#gw ship names

[a-river-of-stars]

Portmanteau ship names in Gundam Wing fandom: a shitpost

(written in response to @kirinjaegeste ’s posts)

So here’s the thing.  While Gundam Wing fandom’s two-digit numerical ship system has a long history, I actually prefer either portmanteau ship names or three-digit ship designation (ex: 1x2x1).  This isn’t because I don’t like the two-digit system or because I'm trying to make a statement about my gay ships not having tops or bottoms.  It’s just for practical purposes.  While the two-digit system works fine if you’re looking at a site with ONLY Gundam Wing on it, a lot of sites (Tumblr included) host more than one fandom.  There are other fandoms I’ve been in that used two numbers with an x between to indicate Season/Series # x Episode #.  And there are several other fandoms using numbers for their ships, too...let me tell you, I did not know there were people who shipped Engines 3 and 4 from Thomas and Friends but I now have a fondness for Gordon x Henry.  With these two factors combined, it makes it hard to find things with just the two-digit numerical ships.  When I first went looking for ship stuff for Gundam Wing I used the Tumblr search bar and the two-digit ships and ended up with almost entirely irrelevant results.  I was not happy.

When I first posted about GW back in 2017 I used the ship name Troquat for 3x4x3 because I KNOW I saw トロカト on a doujin cover at some point and I assumed it would be acceptable to use that in the English-speaking fandom.  It was distinctive and easy to remember, and I stand by that name even if at least one other person laughed at me and said it looked like I came from a darker timeline.  That hurt, by the way.  :(  I settled for using three digits to indicate a ship because no one makes fun of it and it still gets the point across to my satisfaction.  I like three-digit and will probably continue to use it.  But portmanteaux are still an option that’s been mostly untapped in English-speaking GW fandom.

So, for your viewing pain pleasure, here are my proposed portmanteau ship names from a darker timeline (most popular ships are in bold; upper case on the second half of the portmanteau optional):

1 Heeduo.  Heelena or Heerelena (I think I’ve actually seen Heeriri used in English-speaking fandom, which is accurate to doujin ヒイリリ, but I hesitate to use that because Relena’s name in English-speaking fandom isn’t rendered as Ririna).  Fortunately, the two most-used ships for Heero make some decent portmanteaux.  There’s also HeeTro, HeeQuat, HeeWu/Heefei (katakana for that reads a bit like ‘Beefy’ 🥩 in Japanese actually...).  HeeZechs (we could also shorten that to Hechs (lol), or we could flip it around to get ZechsHee, which sounds very Zexy indeed).  HeeTreize/Heatrays ♨️ or maybe Heerenada?  HeeDoro/Heerothy?  Lot of possibilities here.  But I am personally offended that there is no character available to form the ship Hee-Man. 💪

2 Hilduo works well as a portmanteau because one has a ‘d’ at the end of their name and the other has a ‘d’ at the beginning, so they blend nicely.  It seems Wufei is quite popular with Duo after Heero and Hilde...  Wuduo?  That one sounds like I’m trying to say ‘wood’ in Japanese a la Cardcaptor Sakura.  Could go as Wuo, which sounds like ‘whoa’ so that’s neat.  Or my personal favorite Duofei, which I would definitely refer to as ‘Duffles’ for the hell of it.  How about Maxwufei?  Sounds like we get a lot of Wufei there.  As for Solo, I guess it’s either DuSolo or SolDuo.  There’s also DuQuat and DuTrowa/TroDuo.  Putting the ‘Du’ first makes everyone Duo is shipped with seem very French-ly masculine.  :3

3 My beloved Troquat (troquât means ‘swapped/traded’ in French, which is great because it basically implies they’re vers right there in the name).  Quatre and Trowa have a shared ‘tr’ at the end of one name and the beginning of the other, so they form the absolutely perfect portmanteau of Quattro...unfortunately it’s so perfect that it’s an actual common irl word, so you’ll come up with a lot of irrelevant results in Italian or some Audi adverts if you use it.  Could go with Quatrowa, but now your Audi adverts will be in Polish.  So Troquat works best, I think.  Other ships for Trowa might be Trofei (would jokingly refer to that as ‘Truffles,’ which I can enjoy all day just like silly ship names involving Wufei).  Maybe TroMiddie (this reminds me of Voldemort’s Muggle name.  Tomriddle, Tromiddie.  It also sounds like a form of dramedy that is particularly devastating: trauma+comedy).  UnTro/Trowune?  Maybe TroTro or Tro² if you’re shipping OG Trowa Barton with the teenager who stole his identity?  Who else could Trowa even be shipped with idk.

4 We already covered most of the popular ships for Quatre, but we’ve still got Dorothy, which would be QuaDoro/Quatrothy.  There’s the far more interesting Quadoroth, which sounds like the name of an evil wizard but from a different author.  Quatalonia works well as a portmanteau, but Dorothy isn’t often referred to by her family name.  For Relena we could do Quatrelena, which is a solid portmanteau with their whole names joined at the common ‘re’.  There’s Wufei, too, but I don’t know if Quatfei sounds better than WuQuat.  If you’re into father figure kink there could be some Quatrashid or Quatshid (which reminds me of Cait Sith)... and there is also the best ship, Quatrock!  It’s Quatre and his dear Sandrock.  🤖😽

5 WuMei and Wufeize/WuTreize and WuSally (Wully!  WOOLLY!! 🐑  I love Wufei ship names!) are pretty much all I’ve got left for Wufei pairings.  But can you imagine being the poor Wufei-and-Une-shipping bastard who has to say their ship name is Wune or Uwu?

6 Zechs and Noin don’t have a good portmanteau, and with their numerical designations being 6 and 9 I don’t think anyone would want to give it up anyway.  This one isn’t too bad for practical purposes; 6 and 9 aren’t nearly as common in fandoms as smaller numbers.

9  Salnoin.  It’s fine.  Perfectly serviceable.  Could be worse.  Reminds me of salmon.  🦈 (Yes I know that’s a shark, lay off.)  We could make that one Nally or Nolly instead I think.

13 Treizechs.  They blend together nicely because they share the ‘ze’.  Treizune is neat and comes with the added bonus of looking like someone trying to write ‘treason’ in a way that will get past AI censors.  All of his common ships are now covered, but I’ll throw in Quatreize for free since there’s some interesting compare/contrast between the two characters as leaders that could be explored.

I think I covered all the ships likely to feature Relena and Dorothy except the most important: ReleDor.  Which sounds like a place name from Tolkien verse.  Roaming over the bounteous hills and mysterious valleys of Reledor.  Shit yea.  Guess it could also work as Dorelena, but it’s not as cool imo.

My final entry here is for the excellent rarepair Rylvia, aka RelenaxSylvia Noventa, which I started shipping while working on a secret project that never saw the light of day.  I would have gone with the very elegant Sylena/Selena, but it’s so elegant that it’s an actual popular irl name and I’d never be able to sort for content for my ship that way.

If you sat through all that, merci beaucoup!  I wasted hours of my life typing this abomination out and I’m glad to share.

[gaywatch]

I just wanted to say I've also been following your various endeavors since the Ship's Closet days so thank you for a decade and a half of good gay content and for introducing the phrase "snarky metal vagina of time travel" into my vocabulary bc I got like 15 years of echolalia out of that one

HDjskljfdskdfl I'd forgotten that one! Every now and then I remember the angry icicle condom of fire and wonder what the heck was in the water in 2009, lol.

And dude, a few TSC people have been coming out of the woodwork lately and it's so wild to me that people still remember it (let alone hanging around fifteen year later for my hysterics). Thank you, darling. <3

[lovemyromance]

I don't really get Gw*nriel. I genuinely read that bonus chapter and was like 🤩 azriel made a friend 🫶🏼 Gwyn feels comfortable enough to talk to him

... that's it.

Did I miss the part in ACOSF where Gwyn showed any attraction for Azriel?

Like, any actual explicitly written canon text that shows she is attracted to this man?

"You're the new ribbon, Az." - Said by Nesta, when referring to the ribbon Gwyn regarded as a challenge. I don't think she was flirting with Azriel on behalf of Gwyn, right after she discovered "Azriel's secret" (which, he himself states was that he couldn't be around the Elucien mating bond).

"See you tomorrow, Shadowsinger." - literally just her saying bye? It's not like she said "bye pookie 😍". It's like when I call my guy friends by their last names - hope they don't think I'm in love with them now 😬

"Do you sing?" - girl asked the question we were all wondering, let's be honest. Like wtf is a shadowsinger even??

And that about... sums up all their interactions?

Not sure where it showed Gwyn being attracted to Azriel, but okay. In fact, all their interactions literally reminded me of when girls joke with their coach on the soccer team or something. Because that's literally all he is to her right now?

A teacher??

She has shown no attraction or signs that she is attracted to or in any way, desires Azriel on a romantic level. So I don't know where any of this is coming from? People are complaining that Elriels ship Vassien just to get Lucien out of the way when Vassa hasn't shown any hint of desire for Lucien - Okay, but didn't the entirety of the Gwynriel ship start just to get Azriel away from Elain, without considering whether or not Gwyn even wants this man??

It's honestly really wild to me that y'all read an entire bonus chapter where Azriel so desperate for Elain he's willing to beg on his knees, and then read that lil interaction with Gwyn and thought "Yes. This is the epitome of romance."

Stop reducing Gwyn down to a man she isn't even interested in?? She is a warrior in her own right, it has nothing to do with Azriel.

Now, if SJM had written literally anything that shows Gwyn were interested in Azriel, I'd understand this crackship a bit more. At least Elucien are declared mates already, so I understand if people ship them. Gwynriel has not even interacted and yet people are saying their book is next??

Make it make sense.

Eluciens & Gwynriels stay shipping women with men they haven't shown any attraction or affection for, beyond politeness. Weird as hell

[seaofolives]

so this is a really random poll (and my first one on this blog!) but it figures now that I've come up with a "good name" I'd be interested to try:

the abstract of the poll/challenge/idea:

1. I'm calling it "torokatober" from トロカト/torokato. no need to apply strict top/bottom dynamics, of course.

2. I do this challenge every year where I write drabbles every day of october for a particular character/ship. this time, 3x4 is my subject of choice

3. anyone who wants to join won't have to be limited by drabbles! that's just me. others can do whatever they want like longer or shorter fics, art, cosplay, model kits, gif sets, amvs, playlists, etc etc etc

4. if the poll gets good traction and interest, I can open a prompt suggestion form just so I won't have to come up with all the prompts myself 😂 but if the poll doesn't get any traction/we don't get enough prompts to fit 31 days, I can just fill it up on my own, dw XD

6. probably gonna use the hashtags #torokatober2024 and #トロカト１０月２０２４年 for collecting works. so even if no one's interested, I'll post the prompts and my own works there 😂

5. this is going to be strictly diy—no mod accounts, no ao3/sqwa collections, zero promotions or pressure, no strict rules, whatsoever. if you answered you'd love to participate but suddenly can't, there's no guilt or penalty. any kind of pairing that involves these two are welcome, any rating or restrictions welcome, etc

7. poll is up for a week! someone also remind me to submit this thing to the central gw accounts bc I'm queueing up this post and don't always check tumblr 😂

8. last random ask! do these two have an "official" emoji pair??? like 🎭🎻? 🤡🎻? 🪈🎻?? 🤸🤺 or 🎪🏜️ or just 3️⃣4️⃣???? or am I just being too much of a feller-kids lmao but I like shippy emojis ok (or should I do another poll)

[some-rotten-nest]

Random DC/DP headcannons bc I can't sleep

Expect many typos

Danny hates storms, especially thunderstorms bc of the lighting cracking in the sky

Danny wears a power cuff like a bracelet that dampens his more violent powers bc he's scared of them (wail, large-scale ice like with undergrowth etc)

In one of his magazines, instead of bullets Jason keeps solid ectoplasm just in case, and so it's not conspicous

In his Phantom form Danny has a streak of black hair where his white usually is

Jason is fright knight (unless it's a Jason-Danny biologically related fic. Ghost Zone law says no one you share blood with (clones included) can become fright knight (but they can join the court and have other ranks))

Danny made a contingency plan against himself and with the help of a sibling (Cass most likely, though she did seem a bit sad) got it on the bat-computer. Password protected so Danny can't get into it. Bruce doesn't know and won't know until/if Danny goes bad. Bruce made a separate one for him.

Tim gets low and non-harmfil doses of ectoplasm in his coffee bc it is like a shit ton of caffeine for a living person. (Yes, some Amity Park drinks have ectoplasm in them too)

Danny asks Bruce, Tim and Lucius for help with Ghost King Shit TM

Duke has to squint when looking directly at ectoplasm (Danny's trying to find some solution but there isn't one)

Jason has a shadow core

Damian got extinct animals from Danny as a birthday gift multiple times (a dodo bird named Delilah, a messenger pigeon names Luke and a splendid posion frog named Ares)

To piss Bruce off, Jason got a pterodactyl he's named Flynn that he takes on patrol. Safe to safe, people get a hella more scared of Red Hood. Bruce hates it but Jason does actually love Flynn and Bruce can't bring himself to take Flynn awya

Danny made a patrol playlist for every member of the bat family and beyond bc he has one for when he goes out as Phantom (they all listen to their playlists and love them)

Before Danny was fully pulled into the family, he'd flinch at Dick's escrima sticks and still catches himself staring the weapon, his heart pounding

Danny found out Captain Marvel was a kid bc while on a mission with him, Captain Marvel pointed out that there was a pirate ship hovering above them and that Danny should probably deal with that. He'd, and any other Amity Parker that overhead, never laughed so badly in his entire life. Billy was never so scared & confused.

Bart and Danny are friends bc Dan had leveled most of the future before the Beatles took over what was left (I'm actually not that sure about Bart's backstory so feel free to correct me if something's wrong here)

Cass and Danny have staring contests alot. Sometimes the others think they've fallen asleep with their eyes open. They didn't.

Danny had a Twitter account for Phantom without Bruce knowing, but when Steph was trying to convince Bruce to let her have one she mentioned it and Danny had to delete it (he has an alt he now posts every embarrassing thing Batman does and has ever done)

Puns. So many puns between Dick & Danny.

Danny mumbles in his sleep

Crows flock to Danny like hungry tigers. Damian's envious but he gets to pet & feed them so it's mostly okay.

GW likes Jason and let's him borrow books whenever he wants to (also any destroyed book ends up with GW but that's a pretty common hc) but Jason has to swear not to give them to Danny. Not that Danny wants them.

Duke is helping Tucker out with studies and Tucker Duke with tech. Technus sometimes shows up too to help.

Johnny and Jason are dEAD bffs

Sam and Babs get on like a house on fire

Talia met Danny and they're actually friendly to each other. Sure, she's trying to trick Danny into giving her his throne, but Danny knew that and wasn't about to let that happen

Danny will randomly punch his siblings, smirk, then bow and say "my leige" and run away. The sibling now has the crown and is chasing to punch Danny back because honestly fuck that

Constantine is slightly terrified of Danny and Bruce uses it like a threat-- "John, if you don't answer, Danny will contact you." It works like a charm

When too excited, Danny and Jason will start talking in Ghost speech. It freaks everyone else but Damian and Cass out bc the same sounds came from the pits

Take, edit, have fun with whatever you want here. It's just bs that crawls around my brain for funsies and won't let me sleep.

[real-total-drama-takes]

i think we can all agree that nearly every ship name that involves gwen looks and sounds so stupid because "gw-" is the stupidest letter combination and makes such a silly sound

.

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam Ch 14

I feel sad knowing this route is almost over :(

NARRATION

As much as Claude is annoying me right now, it's cool to see Faerghus, the Alliance, and the church all team up.

So it looks like we're fighting Caspar and Bergliez again. It's so much easier on me to kill the Empire characters lol.

It's so funny that all the Empire characters know something is weird with Edelgard, but are like "I'm still fighting anyways."

Is there any explanation of what happened to her? Or is this just a cope out so the war keeps going without making her into a flat-out evil.

Bergliez tells Caspar to run away. He's not though. And honestly, I don't want him. Not Hopes!Caspar at least. Brgliez keeps trying though, which guess he gets some dad points? Maybe? I like him more than Holst.

He compares what they're doing to captains that go down with their ship. So needless death. Ship captains have no choice, but they do and they keep fighting. Poor taste.

They're heading for the monastery. Shocking. I know. /s

I love how in the other routes, I protect Aegir. In this one, I'm sure I'll get to kill him. Feels good.

They talk strategy.

I honestly appreciate that this games goes a bit more into strategy. It's not super detailed, but more than Fire Emblem usually does lol.

Arval is like, ok, it's my turn. The suggestion is to just strike everyone all at once.

She's like, we've got the stronger army, let's act like it. I like that kind of thinking.

Felix calls Shez a boar lol. Says we have too boars in this army.

SIDE BATTLES/MAP

Shez tried to sympathize with Linhardt about possibly fighting Caspar and he's like "it doesn't really bother me" lol.

Felix admires Berlgeiz however the fuck you spell his name because he finds the sense of duty to the Empire despite it being a giant fuck up right now admirable. Coming from Felix, that's hysterical. I wish Shez had the option to tease Felix about it lol.

A scholar just said Dimitri appreciates their input (calculating how much food and raw materials is needed etc) unlike many other leaders. Happy to see more Dimitri praise in this game.

Petra once knocked Duke Aegir on his ass for insulting her father. I wonder if you get to learn this amazing piece of Petra lore in other routes or if this is an AG exclusive badassery.

Ok, so some random church NPC talked about how killing Edelgard would end the Emperor bloodline because there's rumors all her siblings are dead. Her backstory is really so weird. How would people not know about a bunch of dead princes and princesses?

Yuri is religious? He says he has a habit of praying before a big event, something he does because his mother did. I like it when characters add something unexpected to them that the usual stereotype of that character doesn't usually have.

If Hubert came up with "those who slither in the dark" as a nickname, how come everyone uses it? Even people who wouldn't know Hubert at all like Flayn?

Lorenz was just talking up how smart Claude is and all I can think is that GW!Claude isn't smart enough to find his way out of a wet paper bag.

I just got all of Shez's Blue Lions supports unlocked. Now I need to still get Flayn, Seteth, Catherine, Jeralt, and Byleth. I'm not sure I have enough time. But I'm going to try.

Duke Aegir is Thales' puppet. So TWSITD is ruling the Empire.

Edelgard just mindlessly listens to Aegir and Thales.

This lady turned on the Empire big time. Dimitri says he's still throwing her into a cell, lol.

Dimitri believes what she said though. He brings up the evidence he discovered while investigating in White Clouds. And also uses the Tomas situation as more evidence.

Dimitri now knows that his father, the knights, and the citizens of Duscur would all be alive without those mages.

He says they have the right to seek justice in the way they see fit. I love it. Not apologizing for defending themselves, but owning taking the initiative against TWSITD.

And there's a lot of people in the Blue Lions who has a personal beef with TWSITD.

I can finally give Dimitri the merc whistle! He also had a second set of dialogue on the map this chapter. It was about some Empire general we captured.

SHEZ & FELIX A

This one starts on a battlefield instead of training. Still very Felix.

And they're complimenting each other. Felix is complimenting someone. But it's their swordfighting so . . .

Shez is beginning to understanding Felix, saying he assigns a role to himself and carries it out. Which, she's not wrong.

Felix credits Rodrigue for his skill, lol. He also just complimented Rodrigue. Good for Felix.

His style is passed down in Fraldarius for generations. Because they're so tight. Man, the Dimitri/Felix yaoi writes itself.

Shez calls him indispensable to Dimitri and everyone. Felix is the lance and shield. Shez is the projectile like an arrow or stone.

She tells him to be more direct with compliments, Felix gets annoyed, but then says Shez is important to the army too.

Felix says Shez can't stay focused in battle - like she has someone talking to her in her head. More proof on how perceptive Felix is.

Also kudos to Byleth for Felix never noticing the same, which, imo, is perfectly in character for Byleth and Shez.

Shez is actually happy to know that Felix knows her so well that she spotted it. Since she gets sappy, Felix goes tsundere is like "I'm never complimenting you again!" Congrats, Shez, it means you're one of his people now if he's that emotionally fickle with you lamo.

This support was mostly just Shez and Felix gushing over how good the other is at fighting and how important they are to the group as a whole. I loved it. AG!Shez must be so much happier and more grounded than poor SB!Shez.

SHEZ & DIMITRI A

Dimitri is on break, but also depressed. Shez is concerned. Of course, it's because Dimitri can't relax. Other people are working, so he feels bad that he's not.

Shez asks why Dimitri is so insistent on it. Dimitri says it's the only way he knows how to be. That his life has never belonged to him because of his birthright.

Aaaaand of course the tragedy comes up, saying that makes him feel responsible too. So it's rooted partly in trauma :(

I can disagree or sympathize with him. Not sure which. I think I'm going to disagree, that it's not all his responsibility.

Ohh, Shez says he needs to trust people who wants to help.

Dimitri wants to ease the pain of the dead and living. That he'll have to make sacrifices to reach that goal, but doesn't want anyone else to suffer because of his goals. So he must carry the burden alone.

Shez is like, what about you're suffering and pain. That he can't care for others if he doesn't care for himself first.

Dimitri's like, I don't know how to respond to that - but like earnestly doesn't know. He doesn't know how to take care of his own pain nor what happiness would look like for him.

(God, this support is just making me love AM even more in retrospect, knowing that Dimitri gets to learn all of this, an my God wouldn't it be awesome if there was some kind of AG/AM blend that included this support somewhere in the middle)

Shez is like, how can you not know that? Asks what makes him smile? Like defeating a rival or a banquet.

Dimitri doesn't think he has the right to such happiness.

Good, God, Dimitri. He says he can only think of his death and leaving happy citizens and a peaceful kingdom behind.

Lord, nobody knows how much I love this. Like, not for Dimitri, boy needs therapy asap, and I want him to just be happy.

But, as a avid anime/manga and fantasy fan, do you know how many snot-nosed spoiled chosen ones and royalty and nobles I've come across who bitch and moan endlessly about their privileges lives because it comes with responsibilities and how they want to be a commoner with NO FUCKING IDEA what it's like to work day in and day out for someone who doesn't really care about you and will just replace you if convenient but your entire livelihood is dependent on spending most of your able-bodies life slaving away for them? Not to mention - back then - it would likely be some backbreaking work with shitty working conditions and no modern medicine or workers rights? It's so infuriating. Sometime they have a point, like pressure or whatever, but the older I get, the less I sympathize with their whining.

But Dimitri is like the exact opposite. He can't even be an individual away from his role at a leader because he's thrown too much of himself into it with no complaining at all. It's just so refreshing to see something the exact opposite of how this usually plays out, and is so much more interesting to explore than the same old for the xnth time.

Shez is like, you're dismal sometimes, she's not wrong. And is like why is death what makes me happy. Dimitri sounds like he doesn't even get that it sounded dismal while saying it.

She's like, what about partying with friends! Dimitri's like, wasted on me. But he says seeing his friends smile does make him happy.

Shez is annoyed with him lol. And is like, k, I'll just have to work twice as hard.

"You're going to take a break. And by the goddess, you're going to like it." I actually laughed. God, I love Shez.

She's like, you need to leave the office, bud. Dimitri says no words can express his gratitude.

I love their friendship so much. Like, I honestly don't think I ship it? I think they're just really tight friends, which Dimitri is such a shipping magnet, it's nice to see something as just pure friendship.

This is by far my favorite lord/Shez dynamic. Though, I think I ship Shez most with Byleth and I haven't even seen their supports yet.

ASHE & RAPHAEL C

Raphael is eating a lot. Shocking.

Raphael opened an inn??? And he's the cook. But he never gets compliments on his cooking, which makes him think his food tastes bad. He confesses that he doesn't know how to cook.

Ashe volunteers to teach Raphael how to cook.

Ashe thinks one of the best feelings in the world is when someone likes the food you cook.

Ashe test tries Raphael's food, which is just a pile of meat lol. Raphael doesn't understand why people would want anything else.

He describes Raphael's food like bacon wrapped around a salt lick lamo.

Unlike the Empire which won't eat their veggies like a bunch of spoiled brats, Ashe is promoting healthy veggie eating and understands food is best when you match complimentary flavors, including veggies, those Empire heathens.

Poor Raphael gets confused. Ashe talks about seasoning, and Raphael thinks like spring, summer, etc . . . and not like garlic.

Ashe is determined to help though.

Fairly wholesome support.

ASHE & INGRID B

They only got 1 support :(

Ingrid's troubled. Ashe notices. But she denies it.

Ashe encourages Ingrid to talk to him.

Ingrid's amazed by how fertile the lands are. And it's Faerghus lands. It's because of lack of snow and lots of fields.

Both Ashe and Ingrid notice things like the wheat fields.

Ingrid basically lives on rocks. So, hard to grow food.

Ashe thinks the effort will pay off later, even if Ingrid doesn't live long enough to see the results.

Ashe was quoting King Loog. Ingrid notices, lol. They start geeking out a bit. I love Ashe and Ingrid geeking out.

Dagda apparently also has soil issues. They have a crop they can grow despite that, but can't remember the name, but thinks Shamir might know. So Ingrid has hope she can learn it.

Ashe says he's just helping her as a friend, not a knight.

He can relate to being hungry because he grew up poor.

INGRID & ANNETTE B

Annette is trying to convince herself to grab something and run. Ingrid accidentally scares her. It's dark outside, so Annette's likely afraid of ghosts or something lol.

Of course, Annette wants a book she left in the mess hall. A woman after my own heart, braving fear because of love of a book.

Ingrid was heading there too. Annette's like this is destiny.

It's so dark even Ingrid gets spooked, but not as much as Annette. Who runs into a pile of crates lol.

Ingrid asks Annette if she's afraid of the dark. And poor Annette is, but really wishes she wasn't.

Ingrid, though, isn't afraid of the dark or ghosts. Annette is fascinated how Ingrid isn't afraid of ghosts.

Ingrid's brothers used to tell her those stories, but Ingrid thinks it's proof ghosts isn't real because you'd run into them more.

Ingrid actually wishes ghosts were real, because then she'd be able to talk to the dead still. But accepts that the dead are dead.

Annette circles that back to living while you're still alive.

Annette decides to walk back by herself to conquer her fears.

Ingrid is impressed with Annette's attitude.

INGRID & DEDUE A

This is a support I'm very curious about. It's their only one, but it's A. Plus, this game has handled Ingrid and Duscur much better.

Dedue has "brought substance" - it's just a cream puff lol.

Ingrid is happy with the timing. She's writing reports on their last fight in the Duscur region. And thinks it'll be a while until things stabilize.

Both Ingrid and Dedue agree that the Kingdom and Duscur have good and bad people. Ingrid gets upset over the innocent people getting lumped into the bad ones.

Dedue says he used to hate Faerghus, but meeting the nice people like Dimitri and others has made him expand his views.

People used to throw stones at Dedue - and Dimitri too :(

Ingrid says she would've remained gnorant about Duscur if she'd never meant Dedue.

Dedue says he finds Ingrid's willingness to change admirable. Ingrid admits she has a long way to go still.

She invites Dedue to go get a snack together and suggests an inn that Dimitri suggested with good food, owned by someone from Duscur. Pretty sure that was mentioned in her support with him.

Dedue is just pissed that Dimitri went wandering around town with only just Ingrid, seeing it as reckless, lamo.

I love all the Blue Lions, man.

YURI & SETETH A

Yuri fell for a trap. Because it was his "second worst" brush with death, Seteth is curious about the first. It was the plague that wrecked Faerghus (and killed Dimitri's mother). Yuri survived without a doctor's help.

An old man saved him. They found some old man on the road, took him in, and then later he saved Yuri. But is dead by now.

Seteth seems to know who it is.

There's a legend that one of the Ten Elites got sick and got healthy after getting a crest from a Saint.

So Seteth thinks Yuri got his rare crest from the actual saint? Or close descendant of.

So that explains why Yuri's hinted at living longer than average, and has a super rare crest.

Seteth is happy to learn one of his old friends may have found peace in his final moments because he got to save a child's life.

I don't know if his House's supports tells you about this lore, but it's cool to learn it here.

It's also nice to see Yuri talk to someone without picking a fight. He was so chill, almost friendly to Seteth rather than sounding a bit like a fanfic edgelord initially (like, I like Yuri, but some of him reeks of baby's first fanfic OC).

SHEZ & FLAYN A

Flayn's upset with Seteth, who told her no about something.

Man, Seteth and Flayn's relationship would be creepy as fuck if they were really siblings. Like, Seteth is extremely controlling of Flayn, and often it looks like the typical icky "my woman must remain pure!!!" Like, not only do they treat the women in their family like possessions, not people, but seem especially interested in owning their genitals and sexuality. It's so extremely weird and gross, and why I pretty much can't stand Holst anymore (he seemed alright at first, but some supports are so ick).

But learning that their father-daughter helps (it's still gross, but less weird because at least he's a legit authority figure in her life and not her . . . brother), but knowing it's actually because TWSITD want to torture Flayn to death, that his people got genocided and turned into super weapons, and that she healed so many people she nearly died too (which would leave him with no family) makes it not offputting. It's actually a pretty smart way of using tropes that seems set up to make us dislike him (over controlling father) and then a big "ohhhhh" once you learn the WHY isn't the typical creepy "my girl is not a whore!" obsession wayyyyy too many men have.

OK, back to the support now.

Seteth is trying to block Flayn from going out entirely. Poor Flayn. But with TWSITD on the move, it does make sense.

Shez is very concerned with Flayn. I love how empathetic Shez is while still being realistically distant enough to be a merc and pretty straight forward. I actually REALLY like Shez. Esp F!Shez.

Flayn is going to listen to Seteth because she doesn't want to make it hard on him.

After the war, they plan on going out together again.

Flayn is grateful it's F!Shez and not M!Shez bc a woman is less sus to Seteth than a man. I wonder how the M!Shez one goes.

Haha, Shez can offer to help Flayn sneak out, or talk her out of it. I totally offered to help her sneak out lol.

MAIN BATTLE

Do we ever learn what happened to Edelgard? Or did she get yeeted from the plot?

She's missing this battle. Aegir lost her. What an idiot. He looks so funny in that armor. I'm glad in this route at least, I get to kick his ass, not save his ass (unlike the other 2 routes).

I do not understand the hype around Caspar's dad. He folds like a twig when I fight him.

Killed Aegis. Such a tragedy. /s

OMG. I beat that chapter in like 4 minutes. Dimitri is so overleveled and stupidly strong. He just kills so fast. It's hilarious and fun. But I also miss S rank because I didn't kill enough. He kills too fast.

They still can't find Edelgard.

It'll be weird if we don't get a monastery chapter.

Byleth insists on looking for Edelgard more because he feels she's nearby.

Byleth and Shez look for Edelgard together. Which makes me hope we get dialogue between them.

Unless this is the start of the special chapter? Ok switching to the next post now.

xxxx

[yennas-stuff]

There’s this account that’s been harassing Gwynriel’s, so I went to the blog to report it, and I noticed one of the posts they reblogged was another E/riel account that received an ask that said “i saw gw* riels are suddenly using elriel month artists for their commissions. they must have loved the fan art” and the owner of the blog responded “Have they? I mean who can blame them since Elriel art is always top tier. I guess they just want a little piece of it”

I believe the blog is a popular E/riel account. I recognize their username name (I have the link to the post if you want it). But Gwynriel’s using E/riel month artists for their commissions? I’ve never heard of this. And aren’t there actually a lot of artists in the fandom that are multi shippers and don’t care about the ship wars?

And what’s with all these accounts harassing Gwynriel’s? Some of the stuff they say is disturbing.

🍒 anon

Hii 🍒 anon! Hope you're doing well.

Tbh, I don't know which artist they are referring to, but I don't go looking up E/riel fanarts.

As for their argument, I think we all know that it's very entitled and possessive to claim an artist. Where is the freedom of choice they all supposedly love...

It's all very childish. I think I wrote it somewhere before, but E/riels seem to hate mating bonds but act as if the artist was mated for life to their ship. They confuse fiction with real life, and it's frankly exhausting.

Let artists have fun doing whatever. You don't own people and their artistic outlets. Just because someone consented to making art for you once doesn't mean they owe you anything or pledged allegiance to the cult of E/riel, lol. And leave artists out of these insane ship wars. Have some respect for their craft and freedom of choice.

[deathsweetblossoms]

Brief Theory: The Necklace, The Mother, & The Bonus Chapter

Disclaimer: No ship bashing, no character bashing, I just want to share a connection I made that I'm slightly freaking out about. But, it's Elriel leaning, although I do discuss a Gw*n theory (regarding spirituality and priestess-ship). If you can't stomach Elriel, keep it moving <3 I am censoring Gw*n's name because I'm too tired to deal with antis and that's not the point of this post. I just feel as though there's a way bigger picture at play here that we aren't seeing because everyone is at each other's throats over the ships, so this is my attempt to actually look at some details and play around with it.

This is part of a trio of bonus chapter theories I have going on. See also: A Brief Overview of Feyre's Bonus Chapter and Azriel's Bonus Chapter, Mating Bonds, and Mor(e)

"(Azriel) had every intention of returning (the necklace) to the shop in the Palace of Thread and Jewels....Instead, he found himself at the library beneath the House of Wind, standing before Clotho as the clock chimed seven in the morning"

What is specifically happening at the House of Wind during this time?

Per Gw*n, a service. The priestesses "honor the Mother, and the Cauldron, and the Forces That Be. We have a service at dawn and at dusk, and on every holy day".

So, while Azriel is considering returning the gift he bought for the one character who has been constantly likened to The Mother (Elain), he instead finds himself at the library while the priestesses are singing and honoring the Mother. Not only that, but they honor the Forces That Be and the Cauldron.

Gw*n has an interesting relationship with The Forces That Be, considering every moment she was talking about something to do with the Valkyries and it "seemed like fate itself was listening". I don't have the exact quotes because I haven't tabbed them -- but it happens at LEAST twice. We are also shown that Azriel, specifically, gets called to attention when the Forces and The Fates are invoked.

Elain, on the otherhand, is likened to The Mother. Constantly. She is also a favorite of the Cauldron.

The necklace is a rose, which was one of the flowers on Elain's drawer, and Azriel bought it because it has Elain's likeness. It also carries the metaphor of there being more to Elain than everyone sees, with the depth of the glass and the imagery of the necklace itself.

If I were to throw out a theory, I would say Gw*n is the one person who could hold something of such value and keep it safe until it finds it's way back to it's true owner. (This can also be theorized without Elriel, as in, the Mother wanted this talisman of herself to be kept safe, and so she ended up answering the call of the priestesses. Either way, look at the clues!! Are you picking up what I'm putting down?!?!?!) My Elriel heart wants to say that SJM threw in the phrases "he wouldn't consider her a friend" etc etc, so we know it wasn't a romantic thing leading him there, but it is a force leading him there.

Further Gw*n theory - whenever Gw*n sings, everything feels "drawn" to listen to her. If she has such a connection to the Forces and the Fates, and her favorite time of service is DUSK, I have to imagine that her *abilities* will come into play in the revival of the dusk court. Somehow. That's a way deeper topic for another time.

Also, if I were to throw out a crack theory, the line about imagining her smiling and a thing of secret, lovely beauty. If we think of the necklace as a talisman, connected to The Mother itself, and he imagines her being happy having received this, it turns moreso into a spiritual scene and not a romantic one. The crack part of this theory comes into play when you consider that Nesta felt somehow compelled to help Gw*n find the book she lost, and Azriel found himself somehow magically drawn to the library to gift Gw*n (or anyone) this necklace. So, it almost seems like, Gw*n can affect The Forces That Be to get things that will help her. That can majorly come into play later, you know? Not for selfish reasons, but to help the greater whole?

EDIT TO ADD: What if Azriel putting the necklace on Elain activated it, in some way? Just by touching her, it becomes this talismanic force of the Mother? The same way that Nesta created the three swords/her own Trove? And that force is what drove the necklace to the priestesses during their service??

I just want to leave you with this. We have Three Themes at play here: The Cauldron, The Mother, The Forces That Be.

"What if the cauldron was wrong?"

There is a play happening with the Forces, with bending and moving the Forces, with changing things, with making sure certain things aren't disposed of and end up where they can be valued (the necklace with the priestesses), with invoking the Mother.

[gaywatch]

thoughts on Eddie & Steve (stranger things)

They're a super cute idea and I totally get the appeal, although Harringrove is my Steve OTP and I'm a weirdly monogamous shipper most of the time.

(I'm a sucker for good, painful, touch-and-go, hard-fought redemption arcs, and Harringrove has that in spaaaaaaaaaades.)

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

name a bleach character you think would work in another anime and drop your reasons why

I'll start, here me outー Orihime in JJBA. Specifically part 3, Stardust Crusaders.

First of all, with Stands like the Sex Pistols and Harvest, the Shun Shun Rikka could easily be transitioned into a Stand. Hell, if we take her OST into account she already has a name for it: Love Is Waiting (which Imma roll with because Vanilla Ice didn't have a Stand named after the major arcana nor an Egyptian god).

Second, I think that she would mesh surprisingly well with the Crusaders. In the practical sense, the Crusaders could have used a healer on the team for a lot of their close calls. I would even go as far to say that depending on the circumstances that Avdol could easily be the only Crusader casualty if Orihime was present for the fight against Vanilla Ice as healing Iggy would be light work for her. (Because considering what happened to Avdol was an ambush idk if he'd be able to luck out.) And if Koichi could last long enough for Josuke to pop up and heal him, Kakyoin's ass could wait for Orihime.

And personality-wise, she would definitely add to the comedy of the Crusaders' dynamic with gag scenes like her attempting to cook while they're traveling through the desert, the Shun Shun Rikka's individual personalities, deciding getting bit by Iggy is worth it because he's so adorable. Plus she'd add an empathetic touch to the cast when necessary. I could definitely see her connecting quite well with Polnareff since they both share the loss of a sibling and I feel like they'd have a brother-sister dynamic themselves by the end of the part.

And third, if you wanna go as far as shipping, honestly I think she'd be rather compatible with Kakyoin. I think he'd find her charming and easy to talk to about his fears and shame concerning his past run-in with DIO. Orihime would be the one most likely to try and listen to him when everyone else thought he was cracking under the pressure during the Death 13 episodes and realize that Kakyoin might have been acting off throughout the day but not in the way the others were assuming. They'd have their first date after getting back to Japan after DIO's defeat.

Bonus: her TYBW arc dress would fit rather well with the Jojo aesthetic.

(And as far as other parts of JJBA... I could see her in either/or of the many cast members of Stand users created by Keicho in part 4 whether that's as a lady who works at a local bakery or as a classmate of Josuke & co.

As much as I'd like to finesse Orihime into Part 5 though, I don't think it would work since I have a hard time seeing how she would fit in smoothly with the Bucci Gang.I can say with reluctant confidence though that I think she'd be a member of the gang that wouldn't make it though since in the second half of GW Diavolo specifically targeted members of the gang based on how much of a threat they were. Moody Blues' rewind ability and Aerosmith's tracking got Abbacchio and Narancia knocked off the team census and with Orihime's defense and healing abilities, she'd be a long term hindrance in keeping the team going. So I imagine Orihime would have a massive target on her back because of it.)

TLDR: I think Orihime would fit in pretty well with the cast of Stardust Crusaders in a practical sense, the team dynamic and if shipping is also something floats your boat she would have it covered as well.

(I also posted this on the Bleach subreddit but figured why not on tumblr too, I wanna hear everyone else's opinions.)

[ghostinthegallery]

Apparently I'm not done overthinking the Stormlord yet...

One thing I find really neat about Imotekh is that despite being a renowned general, he's actually slightly weaker physically than most of his counterparts.

Obviously the in-game stats =/= lore (rip Skitarii and their ability to shoot literally anything) but if you look at the data sheets, Imotekh has one less wound compared to the generic Overlord, as well as the other overlord characters (Anrakyr, Zahndrekh, and Trazyn). His melee is worse (Strength 6 vs Anrakyr and the base Overlord with 8 or even 12 depending on their weapon. Obyron has an 8. Even Trazyn gets up to strength 7 and GW hates his melee stats specifically). Let's not even get into the Silent King's stat sheet, since he blows everyone out of the water (centerpiece model, so not really a fair comparison anyway).

It just hammers home the disadvantages Imotekh has. His post-biotransference body is worse than his peers because he didn't start out in the same social class at them. He does supplement his own strength with artifacts like his gauntlet, staff, nanoscrabs, etc. but at the end of the day he has what he has. Based on raw numbers, the necrons' best general dies quicker than their historian.

This actually kind of answers one question I had about Imotekh as a character, namely his habit of dueling enemy leaders, then maiming them when he wins instead of killing them. Its a weird choice for a leader who is known as a ruthless pragmatist. Why leave enemies alive to take revenge later? This actually happened with the Black Templars! Imotekh defeated them, didn't kill their leader, then the guy came back and drove Imotekh's ship into a star (pour one out for the Eternal Conqueror, y'all).

I wonder if this is his way of testing himself. He certainly presents it like a "learning opportunity" to his enemies (dude can talk smack like he's trying to take over the WWE), so it's possible he treats these duels as similar opportunities for himself. Idk if it's about surpassing the nobility and their unearned advantages or preparing to take on a very hostile galaxy or both but I'm into it.

[leareadsheresy]

Fulgrim (the book, and not the other book also called Fulgrim but with a subtitle)

This post contains spoilers for Fulgrim, by Graham McNeill, originally published as a novel on (as nearly as I can tell) July 2nd, 2007. It does not contain spoilers for Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix by Josh Reynolds, published in October 2017.

Fulgrim is the story of Fulgrim, the Palatine Phoenix, Primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion of Space Marines, and his fall to Chaos during the leadup to and events surrounding the initial steps of Horus's rebellion in the Istvaan system as told in Galaxy in Flames. Like Flight of the Eisenstein, it starts by covering events significantly earlier than Horus Rising, beginning with the the Emperor's Children prosecuting a war of extermination against an alien race called the Laer.

Here's a plot summary:

The Emperor's Children exctinctify a species of sneople called the Laer and steal a magic sword from their central temple; the temple is very clearly (to the reader) dedicated to Slaanesh, one of the four big Chaos gods, the one that's all about sensation and excess and has become less and less about sex over time as GW realizes that gets in the way of parents leaving their kids at GW stores. Fulgrim takes the sword as a trophy; it starts talking to him but because he doesn't know what Chaos is he just assumes it's intrusive thoughts. Also the artists and documentarians ("remembrancers") who travel with the fleet go down to document the glorious conquest etc. and when they go to the big Slaanesh temple they all get obsessed with pursuing sensation and excess, kicking off a B-plot that'll be important later. Also also, the Emperor's Children's chief apothecary, Fabius, gets inspired by the Laer to invent cool new combat drugs and enhancement surgeries, which he sells Fulgrim on with the help of Fulgrim's evil sword intrusive thoughts.

Then the Emperor's Children fight a fleet of divergent humans called the Diasporex who have some aliens working with them; during this they meet up with the Iron Hands Legion and their Primarch Ferrus Manus who has literal iron hands on his flagship the Fist of Iron. The book talks about how Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus are bestest of best friends who each wield a weapon forged by the other, so Ferrus Manus has a big hammer made by Fulgrim and Fulgrim has a flaming sword made by Ferrus Manus. The Emperor's Children and Iron Hands wipe out the Diasporex. During this campaign, Fabius's combat drugs get widely adopted by the Legion and they start being less about pursuing perfection and more about pursuing combat highs.

Then the Emperor's Children explore a region of space where lots of ships disappear and find a lot of unsettled paradise worlds, and are approached by a space elf named Eldrad Ulthran who warns Fulgrim that Horus is going to turn traitor. Fulgrim's evil sword intrusive thoughts tell him this is a lie and Eldrad needs to die so they fight. Fulgrim kills an Avatar of Khaine and then gets mad and goes around virus-bombing all the unsettled paradise worlds they found.

Then Fulgrim takes the fleet to meet with Horus and is like "You're not planning to turn traitor, are you?" and Horus is like "So what if I am?" and the evil sword Fulgrim's intrusive thoughts go "Horus is awesome, if he does turn traitor you should totes follow him" and Fulgrim thinks "That seems reasonable" and says "I suppose if you were going to turn traitor I'd side with you" and Horus goes "Well, I am turning traitor."

Fulgrim then goes off to try to convince his BFF Ferrus Manus to join with Horus while the majority of the Emperor's Children stay behind and do the Istvaan III Atrocity, as told in Galaxy in Flames and the middle part of Flight of the Eisenstein. It does not go well, Ferrus Manus is like "I could never betray the Emperor, you're not my brother" and they fight, and then Fulgrim goes "You'll always be my brother" and wins the fight but doesn't kill him, hoping they can reconcile later. Fulgrim does have his fleet blast the shit out of the Iron Hands fleet, though.

Fulgrim then returns to the Istvaan system and, by Horus's order, spends a couple of months fortifying Istvaan V for a followup operation, during which time elsewhere a very angry Ferrus Manus and his Iron Hands (and also his iron hands), along with the Raven Guard and Salamanders, get ready to serve as the first wave of an assault on Istvaan V, to be followed up by a second wave consisting of the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Iron Warriors. Just as they finish fortifying the planet, the Emperor's Children attend a musical concert called the Maravaglia put on by those Slaanesh-crazed remembrancer artists, which ends up being one of those King in Yellow dealios where the play performs them, a bunch of demons are summoned, everyone in the audience goes crazy and sexmurders each other (well, all the non-space-marines, anyway), and Noise Marines get invented, though later on when 30k gets its own game the 30k-era Noise Marines will be called Kakaphoni.

Finally, the Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard launch their assault on Istvaan V, followed by the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Iron Warriors who land behind them and then open fire on the first three because it turns out those second four are also secret traitors. Ferrus Manus is on the planet charging towards Fulgrim to have a duel when he sees this, gets extra mad, and they fight again. Fulgrim really doesn't want to kill Ferrus Manus but his intrusive thoughts goad him into it, and as soon as he cuts off Ferrus Manus's head he realizes that his intrusive thoughts have actually been the demon sword all along and that he's damned himself, at which point it starts laughing at him. He tries to stab himself, but it's like "No, you shouldn't risk doing that, because who knows what agonies of regret your spirit will suffer after death; you should let me give you oblivion instead" and then Fulgrim in his moment of despair accedes to this, at which point the demon in the sword just possesses him and shoves his consciousness into the back of his mind to watch and scream forever as the demon pilots his body around for the rest of the Heresy. The end!

So Graham McNeill seems to be improving. In part this seems to be him developing as a writer and in part it's that he's just... writing fewer arguments. There are a few arguments in the book and they are just as stupid as every argument he wrote into False Gods and "The Kaban Project," but they take up less space. I... don't know if it's good? It clarified an order of events for me, and it continues to hammer home the theme that Chaos works quickly and destructively, like it's not subtle at all, you start out going "There's no harm in touching this sword" and then you're cutting off people's faces and stapling them to your knees in no time flat, and in the meantime murdering anyone who isn't inclined to degrade as fast as you.

I dunno, it's decent for what it is. It's not aggravating the way his earlier works were. I liked it, I guess? This is not high literature.

There are some peculiarities, four of which stick out to me.

First, uh... there's a bit where some remembrancers are talking about how they wish they could go down to the surface of Laeran more freely to document the Emperor's Children victory, but are being prevented from doing so because there's "still resistance" on the surface, and then in the very next paragraph they mention that the Laer have been rendered extinct. So... did the sneople have vassal species? Robot drones? It'd have been nice to hear about them if so but I guess not.

Second... the decision to have Ferrus Manus know about Horus and Fulgrim's treachery seems to cheapen the events of Flight of the Eisenstein a bit. Like the whole thing with the Eisenstein is supposed to be that it's the last, desperate hope of the loyalists doing an Odyssey to get news of the Horus Heresy back to Terra in time to counterattack, which tragically results in the Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre when Horus turns out to be one step ahead of them, but here it kind of comes across as that all would have happened even if the Eisenstein hadn't escaped. Dramatically it's an odd choice. I might have written it so that Ferrus Manus comes out of that first fight convinced that Fulgrim is a traitor but not knowing Horus is or something, that feels to me like it would have worked better.

Third, and this is specific to me: At some point during the book Fulgrim is introduced to the work of ancient Terran poet Cornelius Blayke, who is clearly just William Blake, and starts quoting him. Like he has him say "He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence." And that works well for the book... but I've played Devil May Cry 5. Anybody else who's played DMC5 will understand the effect this might have -- and indeed does have -- on certain dramatic moments.

Fourth, this is less important but I think very funny... okay, so the book establishes that Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim, when they first met, had a crafting competition -- Fulgrim made a big hammer and Ferrus Manus made a flaming sword. At the end of it, each of them proclaimed the other the victor, and they swapped weapons and that's why they became BFFs. And during the first fight, they're fighting with the weapons they made each other, so Fulgrim's got the sword and Ferrus Manus has the hammer. Fulgrim breaks the sword and then takes the hammer when he wins and leaves, and later Ferrus Manus fixed the sword. So when they fight again on Istvaan V at the end of the book, Ferrus Manus has the flaming sword and Fulgrim's got the Laer blade, but when he sees that Ferrus Manus intends to fight him with the flaming sword he made, Fulgrim stows the Laer blade and spends most of the fight using the hammer, so it's an inversion of the previous fight, with each using the weapon the other used last time, the ones they made themselves instead of the ones they gave each other. It's honestly pretty neat!

GW sells minis of these two characters, and they're meant to serve together as a diorama of the fight on Istvaan V as well as serving as minis to use in games of Horus Heresy. Fulgrim's got the Laer blade, which, fair, that was what he was using at the end of the fight, but Ferrus Manus has the hammer, because he's a hammer guy and his game rules are for fighting with a hammer. And I get it, if you're making a Ferrus Manus mini he'd better be wielding his big hammer! But if you put the two of them together as a diorama that means Ferrus Manus is wielding the weapon that his opponent was wielding in the fight that it's a diorama of. I am choosing to interpret this as symbolic of the way the Horus Heresy's status as a commercial product will forever be in tension with the artistic aspirations of the people who work on it.

[nikethestatue]

Hi, this is a random question but, why don’t you like sjm’s friend Steph? is she a gw*nriel shipper or something?

I don't like shit stirrers who rock the boat unnecessarily. Particularly to increase their own clout. Absolutely by no virtue of their own talent or anything productive that they are doing.

Literally, her only claim to fame is that she is friends with SJM and she built some kind of absurd name for herself around that.

To me, if you are a friend of the author and a fucking ADULT, stay quiet and out of ship wars, but she didn't. When Gwynriel was big, in 21-22, exploding everywhere, she immediately jumped on the bandwagon, only stirring the flames of the shipwar further. Problem was that people believed that she had some kind of 'in' with SJM. She doesn't. She doesn't know shit, and it's very obvious, but naive girls on IG think that she does.

I think at some point, SJM shut it all down. Or maybe BB did. But they stopped her from doing Lives with SJM, and she (finally) stopped blathering on about Gwynriel. Particularly when the tides began to shift and the hoopla died down.

[deeaselriel]

Everyone has been treating Elriels SO BAD and disgustingly over the years, and when we defend ourselves we are painted as the “mEaN gUyS”. I’d dare to say that we are the “saints” of this fandom. I know there are some Elriels that can come off more rude than they should, but this is life. Nothing is perfect.

But a hard pill for y’all to swallow is that Elriels are usually soooo peaceful, minding their business and just enjoying their CANON content. They create edits, fan arts and post about Elriel not harming anyone, but then YOU KNOW WHO comes after us, ON OUR ACCOUNTS, ON OUR PRO ELRIEL VIDEOS, PICS OR THEORIES, that have absolutely NOTHING to do with their crackship(s), and spew their venom. They speak so many lies that don’t even come close to what is the CANON content of the books. They insult us and call us names, they bullied some creators SO BADLY they refuse to do Elriel fan arts anymore. YOU ALL ARE DISGUSTING AND I PRAY TO GOD FOR KARMA TO HIT SO HARD! I myself was a victim of y’all’s bullying when I did NOTHING! I just appreciated my Elriel and put facts on the table. Y’all told me I deserve to be R@PED just like Elain deserves!!!!

We, Elriels, have been put in a corner by THE ENTIRE FANDOM! This mob mentality made y’all treat Elriels like people with some kind of disease and it’s so sad honestly.

I’m not even being biased when I say that Elriels are usually very good people minding their business and the other stans of those 2 ships (y’all know) are constantly attacking us and making fun of us out of nowhere. They keep making content about Elain making fun of her, but yeah, they don’t like her. Lol. Y’all are so obsessed and have such internalized misogyny it’s scary. Especially when El didn’t do anything wrong, besides maybe the thing with Feyre that she’s making up for it. She’s a saint compared to many others in that serie, yet… she’s hated for liking to bake and plant flowers. Make it make sense. 😶

I think it’ll be ok for everyone to acknowledge WHO exactly is the most toxic in this fandom; who’s constantly attacking us for PUTTING FACTS on the table, who’s bullying artists into being scared to draw Elriel anymore, who’s harassing SJM at this point with a crackship that has 0 buildup. WHO IS SENDING DEATH THREATS to people so randomly just because, who is wishing R@PE on REAL people? The list is so long I just can’t…

I always knew that the mob mentality is forever going to be present, but OH MY GOD. These people that hate Elriel and ship the other ship just because “everyone does”, those going into the books already shipping Gw*nriel because “some content creators of TikTok said they’re sooooo endgame”, THOSE BIG ACCOUNTS THAT SPREAD ELAIN HATE JUST BECAUSE IT’S “TRENDY”. Y’all are SO pathetic; I wonder if you can think on your own.

Should I also talk about how often y’all don’t acknowledge what’s in those books related to Elriel? There are tons of evidence y’all pretend it’s not there and have THE NERVE to say Az only wants El for s*x. Bro, Feyre when she couldn’t read would’ve understand these books (and Elriel) better than y’all. 🤓 The delusional world y’all live in makes me laugh. What’s even funnier is when you are the ones making fun of US, when we have all our proof that Stands with us. WE ARE ON THE CANON SIDE, if we can say it this way.

Literally at this point, STOP being so toxic, and let Elriels IN PEACE. Acknowledge that Az and El have feelings for each other and that EVERYTHING points to them as endgame, and even SJM herself said that “it’s obvious”. None of us would’ve have any problem if y’all only acknowledged that Elriel is for the next book, and then go on with your day and make X head canon ships. It’s not harming to ship Az with someone else for fun, but when it comes to the ACTUAL BOOK & CANON, the answer it’s only Elriel. Just stop lying to yourselves. And stop playing the victim when Elriels have been like in prison for many years, being pushed aside and all. WE ARE THE VICTIMS OF THIS WHOLE FANDOM. The fact that I’m scared to even write a comment positive about Elriel or my girl Elain because I just know someone’s gonna say something “ironic” or bash me for whatever reason, says A LOT. And it’s the case for soooo many Elriels.

One last thing, I know we are reading fantasy books, but at least don’t make a fantasy of a couple the main talk of this fandom, lol. The couple should actually have “history”, build up & hints/ foreshadowing. CANON SCENES. And only Elriel has them. BYE. 🩷🌸💙🦇

[midnight-in-town]

hello! long time watcher of black butler first time reader and i just caught up. something i don't get during the campania shenanigans and i was hoping you would explain. why did undertaker keep going with the first bizarre doll experiment when he found out that ciel and the midford family were on board. If he's cedric or just if he cares, shouldn't he have aborted the experiments and protected them? thank you a lot for answering this and sorry if you said this before but i didn't find it.

Hey Anon! Even if you're not necessarily new to the fandom, welcome to the readers' side, hahaha! As for your question, I'm pretty sure I did answer this here and there once or twice, but I'll sum it up for you here. :)

First of all, while UT's a complex character, unlike some other fans, I never found that anything he does is senseless. Not ever since ch105. However, writing-wise, Yana-sensei can only slowly unveil more and more hints for UT's character and his agenda throughout the arcs.

For example, she can only reveal that UT "can't bear to lose another Phantomhive" after showing us that he cried about Vincent's death in the GW arc and after revealing he's a deserting Shinigami who's trying to bring back the dead in the Campania and Weston arcs. All these hints are revealed one after the other to make the readers slowly reflect about UT's goals and his true identity, as well as his past actions in previous arcs, in order to get to the bigger picture, just like you're doing right now.

As of right now, with all the hints we've gotten, we know that :

UT cares about salvaging what's left of the P family, as much as he cares about bringing back what he can of the ones who are dead (real!Ciel, maybe Claudia, but not Vincent because his body burnt too badly)

UT considers Frances and most likely her kids to be amongst the people he "can't bear to lose"

That much you can be rather sure of and that's the beginning of your answer: during the Campania arc, while our!Ciel and the Midfords were indeed in danger, UT also had to conduct this experiment in order to perfect his bizarre dolls, namely for real!Ciel's sake and for his sponsors, so he made a gamble.

For our!Ciel, he knew that Seb is a demon contracted with him, so he figured that Seb would definitely protect Ciel from the BDs.

Additionally, by checking Seb's cinematic record during the arc, he also found out about the terms of contract between him and our!Ciel (what we read about in ch138). So, post Campania and as confirmed in Weston, UT now knows that Seb is bound to obey and act as our!Ciel's shield as long as Ciel's revenge isn't achieved. That's why UT uses Seb to make sure of our!Ciel's safety.

For the Midfords, it's a similar gamble: ch151 revealed that UT has known Frances since basically her birth, so it seems logical that he's aware she's a very talented fighter, just like he probably knows that Lizzie is just as skilled (could be why she even was recruited by Bravat to protect real!Ciel if UT wasn't always around during the blue sect arc, me think).

Additionally, since UT knows that our!Ciel is quite selfless, I'm sure he also figured out that our!Ciel would order Seb to help his family if necessary:

Lastly, UT found the time to put BD!real!Ciel to safety despite the chaos on board and, since he was looking for a way to sink the ship after the experiment until they hit the iceberg, I'm quite sure he had planned to make sure our!Ciel and the rest of his family would end up safe no matter what.

That's my opinion!

I know some fans also used to think UT doesn't make a difference between being alive or dead thus used to say that, if Ciel and the Midfords had died during the Campania, UT would have simply collected their corpse and turned them into BDs. Personally I don't buy it, since his bizarre dolls still can't function without regular blood transfusions as of right now, so I'm sure he'd rather have them alive than dead.

Other fans also used to say, long ago, that Frances was in cahoots with UT during the Campania, which is why he didn't have to rescue them, because she knew enough of his plan to manage to rescue her family out of it, but 1) then why did she go on board at all? 2) I think ch151 definitely proved that she never was involved with real!Ciel's revival.

TL;DR I think UT bet on what he knew of at least our!Ciel, Seb and Frances to keep on conducting the Campania experiment while they managed to escape but, since we know he definitely doesn't want to lose them, I'm sure he had a backup plan that involved him rescuing them if necessary.

I hope this answers your question! Have a great day!