#Sylvester bishop

[dexterouslycharming]

Ok so, I thought I should lay out how Ever After Highs's school system works within my universe, particularly to sort out the ages for my ocs so y'all know what's going on.

Eah works like an (American) highschool, in which there are four years the students attend. It starts with their first year, which the students have dubbed the Prologue year. It's the start of students learning more about their stories and how to properly play their roles. Their second and Third years are often called Act I and Act II, and these years are where they take classes that will aid them in making sure their stories play out correctly. They end with their Epilogue Year (more commonly called Legacy Year), in which they sign the Story Book of Legends and follow in their parents footsteps.

In the au I have with my OCS this is how everyone is year wise

Prologue Year - Declan 'December' Hare, Kingston White, Chancellor Cheshire, Humphrey Dumpty, Nina Thumbell

Act I Year - Winonah Pooh, Peony Porcelet, Cedar Wood, Ginger 'Breadhouse', Tucker Belle, Farrah Goodfairy, Faybelle Throne, Hopper Croskington III, Willow Darling

Act II Year - Dexter Charming, Darling Charming, Apple White, Kitty Cheshire, Lizzie Hearts, Madeline Hatter, Raven Queen, Holly O'Hair, Poppy O'Hair, Aspen O'Hair, Tillie Tigger, Briar Beauty, Ashlyn Ella, Courageux Lâche, Penelope Rabbit, Cerise Hood, Chase Redford, Rosabella Beauty, Pearson Pan

Epilogue - Augustine Ella, Emmaline White, Sylvester Bishop, Nacrine Neptune, Daring Charming, Oleander Beauty, Ramona Badwolf, C.A Cupid, Juliette Pendragon, Rosie Midas, Harriet Lapine, Dorian Dormouse, Katherine Boots, Duchess Swan, Justine Dancer, Hunter Huntsman, Jeremy Cricket, Jillian Beanstalk, Mindy Pillar, Melody Piper

[queerestqueertoeverqueer]

absolutely stunning video showcasing the creation and some BTS stuff of the VFX of thirteen's era - to me this era has easily been the most incredible visually so this video was such a treat. warning though, watching the clips of jodie filming the regeneration without the effects are HEART WRENCHING. even more so than they already were imo </3

[oceanusborealis]

Doctor Who: The Power of The Doctor – TV Review

Doctor Who: The Power of The Doctor – TV Review

TL;DR – While this episode looks back to the past, I feel it might have the ability to steer the show into the future while also getting to be a romp in its own right. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Disclosure – I watched this on ABC iView. Doctor Who Review – When it comes to Doctor Who, well, it is a history of highs and lows. Some of those early memories of the show linger in my consciousness.…

[ming-sik]

Please please PLEASE I need to know your thoughts on the characters that got shafted by both the narrative and fanfics. Sylvester. Magdalena. Florencia. Charlotte. Kinda sorta Hannelore (poor girl gets reduced to cutesy cheerleader for Myne to fawn over or smth in fics).

fool that you are, you have unsealed pandora's box and happened upon a topic i have a lot of thoughts about. i haven't read much aob fanfic so this is going to be mostly complaints i have with canon.

the main complication in my thoughts towards charlotte and hannelore is that there's a difference between rozemyne the character and the narrative of ascendance of a bookworm. rozemyne as a character has a LOT of internalized misogyny which compounds with an attraction to women and a disconnection to being a girl herself into the unique maelstrom of her more or less viewing other female characters through how good they are at being a cute girl/how much they like her. this means that while she's very complimentary towards charlotte and hannelore, she's also completely uninterested in them outside of their 1) being cute, 2) liking her, and 3) liking books. when her and wilfried's engagement is first announced she's shocked that charlotte is upset because rozemyne said she would support her because it just didn't occur to her that charlotte might want to aim for the archducal seat. rozemyne puts in a ton of legwork to rescue wilfried and put him back on the path to success, but she doesn't even consider trying to find a solution that allows charlotte the archducal seat without wilfried being ruined. i get that she doesn't want him in the temple initially, but after he improves you really think she would at least try to see if having him serve as the high bishop was an option especially at the dozen or so points in the story where everyone is despairing over the lack of manpower. charlotte is florencia's daughter so she wouldn't jeopardize florencia's position, she's better suited to the role, has no stain on her record, the leisegangs don't actively hate her, and, most importantly, she's the only one who actively shows interest in being the aub! and rozemyne not only doesn't try to help her achieve her dream, she doesn't even take enough of an interest in charlotte to notice it, let alone anything else about her except that she's a cute little sister. in fact, she actively diminishes charlotte's accomplishments and likes feeling superior to her.

the thing is that i have not yet started criticizing the story. rozemyne is allowed to be a deeply flawed character who is sometimes actively cruel to likable characters, but my problem lies with the fact that this cruelty doesn't go anywhere. i genuinely don't think aob realizes that rozemyne is mistreating charlotte or that as it currently stands the ehrenfest archducal family spent like the entire royal academy arc following step by step instructions for Georgine 2. having charlotte just grudgingly accept this because she admires rozemyne and doesn't think she has another option until the engagement gets canceled is, i guess, accurate to ascendance of a bookworm's setting where systemic misogyny means that only evil female characters get pissed off if they're screwed over, but that's... bad, both narratively and if you want your stories to treat women like people. i want charlotte to snap! in my rewrite i would give her and sylvester a running conflict where charlotte's mirroring georgine shows that sylvester still doesn't understand why georgine is the way she is and forces him to either reexamine his sexism or deal with the fact that this time he can't wholly blame the monster he created on veronica. i want them to fight! and i want her and rozemyne to fight, i want charlotte to challenge rozemyne's view of her and force rozemyne to choose between reexamining the way she treats cute girls or losing her adoring little sister. the fact that neither of these conflicts happen mean that charlotte as a character really just doesn't get to do anything. they do not let her cook a single time. she's sitting on the bench with the mountain of really interesting character conflicts and story conflicts she could have had as the first sympathetic major female character who is actually trying to become the aub(which i would have additional machinations for in my extensive "what if aob was communist" AU but that's not relevant right now), and instead everyone's like "let's check in on how wilfried's doing, does anyone wanna see wilfried continue to be bad at a job he doesn't even want".

hannelore gets basically the same treatment from rozemyne, and similarly my problem is basically that hannelore has no problem with this. her being a cute petite shy girl despite being from the ditter duchy is at best an interesting starting point for a character, but aob has decided to explore systemic misogyny in feudalism by reducing the majority of its female characters to props who really only exist in relation to their male family members(or rozemyne), which, again, i find boring! i just think it's very convenient how despite rozemyne saying over and over how aggressive dunkelfelger women are, the only active dunkelfelgerian female character for the majority of the story is really meek and quiet. genuinely i would almost entirely write out lestilaut and give the majority of his stuff to hannelore since he's mainly acting on what he thinks hannelore wants anyway. in my mind hannelore's first major character action is to challenge rozemyne to ditter for the ownership of schwartz and weiss, rozemyne takes her lightly because she's a cute girl, and then nearly gets crushed until she pulls out the lord of evil strats before collapsing, after which point hannelore freaks out and it's revealed that she's not an antagonist, she just thought the shumils were cute and wanted to be their owner, at which point rozemyne invites her to join the library committee. in general dunkelfelger having less of a sharp gender divide than ehrenfest because both men and women are expected to be muscleheads is like the most gimme way to actually show cultural differences between duchies and actually iterate on yurgenschmidt's society allegedly prioritizing skill and mana over gender(and this keeps almost being implemented only for aob to never really go anywhere with it). rozemyne keeps trying to fit hannelore into the box of a cute feminine girl by her standards which provides friction between them because hannelore IS a cute feminine girl by dunkelfelger standards. she doesn't have to actively fight with rozemyne over this the way i want charlotte to, but i really wish she had more of a presence in the story and also EVERYONE in dunkelfelger thinking that rozemyne loves ditter and the only reason she has to refuse is because of her physical weakness would be so much funnier if the primary source of misunderstanding is that she keeps not realizing she's agreeing to play ditter until it's too late because she's blinded by hannelore's cuteness. everyone else is like "rozemyne you have to stop accepting her challenges rozemyne you're going to lose trade rights to rinsham" and rozemyne is like "i didn't realize a 'summer tea party' was a dunkelfelger womens' euphemism for ditter :(". this is the only rewrite that i think wouldn't require a total overhaul of aob's structure and that fits with the series' overall comedic tone.

florencia has the unfortunate problem that she exists entirely in relation to sylvester and elvira, which means that when the two of them have their interesting edges sanded away her stocks crash through the floor. florencia serves as the bridge between sylvester and the world outside of the eye of veronica's storm, she is simultaneously the only person he fully trusts and someone who felt the full force of veronica's abuse, so you really think that'd go somewhere and that his arc would involve him realizing there's aspects of her that up until now he hasn't been forced to deal with and her arc would exist. instead mostly she's just written as either elvira's bestie or sylvester's handler, to the point that when aob goes all in on child marriage during brunhilde's proposal florencia isn't even in the room. the end of the stick she gets is so short it can only be seen by a microscope. i don't even really understand how you could hate her aside from i guess wanting wilfried's neglect to be her fault? which it isn't! it's, for the most part, sylvester's.

and oh boy sylvester. his squandered potential is unmatched and i will never not be mad about it. what they did to my man is a crime and if it isn't it should be.

like okay firstly i re-read the brother sylvester segment recently and i was NOT imagining it, there's no way in hell sylvester was always meant to only be against pedophilia because he's a wife guy. during his introduction when myne asks if he's going to the orphanage to look for flowers he is specifically upset that someone her age is thinking about that, and counters it by saying that he's skilled enough to find girls in the noble's quarters. the second part is relevant because it means that it's not the wife guy thing, which leaves only the first thing. firstly, his reaction being disgust implies that this is a moral issue for him, and his citing her age specifically makes it clear that's his sticking point, which rules out it being that it's sex outside of wedlock or that he finds temple girls unclean(in fact it also implies that he only wants girls with equal or greater social status to him who can therefore say no). the reason this is interesting to me is that this is very weird in noble society. ferdinand actually spells this out at one point when benno is similarly disgusted by rozemyne being implied to be his lover, where he says that it's a normal age gap in noble society and that it must not be among commoners, which benno doesn't contest, implying that this is true, and it appears to be! from the pairings we see, it seems that overall, commoner marriages are almost all unrelated adults, which makes sense, because most people do that unless systemic forces incentivize them to do something else, and implies that aob is commenting on the fact that pedophilia/incest in historical political marriages were not naturalistic, but instead something that was mandated by the specific way the system of hereditary feudalism works where marriage is a tool to connect political pieces and therefore you can't afford to be picky about how well those pieces match and in fact the power gaps that come with that are often actively useful to prevent bonds from being broken. that's what i meant when i said awhile ago that i was willing to see where aob was taking things! which made it all the more interesting when sylvester showed up and seemed to be showing that this was going to be a conflict that was explored in more detail.

to go all the way back to foundations, my reading of the prior gen archducal family is that sylvester as a character is the way he is primarily due to the fact that the aggressive favoritism veronica raised him with shielded him from a lot of the abuse their system mandates at the cost of harshening the abuse on everyone outside of him, which puts him in a really paradoxical position. on the one hand, he's fervently idealistic and puts almost no importance on his archducal status, so he's basically never intentionally cruel, but he's also ignorant to a lot of issues and is incredibly bad at reading people specifically because nobody whose life he can ruin is able to chew him out for doing that. he understands noble euphemisms, but the level of emotional concealment that everyone under him has to preserve combined with the fact that veronica actively disincentivized him from learning how to read people means that he doesn't realize when he's hurting people, and almost nobody can tell him. sylvester's quiet "sorry for not noticing" when rozemyne tells him that his attempt to cement her position by spreading printing as fast as possible was actually making things worse is probably the most direct the story gets about this.

so sylvester is a good guy! although he's irresponsible and ignorant, when it's actually revealed that he's hurting people he always tries to rectify it, and is clearly willing to sacrifice for the good of other people... but he's also the archduke, which means that regardless of his intentions, he's in control of a lot of peoples' lives, and no mistake he makes is victimless. the way their society works means that his obliviousness has a body count, including his sister.

his relationship with georgine had so much potential. georgine had her life ripped away from her after being severely abused in service of a future she's been cut off due to the existence of a completely innocent and goodhearted kid and is then forced to watch him grow up in bliss, wrecking the lives of everyone around him in the process. this is veronica's fault, obviously, but it wouldn't have felt that way. we unfortunately don't really get to see her perspective on the training she tried to give him(was she really trying to prepare him? was she trying to drag him down to her level? was it both?), but the thing is that they are both entirely justified in hating each other. sylvester was the recipient of an enormous amount of privilege that he wasn't even aware of and that came at the expense of everyone around him. simultaneously, they're not inherently bad people. there's every chance that if they were born in a different world or even as commoners, they would've been completely normal siblings. and yet they weren't, so they aren't. the first time we hear about georgine from his perspective sylvester actually says that he understands that georgine got screwed over when she was married into ahrensbach, but either that also got retconned or he didn't really understand the weight of it because for the rest of the series he just treats her like a flat antagonist. (which i think is because it was added in the LN, so maybe it just wasn't canon in the webnovel?)

i already mentioned him a lot in charlotte's section but yeah mostly i just want to give the man an actual character arc instead of having him just slowly flatten into "goofy wife guy". have his disconnect with noble society go somewhere! instead of having him realize that despite his intentions to raise his kids in the safety bubble he was raised in, the cycle of abuse is inescapable so long as the nobility persists, and instead of deciding "aw dang i guess the cycle of abuse is just inescapable then" have him question if we should have nobles! i genuinely don't get why people say aob isn't preachy. it is, it's just very conservative so its preaching is "the divine right of kings is fine but we should add capitalism" which is the default for medieval fantasy. which is bad. like is it so crazy to have his reaction to learning that there's no inherent difference between nobles and commoners through rozemyne's mere existence followed by the revelation that even orphans can become literate and skilled enough to match nobles be deciding that this distinction is perhaps completely arbitrary? when rozemyne is explaining how widespread lower class literacy revolutionized the world to ferdinand and she's like "oh but here everyone relies on nobles for mana and nobles can just use it to preach about how awesome they are" i thought that was going to be subverted because as a commoner with mana who understands that the devouring means that mana is not inherent to nobles she should know that's as false as the intelligence argument. but then it just wasn't. i will stop that for now though as i'm currently lying to you about not sneaking in an additional rant about how i would make aob communist.

back on topic, as soon as rozemyne joins noble society, aob panics and starts introducing a bunch of reasons why child marriage is actually totally ethical(i guess freida explaining why being a mistress is actually her best case scenario was supposed to be like "oh phew what a relief" and not "well that's horrifying") but because sylvester(and benno who actually gets the exact same thing done to him) has already expressed disgust at this despite having prior experience with it, suddenly it's that sylvester is just a wacky silly weirdo who only wants to be married to florencia because he just loves her that much. although he is obviously in complete agony when he says that if she and wilfried can't put up with each other she'll have to marry him, why is apparently not worth going into. in fact, it'll never be worth going into again! rozemyne will continue being kinda grossed out by huge age gaps and a lot of other characters seem kinda reluctant to marry kids, but this also never goes anywhere and now that sylvester is just a Wife Guy she agrees with everyone saying that he should just take a second wife. fermyne is its own thing(SEPARATE RANT), sylvester only seems to really care about their potential relationship insomuch as it affects their reputations and by p5vol12 he's been reduced to cutesy teasing them about rumors of their love. really though the nail in the coffin on this front was brunhilde's proposal. firstly, sylvester doesn't even really do anything during it! brunhilde initiates it and rozemyne is the primary opponent(with her objections all knocked down easily and treated as ridiculous), sylvester just kind of sits there outside of being upset at the implication that he'd abuse brunhilde, and then he agrees to it and that's that. tbc i do find this morally abhorrent not least because brunhilde turns to the camera and more or less goes "you might have some objections, but let me explain why marrying a teenager is actually a great idea", but then to add insult to injury it's also narratively really weak.

and while i do think that his final scene with georgine where he's begging her to explain why she hates him when he never did anything to her and she's got "the best life a woman can have" is really impactful and i think better than him already knowing why she hates him, it's actually really weird when outside of that he hasn't had any kind of character arc and his realizations that he's been perpetuating a lot of the harm that veronica and noble society have normalized for him are shut down(mainly by ferdinand which ideally would've GONE SOMEWHERE). and then it's dropped again to go back to the boring action climax, pursued by deus ex machina. it really needed to be a turning point in sylvester's arc where he's forced to accept that georgine does not want to reconcile with him and his never needing to understand her motivations is a big part of why. if he's supposed to be a tragic character he can fail to improve, and keep convincing himself that georgine is just a simplistic force of evil who hates him for no reason, but if he is going to improve he needs to figure out why she hates him by putting effort in himself and being willing to accept that he's not a kid being bullied by his big sister anymore, he's an adult who's responsible for his own actions, a lot of which made the situation worse.

to tie things back into charlotte, the lost potential between charlotte and sylvester is staggering because HE'S DOING IT AGAIN!!!! he's doing EXACTLY what veronica did with opposite intentions, in his attempt to keep wilfried from being abused the way he was by making his future secure he ends up neglecting and exposing charlotte to veronica's abuse and then continuing to neglect her. through his inability to understand what his childhood abuse was actually caused by, he ends up abusing and neglecting all of his children, but especially charlotte. this isn't even really explored through wilfried outside of people being frustrated that sylvester is busting his ass trying to keep the incompetent wilfried as the future aub because it's the best way he can see to keep him from suffering despite it actually harming him more which IS interesting but not the way it's implemented, and rozemyne's specific situation means that she generally interacts with him like he's a boss she's on relatively friendly terms with and doesn't view him as or need him to be a parent(which also shields her from basically all of this). but despite charlotte having unquestionably the most fraught relationship with him, aob again just has her put up with this. sylvester is one of the most well fleshed-out and sympathetic abusive characters i've ever seen so it's really frustrating that charlotte, his most affected victim, just gets shoved to the side because if we had to deal with the fact that despite his good intentions sylvester spent the vast majority of the story leaving her out in the rain to focus on his golden children then he'd have to be a textually morally complex character.

although to try and speculate on why things ended up this way, a lot of this is explained by the fact that afaik aob's webnovel was solely from rozemyne's perspective without a lot of the short stories so basically everyone except rozemyne and ferdinand had all their character development patched in for the LN which is probably why nobody except them has any semblance of an arc so because rozemyne as a protagonist is so disinterested in other people, you kinda can't give characters really detailed arcs onscreen because she either zones out or stubbornly tries to keep fitting people into her boxes. it'd be different if the original story had other POVs and therefore characters could do things that she doesn't care about or that it would be weird for her to be present for(like sylvester and charlotte definitely need to clash on their own; it'd mess with the tone a lot if rozemyne had to be sitting awkwardly on the sidelines so the audience could witness it). it is possible to give characters detailed arcs that the unreliable narrator doesn't pick up on and stories with deep worlds tend to have a lot of characters doing things when the narrator isn't looking, but it's REALLY hard to have entire character arcs that the narrator doesn't pick up on work because you run the risk of either not making it so the reader can actually see that's what's happening or you make it so obvious that the unreliable narrator has to be cartoonishly wrong to avoid just being a narrator accurately describing things. i'm told there's a hannelore spinoff which might be more interesting but this series has torched so much of my goodwill towards it that after the main story wraps up i'm putting my foot down and listening to this excellent advice:

[wintersoldierslover]

my fic recs masterlist

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Bucky Barnes:

all bucky barnes

headcanon  -  blurb  -  one-shot  -  series - two-parter

40s  -  The Winter Soldier  -  Avenger  -  TFATWS

dbf!bucky  -  brother’s bff  -  bff’s brother

neighbour  -  housewife reader

lumberjack  -  firefighter  -  bodyguard

priest bucky  -  college

football player  -  hockey player  -  boxer

professor  -  teacher  -  librarian/bookshop

coffee shop  -  soulmate  -  royal

other AUs  -  taboo

moodboard  -  deactivated:(

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Stranger Things characters:

all eddie munson  -  all steve harrington

eddie and steve (x reader)

billy hargrove  -  jason carver  -  mike wheeler

dmitri enzo antonov  -  jim hopper

robin buckley  -  nancy wheeler

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Outer Banks Characters:

all Rafe Cameron

all JJ Maybank

Rafe Cameron and JJ Maybank (x reader)

Pope Heyward  -  Topper Thorton

John B.  -  Sarah Cameron

Kiara Carrera

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Marvel characters:

Wanda Maximoff  -  Kate Bishop

Natasha Romanoff  -  Yelena Belova

Peter Parker  -  Pietro Maximoff

Steve Rogers  -  Stephen Strange

Frank Castle  -  Matt Murdock 

Moon knight  -  Steven Grant

Joaqín Torres - Clint Barton

Loki Laufeyson  -  Druig

Eddie Brock  -  Miles Morales

Miguel O’hara  -  Hobie Brown

---

Harry Potter characters:

Sirius Black  -  Remus Lupin 

James Potter  -  Poly!Marauders

Lily potter  -  Cedric Diggory

George Weasley  -  Fred Weasley

Severus Snape  -  Tom Riddle

Draco Malfoy

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Avatar (James Cameron) charachters:

neteyam  -  aonung  -  lo’ak

rotxo  -  kiri  -  spider

jake sully  -  neytiri  -  tsu’tey

tonowari  -  ronal  -  colonel quaritch

---

Top Gun chracters:

Fanboy  -  Hangman  -  Rooster  -  Bob

Iceman

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Wednesday characters:

Xavier Thorpe  -  Ajax Petropolus

Wednesday Addams  -  Divina

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Bridgerton characters:

Anthony Bridgerton  -  Benedict Bridgerton

Colin Bridgerton

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Criminal Minds characters:

Spencer Reid  -  Aaron Hotchner

Derek Morgan

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The Last of Us characters:

Joel Miller  -  Ellie Williams

Abby Anderson

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The Devil All The Time characters:

Tommy Matson  -  Lee Bodecker

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Uncharted characters:

Nate Drake  -  Sam Drake

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Euphoria characters:

Elliot (Euphoria)  -  Fezco

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On My Block characters:

Mario Martinez  -  Oscar Diaz

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Modern Family characters:

Luke Dunphy  -  Alex Dunphy

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Ted Lasso:

Roy Kent  -  Jamie Tartt

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NHL players:

Matthew Ktachuk  -  Trevor Zegras

Nolan Patrick  -  Tyler Seguin

---

Actors:

Sebastian Stan  -  Joseph Quinn

Jamie Campbell Bower  -  Danny Ramirez

Drew Starkey  -  Rudy Pankow

Ben Hardy  -  Bella Ramsey

Jenna Ortega

---

Miscellaneous characters:

Eli ‘Hawk’ Moskowitz  -  Marcus Baker

Rodrick Heffley  -  Hunter Sylvester

Lloyd Hansen  -  Ari Levinson

Nick Fowler  -  Tangerine

Rhett Abbott  -  Hayden ‘Harvard Hottie’

Colin (Not Okay)  -  Min Ho (Xo, Kitty)

Ash (No Exit)  -  James Maguire (Derry Girls)

Jake Peralta  -  Nick Miller  -  Brian O’conner

Anakin Skywalker  -  Bruno Madrigal

Tadashi Hamada  -  Kakashi Hatake

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Miscellaneous real people:

Billie Eilish  -  AEW Hook

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*Updated whenever there’s a new character <3

[transdimensional-void]

Japanese Language and World-building in Ascendance of a Bookworm

I decided to make this post because a conversation with @mesaprotector made me realize that readers experiencing Ascendance of a Bookworm in English (through Quof’s admittedly excellent translations) might not be aware of Kazuki-sensei’s extensive use of Japanese linguistic features in shaping the world and its characters.

Disclaimer: I don’t have any particular credentials that make me an expert in this area. All I can boast is good enough Japanese language skills to notice these features! But, if you’re interested in my explanation, read on...

About Japanese

Japanese is a language that allows people to easily express their relationship to others through their choice of words. This is likely rooted in Japan’s feudal past, when social roles were much more strictly defined and enforced. Some features that allow this are:

Masculine vs. Feminine Speech: Men and women can (and often still do) use completely different vocabulary as a form of gender expression.

Use of Different Titles: Most manga and anime fans are familiar with titles like -san and -sama used to refer to others politely. Not using a title for someone is also a way to express your perceived relationship to them.

Polite vs. Informal Speech: You use polite speech when speaking to people you perceive as being of a higher social ranking than you, or people you are not close enough to use informal speech with. There are varying levels of politeness. For example, “aru” is casual, “arimasu” is polite, and “gozaimasu” is ultra-super-polite.

Pronouns in Ascendance of a Bookworm

I (first person singular pronoun)

Commoner women, like Tuuli and Effa, use わたし(watashi, written in hiragana) to say I. Commoner men, like Gunther, use オレ(ore, written in katakana) to say I.

Noble women, like Florencia and Elvira, use わたくし(watakushi, written in hiragana) to say I. Noble men, like Damuel and Sylvester, use 私 (watashi, written in kanji) to say I.

There are some commoner women who exclusively use “watakushi,” like noble women do. Frieda does, and so do all of the gray shrine maidens in the temple. Similarly, the gray priests in the temple use “watashi” instead of “ore.”

Well-trained commoner men who are interacting with nobles (e.g. - Benno when he gets fancified) will switch to “watashi” as well.

Even after becoming a noble and referring to herself as “watakushi” when speaking, Myne still calls herself “watashi” in her inner monologue. This is not the case for other women who have been trained to use “watakushi” since birth, so it’s a sign that Myne's inner self is unchanged despite the new, noble veneer.

You (second person singular pronoun)

Commoner women almost never use any version of the pronoun “you.” Instead, they will call a person by their name, either with or without a title depending on their relationship to that person, or by a title only. Commoner men use おまえ(omae, written in hiragana) to say “you.”

Noble women also will usually refer to others by their name, though when they do use a pronoun, they use 貴方/貴女 (anata, either in masculine or feminine form depending on the gender of the person they are addressing, written in kanji). Noble men use 其方 (sonata, written in kanji) when speaking to people of equal or lower rank and 貴方/貴女 when speaking to those of a higher rank.

And then we have 君 (kimi, written in kanji), which I have only seen Ferdinand use, though I believe other men in the temple use it when referring to someone of a lower rank than they are (e.g., the former High Bishop Bezewanst uses it to refer to Myne in the anime, so I’m guessing he used it in the LN as well, though I have not read part 1 in Japanese). Ferdinand normally uses “anata” and “sonata” like any noble man--except when speaking to Rozemyne, who he calls “kimi.” It’s a regular reminder that their relationship began in the temple, not in noble society, and that he feels differently toward her than he does toward any other noble.

Titles in Ascendance of a Bookworm

No Title

This is used among commoners to indicate someone with whom the speaker has a close relationship. For example, Lutz just calls Myne “Myne” with no title attached. Among nobles, it is used when referring to someone of lower rank. For example, Sylvester calls Ferdinand just “Ferdinand” because he is his younger brother and a lower-ranking noble than Sylvester. Noble men will also use it to refer to those of equal rank, and retainers serving the same lord or lady use it regardless of rank to facilitate quick communication. 

-san (-さん）

This title only gets used within commoner society. It indicates distance in relationship between the two people interacting as well as a desire to speak politely. For example, Myne calls Benno “Benno-san” until she becomes a noble. Afterward, she drops the title to indicate that he is of a lower rank than she is, except when they are in the hidden room together and she reverts to her commoner speech patterns.

-sama (-様）

This title is used by commoners when speaking to nobles. It is also used by nobles. Noble men use it when referring to someone of a higher rank than they are. Noble women use it when referring to someone of higher or equal rank to themselves, including their husbands. For example, Cornelius calls Rozemyne “Rozemyne-sama” when he is on the job as her retainer, but when they are speaking as siblings, he just calls her “Rozemyne” because she is his younger sister and therefore lower in the family hierarchy. Rozemyne and Hannelore always refer to one another as “Rozemyne-sama” and “Hannelore-sama” despite their close friendship and equal rank. Eglantine refers to Anastasius as “Anastasius-sama” both before and after they are married.

Family Titles

These are used among both commoners and nobles, though they use different ones. Myne refers to Gunther as 父さん (tou-san, written in a combo of kanji and hiragana) and Effa as 母さん (kaa-san, written in a combo of kanji and hiragana). Lutz refers to them as Gunther-ojisan (Uncle Gunther) and Effa-obasan (Aunt Effa). Myne and Tuuli refer to one another with their names only, no family titles required, indicating that commoners are more relaxed about the hierarchy among siblings.

In noble society, different titles are used by men and women. Noble men use the following: 

Father = 父上 (chichi-ue, written in kanji) and Mother = 母上 (haha-ue, written in kanji)

Older Brother = 兄上 (ani-ue, written in kanji) and Older Sister = 姉上 (ane-ue, written in kanji)

Uncle = 叔父上 (oji-ue) and Aunt = 叔母上 (obaue) 

Grandfather = お祖父上 (ojii-ue, written in a combo of hiragana and kanji) and Grandmother = お祖母上 (obaa-ue, written in a combo of hiragana and katakana)

Noble women use:

Father = お父様 (otou-sama, combo of hiragana and kanji) and Mother = お母様 (okaa-sama, hiragana and kanji) 

Older Brother = お兄様 (onii-sama, hiragana and kanji) and Older Sister = お姉様 (onee-sama, hiragana and kanji)

Uncle = 叔父様 (oji-sama, kanji) and Aunt = 叔母様 (oba-sama, kanji) 

Grandfather = お祖父様 (ojii-sama, hiragana and kanji) and Grandmother = お祖母様 (obaa-sama, hiragana and kanji).

Myne also uses yet another set of family titles to refer to her adoptive family! Sylvester is 養父様 (tou-sama, literally “adoptive father-sama,” written in kanji) and Florencia is 養母様 (kaa-sama, literally “adoptive mother-sama,” written in kanji). She also often calls her older brothers by their names with nii-sama attached, such as Wilfried-nii-sama, as opposed to just by onii-sama. This is probably to distinguish among her multiple older brothers.

Other Titles

A variety of other titles get used in place of calling people by their name or pronouns, both in commoner and noble society. For example, Mark exclusively refers to Benno as 旦那様 (danna-sama, kanji), a title that Lutz begins calling Benno as well once he begins working for him. 

Myne refers to Ferdinand as 神官長 (shinkancho, “High Priest,” kanji) almost exclusively until she becomes a noble. Then she refers to him as Ferdinand-sama when they are outside the temple but still shinkancho when they are in the temple, up until he stops being the High Priest (;_;). She also usually drops the -sama when referring to him in her inner monologue, further indication that while she can walk the noble walk, she doesn’t really believe in the hierarchy.

Professors of the royal academy get called -sensei. Giebes, Aubs, and the Zent also get called by their titles sometimes in place of their names, sometimes in addition to their names. 

Formal vs. Informal Registers in AoAB

I’m not going to list every single word that is different between different registers here because that would be way too long. However, I’ll give some examples. 

Commoners generally speak in an informal register all the time, unless they have been trained to speak politely to people of higher-rank. They use contractions such as -って (-tte, written in hiragana) to mean “said,” and they also often drop the ends of sentences entirely. When they do use verbs, they use the simple dictionary form, e.g. - aru instead of arimasu. Male commoners will often use interjections such as “na” or “ze” or “zo,” which makes their speech sound manlier and rougher. They also tend to use “da” instead of “desu.”

Any commoner who has been trained to use polite language will tend to use the politest forms when speaking to nobles, e.g. - gozaimasu instead of arimasu.

Nobles in general will use politer forms of verbs except in very private, relaxed situations. For example, 参ります (mairimasu, kanji and hiragana) instead of 来る (kuru) or おっしゃる (ossharu, hiragana) instead of 言う (iu, kanji and hiragana).

Noble women have extremely restricted speech patterns. They always speak in the polite or politest registers. For example, a noble woman speaking to a social equal or inferior might use “arimasu,” but when speaking to a social superior, she will use “gozaimasu” or “irasshaimasu.” They also say えぇ(ee, hiragana) to say “yes” instead of the more familiar “hai.” Noble men will use あぁ (aa, hiragana) to say “yes.”

Noble men have a little more freedom in their forms of speech. Many will use informal masculine speech when speaking to social equals or inferiors while still using slightly different vocabulary choice. For example, Ferdinand often says 解せぬ (gesenu, kanji and hiragana) instead of 知らない (shiranai) to say “I don’t know.” They will switch to the polite (but not necessarily politest) forms when speaking to someone slightly above them in rank and reserve the politest forms for those very high above them. However, some men will choose to use polite language all the time, even when speaking to social inferiors.

This is especially notable in the speech patterns of Anastasius vs. Sigiswald. Anastasius chooses to use more stripped-down, rougher language when speaking to social inferiors, whereas Sigiswald still uses “anata” and -masu endings when speaking to social inferiors such as Adolphine and Rozemyne. It demonstrates a stark difference between the two princes’ personalities and how they wish to present themselves to the world.

Another notable use of informal vs. formal is when Myne is in a hidden room with someone who knows of her commoner past. She’ll revert to how she spoke as a commoner. My favorite instance of this is in Part 4 volume 8 when she and Ferdinand are in his hidden room just after she learned he is leaving. As she grows more and more emotional with her threats, she loses the ability to speak in noble speech patterns and starts speaking to him the same way she would Lutz or Tuuli (</3).

In Conclusion

I know this has been a very long post, but hopefully those who are as in love with Bookworm as I am will find it interesting and useful. Kazuki-sensei does a masterful job of exploiting the Japanese language’s unique features to make this world and its characters come alive, and it’s unfortunate that English lacks easy equivalents to allow us to appreciate these effects in translation. When reading the text in Japanese, as long as you know which characters are present and what situation they are in, you can almost always guess who is speaking just from their speech patterns. 

In the English version, Quof will often insert a character’s name to let us know, and also will sometimes add clues such as “spoke in a very stiff manner” to replace the linguistic features lost in translation. I encourage those reading in English to keep their eyes peeled for these little insertions.

My hope is that the above can serve as a window into this aspect of world-building for some English-speaking readers!

[thisisnotthenerd]

and here's the rogues from the rogue heavy seasons:

feel free to share your reasoning/propaganda. all of these rogues come from rogue-heavy parties--this is your opportunity to decide who among them is the most roguish.

[tassjis]

My friend is reading Ascendence of a bookworm for the first time and it's amusing to read their theories

Their thoughts below

She is a mage, and her magical tool is going to be a quill or brush

I mean does stylo count?

I fell like Fey will fall for Myne

No

The devouring is obviously magical overload

I mean, yeah

The merchant, I feel he is going to be the bad guy of the story

Benno? The bad guy?

I don't think Benno is evil anymore. I think he will be savour for Myne.

Eh?

Lutz, will be Mynes best friend and likely fall in love with her in time. I am unsure if she will feel the same way for him though.

Probably might have happened if the end of p2 didn't happen

Freida I expect will be the one to convince the guildmaster to give her a magic tool, as she will not want to loose a friend to the devouring.

The guild master will not want to but I see him not being able to say no to his granddaughter.

I see Benno and Lutz have to make a great sacrifice to enable it to happen though as the guildmaster will frame it is such a way to win even if he was doing it for his granddaughter

Freida does give her a magic tool and it was to save her friend but it was also part of a bet...

Close but it's Myne who sacrifices some of her savings

I have a feeling she will meet a noble that will fall for Myne and then give her magical tools as a gift. And it will because of Freida introducing her to someone

Looks at the pile of feystones and magic tools Ferdinand has given her...

Yeah Freida doesn't introduce them

The high bishop is a dick, the high priest seems nice, He's your favourite character isn't he?

Correct on most fronts... Ferdinand is the lord of evil for a reason but he's still a sweetie

Orphanage director at age of 7???

Yes

I get a feeling that the high priest is going to set up Myne for a potential suitor based on the harspiel lol

He is the the suitor x3

Love the pokemon reference.

Alright, I choose you, Stretchy tree thingy!

Hehe

The high bishop is a dick, she should of killed him when he attacked her in the beginning.

What? The evil Santa is a dick? /s

She should just kill everyone who gets in her way.

Then there would be no one left...

She has no shame!

Ah so you're in her memories now

I feel like the knight captain is manipulating Ferdiand and planning to kill the archduke

??? Ferdinand being manipulated by Karstedt??? No it's the other way around and definitely not to kill the archduke... the archdukes mother on the other hand...

I just met Sylvester. He sounds like a dick

He's just childish

I feel like Sylvester is a possible love interest for Myne, after all age gaps are normal here, or they will have some kind of connection

Yeah that connection is father/daughter... but he was the 3rd option of a suitor in Ehrenfest

[parvuls]

jack retires because of a leg injury and takes off to a small massachusetts town, still recovering physically and mentally. he spends his first few months in town getting accustomed to life without hockey, to bi-weekly therapy sessions, to walking with a cane. he spends most of those months angry - at the pain, at his limited mobility, at the world. he doesn't have much patience for others, and puts very little energy towards socializing with the locals.

by the time the next fall comes around, he's been through enough therapy, physical and otherwise, and actually looks forward to being home all halloween for the first time in years. to see the kids go trick or treating, maybe unearth his camera and take pictures of the festivities. maybe even participate in something. start feeling like part of a community again.

but when halloween comes, jack spends all night on his couch, alone, holding a full-to-the-brim bowl of handmade candy. no one comes to knock on his door. because kids judge quickly, and parents are slow to trust, and his first few months in town were enough to establish a reputation as someone to be avoided.

he stays up later than he has since he was a teenager, but when it becomes clear that no one is going to stop at his house he dumps all three bags of the halloween treats he ordered special - none of that chemically manufactured shit that's so bad for kids - and puts them out front, to be picked up with his garbage. and then he goes to bed, and tries very hard not to think.

bitty opens his bakery early. he happens to walk past jack's house on his way to work, and recognizes the bags sitting out front; it's hard to forget that order, from the man who asked him question after question about the ingredients of the candy he'd be giving to kids on halloween. bitty made him a candy-cane inspired sweet in the form of a hockey stick, and watched the man crack the first smile bitty's seen from him since he moved to town.

but the bags are all full out here on the sidewalk. and although bitty wishes he didn't know why, he can make a pretty good guess. he was new to town, once, too.

it's hard to purposely bump into someone who keeps to himself as much as mr. zimmermann does, but bitty is nothing if not determined. he stops by mr. zimmermann's cart when they're both out grocery shopping and makes sure to exchange small talk with him, just loudly enough for others to overhear. he moves his daily run from the evening to the early morning, although it's torture to get up even earlier than he already does, so the jogging crowd spots him running into mr. zimmermann and waving cheerfully. it's the little things. and if bitty can make one of his neighbors feel more at home, then he darn well will.

gradually, little by little, mr. zimmermann starts opening up. insists that bitty call him jack. keeps walking with bitty all the way to the register when they're both out grocery shopping, while gravely telling him about the importance of eating clean. changes his running route so bitty and he start their loop around the park at the same time, and when it gets colder, brings another set of gloves along because bitty always forgets his. bitty's not even sure how jack figured that out.

and it's other things, too. one day mrs. sylvester who lives down the street tells bitty that jack joined the book club, and while he never says much, she swears he reads all the books. ms. bishop, who works at city hall and can't keep a secret to save her life, leans over to bitty during their shared pilates class and whispers that she's not supposed to tell, but someone made a big donation to the town's community center. principal stacy announces the annual career day at the elementary school, and unsubtly suggests that perhaps new residents with unusual career paths may like to sign up.

the next halloween, jack spends all night on his front porch, wearing cat ears and whiskers drawn in eyeliner, with his arm around bitty's shoulders and a constantly emptying bowl of handmade candy in his lap.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Thursday, April 25th, 2024. It is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; Because it is a leap year, 250 days remain until the end of the year.

62: Death of Mark the Gospel writer while imprisoned in Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero, according to Vetus martyrologium romanum (an old Roman collation of martyr accounts).

799: Pope Leo III is attacked, his eyes stabbed, and his tongue torn. He recovers and later crowns Charlemagne as emperor.

1449: The ineffectual Council of Basel ends.

1479: Death of Sylvester of Obnorsk, a Russian Orthodox hermit who had lived off roots and bark. Eventually he had established a monastery.

1564: John Calvin, reformer of Geneva, dictates his last will and testament to notary Peter Chenalat.

1595: Death from a fever in the convent of St. Onofrio of Italian poet Torquato Tasso. Ironically, he was supposed to receive a laurel from the pope on this day in recognition of his epic poems, among which Jerusalem Delivered had been the most acclaimed.

1735: Death at Epworth, England, of Samuel Wesley, curate, author, and father of Methodist revival leaders John and Charles Wesley.

1800: Death at East Dereham, Norfolk, England, of English poet William Cowper (pictured above). Despite lifelong depression, he had produced enduring hymns, including, “Oh For a Closer Walk with God” and “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.” Dementia had led him to believe he was damned.

1879: Consecration of J. B. Lightfoot as Bishop of Durham. A renowned English New Testament scholar, he had left Cambridge and a life of scholarship to devote the remaining ten years of his life to church administration.

1889: Death at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, of Anzentia Igene Perry Chapman. A member of the Free Methodist Church, she wrote a number of hymns, including, “Thou Shalt Rest at Eve,” and “We’ll Never Say Goodbye.”

1917: Ordination of Paul Sasaki as a priest in the Anglican Church in Japan. He will become bishop of Nippon Sei Ko Kei (an independent church organization within the Anglican Communion), and suffer imprisonment for his refusal to bring Nippon Sei Ko Kei under the authority of a government-ordered church coalition.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 16)

On August 16, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of King Saint Stephen of Hungary, the monarch who led his country to embrace the Christian faith during the 11th century.

Before the future saint's birth in 975, his mother, the Duchess Sarolt, is said to have received a vision in which the original Saint Stephen – the Church's first martyr – appeared telling her she would bear a son who would evangelize their land.

Together with her husband, the Hungarian Duke Geza, Sarolt is believed to have been converted and baptized by the bishop Saint Adalbert of Prague.

The same saint baptized their son Vaik in 985, giving him the name of Stephen.

Geza had desired to convert the Hungarians to the Catholic faith, a passion shared by Stephen once he reached adulthood and succeeded him in power.

After conclusively defeating an alliance of rival pagan nobility, he used their acquired wealth to build a monastery and invited clergy to convert the people.

Stephen established laws favoring Christianity over paganism and sent an emissary to Rome with a request for the Pope to proclaim him as king.

Pope Sylvester II accepted the request, sending him a crown and a gold processional cross, while also giving Stephen certain religious privileges.

He showed great diligence as king, while devoting the rest of his time to his religious duties – including charity toward the poor and sick, as well as the worship of God – and to his household.

Gisela, Stephen's wife, was the sister of the ruler later canonized as the Holy Roman Emperor Saint Henry II.

Greatly devoted to the Virgin Mary, Stephen had several churches built in her honor both in Hungary and outside the kingdom.

Her intercession is credited with preventing a war between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II, and stopping an assassination plot against Stephen himself.

The Hungarian king also established a monastery in Jerusalem and set up institutions to aid pilgrims in other major cities.

Stephen counted saints among his friends and correspondents, and fulfilled the Pope's charge to use his royal authority for the good of the Church.

Suffering came to the king, however, when only one of his children survived to adulthood.

Stephen's only living son Emeric received a strong Catholic upbringing and was expected to succeed his father.

But Emeric died before Stephen after a hunting accident in 1031.

Emeric was later canonized as a saint in his own right, and Stephen eventually came to rejoice that his son had been permitted to enter God's presence before him.

The king's final years, however, were marked by illness as well as a succession dispute among his relatives.

In 1038, on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Stephen delivered his final words to leaders of the Church and state, telling them to protect and spread the Catholic faith.

To the Virgin Mary, the king directed one of his final prayers:

“To thee, O Queen of heaven, and to thy guardianship, I commend the holy Church, all the bishops and the clergy, the whole kingdom, its rulers and inhabitants; but before all, I commend my soul to thy care.”

Stephen of Hungary died on 15 August 1038.

He was buried alongside his son St. Emeric, and the two were canonized together in 1083.

[dexterouslycharming]

Tell me all about the relationships that Dorian Dormouse, Penelope Rabbit, Sylvester Bishop, Chancellor Cheshire, and Declan Hare have with each other and the canon Wonderland kids!! (This will probably be a long one, sorry!)

Dorian Dormouse -

Madeline Hatter - They get along too well, Dorian often sleeps in her hat while in his mouse form. The two of them grew up together, only being a year apart, and consistently being at the tea table allows for them to have constant contact with one another, hence their strong bond. Dorian sees Maddie as a younger sister, and as his fairy best friend. Maddie loves it when Dorian takes his mouse form, and when they were younger she would host tea parties for him and Earl Grey (her mouse pet.) The two are often together, though most don't know it because Dorian is sleeping in Maddie's hat.

Lizzie Hearts - While they are friends, Lizzie views Dorian as somewhat of a pest. When they all arrived in Ever After, after escaping the Wonderland curse, Dorian found himself very homesick, and while Maddie was his fairy best friend, he found comfort in Lizzie a lot. The two of them would have long talks about life and the like back in wonderland, and she just felt safe, so he'd end up turning into a mouse and sneaking his way into her room, so Lizzie would wake up with a small, spotted mouse curled up on her pillow. And while she understood for a time why it was happening, it became a habit for Dorian, even after he settled in, and now it's just a slight inconvenience to her. It's a situation that just needs to be talked about rather than letting it summer but neither want to approach the situation. . .perhaps there's something more there then meets the eye

Kitty Cheshire - These two are a mystery to almost everyone. Constantly playing a game of cat and mouse, but who's the cat and who's the mouse? No one can tell for sure. While an interesting duo, it's easy to tell their friends once you take a closer look, you can often find them cuddled up in their car and mouse forms respectively, dozing away in a patch of sunlight.

Bunny Blanc - A pair of rodents, they'd definitely get along, right? Wrong. These two cannot stand one another, like at all. You can feel the tension in the room if they happen to be together, and it's not something you want to mess with. They won't tell anyone what their issue is, but the other Wonderlandians seem to know, but won't share. They just make sure everyone is out of the way in case the day comes where Dorian and Bunny decide to hash out whatever problems they have

Alistair Liddel - Seemingly indifferent towards one another, even with the whole beef with Bunny. They don't speak much, but when they do it's friendly and civil. They respect one another and their roles in their story, it seems as if they were friends at one point but nothing has directly pointed to that.

Mindy Pillar - Mindy hangs out with Dorian a lot of the time, asking him weird questions that he usually doesn't answer because he's asleep. Mindy has said that she does this to get her own brain working and to find an answer to the questions herself, or at least what the answer is to her. Because Mindy sews and quilts, with the very softest of silks and fibers, Dorian goes to her to make him comfy pillows and blankets and all sorts of things to make his bed more comfortable, and she enjoys making them for him.

Sylvester Bishop - They have a healthy respect for one another, but seemingly nothing beyond that. Unlike Maddie, Sylvester didn't grow up around Dorian, so they never had the chance to bond like Dorian and his sister. One would consider them acquaintances at most. Though over the course of time that does change, and the two end up being good friends after a while at Ever After High.

Chancellor Cheshire - Dorian acts as an older brother figure to Chancellor, and loves every minute of it. Much like him and Kitty, Chancellor likes to find sunny spots to nap in with Dorian, though this often results in Dorian getting some kind of prank pulled on him, whether it be getting marker drawn all over his face, or something else. He's always a good sport for Chancellor's pranks, and he and Kitty often get the young Cheshire back for his antics.

Declan Hare - His relationship with Declan is much the same as his relationship with Chancellor, growing up together makes Dorian an older brother figure to Declan.

Sylvester Bishop -

Madeline Hatter - Sylvester and Maddie view their relationship very differently. Sylvester sees their relationship as strained and he finds Maddie slightly annoying, though he does love his sister and if push comes to shove he'd do anything for her. Maddie on the other hand, though she isn't ignorant to the fact that she and Sylvester don't have the greatest sibling relationship, thinks they're doing better than they had been previously, especially while they were in Wonderland. Sylvester doesn't avoid his sister, but he doesn't actively seek her out. . For the most part that is. There have been a few quiet days where the two have been found cuddled up and sleeping with a tea set in front of them. Despite their differences, there's no doubt they're each other's rocks.

Lizzie Hearts - Sylvester and Lizzie are rivals to the core. Though they do it in a dignified and proper way, everything between them is a challenge. They've been rivals ever since they were young, and it's kept up as they've gotten older. Some may say it's annoying to hear them bicker and fight about trivial things but for the Wonderlandians, a day where these two are going off on each other is a bad day indeed.

Kitty Cheshire - Kitty and Sylvester get along actually quite well. Kitty learned her lesson on messing with him quite some time ago, and from then on, the pair seem to enjoy one another's company. Kitty seems to act as Sylvester's right hand cat, feeding him information and things she gathers throughout her day. These two seem to be very close.

Bunny Blanc - Sylvester doesn't mind Bunny, but he doesn't actively like her either, he's indifferent towards the rabbit girl for the most part, except when she's consistently late to royal matters she's supposed to be the courier for.

Alistair Liddel -��Even though Alistair plays the biggest role in all the Wonderlandians stories, Sylvester cannot stand him. Everything he does just seems to upset Sylvester and no one seems to really know why as when asked about it, Sylvester just gets upset and frustrated. Perhaps he's upset Alistair would rather travel the world than play his role as the next Alice in Wonderland.

Mindy Pillar - These two are indifferent towards one another, there's not much more to say than that. Though their friendship grows a little as time goes on, they're not as close to each other as they are with the other Wonderlandians.

Chancellor Cheshire - Sylvester finds Chancellor. . Annoying to say the least. He tries to stay out of the young Cheshire's way to avoid his haphazard mischief but it doesn't always work out that way. Occasionally Sylvester gets caught up in one of his schemes so you'll see the prince trailing after Chancellor with a disgruntled look on his face.

Declan Hare - These two don't interact much, like how he is with Mindy, Sylvester, due to not interacting too much with Declan, doesn't really have an opinion on him.

[sillyidol]

hi!! this blog is definitely one of my favourites eva!! i think the aesthetic is divine. anyway, i was wondering if the angel had any names that felt dark and cruel, but at the same time mischievous? thats kind of a hard theme i understand, so im happy if the marionette skips this request /g

♡ : dark , cruel , mysterious . . .

? names : virus , sylvester , pepper , mimic , jinx , elixir , spider , dice , bishop , pawn , scythe , stitches , rook , juno , lorelai , victor , crypt , cryptid , sal , nyx , nox , nocturne , spell , atlas , jester

[anastpaul]

Sunday Within the Octave of Christmas, Santa María la Real de Uxue / Our Lady of Uxue, Spain (8th Century), St Pope Sylvester I (Died 335) and the Saints for 31 December

Sunday Within the Octave of Christmas New Year’s Eve Santa María la Real de Uxue / Our Lady of Uxue, Spain (8th Century) – 31 December:HERE:https://anastpaul.com/2021/12/31/the-seventh-day-of-the-octave-of-christmas-santa-maria-la-real-de-uxue-our-lady-of-uxue-uxue-spain-8th-century-and-memorials-of-the-saints-31-december/ St Pope Sylvester I (Died 335) Papal Ascension 314. Bishop of Rome,…

[soldier-requests]

uhhhh hi

i was curious about a name suggestion request for a masc mad scientist kinnie. very frankenstein adjacent but in the 70s. i was weird and lonely, a mortician turned mad scientist when i decided to start experimenting with reanimation. basically a lovesick gay doctor frankenstein.

i loved tea and sweets and taxidermy, i was chronically ill so i spent most of my time at home with my “work”.

i dont have anything specific in mind, just wanna see what vibe you get :)

hello!! that all sounds sick as hell /pos, i'll whip up some ideas ^_^.

names under the cut!

Abe

Abraham

Aether

Aion

Alador

Aldrich

Alessandro

Alva

Alvarez

Amador

Amos

Apollo

Arche

Arcot

Argus

Arizona

Ark

Arke

Austine

Balt

Baltimore

Baron

Bass

Beakman

Beau

Birch

Birche

Bishop

Blaise

Bo

Boe

Boone

Brandie

Brandy

Breaker

Bridges

Brontes

Bronze

Brutus

Butch

Butche

Butcher

Caesar

Cain

Caine

Callaghan

Callahan

Cardinal

Casidy

Cassidey

Castor

Cedar

Celine

Chapman

Chet

Claus

Clive

Clutch

Clyve

Cochrane

Conrad

Corbin

Cornel

Cornelius

Cort

Corvus

Court

Coy

Dael

Dartford

Dax

Denver

Dewes

Doctor

Don

Donatello

Donnie

Duke

Dusty

Dweller

Egret

Ezekiel

Finch

Ford

Francisque

Geb

Geordi

Gill

Gin

Grant

Hammon

Hans

Hart

Hartford

Hartley

Hartnett

Heath

Heathe

Hebe

Helio

Helios

Hermann

Hermit

Hershey

Huck

Hugo

Ivo

Jayne

Jeremias

Jericho

Jethro

Jos

Josef

Joseph

Joss

Jost

Judge

Junco

King

Kinglet

Klaus

Krispin

Laurent

Lelantos

Lucky

Lutz

Lux

Lyre

Magnus

Mandrake

Marti

Martin

Marvin

Matteo

Matthaeus

Mattheus

Mauritz

Mayfair

McCoy

Melcher

Montgomery

Monty

Morrow

Neo

Newt

Newton

Nico

Nicoletta

Nightjar

Noel

Noon

Noonan

Noone

Norman

Noël

Nuthatch

Nutter

Oak

Octavio

Octavius

Olivier

Oriole

Osprey

Othello

Otos

Otus

Pacifius

Paley

Pallas

Paulus

Peabody

Pipin

Pirmin

Reece

Reed

Reid

Rome

Rye

Sales

Salomon

Silvan

Silvester

Sixtus

Skimmer

Skinner

Slade

Solomon

Spoonbill

Stan

Stanford

Stanley

Styx

Sylvester

Talos

Teddy

Thaddeus

Thatcher

Theodor

Theodore

Thies

Thoman

Thomen

Thrasher

Torb

Torbin

Trumpeter

Uli

Urech

Urich

Val

Valen

Valentine

Valentino

Valerio

Vaughn

Vec

Vector

Vern

Vex

Vigil

Virgil

Warbler

Ward

Warde

Wester

Whet

Wilhelm

Wren

Zacharias

Zefram

Zephir

[dalesramblingsblog]

Brief Thoughts on Judge Dredd Novels, Part IX: Wetworks by Dave Stone

And so Virgin's Judge Dredd books end in much the same way they began: with Dave Stone.

Quality-wise, Wetworks ends up splitting the difference between Stone's two other contributions to the series, being less characterful and efficient in its storytelling than Deathmasques - and there's nary an Armitage or Steel in sight, for shame! - but considerably more coherent than The Medusa Seed.

After book upon book of David Bishop warming up his conspiratorial muscles for Who Killed Kennedy - well, OK, it's just The Savage Amusement and Silencer, but in a nine book series, two out of three ain't bad - we finally get Stone's take on the matter, and it's exactly as zany and off-the-wall as you'd probably expect.

Which is to say, basically, that for all that I just called it "more coherent than The Medusa Seed," we're still making that judgement by the parameters of Dave Stone. In the thick of things, the conspiracy just about hangs together. It's only when you think to pull back a little, really, that you start to properly question the particulars of exactly why an extradimensional being masquerading as a Mickey Mouse stand-in should make a bid to control the Earth by means of staging a big feature-length action movie in which the planet's various Justice Departments get overthrown.

None of that really matters, however, because Stone's narrative voice is in full swing by this point, and it's rather glorious. More than Deathmasques or The Medusa Seed, Wetworks truly reads like the work of the madman who is going to produce Sky Pirates! in a mere five months' time, and this carries the novel quite far. Even if the book's musings on conspiracy and apocalypse aren't anything especially original for the 1990s, the fact that they're delivered with that idiosyncratic Dave Stone charm counts for a lot.

Indeed, while I'm nowhere near versed enough in the context of 2000 AD fandom in the 1990s to know what the expectations were for the 1995 Danny Cannon/Sylvester Stallone movie - which I'll probably get around to watching and reviewing in a few days' time - I don't think it's reading too much into Wetworks to detect a barely concealed undercurrent of cynicism directed towards the idea of big-budget cinematic spectacle, which can't help but feel pointed in light of Virgin's eventual decision to can the Dredd novels in response to the film's high-profile failure.

And it's a shame, really, because these nine books have been solid. Not always anything exceptional, by any means, but certainly solid, and the contributions of Stone in particular rank as rather entertaining slices of bizarro, ludicrously violent dystopian sci-fi. I'd also be remiss if I didn't give an extremely honorable mention to Stephen Marley's Dreddlocked, my beloved, but alas it seems that it is the way of all Virgin sci-fi novels to eventually find themselves subsumed by a failed cinematic adaptation, regardless of the actual material quality of the books themselves.

I'll still do the Black Flame novels, but as it stands I've really enjoyed doing these nine books, and I hope I've managed to make it generally entertaining in the process.

Current ranking:

Dreddlocked

Deathmasques

Wetworks

Silencer

The Medusa Seed

Dread Dominion

Cursed Earth Asylum

The Hundredfold Problem

The Savage Amusement