in relation to the last post, the entire plotline is poorly executed.
annabeth's reaction to percy in tartarus is normal, like, not good, but normal. percy's not only challenging the laws of the world, he's indulging cruelty. being afraid is a normal reaction to have. despite that, it's still a conflict that needs to be resolved...and it's not.
immediately afterwards it's like ok back to normal! the jagged edges of percy's soul smooth over and annabeth is back to business (which immediately begets the question: why did rick write that then? which is never answered. the point? missing*). like, the actual issue isn't even addressed. before turning the poison onto akhlys, percy is being tortured w it (and nothing annabeth tries stops it). percy isn't doing this bc it's fun and exciting. he's doing this bc he was feeling so angry, so hurt, so scared, so traumatized that he resorted to hurting someone to make himself feel better. this is literally never addressed.
even in boo, annabeth's arc isn't abt learning to not be afraid or to trust percy again, it's to allow herself to be afraid. w piper. away from percy. and she never confronts percy directly, she never reconciles her fear w percy, they never address how this changes their relationship. also piper is there bc annabeth is so freaked out by percy that now piper is freaked out by percy. which is. a separate issue that is only an issue bc once again it never gets resolved.
and then w percy obviously he has his suicide attempt. like, he thought what he did in tartarus was so unforgivable that he not only believed that he deserved to die, but deserved to die slowly and painfully from something that he could easily prevent. like. that's the thing. percy's powers come easily to him. do u know how low he would have to be to not even subconsciously try to save himself? and the only response is a "i think i get it" from someone who's perspective does not properly convey the severity of the situation (ppl read this scene without even realizing it's a suicide attempt). once again, percy and annabeth do not confront this conflict together. percy tries to kill himself and the narrative is like...anyway.
if rick didn't know how to handle this, or even if he just didn't want to write it, he didn't have to write it. any of it.
but it's not that rick doesn't know how to handle this situation bc he writes the same thing in boo and handles it a million times better. nico and reyna have a very similar situation to percy and annabeth and the inclusion of both of these scenes and the difference in how they're handled ends up vilifying annabeth in the narrative.
reyna and nico have known each other for less time. they have built up less trust. and yet. when nico challenges the laws of the world and indulges cruelty in a way that reminds reyna of her extremely traumatizing backstory, she comforts nico. she doesn't treat him like he's dangerous. hedge tells him "we all get angry" and reyna vehemently agrees. nico is given explicit support even before he can start spiraling. and when nico is told to not use that power, it's bc of how it affected him, not how it made them feel, not that it's unnatural.
this shows that there was a correct answer. annabeth didn't have it, and suddenly her "normal" reaction looks bad in comparison. but instead of addressing this in any meaningful capacity, we're going to ignore it and send p*rcabeth to college. #relationshipgoals.
it's such a narrative failure. and rick could've just. not written it.
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Please infodump about the silly little bards please (only if you want to ofc)
TAKES A DEEP BREATH . OKAY !!!!
(apologies this got a little long so it’s going under the cut And i also. put a miniature train on a track and watched it race off, so the thoughts !! Might be !! a little scrambled, and jump around a lot ,,,)
okay sorry we are starting off a little bittersweetly because . god ghost bard makes me ill in so many ways. it is one of the more …. happier endings, for him, i feel he would kinda like being a ghost. at first. there is a certain freedom to it—he can go anywhere !!! he can explore the world like he had planned to do, and he can still do it with his dearest friend !!!!! there’s no time limit, like if he were a human, and he can Fly Now, on his own, for another. can slink into the shadows and have others take the shining light—he’s a bard, he is here to listen and tell tales of others! pay no attention to the light flickering.
but it’s.
not really. living (irony included.) he’s stagnant. the world changes around him, he watches everyone venture forward on their paths, do greater things, be greater people—and he’s. still. here, as he was, a perfectly still moment of the best and worst part of his life. every time his friend turns to look at him he can always see a flash of pain in their eyes. but (reusing what i said in tags) he doesn’t … want to leave, i feel. yes, he doesn’t age. yes, he mimes breathing even when his lungs have stopped. yes, he wishes he could truly feel what his friend’s palms feel under his own, when they try to interlace hands; that’s the reason, though. venti is an immortal. venti outlives nearly everyone he meets. venti has lost their friends, their once was life and thrust into a completely new one. he has to stay. he has to, he has to, because he can’t stand venti being on their lonesome, when all they knew before this was warmth.
so . my friend, if you will allow me, let me be by your side. let me be what you were for me, all those years.
when ragnvindr leaves. when gunnhildr dies. when venti deems this city okay to walk on their own. he follows his wisp and sits close enough that venti’s wings shiver from cold. i’ve got you. (there is also . so many ways you can take this au: angst, majorly, but they should be happy and smiling whenever the opportunity arrives so canon to me that venti knows the bard is there and whenever he can be leans over and knocks his shoulder against the bard’s. love you. love you too.)(also the idea of mondstadt having one (1) ghost but it’s just your friendly neighbor bard checking in. they’re co-parenting mondstadt.)(ALSO ALSO here’s how bard getting to know og gunnhildr even more and meeting vennessa can win—)(potentially also the og7……)
(also also also This Bard has more than likely seen everything that has happened to venti :3c if we’re doomed, my song, let’s be doomed together.)
OKAY . ANYWAYS
waves my hands high . THEIR LOVE !!!!!!!!
they are both so “in every life, i would search for you,” because there is NO WAY that they, whose relationship was so important To The Story As A WHOLE, where venti would be a completely different character had he not met the bard (case in point: His Entire Design), where mondstadt as it is now is still being affected by those dreams and hopes of the past !!!!!!!!!!—that could not have been a one off, one lifetime thing. venti is following bard in the next life and the bard is running around with hands cupped around his mouth and shouting “dearest beloved where are you :(” until they reunite and hug. i refuse to be convinced otherwise. no one can stop them from reaching out and hoping the other’s hand grazes, then latches on. they are a PACKAGE DEAL ‼️
like gestures to Several Lines from the game ???:
(sorry that’s fully the wiki for the windblume ode i don’t have it 😔) godbless 🙏 venti has a lot on his mind and i am full belief that the nameless bard is a good 45% at the forefront of it (the fact. that. it’s very very possible that venti looks through things through a lens of: what would be good for the people, and, would this have made him happy…. Makes Me want to start chewing at the walls.) (<- im so genuinely surprised there aren’t more people who go buckwild over the bard the two of them are so intricately interlinked ????? if you removed one the whole thing would fall apart ????)(tbh that could be said for the old mond crew as a whole.)
it’s about the devotion. it’s about the adoration. it’s about a god worshipping a mortal and refusing to miss even one singular prayer.
also wings of azure wind remind me both of the traveler and nameless bard. like be so genuine right now genshin, someone going on an adventure, a journey, and the breeze that follows turns into a person at the end ??? and accompanies that person across the lands ???????
ALSO HEY HI . HERES MY AGENDA TO CECILIAS BEING VENTI’S FAVORITE FLOWER EVER AND IT’S PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE NAMELESS BARD:
like ofc there’s the fact that cecilias seemed to have been the windblume for the rebellion, see: the flower is on the flag, the flower being pinned to nameless bard’s scarf.
but also.
because. it probably took a solid minute for the other flowers to bloom (the entire land was Ice Cold there had to have been repercussions from andrius lifting that all suddenly !!), i imagine that cecilias were one of the few flowers old mond saw on a regular, until what light breezes had them start to wilt. and. Well.
an “unbound soul” you say, huh, genshin ……
venti and nameless bard would’ve fully switched cecilias if the bard had lived that headcanon lives rent free in my brain.
anyways looks at this and squints. what in the world is going on with cecilias:
what else. what else. OH .
Venti . would trust the bard inexplicably with his wings source: trust me. venti would trust the bard inexplicably with so much. venti could hand the bard his heart on a silver platter and smile, because the bard would cherish it something precious. i await the day when it is ever . ever made canon that bard and wispti had a home together and slept cuddled or just by one another in general. there has to be a reason why venti says i haven’t seen this view in a while When He Is Sitting on his Statue’s HANDS. if the bard were to have ever have a social media account he 100% would’ve done “showing my wisp places they’ve never seen before” trend while holding wispti like a hamburger.
i. May be running out of steam. qpr bardven canon
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HI Uncle Nina <3 Can we hear about how your Rm!Style met as kids?
listen, you guys. i am SO excited for this!!! words cannot express how excited it makes me when i get to talk about the prequel, like they are sooo stikin' cute in the prequel!!! ilysm baby raven and jersey. MWAH!
*eldritchhorror!kenny!nina cracks knuckles n opens up a portal* okay girls, gays n gays, we're going on a field trip,
TO THE PAST!
( i’m chaotic bi ms. frizzle in the pink y2k hello kitty bus )
so, i gotta be honest, my friends, i don't know EXACTLY how old the boys are, but i am gonna say they are anywhere between 6-8 y/o. it's summer time and the broflovski's have just moved to southern park, colorado from sheila's hometown in new jersey...and have moved in right next door...to the marsh family, namely:
ravenstanley r.w. marsh.
who i am using as a primary narrator...FOR ONCE!
because to tell you this was the best day of his life was an goddamn understatement...to tell you that this changed his life, even, is a fkn understatement because this moment, this fateful day GAVE HIS ENTIRE LIFE MEANING. meeting kyle broflovski...was Everything.
again, it wasn't just like 'oh, this boy who moved next door to me is kinda cute, i might have a crush on him'
It Was Dead Serious, Guys.
a teeny tiny, itsy bitsy, ickle ravenstanley marsh heard a single loud, angry, brutal note of the kyle broflovski new jersey slaughterhouse and was immediately irreversibly head over heels IN LOVE with him.
fresh from jersey kyle asked stan if he could open his fresca and the man's synesthesia was flashing, spinning, ringing and dinging like he was playing the world's biggest slot machine and just hit JACKPOT.
and that was before he got a good look at him because...
Wooooowza. <3
all the hundreds of little freckles speckled over his skin like sun-stars, his big, beautiful curly red hair, his gorgeous, glowering mean, green eyes ravenstan was legitimately Breathtaken by kyle's beauty, omfg.
however, the funniest part abt all of this to me is that poor sweet pre!rm rae is legitimately having divine visions and hearing angelic choirs, meanwhile pre!rm jers is just staring blankly at this weird, giant-eyed freaky mouth-breathing rural colorado kid ( who ig is his neighbor now, smh ) that's just staring up at him and sweating and shaking and looks like he's having a Stroke.
edit: i forgot to describe what they looked like so know that ravenstan had come out of the house because his mom told him to say hi to the neighbors and help them with boxes and stuff, say hi to their son, etc.
i think his hair is shoulder length, but its in a lil ponytail, he's in randy's gigantic black sabbath t-shirt, probably has a gigantic edgy boy temp tattoo of a skull or a snake on his neck, smh, little like hot wheels, boy section of target-esqe stickers all over his face and arms, little other edgy elementary school boy marker tattoos on his arms because he literally has always been a rockstar.
meanwhile, jersey, in canon ncu baby kyle fashion, is wearing his gigantic kyle signature orange coat and green ushanka IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER because he is self conscious and sheila bought both on sale at the mall during summer when the winter stuff is all half up because she's a thrifty queen and wants him to get wear out of them and break them in...smh.
so he is sweating like hell and just wants to get his fresca open, which is very vintage and still comes in the bottle.
but regarding The Fresca Of Fate,
stan Does eventually ( open / it. )
...in the most chaotic, unhinged way possible, btw.
which is that baby ravenstan bites, rips and twists the cap off with his teeth like a feral fucking animal ( which i think happened because he was legitimately panicking like holy shit, what do i do, what the Fuck do i doooo?!?! i don't know how to get this open but the beautiful spotty boy w/ the perfect voice asked me to do it, so ¡oRALE! )
note: it is this party trick that he'd seen randy do a couple of times and just replicated, but totally ripped his lip open in the process, btw.
anyways, rae hands the fresca back to baby jersey and because he is a fkn idiot but also a superstar ( i love u raven ) shoots kyle the signature stanley marsh wink-peace sign-finger gun combo wombo.
and jersey is just SHOOK because that was, in fact, criminally insane, but also...kinda cool? and an oddly touching gesture because he could have just handed the bottle back or said go fuck yourself, new kid! because he didn't give a shit about this kid from next door and his parents were both busy...but wanted kyle to have his little drinky poo so bad that he literally busted his lip open turning into a can-opener for ky...and did the cutest, weirdest most awkward hand-sign ever.
tldr; it was brave and reckless and boyish and radiant. and kyle, who usually is highly disgusted by the germs of other people...finds that brings the lip of the fresca bottle to his with ease, sips his drink, which tastes like victory and probably a bit like cinnamon red hots, watches his weirdo neighbor give him the wink peace sign finger gun combo and is so weirdly endeared by this that he...
gives stan a rare kyle smile and even rarer kyle laugh. :’)
and this is so glorious and gorgeous to ravenstan that he literally cannot breathe, his heart is pounding in his chest, he is fkn shaking, goes to say something and immediately THROWS UP ALL OVER KYLE AND PASSES OUT. skhdlksahdsh HEEEEELP NO.
but yeah...that's how dad and dad met. please note that in canon ncu fashion ravenstan followed jersey around like a lovesick puppy, ignoring all of the kids trying to get his attention and play with him, desperate for kyle to acknowledge his existence for literally five seconds or accept his offer of being super best friends...
all the while, jerseykyle is trying to get away from him because he doesn't like other people, doesn't want to be friends, just wants to be left alone and be alone skhdld and is like weird kid with the giant eyeballs PLEASE FUCK OFF ( this does make stan fall more in love with him, stan i need you to go to therapy for the type of guys u like ) and this apathy and disinterest continues until...
stan takes the stark's pond hockey puck for him.
and suddenly, kyle's cold dead heart starts beating again, he sees ravenstan in the hospital recovering from slicing his face and mouth open again, who smiles so hard he RIPS his stitches open again, smh and from that moment on, they are Super Best Friends.
but both secretly want something more, legend says.
-uncle nina, obsessed with the prequel <3
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