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inthedayswhenlandswerefew · 6 months

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When The World Is Crashing Down [Chapter 10: Blame Everyone But Me For This Mess]

Series summary: Your family is House Celtigar, one of Rhaenyra’s wealthiest allies. In the aftermath of Rook’s Rest, Aemond unknowingly conscripts you to save his brother’s life. Now you are in the liar of the enemy, but your loyalties are quickly shifting…

Chapter warnings: Language, warfare, violence, serious injury, alcoholism/addiction, references to sexual content (18+), Aemond-induced chaos, death and destruction, witchcraft! 🔮

Series title is a lyrics from: “7 Minutes In Heaven” by Fall Out Boy.

Chapter title is a lyric from: “I’ve Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth” by Fall Out Boy.

Word count: 6.2k.

Link to chapter list: HERE.

Taglist (more in comments): @tinykryptonitewerewolf @lauraneedstochill @not-a-glad-gladiator @daenysx @babyblue711 @arcielee @at-a-rax-ia @bhanclegane @jvpit3rs @padfooteyes @marvelescvpe @travelingmypassion @darkenchantress @yeahright0h @poohxlove @trifoliumviridi @bloodyflowerrr @fan-goddess @devynsficrecs @flowerpotmage @thelittleswanao3 @seabasscevans @hiraethrhapsody @libroparaiso @echos-muses @st-eve-barnes @chattylurker @lm-txles @vagharnaur @moonlightfoxx @storiumemporium @insabecs @heliosscribbles @beautifulsweetschaos @namelesslosers @partnerincrime0 @burningcoffeetimetravel-fics @yawneneytiri @marbles-posts @imsolence @maidmerrymint @backyardfolklore @nimaharchive @anxiousdaemon @under-the-aspen-tree @amiraisgoingthruit @dd122004dd @randomdragonfires @jetblack4real @joliettes

Only 3 chapters left! 🥰💜

“Aemond!” he roars into the cerulean midday sky, knowing it is useless, that fate has already spoken.

All his life, fate has proven Criston Cole wrong. He once believed he could not rise above being born to a steward in the Dornish Marches. He once feared he would never be permitted to join the Kingsguard. He once felt in his twisting, self-loathing guts that he would never love any woman but Rhaenyra. And Criston once knew—without reservation, without complexity—that Alicent’s eldest son would never amount to anything worthwhile, could never be courageous, self-sacrificial, competent, a true king. Each time, fate had a different ending in store.

All around him, Green soldiers are dying in what will be known to history as the Butcher’s Ball. They are being slit open, disemboweled, crushed beneath the hooves of warhorses, stabbed and clubbed and speared. The Northmen have scorpions with them as well, with massive bolts to bring down dragons; but they are unnecessary. There are no dragons on the battlefield today.

Criston pictures Aemond as a boy, always so sullen, always so dutiful. He read and he wrote and he sparred in the castle courtyard until the blisters on his palms burst and bled and then turned to callouses, knots of dead-nerved scar tissue that grew over his wounds but never cured them. Criston did not just believe in Aemond’s abilities, his honor; he was certain of these things, he carried them as interminably as the lines in his palms. Criston knew Aemond and Vhagar would be the saviors of the Greens in this war. He knew Aemond would be here.

But he’s not. He’s just not, and there’s nothing I can do to bring him.

Cregan Stark is cutting through the Greens’ men. He is not a soldier, he is a force of nature, he is a thunderstorm or a famine or a rogue wave, he is winter coming to rip the trees bare and bury the weak in frostbitten earth. Arrows are loosed by the Northmen’s archers, lethal hissing rain. One hits Criston in the shoulder of his sword arm. Another pierces him through the small of his back, severing his spinal cord and dropping him to his knees.

Through the fray, Cregan sees the Kingmaker. He wants him, he wants Criston’s blood on his blade, his hands, his face; and what the Warden of the North wants, he is never denied.

Alicent, Criston thinks, and he remembers her lying in bed after giving birth to Aegon. She was a girl, just a girl, pale, sick, in terrible and unspoken pain, never the same in body, forever darker in mind, alone in a room full of tapestries of her husband’s house as the court celebrated her newborn son. She knew she had been used. She knew this was her life and always would be, a wheel that goes around and around and crushes the same bones until they stop mending, until the misery and desperation becomes so much a part of you that you could almost forget it’s there. It’s your shadow, it’s your religion, it’s a sigil or a ring.

I suppose now I have something to live for, Alicent had said, and Criston sat on the edge of the bed took her small, cold hand in his own. He raised her knuckles to his lips and answered: I swear to you that I will always protect him. That I will never let him die.

Here in the Riverlands as Cregan Stark descends upon him, Criston looks up again and sunlight spills over his face, warm and kind and golden; but the sky is still empty.

~~~~~~~~~~

In the gardens of Dragonstone, on a bench carved out of gloom-grey basalt, you pull Aegon’s legs into your lap and roll up his loose cotton trousers to inspect them: scars that have knit shut the gashes bones once cut through, muscle mass that is slowly building itself back again, good circulation, able to carry him if only for short, hard-fought distances. You have bled twice since Aemond flew back to the Riverlands to seize Harrenhal. Here under flinty autumn skies and pine trees that sway in brisk wind that smells like saltwater and metal, you think that perhaps the earth is done giving things. This is the time for harvests, not blooms. This is the season of endings, long nights full of cold stars, firelight, reaping.

“Stop,” Aegon says gently. He’s clutching a thick wool blanket around his shoulders. He’s always cold now, pale and shivering. His silvery hair hangs in untamed waves around his face adored with only a single small braid that you weave for him each day. “I don’t want you to do it.”

No; he only wants the maesters to see his weakness, his suffering. “I like taking care of you. It’s the only thing I’m good at. It’s how we met, remember?”

“Oh, I remember.” Now he smiles. “I have no idea what you saw in me.”

“An exemplary cock, mostly. Better than any in my medical books.”

Aegon laughs, a sound you rarely get to hear anymore. Then he is grave again. His hair blows in the gales that roll in off the ocean; his eyes, a tumultuous blue like waves in a storm, are ringed by shadows. “Angel, listen to me.” He places a hand over yours where it rest on a knot of scar tissue just below his kneecap. “If I don’t…” He pauses, and you think as you look at him: He’s nothing but scars now, he’s nothing but pain that is calloused over but never forgotten. “If I’m not here when the war is over, I want you to know that you’ll still be protected. Aemond knows. Larys knows. You are to be provided for. You will reside only where and with whom you choose to.”

“Why wouldn’t you be here?”

Aegon shrugs, avoiding your gaze. “We should be realistic.”

“You’ll be here. You have to be.”

Aegon stares into a thicket of rose bushes, blood-red petals and twisted thorns. And he says faintly, like something a strong wind could carry away: “I’ll try.”

“We’re winning, Aemond and Criston and Daeron and the Greens’ armies. They might have won already and we’re just waiting to hear the words. Aemond will end the war and then we’ll all be together again in King’s Landing.”

Aegon gives you a wry smirk as you roll back down the legs of his trousers, concealing his roadmap of harm. “A man like Cregan Stark would not be such a disappointment. He would be able to ride into battle. He would not have compelled you to bloody your own hands. He would not be feeble and deformed.”

“It can’t be anyone but you.”

Overhead, half-shrouded in mist, there is an immense reptilian shadow and a rumbling like the earth splitting in two, cracked and forced apart by eruptions of steam, lava, trapped toxic heat. Gingerly, Aegon returns his boots to the earth, stony and barren. He winces and groans before he can bite it back to hide it from you.

“I’ll go,” you tell Aegon, skimming your fingers through his hair and touching your lips to his temple. His wave-blue eyes are watery, grateful. “Stay here. I’ll bring him to you.”

You hurry through corridors and down spiral staircases, watched by dragons of iron and stone with fire burning in their mouths. And of course, there is more than one reason why you want to greet Aemond by yourself. You don’t know what he will say to you; you don’t know if he’s still angry. But when he strides through the entranceway of the castle to meet you—his hair in one long white-blond braid, his black coat billowing around him in the sharp wind—he is not alone.

There is a woman with him.

“…Aemond?” you say, staring at her: hair like onyx, skin like snow. She grins at you beneath eyes that are pools of ink, dark and glassy and with hardly any whites. You do not believe she intends to unnerve you; still, there is a blade-cold shudder that tumbles down the rungs of your spine.

Aemond replies with pride that is hushed, pure: “This is my wife.”

“Your…?” You cannot look away from her. Her gown is black lace with long, dragging sleeves and a train that curls around her like a dragon’s tail. You can see glimpses of her starlight skin through the fabric, her forearms, her waist, her thigh. Isn’t she cold? You are wearing heavy velvet, pine green like Aegon’s banner, and still the impending winter needles at you. “Who…?”

Lord Larys Strong arrives, his cane tapping on the stone floor. When he sees the woman, he jolts to a halt and gawks. “Alys?”

“Hello, brother.” Her voice is deep, smooth, melodic. She speaks the language of ocean currents, roots in dark fertile soil, the revolving of the stars.

You turn to Larys. “Who is this?”

“A bastard daughter of my father,” Larys answers, slow and disbelieving. “Alys Rivers. She…she was at Harrenhal, last I saw her…years ago…”

“And now she is here with me,” Aemond says. “She is precisely where she belongs.”

Silence fills the room, the world, the space that has opened up between you and Aemond. Wife? Bastard? Harrenhal? At last, you manage shakily: “Aegon is in the gardens. He’s waiting for you.”

“Good,” Aemond says. He wears something you have never seen on him before: not just pride but serenity, consolation, contentment. “There is much to discuss.”

As slate-grey wind whistles through rose thorns and cranberry bushes, you and Larys step out into the gardens with your uninvited guests. Aegon’s eyes snag on Alys, widen, and then dart to you. He mouths: Who the fuck is that? You shrug, bewildered.

Aemond says: “Allow me to present my wife, Lady Alys Rivers of Harrenhal.”

“Your wife?!” Aegon exclaims, like he couldn’t possible have heard correctly. “Your wife?!”

“Yes.” Aemond’s arm snakes around Alys’ waist. She folds into him, palm to his chest, lips to his throat, something creeping and boneless like ivy or mist or smoke. “You’ve had two now. I’ve only just found mine.”

“Rivers,” Aegon echoes incredulously. “A bastard from the Riverlands.”

Larys notes: “One of my father’s natural children.”

“A Strong bastard?!” Aegon cackles and looks to Larys. “Where is Daeron presently? Can he be summoned here? He should see this.”

“It is no jest, Your Grace,” Aemond says calmly. “It is a true pairing of souls.”

“And you were not at liberty to give yours. You have to marry Borros Baratheon’s daughter. That was the deal, that’s why he has pledged his army to us.”

“Daeron can do it.”

“Daeron won’t be old enough to marry for years, and that’s not the point! This is a slight, an egregious slight, to reject a Baratheon noblewoman in favor of a…a…what was she, a serving wench? A wetnurse? What happened to your pathological obsession with self-righteous duty? And why aren’t you and Vhagar with Criston?! Is this what you’ve been doing for the past six weeks while I was trapped here, suffering and useless? You’ve been hiding in the crumbling towers of Harrenhal with your so-called wife? What was so fucking crucial that it kept you from the battlefield—?!”

“She carries my son,” Aemond says.

A gasp spills from you before you can silence it; Lord Larys covers his mouth with one hand. Aegon stares numbly at his brother, not warring with envy or spite but raw astonishment. This is an asset to the Greens, it is a detriment, it lifts a burden from his shoulders, it imperils all of you. “You have no way of knowing what it is yet.”

“I know. We know.”

“And why have you flown to Dragonstone?” Aegon demands. “To torment me with your disobedience, to illustrate so vividly how all that relentless, calculated striving has finally cracked your brain in half—?!”

“No.” Aemond glances to you. “Something has happened. And I wanted to be here in person to deliver the news and…express my condolences.”

“Condolences?” you say, fearful, alarmed.

“Lord Larys will not have received word yet,” Aemond continues. “It has only just transpired. But Alys has seen it.”

Aegon shakes his head. He doesn’t understand. “Seen it…?”

“She sees things. The future, the past. Not every detail, but some of them. She’s seen Mother in the Red Keep, a prisoner but still alive. She’s seen Jaehaera safe and well at Storm’s End. The child has a protector, though Alys isn’t sure who.”

“She’s a witch?” Aegon says flatly. “This bastard Strong woman that you have taken to wife is, among all her other deficiencies, a witch?”

And Alys answers in a voice like the night sky, dark but threaded with glimmers of stars, moonshine, comets: “I am a woman who lives between two worlds. Your Angel is much the same, I think.”

Aegon blinks at her, not entranced or awed but fighting the instinct to flinch away.

“There have been riots in King’s Landing,” Aemond says.

“Yes, obviously. Everyone is aware of that. I think the Wildlings north of the Wall have heard.”

Aemond ignores the jab. “The Master of Coin, Lord Bartimos Celtigar, was travelling through the city in a carriage when…” He trails off, uneasy. He glances at you again. His sole remaining eye—river-blue and without any malice—shimmers with grim compassion.

“What?” you say. “What happened?”

Aemond speaks to Aegon in words you cannot comprehend, swift ageless High Valyrian.

Aegon sighs testily. “Slower. Enunciate.”

Aemond tries again. Aegon repeats a certain word, unable to decipher it. Aemond offers him several others, what you can only assume are synonyms.

Aegon’s face goes even paler, the last of the blood draining out of his cheeks. Then he reaches out a hand to you. “Come here,” he beckons softly.

“Why?”

“Angel, come here now.”

“They killed him, didn’t they?” you ask Aemond. Your voice is trembling, icy, choked. He was an architect of Rhaenyra’s war effort, but he was your father first. He was a beast with blood on his hands, but now you are too. “The common people hate Rhaenyra and they hate my family. So they murdered him.”

Alys says: “They did not just murder him.” And she is not taunting you, though she grins like she might be; she has lost pieces of what it means to be human. She is no longer fluent in anything as trite as sympathy or decorum. Her obsidian eyes gleam, polished, glowing. Her long black hair blows in the wind. There are raven feathers in it, you notice now, and twigs, pine needles, earth, sand, ashes. “They bound and tortured him, they sliced off parts of him to keep as relics, they rode on horseback through the streets swinging his severed head and cock as they celebrated an end to all taxes—”

“Will you shut the fuck up?!” Aegon shouts at her. “Angel, please, come here.”

“Your brother was there too,” Aemond says solemnly.

Yes, of course he would be. He was always Father’s favorite. “Clement,” you whimper, pressing a palm to your chest. Your lungs burn as they drink down chill autumn air that cuts like a blade.

“No,” Aemond says. “The other one.”

“What?” No. No, that can’t be true.

“Not Clement,” Aemond insists. “It was the other brother. The burned man.”

No. No no no. I can’t believe it, I won’t believe it.

“Angel,” Aegon pleads, still reaching for you.

“Everett,” Alys says, dreamy, not knowing how cruel it feels, like splinters of glass beneath your skin instead of arteries and muscle, like shattered bones. “He was not difficult for them to catch. He could not run.”

Your words escape in a hoarse whisper. “I don’t believe you.”

Alys offers her hands. They are long, lithe, white like a skeleton’s. “Would you like to see?”

“No.”

“I can show you. Then you will trust what I say.”

“Alys, my love,” Aemond warns.

“No, you’re a liar,” you snarl at her. “You’re not a witch, you’re not some prophet, you’re just a liar and I don’t believe you—!”

And before you can flee she’s crossed the space between you, she’s gripped your wrist with those slender claw-like fingers, she’s pouring her magic into you like poison down a prisoner’s throat. The vision surges into your skull and fills it, sight and sound and scent: Everett screaming as he is dragged from the carriage, the hoard ripping at his clothes and his eyes, dull kitchen knives pulled from pockets, the coppery ether of blood in the air. You can feel the feverish heat of the crowd. You can feel their boiling-over animal rage. You can feel everything, but you can’t stop it.

Beyond the grisly mirage, you can hear yourself shrieking, muffled and distant; and you can hear someone else bellowing for Alys to let you go. Her hand is yanked off of your wrist and you are abruptly back in the gardens of Dragonstone surrounded by indomitable flora that warps and tangles and endures. You are kneeling on the cobblestones, tears flooding from your eyes. Aegon is on the ground with you, his arms circling around your waist. He is calling Alys a bitch, a monster, a demon. He is threatening to feed her to his dragon.

“Forgive me,” Alys says to you, peering down with a vague sort of regret etching lines into her brow. “I did not intend to cause any distress. I only meant to help you understand.”

Aegon seethes at Aemond: “Take your witch back to Harrenhal.”

“No,” you protest; and Aegon studies you, puzzled, as you gaze up at Alys, this half-human phantom that dwells between realms, something like a dark mirror image of an angel. “What else have you seen?” Tell me Aegon lives. Tell me the Greens win and we have a chance at a better world one day. Tell me this was all worth it.

“She has seen Daemon and Caraxes meeting me at the Gods Eye,” Aemond says. “She has seen me taking flight to join them in battle.”

Aegon is stunned. “When?”

“Soon. Three days from now.”

You sob, thinking of Everett; and Autumn too, wherever she is, who will reappear when the war is over searching for home but forever unable to find it. Aegon holds you and you pull yourself into him, arms slung around his neck. His silver hair brushes your face; his scarred right cheek is rough against yours. When you breathe in violent hitches, you inhale rose oil and wine and salt and warmth and misery, you taste the war that built him and now has returned to claim the debt.

“It’s Rhaenyra’s fault,” Aegon whispers, fierce and merciless. “We will kill Daemon and Cregan Stark. We will retake King’s Landing and capture Rhaenyra. And I swear to you that she will burn.”

Aemond is saying: “Do we have permission to stay the night or not? We’ve traveled a long way. My wife is tired, and so is Vhagar. Another flight so soon would tax her.”

“You can swim,” Aegon pitches back.

Lord Larys Strong—ever servile, ever composed—clears his throat, both hands resting on the handle of his cane. “Would anyone care for some soft-shelled crabs?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Mist hangs heavy over the castle the next morning, a cool metallic grey like steel; the sun is muted, only a wisp of itself, a memory that is swiftly fading. Alys Rivers stands in the surf fetching seashells and stones that she plinks into a basket. Locks of her long, wild hair dip into the roiling water and emerge sopping and heavy, sticking to her ink-black gown. Aegon is curled up with Sunfyre at the edge of the beach. The dragon breathes with rattling, labored heaves and Aegon pets his golden face, wishing the beast’s wings to knit themselves back together and his own legs to be strong again, murmuring to Sunfyre in some clumsy patchwork of High Valyrian and the Common Tongue to assure him that he’s served his king well.

You and Aemond walk down the windswept beach together, your boots sinking in wet sand and leaving imprints like bruises on flesh. Your gown is a deep, vibrant red like the sigil of the newly decimated House Celtigar; Aemond’s hair is wavy and damp and blows loose in the breeze. You are reminded of the night you shared with him six weeks ago, though you don’t want to be. Neither of you have mentioned that indiscretion. You believe you have silently agreed to forget it. You ask the prince regent: “How many people do you think you’ve burned in the Riverlands?”

“Why do you care? They’re not you. They’re not me.”

“Perhaps each life we take robs something from us as well. It carves a piece of the soul away and leaves it less than it was before.”

Aemond raises his eyebrow, intrigued.

“I am less than I once was,” you explain. “Acts of love feel like violence, violence is mistaken for love. Things that horrified me a year ago are now what give me solace when I dream of them. Vengeance, slaughter, fire and blood. Aegon grows more bitter, more ruthless. And so do you.”

“We will have the luxury of reforming ourselves when the war is won and Aegon is the undisputed king of the Seven Kingdoms.”

“If there’s any part of us that remembers who we were supposed to be.”

“I remember exactly who you were.” Aemond grins. “Fawning over Aegon, weaving braids into his hair. Scurrying around with your bandages and vinegar and honey. Always seeking to take his pain away. Always waging your own little war against the agony of mankind.”

“That feels like a different person,” you say, peering out over the ocean.

“We will build monuments to those we’ve lost,” Aemond promises. “Jaehaerys, Maelor, Otto. Your brother and my sister. You say you dream of fire and blood? I often find myself dreaming of Helaena.”

You turn to him, startled. And you recall the warnings her ghost gave Aegon before Baela and Moondancer arrived on Dragonstone: Don’t fall, don’t fall. “Does she say anything?”

“She keeps telling me I’ll lose my left eye.” Aemond smiles wistfully. “And I answer: Helaena, that’s happened already. But when I try to comfort her, when I try to embrace her, she turns away from me and says it’s too late. That I’ve ruined myself.” He walks with his hands linked behind his back, his face thoughtful but not brooding. “I still miss her,” he says. “And I still feel responsible. But things are easier now.”

You follow his eyeline to where Alys is plucking a starfish from the frothing waves and placing it in her basket. And doesn’t it make some strange bit of sense that Aemond’s match would be someone rare, bizarre, gifted in ways that are in equal parts mesmerizing and fearsome? “I’m glad you found someone who eases your burdens.”

“She has suffered tremendously. She knows what it is to be unloved and overlooked. She had to reinvent herself, just like I did. She had to shed her skin and step into a new one that she stitched together herself.”

“Perpetual Resurrection,” you say softly.

“Perpetual Resurrection,” Aemond agrees.

Now Alys is trekking up the beach to join you, her soaked hair whipping in the wind and her basket slung over one arm. From where he sits with Sunfyre, Aegon watches her with narrowed, disapproving eyes. “This belongs to the king,” Alys says to you, opening her hand. In her palm rests the ring of gold wings and jade eyes. “You should return it to him. He does not like me.”

You gasp and take the ring that you last saw before Aegon fell from the sky and shattered his legs, his spirit. “How did you find this?”

“It spoke to me. I spoke to it.” She smiles, more like a leer, though she does not mean it to be. Her eyes—onyx, jet, black moonstone—are bright with amusement. “See? You do not understand. Sometimes it is best not to ask.”

You slip the ring onto one of your fingers for safekeeping until you deliver it to Aegon. From the stone staircase that leads up to the castle’s main entrance, Larys waves Aemond over to him. Aemond kisses the woman he calls his wife farewell—a deep, burning kiss—and then departs. You say to Alys: “How did you become…like this?”

“I surrendered to it. Anyone can, if your life is hell and you are willing to burn it down to the foundations. You go deep into the swamp and then it goes into you. It grows through your skin and into your veins. It tangles up with you, vines climbing your ribcage and spine like ivy on a trellis. It changes you. It makes you greater than you were before. The victim becomes the victor. The weak turn watchful and wise.” She is gazing at where Aemond stands with Larys, exchanging theories and plots. Aemond shakes his head at something Larys says. “I always knew he would find me. The man whose fractured pieces fit with mine. Yet each time I thought I glimpsed him only to realize he wasn’t the one, I would think: How long must I wait? I have buried so many children. Will I ever have more? Will he come to me before it is too late? Is it too late already? But no, he flew to Harrenhal just as my hopes were giving out like a dry well. And Aemond was worth every second, minute, month, year. He was worth the beatings and the contempt, the rapes and the blood. He was worth all of it.”

Alys reaches out to touch your cheek and you recoil; but she is not giving you a revelation this time. She is merely tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear with a fond, maternal smile. There are mottled plumes of violet and indigo on the side of her throat, you notice only now. Alys catches you staring.

“Aemond can be rough, domineering,” she says with a sly smirk. “You know how he is.”

You know how he is. You know how he is. Horror strikes you like lightning; you imagine what other visions she has swimming in her changed blood. “It was a mistake. Aegon must never learn of it.”

“Of course not. That would kill him.” And you are gutted by a blade of cool serrated treason. Alys does not appear to be aware of it. “If I can ever be of service, please do not hesitate to summon me. I can appear and speak to you briefly, perhaps for five or ten minutes. I will be like a mirage, a ghost. Find a closed door and write my name upon it in blood. Then knock three times and open the door. I will be there.”

“A door? Which door?”

“Any door.”

You contemplate her. “Why would you believe that you owe me loyalty?”

“Because of Aemond,” Alys says simply, without any trace of resentment. “You mean something to him. So you mean something to me.”

He doesn’t crave me anymore. He has his own prize now. “I think you’re mistaken.”

“I never am.” Then Alys glides off to rejoin her husband.

Hours later as you are helping Aegon into bed—he must be carried up and down the castle steps by his guards in a litter, something he considers mortifying—you weave a new braid for him and then pour him a cup of milk of the poppy when his glazed eyes keep listing to the glass bottle of pearlescent relief, deadened nerves, liquid dreams. You crawl into bed beside him, curl up against his scarred chest, listen to the slowing thud of his heartbeat as his arms enfold you and draw you in ever-closer. His dragon ring glints on his hand, returned to its rightful place.

“Your legs?” you ask, kissing the gnarled scar tissue that has grown over his collarbones like climbing roses, like ivy. He can’t really feel your touch there, that’s not why you do it. You do it to show that you aren’t repulsed by his wounds and could never be, could never think of any part of him as something less than wondrous.

“That’s most of it,” Aegon murmurs drowsily. “I’ve started getting this ache in my back too. It won’t go away.”

“What?” You bolt upright in bed. “Show me where.”

He gestures: the curve of his spine, just above his hips. Panicked, you begin pressing lightly over where his kidneys are.

“Here? Aegon? Does that hurt?”

But now he’s realized how frantic you are, how upset. “Oh, no, never mind,” he says, clutching his pillow and feigning being too tired to speak on the subject for even a moment longer. He yawns dramatically. “It’s just a sprained muscle, I think. You know I’m always crawling around now like some kind of vermin. It’s nothing serious. It will heal in time.”

“Aegon—”

“I’m alright.” He grabs your hand and pulls you back down to him, buries his face in your hair, nuzzles and sighs contently as he whispers: “Shh. I’m alright. Stay, stay.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“You left him!” you hear Aegon yelling from his rooms, and you drop the book you had been reading in the castle library, an anthology of illnesses of the body, the mind, the soul. You sprint through the shadowy corridors towards the noise, the hem of your sapphire gown fluttering around your ankles. You are always dressed in jewel tones these days. You are anything but neutral.

In Aegon’s bedchamber, Larys has pressed himself to one stone wall like he wishes to disappear. Alys is observing with her strange, impassive, void-dark eyes. Aemond is being berated. He does not appear resentful or defiant; no, he is paralyzed. He is haunted, he is damned.

“You left him!” Aegon screams again, and hurls a full wine cup that strikes Aemond in the chest, spewing red through the air like blood spurting from slit veins. The king is standing, but with great effort; he is scrabbling through the drawers of his bedside table for things to throw at his brother. Yet the glass bottle of milk of the poppy remains untouched. “You abandoned him, you betrayed him, you fucking murdered him!”

“Aegon, what’s going on—?!”

“Almost a week ago, Cregan Stark’s army met Criston’s in the Riverlands,” he tells you. He is panting, red-faced, furious as he recounts Lord Larys Strong’s words, the news the Master of Whisperers only now received from one of his innumerable informants.

You stare at Aemond, horrified, already knowing what this means. “And Aemond wasn’t there.”

“He was at Harrenhal!” Aegon roars, tossing one of your medical books at Aemond, a volume on herbology. It strikes the prince in the nose, and blood gushes from his nostrils; ruby droplets freckle his hair. Aemond makes no attempt to defend himself. He is in shock, he is mourning. “He was fucking his witch while our men were being butchered!”

“Criston, he’s…he’s…?”

“He was slain in battle,” Larys informs you quietly.

Aegon staggers to his brother, shoves him roughly, receives no retaliation. “He was the closest thing you had to a father, he worshiped you, he loved you, and you left him to fend for himself after I told you over and over again that you and Vhagar needed to stay with him, and now he’s gone!” There are tears on Aegon’s face, crystalline tracks that bleed down his cheeks and jaw and throat. “You killed him, you killed him!”

“The Stark men?” you ask Larys, not wanting to know but needing to.

“Moderate losses. Now headed south towards Daeron and the Hightower army.”

“You fucking traitor,” Aegon hisses, sobbing, beating his palms against Aemond’s chest again. “Your whole life all you’ve wanted was responsibility and the second someone gives it to you, you throw it away! Why can’t I be the one with a body that works?! Why can’t my dragon be whole again?!”

And at last Aemond finds his voice. It is brittle and almost too hushed to hear. “I’ll make this right. When I defeat Daemon and Caraxes at the Gods Eye, it will be over.”

“It’s already over for Criston!” Aegon explodes. “It’s over for Helaena and Jaehaerys and Maelor, it’s over for Otto and Everett, it’s over for Sunfyre, we keep losing people and it’s all your fault! You started this war and you’re too much of a goddamn coward to end it!”

“He will end it,” Alys says in that deep placid voice like dusk, dawn, midnight.

“Don’t try that bullshit with me! I don’t want to hear about your delusions, I want him to do his goddamn job! I want him to act like the hero he’s been begging to be seen as since he was five years old! You know why no one wants to write books about him or carve his face into statues? Because he doesn’t fucking deserve it!”

“I’m sorry,” Aemond whispers, his mouth trembling.

“You should be!” Aegon hemorrhages, and then collapses to the floor, moaning with his face in his hands.

You go to him, try to soothe him, grab the wine cup from the floor and fill it with milk of the poppy, tilt it against Aegon’s lips. He gulps the numbness down with helpless, hated need. Aemond and Alys flee for the doorway.

Aegon says, suddenly more calm: “Aemond, wait.”

The prince regent stills and turns back, listening. Aegon, with great difficulty, begins to say something in High Valyrian. Aemond cuts him off. “No, that won’t happen—”

“Please,” Aegon rasps. “Listen to me.” Then he continues. And as he speaks, Aemond’s eye fills with tears, a glistening like ice over lakes in the winter, like gemstones in a crown. You look between them, searching for any clues you can read.

“I understand,” Aemond says at last.

“Good. Now get out.”

Aemond wipes his face with his sleeve and then disappears from the room. You tell Aegon as you rise to your feet: “I’ll be right back.”

Aemond is moving quickly; you don’t catch up with him until he’s passed through the castle entranceway. Down by the ocean waves beneath a blood-red sunset, Vhagar is already landing, leaving cataclysmic imprints in the sand with her claws, trenches and impact craters. From the edge of the beach, Sunfyre watches with dull, wounded interest. Alys is halfway down the staircase. Aemond stops when he hears your footsteps, waiting under the rising full moon and materializing constellations.

You demand: “What did he say to you?”

“Nothing.”

“Aemond.”

“He’s confused, he’s exhausted, he’s in pain. He doesn’t understand—”

“Aemond, what did he say?”

The prince regent sighs and looks at you. “He said he doesn’t think he’s going to get better this time.”

I can’t believe that. I can’t survive that. “Why did you have to do it?” Your voice splinters; your throat burns. “He’s right that you started this war. You’re the reason Rhaenyra will never negotiate. You’re the one who made this horror inevitable. Why did you have to kill Luke?”

The dusk is radiant on Aemond’s face like firelight. It is a long time before he speaks. “I never intended to.”

That doesn’t make any sense. “What?”

“I never gave Vhagar the order. She went after Arrax. I tried to stop her.”

It wasn’t murder. It was an accident. And you think of all the times people have told Aemond that everything that’s happened is his fault, and how he has never disagreed with them. “Who knows?”

“You. Alys.”

“No one else?”

“Who would believe me?” Aemond smiles faintly, profoundly sad. “And even if they did, would that make me so much more noble than a kinslayer? A Targaryen who can’t control his own dragon? A man who is reckless, ineffective, unworthy?”

Here in air the color of flames and gore, you tell him, perhaps more kindly than he deserves: “You’re worthy, Aemond.”

“I will end this. I will meet Daemon and Caraxes in battle. Alys saw it.”

“Did she see you win?”

“Are you worried about me?” Aemond teases, grinning crookedly. And he does something that he hasn’t tried in a long time. He swipes for your forearm and you snatch it out of the way just before his fingers can close around it, just before he can catch you. Aemond chuckles. “I don’t want you to worry. I’ll win the war for the Greens. We will return to King’s Landing, we will rebuild, Aegon will heal. He will live for a long, long time.”

“Yes,” you say, wanting so desperately to believe it.

“You know,” Aemond adds as it occurs to him. “If the king does happen to predecease you, in ten years or twenty or thirty…and you find yourself unincumbered…Aegon the Conqueror had two wives. Alys would always be first, but…”

“No, Aemond.”

“Fine,” he says, agreeably enough. He smiles down at you. “I will come back to let you know when it’s done. Then I will fly south to join Daeron in annihilating Cregan Stark’s army. And then we’ll all go home.”

Yes, yes, let that be true. “Good luck,” you tell him, soft like a whisper.

“I don’t need it.”

Aemond descends the staircase, climbs up the rope ladder into Vhagar’s saddle, takes flight with Alys into the late-autumn dusk; and you watch them vanish into the crimson horizon until the sky is empty.

#aegon ii targaryen #aegon targaryen #aegon ii #aegon targaryen ii #aegon targaryen x reader #aegon x reader

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zapreportsblog · 10 months

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Sukuna’s Godly Husband

➥ summary : Yumi (M/n) had originally been offered up to the King of Curses, Sukuna as a sacrificial bride for his people so that they may be spared. In other words he was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered but something unexpectedly happened the King of Curses Sukuna took the human in to his temple and under the engraved stone walls, Yumi (M/n) had been declared the bride of Sukuna, forced to bare his marking on his shoulder and stripped of his human name.

➥ chapter 3: The King of Curses' Divine Decree

In the depths of a moonlit night, within the shadowed halls of an ancient castle, a male sacrificial bride knelt before the throne of the King of Curses. The air was heavy with a foreboding energy, crackling with power as the king contemplated the fate of the young soul before him. The bride, with trepidation in his heart, awaited his destiny.

With a commanding presence, the King of Curses rose from his seat, his black robe billowing around him like an ethereal cloud. His piercing eyes glowed with an otherworldly light as he peered deep into the very essence of the sacrificial bride. The king's voice, rich and resonant, reverberated through the chamber as he spoke with a chilling authority.

"You, my chosen one," the king declared, his words sending shivers down the bride's spine, "from this moment forth, you shall relinquish your old name. A new identity shall be bestowed upon you, one that carries the weight of destiny and the mark of my curse."

The bride, trembling with a mixture of fear and anticipation, nodded in humble obedience, preparing to leave his past behind and embrace the unknown future that awaited him. He had been prepared for sacrifice, but this unexpected twist seemed to offer a different path—one that sent both hope and apprehension coursing through his veins.

The king's gaze never wavered as he chanted an incantation, calling upon the ancient forces of darkness that lay dormant within the castle's walls. The air thickened, charged with an electric energy, as the nameless bride's destiny was woven into the tapestry of fate. It was a moment that would forever change the course of his life.

Finally, the King of Curses spoke the words that would seal the bride's new existence. "From now on, you shall go by the name," he paused for a moment, savoring the anticipation, "Yael."

Yael. The name echoed in the chamber, carrying with it an air of mystery and enigma. It was a name laden with power and significance, marking the bride's transformation from a mere mortal to a vessel of the king's divine will.

But the king's decree did not end there. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a shimmering mist that enveloped Yael, swirling and dancing around him like ethereal tendrils. As the mist cleared, a new feature adorned Yael's countenance—an intricate tattoo, a mark of the curse's blessing, in the shape of a serpent coiling around a sword.

"And as a symbol of your new identity," the king intoned, "you shall bear this mark upon your left shoulder. Let it serve as a reminder of your eternal connection to the world of curses and the power that courses through your veins."

Yael, now adorned with the mark of the curse, felt a surge of energy course through his body. The weight of his new name and the responsibilities it entailed settled upon him, mingling with the remnants of fear that still lingered within his heart. He knew that his life would never be the same again, that he was bound to a destiny far greater than he had ever imagined.

As Yael rose from his kneeling position, the King of Curses nodded, his approval evident in his inscrutable gaze. "Go forth, Yael," the king commanded, his voice commanding and final. "Embrace your new identity, for you are now forever intertwined with the realm of curses. Your path shall be one of trials and tribulations, but through it all, you shall wield a power that few can comprehend."

With those words lingering in the air, Yael took his first step into the unknown. The castle's doors swung open, revealing a world transformed by the king's curse—a world of shadows, magic, and untold secrets. Yael, the newly anointed bride of curses, would tread upon this path, bearing his new name and the mark of the king's divine decree, destined to confront the challenges that lay ahead.

And thus, as Yael ventured forth, the king's male sacrificial bride became a figure of both fear and fascination, a living embodiment of the King of Curses' power. The tale of Yael, forever etched in the annals of history, would echo through the ages, a testament to the enduring legacy of a name and a curse that defied all expectations.

#sukuna x male reader #sukuna x reader #sukuna #x reader #x reader series #x male reader #sukuna’s godly husband series #sukuna godly husband #Sukuna’s Godly Husband masterlist #jujutsu kaisen masterlist

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thesensteawitch · 5 months

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2023 Farewell Message For You!🍃🥀🍃🥀🍃

Pick A Pile Reading

(Left to Right- Pile 1, Pile 2, Pile 3)

Hello, Senstea Souls!

I am back with another collective reading for the year-end. Each pile is divided into two segments:

•What this last month is taking away from you?

•What this last month will give you as a parting gift?

Get your year-ahead (2024) reading from me aka The Sensteawitch and get to know what the next year has in store for you in terms of relationships, career, and finances. To avail yourself $5 off on your reading be quick to book your reading! Only the first 5 will get the discount. Below are the three spreads I created for the 2024 year check:

🌷Booking Form🌷

Now begin your reading.

Pile 1

What this last month is taking away from you?

Tarot Cards: The Fool, The Tower, Five of Wands, Sevan of Pentacles

This last month is going to take away your overconfidence and blind faith. Things will fall only to make you understand the importance of going slow when building strong foundations. In work or friendship, you may face a dispute. Everyone will be pointing fingers at each other. The project you have been working on will face problems. You will lose your calm. You may not see whose fault it would be but you'll see that the dispute was the price you needed to pay to finally turn towards self-confidence. You will know where to invest your energy and money. Soon you'll gain back your patience and share a tip from your book to resolve issues. You'll finally grow new opportunities with experience and knowledge. You'll be the one making adjustments to bring things back to their place.

What this last month will give you as a parting gift?

Tarot Cards: King of Wands, King of Cups, Three of Swords, The Temperance

A new vision will be gifted to you. An advice will stay with you for a lifetime. You'll find the courage to sail through the unsettling waters. You'll know your way to the land and then back again to the ocean. You won't sit and wait for the situation to magically turn better. You would rather find balance within than outside. Spend time near waterbodies to find your balance. This month will allow you to cherish the uncertainty of life and make the best use of it. This opportunity will help you find certainty within yourself. Rather than cursing the rain you would leave your work and go out to drench yourself. You'll be letting go of control and will be gaining some deep insights into life.

Pile 2

What this last month is taking away from you?

Tarot Cards: Eight of Pentacles, The Hanged Man, King of Wands, Three of Swords, King of Cups

The last month of this year is taking away your pain and your perfectionist attitude towards your work. It is taking your self-sacrificial nature. Take care of your health, pile 2. You may fall sick only to understand that health is wealth. Without health, you won't be able to perform the tasks you are passionate about. Nothing should be done at the cost of your well-being. Some of you may be teachers or counselors. Or you may be someone needing therapy. I hear, “I stay up all night. Tell my friends I am alright.” But you are not. You're doing things that aren't even your responsibility which can make you go through an identity crisis. The Universe will take away your attention from your work only to make you realize that you are more than your work. A human being is more about what they cannot do and in the race of proving ourselves, we forget that we can do anything but not everything. Either you stop or things will blast in the end because your emotions are being piled up and you are paying no heed to them.

What this last month will give you as a parting gift?

Tarot Cards: Queen of wands, four of swords, eight of cups, eight of swords

I see a lot of 8s in your reading. Maybe the number 8 is important to you or you have been seeing a lot of 8 recently. A new start is coming in your life. The Universe will be blessing you with the time to rest and rejuvenate. Walking away from relationships may not feel like actually walking away because you may find yourself back to them. You will be feeling stuck. Hence, the Universe will be gifting you with enough resources to fly away. It's on you to see the gift that you have been carrying all along. This month is going to be all about truly freeing yourself and not distracting yourself. The universe will try to connect with you through angel numbers and synchronicities. You would be amazed. You'll be gifted with faith in the impossible. You may think what kind of gift it is but you'll know how strong and divine ‘faith’ is. It will open new doors of possibility for you.

Pile 3

What this last month is taking away from you?

Tarot Cards: The High Priestess, Six of Cups, King of Cups, Three of Swords

The universe is going to separate you from your old friend or someone you have known for a very long time. It will cause immense pain. You'll be overwhelmed. I hear, “There wouldn't be a reason why we even had to say goodbye.” Yeah, there wouldn't be one of those great human reasons. But the reason will be divine. You will be imagining your reaction to what you have to say to your person. The universe will be doing this only to make you see the bigger picture or else you will always stay stuck between the polarity of the situation. The universe wants you to see that there is a midway. And you can only see it when you step back and look at the picture from afar. I hear, “Oh whatever tears you apart don't let it break your heart....when the highs are too high and the lows are too low. When you love someone and they let you go. Don't you let it kill you...Time takes time to heal it.” Your pessimistic approach will be taken away from you. Shed as many tears as you want because eventually as the full moon nears you are going to turn into a wolf. You can't dominate the situation you only have power over and within yourself.

What this last month will give you as a parting gift?

Tarot Cards: Three of Cups, Knight of Swords, Knight of Pentacles, Five of Pentacles

The Universe will bless you with a sudden rush of downloads with loads of wisdom. It will offer you exactly what you will seek during the last month. The universe will also bless you with a new connection but I am not sure if you'll be open to them. This new connection will give you exactly what you will be looking for. Expect a treasure coming your way. You'll be expressing your emotions with your friends but be sure to take things slow and not reveal every minute detail in the first conversation or meeting. You will be asked to release the negativity. Be forgiving and ask for forgiveness. You'll be blessed with people who will help you move on.

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unicornbeck · 6 months

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I'm very afraid of something for Season 3. As other better researchers than I have discussed here on tumblr and elsewhere, it's very likely that the Scapegoat tradition, prevalent in ancient Judaism, provides structure for what will play out in S3. In this tradition, there are two goats. One goat is driven out into the desert to take on the sins of the people (the Scapegoat), and the other is sacrificed to God. In this metaphor, Crowley appears to be the Scapegoat, which leaves for Aziraphale the role of sacrifice.

Aziraphale has already "died" once, when he was discorporated the day of the first Armageddon, the day his bookshop burned. That day was traumatic for Crowley. He was so distraught at the loss of Aziraphale that I think if he is again faced with the possibility in S3, he will throw himself on that sword to protect his angel, won't let it happen again. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he failed to protect his angel again.

I think this might be a prediction for Season 3, which I usually steer away from. It makes sense structurally that Aziraphale would be chosen by the Metatron to be the sacrificial goat, but also, structurally, we've already seen the angel discorporated once. I don't think Crowley will let that happen again. And I don't think Neil would, either. Crowley's going to push him out of the way. He's going to take that hit.

I don't know if I can handle Season 3.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #aziraphale x crowley #david tennant #neil gaiman #season 3 #micheal sheen #writing #structuralism #scapegoat theory

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bluheaven-adw · 1 year

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WATCH THE WHOLE THING! Trust me 😏

It's here!!!!!!! I hope this was worth the wait :)

Images and information on a DTIYS below the jump!

This first bit of this might be familiar as it's been posted before. New stuff added at end!

Dark Excalibur Au

Everything happens exactly the same up to then very end of Wizards. The only difference being Jim is able to pull Excalibur then, on his own, making him Nimue's champion. Nimue grants him his crown and restores the trollhunter amulet to him. (Sorry Douxie and Krel, you'll get your time to shine later).. this is when Excalibur's aesthetic changes.

While Jim is 100% human now, he's not without after effects from being a troll. Not much physically (a bit stronger and faster), but personality wise... he's a bit more feral, confident, not really any trace of his former anxieties (except when it comes to Claire). He's not without fear (we don't need gritshaka Jim here...) but has mastery over it. Sometimes he can get a bit more... chaotic and temperamental... than before, but despite that, he's still Jim to his core. Despite all that he's been through, he's still ultimately kind, pure of heart, always tries to do the right thing, fiercely protective of those he loves.... as Blinky put it, a man of honor, courage and valor.

He's stopped fighting his destiny and stepped into it fully instead.

To quote Sakon...

Jim's problem has always been that he cares too much, and the anger inside him burns against the injustice of the world. It's Jim against the world, and the world /will move.

He still has way to much in the self sacrificial department…... but usually remembers that he has a team... literally the roundtable... a wizard, a sorceress... and a literal goddess….. backing him up.

START OF NEW:

You'll notice the blade is whole, not just repaired. Nimue, who for obvious reasons, is not a fan of merlin or arthur... originally only repaired Excalibur's blade instead of healing it. The fractures remained as a check on its power.. kind of like a short circuit. Jim gets no such hobbling. He's entrusted with Excalibur's full power. And if Sakon will allow me to borrow again, his check is in the gem in his crown, but it's only temporary as he learns to control Excalibur's power, and his newfound station and abilities... just a bit of a reminder, but one he rarely, if ever, needs.

There is no incantation on the amulet. It's not needed anymore. All Jim needs to do is think it, and it's there. Excalibur is not tied to the amulet like Daylight was. He can use it without the armor, or dematerialize it if wanted. The armor has two forms, much like Daylight and Eclipse, the 2nd is only a thought away. Normally a steely blue grey, it can shift to black, and if Jim really leans into the power of Excalibur then the whole thing, from crown to blade, turns pitch and lights up. There's so much magic running through him from the sword that his eyes glow with it.

Someone on IG asked if the Dark/Feral bits denoted corruption or Jim gone rogue. The Dark just denotes the color change for Excalibur. No corruption! It's just rockin the black instead of gold. As for feral.... in the sense that he's a tad more aggressive, more willing to finish the fight so to speak. He's got a little wildness, a little otherworldly magic, to him (not in the sense that he's a wizard, just that he's got the magic of Excalibur and being goddess touched).

Now, for the DTIYS!

Rules are

Draw it in your style!

Please no tracing, I want to see what you come up with

Use #DarkExcaliburDTIYS when you post!

Tag me and I will share

Please out a copy of my original art in your post

This will run until June 1

I will pick my top 3 across all platforms

There will be prizes, I just have no clue what lol.

I will link a folder filled with references for you to use! From the armor, to color keys (whenever tumblr lets me paste the stupid link 😡

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#jim lake jr #tales of arcadia #dark excalibur #dark excalibur au #darkexcaliburDTIYS #trollhunters #toa #toa fanart #wizards toa #toa wizards #wizards tales of arcadia #rott #toa rise of the titans #rise of the titans #trollhunters fanart #james lake junior #james lake jr

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genshin-impact-updates · 1 year

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Version 3.5 Event Wishes Notice - Phase II

Travelers, stock up on weapons and characters in the event wish to make your party stronger in combat!

Event Wish "The Transcendent One Returns" - Boosted Drop Rate for "Lonesome Transcendence" Shenhe (Cryo)!

〓Event Wish Duration〓

2023/3/21 18:00

—

2023/4/11 14:59

〓Event Wish Details〓

● During this event wish, the event-exclusive 5-star character "Lonesome Transcendence" Shenhe (Cryo) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

● During the event wish, the 4-star characters "Coordinates of Clear Frost" Mika (Cryo), "Harmless Sweetie" Sucrose (Anemo), and "Kätzlein Cocktail" Diona (Cryo) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

● After this event wish ends, the 4-star character "Coordinates of Clear Frost" Mika (Cryo) will be available in the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation" in the next Version.

※ Of the above characters, the event-exclusive character will not be available in the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation."

※ This is for "Character Event Wish." The wish guarantee count for "Character Event Wish" and "Character Event Wish-2" is shared, and is accumulated between both "Character Event Wish" and "Character Event Wish-2." This wish guarantee count is independent of the guarantee counts of other types of wishes.

※ The "Test Run" trial event will be open during this event wish. Travelers may use fixed lineups containing the selected trial characters to enter specific stages and test them out. Travelers that complete the challenges will receive the corresponding rewards!

※ For more information, go to the Wish screen and select Details in the bottom-left corner.

Event Wish "The Heron's Court" - Boosted Drop Rate for "Frostflake Heron" Kamisato Ayaka (Cryo)!

〓Event Wish Duration〓

2023/3/21 18:00

—

2023/4/11 14:59

〓Event Wish Details〓

● During this event wish, the event-exclusive 5-star character "Frostflake Heron" Kamisato Ayaka (Cryo) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

● After this event wish ends, the 4-star character "Coordinates of Clear Frost" Mika (Cryo) will be available in the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation" in the next Version.

※ Of the above characters, the event-exclusive character will not be available in the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation."

※ This is for "Character Event Wish-2." The wish guarantee count for "Character Event Wish" and "Character Event Wish-2" is shared, and is accumulated between both "Character Event Wish" and "Character Event Wish-2." This wish guarantee count is independent of the guarantee counts of other types of wishes.

※ For more information, go to the Wish screen and select Details in the bottom-left corner.

Event Wish "Epitome Invocation" - Boosted Drop Rate for Calamity Queller (Polearm) and Mistsplitter Reforged (Sword)!

〓Event Wish Duration〓

2023/3/21 18:00

—

2023/4/11 14:59

〓Event Wish Details〓

● During the event, the event-exclusive 5-star weapons Calamity Queller (Polearm) and Mistsplitter Reforged (Sword) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

● During the event, the event-exclusive 4-star weapon Wine and Song (Catalyst) , as well as 4-star weapons Sacrificial Sword (Sword), The Bell (Claymore), Favonius Lance (Polearm), and Favonius Warbow (Bow) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

● During the event wish, use Epitomized Path to chart a course towards a 5-star weapon, such as Calamity Queller (Polearm) or Mistsplitter Reforged (Sword). For more information on Epitomized Path, go to the Wish screen and select Details in the bottom-left corner.

※ Of the above weapons, the event-exclusive weapons will not be available in the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation."

※ For more information, go to the Wish screen and select Details in the bottom-left corner.

#genshin impact #genshin impact updates #official #genshin impact news #banners #ok there you go i'm going to sleep #(jk i'm gonna be up for another 3 hours)#FORGOT MY READMORE that was so scary

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icy-watch · 5 months

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Well, that was certainly an ending to a season.

I can tell what inspired the Hageman Brothers for the ending of Rise of the Titans (2021). It’s pretty much the same ending beat for beat.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.

I really don't have too many thoughts on the finale, it's mostly just "at least this was the ending to the season, and not an entire series". Was it the best? No. Was it the worst? No. Just meh.

Had I seen this 2 or 3 years ago, I might have felt differently, but RotT really did a number on me. (If you haven't seen any of the Tales of Arcadia series, please consider yourself lucky. It started off very well but ended Badly.)

I'm glad the the sky pirates turned out to be pretty ok in the end. I really grew to actually like them. I'm going to be sad if they don't show up again.

And Echo! Oh, gosh Echo. Sweet baby boy. I loved the little bit of time we got with him. I hope he comes back again.

I haven't looked to see what the next season will be called yet, but I'm hoping we learn more about the previous Elemental Masters. We've been getting a little bit here and there, but it feel like there's more to their story than we've been told so far.

Tomorrow, I'll be watching the Day of the Departed, and maybe the Wu's Teas shorts, if I can find those. Until tomorrow!

@ninjamelissajulien

Below the cut are the predictions I got right and wrong.

Correct

The ninja will be caught at some point by the po-po. And get thrown in a jail cell with one bed.

Nadakhan will pick them off one by one.

The wedding is inevitable. It sure was something.

Mutiny from the crew. Better late than never.

Jay will recruit Echo Zane to help him rescue everyone. He did and he got more friends.

I'm going to cry bc of the wedding thing and everything surrounding that. I cry at things very easily, so this wasn't really a surprise on my end.

Incorrect

Cole will get cured of being a ghost this season. He sure didn't.

Pixal will get a new body. RIP queen.

Nadakhan is going to use Wu to draw out the ninja and make them retrieve the Realm Crystal. This is such a great AU idea.

Going The Mummy (1959 & 1999) route to raise a loved one from the dead -- to bring back Delara. She was brought back via wish, not an entire sacrificial ceremony.

Nadakhan will be trapped in the sword once he's defeated. *disappointed noises*

Flintlocke had a thing for Delara. I'm actually surprised that this wasn't a little subplot. It actually felt like something they would have done.

Jay will be forced to help piece Djinjago together. There were other plans.

Cole, Nya, and Lloyd are going to spend the whole episode planning on how to save Jay. The used that time to try to leave the island. I completely forgot that was something they needed to do in order to even start planning for a rescue mission.

Ronin will help in the rescue mission for Jay. He really didn't.

Jay knowing the ins and outs of the Keep will help them navigate their rescue mission. Yeah. He did all that cleaning for nothing.

Flintlocke swiped the poison and the dart from Clancee. Clancee told Jay where he hid it.

Partially

No one from the Cursed Realm will come back. Sort of? Clouse wasn't in the Cursed Realm when it collapsed, but he was a resident there for a while.

They won't lock Misako up. The didn't even get a chance to finish questioning her before she was kidnapped by Nadakhan.

Kai will be needed to collect the Tiger Widow Venom, and without him the team will struggle. They did struggle without him, but I'm not sure how much help he would have been given the circumstances.

We're going to learn how Jay lost his eye. Sort of? But not really.

#liveblogging #ninjago #skybound #season 6 #episode 10 #the way back #s06e10 #ninjago predictions

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piano-hoarder · 9 months

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Been thinking about the Ideals of the Windrunners.

So each knight Ideal gives you a new power-- Ideal 1 is initiation, formalizes the bond to your spren; Ideal 2 solidifies your abilities; Ideal 3 gives you your sword; Ideal 4 gives you plate.

So what does Ideal 5 give you?

Also, I've been considering what Ideal 5 could be.

Each Ideal that Kaladin has spoken has been about protection and self sacrifice, each one becoming more and more sacrificial. So I'm thinking possible 5th Ideals could be:

"I will sacrifice those I must to protect those who need it more." (Not my favorite, probably won't be along these lines)

"I accept that sometimes the one who needs protection is myself." (Would be a good arc to overcoming depression and self-deprecation)

But, considering that Brandon has noted that books 6-10 will be about "the survivors" (which we know will include Jasnah but we have no other info about), Kaladin's death is possible. Unfortunately. So it could be (and I think this one is most likely):

"I will give my life to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

Though it could be different, considering the whole "I keep surviving" thing. idk

#cosmere #stormlight archive #kaladin stormblessed #brandon sanderson #windrunner #knights radiant #ideals #jasnah kholin #the cosmere #cremposting

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ecoamerica · 23 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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pyro-madder · 10 months

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Exejinkaverse Navi profiles - ACDC square

The people have spoken for one big post, here it is ! Remember to check this (also long) post for the basics of exejinkaverse if you need, and enjoy the read i hope <3

SAITO "ROCK" HIKARI

11-12 y/o

Electopian ; first twin of Haruka and Yuichirou Hikari

Elementary schooler in ACDC Town and civil NetBattler

Navi ability is shooting energy bullets ; weapon is an arm cannon (Rock Buster)

His physical abilities are average on Navi standards, but he possesses unique “customization” skills, which let him take on various transformations to adapt to any situation : from synchronizing with a fellow Navi into Soul Unison, to harnessing the destructive power of the Cybeasts by way of the unpredictable Dark Soul and Saito Style.

Additional BattleChips : Guard, Sword, Minibomb, Hammer, Dash, AirHockey.

Additional support units : C-slider (skateboard), Rush (dog).

Originally an ordinary human save from a rare and deadly heart disease, which confined him in the hospital and would ultimately take his life at age 6, his father's researches and his twin brother’s DNA brought him back from the brink as a NetNavi. But due to minor brain damage during the operation, Netto himself forgot Saito was ever human, the secret staying between the latter and their two parents. Despite this, Saito was now free to attend school normally and generally follow his twin around, picking up skateboarding to keep up with his rollerblades. Saito was quick to befriend the Sakurai, Oyama and Ayanokoji, humans and Navis alike, but would refuse to go on the Net without any of the latter, or to NetBattle altogether. This would however come to change many years later, upon World Three’s first strike...

Saito is significantly quieter and gentler than Netto, but remains just as earnest. Kind and compassionnate, he will however not hesitate to take action upon whoever threatens his loved ones, but his hostility will be quick to fade if his opponent shows genuine remorse. He looks up to many of his fellow Navis without realizing he's a great influence on them in return. A notable case of hero complex, having already overcome death once, he strives to constantly push his limits - culminating in selfless, if not self-sacrificial behavior. Having felt like a burden for the first half of his life, Saito now thrives off feeling reliable, and may bottle up his own pain to bear the world’s weight on his shoulders. He also struggles to come to terms with his artificial rebirth - being one of a kind and unable to confide in anyone who will fully understand, worsened by the secrecy of it all. The many transformations he can undergo only add to that existencial distress, which will culminate as Dark Rock.

His codename originates from the heroic alias he'd use during his playground games with Roll.

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HINA "ROLL" SAKURAI

11-12 y/o

Neto-Electopian ; adopted by the Sakurai

Elementary schooler in ACDC Town and competitive rhythmic gymnast.

Navi ability is emitting waves - light, sound, shock, even healing ones ; weapon is a ribbon (Roll Whip)

Though frail, training as a gymnast gave her remarkable agility. She can also float down and maintain herself a meter above solid ground. Due to her ability, her EM wave perception is also above the average Navi’s. She takes on archery in 6th grade.

Additional BattleChips : AquaTower, Roll Arrows.

Additional support units : Beat (songbird).

A rare female Navi of mixed descent ; her biological Netopian and Electopian parents died in a car accident when she was a baby. The Sakurai, old friends of aforementionned parents, took her in and raised her along their own daughter of the same age. She was the first of the group to befriend Saito upon his exit of the hospital, showing him the basics of the Navi life. Hina herself had trouble dealing with her high EM sensitivity, getting frequent headaches, possible aftereffects of the accident she survived ; Saito’s compassion had the two grow fast into a close friendship, able to confide in eachother in ways they couldn’t with their otherwise just-as-close human NetOps. With time, Hina grew better control of her abilities, the hairclips she always wears further stabilizing them.

Hina is a cheerful and energetic girl. Though she can be a bit of an airhead, she’s overall easy to get along with. Excitable, emotional, but also very caring, she sees the good in everyone - but much like her Operator and adoptive sister, knows to be firm and speak up for herself. While less of a NetBattler than her friends, as an athlete, she likes a challenge, and her strong mental makes up for her apparent fragility. She has trouble evaluating her own strength (and sometimes her worth) - on the NetBattling side, she believes being no match for Rock or Gutsman, and on the athletic side, she has to practice while wearing limiters if she wants to compete on fair ground with fellow human gymnasts due to Navis' naturally higher physical performances. Regardless, she trains without fear of stumbling or even taking a hit or two.

Her codename originates from the heroic alias she'd use during her playground games with Rock.

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GENJI "GUTSMAN" OYAMA

11-12 y/o

Electopian ; cousin of Dekao Oyama, his parents are in Netopia much like the latter’s

Elementary school in ACDC Town and civil NetBattler

Navi ability is superstrength ; weapon are gauntlets (Guts Gloves)

Said strength comes with a size and weight far above the average, but he is a little slow.

Additional BattleChips : Guts Machinegun.

Another youth of the peaceful ACDC Town. Due to the particular situation of the Oyama, Genji and Dekao alike spent much time in a children’s home, until they were old enough to fully inhabit their family’s house by themselves. Much of Genji’s early days were spent being taught to control his absurd strength, and he took on NetBattling the very day he was old enough to do so (possibly earlier, secretly...). As he went through elementary school, he rose to first position in ACDC Town - though he never actually battled his friends Roll, Rock or Glyde, merely not interested in competing, to his slight frustration... until Rock was awoken to the thrill of NetBattles and soundly defeated him. This made Genji vow to get better as both a fighter and a person, asking Rock to become his rival ; although said rivalry is pretty mild compared to the antics their excitable NetOps get up to.

Despite the appearances, Genji is of the “gentle giant” type. Extremely self-conscious about his unnatural size and strength, taking on NetBattling helped him overcome a big part of these insecurities and allowed him to build some genuine confidence. Enough, in fact, for him and his NetOp to threaten become school bullies, until they were humbled by the Hikari twins. While not the sharpest tool in the shed, Genji is enthusiastic and loyal to a fault, and will throw himself into battle without hesitation if his friends are in danger. In fact, he’ll do his best to assist them in daily, less serious or urgent situations too, in return to them often assisting him with his homework - his grades aren’t the best, but he’s at least more studious than Dekao. While he can be a bit dense, he’s very sensitive...

His codename was given to him by Dekao to help him overcome his self-consciousness.

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CLYDE "GLYDE" LOATH-AYANOKOJI

27-28 y/o

Kinglish (has double Electopian nationality) ; relatives unknown, probably not in frequent contact with them given his past

Head butler + pilot and mechanic of the Ayanokoji family ; formerly ““debt collector”” of the Loath family

Navi ability is boosting any appliance to its peak capacity ; weapon is a blunderbuss (Glyde Cannon)

Few match his aerial mobility, with or without his flying carrier.

Additional BattleChips : PaladinSword and Sanctuary.

Additional support units : Rafale (jet-powered glider), Birdbots (doves).

Few would believe this mild and well-mannered gentleman to have been a NetPirate. Once part of the fearsome Loath family, Clyde eluded their mass arrest after their leader’s passing and managed on his own for a while. While sailing through a gang conflict, he rescued without much thought a baby from his opponents, whom he only identified after the fight as the very young heiress of the Ayanokoji family. Understanding she’d been kidnapped for a ransom only to end up caught in the crossfire, Clyde considered taking said ransom for himself, then ultimately decided that he did not want to spend his days running and hiding from the Officials. Upon retrieving their precious daughter, the Ayanokoji would surprise him with an offer : if he quit crime for good and worked for them instead, they would legally cover for him. Figuring he might as well accept, Clyde took up the post and found this new life pleasant enough, slipping into a tutoring role for the young mistress he unexpectedly grew fond of. He would eventually come to look after her friends too, humans and Navis alike. As the Hikari twins got on the move against WWW, he subtly gave them hints and insight on Net criminality, though this backseat involvement would be enough to expose his past to the boys - who would accept him nonetheless.

Already as a NetPirate, Clyde maintained a proper and elegant image, even against his enemies towards whom his apparent politeness came off as heavily fake. To the ACDC children he’s seen grow however, he is genuinely kind, and his patience and perspicacity has had them turn to him for guidance more than once ; having known both the lower and upper social circles has given him much knowledge and adaptability. Even less of a fighter than Roll, he will however not hesitate to soar into action if his employers and/or friends are threatened, ready to protect Yaito with his life and brushing off taunts of criminals doubting his reform. Despite the passive nature of his ability and the near-complete de-weaponization of his trusted Rafale, Clyde remains an ace pilot and can be trusted to effortlessly fly himself or his friends out of a pinch.

He chose his own codename on his early days as NetPirate and kept it despite his "career change" so as to not forget the path he's taken.

---

BLAZE "BLUES" RAITT

17-18 y/o

Netopian (has double Electopian nationality) ; first son of Rosa Raitt, father unknown

Ijuuin bodyguard and Official Netbattler

Navi ability is extending an energy blade out of his hand ; weapon is a katana (Blues Sword)

Developped sharp hearing after losing his sight. His defenses are low but, light and quick on his feet, he's extremely hard to catch.

Other BattleChips : ProtoShield, four elemental swords, Muramasa, a rarely-used stun gun

Additional support units : SoundBreaker (semi-automated bike), Tango (cat).

Despite being born of an affair the father would completely step out of, Blaze was lovingly raised by his mother, her career as a cabaret singer modestly subsiding for both. When Blaze was four, she would fall in love with an Electopian man on a business trip and follow him back to his country along her son. Another boy was born from this union two years later, while Blaze was kept away from the public's eye due to his illegitimate ascendance. This relative peace wouldn't last however, for Rosa was always of frail constitution, and her health would fatally deteriorate over the following years. Shuuseki processed his grief in his own way - burying himself into work and enforcing a strict studying and training schedule upon the two boys that would practically separate them for several years. One more incident was to further derail their lives - in an attempt to protect Enzan from a ransom kidnapping, Blaze lost his sight to a criminal Navi's flashing attack. His training would resume regardless, and he'd be joined by Enzan to properly take up NetBattling, their contract officially forming on an estranged, strictly professional relationship. Blaze then followed his Operator's decision to join the Officials and lock up Netcriminals before they could ever think of targetting him again, Blaze's relentless tracking soon earning him the nickname of "Hound" in lower circles of the Net.

More "trained" than "raised", Blaze internalized at a young age that Navis were better off laying low and obeying - less they be treated as walking weapons on the loose. If having one's life decided ahead is old news in the Ijuuin household, his case was taken to the extreme and he was molded into the perfect bodyguard ; hardly able to act or even think for himself, or to carry a social interaction that isn't work-related (though it should be noted that he was never on the expressive side). His rivalry with Rock will be somewhat liberating by taking on a more personal nature and tapping into his genuine (if unconscious) love for Netbattling, alongside some heated debates on Navis ethics and, with time, calmer conversations on more personal topics. If Blaze has a natural dedication to his duty and a genuine desire to protect his estranged half-sibling, his complete lack of agency will be the core of Dark Blues' rampage as provocative self-expression. Still, only this episode will be able to start mending Navi and Operator back together.

His codename alongside his long hair are homages to his mother.

#headcanons #exejinka verse #hi. enjoy your meal

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themattress · 11 months

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Ranking Link+Zelda and Ganon Incarnations

1. Hyrule Warriors - The more time has passed, the more I realize just how fucking good Hyrule Warriors was as a celebration of the Zelda series, which includes how superbly designed and characterized its Link and Zelda are. There are aspects of many past incarnations mixed in them, but they still manage to stand out as their own individuals. I especially love how Link is given actual character flaws, growing arrogant and believing himself to be the great lone hero of the story only to recognize that he, like all Links, never save the day purely on their own, and how Zelda is an absolute badass in combat as both herself and as Sheik, something that’s rarely seen outside of the Super Smash Bros. series.

2. Skyward Sword - Chronologically the first Link and Zelda, these two are some of the most human feeling. You really connect with them in all of their expressiveness and vulnerabilities. The relationships they forge with the likes of Impa and Groose only add to the sensation. It feels like they were written to be relatable people first and mythical figures of legend second.

3. Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom / Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - There’s been much talk of this version of Zelda and how interesting, endearing and relatable she is in all of her scientific nerdiness and feelings of inadequacy when placed with heavy burdens, and how admirable she is in her courage and self-sacrificial nature, and all of that is true. But I think that across all three games Link also shapes up into a surprisingly complex character that was unexpected given his initial stoic front in Breath of the Wild. And give both of them credit: they’re the first Link and Zelda to have a radical design overhaul in three decades.

4. Ocarina of Time / Majora’s Mask - The first 3D Link and Zelda were also the first to truly showcase some semblance of characterization and character development, as we watch them go from children to adults and gain great strength at the cost of losing their innocence.

5. The Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass - I greatly enjoy these two in The Wind Waker, where they are very expressive and funny and sympathetic. But they lose some points due to Phantom Hourglass, which did them kind of dirty in favor of becoming the Linebeck Show.

6. Spirit Tracks - They look the same as their ancestors from The Wind Waker, but they’ve got a different, unique feel to them, with Link being a working class guy instead of some island bumpkin in over his head, and Zelda being a sheltered princess who has to learn to come into her own rather than an Action Girl from the beginning. They also have one of the tightest (and cutest) bonds of friendship out of any Link and Zelda given their circumstances.

7. Twilight Princess - Both of them are in service of the real protagonist Midna, whom they share an excellent bond with, but they still have distinguishing factors that make them stand out, with Zelda being more of a Queen than a Princess this time around and Link having his own arc of going from simple farmboy to Hero of Hyrule carrying forth his ancestor’s legacy.

8. A Link Between Worlds - Virtually clones of the next Link and Zelda pair on this list, but with somewhat more personality and agency, helped along by their Lorulian counterparts.

9. A Link to the Past / Link’s Awakening / Oracle of Ages & Seasons - The “classic” Link and Zelda who provided the template for the others. No real personality to speak of, sadly.

10. The Minish Cap - These two, who are childhood friends, have slightly more personality than the above...but I’m sorry, the “toon” designs do not fit beyond The Wind Waker and its direct follow-ups. It’s a freaking Game Boy Advance game, why give them these expressive designs if we aren’t going to actually see any expressions? Also, Link’s birb hat is distracting.

11. The Legend of Zelda / Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - Basic blank slates that existed before the franchise truly got solidified on the SNES. Zelda especially just looks wrong now.

12/13. Four Swords & Four Swords Adventures - These are technically two separate incarnations of Link and Zelda, but they’re essentially carbon copies of each other. I can’t find myself giving the remotest shit about Link when there are four of him, and what the fuck is up with this different “toon” Zelda design? That giant red bow she’s wearing looks hideous!

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1. Hyrule Warriors - Again, this game nabs the top spot and gives us the definitive version of the character. Ganondorf in this game has it all: the active villainy and terrifying chimera beast form like in Ocarina of Time, the capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness like in The Wind Waker, the manipulative usage of other villains as pawns like in A Link to the Past, Twilight Princess and Four Swords Adventures, and even the mastery over his Demise rooted elements before Tears of the Kingdom. We even get three whole chapters of him as the playable protagonist, where he gets to show off his non-inherently evil qualities such as his tactical brilliance, good leadership skills, and sheer determination to achieve his goals.

2. Tears of the Kingdom - The latest Ganondorf, who is also the first in the series’ timeline, has been met with great acclaim, and rightfully so. Not only does he (mercifully) usurp Demise’s position as Demon King whose hatred fuels almost every great evil in the series, but he feels like Ocarina of Time’s Ganondorf on steroids: an active, omnipresent villain despite not being on screen that much but this time not even needing to be mobile to do so thanks to the horrific Gloom ecosystem under his control. And like the corresponding versions of Link and Zelda, he bucks tradition hard design-wise by having a dragon as his beast form rather than a giant pig. Add to this Matt Mercer’s epic voice and you’ve got a fantastic villain.

3. Ocarina of Time - The first ever Ganondorf created, this is the character that took Ganon from an average villain to one of the greatest villains in video game history. He actively drives every major crisis over the course of the game, lending him an aura of omnipresence despite his actual limited screentime, and is shown to be as cunning as he is powerful by tricking Link and Zelda into helping him conquer Hyrule, turning it into a dystopian nightmare. He’s also deliciously theatrical - the man plays his own theme music on a pipe organ, for crying out loud! The cherry on top is his horrifying Ganon form taken in an unforgettable final boss fight.

4. The Wind Waker - Ganondorf is kept at a distance throughout this game, locked away in his tower and pulling strings, more of a McGuffin than a nemesis. After Ocarina of Time, this is a disappointment, but it could be made up for with good pay-off. And man, does the game ever deliver. When Ganondorf takes action, he is terrifying, both animalistically psychotic enough to do anything yet humanely wizened enough to control this madness at the same time, giving Link the worst of both worlds to contend with. And not only do we get yet another epic final boss fight against him, but he even ends up as a tragic figure: a wretched old soul full of regrets but too full of greed and pride to act upon them, desperately clinging to his dreams rooted in the past while raging against the future that threatens to leave him behind.

5. Twilight Princess - Being just the power behind Zant until the very end, Ganondorf is just here to be the final boss. Again, this would disappoint if the game didn’t make him a worthy final boss, and it more than delivers in this regard. You fight this bastard in just about every way you possibly could fight him, all while he displays a chilling malevolence in every word and action. He really does feel like what he is: an aged-up version of Ocarina of Time’s Ganondorf whose goal is still well in sight and thus he’s able to play the long game to get it.

6. A Link Between Worlds - As many others have observed, Yuga-Ganon of Lorule ended up being a greater menace than his Hylian counterpart who comes directly below him on this list. Not only does he have a unique design and personality of his own, but he is an even more formidable opponent in battle, full of tactical creativity that is difficult for Link to counter.

7. A Link to the Past / Oracle of Ages & Seasons - The “classic” Ganon. He’s big, he’s got magic powers, and he’s got a wicked trident. Unfortunately, you barely ever see him, much less get a feel for any personality beyond baseline evil. Oh well, he still gets the job done.

8. Breath of the Wild / Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - He’s more of an evil force of nature than a proper character, especially in Breath of the Wild where he has been rendered mindless. What he lacks in substance he makes up for in style, as he is visually stunning.

9. Four Swords Adventures - The problem with this incarnation of the character is that he entered development as one thing and ended it as another. He was supposed to be the same version of Ganon as two spots above and this game would show his origin. But when Shigeru Miyamoto nixed that, we end up with a Ganondorf who is completely offscreen, and a Ganon who still just feels exactly like that version but with a different color scheme. The best that can be said about him is that he finally allowed there to be a truly gigantic 2D sprite of Ganon.

10. The Legend of Zelda - Ganon is one of video gaming’s greatest villains, but man would you not be able to tell that from his debut. All the build-up and mystery surrounding him, presented so well in the instruction manual (”no one knows how he looks like, for none have lived to tell”), and what do we get? A teleporting blue pig in a red jersey. That is SO LAME.

#The Legend of Zelda #Link #Princess #Zelda #Ganon #Ganondorf #Opinion #Comparison

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