#This way of thinking about the Charming family dynamic does have me thinking that King and Queen Charming wouldn’t have that much of an

[getosbf]

I saw some people talking about yuumori character sexualities and just wanted to add my own headcanons <33

Sherlock: see now, we all know sherlock has been explicitly stating his... Repulsion (yes, not "oh im not attracted to them" straight up repulsion at the thought of being in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with them)

And im not saying sherlock is misogynistic. He has been seen very happily helping women with their cases. And might i add that on the Noahtic, while everyone was prancing around with a lady on his arm, sherlock was standing in the corner. Even though he was also with ladies he was CLEARLY in it only for their appreciation of him. Because you see, Sherlock is a clever man. He saw these bunch of women who had no one to dance with and was aware that they would be head over heels for his skills. And he was probably sent to the Noahtic by mycroft, so why not pass some time and get some praise?

But as soon as he met Liam he felt an instant obsession connection. Not necessarily romantic, but this is where that japanese feeling that i forgot the name of comes in. The feeling of meeting someone and instantly knowing that while you dont feel anything now, you could potentially be dynamic (is that the correct word, for sherliam i think it is)

And as i said and will say again, sherlock is a clever man. Of course he's not gonna sit around sexually frustrated, when he can easily use his charms and skills to find the right people. But as per literally canon, until he met Liam he didnt feel romantic (that comes later though, first was obsession) "attraction".

Conclusion? Gay demiromantic.

William: now while william never had a "repulsion" to women, I'd say he quite literally has a repulsion to any idea of a romantic relationship at all. He looked at london and got his "lemme fix that" hyperfixation game so heavy that he forgot he was alive most of the times. That man falls asleep on random occasions at literally anywhere at any time because he avoids sleep for his plans. Do you expect him to have any sort of romantic or sexual relationship? No, sir.

Then waltzes in Sherlock. Like i said, instant obsession. Though for William, that japanese feeling never came. While he was always hoping for a different reality where he and sherlock could be together, he never acknowledged his feelings enough to let himself feel something.

But talking about sexual attraction, while i do firmly believe Liam doesnt feel it for the better part of his life, he did start to feel some things a while after meeting sherlock. He fucking KNEW what he was doing with that "catch me if you can, mr holmes~" I think it surprised him too, all this strange emotions trickling in slowly after years of not feeling anything.

Conclusion? Demisexual AND demiromantic.

John: thought he was straight, but you all have seen his reaction to irene when they dressed up as the king of bohamia right? I'd say bisexual, but he's still learning to embrace that part of his identity. And even when he does embrace it, i dont think he's gonna do anything about it. Cuz like cmon, its 19th century London. Do you think he'll damn himself by loving a man when he is capable of what most people like him are not (to love someone of the opposite gender)? But I DO think he had a crush on louis for a while but i think that just for shits and giggles hehe

Louis: aroace. No questions asked. He loves in a very... Devotional way. Like liam and possibly albert, he has an unbreakable attachment to them. His love for their found family? He is soooo aro ace coded.

Albert: wineromantic. bisexual disaster.

Moran: pansexual just cuz. He loves his women but he has had something with albert and possibly james that is simply not heterosexual. And he was in the army cmon if there's a hole there's a goal

James: pansexual BECAUSE, hear me out, he had known this since he was a teenager. Which is why it took him until he got to Moriarty's to realise he actually wants to be a man. He had known men love him, so he was styling his hair and wearing tight corsets. He had known women loved him, so he was putting on disguises to kiss and snog. I think he was just so comfortable in his identity he never felt the need to be the opposite gender. But he was and, well, we're happy for our boy.

Fred: ace, maybe demi, and genderfluid. I might be projecting on the genderfluid part here but can you blame me? He/they pronouns.

Jack: he's above such measly attractions (idk maybe he was young he could have had something but idk anything while looking at him now)

Mycroft: gay gay homosexual gay. No straight man spends 30 minutes every morning putting pomade in his hair (hiding a part of your identity, already? Huh myckey?)

Miss hudson: straight because she didn't feel any (okay maybe somewhat) attraction to irene but when she met JAMES ouahahahaha

Herder: married to the grind 💪💪💪 making love to the game 💯💯💯 he only loves one thing and thats his craft 🔥🔥🔥

Just kidding he definitely has something gay going on

Billy: he has some WAY GAYER going on. Have never seen him interact with women (how gay) so i can't say much but he definitely gives bi/leaning on gay vibes

[sednonamoris]

fran's 2023 read it and weep 🫵

a comprehensive list of everything i read this year and why you should (or shouldn't) read it as well...

how to read literature like a professor by thomas c. foster

i picked this back up again when i took on a teaching job as a refresh - it was my fourth or fifth reread and as always my main man thomas c. did not disappoint!! not joking when i say i quote this thing on the reg: it's a symbol if you think it is became a permanent fixture in my vernacular ages ago. this book aligns perfectly with my yes the curtains are blue on purpose agenda and serves as an excellent foray into deep/active reading, which i am constantly preaching about to my kids. fun and fresh literary analysis, just the way it should be!

tiny beautiful things by cheryl strayed

gritty, witty, and full of heart. this advice column-turned-book is shocking but so very human, and it got me out of a months-long reading slump.

bridge of clay by markus zusak

yes, a boy named clay builds a bridge, but it’s sooooo much more than that. this book weaves the past and present together in a beautiful way and really brings meaning to the concept of haunting the narrative. the descriptions are vivid and lived-in which makes the setting - 1980’s australia - entirely accessible, even to a foreign homebody like me. the family dynamics at play are outrageous and charming and the whole thing is gorgeously written and it made me cry. read it right now.

the hunchback of notre dame by victor hugo

i LOVED this book but unless you are just as obsessed with the story as me, this is not a rec. victor hugo anything is more of a warning or an i-read-it-so-you-didn't-have-to. did i learn more than i ever wanted to about french gothic architecture and the paris catacombs? yes. was i still utterly enthralled by the layers upon layers of tragedy woven together? also yes. it was so neat to see the (obviously many and major) differences from the children's movie and musical that i grew up loving. so many good quotes for my commonplace book in this one.

song of solomon by toni morrison

i had read just about every toni morrison book except this one, and since this is like theee book i figured it was high time i rectified that. to no one's surprise, i loved it. a brilliantly written coming of age novel with family history and family mythology in dialogue with cultural history and cultural mythology. who are we but the stories we tell ourselves? is common history alone enough to have in common? morrison is an author who poses difficult questions and lets her readers grapple with difficult answers and i always come away from her work feeling exhilarated. if you let me influence you in anything let it be this - whatever book of hers you choose, Everyone should read toni morrison and experience her brilliance firsthand.

the first law trilogy by joe abercrombie (the blade itself, before they are hanged, and last argument of kings, respectively)

gritty political fantasy with the most lovable evil bastards of characters you ever met - it's safe to say i'm obsessed. each and every character has themes and lines of repetition that carry through the series, but they're Anything but one-note. this trilogy is all about cycles, and what i love is that everything - literally everything - comes full circle while still feeling fresh and true to both the story and its characters. also logen ninefingers is my wife now.

the pale blue eye by louis bayard

i watched this movie first on netflix and had a great time, but to no one's surprise i'm going to tell you that the book is better. the character voices are strong and enjoyable - the kinds of personalities that keep you turning pages - and the mystery itself is full of wonderful twists and turns. it's in dialogue with sir arthur conan doyle, as all post-holmes detective fiction is, but does not feel shadowed by or beholden to it. the historical fiction aspect is fun as well!

[adanseydivorce]

top 5 diviners characters!

Sorry I took a while with this anon I just wanted to write out my thoughts properly since I don’t get to talk about my Diviners bbs often :). #1-2 and #4-5 are basically tied in terms of my feelings for them so I just differentiated rank based on how satisfied I was with their arcs/overall stories especially based on my reread last winter break because reading them back to back rather than as they were being published threw some of that into relief for me.

Theta Knight — I Adore this girl, have since day one and on reread especially she has my favorite arc of any of these characters, I love how her learning to accept her powers works in tandem to her de-learning the feelings of guilt she has from her abusive childhood and marriage. She also has such cool powers not just the fire but I also love that she’s the diviner who is given the title of Witch specifically in BTDBY in a way the others don’t, and how she ends up kind of claiming it. She’s also so deeply loving as a person yet at the same time unwilling to put up with bs, very stubborn frank and down to earth about the things that matter which makes her dynamics with others great to read about especially this makes her friendship with Evie Really fun because I love Evie but she does need that type of tough-love-mixed-with-support from someone. I of course love her friendship with Henry they’re very Margo-and-Eliot coded bi girl (I mean I know that’s not technically canon for Theta but I’m convinced) gay man found family friendship <3 and her relationship with Memphis is lovely very few of those love-at-first-sight-instant-connection ships work for me but they’re one of the exceptions and the way the maturity and growth of their relationship develops over the course of the books is really something. 

Ling Chan — girl who is me. Excellent INTP representation for once and she’s brown and wlw too I stay winning :). Ling is such an important character to me personally I really relate to the way she thinks, her being very logical and skeptical by nature but also finding beauty in tradition and the theme of being caught between worlds in different senses. I also love her powers I find dream powers fascinating and imo this verse handles them the best in terms of explaining them and keeping them interesting  (and I say this as someone who’s favorite series is the raven cycle lol). She has such great dynamics with other chars I loved her toxic romantic friendship in the dream world with Wei-Mei and her friendship with Henry and Memphis and Theta I have mixed at best feelings about Jericho but he’s by far the most entertaining to me in his dynamic with her in the last book, and her clashing with Evie was handled pretty well and I liked her arc around internalized misogyny but I do think she got very little to do in the last book and she peaked in the middle books, which is why she’s slightly bellow Theta. She’s so special to me though. 

Evie O’Neill — she’s just an excellent protagonist so three dimensional and interesting while also being very charming and fun, and the right amount of frustrating at times but you still love her. She’s ‘swell :).I also was pleasantly surprised by some of the notes on mental health and grief that got touched on in her storyline. 

Memphis Campbell — the Diviners men rank pretty close for me but like with Theta the fact I was most satisfied with his arc overall solidifies his ranking. King of Crows is my least favorite of the four books (I’m a huge believer that middle book syndrome is fake and those are often the best/most interesting books in especially characters driven series and that’s true here) although I still have love for it but the full circle of his poems as the voice of tomorrow was top tier and I loved the growth in his confidence and his relationship with Isaiah. 

Henry Dubois — he’s only last because he got precious little to do in books that weren’t Lair of Dreams which is where he shone, but I love him his friendships with Theta and Ling are honestly my favorite dynamics in the group And I just, have a real soft spot for the guy similar to how I feel about Eliot from the magicians. 

honorable mention to Sam Lloyd who I also am v affectionate towards! Funnily enough I did not like him much my first time reading book 1 but I had a quick turn around on him and Samevie in lair of dreams (I. Love their fake dating plot in that book it’s the best ever). So yeah, he’s a good. 

[allyriadayne]

Hi I saw you also love Aegon (TGC charm is definitely working there not gonna lie) but there is also other reason for my sympathy for him; you know even though writers did everything to make people hate Aegon and root for Rhaenyra this didn't work with me and I am just dying to have a talk about him. I have been thinking about him after being literally barbequed by Meleys. Alicent reaction to seeing him in such terrible state. In book it was said Helaena never visited Aegon while he was lying in bed with maesters surrounding him and Aemond being a regent but after episode 10 I am sure Alicent will spend most of her time in his room. Just imagine Aegon waking up, seeing her, telling her 'mother I did what was expected of me (what Alicent expected of him) and fought Meleys and Rhaenys and they are now dead, I have suffered great wounds because of it, are you proud of me mother?' I am in tears, their dynamics is so precious to me, I know many people say Aemond and in future Daeron will be her favourites, but her relationship with Aegon is one of a kind and I think every eldest child can relate to it in some way. Aegon's shoulders carrying his mother's expectations, doing everything she has asked to, knowing it would never be enough, it never evoke such praise as with Aemond, but doing it over and over hoping this time mother will appreciate his trying, that she would know how hard he tried for her and will acknowledge his doings, will tell him that she is proud.

And then I think of him returning to King's Landing after Sunfyre killed Rhaenyra. He is her firstborn and yet he would be the last one because the rest of her children would be dead at this point. I think Aegon before his death will realise that the only one who was there for him, would fight for him, even challenge Rhaenyra ascending the Iron Throne and putting whole 6 kingdoms at the verge of war (so also going against she said to Rhaenyra, going against upholding the kingdom) was Alicent.

Tom saying Aegon thinks his family hates him and just imagine after his return to King's Landing he is informed his brothers died fighting for him, that his mother suffered a lot as prisoner for him and only then he would realise how much they loved him, what things they did so he could still wear the crown and win against Rhaenyra and blacks. Going from thinking your family hates you, then seeing them dying for you, facing cruel treatment as prisoner, to having a clear proof they cared for you all along and now most of them are gone and the only one left by his side (because there is no other place she would have been) is his mother. Sometimes I think it was always Aegon and Alicent against the whole world. How am I not supposed to be emotional about all of this?

Hi!! thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me :) I agree with you there, aegon and alicent have such an unique dynamic that i myself can't help but being drawn to it too. he's her firstborn and therefore all her hopes and expectations rest on him even if he doesn't want them at all, or that she can't seem to like him (he's a sexual predator and alicent sees herself in his victims). to crown aegon means she will have reached her (her father's) end goal so she must push through it, make aegon fit to be king no matter that.

oh yeah, the positive reaction he received when he was being crowned will definitely play into their relationship because he'd want to maintain it and please alicent at the same time. though he's selfish and entitled, that he wants to please alicent in this way doesn't mean he's /only/ doing it for her, he's doing it for him too because being king affords him much more power than he has as a prince, over his family, alicent, the whole kingdom. as you say, it will be delicious when it's alicent who stays with him after fighting rhaenys and meleys. i think for him it will be a more concrete way to understand she does care for him.

and yes, at the end, canonically (!) aegon is thinking a lot about his family and what they did for him, he did commission those giant statues of aemond and daeron lmao. "Sometimes I think it was always Aegon and Alicent against the whole world. How am I not supposed to be emotional about all of this?" soo true, aemond is in the riverlands, helaena dies (rip), daeron is too far, they are effectively the king and queen in king's landing. they are the ones who had all the weight of the succession and the kingdom in their shoulders. for sure, i like to think that while aegon was an asshole to everyone, he reached a sort of understanding with alicent at the end to go through it together, as the last ones. her war became his war, and everyone died for it.

[whateverafterhigh]

It might just be an “It’s not you, it’s me” situation I have with the worldbuilding of EAH but some these royal families and dynasties cannot work how royal families and dynasties usually do without shattering the image we have of them all loving each other and getting on fine, happily ever after.

The Charming’s extended family alone is a disaster waiting to happen because there are so many of them. I was headcanoning their succession system as being an Agnatic Seniority, which means the throne would be passed across the brothers before their children. So if you take out Siegfried Charming because he has a story already, Lance Charming would be third in line for the throne and Daring and Dexter anywhere between ninth and eleventh depending on where some of their cousins fall age wise before stories are counted.

Lance Charming and the Evil Queen were described as being in the same year, so it’s safe to assume his siblings all lived through an age of “why should I be content with following this” in addition to potentially not liking each other very much (my mother was one of seven and while we didn’t meet up for a weekly ball, nor are we stupid rich and therefore extra because the upperclass nobility do tend to do everything in extremes as a general rule, the drama that has occurred in my family has lead to years of not talking to each other and holding grudges for things the other person doesn’t remember saying is stupid enough as it is. Lance Charming is one of eight.). With the sheer number of children they have between them it’s possible that the options for the next generation is a combination of a) getting their kids in marriages or stories away from home before the fighting starts, or b) married for politics either to gain support or something else.

From this parts of Daring, Dexter, and Darling’s characterisation could be pulled or developed on. Especially with the consideration that their parents would likely be leaning towards point a, directing them towards stories.

It would explain how Daring feels a particular pressure to perform his role as Apple’s Prince, as well as Dexter’s desire for the stability of knowing where he’s going to go. Even if neither of them know the specifics of why their parent’s hold that stance.

Knowing that Dexter had overheard at least some of his parent’s discussions regarding him getting Beast or hoping Darling might marry into the Charming’s of Troll Wood, and felt a certain level of dejection over not feeling anything for Rosabella would support not only his desire to marry his true love or for love, but also reinforce either point of story or politics.

Darling’s feelings about her destiny not being something she wants is proof that it’s thought of by some members of her family and not just in the way Charity Charming thinks the family is too action oriented. Because she must have picked it up from somewhere. Selfors’ work implies she got the idea from trying to copy her brothers and a book provided by her mother and while I’m not saying that neither of these couldn’t have happened, it doesn’t feel like enough in the context of all the Charming’s as a family.

I have other thoughts on this as well, particularly how the Charming’s would view other kingdoms and their opinion on the Royal/Rebel conflict happening at Ever After High, but I think the post is long enough for now.

[nightswithkookmin]

Yall must have Jungkook mistaken for your friendly neighborhood clown. Lmho.

You are gonna ignore that he's said, openly said, things felt awkward with Taehyung because Tae became reserved at one point- lemme guess, they think that was scripted?

I hate Tuktukkers.

Hybe does little in aiding in the break down of their relationship. Be it as it may, now they are in a good place and both of them are TRYING. That's all that matters.

Tae has always been invested in how their dynamic is perceived by the public, and LIKE JIMIN, he's always made that effort to present a wholesome image and impression of their relationship on camera- to an extent. that man ghetto sometimes chilee.

I just think he got tired of being the one, the only one putting in the effort. It takes two to tango. It really does. Jungkook invited him for a drink, he turned him down didn't he? And what did he do too?? He extended an olive branch, fell on Jimin to facilitate a conversation between him and Kook.

But imagine if Jungkook had decided not to go meet him for dinner that day? I mean they probably might have had a different version of that Soop conversation off camera regardless. Probably. But still.

Tae wants yall to know they are good. More than good. "We used to be close." "And now?" Are you saying we are not close now? The fuck Jk. Know what I mean?

He's said it himself, he loves to showcase his chemistry with the members. And with Kook i feel there's extra motivation to want to showcase their bond- because they've had a stinky ass reputation in the past couple of years. Cough cough.

Even now, some people don't believe them. Some people think all they doing is fake and for the cameras. That's how bad things got.

Don't know what is at the root of their issues. Their shippers blame it on Hybe of course. Big bad homophobic hybe orchestrating the demise of the most popular ship in Kpop- how ever did they sell the merch. * cue dramatic fainting*

Or maybe it's just them. One or both of them felt uncomfortable with the gay theories? Parents and friends showing them the XXX Tae Kook barely legal porn of minors and asking them if it's true etc- may be that made one of them uncomfortable branching out of bangtan and making friends with Actors and Actresses and other non kpop celeb friends who are lowkey condescending towards kpop idols? We'll never know.

Or may be its one of them dating someone else and all that tuktuk conspiracy theories getting in the way. WHO KNOWS.

All I know is Jungkook has boundaries and he tries to instill it with all the members but especially those closest to him- v and min- because the closest people to you are the ones who so often breach your boundaries.

Jk saying V became reserved- well that's V having boundaries too and enforcing it against him.

V is very vocal about his boundaries and he doesn't hesitate to enforce it even against Army. Get out of your imagination, poison needles, deciding to love the members in private etc.

All those are expressions of his boundaries and limits to fans.

He's said he doesn't like to be stalked and followed by saessangs and he doesn't like his friends and family being dragged into all of this. Certainly doesn't like to share his intimate friends with the members as Suga has called those friends unicorns because bts barely see those friends of his.

Jk has his too. He may not be as vocal about it but his actions speak louder than his words.

Tae may have the reputation of communications king, fan recruiter fairy- like RM says, if you want millions of views use Tae in your gcf.

He's by far the most popular member of BTS. It's his looks yes but he's a charming guy by far hands down. Personally, it's his personality for me- all of it, the good and bad and just his ravenclaw hufflepuff hybrid personality. I'm sold.

Like he says, he's fit for PR the most because he has a truck load of ideas he can implement to make the group much more popular.

He's a fan service king true and true and his wing man is Jimin NOT JK...

He and Jimin have a lot more in common than you'd think- in terms of drive and ambition and achieving goals.

They are born idols and are on the right path.

But that's not necessarily Jungkook.

They are different personalities after all.

Some people thrive under the spotlight, some crumble.

But Jungkook, HE TRIES.

Being an idol means you put up with a lot of shit and the fan is always right- i hate it but it is what it is. Quite similar to that whole 'the customer is always right' mantra.

There's a lot of his autonomy he's given up to be this idol. Whether he thinks it's worth it is up to him and a conclusion only he can arrive at.

He's nearly packed off these streets to go be a dancer once hasn't he?

Tae and Jimin is where they've always wanted to be. Hell dude said people mocked him when he said he wanted to be a singer. Asked him to get well and BTS made his dream come true.

Jungkook is living the dream, whether that's HIS DREAM is for him and him alone to answer.

Whether being bundled up with six other people all through out his career is something he deems ideal is totally up to him.

Jimin have made it clear THAT'S FOR HIM. HE'S SAID SEVERAL TIMES HE WANTS TO BE WITH THE MEMBERS FOREVER and didn't even want to be separated from them physically until recent times.

Has that been Jungkook from day one?? NO.

Even Hobi had said merely occupying separate hotel rooms gave him a sense of relief and independence from the group setting being bundled together all the time.

Jungkook has craved that sort of individualism and independence from day one. Even said at one point he wanted to try a solo career.

They are in separate boats heading in the same direction. Yall shouldn't force them all into one boat. That's how the boat sinks.

The members decided they wanted this color, I wanted something different.

He understands fan service is a necessary evil. Sometimes he's up for it, sometimes HE'S NOT.

If he wants to feed any ship HE FEEDS THEM WITH HIS CHEST.

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T ANYONE THEN RESPECT IT WHEN HE'S JUST NOT IN THE MOOD FOR IT???????????

I don't like how easy everyone dehumanizes him and strips him of his autonomy reducing him to nothing but a ship prop.

It's gut wrenching.

Makes me sick in my stomach.

It's how someone told me 'how can you have boundaries about 'this topic' when you talk about your vagina so openly on your page."

Same way i can wear short skirts and post my nudes online but say no to anyone who ask me for nudes and sex.

And no, you are not allowed to rape me either just because my skirt is short😊

As a JK fan I wish NO ONE SHIPS HIM WITH ANYBODY if shipping him means he'd be stripped off of his humanity and dehumanized.

Sometimes I see anti's point in hating shippers. Some of us are nuts.

If Jungkook doesn't want to hold Tae's hand, it's an opportunity to respect his boundaries NOT DRAG HIM FOR FILTH AND FORCE YOUR BIAS ON TO HIM.

If he doesn't want to post Tae Kook, no he's not shy, having cold feet, or being held by the balls by Hybe- he just don't wanna.

SAME GOES FOR PJMS.

JIMIN IS NOT A CHARITY CASE.

Vmin may every now and then seek validation from Jk for whatever reason but WE should learn our place and our boundaries.

They are both putting in effort to do damage control to their reputation and Tae just seems particularly motivated. I would be too.

Jk wasn't shy saying we used to be close, he should feel motivated to go out of his way to let yall know they is good now. They both played a part in ruining their ship, only them can fix it. Period.

Please allow them to flaunt their bond and chemistry. When they take a step back too respect it and don't act weird. WEIRDOS

[randomingoftherandomness]

What I am hoping for from Winner is King ( 烽火流金)

Okay, so at this point, let’s just be reals here, Word of Honor has kinda set the bar for me in terms of standards to expect from the slew of danmei adaptations this year. Granted, I know that there are some who think the way it was adapted was not up to their standards and that it could have been done better, please don’t bring it on this post because this is not the post for it.

In this post, I’m going to talk about  Winner is King (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

Now, Sha Po Lang, the original novel, is for me one of the best things that I have read in a very long while. As such, I can be rather precious about what I am hoping to see come alive on the show and what I am hoping will be present in the portrayals I see. I know there are some concerns regarding the script and behind the scenes stuff - and they are very valid concerns that I feel too! - and with the recent announcement that instead of 45 episodes, we are only getting 40, I can foresee that there could be some rushed handlings of the very plotty nature of the source material and perhaps a sense that style can trump substance.

But as the actual show isn’t beaming right into our eyeballs just yet, here are some things I am looking forward to seeing in Winner is King and some things that I am crossing my fingers will make the final cut! 

Warning for some novel spoilers ahead. I’ll keep it under the read more.

Tagging @zhongwans because I said I would haha...

Things I am looking forward to:

The Changgu dynamic. I think it goes without saying that if the chemistry between your leads is a dud, the show doesn’t need to even pass Go, it can just shuffle itself off the board because it will be dead in the water. The Changgu dynamic has to be nailed; I need to see that self-doubt, that caring for the other but coming at it from the wrong way, that awkwardness that comes with trying to hold back the burden of your love and care because you don’t want to overwhelm the other... 

I need Gu Yun to be shamelessly sweet with his words and his coaxing of his Yan Wang from a sulk. I need Changgu saying “I hate you to death, Gu Yun” (pining)

Hu Ge Er. Let me just be clear here, I will cheer when she dies, but I hope that how they handle her characterisation will do her justice. There is no excusing the level of horrible that she is, but I hope that she isn’t written as a single dimension abusive piece of shit. Nuance, is what I am looking for. I need her to be the villain and the reason for Chang Geng.

I. NEED. THE. WOLF. ATTACK. SCENE. OUTSIDE. OF. YANHUI. TOWN. aka The First Time They Meet

There is legit no excuse for them to fuck this up, but the Steampunk elements. I would not know what else to say if they fuck this one thing up that is so integral and basic to the love of this IP. They cannot fuck this up. I am very sure I will join people in rioting if they do.

I need to see my Red Kites, my Heavy and Light Armours, my Dragons... I need to see the steam powered lamps, the iron puppets... I need them to get the Wind Slashers right. I need them to get this world-building right ok? I need to be dropped into this show and just swoon over just how accurate to imagination everything looks. Tencent does have the blessed ability to make very good looking productions, so on this note, I am assured. 

I need them to get the human element right; I need to understand why Gu Yun is the way he is, I need to know why the members of the Lin Yuan Pavillion will back Chang Geng and why they won’t. I need to know why Liao Chi would betray the Emperor. I need them to make me feel; I want them to make my heart hurt when Chang Geng’s heart is hurting, I want them to make me cry when Gu Yun is at his lowest and feels like he can’t go on. I want them to make me laugh, I want to feel for Shen Yi and Miss Chen’s awkward courting. 

On that note, I hope they get the Shen Yi and Gu Yun dynamic right too! These two are bros ok? Life and death, ride or die, best bros forever and I need, need them to nail just how integral these are to each other and how much they chose each other as family. I need the bickering, I need the protectiveness, I need the banter. 

I also need Chang Geng conspiring to marry Shen Yi off quickly so that he can have Gu Yun all to himself lol but lbr here if we can get an ending for this show from Tencent that even breathes the same atmosphere of air as satisfactory I will praise the heavens

The Bone of Impurity. I don’t know to what extent they will cover this or if they would do it the way the book does it, but this being an element that is integral to Chang Geng, I would be surprised if they dropped it entirely. So yeah, I am looking forward to seeing Chang Geng fretting and worrying and getting Bone of Impurity attacks.

Just the way that Gu Yun allows himself to be cared for my Chang Geng and how Chang Geng lets Gu Yun care for him

I want one acupuncture hedgehog scene please and thank you

I do want to see how they handle Chang Geng and his elder half-brother; how that dynamic unfolds will be something to pay some attention to, I think

Oh! That moment when Chang Geng kneels down in front of his brother and tells him to please bury any talk of his marriage and revealing to his brother the scars that he carries from his time living under Hu Ge Er’s roof (this is one brand of Whump that I promise you will hurt you very badly and it will be very good)

The argument at Jiangnan is something I really think will also make the final cut. It wouldn’t make sense to drop it seeing as this is a pivotal shift in their relationship where Chang Geng is finally holding his ground and not bending over backwards and believing everything his Yi Fu says. And this was the catalyst for their four year separation so yeah. I hope they do this justice.

I am not a betting person, but I high key bet that the scene between Gu Yun and the previous Emperor where he tells the man, “If you go, then I won’t have anyone left” and this being the moment that softens the dying fucker’s heart enough to give him a bracelet of beads that will be a major plot point towards the end

THE. BATTLE. SCENES.

Things I am hoping will happen:

At this point, speculation is that the point that tripped Winner Is King up for a recheck was the politics. This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in China and rumour has it that shit be sieving thick and so a lot of shows are erring on the side of caution. 

Politics is the highest likelihood of a recheck but I am hoping that it won’t be dumbed down or watered down too much because the politics and the way things played out in the book was absolutely divine and I really want to see that court intrigue and scheming and interplay unfold.

I’ve mentioned in my most recent podcast episode that I am banking on this show to scratch my itch for a Nirvana in Fire level of plottiness and infinite craftiness of the characters and I am crossing all fingers and toes for that to happen because All! The! Characters! Hold! Their! Own! And I need to see that play out please I am not asking for much...

The final sea battle with the Pope. I wouldn’t even know where they would even begin to shoot that scene but this is something I would love to see happen.

The Bone of Impurity attack after Gu Yun sneakily left the capital. That was the scene that caught me and hooked, lined and sinkered me for Chang Geng as a character. Listening to this scene be brought to life in the audio drama has really hammered it home that if they make this bit into the show, I will watch and weep if it is done right. 

Cao Niangzi being Cao Niangzi. I am thinking it might not happen the way I want, but I just need them to get them right.

Ge Chen peeing on the enemy’s face. Please. I laughed so hard. I need this. It will be a balm to my soul.

Please, I need Gu Yun’s soul crushing flute playing like I need Gong Jun to always be absolutely horrible at singing because baby this is your niche and this is your charm own it work it

I also need Gu Yun stealing a bamboo flute from a 10 year old because he got jealous please and thank you

Any flashback of Chang Geng and Hu Ge Er before Yanhui Town

I want to see that moment that Gu Yun hears first hand from someone who had knowledge of what Hu Ge Er would do to a baby Chang Geng and the horrible abuse she inflicted on him, because up to that point, he only knew that something went on, but never to the extent that revelation wrought unto him

Any of the Bone of Impurity moments; any mention of it, any visual representation of it... Gosh, just the idea of having the Bone of Impurity made visual is just... Ugh. Yes. Please. The suffering.

[bonus] Things I wish will happen but will probably not:

The hot spring scene or a version of it

An implication that baby cannibalism was involved in the making of a Bone of Impurity

The scene where they get to the goddess doll (the description of it in the book was so bone chilling and if they do this I will have nightmares, I’m just warning you)

I really, really want a scene where, after being crowned Emperor, Chang Geng goes to the frontlines to reclaim the South and upon hearing that he was there, Gu Yun immediately panicked like he was about to be caught with his pants down doing something illegal when all he did was ordered his subordinates to keep news of his injuries from being reported back to the capital

Any flashback of Chang Geng and Hu Ge Er before Yanhui Town; especially when they were with the Barbarians

I want to see some version of Hu Ge Er realising what she has done to her own child and to Chang Geng

Okay this got super long but what are you guys looking forward to seeing when Winner is King hits our screens? I’m looking forward to creating content for this fandom when it hits ೕ(˃̵ᴗ˂̵ ๑) In the meantime, sound off on what you’re expecting and what you’re maybe wary about!

[tanoraqui]

okay I have to do this today because even I wouldn’t do it after the godforsaken finale airs, and it’s basically my specialty and I did spend like an hour thinking about it last night while washing dishes. Definitely partly inspired by @words-writ-in-starlight​‘s insightful post on everything Supernatural did wrong, and apologies in advance to all the characters for dragging them into anything related to Christian mythology:

Wei Wuxian’s parents die in a house fire when he’s 6(? I refuse to look anything up) months old

Jiangs are a hunter family I guess? That whole disaster of a family dynamic, except WWX dips out at some point to be idk an environmental activist bc at the time, that seems like the larger threat to the whole world. “Mom and Dad went on a hunting trip and they haven’t come back”, “bitch” “jerk”, 2 brothers in a beat-up old car, you know the drill

Jins are also an old hunting family, but more Men of Letters energy - they have a fancy bunker and do research and avoid getting their actual hands dirty. Jiang Yanli ducked out of the active hunting life a few years ago to be happily married to her peacock and settled down with a baby and she’s fine. We’re not going to bother Yanli. She’s safe and happy and doesn’t need to involved in any of this

so, WWX is the demon blood child developing exciting new abilities like telekinesis, mind control, exorcising demons by sheer force of will...etc, and Jiang Cheng is the Righteous Man. Lucifer, Michael, etc.

s1-3 probably proceeds more or less as spn canon...which I more or less remember...by the time they find their parents at the end of s1, Jiang Fengmian is...ugh, we probably shouldn’t kill him offscreen, I mean, we should probably meet him before he dies. I guess. Madam Yu lasts longer because I’m way more interested in her. But we do know that both Jiang parents are totally inclined to fling the boys into a metaphorical or literal escape boat and go hold the line for as long as possible, so...that’s spn energy...

Xue Yang is the one who’s like “fuck yeah, demon powers” and opens the gates of Hell, because I want him to have nice* things

*nice for Xue Yang

from characterization rather than memory, I’m 90% sure that Dean tried to hide his crossroads deal from Sam, but Jiang Cheng does it...better. I think it does come out, though. Right before the hellhounds do.

here’s where it starts to go farther off from spn canon. Jiang Cheng crawls his way out of the grave, gets stalked by a menacing presence that explodes windows for an episode, incidentally can’t find WWX...*Lan Wangji voice* “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition” (a baller line then and a baller line now)...and then the next episode starts with them all awkwardly standing around, and JC is like, “ok well let’s go find my brother then”, and you think there’s going to be an mdzs-riffing JC+LWJ Roadtrip To Find WWX...and they’re immediately attacked by like a dozen demons

in fact, the first time we see WWX in s4 is here, wherein he goes toe to toe with an angel and...holds his own. that’s new and terrifying! also is leading a squad of demons??

because here’s the thing: for the last 3(?) months, there’s been war in hell

because unlike Some People Mooses, upon finding out that his brother’s soul was legally nearly-owned by a crossroads demon, heir-apparent-to-Satan!WWX went, “actually fuck that” and kicked open the door of Hell (metaphorically, not loosing any demons this time) and was like, “who do I have to beat the shit out of to get a specific crossroads contract around here”

this did not work, obv. He didn’t know until it was too late, Lilith had already snapped up the contract, etc. etc.

obviously he also tried to offer himself instead, and got rejected for some reason

Since Jiang Cheng died, however, there’s been a war for control of Hell. Leading one side, Lilith, the Original Babe, who wants to break all 666(?) seals keeping Lucifer bound and in the meantime, break the Righteous Man so Heaven won’t even have Michael’s destined host ready for the Final Battle. Leading the other side, Wei Wuxian, infamous upstart, who wants to rescue the Righteous Man and restore him to life, tear Lilith’s guts out through her nose, and also stop her from doing the Lucifer thing because Wen Qing explained that yes, that’s a Thing, and it’s Bad.

Wen Qing! I’ve decided to combine Bela and Ruby’s roles and let WQ be both the cool badass example of how demon deals can go Bad and the demon deliberately leading our heroes astray for most of s3-4. Wen Qing is a very new demon; she used to be some sort of herbalist/witch but then she sold her soul in a crossroads deal to cure her brother of some lingering illness. 10 years of happiness and then boom, hellhounds. WQ is so obviously competent, though, that they (Lilith, I guess?) immediately offers her a job, with the promise threat that gee, that’s a nice brother you’ve got there, even with his Designated Chronic Health Condition getting all relapse-y. It’d be such a shame if something were to...happen to him...

we find this out at some point in last s3 I guess? some Monster of the Week case involves WN as a witness or something, or possible next victim, and WQ shows up to be A Normal Amount Of Invested In This, while desperately trying to avoid actually interacting with her brother (who thinks she’s dead). YES, the truth comes out; YES there’s a tearful reunion

now in s4, Wen Ning is fine actually, health-wise, bc he maybe made a crossroads deal with Wei Wuxian personally, and Wen Qing may or may not have admitted that she’s supposed to be working for Lilith to get WWX ready to host Lucifer? Or potentially that comes out later, idk. Either way, she’s 100% his top lieutenant in this exciting Hell War they’re waging

[insert whatever the hell (ha) happened plot-wise in s4 of supernatural]

we obviously mix up the relationships, too, bc it’s like, *LWJ internal monologue* I’m too young to remember my brother Lucifer as he was before he Fell, but surely Wei Wuxian is his Heir and Destined Vessel in truth, for he is Charismatic and Charming and Makes Me Feel Things, with his Clearly Feigned Righteous Drive and Compassion for All God’s Creatures and - why does heat keep pooling in the lower abdomen of my vessel when I look at his lips, which I am definitely doing a Normal and Not-Weird Amount - I’m just keeping an eye out for the famed Silver Tongue, and not in any way wondering how it would feel in my own mouth -

it’s actually DEFINITELY plausible for Lucifer to still be released even if our designated Heir Apparent is using his demon powers to his full potential and no one’s lying to each other about their motives. You just need to let Lilith be more scary too, and especially bc by “no one” I mostly mean Wen Qing; the angels are still totally hiding the fact that they, too, want to jumpstart the shit out of this apocalypse.  LWJ decides at the last minute that that’s a bad idea actually, gets himself discorporated to send JC to intercept WWX because he accidentally releases Lucifer, etc. etc. Oh yeah, the boys were def fighting before this, bc JC has actually fairly reasonable concerns about the sort of things WWX is getting up to in his quest to become King of Hell...

SO

...I neither know nor care what happens in s5

it does end with both Lucifer and Michael locked in the cage probably, bc I rather liked that solution. Fuck both of ‘em, basically.

I was toying with the idea that WWX also found Madam Yu in whatever hellish torment she was suffering after making a deal so her idiot son(s) would survive, and she was leading forces for him in the war against Lilith as well. If she came back to life somehow, body and all, it’d probably be compelling if she offered her own body to Michael - bc it’s her lineage! - and we’re all led to believe that she’s, uh, being a bitch and actually wants to risk destroying the world in order to destroy all demons...but then she seizes back control and flings herself/Michael and Lucifer into the Pit, because she’s just That Hardcore?

which means we’d actually have had her around and having characterization for most of s4-5, too, which would be fun

More importantly, it ends with newly crowned King of Hell Wei Wuxian appointing Wen Qing as Queen-Regent and ditching to go on an indefinite honeymoon with his new angel boyfriend (they’re going to fuck for like three weeks straight, then roll up their sleeves and go conquer Heaven in the name of free will), and Jiang Cheng gets to live out his hitherto-unknown-to-himself life’s ambition to be the sugar baby of the Queen of Hell. It’s very Hades/Persephone, except he goes back down to the underworld at least once a month. He gets his own demon squad whom he trains up in all the hunting techniques and it’s gr9. Wen Qing is reforming the crossroads deal process to make it more fair to the humans.

the end

Addenda:

it should go without saying but Jiang Yanli is definitely a recurring character, like, at least once a season there’s a filler episode where they go to Jiang Yanli’s for dinner and have to get along as a family, and also do the much easier job of defeating some sort of terrible demon that gets loose in the bunker and turns the evening into a horror movie. She’s their main research/emotional check-in person, a la Bobby, more often appearing in later seasons when there’s, uhhh, more to emotionally check in about.

Jin Zixuan is actually a perfectly competent hunter; he’s just a priss and we don’t Like him

we like Mianmian, though. Oh, I guess the official Hunter’s Guild or w/e tries to declare WWX a public enemy on account of the whole “King of Hell” thing and she’s like “actually what if you’re morons and assholes?” and joins hte team in s4 or 5? Yeah.

idk how the 3zun disaster happens in this ‘verse but I do encourage it to be happening in slow motion as a recurring subplot for several seasons. NMJ is a hunter, LXC is obv an angel, and JGY is...I wanna say one of the more human monsters, like a vampire? Or, you know, something that could be born from JGS sleeping with someone/something he shouldn’t have

[jeannereames]

1) I think it was Plutarch’s account, that after Hephaistion’s and Krateros’s famous clash, Alexander eventually reconciles them by telling them he loved them most of all men. Will you be expanding on Alexander’s and Krateros’s relationship in your future DwtL books? I remember you briefly touched upon them in Rise. Or like, is there any historical evidence that elucidates what their dynamic was like beyond/including the whole philobasileus thing?

Who Was Krateros (and what will I do with him in DwtL)?

I’ve always found it curious that, in most novels about Alexander’s conquests, Krateros tends to be a distant secondary character in contrast to others around Alexander, especially Ptolemy—despite the fact Krateros was more powerful than Ptolemy, and powerful at an earlier date.

I suspect it owes to the fact Ptolemy went on to found a dynasty and write a history. Modern writers feel as if they know him better. By contrast, Krateros died just two years after Alexander. So although he tends to have a better reputation among modern historians (which, I think, is not well-deserved), he’s never really received thorough treatment in much the same way (and for much the same reason) as Hephaistion.

He died too soon to become a major player among the Diadochi. But that means the people we know best from the era of the Diadochi were NOT the most prominent men at Alexander’s court. So don’t be surprised when Krateros pops up as an important secondary figure in the series with a more conspicuous role than Seleukos, or Antipatros, or Antigonos, who all long outlived him.

In part, that importance owes to Hephaistion’s role as protagonist. If pressed to name the chief protagonist of Dancing with the Lion, Alexandros or Hephaistion…it’s Hephaistion.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about future plots and spoil it—but if Krateros winds up Hephaistion’s bête noire, he doesn’t start that way. The details of their falling out is a driving point of the Long Plot (e.g., the plot across books, part of the overall tragedy of Alexander’s story). I’ll just say that, when I first saw Hamilton, the Musical, a lot of the Hamilton-Burr dynamic resonated because it reminded me of my vision of Hephaistion and Krateros.

Don’t overextend that, but it gives a general idea.

We have some hints that suggest, at least at first, Hephaistion and Krateros weren’t enemies. They may not have been bosom buddies, but I don’t think they were enemies.

I have a clear personal view of each man, based on the historical texts. Hephaistion’s personality I laid out in the first two novels. He can be touchy about his honor and how he’s viewed, and is 110% loyal to Alexander, but not a suck-up. The two just generally see things the same way, and will continue to do so (except in matters of religion, which does come to a head in one particular event I’ll not spoil). Yet in how to run the empire and how to Persianize the court, they’re on the same page and Hephaistion is deeply involved in court procedural renovations. This accords with what the sources tell us. Hephaistion followed Alexander in the changes, which is typical of how ancient sources would present it. Me, I’d argue he didn’t just “follow,” he helped Alexander come up with it. He understood the problem/hurdle as Alexander did and was a party to the solution of blending the two courts.

My Hephaistion is proud, and wants to be recognized for his contributions and ideas. He resents it when anybody suggests he’s just a “yes-man.” And no, that’s not because they were/are lovers. It’s because sycophancy is an easy way to insult your rival. 😉Nothing makes him angrier than being called a “flatterer.” His friendship with Alexander will go through highs and lows (because that’s human), but he remains mostly certain of his place at Alexandros’s right hand. That doesn’t mean he won’t get jealous, because he definitely has a jealous bone (which I think I pretty clearly established in Rise). Yet as time goes on, he settles down and his clashes with others stem from a failure by those others to recognize his place. Yet he understands his place—and ambitions—differently. He can act jealous and touchy, but not for expected reasons. My Hephaistion (and I stress this is not the historical person) just isn’t that interested in commanding others or occupying high office for itself. The kleos of it: glory He wants to help Alexandros make his new empire work, and gets really impatient with all the other “idiots” who can’t see what needs to be done to achieve that. He has ambition, but it’s north/north-west of typical.

Krateros is also pretty clear in my head, both as a fictional character but also how I think he was historically. He, too, is a deeply ambitious, and very capable. My fictional Krateros’s vicious ambition stems from being the “poor cousin” to Perdikkas and the Orestian royal house, needing to prove his place, not just get it as a right of birth—although he also gets it as a right of birth because he is not a commoner. In short, he has the resentment and envy of second-tier gentry, but the drive to succeed in Philip’s (and then Alexander’s) army where ability is recognized too. (I’d note that, after ATG’s death, Krateros [along with Ptolemy] joined Antigonos’s rebellion against Perdikkas as regent of the kings…which is why he died in battle fighting Eumenes, who was on Perdikkas’s side. Yet this is notable because he was almost certainly from Orestes…and thus, related to Perdikkas. We can debate who was higher born, but I think it was Perdikkas.)

Anyway, Alexandros recognizes both his ability and sympathizes with his drive to succeed because it’s similar to his own: the need to prove himself to his father, as prince.

That’s the fictional background of my Krateros, but the historical man was good at what he did, and knew it, and expected to be recognized for it among his peers: to stand first among them. Ergo, he was viciously competitive to rivals, but charming and charismatic otherwise.

How does that work? To those well above him in the power structure, he’s respectful and seeks their approval in order to receive advancement. So, for instance, he’s devoted to the kings (Philip, then Alexander) because they are Givers of Good Things (promotions, land, loot). He would have been a young officer under Philip, making him roughly the age of Ptolemy, Philotas, Nikanor, Koenos…maybe Kleitos (although I think Kleitos was a bit older), just as Leonnatos, Perdikkas, Seleukos and Hephaistion were coevals of Alexander.

So he couldn’t and wouldn’t challenge the “old men”: Parmenion, Antigonos Monophthalmos, Antipatros, etc. He even seems to have been an understudy to Parmenion. For instance, at Issos, he was in charge not just of his brigade but the whole left wing under Parmenion’s general command. He wanted to impress Parmenion and earn his support—not antagonize him.

Likewise, he had no reason to lord it over his infantry battalion, who would have been no threat to his ambitions. He needed them, in fact. By being chummy with them, he was far more likely to secure their loyalty—not unlike Caesar later.

It was those men who were rivals for positions he wanted who drew his special ire. Krateros would never get Parmenion’s spot while the old man lived, but Parmenion was old. Krateros could wait. After Issos, I expect Krateros saw himself as Parmenion’s natural successor. Yet Krateros was also unlikely to get Parmenion’s spot as long as Philotas lived. If we have only a sketchy idea of ranking order in the army, the whole Philotas Affair tells us/suggests the position of commander of the Companion Cavalry was the #2 position after Parmenion’s slot as viceroy to Alexander. Krateros may have served under Parmenion in charge of the army left side at Issos…but Philotas was still above him in the food chain.

Nikanor (Parmenion’s middle son) may also have been a hurdle, as commander of the Regular Hypaspists (as opposed to Royal Hypaspists), but he was younger than Philotas. Thus, Krateros would have started by removing Philotas, only worrying about Nikanor after—and as it turned out, Nikanor died of disease in late 330, deleting himself from the picture.

Our histories seem united on Philotas as arrogant and pushing his place: an obnoxious little brat, if also a perfectly capable commander. Ergo, Philotas provided Krateros with the perfect target, one unlikely to have staunch defenders.

So Krateros systematically went after him as early as the Egyptian sojourn, and possibly even earlier. Plutarch doesn’t always get things right, so we must be cautious about this, and Badian wanted to make the spying of Krateros part of Alexander’s big conspiracy against Parmenion’s family. Not at all. I think it was Krateros’s attempt to target the man he saw as chief rival.

At that point, Krateros would have regarded Alexander’s cohort as “the boys.” They didn’t have major offices, although were rising to some key junior commands. For instance, Hephaistion apparently commanded the “agema” (later term but good enough for this) of the Hypaspists. That’s the king’s own unit, who acted as his personal bodyguard in battle and actually ran with the cavalry squadron (!, yes in full armor). They would have been composed almost entirely of aristocratic young men: e.g., former Pages. So that’s a plum command for Hephaistion…but he didn’t command a whole SECTION of the army, like Philotas and the Companions.

Hephaistion, Leonnatos, Perdikkas, Seleukos…they weren’t a threat to Krateros. He could be friendly to them, may even have cultivated Hephaistion especially, for his unique access to the king. You may be thinking, Man, he sounds like a user! Well, yes. That’s how the Macedonian court functioned, although I think Krateros was more ruthless, and successful, than most.

Then he got an unexpected gift-horse: the Dimnos Conspiracy and Philotas’s casual (and deeply stupid) dismissal of the warning about it. Krateros went right for the jugular.

I want to make a point that I also made in “Crisis and Opportunity: the Philotas Affair…again.” We absolutely must resist looking backwards from the outcome to ascertain motives. When the scared Pages finally approached Ptolemy, who then went to Alexander and the other Friends, NOBODY knew what the outcome would be. It was not planned. It really was a crisis.

Yet Krateros saw opportunity in the crisis, and as a successful field commander, ran with it. So I see him, not Hephaistion, as the architect of the accusation against Philotas. HE had the most to gain (he thought), and if Plutarch can be believed in this, it wasn’t the first time he’d tried to bring Philotas’s snarky words and bad behavior to Alexander. As alluded to above, he’d paid Philotas’s mistress to report to him what Philotas said during “pillow talk” as early as Egypt. Now it could be (and quite probably was) that he saw Philotas’s bragging and claims to victories as a real threat to the king. (Kinda like shadow presidents in Mar-a-Lago.) People can have more than one motivation. They can even have a “good” motivation (protecting Alexander’s pride and reputation) alongside a “bad” motivation (making Alexander resentful of Philotas). Alexander’s pride was touchy too. 😉 Even if he blew off Krateros’s accusations at the time, we can imagine he was still stung. Seeds successfully planted!

We must, however, be careful not to read the final results back into the assumptions of the people at the time. Hindsight 20/20 and all that. I do NOT think Krateros believed this would result in Parmenion’s removal/death, although I do think he wanted to get Philotas arrested and executed.

Also, I do NOT believe Hephaistion had any idea he was about to be elevated to command of half the Companion Cavalry. He’d have had no reason to think he’d be leapfrogged over older, loyal men, such as Krateros…or Kleitos, who wound up as his co-commander.

Hephaistion’s motivation? Friendship. In “Crisis and Opportunity” I stressed it was friendship to Alexander, but I’ve also come to think that Krateros may have talked him into it, so also friendship, or at least alliance, with Krateros, who knew he could rile Hephaistion’s blood. He wanted that sheen of authentic anger. I want to quickly add that Koenos joined in with the torturers because he feared going down with the ship, as he was Philotas’s brother-in-law.

All this neatly explains why it was Hephaistion to whom Philotas appealed during his torture. Not because he orchestrated it, but because he had the least reason of the three to want Philotas out of the way. He was in it for passion and so, might then be moved to pity. Krateros was all-in from the outset, and Koenos had to be to save his own neck from Philotas’s arrogant stupidity.

So Philotas was convicted, executed, and then Alexander felt he must also execute Parmenion because he was sitting on Alexander’s all-important supply lines during a major operation. That is not a pretty picture and must be acknowledged as much. Philotas Did a Dumb, and lost his life for it. Extreme, but he dug his own grave. Parmenion was flat-out murdered. Realpolitik does not excuse the death of the man who’d sided with Alexander, put him on the throne, then advised him so capably.

In any case, from Krateros’s point of view, this was terrific. Philotas was out of his way, and so was Parmenion. Honestly, I doubt he wanted to see the old man dead instead of honorably retired, but it still cleared the way for him.

Then an astonishing thing happened!

Krateros didn’t get the Companions. Hephaistion did. And Kleitos. Of the younger generation, Hephaistion had just leap-frogged right over the heads of Krateros and all his cohorts. (Again, I think Kleitos was older; there’s no evidence of Krateros being at public odds with him.)

Just imagine how angry Krateros was!

The snotty little upstart! Who the hell did Hephaistion think he was?

So yeah, Krateros got what he wanted: Philotas out of the way. And in the process, he shot himself in the foot.

Plutarch tells us exactly why Alexander made the choice he did: nobody should have that much command authority henceforth, even his best friend. But he did want a man loyal to him in that position. I would not be at all surprised if—crisis past—Alexander recognized Krateros’s maneuvering for what it was…and didn’t indulge him. He wasn’t about to give out promotions for the backstage take-down of a fellow officer.

By the Battle of the Hydaspes against Poros in India (almost three years later), Krateros served the same position as Parmenion: hold the main army while Alexander leads the attack. Yet in between, Alexander had rearranged units. Even the Companions had not only been split, but divided further into six Hipparchies. Hephaistion’s was primary, but only the first of six. He was no longer overall commander. And that would have happened had Kleitos lived or died, as Kleitos had been reassigned as satrap in Baktria. Dividing the Companions had just been the initial sally to a more comprehensive reorganization and power redistribution.

Ergo, if Krateros had power, it would never be equal to Parmenion’s, and it seems to have been deliberately delayed after the Philotas Affair. Krateros dared not get mad at Alexander. Again, as king, Alexander is above these status wars, and the Giver of Good Things.

Another complication for Krateros: Parmenion’s death had angered Parmenion’s loyal men, some of whom Krateros had commanded…and Krateros had been part of Parmenion’s downfall, however indirectly. Wouldn’t it be convenient if he could shift the blame to Hephaistion?

So Hephaistion was now the chief man “in his way.” Plus (fair or not) Krateros resented him for getting the plum assignment, may have convinced himself that Hephaistion used the opportunity to sweet-talk Alexander into giving it to him. Even if he didn’t believe that, he could still have spread the rumor. It was advantageous, displacing soldier’s anger over Parmenion’s death onto Hephaistion. And it would rile up his own battalion/soldiers with indignation on his behalf.

“Stop the steal!” *smirk*

It all exploded in India. We’re not told when, but I suspect sooner rather than later—before the Malian catastrophe. My best guess is after the Hydaspes, possibly while everyone was relaxing for a while in Poros’s kingdom. Bored soldiers are gossipy soldiers, and get restless and pick fights.

Gregor Weber in his analysis “The Court of Alexander the Great as Social System” (Alexander the Great: a new history, 2009) suggested that Alexander encouraged such rivalry among his Hetairoi and Friends, and uses the H. and K. squabble as a peak example. To some degree, that’s true. Competition was endemic to the Macedonian court because it was endemic (maybe EPIDEMIC) to Greek society more broadly. Macedonian kings (not just Alexander) would have encouraged competition as a way of choosing the best officers. The Hetairideia I described in Dancing with the Lion—the Festival of the Companions with competitions—was a real thing. I made up a lot of the details, but we hear about it under the Antigonids, by which time it involved mock battle. But it was said to have been much older. There very well may be ties between the Hetairideia and the original Macedonian “Olympics” at Dion. E.g., the latter may have grown out of the former, but it’s all too vague to know.

Anyway, competition was natural and encouraged at court, but I disagree with Weber about Alexander encouraging THAT particular competition between Hephaistion and Krateros. Weber reads the clever “philobasileus/philalexandros” as encouraging. I see it (and Plutarch’s wording suggests) just the opposite. He was trying to lower the temperature in the room. It didn’t work.

We simply aren’t told enough about the swords-drawn brawl to understand what led up to it. E.g., who started it, as Alexander put it. I don’t mean (and don’t think Alexander meant) who pulled his sword first. He meant who STARTED it. I tend to read that “I’ll kill you both, or at least the one who started it,” as a veiled threat to Krateros. He would have damn well known who started it. He was telling Krateros in that public reconciliation, “Knock it off, dickhead, or else.” And I expect that’s also what he told him in their private meeting/confrontation.

There is more to this, but I’ve said all I want to, for the moment. Again, I’m working on Krateros and Hephaistion at present for a book chapter in a collection, and I’ll also be doing more on them both for a monograph. So I’ll just end with my take on the Indian conflict.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa has 8 stories at Gossamer, but there are even more X-Files fics at AO3 and her website. She writes Mulder and Scully in a very lovely way. I've recced 3 of my favorites of her fics here before: Bird in Snow, Fall: East on M St, and Skuamorph. Big thanks to Tabula Rasa for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

I'm always extremely pleasantly surprised to get kudos (or, very rarely, a comment) on my old fic, but I'm always happy to see it! I did post them all (I think) to AO3. I'm not surprised people are still reading fic, though. It's an iconic show and now with streaming, it's really easy to watch older shows and natural to want fic about them!

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

XF was my first fandom, definitely my first online fandom, and so it will always have a special place in my heart. Also... I had a great time! I stumbled upon and joined the Scullyfic email list by accident, but it was the best thing I could have done. I learned a lot about how to be a writer and how to be in fandom, and those lessons are still important to me. Foundational. Also, in terms of modern fandom drama, XF was more low-key on the drama (although it didn't seem like it at the time!). But I learned something that's always served me well: find like-minded people, and hang out with them. Don't worry about the rest.

Also... you can't control the show, but you kind of can control the canon.

Because of Scully, I ended up taking a forensic anthropology class in university-- and now I have a Master's in a forensic science! Part of the Scully Effect, and proud of it!

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Definitely mostly email list! I never really got the hang of message boards. Posting fic was exhausting, and tbh I never figured out how to work Ephemeral. I checked it every day, though! I loved, after a new episode, everyone sending in their thoughts and reading everyone's experiences together. Fandom was a lot more work back then, tbh!

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

That fic can be just as good, or better, than traditionally published works. There are works of XF fic that have stuck with me for years now, far more than some books I've read. That fan writers can know the characters better than the show writers. The fandom in general was really smart, and mostly more adult than me (I joined fandom when I went away to college, so I always felt at the younger end of the scale. That was good though!).

Also, my first time reading and writing porn. Not gonna lie, I was shocked the first time I accidentally read smut. But I adjusted fast. lol

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I was still a kid (now we would say preteen) when the show premiered- I think in middle school. But I was already into ghosts, aliens, monsters, solving mysteries, and I'd already imprinted on the dynamic thanks to Square One (really)! I was also just old enough to start developing celebrity crushes. Hilariously, I did not twig to the fact that I'm bisexual the entire time I was in XF fandom, despite having enormous crushes on BOTH Mulder and Scully. Ahhhh!

Also, my whole family was into the show, but I was definitely the one with the hyperfixation. I used to take notes and record the episodes as I watched. It just had the right stuff and hit at the right time. And I've always been obsessive.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

As a kid I also really liked Star Trek, and someone had given my dad a book about the history of Star Trek, which I read. This included mentions of fandom and fanfic. As soon as I had a private-- and perhaps more importantly fast-- internet connection (in college), I went looking for XF fanfic, and that was that. Hooked immediately. Also I shipped them A LOT so that's what I went looking for.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I tend to not go back to a fandom once I have a new fandom, so I wouldn't say I'm in it. I did hang around the edges for the revival, of course, because I wanted to experience that with the same people, but since the revival was mostly not that great (with a few exceptions), I didn't get pulled back into it. But I still think of the people I knew in the fandom a lot, and always hope they're doing well.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I've never left fandom, and I've been in a BUNCH: Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Bandom, Supernatural, now CQL/The Untamed and other Chinese-media fandoms, with many smaller ones in between or on the side. I feel like at their core fandoms tend to be similar, although where you host the fandom makes a big difference: Livejournal, tumblr, twitter. I think that because fandoms now tend to be bigger and more diverse (which is good) there tends to be more wank (which is bad). In some of them I was close to a group of people, some of them not. Honestly the best thing is when someone you know from an old fandom is in your new fandom. It's so much fun. I have really good friends thanks to fandom, and I've had them for YEARS. Like. 15 years.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I tend to focus more on ships than characters, but some of my all-time favs: Scully, Hermione, Sirius Black, Castiel, Lan Wangji, Xie Lian. That's just fandom-oriented ones, otherwise we'd be here all day. :D

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I don't often rewatch episodes any more, although if I come across an ep on tv I might. I definitely still think about them though! For example, I'm a teacher now, and just a couple weeks ago one of my colleagues mentioned he'd heard the students saying they shipped two of their classmates, and he was like "Ship? I don't get it" and I was like "HOO BOY, do I have a story for you!" And I explained how shipping came from XF fandom, and why. That was fun. I definitely still think about Mulder and Scully too-- I mean, they're cultural touchstones, so they do come up sometimes in greater pop culture. Also, I was in Hannibal fandom for a while, and Gillian Anderson is still The Best.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I haven't read XF fic in years, even the ones I remember as being really significant/important to me. I still have my all-time favs saved on an external HD though! Fic in another fandom- every day lol.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Blinded by White Light by DashaK has stuck with me. Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the Ruby-Throated Warbler by I forget I'm so sorry -- that's lasted as my ideal post-canon MSR and as an interesting and different way to tell a story.  [Lilydale note: It’s by rah.] I was always thrilled to see fic by Brandon, JET, MaybeAmanda, Syntax6... and, frankly, everyone on the Scullyfic/ Emuse list. So many talented people in that fandom!

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Things Outside, which is the only thing I've ever written based on a dream, and I'm really satisfied with it. It was hard to write but so much fun to revel in the weirdness. I always kind of wanted to write more because I know a lot more about the situation, but otoh, I like the open, ambiguous ending (usually I am very HEA).

In other fandoms, King & Country in bandom (MCR) and in Supernatural I'm very proud of Hope and Clay. I struggle to write casefics even though I love to read them, but that one really worked out.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I don't think I'll ever write something new. There is an old fic that may be done but it was smut so I was too shy to post it at the time. In theory if I find it and it's decent, I could post it!

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I do! I write fic very slowly, but I do write still! I have a million ideas for stories, but I'm so slow at the actual writing part.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I usually take a jumping-off point from canon, or of course, something I need to fix or expand on. Or sometimes I start telling myself a story as I fall asleep and the idea grabs me long enough I can manage to write it.

What's the story behind your pen name?

I was getting into fandom and realized people didn't use their real names. I flipped through my history book looking for inspiration, and decided tabula rasa was a great name for a writer. I tend to add an X because it's rare to get "tabularasa" as a username, and the X is indeed for X-Files (so I'm something like tabulaxrasa most places). I usually go by Tabula Rasa or Tab, though. And I still use it because 1) it IS a great name for a writer; and 2) it's not fandom-specific so I can keep it in every fandom.

I identify with it so much I have answered to this name in class (oops). I have a "Tab" t-shirt (as in the soda, but I have worn it to Comic-Con for ease of ID-- better than a nametag!). And my mom got me a necklace with a "tab" typewriter key as a charm, which I adore. Yes, I have accidental merch of myself.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

As you can tell from the above, my family knows (my family being my parents and sister). They are supportive! I think my mom read a couple stories? But obviously she has to know the fandom to get it... I got my sister into fic, and we even wrote a couple fics together (in Gundam Wing). She's a lot more selective about fandoms, but she's joined fandoms on her own, too. She's just not in one constantly, like me. :p

I tend not to tell not-online friends unless I have felt them out and know they're super fannish, or they bring it up first.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Most of my old fic is now on AO3 and I hang out on twitter a lot, @tabula_x_rasa

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

I'm really glad people are still in this fandom! It will always be so important to me. Thank you Lilydale, for this nostalgia trip!

(Posted by Lilydale on March 30, 2021)

[phoenixyfriend]

The MILFnevka AU

Once again something that was brainstormed en masse on the GG fanworks server.

I was... very much spearheading this one, but I dragged in @professorsparklepants for a lot, because Anevka, as well as input from @fenerismoon, @purronronner, @gelpenss​, and @whirlibird. The original conversation took place mid-September of 2019.

AU where Tarvek's side of the family squeezed in an extra generation or so.

Aaronev was still Lu's generation, but he had Anevka young, and she was an only child who was already an adult by the time Lu disappeared. As a result, Aaronev let her married before she ended up in the machine (because he wasn’t desperate yet), and he couldn't risk drawing the attention by the time Agatha’s gen is being born.

So instead of being Tarvek's SISTER, she's his MOM.

Anevka formed her own faction, separate from the Aaronev and vaguely aligned with Terabithia’s.

She insisted Martellus and his branch hang out with Tarvek because being an only child is lonely, and also it keeps Tarvek out of his grandfather's sights and vague plans of body-hopping.

She is a Protective Momma who is a little TOO down with murdering anyone who threatens her child.

Agatha: you're just going to listen to your evil mom? Because no offense but that's worked out really bad for me so far. Tarvek: She's not EVIL, just... Valois... anyway the Baron knows what she's like and mostly he just rolls his eyes and tries to keep her away from Queen DuPree.

Anevka is definitely the mom that uses her position as mother of the king/heir to stockpile as much power as possible and control everything behind the scenes. Tarvek is currently trying to undermine this and wrestle back control as secretly as possible.

Wine mom with eighty hidden stabbing implements.

When Agatha is discovered, Anevka still kills her dad, but it's not like she can steal Agatha's voice in this AU, so she just settles for aggressively matchmaking her with Tarvek.

Anevka's managed to rein her dad in, mostly, because she's a powerful spark with an Undefined Husband who nonetheless has enough good connections to cause a ruckus if he finds out about the Summoning Throne, and he's too sparky to wasp.

This did lead to his early death and no siblings for Tarvek, but not before Anevka managed to fight her dad down to ONLY trying to throne the girls who were legitimately likely to be Agatha.

And then Agatha's in Sturmhalten and Anevka's just like. Well. Time for plan A. And kills her dad.

Regarding Gil...  She kinda wants to pat him on the head and tell him to try harder.

I'm not wholly convinced Tarvek got kicked off of Castle Wulfenbach, depending on how Anevka married and decided to approach things. She might have warned Tarvek to AVOID stealing information, even, if she was worried about Aaronev trying to do something.

Less "do whatever you can to help us gain power" and more "do whatever you can to stay out of Sturmhalten."

Tarvek: My mom is a bitch and I love her so much

Klaus hates it when Anevka comes to CW because she acts like some unholy cross between Lucrezia, Terabithia, and Zantabraxus and she keeps hitting on his top enforcers but with knives and pretty dresses.

Unstoppable Divorce energies

Anevka: Do you like my new dress? Klaus: Your bodice is far too low cut, please stop visiting me dressed like my ex. I'm the same age as your father. Anevka: I know, it's really fun to watch you suffer as you fail to resist the urge to tell me to put on a sweater.

Tarvek: MOTHER YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME IN FRONT OF ALL MY FRIENDS PLEASE STOP HITTING ON THE BARON AURGH. Anevka: I'm not HITTING on him, I'm trying to make his face turn puce. Anevka: I am, however, hitting on Von Pinn. She looks like she knows how to have fun. Tarvek: MOTHER.

Tarvek, to Gil: the baron can't be your dad, he's old enough to be your grandfather. Gil: He’s at a solid age for both.

Anevka and Klaus have zero actual attraction to each other but there's definitely A Dynamic that's eerily reminiscent of his relationship with Bang, with slightly less "I did a violence, be proud of me" and slightly more "I did a sexy and/or politics, be proud of me."

Tarvek: I have a problem. Gil: What's up? Tarvek: All of our friends want to fuck my mom. Zulenna: I don't. Tarvek: That's because she used to put you in time-out when we were five.

Anevka is prime Dangerous Widow material. She didn't actually kill her husband but a hell of a lot of people think she did.

Seffie thinks her Auntie 'Nevka is the COOLEST

Anevka having an intermittent fling with that "darlingly stupid young hero, Tryggvassen" makes me laugh way too hard and also dips into my nonsense love of Otharnevka.

At one point we did sidle over into “what if Single Father KB tho”

Like they met at some point on vacation while the kids were still kids, which does lose us the “Anevka aggressively ships her kid with Agatha” thing, so I’m not sticking with this but there’s some hella fun tidbits.

Anevka: Guess what. Klaus, very tired: What. Anevka: I'm getting married. Klaus: Again? Good for you. I hope this one lives longer. Anevka: He has the same name as you. Klaus: Get out of my house.

KB isn't a widower, things are just complicated and everyone blames Lu. There's time travel involved, of course.

"So your daughter--" "Sister." "...how--" "Just... just blame my mother."

He's LEGALLY Agatha's dad, maybe? Their dynamic is parent-child. Just, you know, as far as blood goes...

Anevka wants KB to help her bag Othar again. KB thinks she means finally killing him. Anevka: I might. Haven't decided yet.

Overall, though, including KB is too complicated without undermining the entire premise I want. Which is mostly canon but Anevka is Tarvek's embarrassing, mysterious, prone-to-assassination mother.

Seriously though, the entire attraction here is Anevka having the Dangerous Widow Whom No Man Can Tie Down vibe

She's a solo act. Some flings, sure, but overall? Chaos. Refined, elegant chaos.

Anevka as Bang’s sugar mom was suggested. We were obviously all on board.

Bang doesn’t need a sugar mom, but it makes the vein in Klaus's forehead throb, and that's very important.

Bang absolutely tries to get Tarvek to call her “mom” while she’s ‘dating’ Anevka. One time he does call her that and it throws her for SUCH A LOOP because no wrong.

Anevka occasionally daydreams of a world where she could have both Othar and Bang at the same time without them IMMEDIATELY trying to kill each other. Only occasionally, though, she has evidence to plant and blood to spill.

BACK TO ANEVKA SHIPPING HER KID WITH HIS POLITICALLY-APPROPRIATE CRUSH.

Anevka: Oh look, my future daughter-in-law. Tarvek, tired: Mother, she doesn't like me. Anevka: Whyever not? You're clever, handsome, politically apt, charming, sensitive, heir to a throne, you are EVERYTHING a maiden could wish for. Tarvek: You just think that because you're my mom. Agatha: No, no, she's not wrong. You're just not someone I trust. At all. Especially since you say you've been a honeypot before. Anevka: See? A simple hurdle, dear, I'm sure you could whip him into shape in no time. I could even loan you the whip. And the harness, perh-- Tarvek: MOTHER.

Anevka sends Tarvek out with Othar for “field trips.”

It’s great!! Multi-purpose! Absolutely helps boost Tarvek’s image if he’s associated with Known Hero, gets Othar out of her hair for a little bit, sometimes he can be pointed in a direction that’s useful to her.

Othar refers to this outings as “stepfather-stepson bonding times.” Tarvek absolutely hates it. Detests it, really.

Somehow something goes wrong and like 50% of the time and he ends up getting accused of murder, probably.

It’s so unfair. Especially since of the two of them, Othar is more likely to murder than him. (It’s because everyone knows what those Valois types are like, and Othar is a hero.)

Gil: What's so embarrassing about your mom? Your mom's nice. (To me.)

She gives him head pats and lollipops. His own dad certainly never gives him head pats OR lollipops.

Anevka: Well I WAS going to push him towards dear little Seffie, but he seems to be quite enamored with YOU, darling. Tarvek: Mother, PLEASE stop getting invested in my love life.

Anevka’s job is to meddle, he’s lucky she isn’t drawing up contracts and going Full Arrangement.

I also love the idea of Anevka having one of those "sunshine embodied anime mom" smiles as she says "Oh Tarvek, dear, look at all your little friends!"

She's genuinely enthused but Klaus is heavily disturbed by Anevka smiling like that.

"Is she going to sacrifice them?" "Uh, no, it isn't Sunday."

Human sacrifice is actually garish and passe these days, haven’t you heard?

Just imagining one of those Stately Child and Parent portraits with Anevka and Tarvek here.

When Tarvek was born, Anevka has an "I've only had my son for an hour and a half" moment... and then just shrugged and rolled with it.

Anevka "Hot Mom" Sturmvoraus is one of the MANY banes of Klaus's existence, but she's definitely one of the friendliest on the list... as much as he may resent that, at times.

Anevka: Is the Baron in? Boris: Actually... [Crashing noise] Boris: He just left. Anevka, pulling on the rocket boots she stole from Othar and heading towards the broken window leading to the outside of the ship: That's alright, I'll catch up.

(I love how Anevka's name just lends itself so well to AU portmanteaus.)

Anevka definitely susses out Gil's identity but she doesn't actually DO anything about it other than angling for Useful Connections.

She's always telling Tarvek to bring his friend along, and Klaus doesn't want Gil anywhere near that family but he doesn't want it to look like he has any particular interest in Gil.

Imagine Klaus actually encouraging Gil to persue Agatha with the idea that it will put some distance between Gil and "that damn woman and her spawn." Anevka for her part is pushing Agatha towards Tarvek. Meanwhile the three of them are working it out between themselves.

She just has This Energy, folks:

Tarvek: Oh no. Theo: Whats the matter? That's your mom, right? Tarvek: Oh NO, she's wearing her 'NEWLY WIDOWED BUT OUT ON THE PROWL' OUTFIT Theo: ????? She hasn’t been widowed- Tarvek: SHES AFTER THE BARON AND I'M GOING TO DIE OF EMBARRASSMENT, THEO

The one thing here is that Anevka's not into Klaus and he's not into her but by GOD is she going to fuck with his head about it.

She’s just doing this for the Big Dick Energy of trying to Get Baron Wulfenbach.

Embarrassing mom of the deadliest degree.

Tarvek: YOU’RE GOING TO RUIN MY LIFE. Anevka: Don't be so dramatic, let your mother have a bit of fun. Besides, he's not expelling you anymore, is he? Tarvek: I almost wish he was-

Also Gil and Tarvek reconciling early on due to the immense power of being Embarrassed By Your Parents.

Anevka and Klaus getting increasingly bitchy at each other at dinner, and Tarvek and Gil are just. Bright red and glowering at them.

They’re DESTROYING their COOL TEEN CRED.

Tarvek doesn't ever wants to marry a woman who has been married before, not because of some weird distaste of so-called "sloppy seconds," but rather that he's just scared that they're going to be like his mom, and planning to kill him for his money.

Tarvek, waking up in the middle of the night: What if they really do get married and I have to have Gil as a stepbrother. Tarvek: (screams internally for a few hours)

Anevka is also that Sailor J contouring video

While Otharnevka is... this thing

Some more relevant Vibes: Divorce Court Half-Mourning Upper East Side Widow

Everyone always assumed she had murdered her husband. It was a natural assumption, but ultimately wrong. She had had plans in place to kill him if the need arose, but in the end she hadn’t needed them.

Most people grossly underestimated how complicated it was to arrange for someone to be t-boned by a semi carrying flammable chemicals.

Othar as Anevka's second trophy husband and Tarvek's annoying stepdad has a very specific energy.

That energy is at least 20% "the lovebirds take anniversary honeymoons every year" and 60% "Tarvek hates being in the room with them because they're gross and embarrassing."

This is partly fun because Othar being Tarvek’s stepdad is... a lot.

But honestly, I'm also just enjoying cougar Anevka with Trophy Husband Othar. They're actually in love!!! BUT. Cougar with a trophy husband.

Anevka makes sly comments about Othar and Klaus having sexual tension.

Also I have headcanons about NB Tarvek and like

I think she'd be supportive up until the point of "you want to be Storm King, don't you?"

Less "this isn't natural and you shouldn't be this way" and more "this is going to cause you trouble due to social norms."

"Keep it under wraps until your throne is secure, then you can come out in a blaze of glory." No dresses in public until you're king, then do whatever you want. After all, “Your Majesty” is gender neutral.

Anevka caught Tarvek playing dressup in her closet one time and just criticized the color relationships.

And you must try to avoid wearing that particular shade at all, my dear, it really doesn't look imperial.

[jenseits-der-sterne]

for the writing ask game: 4, 5, and 6?

Woo! Let's gooooo!

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

I really love a bit from Under the Surface. The fic is post-Calamity. Zelda and Link haven't been getting along, feeling awkward and unsure of each other. That leads to this paragraph that I really like:

During their second evening in Kakariko, she steals glances at him as he converses with Impa’s guards. To watch him like this is a revelation: Link chatting… Link laughing at a joke… Link gesturing as he recounts some story she cannot hear... And, oh goodness! Link catching her watching him, his eyes wide… Link giving her a tentative smile, a shy and fragile thing… Zelda flushes, and has to look away.

I wanted there to be a surprising and shy scene that would signal the beginning of a positive direction for their relationship. 

I remember @littleredwritinghoodxx pointed out this paragraph to me in a review as being so simple and so effective and that really was great feedback because to let me know it had worked as a whole scene essentially squished down into a paragraph!

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

This answer is going to get long, brace yourself!

Both BotW Zelda and Link, lol 

Like Zelda, I can get really passionate about science, which for me is linguistics. I can really ramble about this and go down rabbit holes looking into something.

I fear upsetting my dad, that I'm going to offend him in some way. A couple of months ago I was paralyzed over how I should organize family photos on our dining room wall because I was certain he was going to read meaning into the photo placement and say something shitty to me about it. I was overreacting and being sort of unfair to him, but also... he does do things like this sometimes!

Like Zelda, I think I often don't recognize something about my own behavior that may not be the most charming. When I wrote Under the Surface, I was trying to explore times where I've realized my behavior wasn't great, where I've realized some of my ways of thinking may be a good thing in some circumstances, but can actually be a bad thing in other circumstances. In that story, she starts to "over-engineer" the problem and then has to recognize she's doing it and make herself stop.

When I was in my senior year of high school, I didn't have a lunch period because I was taking too many classes 😑 Yup. That was a bad idea in hindsight 😂 But it's probably something Zelda would do too because she'd have to LEARN ALL THE THINGS!

There are Zelda scenes Before and After that Very Me. There's one scene in ch20 where Zelda begins to cry after Link tells her the letter she wrote for King Dorephan is good. Link's like "AH, WHAT?! WHAT'S WRONG?!" Zelda explains she was anxious he was going to tell her the letter was, in fact, bad. In this case, I'm definitely Zelda. I can be anxious about feedback and I assume the worst.

Oh boy, Link... So. I was a pretty quiet kid? Certainly not in a clinical sense of selective mute-ism, but I was a different person at home versus outside of the home. At home I was the kind of kid who was bouncing off the walls, but at school I was very quiet and obedient. My husband has watched home videos of me as a kid and he's like "whoa, you were kind of wild, weren't you?" He's right: I was jumping on the couches, climbing all over stuff, singing, and generally just being a huge goof ball. I think this was surprising to him because when he and I met in high school, I was generally pretty quiet in both school and friend group settings. I think this is still somewhat the case for me now, especially in situations with weird power dynamics. I'm lucky to have some colleagues who sometimes slack me after meetings and check in on if I'm okay if I was particularly quiet in a meeting 🥺 💖

Also, I joined high school JROTC and I'm 100% sure Link would do the same thing, lmao I have a High School AU WIP fic with a JROTC!Link that's been on the back burner for me for a long time now. Who knows when I'll get to that, lol

Also, I was a horse girl and Link's a horse girl 🐴

I think I've injected a lot of myself into Before and After Link, as well. My husband has read some of the story and when he read these lines in Ch5, he said Link’s thoughts were Very Me:

Dorian gives you a look, his brows set and arms crossed, “Our past mistakes don’t define us.” Those are your words that he’s throwing back at you.

You hold his gaze for a moment before responding with a non-committal hum. You meant those words when you said them to him. Sometimes it’s easier to be kinder to others than yourself.

When he told me this, I was surprised. But this is definitely the sort of thing I would say and think, so go figure!

Wow, that was a really long and rambling answer, huh? lol

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Oh gosh... Link and Zelda! I don’t think I could possibly narrow it down to one of them! I have fun writing them together, obviously, lol

I’ve had a lot of fun writing Impa in “Before and After,” because she’s antagonistic to Link and Zelda pretty frequently, but she’s also got a softer side and there’s one particularly emotional and sweet moment I really like shared between her and Link. When I write more B&A and especially in the planned sequel fic, Impa’s going to remain antagonistic but supportive and I’m looking forward to writing that!

I’ve also had fun with the scenes in B&A that have Koko and Cottla. 

The most I’ve written with the champions was in be B&A. I’ve found Urbosa to be fun in the few scenes she’s shown up in. I’d like to try to write more with Urbosa... maybe that’ll happen one day in some story! Revali was also surprisingly fun to write in the single scene he’s been in in B&A.

I did have fun writing Traysi in The Story Mill for those 2.5 chapters that are in her POV.

So... idk! I’ve had fun with A LOT of characters. But Link and Zelda are for sure the most fun for me to write. 😄

Thank you so much for these @ink-and-moonbeams, this was fun! 🥰

[favefandomimagines]

I Never Planned On You 1

AN: Chapter 1!!! I plan for this series to go all the way to Deathly Hallows and probably a few years after in an epilogue, so I have A LOT of things planned!

Kendra Black didn’t have a conventional childhood. She was just a child when her mother was killed and her father taken away. Imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. 

Her entire life was met with scrutiny. Being a Black didn’t come with the best reputation. A family full of pure bloods who would do anything to keep their bloodline pure. 

Kendra thought it was the old generation but her generation was kinder, more accepting. With the exception of an occasional Malfoy. 

She was sent to live with her aunt Narcissa and her cousin Draco. But the second Remus Lupin, her dad’s best friend from Hogwarts, caught wind of the news he informed Andromeda. She was quite aggressive with making sure Kendra went to a good home that wasn’t filled with her family’s blood supremacy motto. 

It was the first time Andromeda and Narcissa spoke since Andromeda was cast out of the family. 

Kendra was always meant for greatness. That’s the one thing she remembered about her father. He’d make sure to tell her that she was going to do amazing things. And blood purity wouldn’t change that. 

Her first four years at Hogwarts were filled with two things: teasing and mocking for being the daughter of a convicted killer and keeping an eye on Harry when he arrived. 

Remus made sure Kendra knew the stakes if any of the Dark Lord’s followers or sympathizers knew of Harry’s enrollment at Hogwarts. 

She often thought back to the first time she met Harry. It was the first quidditch match of the term and she could tell he was beyond terrified. She did the best to ease his nerves but she was her father’s daughter after all. 

Kendra found herself at the Leaky Cauldron the day she was set to go back to Hogwarts. She descended the staircase and noticed the Weasley’s plus Harry and Hermione. 

“Kendra Black! Wonderful to see you again my dear!” Mrs. Weasley greeted the young girl. “Hello, Mrs. Weasley.” Kendra smiled at her. “Have you got all of your things? Extra robes, all of your textbooks?” She questioned. “Yes, they’re all in my trunk. Even a few extra in case I want to get head start on lessons.” Kendra said.

“Good girl, now go get some breakfast in you! You’ll need it for the train ride.” Mrs. Weasley instructed her. 

Kendra happily obliged, knowing not to disobey Molly Weasley’s orders. She walked over to the long table and sat in between Fred and George Weasley. 

“Hello, Weasley’s. How was Egypt?” She asked. “Ask Ron, he’s been going on and on about it. Telling every bloody person he’s seen.” Fred answered. 

Kendra laughed lightly as she grabbed the paper from George’s hands and went to look at the picture. “Have you not seen the paper yet?” He asked. “No. I’ve been in America with Andromeda and Ted. I got back a couple days ago.” Kendra answered. 

“Why?” She asked. “Take a look at the front page.” Fred said. Kendra furrowed her eyebrows and flipped over the newspaper and her face fell. 

Fred and George saw the girl grow white as a sheet against her dark hair. Her father’s mugshot adorned the front page of the Daily Prophet. 

“Escaped?” She questioned out loud. “I’m sorry, Kendra. Where do you think he’ll go?” George added. “I have no idea.” She answered quietly. 

But she knew of her father’s plans. And she knew he was going to be coming to Hogwarts. 

“Let’s not worry about my father. We’re starting our fifth year, we’ve come so far!” Kendra said, quickly changing the subject. “Considering you hated us first year.” Fred commented. “I did not hate you! You just weren’t my two favorite people that’s all.” She rebutted. 

“Well, now you love us. Couldn’t survive a day without our charm.” George added. “In your dreams, Weasley.” Kendra teased. “You show up there quite often, Black.” The youngest twin teased back. 

The dynamic between Kendra and George Weasley was quite complicated. At first, it was clearly just innocent teasing but once puberty became a factor, the tone became less innocent. It became murky what the meaning and intent behind the otherwise innocent teasing was. Kendra didn’t know how George felt but to her it was very confusing. 

The rest of the Weasley clan plus their three strays, made their way to King’s Cross Station to board the Hogwarts Express. It was customary, almost tradition, for Kendra to sit with the twins and their other friends Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson. 

Kendra didn’t have many friends but they were the small few who didn’t see her for her last name. House Black had a very grim reputation and most students couldn’t see past the rumors and its unfortunate history. 

“Kendra! I can’t believe your father escaped Azkaban! He’s the first to ever do it!” Lee commented as the five got comfortable. George nudged Lee at his comment, not wanting Kendra to feel uncomfortable. “Well, us Blacks are quite ambitious.” She said with a breathy laugh. 

“I’m sure he’s nowhere near Hogwarts. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Angelina said, trying her best to make her friend feel at ease. But it was hard to feel at ease when Kendra knew of her father’s plans. Well at least she thought she did. She hadn’t seen her father since she was all but two years old. A lot can change in 12 years, people can change. 

Kendra was afraid she would see her father and not recognize the man. George could sense something was wrong with the girl by the way she looked out the window. Her eyes moved with the rain drops that slide down the window of the train, head clearly anywhere but with them. 

“Are you alright, Kendra?” George whispered to her. Kendra looked at the redhead but was unable to speak when the train came to a grinding halt, the lights flickering. “What was that?” Angelina asked. “Maybe it was a malfunction.” Lee answered. 

The lights went out completely and the whole compartment became increasingly cold, the windows frosting. To them, nothing was going on but the windows getting cold and the lights going out. But to Harry Potter, he experienced something else. And it wasn’t long until words made its way to the cabin of five. 

“Did you hear? Dementors were on board, Potter fainted. Apparently, they were looking for Sirius Black.” A second year told them. Kendra’s face fell before she stood. “I’ll be right back.” She announced. “Where are you going?” Fred asked. “Going to make sure Harry’s okay.” She answered, as if it were the most normal occurrence in the world. 

Kendra made her way down the narrow passage to where she knew the trio would be sat. She noticed the compartment door open and peaked her head inside. “Harry, are you alright? Word travels fast.” She questioned. 

Harry always found it quite strange that Kendra was always so worried about his well being and if he was okay. He asked her about it once and all she said was that she knew his mother and father. They were nice to her and she wanted to make sure that Harry would be out of harm's way. 

“Yes, I’m okay. Just fainted is all.” Harry answered. Kendra’s glance moved from Harry to the man sitting next to him. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. We should be arriving at Hogwarts soon.” The girl said before making her exit. 

She waited outside for a moment until Remus exited the compartment. “They think he’s coming to Hogwarts, don’t they?” She asked the man. “They have suspicion. His daughter and godson both in attendance. It wouldn’t be that far off.” Remus answered. “Do you think he will?” Kendra questioned. 

“After your mother died, you were all he had. He’ll want to see you, innocent or not. The Ministry knows that.” The man answered. “And we can’t tell Harry?” She further questioned. “Tell him what?” Remus retorted. “The truth. That my father did not kill his parents.” Kendra answered. “He already knows that I knew Lily and James, he’s going to start asking questions.” She added. “And you will say you knew them through Andromeda and Ted. We cannot shift suspicion on to you, Kendra. Your father will not want you getting hurt.” Remus said. 

“Now, I’m going to have a word with the driver. Make sure we do not stop for anymore Dementors.” He added before walking away. Kendra huffed before walking back in the opposite direction. 

“Oi, Black! Heard your lunatic, blood traitor of a father escaped prison.” A voice called. The way Kendra could describe Draco Malfoy’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard. 

And that was after his voice dropped. Living with the Malfoy’s for about a year made her hatred for youngest Malfoy grow even more. 

“What’s it to you, Malfoy? I thought we were done with the whole ‘we’re family, let’s be civil’ thing?” Kendra questioned. “Aw come on, Kendra. There’s still time to accept your family.” Draco said. “I’d rather die than be a part of a legacy filled with hatred and ignorance.” She sneered before pushing past him roughly. 

Kendra despised Draco Malfoy more than the entirety of Hogwarts. But the problem was she has also seen the way he was treated at home. Lucius Malfoy was the cause of Draco’s most loathed qualities. He was trapped in a family that didn’t see anything other than blood purity and that was ingrained in his head long before he started at Hogwarts. 

And an ideology like that was very difficult to get rid of. 

Kendra arrived back at the compartment with her friends and sat down with a huff. “Uh oh, someone does not look happy.” Fred said. “Just my usual run in with Malfoy.” Kendra said. “How you’re related to him is still a mystery to me.” Angelina said. 

“I’d say the only relation is the family tree.” Kendra added. “Thank Merlin for Andromeda Black for falling in love with a muggle born.” George joked. Kendra sent him a grateful smile, as he was always able to make her feel better after any and all rough interactions. 

The train stopped at the Hogwarts station and they quickly climbed in the carriages to make their way up to the castle. 

Kendra thought of Hogwarts as more of a home than her actual home. She of course loved Andromeda and Ted for giving her the best life given the circumstances. But she felt a sense of comfort being at Hogwarts. It was her safe place. 

All anyone could talk about, however, was the fact that Sirius Black was on the loose. She couldn’t blame them though. No one knew the truth, even Harry didn’t know so she felt she couldn't be upset with anyone.

She sat down at Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, making light conversation with her fellow housemates, as the choir gave their annual performance.

“How are you really feeling about the news of your father, Kendra?” George asked her quietly. “Honestly?” She questioned. George nodded his head with a soft smile before she answered.

“It feels strange. The staring has gotten worse but nothing I can’t handle.” She said. Their conversation was cut short by applause and Dumbledore beginning his usual start of term speech.

“Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Now, I’d like to say a few words before we all become too befuddled by our excellent feast. First, I’m pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin who’s kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,” Dumbledore started.

Kendra overheard Hermione and Harry discussing their own interaction with Remus in regards to the Dementor attack. She wondered why Remus really took the position. Was it to protect both her and Harry? Or just Harry?

“Our Care of Magical Creatures professor has decided to retire in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. Fortunately, I'm delighted to announce that his place will be taken by none other than our own Rubeus Hagrid,” He continued.

Hagrid was always a favorite of Kendra’s. Mainly because he knew how it felt to get rumors spread about you that were so far from the truth.

“Finally, on a more disquieting note at the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until such a time as Sirius Black is captured,” The older man said.

Kendra physically and noticeably stiffened at the grand announcement of her father’s escape. She felt the eyes of everyone on her, teachers included. She just wished she could apparate away and never be seen again.

“The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day-to-day activities.” Dumbledore continued.

“A word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures. They'll not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving. Given the circumstances of Sirius Black’s own child here at Hogwarts, there will be no hexing or jinxing of any kind tolerated until he is apprehended. But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” He finished before the feast commenced.

Kendra could hear the whispers from not only the other houses but those of her own housemates. It made her wish that Dumbledore wouldn’t have mentioned her in the first place. She could take care of herself and she doesn’t want to be seen as weak to anyone.

“I love being the center of attention but this is not what I had in mind.” Kendra muttered. “Ignore them. Like you said this is our fifth year, we’ve come so far let’s not impede our progress now.” George told her.

Kendra smiled at him before they continued with the feast.

When they had finished their food, some having bigger portions than others, Kendra and the twins made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Of course the Fat Lady was more concerned about her voice than letting the students in but that was common at that point. 

Kendra made it to her dorm, the one she shared with Angelina, Alicia and Katie and began unpacking her things. 

“What do we all think about the Ministry sending Dementors to school?” Alicia asked. “I think it’s a terrible idea. What are our parents going to think?” Angelina answered. “I think it’s not safe. Especially for you, Kendra. They know you’re his daughter, what if they hurt you?” Katie questioned her friend. 

“I hope they don’t. I didn’t do anything and I definitely do not know my father’s whereabouts. Though the entire school seems to think so.” Kendra answered. “We don’t think so. Your friends wouldn’t think that.” Angelina added. “I was hoping this was going to be a good term but with all of this going on, I can’t help but get the feeling something bad was going to happen.” Kendra muttered. 

Of course her friends wished they could help her but given her situation, it was very difficult to make her feel any better. 

Later that evening, Kendra was sitting next to George on the couch while Fred sat on the floor facing them. It was like any other evening with the Weasley twins despite their usual need to get into or cause trouble. 

“Kendra, Professor Dumbledore would like to have a word with you.” Percy said entering the room. “Why?” She questioned. “He didn’t say. He just told me to send for you.” Percy answered. “Oooo Kendra’s in trouble.” Fred teased. “How can I be in trouble on the first night?” She asked. “You have a knack for getting into trouble, darling. Why do you think we’re such good friends?” George added. 

Kendra rolled her eyes and exited the common room towards Dumbledore’s office. 

It wasn’t every day you were summoned to the headmaster’s office but she had no doubt it had to do with her father. 

She had only been to Dumbledore’s office once before and yet it was still just as magnificent as the last. She stepped inside carefully, not wanting to disturb any of the artifacts that were inside. 

“You wished to see me, Professor?” Kendra asked. “Ah, yes, Ms. Black. I sincerely hope you do not take what I’m about to ask personally, but do you know of your father’s whereabouts?” Dumbledore questioned. 

“With all due respect, Professor, I only found out about my father’s escape this morning. I don’t know anything about where my father is or how he escaped.” Kendra answered. “I figured as much. The Ministry has been very interested in your knowledge of his escape. I will write to the Minister and tell him there is no reason for his suspicion.” The man said. 

“Thank you, Professor.” Kendra smiled at him. “Now, get some rest. I have taken a peek at our classes this term and you will need the sleep.” He instructed. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Goodnight, sir.” She said. “Goodnight, Ms. Black.” Dumbledore replied. 

Kendra walked down the corridor back towards the Gryffindor common room, her mind reeling with thoughts and theories. 

The Ministry thought she was behind her father’s escape? Now the teachers find her suspicious? If it wasn’t bad enough that her peers whispered about her in the halls, now so will her teachers. 

She sighed as she slowly approached the portrait and sighed. She was already fearing that this was going to be a very long year. 

[sanktagenyas]

ok so i finally watched those last three episodes. i said buckle up it’s time to suffer and by the saints did i ever suffer. i just knew the darklina scenes were gonna be rough to watch. it was already rough reading the scenes as they were written in book one. i mean the darkling just shines with his intelligence in that chapter, doesn’t he? threaten the man she loves? well the other man she loves? check! tell her she betrayed you when the reality is you’ve been telling half truths all along and didn’t trust her to make her choices? check! 

buddy this isn’t how you apologize. in the show itself it’s pretty much the same back and forth that leads nowhere. you lied to me! you ran off because my mother told you i’m not who i say i am without giving me a chance to explain! you’ve been lying or bending the truth since we met! YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON YOUR COUNTRY!

by that point i was just like chill the fuck out man you’re about to decimate many many countrymen and you know it. i loved that the stop they made was all about him getting revenge on the man who attempted on alina’s life, that was very unhinged of him and i was HERE for that shit but everyone else in that port? every other woman and child and man on that port? not all of them played a hand and he just went ahead and had them slaughtered without batting an eye. and it’s not like he has some kind of safeguard for grishas does he? how does he know there’s no grisha wherever he’s expanding the fold? some could be in hiding because they fled, because they didn’t want to serve the king. oh well he doesn’t really care about those people does he? we all saw how he spoke about those deserters to arken.

also he could NOT handle alina’s harsh truths about how his own actions are harming grisha close to him even though he claims that every choice he’s made was to protect them and empower them. when she brought up genya i was like yes you better look down you motherfucker! you did this to her, you delivered to her abuser over and over. 

we saw his backstory, some of it and he acted out of grief and rage. he toyed with magic he did not understand and of course he didn’t intend this but his reaction to the fold once it was all said and done was definitely foreshadowing what he was to become. i created something he said defiantly. you created something you don’t have control over. and now he’s done it again somehow, he’s got brand new creatures following him at the end.

i actually felt for young aleksander for losing the woman he loved but the arrogance and the recklessness he showed there is still the same arrogance he has now. he thinks he has thought his plan through but that’s just working off the assumption that no one opposes him ever otherwise he went ahead and put a target on grisha’s backs. he definitely put a target on alina’s back although i know that was never the plan. the fact that when he has a perfectly good remedy to the fold, a chance to actually fix his mistakes once and for all he turns its back and decides to make it ten times worse, chooses ruling via fear over hope is jusr a sign of how far he’s gone. and he didn’t waver once not even when alina was pleading with him that he could have made her his equal, that they could have stayed together and made ravka safe together if only he gave her a choice, he was still manipulative and lied to her face.

at this point i just don’t think his love for her outweighs his belief that he knows what’s best for ravka, what’s the best way to protect grisha. because he doesn’t care about anyone who isn’t grisha at all. he was persecuted like so many others. he won a war for a king centuries and that king turned on him. i’m sure he’s looking at the current one knowing that once grisha have exhausted their uses that king will turn on him too. the fold is just a different kind of war and if he wins that one for the king the darkling already knows what the outcome will be. 

so to summarize this whole darkling commentary here i understand where he is coming from, i understand the fear and the rage and the desperation. it’s not working out for him though. he’s feared but he’s alone. for every ivan there’s a zoya. for every man who’s blindly loyal to him there’ll be someone rising up to oppose him eventually. and if it’s not his own people it’ll be non grisha folks. he has the second army working for him still, but he is alone. and that’s no one’s fault but his own because alina was willing to work with him. 

speaking of alina i loved every second of her rising up to oppose him telling him she never needed him. she may have fallen in love with him but she never actually needed him to be powerful, she only needed to free herself of the restraints she’d put on her powers out of fear. i also thought that the way she freed herself of his control made more sense than it did in the books. 

i have hope for darklina still despite all that’s happened despite how positively full of rage ans resentment she is because she still loves him, she still listened when he pleaded with her that they needed each other if they wanted to deal with the fold. of course there’s the slight issue of him lying directly and manipulating her to do his bidding and of course the fact that he took her power from her. the only thing that was her and he perverted it for his own gain. i think it just might take more than a year for her to forgive him i’m afraid. i don’t necessarily see a path to redemption right now but reconciliation? alina can be merciful, she can be forgiving. i think all it would really take is just one selfless act, one show of good faith. if he keeps pursuing her and mal and keep trying to rob her of her agency however i don’t see them ever having any kind of closure.

i don’t think i need to expand much more on my thoughts on malina. i’m not feeling what the show wants me to feel. i’m not seeing them as these soulmates that belong together. to me they’d be better of as best friends. the darkling didn’t make her strong he tried to steal her strength for his own use but mal doesn’t make her strong either, she relies too much on him. mal actually was pretty damn resourceful when left on his own. i unfortunately couldn’t say the same for alina. co-dependant love is not better than toxic love and darklina’s toxicity (most of it) comes from the lies and from the darkling repeatedly choosing for alina. he’s not brave enough to just tell her what he intends to do and let her decide whether to align herself with him so he lies and he deceives instead. not much he can do to undo it now but he could help actually destroy the fold if he wanted to. i don’t know if he’ll ever come around to it though.

the darkling visiting mal with the sole purpose to rub it in his face that alina and he are immortal and so eventually mal will die and then he could just swoop in was just peak comedy. the way he delivered that line too you’d think he was talking to an insect not another human being. it was brilliant. mal echoing that same line but ending it with “the past will do it for me” was pretty good, nice quip i’ll give mal that but also terribly ironic when you see the ending.

team crows remains the highlight for me. kaz and inej and their unspoken love for each other is just killing me. i can tell there are personal traumas there that i don’t know about (gotta read those damn books and quick) what with kaz not being able to help tend to her wounds and the fact that there were moments were i could see there was maybe a kiss about to happen or an embrace (at the end when kaz let alina go free and made a deal not to rat her out) and it just didn’t happen. there’s a story there about kaz and his distaste for being touched/touching others. jesper is just here to look pretty, shoot shit and be the most charming person in any crowd. i’m in love. also someone give him his goat back for the love of god.

nina and mathias were entertaining for sure. with all that banter and all these jabs i should have really seen them falling for one another coming. i felt like it was perhaps a bit rushed but i guess there’s nothing like almost freezing to death together to make you reconsider your views. you know the whole saving of lives thing can really bond you. the waffle date was adorable. was not expecting nina to just brand herself a traitor for him and she’s damn lucky fyedor came on that mission because i’m pretty sure ivan wouldn’t even have offered to keep her name out of the report. she and mathias ended their story both heartbroken and separated. i really hate that he thinks this was all intentional. really hope she’ll join the crows on their next con job. and i also cannot wait to see the look on heleen’s face when kaz buys inej’s freedom.

i was not at all expecting zoya to turn against the darkling. that’s what happens when you turned down one of your fuck buddies, aleksander they get bitter and then they leave you to be eaten alive by volcras. ok but in all seriousness she did the right thing and i hope she finds her family even if they’re not alive so she can say her goodbyes. 

oh and completely unrelated but since i talked about heights of comedy before i really need more sassy! darkling in my life. he is everything. that quip about his speech. the way he said adorable like he was gagging on the word. him just letting david be his dorkiest self and raise his hand before speaking, that little put upon sigh. i love sassy! darkling almost as much as jealous and petty darkling which is saying a lot. just more of that. it humanizes him, i’m tired of villains who are forever stoic and stone face. 

i think i about covered everyone and everything that happened in those remaining episodes. all in all shadow and bone is an amazing adaptation, really faithful to the first book. they made some changes to the characters which in turn changed some dynamics (alina actually admitted she wanted to be with the darkling. out loud. to his face. book!alina would never and book!darkling would never cry in front of her.) but it made for surprising viewing. it also made me become even more attached to some characters (the darkling let’s be real) which made me care more which is why i was livid when they started making a lot of terrible no good choices.

i was just really blown away by this show and the way the grishaverse was brought to life and above all major props to the actors who all just seemed to be born to play their respective roles. 

[gringolet]

hi why do you ship gawain with lancelot? not trying to start shit im just curious

God so this is a true fact but I’ve been thinking about them since sophomore year of high school (i'm a college sophomore now) so this is going to be lengthy and involved. But i think Lancelot and Gawain have a really interesting dynamic as well as a lot of support in text which i think makes them compelling.

    In a lot of ways they are equals in a way neither of them is with anyone else-- they are, in the vulgate at least, the two best knights in the world, the two arthur trusts most and who are famous even among other good knights. Its almost isolating, that level of renown, and you see that Lancelot in particular is uncomfortable with it, though they both at times have stories of trying to escape their own names. Of course they would understand each other in a way no one else could.

    Despite the fact that Lancelot quite literally steals his place as number one, gawain is never resentful of this, never upset to lose to lancelot. In fact he seems very happy to sing his praises to anyone he meets, like in Lancelot and the Hart with the White Foot, where he says of lancelot that “He is the best knight alive in the entire world, and moreover the most handsome.”

    In the stanzaic morte, he tells elaine of shallot that 

“Such a leman as thou hast one,

 In all this world ne be no mo.

There is no lady of flesh ne bone

In this worlde so thrive or thro,

Though her herte were steel or stone,

That might her love holde him fro.”

Or, translated,

Such a love as you have, 

there’s no better in the world.

There is no lady of flesh or bone,

In this world so lucky or stubborn

Though her heart were steel or stone,

She could stop it  from loving him.’

In the vulgate hes constantly running after lancelot, happy to play sidekick as long as it means lancelot's company. He pretty infamously says this about lancelot:

Then Sir Gawain thought a little, like a man who believed he would never be well again. “If God were to grant me my health,” he said, “I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that he would love me above all others, all his life and mine.”

I think this is really interesting because its not a devotion gawain shows to anyone else outside of his family. Hes oddly protective of lancelot, considering he can very well fend for himself usually. In the dutch hart, he literally tracks down and kills a man who hurt lancelot, before tying his body to his horse and dragging it around like achilles. He also rescues and heals him in morien, gets the whole court in a tizzy looking for him after a battle with galehaut where he spends a year searching, drags lancelots poor cousins all over looking for him after a tournament, freaks out when he goes missing in the hart (: “He lamented more grievously than anyone ever will, or had ever done before, because he thought he had lost Lancelot, the daring knight.”) like jesus gawain calm down.

He explicitly forsakes his devotion and duty to the country in favour of lancelot; in morien, hes called to take his place as king because arthur is gone, and he refuses in favour of, you guessed it, running after lancelot.  In chretien it is said that 

“Now I will tell you the truth, and you must not think I lie, that Gawain would not wish to be chosen king, unless he had Lancelot with him. “

And he lies to arthurs face multiple times in the vulgate and morte to hide lancelot's various crimes.

Speaking of crimes, theyre both uh, well. Literal serial killers. And you know its good to have hobbies in common in a relationship. No but seriously they represent a lot of the darker parts of knighthood. From lancelots bit with the proud knight in kotc to gawains… what can be only described as massacres in the dutch texts. They both have very odd relationships with death, with gawain so familiar with it by being surrounded by violence from a young age that it no longer affects him, while lancelot is almost the opposite-- its very distant to him. 

I think thats another reason i like them; theyre similar in a lot of ways but in just as many they are opposites. Gawains whole deal is being charming, manipulative, educated and good with words. Lancelot is in contrast, especially in chretien and the vulgate, at his most inept in social situations. You note that in the hart, its gawain that has to talk him out of the marriage he accidentally agreed to (“ But he does not at this time wish to marry you-- you must understand...”) etc.  while gawain is centered at court in a web of political alliances, lancelot is a fair unknown, who can and does disappear for years and generally avoid court when he can. I think they work well as a team because of this.

Lancelot certainly think so, at least in the morien: Quoth Sir Lancelot: "By the Lord who made me, and who shall be Doom's-man at the last day, come what may thereof, since Sir Gawain rideth hence 'tis not I will bide behind!”

He isnt as quotable outside of one specific scene ill get to later, and most of what he does say is in aside to himself, like the lengthy speech he gives in knight of the cart while debating to himself why gawain has failed to rescue him, and if this means gawain doesn’t love him (“He ought indeed to receive your aid whom you used to love so devotedly! For my part I may truly say that there is no lodging place or retreat on either side of the sea, where I would not have searched for you at least seven or ten years before finding you, if I knew you to be in prison. But why do I thus torment myself? You do not care for me even enough to take this trouble.”) trust me it goes on like this for quite a while. 

On a side note, i think its a bit reminiscent of a scene from the vulgate where gawain thinks that lancelot is in  love with elaine of shallot--

 “That night he thought a lot about Lancelot and said to himself that he would not have thought that Lancelot would have aspired to leave his heart in any place that was not nobler and more honourable than all others. ‘And yet,’ he said, ‘I cannot really blame him if he loves this girl… (he goes on in debate with himself)...

    That night Sir Gawain slept very little, because he was thinking of the girl and Lancelot,”

the morte specifically calls gawain the man lancelot loves most in the world, according to a prophecy of merlins. Then, the kicker: he kills gawains brothers on accident, gawain swears to kill him in revenge, and lancelot…. Refuses to kill gawain, or even to renounce love for him. When asked about the fight, he says:

 “I do not know what the outcome will be, but I do know that if I were the winner and ought to cut off his head, I should not be able to kill him for all the world, because I think he is too noble. Moreover, he is the man, out of all those in the world that have meant anything to me, that I have most loved, and still do,”

Gawain forgives him on his deathbed and writes a letter, the entirety of which i implore you to read. He begs lancelot’s forgiveness and for him to return from france and see gawains tomb, “for all the love that was betwixt us”

I think you could interpret this as a very passionate friendship, certainly, but i am gay and so i think they are too. Not only because of the texts but because of the fact that their dynamic is fun and interesting and they work well together.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering why i call them remarkable, here is another quote from the vulgate, following the first fight with gawain:

‘It is certainly remarkable of you,’ said King Bors, ‘to love him so deeply when he hates you mortally.’

‘Find it remarkable if you wish,’ replied Lancelot, ‘but he will never be able to hate me so much that I stop loving him.’

[lady-griffin]

I'm curious, who do you ship in Otome Game no Hametsu Flag?

Oh Boy, get ready for a lengthy answer, that’s a lot longer than you ever wanted. 

I pretty much ship Katarina with everyone in the harem, except Keith and Sophia.

Even though Keith is in love with Katarina, they have such a pure sibling dynamic. I would hate for Katarina and Keith to lose their sibling, even if they gained a romantic partner out of it.

Sophia and Katarina have such a wonderful platonic relationship that I just adore. I know Sophia loves Katarina like the rest, but their whole dynamic is the most friendship based, especially for a certain big reason. I prefer their friendship with one another than a romance.

Here’s who I ship and in what order.

1. Katarina x Geordo

I love their dynamic and relationship and just everything about them. The setup for these two works for me on every level. Their scenes are my favorite and I’m always looking forward to seeing them interact with one another.

The juxtaposition of Geordo clearly being in love with Katarina and her having contingency plans in case he exiles or attacks her is just amazing. It’s so goddamn funny.

Plus, that juxtaposition provides such wonderful tension between the two, which is very enjoyable to see and explore.

It’s also interesting that their dynamic was established first, which makes me think that the rule of first guy/girl might apply to the story. Especially, since their engagement is a factor to a lot of the other love-interests’ feeling towards Katarina.

While it hasn’t been developed that much (at least in the Manga) something about Geordo being a black-hearted prince and not the fairytale prince he presents himself as is, for me, a very rich mine that has yet to be explored. The fact that Katarina is also very aware of that side of him, because of her secret knowledge, makes it all the more intriguing.

There are just so many possibilities for these two.

While this might ruin the harem aspect of it all, I think there could be a very interesting new dynamic if Katarina returned Geordo’s feelings –

(1) But she was completely unaware of her own feelings.

(2) If she were aware, would completely think Geordo is not in love with her.

(3) Katarina wonders and panics if her wanting to be with Geordo confirms that she is the villainess. Is she getting in the way of him and Maria or him and someone else? Is she just sealing her own doomed ending by being in love with him?

OR what if Geordo did break off his engagement with Katarina, because he has to be engaged to someone else (or thinks he does). And Katarina, to her own surprise, became sad.

Because then I can imagine a whole Ouran Highschool Host Club like-scenario, with Katarina going after Geordo but some other group or force tries to stop her.

Then whole harem helps her get to him, each letting her go in the process, because of their feelings (not despite) they all want Katarina to be happy.

There are so many possibilities for these two, so even if it’s not what I imagine, I’m just excited to see what is to come for these two. 

They just won over my little shipper heart.

2.  Katarina x Mary

I greatly enjoy Mary and Katarina’s friendship and whole dynamic. I love their scenes together. Seeing them together as friends, an unrequited love, a couple – is perfection for me.

They have such wonderful chemistry together and I’m always hungry for more. 

I love Mary having that bit of an edge to her (apparently more so in the Light Novels). And combined with Katarina’s density you have the makings of a great comedic dynamic.

In the game it seems like Mary was just the perfect lady – outside and inside. There wasn’t a darker shade or ulterior aspect to her (though that could just be the game’s limited view of the world).

But our Mary, she is more than willing to fight for Katarina.

That girl has an extensive profile on all of her rivals and is closely monitoring all their relationships with Katarina. Mary would cut a bitch is what I’m saying.

Which is very similar to Geordo, which is why I think Mary is so appealing to me as a love interest for Katarina. What I like about Geordo and Katarina, Mary and Katarina also have that factor.

Also, since Katarina is best girl and Mary is also best girl then clearly the two should be together (I’m sorry, Sophia and Maria – I love you two as well).

If Mary got the girl in the end, I would be over the moon.  And that’s what shipping is all about.

3. Katarina x Maria

I enjoy their relationship, whether it be platonic or romantic.

I was curious when I began to read the Manga if Maria was going to become the villain, since Katarina became the heroine. I was pleased that was not the case – hell, far from it as Katarina romanced her too.

They’re just so cute and sweet. And I love that when everyone else is exasperated with Katarina, Maria is just smiling all lovey-dovey, not even bothered. That’s great.

It also seems like Katarina saved Maria from her loneliness in a way that the game never really explored with the four main love-interests, so there’s that whole aspect to their relationship, which I am intrigued by and really like. 

If I’m being honest, though, I do think they are missing that good romantic tension that I think all good romances need. I want more of a bite to them and their relationship. So, they’re not quite there for me as a couple, at least not yet. 

Nonetheless, Katarina is lovely and wonderful. Maria is lovely and wonderful. So, the two of them together would be lovely and wonderful. 

4. Katarina x Alan

I guess with the kind of character Alan is, I thought we would have gotten more of his relationship with Katarina than what we actually get (in the Manga so far).

When I started reading the manga, I just assumed he was going to be the main rival to Geordo. So, when that didn’t happen, I was surprised. A part of me feels like there’s something missing with these two that I’m not being shown, which piques my imagination.

I like that the anime has elaborated on Alan and Katarina’s relationship, with what we’ve been given so far, because their relationship was lacking.

I love the drama of Alan falling in love with his brother’s fiancée and all that jazz. They also have a unique dynamic as friends and once rivals which is nice.

While Katarina is dense as all hell, Alan is not too far behind – especially when it comes to feelings and how to act on them. So, their combined density might just kill everyone else if combined– which would be a lot of fun.  

Overall, I do ship them less because of what we’ve been given so far, but more because of their potential.

5. Katarina x Nicol

Unfortunately, for Nicol there’s not all that much of him in comparison to the others.

I like his and Katarina’s relationship from his side - he’s cool and reserved to pretty much everyone (except Sophia), but quickly loses all that calm when it comes to Katarina. 

I do love his whole I’m prepared to walk an appropriate distance behind you, while you become the wife of my dear friend and prince and maybe my future King. That’s just some good romantic angst there.

It’s also nice how they both love Sophia and that is the basis of their entire foundation. 

There is something so underrated about a person falling for another, because of how they interact with their family. 

Oh, and Sophia rooting for these two, is just too cute.

6. Katarina x Raphael

Honestly, these two just comes across as though Katarina adopted a new little brother – even though he’s older. But I’m not opposed to their dynamic if it got more development. I’m really more in love with their friendship than anything else, though. 

Non-Katarina Ships (Gasp, can it be?)

7. Alan x Mary

I really like their dynamic as it currently is – and it would hilarious to me that while these two are engaged and both in love with Katarina – that somehow amongst all of that mess they started to develop feelings for one another.

In the game, Alan didn’t have any feelings for Mary (which how is that even possible - she’s Mary).

But, boy did he get jealous in this timeline when he thought Katarina was stealing away his fiancée when they were kids (which, yeah, that was 100% the case).

It feels like there could definitely be something between these two, which I’m not oppose to, as long as it feels organic and not just them being paired off together to tie up loose ends. 

8. Maria x Raphael 

I don’t know why, but I just really like the idea of these two together. Maybe because it feels like opposites coming together with their magic.

I think it would be fun if one of Maria’s romance-targets became a romantic possibility for her in this time-line. I just like them - romantic or not.

9. Keith x Maria

I think they would be sweet. Out of the four main romance-targets these two just work the best with how they are in the current timeline, in my opinion.  

10. Keith x Nicol

I saw a fan comic of these two and I liked it…

Keith being charmed by Nicol (as we have seen men are also affected) is nice. They also have the whole, I will do anything to protect my sister thing, going for them.

So, that’s some nice shared ground between the two of them. 

11. Keith x Sophia

They’re both very sweet and adorable younger siblings. It would be cute.

12. Mary x Maria

Honestly, why not. There’s not a real reason here, other than – why the hell not?

 --

And that’s who I ship in Otome Game No Hametsu Flag. 

This is just my personal opinion of who I ship. No judgement on anyone else or what they ship or who their favorite ship is. 

Also, sorry for the length. I have a lot of feelings and opinions on Hamefura.