#except for javier and alicia. and javier is only there because of lloyd anyway.

[lloydfrontera]

if i think too long about the ending making lloyd leave the home he worked so hard to save behind along with the new found family he sacrificed his life for so he can move to a place he has no emotional connection to where he only knows two people (one of which is actually following him from the aforementioned home) in order to make him get a standard "have a wife and children" 'happy' ending i start wanting to bite people not gonna lie

[lloydfrontera]

i think my issues with the canon romance at the end can be summarized by that competition alicia holds to win lloyd's hand.

she's like 'oh your new body sucks you need to marry someone who can protect you 24/7' so she holds a tournament to find the strongest woman in the continent and marry him to her so he'll have built-in bodyguard. which is objectively the funniest thing she could've done i love her so much. but. like. it's so unnecessary, redundant and also just,,,, factually incorrect??? ajdhka god lemme explain

here's how alicia puts it

but,,,, lloyd already has a bodyguard who's at his side 24/7. like. that's very much a plot point of the entire novel. there's literally a character who's arc is about coming to care about lloyd above anything else and deciding to stay at his side for the rest of his life to protect him. like. that's very much a thing that happened. it literally takes us 320 chapters to get to that point why are you acting like you're doing something new here

a swordsmanship competition. to decide who gets to marry lloyd. remind me what character have we spent the entire novel being told and shown over and over and over again is the most powerful and strongest swordsman in literally the entire world???

right. but he can't participate. because he's not a woman. which i think it's the point to this rant.

i don't think i need to spell it out but i'm gonna anyway.

the only reason javier isn't the one to end up with lloyd is because he's a man. because even by the in-universe made up requirements he's the most qualified one to do so, except that he's not allowed to even participate because he's not a girl.

and y'know what's the extra thing that just. makes me go a little insane because it's the one detail that makes me doubt for one second that all of this wasn't just pure chance or coincidence and instead is bk moon taunting us. y'know what it is.

what character is the only one who canonically can and has passed for a woman with no issue whatsoever in a seemingly out of nowhere gag that never comes up again. do you remember.

right. yeah.

so we have,,, a character who is devoted to our main character and has sworn to protect him for the rest of his life with everything he has, who is the strongest swordsman in the entire world and who can easily pass for a woman.

and then the main character is supposed to marry whoever wins a competition to decide who gets to protect him for the rest of his life, who is the strongest swordsman in the country and where only women are allowed to participate.

and i'm not supposed to read anything into that.

okay. i feel like i'm going crazy this is me right now

but seriously. this little tidbit that was probably just meant to be a joke about how alicia came to marry lloyd just,,, really highlights how unnecessary and redundant their romance feels to me

like. why would lloyd need to marry alicia. when he already has javier.

do you get what i mean

[lloydfrontera]

canon divergence and transcended noviel au!!

Where Lloyd complains out loud about wanting a normal marriage: so he asks Noviel to do something about the 'competition for the lady that deserves Lloyd Frontera's hand in marriage' challenge that Alicia hosts amdmxnd

btw long ask i am SO SORRY

Noviel at first asked why not just marry Alicia and live a good life as a king, but after much explaining earth customs he's convinced that Lloyd's making up excuses to be able to live at the Frontera estate freely, so he obliges anyway, just because he wants to see Lloyd truly happy, too

days before the competition Noviel makes an announcement to leave the barony for a month, much to everyone but Lloyd's shock, especially bc of what the Queen's planning to do, but either way Noviel leaves to do some 'work', and when he's fully gone, Lloyd's nervous, and Javier's delighted to finally be rid of his presence, albeit for a month

Fast forward to the day of the competition and Lloyd's sweating bullets bc Alicia's completely dominating the entire fight bc swordmaster queen(we stan🙏), but then. Suddenly, a challenger who wears an extra translucent black veil to cover her eyes, and adorning a very foreign looking dress appears, and??? Begins to show prowess in swordfighting?!?

the spectators watching immediately comment in awe that it's the fabled daughter of noble from a faraway continent, labelled the "slient beauty and power" of her family as she almost never speaks, yet is blessed with an ultra affinity for swordsmanship as a swordmaster AND beauty, to the point she needs a veil to 'ensure nobody immediately falls in love at first sight', and that the reason why she's here despite how the competition announcement had been only out for days was bc she roams around fighting challenges to find someone who can defeat her one day

inevitably, foreign lady and Alcia clash in the final spar against each other, with foreign lady showing sword techniques completely unknown to everyone, flashy yet practical moves, and just giving off pure power with every strike, and yet, somehow looks like she isn't giving her all in it, just fighting to prove something

Watching her fight, Javier's completely unnerved at the thought of another grandmaster in the making, and yet, silently grateful at the fact that Alicia won't marry Lloyd- and was about to comment on the tevhniques looking a bit familiar to Lloyd but.

Lloyd's completely enthralled at the fight, and dare Javier says with a pain in his heart, Lloyd's completely in love with the Lady, if the look of admiration, longing and shock on the other's face has anything to say. So he doesn't say anything out loud, and just watches the fight silently

meanwhile Lloyd's having the time of his life, completely flattered and extra grateful, because he knows that the lady that's slowly taking her time to defeat Alicia to prove a point is none other than Noviel, dressing up as a convincing lady. Lloyd's affection is definitely over the moon since Noviel didn't HAVE to put in so much effort for this one request, but he did;

Needed a competitor? Noviel dresses up as a lady that covers the eyes so nobody knows how he looks- oh but her identity? Spreading fake rumors days ago about a travelling swordmaster, genius plan- and most importantly, Noviel just. Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️, so of COURSE Lloyd's completely invested and enchanted during the whole fight, unbeknownst to everyone except Noviel and him :)))

The competition ends with Alicia being horribly defeated by foreign lady, the entire magentano kingdom congratulating and praising for foreign lady's win, and Javier's heart being broken seeing Lloyd excitedly going down to 'meet' her

Lloydcs in full fanboy mode completely praising and just so goddamn happy when speaking with the foreign Lady, even though she never replies, just chuckling silently

and later post competition, much to the shock of the spectators who know of "her story", after Foreign lady whispers to Lloyd to relay what she says to the crowd- Lloyd, using mana voice amplication, tells them all that the Lady who fought in the competition is none other than 'Lady Ione", the swordmaster who's only here to look for a challenge, and thus had never intended to marry Lloyd in the first place

However, she said, that any lady who would dare court Lloyd in the future will be challenged by her again, as she expressed deep interest in him (Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities)

Before Lady Ione leaves, Alicia requests a formal audience with her, along with Lloyd and Javier for a lowkey interview

After explaining her story on a paper as 'a young orphan who was discovered and trained by the "knight of blood and iron" and travelling around under his wing, until a noble family had decided to take her in after owing the knight for saving their lives, and from that point on, grew up as the adopted noble lady from a faraway continent, as a student of the "knight of blood and iron"' which explains how she's so strong and then saying that the Knight is now being held accountable by her family for her sudden disappearance, since she 'requested' him to distract her family so she could compete in the queen's competition (bc who DOESN'T pass up an opportunity to beat up a monarch right???)

Alicia's lowkey mad at the fact this competition basically meant nothing to her, Javier's glad that she doesn't want to marry Lloyd, and Lloyd's dying inside(gratefully) bc how the HELL does Noviel come up with such a convincing lie and getting away with it?!??!??

And if they needed evidence to back up the fact that Noviel and 'Lady Ione' are two different people, Lady Ione would show a pre-recorded intelligent video thing(like the one that happened in chapter 227 of the webnovel) of Noviel, with a helmet ofc, doing paperwork stressfully while communicating with everyone lmaoo

Eventually, Lady Ione leaves the lorasia continent for yet another 'challenge' and bc of her story, no one questioned this or stopped her- and when Noviel returns looking haggard a few weeks later, nobody has any suspicions against it, so it ends with (almost)everyone getting what they wanted 😌✨

Originally i was going to make Javier do the crossdressing but it would be funnier if Noviel did all this snnxndnd

Also about how the Noviel au works in the last arc of the novel ..... Let's think about that ina another time i can't handle the heartbreak yet mamzmsns

i have literally nothing to add to this it is perfect just as it is oh my god i am obsessed!!

like!!! noviel not only participating but actually winning the competition for lloyd's hand??? holy shit ajskdhksa

and like yeah he would! at this point he'd absolutely move heaven and earth for lloyd so this is like. nothing in his eyes. sure, he'll beat every challenger in the continent if lloyd asks him to, no problem.

AND JAVIER BEING DELIGHTED ABOUT NOVIEL LEAVING AHSKDASJKD i can just imagine someone half heartedly suggest getting another bodyguard for lloyd while noviel is gone and javier nearly biting their head off because how dare they, isn't it enough he has to share lloyd with noviel, that one is already superfluous enough as it is, no, this is his master he can protect him all by himself thank you very much

(altho coming back to what we said the other time about the novel ending with javier being literally unable to protect lloyd at the end,,, maybe javier would feel a little unnerved about noviel going away even as he tried to pretend he isn't. maybe he gets just a little bit more twitchy, a little more paranoid. maybe he gets a little more anxious about lloyd being out of his sight. noviel is annoying but at least javier knows he wouldn't hesitate to protect lloyd with his life. mmmmhh thoughts for another time)

ashdkja and oh my godddd lady noviel!!! yes yes yes yes i love that!!

i love the idea of javier being unsettled by some random lady suddenly start winning every fight and advancing through every stage with seemingly no difficulty. because at this point he would've been like. not happy but. at least resigned to alicia winning and marrying lloyd because at least he knows her. he knows she would be able to protect lloyd and he trusts her with him. but this lady?? who the fuck??? is she???

i can just imagine him quietly start wondering where the hell did he left his own dress lmao

AND THEN HIM THINKING LLOYD FELL FOR YET ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS MASKED STRANGER OH MY GOD his heart just sinking when he sees how mesmerized lloyd is by the lone lady and jumping to the wrong (and yet completely right) conclusion that he's in love jasdksafd

because yeah!! lloyd is very much in love!! but because he already knows that's noviel who went out of his way to give him an out from the whole thing just because lloyd asked him to and!! it's just so much for his poor little fanboy heart ashdksa

Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️

i love that his implies that suho gushed about it to noviel at some point and not only did noviel listened to him but also remembered it <3 like oh my god that's so sweeeet

Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities

noviel making his claim on lloyd i am Screaming lloyd would be an absolute blushing mess like face bright red even tho he convinces himself noviel is just saying it to get him out of the compromise ajsdkasd also love that noviel basically said "get on my level" and alicia and javier both said "bet"

and noviel's fabricated backstory for the lone lady is so fun, i love it, this man is lying his ass off and he's enjoying it, he's had plenty of experience already pretending to be a whole another person, this is easy in comparison (but also i kinda like the idea of noviel not being very used to lying before meeting lloyd but learning to do it very quickly, except that lloyd doesn't notice it and he thinks noviel is still a bit rubbish at it so when he sees him fabricating an entire backstory he's just like :O he didn't know he could that :O )

ahsdksak imagine if once noviel comes back javier just,, asks him,, once in a while,, after the lone lady. like just casually. out of curiosity you see. totally not because he's worried she'll change her mind and come back to marry lloyd and then javier will have to have lady ella challenge her in a duel and make a whole mess out of things. absolutely not. nothing like that. he's just curious.

FUCK I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING IT WITH ME

also a tiny doodle cause i couldn't help myself <3