#i'm staying as vague as possible to avoid spoilers

[tosteur-gluteal]

So, about that Omori MLB au…

1: is this gonna be a fanfic or a comic?

2: how’d they get the Miraculous?

3: are we gonna see more than the main 2 (Ladybug and Cat)?

Hi anon 💥

1) There's definitely going to be a fanfiction, rest assured 😎 but I plan on drawing some scenes as bonus.

2) Without much details, the new guardian is tasked to find heroes, he's quite confused and nonchalant about it but then, urgency hits! and the kwamis take care of the matter. Quite irresponsibly.

3) Since more people will get miraculouses (aka the main gang) you'll get to see Kel, Aubrey and Hero as superheroes...as well as some other characters (don't let the Maverick cook 😰). You'll also get to see how it is for the other side of Sunny's family, with Mari and all.

But even before they get a miraculous, you'll see the gang evolve and deal with conflicts at school

The story is, indeed, very Sunny and Basil centric. But I got some stuff prepared for the others! Don't you worry 😈💥

[goforth-ladymidnight]

Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier

For those of you who are looking for a good fairy tale retelling, @swiftsnowmane once recommended "Heart's Blood" by Juliet Marillier. Having stayed up until 3 o'clock in the morning to finish it, I am here to report that it is everything I wanted in a Beauty and the Beast retelling and then some.

It admittedly started off a little slow, and I wish there had been a pronunciation guide for the Irish names the way there was for the Romanian names in "Wildwood Dancing" (by the same author), but these are overall minor complaints. By the time Caitrin, our heroine, enters a certain private garden and the familiar elements of the fairy tale began falling into place, I was hooked. Part historical fiction, part fantasy, part romance, and part mystery, I had forgotten what it was like to stay up all night reading.

I think what made it such an especially compelling story was the nature of the curse, which Caitrin slowly becomes aware of and seeks to undo. Unlike "Beauty" by Robin McKinley (one of my favorite retellings) or "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas (of which I have a love-hate relationship), the curse makes sense.

The novel "Beauty" was less concerned about the curse (which was vague at best and an afterthought at worst) and more about developing Beauty's character and her relationship with the Beast. Side note: Prior to the publication of Robin McKinley's novel, the character of Beauty had never been given much to do in the Beast's castle, but here she was given the chance to read. Sound familiar? I'm sure Disney took note, and the 1991 animated film seems to have inspired every rendition of Beauty ever since!

For example, Caitrin is a scribe in a time when most women weren't taught to read, much less write. Even in ACOTAR, SJM chose to make her Beauty (Feyre) illiterate, which made breaking the curse more difficult. Which leads me back to my original point about the believability of the curse in Beauty and the Beast retellings: ACOTAR is more concerned about making Feyre's life as difficult as possible so that Tamlin's (the Beast's) curse is almost impossible to break, even though it's already very complicated when it doesn't have to be.

By contrast, in "Heart's Blood", the curse feels more believable, though no less fantastical. To avoid spoilers, I won't say what exactly it entails, but, interestingly enough, it does not directly affect the "beast's" appearance. Granted, Anluan, the chieftain of Whispering Tor, still behaves like a beast in many ways (it wouldn't be a Beauty and the Beast retelling otherwise!), but the subtle ways in which he changes throughout the story more than make up for his lack of fangs and fur. And I grew to love him for it, just like Caitrin did.

This is one book I will be gladly adding to my collection. If only it had an illustrated cover as intricate and detailed as the one(s) made for Wildwood Dancing... I would be content.

Cover art by Kinuko Craft and Janaina Medeiros (@/janainaart)

Perhaps, one day it will.

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

Late to the party but making an entrance, Murder Drones Episode 5 is finally out so at long last I can stop with the memes (for now) and share my thoughts on Dragons Rising so far.

Okay, first things first, I'm gonna be 100% honest with y'all: I low-key do not care about any of the new characters. I know, I know, BURN THE HERETIC, I can't really explain it myself. Maybe I'm just too attached to the OGs or haven't gotten to know the newbies well enough yet, but so far all I'm seeing is Average Shonen-Esque Protagonist, Nya 2.0 Catgirl Edition, Cute and Easily Marketable Dog-That-Is-Not-A-Dog, The Only One With A Mildly Interesting Backstory, and a bunch of generic cookie-cutter villains. It's not gonna make me stop watching or anything, it's just that they could all randomly vanish by the next episode and never be brought up ever again and I'd be totally fine with it. Certainly wouldn't be the first time this franchise has completely dropped something out of nowhere and hoped no one would notice.

A'ight, got that out of the way, now to start nitpicking: I don't understand why they're pronouncing Riyu as "Rai-yu." I thought it would've been "Ree-yu," like the dude from Street Fighter, and I'm not gonna say it any other way. And why do they keep trying to convince us that Lloyd had to be trained for years when in reality he mastered Spinjitzu within, like, a month at most? I'm going to assume that either A) He's just blatantly lying to make Arin feel better, because there is literally zero chance that Season Two took place over the course of multiple years, or B) Lloyd himself has absolutely no concept of time and can't even remember that he's, like, an eighteen-year-old in the body of a twenty-three-year-old by this point.

BTW Lloyd please do not try to be like Wu, you of all people should know what being like Wu entails. You're already in the "training child soldiers" phase, you can not go further or else you are going to hit the "keeping way too many things to yourself" stage and you know what always happened when Wu didn't tell anybody jack squat until it was too late. Heck, there is still a very real possibility that the Merge wouldn't have happened in the first place if he'd just been like "hey so all the Realms might start trying to fuse together soon and as per usual you're the only ones with a chance at stopping it" instead of sticking to his "The Apocalypse™ is coming for like the seventh time and all I'm gonna do about it is be needlessly vague and cryptic for no real reason" schtick.

They should not have given Ras and Rapton such similar names, I'm going to inevitably mix them up. Also Rapton you will never be Iron Baron. I never thought I'd say anything positive about Iron Baron but I could actually tolerate him, whereas I just wanna see Rapton get run over by a bus. And not even in a cathartic "I want she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household to be brutally murdered onscreen in such a horrific and violent manner that it'd never be allowed anywhere if they weren't Legos" way, just in the most apathetic "please remove this character from existence" way you can imagine.

I'll give them this, tho, the show itself is gorgeous to look at, and the concept is pretty nifty. And while I may not be completely in love with Sora and Arin, I'm still glad they didn't go the braindead babymode easy route of making the "next gen" series revolve around the OG Ninja's kids (even if it is mostly because it completely avoids the possibility of being forced to endure the timeline where Lloyd actually thought getting with she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household was a good idea). I'm definitely gonna stay tuned for Part Two, even if I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of what we've got so far. Hopefully it's all uphill from here.

(More spoiler-y stuff under the cut)

Wow I can't believe they somehow managed to make a Cloud Kingdom character more punchable than Fenwick. The scrollworms are pretty cute, tho. Also, uh, Euthanasia or whatever your name was, Morro would like to know your location.

DING DONG, THE WU IS DEAD! BAGELS FOR EVERYONE!

So on the one hand it seems like we might be getting slightly more focus on Lloyd's dragon side this time around, but on the other hand we've already had multiple instances where it could've been brought up but just wasn't, which could mean that it's all just more of the same token Chosen One™ nonsense we're used to and this post got hit by Quanish's dodgeball of prophecy. (Seriously, surely at least one of the super-mega-ultra-powerful Source Dragons should've been like "Kid what is wrong with your blood," right?)

But, on the chance that the former is the case...

What if the Imperium finds out about it and decides the weird little Oni-dragon-human grandson of literal God is a far more valuable prize?

Also this is how we can still get Garmadon's dragon half to show up please I am begging on my hands and knees

[izzyspussy]

tell me more about angel wn pls

Angel's character arc is, thematically speaking, primarily about grief. Grief for the community he was denied, grief for the relationship he couldn't have with his maternal figure, grief for Dido/his relationship with Dido, grief over his own failures, grief for the relationship he couldn't have with his children, grief over the potential futures that the past has killed.

His arc basically follows, vaguely, the 5 stages of grief, as well as (even more vaguely) the 12 steps of recovery. (Eddie's arc is similar, but is more about recovery than grief.) The bulk of Angel's story is Denial.

He also is a representative of grief in the other characters' arcs. For Eddie, Angel's narrative presence (but in-universe absence) in Curse The Messenger is used to illustrate her grieving for her lack of childhood as well as her more literal grief for her parents and her guilt and regret over people she perceives herself to have failed to save. For Fred, Angel in CTM also illustrates xyr grief for a lost childhood, as well as xyr grief-driven fear of abandonment.

He's not in Gilded Verdict at all. Incidentally, the main characters in that one either don't have anything they grieve (Evan) or project their feelings externally to such a pathological degree that they don't feel grief so much as things like resentment or unfulfilled entitlement (Lily). A character is a symbol just as much as any blue curtain.

In The Vanishing Point, Angel has only negative character development, spiraling deeper and deeper into avoidance. He can't bear to acknowledge his losses or his mistakes, and makes them immeasurably worse by obsessively denying them. This is the bulk of his on-page character arc, really, and it is entirely in the Denial stage of grief and well out of reach of the "admitting he has a problem" stage of recovery. He ends the book at the lowest low achievable in the witch noir universe, the ultimate and rockiest of rock bottoms.

For Dido in TVP, Angel represents her grief over the life she thought she'd have before her schizophrenia onset. She continues to grieve herself in other ways, with Angel as the narrative proxy for her feelings (just romantic lead things) throughout the book. At the end [SPOILER] more literally, thus making Angel also the proxy for [SPOILER].

In a slightly more literal sense, every single character who interacts with Angel will lose him. Every single relationship he ever has ends.

Then at last in Latchkey Craft, Angel gets to have his own POV. LC is basically Angel speedrunning the 5 stages (because he is still firmly in Denial even at the beginning of this book, 13 years after hitting his rock bottom). There are three other characters in LC that aren't in the rest of the series at all because [SPOILER], and each of them represents a different direction Angel could go from here.

Clara is the possibility of Angel stubbornly - and now consciously, purposely - staying in Denial and never admitting he has a problem, and the consequences thereof, repeating the same mistakes in the same way forever.

Kapua is - er, actually I'm looking at the 12 steps right now and fuck's sake these bitches be Christian as hell lol, we are ignoring like 8 of these steps because they're fucking irrelevant and also frankly antithetical to the other ones?? anyway-

So Kapua is steps 1 (admitting there's a problem), 4 (naming the problem and facing it directly), two thirds of 5 (saying it out loud), and 10 (committing to face up to relapses and other problems in the future). He also to some degree is Bargaining and Depression. As you can see here, there's a reason why he and Wapo are a package deal.

Wapo is steps 3 (deciding to make a change) and 8 (making amends), as well as stages Anger and Acceptance. Where Kapua is a more internal and less outwardly responsible path for Angel, Wapo represents Angel becoming more diligent and proactive in his life.

Clara, Kapua, and Wapo are all [SPOILER], and my goal is to leave it up to reader interpretation whether or not they are [SPOILER]. For this reason, and because the plot is so Man vs Self, I think LC will be the hardest book of the series to write.

witch noir taglist: @haectemporasunt @jezifster @blackhannetandco @fearofahumanplanet @godsleftarmpit @littlehastyhoneydew @rainbowabomination @antihell @isherwoodj @marrowwife @ashen-crest @wildswrites @ceph-the-ghost-writer @garthcelyn @muddshadow @cohldhands @unrealistic-android

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[presentday--presenttime]

Annihilation (2018)

This will be a review with spoilers, the movie is good, go watch it.

Its been a bit since I watched the movie, so some of my memories might be off.

Overall I think I was impressed. The idea of an alien "thing" crashing & slowly radiating has been done several times, but this interpretation is possibly my favorite.

It does get a bit goofy with its refraction talk, and a few other things that don't really make sense, but nothing was too crazy.

I also felt it was a bit all over the place in its symbols, it's refraction, cancer, evolution, memory loss, and mimicry. But that feeling was overall short lived, and I was always quickly immersed back into the world.

I felt the cast was a bit cookie cutter, and it being all women felt a tiny bit forced. But, it helped avoid any dumb romance subplot, or unnecessary sexual tension stuff that people would often add if there was men & women. But it was very much each person was a character I'd seen in other movies & they were all quite distinct from eachother. Very much felt like a cast for a movie instead of a collection of people.

Once we get into the "shimmer" proper, we have one time skip, and that's the only one afaik. I think they could have done a lot more with that, but I think they just wanted to avoid explaining a few things & then get on with the movie. Overall the movie was very much split into distinct "scenes" in this way, I understand why it's this way but I think it would have been better to stick to one or two ideas, instead of giving each character death its own "gimmick".

Between the initial time skip & finding the building with the video tape, is mostly just introducing the setting imo. Not much was done with this time, but I can see it feeling rushed without it.

Now, when we watch the movies, things start to ramp up. There are more creatures, and the spectacular scene of the "moving guts" & accompanying body.

I really liked the visual of the body in the pool, it sold the idea of rapid mutation in a body horror way very well. and obviously the scene where they cut him open is great also (if a bit nonsense)

It's not really explained why the previous team stayed in that building for so long, or why they eventually left. Not a big deal, but something I was wondering.

The next bits are a bit hazy, so I'll be jumping to the more important scenes.

The bear, was again great. The setup for them being tied up felt pretty forced, similar to the initial time skip, and the voice mimicking was also a bit nonsense. But a really spooky effect, and done well. The whole "don't tell them about my husband" thing was maybe my biggest pet peeve, cause you know exactly why it's in the story, and it never really made sense anyways.

the flower girl was probably my least favorite death, I kind of wish she was more lucid and less "ooh I'm so strange and mysterious". Like if she could rationally explain that the change to her body & mind isn't something she wants to continue living with, and she decides to "submit" to the shimmer, that would have been so much better than "look at me vaguepost and then walk away ooooOOooH". Overall wasn't really a fan of the whole flower section. Again, if they had done the "the flowers got human structure DNA stuff" as a major point, instead of a one-off, I think that would be really cool.

We get to the crystal beach, for some reason there are a bunch of bones & skeletons outside the lighthouse? I think it's implied that they are most of the previous team, but like why & how?

whatever, we get inside to the climax. the reveal that the husband is a fake! at the time I didn't really feel misled by the protag's initial interview answers, but ya. Either way, very cool twist, kind of goes back to the start of entering the shimmer, with the timeskips & mental decline.

Finally we climb in the hole, and meet the alien. I am sooo glad this wasn't a "ooh it's shiny particles, and some vague pretty 'thing'". We got an actual answer. AND it's an interesting one! there's a ton of questions to be asked about the alien, and I like how smart the protagonist is about it's behavior. It may not even be aware of it's actions, or that it's copying anything. How does the copied husband's brain work? really cool, love it conceptually.

I do think it's very separated from the effects of the shimmer, and don't really believe it's responsible for "changing" anything. It's a mimic, the shimmer is space pollution; or something like that.

The end end, is up there with my favorite endings. Him being honest, open about who he is, non-malicious. Him deciding on his own to hug her, is that because it's a human response? does he actually want to console her? The unhuman stare, I don't really know what it's supposed to mean but it invokes a lot of emotions. Again sooooo many questions about this 'person', and his future.

Overall, I think this movie took on a hard task, and did a very good job. It gave interesting answers, and didn't really fall short anywhere along the way. There were certainly spots where it was a bit less spectacular, but nowhere bad enough to leave a taste in your mouth.

I think this will be a classic. I do wish I had any chance of reading the trilogy (future quadrilogy?) books that the movie is based on.

spoilers #movie review #horror film #annihilation

[theundeadelf]

I'm not tagging this because I don't really want to cause drama (lol) but I just wanted to write out a few thoughts I'm having about the current show discourse 🧛🏾‍♂️🧛🏼

This is probably a terrible idea, so here we go! Multiple book spoilers below the cut, the usual.

First of all, I'm not sure why people are surprised and angry about the likelihood of s3 being heavily based on TVL.

I do understand being worried Louis' role will be reduced, but as far as I can tell, regardless of whatever contracts he may or may not have signed, the writers seem to be planning to keep Jacob and Louis around. Plans change y'know? If the contract rumour is true, Jacob likely signed it when AMC wanted IWTV to be one season only. We now know it's divided into two. Scripts can get reworked easily - take a look at the original script for the pilot episode. It's a work of art and I mean that in a "oh hell no" kind of way 😂

What I can't understand is this: although AMC does have the right to do whatever it wants with the franchise (and some would argue it already has), Lestat is the protagonist of the Vampire Chronicles. He has been for nearly forty years. Being angry that his POV will be shown later, that his backstory will be shown, that he may get a redemption arc - all of that is in the books, the books that AMC has the rights to. I'm not saying the writers couldn't change things to make Louis the protagonist instead, but then they will basically have to rewrite the whole book series. Sure, I guess they could make Louis meet the Devil, have his body swapped, go into a coma and become the prince of vampires, but at that point he may as well be called Lestat instead. Louis de Lioncourt or Lestat de Pointe du Lac, take your pick 😅

Obviously, I know there is a history of Black characters being upstaged unjustly by white ones, that changing the protagonist from Louis to Lestat would be yet another example of that happening. The only way I can see the writers staying somewhat faithful to the books whilst avoiding this is to make them co-protagonists instead. For all we know that's what's happening - and obviously, I hope that it does! I really love this version of Louis and I want to see ten seasons of him at the very least.

And as for Lestat's possible redemption arc..... Look, I will be the first person to say that AMC handled episode 5 extremely poorly (understatement of the century there). I can vaguely see why it was *necessary* for the very specific plot the show set up, because they had to bridge the gap between "show Lestat is somewhat nicer than the book Lestat (to Louis)" and "Louis and Claudia need to murder him at the end." But the lack of trigger warnings was absurd, and all it really succeeded at was splintering the fandom forever. It was done, I think, for shock value, because they'd backed themselves into a corner, and it was incredibly gratifying to see that Sam had similar worries.

I do think a "redemption arc" is still possible. I'm just not sure if it'll be believable for everyone.

I don't think it'll be at Armand's expense - look, I do think expecting Armand to be the hero to Lestat's villain is wishful thinking. I don't say that to demonise him. Outside of the odd meme, I don't think Armand's some mastermind editing all of Louis' thoughts and memories to make Lestat look bad (something's definitely off about the situation in Dubai though). However, the 514 year old vampire is not a good guy, I promise you. He wasn't good in the books, nobody is good in the books, and I think people should manage their expectations accordingly - that way, if characters end up being *better* or *well-adjusted* in the show it's a pleasant surprise.

And this is what I mean - what does a redemption arc even look like for a vampire? What would a Lestat redemption arc even look like? At the end of the day, he still has to drink blood and he still inflicted horrific violence on the man he was in love with. Sure, you can drink blood without killing people. You can argue that vampires cannot be held to the same standards as humans, and that over hundreds of years there may be the possibility for forgiveness.

But honestly I'm not convinced we'll get all that. Lestat is Lestat, he's never going to be good. What I do think we'll get is - like Sam said - "a massive dose of humble pie." He's stuck in a landfill. He's feeding off rats to survive. We'll see his backstory where his boyfriend and mother leave him, and he was turned into a vampire by a deranged creature obsessed with blond boys and men. We may see everything with Akasha. He'll be bodyswapped with a human and beg Louis to turn him back. He'll fall into a coma. He'll become the prince of vampires and long for the days when nobody saw him that way, for the times he saw Macbeth with Louis and Claudia and they lived in New Orleans together.

I guess the showrunners like a challenge?

[taylorswiftstylequestions]

Hi Sarah, are you choosing to stay out of the current “lavender gate”/gaylor discourse? Respect your decision either way!

Hi! I understand the general gist of what's going on but I haven't watched either of the behind the scenes videos for "Lavender Haze" and "Anti-Hero" so I don't have the full context. And without that, I can't really speak to it as I obviously haven't listened to Taylor's explanation in full.

Again, I have a vague idea based on the discourse but I've been intentionally avoiding any and all talk about both songs anyway because I like to be spoiler-free and I'm trying to go into the album as unencumbered by information as possible.

[collectionoftulips]

Answers to my fic chapter are below (sorry, between learning photoshop for silly reasons, finally getting my email verified, and work, I'm a bit behind answering these). (People can send me messages now and I love it! Don't be a stranger! Also just figured out that 'ask questions' feature and enabled that in case people wanna do that)

You are all so lovely and I just want to reiterate, as always, that I deeply appreciate all the love and support ❤️

Vague spoiler alert for the type of ending I'm going for in the fic in the second response, but I don't really think it counts as a spoiler (feel like it is a bit obvious)? Still, just in case, thought I'd highlight it.

@angel-starbeam Dorset is so much nicer than I would have been. I'd be like "OMFG Anthony! She's in love with your dumb butt!" But I'm happy that it's finally cleared up. Also Anthony, you should court her. Whole thing. Flowers, promenade, a lovely proposal and you can both go over to her place for some hanky panky.

My response: Dorset is in this universe getting nominated for a sainthood. A genuine good guy who avoids Good Guy Syndrome(tm). In my head, the reason why he's been so gracious, all things considered, is that he genuinely does love Kate but he has the emotional maturity to realise that should be independent on whether or not it's reciprocated. Plus, they are also friends and he wants her to be happy. He also clued in pretty quickly what was going on with Anthony so eventually realised that he needed to give Anthony a bit of a push, as time kept going and a) Kate was still considering becoming a governess and b) Anthony clearly wasn't proposing even though Dorset figured out fairly quickly that Anthony does love Kate. It's still very sad, though, because it was really rough for him to have that conversation and see Anthony so completely unaware of Kate's headspace re: everything.

As far as the courting - definitely. He should be doing that. He's being far too silly thinking that isn't what he should/wants to do.

@kateschechterxthorwasmyfirstotp Dorset is the original Kanthony shipper - confirmed. I felt his frustration and he was SUCH a good friend to speak with Anthony despite Dorset’s unrequited affection. It took a while but finally Anthony bought a clue. And yes, epilogue please.

My response: I wrote a bit about Dorset above but yeah, he's such a wonderful friend. There really needs to be more friends like that and I really felt strongly that I didn't want Dorset to be some sort of cartoon obstacle or have outrageously over-the-top obvious bad traits as can sometimes be the case for this type of role in romance books. I really wanted him to be this genuinely great guy who would be perfect in many ways, but wasn't the guy because... it didn't end up like that and for it to hopefully be as healthy as possible. (Plus, personally, I think that also makes Kate and Anthony choosing each other - I guess spoiler alert? maybe? - at the end more meaningful as the choice isn't just Cartoonishly Bad Man or Anthony)

@gisyangel Just found this and I love it so much! I didn’t think I would but I stayed up all night catching up. It is lovely and I can’t wait to read more. Thank you.

My response: awww, thank you so much. ❤️ That really warms my heart and made my day! So glad that it worked as a binge read and that you found it so engaging. Thank you, really.

Also, for those interested, I'm definitely doing an epilogue as it stands right now due to the overwhelming consensus. Now I'm off to try to finish off the last pre-epilogue chapter!

[youremyonlyhope]

I just finished the Witcher season 2.

I called it.

I mean. I only called it like 20 minutes before the reveal happened. But I called it.

[daddyembo]

***MERLIN SPOILERS***

Just finished rewatching Merlin and...

I hate the ending. So. Much. As a matter of fact, I have decided that literally ANY other variation of the ending would've been better. For example:

a) Arthur still dies, but the final scenes show Merlin smiling at Gwen's side in Camelot, proving that she managed to do what Arthur was prophesied to and thus allowing the poor, sad viewer (me) to feel SOME closure. That's all I wanted. A tiny bit of closure. As a treat.

b) The punch-in-the-gut that was old Merlin walking down the street in the most depressing tweed outfit I've ever seen as trucks drive by still happens, BUT it is followed by a sign that Arthur is rising again. Ideally this would involve Merlin feeling at least one positive emotion.

c) Arthur simply DOESN'T DIE. It is important to note that in this variation, several alterations would've had to have been made earlier in season 5 (ideally throughout the entire dumpster fire of the show, but I'm being generous). This brings me to a set of sub-bullets detailing these possible changes.

1. We know that Mordred is not evil; he only joins Morgana because he has no other option. Think about it: he cannot stay allied with Camelot because his very existence is not supported there. What he needed was a third option - a cause led by Merlin that stands in opposition to both Camelot and Morgana. Merlin could've easily been a sort of middle man who recognizes the flaws in both systems and DOES SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Mordred can safely join Merlin's anti-Camelot group, which intends to enact political change instead of unending bloodshed. Morgana still dies, Arthur is saved, and the remainder of the show demonstrates Camelot actually changing for the better.

2. Merlin tells Arthur about his magic at the end of season 4. At the beginning of season 5, Arthur has to grapple with this; perhaps he banishes Merlin, unwilling to kill him but too angry to keep him around. While Merlin is away, he amasses an army of Druids to fight against Morgana. Mid-season, Merlin and co. save Camelot, and Arthur dismisses Merlin's banishment. Now, Merlin can tell him about the prophecy and they can work TOGETHER to avoid it.

3. Merlin plays an active role. This is vague, I know. Here's the deal: I get that the little bastard is traumatized. He's pissed about his lot in life, which I would be too. He wants change, but he is paralyzed by fear. The bottom line is that he tries to do good at the expense of future benefits. In this hypothetical season 5, Merlin goes off the deep end a little. He stands up for his beliefs and organizes real change instead of constantly defending Arthur. Examples of concrete action could be: Merlin actively befriending and mentoring Mordred, contronting Arthur directly, revealing his magic to Gwen and strategizing with her, etc. The important thing here is that he is NEVER villain-coded, and his love for Arthur is maintained.

This is just a snippet of my thoughts about the ending of Merlin. If you want to hear more, like this and follow me! I'd love to put together some proper essays about this show, and I'll take any suggestions!

[youssefguedira]

Hey so I'm forcing my friend into a luca marathon and we're watching waves next but all the (few) synopsis (synopsises?) i've seen are very vague so can you please give me like, a general idea of the plot please I beg you I need to convince her to watch this one

that's a difficult question bc half the fun of waves is trying to work out what the plot actually is (hence the vagueness of the synopsis probably). you could even argue that there is pretty much zero plot. but i'll do my best:

the movie starts off with three guys on a boat, one of whom is luca marinelli, setting out on a voyage. the purpose of this isn't explained for ages but in theory it's because they're taking the boat to its owner (?). anyway two of them (andrea and riccardo, neither of whom are luca marinelli) are definitely up to something shady, while the other (gabriele, who is luca marinelli) is just there for a good time. anyway they continue on their boat journey for a while, some unimportant stuff happens, they meet a random woman (sara) and she joins them for a bit. eventually they arrive on an island inhabited by two people (one of whom is possibly called samuel but they'll never tell you that, i just call him island guy. the other is called will) and stay there for dinner because there was a storm earlier in the movie which i didn't mention and they need water. so they're on this island for a while. it turns out that island guy and sara are ALSO possibly up to some shady stuff. and then the actual reason for andrea and riccardo's journey is revealed (i'm not saying what it is to avoid spoilers but i'll put it in the tags) and all of the plot/action happens in the last ten minutes of the movie.

apologies if this seems a little bit all over the place but that's really just what waves is like

[k-s-morgan]

how likely do you think us getting a s4 will be? at first i was excited, but the more time passes, the more i doubt that i'd enjoy it based on the little we've heard from bryan. i'm really not here for the unnecessary drama & continued manipulation or whatever it is he's implying. and also will being out of his mind frightens me a bit? like if it's something that hannibal can guide him through & stay by his side, i could possibly be here for it, but if it's something that breaks them apart again

(...) then i don't want it, haha. now that it finally seems they've found a way back to each other & can be happy. obviously, you can't predict the future, but what do you think s4 could look like based on the little we've heard so far? thank you kindly for answering!

Another ask: Realistically do you think there will be a S4 of Hannibal?

Another ask: Hi, I absolutely love your metas! Since it is super unlikely that we will ever be getting s4 of Hannibal (we are not getting it) - what would be its ideal plot for you? I would obviously love to see Hannibal and Will finally show their love to each other, but what would be an overall “ideal” plot for this season for you?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Hello! I hope you all don’t mind that I combined your asks since they are all related to S4. 

The possibility of S4:

I don’t think it is likely that we are going to see S4. The strongest chances were at the very beginning, right after the cancellation, and later with Netflix revival. However, Bryan said that even after ‘Hannibal’ did well there, no one contacted him and no one showed interest. Considering that Bryan and Martha have been trying different networks for years, I think it’s safe to say that they are all aware of our show and they are just not interested. 

I understand why. While ‘Hannibal’ has a very passionate fan-base, it’s still a niche show. It’s expensive, complex, and wildly misunderstood. Just look at the articles about it, read the official summaries of the show/episodes, check casual viewers’ reviews - 97% of them miss the point entirely. Reviving and marketing such a show would be a nightmare. Also, I don’t know what Bryan is pitching, exactly, but in my opinion, he doesn’t sound strong enough when he’s discussing the show’s future publicly. His ideas all seem very abstract, and it doesn’t look like he has an idea for S5 at all. Of course, he might be trying to avoid spoilers, but knowing how he works, I’m not so sure about that. He didn’t even know what kind of show he was doing after 'Hannibal’ was green-lit - he figured it out in the process. So, if he’s pitching the same abstract thing we’ve been hearing about, I’m not surprised there is a lack of interest. 

Things might still change, but it doesn’t feel likely to me.

Reservations and My Ideal S4:

First anon, I agree with you entirely. When I finished watching the show, I was very excited for S4, but with years, this excitement turned into anxiety. I’m not thrilled with Bryan’s talk of Will being out of his mind, Hannibal’s grand manipulation, MP focus, absolutely every character being brought back for it, etc.

Here’s my idea of S4 based on all Bryan’s comments over the years: this is the most acceptable version I could think of.

As for my ideal version: I think one more season is the only thing we need, preferably a movie. Since there will be a time jump, Will and Hannibal should already be in pretty openly romantic relationship. They just start killing after lying low for years (Mads indicated this once). Will is figuring out his design, perhaps getting overly reckless occasionally, and Hannibal is there to guide him. They face a threat of Margot and Alana’s people going after them repeatedly, so after a while, they decide to strike back. 

Honestly, I’m very vague on the ideas, I could accept pretty much everything as long as it is logical and consistent. Will being dark without any reservations and openly romantic as well as mutually devoted Hannigram are the only two major things that I definitely want to see because otherwise, S4 wouldn’t make sense to me. The remaining loose ends are Will living after his Becoming, him and Hannibal learning to be a team all the time, and Jack & Alana with Margot threat. I’d like for a potential S4 to address them and lead the characters to a satisfying conclusion. The specifics are irrelevant to me.

[ecoamerica]

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[knightotoc]

"I took care of them:" Lightsaber Color Transformation and Identity

Clickbait Title: Why Ahsoka's S7 Lightsabers are Blue

Very vague spoilers for Jedi Fallen Order (and Rebels and the KotORs) below! The JFO spoilers are marked if you want to skip them.

When Luke changes from a blue to a green lightsaber, it signifies both a break from Anakin (and Obi-Wan) and his own personal transformation. (And also, the necessity for the saber to stand out against a blue sky during the movies' first outdoor fight.)

Ezra's change mirrors Luke's -- he also moves from matching his master's color to carrying his own. His experience at Malachor, while different than Luke's at Bespin, was equally harrowing. Both students' fledgling understanding of themselves as Jedi were shattered -- Luke can no longer want to be like his father; Ezra has seen the power of hatred.

The thing which gives a lightsaber its color is its kyber crystal. The movies wisely avoid this mechanism, but the cartoons, videogames, and Disney parks can't get enough of it.

If you buy the lightsaber creation experience at Disneyland, they have you meditate to pick your color. (I didn't go for this, though I did buy Maul's which was more expensive and twice as big. Hey, he's magic and I'm not.) I read a Polygon article that described the meditation as a surprisingly sincere spiritual experience -- a real connection to a specific color. And I watched a GameGrumps where they discussed buying extra kyber crystals on Etsy so that they could have all the colors. You can even change the color yourself with some YouTube engineering.

(I should also point out that as I was messing with my Maul sabers the other day, one light randomly turned green for a second. The integrity of these Disneyland saber colors is fragile indeed. Or maybe I am magic.)

But could an in-universe crystal change color? Luke and Ezra just got new ones -- did the new colors just happen to reflect their new identities? Or did the new identities alter the color?

And what if you were taking care of someone else's?

The KotOR games are the richest example of using lightsaber colors for storytelling. Jedi tradition during this ancient time had the colors signify your specialization -- blue for the hardy Gaurdians, green for the wise Consulars, and yellow for the Sentinels with their, uh, miscellaneous talents. You can change your lightsaber color any time you like depending on what crystals you find in caves or boxes (and they've got almost the whole rainbow out there), but the rules of meaning are written for you to follow or break. Still, you couldn't change any crystal itself until ...

Darth Mom Loves You

... KotOR II. You CAN change the crystal you find at the darkest part of the cave back home on Dantooine -- indeed, you must! As your mysterious mentor Kreia explains:

"That crystal is bonded to you. Through you it acquires its character and strength. And through it, your power is enhanced."

This bonded crystal changes in two ways: its color changes to align with your morality (black for a dark side player, white for a light side player, and three -- count 'em -- shades of gray), and its glow changes to align with your level (below level 12, it is opaque; above level 33, it "radiates an immense amount of light, almost blinding anyone who looks at it").

It is a beautiful way to keep track of your progress in the game as your Exile regains their lost powers and redefines themselves in a scary new world. Especially since you can only change your crystal with Kreia's help -- you need to talk to her about it, go to the workbench, remove it, and hand it over to her, trusting in her guidance and wisdom and the eerily powerful bond you share. (I, uh, love this game.)

She takes care of it for you.

The thing is, this crystal does not affect the color of your weapon. KotOR lightsabers actually mash THREE crystals up in there -- one for color, two for power. Changes in your identity affect your weapon in a tangible, yet invisible way.

Of course, a blindingly bright power crystal doesn't sound especially sustainable -- no matter how fascinating your arc or powerful your bond.

An ad from the brilliant Jedi Academy book series.

***🎸🤖Spoilers for JFO🤖🎸***

JFO is a far more aesthetically-driven game than the KotORs -- not just because it's a lot prettier, but because the rewards in chests only affect your appearance, not your stats. You can find new lightsaber hilts in the same places you can find new ponchos. But unlike the KotORs, you can't find new crystals until you've been sufficiently harrowed. And then, suddenly, it's the most thorough rainbow of all.

You begin the game with the ability to switch between blue and green, with no connotations attached except what you bring with you. But after Cal's own breakdown on Dathomir -- a more internal struggle than those of Luke and Ezra -- and its continuation and eventual healing on Ilum, we are finally inside the mind of a Jedi as they build their lightsaber -- and choose their color. Cal holds his battered crystal up to the light, and as he turns it, we see a spectrum of seven colors, all contained within one kyber crystal. You pick your favorite and go.

His rejuvenation in the Force gives Cal the ability to choose the color of his lightsaber. And he found this crystal in the darkest part of a cave from his childhood -- just like Exile and Luke found theirs.

So is that ... how it works? Do you get to pick? Does the color emerge from your broken little wizard soul?

If any Star Wars media was going to argue that, it would be JFO, where visual customization is so dear.

***🎸🤖End Spoilers🤖🎸***

Skip Here for the Ahsoka Theory

Why do Ahsoka's lightsabers change to blue? Certainly, she has had her own harrowing experience -- but it wasn't followed by any caves nor rambling old ladies trying to get her in touch with her spirit. Just a smug young man and a knowing expression between the two of them. It's cute as hell but why did he do that?

She didn't change them blue; he did. Did he switch her crystals? Why? Do they really need to be replaced like batteries? (The ancient lightsaber Ezra found on Malachor still worked.)

He changed them blue to put his own spirit in them. He missed her; he wants her to stay. It's a symbol of a bond, like the orange helmets -- but while the clones changed their armor to match Ahsoka, Anakin changed her sabers to match himself.

Possessive, yeah. Sweet, sure. Pitiful, maybe. Especially considering the sabers' fate. And that almost all the other Jedi who switch their own saber colors move away from their masters, not towards them (except Luke in his battle on Crait in TLJ ... I could gush about that too, but this is already so long! It's certainly a moving parallel to S7 Ahsoka).

What interests me about these silly crystals is the possibility that they change along with their Jedi. "This weapon is your life" -- then what happens if your life changes? Or if this weapon becomes someone else's life?

What if he changed them blue unintentionally? His proximity to the crystals, his hopeless wish for her return, for them to understand each other -- Darth Dad loves her, too. From her, he acquires character and strength. And from him, her power is enhanced.

Of course there are no caves -- these are city Jedi. The cave is the dorm room. Home is a skyscraper.

He took care of them. They were not better -- they were just his. And she was not.

[inkethic]

I'm sorry to ask but, before I play the game does anyone dies?

Hi anon!

No worries at all and there's nothing to apologise for! The game begins right away with some plain warnings about everything you might encounter, but I'll break down some potential instances that you may wish to avoid. None of them are death, but if you're a bit sensitive to seeing uncomfortable things, it's something I'd like to warn you for anyway.

Minor minor spoilers:

There's an unavoidable scene of a monster being punished during the first day. We don't see the character or the torture in graphic detail, but we do see their arms at a distance and a few specks of blood, with a somewhat mid-length description. While it's not cursory or vague, it also isn't too indulgent or graphic, as Vil's observations are fairly matter-of-fact. Vil has the opportunity to leave quickly or stay for longer. However, there's no suggestion the monster is killed by the experience, and speaking as Word of God, they definitely weren't. Punishment in the monster world is quite unpleasant for us regular humans, but monsters can put up with more than we can - and certainly in the case we see, it's not deadly. It's a bit of worldbuilding, but it's possible to get through it quickly.

I think it'd pay to approach Yiestol's story last, and carefully if you're squeamish about anything that could be construed as quite dark. Everything you can expect to see or read is very explicitly warned for before you see it and you have a moment where you must consent to proceed, so if at any point you feel worried, you can load out and try another path, or run through the route where you turn it down to experience a different ending. We are happy to tell you neither of the other suitors come close to courting controversial topics. :)

No matter the route though, we definitely tried to avoid anything gratuitous or shocking. The goal is always romance, love, and a happy ending.

I really hope that helps, and I hope that the game can be enjoyable for you! If you’d prefer a more spoiler-heavy explanation, do hit us up!

[sage-nebula]

alright then I'M ASKING hey i'm actually wondering. i'm going off vague memories of what you've characterized his parents as, but would "Liam" have grown up with a similar lack of self-worth b/c he would have grown up with at least one parent who wasn't ready to have him and thusly might have been unintentionally (or even intentionally) neglectful? i'm saying possibly either physically and/or emotionally 'cause. iirc his parents or at least his mother was really not ready for him or something?

Mmmhm, you’ve got it partially right! You have a good memory.

Neither of his parents were ready to have him. The huge background post is here, but the part you’re remembering is: 

Either way, neither Lucia or Sebastian cared. They were seventeen (perhaps nearing eighteen), they were in love, they were strong trainers in their own right—

And they were also careless, and Lucia got pregnant.

That put the traveling plans on hold. Like, they had so many things they wanted to do; they wanted to go so many different regions, see so many different things. But Lucia was pregnant, and while she could travel for some of the pregnancy, near the end of the pregnancy she would need to take it easy. And then the baby would be born, and they’d have to take care of it. They couldn’t exactly gallivant around being teenagers while carting around an infant, could they? This led to a lot of debate, arguing, and fighting; neither of them could really make up their minds on what to do. They considered going to Sebastian’s family, but they knew that his family would pressure them to keep the baby (and get married et cetera) and they weren’t sure they wanted to do that. And telling Lucia’s family was out of the question, because they would be apoplectic if they found out that she was pregnant out of wedlock, and so young, at that. Lucia did not want to deal with that. She did not want to have to explain to them just how she was pregnant. (Like, they know how pregnancy works, but that’s what Lucia didn’t want to divulge.)

[…]

Lucia had the baby—their son—and she felt … nothing when he was born. Or, well—she did feel something, but that something was anxiety. Fear. She didn’t know what to do. She started crying when she saw him because she had a baby now, she was eighteen and she had a baby and what were they going to do? Sebastian tried to calm her down, like—okay, they had a baby, but they loved each other, they could be a family—but she just kept crying. And she cried even more when she realized that this didn’t really end her self-imposed exile from her family, because it’s not like the baby was going to go away now that she had given birth to him. If she brought him to her parents at any point she would have to explain him, and how could she do that? They’d be furious at any point. She couldn’t tell them. It didn’t matter how many years she waited. She gave up her whole family for him, and how was that fair?

Both Lucia and Sebastian thought that, in time, Lucia’s feelings would change, but they didn’t. In truth, she most likely had postpartum depression. Like, she had legitimate concerns (being a teen mother, missing her family, et cetera), but the lack of a bond that she felt toward her son, the resentment she felt toward him because he was “keeping her” from her family, the fact that she felt overwhelmed and anxious constantly … those were all likely caused by postpartum depression. And Sebastian, too, was overwhelmed and stressed out, both because he wasn’t ready to be a father any more than Lucia was ready to be a mother, and because Lucia was so depressed and upset 24/7. As much as they tried to raise their son, whom they had named Liam, they just found themselves completely miserable and unable to handle it.

So within three months, they decided to give him up for adoption.

In this AU, all of that stays except for the last line. For although neither of them were ready to be parents, although Lucia had post-partum depression, although Sebastian was equally as overwhelmed, stressed out, and upset … in this AU, rather than deciding to give him up for adoption (or, as what ends up actually happening, abandoning him in a forest because Lucia was too ashamed to ask Isolé to take him and Sebastian wasn’t there), they instead ended up agreeing to take him to Lucia’s family, to go and face the music and confess to her parents what happened. I imagine that it would be Sebastian’s idea, and his convincing her that would make this happen. Lucia was downright terrified of telling her parents, but Shalour City was much closer to where they were than Dendemille Town, and since Lucia’s family was better off financially, they would be able to provide better financial assistance for Liam (or, if it came to it, better resources to help Lucia and Sebastian find adoptive parents for him). Telling Lucia’s family first made the most sense, and so that’s what they ended up doing. They gathered their belongings, gathered their baby son, and made their way (in shame, in Lucia’s eyes) back to her family in Shalour City.

Spoiler alert: Her family was, as she predicted, not happy. 

As explained in the original post, there are several primary things to know about Lucia’s side of the family:

They are descended from the Blackthorn dragon clan in Johto (back when it used to still be part of Kanto), and though those who came from that clan / region were young when they (accidentally) immigrated to Kalos, they still carried that sense of pride and dignity with them, taking it perhaps even more seriously than they would have had they been older when they made the journey.

They ended up amassing a large amount of wealth over the generations.

Points one and two mean that they tend to place a lot of importance on honor and propriety, and tend to be traditionalists. 

All of this means that Lucia’s parents were, of course, the opposite of thrilled to see their daughter come home with a child born out of wedlock, particularly since said child’s father comes from a less than impressive background. (Like, Sebastian’s family has been in Dendemille Town for generations, but they’re decidedly middle class, and Lucia’s upper class parents and extended relatives have some definite classist tendencies, at least as far as their expectations go for potential suitors for their daughter.) At the same time, though, their beliefs prevented them from tossing Lucia and her newfound family out on the street, particularly when it came to Liam. He was a bastard (as in the original definition of the word), yes, but he was still only a baby, and technically a descendant of the dragon clan. Even if his birth was less than they’d want from a scion, he was still technically …

Lucia’s family laid down some stipulations, of course. There was no helping that Liam was a bastard, there was no changing that, but they were still of the opinion that Lucia and Sebastian should be married as soon as possible.

(“That’s one belief you’d likely have in common with my folks,” Sebastian said in an effort to lighten the mood. It didn’t work.)

They also wanted Lucia, Sebastian, and Liam to all live in the main house, so that they could ensure that Liam was raised properly (“Or at least as properly as he can be, given his … stock”). Lucia, as might be expected, was very against all of this, particularly since she had never particularly agreed with her parents’ classism (even if she does have that unwanted pregnancy shame stigma stamped into the fibres of her being), but given the situation, what could she do but agree? Sebastian wasn’t happy about it, either—he had wanted to avoid telling his own parents because he didn’t want to be rushed into marriage with Lucia (not that he doesn’t want to marry her, per se, but he’d rather it be a decision they mutually came to rather than one their parents and a baby forced on them)—but even he agreed that they didn’t have much choice. Neither have them had any income, they didn’t know what to do for jobs, they couldn’t travel and be trainers so long as they had Liam to think about and take care of, they had already told Lucia’s parents, and so on and so forth. What else was there to do but let the older adults take care of things, since they were still technically teenagers (just older teenagers) flying by the seats of their pants?

So, Lucia and Sebastian got married. Even after notifying Sebastian’s family and explaining the whole situation, they agreed to live in the main house (albeit in their own wing—and Lucia personally felt that this was a punishment and exile even as her parents told her to stop being so dramatic, “although perhaps you should have thought about things like punishment and exile before you were so irresponsible and rebellious”), and so that’s where Liam grew up: In the same house with his grandparents (and some other extended relatives), the illegitimate heir to a dragon clan family in Shalour City.

And SO, with all of that foundation laid:

As mentioned several times, Liam is technically his parents’ bastard son, because even though they did end up getting married as a result of pressure from both sides of their family (since they both come from conservative families, as noted and can be told), they still weren’t married when he was born, and weren’t until several months after the fact. (Probably six or so? They took him back to Shalour City when he was three months old, and it no doubt took at least some time to set up the wedding.) The fact that he’s an illegitimate child is a fact he is very aware of, even from a young age. His maternal grandparents, despite disapproving of his birth (and by extension his existence), still wanted to make sure that he was raised in a way that wouldn’t be a disgrace to the family, and so at one point when he was young, Liam overheard them lecturing Lucia on how to raise him, saying something like, “Just because he is a bastard doesn’t mean he has to have the manners of one.” 

Liam’s maternal grandparents, as you could imagine, tend to be rather cold toward him. Not cruelly so; any real disgust or ire they have is typically saved for Lucia and Sebastian (especially Sebastian, actually; they never warm up to him and blame him more than Lucia for what happened). But they still view him not only as living, breathing proof that their daughter failed to live up to even the lowest expectations and hopes they had for her, but also as their part of the family tree ending in disgrace. They’re reminded of that every time they look at him, and it absolutely affects how they treat him (even if mostly subconsciously), in the sense that they’re quite aloof toward him even as they make sure he has excellent tutors, make sure he’s provided for in any way that money could provide for a child, occasionally instruct him in terms of propriety and manners, et cetera. Like, he’s still a dragon clan heir even if he’s an illegitimate one, and so they’re going to make sure he’s raised as such. He’s still one of theirs, despite the disappointment of his birth. So they’re not outright harsh or cruel to him, they make sure he’s provided for, they try to keep any remarks on his illegitimate background out of earshot, and their aloof behavior tends to be mostly subconscious and not intentional … but it’s something that he, even as a child, can pick up on nonetheless (especially when he overhears comments like the “just because he is a bastard” one).

That said, it’s possible that they could (and possibly even do) try to pressure Lucia and Sebastian to have another child once they’re married. Of course, that child would still have the same stock as Liam, given Sebastian—but at least this one would be a legitimate heir (or at least more legitimate than Liam). Lucia, I think, would refuse out of spite more than anything else (as well as because she feels that having one child landed her in this position, so how much better would a second be?). Sebastian might want another child at some point, but again, not because parents on either side wanted it.

To that end, the way that Lucia and Sebastian regard or treat Liam is … honestly not that stellar either, particularly when it comes to Lucia. 

Lucia in particular goes from not feeling a bond with her son and feeling low-key resentment toward him for cutting her off from her family, to outright resenting him because of how upset her parents are with her. She knows this is wrong, and she tells Sebastian (over and over and over again) that she knows that this is wrong, and in truth her feelings flip-flop a lot, in that she’ll strongly resent Liam in one moment, but then not two hours later will feel protective over or fond of him. This is especially true as he grows, and Lucia grows more and more used to the fact that “this is her life now,” but even that feeling never truly sets in, and she often dreams of the life she could have had instead. She does love Liam (to some extent, at least), but if we were going to compare her love for him and her resentment of him in percentages, it’s probably 60% resentment and 40% love. She does, ultimately, wish she had never gotten pregnant (at least right then, at least not like that—she feels she would love him wholly had she had him later in life, when she and Sebastian were more prepared). There is probably at least one time, in a very heated moment, when this slips out. To be honest, it might even be more than once.

Sebastian, too, wishes that they had Liam later in life, when they were more prepared, et cetera. As things settle down he becomes more accustomed to “this is how things are” than Lucia, but it helps that they aren’t living with his parents, that his parents tend to be a bit more understanding anyway (though they’re not pleased that Sebastian and Lucia chose to stay in Shalour), and that even though Lucia’s parents hate him far more than they could ever hate Lucia (and to be clear, they don’t hate Lucia, they’re just extremely disappointed in her), it’s not as if their opinion of him ever mattered that much to him. So it’s easier for him than it is for Lucia, and that lessens the resentment some … but the fact that his life was still ultimately decided by this, and the fact that it is hard on Lucia, wears on him. He figures, though, that the best way to handle this is just to have Liam be raised to be the best heir that he can be, so he mostly tries to stay out of the way and lets Liam’s grandparents + Lucia handle most of that. He loves Liam, but he’s not really willing to go to bat for him, at least in the sense that he’s not going to disagree with what Liam’s grandparents say in terms of his lessons, tutors, dress code, et cetera.

That said, despite the mixed feelings the two of them have toward him, they both tend to be rather protective, at least in the “we’re not going to trust you to go out into the world and make mistakes like we did” sense. However his grandparents want him raised is one thing, but Lucia tends to swing between “this is life now” and “no, he’s my son and so I will make all the decisions,” and Sebastian feels that this entire experience has aged him and made him wiser, and certainly wiser than the child he unintentionally helped bring into this world, so to that end they both have tendencies to be overprotective, overbearing, and somewhat controlling, even if in different ways (or rather, about different things) than his grandparents.

SO WITH ALL OF THAT SAID, LIAM …

As mentioned, he’s very, very aware of the fact that he’s a bastard son, and that this doesn’t make his maternal grandparents happy, and that even though he’s one of the dragon clan, he’s not quite as much of an accepted heir to the dragon clan as, say, perhaps, some of his cousins. (The fact that his grandparents potentially want his parents to have a second child “the right way this time” and that he might be aware of this doesn’t help matters either. He’s not quite enthused at the idea of a younger sibling because of these circumstances, as you might imagine.) This awareness that he has, that he has to work twice (maybe even thrice) as hard to gain approval, that he’ll potentially never fully have it and never truly be good enough no matter how hard he works, has given him something of a “WITNESS ME” complex, in the sense that sometimes he wants the approval, and other times he doesn’t want it at all, and still other times he figures that he’ll make his own way someday and, one way or another, they’ll have no choice but to acknowledge him, positively or not. He’s definitely got a defiant streak in him, which comes down to him having the soul of a dragon regardless of the timeline he’s in.

He’s still extraordinarily intelligent and, though the word can carry negative connotations, “gifted”. This is excellent news in his tutors’ eyes, and even his grandparents feel that, “Well, despite the odds being stacked against him, at least he has that going for him.” Unfortunately, rather than being given the freedom to learn what he pleased (so long as he had the basics down) and having his curiosity nurtured, he was given an extremely strict tutoring regimen (and one with constantly raised stakes given what he could do, because his grandparents felt that if he accomplished one task too easily, then that meant he needed to have the challenge increased), which made academics a chore and not something he looked forward to, particularly when his achievements were looked upon as expected results rather than … well, achievements. He still likes knowing things and is still naturally curious, but he isn’t even nine before he decides that he abhors his lessons, hates academia, and feels that it’s all a waste of time because he’s better served learning things his own way. So, rather than the nerd who loves research and gets super excited at new discoveries, we instead have a child who, on some occasions, has to be dragged to his lessons by his shirt collar as he desperately tries to get out of them (because they’re either too easy or too ridiculous with the added challenges, and either way it’s not as if anyone will be impressed with his performance, so why must he suffer through them, et cetera).

He has that “WITNESS ME” complex going on with his maternal grandparents, but his relationship with his parents is similarly complicated. As you guessed, Lucia tends to be rather neglectful at least half the time, figuring that her parents are handling whatever it is Liam needs (and they are, in terms of clothes, food, et cetera), and that he’s fine otherwise, and if he isn’t, she … can’t exactly muster up the will to provide. She still tries to look after him sometimes, particularly if she’s feeling resentful and rebellious of her parents instead of her son that particular day, but emotionally she still tends to swing between “trying but not always succeeding” and “not trying at all.” Again, there is still 40% love there, but … it’s 40%. That’s not a lot. And Liam feels that emotional distance from his mother just as he feels it from his grandparents. He’s not stupid.And as far as Sebastian goes, he’s probably more in the 50% / 50% range (or maybe 40% distance and resentment, 60% love range on a good day), but as mentioned, he won’t go to bat for Liam, and the ways in which he is protective and “tries to be there” are ways that Liam doesn’t want (which I’ll get to in a second). So Liam still feels that his father isn’t really there for him either (and he’s not entirely wrong).So with all of that said, he’s not constantly feeling a need to prove himself to his parents as he feels with his maternal grandparents (he wouldn’t even know where to start, since their issue with him is different from his grandparents’ issue with him), but he does’t feel close to them at all. When he was smaller this bothered him a lot, but as he grows older he forces himself (as best he can) to accept it. At least he has parents, he supposes, even if they’re … like this.

As you could guess, he grows up quite lonely, despite living in a big house full of people (his family, sure, but also serving staff and the like—remember, Lucia’s family is rich). He’s completely provided for financially, but since he has tutors, he doesn’t go to school to make any friends. His parents and grandparents are aloof toward him at best. He tries to befriend the staff, but there’s a barrier there given that he’s the heir(?), even if he doesn’t want there to be a barrier there. And since the entire fucking family knew that he was illegitimate from the time he was three months old, he has been a central point of gossip even before he could understand the words that were coming out of their mouths, and so that even put major dents in his relationships with his extended relatives. (So like, he’s not exactly friends with his cousins, because, “My daddy said you’re actually a commoner, because your daddy is one, which means you are, too” doesn’t exactly make for great friendships.) He doesn’t feel that he has anyone who genuinely cares about him as anything more than a potential heir (and doesn’t even know, on most days, if he even wants to be the heir, because as much as he actually is interested in his family history and thinks it’s cool to learn about—as much as he does want to journey to Blackthorn City, Johto when he’s older to examine his roots—he’s not sure that being proud of his dragon clan heritage necessitates that he inherit everything his maternal grandparents have), that even his own parents resent the fact that he was even born, and he’s just … lonely, and depressed, and honestly feels that there’s a piece of his life that’s just missing. This feeling increases more and more as he grows older, and specifically as he nears his tenth birthday, and so in the weeks leading up to that he decides he’s going to take matters into his own hands.After he turns ten, he leaves so that he can go get himself a pokémon.

Both Lucia and Sebastian are heavily against Liam becoming a trainer. As mentioned above, they tend to be very protective / overbearing / controlling of him insofar as his life choices go. They let his maternal grandparents (for the most part) control how he’s raised in terms of manners and the like—they allow his grandparents to plan out his wardrobe and hire his tutors and all that—but the way they see it, they thought they knew everything when they were young, and look where it got them. They don’t want Liam making the same mistakes. They don’t want him getting into trouble in similar ways. On top of that, it’s possible that they’ve met with Olympia at some point, and—I’m not entirely sure how her powers of foresight work, if she can only see the future of the timeline she’s in, or perhaps if sometimes her visions get criss-crossed. But it’s possible that she either saw a vision of the future from the Prime Timeline (where Alan is taken into Lysandre’s service), or potentially that similar disaster could befall him in this one (although I don’t think Lysandre would be at all interested in a boy who had no connection to Sycamore or mega evolution), and that she warned Lucia and Sebastian of this. Even if their love for their son is only in the 40% - 60% range (maybe higher, give or take the day), they still don’t want him to fall into anything horrible or dangerous, and so that would be all the more reason for them to give a hard “no” and “not until you’re much older” stipulations for him when he brings the idea up that he wants to go on a pokémon journey to them.“Everyone else is allowed to journey when they turn ten,” he argues. “That’s the legal age for obtaining a License. I should be allowed to—” “You are not everyone else. You’re our son—”“And you don’t make all the decisions for me. Grandmother, could I—”“I’m afraid I’m not sure, Liam. Could you?”“… May I apply for a License to go on a pokémon journey?”“No. For once, your mother is correct. She was not prepared to leave when she did, and neither are you.”“That’s not—!”“My decision is final. There will be no more discussion of this tonight.”His grandmother’s opinion could not be swayed, and his grandfather agreed with his grandmother, and for once his parents were on the same page. So naturally, that left Liam with only one option.

He ran away.(I mean, what, did you expect him to just lie down and take that? Please.)

He has never had the lessons necessary to successfully pass the License exam, but he figures he can take care of that bridge once he gets to it. He leaves in the middle of the night, putting as much distance between himself and Shalour City as possible. In truth, he has not put much research into this, pretty much at all, but he knows enough to know that Professor Sycamore in Lumiose City distributes pokémon to new trainers, so he figures he can go ask there. And if Professor Sycamore says no, he figures he can just catch himself a wild one. It can’t be that difficult, he figures. People capture pokémon all the time. He will figure it out.

Of course, Shalour City is quite a distance away from Lumiose, through various terrain, and he has no pokémon to protect himself with. What he does have is a map and a backpack full of Repels that he took from home, as well as a good chunk of cash that he also took from home which he uses to pay some random trainers he meets into letting him hitch along with them as they go to Lumiose City. (He probably wouldn’t have had to pay them, to be honest, because they were already going in that direction and he’s a kid who has no means of defending himself … but he offered the cash upfront and they weren’t about to say no.) Through a combination of all of these factors he does make it successfully to Lumiose, even with both of his parents in hot pursuit because they can guess well enough where he disappeared to, and they’re not intending to just let him run off and become a trainer that easily. Not when he (in their esteemed opinion) has no idea of what he’s doing, or getting into, and has every chance of making the same mistakes (if not worse ones) than they did.

As for all the details of what happens when he gets to the lab (because he does make it there) … well, I have a few ideas in mind for that, and I kind of want to write a fic for it. All I will say is that, when he gets there, there’s a little baby charmander there that’s only a few weeks old (at most), that’s so tiny and doesn’t even have his fangs yet, and even though that’s not a standard Kalosean starter and it’s really inadvisable to take such a baby, he decides that’s the one he has to have (besides, he’s dragon clan—shouldn’t his partner be a dragon?). This little baby, in another timeline (a Prime one), is named Lizardon. Here, though … Liam probably goes for the name Shounetsu (Shou for short) instead. It’s written with the kanji 焦 (char, burn, scorch, singe) and 熱 (passion). His dragon clan family upbringing, I think, would lead him toward a more traditional Johtoan name like that. Alternatively, he might just translate it to Inferno, to make it easier for others to get the meaning. Either-or, I haven’t decided yet.

Either way, those are the headcanons I have so far (aside from everything I kind of want to put into the fic, heh). But while they’re the same person (albeit from different timelines), Liam turns out quite a bit differently from Alan, as you can see. Like, there are of course similarities there (their nature is the same, after all—it’s the nurture where they differ), but their different life experiences led them to … well, turn out differently. And all in all, though Liam never lost his birth family, though he grew up around them … I daresay that, at least for the seven years that he was raised in Lumiose, Alan is the one who ultimately ended up having the happier childhood.

Funny how these things work out.

[ecoamerica]

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