#so she just assumed the empire's problems were the whole continent's problems and they were literally not

[dmclemblems]

Y'know, from Edel.gard always getting praise from the other two sides (that she's conqurring and killing the people of) and with her route ending in a high-five of all things (after Rhea and Thales kill each other so she doesn't have to), Clyde getting supported by others in his bid conquer Fodlan (even if other characters are doubtful - kinda moot when they still decide to help him... save Ashe who seems genuinely forced to), and Dimitri/Rhea and the Kingdom/Church as a whole getting EXTREMELY victim-blamed in 2/3's of the game, it... kinda sends a really worrying message about imperialism and conquering? Because the game kinda... makes a pretty clear stance that it thinks conquering (for "good intentions") = good, those who fight back the ("good intended") conquering = bad.

Like, I think it's more "oh shit didn't mean to say that" more than it was intentional (kinda like of all the racist shit surrounding Claude's/Almyra's writing as a whole), but damn if I can't not see it now :/

I feel like that was a big problem going on in Houses in CF too, but it's definitely worse in Hopes. It really could be just an oversight by the writers, but it just... really leaves a nasty feeling. Even though there's no definite "Edelgard did conquer Fodlan in SB" going on, I think a lot of SB fans probably assume that's just what happened? Personally I prefer to just think the war stopped after that last battle and she let things go unrelated to Rhea and Thales because she's "happy and fulfilled" in this route, but... who knows, the devs seem to like unification.

The way Hopes writes it is that if you're conquering people for a "good" reason, it's bad of them fight back because they're fighting back against the "good" cause, but... anyone can claim their reason is something good and that the people being invaded should just accept it. It's just worse in Hopes because it's in two routes and they try to write it off as both Claude and Edelgard doing it for good reasons.

Even if they managed to unify the continent in their respective routes, they still will have other lands to deal with. Sreng won't just stop invading because Faerghus isn't a main power if that were to happen. It would just put Claude or Edelgard in a situation where they now have to deal with that. Also, Almyra wouldn't just stop fighting because they lost one member of the royal family. From what they were letting on, the siblings seemed to be in a battle of succession, so... it wouldn't be all that surprising if later on another one started attacking Fodlan. Even if they didn't, other people from Almyra would.

Something I find interesting though about SB in contrast to CF is that it seems like the concept of conquering is more of a burden to Edelgard than if she didn't bother. Also, Shez is the main avatar character here instead of Byleth. When Byleth is there for Edelgard in CF, it goes down, well, you know; but apparently when Byleth isn't there but Shez is instead, Edelgard is "happy and fulfilled" and defeats both her real enemies. If she actually feels that way, is there even a need to continue the war in her route? In GW I could definitely see her continuing, but it seems like SB implies that having Byleth around was a bad thing for Edelgard. It pushed her and made her feel powerful, enough to conquer, but apparently she wasn't truly happy in CF if they're saying she's happy in SB?

It just makes me think Byleth's presence in her life, and as her teacher, wasn't good for her. As in like, her life would be better and happier without Byleth being a key part of it or being in it at all (since you can kill Byleth and all in Hopes). In SB you could get around the conquering thing imo, whereas in CF it's everything.

At least in VW the unification happened because there was no other option. Faerghus had no heir left and the Empire had also lost its leader. Since Rhea also died, there was literally nobody left to take over things. Claude probably would have if he hadn't left, but since he had to go back to Almyra it fell to Byleth, but if Claude had been the leader of Fodlan after VW I wouldn't have minded. The circumstances weren't so horrible there. GW is just like... Shez is part of the problem and plants these ideas in Claude's head, and in that route he wants to actually conquer even if he doesn't say it as openly/directly as Edelgard and Hubert do.

Unifying Fodlan doesn't need to mean conquering it, and AM was proof of that. Not only did Claude completely peacefully allow Leicester and Faerghus to become one again, but Rhea also doesn't die in that route and just leaves to let Byleth take over. There's no fight over who should be the archbishop or anything. Claude and Rhea both willingly step down from power. In Claude's case, again, he had to tend to Almyra, but he also didn't worry that "oh no if they find Rhea, what if she's back in power". Even if he didn't want that, he seems to have felt that Byleth and Dimitri would be able to work things out.

Dimitri only arrived to aid Leicester's forces and he planned to leave once they were safe, so the whole unification thing wasn't even his intention or desire. Also, he's not really the type to want to conquer or anything like that, and notably after the army integration, the Leicester soldiers... still tend to refer to themselves as Alliance soldiers. Dimitri obviously has no issue with letting them still be the Alliance. Honestly, I always imagined Fodlan being "unified" in AM was just an official way of explaining it, but that the other nations were still just Leicester and Adrestia. In AM I feel like "unification" is just the territories all being allied/at peace with each other with a leader at the top to regulate everything and whatnot, but with their own governing, etc. In something like CF, Edelgard wants to remove any existing power from the other territories and make it just "Fodlan"/Adrestia.

So basically unification doesn't have to be violent and it doesn't have to mean being conquered, but... it seems like a big thing in this universe where unification = conquered/being conquered. :(

[euterpessi]

Romance Manhwa/Manga Recommendations:

Historical Manhwa/Manga:

Death Is The Only Ending For The Villainess

I’ve reincarnated as the reverse harem game’s villainess, the one and only adopted daughter of the ducal Eckart family.

But the difficulty just has to be the worst!

Everything I do will only lead me to death.

I must be paired with one of the main male characters from the heroine’s harem before the ‘real daughter’ of the duke family appears!

Two older brothers who always pick a fight with me on every little thing.

The insane crown prince whose route will always lead to my death.

‘I only see the heroine and no one else’s wizard, and also her loyal slave knight, too!

‘First, let’s take some of them which I see no hope in, out of the list!’

“I didn’t know my place up until now. From now on, I’ll live as quiet as a mouse so you wouldn’t care the slightest bit!

But why do their interests in me keep on rising every time I draw the line?!

The Villainess is a Marionette

Cayena, the Imperial Princess, was known as the most beautiful woman in the Empire. She was a woman who knew nothing but evil and luxury.

However, she was destined for ruin: she would be used as a chess piece by her younger brother to secure his throne and killed by her crazy husband.

“I’ll make you the Emperor.”

“… Sister, are you referring to me?”

“In exchange, give me freedom.”

She had to change things before she became that Cayena.

The Reason Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’S Mansion

Poisoned to death by her own betrothed?! Eunha didn’t wake up in a novel’s story just to get killed off again as an unfortunate extra! To change her story she needs a cover… 6 months pretending to be the fake fiancée of the novel’s male protagonist, Duke Noah Wynknight. But will this cold-hearted, angel-faced demon of a man really help her avoid another ill-fated ending?!

Your Throne / I Want to Be You, Just For A Day

The story follows main characters Medea Solon and Psyche Callista, who become archenemies after competing for the position of crown princess of the Vasilios Empire. On the day of the Yearly Prayer, Medea and Psyche accidentally switch bodies.

The Remarried Empress

Navier was the perfect empress, however, the Emperor wanted a wife, not a colleague. And so, the Emperor abandoned Empress Navier and placed an enslaved girl beside him. That was fine until Navier heard the Emperor promise the slave the Empress’ position. After many ups and downs, Navier decided she would accept being the Queen of the neighbouring country and remarry.

Kill The Villainess

Eris Mizerian was the villainess of a novel. The only daughter of a marquis, she got executed after scheming against the pure and lovely protagonist, Helena. My only goal, after possessing her, is simply to leave this world and go home. I am prepared to face even death, but the laws of this world keep stopping me.

A changed Eris begins to draw the attention of three men who once loathed her; the Crown Prince, the High Priest, and the Knight.

"It doesn't matter. I will never be able to love this world."

Even if the only way out is death,

even if the only way out is make a deal with a witch...

I will absolutely leave this world!

This is the story of the villainess who defies fate, Eris, and her escape from this world!

The Way To Protect The Female Lead's Older Brother

I accidentally took possession of someone in a 19+ reverse harem novel.

The problem is that I became Roxana Agriche, the older sister of the sub-villain. My damn father kidnapped the heroine’s brother. Now, is the only thing left to meet a terrible end from the vengeance of the heroine?

But what if I can avoid that horrible development?

“I’m also interested in this toy.”

“I’ll protect you until you can get out of here safely.”

The heroine’s brother, Cassis Pedalian, will definitely be able to pay me back later.

Shadow Queen

“Can you be my daughter for me?”

By his offer, Elena became Duke of Franceschi’s fake daughter.

She became the queen and gave birth to Crown Prince’s son.

Then suddenly, Princess Veronica who was assumed dead came back.

She was only just a toy.

But eventually, Elena gets her son taken and is murdered.

However, she went back to the past.

“I’ll destroy all of you.”

I’ll never live as a toy again.

Elena decides to seeks revenge.

Under the Oak Tree

The daughter of a duke, the stuttering Maximilian, married a knight of lowly status at her father’s coercion.

After their first night, her husband departed for an expedition without another word.

He comes back three years later, this time as a famous knight in the whole continent.

How would Maximilian face him on his return?

"The more I think of you, the more lonely and lonely I become. I don't know why I can't quit even though it's so painful."

I'm Stanning The Prince

Angela’s fanfic became such a sensation that it even reached the Imperial Family, leading her to get arrested on charges of treason. Nevertheless, her fanfic improved the First Prince’s image, and his sister, the Princess, decides to take political advantage of this and keep Angela by their side. 

The heroine who can now fangirl to her heart’s content, and the Prince who doesn’t know how to act around her. As they bicker back and forth, they start growing closer…

Miss Not-So Sidekick

Hyejung loved to read to escape her daily stress. But that’s before she woke up inside the bizarre world of her favorite novel! Instead of the main heroine who courts three eligible men, she is now Latte Ectrie – a minor villain that everyone hates?! One way or another, it’s a chance to live out her most beloved storyline, with popcorn in hand to watch all the drama! Taking charge of the narrative takes on a whole new meaning!

Even Though I’M The Villainess, I’ll Become The Heroine!

I wasn’t able to overcome the harassment and took my life, but I was reincarnated with the perpetrator? The perpetrator is the heroine, Florre, and I am the villainess, Dahlia, who’s going to die horribly.

“They said you are a villain with neither blood nor tears, but unlike the rumors, you often shed tears.”

“Your Highness must believe all the nonsense the idiots are talking about, huh?”

Grand Duke of Cervian, the half brother of the Male lead and who will be punished for treason afterwards. He approached me. I can’t lose the man who will be my greatest ally.

“Your Highness, would you marry me?”

“Now…… what did you say?”

“And take revenge together.”

A similar situation, a fixed ending. The heroine is not the only one who knows the ending of the novel. I took a long and arduous path of revenge.

Who Made Me A Princess

The beautiful Athanasia was killed at the hands of her own biological father, Claude de Alger Obelia, the cold-blooded emperor! It’s just a silly bedtime story… until one woman wakes up to suddenly find she’s become that unfortunate princess! She needs a plan to survive her doomed fate, and time is running out. Will she go with Plan A, live as quietly as possible without being noticed by the infamous emperor? Plan B, collect enough money to escape the palace? Or will she be stuck with Plan C, sweet-talking her way into her father’s good graces?!

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass

With the marriage of her prostitute mother to the Count, Aria’s status in society skyrocketed immediately. After leading a life of luxury, Aria unfairly meets death because of her sister Mielle’s schemes. And right before she dies, she sees an hourglass fall as if it were a fantasy. And just like that, she was miraculously brought back to the past.

“I want to become a very elegant person, just like my sister, Mielle.”

In order to face the villainess, she must become an even more wicked villainess. This was the new path Aria chose to take revenge on Mielle who murdered both her and her mother.

The Evil Lady's Hero

Junipe Magnolia, a villainess friend of the heroine in this novel called Rael Cania.

The Junipe inside the novel has always loved the male lead, Iseed. To the point where she harassed Rael out of jealousy because she's loved by Iseed.

And thus, Junipe is destinied to die in the hands of the male lead of this novel.

But one day.

"Why did I become Junipe?!"

But let's think about it, it's still one year away from the time Junipe is going to get killed by Iseed. So, I have to meet Iseed and Rael first, I'll be able to find a way out of my death if I do so.

Yeah, let's meet them first!

But, this man is just so tender-hearted and kind. Would Junipe be able to escape from this man?!

I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away

God gave me a chance to relive my life. Before the rebirth, I had been used for the past 400 years as the empire's sword. And so, I swore to destroy the empire. I found the young prince of the country and became his teacher. I taught him how to become a tyrant and asked for the country.

"I will do the lady's will."

He conquered the whole empire for me, and I ran away.

"I came to take you, Charlize Ronan." Dylan became a perfect tyrant and searched the entire empire for me.

"You tamed me, so why did you run away?"

Untouchable Lady

“Please, Hilise. Please die in place of Gabrielle.” My always dignified brother begged me for the first time. He wants me to die for our stepsister, whom we don't even share a drop of blood with. “For the first and last time, I ask you this.” I've always been miserable, and there is no exception this time. The seventh time that I was betrayed and killed, I was completely free of lingering feelings. “I'm glad that you're a scumbag until the end.” I won't be swayed by love anymore. It's my turn to abandon them first.

I’ll Live On As A Villainess

I reincarnated as the villainess in a book!

The one who dared to commit attempted murder on the heroine is the owner of this body?

Let's just live in a quiet place where we have fun and eat! That's what I thought for a while.

It was so, so, so cold here in the north, where I was kicked out as a punishment.

Before I froze to death, I called the Great Demon of Fire and set fire to the fireplace but...

Why isn't he going back? If you've done the job, shouldn't you go back?!

I was flustered to find out that I had signed a life contract with a demon just to start a fire but to think that I'd be responsible for relieving his desires!

The bickering romance between a big puppy demon and a small villainess lady!

It Looks Like I’Ve Fallen Into The World Of A Reverse Harem Game

When I opened my eyes, I was in a different world. I had become the game’s villainous princess who was feared by all. Not to mention… Completely naked men I didn’t even know were approaching me left and right! “Are you cold? Shall I warm you up with a hug?” “Oh? Have you not had enough yet?” Seriously, what’s up with this situation? And just how the hell am I going to get out of this freaking game?!

Father, I Don't Want to Get Married!

I’m Jubelian? The daughter of the duke and the villainess of this novel?

I managed to avoid my death with some previous knowledge about my life, as this was my second time at it. Now, I should be able to live a peaceful life!

“I’m not going to marry a man unless he has everything. I want the most wealthy, famous, and competent man there is.”

I dreamt of a glamorous life as the daughter of the duke, but my father tells me the Crown Prince who is known to be a lunatic is to be my husband! As an extraordinary measure, I couldn’t help but start a contract relationship. That is, with a handsome side character that looks better than the main one.

“Why are you trying to avoid being engaged to the prince?”

“He’s scary. I heard that he even kills his own entourage if he doesn’t like them.”

A few days later, the prince sent a terrible letter to me.

“I will not kill you.”

Oh no, did I set up another death trap for myself?

Like A Wind On A Dry Branch

"Hi, You."

Count Casarius fell victim to a plague and died suddenly, leaving behind a will stating that Rietta, his beautiful young widow of the manor, whom he tried to use as a concubine, be buried alive alongside him. Just before Rietta is buried, Archduke Axias, rumored to be a cruel tyrant, arrives at the funeral to collect the enormous debt Count Casarius still owes him.

“Everyone here seems to feel sorry for her, and I still have a debt to collect from Casarius… If I take her instead of debt, I think all of you here should be happy," he smiled.

"Hello, Temptress."

Everything was a Mistake

Roa Valrose reincarnated as villainess in the book. In order to avoid the fate of being burned at the stake, she approaches the hero, Nocton Edgar.

It hurts every time she gets closer to him. Nevertheless, for her survival, she does everything he wants her to do.

“Come again, Valrose.”

The mysterious Nocton unexpectedly sought her out every day.

Then one day, her friend for 10 years says something unknown to her.

“Actually, I have a dream. The Duke of Edgar is a terrible villain!”

He is not the hero, but the villain?

As soon as she realized that she had misinterpreted the role, she decided to get away from Nocton.

“Let’s not meet anymore.”

But the villain’s reaction was strange.

“Don’t go. You’ve always been special to me.”

She was suspicious of his sudden change of attitude.

Will she able to get rid of Nocton safely?

I Became the Tyrant's Secretary

I became the secretary of a tyrant in place of my clumsy brother to survive.

But I have so much potential for it. I’m so darn good at my job. Because I served the tyrant so well, ‘Everyone has a happy ending’.

Well then, shall I quit being a secretary and live a leisurely life now?

“Rosaline, tell me what you want.” He asked as he stepped down from his chair.

“I want to quit.”

His eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Do you want to die?”

Your highness, you never hold on to people who want to leave, so why’re you being like this to me?

Seduce the Villainess Father

After being in a bus crash, I woke up to the world of my favourite web novel.

Not only that, It was before the protagonists were born, to their parents’ world!

To stop the incoming multiple bad events.

I tried to prevent the kidnapping of the sister who is pregnant with the female lead!

But I got kidnapped instead?!

It's depressing to be kidnapped, but my body couldn't handle the mana and became a sunfish-like state

But... if I am next to the emperor who kidnapped me, my body becomes normal!

Right! The way to save that man from marrying a witch and getting killed by his son, and for someone who is vulnerable to mana such as myself to live, is for us to get married!

The Villains Savior

Set on a path to tragedy and misfortune from a young age, Aseph Randell is doomed to die a villain. That is, until the mysterious Elzay Tiathe appears in his life with a promise: "I can save you." After having vivid visions of him for so long, can Elzay untangle the twisted fate tied to Aseph... or will they both be dragged down together?

Contemporary Manhwa/Manga:

Night Crying Crow

This woman; who is she?

If something was action, it'd be action. If something was romance, it’d be romance. The A-list actor Cheon Woo Kang, who's great at every (genre), had his heart stolen away by an unknown woman who’d broken into his house!

“We'll meet again.~"

Woo Kang contracted an over imaginative illness as he drew the woman, whose name he didn't even know. In front of Woo Kang, she reappeared as the police officer Park Tae... Could the shadow of the crisis that appeared in front of them be a coincidence?

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Yoshino Somei would have been a normal high-schooler if not for the fact that she is the granddaughter of the leader of the Osaka-based Somei Group, the Kansai region's largest yakuza organization. One day, Yoshino hurries home after hearing of the news about the unification of Kansai and Kanto's biggest syndicates, the Somei and the Miyama groups. This, according to the article, will result in a marriage of the leaders' grandchildren—one of whom is Yoshino herself! Despite her best efforts to annul the arrangement, Yoshino has to go to Tokyo to visit her fiancé, Kirishima Miyama, who is unexpectedly nice and charming.

During their first meeting, Yoshino is swept up in various events and becomes unable to refuse moving to Tokyo, which is why, half a year later, she now lives with the Miyama group. At school, she soon realizes that Kirishima is very popular, so her relationship with him garners the hate of his fangirls and subsequently results in bullying. To make matters worse, Kirishima could not be further away from her prince charming since he, after all, was born to be a yakuza member.

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii follows Yoshino and her new life in Tokyo that is filled with nothing but troubles connected to the underworld. However, though she wishes to be as far from it as possible, this isn't Yoshino's first time dealing with the world of the Yakuza...

Positively Yours

To Hee-won’s dismay, the BFF she crushed on and her other BFF are now dating! Seriously bummed, Hee-won decides to go wild just one time, and find solace with a handsome stranger. A very satisfying one night affair has now turned into more — she’s pregnant! Fate brings them together again, and now the regimented Doo-joon is determined to do the right thing and marry her. But they’re basically strangers! Except... their bodies have been very intimately acquainted. What’s this mother-to-be to do?

True Beauty

After binge-watching beauty videos online, a shy comic book fan masters the art of makeup and sees her social standing skyrocket as she becomes her school’s prettiest pretty girl overnight. But will her elite status be short-lived? How long can she keep her real self a secret? And what about that cute boy who knows her secret?

Cheese In the Trap

Hong Sul is a ordinary college student. Yoo Jung is the school's most popular upperclass man. He's good looking, rich, smart, and even nice. However, Hong Sul thinks there's more to Yoo Jung than what meets the eye…

SPY x FAMILY

The master spy codenamed has spent his days on undercover missions, all for the dream of a better world. But one day, he receives a particularly difficult new order from command. For his mission, he must form a temporary family and start a new life?! A Spy/Action/Comedy about a one-of-a-kind family!

Doppio Senso (18+)

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about a guy.”

KyungHyun stopped in the middle of a deep kiss and sighed. His lips began to form a smile, but his fierce glare said otherwise. Possessiveness and jealousy spread across his sculpted face.

“Will you tell me his name?”

His easygoing and languid voice reached her ears.

“Why?”

“So that I can shoot him down.”

[fireemblems24]

I am so glad you pointed out the imperialist vibes Edelgard has sometimes. As someone who lives in a country who was basically occupied ahem conquered because they said "we have better ideas that will improve your lives" and had our culture absolutely shattered, one of the main reasons why I disagree with Edelgard so much is because of that. She thinks her point of view is superior and the most morally right and I really don't like it whenever she sounds so confused about people defending their homeland. Especially that one line she has with Dimitri in Chapter 17 ffffff—

Like, girl, they have the fucking right to disagree with you please stop sounding so confused as to why they can't see eye to eye with you gahhhhh

I would be more tolerant with the war if she had say, did diplomacy before it? But she tried to had Dimitri and Claude killed in Part I (the prologue). I would also understand her better if the war was a last resort and the other leaders were corrupt and all that. But they're not. Many of the students (who have power because many are noble heirs) outside her house are heavily affected by the nobility and Crests (Sylvain, Ingrid, Mercedes, Lysithea, etc.) or at least understanding of the problems caused by them (Dimitri). It's so frustrating how so much of this can be prevented if she just talked about it.

Also, to those who said she wants the change to be quick, even with war it won't be. The fucking war basically caused continent-wide damage. It's going to be so hard to actually fix this. Hell, there's definitely going to be an eventual rebellion by former Kingdom / Alliance people or sympathisers. It's not going to be as clean cut as the game or some pro-Edelgard people make it to be. Not everyone is going to agree with her, whether she takes over or not. She just destroyed the stability of the continent and while yes, she can rebuild it again, it will still take time and who's to say future leaders won't be corrupt? Also, a hierarchy will always exist, whether she likes it or not. Especially if she plans to set up a meritocracy. Meritocracy is going to usually end up giving power and privilege to those with already pre-existing privilege as they the opportunity to show off their merits or develop those skills. Poor and disabled people are going to have difficulty as they don't have equal opportunity to develop skills and accomplish stuff. I'm generalising, but it just ends up as a hierarchy, again. Not only that, it also has ways to enforce discrimination.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, she needs to long term plan out her systems. I apologise since I have bad memory but as far as I remember, the game doesn't give us too many details on how she wants to establish her system. All I remember is she does the war > Church / Rhea out of power > Establish her government > ???. Someone please clear this up for me because I'm confused.

...and again really, diplomatic reforms are an option. Yes, they're much more tedious. Yes, they take so much more longer. Yes, sometimes it feels impossible to accomplish. But did she not even consider it as an option?

All in all, I do like Edelgard. But I really wish the game let us go against her while we're with her? I wish it wasn't just general "agree with Edelgard" for CF. I remember someone pointing it out to me before that it would've been really great if she had someone in her house who does the same role Felix does in AM... which is basically disagree and call out the lord's shit. And they pointed out Ferdinand could've probably been that character for CF. And I kinda agree? I really think CF would immensely improve if Edelgard had a challenger / foil to her beliefs similar to how Felix does that for Dimitri.

Anyway, sorry for the very long ask lol. I like Edelgard and I agree with some of her morals and ideals such as the crest system being bad but....she's done so dirty asdfghjkl. I do think she's written well enough to incite these emotions in me, and she makes for a good antagonist. As a protagonist lord however.... yeah.

First off, sorry it took so long to respond, but I wanted to give an equally throughout response. 

While I haven’t gotten to chapter 17 yet, I can attest to the notion that Edelgard’s rhetoric is eerily similar to Imperialist propaganda. I do understand this is fiction, and that it’s okay to hand-wave/enjoy things in fiction that you shouldn’t or wouldn’t in real life. Crimson Flower has its charms and parts I enjoy. Edelgard is an interesting character more hampered by things that plague Three Houses as a whole than anything else, but it’s still worth examining how dangerous her rhetoric is. Because, unlike you, my country sits at the opposite end - the Imperialist nation selling that rhetoric to its citizens, and, unfortunately, at the time I bought it - which makes me really sensitive to this. 

I’m from the US and I’m specifically speaking about the US’s invasion of the Middle East. I was in middle or high school, just barely a teenager, and naive and ignorant enough to believe what my leaders said. Because guess what? I bought into it out of misplaced and ignorant (and racist) compassion. I was horrified at the idea these people were suffering unfairly just because of where they were born whereas I got all these promised privileges just because of where I was born. I really thought the US would go in there and give them democracy and everything would be great. Looking back, I realize they were lying, that we’ve only made things worse, that it’s horribly racist to assume the US was just inherently better, and I’ve sense then gained access to fast-speed internet, traveled, matured, etc . . . and thankfully this all happened before I had any actual power to do anything like vote. But to this day I’m beyond pissed off they used my own compassion against me to line their own pockets. It was ignorant and racist, but it was all based in concern that others didn’t have the same quality of life I had and a growing realization of my own privilege. And that’s what I hate so much. It didn’t sound evil. It sounded good. It used people’s good will and compassion against them and twisted it into evil for their own causes. 

I don’t think Edelgard is after Faerghus and the Alliance because she wants oil. I think she honestly thinks she’s doing good. And, if this were real life, I think that makes her rhetoric even more dangerous than a corrupt politicians’.  Because everything else is still the same. She’s being ignorant, nationalist instead of racist in this case, and honestly thinks her moral superiority will improve everyone’s lives even if it means ravaging the entire content in war. She is dangerously naive and ignorant. 

Maybe I’d support her more morally if I believed for an instant the general populace welcomed the changes she wants to bring, if the leaders she fought against weren’t open and wanting change themselves, ect . . . But the dialogue indicated her presence inspires people running and screaming in terror, not welcoming her presence (see the chapter where you kill Claude). The Kingdom is still fighting tooth and nail against her. She’s not supported. Her changes aren’t wanted. And she hasn’t bothered to learn a single thing about the cultures she’s determined to squash under her heal nor the leaders heading them. 

I also think I’d support her better if we had a clearer idea of what her plans were. But CF has shifted from Edelgard speaking about interesting ideas and classism to evil dragon overlords and chastising Byleth for making her blush. The decision to side with her or Rhea is not choosing between two ideals, but an emotional, spur of the moment thing. Edelgard’s early supports with Byleth attempt to convince the player to side with her not based on political ideals, but on feeling sorry for her. 

CF gives you no choice but to agree with everything Edelgard says (as you said, there’s no “Felix” or a “Lorenz”). It wants you to support her war without question, and therefore you don’t get any answers to questions like - if this is really just about Rhea, why are we invading the Alliance? Because they won’t hand power over to you? Why didn’t you just stick to the Empire to enact your changes? In the end, you’re left with what sounds more and more like an entitled Imperialistic princess with absolutely no idea how ignorant she is hell bent on conquering what she thinks belongs to her based on a conspiracy theory. 

All that said, I do think Edelgard has interesting ideas and isn’t wholly wrong, just how she goes about it is horribly wrong. And I fully believe the core issue is how CF has dropped the ball big time writing wise, because diving deeper into her ideas and not her crush on you would go a long way. So would shifting the narrative away from evil boogey dragon lady must die and everyone else is wrong and I am superior and right and more towards a clashing of ideals, this route could’ve been a lot more and seemed a lot less ignorant, naive, entitled, and Imperialistic. 

[somepinkthing]

I have some speculations about the refugees from the empire we see milling around the monastery in verdant wind (I haven't finished AM or SS yet so maybe they are there too but I'm talking VW) that say they fled because they can't practice their faith anymore over there. I have some thoughts about how this situation came to pass that doesn't just boil down to 'edelgard is guillotining people for praying'

The first possibility is that the refugees are underselling their previous positions in the church. For all we know, they could have very well been larger heads of the western church or very involved in opposing edelgard. It would make edelgard chasing them out make a certain amount of sense. The only reason I don't think this is entirely true is because we also meet villagers and merchants who echo the story of why they fled the empire

The second possibility is exactly what it reads on the tin. I want to say edelgard would probably not take it so far as to wage war against the faith altogether but there are scenarios I can imagine that would make that untrue. It's possible that she is considering it a temporary ban, just until she can get the church's influence under control. Or a rebellion could have very well made her reconsider her stance on allowing the church of seiros to exist in her borders while she waged this war. Or she considered it too dangerous to have potential enemy factions under her own nose right from the start. Any of this is entirely possible. In routes outside of crimson flower, edelgard is a young, traumatized woman who has not properly emotionally opened up to anyone. It does color her choices quite a bit. So I won't say that it's impossible that edelgard criminalized or sanctioned the practice during the war

The third possibility is that edelgard simply didn't know. Either she didn't realize that, by declaring this war and suddenly sanctioning the church, everyday practitioners would feel persecuted regardless of whether or not that was her intent. OR they are actually being attacked but edelgard isn't all that aware of it. The adrestian empire is the biggest country with the largest military force and an already rocky relationship with the church of seiros... and their new, charismatic leader just declared war against the church. Do the math. There's no possible way edelgard had eyes on everyone everywhere 24/7.... and that's not even mentioning that she's still "allied" with TWS who are notorious haters of the church of seiros and would have zero problem with attacking people or inciting others within the empire to do so. Now edelgard's the opposite of dumb, if this was happening then she probably suspected. But it's totally possible that she didn't get every single report and thus decided it was something that could be addressed after the war was over

I personally think the third one is most likely the case. It just makes the most sense both story and character-wise. Edelgard's not cruel or unable to understand nuance. She believes the faith of the church is fake, yes, but she views its followers more as victims to rhea's lies than her enemy. There are things to be said about that mindset BUT with that logic it simply doesn't track that she would then turn around and attack everyday practitioners. The third option also plays well into edelgard's big-picture way of thinking—little details about the impact she makes may very well fall to the wayside in the face of what she's trying to accomplish. So, no, I don't believe edelgard knew people were actively forced to flee and I don't think she'd approve if she found out. Whether or not she'd do something to change it? During the war? I can see that argument going either way, especially for non-CF edelgard. After the war though, I do think she'd stop it one way or another. And, assuming she suspected something, maybe that's what she told herself too.

Now, I'm not saying any of this to alleviate her of responsibility. As a leader and someone who aims to change the structure of the continent as a whole, intent vs impact comes into play here. I seriously doubt that edelgard's intention was to make people feel unsafe within her borders, but the impact of her actions and words cannot be ignored either. If people were fleeing her lands because they felt their faith painted a target on their backs, that is something that she had a responsibility to address and correct. And while it's possible that she meant to address it later, that would mean nothing to the people that felt they had to run now. So I'm not saying edelgard's free of fault or the refugees are somehow being unfair. I am saying that I don't think the "edelgard attacks people for even talking about the goddess" takes I see floating around are accurate. Whatever her views on their religion, I'd argue that she's not so lost in rage that she'd freely attack everyday believers over it. To say nothing else, what would be the point? Does she really have the resources to spare?

((PS: faith-based discrimination is wrong. Full stop. I know this. I also know that there is a part of edelgard that can't help but see religion as a concept in a negative light given her history with it. I understand that she tends to talk about faith as if it's a matter of facts vs lies. I'm not trying to argue about that. What I'm arguing is that I don’t think edelgard's out there conducting the inquisition, I think its more of an effect of being at war with the church. We obviously have no evidence one way or another about the details nor are we sure whether or not she knew about it, we only know that it was allowed to happen. So it's free real estate basically))

[heartless-error]

Broken, not perfect, but together. - Chapter 13

Fandom: DC comics, Batman

Pairings: Jonathan Kent x Damian Wayne (JonDami) & Jason Todd x Timothy Drake (JayTim)

Rating/Tags: Family feels, hurt/comfort, mental health issues, running away, brotherly love, adopted children, fatherhood

Other(s) links: AO3

Broken.

The Batfamily was broken.

It was six years ago, and they had barely stood together since then, trying to stand up despite guilt and regret.

Damian  was sure there was nothing to save, not after losing something that he didn’t know he cared about. But when a new opportunity to get back what they had lost appeared, he cannot help to doubt as his past decisions haunt him again.

If you love somebody, set them free. But you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Chapter Summary: He knew exactly what he was doing when he helped Tim and Jason six years ago. But at the same time, he didn’t. No one was prepared to let them go the way they did, not even him. And now, after dealing with the consequences all this time, his heart was about to explode, he couldn't breathe. Because they were there, they were right there. His brothers were in front of him, and he couldn't move, couldn't do anything, because, once again, the weight of truth was about to crush him mercilessly.

Chapter 13

 Now

 Silence.

 The batplane was completely silent.

 Technically not entirely, since like the many trips and flights that had been made with it, could be heard perfectly the ambient sound of the wind brushing and surrounding the plane as it advanced on its way, also the noise of the engines accelerating to reach their destination as quickly as possible, as well of the machines and the control panel echoing at the front of the cabin, with all the breaths and movements of those inside.

However, it was they, the bats in there, who were precisely in silence, without having uttered hardly any unnecessary words since they occupied their seats on the plane and taking extreme care of each of their movements, of their postures. The tension in the place and between them was such that they had the impression that any movement or whispering would unleash a true storm among all, although this was already occurring within each of them, it was preferable to keep it hidden and sheltered for the moment, covered and hidden in nobody’s eyes while they were in a clearly confined space and knowing what was about to happen.

 Bruce was at the front of the batplane, paying attention to the control panel, and gripping the steering wheel with more force than necessary. It was curious to see him like this, tense, inflexible and dressed in civilian clothes, especially when they had already been used to see the figure of The Dark Knight handling that transport with his gloves, the hood and the cloak tangled in the seat, not his father, not Bruce.

Cassandra, curled up in the passenger seat, was the only one who had deigned to sit next to him. Her gaze insistently alternated between the screen of the GPS that was indicating their current position, and in front, where she could contemplate the sky and the clouds that passed through them. But she seemed too impatient and agitated to appreciate anything.

Stephanie was right behind her, but at a safe distance from the control panel and the driver, also curled up on herself and quieter than they’d ever seen her be. Dick, on the other hand, was at the other end of the cabin, away from everyone and lost in his thoughts as he stared at nothing.

 Like him, Damian was there. Farther still, almost to the end of the cabin, sitting awkwardly and with his arms crossed, thoughtful, absorbed in his head and in everything that occupied and prowled around it without stopping.

Sometimes he looked up to capture the blue of the sky and the landscape below his feet, but he couldn’t concentrate to observe it better. He settled into his seat as best he could, trying to find a comfortable position that wouldn’t bother his injuries, something difficult after everything that had happened that morning. He also met Dick’s uneasy gaze several times, Stephanie’s too, but no one said anything, no one moved, they just turned away their eyes to continue silently and in the spiral of their thoughts, allowing the tension to build and the journey to become longer, more harrowing.

 Damian knew the distance from Gotham to Florida was not that much, or at least not that much compared to all the places where he assumed that Tim and Jason could be hiding. After all, it was almost eighteen hours by car, and only about three by plane, less on the batplane. Still, he had the impression that this journey was going on for days, weeks. It was endless, exhausting, and every time he glanced at the clock on the control panel, he suppressed a sigh as he realized that only a few minutes had passed when he thought it had been an hour, even longer.

 The fact that the whole situation felt like a countdown against him, calculating how much was left to ruin all his life and efforts these last six years, didn’t help.

 Damian knew exactly what he was doing when he helped Tim and Jason six years ago. But at the same time, he didn’t.

 Contrary to what some people on the plane were thinking, the idea to run away was not Timothy’s, nor Jason’s. No. The idea was his, all his. 100% Damian’s credit. What’s more, they even doubted at first, they were very surprised when he explained the idea to them, and they partially refused. It seemed crazy when after all at that moment they were being watched strictly by a family who didn’t believe in their relationship and Jason was still recovering from an unwarranted aggression that had meant a total rupture between both sides. Although in the end they ended up agreeing, obviously, which he didn’t regret at all.

He was sure that if the others found out about this, that he had not only been an accomplice, but the leader of the entire operation, they would be much more upset than they had already been, maybe he would even receive another punch. And he would probably start to receive the same questions that had already been asked before and had tried to answer ambiguously: How? Why?

 The “how” was pretty easy.

 At first, a simple call to his best contact was enough: Talia. She didn’t welcome the son she now called failure with open arms, but she did like everything that would benefit her and help her obtain the power she was after. His mother was a woman very aware of her own interests and recognized something that favored them at the time, she knew how to choose her battles well. Erase Tim and Jason from the map, make them disappear, it was one that was definitely worth it, so he didn’t have to convince her to agree.

 Jason was a well-known failed project of Talia, a boy who she revived in the waters of Lazarus’ pit, brainwashed, trained and commanded into battle to cause damage to Bruce and all of Gotham under the poisonous ideas that she had implanted in his damaged and resurrected mind, to later see how he not only reformed and fought again on the side of the bats, but fell in love with the one she most wanted to eliminate.

Timothy, no doubt, had always been a clear obstacle to Talia, even from his Robin days. Something she had been waiting to get rid of and get out of the way as soon as possible at any cost. She manipulated Jason and manipulated him to hate him, to break him, to kill him, because she was conscious of the obsession that his father, his grandfather, had with Timothy. Ra wanted Drake for himself, it was a fact. He wanted him, craved him, chased him, for him he was his perfect detective, the only worthy being who could challenge him, confront him. He wanted him to be his successor, his right hand, wanted him at his mercy and wanted to hand over his empire to him. Empire for which Talia had fought all her life and could lose to the third Robin.

Then, hiding the couple meant making her mistakes and her greatest threat disappear. Talia would gain respect and a big advantage with both vigilantes disappearing, she knew that, and she didn’t hesitate to take it all in immediately. Damian and the others didn’t have to wait a single full day before receiving instructions to get it all started.

 After that, only the most difficult thing remained: the metas. Because no matter how much Tim and Jason changed identities, went to another continent, or avoided cameras, they had been friends of metahumans who could easily find them at any time. Any Super could identify their heartbeats wherever they were, and any Speedster could run around the world for them in seconds. They wouldn’t get very far if Superboy, Impulse, or even Starfire were involved in their search.

 But he didn’t have to do much to fix that problem either because Jonathan volunteered. He didn’t even ask him, he didn’t even know that he was aware of what he was trying to do, but apparently, he was inside from the first moment, even before any plans were formulated. He simply appeared before them with a Kryptonian device sneakily pulled from the fortress of solitude and handed it over to them, assuring the red team that as long as they kept it close, it would block the metas and hide them from everyone without problem. It clearly worked, and too well seeing as how absolutely no one had been able to find them despite the many efforts made.

 So, getting it all done was not as difficult as anyone might think. Especially when nobody suspected them or paid attention. Everyone was too busy focusing on all of Tim and Jason’s movements back then, and he and Jonathan were sixteen and thirteen, respectively. No one knew what was happening until it was too late, until they had been at the airport and left that damn note in the cave.

 Regarding why they did it, he already explained how he was allowed that morning.

 His brothers were tearing apart, little by little. Gotham were taking away a lot of things from them and continued to do so every day. Their vigilante lives began to overwhelm them more and more and the family didn’t help but make it worse with their indifference and their way of dealing with problems, including him.

Damian was sure that if they had not run away, if they had stayed in Gotham and continued with the rhythm they were taking, they would have ended up finally breaking and, with them, their relationship.

 He just knows, he knows that’s what would have happened if he wouldn’t have intervened.

As much as Todd insisted over and over that he didn’t need the attention of the bats around him, that he didn’t want anything to do with the family, his actions indicated how badly he needed approval and apologies from Bruce. Like Tim, who had always depended on that kind of acceptance ever since he was a child and had driven him to seek it wherever he could obtain it. And it didn’t matter how much they both fought for each other, for themselves and their relationship, the rejection of the family, of Bruce, hurt, hurt them, made them suffer despite knowing what could happen, despite having hiding it for years to avoid the problem. They wanted to solve it, they wanted to fix it. But besides all of that, both were also rooted to Gotham and its people in a way that Damian could never empathize, sacrificing and fighting tirelessly for the city until they reached that point of no return where they were, where they sacrificed their lives and his whole being.

Their loyalty and sacrifice for the city, for the bats, was too big, it meant too much to both of them and if they didn’t let them go, if they kept tying up that way, eventually everything would have split them in two, it would have separated them, and they would have allowed it in order to keep the place standing and the bat happy. As always, they were able to consecrate their own happiness for someone else even without wanting to, without realizing it.

 But Damian did it, and he couldn’t allow it. He just couldn’t, much less at that time.

 Damian could lie to others and himself all he wanted, but the need for his brothers to be happy was there. The perspective of them losing what they had because the other bats couldn’t see it, sacrificing their happiness for them again, was too much for him. He thought it was too unfair.

He knew he had been an insufferable brat for years, that he had caused too much trouble, done too much hurt, and could have ruined their lives with his mere presence, but whether they wanted it or not he grew up, they all did, and his relationship with them had improved considerably over the years, too much to let what was happening happen in front of his eyes and stand with arms crossed. Damian’s appreciation for his brothers had grown in a way that he never imagined at first, feeling something that never thought what could feel towards no one, because he and Jason shared a similar past that made them lean on the other without words, and Tim… It was Tim, just like that. Both were patient and annoying until the end, but one day he realized that he loved them and couldn’t see how they were about to collapse.

 They were a weakness, he knew.

 But Damian knew too that he had been a participant in inflicting their suffering, and that moment was the best time to fix it, he could fix it. Because the best way to prevent Gotham, the family, and the vigilante lifestyle from destroying their brothers, was for them to leave everything behind, including everyone, including him. They couldn’t hurt them if they weren’t there. It was that simple.

And that was without doubt his best way to earn their forgiveness, to make amends with them: Give them freedom from all the chains that imprisoned them.

 Jonathan felt the same, he knew it. He owed the red team nothing, not in the same way that Damian did, he didn’t need to feel deserving of their affections or forgiven for his past actions, but Jason and he were friends, and Tim practically raised him with Conner. He was also too fond of them to do anything, and most importantly: he wanted them to stay happy together.

 Anyone would say that he and Jonathan, beyond the brotherly love they felt for the other two, helped them because they reflected too much their own relationship in the elders’. And they would be right.

They didn’t have the same story as them, and they weren’t the same people either, but unintentionally and without knowing they had turned in their greatest reference in terms of relationships, their support to carry theirs forward and, without a doubt, the push they needed to start dating. Their parents seemed not want to see what happened between them back then, as if it didn’t exist and everything followed its normal course, they kept doing it even today. They were both young, had not discussed their sexuality with anyone else and the indifference of their guardians stopped them from doing so. Nor did they know how to cross beyond the line of friendship with the one who was their greatest confidant and puberty is the worst time for human beings. They both felt trapped, confused, and the longest and closest healthy homosexual relationship they ever knew was Tim and Jason, who were in hiding and Damian didn’t even find out about them until the end, but they always seemed to understand and accept their situation more than their own parents.

 Then, when everything exploded, both didn’t hesitate when choosing sides, and not when they helped them escape too. The rejection of Tim and Jason may have affected them as if it had been directed at them, their relationship with their parents was almost irreparable, but they turned that pain into stubbornness and courage to confess  their feelings and help them to leave. Because they wanted them to stay together, they needed them to stay together, since that was their way of showing everyone, themselves, that they could be happy, that they were not in danger. Both Tim and Jason, and them.

 So, yes, they did. They helped them, planned, and carried it out, being fully aware of what they were doing.

 However, it was what came after that they didn’t consider.

 They became so focused on helping those two to escape, that at any moment they didn’t stop to think what would become of them and their surroundings once they left.

 They should have.

 The nightmares, the anxiety, the secrets, and the paranoia became his new normality. The enormous guilt that came with their actions hit them too hard and fast, without giving them time to even assimilate or change it, because once it was done there was no going back.

They both thought they were ready to let Tim and Jason go, but they weren’t. Not them, not their families, not their friends, not even the hero community. No one. The huge gap that their absence left in their teams and families was too big, but they had already disappeared and all that remained was that stupid note along with the consequences it produced.

 The batfamily fell apart like a house of cards in a matter of days, and it could have been in hours if they had not been focused on the search, but the fights continued without rest and the resentment along with the tension didn’t do more than increase over time. The Titans and all the metas who knew the missing ones contributed to the search, but there was no clue, making the situation worse if possible. They were all trying to find a common culprit, or a valid and less painful reason than the one they had to leave because they were unhappy, they even hoped to find them, but they weren’t going to get anything.

And as the days, the weeks, the months went by, the tension increased, everything got worse and both Damian and Jon had to get away from those whose presence could no longer bear, either due to a total loss of confidence after what happened, or because they found themselves seeing themselves as those traitors who had brought suffering to their family and friends.

 Damian couldn’t trust anyone, not anymore, not his father, not Grayson either. He felt like everyone had fallen too high from the pedestal on which he had them and had to watch Bruce fall into another self-destructive spiral where no Robin was going to get him out this time. The betrayal and rejection he had felt from them didn’t allow him to have a civil conversation with none until eleven months after what happened at least, and even with Grayson he needed more time without wanting to yell at him until he was hoarse. Yet, he had to endure seeing how Brown, Batgirl, walked away increasingly because she couldn’t bear to see their faces, and how Cassandra came back from his mission in China to find her lost and broken family, how Alfred completed his tasks silently and not daring to say a word of it too, afraid to bring up the subject and cause again all those discussions both new and old that originated after the disaster.

Jonathan also felt deeply betrayed by his father and his lack of response to what happened, for his inflexible opinion in agreement with Bruce’s and his indifference to what his son felt. Damian knew they had a fight much stronger than Jon had wanted to admit, that he threw more things in his face than he said, but he decided not to pressure him on the subject and respect if at any time he wanted to give more details. Besides that, his boyfriend saw how Conner Kent crumbled at the loss of his Robin, how he looked for him without a break over and over again to the point of even neglecting his responsibilities with his team and his own health.

 All that pain, all that loss, all the tears, the screams, the fights, and the problems, they caused it. All of them. Without hesitation. And the best thing is that they weren’t planning to fix it. No. They would take the secret to the grave if possible, because if there was one thing they couldn’t regret or back down, it was to make Tim and Jason happy, despite the enormous price they had to pay.

 In their poor defense, they didn’t know that everything was going to fall apart like that. They didn’t come to think that the reaction would be so strong, nor the chain of disasters that followed. But it wasn’t until they saw everyone suffering and tearing apart that they realized what they had done, and that everyone would get very angry if they found out about their actions.

 So, they had no choice but to keep quiet and move on, because what else could they do? They hid it all, they studied, went together to prom, moved into their apartment in Metropolis, Damian got a job, Jon is in college, and despite the difficult family situation and missing the red team a lot, they looked for their own happiness and normality where they knew they could find it, where they taught them they could get it.

 And they were fine, really.

 They were together and fine. The weight of guilt was not so big if you shared it, and they both learned to lie fairly well together at an early age, also to continue side by side no matter what. They didn’t even have to lie that much, just pretend, because they never had a clue where Todd and Drake were, the best was not knowing it and the moment they saw them go through the airport gate, they too disappeared for them completely.

Mostly, they couldn’t talk normally with their parents, sometimes they had to be too on guard or alert in case someone discovered something, every now and then everything became too much and they lost control of their emotions, but they always ended up overlapping. They had nightmares in which everyone surrounded them and yelled that it was their fault, in which they saw flashbacks of happy moments turned into true horrors, where they heard resentment, poison towards them and pure hatred. But despite waking up screaming, crying, begging for forgiveness, they didn’t forget the most important thing: they did it for a reason, and they weren’t responsible for everything.

 If you love something you have to let it go, and that’s just what Tim and Jason chose to do. As much as they had been the ones to give them the option, it’s what they chose and they had to respect it, they had to deal with it. They couldn’t tie them to a life of misfortune, nor force them to return when they weren’t even part of the real problem there.

 Damian was determined to do that for as long as possible, to protect their new lives with everything he had, during all of his if necessary, because that decision was the only selfish decision that his brothers had made in a long time, the only one they had made thinking of themselves, and he felt they deserved it, he knew they deserved it. He was going to fight to preserve that.

 For that, maybe he should have tried a lot harder in Zodome to avoid this disaster.

 He had to hold back himself not to curse and fall prey to his anger when Gordon revealed in the batcave that the reason they had found his brothers had been because of the explosion in which he had been involved. He had felt so helpless, because he hadn’t found out what had caused the disaster until that meeting, and it didn’t make it better.

The whole time he thought that the terrorist cell he was chasing was on the island because of its black market and its easy access, didn’t come to imagine that they were going after a hidden supercomputer of the league that they wanted to sabotage and that they would also fail in their attempt, almost killing him and uncovering his lies.

 If he had been faster, if he had been more focused, if he hadn’t been regretting and missing his brothers again, if he had been better, none of this would have happened. They definitely wouldn’t be on their way to Florida.

 He could have prevented so many things. And yet he had failed, failed them, again.

No matter how hard he had fought for them, how long he had resisted, in the end everything had fallen apart because he couldn’t fulfill a simple mission or control his temper.

 It was very frustrating.

 Damian dug his nails into his forearms, squirming in his seat. His back hurt, also the side of his face where Grayson had hit him before. His fingers itched a lot, he wanted his phone back, his comms, something. He wanted to call Jonathan and make sure he was okay, safe, at least hear his voice to be able to calm down. But they had both been isolated from each other and from everyone by the time Damian made his confession.

As they thought it would happen, just when the others learned the truth took all forms of communication and kept them under surveillance. Jon was surely under the strict and impassive gaze of Clark after a warning from his father. As if any of them could jump in at any moment and alert Tim and Jason that they had been caught and they were going for them, when in fact they didn’t know how to contact them or where they were.

 He sighed, felt Grayson’s gaze on him again but completely ignored it. He was tired, angry, and resentful. He felt like an animal on the way to the slaughterhouse, his heart pounding and his mistakes hounding him, reminding him of everything he could have done to prevent this. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, he didn’t want to see anyone. All he wanted to do was scream, get mad, scream more, fight and beg for them to turn around, to stop the plane and all this madness, to go back to Gotham and forget everything they knew so they could get on with their lives like until now.

 But that was already impossible, everything had changed, and they were not going to forget it, they couldn’t.

 Looking straight ahead, Damian remembered Barbara Gordon’s soft grip on his arm before getting on batplane, he remembered the way she leaned, whispered an apology and with an indecipherable look said it.

 “Even if you don’t know it or want to admit it, you need this Damian. You need to see it.”

 He considered his answer, but he just gave her a cold look and got on the plane. He sat in his place, waited for takeoff, and hadn’t moved since, still quiet and waiting for this journey to end and see the destruction of what his life had been until now.

 Everything was still silent; everyone was still quiet.

 Damian didn’t care. After all, he had been six years without speaking, what mattered a little more?

 ~0.0~

 They landed before lunchtime, outside the city, about a thirty-minute walk from the town. They were not detected, and their objective was not to attract the attention to alert the former vigilantes of the place.

 Even after landing, for a few seconds, no one dared to move or say anything at all, even though some of them seemed to be about to get off the plane and begin the search immediately. They all stood still as if they could break a fragile peace that had never existed. The tension seemed to reach its peak just as Bruce got up and began to give directions of the procedure to be followed. Without having Oracle’s help this time to track them down immediately, they had to break up into groups to explore the area and check out the places they already knew Tim and Jason had been seen, hoping to meet them.

 Dick and Cass would go to the local electronics store and its surroundings, where Tim might appear. It was obvious why Grayson chose to search for Drake first, and why Cass was with him, since there was no doubt that Timothy could attack him as soon as he sees him. He didn’t blame him; he would do it too.

Brown would take care of the library, where they saw Jason. She was not in much danger with him if she found him, at least not entirely. Stephanie was not so involved in the conflict and her relationship with Jason had always been neutral, they had a mutual respect that they could use to their advantage this time.

 Damian was evidently forced to go with his father, who was clearly not going to leave him alone on the plane and was watching and controlling him like he was still ten years old and was planning to do something stupid. Much to his regret, he planned to check out the downtown area and where the other two had been seen crossing a pedestrian crossing that morning, having to cover a less specific and greater terrain.

 Great.

 Damian had assumed his complaints would not be heard at all, no matter what he felt, how angry he was or how bad what they were doing was. So, he decided to apply the total ice tactic and be silent all the way to the small town, analyzing the route, the place, thinking how easy it would be to run and alert his brothers before disaster struck. He didn’t, and he didn’t say a word as they all parted, and the search began. Just kept going next to his father, rigid, tense. He felt as if he were outside his own body, in another place, everything seemed out of focus and his nerves were on the surface. It was difficult to breathe, his chest contracted more and more, and he didn’t want to look at the streets, at the people. He feared so much meeting Drake and Todd. Standing next to Bruce looking for them, he felt like the most twisted of the traitors, again.

 The traitor betraying again, what a surprise.

 At least the place wasn’t too bad, for what little he deigned to see. As reported, the town was small and cozy, smelled of the sea and clean air. It was close to the beach and it was a sunny and lively place, very neat and beautiful with a close community made up of families and locals from there along with some tourists. They all seemed quite close and upper-middle class, from what could be seen.

 It was very different from Gotham.

 Laughter, lively conversations and happy sounds of children and adults, accompanied by the sound of the waves in the distance and life in general in the city were heard. It was refreshing, something new, different. There was no fog, no dark alleys, trash, rats, or the constant threat that a madman dressed as a clown would brutally murder you and your children for fun.

 Damian had stopped for a second to look at a lady who was walking his dog -a white chihuahua very ugly, but funny and whose face of sorrow in this life alleviated his anguish a little- when his father’s voice made him turn to him in annoyance.

 “I have brought your phone and comms.” He said to him as he continued walking, urging him to follow him and quite attentive to the area in case he saw any sign of those he had come looking for.

 Damian didn’t answer, he just kept walking beside him.

He knew he wasn’t going to return any of this or stop watching him until he was sure he couldn’t interfere with his plans, but he was informing him of it to gain ground with him. It was always his way of trying to score points, it was a kind of punishment veiled with concern and the usual parental explanation for not looking so bad. The typical “I have punished you with this, but I’m being good, I hope you understand and forgive me because this is your fault for misbehaving, not mine.”

 It won’t work.

 “I’ll give them back to you as soon all of this ends.” He continued saying when seeing that he didn’t obtain an answer.

 Damian rolled his eyes and continued in silence, walking briskly. It hadn’t worked, mostly because he wasn’t thirteen anymore and knew the trick, so he was still angry, a lot.

Bruce had to realize that hadn’t gone as expected, because he heard him sigh and call him again, in a slight tone of reproach.

 “Damian.”

 No answer.

 “Damian Wayne.” He called him again in a severe tone. “Can you speak to me, please?”

 He didn’t speak. What’s more, he looked at a couple that passed right by them as they walked to a black Lab, who seemed very happy to be there. Reminded him a bit of Titus, he missed him, his friend had a good life.

 “You are no longer a child, and I hope you understand that in these situations you are required not to behave as such.”

 He frowned. Really? The trick of maturity wasn’t going to work either right now, much less when the first to treat him like a child it was precisely him, invalidating his opinions and keeping an eye on him. He couldn’t be serious.

 He snorted and kept walking, not wanting his temper to get the better of him again and crossing the crosswalk that he recognized as the one from the photo he had seen on the batcomputer. His heart clenched for a second, he lowered his head holding his breath, because he was stepping on the same ground that his brothers had passed, they had been here and now he was crossing it with his father while they were looking for them.

The chances that they were getting closer to them were more and more real, the option of being found head-on were many and his hands had started to sweat. He didn’t know what he would do if that happened, he didn’t know how he would react if it was Bruce and he who ended up finding them before anyone else.

 “Giving me the silent treatment will not solve anything of this, son.” Bruce ended up saying again, crossing the street in  a tired tone and ignoring the internal struggle that Damian had at that moment.

 At that, the last Robin looked at him angrily, because of what had said in itself, and because he had called him “son”. He had no right to play that trick at the moment, at all. He refused, and he was too upset right now to that.

 “What we’re doing either, but we’re doing it anyway, right?” He finally reproached him with coldness and aversion.

 He listened to Bruce sigh again and kept walking, stepping forward to leave him a little behind and still without looking closely around. He continued going down the street after crossing the pedestrian crossing, staring at the ground and with his heart beating faster and faster. He didn’t want to walk, he didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want to continue arguing, he wanted to go home and hold Jonathan until they couldn’t make out where one began and the other ended.

 “You have to understand that this is necessary.” Bruce justified himself behind him, still in that serious and exhausted tone.

 Damian felt anger wash over him once more, almost rising up his throat and burning it to start screaming and throw words sharp like knives. But they were in public, the goal was not to attract attention and nothing good would come of losing control now.

 They came to an intersection with an avenue, but Damian continued without looking back, hoping to lose sight of his father for as long as possible.

 “For whom?” He asked with annoyance. “Tt.”

 Clearly solely for them. He, Grayson, or whoever couldn’t live with what they had done. But that wasn’t his problem, nor was it anyone’s. They didn’t have to do this, it was unnecessary, but after all Damian was the selfish one for not having said a word about what he did for years.

 Of course.

 He hoped to hear an answer behind him, knowing that his father would try to lecture him, scold him, or make him understand his point of view, but curiously he got nothing. When Damian took a couple of steps across the intersection, he realized that he didn’t listen either the unmistakable Bruce’s steps behind or beside him, they had disappeared.

 He frowned and snorted exasperated.

 “What? Now is it you who’s going to give me the silence treatment?” He complained in annoyance and stopped on his own steps to turn around and look at him, the disgust inside him urged him to start another discussion.

 However, when he caught a glimpse of his father and realized that he was completely still, rigid, standing and watching in awe to his right, fixing his gaze in something, in someone, which was far down the avenue, that disgust quickly transformed into a mixture of anxiety and emotion so strong that Damian could have passed out if he hadn’t been so on guard.

 Slowly, fearfully but curious, he turned his head and followed his father’s stunned gaze to where it had been frozen.

 And he wanted to scream.

 He wanted to scream, cry, laugh, he wanted to run there, wanted to flee, wanted to do many things but felt completely incapable of doing none because like Bruce he froze, was petrified and was unable to react, unable to decide.

 Because they were right there.

 Timothy Drake and Jason Todd were right there. A few meters from them.

 His hands started to tremble, to sweat, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t, his throat was closed, his lungs could barely function well, his heart was beating so hard he couldn’t hear anything else, his head was in chaos, everything turned and stirred.

 But it didn’t matter, it didn’t matter at all, because they were there, they were just there.

 Damian couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but stare intensely, trying to assimilate that it was true, that it was them, in front of him. They were alive, they were fine, they were there, and they still hadn’t realized that they were near, observing them and about to run towards them.

 They were on the sidewalk, talking lively with two women, who seemed to really enjoy their company. Their postures and smiles were relaxed, open. They were side by side and chatting with each other as if there was no other problem in the world, and if he paid enough attention, if he tuned his ears enough, he could hear Jason’s deep voice and Drake’s light laugh in the distance. And they had definitely changed, they had grown. They were more mature, more adults plus attractive if that was possible. Jason still kept his white lock in his hair and his leather jacket, but his posture was less threatening, calmer, it seemed more centered and stable than ever. Tim had cut his hair, and looked shorter if possible, but he kept that soft and genuine smile he never wore while he was in one of the expensive suits he wore at WE.

In the eyes of both there was light, there was life, a shine that he had never seen in them. They carried an aura that he never thought he would witness in them.

 His eyes itched, he could cry, he didn’t know if he had already started to cry. His instincts screamed at him, screamed so much, so many different things and with such force that he didn’t know which ones to follow. One part told him to pick up his father, get away from that street, not alert others and leave in order to keep that light in them forever. But the another yelled at him to run towards them, to approach them suddenly, hug them hard and never let go, because he had missed them so much, and was glad that they were still together and so calm.

 The instincts to go to them seemed to win definitively when Jason’s bigger figure leaned closer to Timothy’s to put his arm around his shoulders, causing the smaller to smile at him and intertwine their hands together without hesitation, where -for a second- an unusual shine on the fingers of both hands caught his eye.

 Rings. That were rings. They wore rings. Wedding rings. Alliances.

 His resolve broke, his mind went blank. Without realizing it, Damian took a step, then another, another. Tentative, automatic, unconscious steps. He still couldn’t barely breathe and now his gaze was focused on their clasped hands, on their posture, in that hug, at their smiles while they were still talking without realizing they were there.

 Just as he was about to start running, a firm and powerful hand grabbed his forearm hard and pulled him back, making him complain and stumble in surprise on his steps. He hadn’t seen that coming, and he turned astonished to see how his father, surprised too, had clung to his arm, and held him in place, shaking his head.

 He looked at him in startled, almost panicked, breathing hard and with a million questions going through his mind, but discarding them all quickly at the fact that he was stopping him from going to his brothers.

 A shrill chime that was too familiar rang out somewhere, but that wasn’t important to him right now.

 Damian shook his arm hard, flustered, grabbed Bruce’s hand, and tried to pull it away from him, shaking his head. But he couldn’t push him away, his father didn’t let him go, he tried to take a step towards his brothers and was pushed back again. He was breathing faster his heart was going to explode.

 “No.” His father said, his voice also broken with nervousness. “Wait. No.”

 He didn’t want to wait. He couldn’t. But the fact that it was precisely Bruce who wanted to wait now, who was stopping him right now, turned his alarms back on and in his agitation, Damian realized that something was wrong, that he was missing something.

 Shaking his head hard and trying to regulate his breathing, he turned his gaze back to the ex-robins to realize that the scene in front of him had changed, that indeed, in his surprise for having them close again and his focus to watching them, he had been missing an important detail.

 A very important detail.

 The women his brothers were talking to were not the only ones on this street, there were more people there, it was full of adults, more groups talking to each other, men and women waiting for something in front of a building. A big one, well-kept, with traffic signs specific that he knew and with a gate of colors, childish. It was now open and from which children were coming out, who were screaming, shouting, laughing, and running to the adults who welcomed them with open arms.

 Wait.

 The adults were parents. This was a fucking school.

 “Dad!”

 “Daddy!”

 Two voices, shrill and childish, repeated those words with genuine joy as they quickly approached Tim and Jason, whose smiles grew up, and they looked fondly at each other.

 A boy and a girl, small, smiling, and excited, entered the scene. Holding hands and running as fast as their short legs allowed them, they finished throwing themselves towards Jason and Tim, laughing happily, with squeals of excitement and a warm welcome.

Jason caught the girl in mid-jump, hugging her tightly and not taking long to cover her face with kisses as she squirmed and laughed out loud, happy in his grip. Tim bent down to extend his arms and receive an effusive hug from the boy, separating shortly to leave the most tender and gentle kiss that Damian had never seen on his cheek while the child allowed himself to be picked up carefully to be hold. After that, they both ended up with smiling children in their arms as they talked, greeted the other and laughed with them.

 “I haven’t said everything.” Barbara said. “You have to see it, Damian.” Barbara said.

 Well.

 Shit.

[crystalelemental]

heavenlyfury replied to your post “Another merge project complete, and this time, we have the illustrious...”

An impressive unit, and what a character! My issue with Edelgard is, as much as her goals are noble and understable, her actions are just... Very unreasonable? Like she could have done things very differently in order to get what she wanted, and I simply cannot fathom why she thought Those who slithered in the dark were better allies than the church. Like, you don't trust Rhea, I get it.

But did she expect to wage war on the entire continent, basically alone (without diplomatically support), before taking on an enemy that has NUKES? Like those priorities are all kinds of wrong! But I still kinda love her intensity and the ambition, the idea of making her a different kind of protagonist. Anyways, congrats again!

Thank you.  Edelgard is indeed pretty huge as a unit.  Anyway, the short version of this is “no one’s wrong for having issues with Edelgard and her approach,” but I do have a lot to add in here.

I’m going to try going through this in order, but I’m building this as I go so bear with me.

What was her alternative?  On the one hand, we know from experience that Rhea doesn’t want to lead, and passes the torch off to Byleth immediately.  That could’ve happened in the near future for the CF route as well, even without Edelgard instigating war.  But how would she know that?  Edelgard has no way of knowing, or believing, that Rhea would cede power.  She’s also got her own experience seeing her family’s power usurped by the nobility, who then immediately abused that power, and resulted in her and countless others being tortured for crest research.  From her own experiences, it makes sense that she’s not willing to wait, and believes no one would accept her proposal if she were peaceful.  And in that last part, she’s...kinda right.  Rhea would cede her power to Byleth, sure, but she wouldn’t be willing to undermine the system she established to maintain peace and safety for herself.

Diplomacy sounds good, and is always the preference, but from Edelgard’s experience and point of view, she’s seen how awful the nobility is, how awful the system Rhea created is, and has seen how hard she cracks down on anyone who goes against that.  Lonato’s little rebellion is immediately and violently suppressed, getting the innocents under him caught up in it as well.  Hell, his son.  Allegedly, he was executed for participating in a conspiracy to assassinate Rhea.  Which directly mirrors something that happens after we beat Lonato: we find that document about a plan to assassinate her.  But that turned out to be nothing, everyone saw right through it and identified that there was an alternate goal.  Everyone...except Rhea and those working in the church.  So how likely was it that Lonato’s son was actually going to do anything of the sort?  Was his execution just?  Was the execution of those in the Western Church just, considering they didn’t do anything particularly violent, they just used an opportunity to break into the vault and attempt stealing a hidden relic.  Rhea may not be directly violent and out burning villages and slaughtering innocents for funsies.  But she’s not exactly merciful, and will go hard against anyone who opposes what she upholds as necessity.  Why would Edelgard assume diplomacy would work?  Wouldn’t trying to be diplomatic by undermining the teachings of Seiros to suggest an alternative get her branded a heretic, and have the entire might of the church against her?  At best, she’d lose her chance at returning power to the throne, and the corrupt nobles who allowed her family to be tortured and decimated maintain their status.  At worst, she could be executed for the crime of going against the church on top of that.  We don’t know for sure, we don’t see any of that play out, but from Edelgard’s perspective, they’re not likely to respond, and giving them that advance warning lets them prepare, and the Church is still the seat of power in Fodlan.

Which brings us to the Agarthans.  Yes, Edelgard siding with them seems incredibly stupid.  And it is infuriating, knowing that what happened to her was directly their fault.  Which is something she’s aware of, mind.  The Crimson Flower route makes clear that they don’t trust the Agarthans at all, it’s a temporary alliance to face off against a more threatening foe.  Which...honestly, is fair.  Aside from the fact that the Church has the strongest standing army, there’s Rhea to deal with.  In Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, we see Rhea, in dragon form, caught in the blast range of TWO of those nukes, and she doesn’t die.  That should express the level of discrepancy between the power of a dragon, and the power the Agarthans have.  It took two nukes to injure her.  What are general human tactics supposed to do against that?  Against not just the human forces among her ranks, but also the golems she has under her command?  Their power is, in fact, a necessity to face off against this combined power.  Though I will fully admit that they could’ve done a better job of having the Agarthans directly involved in the fights.

As for why is she still willing to accept that help, despite them being the most directly responsible...ultimately it comes down to seeing beyond herself.  Yes, the Agarthans are a problem.  They are the most directly responsible for her suffering, Lysithea’s suffering, and are the most direct cause of bloodshed in the narrative.  But consider.  The Agarthans’ crest research is something that’s accepted by the nobles in the empire.  It’s not like they didn’t know what was up.  And society at large values crests so significantly, that the idea of being able to imbue others with that power, and creating people with two crests as weapons, is enticing.  The Agarthans are directly responsible, but the nobility is indirectly complicit in atrocities for their own gain, while the church created the system that places value on the kind of work and ambitions they have.  Crests are important, controlling crests and their power is the basis of society.  You have to beat that system, which Rhea is the head of.  And consider that when Arianrhod was nuked in CF, Edelgard is legitimately surprised.  She likely didn’t know the Agarthans had that kind of firepower, which contextualizes a lot.  Rhea’s a huge dragon, who even the Agarthans are scared of despite their advanced technology.  But their advanced technology is mostly duplications of the divine weapons, which means their power is roughly equivalent to yours.  One is a massive threat well above your level of power, and the other is roughly equivalent.  You want both dead, but the equivalent foe is willing to back you to take on the much stronger one.  You gonna say no?

Anyway, let’s say Edelgard did address the Agarthans first.  Just broke in and cracked Thales’ skull open with Aymr and took a shit right on his floor.  What then?  You took out those responsible for the direct application of atrocities, but the system that permitted it is still in play, run by a super powerful being you can’t defeat.  Consider what happened with Miklan; effectively disowned solely for not having a crest, and driven to what he wound up doing.  He was a bastard because of the environment he grew up in.  The system as a whole breeds the kind of resentment and power-seeking ambition that Miklan displays.  So if she does kill off the Agarthans right away, but then can’t take out Rhea...what did that accomplish?  Temporary reprieve?  Because the system still permits for people to perform blood treatments, and implants the desire to do so, because it values crests and their power above human life.  You’re not getting to the source of the issue any other way.

Not to get too political on main, but it’s kinda like what we’ve got going on in the US right now.  People are recognizing that it’s the entire system that’s the problem.   The system is corrupt to the point it produces these problems by design.  Simply firing a few officers won’t fix police brutality, racial sensitivity trainings won’t fix inherent discrimination in the system, etc.  The system has to go.  And trying to address it around the direct issue with these calls of “just go out and vote in people who will fix it!” isn’t sufficient.  A changing of the guard in the same system will yield the same results.  The system of nobility and how it’s determined is the problem in this scenario.  Changing out who the nobles are isn’t going to fix it, you have to dismantle the concept of nobility and create a new system in its place to avoid this just happening again.  That’s the crux of Edelgard’s motivation.

I think people get annoyed with the Agarthans because they consider her motivation a personal one.  And to a degree, it is.  She was directly harmed by their actions, and by the system that permitted their actions, and of course must have personal feelings regarding that matter.  But Edelgard is someone who looks beyond herself and her immediate pain to look at what is necessary to accomplish a broader goal.  It goes so far that she’s willing to work with the people who caused her harm, if it means preventing harm to others by dismantling the system.

The real question is whether the outcome she hopes for is realistic.  She’s essentially creating a single locus of power, just like Rhea did, and hinging all of the future on that locus of power doing the right thing and continuing her work.  Because she doesn’t stay in power either, she steps down.  All it would take is one person gaining that same level of power, but having completely different views, to undermine everything she’s done.  Not to mention her goal seems to be creation of a meritocracy, which sounds great, but plenty of places in the world right now say they have that and how well is that going?  Merit is often determined by experiences, which in turn is directly influenced by wealth.  While the concept of “nobility” may be erased, unless that includes redistribution of wealth and resources for the common good, people who were once nobility still have an advantage and will remain on top.  I mean, god, look at Ferdinand’s suggestion of free public schooling as a means of determining merit for those who should lead society in political life.  How’s that working out now?  The US education system’s sure doing great with making sure things are equitable because it’s free.  There are a lot of factors to consider, and Edelgard’s current assessment of where to go once she wins isn’t fully formed, which means whatever system she creates is likely to be imperfect as well.  Not to mention a system built on a mountain of corpses might have some moral quandaries to wrestle with.  But if the alternative is keeping the current system because “She doesn’t have a better idea,” then I’d say she was right to act.  You can’t let something awful continue just because you can’t fix every problem at once.  Something needed to be done, and someone needed to take that first step toward true change.  Edelgard was willing to be the one to take that step.  So while there may be problems to her approach, problems which she openly acknowledges and identifies, I think it’s better that she’s willing to go forward with a plan to enact change and try something, instead of just sitting still, letting things continue, and doing nothing but “sending thoughts and prayers.”  Sometimes there is no good solution, and you can’t just sit around theory crafting until you’re certain it’s going to work.  Sometimes you just have to act and do your best to get the best outcome.  And that’s what Edelgard does.  And I love it.

[acitybythelightdivided2006]

on edelgard, and some of the various gotchas people use to discredit her (major spoilers for the whole game):

im gonna keep it real. edelgard was like, 98% in the moral right for her actions.

“she’s a fascist!”

hardly if at all. starting a war doesn’t make you a fascist in the slightest, and her ideology falls far closer to various forms of representative democracy than anything close to fascism. considering various CF endings do corroborate her goals working out, albeit long-term. even before democracy can set into the land, edelgard has the conscience to appoint commoners to positions of power, e.g. manuela becoming prime minister in her and ferdinand’s ending. a power-hungry tyrant probably isn’t going to step down immediately after feeling her work is done, because a tyrant’s only work is maintaining their strength above the people.

"she's an imperialist!”

sure, but her motivations AND end results do not reflect any past real-world imperialism. there is no historical parallel from her to imperialism that relates so much as there is from her to revolutionaries like napoleon (or even lenin), made even clearer by the knowledge that rhea and the church hold a cultural grip over the entire continent and the war is specifically against the church. almyra is never stated to have problems with the leicester alliance so much as they do fodlan as a whole - it just happens that theyre closest to the alliance rather than anyone else. this dichotomy between fodlan and almyra is further acknowledged by a personal problem written by cyril in part 2, where he specifies that people view the two continents separately rather than the alliance versus almyra separately. anyway, regardless of any historical parallels, this is not a retelling of actual history; you can take edelgard’s actions at face value for what they are.

“but this is a narrative written in japan, surely there are sympathies for japan’s imperialist history at play here?”

imperial japan was far from edelgard’s empire. edelgard fights for democracy (or meritocracy, if you prefer) and liberation. imperial japan fought for control and resources. also, do not assume a japanese writer discussing imperialism and war as a theme is automatically drawing parallels to hypothetical sympathies.

"her war is worse than any stagnation rhea was responsible for!"

the crest system suffocated the populace and tortured the nobility alike. any look at the noble students’ supports corroborate this. this stagnation lasted for 1000 years already, and even rhea agrees that her actions over the past millennia were inexcusable in silver snow. this is hardly mentioning the fact that there are various skirmishes and revolts before the war begins, such as lonato’s rebellion. five years of explicit unrest resulting in a golden age taking place (on every route, not just crimson flower) proves that rhea’s rule was stifling the continent.

“edelgard’s actions are overtly violent, disturb the peace, and kill innocent lives!”

while nobody would deny that yes, a warring faction is going to commit atrocities in said war (which is a trait shared by every faction in the game) edelgard nonetheless avoids needless conflict when it is available to do so and vastly prefers to keep civilians out of the picture in said conflicts. by far the best example of this is at the final chapter of crimson flower where she openly gives rhea, her primary enemy in the war, a chance to surrender without any violence required. fighting only begins when rhea sets flame to the city in her violent rage. this is after the fact that edelgard can also spare a vast amount of her former classmates, most notably claude and lysithea. the only reason she kills dimitri in CF outright is because she realizes that dimitri has wasted his life focused on nothing more than revenge, and realizes that he needs to be put out of his misery - the same reason she does not clue him into the truth of the tragedy of duscur, because she realizes that killing him after destroying his entire worldview is needless cruelty. speaking of dimitri, another example of this on a different route is the fact that she is not the aggressor against dimitri in azure moon - he is essentially a wrench in her plan to unify fodlan and establish her goals.

“she starts the war on a false narrative! her understanding of the nemesis/seiros conflict is not true!”

yes, edelgard’s understanding of the conflict is untrue. however, the facts of the matter are known only by rhea, and perhaps seteth and flayn as well. regardless of edelgard’s understanding of the nemesis/seiros conflict being incorrect, that is hardly the reason she starts the war. she starts the war specifically out of a desire to eradicate the corrupt crest system that ruined her and countless other peoples’ lives and gave the agarthans reason to experiment on her, her siblings, and other nobles like lysithea, and to establish the commoners of the continent as independent.

“the adrestian empire’s past actions are unquestionably evil, like their control of brigid as a vassal state!”

yeah, and? edelgard’s actions are not the actions of her predecessors, and she even goes out of her way to rectify these mistakes. on the brigid example, she outright tells petra, who is there as a political prisoner, that brigid can gain independence for itself so long as they assist her in the war effort, which, on CF and routes where petra is not recruited to another faction, seems to happen rather cooperatively.

“she allies herself with the agarthans to further her goals, and if there’s any villainous faction in three houses, it’s TWSITD!”

if edelgard has one fatal flaw, it’s that she’s determined to a fault and needs to get things done quickly lest she dies as a result of her twin crests. while yes, she does indeed ally herself with the agarthans, it is through extremely gritted teeth and with the intent to dispose of them immediately after she is done using their resources. the ending of crimson flower outright says she wages further war specifically on this terrorist group.

“her disdain for rhea is based on a hatred for the nabateans as a whole!”

there are very few nabateans that edelgard ever even knows, and only one of them she ever shows malice towards, that being rhea. both flayn and seteth are able to be spared and edelgard bears no ill will towards them for their race so much as she does their affiliation with the church, and even then, as mentioned, edelgard consistently avoids violence that is unnecessary. as mentioned before, she does attempt to spare rhea’s life at the end of crimson flower, but is met instead with a city on fire.

“she’s responsible for the tragedy of duscur!”

maybe if you listen to dimitri’s entirely false understanding of the situation early in azure moon. she was barely an adolescent and had quite literally zero political power. dimitri needed a scapegoat and realizes the truth (or at least becomes far closer to realizing the truth) with byleth’s influence in azure moon.

“she employed kostas and his gang to kill claude and dimitri in the beginning of the game!”

yeahhh i said 98% for a reason lol

[ainchase]

kinda curious since i was exploring through the english elwiki: if ebalon was the one responsible behind the el exploding and left, and the el pieces were stabilized by the el masters putting their energy in, how does the moon el exist? cause i didn't read the whole story, so i have no clue how it exists, so i decided to ask you.

they filled that plot hole recently:

https://ainchase.tumblr.com/post/611116496232513536/what-happened-500-years-ago

https://ainchase.tumblr.com/post/611116671875399680/kog-oh-uh-sun-shard-um-yeah-no-it-wasnt

It was assumed that Ebalon was around to imbue the Moon El before going MIA, and everyone thought he might not be such a bad guy if he gave up his energy for the greater good. Turns out he never did.

I guess the way they say it makes it difficult to follow; basically, this is what happened:

Ebalon is a confirmed member of the Henir Order (at least confirmed by the El Masters)

Henir Order just wants to fuck shit up for no reason other than that they want everything to return to nothing, as everything should be

This made the El their prime target for many centuries

When the El exploded and the Lady of El went missing, people thought it was Solace and blamed him for everything

Life on Elrios literally cannot exist without the power of El

This created problems when the El exploded

To salvage what little El shards that had survived the explosion, the El Masters decided to use their power, at great risk to their own lives, to imbue the El shards with the elemental power they were in charge of

Solace was on the run with Harnier, so he technically wasn’t around to restore the El shards with his power, and so was Ebalon

Turns out the Sun Priestess at the time got some help from Solace secretly and was able to create a Sun El shard

Ebalon never showed up and the Moon Priestess at the time gave up her own life to create the Moon El shard, and it was tiny in comparison to other El shards because she was just a priestess

Ebalon is a bad guy

After imbuing power into the El shards, the El Masters fell into a slumber:

Denif - left behind to seal Elrianode before falling into sleep himself

Gaia - fell asleep

Ventus - fell asleep

Rosso - hurled himself into the demon world to protect Elrios from his unbalanced, rampaging demonic power where he imprisoned himself for 500 years (link)

Solace - went to Elysion

Ebalon - ??????????

Around these saved El shards, cities grew: 

Earth El - Velder

Water El - Hamel

Wind El - Caluso Tribal Village (include Sander in here?)

Fire El - Lanox

Moon El - Isshin

For those who are not sure what Isshin actually is: 

Xin, an empire in the northern part of Fluone Continent 

Fahrmann, a dominion of Xin empire

Isshin, a town in Fahrmann, where Ara hails from

Sun El - ??? idk no one knows

[azebraslife]

TWSITD was bad for 3H’s narrative

Hopefully Three Houses’ DLCs will add some meat to TWSITD, but as it stands, I think their inclusion is overall detrimental to 3H’s writing. I have grievances with the narratives of many FE games, for that matter, for making a single group (usually religious, though not in TWSITD’s case) be the driving force behind most of their games’ villains. In TWSITD’s case, they’re so cartoonishly evil and have such a hand in nearly all of the game’s problems (dating back more than a thousand years, even before Seiros and Nemesis’ clash), it detracts from the gray morality that the game tries to depict.

Edelgard probably gets the worst of it, because their involvement splits her story between that of a strong-willed individual who came out of her traumatic experiences willing to do anything to see her ideal future come to fruition in her (shortened) lifetime, and a helpless girl who’s little more than a puppet for her abusers, forced to do their bidding until she can bide her time to strike back -- which is only after she’s achieved everything they want out of her (aside from her own death).

I don’t think those two aspects have to be mutually exclusive, for that matter. But its handling in 3H is bogged down by the way TWSITD is completely brushed aside for Crimson Flower’s ending while the Church of Seiros, which ironically doesn’t even have a strong hand in the things they’re accused of, takes the brunt of CF’s narrative villainy. The game never delves into the implications of having to live with Arundel (the disguise of Thales, TWSITD’s leader), and how Edelgard was very likely influenced by him, if subconsciously. Instead, CF just rolls with the idea that Edelgard is both morally and logically correct, and TWSITD are the lesser evil to be dealt with when the time is right.

If CF’s epilogue talked about her tumultuous rule and the difficulties of ruling a united Fodlan, I think it would be more palatable. But no, it's a golden ending that completely ignores the heavy implications that she’s become Seiros II. It also ignores how the Insurrection of the Seven was a response to Ionius’ consolidation of power -- and considering the fates of House Hrym, which attempted to leave the Empire in response, and House Ordelia, which provided aid to Hrym, the nobles have a decent reason for believing Ionius could become a tyrant. (In fact, Hanneman suggests to Hubert that his father’s participation may have been to protect House Vestra.)

On top of all that, due to Arundel’s involvement in the Empire’s retaliation against Hrym and Ordelia and in the Insurrection, it’s easy to draw TWSITD’s connection to them. The crest experiments on Lysithea and her siblings were test runs for the experiments on Edelgard and hers, and after the success in Lysithea, TWSITD were satisfied enough to sell the knowledge of their results to Duke Aegir as, perhaps, a solution to the dwindling number of Crest-bearing children.

The premise of doing unethical experiments to resolve their Crest issue would actually be fine narratively! Arguing that unethical scientific and technological progress is needed to spur growth would fit right in place with a story that has us inciting a 5-year-long war in the name of overturning a corrupt social order. But... that doesn’t happen. Edelgard, who is among those who suffered the most at TWSITD’s experiments and sorely wants payback, is ironically the one who has to turn a blind eye to it and let it continue. It’s also undermined through Hanneman, who achieves the fruits of his Crest research (granting and removing Crests) regardless of the route he’s on, without the bloody death toll TWSITD leave behind. He’s also basically sponsored by Garreg Mach (and by extension, the Church of Seiros), so it’s not like they oppose Crest research as long as he isn’t looting bones and hearts and blood for it.

Any argument that the Church of Seiros is suppressing technological advancement is undermined by Shamir and Claude, neither of whom were raised in Fodlan. Both question the large emphasis on religion in Fodlan, but never its technological state. There are no accounts of Almyra or Dagda having significant technological advancement, nor evidence that Rhea cares enough to try and suppress it in foreign countries to keep up appearances in Fodlan. (Which is a real accusation I’ve seen from pro-Edelgard fans.) It’s only TWSITD (and Rhea in CF) who possess any fancy technology, and TWSITD are only interested in using their tech to destroy things. Inconsistently, at that; what determines what they can target? They can target Arianrhod and Merceus, with a veiled threat of nuking Enbarr, so... why didn’t they just use it on any capital and throw the continent into bloody chaos? They develop this whole convoluted plan for revenge on Seiros, that eventually backfires them on every route (arguably even in Azure Moon, where they aren’t dealt with directly, as Arundel gets taken out far sooner than he expected).

In that regard, TWSITD’s chaotic evil nature make Edelgard’s arguably well-intentioned objectives (besides her whole beef with Faerghus’ and the Alliance’s very existences) a lot muddier. It’s quite difficult to argue a virtuous cause when you’re working with a group that wants all of Fodlan to collapse on itself through infighting. Cornelia belittles Edelgard, praising her for being a good girl and doing exactly as TWSITD wants. After we kill her, Arundel punishes Edelgard by nuking Arianrhod, destroying a key fortress and a significant number of their own troops, logistics and morale be damned. Edelgard, who isn’t in a position to reveal TWSITD as the cause of the attack, is left little option but to lie to the people and pin the blame on the Church.

And on the subject of Cornelia, TWSITD’s gambit with the Tragedy of Duscur is ridiculous. We aren’t given details, but if Cornelia was already one of TWSITD when she arrived in Faerghus and “cured” the city of its plague, they’ve been setting up Dimitri for basically his whole life. (You could also safely assume, if the premise is true, that the plague itself was orchestrated to give Cornelia soft power.) They destabilized an entire country just for the sake of pitting Dimitri against Edelgard, and it worked.

In all honesty, I think TWSITD’s involvement in the Tragedy of Duscur was a bit of a mistake. What happened could be removed of their influence and it probably still would’ve happened (the crux is that noblemen believed Lambert was too radical and was steering Faerghus in the wrong direction). Making TWSITD involved turns the tragedy into, as Dimitri says, a “sick farce” wherein all the pieces they’ve laid down move in the exact script they had in mind.

Long in short, TWSITD take away a lot of agency, turning events that would otherwise be natural results of political conflicts of interesting coming to a head into an elaborate scheme to destroy Fodlan from within. If TWSITD had a reduced presence in the story or were doing dangerous things for a more neutral cause, and if 3H was willing to take a leap of faith and make non-golden endings (let’s be real, all of 3H’s route endings are poorly written in this regard), I feel like the narrative would be stronger for it.

[ncfan-1]

Three Houses: Where Are All the Mothers? Part 2, Dimitri’s Mother and Maternal Family

Welcome to Part Two of ‘Three Houses: Where Are All the Mothers?” In Part One, I discussed the widespread absence of mother characters in Three Houses and how, given that mother-child relationship is central in driving so much of the overarching narrative, the lack of that theme being replicated, analyzed, and explored at the descending levels of the narrative hurts the story as a whole. In Part Two, I’m going to be talking about the snowballing effects of neglecting a mother character—namely, how in certain cases it can lead to also neglecting her natal family, which can open up some big holes in the narrative. Actually, Part Three covers this, too, but while in Part Three we’ll be traveling down to Enbarr, in Part Two, we’re heading north to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.

That Dimitri rarely ever mentions his birth mother makes somewhat more sense than someone like Ingrid never talking about her mother at all. Sylvain mentions pre-timeskip that she died during an outbreak of plague “around twenty years ago,” and while it was certainly not actually twenty years ago, the fact that Sylvain named such a figure indicates that Dimitri’s mother likely died while he was still in his infancy. He has no memory of her, Patricia is likely who he thinks of when he thinks of ‘Mother,’ and it’s unclear whether the people around Patricia in the royal court did or did not bring up her predecessor all that much, the better to try to make Patricia’s life a little easier, and keep her out of another woman’s shadow.

That Dimitri hardly ever talks about his birth mother (and to be honest, I can’t remember if he ever mentions her specifically, or if we’re just meant to infer her existence from the negative space of Dimitri always referring to Patricia as his stepmother) is understandable. What is considerably less understandable is the narrative neglecting her so thoroughly as it does, especially when that also snowballs into neglecting her natal family.

Just to get this out of the way, oh, look, here’s another mother character who apparently didn’t merit a name. Why not just have Sylvain call her ‘the late Queen [insert name here]’ instead of the queen consort when he dropped that exposition about her death, the plague, and Cornelia on us? Calling her the queen consort is actually more awkward than just calling her ‘the late Queen [insert name here]’, so it looks like, as with Byleth’s mother, the writers have gone out of their way to avoid giving her a name. Just… why?

And we know nothing about this woman, or her accomplishments, whatever they might be. We don’t know if she opened any churches, or patronized any scholars or universities, or oversaw any public works projects, or regularly delivered alms to the poor, or any of the other things a high Medieval queen might be expected to do with her power and influence. This game likes its flavor text; it wouldn’t have been hard to drop us a few lines here and there. No, it doesn’t seem like Patricia did any of that—Dimitri mentions that she mostly just embroidered all day, and didn’t seem “present” enough to really be involved in the goings-on of Faerghus (with the obvious and somewhat large caveat that he’s remembering her through the eyes of a child)—but Patricia also didn’t have the advantage of a pre-existing network of influence in the form of a powerful natal family within the Kingdom. Her predecessor, almost certainly a noblewoman by birth, thanks to the Faerghus nobility’s obsession with Crests, would have had such a family, and such a network.

So, where are they?

Even after Dimitri’s mother died, her family still should have been a huge presence both in his life and in the political landscape of Faerghus. Even after Lambert remarried, these people should still have had a huge presence in Dimitri’s life, because they’re the maternal family of the future King of Faerghus. Whether their interest in him is altruistic or self-serving—Volkhard von Arundel went from being a minor lord in Adrestia to shooting up in power and influence after Patricia became one of Ionius’s consorts by capitalizing on this newfound connection to the emperor—they should have been a fixture in Dimitri’s life growing up, and a fixture in the royal court. But instead, we have nothing.

We have no information on how Lambert’s in-laws might have influenced the reforms he intended to carry out, if they opposed or supported them. We’ve no information on how they might have used their connection to Lambert to try to advance at court. Were they councilors, ambassadors, generals? Were they a help to Lambert’s goals or a constant thorn in his side? And here’s something else we don’t hear about: were any of them killed in the Tragedy of Duscur?

Dimitri never talks about his maternal family. Never talks about the cousins whose parents would almost certainly sent them to court to act as his companions, or about the aunts or uncles who must surely have been a part of his life, or the grandparents who, if still living when he was growing up, must surely have also been a part of his life. Even if their interest in him was purely self-serving, even if the relationship was trouble, surely Dimitri would have mentioned at least one of them at least once.

When Dimitri was “executed” during the timeskip in three out of the four routes, there is no word as to how his maternal family responded to the news. Did they join with Houses Fraldarius and Gautier in fighting the Empire, or did they cave to Cornelia in the hopes of being able to salvage something from the situation they were now in? When, in Azure Moon, Faerghus as a whole discovered that Dimitri was still alive, did they rush to send support, or did they wait and see if he would be able to take back Fhirdiad before pledging their support?

Dimitri’s mother certainly had a family. She almost certainly had a noble family, a noble house whose presence should have been felt in some way or another in the game. If they all died in the plague that took her life, if they all died in the Tragedy of Duscur, if some died in the first and the rest in the second, the game needs to tell us—or, at least, hint at—that. As I said earlier, this game likes its flavor text; a little tidbit here and there, bits of information we’re left to string together on our own, would have gone a long way. And if Dimitri’s mother was from a cadet branch of House Blaiddyd, same deal as above; give us enough information that we can figure that out.

And the reason I keep assuming that Dimitri’s mother is from a Kingdom noble house yet to be introduced is because none of the six we have any level of insight into—Gaspard, Dominic, Charon, Gautier, Galatea, and Fraldarius—make sense as Dimitri’s maternal family.

House Gaspard? It would likely have come up during Lonato’s chapter, and certainly during Dimitri and Ashe’s support chain. Given that Dimitri’s trying to get Ashe to relax around him, if he could have pulled out the “But we’re closely related (by adoption)” card, he would have.

House Dominic? It would have come up in Dimitri’s supports with Gilbert or especially Annette, Annette not being the kind of person who’d keep on calling Dimitri ‘Your Highness’ if she was closely related to him.

House Charon? Same deal as the two above; it would have come up during Dimitri’s support chain with Catherine. Moreover, if Catherine was closely related to Dimitri, she would likely have known him since very early in his life, and would have recognized him as a child, long hair or no long hair.

House Gautier? No. Sylvain never includes ‘related to the future King of Faerghus’ in the spiels he uses to lure in his latest conquest; he would if he could.

House Galatea? Count Galatea is desperately trying to marry Ingrid off to the richest man (provided he’s not a scumbag) he can find. Being able to claim that she’s closely related to the future King of Faerghus would absolutely be something he’d use to make her more attractive to potential suitors, if he could claim it with any degree of truth.

House Fraldarius? This is the only one that halfway makes sense, given Rodrigue’s closeness to Lambert and Dimitri both, Glenn serving as a royal knight from the ripe old age of fifteen, and Felix having apparently been a close companion of Dimitri’s from early childhood. However, it only makes halfway sense, not total sense. If Dimitri’s mother was from House Fraldarius, how come it’s never mentioned? How come Rodrigue never brings up the blood relation? If Rodrigue was, say, Dimitri’s maternal uncle, he probably wouldn’t call him by name, especially not pre-timeskip, where he is meticulously polite and wouldn’t be calling his own uncle by just his given name. In the end, I’ve got to give a no on House Fraldarius being where Dimitri’s mother came from, as well.

The sheer absence of Dimitri’s maternal family is a gaping hole in a narrative already filled with holes where mother characters should be. In a game with thinner world-building, it might be easier to overlook. However, given that Three Houses takes so much time to establish the land of Fódlan and the complicated networks of influence and enmity that connect its noble houses, that the maternal families of one of the continent’s future rulers never gets so much as a mention, when this house would be undeniably an influential one (and if no longer extant, that deserves mention as well), is a glaring oversight. In Part Three, I’ll be talking about the situation in Adrestia, specifically a situation that takes this problem and multiplies it.

Part Three: The Imperial consorts (and their children) and their families

[charismastaticarchive]

@valorwilled​​ : [ 🤗 Pull my muse into a hug (NON-VERBAL RP STARTERS) ] 🤗pai @ claude ( on non VW route maybe? :O )

claude is not like other boys. that doesn’t matter to his parents---because they would’ve raised him the same way regardless: weapons in his hands instead of toys; dragged through the scorching sands of the desert to be taught the bow he so treasured; a special ceremony at nine in which he would be left in the woods without food or water to survive all on his own, so that he could pick which dragon of the almyran royalty’s ancestral stock he would ride into battle one day (and how telling, that he would pick an alabaster wyvern, the same color as The Scholar King---who was also known for their greatest military defeats, though many instead chose to see it as him picking a wyvern with the same color of its scales as his unpopular, foreigner Mother’s pale skin).

almyra doesn’t care about what’s in your trousers, the gender or the name you call yourself; it cares about strength&passion, confidence&might. the same as their dragons, almyra wishes for all people to be free as a wyvern in the air, claws outstretched, far above the heat of the desert sun, clouds wet on your back. as it stands, almyra has many genders and names to call yourself, so many more than the church of seiros could even fathom, so many holy to them, warriors without genders, warriors between genders, people who lived and died to identify with the moon & the sun instead of manhood or womanhood at all.

it would make more sense then, to say that claude was instead not like other children, who worshipped almyra, who loved his father, who bent over backwards to uphold storied traditions of ‘might makes right’ & ‘justice means violence’ & who lived and dreamed to die for their country (and for their country’s allies, subjugated by the empire, faerghus, and even the alliance from which his mother hailed). it made sense that claude was bullied by other children, for being ‘soft’ and preferring books and bows to training and blood. but that did not bother claude so much, in truth---as he was just as ‘bullied’ by his warrior queen mother, and his boisterous father, always mid-laugh as he tussled claude’s hair too hard and punched his shoulders far too often ‘playfully.’

no. claude knows not being like other children wouldn’t have mattered in the end, that his people were not a monolith, that there were enclaves of intellectuals who still believed in a dragon’s freedom, secret societies that helped his father strategize and speak with vigor & wit he did not always seem to possess on his own.

the problem laid with fodlan---and his mother, and his heritage. half his birthright, the church, things almyran children were not allowed to know about except in secret libraries, hidden away to most. his mother thought he should at least learn about fodlan, learn why she had chosen almyra instead. thought it would make him understand.

after reading so much, spending night upon night with his eyes glued to parchment---claude could see, with certainty.... his mother would always choose to run away to almyra. she was better suited for this country than even claude, himself, and perhaps even his father. but claude? he had already made his mind up long ago. 

he would fix the problems of fodlan from within. he would use all his power and free his people---duscur, brigid, dagda---from tyranny. but also, in his heart of hearts, as every ‘outsider’ child does---who does not fit in in their home, or anywhere---he thought perhaps he could make a new world, where he would be accepted, where he could feel whole, and chosen, instead of settled for.

that was a long time ago. it feels like a lifetime ago---just since he picked up the name ‘claude von riegan’ since he found the golden deer and led them in battle, became friends with them, tried his best to ‘change fodlan’ from within.

but it wasn’t enough. and the worst part? it wasn’t like it almyra, where he wasn’t enough because he wasn’t strong enough, or tough enough, or almyran enough. no. no one in fodlan even knew he was half almyran, though he assumed some suspected, and that made his attempts at helping them even harder.

he was known his whole life, despite his ‘faults,’ for being smart, for having the answers, for playing mind games and politics. hell, he had even written a few of his father’s choicest speeches, giving him much needed military advice, when he could.

he wasn’t good enough for fodlan, and he wasn’t, because he wasn’t good enough at being himself. his only strengths weren’t enough. he wasn’t enough. he could never have done this. fodlan was too much for any one person to change alone.

and now he would have to give up his dream of creating a place where everyone could be completely themself, after realizing he wasn’t enough as a human being to do so---to one of the most irritating people he had ever met in his life.

all he could do as he handed over his birthright---the symbol of his dreams, the same alabaster bone as his wyvern’s horns---was look at his teacher with a kicked puppydog expression. he could never really lie to paimonia. they had always seen right through the fascade of friendliness and humility. that’s why they picked dimitri, right? because claude wasn’t good enough? 

as always, paimonia... surprises him. and wraps their arms around him, tight, and full, and yet still so cold, as if all their blood is caught in their throat.

he pulls up his hands. balls them into fists---a show of strength. hand to hand combat was so important to his father and mother, and they would never concede defeat---and then his expression softens even further as his brow bends and warps like the thread of a child’s bow. he holds paimonia to his chest, perhaps too long for any of fodlan, definitely too long for the soft-hearted, awkward dimitri to stare at as he does.

but almyrans believe in passion, and they believe in love, affection dealt out just as brutally as pain. and he has never needed to be held so much than in this moment. he does not know when he will let someone hug him like this in the near future, so close is he to tears, eyes wet as the sea salt air behind them. he pulls away, and thanks them both.

this isn’t goodbye forever, he reminds himself. his people will see to it, if he is still made their king after such a defeat. he’ll be called the second coming of the scholar king, but if they accept him---he’ll be back again some day, with an army at his shoulders, and no plan on his mind except to do as his people will with this unforgiving continent, that does at it will with dreams & the outsiders that bear them ever closer to their chest. as claude turns his back, he feels it burn beneath his clothes, as if he is once again being dragged away in the coarse, scorching sand. the shame stings and aches, like a blister. when he gets home he’ll pop it and let it infect with guilt&anger at himself, a wound so blank and white he’ll be able to salt&burn the fodlan soil.

[otterandterrierwrites]

{Hungry hearts} X. Sahbiye

A/N: Happy May the Fourth and Scoundress Saturday, and welcome new followers! Like I mentioned in the snippet I posted last week, this story it’s set right before the start of the Annual #3 comic. I’m not crazy about how it turned out, but I’ve been wanting to use this dish from “Honour among thieves” almost since the beginning for reasons, and sadly, it also turned into a bit of an homage to Peter Mayhew and our beloved Chewie. We’re getting closer to ESB so things are turning undefinably weird between Han and Leia!

‘So this,’ Leia said, opening her arms to encompass the desolate landscape before them, ‘is your brilliant secret lair?’

‘It’s not “my lair”?’ Han grunted, coming down from the Millennium Falcon’s ramp behind her. ‘Welcome to Odona, Princess.’

Leia threw him a wary look before stepping down into the dusty land and examining their surroundings. Here and there, crumbling stone structures rose from the ground, looking even older than the Massassi temples on Yavin IV. Massive pillars and half-standing statues guarded the dark mouths of the caves Han had pointed out as one of the key features that made Odona the ideal planet for a new military base.

It hadn't been easy to relocate after Yavin. Dantooine had been the Alliance’s first headquarters, and they had lasted a whole two years there. On Yavin IV, it had been a year and a couple of months. Afterwards, they had split and moved between their other, smaller bases, but this arrangement kept their forces too scattered across the galaxy to launch any major attacks. Leia had hoped that destroying the Death Star had been an opening, a victory important enough to let them strike at a weakened Empire until it fell---but while they’d had a few more wins, they seemed to never make much of a dent. She hoped that would change if they could find a base large and isolated enough to safely concentrate a large number of troops.

Han had mentioned that one of Odona’s polar continents was an abandoned rock with a maze of caves favored by pirates and smugglers to escape Imperial detection, and that it was big enough to establish a new base. The only problem, he’d said, was its extreme weather.

Leia and the rest of High Command had decided it was worth checking out, and that it would be more practical if it was just a small team going in and out quietly. If it was risky, it would be easier to get out. The idea had been to have a commander accompany Han and Chewbacca to Odona. Han had insisted he wouldn’t take any other rebels on his ship but Luke or Leia---and Luke had been away on a different recon mission. When she walked into the Falcon, Leia passed Chewie on his way out. For some reason, the Wookiee was not going with them.

‘The weather is nice,’ Leia commented. The pale blue sky was mostly clear but for wispy clouds, and the morning breeze was pleasant. Nothing seemed to hint at a treacherous climate.

‘Yeah, for now,’ Han warned. ‘You got layers?’

Leia assented; he had insisted on the vitality of wearing layered clothes and carrying warm coats besides.

‘Let's go,’ Han said, and closed down the Falcon before they set out towards the nearest cave, rucksacks on their backs.

They did the trek in silence. Things had been strained lately, more so than usual. Generally, she and Han had a disagreement that became a loud blowout, they spent a few days avoiding each other, then she’d go and ask him to run a mission or he’d invite her and Luke to his ship after dinner and things would go back to normal. For some time, they hadn’t even fought, only bickered, which often turned into friendly banter. Han made her laugh---genuinely laugh---and, surprisingly, he could keep his mouth shut when she just wanted to share a drink with someone and not talk about anything---although they often ended up talking anyway. He was also one of the best partners she’d ever had in the field.

Something had shifted recently, though, and she couldn’t put her finger on what or when it had happened. It was closer to the way they were in the beginning, except back then, she hadn’t cared much whether he stayed or left for good. Now, there was a tension between them while they fought, as if there was something fragile on the line, ready to come crashing down at the slightest wrong maneuver.

The last time they fought, Leia was so angry afterwards. They had been cooking together, talking---she was sure he’d even shared something very private with her---and suddenly he was getting up in her space, acting like he was trying to pick someone up in a bar. When she had pulled back from whatever the hell he had in mind, he’d walked away from her and left her with half a dozen star fritters to finish and a kitchen to clean.

‘Are you sure these structures won’t fall down over our heads the minute we step in?’ she asked as they stood on the threshold of the cave, dark and jagged like the maw of a waiting beast.

‘If they ain’t fallen down in a snow storm, they won’t fall down now,’ Han said, surveying the antechamber-like space that narrowed down into a tunnel. He took his blaster from its holder and turned on his flashlight, then motioned for her to follow. ‘C’mon, get yours.’

Alarmed, Leia drew her blaster and asked, ‘Already?’

‘Just in case we need to clear this out.’

‘I was under the impression there were no living beings in this continent.’

‘Well, you know what happens when you assume things,’ Han said in a tone too flippant to be genuine. Without waiting for her, he crossed the chamber and stepped into the tunnel.

Leia hurried to follow, annoyed.

‘So just to be clear, what kind of beings can we expect to run into?’

‘Hopefully none.’

‘Will you cut out the crap?’ she snapped with an angry huff, tugging at the collar of her shirt. It was no wonder she’d started to feel hot: besides the flush her irritation at Han induced, she was wearing a jacket, a long-sleeved shirt and a tank top underneath.

Han stopped and turned to give her a tired look.

‘Look, Princess, we can stand here fightin’ about what hypothetical creatures might live here or we can get on with the recon and worry about them when we have to. If we have to,’ he added.

‘You should know by now that the way we operate is, we lay down all the intel we have on a planet before we get there,’ Leia retorted, glaring at him.

‘I don't have any intel!’ Han raised his arms in exasperation. ‘It's just stupid rumours!’

He glared back, his jaw tight, and then he breathed out forcefully.

‘It’s been years since anyone’s seen them---no one I talked to was sure they even exist. If you gotta know, some folks talk about big blobs covered in eyes and teeth lurkin’ in these caves. Never met ‘em myself. See why I didn't think to mention ‘em? They're probably a myth, no more’n that.’

It was hard to decide whether she was relieved by Han’s assessment that the creatures were likely to be a fantasy, or worried by their description in case they were real, but at least he was being honest.

‘Let’s move,’ she said, with a nod, and began to walk.

The deeper they went into the cave, the hotter it felt. If Leia didn’t know better, she would have believed they were walking straight into the planet’s core.

‘Are there… thermal pools nearby or something?’ she asked, taking off her jacket. Han did the same.

‘No, this ball’s just starting to heat up.’

Less than twenty minutes later, the cave felt like a furnace.

‘Kriff,’ Han said, wiping off his sweaty brow with the back of his wrist. He stopped and took off his vest, then pulled his shirt over his head and stuffed both of them inside his rucksack. ‘You’ll wanna lose some layers.’

Silently, Leia thanked the heat for justifying her blush. After stripping off, Han was left wearing a plain white vest that clung to his skin in all the right places. She’d seen him wearing less, but that didn’t mean she underrated the image in front of her. And just like she was watching him, wouldn’t he watch her if she took off her shirt? Leia wasn’t vain, but she wasn’t oblivious to her features, either.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, and kept moving forward, pointing her flashlight at crevices she feigned interest in.

It was far from fine. Her clothes stuck to her armpits, her back and belly, and she felt as if even her hair was starting to sweat. They were rationing their water: she couldn’t afford to dehydrate just for the sake of her… modesty or whatever ridiculous nonsense was keeping her fully clothed.

Slowing down discreetly to fall behind Han, she dumped her rucksack to the ground and stripped off her shirt, tying it around her waist. It was inevitable that Han turned to check on her when he noticed she was lagging behind, but Leia looked straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge his expression.

The cave seemed all right... at first. Her instruments didn't register radiation or poisoning elements. If Han was right about them being frequently beaten up by storms, then he also had to be right in thinking they were solid enough to not crumble down on them. It seemed that the weather (or perhaps something else) did take its toll on them, however: here are there they began to find sections where the roof had caved in and huge rocks blocked the passages, forcing them to take a different route.

Leia was growing concerned. The cave was more labyrinthine than either of them had prepared for. Han kept insisting that he would not get them lost, and she wanted to believe him, but they’d had to stray off the main tunnel and had taken so many twists and turns, she couldn’t be sure she’d know which way they had come. She’d taken out her handheld navcomp, but it was having trouble reading the complex terrain. On top of it, the heat was almost suffocating. It was getting on both their nerves.

‘It gotta be that way,’ Han said.

‘Why? Because that rock seems more promising than this one?’ Leia snapped as they stood at a crossroads.

‘Because we don’t know which one to take so we might as well go that way and see!’

‘So if I say let’s take this tunnel instead, you’ll follow?’ she asked, raising her eyebrows.

‘No, ‘cos you’re just bein’ difficult.’

‘Oh, really? I’m being difficult just for suggesting a different route than the one you pulled out of your ass? How manly of you.’

‘I'm just sayin’ that's not what you want!’ he said, refuting her accusation with a raised finger.

‘What do you know about what I really want, Han?’ she spat out. She knew she was blowing things out of proportion, but she was tired of the encompassing darkness of the cave, of its confusing bowels, of the perspiration that covered her head to toes, and she was tired of letting Han lead this dance around each other.

‘Guess I don’t have a kriffin’ clue!’ Han groaned in frustration and turned around. The tired sigh that followed seemed to discharge him of his anger, and when he spoke, it was in a measured tone. ‘Alright, why don’t we stop for a bit? Let’s take a breather and have a bite, and then we’ll discuss which way to go.’

She resented that his alternative to taking her route was basically to let her cool off so that they could go the way he wanted. She wanted to keep yelling at him even if she wasn't very clear on what exactly to yell at him about. The diplomat in her reasoned that she couldn't know that was his plan, and that he was proposing a truce, so she should meet him halfway.

Taking a deep breath, she slid her rucksack off her shoulders and sat down without a word.

‘You said you’d pack lunch for both of us,’ she said dryly. ‘I hope you remembered, or else---Force help you.’

Han snorted. ‘Some faith you have in me, Your Worshipfulness.’

He sat down on the ground next to her, their bare arms brushing. Leia bit down on her lower lip to keep a shiver at bay while Han took out a portable cooler out of his bag, and retrieved a smaller container.

‘Sahbiye,’ he told her, pointing at a mix of soft green leaves and meat bathed in a golden sauce. ‘Chewie made it. Haven’t been cookin’ much myself ‘cos the thermpad’s been actin’ up more’n usual and it drives me crazy, but he said he’d make this for us---uh, well, actually for you.’

‘For me?’

‘You hadn’t tried his sahbiye yet, he said. He doesn’t make it very often. He must like you, Princess.’

‘That’s very kind of him,’ Leia said, taking the fork he offered her. She speared a piece of meat and scooped up some greens, and took a bite. The flavours were rich and comforting, making her tension ease up a little.

‘That’s Chewie. Can’t shake ‘im off once he’s decided to look after you,’ Han told her. ‘Even though you weren’t very kind to him, in the beginning,’ he added.

Leia frowned in confusion. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘You called him a walking carpet. When we were tryin’ to get outta the Death Star.’ Han looked at her. ‘You don’t remember?’

She shook her head, then raised an eyebrow at him. ‘I was a bit too preoccupied with other things at the time as to remember everything I said to anyone.’ Leia looked away for a moment. ‘It wasn’t anything personal. I didn’t expect to get out of there alive, and when the possibility seemed real, I wanted to get back to the Rebellion at any cost, because maybe---maybe I could help them when I---’

When I couldn’t help Alderaan, she thought, but she couldn’t say it out loud. She looked at him again. ‘So I’m sorry if I was a bit---’

‘Pain in the ass?’ Han asked through a mouthful of sahbiye.

She made a face that meant “don’t push it”, but nodded. They’d never talked about it, about what had happened in the Death Star (except for Ben Kenobi’s mysterious, sudden death) and about those less than ideal first impressions. The day had seemed a blur to her afterwards, an overwhelming, deafening whirlwind of experiences, most of which she wanted to forget.

‘Even if I don’t remember what I said, I am sorry to have treated him badly. There’s no excuse,’ she said.

Han shook his head. ‘Not me you have to apologise to. Chewie’s probably forgotten, anyway.’

‘Maybe, but I hope he knows how much I appreciate him. He’s a good fighter… and a better friend.’

‘And a great cook,’ Han added.

‘I wholeheartedly agree.’

A chilly breeze swept through the cave, and she put her fork down to rub her arms. ‘Is it cooling down or am I imagining it?’

‘Weather's turnin’ fast. That's how it is around here.’ Han put on his shirt again and set his jacket and parka out next to him in preparation.

Leia looked at him in disbelief, but she too re-dressed herself as the gust of cool wind on her damp skin had given her goosebumps.

‘We should get outta here in case there’s a snowstorm,’ Han suggested, standing up and packing their things.

The crossroads still lay before them, two different paths to choose from, each with their own undiscovered possibilities.

‘So, which way?’ Leia asked, turning to look up at Han.

‘Back the way we came,’ Han said gruffly. ‘Can’t be worse than anything else.’

[paulisweeabootrash]

Bad Crossover Idea: Other Familias

So Season 2 of Danmachi just ended.  It’s still pretty good, though not as good as the first (or the spinoff).  It seemed to me like they rushed through too many story arcs without developing them fully, and my wife, who reads the light novels, confirmed this.  She said they made odd choices of what to keep vs. cut in adapting it, and that they really could’ve extended the Apollo and Ishtar arcs enough to fill out the season but instead carelessly created continuity errors and left certain characters insufficiently developed.  But we’re still both having fun watching it, and will continue with Season 3 next year.  Where we expect to complain some more.

I have a nagging and somewhat ridiculous problem with the premise, though.  It’s one I’ve had all throughout watching previous installments of the Danmachi franchise.  It’s one that pops up in other settings that blend mythologies.  I can’t stop imagining how other deities not included would appear and interact in the setting, and asking kind of stupid hypothetical questions.  “Does Vesta count as a different goddess from Hestia?” or “Man, they should have Tammuz show up (as a god, not some human in her Familia) and endorse the whole harem angle the show keeps flirting with by being in a happy open relationship with Ishtar.” or “Since this clearly doesn’t take place on Earth, do real people who were deified exist in this setting?” That sort of thing.

But then I thought of something more specific: what about gods as depicted in other anime?  What kind of crossovers could we get?  Here’s where that bad idea went.

Yato Familia (Noragami).  Down a disreputable alley, above the entrance to a storefront widely assumed to be vacant, is a sign bearing a squiggle barely-recognizable as a snake and a hand-written suspiciously-specific promise to not kill prospective clients.  Once, this was a place to procure assassins, but now it subsists on the mixture of odd jobs and barely-planned dungeon excursions.  Most people in Orario thought it shut down completely long ago, but it just hangs on, the Blockbuster or Howard Johnson’s of Familias.  Those who know it is still around wonder how; unlike Hestia, Yato has not gained followers or made any splash of local fame.  Occasionally, a member of the Familia will come forward with an improved design for the sign, but Yato insists on keeping his own, which he seems to truly believe is well-drawn, and it’s unclear whether he realizes he needs to get customers to get money to actually buy things, not just as offerings.

Quetzalcoatl Familia (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid).  Far from that snake sign is a much more reputable one.  Outside the walls, on a major road out of the city, there is a complex of greenhouses where seedlings of exotic plants are grown, and a warehouse of agricultural tools.  The gardeners tending to the plant nursery and the craftsmen who make the tools are all members of the Quetzelcoatl Familia, which advertises itself with an unmistakable statue of a feathered snake in an art style utterly alien even to the diverse population of Orario.  All the Goddess wants to do is sell plants and tools and maybe some intro-level magic to the farmers in the region, but members of her Familia are on edge when she’s out on the sales floor herself.  Not because of what she thinks counts as appropriate work attire -- Orarians are used to that sort of thing, courtesy of the local Amazon population -- but because of her gift for coming off as... too helpful and too interested in customers she decides need her.

Sadao Familia (The Devil is a Part-Timer).  Greenhouses and art styles are not the only novelties brought to this world that the gods learned about elsewhere.  There’s also exotic cooking.  A new restaurant opened across the street from the Hostess of Fertility, and its owner, Satan Sadao, arrogantly proclaimed that he was in a rivalry with the Hostess and that his Familia will someday dominate the continent, if not the world, using recipes he claims to have learned in another world.  Gods with knowledge of certain other world inhabited by humans whisper among themselves comparisons to a sort of warlord of business who built an empire of similar restaurants, but most are just plain confused at what he thinks he’s going to accomplish here.  But far from putting the Hostess out of business, it’s turning the area into Orario’s “restaurant row”, a destination for hungry adventurers.  Although not technically a god, Sadao certainly likes to pretend to be one.  The Guild wants to shut him down as a nuisance, but they grudgingly acknowledge his restaurant is good for the local economy.  The gods want to shut him down as an imposter god, but they grudgingly acknowledge that this “fast food” he sells is tasty.

Ho-oh Familia (Pokémon).  Look, the gods can’t all be winners, and this one stands out because it is unable to successfully communicate with the beings of the Lower World.  Yes, it is too a god.  Are you going to tell it otherwise?  The other gods sure don’t want to.  Few actually get to meet Ho-oh, and although some people report feeling relieved or even blessed after leaving it offerings, this may be just due to no longer being on guard due to, y’know, the giant phoenix.  Even fewer get to meet members of the Ho-oh Familia.  Nobody, in fact.  Although some volunteers do show up to maintain its pagoda, nobody has yet formally joined, citing difficulty understanding its distinctly-not-speech vocalizations.  Not to mention a healthy fear of being set on fire.

Haruhi Familia (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya).  No.  Shhh.  No.  Per the Guild, there is no such Familia, and if there hypothetically were, the Goddess should not be made aware of it.  Don’t ask why.  Just trust them, it’s important.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Musings on Race in Fantasy or: Why Ron Weasley isn't Black

Blogger’s Note: This particular article is kind of funny in retrospect, now that drawing black!Harry and black!Hermione has become so common in the fandom.

Last year (or maybe the year before, time flies doesn't it), the Sci Fi channel produced an adaptation of Ursula le Guin's Earthsea stories. It caused something of a furore, because most of the main characters were white. I mention this for two reasons. 

The first reason is that the TV company, with typical mealy-mouthed style, insisted that they had practiced "colourblind" casting and in a stunning manipulation of middle class guilt, immediately implied that it was somehow racist to expect them to cast a Native American in the role, just because that was the real world ethnicity which most closely approximated that of the people of Earthsea. Obviously the white guy just happened to be the best guy for the role, obviously he stood out by a mile over the other contenders.  The second reason I mention it, though, was because when I read the books (many years ago now) I had completely failed to notice that Ged wasn't white. With the white middle class man's ingrained fear of being labelled a racist, I immediately constructed for myself very much the kind of justifications that the Sci-Fi channel had. "Oh well it's all about the character isn't it, Ged's character is the same whether he's black, white or whatever".  The thing is: it's natural for people to assume that a fictional character of unspecified race is the same race as them. Similarly I have a strong memory of seeing a picture in my year nine RE class of a depiction of Jesus from a church in China. Their version of Jesus, of course, looked Chinese, which broke a few of our tiny fourteen year old brains. Jesus is Chinese in China, black in Africa, Caucasian in England. He might even be Jewish somewhere, but that seems rather unlikely.  But there's another thing. I, yes, will generally assume that a non-racially-specific person is white. And I'm pretty sure that a Chinese person reading a book written in Chinese by a Chinese author will assume that a non-racially-specific person (who will probably have a vaguely Chinese sounding name and live in a fictional setting that looks pretty much like medieval China) would be ethnically Chinese. My girlfriend pointed out over lunch that, when she reads Haruki Murakami, she imagines all the characters as white, even though they're presumably mostly Japanese. It gets more complicated when you put minorities into the mix.  Put simply, I cannot put my hand on my heart and say that a black person living in England has the same luxury that I - and Chinese people in China, and Indians in India - enjoy. I, and I would imagine a great many other people who read the Earthsea books at a similar age to me, assumed Ged was the same race as me. I sincerely doubt that there are any black fantasy readers who made the same assumption about Aragorn when they read Lord of the Rings. Currently, then, I'm in one of those horrible situations where I think there's a point to be made, but I'm not entirely sure what it is. It's one of those "individual instance versus general trend" problems. I don't think you can look at any single work of fiction and say "that character, right there, should have been black". It's all very well saying that non-whites are underrepresented in Fantasy, but that's partly just because ninety percent of fantasy is set in a world that's functionally identical to medieval Europe. Most fantasy worlds do have black people in them, it's just that because they come from the Hot Continent In The South. Indeed most fantasy worlds seem to assume the existence of exactly four races: White Anglo Saxon, Black African, Asian (the Asian culture will invariably be a vast Empire in the East, and usually look like Han Dynasty China, plus Samurai, plus ninjas) and Arab (the Arabic culture will be either very religious or very mercantile, or both).  In fact, the races that are the most underrepresented in Fantasy are - arguably - the non-Anglo-Saxon "white" races. A remarkable number of Fantasy settings include quasi-Venetian city-states, quasi-Roman empires and quasi-Spartan warrior cultures, who none the less manage to look remarkably like they were born in Colchester, nary a Mediterranean complexion in sight. I can just about accept a quasi-European world with no black people in it (Fantasy worlds don't haveimmigration after all). It's rather harder to accept a fantasy analogue of Florence in which nobody looks Florentine. (This weird omission applies almost universally in fact: when was the last time you saw a Roman Emperor actually being played by a Roman? Why when it is unthinkable for a white man to play Othello does nobody bother to find a Venetian-looking Desdemona).  Of course I might be making a fuss about nothing. As I say, it's easy for me to assume that everybody I read about is white (even when there's textual evidence to the contrary). I don't really have any evidence that Locke Lamora isn't Latino, or that the men of Westeros aren't Hispanic (the Dornishmen are, of course, Generically Arabic but like most fantasy worlds, Westeros seems to have an invisible line across the equator, with the people going from "white as milk" on one side to "coffee-coloured" on the other with no in-between). So maybe it isn't a problem with the genre, maybe it's a problem with me. There is, after all, nothing stopping me from imagining Robert Baratheon as looking like a Greek Cypriot, or Ron Weasley as being a black kid who just happens to have red hair. If I assume that a character of unspecified race is Caucasian, that's my look out.  The problem is, though, that if I am making the assumption that J Random Character is white, just because I am white, then it seems overwhelmingly probable that the white middle class writers of fantasy are making the same assumptions. And I think this is an issue. When JK Rowling was designing her boy wizard (and I really don't mean to single her out here, it's just a good, well known example) I'm sure it didn't even occur to her that Harry Potter could be a black kid, any more than it occurred to me that he would be. When she was designing Ron Weasley, she imagined a character that would be her ideal image of an honest, supportive friend, and what she wound up imagining was a boy with red hair and freckles.  And it's that more than anything else that causes the trouble.  The problem with "race" in fiction in general and fantasy in particular, is that it has two very distinct implications. The first implication is the social and political one " "black" and "white" carry tremendous social connotations in the real world, and that bleeds over into created worlds as well. The second implication of a character's race, though, is much more prosaic. A person's race affects what they look like.  Well, duh.  But actually, it's the cosmetic implications of race that wind up being the most important. It is considered absolutely and unambiguously wrong in the modern world to judge somebody by their race. It is considered totally okay to judge somebody by their looks, particularly in a work of fiction, where somebody's physical appearance is often expected to tell you something about their personality. Ron Weasley has red hair and freckles: the average reader knows instantly what that is supposed to imply about him. He's boyish, a little impetuous, but basically a good person. He has "hero's sidekick" written all over him. The problem is, having "red hair and freckles" effectively precludes Ron Weasley from being black, because very few black people have red hair (although it isn't unheard of) and black skin tends to freckle far less visibly than white skin.  Again, just to be clear, I'm not saying that JK Rowling is "a racist" but I am saying that when JK Rowling formed in her mind the image of a true and decent friend, she deliberately gave that person particular physical characteristics which she felt created the appropriate image, and those traits are traits you are very, very unlikely to find in a black person.  Try to write a description of a beautiful woman, and the odds are better than even that you'll make her tall and slender with long, golden hair. Chances are, you'll make her tall and slender with long golden hair even if you're more into brunettes. "Tall and slender with long golden hair" is our cultural shorthand for beauty - it's what Cinderella looks like, it's what Rapunzel looks like, it's what Laura Fairlie looks like, Sweeney Todd's dead wife and lost daughter are both "beautiful and pale, with yellow hair". Snow White's a brunette, but she's still got skin as white as snow. No writer would dream of suggesting that a black person couldn't be beautiful, but our "generic" idea of beauty is pale and blonde, just like our "generic" idea of boyish charm is a freckly redhead and our "generic" idea of a wise man is a white guy with a long beard and a pointed nose (I'll talk about noses more in a bit).  The "race affects how you look" issue is also another strike, I think, against the idea that I only assume that everybody in Fantasy is white because I'm a white man myself. When people talk about "race" they tend to just think in terms of skin colour, but of course it actually affects a whole lot more than that. I can't think of a single point in the Potter books where it explicitly says that Dumbledore or Harry are white (so you could argue that it's just my preconceptions coming into play), but race isn't just about skin colour. Harry Potter is famous for his messy, floppy hair (again, it's a characteristic that makes him seem more like "a regular kid" - or at least a regular white kid). Dumbledore, of course, has his long, pointy nose. Even if their skin colour isn't mentioned explicitly, neither of these physical characteristics are terribly likely to be possessed by a black man. There are exceptions, of course, but in general black people don't have "floppy" hair or pointed noses. All in all I feel confident that, when I assume a character in a fantasy novel is white, the author is making the exact same assumption.  I've just spent about 1700 words slating Fantasy writers for not including enough black people in their books (and certainly not including enough Latino or Greek people despite a great many settings looking a whole hell of a lot like Spain, Greece or Italy), but I'd like to spend a moment backpedalling. The thing is that what I said at the start, about it being natural to assume that a person of non-specific race looks pretty much like you still holds. If I was a Fantasy writer I am damned sure that I'd make my protagonists white, just because it wouldn't occur to me to do otherwise. If I had to write about a beautiful woman, you can bet your arse I'd make her tall and slender with long golden hair, because that's how I instinctively think of a "beautiful woman" looking (even though I do, in fact, far prefer dark women in real life).  The other problem with race in Fantasy is that, because it's not our world, you can't use nationality as a short hand. It's actually remarkably hard to describe many non-white races without resorting to (a) cliche or (b) rather dubious ethnic stereotypes. You can get away with it fairly easily in something set in the real world, because you can just say somebody is "Chinese" or "Azerbaijani" and either people will know what you mean, or they can look it up on the internet. In a fantasy world you don't have that luxury. This is probably why there are only four races in most fantasy worlds. Anybody whose race isn't described is white. Anybody who has dark skin is Generically Arabic, anybody who has very dark or black skin is black, and anybody who has a long moustache or does Kung Fu is Asian. Some fantasy worlds similarly include a quasi-Mongolian culture, who we know to look Mongolian because they have a close relationship with their horses. You might, if you're very lucky get "olive skinned" people (who are presumably therefore green) tending Big Fields of Ancient Wheat, but that's about your lot. Again however, I wonder how much more Fantasy writers can realistically be expected to do.  The simple fact is that the real world is unimaginably complicated. A fantasy series is praised for its worldbuilding if it contains more than six moderately well realised nations. The CIA World Factbook lists the real world as containing over two hundred and sixty. Similarly, while fantasy worlds may grossly oversimplify the concept of ethnicity, it would be impossible to do otherwise - just looking at the CIA world factbook again, we see (for example) seven distinct ethnicities depicted as existing within Albania alone (Albanian, Greek, Vlach, Roma, Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) while the entry for China lists eleven (Han Chinese, Zhuang, Uygar, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean). The complexities of real-world ethnic diversity are beyond even the most talented of fantasy authors, never mind your average Quest-and-McGuffin merchant.  In the end, then, the thing I find most upsetting about the appallingly whitewashed nature of most fantasy settings is that I can absolutely understand why they're like that. Even though I'm a thoroughly modern, thoroughly liberal man, even though I work in an international school am therefore able to feel smug and cosmopolitan because I know what people from Kazakhstan look like and have a reasonable chance of identifying an Azerbaijani accent I still, deep down, instinctively assume that "person" means "white person", and I can't ultimately condemn JK Rowling for giving her white protagonist a white best friend and a white mentor, and having them marry a couple of nice white girls and have nice white kids who they named after their dead white relatives. I know I'd do exactly the same.  The sad fact is that most white people don't think about race that much, because we simply don't have to. While this is arguably better than being actively racist it's still kind of a sorry state of affairs, and it's unbelievably pathetic that after all these years, Ursula le Guin is still pretty much the only person in the industry who seems to give a shit.

Themes: J.K. Rowling, Books, Minority Warrior

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Comments (go to latest)

Arthur B at 00:49 on 2008-03-15

The amazing thing about the racial mix in Earthsea is how many people completely miss it, despite le Guin's valiant efforts in throwing out evidence pointing towards it. The only other author I can think of who's played with people's cultural stereotypes in this way is (big surprise coming here) Gene Wolfe; in The Book of the New Sun you need to pay attention to notice that Severian lives somewhere near where Buenos Aires is in our own time, that the Commonwealth it is a part of is South America, and that the Maoist-flavoured despotism threatening the Commonwealth exists in North America; the average fantasy reader (in the Anglo-American world, at least) is going to tend to assume that Our Hero lives in the northern hemisphere and that slogan-spouting Maoists are Chinese.

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Guy at 04:34 on 2008-03-15

I remember it coming as quite a shock to me when I read Wizard of Earthsea to discover that Ged was dark-skinned. I'd already formed a picture of him in my mind and it was disconcerting to be told that this picture was wrong. It did make me think about race in fantasy worlds, though... later I read an essay by le Guin in which she said she did this deliberately... the idea being to try to secure the reader's identification with the protagonist before letting them in on what that protagonist looked like. I think maybe the reason fantasy worlds tend to be so ethnically homogeneous is that they're mostly seen as (and used as, probably) an escapist outlet and we don't like difficult social questions in our escapist fluff. I imagine a similar racial mix can be found in Mills and Boon novels, for example? I think le Guin is one of those fantasy (and sci-fi) writers who is intent on doing more than providing formulaic escapism and showing what the genre is capable of extending to... it's a shame there aren't more like her. I think escapism is great, but I'd hate to think that was all the fantasy genre had to offer.

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Dan H at 10:08 on 2008-03-15

As I say, I can actually forgive fantasy for not handling race well, because it's actually very hard to do well, and I can certainly forgive purveyors of light, escapist fantasy for not dealing with complex real-world social issues. On the other hand it kind of does bug me that - say - JK Rowling has an all-white cast saving their 99% white world from all-white villains and then gets praised for (a) her sensitive handling of the issue of racism and (b) her amazing courage in having two black characters who never do or say anything, and a character who is revealed to be gay in an interview (and was therefore Never Able To Find True Love Or Happiness Because of His Unnatural Predelictions). Look! It took me all of three posts to turn this into JKR-bashing! The ethnic makeup of Westeros also seriously confuses me. Why do the blonde people live two miles north of the black people? Why?!

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Guy at 12:01 on 2008-03-15

Very crisp edges on the ozone layer?

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Sister Magpie at 16:45 on 2008-03-15

I've always felt a little lucky that I didn't read Earthsea until after the TV movie came out. I didn't see the TV movie, but I read the complaints about this, so I went into the book knowing what Ged looked like in the book. If I hadn't it's quite possible I would have overlooked it the same way. Which means the best I can say is that I'm willing to make the effort to keep non-white characters non-white--which isn't much!

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Arthur B at 16:55 on 2008-03-15

More likely the mighty efforts of the stalwart warriors manning the Kingdom's defences against the marauding hordes of dark people. :( Actually, let me nominate David Gemmell as someone who can, when the mood takes him, handle racial issues fairly well, or at least not appallingly badly. Even in Legend, his most black-and-white clash-of-cultures novel, he takes pains to make sure that both the Drenai and the Nadir civilisations have a mix of admirable and disreputable qualities, and there is genuine cultural mixing at the borders between nations; he even hints in The King Beyond the Gate that the Last Great Hope for Peace is not, in fact, the decadent, played-out, and European Drenai, but the vibrant, young and vaguely Mongolian Nadir. Then again, you do have Pagan as the Token Awesome Black Dude in The King Beyond the Gate, but I half-suspect that Gemmell introduced him simply because his publishers pressured him to and he was fed up of having his manuscripts rejected; he manages to make the dude reasonably three-dimensional and interesting later on. More importantly, he manages to make the dude three-dimensional and interesting in a manner which doesn't hinge simply on him coming from a vaguely African culture, but engages with him as a human being with very human flaws that, like all of Gemmell's heroes, he strives to overcome. At the end of the day, I suppose that giving characters from diverse races and cultures a similar treatment without stripping them of any distinctive cultural identity is the best that fantasy authors can hope for. (Which ties in, of course, with Dan's concerns about JKR. Sure, she throws in a few black and Asian kids in Hogwarts, but they pretty much never get a chance to do any of the cool stuff that the white kids do.)

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Arthur B at 16:56 on 2008-03-15

whups, Magpie and I cross-posted "More likely the mighty efforts of the stalwart warriors manning the Kingdom's defences against the marauding hordes of dark people. :(" was a response to Guy's comment about the ozone layer.

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Rami at 20:08 on 2008-03-15

It is really quite annoying how not that many fantasy series ever have an equivalent to South Asia ;-) but then, I'm a little biased...

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Guy at 07:37 on 2008-03-16

Incidentally, I saw a bit of the TV series of Earthsea... and I think with a certain amount of harrumphing I could have accepted the racial changes, if it weren't for the fact that it was a badly written, badly acted, utterly generic "McMagic" blancmange with no real reason to have the Earthsea name attached to it.

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Arthur B at 09:26 on 2008-03-16

Incidentally, does anyone know whether the Studio Ghibli version of Earthsea is any good? I know that le Guin was disappointed that Miyazaki gave the directing job to his son rather than doing it himself, but I also seem to remember that she isn't nearly as upset with it as she was with the SciFi channel version. Of course, anime has its own problems with dealing with racial issues; in most of Ghibli's films all the human beings seem to be of exactly the same race, whereas when other anime studios try to do non-European, non-Japanese characters it doesn't always work well.

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Jen Spencer at 09:48 on 2008-03-17

This is reminding me of Jazz in the Transformers movie. That hurt my brain.

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Rami at 11:56 on 2008-03-17

Jazz in the Transformers movie Oh, God, he really was just gratuitously ethnic, wasn't he? Just like in Not Another Teen Movie, which despite being a bit crap did hit the nail on the head with their Token Black Guy.

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Andy G at 19:54 on 2008-03-18

Interesting sci-fi / fantasy comparison here - are there any fantasy settings with heterogenous societies? I can only think of Ankh Morpork in the later Discworld stories, where he is deliberately focusing on the issue. It seems to be a much more common feature of sci-fi - Firefly, Star Trek, the Foundation series etc. Fantasy is perhaps still taking a Tolkien world-view as a point of departure, rather than the modern world - whereas the visions of the future in sci-fi have changed along with the visions of the present? More generally on all genre fiction - since sci-fi is only COMPARATIVELY progressive - perhaps it's also significant that the world-view in them tends to be much more white-centric in the assumptions on the part of the author and reader because we don't read from fantasy, sci-fi, detective stories, romances, thrillers from authors outside the UK and US? I can think of Night Watch from Russia and that's it. Even in Germany they tend to read just English fantasy / sci-fi.  Oh and a final thought that just came to me - what about the whole question not just of characters' appearances but their accents - isn't that quite revealing about our assumptions too?

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Dan H at 10:56 on 2008-03-19

I think there's two distinct things to think about here actually. One is the comparative homogeneity/heterogeneity of the *setting* and the other is the application of the same principles to the actual *story*. Ankh Morpok is "heterogeneous" chiefly in terms of its non-human races, and the presence of the odd Klachian. In this sense it's actually not much different to JKR's world (where we're told categorically that Dean Thomas Is Black). Firefly basically has one black chick, one Mysterious Old Black Dude (who skates dangerously close to what tvtrops.org would call a "Magical Negro" at times) and that's about it. For a world where society is supposed to be fully 50% chinese, they run into surprisingly few Chinese people. Original trek was well done by the standards of its day - it was massively tokenistic but it was the sixties for crying out loud. TNG was actually far worse (there's what, one black guy on board, and he's an alien). Again, I'm not saying that there's anything *wrong* with white writers who write for mostly-white audiences in a mostly-white country in a predominently white industry writing stories where the protagonists are themselves mostly white. It's when they start making a big song and dance about how totally racially diverse they are it gets to me. Firefly does reasonably well in including a just-above-tokenistic proportion of non-white characters but when you remember that it's supposed to be set in a society where the chinese are actually a majority they start to be notable by their absence.

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Andy G at 12:38 on 2008-03-19

Absolutely, I think that's a much clearer explanation of the qualification I was trying to get at when I said sci-fi was only 'comparatively progressive.'

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Jamie Johnston at 11:01 on 2008-03-24

Very interesting stuff. I find myself wondering what is the best way for a writer to deal with the fact that his readers will make these assumptions. The Rowling approach of simply relying on them (and probably sharing them) and therefore not bothering to specify anything about a character's ethnicity unless it happens not to conform to them (e.g. Dean Thomas Is Black) reinforces the assumptions at least in as much as it doesn't challenge them. On the other hand, if a writer carefully specified the ethnicity of every character it would (1) get very tedious for the reader and (2) give the reader the impression than ethnicity is very important to the story, even if it isn't. Then again one can do what Gaiman does in 'Anansi Boys', which is to wilfully ignore the fact that your readers are making these assumptions and just to write the thing on the basis that *you* know all your principal characters are black and your readers will figure it out eventually. That may in principle be a very noble way to go about it, in that it doesn't indulge your readers' unhelpful ways of thinking and in fact makes them feel they've been rather silly and faintly racist, when the penny finally drops, for thinking in that way in the first place; but it also means that at some point around page 100 your readers will be massively distracted from the story you're telling them by having to make extensive retrospective mental adjustments while feeling they've been rather silly and faintly racist. Which doesn't really make for a satisfying aesthetic experience. P.S. Andy raised the point of science fiction from outside the Anglo-American sphere: I haven't read any, but I heard on the radio the other day that there's a big boom going on at the moment in Indian sci-fi. Might give an interesting angle on things, especially since (as has already been pointed out) fantasy and sci-fi tend to ignore the Indian subcontinent altogether because there's only room in The East for one civilization and it's usually Vaguely Chinese.

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http://draxar.livejournal.com/ at 20:50 on 2011-07-14

A very late comment, but one book that purposefully plays with this idea is Anansi Boys, where the majority of the main characters are black, and if I recall correctly, it mentions when a character is white, but not when they're black.

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Cammalot at 23:50 on 2011-07-14

I adored the hell out of that book for just that reason. It felt... refreshing. :-) Basically everywhere else in life (in my experience of Western culture, anyway) the opposite is done. "A woman walked own the road" followed by actual detailed description, versus "A black man got out of the car." The end. (Not even "A man got out of the car; he was black..."

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http://keysersose.blogspot.co.uk/ at 16:41 on 2017-03-16

I had a similar argument with my writer chums the other day, and Harry Potter was the example we used as well.  Generally, fantasy writers treat white as default (consciously or unconsciously), and expect the readership to assume characters are white unless otherwise specified (again, consciously or unconsciously). That annoys me, so I have a somewhat petulant policy of mentally depicting all characters as black unless their ethnicity/race is actually specified. Harry Potter actually deserves some praise for never specifying the race of characters, which is a thing a lot of authors do dp. Rowling implies ethnicity through character description, or with stereotypical "ethnic" names, but she never goes so far as to tell you that Hermione is white British or Dumbledore is Persian. This is better than when a writer tells you a character is black (when skin colour has no apparent significance to the story or setting). I assume this is a middle-class, white guilt thing where they feel it necessary to indicate there are indeed people of colour in their book, but it kind of backfires because they only mention a character's skin colour when they are not white, implying white is the default setting. It is also usually the case that these POCs are relegated to support characters, and the author has reinforced the fact that the protagonist is lily-white. If I was a non-white reader, I might have imagined the protagonist up to a point of matching my ethnicity. The lack of mention initially communicates that I can imagine what I like. But then this stupid rule about pointing out the brown people asserts the white-is-default rule, and that means my mental image must be wrong. This issue also came up when reading the Kingkiller series, in that one of the characters is meant to be non-white, but it wasn't apparent to most of the readership because the character was described as "dusky" skinned, which could be used to describe anyone from Megan Fox to Grace Jones. Qvothe has the red hair, and the references to pubs and lutes imply a generic European medieval setting, but now there is this weird alternative problem where the description is so vague, it is basically pointless description except to imply everyone else isn't dusky coloured (and so therefore white). Qvothe himself has read hair, but is also from some cultural equivalent to Romani/Travellers. Fine, I think. Qvothe is black too.

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Arthur B at 17:31 on 2017-03-16

Interesting to see this one pop out of the archives, seeing how, whilst Ron is still not black in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hermione is. I am with you on the utter uselessness of "dusky" as a description of someone's skin colour. So far as I can make out, it can apply to anyone who is not an actual albino.

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Orion at 19:47 on 2017-03-30

There's actually a quite sensible reason that Ron Weasley isn't black, and indeed why he has red hair, which is unrelated to the character-type-signaling.  The Weasleys are an aristocratic old-money family that has been active and well known in Britain for a long time. They're not wealthy any more (or at least neither they nor the Malfoys would describe them as wealthy), but they're blood relations to many of the genuinely powerful families and have intergenerational rivalries with at least one. I think it's a pretty safe assumption that most (though perhaps not all) of the wizard families with ancestral estates in England and blood relations to other wizard families with ancestral estates in England are white. I suppose they could have been the descendants of a foregn merchant house that transplanted to England or it could have been one of Ron's parents rather than Ron who married a black outsider, but I think those changes do lead to different stories.  Given that they're white, it makes sense that the Weasleys have red hair. It's because of their hair that everyone knows who they are and what they look like and can spot them across a room. One assumes that Ron might not be so cripplingly self-conscious if he weren't so easy to spot and recognize. Also, while everyone has to acknowedge that the Weasleys are wizard highborns, many think the Weasleys are somehow "not as good" as the other highborn families. I'm an American and liable to be mistaken about this kind of thing, but I'd expect that when English people in the UK see a family of redheads, they would assume that family was probably the the UK, but more likely to be Scottish or Irish than English, and that English nobility would feel that Scottish nobles are definitely nobles, but not really as good as English nobles.

[inyourowntime]

under the cut is the current plot/story summation of the dnd campaign I DM - just thought it would be fun to share! all this is public on dnd Beyond, so it’s not like a secret or revealing any plot reveals or anything

PCs: Esther Stackhouse - Human/HalfSpirit Gunslinger Raiann Peitoa - Moon Elf Vampire Rosarie Cane - Half-Fey Warlock Kaia Misttide - Genasi Druid

Arc 1 - Zomboes

Hired by Downs Merry, a slight woman with deep pockets, to protect her and a package she holds from a farming town in the North East county Allebor named Jusgo, to an underground haven deep in the Bog Lands, Swallowvale. Our adventure follows the Half-Spirit Esther, whose body is slowly betraying her; the Half-Fey Rosarie, whose vanity has built a wall around her that she seems unwilling to climb or break down; the mysterious Druidic Pirate Kaiaa, whose heritage has something to do with a fake mermaid and old magic; and the Vampire Raiann, who is halting her mission of vengance to ally herself with new friends, helping to close the wound in her heart.

So far, along the way, our adventurers have battled Dawn Father followers who mistook them for Demons, stolen a boat from a town of Lizard folk, sailed the Arevalo Gulf before being forced to beach by a mysterious freak storm, and battled Necrotic Crocodiles (Necrocodiles) on the last stretch before Swallowvale.

Upon finding the town, they follow Downs to see what her package truly is - a medicine of some kind, ordered by a Doctor Hallow of the Zehirian Church. The medicine poisons the child, however, and he becomes a zombified corpse, running of into the town.

The next morning, a small horde has taken over the city's central district, and while the adventurers managed to kill the 16 bodies (again), they then set out to unravel who was behind the plot, or what caused the boy's necrotic change.

They investigated the Zehirian church, and were soon discussing matters with a strange woman in scaled armour named Thestorn, who runs the Temple here in Swallowvale. After some exchanged words, she lured them into a narrow corridor and managed to trap them inside with the moans and groans of zombified creatures closing in on them.

Rosarie, joining them from outside the temple, helped them fight Thestorn, beating from her her plan to release a plague of Zombies that only effect non-magical folk. She wanted to build an army from 'useless' non-magic inhabitants of Iridus to help fight against the Sin'Gorne Empire. Thestorn then took her own life, turning herself to stone with a hidden pill inside her mouth. From her they then stole a bag containing 10 unidentified potions.

Soon after, they burned the town to the ground to prevent further infestation, and then left Swallowvale to find the civilians of the town all outside, having already evacuated.

They went to the nearby town of Rinslin, where they acquired some information on their backstories, both from eachother and a magical pole that talked to them, as well as some pets. They decided to head to Margonne, where they believe Zachaeus, who Esther knows, is living, which is also the city Kaia left after Quickbolt spurned her.

---

Arc 2 - Smoke

Upon arrival to Margonne, the party finds that everyone going in and out of the City is being checked by armed guards. They're told this is due to serious piracy issues throughout the city, and that recent changes to leadership within the city has led to harsh new realities for criminals.

Using Kaia's experience of the city, and Esther's experience of Zachaius, they ask around for information. They happen upon Freddie Flatfoot, of Kaia's old crew, but after a short altercation with him move on. Eventually, they find Zachaius inhabiting the body of a drug-den user, a red Tiefling. He reveals that he inhabits bodies for days at a time, moving from person to person, usually of drug users and drunks to explain their memory lapses.

The whole group finds a place to stay for the night, but Zachaius' true intentions come to light as he attacks, going for Esther's Revenant gun. He first possesses Rosarie, using her as a vessel after breaking out of his Tiefling form. Next, he and inhabits Esther, but Rosarie uses her magic to demand he leave Esther's body and go far away - specifically to another continent. Raiann, who had already tried to exchange her form for Esther, was his intended target, but as he became smoke to possess her, Jeff jumped in the way, giving himself up for Raiann.

Jeff, now possessed by Zachaius, proves true to his word and creates a teleportation ritual on the floor of the inn's room, and teleports to another continent.

Esther, Raiann, Rosarie and Kaia immediately decide they need to find a way to get him back, and Raiann makes the suggestion that her Vampiric Sire Gabriel might be their best chance. They know he is in the Sin'Gorne Empire in a township called Castutt, and they know the best way to get their would likely be by boat, and that Kaia's old crew on the Yeathan's Kraken is in town - plan formulated. They had a week.

Hiring the ship for a hugely over-priced amount, Captain Quickbolt said he could get them on the coast just North of Castutt within three days (using unclear methods of speedy ocean travel). Rosarie, assuming that all Kaia and Quickbolt's relationship needed to be fixed was them seeing each-other (for the first time since she admitted her feelings, he said no, and she jumped ship months ago), put together a scheme to try and get them together in the same room, but Esther and Raian were against it.

Kaia, at one point, finds herself climbing up the back of the ship in her non-disguised form, as Quickbolt is at the helm. She rises over the crest, sees him, panics, drops back down, and puts her foot through a window below her. Quickbolt hears her, and peeks over the edge to see his old first-mate, clinging to the wood of his ship. It's interesting. Meanwhile, Raiann is trying to process the fact that 1) Jeff is gone and she's scared they wont get to him in time, and 2) she's going to see Gabriel for the first time since she was sired by him. Rosarie, using her new abilities that she is still working out, attempts to send messages to Jeff, and even gets some information about where he is - somewhere cold, and somewhere far away. Soon, however, Zachaius seems to clock onto their communication, and cuts it off.

While Kaia and Quickbolt resolve their problems (and bang it out), they soon approach Castutt, the town Gabriel said he would wait for them in. After a sad, but hope-filled goodbye, the group sets off, well into enemy territory. Raiann uses her bat-form to do some recon, and finds Gabriel at one of the town's camp-like areas, surrounded by what could only be described as minions. He sees her, and meets the gang.

Together, they develop a plan to get Jeff back - Gabriel will psychically communicate with an associate of his, a Demon Hunter known as Shannon Mylers. She describes to him a pentagram that will allow them to trap Zachaius within an area, for them to then talk with and get Jeff back.

Acting on this, they find a clearing in the woods, and draw the pentacle. They summon Zachaius, and see the broken and half-frozen body of Jeff, animated by will alone. He mocks them, and demands that if they won't give him the gun, they will at least do something for him - he wants one of the others to shoot Esther in the head, killing her.

The gang quickly comes up with a way to fool him with images and sounds created by magic, relying on his body's troubled nature to maim his observation enough to convince him. Miraculously, it works, and he gives Jeff's body up.

The gang then attack the plume of smoke that is Zachaius' true form, until it is but a small pebble on the ground. Esther approaches, and calmly fires a bullet straight into the marble, destroying it and sending Zachaius back to the hell he used her to escape from. Good riddance.

---

Arc 3 - Spider's Web

Gabriel, after helping the gang with their demon problem, offers 1000gp each to find one of his other sired Vampires, Bailey, who he has been unable to contact for a few weeks now. He says she was last in Astrakane, a city on the southern coast of Sin'Gorne, which would take several weeks, if not months on foot. They accept, and set off to the next town to try and find horses. First off, though, they need travel papers. They decide to rob the tiny office that sits in Castutt, belonging to the Miltary presence in the town. Kaia's wildshape, Rosarie's bees and Esther's distraction skills result in a successful nabbing of legitimate travel papers with the official Sin'Gorne seal on.

In Tonlun, they encounter a few issues as Raiann attempts to drink from a villager, who manages to escape and notify the militia guards present - two Elves and a Drider. After fighting and killing the guards, they make a half-excuse that it was some kind of play to the immediate locals, and then RUN. On the road to their next stop - somewhere called Syyk - they encountered a group of Goblins, and Rosarie told the group more about her past relationship. As they woke from camping on their third day, a stranger wearing the full plate armour of the Sin'Gorne Militia, the Eighth Leg, approached them.

[carrotcouple]

Magi: Aladdin and Kougyoku

This is a rather long Magi post. And it also is about a ship that not many people ship, especially because several have not read the manga and not many people are attracted to this ship in general. And it’s kind of sad to think there is probably high possibility that it won’t ever become canon even though it seems kind of obvious Aladdin has a crush on her (although others might think otherwise).

We all know that Kougyoku was the one that destroyed Ugo’s body in season 1 of Magi. Some people still are mad at her for that (I’m not really because, hey she was pissed off that someone had hurt Judal and Aladdin was pissed off because Ugo was hurt. They were both just trying to protect family). Aladdin had a tough time getting along with her because of that. But, when they were in Sindria, in the omake, Aladdin and Kougyoku felt comfortable sitting with each other and just talking while everyone else frolicked around. I wouldn’t know how to put it, but I feel like Kougyoku feels like she can open up, let down her walls and reveal her insecurities around Aladdin more than she does around Alibaba. And interestingly enough, I feel like Aladdin might feel really comfortable around her as well.

Quite a few people are bothered with the fact that Aladdin and Kougyoku have quite an age gap. I won’t deny it, the age gap had me hesitant at first as well. But when I thought about the period in history Magi is seemingly situated around, it doesn’t seem that awkward? Also, no one ever had a problem with thinking Sinbad and Kougyoku was cute even though the age gap was much larger. Or is it because Aladdin is the one that’s younger? Oh well, either way it doesn’t bother me anymore. 

One thing I do like, is the way their personalities are. Aladdin is a rather childish boy (not surprising, he is fifteen) with the weight of the world on his shoulders and responsibilities that normal people do not carry. He can be childish, perverted, stupid, and self destructive in his own way. But he can also be serious, wise, powerful, respectful and pillar of support for others. Kougyoku can be childish, whimsical, overly girly, stubborn short tempered and have zero confidence in herself. But she can also be mature, strong, firm, unmovable as a mountain and a great leader. 

Aladdin did not grow up as a normal child. Although he was so young, he had hundreds of years worth of responsibilities and information in his head. He believed it was his duty to save the world. It’s not unusual he often felt alone although he had so many people standing by his side. He didn’t have parents dote on him and the saddest part, he knew who his parents were so even if others took the place of babying him, it was not the same. Aladdin was forced to grow up faster than most children. Ugo probably tried to treat him like he was the son of his best friends, but Aladdin craved the attention of actual parents, his being Solomon and Sheba. For this very reason, I feel it would be nicer if Aladdin fell in love with a woman older than him (be it Kougyoku or not). Someone who would prefer to protect him, treat him like a child and support him instead of a younger girl who he would rather protect, be treated as someone older and wiser and be a support for. Because no matter how powerful Aladdin is or how wise he is, if he is forced to walk that path alone like Solomon, things will not turn out so well.

Kougyoku is the child of a prostitute, in a huge family of siblings with noble mothers. She fought her way through and found a higher place to be, despite her social status in the palace. She had countless other half sisters and half brothers who never conquered dungeons and probably treated her like slum trash (pretty much like Alibaba). And yet she finds the position at the top tiring and pressurizing (which she confessed to Aladdin). Kougyoku loves her friends and siblings, but I think she would want to find someone who would treat her as an absolute equal. Someone she wouldn’t have to hide things from, or pretend in front of. Kougyoku told Aladdin that she even had to put up a strong front in front of Alibaba, the person she considers her best friend. This is where I think Aladdin fits it. Aladdin doesn’t see her as an Empress, Princess, Dungeon Conqueror or someone from a lower status. That’s why it’s so easy for them to converse with each other. They also can argue with each other, which is a good thing, because couples that fit together perfectly and don’t argue aren’t really communicating with each other. Aladdin can talk to Kougyoku freely and Kougyoku can do the same with Aladdin. And yet, despite treating her as any normal girl, Aladdin respects her. And what I find interesting is, I don’t think Kougyoku and Aladdin can actually label each other as friends although they can talk to each other so freely.

Quite a few girls look for the opposite of the man that broke their hearts or they simply couldn’t communicate with. For Kougyoku, after being used by Sinbad, I feel she would never let herself to be blinded by such glamour ever again and she would search for someone simple, someone she would be comfortable with instead of completely nervous around. While that could spell Alibaba or Judal, it could also mean someone like Aladdin. It could be highly possible that Kougyoku might fall for Aladdin as the story develops. Kougyoku fell hard and fast for Sinbad since the moment she laid eyes on him. It would be nice if the next person she would fall in love with would be someone she’s known for a while and never imagined she would fall for. Someone who makes her fall in love with them slowly and firmly. And now that Aladdin is back after so long, Kougyoku might start to see things in this boy that she has known for so long that she never expected to see.

Aladdin has always seen himself as a Magi. He believes others do as well. Although everyone says that Magi are above others and that it’s unfair that they have so much power, Magi are often not seen as normal people although they are and this internally kills them. The only people who see Aladdin as a normal person and not Alibaba’s Magi are the other Magi themselves, Alibaba, possibly Morgiana and Hakuryuu and quite possibly Kougyoku. She doesn’t even treat Judal like he’s a different being and she treats Aladdin in the same way. I like that. The fact that Aladdin is not seen as a higher being in her eyes, but a normal fifteen year old boy that she knows.

With the current state of the world though, I doubt Aladdin or Kougyoku are looking for people to fall in love with. Aladdin has been busy trying to stop Sinbad for years (and yet he developed that somewhat high school kid crush on Kougyoku), Kougyoku is not looking for love, she’s trying to run an Empire (or trading business) and with the whole return to the Rukh thing going on, I doubt she would even think of falling in love (really bad timing for Alibaba and Morgiana, I swear).

I have mentioned that Aladdin respects Kougyoku. Elaborating on this in relation to his pervertedness, Aladdin likes women. Even women he respects, if they have big chests, you can assume he will at least grin at them (although he has seemed to have matured and learned restraint during the time gap). We are sure he still behaves like this especially after the way he tried to hold Hakuei after he reconstructed her body and Hukuryuu was trying to get him to stay away from his sister and the way he complimented Pipirika after they came to see Sinbad. Aladdin likes beautiful women, period. Kougyoku is very beautiful for that matter of fact. And yet he has never ever tried anything near her. It kind of reminds me of how in Supernatural, Dean flirted and slept with countless women but only kissed Jo who he really liked when she was dying. I think Aladdin follows the same kind of mentality here considering the fact that he has a crush on Kougyoku.

Talking about the first time I noticed Aladdin and Kougyoku could be a ship was when Aladdin, Morgiana, Hakuryuu and the Kinans returned from the Dark Continent. I enjoyed the way they reacted towards each other when they saw each other after they returned from the Dark Continent.

I liked the way, Kougyoku spoke as if she was trying her best to take care of Aladdin and the rest. The first person she talked to was Aladdin, not a big surprise considering the fact that Aladdin has come out after a long time of hiding. I liked the way they effortlessly conversed with no awkwardness or politeness like some people do after not meeting for a long time. They talked with just a hundred percent their own personalities, no hiding. Childish but serious and as equals.

Starting to talk about what is considered the ‘AlaKou Defining Conversation’, what I find interesting is that Kougyoku is really happy for Alibaba and Morgiana and Aladdin asks her if she’s lonely. Her reply is that ‘why would I? This is happy news!’ and Aladdin’s reply to that is a slow and trailing ‘I guess you’re right...’ as if he asked her that question expecting her to be lonely and then got disappointed, almost as if, he had been feeling lonely and wanted someone else to feel lonely with him. Which makes me think, is he jealous of the happiness that Alibaba and Morgiana have found? Does he want that kind of happiness as well? Usually people who have those kind of thoughts have someone they like but haven’t confessed yet or have been rejected. So then I wondered, could Aladdin possibly have someone he likes?

Kougyoku considers her best friend to be Alibaba. You would think she could tell him everything. But she respects him and thinks highly of him, especially with his recent development, so she’s uncomfortable telling these things to him. But she’s perfectly fine with telling this to Aladdin and no one else. I think that’s some pretty nice trust she’s got in Aladdin, to tell him how she really feels, her insecurities and to ask him to keep it a secret. Having someone to vent to is a very important thing. And I find it very cute that Kougyoku can vent to Aladdin. Even if Kougyoku doesn’t like Aladdin in a romantic sense, she has a connection with him that she doesn’t share with anyone else. She can be honest even about her inmost feeling with him.

Aladdin called her a show off and Kougyoku calmly admitted to it. And then he asked why she told him. It was like slow realization for him. For Aladdin, Kougyoku is probably the first girl he ever has seen as a love interest. When you get told a secret by the person you like and they tell you that you can’t tell anyone else, it feels really nice. Just a secret between the two of you. But then you think, why just the two of you? That’s the look Aladdin has on his face. And then Kougyoku admits that she feels like Aladdin would listen. That’s the same as telling him that she can talk to him about things she can’t tell others, that she’s comfortable the most around him. And that is the death blow to Aladdin. Aladdin is shown, speechless, thinking and hesitating to ask the last question. “You like me better than Alibaba?”. That’s equal to him trying to confirm that she doesn’t like Alibaba in a romantic sense. It also shows that all this time, he might have thought that she liked Alibaba and now he feels like he has reached a higher level than that. When I had a crush, we were apart of this little friend group and when he told me he had an easier time talking to me than the girl I thought he liked, I was on cloud nine. All of Aladdin’s hopes are riding on that one question he spent two entire panels mustering the strength to say.

I was rather confused by Kougyoku’s reaction. I couldn’t tell what it was that she was trying to communicate in this page (and Aladdin seemed equally confused). So I broke it down into a couple of theories. 1) She is absolutely unaware of what Aladdin’s feeling are and is just telling him she told him all of this for the heck of it and Aladdin doesn’t mean that much to her. 2) She is aware of Aladdin’s feelings but knows she can’t return them. So she tells him to stop being so cocky, does a childish tongue stick out and leaves. 3) She is aware of Aladdin’s feelings and does have some sort of feelings towards him but doesn’t want to reveal it or give Aladdin any ideas because she has some problems about falling for Aladdin. Hence the tongue because she just doesn’t want to tell him the truth. Wow, Aladdin must have been left completely clueless and disheartened. What caught my eye however was that after she flips her hair, Aladdin stares at her hair.

In the first panel Aladdin has this confused, ‘I don’t get what she meant but that was intense, she’s like a tornado’ look. In the second panel his thoughts are working and he is like ‘so does that mean she likes me or not? I’ll just shut up now.’ What I love in the third panel is that he seems lost in thought. People who are lost in thought often look down at the ground and trace something with their feet or whatever they have at hand and for Aladdin it’s his staff and he seems to be absentmindedly following her hair which he had been staring at. Ohtaka, we see the hints, Aladdin has a crush on her. Like several people may argue, they may not end up together, but for now, we can be pretty sure that Aladdin has a crush on her. Ohtaka wouldn’t give us useless, meaningless stuff in chapters.

What I found cute was Aladdin’s reaction to Alibaba calling him. It’s that ‘I was caught thinking about the wrong thing at the wrong time’ and ‘I hope that didn’t show on my face’ and ‘Yikes, that startled me out of my reverie’ look. I understand Aladdin’s reaction. Most people try to keep their crushes a secret, especially from their close friends. Not because they would tell the other person, but dorky and dumb friends might start doing all kinds of stupid things trying to get the other person to notice you. And Aladdin is probably pretty sure that his friends would do that. Aladdin wass probably wondering, ‘Did they hear my thoughts’, ‘Were my feelings obvious on my face?’ Cutie Aladdin is just fifteen (although he has the wisdom of over a hundred years) and his reaction is very much expected. 

Now that everyone wants to return to the Rukh and Aladdin has sent off Alibaba to talk to Mogiana, I want to see how Aladdin will react to Kougyoku telling him that she wants die. Aladdin considered those from Alma Torran his precious family and most of them are dead. How would Aladdin take the girl he likes wanting to die? Moreover, in situations like this, people like confessing things to others. I want to see how things will play out between Aladdin and Kougyoku in the future of the manga.