#i have actually SO many headcanons about how different nations would react to being powerful at any given point in history...

[sneakydraws]

@dennorweek day 4: royalty

let's not kid ourselves this is a very tedious connection but i took it as an excuse to word dump a bit about the kind of dynamic i sometimes like to imagine with historical canonverse dennor. poorly backed up musings under the cut

based on like .05 seconds of research i did at some point i got the impression that historically, even when they formed a united country, d.enmark had more power over n.orway (or at the very least, more power than n.orway) than vice versa, and it got me thinking about power dynamics. this is just my own headcanon but i could see it like... nor knows full well that their relationship is unequal and den could at any point mistreat him with little repercussion but at the same time nor knows he never would. cocky and arrogant and power hungry though he may be, the affection or even love den has for nor is genuine and he would never think of treating nor with anything less than full respect. then again, a situation where one person has considerable power over the other is no foundation for a fully comfortable and normally functional relationship, and their weird romance has that undercurrent of instability built in. although i think for countries this kind of messed up relationship is kind of the norm since at any given time there's usually some kind of power imbalance going on, not to mention inherently clashing political interests... anyway, dubiously historically accurate musings aside, i couldn't resist putting them in vaguely viking era clothes even though the situation i was going for could be slightly more believably connected to their 16th century union ahahaaaa

[beautifulsnake2162020]

Ikevamp headcanons after watching Hamilton

Quick disclaimer: Yes I know this is a show about people who had owned slaves and slavery is bad. Having said that there's a reason why we suspend disbelief for a couple of hours and just allow ourselves to be swept into the story. I also love Phantom of the Opera but I also am aware that this is a story that involves an abusive and toxic relationship. The point is that I am aware that there are problems that needs to be discussed, but I still love the music, the story and the shows okay. This is just fan content not meant to be taken seriously and is just for fun. Okay? Now let's proceed.

I'll be doing Will and Arthur first since I'm currently doing Shakespeare's route and was inspired to do this after MC watches Romeo and Juliet with Vincent and I was wondering how Will would react to watching Hamilton. And Arthur is here because he is my husband/main lover. I might do Mozart and Napoleon next.

SPOILER ALERT: For anyone who hasn't seen the Disney Plus version of Hamilton, there might be some spoilers here (unless you already saw the show or know the story that is).

General Scenario:

You don't know how but Le Comte was able to get the filmed version of Hamilton, a musical which you've told Sebastian that you've been dying to see but was never able to because tickets were always sold out and entering the lottery was going to be a little too expensive for someone who lives in Japan and who doesn't exactly have the money or the time to simply fly to New York if in case she won. You were also excited because apparently Le Comte was able to modify the 21st century tech room that you use for your online classes and was able to get a wide screen and high quality surround sound which made you appreciate his efforts. A part of you was also curious as to how the other residents would react. You were scared that some of them might take offense, especially Napoleon who knew one of the characters in the show in real life. Would they react weirdly for seeing people different from them portray people that they knew? You were also wondering if they might even appreciate some of the 21st century slang that you and Sebastian would sometimes slip back into whenever it was just the two of you alone. After talking it out with everyone and explaining a few more things (like how its probably going to be different since it is a series of captured pictures-or at least that's your closest analogy- being played super fast with the synchronized sound of the actors- or what you were almost tempted to call "Techno Magic") during a dinner in which Shakespeare had decided to be present in, they were actually interested in what this show is about. Napoleon convinced you that he's fine and actually someone else playing Lafayette might even help with the suspension of disbelief since its been awhile since he has last met him anyway. Will even mentioned that while he has read and heard about stories from America, this is probably going to be the first story or production he's going to see from it. The only one who showed any hesitation - to no one's surprise - was Mozart, since he is attached to the kind of music he is familiar with (aren't we all?). But after prodding from both Jean, Le Comte and you giving him the puppy eyes, he finally relents. The day comes when everyone was once again free and for practicality everyone decided to have a meal first so that they won't be hungry during the show and also for you, Le Comte, and Sebastian to explain a few things everyone else may need to know to truly appreciate the show (like how the Presidential system and elections worked during the setting, what the word "Rewind" means, what is beatboxing, etc). So finally everyone gathered into the tech room after the meal, the lights were dimmed and once everyone was settled, you hit play. And as self-predicted of you, you find yourself crying in the end.

William Shakespeare (I'm still doing his route so please don't hate me if I get him wrong. Also no spoilers please).

- He was a bit shocked at first by how exactly up close you could see the facial expressions of the actors as well as the various ways it would cut to another person. He could now understand why you struggled with trying to explain how its played in a theatre but not exactly like the theatrical experience. But as you saw in your periphery, by the time Philippa Soo sings her first line, Will had already adjusted and allowed himself to be an audience and shut off his director and actor mindset (for the most part at least).

- While he didn't specialize in musicals, he found himself paying attention to the story of "the ten dollar founding father without a father." He knows how music could help both the actors and the audience in succumbing to their emotions in a scene and to suspend disbelief from reality. In his productions the words are not overwhelmed by any score but rather complemented to bring out the emotion he wants to evoke and for actors to show. Since many parts of the show has been influenced by the spoken word style without completely removing it from being sung, he has become enlightened with how powerful a show can be when it is done right.

- He not only enjoyed the story (especially the flow of it) and the production (especially some of the more technical details that the other residents hadn't noticed as far as a stage production is concerned), he loved that even the ensemble members had good acting and some of the onstage humor. One of the meta things he enjoyed was the obvious reference to his most superstitious work.

- Once you've seen how he loves analyzing the technical details of the production, you excitedly tell him about a special member of the ensemble who is known as "The bullet" among fans of the show. You could see him being enlightened as he watches the show with you again (this time with just the two of you) and he now sees "the bullet" and the way she interacts with the characters in a whole different light. He was so impressed with this idea that he may have adapted it into one of his new original plays (its not a copy paste of Hamilton's "bullet" but he definitely adapted assigning a member of the ensemble to have a special role that may not be significant at first, but he heavily notes that this member would have to be unique in interacting with any of the other characters).

- He didn't know what to expect from a 21st Century production but he found himself impressed with the prose and writing of various raps and songs. His favorite from Act 1 in terms of rhyme schemes was "Right Hand Man" and from Act 2 it was Jefferson's rap in "Washington by your side". And after settling down a bit his favorite emotional parts were "History has its eyes on you", "Hurricane", and "It's quiet uptown".

- He was impressed with how the double roles was given and how it actually is true for both of their roles in both acts. Ambiguity is one of his favorite things to have in a work, and he gives props to Lin for all the ambiguity he later realizes was in several parts of the show. If he and Arthur had been a little bit more closer, they probably would have bonded over the ambiguity Hamilton's comma in his letter to Angelica (see kids, grammar matters).

- A part of his brain wonders how the real life Hamilton would react to this and if him and Burr would still be enemies. But after some thinking he decides its not worth his efforts of asking anyone to bring them back since a wonderful production of their life has already been made even if it may not necessarily reflect who they truly are. He of all people knew what it's like to be inspired by great figures, it was fortunate that Lin Manuel Miranda decided to make a show about them before he had the chance to.

- You explain that in America Hamilton is one of the lesser known founding fathers of their nation and how it may be because his political opponents later on became Presidents and therefore was able to form the narrative. He becomes inspired by it and begins to search out people or stories who are hidden gems who may not be historically famous but had much more interesting stories than some of the ones he has heard of.

- Afterwards once you are sure that he has gotten comfortable enough with the genre you show him various videos of people rapping to his works and his reactions range from impressed to amused to "that's not what I mean when I wrote that" and you had to calm him down and explain that they can't hear him anyway after he started giving serious critiques on what the text means.

Arthur Conan Doyle

- While he was knowledgeable about many things, America's founding fathers was not one of them. He along with the other residents have gotten used to any rumors or exaggerated accounts of their lives and you and Sebastian have already warned that this is just a fictionalized production of the real person. As a writer of some historical fiction books he argued that he of all people was aware that any work based on history will speak more about the creators rather than the actual people they are writing about most of the time. He was nevertheless interested as to why you have become fascinated with the treasury secretary (and maybe it was with a twinge of jealousy that you began to expressly show admiration to another man even if he wasn't among the residents in the mansion). After all unlike many other residents of the mansion, on the surface it seemed that Hamilton was similar to Theo who mainly played a supporting but crucial role to his brother. He was thankful that you didn't hold it against him and was comforted that you were in a similar place. You even told him that the only thing you really knew about Hamilton before listening to the soundtrack and watching "Animatics" was that he was in the ten dollar American bill.

- And as someone who has delved into writing historical fictions, this was probably one of the most entertaining productions about a historical figure he has seen. He's going to be honest with you in that at first he was wondering if revealing Burr shot Hamilton in the opening was going to hinder him from enjoying the show; but he was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case at all. As a matter of fact it now made him want to find out who the real Hamilton was (although a part of him doubts if the real Hamilton had any regrets at all). According to him, this is why as a fictionalized historical work, the show is a success because it makes you want to find out more about the events and figures of the story (even if it means looking at darker realities that they did). And while the real Hamilton may be a lot different from what was shown, with all the things he went through and all the things he has done (for better or worse), he now wonders why exactly Le Comte hadn't approached him since he seems to be no better or worse than the average resident ("He and Newt could probably discuss mathematics all day."). You then explained that his political rivals (Jefferson and Madison from the show, and Monroe who wasn't shown in the musical) had later on become Presidents and was able to shape the narrative away from Hamilton. "Ron Chernow made Hamilton's biography because he was the lesser known founding father who was fading into obscurity among Americans and Lin read the book and recognized the story of someone who has risen through his writings. And to Lin that was also the story of hiphop." While he wasn't involved in politics as much as Hamilton was, Arthur had enough experience to know what it feels like to have those kinds of people in power. He also knows just how powerful it is to be in "the room where it happened" and how sometimes the real decisions weren't being made in an office but rather in either a private party or the right bar when people in power had their guard down and were more susceptible to being influenced.

- He could relate a lot with Hamilton on many things that he's only comfortable allowing either you or Theo to see. From being just so much more aware of death's inevitability coming for every living thing to survivor's guilt even though a part of him knows its irrational (but sometimes the emotional nonsense just overtakes our perspectives and actions). It's why he could understand Hamilton's need to write as much as he can before he dies. It's why for a time in his human life he had deviated from writing about Holmes and ventured into other genres. He could also relate to the need to prove what type of person he was, and how to go beyond his tragedies to serve people in their own ways. Hamilton did it as a soldier and the creator of America's financial system. And he is doing it as an informally practicing doctor and as a writer. It's a need that he's trying to mitigate since you've repeatedly told him that he doesn't need to prove anything to you or to anyone and to write whatever he pleases. But he also can't deny that it's still somewhere lodged in the back of his head.

- Just like William Shakespeare, in terms of the wordplay found in rap and the ambiguity present in the show and how those things were executed made him amazed and momentarily speechless. He was especially fanboying about "The comma after dearest" and how this essentially shows how important grammar was. It went to the extent that afterwards whenever he would write to you he would address you either as "My dearest, Y/N" or "My darling, Y/N" with special emphasis on the comma (sometimes you could see how there's more ink in the comma than some of the actual words. That's how much he wants to emphasize that you hold the title of dearest or darling). And you excitedly share with him some of the trivia knowledge of the show (like how in real life it was Angelica who originally made the comma mistake by writing to Hamilton as "My dear, sir" in one of her letters and it was Hamilton who was asking her what the comma means and even replied with "Ma chere, soeur") and how Angelica really did reference the Icarus metaphor in one of her letters to Eliza. And even though he wasn't a major musical nerd (he sang for fun), he would now join you in watching Howard Ho's Hamilton videos musically analyzing Hamilton (and would probably try to find a way to use this knowledge to annoy Mozart in some way).

- Speaking of music: Maybe it's because he's biased in his love for you but aside from Sebastian he's probably the one who has no qualms about the hiphop genre and was immediately into the various wordplays that rapping allowed. And because of this his favorite characters in terms of rapping are the ones played by Daveed Diggs (probably more than Hamilton himself even though you've explained that Lin is the one who wrote the whole thing). He even adapts to how Daveed as Jefferson would say Isaac's third law and incorporated it into his "let's tease Newton" kit. That's when you know he really loves Daveed Diggs ("Every action has an equal opposite -" "WILL YOU PLEASE STOP SAYING IT THAT WAY?! I didn't mind the first few times but this is ridiculous Arthur" "It must be nice, it must be nice to have a Newton on your side"). And his favorite character emotionally was Angelica (her raps in Schuyler Sisters and Satisfied may have helped).

- Speaking of the Schuyler Sisters, after watching it with you another time (this time with just the two of you) one of his favorite things to say is that you've got the best of all three sisters within you (Angelica's wittiness and intelligence, Eliza's cares for the more important things in life, and Peggy's humor) with the sexiness of Maria Reynolds. But because he sees all 4 of them in you he has the benefit of not needing to choose among them. Having said that there will be a period wherein he teases you if he makes you "Helpless" or "Satisfied" (and you respond either by kissing him or singing "That would be enough").

- Whenever you would sing as one of the Schuyler sisters he will join you as any of the male characters the moment he masters the soundtrack and could even sing it without the music. His favorite rap songs are "Guns and Ships", "Washington on your side", and of course "Satisfied". He also really loves "Non-stop", "the 10 duel commandments", and "The room where it happened". But his favorite sequence is from "the Winter's Ball" all the way to "Wait for it". Since it has romance, a shocking revelation, and gives insight to the perspective of the antagonist. He's also one of the first people to attempt to learn the choreography whenever he's in one of his mental blocks in writing. Of course he makes sure not to injure himself.

- He posts song lyrics to keep himself motivated in his times of mental block "There's a million things I haven't done. But just you wait" and "I'm not throwing away my shot" frequently appear around his desk.

-And whenever he's feeling low or insecure, just like Eliza you remind him to "Look around, Look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now."

[yourfinalbow]

"if Destiel wasn't on the cards, why is it Canon" u mean that unrequited love confession from Cas? Lmao. Jensen is literally homophobic yall trying to push him into Destiel ain't for the sake of representation its for the sake of you own little MLM fetish ship. Two straight actors ain't good gay rep. Even if Destiel was requited by Dean. Again, stop being a loser.

Hi! I'm actually glad you came to my ask box, it gives me an excuse to try and clear up some of these misconceptions.

So first of all, we don't technically know if it's unrequited. There is a lot of tinhatting involved in Destiel shipping, but there is also some solid evidence behind it. I personally believe that Dean returns Castiel’s confession, but didn’t have time to react to it. (I wouldn’t know what to do if my best friend of twelve years told me they made a deal with the Empty, was about to die, loved me, his love for me is the reason he’s about to die, and then continued to tell me that everything I believed about myself is wrong.) Some people also believe that Dean may have thought that if he didn’t say anything, the Empty wouldn’t come. Others believe that he did say something, but it was cut. (Which actually isn’t as far fetched as it sounds, considering scripts are sent to dubbing companies ahead of time and he reciprocated in almost every Latin American dub, as well as in French and Italian. And before you claim that there was a “rogue translator”, I must say that the script and dub has to go through very many heads before it is aired, so practically the entire company would have to be in on it. There are also a lot of strange jump cuts in the scene.) People have their personal headcanons, and you have yours! That’s perfectly fine, though anonymously telling me, and another awesome human being, that I’m a loser for having my headcanon is actually incredibly coward-like, presumptuous, and disrespectful.

So while Dean didn’t tell Cas he loved him in the English version, (Though I don’t know why that’s the only one that matters, considering only 13% of the world speaks it.) That doesn’t mean it’s not canon however, just unconfirmed on one side. (So your previous statement, “Destiel was never on the cards. Lol.”, is both grammatically incorrect and false.)

Your next statement, however, is the one that rubs me the wrong way. Jensen Ackles is not homophobic. I’ll link a few posts below that completely disprove this, but just because you don’t ship a queer ship, doesn’t make you homophobic. There’s also his infamous gay Aunt, and in my experience of homophobic-people-interacting-with-their-gay-family-members, (which is sadly a good enough amount to have a proper viewpoint), they don’t usual act as comfortable and open as Jensen and Aunt Darla, (and her wife!) are with eachother.

-Twitter thread of him being comfortable with queer peeps.

-CW’s “Dare to Defy” Campaign. (This movement is still very important, but the words don't hold as much weight to me personally after seeing what they did in the finale.)

-Tumblr post with Jensen being supportive of queer peeps. (He's even raised money for people in the LGBTQIA+ community anon. A homophobic person does not do that.)

You also have to take into consideration how comfortable he is with his male friends. I’m not saying he himself is apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, but there are countless videos and pictures of him being comfortable with both Jared and Misha, and that’s something homophobic people tend to stay away from. Once again, this doesn’t mean he himself is queer, and obviously people can love each other platonically! But people who are super religious and stead fast against gay people, usually go out of their way to not be seen as gay. And it’s clear it doesn’t bother J2M at all.

Jensen has also, in recent years, made jokes about Destiel. My favorite one is probably the, “Dean has no taste, clearly.” You can find that here because it genuinely makes my day. And if he was truely homophobic, I doubt he would be comfortable with things like this, as well as Jared constantly poking fun at him about both Misha and Destiel. (He would have at least pulled Jared aside privately and asked him nicely not to do that anymore. There are ways of doing this without seeming homophobic, and in reverse, just because he doesn’t want someone to make jokes like that doesn’t make him homophobic.) Third, I personally want Destiel to be canon because A, having two famous and main characters on a long-running Sci-Fi show, that was originally intended to be incredibly heterosexual, come out as queer would be good representation. People need to see that it’s okay to not be straight. Queer people have been oppressed for thousands of years, so being able to see themselves in their favorite show and characters is so powerful. Especially if these characters live long, happy lives together. And I argue that the actors don’t have to be gay themselves to play a gay character. People cross the borders on gender, sex, age, and nationality all the time. Why should sexual orientation be any different? And the B, because it's my otp. Simple as that.

And I don’t speak for the entire Destiel community, just as you don’t speak for the entire community of people who don’t ship them, but I personally don’t fetishize m|m. I actually get no enjoyment out of reading smut, and actively avoid it. I ship them because they have great chemistry, an interesting and often romantic storyline, and they obviously care about each other very much. Their gender has no impact on that. I ship w|w couples, (I actually wish there were more of them, because having my own representation is important to me), as well as heterosexual and nonbinary ones too.

So you can call me a loser anon, and honestly, I’ll embrace it. But I’m not the one coming into people’s ask boxes and hating on them, just because they want to ship two awesome people. I don’t judge you for what you ship, so I ask you return the favor. (But feel free to come talk to me again about anything else.) And since you seem to be having a bad day and taking it out on others, here's a gif for you!

And if anyone wants to respectfully add anything to this post, go ahead!

[shirlleycoyle]

How 9/11 Became Fan Fiction Canon

Every fictional character you can think of has experienced 9/11 in fanfiction.

A Clone Wars veteran with two lightsabers is on United Airlines Flight 93 and prevents it from crashing. Ron and Hermione get caught up in the chaos as the towers fall. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her friends watch the attacks unfold on TV from Sunnydale. We have spent 20 years trying to process what happened on 9/11 and its fallout, and that messy process can be tracked through the countless, sad, disturbing, and sometimes very funny fanfiction left across the internet.

Many of the fanfics written in the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks seemed to directly respond to the news as it happened, processing the tragedy in real-time through the eyes of characters they loved. In the absence of a canon episode where Daria Morgendorffer paid respects to those lost, writing fanfic about these characters also experiencing trauma helped fans cope.

One YuGiOh fanfic published on fanfiction.net in May 2002 could have been ripped exactly from what this writer experienced that Tuesday morning. “It started as a normal day,” user Gijinka Renamon wrote. Yugi and his friends were in school, where their teacher informed them of the attacks and sent everyone home from school.

“After reading people’s 9/11 fics, I decided to write my own, and put a certain character in it. And Yugi and his pals were my first choice,” the author's note reads, explaining the connection they felt to United flight 93 and the World Trade Center attacks. Given that they lived in Pennsylvania, and “it’s close to New York, I felt really sad about it.”

Stitch, a fandom journalist for Teen Vogue, told Motherboard that this reaction to 9/11 is not at all uncommon in fandom.

"Fandom has always been a place that positions nothing as 'off limits,'" she said. "Historical tragedies like the Titanic sinking and atrocities like… all of World War 2 show up regularly across the past 30 years of people creating stories and art about the characters they love. So, on some level, it makes sense that 9/11 and the following 20-year military installation in the Middle East has joined the ranks of things people in different fandoms turn into settings for their fan fiction."

Reactions depicted in a handful of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfics published in the weeks after the attacks ring a little truer to the characters. “Tuesday, 11th September 2001,” written by Anna K, almost echoes the lyrics from “I’ve Got a Theory,” one of the songs in the musical episode that aired in November 2001. “We have seen the apocalypse. We have prevented it. Actually, we’ve prevented quite a few. So we know what they look like,” they write, before taking a darker turn. “They look a lot like…New York today.”

Killing demons and vampires doesn’t phase the Scooby Gang, but when preventable human death is brought into the picture, it’s gut wrenching.

“What am I supposed to do…When I can’t do anything to save the world?” Buffy cries  into Spike’s chest, watching the attacks unfold on TV in a fanfic the author described as being “about feeling numb and helpless.”

In “Blood Drive,” Kirayoshi writes about Buffy and her friends saving a van full of donated blood meant for victims of the attacks from a group of thirsty vampires. One Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic even takes a blindly patriotic turn, where noted lesbian witch Tara McClay helps Xander hang an American flag from the window of the magic shop to make Anya feel better.

Experiencing 9/11 as a young teenager was overwhelming not just because of the loss of life. Almost immediately after the event itself, it was as if the entirety of American culture re-oriented itself towards an overtly jingoistic stance. As we get distance from the attacks, seeing the tone of television and movies from the early 2000s is jarring, and some have gone viral on Twitter. In the world of pop music, mainstream musicians like the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, were blacklisted from the radio while Toby Keith sang about putting a boot up the ass of terrorists. On the Disney Channel, a young Shia Labeouf reading a poem he supposedly wrote about the events. The poem concludes with the line, "it's awesome to be an American citizen."

In a world so completely saturated with this messaging, it is not surprising that fanfic authors started including 9/11 in their work so soon after the event. Even The West Wing had a strange, out of continuity, fanfic-esque episode where the characters reacted to 9/11. In some cases, it made sense that the characters in the stories would be close to or a part of the events themselves.

"For characters like John Watson or Captain America, the idea works to an extent," Stitch told Motherboard. "In the original Sherlock Holmes works and the 2011 BBC series, Watson had just returned from Afghanistan. For Captain America and other Marvel heroes, 9/11 was something that was addressed in-universe in The Amazing Spider-Man volume 2 #36. Technically, 9/11 is 'canon' to the Marvel universe."

In “Early Warning: Terrorism,” a fanfiction for the TV show Early Edition in which a man who mysteriously receives tomorrow's newspaper, predicting the future, avoids jingoism, but tries to precent 9/11 from happening. This fanfic remains unfinished; it’s unclear if the characters successfully prevent 9/11 in this retelling.

Largely in fanfic from the era just after 9/11, when many young authors were trying to emotionally grapple with it, the characters don't re-write or undo the events themselves. It's this emphasis on the reaction to tragedy that colors the fanfiction that features 9/11 going forward.

Although fanfiction authors have been writing about 9/11 consistently since soon after the event, whenever that fanfiction reaches outside of its intended audience, it looks bizarre.

A screenshot of a Naruto 9/11 fanfic on the Tumblr subreddit comes without any context, or even more than two lines and an author's note. It’s impossible to suss out if this falls into the category of sincere fanfic without the rest of the piece or a publication date, but modern-day commenters on the Reddit thread see it as classic Tumblr trash.

Screenshot from r/Tumblr

“Bin Laden/Dick Cheney, enemies to lovers, 10k words, slow burn,” one user joked in the replies, underscoring the weirdness of Naruto being in the Twin Towers by comparing it to a What If story about Cheney and Bin Laden slowly falling deeply in love.

It’s hard to tell how much of the 9/11 fanfic and fanart starting a few years after the attacks is sincere, and how much of it is ironic, and trying to make fun of the very concept of writing fanfiction about 9/11.

A 2007 anime music video (in which various clips, usually from anime, are cut together to music) that combines scenes from The Lion King with Linkin Park’s “Crawling” and clips from George Bush’s speeches immediately after the attacks feels like the perfect example of this. Even the commenters can’t seem to suss out if this person is a troll or not.

There’s no way that My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic 9/11 fanart could be serious, right? Especially if the description pays tribute to “some of the nation's most memorable buildings,” and features five of the main characters as child versions of themselves. The comments again are split between users thanking the artist for a thoughtful remembrance post, and people making their own headcanon for why Twilight Sparkle is surreptitiously absent from the scene.

Screengrab via DeviantArt

There’s Phineas and Ferb fanfic that combines a 9/11 tribute concert with flashbacks to Ferb being rescued from the towers as a baby, written on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It jumps from introspection to lines like, “‘Quiet Perry the Platypus. I’m trying to listen to these kids singing a 9/11 tribute.’”

The author's notes make it more likely that they meant for this to be a tribute piece, but it doesn’t quite make sense until watching a YouTube dramatic reading of it from 2020, fully embracing the absurdity of it all.

“For me, 9/11 is synonymous with war. It completely changed the course of my life," Dreadnought, the author of a Captain America fanfic Baghdad Waltz that sees Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes fall in love over the course of the war on terror, told Motherboard. "It’s the reason I joined the military, and I developed deep connections with people who would go on to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. These very much felt like my generation’s wars, perhaps because people I graduated high school with were the youngest folks eligible to serve at the time.”

Dreadnought told Motherboard that although they didn't deploy, their career has kept 9/11 and the trauma from it in their mind. After seeing that people who fantasize about Steve and Bucky getting together seemed particularly interested in reading fanfiction that related to 9/11, they decided to try their hand at it.

"I had to do something with all of that emotionally, and I’m admittedly a bit emotionally avoidant. So I learned through fic that it’s easier for me to process those feelings and the knowledge of all the awful stuff that can happen in war if I can turn it into something creative," Dreadnought said. "Give the feelings to fake people and then have those fake people give the feelings to readers!"

To Dreadnought, who is a queer man, the experience of researching and writing this was more cathartic than they first expected, especially as a way to navigate feelings about masculinity, military culture, and queer identity. But they said the research they did, which included watching footage of first responders at ground zero, was what helped them finally process the event itself.

"It was like a delayed horror, and it was more powerful than I expected it would be." Dreadnought said. "When I was eighteen, I was pretty emotionally divorced from 9/11; I just knew I wanted to do something about it. So coming back to it in my 30s while writing this fic, it was a very different experience. Even the research for this story ended up being an extraordinarily valuable exercise in cognitively and emotionally processing 9/11 and all of its second and third order effects."

Fanfiction that features 9/11 provides an outlet for people who still grapple with the trauma from that day. But Stitch warns that the dynamics of fandom and how it relates to politics can also create fiction that's less respectful and more grotesque.

"With years of distance between the stories written and the original events of 9/11, there seems to be some sort of cushion for fans who choose to use those events as a catalyst for relationships—and Iraq and Afghanistan for settings," Stitch said. "The cushion allows them room to fictionalize real world events that changed the shape of the world as we know it, but it also insulates them from having to think about what they may be putting into the world."

The tendency of turning these events into settings or backgrounds for mostly white, male characters to fall in love has the unintended effect of displacing the effects that the war on terror has had on the world over. Steve and Bucky might fall in love during the war on terror, but they would also be acting as a part of the American military in a war that has been criticized since it started. Fanfic writers in other fandoms have come under fire for using real world tragedy as settings for fic before. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake Supernatural fanfiction about the actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki going to the island to do aid became controversial within the fandom. There have also been fics where characters grapple with the death of George Floyd that is written in a way that displaces the event from the broader cultural context of race in America.

"A Captain America story where Steve Rogers is a 'regular' man who joins the US Army and 'fights for our freedom' post-9/11 is unlikely to deal with the war’s effect on locals who are subject to US military intervention," Stitch said. "It’s unlikely to sit with what Captain America has always meant and what a writer is doing by dropping Steve Rogers into a then-ongoing conflict in any capacity."

After enough time, “never forget” can even morph into “but what if it never happened?” A 19k+ word Star Wars alternate universe fanfic asks this question, wondering what would have unfolded if someone with two lightsabers was on United Flight 93. This fic, part of a larger fanfic series with its own Wikia, considers what would have happened if Earth was a military front in the Clone Wars.

In this version of events, a decorated general who served in the Clone Wars is able to take back control of Flight 93 before it crashes, landing safely and preventing even more tragedy from happening that day. In the end, all of the passengers who made harrowing last calls to their loved ones before perishing in a Pennsylvania field survive thanks to the power of the Force, and are awarded medals of honor by President Bush.

Twenty years after the attacks, it’s painful to think about what would have happened if people got to work 15 minutes later, or missed their trains that morning. There weren’t Jedi masters deployed to save people in real life, but for some of the fanfic writers working today, the world of Star Wars might feel just as removed as the world before September 11, 2001.

Fiction serves as a powerful playground for processing cultural events, especially generational trauma. The act isn't neutral though; a decade's worth of fanfiction that takes place on or around 9/11 shows how our own understanding of a traumatic event can shift with time.

How 9/11 Became Fan Fiction Canon syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[that-was-anticlimactic]

📂 hmmm let's see... how about Toph?

aw Toph Beifong, how I love you,

Okay. So. First:

Obviously, Toph can tell when people are lying, but much like how the gaang always forgets that she’s blind, they forget that she’s a living lie detector. After the war ends, the kiddos are all obviously traumatized and always ask each other how they’re doing and they usually always say “fine” and Toph can feel that they’re lying but she just... doesn’t do anything. Sometimes it’s obvious a person is lying, but sometimes they can really pull it off and Toph is the only one who knows. She just lets them be, though, because she would want to be left alone too. In her mind, if it was a big enough deal, they wouldn’t say that they’re fine (also because that’s the reasoning she gives herself to not talk about her problems). She doesn’t want to push them.

Eventually, and let’s use Aang here because poor kid suffers so much trauma and no one really talks about that much (myself included, I need to pay more attention to Aang), Aang’s mental health really starts declining and everyone is really worried but Toph always lets it go because she doesn’t want to push him or stress him out. One time, it’s so bad that they ask Toph to out Aang for lying and she just shrugs and says “he wasn’t lying” even though he definitely was.

After a week or two like this, Aang kind of just breaks down and Toph instantly feels guilty because deep down she feels like she could have prevented it, but she didn’t. It’s one of those times when she learns that letting people believe a lie, no matter how good intentions are, is worse and more hurtful than telling the truth.

It kind of starts making her more honest than before. She began by calling everyone out on every little lie until she realized it would probably be better to talk to people in private and I just... mmm... I feel like Toph wields so much power after the war because everyone will always say “I’m fine” and she knows, she knows, they’re lying.

And now for an angsty Toph-related headcanon because I said so:)

Toph’s parents. Mmmm. I have not read the comics and also I heard they were... iffy... so we’re disregarding comics here. Toph’s parents kind of suck. Like, once she talks to them after the war, they treat her like a helpless child again and not the LITERAL HERO she is. She doesn’t live with them, but she wants a relationship with them, even though she physically cannot make her say it out loud. So, eventually she blows up at them and Earthbends and her parents are like “okay, if you’re not a child, then start acting like an adult” and COMPLETELY misread the intention behind what Toph was saying. Ontop of that, they constantly complain about everything to her. Like trivial things. They complain about trivial things to a traumatized child (not to mention they did like nothing during the war smh, they just sat there and were rich). Like, they complain about each other to Toph say all of these things that she never wanted to hear ever and that no parents should actually burden their child with. Eventually she just... stops.

She just never answers letters, never returns to the city, much less the house. And it just... it kills her because she wanted to fix their relationship. She wanted to try and be a family again and she tried. She tried so hard but her parents never pit any effort in.

It was actually Zuko (or Azula...) who kind of made her realize. Like, I’m just gonna say: Sokka and Katara HATE Toph’s parents, like, with a burning passion. Toph offhandedly mentioned some of the terrible things her mom said about her dad and vice versa to the gaang and Katara was about to go give them the biggest lecture they had ever received. Katara lowkey got all mother hen (but sometimes Suki would have to drag her back and be like “you’re smothering her” so Toph wouldn’t feel like Katara was acting like her parents) (and again, Toph would never say it outloud, but she could never think of Katara in that way ever. She’s SUCH a better person than her parents could ever be) and would try and... not be the mother Toph never got to have, but give her the support she never had.

Anyways, Zuko or Azula talk to Toph and are like “take it from one abused child to another, your parents are abusing you” which just confirms the suspicions she had deep down but refused to believe. She was just filled with so much rage because it’s not fair and she was trying so hard but her parents really don’t care about her in the way that they should of and she gave them so many chances to be better but they never took it.

okay so, sadness over, let’s make Toph happy:)

Toph is asexual (and maybe aromantic, unsure as of right now) because I said so:))

Toph takes great pleasure in going to The Jasmine Dragon and just... listening to make sure no one is ever rude to Iroh or any of the other employees ever. If they are, she causes trouble so they can feel ashamed for being mean to people in food service.

no you know what? Am I going too overboard? Yes. Do I care? No. One friendship Toph headcanon for everyone in the gaang.

Aang: Toph and Aang both help remind the other that they’re children because they both forget sometimes. Toph is great at taking Aang away from work and making him take breaks and spend time for himself rather than others. Aang is great at giving Toph the “having friends as a child” experience she never had. He teaches her games he learned from all four nations as a child and sometimes they do really ‘childish’ things like playing bending tag or even like regular tag with each other just because it’s nice.

Katara: oooh the Toph and Katara friendship is one of my favorites in the show. The two are both ridiculously competitive. Like. Out of everyone in the gaang, they are the most competitive (let’s be real, Sokka is too petty and WE NEED TO FOLLOW THE GAMES RULES to be competitive and Zuko just gets angry and rage quits). But eventually, they learn that they’re stronger when they work together and make a competitive truce. So whenever people need to team up for games, they immediately go to each other and they destroy everyone.

Sokka: Sokka and Toph ahhhhh I love them so much. Sokka adopted Toph as his daughter-sister, as in he can’t choose whether he wants to replace her dad and be her dad or be the protective but not overly protective older brother she never had, so he calls himself “father-brother” and everyone hates it, but Sokka was never good at naming things. Also, one time they were really bored, so they decided to try and invent a language that is never spoken, but can be interpreted through Earthbending. Like, different methods of bending meant different things and stuff. It worked... kind of? Sokka likes learning and Toph likes kicking dirt and making people confused about what they were doing. They both have short attention spans, though, so they didn’t get far. They each still remember s=certain things and still talk through it (since Sokka is not an Earthbender, he taps his foot on the ground or kicks dirt a certain way. It’s kind of like morse code, bit different because only Toph can feel the taps).

Suki: Suki Suki Suki I love you! Suki is Toph’s go-to for fake relationships. Like. These two have been in a fake relationship with each other too many times to count. Toph’s parents invite her to a formal event but she needs to bring a date (and also she doesn’t want to go but she wants to repair the relationship)? Suki is her date. Suki needs to attend a royal event because she’s the highest Fire Nation palace guard (because I said so)? Toph comes as her date. A random person is hitting on either of them and they don’t know how to respond without unnecessary violence? Find the other and kiss their face.

Zuko: Zuko and Toph, what a pair. They both find beauty in nature (in different ways, obviously), so they’re walking buddies. They’ve gone on hikes together, like week-long hikes together. They’ll walk around the palace together... sometimes they’ll just sit together in silence because they don’t always need words to be friends.

Azula: (because yes, I am including the three girls): y’all. These two together can scare the entire world. Not just because they are actually insanely powerful, but because they make the most horrific self-deprecating jokes known to man and say it with intense seriousness that everyone has been genuinely worried at some point before they caught on (if it’s serious, they say it as a joke). One time, they both made these depressing jokes at lunch and Aang choked on his food. He didn’t die, but like. He was so unprepared that he choked. What I’m saying is, these two have a really weird relationship that takes place entirely through insults at each other, theirself, and everyone they love.

Ty Lee: Toph was actually scared of Ty Lee at first because of her chi blocking abilities. Not like terrified-scared, but like if you even take one more step towards me I will smash you with a boulder no matter your intentions-scared. Also, Ty Lee was so perky and kind of loud and Toph found that suspicious at first. It wasn’t like an Aang perky or loud, it was like... well, Toph couldn’t explain it (as in, I, op, cannot explain it), but it was a bit overwhelming? And then one time Ty Lee just. randomly visited her at her parents’ house even though they “weren’t friends” and Toph was just ????? but let her come in for dinner anyway because she kind of wanted to see how her parents would react to this peppy girl. Her parents ended up making a kind of snide remark at Toph’s expense during dinner (which was the usual but Toph didn’t realize it was a b u s e) and Ty Lee went off. That’s when Toph knew there were reasons to be terrified of this girl, but she would never be on the receiving end of her fury unless she really deserved it. They have very different family situations, but take pleasure in actually talking about it to each other. Because Ty Lee is a very open person and Toph is not. Toph thinks it’s nice to just let Ty Lee ramble on (kind of like Mai) and Ty Lee thinks Toph gives really good advice and has good insights (plus strives to help her feel more comfortable with her feelings). They become spontaneous buddies and randomly show up at each other’s houses when they’re living at home and it’s just nice.

Mai: last but never least, Mai and Toph! These two. feel for each other. so much. Rich kids, only children, parents who ignore them, ahhhhh, do you smell that? The repression of feelings:) Sometimes, they prefer to just be around each other because everyone else can kind of be overwhelming. They can communicate through few words and they both like throwing things, so they like sparring together a lot, It gives them a chance to throw things with another person who likes throwing things. For them, sparring is like this connection and it’s own method of loving each other (as friends do) and it’s just really nice for both of them.

Okay. I am done. Thank you, Grace, for fueling me.

I love Toph and I don’t give her enough attention.

[fantroll-purgatory]

FIRST: Alternia or Beforus or some type of AU? Proximia babey!!

(Also quick note before I start I throw in a few small headcanons her and there mainly for the whole military arrangement and some about possible classism that weren’t mentioned in the original Proximia reference sheet so feel free to correct me if anything I said is wrong!) (I screamed when this came into the box. Thank you for expanding on my fanplanet!) -SA

Name: Temuji Cycero

Namesake: Named after Genghis Khan and Cicero because both her military and political ambitions plus what Genghis Khan did during his own rule fits well into what she would like to do for the Empire (and her whole story is generally very strongly based on him)

Age: ~9 sweeps (19 years)

Strife Specibus: saberkind and crossbowkind

Fetch Modus: Chess (She is given one of those almost finished games you know like in the newspapers where there is a few more moves to pull to win so she as to solve that in order get the item she needs) (Ooooh a Chessmaster. We’ll have to work this in as we go.)

Blood color: Violet

Symbol: Aquiborn, Sign of the Hedonist

 or Aquacen, Sign of the Avant-Garde

Trolltag: cholericGenghis

Quirk: /Like 7his./ (This would work especially well for Aquacen!)

Lusus: Not sure yet tbh, I was thinking maybe a turtle? I thought that maybe giving her a more “tame” and non-threatening lusus that tought her discipline, love, protection and to control herself would be a neat idea (Turtle-mom teaches Temuji to be TOUGH but together. Also, as a tangent- in Steven King’s It, the kids are aligned with a giant cosmic turtle that is the anthithesis to It’s fear-based entity powers.)

Oh man this leads me to question if there are different lusus rules on Proximia? Can violets have landdwelling lusii? Could a yellow have a seal? Could a rust have a dragonfly? What rules are there? Are we unfettered by both god and man? 

Personality: Temuji has a strong personality which she acquired from growing up in a more peaceful environment which shot down many of her military ambitions and both political and national defense ideas, but this did not turn her bitter nor did it turn her into a brute. She is cruel and snarky with her enemies and quick to shoot back with one of her witty remarks towards anyone who laughs at her ambitions, but always using her words instead of fists. She is a firm believer that words can sting even more so than wounds and that there is no need for violence where it is not necessary so she uses her cleverness to snap back in very provoking public call outs. She might be strict and disciplined but that doesn’t mean she isn’t ready to insult back if she feels she has been slighted. There is no denying she is a big advocate for forming a stronger and more organized Proximian military, though it isn’t as malicious as it may sound. This is mainly because of her fear of the Alternian conquerors and any others like them, she knows how dangerous it can get out there and with Proximia beginning to venture out into the unknown she wants to be ready for the worst. She also considers loyalty, steadfastness, valour and honesty to be the greatest virtues, and tries her best to live by them. She is open to new ideas and more than tolerant of other caste which is why she sees the Hemotraids as a far nicer reform of the brutal Alternian Hemospectrum, but only slightly less oppressive since she herself has been trying desperately to get into The Control Triad only to be laughed off along with her concerns as a silly fisherman kid insanely rambling to herself about war. It might seem on first glance that she dislikes Proximia but in all honesty all of her concerns come from wanting to better their already wonderful Empire as well as protect it. (She’s got some very valid concerns! Proximia hasn’t been discovered by the Condesce as of yet (they’re far enough off course that conventional wisdom is that she won’t go looking for them) but you never know with The Batterwitch.)

(I find it very amusing that she wants to be in the Control Triad like… she has no psychic powers and the Burgundies are like “Can you talk to ghosts? Can you MOVE OBJECTS WITH YOUR MIND?” and she’s like “…No. But I wanna be where the people are!” Being from the Worker Triad would definitely get her that kind of react for your average RBY blooded troll too, as they trend heavily towards the cosmopolitan, “posh” ways of life.)

Interests: History, legendary conquerors, military tactics, studying Alternia, politics and law, strategy board games, card games, debate, hunting (What she’d be able to get her hands on when it comes to Alternian lore is AT LEAST several centuries out of date, so it dovetails into her love of History really well! Does the ancient mongol look stem from that too? Is she trying to emulate a more Alternian style? Or is she thinking of Early Proximian Warlords, People-Who-Knew-The-Forgiven style?) (I feel like she HAS to have some interest in psionics and “lowblood” powers if she’s envious of the Control Triad. That’s their claim to fame, after all. Maybe she’s so interested in history PARTIALLY because of the myth of how The Forgiven turned the Mother Grub Fuschia? Maybe she has some desire to twist her own blood color by injecting psionic blood colors into her to obtain those powers, even if she rationalizes it away as silly and impossible.)

The idea of her having a fixation on like ESP and like, the ol’ Spoon Bending Trick is a hilarious concept. Catch her trying to figure out how to use her mental fortitude to turn the light on to no avail. 

Title: Witch of Rage or Blood (I think Blood is your way to go. Her goals are to warp the blood-based system she lives in to better benefit herself, her goals are all high minded and virtue based, AND she’s got the military influence.) (Witches of Blood are likely social innovators, given that they change and bend tethers and people’s bonds! The inverse, Seer of Breath, gives the Witch the knowledge to understand that all of these bonds are not set in stone- they’re things we CHOOSE and stick by, not proclamations of some greater power.)

Land: I couldn’t think of one to save my life

Maybe her quest could involved overcoming a conqueror, as a way to embody her desire to protect and form strong bonds? Land of Spires and Tyranny or some such? Or you could go with an imprisoned metaphor, the people of the planet are all in chains of bondage to the denizen and she has to unit them together to break out. Land of… Spires and Shackles? Options!

Dream Planet: Derse (This is a Derse player if I’ve ever seen one. Rebellion against biology as much as society? Natch.)

Appearance: I didn’t quite have the time or energy to draw out a full design but so far I know I want her to have an ancient mongolian themed hairstyle and as for clothes I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate the theme with a few adjustments to modernise it, make it look good and stop myself from going overboard with the theme/making it too gimmicky, so if you have any advice feel free to comment but if not never mind thanks for the review anyways!! ^^

I fussed with this for a while and I don’t know that it’s PERFECT, but I wanted to do what you said and take the general idea of some of the styles from traditional mongolian fashion and like, morph them into a more modern silhouette while Also retaining the idea that Temuji doesn’t actually have any knowledge of the fashion trends she’s trying to replicate and is just kinda making use of the remnants of the concepts. A lot to balance. 

We can also see here that she’s said fuck blood and is wearing rby colors, which SA has said would be seen as mildly childish/another reason she could be taken not-so-seriously. 

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

hey! i’ve recently been discussing royal succession in ferelden and would love to hear your thoughts (if you want to)! we wondered who would be the next ruler if/when alistair and/or anora died without issue. if cousland was co-ruler then any future children of fergus’ would probably be in line but otherwise the only obvious candidates (to us) are eamon and teagan who also have no viable heirs. who else do you think would be in line and what process might be used to negotiate this do you think?

Successions: The Royals Heir-less 

Sure!  What a juicy topic!  Thanks for the ask!   

We agree that Fergus Cousland or Teagan Guerrin would be the most likely candidates for the throne.  Or rather their heirs would be…if they had any.  Both families have considerable popular support among everyday Fereldans.  They have overcome adversity and tragedy, handling themselves well during the Ferelden Civil War, the Fifth Blight, and the reconstruction afterward becoming leaders the people of Ferelden could look to for a new monarch.

Heirs Apparent

The Guerrins are probably in the best position to become the next rulers of Ferelden, if Alistair or Anora were to die without an heir.  Eamon has enough political acumen to swing support towards the Guerrins, they are closely associated with the throne due to Rowan’s marriage to Maric, Eamon’s potential chancellorship, and Teagan’s service as Ferelden’s ambassador and both Alistair and Anora’s trusted emissary.  Although he seems better suited to such roles than ruling (especially since he rarely is in his arling to govern it), if Teagan had children, we don’t doubt that Alistair or Anora might name them as heirs to the throne.

Even without being married to the current monarch, the Couslands would also be viable candidates for the throne.  They are an ancient family, well versed in governance, politics, and war.  Their teyrnir is second in wealth and power only to the throne itself, and the Couslands have considerable popular support in the Landsmeet.  They are extremely sympathetic, especially given the horrors they endured in the Ferelden Civil War, and they wouldn’t have the whispers that seem to follow Eamon about his ambitions for power, whether they are true or not.  If Fergus had another child or children, and they displayed talent and a good head for leadership, we could see a Cousland being named heir to the throne even if a Cousland Warden was not married to Alistair or Anora.

An Intriguing Mess

Anora or Alistiair choosing an heir, however, is only part of the story.  In reality, whoever was named would have to gain the support of the Landsmeet, and that is likely going to be tricky given the political climate of Ferelden post Inquisition.

The Landsmeet has been a governing body in Ferelden longer than there has been a Ferelden:

[Side note of holy shit here: The Landsmeet is older than the Chantry or the Tevinter Imperium!  It dates back to the first few hundred years after humans arrived in Ferelden.  It is unlikely that the Alamarri, fleeing from a demon or a shadow goddess or whatever, just spontaneously came up with a political forum to settle disputes.  More than likely it is a system they learned from the dwarves or the elves.  Intriguing, but I better wait to examine this subject more in a different post.]  

So ultimately there is no monarchy in Ferelden unless the Landsmeet consent to be governed.  Any potential heir of Anora or Alistair would have to convince the nobles of Ferelden that they are the best suited to rule, and Arl Eamon and Anora had some pretty dire predictions [3:30 minutes in] if the nobles couldn’t come to a consensus on the succession.  

(This is me, Morta, trying to hear as many dialogue options at one time in both videos.   They are not my usual choices, but they are revealing about Ferelden politics and the people involved in it.)

Ferelden’s monarchy only exists if the nobles work together long enough to support said ruler in order to field a united front against threats and to provide for the common welfare.  And the Landsmeet has wielded its power in the past to depose monarchs the assembly felt had lost the legitimacy to rule.  Even after all of his conquering, diplomacies, and dragon blood drinking, the Landsmeet pretty much said they would go back to warring teynirs if Calenhad didn’t abdicate, leaving his kingdom to his regent queen and their unborn son.  If the Landsmeet can force Calenhad into exile, then they can deny anyone they don’t approve of the crown.  

And they just might do it again.  400 years after ousting Calenhad, the Landsmeet seems a little disgruntled by the state of affairs in Ferelden if Anora or Alistair are ruling alone or with a Cousland consort:

The Orlesian saber-rattling part of this problem has seemingly cleared itself up, what with the Inquisition helping to negotiate a pathway to a peace treaty, but all of that could fall to pieces if things don’t go well in the future for either country.

It is interesting to note that neither Anora nor Alistair’s support is so strong (unless they are ruling together) as to make their reign unassailable, and it may not take their deaths to cause a succession crisis.  

Given that we are 10+ years out from Origins, stabilizing their reign really should be Anora and Alistair’s priority.  Clearing up the succession question would certainly go a ways towards steadying the country.  If an heir everyone can agree on isn’t found, Ferelden faces potential collapse.  Successions matter!  Look pretty much anywhere in real history and you find that shit tends to hit fans when transitions of power are shaky.

In real life, unclear successions and/or weakened rule often result in civil wars, invasions, and even pretenders to throne showing up to challenge the legitimacy of the current monarch.  If you think the last is an exaggeration, note the rumors of another Theirin heir out there somewhere [6 minutes in] as far back as Origins.  Such talk could be exploited to weaken the legitimacy of Anora or Alistair’s rule.  It is even possible that rivals nations, like Orlais, could support the story pretender to the throne in order to gain a puppet ruler they could then manipulate as they wished.  

Not a pretty picture for Ferelden (although the story telling opportunities are rather delicious).  It would be better for Ferelden, and especially the nobles in the landsmeet, to have several years to get to know Alistair or Anora’s heir before the succession takes place.  

The Shape of Things to Come

So why hasn’t someone been named yet?  Well, according to Josephine, most of Ferelden’s noble families are in pretty bad shape.  It isn’t just the Couslands and Guerrins who are rebuilding their family and holdings.  Pretty much all of Ferelden’s nobility is in a state of flux:

-The Kendells and Wulff families are either dead or have completely delegitimize themselves with their actions in Origins and Inquisition.  

-The Brylands might be a reasonable choice, but some might see them as too connected to Orlais and the Howes to be real contenders (and Habren has serial killer in the making written all over her).  

-The Eremons are the only other noble family anyone would have a chance of remembering from Origins, but we don’t hear anything about Alfstanna in Inquisition so we don’t know the state of their family.

Pretty much all of the rest of Ferelden’s nobles are too minor to really have a chance at being named in the succession.  They don’t have enough political, economic, or popular support to make them viable options.  (And most of us wouldn’t have a clue of who they are even after playing all the games!)

It is also very plausible at this point that Alistair and Anora haven’t completely given up hope of having a child of their own.  We here at the Wyrd Sisters will admit to having our own headcanon of beautiful babies born to the monarch of our choice (complete with names, birthdays, astrological signs, MBTI, face claims, future marriage prospects, etc.), but we are also trying to prepare ourselves for the very real possibility of being disappointed.  

It is still possible that Bioware will give fans an actual, biological heir for Alistair or Anora…but we also recognize how tricky that would be to pull off.  Consider how many possible heir scenarios there are that the writers at Bioware would have to account for in order to satisfy all of the world states that are possible in the Keep.  

But taking the choice completely out of the player’s hands also seems like a pretty bad idea since so many of us care a lot about Ferelden’s ruling family.  It may be nigh impossible for Bioware to satisfy all of our visions for the future of Ferelden, but they sure as shit ought to try!  So what could they do that might result is less fan rage and tears (ours included)?

Give future protagonists a role to play in the succession.

Choices

While we don’t expect to see a succession crisis exactly like Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts again, there are a lot of story possibilities to explore if a future player character is given a voice in choosing Ferelden’s next ruler.  We are all pretty damn emotionally invested in Ferelden, we know that Dread Wolfy trouble is on the horizon, and that the chances of events taking place in Northern Thedas having an impact on the southern kingdoms is high (especially since Orlais is far from stable and Nevarra is one dead old guy away from dynastic disputes too).  Would fans be more or less likely to accept whatever state of affairs Ferelden is in if we have a hand in shaping it?  We think more given how we all tend to react to such things.

So what kind of stories could a new protagonist involve themselves in?  There are all sorts of interesting possibilities:

-Some sort of Dark Ritual, part 2 for Alistair or Anora and their consort of choice?-Support one of the remaining noble Ferelden families in a bid for the throne?-Support an elven coup to topple the kingdom and claim Ferelden as a new homeland?-Support another “Lost” Theirin suddenly showing up to make a claim?-Kieran?  (Morrigan would kill us!)-Titans Rule!-The Imperium Strikes Back?-Varric rules everything? (Varric: “Well, shit!”)-Orlais is back, but promises to be nice this time?-Allow the common people to throw down the nobility and monarchy and install an autonomous collective in its place?!

…Okay, so some of those are far fetched and even harder to pull off than Bioware’s current world states, but you have to admit that the storytelling possibilities are endless.  Our point is that allowing players to have a say in Ferelden’s future will soften any potential disappointments while also getting us invested in whatever comes next for our darling Dog Lords.  

But tell us your thoughts on the matter, @chralotte .  We’d be happy to weigh in other people’s theories on such matters, so be sure to respond with your ideas!  

-MM