged him tight muttering something in elvish as she held him.

Astarion seemed to stiffen under her touch. Perhaps she was his mother, but at the same time she felt very much like a stranger.

His father eventually joined in on the hug as Winnie just stood there awkwardly.

It took them a few moments before the realization set in that their son was back from the dead.

His skin, cold to the touch, his eyes blood red and the fangs peaking out from behind his lips as he gave a nervous smile.

Immediately they jumped to a conclusion that the strange human woman Astarion was with was somehow the cause of this.

To which Winnie snarkily replied, "Do I look like a vampire lord to you?"

Astarion had to step in and explain what happened, he skipped all the unpleasant details to save himself a bit of pain.

While his parents seemed to become more accepting of his affliction rather fast, they barely batted an eye at Winnie.

And whenever they did look upon her it was with disgust.

Hells his father even assumed she was some kind of hired manservant! And tried to get her to carry Astarion's things in.

When Astarion said that Winnie was his lover, his mother gasped, acting as if she was going to faint.

It seemed theatrics ran in the family.

Things went rather poorly from there.

Astarion's father apparently tried to explain to him that bedding humans was not acceptable.

Winnie just stayed quiet and stood there awkwardly as she heard his mother claim that she probably used magic to tempt him into her bed.

It was then the pale elf snapped and told them off for not being there for him for over 200 years yet Winnie, a 'filthy human' had been there for him since the moment they met.

He made sure to let them know he wouldn't even have been here if it weren't for her wanting to reunite him with his 'family.'

Astarion eventually had enough and dragged Winnie out. He apologized to her very profusely afterwards.

He felt awful that she had gone through all this trouble only to be treated like trash by people she should have been welcomed by.

Winnie just smiled sadly and told him it was okay. It was worth trying.

The two hugged before leaving deciding to head back to Baldur's Gate and probably get drunk at the blushing mermaid.

Of course on their way out, one of the elven servants rushed after them with a letter.

It was from Astarion's father, apologizing for their behavior and begging Astarion to come back.

The vampire spawn simply rolled his eyes and tossed it out the window of the carriage.

Sometimes a real family was just a wild feral girl, a sassy vampire elf , and a winged cat.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

What? Did you expect Astarion's parents to be nice people?

~Druid

[stillarandom-radfem]

There's something that I want to say, and I'm trying to work out the right way to phrase it right now.

Libfems. They are so... idk. Is wishy-washy the right term to use? They're sort of silly. They are so adamant about the notion of "smashing the patriarchy" but it's all just lip service, and it's not even necessarily because all of them are intrinsically bad or anti-woman. For some of them, idk, a few, their hearts may actually be in the right place, but the actions (or rather, lack thereof) that they take to get there are misguided and will never grant them their desired result. And I want to elaborate on why I think that is. It's because you can not fight against a social institution (in this case, patriarchy) without first having a clear understanding of what it is, why it exists, how it operates, and what it's goals are. In other words, you have to know your enemy in order to fight it effectively.

Libfems don't. Their version of feminism lacks a solid sense of analysis. They don't know who the patriarchy consists of (jealous, controlling, entitlement-minded men acting collectively against women in their own self-interest). They don't understand why it exists (the male phenomenon of womb envy exists at the heart of patriarchy; men wish to control the biological function of life-giving which only women possess, and to do that, they must first control and subordinate women). They don't grasp how patriarchy operates (by controlling the legal, financial, and social norms and institutions that govern every patriarchal society on the planet, and forcing them to operate in men's favor rather than women's, and also by using violence against women in order to keep us in line). And they don't know what patriarchy's goals are (complete and utter control, subordination, and enslavement of women to men). They don't know that men are the enemy, that hurting and controlling us is their goal, not some unfortunate accident. They don't realize that the system is working as it's intended to (by men), that it isn't a fluke or a flaw. They mistakenly assume that men are like us, that they are truly decent people underneath it all, and not that they are being cruel on purpose. They see men show compassion and kindness and empathy for other men, and falsely believe that they would do so for women, too, if we could just show them the way. But, they couldn't be more wrong, and the fact that men do show such kindness and caring for other men tells us that they know what that looks like, that their horrible treatment of women is a choice on their part, and a very deliberate one at that.

Sucking up to men, doing their bidding, and pleading for kindness from them will never eliminate patriarchy; only full liberation from them can accomplish that. But libfems, still blithely unaware that men are the enemy at all, dont grasp this. So, they keep doing the opposite, thinking that, if they can prove themselves to be "cool" girls who will submit to men's desires and even convince themselves that they are their own, then men might maybe listen to them about rape culture or abortion rights or something. Baby steps, they tell themselves. Slow progress is still progress. They don't realize that control over women's reproductive capacities is at the heart of patriarchal societies the world over, or the role violence against women and girls has in maintaining men's hierarchal dominance over women, and thus, said reproductive capacities. This is why liberal feminism is so ineffective, so man-centric, so wishy-washy. This is why it will always play directly into the patriarchy's hands. It's why all of the major changes made to benefit women over the past century or so have been made by radical feminists, not liberal feminists. It isn't even that libfems are entirely evil or misogynistic (although, make no mistake, their behavior is definitely frustrating to see). It's because, in order to fight your enemy, you must first know your enemy. In order to destroy the patriarchy, you must first have some sort of feminist analysis and framework to work within.

[sepublic]

            I love Fullmetal Alchemist, but I will admit I was a bit disappointed with how Arakawa handled Sloth the Indolent, who came across as very bare-bones compared to the other Homunculi, and basically just felt like a more muscular Gluttony at times. So for fun, I’ve come up with my own fanon version of Sloth the Indolent, basically an OC at this point; Think an AU where everything about Fullmetal Alchemist is more or less the same, it’s just that Sloth is a different character, which does change a few things here or there… But in the long run, it’s the same.

         We have Sloth, who resembles a young woman, younger in both appearance and age than Lust. She’s got a short black dress and platform boots, and always looks bored with her arms crossed; Sloth is basically an edgy goth teenager who’s always complaining about what a pain everything is, expects everyone to hear and cater to her whining and discomfort, and is deeply unenthusiastic most of the time.

         She’s a spoiled brat; Sloth wants everything to come easy and be easy, she prefers consistency and simplicity, because thinking and adapting, growing, these are all too troublesome for her. She’s sympathetic to a point, but after a while, she gets frustrating; Sloth is the kind of person who will go through the most convoluted, roundabout method that ends up more frustrating in the long run, to avoid something, rather than just going through the thing and getting it over with.

         Appropriately, Sloth doesn’t even do her own work; She relies on her ‘thralls’, various victims she’s implanted a parasite into. The parasite comes from Sloth’s own body, so in a way they’re her own children, yet she makes them exist purely for her own benefit… Like Father, like Daughter. She communicates with these parasites via ultrasonic frequencies, not that Sloth actually realizes this; To her, this command simply works, and she doesn’t have the curiosity nor passion for life to look any further into this, taking that ability for granted.

         This does backfire eventually when the Armstrongs and Curtises devise a transmutation circle that disrupts Sloth’s frequencies by emitting its own, thereby preventing her from controlling her thralls; More on that later.

         The parasites take control of Sloth’s thralls, forcing them to follow commands; Sloth needn’t control each thrall individually, their brain does the rest of the work in interpreting a command and carrying it out, and relying on the host’s own memories and knowledge so that Sloth doesn’t have to peruse through them herself. There’s a limit to this ability; Probably how many parasites Sloth can have operating at once, and the distance they can operate from Sloth.

         When infected with a parasite, right below your brainstem, you aren’t 100% doomed yet; There’s a very slight possibility that with precise surgery (or Scar’s deconstruction), you can remove the parasite and be free. But after a while, the parasite fully acclimates and shuts off your free will, killing a person and the soul; All that’s left behind is a reanimated brain. When outside Sloth’s range, thralls who pass this threshold will simply collapse and remain inert.

         This is why Sloth hasn’t infected central command with her parasites to keep them in line; Eventually, she’d have to remain in range 24/7, which would distract from her other responsibilities. Likewise, the figures in central command are supposed to be leaders who regularly make complex decisions and appear in public, which is far too bothersome for Sloth, who prefers the same approach to everything because ingenuity takes too much effort. This means Olivier doesn’t have to worry about Sloth’s parasites when she’s recruited.

         Sloth hates doing things on her own and fully abuses her thralls, having them carry her, move her own limbs for her; Ironically, it looks as if she’s being puppeted by her own thralls at times. Because of her Philosopher’s Stone, Sloth’s body doesn’t atrophy from this lack of use, but still. Sloth will work her thralls down to the literal bone, doing only the bare minimum to keep them alive, apathetic as their muscles tear and bones crack.

         It is said the human body is capable of much more than people realize; But to achieve that strength would damage the body, hence why it only emerges in times of crisis and high adrenaline. To rely on this power consistently would kill someone… But Sloth doesn’t care, so she wrings every last bit out of her thralls until they’re broken beyond repair; In which case she discards and grabs another victim. At that point, Sloth carefully gauges potential victims to see which one seems the most fit; But some days she’ll just get it over with by infecting the first person she sees. Other times she’ll control the Chimeras lurking beneath Central.

         Sloth is a manipulator, unwilling to do her own dirty work, and griping about having to do Father’s. And she’s often looking for a way out of her tasks, such as by getting one of her siblings, usually Gluttony, to do things; But Gluttony often requires oversight from Lust, who will then call Sloth out and lecture her. Sloth is deeply unpleasant and unreliable to work with, as a partner will have to do everything just to get her to do more than the bare minimum of her job, and sometimes she doesn’t even do that; Father had to resort to many threats of violence, and even then had to make some concessions before Sloth finally agreed to her tasks. Sloth makes sure to wring out as much as she can out of others in a manner almost greedy, to minimize her own work and offerings.

         Sloth is irreverent and apathetic; She doesn’t care for the drama of her siblings. She doesn’t care for them at all, period; Too much effort. Nor does Sloth care for Father, she only goes along with him because defying Father is more effort than it’s worth in her eyes (or eye, one of them is covered by a red node). When Greed defected, he extended the offer to Sloth, hoping she’d reciprocate after picking up on her dissatisfaction… But Sloth decided that having to deal with Father’s forces going after her was much too stressful.

         Besides, for all of Father’s faults, he nevertheless gave Sloth security and resources, as well as consistency; Without Father, Sloth would have to figure life out for herself, which would be such a burden. It’s simpler and safer under Father, no risks for Sloth! For that reason, Sloth feels some need to defend Father, if only because he’s a bastion of resources and security such as additional souls and the like, which secures her own comfort. It should also be noted that even without Father pushing her, Sloth would still choose to rely on and enslave others, so keep that in mind.

         When Greed returned, the Homunculi were all gathered together… And Sloth legitimately did not care about Greed’s return, nor his impending execution. The whole time she just stood there unenthusiastically, using her thralls as a chair, before snapping at one point that they should just get it over with, and questioning why she even needed to be there, which earned a lecture from Pride, who insisted Sloth be more grateful for the dignity of serving Father. When Greed died, the other Homunculi felt various emotions, mixed feelings such as resentment, but Sloth felt nothing and was simply glad it was wrapping up.

         For Sloth, only the ends/destination matters, not the journey nor means. It’s all about shortcuts and results for her. Comfort is her only goal in this world, because it’s the only thing that grants her reprieve from the inherent suffering and misery that is life. A part of her might, deep down, desire death and thus be suicidal… But that would also be too much of a pain, too difficult to go through with. Or is living more of an effort? To ponder is a pain in and of itself… An object in motion stays at motion, or in rest stays at rest, Sloth has a stubborn, unbudging inertia at times.

         Sloth’s function in Father’s system is simple; Carve his nationwide transmutation circle into the earth. But Sloth isn’t really doing it, it’s her thralls, whom she supervises as they bleed and wear themselves away as much as they wear away at the bedrock. Sloth meanwhile, comfortably sits a distance away, relying on earmuffs to deafen the noise (usually a thrall’s hands over her ears) as she lays back, minding her own business as other thralls pamper her.

         Sloth is just thinking, maybe having a drink, because Sloth enjoys the worldly pleasures to some degree; It’s all about comfort and relaxation to her. She’s a spoiled daddy’s girl who felt entitled to being accommodated by everyone, and because of her parasites, Sloth was able to get Father to assign her –with insistence- the seemingly arduous, yet simple, task of mining, while offloading all other tasks to her siblings. To Sloth, this is the easiest and most leisurely job. She's the underachieving sibling who operates in the perfect, comfortable middle ground between the leader who's responsible for figuring things out, and the worker who does all of the grunt labor.

         Sloth loathes stress, and she loathes unexpected assignments that distract her from her role as manager; Not for love of the job itself, but because it’s simple and easy and consistent, and she never has to expect anything else nor respond to change. Sloth is impatient and grumpy during these other missions, seeing them as a breach of contract, the compromise Father painstakingly got out of Sloth in order to utilize any of her contributions. Sloth wishes to get things out of the way as quickly as possible, or else she will procrastinate and put it off to the last second, with no in-between. With how stressed out she is, Sloth doesn’t care too much about the sentiment behind her mission, instead preferring to accomplish only the literal definition of her orders, and never go any further because that’s unnecessary work.

         Because of this, Sloth might sometimes fail to see something all the way through, such as assassinating someone; If it seems they’re dead, no need to look further, she’s done and can finally relax! All she’s looking forward to is getting a task over, never the task itself. She won’t derive enjoyment from the task, she refuses. And because of her paradoxical aversion to effort, Sloth doesn’t give it her all and thus gives opportunities for the protagonists to survive; They don’t know just how easily she could and should’ve killed them by now, if it weren’t for Sloth’s laziness. She’s deeply frustrating to supervise, for both Pride and Father, for these realizations.

         A part of Sloth did ponder what would happen after the Promised Day; Because that would be an end to her job, right? And she didn’t like the idea of losing that secure routine, so sometimes she stalled, calculating when to get it done by the last second before the eclipse. But she ultimately realized that even as God, Father would still need others, and would still use Sloth; So long as she blindly trusted in him, Sloth would be taken care of, more or less. Sloth did, to some capacity, see the folly in Father’s efforts and goals, though she wasn’t much better herself. She was similarly perceptive in deconstructing herself and her siblings, but never bothered to do anything with this self-awareness; Sloth was fully conscious of her demons yet indulged them anyway.

         Sloth is actually incredibly strong; In fact, she’s physically the fastest and strongest of the Homunculi, and the most gifted in terms of academia and intelligence. Not that Sloth ever makes use of these abilities; She’d much prefer to rely on her thralls. Remember what I said about Sloth being the kind of person to rely on methods so roundabout they prove more troublesome than just doing the thing? That’s Sloth. She hates having to move and use her own body so much that she’d rather use her thralls, which are far less effective, and thus less efficient in accomplishing tasks.

         So Sloth is her worst enemy; If she just mustered in the effort for a bit, she really could get it over with… But she hates applying effort, and thus just makes herself more miserable and for longer in the end. But there does come a point where Sloth has to rely on her own strength…

         During the Promised Day, Olivier leads her rebellion, and is targeted by Father for her treachery. He sends Sloth to kill Olivier, but Sloth accidentally murders a member of high command, not that she nor Father care, of course. With Alex and other reinforcements showing up, Sloth is suddenly forced to apply more and more effort than she’s ever used in her entire life;

         Suddenly Sloth is pushing herself to her limits. She welcomes her new siblings, the lesser Homunculi, by proceeding to immediately exploit them with her parasites. Sloth uses more thralls than she ever has at once to form an amalgam around her to defend and attack with, stretching out the tendrils from within her body. But with the Curtises, this shell is chipped away at, and eventually the protagonists disrupt Sloth’s high frequency signal to control her parasites with.

         Without her army, Sloth should be handicapped, and she’s certainly stunned at this happening, and what is required of her next… But now the heroes see what Sloth has truly been hiding (and wasting), when she’s forced to stand on her own legs and fight with her own fists. Sloth is incredibly fast and powerful, and enraged at the protagonists for stressing her out this much. Normally she wouldn’t take it personally, that just causes pointless stress, getting invested into things like winning or losing interferes with personal peace.

         But even Sloth has limits, even Sloth begins to look forward to winning, and starts caring about being vindictive and making people suffer as she has. Sloth’s body gets bigger as her muscles bulge and reach their true potential, turning her into a hulking brute resembling her canon counterpart; But eventually she takes too much damage. Normally, Sloth procrastinates and is very slow on regenerating damage to herself, since it’s bothersome; Sometimes she’ll leave wounds because her body still functions, only the results matter so if the job can still be done, who cares, right? Pride does and he lectures her about maintaining a respectable appearance worthy of a Homunculus, but whatever.

         And there’s another reason to this; Because Sloth’s ‘body’ isn’t actually her body. What everyone thought was her body is actually just another host, one synced to Sloth’s true form and Philosopher’s Stone, which is how she’s able to regenerate it. Previous incidents would chip away at Sloth’s host to reveal something inside, just a brief glimpse and hint to her true nature.

         Sloth’s host is destroyed, and she’s forced to unveil her true self; A flying insectoid monstrosity, the queen of the parasitic hive she’s relied upon all this time! Sloth is even faster and stronger in this form, but luckily, more soldiers show up to aid the protagonists in defeating her.

         Sloth is seething, and mentally unraveling; She can’t remember the last time she had to buzz her own wings. She can’t even recall ever struggling this much; Everything usually came so easy to her because of talent, now it’s not enough and she needs hard work?! Since it’s been forever since she relied on her own natural strength and speed, Sloth hasn’t bothered to hone her talent with actual skill; As a result, she’s a bit clumsy in her rushes, which provides openings for the heroes to survive and maneuver.

         Still, Sloth begins to get the hang of things, and despite herself, finds herself more and more dedicated to killing Olivier; At this point, it’s no longer about just getting the job done so Father won’t hound her for it. It’s no longer about what comes after; Right now, Sloth is going to kill that damn stubborn general, whatever it takes!!!

         Sloth’s unprecedented rage unlocks an ability she herself didn’t even know she had; She spew energy beams from her own Philosopher’s Stone, which does devastating damage in how they can slice and burn through anything. This burns up souls fast, but at this point all Sloth cares about is this one goal of killing Olivier and everyone, she just wants to win and in a way is more alive in the lead up to her death than in her entire life otherwise.

         That’s the thing about Sloth; She CAN care. And she isn’t as objective as she thinks, obviously. She is subject to irrational emotions that interfere with her supposed efficiency that gets it over with for maximum relaxation at minimum effort. Her quiet life has always been fundamentally undermined by Sloth herself, it’s why she chose to remain a servant to Father and suffer that way, than find true peace by working for it. For someone who thinks only the results matter, surely putting in the effort for self-actualization is worth it, versus the eternal suffering in the long run of not growing.

         Maybe Sloth comes to realize this in her final moments… Or not, because she’s so pissed that eventually, after constantly failing, she just rage quits. Screaming and screeching, Sloth decides she’s going to kill Olivier, no matter what; And is similarly so frustrated and tired and done with life, raving and ranting, that she gives up. No more! She’s done with this, she’s not gonna do it anymore! You know how some people will rage quit by turning off the console, even thrashing it in a moment of passion?

         Sloth opts to self-destruct by concentrating her remaining energy and souls, all of her mass, into one singularity point that burns with the light of a thousand suns; And then detonates. It’s a devastating explosion that our protagonists somehow survive, but it does wipe out a good chunk of the army. And to think what Father later pulls off as God is even worse…!

         The final battle against Sloth is one of the most arduous and difficult ones, out of the other conflicts with her siblings; Sloth puts up the biggest fight, she has more souls than the rest due to saving on energy by making thralls do the work for her across centuries. And now all she’s saved up, she uses up and wastes. If only Sloth weren’t so slothful, she might’ve made good use of her potential and changed the world for the better… Or done anything with that potential. Or at least NOT used it to harm others.

         But Sloth barely utilized her efficacy, and as a result, indirectly contributed to Father’s failure by not giving it her all much more than she did. This was of course something Pride observed and suspected, and resented Sloth for, believing her Philosopher’s Stone would be so much better used by him! If only he’d gotten to absorb her instead of Gluttony… Oh well. Sloth finally gives up on life and earns the sweet release of death she was searching for, the eternal rest, by simply concentrating all of her effort and power into one moment. Now Sloth has achieved her consistent, everlasting, unchangeable, rest.

[sixpossumsinaclownsuit]

Remember kiddos, polygamy and polyamory was only demonized for four core reasons:

Tw: homophobia, sexism, religious commentary, political commentary, oppression

1.) America wanted more taxes

Part of the legal institutionalization of marriage is that there is tax benefits for the individual parties when they get married, and financial ties/power is attorney between married people. It becomes messy when these ties extend to multiple people/marriages and the I*RS wants they tax money, and America would rather just make an entire way of life illegal than make laws and systems that accommodate people. See point #4 for more on that

2.) Puritan culture (aka thinly veiled sexism)

Puritan culture relies heavily on systems of control that villainize sex and women (that's a whole other conversation but I won't digress), and lots of marriages/polygamous marriages having sex with each other is obviously bad bad bad!! Hard to control!! Save the defenseless women from their pimp husbands! Orgies, the devil's work! And...

3.) Homophobia

Good god, women being in marriages together! Married to a man, but what if these women end up by being married to each other by extension! And having sex with each other! And what if a woman marries more than one man! Would these men become inferior to their wives? Would one of these husbands be less dominant than another? Would the men function in these complex marriages like a woman?! Disgusting! That's gay (derogatory!) Would these husbands be having sex with each other? But that's gay and gay is bad! Sex is bad! God, purge these sinners of their Sodomy!

(Surprise surprise, homophobia has very little to do with actual gay people and has everything to do with puritan culture, control, sexism and the demonization of sex, and points two and three are actually the same thing)

4.) Christian nationalism

Polygamy and nonmonogamy is normalized and integrated with several non-Christian and alternative Christian cultures going back thousands of years, like Islam, Mormonism, feudal Japanese/samurai cultures, Hinduism, several Native American cultures, etc... even in the Bible in Judeo-Christian history and biblical era cultures nonmonogamy was normalized. Banning nonmonogamy in America is banning the right to engage in non-christian religious rite and practice. It's only something criminal to post-puritan Christians and those beliefs becoming law, regardless of other religious beliefs and practices also existing in America, is the unseparation of church and state.

So before you tell a polyamorous person "oh that's cheating with permission" or "I could NEVER do that," or "I love my partner too much to do that/cheat like that," remember that these are the institutions and the propaganda you're upholding with your judgement. Supporting/ being kind about polyamory is religious tolerance, and biting your thumb at the I*RS.

Tl:dr, the dissolution of separating of church and state, puritan culture and the sexism/homophobia associated with puritan culture is why nonmonogamy is demonized and why polygamy is illegal in America.

Tone indication/post intention: satirical and exaggerated tones criticizing longstanding institutions of oppression with the intent to explain why judging, hating or criticizing nonmonogamous practices is oppressive and a result of propaganda. This post is not intended to persuade people who practice monogamy to practice nonmonogamy instead or to demonize monogamy. It is intended to advocate for breaking the stigma around nonmonogamy.

[acourtofthought]

Contains TOG spoilers........

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But first....... Lucien ☀️🔥

Thoughts slammed into me, images and memories, a pattern of thinking and feeling that was old, and clever, and sad, so endlessly sad and guilt-ridden, hopeless—

"all the sounds that Lucien so carefully sorted through while he kept watch."

Like Rhys, he usually opted for words to win his battles.

“I trust in the fact that we currently have possession of the one thing he wants above all else. And as long as that remains, he’ll try to stay on our good side. But if that changes …"

"His talent was wasted in the Spring Court."

"There was a reason he had that fox mask, you know."

No wonder he’d been so eager to head alone into Velaris that day he’d gone to help us research. I shot a look at Rhys. Seems like Lucien can still play the fox.

“Lucien can’t be entirely trusted anymore.”. “Lucien might mean well, but any reports would be skewed—even if he isn’t aware of it—in their favor.

Lucien stared out the window—as if he could see the lake across a sea and a continent. As if he were setting his target.

“Eyes can be blinded,” Nesta said. “Not the ones under my command,” Azriel said with soft menace.

"Lucien will never be good enough"

“There are others in your court as delusional as you are. They’ll get it for me one way or another, with the right incentive.

I'd be surprised if we don't get a super clever scheme in Elucien's book, courtesy of Lucien.

SJM has previously said Dorian and Lucien would be great friends and we know that Dorian was not only extremely powerful with raw power that be could shape as he desired but he was also very cunning. In KOA, he took two of the Wyrdkeys and tracked down Maeve to find the third. Maeve asked Dorian to work with her, explaining that she wants the keys so she can get rid of Erawen and his brothers for good.

Dorian agrees, asking her to bring the spiders to his side and he will marry her, giving her a new Kingdom to rule over.

In a later chapter, Maeve slips into Dorians mind, using her powers to control him but the entire time he's been tricking her, using her own power against her (a Valg!) to learn how hers actually work, taking over her mind instead.

There's already notable similarities between Dorian and Lucien, their polished persona's, their fathers both had them held down and forced them to watch the execution of the woman they loved, unknown magical powers, hints at Lucien being extremely powerful as Dorian was powerful, and their intelligence.

SJM has also pointed out how Rhys and Lucien share a likeness in how they use their words to fight battles and we know Rhys often schemes, having others question his intentions only to find out he had some wildly clever plot going the whole time.

I could easily see her having Lucien do something similar. Maybe he'll have a plan for Koschei or the Human Queens that he didn't inform the others of, something Elain becomes suspicious about and starts following him (Mr. and Mrs. Smith anyone? It would be even better if this followed the arranged marriage trope 😂).

The others acknowledge Lucien is clever and insightful yet they still underestimate him. You can tell they look at him as a tool for when it benefits their own purpose rather than viewing him as an equal, a force to be reckoned with.

I'd also love if it led to Az eating a bit of humble pie. He's so certain of Lucien being unworthy, imagine if Lucien managed to outsmart Az and his shadows.

[presidenthades]

Once again, I am doing a series of my behind-the-scenes thoughts for The Golds while I do light edits for formatting, typos, and continuity. Here’s Chapter 4!

For this chapter’s title, I picked the Crone’s lyrics from “The Song of the Seven” because Old Willow—who is a crone, as a wise older woman—is so important to this chapter.

Detective Aegon was one of the things I was most excited about as I wrote this fic. The idea was born when I read that TGC interview where he said Aegon is “intelligent and has a keen eye for the weak spots for others.” I extrapolated that as Aegon being observant about what makes people tick, which made me think about Sherlock, then I realized my version of Aegon would love being a detective. He gets to run around the city, meet interesting people, and feel a bunch of adrenaline/endorphins/dopamine.

I think Aegon is also very driven by the pursuit of dopamine. In canon, this manifests in his heavy dependency on wine and sex. In this verse, he gets tons of dopamine from his interactions with Jace. But since Jace is preoccupied with the pregnancy and governance and court, he’s deprived at the moment. So in this chapter, he explores his newfound detective hobby which makes him a bit less dependent on Jace for gratification—but not much. Still a simp for his wife 🥲.

Aegon is a night owl, Jace is an early bird. This isn’t an issue in the early days of their marriage because…well, they’re pretty much having sex whenever they’re in the bedroom, and sleep is optional 😂. But the honeymoon period tapers off right around when they discover the pregnancy, and it’s also when Jace’s LIWs are getting accustomed to their roles. The LIWs in particular are jarring for Aegon. LIWs are supposed to have lots of access to their mistress’ rooms, which isn’t a big deal in a traditional marriage where the husband and wife keep separate rooms, and the husband usually sends a message in advance if he wants to “visit” his wife at night. But Aegon has moved in with Jace, and whereas he views the LIWs as intruding on his private time with his wife, the LIWs view him as impeding their ability to do their job.

I decided that Arryk likes Aegon more than Erryk does (another reason the twins choose different sides in the Dance), and that’s why Aegon thinks Arryk is more fun. Erryk was more judgmental during Aegon’s debauchery days whereas Arryk was more chill. As a result, Aegon learned to tell the difference between them, because he wanted to be sure which twin he’s been saddled with. But Aegon likes to mess with people, so he deliberately gets Erryk’s name wrong because Erryk is annoying/inconveniencing him by dragging him to Viserys.

In the show, Aegon/TGC throws some truly hateful glares at Viserys, but at the same time his dialogue shows he longs for his father’s approval. Here, Aegon clings to that resentment (simmering not burning) but is much less interested in Viserys’s approval. He has plenty of approval and affection from Jace, so even though it stings that Viserys doesn’t care, Aegon can shrug it off more easily because he has something/someone better.

Viserys’s story in the show about the horses and coloring, and various comments about how he would’ve been happier as a simple country lord than as king, inspired me to give him amateur agricultural interests. He’s never done any actual farming, but he likes to read about it and daydream about his alternate universe life.

As I hope I made clear in the scene, Viserys is having this conversation for Jace’s benefit rather than Aegon’s. His favoritism for Rhaenyra’s line continues to abound in this universe, and he follows the old-fashioned school of thought that pregnant woman should refrain from having sex, ostensibly to protect the fetus.

In an early draft, Alicent was the one who had a similar conversation with Aegon to leave Jace alone. Alicent’s desire for this conversation was born from her own experience of being relieved not to have to continue having sex with her husband while pregnant. But I changed it because a) Alicent already has enough haters and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, and b) it was more thematically appropriate for Viserys to have this talk, since this is a story about Aegon’s journey to fatherhood and I always planned for him to have some kind of “confrontation” with Viserys near the end of the fic. So I needed another scene that highlights the friction between Aegon and Viserys…also I had a lot of fun with the agricultural metaphors 😂.

When Aegon wanders the city at the beginning of this chapter, he is content but aimless. Although he thinks this is exactly what he wants—freedom to do nothing of consequence and just run around—deep down he wants something more purposeful. He needs some kind of goal/target or he falls into a bored malaise, as he does later in the chapter. The detective adventures eventually fill this need, then later taking care of Jace after her kidnapping, then eventually assuming a role in the game to protect his family.

House Tyrell has no history of being kings, and they still seem like they’re finding their footing as lord paramount of the Reach at this point in time. House Hightower is a very old and revered house with a history of being kings, so I feel like Aegon and his siblings may have inherited an ancestral disdain of the Tyrells 😂.

Jace loves roses, but I imagine a Tyrell lady at the garden party getting snooty about how “roses are so very Tyrell.” Similar to Jace’s feelings about colors, she feels like sigils—especially something as common as a rose—shouldn’t belong to any one family.

I did a lot of research about pregnancy for this fic. I came across a few stories of pregnant people getting nauseated during sex because of the jostling movements. I thought that would be very unfortunate for Jace and Aegon…so I made it happen 🙈. And it adds to Aegon’s growing feeling that his presence is a burden during Jace’s pregnancy.

The LIWs are there to make Jace’s life easier, not Aegon’s. So Jace views them as very helpful while Aegon (who is actually a “private” person at heart re: how he wants to live his life) sees them as intruders. This change isn’t sudden but gradual, taking place over the span of several weeks, like the frog in boiling water metaphor. It doesn’t occur to Aegon to protest until it’s too late, and even then, he sees how the LIWs are helping her a lot and he doesn’t want to take that from her. So he doesn’t say anything to Jace.

The LIWs have a designated solar they could hang out in, but they’re eager to stay close to Jace while she’s ill and nauseated. I also think they’re following Rhaena’s example, and Rhaena is used to having free rein to Jace’s rooms. And I don’t want to throw even more shade on Elinor, but her crush on Aegon is compelling her to go to Jace’s rooms fairly early in the morning in the hopes of catching him shirtless 🤭.

Overall, the line “there was no room for Aegon in Jacaera’s chambers when her ladies occupied it” encapsulates a lot of his feelings of being squeezed out of Jace’s life while she’s dealing with so many other things.

I read in a fanfic somewhere (no idea which fic) the theory that dragons are assumed male until they show signs of gestation or lay eggs. I like this theory because it helps explain why so many dragons seem to be male, and F&B has a line quibbling about the rumor that Vermax laid eggs at Winterfell (I think it’s Eustace who lambastes the theory that dragons can change sex). If Vermax did lay eggs, the “assumed male until otherwise proven” theory jives with him being called male previously. Also, I don’t know how dragon anatomy works, but one can assume that it’s difficult to tell males and females apart as hatchlings, and by the time they develop reproductive parts, you don’t really want to be examining them too closely.

I also wanted to make Vermax female so she and Sunfyre could parallel Jace and Aegon. Jace’s first pregnancy coincides with Vermax’s first gestation, and there’s some foreshadowing with Vermax’s three eggs later 👀. Also, I make the dragons’ personalities reflective of their riders’. Vermax is very docile and calm, while Sunfyre is a horny daredevil.

In this chapter, Aegon is still struggling to come to terms with impending fatherhood. He can’t help but feel like the pregnancy has been coming in between him and Jace rather than bringing them closer together, he’s got a lot of his own daddy issues to work out, and he’s still in a “I do what a want, no responsibilities” mindset. But even now, he secretly wants to grow and mature out of this; he imagines placing a dragon egg in his child’s cradle, and it gives him some warm fuzzies.

I imagine there’s a lot of conflict between the maesters and Targaryens whether it’s safe for pregnant women to ride dragons. The maesters wouldn’t consider it safe to ride horses, and riding dragons seems even more dangerous. Meanwhile the Targs are confident in their dragon bonds protecting them. My headcanon is that Rhaenyra and other female dragonriders, unless they’re exceptionally bold/reckless, at least spend their first pregnancy on the ground to be safe. But if that pregnancy goes well, they’re a lot more confident about flying during later pregnancies. Jace is already a cautious person by nature, so she would abide by the maesters’ recommendations.

Jace honestly doesn’t need to/shouldn’t do so many Small Council things right now, but she’s an overachiever. In the modern world, she’s the kind of person who volunteers for all the extra projects at work so she can prove herself. Aegon calls himself a lazy person with a skewed sense of what is urgent, but in this case, he’s actually right about Jace doing too much. One of his weaknesses: he thinks Jace is so perfect that he hesitates to tell her when she’s in the wrong.

Ever since the witch shouted at Joff during the wedding parade, Joff has been thinking a lot about her. She’s been trying to research what the witch said but she’s reached a dead end, so now the only avenue is going straight to the source. I dropped hints in Chapter 2 of the Handbook that Aegon was Joff’s curse tablet dealer, so she goes to him for help. Aegon is a skeptic about witchcraft at this point in the story, but we know that changes later.

Joff has a talent for insulting Targ men where it hurts. Daemon bore the brunt of it in the Handbook, but now it’s Aegon’s turn with the “big baby” comments 😂.

I’ll probably come up with more backstory for Old Willow in Joff’s fic. I imagine her to have genuine powers of some sort (foresight/prophecy at the very least). She isn’t super powerful, but the people around her respect/fear her as the real deal. She makes her money mostly by doing non-magic witchy things, like brewing moon tea, which is in higher demand and more affordable than the occasional curse tablet.

Joff has a prickly personality, but she can and will fight people in defense of her sisters 🤺.

The puncture wounds on Old Willow’s body are from the longshoreman hook that the Tyroshi sometimes carries around. Her death is over-the-top because, as is established in later chapters, the Tyroshi is a sadist. He decides to kill her because she supplied the love/beauty charm to the whore Daisy, so he deems Old Willow guilty as an accomplice.

Because Joff has been thinking about Old Willow a lot, she’s also been thinking about the curse tablet she used several years ago. I’ve deliberately been ambiguous in the story text about what exactly Joff did with the tablet, but many readers have pieced together that Laenor’s death was involved somehow. So Joff has been thinking a lot about her father’s death, and the guilt she’s feeling seeps into her reaction to Old Willow’s death. Old Willow’s death does greatly inconvenience Joff’s little quest, but Joff is also feeling a lot of things about murder victims and the loved ones they leave behind.

Old Willow’s murder was very different in early drafts. Originally the Tyroshi wasn’t involved at all, and Daisy was the murderer because she blamed Old Willow for the love/beauty charm wearing off, and the random whore on the street played a bigger role in helping Aegon investigate. But as I reassessed how I wanted the second half of the fic to go, I reorganized the side characters’ roles and reduced the unnecessary minor characters so they didn’t distract too much from the main story.

Aegon sometimes makes questionable decisions (is it really a good idea to bring a 9-year-old princess to Flea Bottom without any guards at night?), but he has a few “eldest sibling” instincts that foretell what he’ll be like as a father. He tries to keep Joff out of actual trouble (don’t anger the locals, don’t open the bottle that might be poison), shows empathy to her (realizes this must be the first dead body she’s seen even though Joff acts dark and morbid), and gives Joff time to sort through her messy emotions about the witch’s death (lets her investigate the hut instead of immediately dragging her out—although he could also be criticized for letting a kid linger around a dead body). Basically, as a big brother/uncle/good-brother, he’s pretty indulgent and lets Joff explore her interests so to speak, but he intervenes if he suspects imminent danger. After Cheeseball is born, Aegon is understandably very protective of him. But when Cheeseball grows old enough, I see Aegon as being willing to let him run around and potentially fall and scrape his knees, because that’s just a natural part of life and relatively harmless—but Aegon would absolutely stop Cheeseball from running off the edge of a cliff.

I made Joff an early bird because I wanted to thwart the trope that dark witchy character = night owl 😄.

Bethany likes teasing Elinor about her crush on Aegon, hence the little exchange about Elinor making a good posset. But if Bethany suspected Elinor actually wanted to seduce Aegon (which she doesn’t), I think Bethany would draw the line and might even tattle on Elinor. We see in Chapter 5 that Bethany takes her duty to Jace seriously when it matters.

Aegon is right about Jace not enjoying gruesome murder stories, and telling her about his and Joff’s adventures right then would’ve kept her awake for a long time. But his quality time with Jace is limited so he doesn’t get a chance to tell her about it before the feast disaster. The miscommunication trope can be tricky because it’s so easy to make the people involve ridiculously stupid for plot reasons, so I was trying my best to lay the foundations for genuine reasons they wouldn’t have the opportunity to talk to each other. And the miscommunication doesn’t last for long. I think it’s a week at most between Aegon and Joff going to Flea Bottom and the feast.

Just like Vermax and Sunfyre parallel Jace and Aegon, I wanted Syrax and Caraxes to parallel their riders. Rhaenyra has plenty of thoughts about Aegon as Jace’s husband, but she views it as a good thing if a couple has a healthy sex life, hence Syrax’s lack of concern. Meanwhile Caraxes shares Daemon’s antipathy toward Aegon/Sunfyre 😂.

Gyles is jittery because the Tyroshi has been increasing his demands for payment, which Gyles can’t fulfill. A little foreshadowing for later in the chapter.

I priced a bottle of moon tea at three pennies because that’s the price of a fresh fruit tart during Robert’s reign. Ignoring things like inflation, I thought that was a good benchmark: affordable for the smallfolk, but for a whore who’s barely making it on the streets, she has to choose between the moon tea or eating that day. Aegon has selfish motivations when he gives her the entire crate in exchange for information, but it’s a huge windfall for her, especially if she can sell or trade the moon tea she isn’t using herself.

Old Willow warns her customers that magic always has a price (a recurring theme in ASOIAF). I’m sure she warned Joff when she first bought the curse tablet, and the consequences of that event led Joff to stop digging as much into magic the last few years. But Joff is tempted when she gets her hands on the glass candle, and she learns that lesson again later in this fic.

Aegon compares the whore to a courtier because he’s realizing that all people are fundamentally the same, they just wear different clothes and have more or less money. No matter what level of society, everyone loves gossip/scandal.

The rumors of Daisy’s death are not entirely true, but they’re not too far off the mark, and you can see how the rumors developed based on the true version (as told by the madam). Usually the rumors are worse than the truth, but in this case, parts of the truth are even worse than the rumors.

The description of the Garden’s building is intended to evoke a sense of lukewarm attempts to prettify something miserable at its core, like the girls who work there. I added the detail of the woman drinking on the roof because if she falls and breaks her neck, oh well, it’s not like her life was that great 😢.

Undercover!Aegon is the obvious next step in the evolution of Detective!Aegon. Other than his hair color, he doesn’t have as striking Valyrian features like Aemond and Daemon, and he’s mingled enough with the commoners that he can imitate their mannerisms. (Just imagine Aemond trying to pull off that disguise 💀.)

Even though Aemond is right there, Daeron chooses to run to Aegon for advice on girls/women instead. Aegon actually managed to marry the woman he wanted while Aemond is stuck in a flirty limbo, so Daeron concludes that Aegon is the more successful brother 😂. S2 might change my mind, but S1 Aemond is NOT a womanizer/smooth talker/expert on the fairer sex. The same applies in this AU, although Aemond is fairly well-versed in one particular woman…but even so, he still puts his foot in his mouth a lot.

Aegon is NOT shy about nudity lmao. He seems pretty content to loaf around in various states of undress in canon, and so is he here.

I love writing parallel scenes. In Chapter 3, we got Jace having sisterly bonding with Joff and Helaena, and now it’s Aegon’s turn to have brotherly bonding with Daeron and Aemond. And again, Aegon’s traits as a brother foretell what he might be like as a father. He caves underneath Daeron’s puppy face and indulges Daeron in a city outing so he can buy presents for Joff, but when they’re about to enter a sticky situation with the investigation, he tries to send Daeron home. Just imagine what Aegon will be like when Cheeseball gets his first crush 🥰.

Aegon’s statement “I never make Jace angry” was the universe setting him up to make her angry 💀. But Aegon was also kinda right about how groveling stops Jace being angry, because we see him talk his way out of the doghouse in Chapter 5.

I am convinced by the Episode 8 last supper scene that Aegon and Aemond have some brotherly telepathy going on, and that telepathy is even stronger in this verse where they’ve spent more time together in the Stepstones. Hence their ten-second silent exchange where they plan what to do about the mysterious noise in the hatch.

Notice that Aegon instinctively reassures Ronnel and cleans him up a bit. Big brother/dad instincts coming in 🥰. Aegon categorically refuses to help Ronnel with the bathroom (Ronnel wasn’t asking for help anyway, he was asking permission to go), but when it comes to his own kid? See Chapter 10 and how Aegon very studiously helps Cheeseball pass gas 😂.

Gyles and Ronnel know who Aegon is, but they call him “milord” because they aren’t used to interacting with highborns and they figure that address is suitable for anyone of noble birth. Aegon isn’t fussy about addresses and titles so he never corrected them.

Aemond has been doing his homework about dockworkers while at Driftmark. He wants to impress his future grandfather-in-law 😆.

Daeron and Ronnel are the same age, but Ronnel looks younger. Daeron has grown up on a rich diet and ample physical training. Ronnel has never gone hungry, but he doesn’t get as much variety in his diet as Daeron does, and the physical labor that Ronnel does (helping his father make pies) isn’t very conducive to body-building.

Daemon followed the Targbros because he’s nosy and curious about what would get all three of them out of the castle on an important day for Aegon. He got bored during the shopping trip and but became intrigued again when they discovered the abduction, and now he’s piecing together why Aegon has been acting so oddly the past week. Daemon is sticking around for the adventure so he can gather more information about Aegon’s doings, and because a kidnapping ring in the city is something that would interest most people. But also I think Daemon has been bored with domesticity and he wanted a bit of adventure 😂.

This is the point when Aegon forgets about the feast. His acquaintance/sort-of-friend has been violently kidnapped. That’s a big deal! And this is the kind of adrenaline rush that he enjoys. If he did remember the feast, I think Aegon would still embark on the rescue mission, but he would’ve at least sent a message back to the castle (or convinced Daeron to bring the message back).

I am sorry (not really), but I couldn’t resist making the pun “a stream of grizzled seamen trickled through” the brothel 🙈.

Yes, the madam got very excited by the prospect of three pretty Targaryen men. Can’t really blame her.

The madam mentions her “halfwit” guard. This is actually the brother she mentions in Chapter 6, whom the Tyroshi kidnaps to force her into helping him. I imagine the brother as a sweet and innocent guy, so I like to think he makes it out of the ordeal just fine and returns to the Garden. All the girls there like him, and he’s a large guy (I keep imagining someone like Hodor), so he can intimidate most customers who get too rowdy.

Currency fluctuates a lot in the ASOIAF universes, but at one point a gold dragon is the price of a horse. So that’s a lot of money Aegon is offering the madam, although of course as a prince, it isn’t much money to him. 100 gold dragons is apparently a reasonable ransom for a younger son of a noble family, so when the madam asks for 50 gold dragons for the building, she’s basically saying two of her building is equivalent to a ransom for Oscar Tully or Garmund Hightower.

Aegon claims not to care about royal titles or privileges, but he can still be a snob about things like carrying around a ridiculous amount of money (he’s got people for that). As Queen Clarisse Renaldi once said, “It’s not appropriate for royalty to jingle.”

“Help me, I’m drunk” was 100% inspired by “Get help” from Thor 3. I feel like all the distraction names are pretty self-explanatory. But in pretty much every variation, Aegon is the distraction because he’s a showboat, while Aemond ninja murders everybody.

One of the warehouse guards uses the phrase “pretty girl,” which is Aegon’s pet name for Jace, so that triggers him in addition to everything else.

The rescue is when Gyles becomes Aegon’s number one hype man. I had to delete some scenes with Gyles later in the fic because they didn’t flow well, but there’s a scene where Gyles says he wants to teach his son good values like loyalty, and he cites his loyalty to Aegon as an example.

The Garden’s girls stick around to watch the arrests. The night’s events improve their opinions of the Targs (Aegon in particular). There are other factors, like Aegon’s chill managerial style and him selling the brothel for almost-free to Liane, but this is part of the good karma that pays off later when Jace needs help.

Aegon does enjoy the gratitude he receives for the rescue, similarly to how in canon he laps up the crowd’s adoration during his coronation. So that dopamine hit adds to the appeal of continuing his detective work.

The Gyles & Ronnel reunion makes an impact on Aegon because it’s the first time he’s really seeing a loving father-son relationship and affection. It’s sort of a turning point that plants a seed in his mind of what sort of father he wants to be to his unborn child, because now he has evidence there’s an alternative to what he grew up with. Also, note how Aegon feels like a voyeur to this emotional intimacy, but he’s entirely unaffected by physical intimacy like what happens at the brothel.

Originally the chapter dragged on longer with a scene where the Targs help Gyles and Ronnel move their stuff into the Red Keep, because Aegon offers Gyles a job on the spot. There was a whole comedic bit where Gyles reveals the giant cheese wheel that got him into trouble with the Tyroshi. But I decided it would be better to end the chapter where it did, with Aegon realizing his mistake 🤭.

[opinated-user]

If Lily were remotely interested in actually combating fandom racism she'd focus on other characters in TOH and not just the white one she hates. If you're complaining about a white guy all the time, that's not progressive, because you're still discussing a white character and making him the center of attention instead of celebrating the stories of POC in the cast.

The only time Lily ever made a video that was start-to-finish praise of any POC was when it was Kuvira, a dictator who ran reeducation camps, created a weapon of mass destruction and threatened to murder everyone who disagreed with her. That was years ago.

It took her ten years to write one black main character.

Until her video on The Princess and the Frog this year, she had never talked about a piece of media focused on black people, even though she claims to be left-leaning. Being willing to watch things centered on black people is such a low bar even most conservatives clear it by accident.

In her infamous writing tips thread, she said that you should only have one cishet white character and a really good writer will have only one cis, one het, and one white character. (This rule is ridiculous for large casts, but I will acknowledge for the core main cast it's a perfectly applicable idea.) She has never written anything that doesn't have a majority white cast. Regularly her writing writes out existing POC rather than center them.

She claims to be Native not even based on blood quantum, a practice the Cherokee people and many others do not believe in, but based upon having thick black hair. She isn't recognized by the tribe. She does not educate anyone on anything pertaining to indigenous issues and didn't even mention Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women until she talked about how if she was murdered she'd be one of them. She has never written a Native character or talked about Native characters in media.

When movies that have a majority black cast come out, she disses on them.

When anything is made by Asians, she will dismiss it, not acknowledge that different Asian cultures exist, and center whiteness (such as only ever talking about Raya and the Last Dragon in terms of Lindsay Ellis, a white woman (who she then straightwashes on top of centering)).

When a POC such as Luz is anything other than cheerful and joyous, they are, to her, totally devoid of worth and ridiculous.

If Hunter were black Lily would focus on Amity instead, because she always, always devalues POC and redirects her attention onto a white person. When she made a black OC, it was in order to beat up some white people, romance a white person, and adopt white kids. She cannot, under any circumstances, create anything that focuses entirely on POC with the sole exception of focusing on a light-skinned WOC dictator whose war crimes and crimes against humanity she not only excused but viewed as cool.

She does not fight fandom racism.

She partakes in and upholds it.

Even if her fans can convince themselves all the people she's abused are liars, even if they're not aware of her past, I genuinely do not know how anyone can look at her work and not see how blatantly racist this woman is. Her only black characters are all tied to slavery, with white characters being the victims of slavery and black people benefiting. I grew up in a racist family and I am doing a lot of work to deprogram myself. It's not easy and I have a lot I haven't learned. But even I, even as a preteen writing stories, never wrote something that messed up, because it simply never would have crossed my mind to reverse victim and offender in the context of slavery.

Watching Stitch is her "I have a black content creator I watch/friend" moment the way many people in fandom/the real world use that as their get-out-racism-accusations-free card, but it's insufficient.

If she doesn't want to be seen as racist she needs to stop being so blatantly racist. It's not hard.

but it's hard for her, because that means admitting that she needs to do work on herself to get ride of all the biases she has and she alreay barely puts any work on her channel.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Right, I'm going to weigh in on the Lisa Cameron MP situation and current media trends in the UK right now...

It feels like UK journalism has a real problem right now when public figures do something demonstrably bad, of instead of reporting that as news for the community to be aware of and informed by, journalists go directly to the public figure in question and let them mount a defence, defend, or otherwise excuse in advance their actions in the vein of putting across their side of the story... and thus in the process only platform that side of the story.

Enter Lisa Cameron, MP. Lisa was elected several years ago after standing to represent SNP, Scotland's prominent left-wing party. She's recently jumped ship to the Tories, who in Scotland are a party with minority support, and are strongly right-wing. Because of the law of the country, Lisa gets to keep her job representing the local community - although the party she now represents is diametrically opposed to the views of the party she was elected to stand for. She was elected in the first place because a majority of electors in her district wanted a leftwing party to represent them in government - and now that person that they elected will represent the minority of rightwingers in her district only, and is completely unashamed about this and unwilling to consider re-running an election or standing down.

How is the British media reporting this? Across the board, even in leftwing media...

"Poor Lisa, she's been getting threats and abuse from the nasty public. She has to go into hiding now because of all that abuse she's getting." (with of course no reference to why that is happening, leaving the implication it's because she's a powerful, successful woman, or independent minded etc.)

Making that focus so ridiculously overdramatic, as well as totally focused on the wrong aspect weakens the story, and detracts from what's real news - as well as, most importantly, also taking away the weight from real abuse and criticism that people who don't deserve it face; racism, ableism, sexism and other associated genuine discrimination based on prejudices, rather than angry words spoken as the result of actions someone has openly chosen in order to benefit themself and harm people in their community.

This kind of coverage has also arisen recently with the family of Captain Tom, another UK public figure who was a well-known charity fundraiser, whose family later claimed to continue his work after his death - but instead shifted quietly into for-profit work using his image and likeness, without drawing attention to this fact. Hannah Ingram-Moore, his daughter, was revealed to have personally profited from the sales of Captain Tom's autobiography, written with the aid of ghostwriters after he became a high-profile figure based on his charity endeavours, which strongly implied itself to be a book written and sold in order to raise more money for charity... but actually wasn't. Hannah and her family have been doing the media circuit in defence of this decision, pulling the 'my hero father just wanted to provide for his family' angle (who are all, may I add, working adults in their 50s)... and have been getting very little critical pushback for that! Despite the core story here being literally what seems to be a case of unscrupulous family members profiting off the charity work of a veteran.

Going back to Lisa, generally leftwing paper The Guardian just published a fawning article painting her as the victim - and carefully not asking her any hard questions that would go between the lines of the image she is deliberately crafting.

Quoting below, Lisa - who was elected in no uncertain terms to represent a particular political position and set of policies, supported by her voters, defends herself thus:

In the interview, Cameron said that because she repeatedly opposed the SNP’s “progressive” political positions, she had been blanked by party colleagues in the Commons’ tea room and corridors and was forced to seek help from a counsellor and her GP after experiencing panic attacks and loneliness. “I found it to be quite a psychologically coercive situation,” Cameron told the Times. “They are always right. If you question things you are wrong and you’re isolated.

But Lisa, if you don't agree with any of the SNP's positions on anything and disagree with all of your colleagues on every subject, then it begs the question of why you are actually standing as an SNP MP in the first place. And I suspect based on what she isn't saying here, that the 'isolation' and 'loneliness' she felt here came because people legitimately put this question to her.

Is it psychologically coercive to actually represent the people and political positions that you were elected to, folks? Are your colleagues bullying you when they ask why you aren't doing the job that you applied for and are getting paid circa 100k a year to carry out? Why isn't that the story here? Why are we being asked to feel sympathy for people who break the social contract in order to personally profit?

[justatalkingface]

Wasn't Mt Lady a corrupt hero at first?

So, I'd like to start this off by apologizing to you, Anon. I did not intend to let this sit in my drafts nearly as long as it has been; I just haven't been in the right place to just sit down and type everything out until now.

The thing is with Mt Lady, or rather, early on Mt Lady, is she's.... corrupt, but she's not majorly so (though Stain would, of course, disagree). She is perhaps the most average person/hero we've had any informational development on. Most heroes we get a look at are upper case H Heroes, that don't match the corruption talked about in story, but Mt Lady is, or was, a view of that mundane hero who wasn't terrible, wasn't murdering people or beating their spouses, but wasn't good, either.

So the thing is the the first thing we see her do is kill steal, and oh, there is so much to unpack there, just by me saying that phrase and having it fit perfectly.

There are mountains of implications to not only that phrase, but the fact that it worked: to start with, it implies that this isn't unique to Mt Lady.

Kamui Woods had the man cornered, was posed to bring him down, and she steals the capture, and the glory, at the last minute. He doesn't protest this, or argue, or even say WTF, he's just depressed. In other words, this is normal, to some extent, this isn't just Mt Lady doing something unprecedented, and that 'stealing' this 'kill', AKA, capturing this villain, was something worth fighting over. Heroes are not cooperating, but are in fact actively competing with each other, for the resources that are criminals.

This is something that's actually genius with how it's presented to us, because it's understated, but this one scene just says so much about the society they're living in, and about heroic society as a whole, and how deeply fucked up it has become.

Mt Lady is developed more in the notes, and we find out she's so desperate for money to pay for the damages caused by her Quirk because, you know, she causes massive property damage all the time.

But.

This is an understandable motive, and it makes her more of a real person than just some greedy asshole, yet this begs a question: should she be a hero, if she can't do it without causing thousands, if not millions, in damages everytime she uses her Quirk?

Mt Lady's Quirk is a powerful one, but it's something she can't actually control, is the thing: if she's using it, something is going to be destroyed, even if her costume is designed to mitigate it, because she just becomes that big and that heavy. In becoming a hero, she became locked into a vicious cycle of doing heroic deeds to pay the bills, which in the process of doing this causes more bills for her to pay which necessitate even more heroics from her. This cycle, destructive as it is, is apparently fuel for her to be a very active hero, which is the logic behind her being part of the Kamino raid (totally not because she's a hot woman that Hori wanted to draw more often), but we still have to ask: does she cause more damage than she prevents?

Fuck if we know, honestly, because that's a cost/benefit ratio we have no way to possibly answer, but the fact is there's nothing in story that implies that anyone has actually asked this question about her, or anyone else, for that matter. There is, from what we can tell, no actual accountability to heroes as long as they pay the bills or murder someone on national TV... and heroes are uniquely posed to pay these bills easily, and Mt Lady is a bit of an aberration in how much trouble she's having with them.

There's the money they make from their hero-ing, as little as that developed, but from that direction they apparently only make money from crime, only on commision. So, I get that just paying them to exist with nothing to ensure that they actually are working would be messed up, but you have to admit there are some.... perverse incentives to a set up like this. Every hero we've seen is improbably Good and Kind, but this is something that could be easily abused, and with the set up we have for this setting? Probably has been, and often.

Let me bring this back to what I said earlier, that heroes are competing with other heroes to capture villains. As a job, an actual, functional job, being a hero isn't about preventing crime, it's about profiting off it. Every villain we've seen, every crime they've committed, every building filled with people they've destroyed? To a hero, that isn't a tragedy, that's a paycheck. The other major way heroes make money as heroes is by saving people, and the people they save? Are endangered by villains. Technically, earthquakes and fires and the like would also qualify, but the thing is with that, though? Earthquakes don't happen on the regular, and heroes are paid on commision. Without villains to endanger people, there's no way a rescue hero could have any sort of stable income.

If there aren't villains, in other words, then a hero isn't going to be paid as a hero.

So now we look at the side jobs, the others ways they can have an income; modeling and commercials being the only ones we know of, though we can try and guess at others (does Gunhead have a dojo for his martial arts?). Then there's the merchandising. In the early chapters, which established a lot of the normal day to day stuff before Izuku became increasingly disconnected from an average person's life, hero branded products were all over, and if the pictures in the outmakes are legit? Both Midnight and Mt Lady have cosmetics (and there's something about Midnight, who's power puts people to sleep who smell her, having a perfume that makes me raise an eyebrow).

In other words? As long as a hero is popular, not even particularly active, but just loved by the public? The money can just roll in, and the system itself is seemingly designed to incentivize this behavior in them. There are technically consequences to destroying things, but as long as you're.... not Mt Lady, basiclly, these consequences are minimal, probably because there's some sort of heroic insurance or something to prevent a hero from being bankrupted, or they just make that much money.

If you want to be a hero, you need to find a lot of people to arrest, a lot of people in danger, or you need to become a celebrity. And as long as you can do these things successfully, you're going to end up with a lot of cash, and there's very little holding you back doing whatever you want.

With what we've seen about Mt Lady's motives, before she was whitewashed in Generic Hero #274, is that she wants to famous, that she's hungry for attention, adoration from the public, a classic corrupt hero. But with what we know about the system she's in, the way it is forcing her to act just to stay solvent, you have to wonder: is that why she wanted to be a hero? For the fame, for the glory?

Or did heroic society make her into that?

[meirimerens]

Sillier question, how do you feel about Petyr's apparent pining for Maria Kaina? How do u think Andrey feels..

unsure what you mean about "how do i feel" because that's like a piece of text i'm perfectly neutral over. if you mean what i Think about it i do have thoughts. not enough to warrant anything but for you babygirl i'll type:

his pining is not disinterested, and i think that's so cool. his affection(s) [whatever one wants to interpret them as] are predicated upon the fact that Maria is very special. upon the fact that Peter and Andrey's works, in this town, have been for the benefit of her family, and for their ascension(s) to something bigger than themselves, which the twins, also, have been working towards their whole artistic lives. his affection is dependent on Maria's greatness, greater-than-herselfness. his calling her "a star. The star. [...] Flawless. [...]" is predicated on the fact that she "begets true magic". he is in admiration of her through, and because of her power(s), and wouldn't have this otherwise. his fascination in my mind's eye is for people who are Bigger than him - either in a very literal sense (shows my "CEO of [...]" badge) or in the most metaphysical sense; hence his equal admiration, mixed with fear, of Nina. ("I don't know how he managed to [create the Polyhedron]. I think that's because he loved Nina so much.") his pining for her come from the fact that he and his brother were called to elevate her family to greatness - and she is the next one to be elevated. her family needs the twins - methinks the twins like, for once, being needed, instead of having bounties on their heads. (but i think andrey missed the thrill of it, hence why he gets so trigger-happy in P1)

he equally has great love and praise for Eva, but this is not disinterested either. that praise and affection come from the fact that that she loves the Polyhedron (or rather, is able to). methinks peter registers (or rather, in canon registers, because in my bullshit stories where he hangs out with a guy he does not speak to in canon that shifts) love/affection only through the prism of his creations, of the Polyhedron in particular. if you love his creations, you love (a part of) him. but if you dislike them, you hate him wholly (or so he thinks).

i think Andrey would rather he fixates on a Kain woman than on anything else - methinks Andrey is less shaken by Peter liking (whatever form that takes) other people, than by Peter liking other people who do not align with the twins' values. methinks he considers anyone who peter gets close to but who does not abide by/suscribe to/uphold/consider their own values and morals to be an active threat to their existence, and the Kains (or Kainas here specifically) are not those kind of people. it is less that the kains abide by the twins' values, or that the twins' abide by theirs, but rather that they have been brought together because they shared common ground. as such, Maria is, on that regard, a "safe" person for Peter to love (there is also the fact i believe that andrey knows maria and peter would never have like. an actual relationship. that, and the fact that he equally respects her). in that regard alone - for she is threatening, unpredictable, and could bring to their end in wholly different, less comprehensible ways. but ways which the twins are more willing to deal with, and to be put through. it's like pining after a storm - you know what you're getting yourself into. the lightning strike that would burn your tissues from the inside is part of the dance.

[raxistaicho]

Using Yellow Edelgard to attack Red Céline!

Somehow, Fantasy Invader's analysis of Engage manages to be even more sad than his analysis of 3H. So let's dive into more of it :)

Also, Céline is my favorite characters from Engage, so Fantasy Invader is kinda stepping into my lane by talking about her.

One of the things about Celine is how despite her cute appearance she is quite ruthless.

Oh yes, that took me by surprise too. I was sure she'd just be the third rendition of Lissa and Elise, but she went her entire joining chapter without bringing up her tea quirk, unlike... every single other character in Engage to that point, who make their gimmicks immediately known...

Thank god Céline was way more interesting than that! Its plot is pretty vapid and zero-effort, but some of the characters were at least way better than anything Fates or Awakening squirted out.

This is rather curious to me, as the Houses devs said something to the same effect about Edelgard. Namely how her being the game's would-be conqueror and stuff was meant to take players by surprise, and how this gave the character depth.

Oh boy. No, you fucking idiot, the dichotomy when it came to Edelgard was her endearing moments and her strong will. Not her physical cuteness and her ruthlessness.

I don't expect Fantasy Invader to read my blogs and learn why he's wrong (he has asks off and immediately blocks anyone who tries to engage with him without response, so he's pretty clearly arrogantly confident in his delusions of intelligence), but I do expect him to occasionally recheck his assertions. I always double-check myself. But then, I'm not burdened by such unearned confidence as Fantasy Invader.

It also doesn't help that alternate-timeline Celine advocates conquest herself, and in the final map of the DLC talks about how great it is she's free from her responsibilities (and can crush her opponents) while equipped with Emblem Edelgard.

Yes, alternate Céline, who was murdered and risen by a rogue dragon who is then given headpats and forgiven for all the things because uwu Nel cawed fow him :'3

Also, I like how they only acknowledge it's Emblem Edelgard, also starring Dimitri and Claude, when they can use it to attack Edelgard, roflmao.

Lastly, given that Fell Fogado and Fell Ivy, the most openly villainous and wretched of the Fell Royals, respectively had Tiki and Soren, does that say something about them? Dragons bad actually? Mixed race people abuse their siblings? It's funny how reliably self-defeating Fantasy Invader's arguments are because they always stop the second he thinks he has a win so he doesn't get to the parts where they don't fit his narrative.

That last one sticks out a bit, since Edelgard had a similar event in FEH where she talked with Lissa about how awful it is that she has responsibilities thrust upon her simply for being born a noble.

I don't play Heroes and I don't know where I'd begin to look to double-check this, but I'm just going to assume FI is wrong about something. I'm certainly not going to take his word for it.

Hubert and Monica's support also talks about how this is part of Edelgard's plan.

I believe he's referring to:

It's amazing how "you'll be free to live the life you choose and remain at the side of the woman you love" got twisted into, "Edelgard just wants to free everyone of icky responsibilities!"

Just as Edelgard wants to enable commoners to rise up and enjoy the benefits once afforded solely to the nobility, she also wants to allow those who don't want to be noble to live ordinary lives.

Three Houses is full of people who, despite being born into nobility, don't want to live ordinary noble lives. Bernadetta, Caspar, Marianne, Linhardt, and Lysithea are examples of this. There's no inconsistency here: Edelgard's motive is to allow people to live the kinds of lives they want.

Not a huge surprise that an Edelgard detractor is against a person's right to self-determination. FI believes Fodlan needs Byleth to become a Nabatean and rule them compassionately.

This is a core piece of morality to the franchise since the beginning with Marth's “I'm a prince before I'm a son or brother” line at the end of the first game.

The difference there is Marth chooses to shoulder that kind of responsibility. Most Fire Emblem lords do, Edelgard included. While she only wants an ordinary life, she still dedicates herself to a cause that will surely consume most of her life.

The whole concept of Oudou, whereas Edelgard is supposed to represent Hadou.

Hadou means self-determination? Well damn, Hadou is pretty based then!

And we know Celine protects the people. She wiped out bandits who were preying on villagers without mercy... Edelgard, on the other hand, is willing to sacrifice as many people as it takes in service to her ideals

I have a feeling Céline herself would disagree with the idea that she would not sacrifice some of her people to protect the rest.

ideals she shares with the bandit Nemesis.

It's funny how Fantasy Invader insists Edelgard is following Nemesis's ideals when Nemesis's ideals of warrior pride is most-reflected in Faerghus's warrior/knighthood culture.

She's guided belief that she's going to make a better future by doing so. Celine helps support her brother Alfred, whose upgraded class is Avenir. Avenir is french for Future, ergo Celine is fighting for the future by supporting Alfred.

Ironic, considering Alfred usually dies young, implicitly leaving Céline to succeed him. This is further hinted at that Céline, not Alfred, is linked to Celica, the national Emblem of Firene, much as Diamant, Ivy, and Timerra are linked to the Emblems of Brodia, Elusia, and Solm. So really, I think she's the future here.

In addition, Alfred is a blonde who has a talent for lances, horseback riding and will die at a young age due to his illness.

We're going somewhere stupid. Very, very stupid. You know where this is going, I mocked it myself ages ago.

Edelgard's step brother Dimitri

Dimitri didn't learn Edelgard was his step-sister until after she returned to Fodlan, and Edelgard never even learned it at all. Their friendship during their younger days is what was important to them, not that their parents were married. So, I'm sorry, but you're reaching mightily trying to portray these two as siblings the way Céline and Alfred are.

is blonde, specializes in lances, has a hidden talent for horseback riding, is mentioned to die to illness before his partner and is stronger than Alfred could ever dream of. Coincidence?

Yes, it actually is a coincidence. I can say that with very little margin for error, because Dimitri and Alfred are so distinct in terms of design outside the most basic traits that it's insane.

Just look at their designs!

Alfred's dressed in blue, white, and gold, wears very fancy and impractical clothing for the battlefield, has a very friendly and confident air about him, is boundlessly optimistic, and lives for the moment and the living.

Dimitri wears blue and black, dresses very practically and militarily, is insecure, guarded, lives for the dead, and dwells in the past.

The only true comparison between them is their hair color and weapon of choice, so you might as well argue Camus and Clive fit into this too, somehow. Hell, Clive's a brother, too, so I think we really need to dig deep into the relationship between Edelgard, Céline, and Claire, while we're at it. Oh! Claire and Celine both have blonde hair and a refined disposition!

Lastly, Dimitri is never shown riding a horse unless the player puts him on one. He's always shown on foot in anything related to the lore. Hell, we see Claude ride a horse one more time than we do Dimitri.

This is so typical of Fantasy Invader's style of analysis, he ALWAYS does this. He focuses hard on what supports his arguments and just totally ignores the parts that don't. Motivated reasoning is the name of the game with him.

Celine's personal class is Vidame.

In the localized version. In the JP version it was the French word for "flower", which fits her nicely.

Now, Vidame was actually a type of French noble associated with the Church. In order to protect the Church's, uhh, earthly interests they would perform acts that weren't considered appropriate for the Church to be involved in. This usually meant violence, even in the event of it being an act of justice or to protect others. So Celine's class does have a religious tint to it, a link to her family's connection to the Divine Dragons...and honestly fits her really well.

That said, the localized name isn't exactly bad, but the thing is Celine isn't motivated by her religiosity. Much like... nearly everyone in Engage aside from Ivy, Mauvier, Pandreo, and Panette, religiosity is just a small thing they do to facilitate the worship of Alear. Because Engage isn't really interested in the deeper meaning of faith, it just wants the player to feel like a god.

But then look at the Empire, founded with the support of the early Church that formed around Seiros.

For the sake of killing Nemesis. That's why the Empire exists. Not so Rhea could guide the lost sheep.

One of the original ideals for the nobility, according to Hanneman, was that they protect their people but that has fallen to the wayside as nobles instead used their positions for their own power.

And, again, Fantasy Invader thinks Edelgard twisted things to not be that way, when the reality is she's trying to drag it back to fulfill the role it was intended to fulfill and failed to fulfill.

This is partially why the Empire is supposed to represent hadou, the other is Edelgard ruling through military power.

Celine's class is closer to what the emperor should have been.

Hmm. I wonder how silly Edelgard would look wearing the upside-down teacup dress.

Edelgard's route is named Safflower/Crimson Flower, Firene is the land of flowers.

But wait, Alfred is the prince of flowers (he references them far more then Celine does) and earlier on Fantasy Invader was trying to compare him to Dimitri, whose route is not named after flowers.

Amazing how flimsy FI's arguments are.

Houses banks on tea-time, to the point of selling teas IRL, Celine is a tea expert.

Tea is a big thing in Firene in general. It gets brought up most with Céline, but it's mentioned frequently in most of the Firenian characters' supports.

I don't see why Edelgard detractors think tea-time is such a big deal in Houses, it's honestly generally a waste except on birthdays when it doesn't cost you explore points.

I've talked before about Hortensia's connection to Emblem Byleth, how her story parallels Silver Snow and how defecting from the Empire is supposed to be the right thing rather than continuing it's decline by fighting for it.

Yup, that was pretty bad.

Elusia is also the Kingdom of Knowledge, whereas the Empire's original meritocracy was, in addition to protecting the people, supposed to be about valuing knowledge.

The Empire was not a meritocracy. Ever. Aristocracies and meritocracies are antithetical.

But when you look at Celine, it just seems to be that they intentionally made a character that was supposed to be like Edelgard

So, in spite of my joke that Céline is "yellow Edelgard", they share little in common aside from being short young women who are willing to take extreme measures to protect people. Céline most notably lacks Edelgard's sense of class-conscience (that her solution to banditry in Firene is to kill the bandits rather than resolve the socio-economic conditions that gave rise to banditry is pretty telling), mostly because Engage has very little of substance to say on the matter of social conflict between the nobility and the commoners. The solution, much as it is in Azure Moon, is just to place the "right nobles" in charge.

I mean hell, even in gameplay they differ. Céline is a squishy mage with some capacity to fight on the front lines (though she only seems meant to fight fellow mages) and use staves, while Edelgard is a pure bruiser.

And no, it's very unlikely Céline was written to compare her to Edelgard. The two games were created at the same time, the Edelgard DLC Bracelet was pretty clearly a late addition, and Fell Céline isn't even especially bad compared to the rest. She comes across as not as bad as Fell Ivy, Fogado, or Alcryst. If she was meant as an apology for Edelgard, she'd be more openly villainous, as Ivy and Fogado are, not motivated by desperation.

Granted, considering how Fogado is supposed to be just like Celine in the service to his sister, and how Houses likes to say Claude is similar to Edelgard initially, I guess we have all three lords having their Engage counterparts.

Ah, yes, Fogado is a brown guy who acts friendly and Claude is also a brown guy who acts friendly! Perfect counterparts!

Except they're not. Fogado is genuinely a friendly, tactful, empathetic man who deftly conceals a machiavellian side for the sake of his sister and people, while Claude plays at being friendly to conceal the fact he's actually rather untrusting, plays at being a schemer as a front, and is rather tactless and insensitive. They're pretty different, and assuming they aren't is kinda racist.