#honestly everyone is still kind of a terrible person except for lucrezia who...well

[ducavalentinos]

How would you rate Sabatini's biography on Cesare? I love it, but I wondered if you had any other (English) recommendations? Also take a shot everyone Sabatini interrupts his narrative to talk about how hot Cesare was sfhttjjggj

I think as far as Cesare bios goes, I’d rate his biography 7/10. I have conflicted feelings with Sabatini’s work, because I love his writing style, his sense of humour is great, it matched mine right away, and he has such a genius way of pointing out the hypocrisy and double standards applied to the Borgia family. He cleverly shows how much of the Borgia myths and general accusations thrown their way are connected to politics (shocker!) and to their Spaniard, and less nobly origins. Not to mention how he exposes the historical bias against Cesare, and general dishonesty with him, from primary sources to modern historians such as Gregorovius, that paragraph Sabatini wrote about him was truly a moment in the Borgia historical literature for me, I'm glad he said it. I just wish he hadn't fallen so hard for the Machiavellian Prince archetype about Cesare. The more I re-read his work, the more it becomes clear to me he took Machiavelli’s writings about Cesare at face value, fell in love with the image presented by him, and then proceeded (whether consciously or unconsciously) to apply this interpretation, one that has its limitations and flaws on their own, to all the facets of Cesare’s character, and all the other aspects of his life lol, which resulted in this too strict, robot-like persona. There is no nuance, no deepth to Cesare’s Sabatini, he exists only as the stoic, unscrupulous, unfeeling Machiavellian Prince. It’s a mistake I see being made time and again by most of Cesare’s biographers, many who follow Sabatini too blindly, or just Borgia biographers in general tbh, but Sabatini’s bio acutely illustrates this particular issue better than the other bios I’ve read I think, (with the exception perhaps of Beuf’s “work”, who somehow managed to outdone Sabatini in this Machiavellian presentation of Cesare, taking it to new extremes with super dramatic and misleading writing, for the most part). And you know, I always get the impression Sabatini had his own conflicted feelings in regards to The Prince, and its clear-headed, pragmatic politics. He seemed to admired it and feel repulsed by it at the time. And those mixed feelings sometimes ended up leaking into his view and writing about Cesare and some historical events, and what he believed had happened (e.g., the take of Urbino), and I find that very interesting. In any case, the point is: Sabatini’s Cesare is unrealistic, and it constantly enters into conflict with what Sabatini also presents as evidence for his history. I mean, he insists throughout the book in reaffirming Cesare was a utter egoist, cold man. Only moved by his ambition and thirst for power. He was incapable of kindness, or of being considerate with others, of feeling compassion, without ulterior motives involved. All of his actions were always calculated to only serve his own interests. Everyone around him were pawns to be used and discarded when they were no longer of any use to him. We are to believe he was a cynic, a block of ice, essentially. We are also to believe he never had genuine emotional bonds with anyone, much less with women. Women were interchangeble to him. Sabatini was convinced he was a man incapable of having a sentimental side, of loving or of having any connection with them beyond the physical aspect. But then, in between chapters, sometimes pages, he also tell us how Cesare seems to have deeply grieved the death of his cousin, Giovanni Borgia, whom he refers as Mio Fatre in his letters. He gives an honest, if quick, account about the marriage and relationship between Cesare and Charlotte d’Albret, in which Cesare’s obvious feelings for her can be seen, as well as his kindness and respect towards her. Sabatini admits the evidence shows they may well have loved each other, and that when leaving Charlotte in charge of all his affairs in France, as the governor and administrator of his lands and lorships there, as well as his heiress in case of his death, Cesare shows “his esteem of her and the confidence he reposed in her mental qualities.” And of Cesare’s policies and behavior as its ruler in the Romagna, it reaches a point where his mere self-interest doesn’t quite alone explain his relationship with this romagnese subjects and many of his decisions. It undermines Sabatini’s claim that it was for show and for his political gain. Last but not least, what is one supposed to make of the hypothesis he posits to the what I like to call, the Dorotea affair? This event is the peak of his contradiction and his mental gymnastics, because to be sure, his hypothesis is not far-fetched. I will concede I thought it was the first I read his bio. But over the years, between carefully separating fiction from history and reading other sources, then going back to his bio, I recognized his hypothesis is one of the plausible ones, certainly more plausible than the official sensationalistic narrative of Cesare simply abducting the innocent maiden Dorotea out on a whim, to satisfy his lust, (the fact Borgia scholars  are still repeating this narrative with a straight face is beyond my comprehension), I can see Cesare doing what he proposes, it def. aligns better with my understanding of him, and all the historical material I’ve read about him and his times, however, this hypothesis is completely irreconcilable with Sabatini’s Cesare. So, he says one thing, then he says another that’s incompatible with the first thing he said, and then proceeds to show evidence that either puts into doubt or confirms the opposite of his characterization of Cesare. And that’s only considering the historical info he dedided to include in his bio. If he had included some of the info Alvisi presents in his Duca di Romagna, a work he must have checked out, if not read it all, given one of the languages he spoke was Italian, and Alvisi’s bio is the best and most authoritative historical work made to date about Cesare and his life, I believe he would have struggled a lot more than he did. It just seems like he enters into a trap of his own making. Turning an already difficult task more difficult than it needs to be, honestly. Ironically, his stance is as messy and contradictory as the aforementioned Gregorovius in his Lucrezia Borgia, where you also have two Cesare(s): the one he sees and wants to present versus the one that emerges from the his own writing at times and historical material he himself exposes it. Overall, his work frustrates on some fronts, and I think it could have been better. It has its faults, some the typical faults/vices fond in Borgia biographies, others very much his own, but nevertheless I have a fondness for his bio which I do not share with others bios on Cesare, or the Borgia family. It is the only bio in the English language I find myself reading again and again, and the one I would put it first as better, or more decent, in this language about Cesare. I admire his honesty, and his bravery in challenging a little bit of Cesare’s dark legend, and the baseless accusations attached to his name. I appreciate what he tried to do, the very least of what I expect from a serious historian when dealing with figures as infamous in popular imagination as Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia. There is no denying his work was one of the main works which advanced Cesare’s historical literature, and the approach to his figure. Moving slightly from the literary, colorful, villain-like character of the Italian Renaissance, towards starting to be more seriously studied as a historical figure properly. And oh my god, yes, interrupting the narrative to talk about how hot Cesare was. It’s funny you mentioned that, because I don’t remember him doing that so much (time for a re-read!), but that's one of the characteristics of the Borgian/Cesarean historical literature heh. I’m yet to read a bio where authors do not feel the need to take a moment to talk about how hot he was, some even a poetic way lol, it’s so amusing, and always the one thing I know I will agree with them, if nothing else. Also, I think Borgia bios have huge potential for drinking games! Like: take a shot of tequila every time Cesare gets badmouthed for no reason, or baselessly asserted guilty of questionable murders, fratricide, rape, and abduction. Or when Juan and Cesare envied and hated each other narrative is repeated. Or when Guicciardini, Sanuto, Cappello and Giustinian are uncritically used as credible sources for Rodrigo and Cesare. Every time Lucrezia gets painted as the Good Borgia, the pretty, passive doll who was the helpless victim of the terrible Borgia men. Or when authors get uncomfortably shippy with the Cesare/Lucrezia relationship resulting in exaggerated claims such as: Lucrezia was Cesare’s only exception, or they were unusually close as siblings, etc. And of course, whenever Cesare’s hotness and allure has to be talked about dsjdsjsj, the list is long, and I think it will get you drunk very quickly. I know I couldn’t keep up back when I was reading Sacerdote’s bio, and I was drinking wine so. As for recs in the English language, I would say Woodward’s bio has its value in terms of sources and historical documents. I also think his analysis about politics, about Cesare’s goverment in the Romagna, and also concerning the conclave of 1503 are generally good. His last five, four chapters are the best ones imo, so if you are interested in these points I mentioned, it might be worth checking out. I would just open a caveat saying that as far as a biography about the person of Cesare Borgia is concerned, it is weak and to be read with a grain of salt. I was mostly unimpressive by his work on that front, and I thought about quitting time and again. He likes presenting himself as the impartial historian, (a big red flag that only makes me twice as cautious when reading any historical work) writing in a mostly sober tone, but of course like all scholars, all people, he has his bias, and they do come to surface from time to time. He displays an peculiar antipathy and ill will towards Cesare at times, which leads to harsh, confusing, unsubstantiated claims about his character and some of the events about his life. In contrast, you can see he is more benevolent and fair towards Rodrigo Borgia, and a constant thought I had while reading his bio was that he obviously chose the wrong Borgia to write a bio on. Had he chose Rodrigo as his Borgia subject, I believe we would have had a pretty good bio about him and his papacy.

[joanna-lannister]

we already know you ship jxc but maybe tell us why and some of your feelings? fav scenes or aspects to their relationship?

Hi Nonnie!

To be honest, I wasn't sure if your message was an accusation because you were the anon whose sent me the cersei x euron ask and you ship it or if you simply ship Jaime x Cersei and were curious why I ship it too lol. I'm always cautious when I receive that kind of ask ahah and sorry for the late reply, I've spent too much time writing it.

So here I go!

First of all, I think this is the most important ship in the show I mostly speak about the show because I haven't read all the books yet with Ned x Cat (I could add Rh*egar x Lyanna but I don't ship it). Without them, no story because no war of the five Kings. And by that, I don't mean ''Cersei wanted their bastard(s) on the throne''. No, I mean people like Littlefinger (or Varys, Stannis and Renly to some extent) found the evidence of their dirty little secret and used it to start a war for their own profit. Littlefinger comploted with Lysa Arryn to kill her husband and then let the Starks believe that the Lannisters were responsibles of that murder.And Jaime pushing Bran out of that window to protect them lead that spark. Without that defining moment, Cat wouldn't have tried to search proofs in the tower, wouldn't have gone to King's Landing to warn Ned, wouldn't have kidnapped Tyrion and hurt Tywin's pride, Ned wouldn't have found Jon Arryn's researches and confontred Cersei about Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen being bastards, etc.Littlefinger said "Chaos is ladder." and he was right, this relationship lead to the actual chaos in Westeros. You remove it from the equation and you lost a big part of the story. I wish some people could see that.

This is something they both want. People will say : "But this is unhealthy!!! Well sure, Jan but this is Game is Thrones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What do you expect? Even then, shipping something doesn't mean accepting everything they do and frankly, unlike some people like to believe, it goes both ways with these two. So yeah, this is something they both want, they said countless time they love each others. Hell, even Jaime told this to Edmure and said he can laugh at it if he wants to, like "eat it, bitch !". Jaime wants to marry her, he's angry when she refuses and jealous af. It's worse in the books but we can see it during the season 7 with Euron. And he's ready to give her another child after Joffrey's death (I wanted by the way making a gifset with this quote and when Cersei tells him she's pregnant with baby!Lannister in the S7 but I forgot because I'm a dumb bitch... 🙄). As for Cersei, she choose love over the kingdom, she choose to have her children with the man who made her feel safe, not her abusive husband, Jaime gives her the little agency she can have. This is terribly human...

Forbidden love! I'm such a slut for this trope and honestly, Romeo and Juliet are pretty boring next to Jaime and Cersei. Well, I remember back when I watched The Borgias and I shipped (and I still do!)  Cesare and Lucrezia, I used to feel so ashamed for shipping them but now, I don't care. Yeah, I love this trope and shipping is supposed to be fun. Give me two persons who romantically love each others but aren't supposed too, hello the angst! I'm on board! After all; We don't choose whom we love.

Time. They spend their lifetime together! This is another trope I love. They are born together and they are obsessed by it. My romantic ass can't help but loving long-term relationship. They can't see themselves without the other (if this phrase makes sense) and it makes me laugh when people say "Jaime is so over Cersei ass" sorry but hello? They lived for 42 years together, have been involved for almost 30 years romantically, had 3 (almost 4) children together and you except him to forget her just like that? LMAO

I think I could add more reasons but this is really the first ones that pop into my mind and if I keep going, I will never finish...

As for my favorite scenes :

The Reunion in S3: This is by far my fave! The look on their faces OMG... especially Cersei, she looks like she can't breathe. No words needed or big love declaration, simply their faces. That's what I call good acting. Oh, I remember this fanart, where they fall into each others arms, it was so pretty! I felt robbed after seeing that. But I don't remember the author. 😭

The Morning After in 7x03: I know most of the fans hated this season but theses scenes were pure bliss for me and I was ready to take every crumbs I could have. And oh God, this scene looked like I wrote it myself. And the maid... I want her face when she saw Jaime in the bed on my grave, I will never be over this!

The Moment After Cersei Told Tywin The Truth in 4x10: Well, it was pretty hot!

The Hug in 1x03: Same as the one above. And I think Jaime's quote sums up their relationship : And if he does, I'll kill him. Him, Ned Stark, the King... the whole bloody lot of them, until you and I are the only people left in this world.

That Scene Just After Jaime Came Back with Myrcella in 6x01: Cersei is devasted by Myrcella's death, she's depressed and it breaks my heart everytime. 😭 And at the same time, it's a beautiful scene but yeah, I always end up in tears.

And so many more! I could also talk about the moments when they are apart and think/talk about the other. Theses little clues people barely notice. Like Cersei, talking to Sansa saying Jaime was with her during Joffrey's birth, or saying to Tyrion she wonder what Jaime is doing, worried, or saying to I-don't-remember-who he's not been forgotten, or just before they reunite, when she's looking at the shell, I can't stop thinking this is a reminiscence of their childhood at Casterly Rock (I know someone else wrote that too not so long ago). Or Jaime, saying to Jory Cassel (I think) that Robert is humiliating her by whoring in front of everyone, or when Roose Bolton tell him that Stannis attacked King's Landing but he failed and that Cersei is safe, Jaime fell on his knees, everyone think it's because of the loss of his hand and he's exhausted by the trip but he's simply relieved that Cersei is alive. All these little things...Yes.

There is one micro moment from the books I would have loved to see on my screen tho, that kiss Ned catched during the Hand's tourney. He see Jaime kissing a woman and we all know it's Cersei disguised, but not Ned. It's short but I really love that moment.

I wish GRRM could write a book only about them to be honest, at this point. There is so many possibilities and I have so many headcanons. This isn't nice George, make a girl happy! I also think there relationship is more toxic in the books than in the show and they freaking need to talk! And my stupid romantic ass also want them to have a happy ending sometimes, I can't help myself, even if I know it's not gonna happen. Oh, and I also think their fate will be slightly different in the show but I could be wrong.

Yeah, I really love them. I have to admit that sometimes, it really piss me off to see how people treat them, the double standards they instaured between these two make me want to gouge my eyes out and I'm disgusted by the fact they want them to f*ck someone else, especially while Cersei is pregnant. 🙄 But at least, I stay in my lane.

Honestly I could add other stuffs, I want to but like I said I will never finish this post otherwise... But here's my opinion. 😊

Have a nice day! ❤️

[setaripendragon]

Girl Genius - Role Swap???

This idea occurred to me last night, and I’m still trying to work out how all the pieces would fit together, but I’m really enjoying what I’ve got so far.

At first I just thought ‘what if one of the boys was the Heterodyne heir instead, and Agatha was either the Storm Queen or the Princess of Skifander?’ but then I thought ‘no, what if Agatha was still the Heterodyne, but either the daughter of an ‘illegitimate’ emperor or the daughter of a well-established noble family?’

What if Barry, on getting back from killing Lucrezia, took one look at the mess Europa was in and lost his temper in the most epically Sparky way: ‘I spent my entire life cleaning up your damned messes, and this is what you do when we disappear for a few years?! No. If you can’t be trusted to keep Europa clean yourselves, I will make you, and you will like it! No more nice Heterodyne!’ so he goes back to Mechanicsburg with bb!Agatha, and he’s travelworn and weary and grieving and has a massive case of PTSD (...if it can really be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when the stress hasn’t stopped yet), this little blonde toddler in breakthrough on his hip, and he goes straight to the Jagerhall, and they’re all stunned, and so relieved to see one of their boys home safe after so long, and to see him in their hall, when Bill and Barry always used to avoid the Jagers as much as they could...

And Barry just ‘Get everyone ready to march; we’re conquering Europa.’

The cheering probably did literally knock the roof off the jagerhall (they are jagers) and Gkika absolutely made Barry sit down and get a hot meal inside himself, and Agatha is completely doted on by every single jager ever, but then Barry goes off to war, taking most of the jagers with him, and Agatha gets left in Mechanicburg, with an honour guard of jagers, because the geisterdamen are probably still looking for her, and feeling really rather abandoned. I don’t think she’d have quite the same identity issues as Gil, because I don’t think there’s any way to hide her identity from her when she’s the Heterodyne Heir living in Mechanicsburg, but it may leave her similarly isolated from her peers. All the other kids would love to be her minion, but that’s not quite the same as having a friend who’s an equal.

Which is where Gil and/or Zeetha comes in. Of course, in this AU, Klaus is playing the role of Aaronev, although it’s his loyalty to Bill, rather than Lucrezia, that leads him to join Barry’s budding empire while secretly plotting to undermine it. Because, really, Barry is acting disturbingly like an Old Heterodyne, and Klaus doesn’t like it, and he’s pretty sure Bill wouldn’t like, and someone needs to be there to nudge Barry away from more despotic behaviour like ‘no, you can’t just kill anyone you think is incompetent, you think everyone’s incompetent’

I’m thinking that things in Skifander went differently from what little we know, and that Zantabraxus was killed, probably in some sort of civil war over her consort and/or kids and, since she’s taking the role of old Andronicus, maybe possibly was ressurected by Klaus into a terrible ravening monster that promptly had to be sealed away to protect the city. And of course with Zantabraxus dead, the main protection for Gil and Zeetha was gone, so Klaus scooped them up and ran, to give them a chance to grow up safely and then return to claim their birth-right.

In that sense, it would make sense for Zeetha to be the younger sibling (by a few minutes, because I’m too fond of them as twins to change that), because she would be the heir, being the girl, even if Gil was older than her, which matches better to the dynamic Tarvek and Anevka have. In which case it would be Zeetha, not Gil, who wound up visiting Mechanicsburg and becoming BFFs with Agatha, but perhaps it should be both of them... Because then, they’d end up discovering that Agatha’s mother was the Other, which distresses Agatha into a fugue, which would be even worse if she dragged Gil into it with her, that does enough damage that Barry comes home and has to explain about her parents to Agatha and sends Gil and Zeetha home. Maybe he does that because Agatha got them hurt during her fugue? I’m still trying to work out what could have happened to Gil to parallel the ‘abomination of science’ trait Anevka has.

Which brings me to the Sturmvoraus siblings. Tarvek gets to be the long lost heir to the Storm King, who honestly has no idea of his heritage, because he was too young when Barry Heterodyne smashed through the Storm King conspiracy and murdered most everyone involved, including Tarvek’s father, and probably Anevka too, and maybe it’s Margolotta who snatches up Tarvek and flees with him. She ends up running to Beetleburg, where Tarsus Beetle is more than happy to protect the heir to the Storm Kind legacy. After all, one day, Tarvek will have command of the Muses, and we all know that Beetle loved the Muses.

And I don’t know exactly how it would work, okay, but to parallel the whole ‘being left with constructs’ deal, I really, really want Tarvek to be raised by Eotain and Shrdlu while Margolotta goes off to see if she can discover if any remnants of the Smoke Knights or anyone survived. Of course, the geisters are still trying to get at Agatha, but Barry and the jagers have been hunting them pretty relentlessly, and they haven’t been able to get at her. (Actually, maybe Barry did try to hide Agatha’s identity? With the locket to suppress her Spark and orders to the jagers not to tell her... basically so the geisters are left thinking their holy child died.)

Huh. Maaaybe Margolotta (or Tarvek’s mother, even? Do we know her name?) actually got a copy of Lucrezia downloaded into her brain, and she was still trying to salvage the ‘Heterodyne girl marrying the Storm King’ plot, so she handed Tarvek off to a couple of trusted geisterdamen and then went to try and sabotage Barry and discover what happened to Agatha, only maybe that copy of her personality was corrupted, or a non-spark mind just can’t handle her consciousness for very long, and her sanity started degrading as time went on. Anyway, Tarvek grows up ignorant, with only vague memories of his family, and Eotain and Shrdlu as the only parents he’s ever really known. And he knows he’s a Spark, but he also knows that Eotain and Shrdlu are trying very hard to stay incognito, so he learns how to repress it himself.

Which brings us to the beginning of the comic. I’m pretty sure that Beetle would still try to hide the hive engine, because the geisterdamen can command Lucrezia’s ‘lesser servants’ which I assume includes revenants, and if he was going to try and use Agatha to command them, he might also try to use Eotain and Shrdlu. Either way, Barry isn’t quite as circumspect or subtle as Klaus, or willing to give people the benefit of the doubt anymore, so he just comes down on Beetleburg like a tonne of bricks.

And Tarvek gets to meet Agatha, who’s finally been allowed out of Mechanicsburg to help her Uncle purge her mother’s works, and maybe finally been allowed to break through, so she’s pretty furious and in full Sparky fugue (Barry has been in varying levels of a fugue state since he got back to Europa, it’s not very healthy at all, and it makes him a pretty terrible role model for Agatha), and severely intimidating to Tarvek. But when he goes home after Beetle’s dead, Eotain and Shrdlu are like ‘-gaaasp- The Holy Child!’ and are all set to go and try and kidnap her right away. But Tarvek, of course, loves his creepy ghost mums, and knows that they’d be worse than dead if the Heterodyne caught them, so he offers to go, instead. Get into Barry’s good graces (if he has any), charm Agatha, and maybe convince her to run away with him.

So, he probably courts Agatha, reveals himself as a Spark, and Agatha insists on him coming back to Mechanicsburg with her. At which point, Tarvek begins putting the pieces together of who the geisterdamen’s Lady really is, and he’s not morally against mind control to start with, because he’s still under the impression that the Lady is benign. But he’s actually falling in love with Agatha, and Agatha reveals that her mother was going to overwrite her brain, and it dawns on Tarvek that if he doesn’t like the idea of that happening to Agatha, it probably shouldn’t be done to anybody.

Buuut, just as he’s having this change of heart, Barry finds out he was raised by geisterdamen, and Tarvek is forced to flee. (Agatha is not happy about her Uncle scaring off her boyfriend, maybe she even counts it as the second time he’s done that, depending on what happened with Gil and Zeetha and discovering her identity.) And he flees right into the arms of Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure, where he meets Tinka and Moxana, who promptly recognises him as a direct descendant of old Andronicus Valois, and reveal his Storm King heritage to him.

He also meets a charming young actor who looks just like Bill Heterodyne, except for the rather impressive scars over the majority of his body, who was picked up by the Circus when he was very small somewhere near Mechanicsburg. His name is Klaus Barry.

Now, I have no idea how Klaus Barry would have survived the attack on the Castle, but I’ve got some vague ideas of maybe Von Pinn attempting to use some of the Sparky devices in Lucrezia’s lab or something to revive him, and whatever it was didn’t work quite right, so Klaus Barry is sort of... only half there, sometimes. Or maybe Von Pinn took him through the portal thingy? I don’t know. I’m also undecided on whether Von Pinn should have gone with him, or stayed in Mechanicsburg and wound up playing nursemaid to Agatha. But Klaus Barry is still a bit of a nascent hero (maybe he even blew up a pirate fortress once, by complete accident, he swears, he has no idea how that happened) and he helps Tarvek figure out his morals/political standpoint and totally accidentally starts training him to be King.

Either way, the Circus eventually ends up rolling through Wulfenburg, and I have no idea why they take an interest in Tarvek, maybe Gil has a clank limb or something after the Agatha incident, and Klaus (Wulfenbach) wants to study the muses to help him, and Tarvek is protective enough to be like ‘if you’re taking them, I’m staying too’, or maybe Gil just goes to have a look, and he and Tarvek end up geeking out over amazing clanks together, and Gil invites Tarvek back to his labs (you know, for coffee- or rather, science!) and then Klaus (Wulfenbach) recognises Tarvek as the boy Barry was hunting, and promptly imprisons him, though not with any intention of handing him over to Barry until he knows what the hell is going on.

Gil (and Zeetha, and Klaus Barry, and the Muses) help Tarvek escape, obviously, and after that...

Well, the whole ‘reclaiming his throne’ thing could either happen in Sturmhalten, which is where Tarvek’s family lived, but maybe it should happen in/around Paris, and whatever the GG equivalent of the palace of Versailles is. It could be fun to drag everyone to Paris early, where perhaps Seffie is hiding from the rampaging Heterodyne out to murder her family. (And you know, madly in love with Colette, but resentfully resigned to the need to marry a guy to continue the family line and produce an heir to the Storm King, but then Tarvek shows up, which not only means she doesn’t have to worry about continuing the bloodline, but also Tarvek is, given who he was raised by (and the fact that he’s falling pretty hard for Gil), very supportive of inverts, and encourages Seffie to follow her heart, because he’s actually a sappy romantic under all that plotting and pragmatism.) (And of course, Tarvek and even Gil and Zeetha and Klaus Barry get into Paris just fine (maybe Agatha sent Vanamonde to protect Tarvek when she heard about him being in Wulfenburg?) but the Master of Paris is just like NO HETERODYNES when Agatha and Barry try to get in, so Agatha convinces Barry to let her try and get in incognito, and she does manage it long enough to find Tarvek and Gil, but then there could be drama with the Master of Paris trying to kick her out, and Tarvek putting his foot down and excersizing his Kingly rights?)

I have no idea how things would all fall out in the end, but I really kind of love this AU so I thought I’d share.